I immediately wish to cut all sense sharing with the monster. I only receive a small glimpse of darkness and my body feels very heavy before it all fades away. I feel the same string inside my mind that connects me to another body, but this string feels more "strained." I carefully try to "approach" it and feel "heat" coming from it.

I open my eyes and smile to the girls. I receive back two beautiful smiles and a fanged one.

"This is the difficult part, I will try to control it," I say, then they nod and I continue.

Being careful will get me in trouble. I have to attack and dominate the monster's mind if I want to control it.

I grab the string and pull it. A tsunami rises and suddenly I feel small.

What is this? A wave for ants?

I laugh in my mind and start my own flood.

Memories of a difficult birth assault me. Out of hundreds of hatchlings, only a few get to live past a few days. I counter that with what my parents have told me of how I was as a baby.

I was a cry-baby, always crying about something. Even when my parents didn't acknowledge my pain, I still cried, and cried, and cried. Perhaps I just liked to yell, but my parents thought I was a hellspawn, created to drive them to insanity. It sounds cruel but it was funny as hell when my Dad told us this. We were in the living room drinking beer after the first dinner with my girlfriend at the time. People like to look back fondly regarding their first girlfriends but she wasn't that special, not in comparison to Lily…

The next wave is of a childhood fraught with danger and pain. Monsters have to learn quickly how to fend for themselves because nothing, absolutely nothing will help them survive. Their own mother abandons them a few weeks in, most of the time because she was slain by an adventurer, the other times are because she can't feed all the children. But monsters are born with knowledge and they grow blindingly fast, so they don't need a mother to nurture them for long.

I counter that with the memories of my childhood. How I was a bright kid, always being praised for being smart and creative. I was always at the top of the class, but I didn't let that get to my head. I knew that many of the kids had difficult lives, so while I swam in the glory, I never felt that I was "better" than the others. Then comes the embarrassing memories that I don't even want to use as ammo in this fight.

After childhood, the monster reaches maturity and starts looking for a mate. It is strong for its kind, and so it has the opportunity to find the perfect one. The search is long and painful, it paid for waiting with scars. It spent most of its energy traveling through the land and avoiding danger, but when the opportunity arises, it pounces and tears its prey apart in pure rage. Then finally it found the perfect mate: so strong that it nearly lost its spot at the top; so fast that the mate almost escaped; so cunning that the mate nearly ambushed it in return. Over a long and tiring wrestle, it finally rose victorious over its mate and it became the apex of its kind.

I fight back with memories of teenage years. The slow descent into bitter realism as the reality of an overachiever crashes into me. Trying to follow the trail of my sister and brother, I aim high and create lofty goals of becoming a famous or important person one day. I work hard, but the energy that my body has seems to decrease the more I work. Resting doesn't replenish me as much as it used to; playing video games become more of a chore than entertainment; reading doesn't stimulate me anymore; the intensity of exercise remains the same but the cost of energy increases; I find fewer and fewer reasons to smile. I retreat into my shell and abandon most of what made me happy just so I can get enough energy to reach my goals. Energy that never comes.

The next attack shows the bonding and love the pair of monsters share. The trust required to put your own life in the hands of your loved one. Their intense passion for each other and the results where they leave offspring at every chance they can get.

Is that all?

I counter that with my memories of Lily. After finally deciding to abandon my stupid dreams, I aim for something more ordinary and tangible, then I migrate to Canada and meet Lily. When I'm breaking out of my shell and seeing the sunlight, when I'm discovering my new love for programming and AI, when I'm letting happiness trickle in again, and then I finally meet the sun. That trickle turns into a flood as the first true summer of my life comes. I fall deeply in love with the crazy woman that is Lily.

The monster shows me its incoherent anger at my attack on its mate. Its entire life culminated in this moment, and it failed to protect the most important thing it has.

The effect that has on me is only to make me feel a little pity as I strike back with all I have. I send it the pain of being abandoned on this world; the need to cling to someone else for sanity; the effort in changing my views on life and death; the long journey in gaining the confidence to protect myself and others; the continuous battle against the horrors in this world; the fear of my uncertain future.

The monster's mind collapses and retreats, the tsunami crashes and gets absorbed by my mind. I envelop its mind with my own and force it to bend to my will. I feel the "heat" increase the more I try to control it. The "heat" increases so much that it burns and I feel that there is something wrong.

It hurts me, it is trying to tear me apart. It's not the monster's mind, it's something that's reacting inside it and trying to crawl out. It burns me so much that the monster's mind starts to regain control and expands.

I push the monster's mind out from inside me with all my might, no matter how much it burns. It finally leaves me and the burning stops.

"ARGH!" I yell in pain and grab my chest.

Alissa immediately slashes the throat of the monster and throws it away from me with some difficulty.

"Wolf? What happened?!" Roxanne asks me, a little desperate.

I put my points into [Spirit Magic] to cast [Soul Touch] while I explain, "It took some effort but I managed to overwhelm its mind, but then it started to get 'hotter' when I tried to control it. I don't know how else to explain it besides using 'heat.' It got so hot that it started to hurt and burn me, so I pushed it away and ended the [Bind]."

"Wolf, look," Alissa says and points to the monster with the throat slit. It is convulsing and its eyes are slowly opening. It's regaining control of its body, but the blood is gushing out like a fountain. Then it finally passes out because of the blood loss.

I look at Roxanne. "I have no idea how he woke up. He should have been out for at least a half-hour," she says.

"The speed the blood was draining at increased when it started to convulse. That was odd," Alissa says.

"Its… heart was beating faster, then," I say.

We all go silent, trying to understand what happened. Aoi drops down from Roxanne's shoulders and starts to eat the open neck of the monster.

"You managed to overpower its mind but when you tried to control it, the 'heat' started, right?" Alissa asks.

"Correct, it's something that didn't happen with the bird," I say.

"Could it be the God of Destruction's bloodlust interfering?" Roxanne asks.

I shrug. "It's our only guess."

"Try the other one, see what happens," Alissa says.

I cast the [Bind] and bring the monster's soul inside mine. The same "heat" comes out of the string connecting us. I immediately push it out of me.

Aoi [Clean]s her lips, "Try, me!" She exclaims and comes to us.

"Hm… I can cast [Bind] without trying to dominate your mind…" I say.

"If something goes wrong, will I have to kill you, Aoi?" Alissa asks.

Aoi curls her lips and pouts, "I want, to connect, to Wolfy," she says with stubbornness.

"Just the string, I can control that much," I say.

Roxanne hugs Aoi tight and we all tense up. I cast [Bind] and pull Aoi's soul into my heart. Once I release it, she breathes in and then lets a long breath out. Her eyes roll up and she smiles wide.

Inside of me, I feel the string; it's cold, "colder" than normal. When I "approach" it, I feel it wants my "warmth." I feel like I'm seeing a cold scarf that I want to wrap around me. I push it away and return from my meditation.

"She's different," I say.

"Yeah, I can see that," Roxanne comments.

Aoi is now moaning and writhing in pleasure. -.

"Uh…" I can only let out a sound as words fail me.

"Aoi… what are you feeling?" Alissa asks while frowning.

"Wolfy! Is inside, me~!" She cries happily.

Even Gify is looking at us wide-eyed. We all shrug to each other and wait a few minutes for Aoi to calm down. Meanwhile, Alissa kills the other Kappatto. I feel a little sad at their deaths knowing their history together, but monsters are monsters and there's no way for us to avoid bloodshed, for now.

I turn on my shared senses with Aoi and - feel her pleasure, so I cut it off because it's a bit inappropriate at the moment. Actually, we are alone, so I'm sure the girls wouldn't mind. Anyway… I reactivate our sense sharing and try to discern what Aoi is feeling.

- Alissa immediately notices it -.

"I activated the sense sharing with Aoi. Can you help me out while I try to understand what she's feeling?" I ask innocently.

"Sure…" Both girls smile suggestively -. Not the most romantic place -, with the two dead monsters nearby and all, but whatever.

-

I try to look deeper into why Aoi is feeling like this. What I sense is that her pleasure is like someone who was stuck in a deep, dark hole and finally feels the warmth of sunlight for the first time. Or a lonely person who just started dating for the first time. It's a feeling of "release" -.

"Kwa~~ah!" Aoi's whole body shivers -. She collapses on Roxanne's lap and pants with her tongue out; a satisfied smile is plastered on her face. -.

-

Alissa - smiles. "Well, she's - like any other humanoid woman," she says.

Roxanne looks very amused at all of this. "So… what happened?" She asks.

"Something about the [Bind] is making her very happy. It's like she's finally found something that she was missing in her life," I say.

"The complete opposite of the other monsters."

"Yes. The 'string' inside my mind that connects us also feels different. It feels cold, like it wants to be touched."

"Are you going to touch it?" Alissa asks.

"Once Aoi calms down. I don't want to have to overpower her; I want to see if she can willingly give me control."

Aoi's eyes regain some focus and she looks at me, "Okay, you can, have me," she says.

We wait a minute longer before Aoi is truly ready. She stretches herself and flaps her little wings, then she properly sits on Roxanne's lap.

"Okay, I'm going to try to control you. Don't resist, stay calm and let it happen," I say.

"Gih."

"Stop distorting the meaning of my words," I complain while facepalming.

"Gihih."

"Kweh!" Aoi hurries me.

"Alright, alright." I sit down in front of her and pat her head. "Here goes nothing…"

"What does that mean?" Roxanne asks.

"What…?"

"'Here goes nothing'. You've said that once or twice before, what does it mean?"

"To be honest, I have no idea." -I shrug- "It's an idiom that got morphed until it was unrecognizable."

"Kwe~eh!" Aoi hurries me again.

"Sorry… here we go…"

I find the string and grab it. It makes me feel slightly odd, not exactly unpleasant, but it makes me anxious about something. I pull it and the string comes to me without any resistance. The string gets thicker and thicker, then it starts to weave into a cozy blanket that gently nudges her memories into my head: a kiss, a hug, a pat, my own face repeated over and over again.

I collect the blanket and turn it into a bundle that I hold close to me. The more I hug it, the warmer it feels. It's not the unpleasant "heat," but soothing warmth.

"Give me a lick," I tell the blanket inside my mind.

Aoi leans closer to me and licks my hand.

"Get up on my shoulder."

She crawls up my scale shirt and sits on my shoulder. Then, she nuzzles her scaly face against my cheek, almost purring in happiness.

I feel something odd, it's as if my soul is a sand hourglass. I feel a constant trickle leave me, but the amount of "sand" on my side doesn't decrease. This feeling is what makes me anxious when I touch Aoi's string.

"Wolfy, I love, you," Aoi softly says in my ear.

My heart tightens and I take her off of my shoulder so I can hug her tight. She increases in size a little so she can receive the hug more comfortably. The more I focus on her and the more that I feel like giving her my love, the more sand that trickles out of me.

"Something is happening. Not sure what, or how, or why, but my soul is giving her something," I say.

"Kweh! You are, inside me!" Aoi gushes and nuzzles in my chest. Her happiness leaks into me while I still hold her "blanket."

"Give us [Sense Soul] and we will try to search for what's different," Roxanne says and Alissa nods.

I obey and we wait a few minutes in silence while the girls scan my soul.

"I see nothing happening to your soul, Wolfy," Alissa says.

"I see something being added to Aoi's, but it's veery slow," Roxanne says.

"Gih," Gify agrees with both.

"Doesn't seem to be anything bad, we can wait and see…" I say and shrug.

"Gih," Gify assures us.

"Can you test [Bind] on me?" Alissa asks with an innocent smile.

I look at Roxanne and she shrugs, "If you don't try to force her mind then it might be doable," she says.

[Bind]ing Alissa to my will is certainly appealing, but I'll have too much power over her. I can't use it to force her to obey me; what I can use it for is to keep her safe and for us to open our minds to each other.

I breathe in deeply and nod, then she sits close to me with her tail wagging furiously.

I release Aoi's soul and cast [Bind] on Alissa. The "soul arm" that grabs her soul and pulls it back to me feels much heavier and more difficult to control. I feel like Alissa's soul is almost "slipping" from my grasp.

Once her soul is inside me, her string appears in my mind just like the others. I don't feel any "heat" or "coldness" coming out of her string and no "trickling" of my soul towards hers.

"That's it?" She asks, with mild disappointment.

"Did you feel anything?" I ask.

"Just a mild discomfort. Now it's like I'm constantly focusing on our fellowship bond, I know exactly where you are."

"I'll pull the string, don't resist."

She nods and her tail resumes hitting the ground repeatedly.

I pull the string and the most delicate textile I have ever felt follows it. Alissa's delicate memories of our time together send me into a trance. Love, dedication, loyalty, trust. My first instinct is to wrap myself around all this love coming out of her and fuse them to my own emotions.

Wait… fuse…? NO, STOP!

I desperately push away Alissa's silk and we both groan in pain. Her silk flutters with the wind and spreads out, the shape of a hand forms out of the folds. I run away in fear of hurting her further.

Through the connection, we both feel the anxiety of each other and stop. Our eyes meet and we sigh. Her silk returns to the nothingness and only the string remains.

"I didn't expect that, to be honest…" I say with a wry smile.

Alissa giggles and shakes her head.

Aoi, Gify, and Roxanne lean over, dying of curiosity. "What happened?" Roxanne asks.

"Instead of resisting and hurting each other, our minds tried to fuse together…" I answer and chuckle, "Having a tail is so weird, I can still feel how it's like to have one."

"Gih," he chirps proudly.

"Yes, having a tail is the best," Roxanne agrees.

"Kweh!"

Alissa scooches closer. "Let's do it again, but we have to try to not fuse together," she says.

I grab her cheek and look into her eyes with a soft smile. "Ready?" I ask and she nods. I pull on the string again and the silk comes out. I let it bundle gently on the ground before trying to envelop it, keeping our boundaries in mind.

The feeling that I have while holding her silk is that of wanting to bite it and have it inside me. It's a very annoying feeling and takes some willpower to control it.

"Kiss me," I say to her inside my mind.

She leans over and falls on top of me. Her lips seal mine and her tongue invades my mouth.

"Okay, stop!"

She freezes on top of me with her tongue still inside my mouth. -.

"Go back to normal."

She resumes kissing me and rubs her crotch on my leg. She desperately searches for the fastenings of my pants and tries to undo them.

"Have an orgasm."

Nothing happens and I feel the disappointment coming out of her.

She finally releases my pants -. Then she breaks the kiss and desperately undoes the fastening of her own.

When she lowers her pants - I say inside my mind, "Don't fuck me."

She freezes - and cringes. She then starts to rub herself while staring at me with anger.

"Don't masturbate."

She stops and growls in anger. Her eyes look at me dangerously sharp.

"Obey me."

Her legs quiver and through the connection I feel the fire burning - in her heart.

"Please, Wolfy…" Alissa pleads between gritted teeth.

"You are free, do what you want."

-

Alissa reaches it -, and through the connection I feel it too. A massive wave of pleasure takes hold of our bodies and makes every one of our muscles seize up for several long seconds. -. Then, after it passes, she collapses on top of me.

I mess with my points and cast [Refresh] on both of us.

"Thank you, Wolfy…" She says in my ear.

"You are welcome…" My voice comes out faint as I'm still - in shock. Once I finally regain my voice I say, "Women have the best orgasms, what the hell…"

Roxanne laughs so heartily that she lets herself fall onto the grass. Alissa seems at a loss for words and simply shrugs.

-

"Roxanne, can I try it with you, now?" I ask after she's done = with Alissa.

"Sure."

I cast the spell and bring her soul towards me. My "soul arm" feels like it weighs a ton and my real arm flexes while I desperately try to pull her soul towards mine.

I grunt as I finally manage to get her inside me and release her soul. Once her string appears inside my mind, I start to feel very "tickly." I have to use a lot of willpower to not pull on the strings and fuse myself with them.

"My mind is… getting taxed. I can barely… keep calm with you three… inside me," I say. My face twitches as the tickling inside my mind starts to get unbearable. It reaches the point where I feel like driving a dagger inside my brain just to stop the tickling.

I finally decide to grab Roxanne's string and push it out of my mind.

"Sorry, two is the limit for now," I say.

Roxanne pouts and looks at Alissa with envy. "Awn… that sounded like fun," she says.

"Having a - felt amazing," Alissa confesses and giggles.

"Right… you felt what I felt," I say and sigh, "We can't abuse the connection sharing - or we might go numb to pleasure."

Even though there's [Regeneration], we'd better not abuse it.

"Oh, now we have to train mental communication," Alissa says and Aoi nods.

"We can do it on the way. Let's go back, we've played around enough," I say.