The clearing was filled with silence as Herah and Max sat at its edge, both giving disbelieving stares to Norwe who floated a few feet away from them in the first form the pair had ever seen the Maker in. Norwe, meanwhile, continued to stare at the two seriously with most of their arms folded against their chest, and a single one rubbing their chin. By this point, the vibrantly colored calamity that had started at the Maker's stomach had consumed the entirety of their torso, half of all of their limbs, and the bottom of their chin.

"The fuck do you mean they like to destroy universes!?" Herah shouted, standing up to glare at Norwe with a mixture of anger and confusion.

"I meant they like to destroy universes," Norwe replied, completely lacking in any form of enjoyment which Herah thought would make her happy if not for what was being said. Norwe lazily pointed at Max with their left middle hand, still looking quite serious, before saying, "The Abyss Walker you encountered, Anwir Alice, their plan after killing you was to rip your universe from my grasp and sink it into the Abyss. Afterward, your universe and everything within would begin to be torn asunder and consumed by the Abyss itself and the Abyss Walkers that inhabit it."

Herah gave Norwe a few wide-eyed blinks before shaking her head and turning to look back at Max. The human was still seated, looking down at both of her hands with a deeply troubled frown upon her face. Frowning at her friend, Herah leaned down and gave Max's shoulder a slight shove with her fist.

"What's wrong?"

Max jolted in surprise before looking up to Herah and giving her an awkward smile.

"A lot to be honest, but I was just thinking about how bro, Artemis and I just barely dodged a bullet there."

"That you did, if my Soothsayer hadn't been touched by The Third Maker and had his Presence at his will, that universe would've been lost and everything within, well, you already know."

Max and Herah turned back to face Norwe and found the Maker still floating with all six of their arms now at their side. Nearly Norwe's entire being had been consumed by the supernova at this point, the only parts of their body not covered by the stellar explosion being the two black holes that were currently consuming it and functioning as eyes for the Maker. It was with these eyes that Norwe continued to stare intensely at Max as they told her,

"Though I will admit, it would've probably taken a few more days and millions more dead before you ultimately lost your battle."

Herah didn't even need to look at Max to know that Norwe's words made her flinch. Instead, Herah growled at her Maker while also allowing for yellow fire to leak from her mouth and nose.

"Piss off." Herah told her Maker with malice.

Watching as Norwe's eyes continued to consume the supernova that was displayed across their body, Herah's eyes narrowed at the sight of a few bits of white light that somehow managed to not fade into the black holes. The lights instead floated into the center of the black dots and proceeded to twinkle like stars, Norwe's left eye even winking at Herah before the lights faded. This caused Herah to growl even harder towards Norwe, and for green flames to began spilling from her mouth and nose.

Noticing the changing color of Herah's flames, Norwe folded their bottom pair of arms under their back, their center pair at the center of their back, and their top pair of arms behind their head. By this point, the explosion that engulfed Norwe's body had much of it sucked into the Maker's eyes, leaving only the top half of their body still alight with colors while the bottom half was completely black. Norwe had also visibly lost their seriousness, so Herah wasn't too surprised when the Maker cheerfully said,

"I can see my dear Artist doesn't want my company, so I'll be on my merry way." Norwe winked at Max and told her, "Remember Liar, I'm always watching."

This caused Max to flinch once again, but this time the human gave the Maker a verbal response.

"Wait, Norwe, before you go I have a question," Max said with a bit of nervousness and curiosity.

Norwe took their top left and right hand from behind their head and instead folded them underneath their now tilted head, before beckoning for Max to continue with their middle left hand. Seeing her Maker's gesture, Max took a deep breath and asked her question.

"Why do you call the Abyss Walkers family?"

Specks of light floated into Norwe's eyes and began to twinkle once again. At this point, the Maker's body had mostly turned black with the last remnants of the supernova that previously engulfed it now surrounding Norwe's eyes and making something akin to a neon-colored shrinking mask. Norwe then tilted their head the other way with their top two hands still folded underneath it, and their left center arm now pointing towards themselves before giving Max an answer.

"Because before I was a Maker, I was an Abyss Walker."

And with those words, Norwe disappeared from his creations' sight and left a wide-eyed Max and a fuming Herah alone in the clearing.

"SON OF A BITCH!" Herah screamed, causing the green fire that was previously just flowing from her mouth and nose to engulf her entire head and flare up into a boulder-size fire.

Herah then felt something that felt like a slip of paper appear in her left hand. Bringing the hand to her face, Herah found her guess to be correct. In her hand, there was now a piece of paper that had a bit of text on it.

After reading the piece of paper, Herah felt her right eye twitch a few times then decided to crumple up and toss the piece of paper into the flames that surrounded her head.

"What did it say?"

Herah looked down at the sitting Max who gave her a mildly curious stare in return. After a second of this, Herah grunted and sat down in front of Max once again. Leaning back on both of her arms with her hair still partially braided, Herah gave Max an answer.

"Just some stupid shit about how if we want to know more we'd have to ask the fruit or the prick." Herah took both of her hands and dragged them down her flame covered face before looking up and huffing, "I'm pretty sure the bastard meant your brother and my father."

Herah looked back at Max and found her friend quietly laughing to herself while looking down.

"What's so funny Max?"

Max lifted her head and gave Herah a small smile before replying.

"I'm just thinking about how you look sorta like one of the Ghost Riders right now."

"What the ash is a Ghost Rider?" Herah asked with a raised brow, her head still engulfed in green flames.

"The Ghost Riders are these characters from Marvel comics with these flaming skulls covered in hellfire, and they're some of the most terrifying beings in that universe." Max made a twitching motion with her head, before giving Herah a small grin and saying, "I think at least."

Herah smiled back at Max and preceded to take a deep breath that ended up with her inhaling all the fire that previously engulfed her head. With her head now clear of flames, Herah exhaled then began speaking to Max once again.

"Speaking of terrifying beings, why don't you tell me about your encounter with the Abyss Walker. You said this event was what caused your others limiters, correct?

Max quickly lost her smirk and solemly nodded yes to Herah's question before taking her left hand and running it through her messy hair. For a few seconds, Max said not a word and continued to run her hand through her hair while Herah watched her friend in silence with a patient stare. After a few more seconds of total silence between the two, Herah spoke.

"What Norwe said really shook you up, huh?"

Max looked down and visibly shivered before retracting her arms into her coat and rubbing her shoulders. Max then looked back up at Herah and frowned before giving a quiet and slightly fearful reply.

"Just thinking about how that thing was so powerful and deadly makes me shiver." Max shook her head before taking a deep breath and given Herah a hardened stare, "But I need to get this off my chest, and I said I tell you what happened, so here I go."

"Before I began with our actual encounter, I'll start two weeks before. This is because it was around this time that my small gang of friends and I were exploring an abandoned building. While exploring the basement, Artemis began sensing something she said was weird and slight oppressive before crashing through the floor. After a bunch of seven-year-olds finished screaming in terror and worry for their friend, we found Artemis okay and more importantly in an underground cave of sorts."

"An underground cave? Was the Abyss Walker in there?"

Max closed her eyes at Herah's questions and took a deep breath before nodding her head yes and exhaling. Opening her eyes once again, Max continued.

"The underground cave we found was deep in the ground, it actually took Artemis like seven seconds to hit the cave floor I think. Anyway, the cave was also dark with zero natural light. The only reason we ended up being able to see down there was because Artemis summoned some moonlight to illuminate the place. And once that happened we found the cave to be a massive cavern with a shit ton of stalactites and stalagmites everywhere which left little space for places we could actually stand on. It was also super uncomfortable, I mean, it was very wet and the air was very humid. There were puddles and small ponds everywhere, and I ended up falling in a few on our first and second trip there."

"Uhhh Max," Herah began with a bit of pointed stare, "You seem to have gotten sidetracked."

Max raised both of her hands while offering up a few apologies before continuing on with her story.

"Anyway, so Artemis was still sensing the weird thing, and her and bro wanted to check it out since there were several tunnels that led out of the massive chamber we were in. Abigail, Sarah, and I, however, were getting creeped out by the very wet and very dark cave so instead, it was decided that we could wait for two weeks and explore the place on bro's and I's birthday as his present."

"Wait, you had this shitshow all happen on your birthday?" Herah asked, wide-eyed and scratching her head.

Max gave a small bitter laugh before putting a hand to her face and bitterly stating,

"Yep, by far the second worst birthday I ever had."

This got a weird look and tilt of the head from Herah which was followed by Max answering her unasked question.

"I spent my fourteenth birthday taking care of a deathly ill and extremely delirious Alex. It was by far the most terrifying experience I ever had and never hope to repeat."

"Oh."

Max gave a small smile while waving off any apologies that might've come from Herah's mouth.

"So anyway, two weeks go by and me and Artemis end up exploring the cave by ourselves. This was because bro, Abigail, and Sarah were covering for me after I turned one of the other kids in our orphanage into a pig that ran rampant throughout the building. Before we left, bro made me promise to tell him about anything we found down there as soon as we could. So Artemis and I ended up spending about half an hour, I think, before we found the source of whatever Artemis had been sensing."

"What was it?" Herah asked, now leaning toward Max in morbid anticipation.

Max closed her eyes once again, inhaled deeply, then exhaled before continuing on.

"We found a lonely small brown trunk that was in a surprisingly good condition. And when I say surprisingly good condition, I mean the trunk still had the smell of freshly polished wood on it. Of course, even though it looked fairly normal, the fact that a trunk in such good condition was underground with no clear reasoning made it very suspicious. Add to the fact that the trunk gave a very, umm, wrong feel off, I didn't want anything to do with it. However, I made a promise to my brother so I immediately gave him a call once we found it and asked what I should do with it."

"What did Alex say?"

Max began sucking on her bottom lip before getting incredibly fidgety, tapping her knees while rocking her body back and forth. Letting out a few breaths, Max suddenly stopped before looking Herah dead in the eye with an incredibly pained expression and shakingly stated,

"He, uhh, told me that, umm, it was probably something extremely dangerous. But since it was Artemis and myself, special emphasis on me being there, that we should be able to deal with anything that might pop out. At the time, and even now, I trust my brother to a fault. So hearing him say such a thing, I was able to put my fears aside and open the trunk."

"The Abyss Walker was inside, weren't they?"

Max put a hand over her mouth and nodded yes, her body shifting uncomfortably as her eyes looked on and through Herah in silent terror, making the youngling guess that Max was recalling the event. After a second of this, Max shook her head and began speaking once again, now sounding incredibly disturbed.

"Oh God, the first thing that happened after I opened the trunk, I-I still have nightmares about it. The Abyss Walker inside reached out of this trunk that could only fit, like, my head inside of it, and grabbed me with a rotten grey and massive eight-fingered hand that covered my face and began to crush my head. It happened so fast that I didn't have enough time to say a single fib before I blacked out."

"It didn't kill you?" Herah asked, extremely surprised by Max's apparent survival of the Abyss Walker's attack.

"The Abyss Walker didn't do any damage that was irreversible," Max replied quickly and curtly, her eyes narrowing with a slightly panicked look to them. Taking another deep breath and letting it out, Max continued on in the same disturbed tone as before.

"When I reawoke only a minute had passed, and I found Artemis battling against the Abyss Walker, who had for some reason, taken the shape of me. A bit of background information on Artemis, I didn't know this at the time but, uhh, she was a goddess. The Greek goddess of the hunt and moon, if I remember correctly. And she wielded a glowing silver bow that quite literally shot arrows apparently made of moon dust. What's most important about her, however, is the facts that she had impeccable aim, her arrows could fly like twelve times the speed of light, and they tended to destroy anything they hit."

"Why is this important?" Herah asked with a tilt of her head.

"Because the Abyss Walker, whose name is Anwir Alice by the way, was able to not only take hits from Artemis' arrows but also dodge and catch them."

"Damn."

Max nodded in agreement with Herah's response before continuing talking.

"As soon as Anwir noticed me, they disappeared and reappeared behind Artemis before shoving their right hand through her back and left breast." Max let out a pained breath before continuing, "Golden ichor splattered on the ground, followed by my own screams before Anwir threw Artemis down the tunnel and turned to me."

Taking yet another deep breath, Max reached up to Herah and brought the youngling's forehead to her own before closing her eyes and exhaling. Herah wasn't too disturbed by the smell of Max's breath, and instead focused on talking to Max.

"What're you doing Max?" Herah asked, worry creeping into her tone.

"Sorry lava tits," Max began, her tone soft and apologetic, "Whenever I think about my talk with Anwir and what happened next, I like to have physical contact. It makes me feel less alone. I apologize if this is uncomfortable for you."

"I have no real problem with this, except for the mild itchiness I'm currently feeling on my forehead," Herah said causing Max to open her eyes which the youngling responded to with a wink. This solicited a pleasant giggle and smile from Max which was followed by her continuing her story.

"So when Anwir turned to face me once again, they, uh, retook what I guess to be their original form. They were bipedal with two long and thin rotten grey legs that looked sorta like skin had been dragged from top to bottom and stretched out over the bones. They had feet but no toes, and the ends of their feet were like wedges. Their entire body was rotten grey now that I think about it. Anyway, their arms were also long and thin and both had eight bony and long fingers on them. Their torso was rather similar to their arms and legs with skin appearing to be stretched out over their bones and the Abyss Walker had a lot of ribs. Like they had fourteen ribs and it was creepy. Their torso was also shaped sorta like an upside-down pear with their waste being about as wide as a lemon. Their head was a horror show," Max shivered once again, "It was a mismatch of mouths and eyes with too many of both to count. They were tall at least ten feet and stood rather queer. Their arms and legs were constantly bending and moving, and they lacked any noticeable genitals."

Herah gave herself a few moments to imagine Anwir, and couldn't help but shiver before commenting.

"Sounds terrifying."

"It was, but only afterward."

"What happened next?"

"Anwir told me, in a distinctly high pitched and wicked feminine voice "Seeing that your Presence hasn't been fully consumed by me yet, I feel it best to introduce myself to my soon to be victim." They then bowed to me and introduced themselves as Anwir Alice."

"So, what did you do then?"

Max moved her head away from Herah's, before unfolding her legs and hugging her knees to her chest as her expression became steel-like yet managed to hold undertones of fear. Max then said, with a strong and slightly afraid voice,

"I began the hardest and most terrifying fight I've ever been in, though once again the terror only came afterward. The reason I wasn't able to instantly end the fight was because for some reason, Anwir would always come back from anything that I fibbed. Throughout our fight in the underground cavern, I tried erasing them from existence, turning them into different things like gold, water, dust, air, etc. At one point I said their entire being would combust and they did exactly that, before returning three seconds later ready to kill me. Artemis rejoined the fight after healing from her wounds, but even then nothing we did could put Anwir down. They shrugged off my fibs and Artemis' arrows with ease. Anwir would of course attack back, trying to rip us to shreds with their fingers, ejecting some weird black goop that seemed to eat away at the space around them from all over their body, and most importantly sending waves of what I'm now quite sure was Presence that would rip away at the very being of everything around us."

Max paused for a moment to take a few deep breaths before continuing.

"Then we got out of the cavern and that was when shit really hit the fan. I won't give you a play by play of the fight, but what I will tell you is a few highlights. At one point, I tried to trap Anwir in a time loop, which they didn't even seem to acknowledge. At another point, Artemis fired off nearly twelve thousand arrows in the span of a quarter of a second which Anwir apparently thought wasn't jack shit because they caught each and every single arrow and then flung the moon dust projectiles back at the both of us. At another point in the fight, Anwir enlarged themselves to the point that they towered over quite a few of the taller buildings in the city and then grabbed Reunion Tower, which was like 500 and a half feet tall, before attempting to smash me with it. And the final point I'll bring up is when I sent Anwir to the edge of the unknown universe and they got back within two seconds."

Herah was completely stunned by what Max was saying and probably wouldn't have believed her if not for how much talking about the fight seemed to visibly upset her friend. And the Dope orb was a bit of help in this as well.

"Sounds like a fight my dad's had with one of Le Plus Vieux Parent."

Max's eyes widened in shock before narrowing into a disbelieving glare.

"Are you sure?"

Herah met Max's glare with her own in return for Max's clear not believing of her.

"Yeah, dad once told me that in a fight with one that the pair ended up flying into a black hole that my father ended up freezing."

Max still didn't seem to believe what Herah said but instead laid the matter to rest by continuing in her own story.

"Anyway, as the fight went on the city around us was destroyed and countless people died." Tears then began dripping from her eyes as her voice became drowned in guilt, "I didn't even notice in the fight. I was so focused on keeping myself and Artemis alive, that the people around us didn't really register in mind. And the fight dragged on for over an hour, with the destruction around us and the dead increasing dramatically in size as the fight progressed. As Norwe said before, the only reason so many more didn't die was because near the end of the fight bro joined in. When I first noticed him, I was over four hundred feet in the air and rising because I was flying up the side of a building that Anwir had thrown when they leaped into the sky. Though bro was essentially a speck to me at that height, we've always had an extremely high awareness of each other so I immediately recognized him."

"Where the ash was Alex that entire fucking fight?" Herah asked in with a disbelieving expression and tone.

"He told me he ended up meeting this guy by the name of Kernel Sanders the Chicken God. Kernel Sanders ended up taking Abigail, Sarah, and bro (the last one by accident) through a portal. Bro somehow fucked up the portal so he ended up stranded in a separate universe for a bit until he found his own way back."

"Seriously?" Herah asked, blinking a few times at Max. The human just nodded in response before continuing on.

"Anyway, I met up with bro and he told me to tell as many fibs as possible that would change Anwir without causing any straight up negative effects. I didn't quite understand how that was supposed to help us, but again I trust bro to a fault so I did exactly as he asked. By the time I was done, Anwir was a neon rainbow color, had a rainbow afro, had a red clown nose, had a clown jumper on, and had giant clown shoes with a whole lot of other very insignificant changes done to them as well."

By this point, Herah was giving Max an extremely confused and weirded out look.

"Why all the clown stuff?"

"Because I hate clowns and I hated Anwir." Was Max's quick and concise reply.

"Ok, fair enough. And how exactly did turning an Abyss Walker into a giant clown help kill them?"

At this question, Max nodded before returning her legs back to their folded position and answering Herah's question sounding as if the explanation was hard to put to words..

"Well, bro's gift has an interesting effect when too many things that go against the natural order occur to the same thing or area."

"What would that be?" Herah asked.

"In simple terms, he purges them from existence."

"But earlier you said you tried erasing Anwir from existence, and it failed," Herah replied with her brow crinkled and her eyes nearly shut.

Max nodded at this and said, "That's why I said in simple terms. I don't quite understand it myself, even after bro explained it to me, so I simplify it into that."

Herah nodded at this, before asking Max another question.

"So your brother purged them from existence and that was it."

Max nodded at this with a small frown and said, "Essentially."

"But when during this did you get those new limitations you spoke of?" Herah asked, thinking back to what Max had just said.

Max sighed once again, now looking down with a tired expression before quietly saying,

"I acquired them three days after the fight with Anwir. I had passed out right after bro got rid of the Abyss Walker, so I awoke in Arlington, Texas in the hospital. Bro and Artemis were passed out in some nearby chairs, and on the TV an episode of Iron Man Armored Adventures was playing, it had just come out that year. Not too long after I awoke a nurse came in and gave me a quick check-up. While doing this check-up, she switched the channel to the news. The headline of the time, I can remember it so well, read Terrorist Attack on Dallas, Leaves Over A Million Dead. That fucked me up pretty badly in the head, and the realization of what I'd caused triggered four subconscious triggers of mine that would begin to inhibit my gift. It would take me another week to realize what these triggers were and how to retrigger them so as to get my power back."

Max then unfolded her legs once again and laid back to look up at the sky. Seeing Max's behavior, Herah gave her friend a curious stare until Max pat the ground to her left. Getting the message rather easily, Herah got up and then laid down on Max's left. This meant the pair were now both laying on the edge of the clearing with the graves of the four dead Oni from before, with their heads still in the small clearing looking up at the sky.

"So are you going to-" Herah began.

"Loss of innocence, loss of guilt, loss of trust, and loss of fear." Max said, now sounding a lot calmer and disturbingly empty.

"What?"

"Those are the four limiters I currently have in place. Before we met, I had managed to remove three of them, but during our fight with Moon I regained one and after what I did to the Oni I got the other two back."

"How exactly do they limit your gift?"

Max let out a small huff before calmly stating,

"I'm gonna go through them in order which I originally broke them. Loss of innocence keeps me from causing damage, harm, or ill effects of any kind with my fibs. As of right now, I can't even create a fire with my fibs because that would harm atoms."

"Your kidding?"

Max held up her left hand and said with a deep and masculine voice,

"There is a fire in my hand."

Nothing appeared and Max put her hand down.

Seeing this, Herah let out a small wince at the pathetic showing of Max's gift.

"What's next?" Herah asked.

"Loss of guilt makes it so that I can't directly harm humans or beings I believe to hold characteristics of them."

"What falls under that category?"

"Everything not dead, never living, or plants."

"That is a lot of things you can't harm."

"Yeah, it's going to be a problem for a while."

"What was the next one?"

"Loss of trust makes it so that any fibs I tell will take up these slots and depending on the scale of the fib there will be a different number of slots taken up. I can mitigate this to a certain extent by substituting my cards for the slots but the same rule applies to them."

"That sounds extremely limiting."

"It is, especially since I only have 22 normal slots and 52 with my cards which I use to go through pretty quickly and still do from time to time. One caveat I got though, is that I've learned to manage it over the years since I dealt with it for so long."

"That's good, I guess. So what does loss of fear do?"

"Loss of fear is what put in place my slots, which I have to recharge by sleeping for an hour. And once I use up all these slots, I can no longer tell fibs without erasing my self from existence in the process."

Hearing this, Herah shot up into an upright position and began to stare at Max with a worried expression.

"That is a very big and fucked up limitation! How the ash does your subconscious even do that?" Herah shouted in shock.

Max raised her left hand and lazily waved Herah off before calmly stating,

"Yeah it's a pretty steep cost, and you'd be surprised at what your subconscious can do to you. Like how Thanos lost the infinity gauntlet in the comics because he subconsciously didn't feel worthy of it. The guy lost omnipotence and omniscience because of that reason alone. It's weird what your mind can do without your control."

"I don't care about whoever the ash Thanos is!" Herah shouted grabbing at her hair in irritation, "And why the fuck are you sounding so calm and empty, it's creepy."

"Because right now I do feel very calm and empty, it's my intermission state," Max replied in the same tone as before.

"What the ash do you mean by intermission state?" Herah asked while flaring her nostrils in frustration, causing a small spout of yellow flames to shoot from her nose.

"I call it an intermission state because this is the only time in which my emotions are not really felt and it periodically occurs. I should be exiting it soon enough."

Herah let out a frustrated huff before laying back down and turning her head to face Max's with a slightly annoyed look on her face.

"So now that I know what is currently limiting you, how can I help remove them?"

Max turned her own head to face Herah's and replied with her calm and empty tone of voice.

"Well you can really only help me with one, and that's only if I'm right but I'm pretty sure I'm right so that's not really an issue."

Herah's eyes narrowed at Max's words before the youngling gave a prying response.

"Why can't I help with the other three?"

Max gave Herah a joyless smile before calmly stating,

"Because loss of guilt requires me to kill someone with my bare hands, loss of trust requires someone to betray my trust which I really hope doesn't happen especially in this current situation, and loss of fear.... Well, I'll just say that if I do ever complete that one, I'll be dead shortly afterward."

"So the only one I can help you with is loss of innocence."

"Correct."

Herah pursed her lips for a second, her eyes narrowing even more before the youngling exhaled a bit of smoke from her mouth. This got a bit of coughing from Max and caused her to sit up, with Herah joining her in an upright position with a satisfied nod of her head.

"So what do I need to do to help you?" Herah asked, now sounding satisfied and feeling a bit more understanding of Max.

And it was at this moment that Max exited her intermission state and began blushing heavily with a slightly embarrassed look on her face. Herah seeing this gave her friend a confused and worried stare, which Max was quick to give a reply to.

"Herah you like it when someone is direct with you, am I correct?" Max asked a bit awkwardly.

"Yeah." Was Herah's short but slightly curious response.

So then Max took a deep breath and told Herah as quickly as possible,

"I need your virginity."

This got Max a few blinks from Herah before the youngling asked in near disbelief,

"Why?"

Max gave Herah a nervous smile and began scratching the back of her neck before responding.

"That's why I call this trigger loss of innocence. I need to take someone else's "innocence" in order to reactivate the trigger. That's why I suggested it earlier."

Watching as Herah reached up to her chin and began to rub it while muttering to herself, Max began biting her lip nervously before rapidly stating,

"I know it's a big thing to ask for and al-"

"I'll do it." Herah cut in while nodding to herself and staring at Max with a small grin.

"Wait, really?"

Herah nodded again without saying a word.

"Oh," Max's eyes shifted from left to right, before inquiring "Does sex not mean anything too heavy where you come from? Is it because it's no longer required to have children?"

At this Herah frowned while shaking her head from side to side before responding.

"While what you said is accurate for the general public and for the very reason you put forth, I still very much care about who I sleep with and who takes my virginity. I believe it to be one of the greatest gifts I can offer to anyone."

Hearing this, Max began waving both of her hands while hurriedly saying,

"If that's the case, you don't really ne-"

"Max, you insult me by thinking that I wouldn't want to give it to you." Herah gave Max a keen glare before continuing, "As I said before, you're a big reason that both my father and I are alive right now. The only other person I know I could give my virginity to would be Owen, and I already have something else in mind for him. Plus, this could be the difference between life or death, so I'm really lacking in reasons to not fuck you."

Max smiled thankfully at Herah, getting a small smile from the youngling in response. Before Max could say anything else, however, Herah's head perked up and the youngling began rubbing her chin in deep thought. After a few seconds of this, Herah nodded her head and let out a breath.

"But before we fuck each other, I have to tell you something." Herah said with an air of seriousness.

"Is it that if we screw each other, I'm gonna get sprayed with lava and die a painful horrid death?" Max asked, sounding a bit fearful.

"What!? No! What the fuck!? Is this something you've been thinking about?" Herah responded, losing all seriousness while looking weirded out by Max's suggestion.

"Yep, and I'm glad it isn't true," Max thankfully said letting out a breath, before asking Herah, "So what did you have to say?"

"I have another way to help you, but its pretty intimate and a big commitment."

"What is it?" Max asked, her curiosity peeked.

"You have to court me." Herah said, staring as seriously as possible at Max.

"Like dating?" Max said, sounding as if her interest had peaked.

Herah made a kinda motion with her left hand, before saying,

"Not exactly, if you were to court me the end goal would very clearly be marriage."

"Oh," Max said sounding not as interested as before, "That's what you meant by big commitment." Max awkwardly rubbed her left arm, "Not to sound like a bitch, but how exactly does this help except for giving me a potential lifetime partner which might not be for long if Norwe has anything to say about it."

"I can understand your trepidation," Herah said, once again scratching the back of her head, "But there is a reason that would definitely benefit you."

"And that would be?"

"When courting a Cendreux, a bond is established that causes for the pair to share emotions. This means that when the pair feels tow separate emotions, the feelings are spread out between the two and effectively dulled in a way. On the other hand, when they have the same feelings the emotions are amplified."

"And why exactly is that a benefit for me?" Max asked, still sounding a bit put off.

This got the human a blank stare from Herah, who continued to stare at Max blankly for a few moments before simply stating.

"Max you're a fucking emotional wreck right now, and I can offer you stability."

"Ok, so the first point, I can't disagree with no matter what, but on the second one..."

"What?" Herah swiftly asked with a twitch in her eye.

"Well aren't you always kinda angry. Like most of the time I've known you, you've been frowning and growling."

"First of all, I'm mildly irritated and annoyed most of the time,"

"Bro said this exact same thing once."

"Max I want to help you, but that won't stop me from punching you in your fucking face."

Max immediately shut up.

"And second of all, I said stability. I don't fluctuate as often as you do and so my emotions should help to balance your constantly shifting ones out without any adverse effects on either of us."

Max nodded at this but still didn't look too sure, so Herah added a bit more information.

"If you want to, you can end the courtship anytime you see fit."

Max perked up and gave Herah a suspicious look.

"Seriously?"

"Yes, you don't even have to do any of the trials that would allow for us to marry when done."

"Trials?" Max asked a bit surprised by this new info.

"Yup, to woo me into marriage." Herah said plainly.

"What exactly are these trials?" Max asked, sounding as if something was planned.

"I don't know," Herah gave Max a questioning stare and tilt of her head, before jokingly asking "Why do you ask? Are you planning on marrying me?"

"No, I'm just curious."

Herah's left brow rose which the youngling then followed up by lifting her left hand and allowing for the Dope light orb to fly from within her hand. Seeing this, Max let out a small sigh and said,

"Ok, so I really don't have any plans on marrying you right now, I wasn't lying when I said that. I want to know because you seem to be really going that extra mile to help me, and I thought that if after I managed to get to know you better and really liked what I saw even more, then I might finalize it as a way of repayment."

"Max that is pretty much what courtship is, and you don't need to worry about that right now,"

"But-"

Herah put a finger to Max's lip, immediately silencing her friend. Herah then sternly told Max,

"No buts, I'm trying to repay a debt I owe you. You should feel no entitlement to repay me for what I do trying to pay you back. So if you do end up pursuing the trials, do so because you want to. Do you understand?"

Max took a deep breath before nodding yes with a calm and collected expression. Seeing this, Herah put her finger down and asked Max,

"So, do you want to court me or not?"

Max closed her eyes and inhaled and exhaled a few times before looking back at Herah and giving her answer.

"Yeah, I'll bite."

Herah smiled at Max, clapped her hands together, and said,

"Great, so let's get down to business."

Both Herah and Max stood up, stretching as they did so, before Max looked up at Herah and asked,

"So how are we doing this? Do we screw first, or are we beginning our courting process?"

"We're doing both at the same time."

"Really?" Max asked sounding a bit confused.

"Yep, since you've already met the prerequisite we just need you to ask me during sex these words: Herah accepteras-tu mes tentatives pour gagner ta main. Afterward, I have to say Oui and it will be finalized."

"You have to say Oui?" Max asked with a coy smile while backing away from Herah further into the clearing.

"Yeah, and what's up with that look?" Herah asked while giving Max a questioning stare.

"I'm just thinking of how many times I'm going to make you squeal like a pig before we're done." Max replied, her voice taking on a sultry and pleasant tone.

"O-okay? You sound really weird right now, and was that an insult?" Herah asked, looking a bit weirded out.

Max just gave Herah a smile that the youngling thought was not too dissimilar from the one her mother would when messing with her father. Max then dropped her trench coat to the ground and stood before Herah fully naked, the youngling having to admit that her friend didn't look half bad in the nude with her hands on her hips and a smile still on her face.

"You look like you're really looking forward to this," Herah said, completely still and blushing lightly as realization of what was about to happen next finally hit her.

This got a sly chuckle from Max, who began walking up to Herah as slowly and as seductively as possible, which got a nervous chuckle from the youngling. Once Max reached Herah, the human grabbed her soon to be courting partner by her cheeks, dragged Herah's head down to her own height, gave her a light peck on the lips, and then held her face just a few millimeters apart from Herah's. Herah developed a deeper blush, before asking,

"Max, what are you do-"

"Herah," Max spoke low and softly, cutting the youngling off, "I am very definitely looking forward to sex with you. Because not only are you helping me, you're also providing me with a source of pleasure and entertainment. Since you're doing all of that for me, it's only fair that I allow for you to enjoy this just as much or even more than I do. So please let me take the lead, and guide you through what will be the greatest sexual encounter you ever have."

Herah, hearing Max's statement, fought down her blush and gave her friend a smirk before saying,

"That's a bold statement you put forth, do you really think you can back it up?"

Max backed away from Herah with a smirk of her own before stopping a few feet away from the youngling and pointing at her.

"Lose the clothes lava tits. By the time I'm done with you, you're gonna be so thoroughly entertained and so satisfied that you'll worship me."

Shedding her own clothing, Herah took a deep breath before smiling at Max with a blush still on her cheeks and saying,

"We'll see."

Max eist eiun Profi

After thirty minutes of wild and inventive "fighting", Herah and Max could both be found in the center of the clearing lying in a pool of their own bodily fluids, wrapped around each other, and breathing hard. The pair smelled and looked like they had just done the deed (which they had), with their smelly and absolutely drenched hair being especially telling of this.

"So, puff, where is my worship, puff, lava tits?" Max asked with a small grin on her face, currently unable to see the twin grin that was on Herah's face.

"Oh great and, puff, wonderful Max," Herah jokingly began, raising her left arm in the air (since the right one was currently under and wrapped around Max) and flourishing her hand a few times, "I am blessed to have had the chance, puff, to bed you."

"Thank you." Max cheerfully responded, "We should probably, puff, get up. Laying in your own fluids, puff, isn't exactly a healthy thing to do."

"I can handle, puff, that," Herah said back to Max, before breathing out an orange flame that immediately engulfed the pair in a bonfire that evaporated all of the sweat and other liquids that covered their bodies before being inhaled by Herah. "See, puff, all gone."

"That's good," Max said, before chuckling to herself.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm just thinking about how, puff, fun you were. I mean, puff, I 've been around the block I won't lie. But you, puff, you managed to have some of my favorite combination of traits in a bedmate."

"And those are?"

"Stamina, dedication, sensitivity, and caringness."

"I'm glad I could, puff, satisfy you at least." Herah then lowered her tone, sounding a bit shameful, "Though I do feel that the work was disproportional."

"Don't feel bad lava tits, I'm happy with what I got." Max softly said while rubbing Herah's back.

"Max you came six times while I came thirty, someone clearly got the better deal in this one." Herah stoically responded.

"Yeah, well I have more experience so I'd naturally be able to outdo you. Don't worry about it, I came out happy." Max then gained a slightly worried look before asking, "Speaking of thirty back-to-back orgasms, are you okay? I don't think losing that much liquid in such a short span of time is healthy."

"I'm fine, don't worry about me." A stray thought then came to Herah's mind, "By the way, why is your pubic hair shaved in the shape of an arrow?"

"So you know where to go on your trip down." Max said sounding immensely proud of herself.

"..."

"..."

"It's so you can say that, isn't it?" Herah asked.

"That is the only reason for it." Max happily said with a small laugh, before a stray thought came to her mind, "Speaking of pubic hair shaving, why is yours in the same shape as that thing on your shirt?"

"It's a wisp lantern, and it's my way of marking my body as one for La Flamme."

"Wow, that's some serious dedication right there." Max said, sounding a bit astonished.

"This was actually a common practice for both males and females of the Cendruex many, many years ago." Herah responded, sounding a bit down by her own words.

"Oh, why did they stop?" Max asked, sounding rather curious.

Herah didn't answer, instead, the youngling let out a sigh before unwrapping herself from Max's body and shakingly getting back up. This caused Max to let out a childish whine.

"Why did you get up?"

Herah stumbled over to her clothes, which had been thrown to the edge of the clearing during their "fight" and began putting them on.

"Because we need to complete the start of the courting, it won't began until you receive your trials."

"Oh," Max got up and caught her trench coat (Herah having thrown it to her) before putting it back on, "So who gives them to me?"

"My parents."

"How are you supposed to contact them?"

"Let me show you."

By this point, Herah had gotten completely redressed and had grabbed her sketch pad from its spot at the edge of the clearing and flipped through it until landing on a certain page. Nodding to herself, Herah ripped the page out and walked to the center of the clearing where they had previously laid. Herah sat the paper down and gestured for Max to back away. Herah then activated Traduire and felt her mouth turn dry.

The piece of paper on the ground glowed before a mirror that looked like an exact replica of Herah's bedroom mirror began to emerge from the sheet, and after a few seconds the mirror had fully formed and now stood proudly in the center of the clearing.

Walking up behind Herah, Max looked at the mirror and saw the reflection of herself and Herah for but a second before the mirror filled with white light.

With that done, Herah turned to Max and began to tell her,

"In a few seconds, we're going to see my father and maybe my mother. I want you to know that neither of them can't hurt you so don't act afraid. Let me bring them up to speed, ok?"

Max nodded yes so Herah turned back to the mirror and began to take deep breaths to calm and prepare herself for a talk with her parents.

With that said, Herah was totally not prepared for a Cendreux that looked like an aged-up and taller version of herself dressed in a blue tunic to step out of the mirror crying out in joy,

"Herah! My daughter, you're okay!"

"Oh shit." Was all Herah could say before her mother, Rouge, wrapped her up in her arms and began hugging the youngling into her chest while shouting,

"I'm so glad I can see you again! When your father told me that you were missing an arm and wasn't looking too good I started worrying!" Rouge put a completely terrified Herah at arm's length while hurriedly saying, "I mean I knew that you make it out and survive, but you're my daughter so I-"

Rouge paused as a scent from her daughter hit her nose. A bit confused by the smell, Rouge inhaled deeply through her nose a few more times to make sense of the smell. It was only upon the fourth time that realization of what it was dawned on her. Seeing what her mother was doing, Herah quickly tried to defuse the problem before it could begin.

"Mom wait, I need to tell you someth- HURRK!"

Rouge had moved her hands from around Herah's back and began to use them to strangle her daughter with righteous fury in her eyes and voice.

"YOU'VE BEEN MISSING FOR OVER A WEEK, AND THE FIRST THING I SMELL ON YOU IS THE SCENT OF SEX!"

Max watched in mute horror as Herah began grabbing at her mother's shoulders in an attempt to stop her from strangling her into unconsciousness. It was only after, Herah began to loosen her grip on Rouge's shoulders that Max tried to say anything to the raging mother.

But this was for not because before even a sound could leave her mouth, Max felt the temperature drop heavily. Frost began to appear on the trees, grass, and the swords that marked the graves of the Oni. A cold breeze blew through the clearing, causing Max to shiver and tightened her trench coat around herself. Rouge was feeling the cold as well since the mother began to see her own furious breaths materialize in front of her. Looking down at her legs, Rouge saw frost creeping up her clothing and tried to say something.

"Shi-"

But before Rouge could finish, both herself and her daughter were completely frozen.

Eyes widening at what had just happened, Max tried to shout but quickly shut up once someone else emerged from the mirror Herah had created.

They were an orange colored Cendruex, who was extremely burly, had scales covering every inch of skin on their body, and wore a white polo with the top two buttons unbuttoned and some khaki slacks. They had aquamarine eyes and wore what Max thought to be a kind smile. A large arrow-pointed tail hung behind them, moving from side to side almost lazily.

Yet even with such a laid-back look, the Presence released by the Cedreux was extremely oppressive and seemed to promise agony.

Immediately after stepping out, the Cendruex looked directly at Max with the smile on their face that never lost its kindness. The Cendruex didn't look too bothered by the cold that had enveloped the clearing, in fact, they walked right up to Max without problem, making sure to not bump into the frozen mother and daughter on the way.

Now standing before and towering over a shivering and very terrified Max, the Cendruex leaned down and looked Max directly in the eye before cheerfully stating,

"Hello my name is Orange, and I am the father of the youngling you've seem to have gotten extremely friendly with."

Orange then brought their left hand up and rested upon Max's right shoulder, the human looking back at him with greats amount of fear as frost suddenly covered the entire right side of her body. Max's fear only increased when her breath began to freeze solid soon after leaving her mouth, dropping and shattering at her feet each time a breath left her. Then the human's fear peaked when Orange spoke some kind yet sinister words.

"Would you please catch me up on what's happened? I want to know a bit more about the nature of you and my daughter's relationship before I decide whether or not to kill you."