Chapter 358 – Making a Plan

"So who am I grabbing?" Nakuma asks.

"Go get my slaves," I say. "The Ashmarks. I hope I only need the useless ant, but if I need to give up my Shadow, I will."

Nakuma takes a sniff of Yuki's tail and disappears.

'Hey, Space. I need my slave back. Is he ready?'

'Lucky timing. He was just getting ready for his second blood donation. I'll stop it.'

'Thanks, dear.' And thanks, Luck.

"Can you show me your love?" I ask. "And know she may have to get pregnant to come to life."

"Make it so she isn't forced to stay in this box and is able to live with me, and I'll be fine with that. I don't want an undead wife, either," Tanatsu says. She moves her hand over a symbol on the coffin. It lights up and starts to shift, then a gray kitsune slowly appears.

"Hello, my love," Tanatsu says. "I've got Alzi, and she seems to have an idea for how to end this."

"Dear, you've known how to end this for a long time," the Kitsune says. "But, thank you, Alzi."

I walk over to her side and kiss her shoulder. I hope that keeps Tanatsu from going after me. You never know with the Kitsunes. She seems to be just like how Nakuma is with Yuki, and I don't need a fight to start right as I'm about to do something interesting.

Tanatsu doesn't do anything as the window comes up. She's got some strange things showing up: mana confusion, soul imbalance, and old age. The first two are confusing, as I don't know what they really mean, and the last one is just a fact, not a problem. Or maybe it's just saying she has all of the issues of old age, but she doesn't look that old, just gray.

"Have you heard about mana confusion or soul imbalance?" I ask. "You were using the mana of all these women to fix her, right?"

"I haven't heard of those before. I haven't risked bringing a healer to her before, besides my sister, and she isn't willing to help. Yes, I've been forcing their mana and blood to keep her alive."

I can destroy things when required for healing, so I could try dissolving her mana and soul or something. I could have her try to hurt my babies and eat away at a portion of her soul? I'll need to work on controlling my Skills before I try that.

"What is the current process to make what you feed her?" I ask. "How do you process the blood?" It was probably a bit bold to have Nakuma bring the ant here. But I can torture them with the knowledge of their fate until I can figure this out.

"I have some runes on a faucet that blends their mana into their blood," Tanatsu says. "Another tries to convert it to life mana, but most of it will still have the host's affinity, or be without any affinity."

"Any ideas on what is causing the soul issue?" I ask.

"Not really. Maybe mana and souls are tied together?" Tanatsu says. "Most of my work is focused on forcing mana into her body to keep it alive."

Maybe I just have to clean out her mana, then force her body to recognize the mana as hers, and turn back the clock for her body? Totally impossible. Right? But it sounds so simple. If giving her mana works, and if I can destroy any trace of the others in her soul and mana, and then just strip any personality from the ant and give his to her, that would work, right? Maybe I could turn her into a magical being?

Wait, isn't that creating life? Could I ask Fertility about that? But this isn't a baby. Not yet, at least. So I need to clean her mana, which seems to be connected to the soul, break down the ant into the basic components, removing his soul from the mana, then force it into her, and then seal the deal with some triplets?

"One thing I have found out," Tanatsu says. She lets her robes fall down her arms and exposes her breasts, which then grow a few sizes. "These tits have something inside of them. Just a dot that mana sits in. Men and women both have them, but men don't have a strong connection to theirs or something. I'm not able to check them out that much, though, as my subjects aren't willing to let me study them. But I have gathered that much so far. I don't know what they connect to on the other side, but in this plane, they connect to the breasts."

"Men have a weaker connection? That should be good for us," I say.

Nakuma has perfect timing, popping in right next to Nanoka with my Shadow and the ant.

"A man we don't have to care about," I say. "Perfect for distilling into mana for your lover."

"Please, Mistress," my Shadow says.

"You care about the ant? You think it's useless, so this is perfect for it. I'm giving it a purpose, value. Don't you think so, ant?"

"Fff, thank you. Mistress."

"A bit slow, and I don't like how you started that sentence. But we can look past it this time. You must be tired from losing all that blood not to recognize the great opportunity I'm providing you with," I say. How much are you hating all the times you raped me? Are you thinking about how you could be living a peaceful life right now if only you hadn't hurt me? "Please, Shadow, make sure it understands that this will give some value to its worthless life. Just as I've given your worthless life meaning in being my Shadow, it'll have meaning in helping me pay back Tanatsu."

"Yes. Mistress," my Shadow says. "It is great that your life can be used to help our Mistress."

"Could use some work, but I'll handle my slaves on my own time," I say. "Do you have a table? We can cut into his breasts and see if we can find its connections. Then, do you have a method that causes those issues? I need to practice cleaning the soul and mana before I try it with your lover."

"I can work on preparing some for that," Tanatsu says. "But a living being would be better."

"The brothel owners have wives, right? I'll get the Queen to send a few of them to you to use, or some other criminals, or maybe Justice's Priestesses? Those would probably bring too much attention, though."

"We can stick to the criminals and the brothel owners' wives. I don't need Justice coming after me. I've got a few different tables, but this one should work fine," Tanatsu says, covering back up. Then she's standing next to a marble table, the normally white stone stained black with long since dried blood. "I tried to clean it, but missing just a bit every time adds up."

"I'm not the one who has to touch it," I say. "Get up there, ant."

"I do have to say," Tanatsu says. "I love that name. And who thought of taking its balls? That really suits it."

"Tanatsu!" Nanoka says. "Don't ask about others' slaves. I know it doesn't seem like we taught you manners, but I know you had them drilled into you. My wife is being polite, sacrificing her slave for your lover. Don't break etiquette as well."

"Sorry," Tanatsu says. "I'm a little rusty with the rules."

"It's fine," I say. "I just wanted to break my Shadow's heart. Made her cut them off."

"Damn. Well, if I need help torturing someone, I'll have to ask you for help. Not only can you heal them to keep it going, but you also have some great ideas."

"Yuki helped," I say. "Now, do you have a knife? Or I can just try to do it with mana. I feel giddy in the chest, so I think it's willing to cut the ant for me."

"I have a great selection of knives if you need them, but mana can be more precise if it lets you."

"Then let me test it out," I say. I put my finger over the ant's pathetic pecs and start to cut. My mana doesn't fight it, despite knowing I have little desire to heal him. Or was it just their mana that would stop me if I didn't plan to heal them? I can ask later. "Tell me if I'm going the wrong way."

It's slow work, and the blood has to be cleared away constantly, but Tanatsu does that work for the most part, putting it into a jar. I also have to cut wide enough that I can see into him and slowly enough that I don't pass by what I'm looking for.

She says the dot is either below the fat or buried in the muscle. But our subject doesn't have much of either, so every cut has to be shallow and precise.

"There!" Tanatsu says. "That's it."

"My Mistress!" Sarania says. "I got worried and went to the temple, but then I heard you left, and finding you was difficult. The front desk was not very happy about my barging in. But don't worry, they're too busy playing with each other to come back here. Now, what is going on with this abomination?"

"Um, sorry," I say. "I didn't think about you coming. I thought you would stay behind with the kids."

"Aurora and Shyla said they had it taken care of. Your Mother also asked me to go to you, so I went with Isda's maid to the temple," Sarania says. "So I guess it isn't really your fault. I'm just a bit annoyed that the front desk would be so rude to a pregnant woman who was just trying to get to her Mistress."

"Are they all fucking each other?" Tanatsu asks.

"Of course. You have eyes and a working brain."

"That report is going to be annoying to fill out. This is the work required to keep my lover alive. Do you have a problem with it?"

"No. I just didn't expect a kitsune to be the one working here. Devils and demons have been burned at the stake for causing half this much death and blasphemy. I love it. But you aren't going to be getting my Mistress into trouble, right?"

"I'm not going to drag myself into anything," I say.

"Then I'm here to help you anyway I can, my Mistress."

"Thank you," I say. "Come here, and we can see what you think about this as well."

Sarania comes over with a little bounce in her step. I'll have to ask her if it's the orgy at the front desk that's getting her like this. I wouldn't mind starting a few orgies for her if that makes her this happy. Her tail is a lot cuter this way, not threatening to force its way deep into my holes. Which is pleasurable, no doubt about that, but it doesn't seem right to have my servant so deep inside of me.

"I see, the gateway. Alzi, tell your slaves not to say a word of what has happened in this room, ever. Not to you or anyone else. The Goddesses really don't like anyone messing with the gate. You want to combine his gate with your lover's gate? You have the right woman here to do that, but you have to be careful. Some of my sisters did similar work. They survived the work itself, but not the crowd lynching them afterwards. I would say you should test if your Goddess children are ok with this, and then have them in the room during the operation. They can keep it from spreading out to the Goddesses and causing problems for us."

"Do you know about Mana confusion and soul imbalance?" I ask.

"No. Powerful healers weren't common when I was around. The woman may have had those afflictions when my sisters did the operation, but I don't know."

"Then we have to practice," I say. "Slaves. You are never to speak of anything we are planning. In fact, ant, you are never to speak again. Shadow, you are to only speak of things my children need and to say 'yes, Mistress.'"

"Yes, Mistress," Shadow says. My ant slowly nods its head and passes out.

So weak.