The desperate, dying screams of the bandits spread through the forest.

Gods, is this the world that you wanted? Full of death, pain, and suffering?

The bandits fire their arrows, but their barrage is weak and lacks leadership. We hide behind our shields and our own, less numerous archers and mages are enough to suppress the bandit archers.

Is this what "change" is all about? Do it, fail, die, and let others come after you?

"CHARGE!" Rande yells.

I, Lina, and Ciel break out of the formation and charge the archers on the left. Rande and Anton charge the archers on the right. Hana leaves Roxanne and flies towards us. She lands in front of me and her enchantment diverts all of the arrows. Alissa fires her own arrows, not at the bandits, but at the birds that she spotted, currently circling above us. Aoi wraps herself tighter around my neck and I feel arousal leaking through her [Bind].

Progress comes through change; little by little, we move further and further onwards.

Hana passes the first archer and ignores him. He tries to draw a hunting knife to defend himself but I cut his hand and stab him in the thigh. Lina crushes the leg of another archer and then breaks his clavicle. Ciel sinks her glaive into the belly of a man and casts a small [Wind Blade] on his arm. Then we move on and search for the next archers to disable.

But this gradual change doesn't build a strong foundation. It searches for the best chance at the moment and lacks foresight.

Rande swings his sword and paints archers left and right with thick flames. They scream in agony as their extremities burn. Anton chops off limbs with ease, until a bandit tries to fight back, only to get a swift axe to the head. Both of them use kite shields to protect themselves from arrows; Anton can easily swing his poleaxe one-handed while Rande fights at a distance, so they don't need to use two hands to wield their weapons.

To fix that, we need drastic changes to cut out the tumors that will always inevitably grow. And death is the most drastic change there is.

I slash the chest of a man and cast an [Earth Bullet], then I feel "death" coming from my flank. I find the source and see an archer aiming at me. Before I have time to react, an arrow pierces the archer's flank and he drops his bow.

"The bird spies are dead," Alissa says in my head, and through her eyes I see her aim at another sneaky archer.

Hana flies from archer to archer and gives them each a quick slash. Her shield makes her immune to their attacks, so she flits around with impunity.

This world has no mercy for the weak, no time for the slow, no tears for the losers.

We only have fifteen foot-soldiers, so we don't have enough men to brawl with the bandits and our soldiers have to instead blitz through their enemies. Thankfully, the buried earth elementals prevent the bandits from mounting a proper defensive line. If the bandits don't throw down their weapons, they get cut down; if they play defensively, the mages and archers will take them apart; if they beg for mercy, they will be spared.

To treat each life as a sacred gift will only bring stagnation, as the leeches will slowly drain society of all that makes life worth living.

The archers sling their bows and turn around. They begin to run away with impressive speed and spread out. We deal with the few remaining stragglers and our fight ends.

The ones on Rande's side run away screaming in fear. Rande's [Flaming Slash] horrified them after seeing their comrades be burned alive. Though not many actually died from it, the mental effect of the horrific display was more than enough to terrify them.

The last few bandit spearmen create a circle of spears and make a last stand.

"[Firestorm]!" Roxanne casts.

For a moment, their faces distort into fear, then they burn alive and die soon after.

The sounds of battle end and only the moans of the wounded and dying remain. Suddenly, shy cheers come from of the soldiers and quickly die down. This is not a victory to celebrate.

A world without conflict will stagnate just like Earth, or even worse if a leech manages to rise to the same power as the Avgi empire. We are fated to kill each other for eternity, as it's the only sure way of keeping the way clear for progress.

"DO NOT REACH FOR YOUR WEAPONS OR YOU WILL BE KILLED!" Rande bellows.

We start to drag the wounded together. The stronger commoners come out of the tree and help drag the bandits.

Osaria and Rande organize the wounded, allowing the ones at risk of dying to be healed first. Our foot soldiers get HP potions, while the bandits will have to survive with only a weak [Heal].

I unsummon everything and drink one of Roxanne's MP potions, then I get to work beside Ciel and we heal the dying. Oura helps with healing, too, but Ciel is still more experienced so we defer leadership to her.

Spilled guts, broken bones, chopped off limbs, bleeding arteries. The smell of blood becomes so strong that I have to send the other girls into our surroundings to kill the approaching monsters.

Glue the bones together, reconnect the veins, guide the muscle together, reconnect the skin, then clean the wound and move on to the next patient. A few of the foot soldiers have [First Aid] so they have some idea about how to knit wounds, which helps us conserve mana and allows us to spend less time with each patient. I end up healing the same men that I wounded, which makes things very awkward when they thank me in tears for saving them.

The ones with burned skin scream the most, but they get healing salves made by the commoners so we don't spend too much time on them. It's also much easier to heal them, except for those who were burned in horrifying places; for them, I almost have to close my eyes in revulsion.

The bandits get stripped down to their underwear and securely tied up. The few female bandits are watched closely by the female commoners so that no one gets any stupid ideas. The corpses are piled together far away from our camp and Roxanne burns them all.

I feel like my humanity is slipping away as the red color of all the blood paints over my memories. I also feel a small change in me that gives me a small boost in strength. My "Sanity" and "Piety" increased by 1 (now 11+4 and 15).

I walk away from the last patient and sigh in relief.

I feel something crawl up to me. Warm but hard crystalline feet make their way up my clothes and stop at my shoulder. A comforting warmth spreads and my body relaxes; the blood red and desolate grey fade away and the other colors come back to the world.

I rub the mask of Ciel's [Holy Spirit] and hear it giggle softly in a familiar feminine voice.

"I felt that," Ciel says.

I sit down on the soft, damp, mossy earth and Ciel sits down beside me. The [Holy Spirit] tap dances on my shoulder, and on the last tap, it vanishes into smoke.

I hear the quick trot of a quadruped and soon after a small fox-Alissa land on my lap. She turns around and shows me her belly, giving me mixed feelings at the sight, but still making me happier overall.

I rub Alissa's soft furry belly and she yips cutely.

"Haha, just admit you want to - mount a fox again, you degenerate," Alissa says, lowly. Ciel looks at me oddly and raises an eyebrow. "I can feel his emotions leak once in a while through our [Bind]."

"Fine, I do," I shrug. "But you are going to have to do all the work because I'm way too tired right now."

"Hm…" She puts a paw on her lip, making her look extra cute. "It's certainly awkward for the female to move, this body wasn't really made for that…"

"Anyway," -Ciel rolls her eyes- "how are you feeling, Wolfy?"

"Just tired… so tired. I don't want to see any more blood," I answer.

"Yeah, that's what I feel and I didn't even heal anyone," Alissa says.

The other girls come back and dismount from their horses.

"Are you used to this, Ciel?" I ask.

"A little. I participated in the medic squads during town defense, before. This one feels different because we don't usually heal the people we hurt," she smiles wryly and wearily.

"Yeah, this is a weird sight," Roxanne says as she looks at the wounded bandits being bandaged.

Gify pops back onto my shoulder and activates his "massage."

"Oh, yeah, that's the stuff…" I moan.

"What?" Alissa questions and tilts her head cutely.

"Expression…? Never heard of it?"

"Not used that way, it sounds odd."

"Gih."

"You're the one massaging me," I say and close my eyes.

"Let's set up the tent," Lina says. I open my eyes and see she's hesitant to sit on the humid earth.

We talk to Rande and he says that we will have to spend the night here. When I recover enough MP, I summon four earth elementals and two nature elementals to watch over the surviving bandits, and a light elemental for the Weepers. In the end, around 20 died, 30 were captured, and the rest escaped.

During our bath, Hana's hands massage my brain -.

"You did well, Wolfy," Alissa says softly and moans.

The shrieking woman has disappeared from my mind.

"So did you; so did all of you." -

I share my senses with her and feel the incredibly odd sensation of being stretched and penetrated. It's too weird for me right now so I cut it off.

"Why did you stop?" Alissa questions me. "It feels soo good to have a dick!"

The other girls look at us oddly and Aoi nods.

I smile wryly and say, "It feels too weird for me."

"What? You don't want to feel what it's like to be stretched by a thick cock?" Hana says, amused.

"No."

"Well, well, well. Someone's insecure about their sexuality," Roxanne says with a wicked smile.

"Anal feels very good," Hana whispers in my ear with a sultry tone.

Lina's eyes turn mean and she smiles like an imp.

"No," I say with extreme confidence and determination.

The girls deflate and return to normal, except for Roxanne. "Alright, then… but there's still plenty of time for you to change your mind," she chuckles like an evil witch.

Ciel avoids looking me in the eye and blushes.

- I ask the other girls, "But what about all of you? Are you feeling okay?"

Hana answers - with a grunt. The other girls nod shyly while Lina nods enthusiastically. We look at Lina oddly and she becomes awkward.

"W-was I supposed to feel bad for them?" She asks.

Ciel shrugs and pats Lina's head. "There's no right answer to that, the only wrong one is to feel pleasure from it."

"Oh… I didn't feel pleasure, I just felt angry that they were putting us in danger," Lina says.

"Exactly. The safety of this family is the most important thing, after all," Alissa says with a confident nod.

"Well, for me it was just another fight," Roxanne says with a shrug.

"Fighting is, fun!" Aoi says and I cringe a little. Aoi notices my discomfort, then she tilts her head and asks, "Not fun?"

"Fighting is fun, killing… is not," Hana says.

"Because bandits, are almost, friends?"

"Exactly," I say.

"But why? Bandits are ene-mies, bandits try to, hurt us," Aoi questions while trying to pout.

Ciel responds, "Lives have a purpose: to help civilization progress. Bandits didn't fulfill their purpose and even damaged our progress. In the end, their lives were wasted."

"Hmm…" Aoi taps her lips with a claw. "And what is my purpose?"

We all look at Ciel and she shrugs.

"Maybe you have to find one of your own," I say.

"Make babies!" Aoi happily exclaims.

Roxanne turns serious as she speaks, "There's a lot more to life than just that. What if taking care of your children is different than what you imagined and it leaves you sad and unfulfilled?"

"Making babies, won't make me sad!"

Roxanne rolls her eyes, "Just imagine that it did, what will you do then?"

Aoi puffs smoke but goes silent. I feel she's taking Roxanne's words seriously.

"Didn't expect that amount of 'Wisdom' from you," Ciel says with a cheeky smile.

Roxanne narrows her eyes dangerously and her tail plunges underwater. "My 'Wisdom' is pretty high," she says.

"But you don't show i-… Ahn!" Ciel nearly bites her tongue in surprise then moans.

"What were you saying?" Roxanne smiles mischievously.

"You don't s-… Hngh!"

"Yes…?"

"You d-d…" Ciel's mouth opens wide and she grabs the edges of the tub to steady herself. -.

Lina gets a little sad that her pampering stopped -.

-

Feeling very refreshed, we sit down to have dinner with Krista.

"Hey there!" Klein comes to us and sits beside me, stealing Ciel's place. Klein smiles wide and continues, "I saw you fight. The way you use a blade is odd, what style is that?"

"My own style, it's named Ekrano."

She tilts her head cutely, her dreamy eyes feel so easy to get lost into, "What does that mean?"

"Secret," I say with a cheeky smile.

She pouts and turns forward. Her tail rests on my legs and I give her a glance. She acts like nothing is happening, so I grab it and apply some [Massage].

Anton sits in front of us and narrows his eyes at Klein. "You fought well," he says to me.

"So did you. Swinging a poleaxe with one hand is impressive," I respond.

"Even I wish I was as big as you. Though, I think I'm the perfect size for Wolfy," Hana says.

"Size is all I have, though," he says with a shrug.

"That's right," Krista says softly from behind him and gives Klein a mischievous stare. Anton facepalms and I feel Klein's tail fur stiffen.

Klein scootches closer to me and becomes a bit friendlier than normal, visibly annoying her father. -. I apply some more [Massage] to her tail and see her face cramp for a few seconds, then relax in pleasure.

Laertes sends us a few reserved glances; after each time he does, he gets more and more depressed.

Dinner is more of the roasted Acarei sandwich. While we eat, the smell of tomorrow's lunch makes us hungrier. Krista is smoking some meat, and we could only smell it because she made a small mistake with the anti-scent enchantment she's using.

Klein's tail stimulates me through the entire meal -.

We relax outside our tent and watch as the lights of the luminous plants dim and turn purple. Soon after that, the commoners and soldiers alike huddle up in their tents. Nearly all of them will find a partner for tonight because sleeping alone when a Weeper could come is asking for a horrible nightmare.

The bandits are taken inside the tree the commoners had used for cover. The two nature elementals are used as bindings for their arms and legs. Rande and a few elven commoners lend them some blankets to pass the night, but the ground is so soft and the weather is so warm that they could sleep on the ground without much of a problem.

"Rande is being very kind to the bandits," Roxanne comments.

"Perhaps he was one of the good nobles," Ciel says.

"Lord Este is an isolationist," Lina says.

"Well, their political differences are what could have motivated the Crown Lord to remove Rande's family from the nobility," Alissa says.

Hana's face scrunches up in displeasure and scoffs.

"What is it, my love?" Roxanne asks.

"Just a difference of opinion is what led to a Lord removing his brother from nobility?" Hana questions with a hint of anger seeping in her tone.

"I don't think it's that simple," Alissa says with a wry smile.

"Most likely it was a long list of petty grievances that made them grow more and more estranged until they finally became enemies," Roxanne says wistfully.

"Talking from experience?" Ciel raises an eyebrow at Roxanne.

The pale succubus lets out a long moan from Hana's brain massage before she answers, "Not my experience." We wait for her to continue but Roxanne turns quiet.

There are many things she doesn't like to talk about, like her mother, for example. If I had to make a guess, I believe she's talking about her grandparents.

"How does, one become, an enemy?" Ted asks.

"When two people interfere with each other's lives so much that the most cost-effective choice is for them to destroy each other," I answer.

"'Destroy'?" Suzy asks.

"To remove the power or authority that someone has. The easiest way to do it is most likely to be by killing the other."

"Well, as far as we know, they didn't kill each other," Hana says with a shrug.

"As far as we know…" Roxanne repeats.

I spend some time brushing the hair of the girls while Alissa and Ciel wash the mountain of clothes and sheets we had piled up. Considering how we're not being cautious with what kind of things we "dirty" these sheets with, we all make a concerted effort to [Clean] them. Though, Hana is not allowed anywhere near the delicate and sexy underwear.

While we wash, we notice how the air is growing colder and the entire forest is quickly falling silent. The children lose interest in playing and quickly enter the tents, then a baby starts crying.

The light elemental becomes alert and looks to the darkness beyond the trees. She starts patrolling around our camp with confident steps.

"I don't really shake my ass like that," Ciel says and scoffs.

"You do, though…?" I say and give her a phony smile.

Ciel stares at Lina and the little girl becomes very shy. "Yes, you do," Lina says in a low tone.

*SLAP!* Ciel gasps and grabs her own ass in pain and Hana laughs out loud, then says, "Have you seen this jiggle?! Of course, you shake it like that, there's no other way for you to walk if not with a sway." Hana grabs the other cheek and squeezes it.

"Ow! Don't slap me like that!" Ciel protests.

"You can slap me back if you want," Hana smiles at her suggestively.

"And then you're just going to activate [Pain Conversion]."

"Maaybe," Hana says with a chuckle.

Ciel lifts her hands in exasperation and turns to me. "How do you even punish someone like her?" She asks.

"Fuck her until she begs you to stop?" I say with a shrug.

Ciel facepalms, then she turns around in a huff and enters the tent.

"Uh… s-sorry, I'll make it up to you," Hana says with a phony smile and goes after Ciel.

-.

Tonight we go to sleep early. It's obvious that the Weepers are out there, hounding us, but it's not yet the time for a fight, so we can only endure it for now.