Of course, something Celia quickly came to realize? She really was free. She was safe. She never had to worry about Borgain or his damned contract again. She could do anything she wanted! And the first thing Celia did, with Affection's assistance? Get some cute clothes to wear, the feminine shared body between Rou and Celia not quite to her perfect tastes, but with a bit of shared assistance in prettying up and letting Affection brush out her fur and tail, they were practically best friends or so it would seem~

  Back to wearing a dress like she used to, at least at first, Celia frowned. Perhaps changing up her habits and attire was for the best?

  "What do you think?"

  "Well… hm. It'd be a bit awkward if others thought you were Rou. Not that I expect anyone to run up to you for kiss blessings or anything, but if you want to get out of your old habits, no better way I guess than changing everything up."

  "Right, of course! Glad we seem to share that opinion."

  Celia, in Affection's domain as she realized that while in Rou's body, she could use it as she liked - including his perception which was /quite/ a strange thing for her even while having witnessed it from inside him as she had been, she could even open a hole to Affection's domain. Not that it was necessary as now Affection could bring her over or not as she liked.

  –

  Eventually Celia in Rou's body figured out her attire of choice - a wide-brimmed floppy cottonfluff stalk sunhat, with slots for her ears to poke through, her normally long, unbound hair braided and left to flop around behind her with a pink ribbon on the hair and tip of her tail to match. No more was the sundresses that she used to favor, for freedom of movement and easy removal for her flings and one night stands. Instead? She started to wear one of Rou's old skirts but it was so heavy without his strength from before that it was hard to move in. Thus, Affection made her a new one, as well as a matching shirt and a pair of boots.

  A mixture of Rou's old habits, but also with the few pink accessories - Celia's favorite color - it was complete~

  –

  Traipsing around the capital with Affection in tow, the two were a strange sight. But as Celia found herself staring into a cup of water that she'd gotten to quench her thirst, she saw those eyes of hers staring back. Eyes of Rou's. It was a bit unsettling. Somehow reality hit her a bit quickly and Affection noticed. "Hey, Affy?"

  "Mm?"

  "Rou's eyes, my eyes… do you think it's possible to have the colors change a little depending on who is currently in control? I mean, I intend to talk Rou into wearing some accessories so every one of his friends and family knows at a glance who's there, but somehow, seeing his body through his eyes, freaks me out a little. It doesn't /feel/ like me. …not that I am me but you know what I mean!"

  Affection laughed and thought about it, only to turn Celia slightly and stare at her face. At her eyes. It took a few moments for her to figure something out, experimenting. "Let's go with that for now. Laughter's better at this, but I have a feeling he'd want to bed you the moment you went up there as he's rather fond of you and Rou now and I'm not sure what Rou would think about that."

  Celia cackled softly, "Really, he is? Well… hm. Rou wouldn't care. He'd just be a bit disappointed that he didn't get to experience it himself. At least, that's the feeling I get. Pretty sure he has already accepted we'll be together forever, and I don't think he's quite so bitter to hold something like that against me despite his teasing earlier."

  The fox goddess looked at Celia, in the body of her eternal partner, and felt a strange bitterness despite agreeing. "You're right. But all the same, for me, please don't? It's not him that's the problem. We high-dimensional beings may be existences like you all the same, but we can still feel possessive. And while up until recently I've given and encouraged Rou to have free reign, it was him, his soul, his personality that won me over. You are part of him now, but you're not him. Not… not yet."

  Strangely, though, despite the rather loose request from Affection, Celia wasn't upset at all. If anything, she was amused with this and stepped close to hug Affection earnestly. "I'd never do anything to get in between you two. The relationship you two have is something I've always loved about the two of you. I was always envious of it. I wanted it so badly that it hurt. So in time, perhaps we can have that too. But I would never do anything to make you upset, Affy. After all, you were the first God who ever spoke with me. Even if I know why it never happened before, that meant more than the world to me."

  What caught Affection off-guard was Celia actually leaned in to hug her. Squeezed, in fact. "Though we both know, don't we? That you won't have to worry about me forever."

  "...?"

  "Oh come on Affy, don't start lying to me now. That hurts. I'm not stupid. I can feel it. Two souls weren't meant to share a space like this. No matter how much he accepts me… I have the sensation of slowly losing myself to Rou. That my consciousness is slowly slipping away. It won't be fast, but… in time, I'll be gone. And I don't mind that either. This is my happy eternity. This is my after-life reward for a life well led. I don't know about all your high-dimensional stuff, but I'm not ignorant, Affy."

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  A small sigh escaped the mouth of Affection as she looked quite sadly towards Celia, reaching up to stroke her cheek while their foreheads were touching, the hug having shifted a bit but still mostly there.

  "Don't tell Rou? You just be happy as long as you can, he won't mind. I don't think he could bear losing you after everything that happened recently."

  "It seems we agree." Celia confirmed their shared thoughts, though she did give Affection a small kiss just to tease her. "Now, shall we go have some fun? You can keep me safe from anything, so let's go wild and have the adventure of a lifetime."

  –

  Over the next few years, trading places now and then, the two were able to live a somewhat normal life. Though their activities as the Sage of Fluff never quite returned to proper, alongside W'elma and Ellie and Affection, the three left the capital for some time and explored the world a little. Laughter even joined them, much to everyone's surprise. It wasn't a misunderstanding that Laughter was fond of the chimeric Rou and Celia. He /adored/ them. They'd made him laugh in a way that in his long eternity he never had. So being able to wander with them, share smiles and laughs with them, become better acquainted with Affection and even reach a passable friendship with her too?

  It did seem like things would last forever. There was a pathway forward for all involved. Rou might eventually be able to get his body back! Laughter and Affection and even Aether had begun to help reform a body for Rou. It had to grow naturally of course, from start to finish, and it couldn't be done without bits of a soul, but after his soul recovered enough, they were able to snip out a part and let that grow separately.

  Souls were a magical thing like that. No matter how small the piece, given the proper environment, it could grow and grow.

  It even made his parents quite happy, seeing their little baby Rou back in his child form, albeit the body was still growing and in a stasis of sorts in the high-dimensional realm. It would take years before it was back to an adult age and for them to try and redo the process of the dragon's inheritance? It would be a task that was for certain.

  Penelope let down her hair a bit and her anger at the world subsided slightly.

  Millet got to see her siblings growing up happy and safe.

  Vitor was able to imprint himself into the sil Krum family finally and became a great inventor like he'd always hoped, using the Sage of Fluff's anti-gravity magic to explore and expand and bring improvements around the world.

  Dominic and Shiela actually took the time to have a proper vacation themselves, leaving their manor to Millet. The two ex-Fang and Claw's did something they'd always wanted to. Like Rou, Celia and their group, they went off on a proper adventure. No ties to the royal family, no worries about the safety of a growing child, it also did wonders for their marriage and any lingering frustrations with the Gods knowing Rou was going to one day return to the body they knew.

  Celia's family, her mother and father and her two siblings, actually moved into the Erial residence in the royal district, becoming friendly with Millet in their own way as they were no longer quite so troubled with Celia's fate.

  –

  Though all in all, none of that mattered.

  Because Creation suddenly returned one day and despite Affection and Laughter both using their limited strength in comparison to resist Creation, Rou was yanked from the low dimension straight into the high dimension and cast out of his body - the twin-souled being watching as their body slumped and they were forcibly restrained.

  "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND, CREATION?!"

  Affection appeared nearby and tried to get to Rou and Celia's shared souls only to be walled off. Laughter stood there, seeming quite angry, but waited to see what was going on and placed a hand on Affection's shoulder to wait and see.

  "Rou has betrayed us all. He was a spy from the start, working with the high-dimensional predator."

  "You're utterly insane!" Affection yelled, something most of the 'Gods' actually agreed with, only for Creation to pull a ball of energy out of nowhere, compact and trapping something inside. Inside the energy ball was a swirling mass of high-dimensional parasites.

  "Every. Last. Soul."

  "?"

  The gods were confused in unison as Creation added, "These were found in every last soul in Rou's old world, with only a few exceptions. Look at his soul. Look deep. There isn't any corruption. What we thought was corruption? Was these damnable parasites."

  They all began to examine Rou and Celia's soul and indeed there were none.

  Creation promptly started pulling souls out of the cycle of reincarnation. At first the high-dimensional beings were curious, even Affection slightly to see what was going on, only to shriek in confusion as Creation ripped the soul in half and grabbed the parasites within them to throw them into a new energy prison. One, after another, he grabbed souls at random and threw the parasites that were within the souls into the prison.

  "Creation, stop… stop, there has to be a better way." Aether, his second-in-command approached only to be blown away as Creation swatted her aside like a fly. Alive, but hurt. "No one will interfere with me, or I will erase you. No matter how long we have been together, now I know why I was so confused by Rou's unfettered success and rise."

  "Will you erase me too, Creation? Will you kill us all? If so, what's the point? What does it matter even if he was a spy if you do his job for him! Rou's not a damned spy, listen to yourself!"

  Creation did stop, though, turning towards Affection. His body, the formless blob of energy, seemed to hesitate before Affection found herself trapped in an energy prison like the parasites.

  "I guess I am getting too sentimental, you were right, Aether. I am too soft on her. Though she is right. If I destroy you all… what's the point?" there was a faint wistfulness as Creation threw Rou and Celia's soul back into their body, leaving Rou to lay on the floor of the domain and gasp for air, "SPY?! You've gone insane!"

  Rou stood up shakily and pointed to Affection, "Surely you know how much she means to me! My parents! Millet! Penelope! Vitor and Laughter! W'elma and Ellie! All of them, I love them all in my own way, why would I ever put any of them in danger!"

  Though as he went to try and free Affection who was beating on the energy prison impotently, Laughter grasped his shoulder and stopped him, not seeming too happy with things.

  "Oh, why indeed boy. I've said it over and over, I do not believe in coincidences. I made this world personally, there is no such thing. Everything has its course and purpose, but over and over again you have done the impossible. Why is it only those souls around you that you interact with are utterly devoid of those parasites?"

  "..." Of course Rou couldn't answer, he'd never heard of the things before now.

  "You, Celia, a few straggling souls on your old world who were also like you, deformed, though not to the degree yours was. On other worlds too, all infected mostly except a few souls who were to be exchanged between them. It's almost like a greater hand was at work. A few untouched, unspoiled souls leading the rest to doom."

  Creation paused and turned towards something he finally noticed, and summoned Borgain's corpse and soul - the soul and corpse having been left to linger nearby in Laughter's domain, something of an amusing trophy.

  He turned to Laughter and asked, "I long suspected something was wrong with Borgain. Not only was he his own cycle of recreation with control over the souls he had, but his habit? Of absorbing souls to power himself up? To sublimate them? How is it that his soul is pristine, then?" He held up Borgain's soul to show… there wasn't a parasite?

  "Well, let me ask him." Creation breathed life back into Borgain's body and crammed his soul back in, causing the obese Fox to shudder and look around in confusion as he floated in the air around all the gods.

  "Whatever is going on?" he asked in utter lack of awareness.