Curiosity got the better of me and I opened the door. My eyes widened and I dropped my drink as my survival instincts set in. Normally it would tell me to ‘fight’ but this time ‘flight’ got triggered.

  “Hey Agnis! It has been almost 18 years!” I slammed the door and went 9t mode.

  Guys! We’re screwed! We need to get the fuck out of here immediately!

  Huh 9t mode? What is it?

  It’s…

  A dimensional portal opened and Hisui stepped into the room.

  A vixen!

  I started [Elgard Overload] to combat the pink charm mana rushing at me. Hisui also went 9t mode and also used [Elgard overload] to throw more charm magic around. I had to kick its effects out of reality which would slightly delay my window of infinite power.

  She blew a kiss at Raishin, who got instantly [Charmed]. “Raishin, would you be so sweet to help me in catching Agnis?”

  Yes hottie! With pleasure!

  Raishin snap out of it! Resist the charm magic!

  “I have enjoyed the chase Agnis, but I can’t wait any longer. Just thinking about you makes me go crazy!” Her eyes glowed pink purple and a large blast of charm magic traveled through the room. It was pushing my infinite power window further and further because it would be game over if I got charmed.

  A wave of shadows assaulted Hisui but she had entered the moment where [Elgard overload] was its strongest and dealt with it easily.

  Ugh, you nine tailed spirit foxes and your overpowered abilities. Agnis how do we counter this?

  We run!

  Greg pointed at Raishin who was a love-struck zombie.

  What about Raishin?

  He’s currently a lovestruck zombie. He will be fighting for her. She won’t kill him so we have to abandon him for now!

  I abused my speed to grab Greg. My window finally came and I used it to bring us very far. We appeared in a cave.

  Damn, Inyr is still sleeping?

  Agnis, what you said about charm magic and its tendency to stick. Is that going to be a problem? You’re covered in it.

  He pointed at me; my bathrobe was quite pink.

  Huh? Since when? Oh shit. Nilah!

  Nilah got out, absorbed it all off me, turned pink and spat it out creating pink clouds of smoke.

  “I’m sorry my dear but you were a bit too late.” A voice said as green snakes coiled around me.

  Shit! I didn’t notice when she teleported here. How did she even know I was here? A portal closed after Raishin stepped out of it.

  “Raishin would you be so kind to take care of Gregory?”

  Of course!

  Raishin started to assault Greg while Hisui walked over to me. I was still bound by these vipers made out of nature energy. Any attempt to undo them got undone by Hisui. Her hips swayed seductively and she smelled like lotus and she came close, awfully close.

  Uhhm hey Hisui, how have you been?

  “Looking for you, how nice of you to ask.” She said as blasted Nilah with charm magic, turning her pink.

  Noo Nilah!

  “What happened to your tails? Was it that deity?!” She said as she glanced at my 2 bandaged tails.

  The charm magic was creeping into my body and I tried to resist. Hisui was a gorgeous vixen and her voice was enchanting but she had several screws too many loose. Also, her charm magic was a huge problem. I tried to continue kicking the effects of charm magic out of reality but she countered that by bringing them back.

  Raishin snap out of it! I apologize Agnis I never knew that the women of your race could be this problematic! Hey Raishin that hurts!

  Raishin was throwing around [Petanova Blasts] and Nilah was spitting out clouds of pink smoke but it would take too long for her to get it out of her system which means I can’t use her because Hisui’s charm magic would flood my system if that was the case.

  So ehm I know this cool guy, his name is Wild Fang, you might be interested in him.

  Hisui smiled bewitchingly. Which asshole decided that male 9t have to be super weak to charm magic?! “You are well aware that I’m only interested in men that are stronger than me.”

  Well, you’re kicking my ass so that doesn’t apply to me.

  “Well male spirit foxes have a terrible win rate against vixens because of our charm magic.”

  Yes so, I will never be stronger than you. It pains me to say but you will have to find someone else.

  “You do know that deception doesn’t work on me right. Who has taught you all this? I have, right?”

  Now her words were laced with charm magic. My second window of infinite power had pushed back so far that I wouldn’t be able to use it before [Elgard Overload] would end.

  Greg, help? Please?

  Hisui slowly wrapped her tails around me. “I can finally bond with you! It has been worthwhile!”

  Nilah was still sneezing pink clouds and Greg had to go 3t mode because Raishin had gone 6t mode and used his stupid Raijin mode on him.

  I see, so this is where I die.

  “No silly, you will be mine, forever.”

  Nilah, I’m so sorry.

  I swapped places with Nilah and I sent her all the charm magic sticking to me. She became even pinker and started attacking me as she was in a similar state as Raishin.

  Ugh, I should have seen this coming.

  Both our [Elgard Overload] dropped but Hisui had the upper hand. She pushed her chest into me and pinned me to the wall like that.

  So uhh what would it take for you to let me go?

  I started [Blood and thunder] to overcome the charm magic. This skill didn’t take long to become my MVP, it would just prolong my inevitable demise unless Greg pulls some crazy feat but he was currently getting his ass kicked by Raishin.

  “There is nothing you can do. Let me help you a bit.” She said as her hand reached for my cheek.

  Greg if you have a super-secret move now is the chance! I’m about to turn into a lovestruck zombie!

  Can’t you turn invincible or something stupid?

  Of course not! Oh Idea. Hehe listen Hisui! Get off me if you don’t want to get burnt!

  “Hmm this doesn’t seem to be a trick; I want to know everything about you. Go ahead. I’m excited, feel how wild my heart is beating.” She grabbed my hand and placed it on her chest.

  There is too much chest… I can’t feel a thing.

  My tail got to work and finished writing some primal runes on my leg.

  Astimi Agnis

  I burst out in flames, which hurt but it also hurt Hisui. This shocked her and she let go. I took this opportunity to try and grab Greg and get away but I suddenly started freezing over.

  Hisui petting Nilah who was making frost magic creep up on me. “Good girl.”

  Damn which asshole thought that charm magic was a great idea! This is so stupidly overpowered!

  Hisui walked up to me, slowly with hips rocking and chest jiggling. “It needs to be powerful else you oblivious guys would never bond and we would go extinct.”

  We… I’m not oblivious! That’s why I tried my best to run from you!

  “Yesss and that makes you so attractive together with other things! There are not many of you and I was blessed to get you early.” She came closer and was about to seal the deal with a kiss when something pushed her back. “Ugh, what is this? Another vixen has claimed you?”

  Uhh, I have no idea what this means but does that mean I’m saved?

  “It must be that idol, how cunning.” She embraced me and wrapped her tails around me forming a cocoon. “I suppose I will have to wait. You might not know this but the lives of vixens are vastly different than yours. You see that idol has declared war on anyone who tries to claim you with charm magic.” She gave me a kiss on my cheek and let me go.

  “Raishin. Go to sleep, you did a great job.” Raishin dropped to the floor as if he was a puppet that got its strings cut.

  “I have marked you too but I will have to deal with the source. I will also see if I can get a hit in on that deity that has injured you. Now don’t go missing me. Oh, by the way, the old fisherman in Gavin would like to go fishing with you again, although he might have forgotten about you.” She blew a kiss and teleported away.

  My heart was beating wildly and I was trying to push the charm magic out of my system.

  Greg, please I need to get this off me.

  Greg came over and did his best to get all the sticky charm magic off me.

  She really did a number on you. I… I wasn’t aware that this is why you do your best to avoid charm users… I fully understand now.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  It took a while but I managed to thaw myself.

  Look what she did to Nilah…

  Nilah was still [Charmed] amd tried to send Hisui’s charm magic into my system.

  I’m sorry Nilah, you might not like this but I have no choice.

  I covered my hand in leyline energy and blasted it through Nilah with a palm strike which forced all the mana out of her. This made her small and knocked her out. I picked her up and petted her.

  That… that was dangerous.

  I’m screwed. She has marked me. I don’t know what she meant with the rest though. Did Giana save me again? But now Hisui is after her…

  I don’t know, she did say vixens lead different lives and what was up with that charm magic I’ve never seen anything as strong as that.

  Well normally vixens have a season where it becomes stupidly strong like that. For my cousins it’s the summer but for Hisui… it’s all year round. Forget fighting gods, I can’t win against her, probably ever. I can only run. Which went well for quite long.

  Is there anything you can do against it? She just turned Raishin into her puppet…

  Yeah. That will just keep happening whenever she finds us. Trying to outnumber a charm user is going to bite you back hard.

  I now see how you’re so good at running. It’s either run or get caught…

  Well, it seems Giana has bought me some time. I will have to apologize. I might not be able to continue on as I normally would. I…I think I need someone in our team that can use charm magic. That’s the only way to keep Hisui off me.

  So, it’s finally happening. Too bad Raishin is knocked out to hear this. So, who is becoming your girlfriend?

  I didn’t say that I would get one! I just need someone to counter Hisui’s charm magic and is relatively unaffected herself.

  Good luck with that. Who would want to just do that for you without wanting anything like a relationship?

  Well… I’m working on it…

  I looked at Inyr who was still fast asleep. I had hoped that he might wake up and help me but guess no luck. I picked Raishin from the floor and teleported Raishin and Greg back to Alledra.

  My house… was drenched in pink energy… how much charm energy does Hisui have…

  Noo my house!

  Whoa it’s going to take a while to get all the charm magic out of this. You were not kidding that inviting a vixen was a bad idea.

  Can you make me a [Suit of Darkness]?

  Greg smacked me.

  Stop it! I will give you a sturdy [Shadow Cloak].

  I had to push thoughts about Hisui out of my head. Stupid charm magic!

  They should call it brainwash magic or something! Then again it doesn’t work if I already have a good bond with someone or I’m in no way attracted to the user but I have yet to find an unattractive vixen. I sighed. Now I got more problems! And this one is the most dangerous one.

  Greg was sucking the pink energy up in his shadows and sending it into the system.

  You missed a spot.

  So, as I understand this correctly, you are so sensitive to charm magic because else your race would die out.

  I think it’s a design flaw in our race. Vixens are way too strong.

  Well judging from how you operate around women I think it might be necessary.

  How about we talk about you! Why didn’t you get affected by her charm magic? Not even a bit!

  I…I don’t know.

  This might be a serious problem if charm magic doesn’t work on you. Poor Elliana, she never had a chance, did she?

  I’m not doing this on purpose you know!

  My bed was extra pink, I pointed at it and Greg got to it.

  I know, that makes it worse. Even more problems! But I can’t solve any if Hisui claims me!

  Surely it can’t be that bad.

  Greg got caught in a charm trap but was unaffected. This alerted him and he became more thorough and careful in detecting traces of charm magic.

  I’d rather have a rematch with bitch goddess.

  That bad, eh? Besides being overly obsessed she doesn’t seem like a bad person.

  Greg… if you were a woman and she smelled that you were into me just a bit. You’d be dead.

  I saw that Greg got shives through his spine.

  I will just accept that you have a very good reason to avoid her. Your house is charm free; I think. Let’s drag Raishin inside.

  Raishin woke up 20 minutes later.

  Wow I had a strange yet pleasant dream! First, I dreamt that I was fighting against you guys but after that I dreamt that I had a date with a pretty and cool chick. She also had big badonkers.

  That would be Hisui Mikazuki, the first part wasn’t a dream.

  Wait so I attacked Greg? Sorry!

  Don’t worry about it. I have a good reason to believe that you couldn’t do anything about it.

  Yeah, it’s not your fault. Hisui has a few screws loose, maybe all of them.

  Wait so that chick was real? She seemed quite interested in our team at least in my dream.

  Uh oh. What did you tell her?

  Uh it’s just a dream right does it matter?

  You do know that our race shares a lot of similarities with succubi right. Kind of different side to the same coin. They deal with dreams during the night and we with our illusions deal with ‘daydreams’.

  Why didn’t I know that? Then…

  I told her everything, sorry she was just too enchanting!

  Again, not your fault. My life…is over…

  So dramatic but so far it looks like it.

  But her kit is so different from yours are you sure you’re of the same species?

  Spirit foxes have a very wide skillset. You should know this after hanging around Agnis for a long time.

  But this is… a whole new level of cheating!

  Agreed. I guess I should put my offensive and defensive skills on halt and work on escape skills.

  It can’t be that bad right?

  Then you probably didn’t notice what was going on while you were a lovestruck zombie it was truly terrifying how easily she pinned Agnis down.

  It doesn’t help that most of my escape tactics are those that she has taught me and I haven’t really evolved them. She has to my estimate a 90% chance to catch me. Anyway, let’s forget about her for now.

  I petted the unconscious Nilah. Even Nilah was powerless in front of Hisui. I might have a chance if I can deal with that charm magic but I have absolutely no resistance to it. The best-case scenario is if Greg deals with her. He seems to be unaffected by charm magic. It made me think that he is a rock that has [Shapeshifted] into Greg.

  You’re thinking about something rude, aren’t you?

  Not really. Hey Raishin what do you think is easier to seduce? Greg or a rock?

  A rock.

  I knew it!

  Right if this happens again, I will take Raishin and run. You deal with her.

  …

  You do know that ellipses aren’t a dialogue option, right?

  We spent the rest of the day thoroughly checking my house to make sure any sign of charm magic had disappeared. There were many sneaky hidden patches of charm magic spread through the house. It pains me but I should consider moving.

  I tweaked [Fade] which was the only escape skill that I had developed without the influence of Hisui. I needed to get back to my roots and practice more assassin stuff. I started to work on poisons again. The stoneroot will finally be useful after all these years. I would have to partially petrify myself to be briefly unaffected by charm magic. It was risky but it will have to do.

  Greg was acting a bit strange. He started reading romance novels. Maybe it bothered him that charm magic didn’t work on him.

  We moved to my house in Girai as I didn’t feel safe staying in Alledra. I was still anxious all the time but September came and nothing had happened.

  Guys. I think we’ve waited for long enough. We might have to find out if Neia has returned and if she needs help.

  Are you sure you’re ready to jump in a den of vixens?

  No, but we need updates. Maybe leaving Hourai up to Neia was a bit too heavy of a task. I now know how difficult it can be to find something that’s outside of this dimension. And even if it’s still in this dimension it might still take years.

  But how are we supposed to find it?

  I have sent probes to look around our dimensions. We need to come up with something to look around in this dimension.

  Something like when we brought Yzs back?

  Yeah, but more efficient. And unfortunately, I need help with that. It would be convenient if Neia has returned and can help out but if one of her daughters knows then that’s also fine.

  I don’t know if going there is a good idea…

  Did your intuition pick something up?

  Yeah. Hisui’s last name was Mikazuki, right? Just like your cousins?

  Yeah.

  I have the feeling she will be there or has visited there and it will be hard for you to leave once you get there.

  Ugh, that idea is out then. I did forgot that they are real cousins. It wouldn't be strange for her to visit them. Ugh.

  How about looking for other races that can deal with the dimensional fabric?

  Like?

  I don’t know the answer to this but the library might!

  Libraries again. Sure, let’s go.

  I hate libraries!

  We had wasted enough time. We decided to put more effort in finding Hourai. Maybe all my problems will dissolve when we find our home. It was an optimistic thought but that’s all I hady. I realized that it did feel like we had been looking for Hourai quite some time that this only marked the beginning of our search and that more things will be awaiting us.

  We cleaned up and set out for Gittrian and possibly a new adventure. Because nothing ever goes well for us.