"GWUARRHHHH!!!!"


    The sound of snarling, unintelligible grunts echoed in the air. Along with it, a woman''s panicked scream and the sound of gunfire.


    "KYAH! GET AWAY!!!"


    Arge bald man shot and kicked nearly two dozen zombies. Although he had already killed over five of them, he was bleeding from various ces. Mostly because he was using his body to protect perhaps the weakest Wraith I have ever seen.


    "Possum."


    "Yes, Kitten?"


    "This is boring, can we kill them all now?"


    "Not yet."


    "Wanna root instead?"


    "You sure you want to do this, Kitten?"


    "Hehe, I wonder... something is already pressing against my ass..."


    Hearing the straightforward request, I couldn''t help but nuzzle against Robyn''s neck. This made her giggle and lick my cheek like an adorable cat. She found such things more entertaining than watching what was going on in front of us.


    The two of us sat on a {Shelter} chair. Although it might be a rtively boring item, it would probably be ssified as an expensive piece of furniture due to the soul cost.


    Contrary to just wasting of souls, I was actually practicing my ability to create {Shelter} constructs. Lilly and Be discovered a profound way to use Liv''stest {Fate}.


    They learned that by creating a huge sheet of {Shelter} beforehand, then cutting and shaping pieces of it, the pieces were essentially free.


    Rather than being dispelled, the pieces could be kept as items as long as one had the stamina to do so. Amazed by their findings, I began to experiment as much as I could.


    Each one of my {Fates} would allow me to fight better in the battles toe. There was no reason not to master them. Even more so now.


    Many things had changed since my girls had all officially be my {Kindred}.


    Aside from the most obvious {Kindred} link we now shared, the girls and I now had each other''s {Fates} permanently. The Sirens gained ess to every single {Fate} in the {Rewind} family at once.


    This pleased me greatly as they could now use {Regen} and {Reload} while having {Rewind} and {Rece} on standby.


    Unfortunately, for some reason, they could not use {Recursion}. But the girls didn''t mind because they also got my {Kismet}.


    I currently have four. {Limitless}, {EXA}, {Armory}, and {Bestow}. I also had slots for six more. Although I personally didn''t know if I would ever need them. For one thing, {Program} was so powerful that it allowed almost {Kismet}-like abilities.


    "ARGH! Alicia! Get back!"


    "VINCENT NO! LIMITLESS! HELP US! YOU CAN KILL THESE ZOMBIES, RIGHT?"


    Again, Vincent was bitten. This time a Bigfoot tore off a chunk of his thigh. It was because he mistakenly thought it was dead when he shot it in the head.


    He missed and did not confirm the kill. Fighting while protecting Alicia was really hard, despite the fact that Vincent was a good shot.


    "Kitten, aren''t these zombies too smart? They pretend to be dead, hold Vincent down and dodge gunshots. Are you doing this?"


    "Ya, I''m controlling them with [Whisper]. It is part of the nut job''s {Listen} homework. It''s hard, but I still like this better than {Code} homework."


    "You girls have homework? About {Fates}? What does that mean?"


    "Yeah, we didn''t get the downloads for each other''s abilities after all. And the ggers didn''t want to help each other. But it would be difficult if the Sirens couldn''t use {Limitless}. We agreed to meet in the middle. The JAV reject suggested that we be each other''s teachers instead."


    "But... why? And why do you call everyone like that?"


    "Ah, those are the usernames we use to punish each other. Possum, you knew that the ggers and I were nning to kill each other, right? At least before the honeymoon."


    Remembering the vile battle ns the girls had for each other, my mood soured. Annoyed, I yfully bit Robyn''s earlobe as punishment.


    "I did. I''m still upset about it," Iined.


    "Ahh! I said I was sorry, Possum!"


    It really was something that made me furious. Six of my girls had made ns to kill the others. Jo and Jas made ns together, of course. But the shit they all came up with was beyond horrible.


    There were straightforward ones, like teleporting people to the bottom of the ocean or into space. Evil ones like using living rtives as bait or slowly poisoning each other. To the really fucked up ones, like backstabbing each other while fighting in Hellsgate.


    Liv was the only one who didn''t consider doing anything. Which made me love her even more. She was also the only one who tried to take care of everyone like a sister. I gave her a lot of loving as a reward.


    As for the other six, I gave them a single ultimatum.


    "If any of you try to kill each other and I find out, never show your face to me again."


    The terror I felt from the girls that day was unbelievable. It surpassed what I felt from them when we fought Andromalius. It seemed they finally understood how serious I was.


    ''I hope they never think of something like that ever again,'' I sincerely prayed.


    "Anyway, go on with what you were saying, kitten. What is this homework thing?"


    "Oh, it''s something the Sirens do to mess with each other. We don''t teach, we give each other assignments. We have a point system that determines who gets to do things with you."


    "I''m the prize? Why didn''t anyone tell me?"


    "Well, it was supposed to start that way. But eventually the ggers just wanted to outdo each other, so it became more about bragging rights."


    It was quite fascinating. The Sirens would have minipetitions to beat each other. It was a proven fact that having rivals allowed athletes to grow faster than if they were alone.


    How much faster would they grow because of this setup?


    "Does that mean you give {Carry} assignments, too?"


    "Yep.''"


    "Would you mind telling me what they are? Do I get a reward forpleting them?"


    "Sure, why not. So far, no one has managed to do both of my assignments. One is to use {Crush} to tten a nut ced under a cup. If you break the cup, you fail. The other is to stay in the air for more than twelve minutes while carrying two cars."


    "..."


    I tried to use {Crush} before, it was incredibly tiring and was like carrying a shovel the size of Texas. Gravity would cause you to m the thing to the ground. How the hell would you even control it to hit a nut without breaking a cup?


    And {Ascend} required you to keep running through the air. {Hike} eliminated air resistance and reduced drag, but carrying a car would slow anyone down. {Pack} and {Carry} had inherent limits after all.


    Find adventures at empire


    ''I couldn''t even carry one car, and they were carrying two? In the air? For twelve fucking minutes? What the hell were my girls doing? ''


    "Who''s in the lead right now? In the Siren rankings, I mean?"


    "The rankings change all the time. Liv, Jo and Aki absorb everything that uses the body really fast. But Be, Lilly and Jas finish everything that requires brains in a few hours. They are too damn smart! I-I''m actually in the bottom three. I beat them at some things, so I am not alwaysst".


    Somehow, I heard the sadness in Robyn''s voice.


    In the short time I had known her, her speech and thought patterns had be increasingly intelligent. I wasn''t sure if it was because of {Code}, but I knew that my She was working hard, not just for herself, but for me.


    She was not only the youngest of my girls, but also one of those who did not go to school. So, keeping up with Descendants was amazing by any standard. But she felt it was not enough.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    I sent her feelings of how proud I was of her. Then I hugged her closer as I whispered, "That''s okay, kitten, you are already doing incredibly well. Even better than I could. I am so proud of you."


    "I know, but it still sucks to be at the bottom. I struggle with hacking, space magic, and the niggerette''s battle irvoyance bullshit. "


    "W-what? Can you exin that? I don''t get it," I stammered back.