I sighed as I moved my portal towards where Dinah said our target would be. Honestly, this type of travel was both incredibly nice and insanely tedious. I could portal to anywhere I had been before within my range or if I had a few moments to visualize but the instantaneous range was still only up to about 20 miles for now. I wanted to remind myself that that was impressive and with Taylor’s ability to sense everything within a mile we were pretty much impossible to sneak up on in the traditional sense… for a normal human. The problem was, most of the threats we were worried about weren’t normal.

Still, back to the problem of traveling, my portals were still limited to moving away from me at about 100 miles per hour and while that was fast, it wasn’t actually all that fast. Apparently it was about 4 times faster than a trotting horse and only twice that of galloping one. So when it came time to travel to places hundreds of miles away I had to sit and concentrate on what I was doing… for hours or even days at a time while doing very little other stuff.

The only upside was I could do it from within my pocket dimension. So I hadn’t actually moved the pocket dimension which allowed the girls to go out and explore the city a little as long as they were careful since it was obvious we stood out. I had considered breaking into some wealthy merchant’s home to steal clothes, but I had decided against it from the looks of the rest of the girls. Instead I had Amy grab some fruit and grow the trees out of town. They were then selling the fruit for money to buy what they wanted. I had mostly done this to prove how annoying it was to try to build up from nothing in a new world. The problem for my lesson was Amy was actually enjoying the experience of working with the new biology.

Still, that ended on the second day when the girls were nearly robbed and they tracked the thief down and confiscated enough money to make the fruit trees redundant. I also suspected that the rest of the girls had gotten tired of collecting fruit and hauling it to town even with my help.

Sighing, I leaned back on the sofa and pushed the portal while only half paying attention to the Disney movie we were watching or Taylor’s legs I was stroking. She had put them in my lap for a foot massage after Sabah admitted that it felt nice when I teased her. I had rubbed Taylor's surprisingly delicate feet for a while before I simply let go and let my hands wander her calves.

I needed to consider how we were going to get stronger. These last two worlds had proven my assumption that Earth Bet had been uniquely easy to find companions in. That world was dying and was going to hurt the three women I had recruited directly and harshly. Meanwhile, the worlds we were going to be visiting now wouldn’t be nearly as bad and so we wouldn’t have nearly as easy a time recruiting anyone.

Then again maybe I needed to find power first. I would be able to do more to help people if I was stronger. It would also make the pool of worlds I would be willing to visit larger as well. Yes there was the bonus that more grateful women would be more likely to join me, but after some reflection I was much less focused on finding girls when I had two women who were moderately happy to jump into bed with me. Maybe I just wasn’t desperate… or maybe I was less lonely now. Why was I lonely, who was I missing?

I frowned, I needed to focus, we weren’t safe yet. We really did need battle training and magic defenses. Ironically heading for some of the better known worlds would give me that training, but those worlds also made me worried. My Hero Academia was perhaps the top of the list for teaching us to fight and there were quite a few incredible girls there. The problem was both that the school was strictly non-lethal and diving into class 1A would see us caught up with the insanity of a shonen protagonist. So as much as I wanted to see it, maybe I should wait until we had more power for that one as well.

The second option off the top of my head for a battle school was an anime that I had only watched the first season of. It was cool, but I wouldn’t really want to end up in the world around the Irregular at Magic High School. In fact, unless we gained a lot more power soon, then I would instantly pop hookwolf if we showed up there, both because the really cool abilities all seemed to be bloodline derived and because the world was on the precipice of war. Thinking about it a little more, I didn’t remember anything that would lead me to think that they would be able to detect my pocket dimension directly, but it would be both be hard to get into a school with that much government involvement and because I would probably be captured and experimented on the moment they found out about my portals. Probably for Amy’s biokinetics as well, let alone what they would do for Dinah’s precog abilities. Taylor and Sabah were probably the only ones moderately safe there.

The final battle school I could think of was from the world of Remnant from RWBY. I actually really wanted to visit the world. It was almost a no-brainer once I didn’t think we would instantly be killed upon arrival. It was undoubtedly a Death World, but it was something that we could actually do something about if we could just somehow get a drop on Cinder before she attacked Beacon Academy. It also had the side benefit of allowing us to save one of the girls I would love to have with me, Pyrrha Nikos. Even better if I could convince Cinder to switch sides again since she had her own terrible backstory and I was really starting to like the idea of redeeming people. However, if we couldn’t then she absolutely had to die. Thinking back on the other options, I also wouldn’t mind bringing Ruby or Blake with us, but I suspected that both of them wouldn’t leave without addressing the grim and the white fang respectively. The rest of the cast needed a lot of work for my taste with quite a few being either naive or juvenile. And yes, I was making the distinction between the two. It was why I wasn’t considering Yang unless she gained control of her temper or Weiss before she learned to control her mouth.

I sighed and brought myself back to look through the portal and blinked. We appeared to be roughly where Dinah had pointed me towards, but as I was about to look around a bit I found a tiny village that looked strange. The village had about 10 houses. Two of which were burnt down. Next to that I made out a cage made of wooden poles sharpened at the top surrounding about 20 people. I narrowed my eyes when I saw what looked like obvious bandits. I actually couldn’t think of anything that might have been more stereotypical bandit than the piece-meal armor and slightly rusty swords they had, but as I watched I noticed two of them saluting as they took orders from what seemed to be the captain.

I sighed. Well, that made things more difficult. "Hey Girls… can you come in here for a moment? We might have a problem."

Taylor didn't quite run, but it was clear she had dropped just about everything to get here quickly. Behind her Amy arrived frowning, game face on. After that Sabah and Dinah walked in cautiously.

Taylor was the one who spoke first. "What is wrong? Did something happen?"

Shaking my head I sighed. "Not to us, but it seems that bandits of some type or other have pillaged this village."

I could hear the buzzing as Taylor pushed her annoyance into the swarm. "So we are going to take them out."

Holding my hand out I gestured her to sit down and after a moment she complied. Sighing internally I spoke calmly as the other girls followed Taylor's lead and sat down. "Ok, two things are strange or at least worth considering. The first is that this should be close to where we are expecting Ahri. The second is that I noticed that the group is acting a little strange for simple thugs and bandits. I don’t know, but it is starting to give me a bad feeling. It wouldn’t be the first time someone used banditry for a false flag operation somewhere else. The problem is that if they are mercenaries with another country's unofficial approval and backing, then that makes this slightly more tricky.”

Dinah sighed and after a moment she responded. “12% the bandits are random thugs. 42% they are a rogue military company. 72% the bandits are mercenaries being paid by another country.”

Proud for spotting it I hummed to myself. I leaned back to stare at the ceiling for a moment before I sat back up and turned to Dinah. “Are they here for Ahri?”

Dinah blinked. “97% chance the mercenary group is attempting to capture or kill Ahri.”

Sighing, I rubbed my head, but it was Taylor who spoke up next. “Why would it matter that they are after Ahri?”

Turning to her I made sure to blank my face to ensure Taylor didn’t take it the wrong way. However, this was the problem with Taylor in her story. She always took care of the problem with minimal support and resources. To the point it was incredible. However she often got wrapped up in the here and now and rarely thought far enough ahead for the social and tactical implications. Then again, she was still only a 16 year old. Speaking carefully I tried to look like I was thinking it over. “You are right. Unless some of them realize what we are doing and have either magic or some sort of pesticide, then your bugs could probably wipe out the entire camp easily. Really, with Amy’s help, I would say that you two are the perfect answer to baseline human crowd control. The problem I am seeing is the aftermath. What happens to the villagers when the next band of mercenaries comes through looking for Ahri’s trail?” I could see Taylor wilt slightly and I tried not to sigh at her lack of self-confidence and I continued. “Really, I am pretty sure we are going to have you take them out, I just want you to plan what happens afterwards.”

Taylor seemed to brighten slightly at that and then her face smoothed out. After a moment, she looked at me again and spoke. “What if we moved them to another location so they aren’t bothered anymore?”

I nodded. “That is the easiest answer, but even if several of their loved ones were killed in the attack, people are rarely very logical and might be attached enough to this land to stay regardless. So while I think we will offer that first, we will need a backup plan.”

Taylor paused for a moment before turning to Amy. “Could we do something to make them forget the village was here?”

Amy thought for a moment before she shook her head. “No, I don’t think we could. They have been here too long and making them forget the location but remember their mission and what happened would be extremely complex. It would also do nothing to any letters or messages they already sent back to whoever is organizing them.”

Dinah narrowed her eyes and spoke up next. “What are we missing?”

I smiled. “I actually think the best option is that we make contact with Ahri. The fox woman has 4 abilities. One is eating souls, another is charming her target, another is superhuman strength although I don’t know how it compares to ours, but the final is the power of illusions. Really the illusions are probably her most powerful ability. If we can get her on our side then we can work together and convince the mercenaries that the villagers are dead and Ahri either left or was killed, then they would leave and not come back. We can even make this more effective if Amy makes them more suggestable somehow. Maybe something similar to what you used on Gon and Kurapika in the hunter exam. Regardless, the mercenaries would have no reason to come back and would report as much to any superiors.”

Dinah turned towards the portal and started pointing and murmuring. It took a solid minute where Dinah started to look more and more tired, but after a moment longer she pointed towards a heavily wooded hill. “95% chance you will be able to find Ahri if you go there and search.” After that announcement she slumped and I jumped up to catch the small girl and put her down on the sofa.

Looking at the other three I sighed. “Well, I guess we had best get started. Sabah, will you be joining us?”

Sabah sighed and looked back and forth for a moment before she looked at me. “I don’t think it is the best idea for me to go with you. I know Amy hasn’t given me the same modifications as the rest of you yet. And…” She paused for a moment longer before turning away from me and speaking much quieter. “I know I am not as pretty as the others, but I think I might want to join you if you will have me.”

I had to hold myself still. I didn’t want to scare the poor girl right when she had finally tentatively agreed to join us. Even now I could see her eying Amy and Taylor out of the corner of her eye. That didn’t really bother me. As I had even told the girls. I really didn’t mind my wives enjoying each other without me as long as they all understood they were all sister wives and there wasn’t any hostility or infighting. However, noting that Sabah probably wouldn’t be happy to be reminded of that, I didn't say anything on the subject and just nodded and smiled.

Letting my smile widen as I noticed Amy’s interest, I nodded to Sabah who seemed to relax a bit more. Addressing Sabah, I gestured to Dinah. “Why don’t you relax here and watch over Dinah. Amy, why don’t you stay with her and start making any cosmetic modifications that Sabah wants. I will be back in a few hours to tie your soul to ours and we will be done.” Looking at Sabah as she smiled at Amy then tensed as I mentioned the binding, I bit back another internal sigh. “Sabah, I am not going to expect intimacy today, or even this month. I want you to choose to be with us.” Turning to Taylor I continued. “Taylor, you are with me. I don’t think it would be possible to find Ahri without your senses.”

As I moved the portal down to the treeline and stepped through followed by Taylor I closed the portal to sound to our home, but left it open behind us. Once we were far enough that no one should be able to see us through the trees I turned to Taylor and gave a small smirk. “Would you be kind enough to let me know if there is anything I should know from Amy and Sabah’s discussion.”

Taylor looked at me and then after a moment nodded.

As we trudged through the forest I kept my voice relatively low as I called out. “Ahri, Ahri, could we talk. We are here to make you an offer to help you. We have no desire to hurt you in any way.”

I repeated that explanation for several minutes as we walked through the forest. As I took a breath I saw Taylor stiffen and paused. She shook her head and so I continued my speech.

After another half an hour the two of us found a fallen tree and sat down to rest for a few minutes and Taylor spoke up. “We might have been followed a few times, but she keeps running off. Maybe to check if we are tracking her somehow, but I don’t know.”

Looking at me again she smirked. “Also, Sabah has asked if Amy would kiss her and Amy declined until she is bonded.”

I smirked back. “I will have to find a way to reward Amy now won’t I?”

Taylor rolled her eyes, but her smile got bigger. “Amy still agreed to join the two of you when she finally joins you in bed. Sabah flushed and left to go read in her room.” Her eyes got a bit more mischievous, “It is a bodice ripper.”

Rolling my eyes back I sighed. “She really shouldn’t assume those are accurate portrayals of sex. Then again I am not sure if she ever dated anyone. If she wasn’t attracted to men and didn’t want to date women with the E88 Neo-nazis around, then she might not have experience. Especially as an Arabic immigrant surrounded by racist whites, asians, and blacks, since everyone in that town seemed to hate each other.”

Taylor nodded. I reached through another portal and grabbed a few of the sandwich-like things we had bought in the city. Handing one to Taylor I paused and then grabbed two more. I put them on the plate next to me but didn’t say anything as Taylor raised her eyebrow. She seemed to realize that I was trying to lure out Ahri with food and smirked.

It was nearly an hour later that we got up and left. I had decided to leave the food on the tree trunk with Taylor keeping watch as we circled the area. Plus she would be able to keep the bugs away long enough for Ahri to actually try it if she wanted it.

Just as I had hoped a few minutes later Taylor startled a bit before turning slightly back towards the food. “Someone ate the food, but I didn’t even see her arrive. Her illusions are very good and bugs don’t seem to like touching her. Then again, bugs don’t have the best senses.”

I hummed to myself. “She might actually have some sort of minor life drain going on. We know she can eat human souls, but it doesn’t mean that she can’t drain lesser creatures as well.”

Taylor seemed to hum for a moment longer before she nodded and the two of us continued our walk. We had been making a sort of figure 8 through the forest but without following the exact same path each time.

Turning towards Taylor I was about to suggest this would be the final 30 minute lap when I saw what could only be Ahri out of the corner of my eye. As I turned I felt myself being pulled toward the fox woman. I could still think, but it was hard. I wondered for a moment who was stronger, Heartbreaker or Ahri before I shook off her charm and smiled holding my hands up. “Hello, Ahri. We have been looking for you to make you an offer of friendship or more depending on what you want.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Taylor had stopped a few feet behind me and I knew she was preparing for battle, but that was probably a good thing. I also noticed she had grabbed one of the 9mm pistols from the gangs we robbed, but it was a bit of a last resort since we didn’t want to fire it with all the mercenaries around us.

Ahri, was a middle sized woman with large D cup breasts, long black hair and a foxy pointed nose. She didn’t have whiskers or anything, but I could tell already her teeth were somewhat pointed and her two cat-like ears were already twitching on the top of her head. She was wearing something approaching a forest green dress with a modest v cut to show off some cleavage. The dress went down to her ankles and she was wearing sandals. Behind her I noticed she had allowed her nine fox tails to show, waiving a mesmerizing pattern behind her. A part of me was confused as to why she wasn’t wearing a kimono, but after a moment I realized that I shouldn’t have expected that. If she was mostly hiding then she would be wearing something close to what the people around her were wearing. Internally I swore to get her a sexy kimono as soon as I could. She probably wouldn’t even need her charm ability while wearing something like that.

My internal musing was broken when she finally spoke. “What do you want exactly? And how can you help?”

I took a deep breath before gesturing towards the town. I had actually lost the exact direction, but I knew it was roughly towards the setting sun regardless. “First, I want you to know I am always completely honest with people I am trying to recruit. Second, I want to recruit you because of the rumors I have heard about you. They say you are a kind, but powerful fox maiden who can create illusions, charm men, and eat souls of those who deserve it.”

I watched as Ahri tensed, ears flicking as I mentioned souls, but when I didn’t do anything else she relaxed slightly so I continued. “Next, my group tries to help good people around us, but you should know we aren’t against killing or doing worse to those who deserve it. We are planning on dealing with the bandits in the village with or without your help, but we would prefer you to join us.”

Ahri frowned and seemed to think for a while, but then nodded and I smiled internally. “The final two things you should know is I am actually a Soul and Dimension mage, yes those things are connected, and I am traveling between worlds to both help even more people and find women who would like to join me as my friends and wives. One of these girls is a girl who can predict the future and she predicted that you would both be happy and have a better chance finding out more about yourself in different worlds with us than all alone on this one.”

Ahri stood up straight at that and blinked multiple times before frowning and narrowing her eyes. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to test the truthfulness of my words, but after a moment she spoke. “Why can’t I sense your soul? I want to be able to feel it if I am going to trust you.”

My mind raced as I tried to determine if it was worth bringing more of my soul out. I could do it easily through my own personal portal, but it would make me much more vulnerable to her charm and at some point, if she chose to eat my soul, I wasn't sure I would recover. I suspected I might still regenerate eventually having being tied to three others, but it would take a long time and the girls needed me now, not months from now.

Pulling a bit more through my portal I looked Ahri in the eye again. “This is all I will show you until we can trust you more. You are somewhat uniquely dangerous to us despite all of my defenses. However, from what I have heard about you, you are a good person. So I will offer again for you to join us as friends for now and maybe more later. In the end, I can’t promise happiness constantly, but we can promise to try, keep you fed, and give you a family that you won’t outlive.”

Ahri hummed for a moment before turning to me. “And how would you feed me?”

I tilted my head. “That depends a little on you. I know you have eaten souls before and gotten their memories.” Ahri nodded so I continued. “I assume you then have a problem when eating because evil people give you horrible memories, but you don’t want to eat good people.”

Ahri stared at me before nodding and I smiled. “Then yes, I can absolutely help you. Between my wife who can mold flesh and myself who can mold souls, we are trying to learn to redeem souls who deserve a second chance. Our best hope is to remove trauma and memories of their bad habits and decisions. If we can do that for those who are rotten to the core, then you will have a guilt free source of food. Additionally, with your permission, we might even be able to modify your body and soul to either no longer require souls to function or make the souls last much much longer.”

Ahri looked at us wide eyed and I smiled back. Turning away from her I pointed towards the village. “While you consider that. Do you mind if I ask you what is happening with the village?”

Ahri actually snarled at the question and Taylor tensed but Ahri wasn’t even looking towards us at this point. “Those pigs know I can eat souls and are trying to tempt me by killing the villagers each evening. They have already killed two men, Thomas and Milton.” Her growl intensified and I blinked. “A few of them have also been enjoying some of the younger girls.”

Taylor turned to stare directly towards the village and had narrowed her eyes. Internally, I realized that most of the men had essentially just signed their own death warrants.

Turning towards Ahri I questioned. “What was your plan?”

She sighed and slumped. “They know my charm abilities are limited to about 20 yards and fairly short lived and my illusions are visual only and moderately short ranged. So they keep one person holding on to the victim while being surrounded by archers. I tried to grab Thomas when they stabbed him, but I had to flee as he bled out due to all the arrows. So I have been trying to pick off some of the guards as they patrol around.” She slumped a bit at that and I blinked before she continued. “I have gotten four, but there are 28 more and they now don’t leave in groups smaller than three.”

I sighed and rubbed my head, thinking. “When are they going to kill the next one?”

Ahri looked up at the sky and frowned. “Probably in an hour or so.”

Thinking quickly I opened the portal to Amy and the rest and gestured towards Ahri. Ahri had obviously jumped back slightly, but as I spoke calmly Ahri relaxed after a few moments. “Amy meet Ahri, Ahri meet Amy. Now Amy, would you be able to prepare a body we can swap one of the villagers for when he is grabbed and would you be able to puppet it if I keep a portal against its skin? An hour isn’t long enough to make any good long term plans, but I am not about to let another die to buy us time.”

Ahri blinked, then blinked again before her eyes widened considering what Amy was able to do, but it was Amy that spoke up. “Yes, I could if I had some flesh to make it out of. I wouldn’t have time to make the body out of the trees here.”

Ahri spoke up then. “There are some boars just south of here. If I brought those to you, would that work?”

Amy nodded. “Yes, that would work great. Even better if they are still alive and mostly unharmed.”

Ahri turned to leave and I spoke up quickly. “Ahri, we are going back into our pocket dimension. You won’t be able to see us, but we will see you once you return to this clearing. Once you are back we can make contact with the village.”

Nodding Ahri dashed out of the clearing and I turned and walked back into our house. Sighing I brushed myself off before flopping back into our sofa with Taylor following suit. Turning to Sabah I raised my eyebrow. “What did you decide?”

Sabah stiffened but then after a moment of indecision she looked me in the eye and nodded. “As long as you promise to not mistreat us I will join you.”

I smiled and stood up before walking over to Sabah and pulling her into a hug. “I am glad you want to join us. Please do not worry. I truly do want my wives to be happy. I have never lied to any of you. You will note I haven’t even lied to Ahri at any point despite just meeting her. I might have said this before, but with a precog and a biokinetic as a future wife and current wife respectively I can’t lie and have it stay a lie for long.”

Sabah took a shuddering breath in and then out before nodding so I continued. “Also, you have already realized it, but while I enjoy intimacy with my wives, it isn’t like they are chained to a bed 24/7. I want them to improve themselves, learn, have hobbies and I will want the same thing for you.”

Once again Sabah nodded so I pulled her towards the sofa and laid her down with her head in my lap and her legs across Amy’s. Internally I had debated doing the opposite, but I wanted to make it clear that she was joining me, not Amy, even if Amy was clearly a deciding factor. Regardless, I opened up a portal to our joint phylactery and put my hand on Sabah’s stomach. It actually took only about 30 minutes. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was getting a little faster, Sabah’s metaphorical power size, or because I had her soul had better bonded with her power over the last two weeks.

Regardless when I was done I pulled Sabah up and hugged her before giving her a long but simple kiss on her lips. She obviously stiffened when I started but after a few moments she relaxed in my arms and slowly put her arms around my waist. Peaking my eyes open I noticed that Amy had her leg still touching Sabah and I smirked internally. Amy and Taylor really were becoming excellent wing women. Then again Amy might have been trying for her own sake since Sabah was someone who might go all the way with her since Taylor wouldn’t.

Putting those thoughts aside I pulled away from Sabah and smiled. “Welcome to the family, Sabah.” Then I turned her towards the three other girls who each hugged her before Amy smirked and kissed her too.

Sabah swayed for a moment before she once again put her arms around Amy and I had to clear my throat before the two did anymore here. “I said you could enjoy each other, but the living room in front of Dinah while we are waiting for Ahri to return is not the time nor place.”

Sabah nearly jumped away but Amy simply smirked. I smirked back then got serious. “I don’t think we need to worry about Ahri attacking us, but I think we should get prepared regardless just in case.”

After a few more minutes without seeing Ahri, I frowned and looked at the darkening sky again. We were running out of time. As much as I wanted to have Ahri to vouch for me, it would be better not to wait too long and risk losing another villager.

Portaling down into the middle of the cage I looked around until I found the man I assumed to be the current leader. He was dressed slightly better than the rest, but had been beaten quite a bit. I had forgotten to ask if the villagers knew Ahri by a different name or if there were any that didn’t like her, but nothing about that I could do now. “Sir, don’t react.” He still jerked a little, but the guards outside the stockade didn’t as much as twitch. “This is just a spell for me to talk to you. We are here to help and Ahri has joined us.”

The man startled again and then slowly nodded. His voice was quite raspy, but still understandable. “I understand, young man.”

Opening the portal a little wider so he could see me a little I asked. “Do you know who they will pick to be the next sacrifice to try to lure out Ahri?”

The older man nodded and pointed towards a younger man next to him, probably about 17. Looking at Amy I opened up a portal next to the boy and let Amy touch him. The boy jumped, but at the look of the town elder he didn’t say anything.

As Amy memorized the basics of the boy’s biology I noticed that Ahri was back in the clearing. Opening up a portal so that Ahri could bring the boar into the house I looked towards Taylor and flicked my gauze for her to watch Ahri. With Sabah fully joining us and our Phylactery safe and Lung’s vase secure she probably couldn't completely cripple us, but I didn’t want Ahri downstairs with Bakuda, Squealer, or our back up soul jumps. I wanted to trust her, but better safe than sorry.

Ahri meanwhile was obviously somewhat impressed by the house. Runeterra wasn’t exactly middle ages, but the rural areas were probably not as nice as the modern upper middle class mansion this was.

Amy next reached out and touched the boar. Then before our eyes the boar started to warp and twist. As we watched and in only about 15 minutes a new boy more or less identical to the young man in the cage, was sitting in a kitchen chair. Turning to Ahri I pointed to the portal to the cage. “Ahri, you are going to create an illusion that he is still sitting there and we are going to have him give his clothes to the body double. After that we are going to have him hide in the forest.”

Ahri shook her head. “Why don’t you have him hide in my cave and why don’t we get everyone right now?”

I blinked. “First I didn’t know you had a cave that the villagers could retreat to.”

She shrugged. “I needed somewhere to sleep now that I couldn’t stay in Emmath’s second bedroom.”

Agreeing, I spoke so both the village leader and the rest of the villagers could hear while wrapping the area in a portal that blocked sound, but as little light as possible. It still looked like glass, but it was better than nothing. “Because we want a plan that makes sure no one else is going to bother you. The first option is that we prepare body doubles that die for each of you so the mercenaries here or anyone else don’t look for you after we leave. The easiest way is by disease. The problem is they might burn the village to the ground if they are worried about a plague. Alternatively we can grab everything we can and transport you away from this village so you can start over somewhere else. We might even be able to steal some of the mercenary’s supplies. That lets us fight back since you won’t be here anymore for a retaliatory strike. Final option is that we can try to have Ahri lead them away but we might still need those body doubles since I am not sure they would leave you all alive. They might also ransack the rest of the village if they assumed you were all dead” The village leader looked overwhelmed so I tried to close the conversation for now. “I can leave you so you can discuss it. Just let us know tonight. Careful, I am pulling away my screen keeping the guards from hearing us. You will have to whisper.”

The villagers indeed began to whisper to each other and the village chief had to warn them multiple times before it calmed down. The boy we had replaced relaxed slightly in Ahri’s cave and the body double looked to be sleeping. Ahri had wondered why I wouldn’t just bring the boy into our house before I pointed out that I wasn’t going to do that for people who weren’t going to be joining us and I didn’t know anything about these people. I was making an exception for her since I was trying to seduce her. Ahri blushed at that and I smirked. “Don’t worry, I am not forcing you, so while the invitation is still open and we would love to have you, you are here because we need to trust each other while we help this village.”

It took another half hour before the fake boy was dragged out, silently weeping, as Amy puppeted him from under his shirt. I grit my teeth as the bastards slit his throat shallowly so he would slowly bleed out with his hands bound behind him tied to a stake in the ground.

Looking at the other girls who were equally shocked by the cruelty I gestured towards Taylor. “Ok, if the villagers decide to leave the village, then we aren’t leaving any survivors. Just let us grab a few to take with us for jumps.” Then looking at Ahri I smirked. “Or maybe I am going to rip their souls out and leave them as snacks for Ahri to eat when she is bored.”

The girls all smirked at that, even Ahri. A small part of me wondered if we were getting too bloodthirsty, but watching the puppet slowly die I shook my head and started planning.

It turned out that several of the women had been raped in their own homes and didn’t want to be reminded of what happened by staying here. The village’s fields hadn't been planted yet and so the only thing they needed to move were their sheep. However, quite a few of the sheep had already been killed and eaten by the mercenaries. That disheartened the villagers more, but I was pretty sure they could rebuild if given time.

My plan came together fairly easily. Amy would double check Taylor’s sleep wasps and then Taylor would hit all of the grunts at the same time.

Ahri had warned that the leader was heavily trained and might hear the wasp coming so Amy created a sleeping gas directly and slowly drafted the gas into the house he had commandeered. An hour later the villagers were freed and the mercenaries were rounded up.

I still didn’t want anyone to try to track down Ahri or these villagers, so we picked two who hadn’t raped or participated in the killing directly. Ahri created an illusion and woke them up. In their eyes the village was in flames and Ahri was walking towards them, obviously furious, but also obviously mortally wounded. There was a sword going through her chest and her clothes looked like they were covered in blood. The two then noticed the bodies of their comrades torn up behind her and instantly fled through the forest. Once Dinah confirmed they wouldn’t return and would tell everyone Ahri was dead we returned to work on cleaning up the rest.

However, I was slightly annoyed to find that 8 of the 26 remaining soldiers were now dead. The village women had found their rapists and killed them. I didn’t exactly have time to try to modify their memories but Ahri ate the 5 of them that had died slowly enough for her to grab the souls before they dissipated to wherever souls go. She seemed a little vindictive as she ate, only grimacing slightly.

That night, Ahri spent time with the village as they cleaned up and gathered their belongings along with everything else the mercenaries left.

Finally, I opened up a portal next to the bodies and began to rip each of the souls out of their bodies and put them into some small ceramic mugs. The low quality ceramic would probably cause issues to the stability of the soul vessels in the long run, but I didn’t really care too much. I suspected that they would be fine for the next year or so and that is all I would need to feed Ahri while we tried to help her.

On that thought, I looked at Ahri and smiled before I gestured for her to walk with me as I headed towards the forest. The rest of the girls had been helping out with the villagers and were being thanked repeatedly. Taylor looked embarrassed but slightly proud. Dinah and Sabah just looked embarrassed, but neither had done much of the fighting and so were mostly just helping clean up. I would have to talk to them to remind them that Dinah had helped with planning and Sabah was now helping with collecting belongings. Sabah’s telekinesis was actually extremely useful here. While she couldn’t lift any item that weighed more than 2 pounds, her limit was around 100 individual items within a 10 meter radius so she could pack almost everything in a house in only a few minutes. Amy was obviously used to the thanks, but she looked somewhat content as she poked each of the villagers in turn and healed them. Maybe she was enjoying healing now that people didn’t expect her to do it constantly.

Turning back to Ahri, I waited for a moment to collect my thoughts, but it was Ahri to first break the silence. “What are you going to do next?”

I smiled. “I am going to invite you to join us.”

Ahri sighed. “Once you leave her.”

I smiled and hummed in affirmation. “In all seriousness, we want to be trained by Irelia, the blade dancer. After that we will probably move on to another reality. The girls and I are very interested in getting access to magic. The magic here is very volatile and dangerous so we will probably learn from the Harry Potter Universe.” At Ahri’s tilted head. “Ah, sorry, I should have explained this before now, but saving the village was more important. When I portal us away I can easily portal us to anywhere in this world with enough time, but if I use a soul as fuel I can portal us to another world entirely. Sometimes seers of sorts are able to see these other worlds and write them down as fiction so we know what some of these worlds are like. I hope to aim for one of these in particular or at least something like it. The world I mentioned is a moderately advanced and a moderately peaceful world for the time being, but if we don’t help it will go through another civil war.”

Ahri seemed to consider something before she continued. “Will you stop there?” She then paused. “And was I in this fiction you speak of?”

I paused in turn trying to understand before I realized she probably still wanted to know where she came from and I shook my head. “No, not permanently. We want to learn as much magic as possible, but we are traveling to both get stronger and to see everything the multiverse has to offer. That isn’t to say that we won’t take breaks. While we might even stop in a world for a hundred years or more and raise children there, I think we will eventually move on. I don’t plan on letting us die of old age. Plus, I like the idea of seeing as much as we can while helping out whoever we find.”

Turning towards Ahri I shrugged before I continued. “Plus I would be happy to try to figure out how to learn more about where you come from. Dinah says you don’t have much chance of learning on this version of Runeterra, but you will learn more if you travel with us even if it wasn't exactly the world and people you came from.” Then I sighed. “And yes, as weird as it sounds, we have stories of at least one of your lives in Runeterra, but not as many details as most.”

Ahri seemed to slump before she turned to look out into the sky. After several minutes where I just waited she turned to me. Looking me in my eye she frowned before slowly. I watched as several different emotions crossed her face before she started to smile. “Well then, Max was it? Would you mind if I traveled with you for a while? I am not ready to commit yet, but I think I might be… interested. This offer is much more interesting that most options I have considered before”

Making sure not to look too smug I simply reached forward and slowly hugged the woman. Ahri stiffened, but relaxed as I spoke. “We would be happy to have you join the family, but you will be welcome until you make the decision. In the meantime why don’t you spend time with your friends here. We will be moving on soon and I think they want to talk to you before that.”

Ahri had been a little nervous around the villagers, obviously afraid they would blame her, but as I watched them start to talk with her again she relaxed. A few had avoided her, but they didn’t look angry, just sad. That was as good as it was probably going to get.

Once she was gone I portaled into our pocket home. I really could use some better protections for our necklace Phylactery while I had time. It was also probably time that we made a better setup for Squealer and Bakuda along with our backup bodies. Maybe we could even freeze them. It would free Amy up from needing to keep them alive since they were always slowly dying without a soul attached. I would have to talk to Amy about it.

Interlude Ahri:

Ahri sighed. This entire thing was insane. Ten years ago she was living with a pack of arctic fox demi-humans. A year ago she was fighting for her life. A week ago she was living at the edge of town hoping that everyone would just forget about her, doing odd jobs in the forest for a little bit of extra cash. Yesterday she was fighting for her life again, picking off the men she could, hoping they didn’t just kill the rest of the villagers in revenge.

Now she was sitting in what she had been told was a modern kitchen with more food than she knew what to do with and the promise of help getting the occasional evil soul without memories she could eat.

Yeah, it was a little strange that the male was offering to mate with her so directly, but foxes were often almost as blunt.

Still he was offering just about everything she ever wanted. Family, knowledge of her past, and the food she needed. It really did seem too good to be true, but he hadn’t asked for anything… yet.

No, she really didn’t consider the request to mate equivalent to what he was offering, but it was still strange.

She sighed as she moved towards her new room. Looking around she hummed It was simple, but quite nice, if a little empty for now. However, the darker skinned one… Sabah, she reminded herself, was going make her clothes as well. She even looked excited at the thought.

This all was craziness. Still, unless they were hiding something in the basement she wasn’t allowed to enter just yet, she would be a fool to pass this up before finding out more.