Nanoka came back just in time for the first cut into the ant. My shadow lets out a little gasp, seeing the idiot hovering over the one who deserves the mana more. Fyserreia controls the blood pouring out of the ant as I quickly dig down to the needed gates.

I give Tanatsu a quick look and then start on her Lover. I can see the pain in her eyes as I cut, but she doesn't complain. I have more mass to remove, but still make good time showing her gates. They're a lot smaller than the ant's. I guess they do grow a bit with mana.

"Well, the easy part is done," I say.

"Yes, the easy part. Took me an hour every time I tried to do it, and you got all four in ten minutes," Fyserreia says. "Hours to get here, and you're just doing it for fun. Whatever. You need to prepare the accepting gates. Surround it with mana..."

"Hours! You told me this could be done quickly," I say.

"Yes, now you need to feed Miss Grey a sliver of mana into both her gates. Just a bit. Barely noticeable. Slowly. Yes, just like that, and remember to watch the health of Miss Grey. Mistress."

"Glad you remembered," I say. "Sarania isn't going to be happy."

It's painful keeping this low flow going. I'm not made to use such little mana, and now I have to do it in two separate streams and keep her alive, and I'll have even more to do with the stupid ant.

"Just a few minutes and they'll be ready to accept the ant's gates," Fyserreia says. "Just keep the flow slow. You're doing well, my Mistress."

I don't know what Fyserreia sees, or how she ever figured this out. Was I really this far from getting this right? I thought I was close to doing this myself. I should've tested if they attach to the other side. Is something going to happen while they fall?

"Should I get them closer together?" I ask.

"No, the gates move so fast the height difference won't make much of a difference, my Mistress," Fyserreia says. "Now, you need to get mana close to the ant's gates, but do not put it into the gates. As close as you can and then get closer. Then you send it down and into Miss Grey's gates."

"Um, I'm not that good at controlling my mana," I say.

"Well, have Luck or Destruction help you or figure it out now, my Mistress," Fyserreia says. "You're the one who prepared Miss Grey."

"You're getting more kids tonight," I huff. "Can I stop the streams I already have out, or do I have to do both?"

"Both of course, my Mistress," Fyserreia says. "They wouldn't make it that easy for you. Kou, bring the Goddesses closer. Maybe they'll help."

I'm letting my babies see all this blood! I was so mad about Contract and now I'm doing it myself. Luck seems happy, and Destruction must love us destroying this ant and the rules. I'm a good Mother.

"My Queen," Kou says. "Your kids are happy. They're Goddesses, you know, they can handle blood. I'm sure Luck had been waiting for a lucky time to say her first words. They understand and wish to be here. You're doing well, and you can do this. Focus on your mana. Your kids are doing wonderful."

"Thank you," I say.

"We're here for you, My Queen," Kou says. I feel little hands poking my wings for a few seconds, then I get back to focusing on my mana. Splitting off two more streams and slowly inching them toward the gates. I can just wait till they get pulled in the backup a bit. Just slowly move.

"Stop," Fyserreia says. "Slowly move, but you can't touch it, or we'll have to wait an hour and do it over."

"Could've told me that before I started," I say.

"It's been a while since I've talked about this information, and the Goddesses would always mess with your brain, so I'm not used to this. Sorry, my Mistress. Bring it a bit closer, then quickly direct it to Miss Grey. Then I'll make the final cuts and they'll fall right into place. You throw a bunch of mana at Miss Grey, and Tanatsu handles the energy. You get to work on healing Miss Grey; however, you need to. She is naked already."

I push my mana a bit further, make the turn, and then a bright light flashes in front of me.

"Mana and control!" Fyserreia orders.

I flood the room like I normally do. I hope the fact that her fur is still grey isn't a bad sign.

"Pop!" Destruction says behind me. Then the ant's body pops like a balloon. I flinch and prepare to be coated in blood, but he just disappears, the blood getting sucked up a few inches from where his skin was just a moment ago.

"Destruction! Don't do that! You scared Mommy. You have to be careful."

"Everything's fine," Fyserreia says. "Just finish healing her, and the worst of it should be over. Just need to do whatever it is for her soul and mana."

I bend over and kiss the grey kitsune. Her chest looks more like a man's right now, but I'm building out tissue that should be there again. Of course, her body has more going on. Some sort of shock. Hopefully, mana and my skills are the fix. Luck promised, but she isn't exactly the Goddess of life or anything.

"Sorry," I say. "She's going to be pregnant. Kou, if you could help protect the babies."

"Don't worry, they won't see or hear a thing, My Queen," Kou says. "Unless they really do, but they know better than to spy on their Mother like that. Right, little ones? You don't need Kou to teach you decency."

I wish I had the time to see what they look like. It is unnaturally quiet behind me, but that could just be Kou using some rune or something. Destruction made the cleanup quick. I have to give her that, even if it did scare me.

I jump onto the strange box, my robe coming undone, and her legs spreading to accept me. I can see her breathing, but it's shallow.

"Baby?" Tanatsu says. "Come here. Alzi is so close."

"I've had worse," I say. "Luck promised."

I'm slow to work into her. I can feel all those sex skills activate. Fyserreia gives me a small hug. I feel her breath on the back of my neck, her hands reaching to grope my tits.

"You're so fucking sexy while pregnant," Fyserreia whispers. "You're going to fuck me while I'm pregnant, right? You're going to have to put me in my place constantly. I was a bad girl. I killed so many figuring this all out. Fuck, breaking me out and then letting me do this. I'm not even mad to have you as my Mistress. Just pull out the paddle sometimes. Somehow, I got quite the kink for whips and chains. Fill her, Alzi. Fill her, my Mistress. She's smiling. She's happy. A part of her mind is awake and wants this. Let them start a family. They've waited for this. Please help them. Oh, yes. Fuck, I can feel her lust. She loves this. She loves that she's going to carry kids for their family. It gets her wet thinking about what the future holds, thanks to you. Fill her."

"Be gentle," Tanatsu says. "She's always been a weak woman. Aya, wake up. I'm right here. Please."

Slowly, her breasts start to fill in. Her skin is cracking and reforming as they make room for the new seas of mana she has. Tanatsu strips down and joins me on the table, using her thighs as a pillow for Aya. Tanatsu's hands are exploring Aya's growing tits and soon-to-be-growing belly.

"Release, my Mistress," Fyserreia says. "She's breathing steady now. Give her the burst of life. That's what your babies do, right? They fill the Mother with life in more than one way."

"Yes," I groan. "Yes. Life."

Aya's eggs must've all died off years ago. But that hasn't stopped me yet. My seed demands eggs, along with my skills. In normal fashion, I can't create just one. But I keep it in check. Only three float down her tubes and get swarmed by my swimmers. Her body flashes green when the first egg is fertilized, then another, and the third.

She takes a deep breath and opens her eyes. One is green, her tails have three thin green lines running down it to break up the grey. Tanatsu pulls Aya into a big hug. Her tails are coming out and surrounding the girl. I'm sure a flurry of kisses is hiding behind that wall of fur.

"I never did this to save someone before," Fyserreia says. "Always to make some minion or keep a man alive a bit longer. I was surprised by her tits growing like that. Then that popping thing really is just unnatural. It's been so long since I've seen a Goddess work magic in front of me. Then it was a baby even. Crazy. Well done, my Mistress. That was smoother than I ever thought it could be."

"You did that yourself?" I ask.

"Myself, no. I would just get some healer so loopy from sex that they would willingly let me control their mana. Took a lot of work and control to do it that way. Much easier to have someone who can do it themself."

"Dear!" Aya finally gets out. "Stop. I'm still weak. I'm tired. Let me get out of this room and rest. I'm tired of all this blood. Please."

"Of course," Tanatsu says, then disappears.

"Your family is kind of annoying with this," I say.

"She'll be back or I'll have some choice words for her," Nanoka says. "Stupid girl owes you for that. I don't know how Kou felt, but it was unsettling over here. The Goddesses may not know what exactly happened, but I feel they know something they don't like occurred here."

"I didn't feel anything," I say. "Sorry you had to go through that. So, Shadow. I've finally freed you of the ant. I hope it was worth making my life hell over. Don't worry. You'll learn to love your position as my walking breeding bitch. I know it." She's more likely to live the rest of her life in the nursery with all the kids I have on the way, but we'll see.

*** Fertility ***

"SHIT!" I scream. "Alzi, what did you just do?"

"You don't know it was Alzheimer's," Sea says. "How did you make these grapes?"

"Really?" I say. This woman. Says she's worried about the baby somehow and just starts living with me! She even claims nightmares and sneaks into my bed. Every day I'm waking up holding her like a teddy bear. The worst part is that I never want to get out of bed. "You know I just made them with mana."

"Of course," Sea says. "How could I forget?"

"That is your best way to change the subject?" I ask. Luckily, Sea hasn't tried to force her way into my lap, letting me have my now not pregnant dryad there instead. I kind of want to have Alzi get her pregnant with me. Have her give birth to twins this time. A bit greedy, but the dryad agreed. I just need to see if Alzi is willing.

"Oh, maybe Alzi, the one who broke out the girl who loved playing with our little gates, did something she shouldn't have and used the two Goddesses, whom she worked really hard to give birth to, to hide it. Or maybe someone else is using the crazy state of the world to do something bad, but not bad enough for us to know about it. I don't know, and I don't care. I'm happy. Are you happy?"

"I think so," I say.

"See, who cares. We were too uptight before. You weren't too far off with the idea of just letting the lower realms be. You can't let them get bold and fuck up the world too bad. But let them mess around. Things always get worse when we mess around too much."

"So you're going to make it easier to travel on the seas."

"Hell no," Sea says. "I'm a bitch. Of course not. I'm not saying you fuck off. You put your thumb on the scale, just make it so they don't see the thumb as much. You know. You let men back into the world. Just give the people you like better a bit better odds of getting pregnant and not miscarrying. Small things. Let Alzi have her fun. We Goddesses put her through hell. Let her give us the middle finger in return for us showing her the thumb on the scale too much. A fair trade, I think."

"The others?"

"The fuck are they going to do? Alzi can't make someone immortal, so Death won't care. Sure, someone's going to be a little late, but that happens sometimes. The rest love that girl, or they're too weak to do anything."

"I guess," I say. "I just hope she doesn't do anything else."

"She will. But I don't think it will matter by then."

"Really can't say something hopeful, can you?"