“Rock, I love you, but… you need to lose some weight,” Fenrir said, groaning as he carried Rock on his back with his hands held behind him to keep her weight supported.

Rock’s response to his statement was licking the side of his face.

“No matter how cute you might be, my body is eventually going to break, and I don’t think you can heal it by licking me.”

Rock licked his face again despite his refusal to believe in the power of her licking.

“I really don’t get how your tongue can feel wet when you’re made out of rock.”

Rock didn’t know either, so she simply rested her head down against his shoulder and pressed up against the side of his own head.

“You’re lucky you’re cute. I would have left you back there if you weren’t.”

Saya’s voice then chimed into his head to say, “No you wouldn’t have.”

“Don’t sass me when you’re not even here.”

“But this is what we used to always do. This is just like back in the old days, isn’t it? You and Rock, me in your head—ah, this takes me back. And I don’t have to deal with being flicked or bullied by you. Or groped.”

“Am I supposed to be able to resist groping my pseudo little sister puppy? Especially when she has a sweater? Come on. It’s impossible for me to resist groping you when you look like that. If anything, it’s your fault.”

“Wow, Onii-wan. Resorting to victim shaming to justify your criminal deeds.”

“There is nothing criminal about groping one of my girlfriends in a sweater. If anything, it’s the opposite of criminal. It’s doing what I was placed in this universe to do. Not groping you, or any othe others, is what would be criminal. I would deserve to go up in front of an intergalactic criminal court for that. Lifeforms all across the universe and all of its alternate realities would deem me guilty for neglecting to grope a girlfriend in a sweater.”

“You’re weird. I’m going back to ignoring you and having fun over here where I’m not stranded on a deserted island.”

“I’m groping you extra hard when I get back.”

“I’m never wearing a sweater around you again.”

“Yes you will.”

“N-nuh-uh. Totally not. Nope. Never.”

“You like being groped too much to not.”

“I’m changing my personality then so that you can’t tell what I do or don’t like.”

“I thought you were going back to ignoring me?”

“Oh. Right. Baka Onii-wan. Hmph.”

And with that, Saya went silent within Fenrir’s head.

“Saya is too cute,” Fenrir told Rock.

Rock nodded her head as much as she could while keeping it tucked between his head and shoulder.

“But on matter how cute she is, we should think of a plan. I could either carry you with me, or I could try to find someplace safe to set you down at. Maybe at the beach? But, if I leave you at the beach and something from the water attacks, or another huge wave comes around, then you might be screwed. But if I bring you with me, there might be more dangers deeper into the island that I can’t protect you from while you’re like this. Not to mention that it seems… almost too quiet.”

Fenrir stopped in his tracks to listen to his surroundings.

Nothing.

There wasn’t a single noise made from anybody nor anything but themselves.

There was no wind. No sounds of insects nor animals. No rustling bushes.

Nothing.

However, he did pick up the scent of something familiar, and Rock did as well. They turned their heads at the same time to look at the source of the smell and saw exactly why it was familiar: it was Cassiel.

It wasn’t that she necessarily had a strong smell to her or anything, but, given that Fenrir and Rock were both canid to some degree, they had better senses of smell than most.

But something was wrong.

Rock growled as Fenrir let her down, and he pulled Rod off his hip once she was down.

“Hey, Cass Cass,” Fenrir said.

Cassiel, with her head lowered enough that he couldn’t see her eyes, didn’t react. All she did was stand there, still and unmoving.

“Your boobs are too big for this to be disturbing, you know,” Fenrir tried to tease, but there was still no reaction from her.

Her not reacting to that was, in fact, disturbing.

Aside from the fact that she wasn’t reacting at all, though, she looked normal. She didn’t look like she was injured, she still had all of her equipment with her… he just couldn’t see her eyes.

Then she drew her sword.

“I have a feeling I know where this is going,” Fenrir said and sighed.

Still without lifting her head, Cassiel charged at Fenrir with her sword aimed right for him.

A bolt of lightning from up above in the distance struck Cassiel to stun her before she could reach Fenrir.

Unless there was somebody else with some degree of control over lightning that was on the island and interested in helping Fenrir, he had a good idea about who it was.

And the source of the lightning was confirmed the next moment when Eva glided down from one of the trees.

“I guess I should end my observation,” Eva said. “I’ve collected enough evidence for now.”

“Nice to see you too, Eva,” Fenrir said with a little wave.

Eva smiled and waved back, treating the situation as totally casual before looking like she remembered something. “Oh, right. It’s on the back of her neck—the thing controlling her. I’ll explain more later. All you need to know is that… I believe if we remove that thing from her, then she’ll be back to normal.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“I figured it would be something like that, but having it confirmed that something is controlling my girlfriend’s body… that pisses me off.”

Cassiel, recovering from the stun, finally raised her head which allowed Fenrir to see her reddened eyes and what looked like thin roots stretching across them.

“Let her come, Eva,” Fenrir said. “I know an easy way of dealing with this that doesn’t involve having to hurt her.”

“What are you going to do?” Eva asked.

“Relive the old days.”

Recovered from the stun, Cassiel resumed her charge with her sword aimed straight at Fenrir.

The next moment and that sword thrust straight into Fenrir’s abdomen, impaling him on it and coming out through his back.

“I knew it,” Fenrir said with a smile and bit of blood coming from his mouth, “You still love sticking your long sticks into me.” With that, Fenrir converted Rod into his chain form and used the chains to tightly wrap around Cassiel, binding her to him.

Cassiel tried to break free, but it was impossible to with Fenrir hugging her and Rod binding her.

“You’re up,” Fenrir said to Eva.

With a sigh, Eva flew up to Cassiel and moved her hair aside which gave Fenrir a look at whatever the thing controlling her was. It looked like some sort of blooming flower with several tentacle-like vines stretching across the back of her neck, and each vine was lined with thorns that were embedded in Cassiel’s neck. More importantly, as Eva carefully pulled back on the flower, it was revealed that it had a mouth underneath it which had dozens of tiny “roots” protruding from it. These roots caused Cassiel’s body to shake and convulse as they were pulled out. She almost looked like she was having a seizure, and that also involved her eyes rolling backward and saliva drooling out from her mouth.

It wasn’t even in the hot hentai way, so Fenrir couldn’t enjoy the sight of it. She just looked like she was in an insane amount of pain instead.

But once the roots were fully extracted from Cassiel, waving around in the air desperately looking for something else to latch onto, she went limp against Fenrir’s form.

As for Eva, she sighed and said, “I wish I had one of my bottles with me so I could keep you for studying. But I don’t, and you hurt my girlfriend, so…” Eva tightened her grip around the flower, crushing it within her hand and causing all of those vines and roots to fall still. Then she looked at Fenrir and asked, “How is she?”

Fenrir unwrapped Rod from her and placed his hands on her shoulders to push her back. Eva helped by holding her from behind, allowing Fenrir to get that sword out from him. “She looks out,” he said. Though, right after he said that, Cassiel slowly blinked her eyes open. “Never mind. She’s here.”

“Wish I wasn’t,” Cassiel groaned. “Fuck, my head hurts…”

“Understandable,” Eva said. “That thing probably put its roots inside your brain. Can’t imagine why else it would put them inside your head if not to control you that way.”

“Do you… have any idea… how disgusting it feels to feel roots squirming around inside your brain and over your eyes?”

Eva looked shocked when she was asked that. “I don’t! I’m going to have to secure a living specimen so I can try it out. I want to know what it’s like to be controlled by roots in my brain.”

“I would say you don’t want to know… but I know you.”

“Heh. Exactly. No matter how weird or unpleasant it is, I want to try it out.”

Fenrir then raised his hand and asked, “Does this mean I can ask you to try a bunch of weird sexual things?”

“Obviously.”

“Nice.”

“But shouldn’t you be worried about bleeding out instead?”

‘Eh, no big deal. I’m used to Cassiel sticking long, hard things in me.”

Cassiel let out a dramatic groan when she heard that. “You just had to let me impale you. You could have restrained me without doing that.”

“I know, but I wanted to get to tease you about it again.”

“I’m never going to hear the end of it now.” Following another groan, Cassiel placed her hand against Fenrir’s abdomen to heal him. It was only a single wound and a relatively simple one at that, so healing it was no problem. Her magic sealed it up and then repaired whatever organs were cut by her blade within seconds.

“Thanks, Cass Cass. So, how did that thing even get on you?”

“Beats me. I woke up and couldn’t control my body, so it must have gotten on me while I was knocked out.”

Eva then spoke up to ask, “And you were completely aware of everything during it?”

“Yeah. My assistant said I could just wake if I wanted to since I wouldn’t be able to control my avatar until it was removed, but I could hear Fen shouting, so I figured it wouldn’t be long until he found me. But you… did you see what happened and were just watching?”

“I wasn’t just watching. I was observing. I could tell that something was wrong, so I watched from a distance while you shambled around until I saw that thing on the back of your neck. Then we both heard Fen shouting, so I thought I would wait to see what happens.”

“I’m almost tempted to be mad at you for not helping me sooner, but I know that’s just how you are.”

Eva gave Cassiel a thumbs-up while Fenrir asked, “Does this mean I can neglect helping you for personal gain, too?”

“No.”

“What? How is that fair? She gets to use you for experiments while I don’t?”

“I wear sweaters for you all the time. That’s how it’s made fair.”

“Actually, that’s fair.”

“How do you feel? Does it still hurt?”

Fenrir looked down at where he was cut and neither saw nor felt anything. Despite that, he said, “I’m in a horrible amount of pain. I feel like I’m going to pass out and die at any second. The only way for me to feel better is for you to take your armor off and hug your boobs against where you impaled me.”

Cassiel turned her back to Fenrir and looked at Eva instead. “Anyways, since I was knocked out, do you have any idea what happened? Where we are?”

Fenrir feigned a sniffle when he was so coldly ignored like that.

“I flew up to see where we are when I woke up,” Eva answered, “and best I can tell… we’re at the cluster of islands that I saw when I tried escaping the atmosphere. But, there was something… honestly, kind of concerning.”

“And what’s that?”

“Well, in every direction I looked, I only saw the same cluster of islands repeating. It was like being in a room surrounded by mirrors. This is just a theory, but I feel like if we try to sail away… we’re just going to end up coming right back to where we are.”

“So… we’re stuck here?”

“For now, anyways. This is probably some sort of puzzle we have to solve, and I bet it has to do with whatever caused that giant wave.”

“Then, what’s the pla—” Cassiel cut herself off when she saw Rock flop along around the ground to get between them. Given that she was missing one whole leg and her other was broken in half, she couldn’t exactly walk normally and had to just sort of flop and drag herself across the ground. Not that she cared, though. Rock looked just as energetic and happy as always when she looked up at the women and barked. As for Cassiel, she sighed and said, “You look way too happy despite being in your condition.”

Rock barked again.

Eva then said, “Rock knows what’s up. No matter how injured one might be, there’s no reason not to find enjoyment in it. Isn’t that right?”

Rock barked yet again.

“My dog isn’t a masochist like you,” Fenrir said. “She’s just… you know. A dog. She doesn’t find enjoyment in being hurt, she finds enjoyment in existing.”

“Same thing,” Eva said. “After all, existence is suffering.”

“Alright, you scientific edgelord. Anyways, we should try to find some place to use as shelter. Preferably away from wherever Cassiel was first found if there are those flower things over there.”

“Probably a good idea. Oh, but I suggest not going toward the center of the island, either.”

“Why’s that?”

“There were some giant gorilla things there that threw spears at me. They were scarily accurate despite how far up I was.”

“Great. So, we have mind-controlling tentacle flowers and giant gorillas that throw spears. Anything else to be worried about?”

“Well, I went to drink some water in a pond I saw, and it was swarming with parasites that I almost drank. So, I’d be wary of any water sources we might find.”

“That was supposed to be rhetorical.”

“Oh. Well, unfortunately, I’m pretty sure this island is full of things that want to kill us in one way or another, so I’m sure I could find other answers for that question if I look around for a bit.”

“Can you just… not instead?”

“I can pretend that everything here is actually super friendly and wholesome, sure. Like… that flower that controlled Cass was actually just trying to help her be honest with herself and her desire that involves thrusting things into you.”

“Much better.”

Cassiel’s expression was one of a woman betrayed. “Not you, too, Eva. Please…”

“You know, if you want to thrust stuff inside of somebody, you have me,” Eva said.

Rather than respond, Cassiel crouched down and lifted Rock up into her arms. She… actually looked to hold Rock with far more ease than Fenrir could. “Let’s go, Rock. At least you’re not a weirdo who bullies me.”

Rock barked and leaned up to lick Cassiel’s face.

While Cassiel took the lead in walking away, Fenrir asked, “Is… is she actually way stronger than me?”

As for Eva, she said, “I want princess carried by her, too.”

“Same.”

“Think we should purposely break our legs so that she has to carry us?”

“I’d—I’d rather not go to any lengths that extreme. Also, she can hear us.”

“Doesn’t matter if she can hear us. She wouldn’t leave us behind even if we purposely break them.”

“Good point. Alright. Let’s break our—”

Cassiel stopped to turn around and glared at the two with such intensity that they both gulped and dropped any ideas of intentionally breaking their legs to get carried by her.

Meanwhile, Rock looked as smug as she could given that she was getting carried while the others weren’t.