Michael snickered, glanced down at the enormous jungle and asked “Hmmm~, I don’t really remember having a girlfriend before I met you and Sarah? Are you sure I said that?

Elina grumbled “So you lied to me back then? But you seemed so serious about it when you told me…”

The Nephilim frowned, muttering “No… Wait, you’re right. Why couldn’t I remember something so important? But, no, yeah, I can’t really… What was her name? Did I ever tell you anything more than that?”

She murmured “You never told me her name but… Are your memory problems getting worse?”

“Um, maybe? I’ve been wondering for a while about that… I mean, it’s not like I even have a ‘brain’ at the moment, so how am I thinking? Elly, what if my ‘soul’ is being eroded or some shit like that? Is that kinda stuff possible? Hmmm, maybe I should be asking Arcana those kinds of questions, huh?” Michael smiled wryly, as he floated down to the peak of his relatively small mountain. The curious cat-girl followed closely behind him and landed a few seconds after he did.

Almost as if she were summoned, a nearly transparent elven woman slowly appeared before the two of them. Her face was blurry at first, but it quickly became visible. Elina frowned, though she was too nervous to actually say anything in the Goddess’ presence.

Arcana giggled, whispering “You wished to access information regarding Soul Degradation Syndrome, correct?”

Michael sighed, grumbling “It’s so common that it actually has a name… terrific! Is it anything like that whole Ressurection Sickness mental disability?”

The Goddess smirked, murmuring “SDS can be caused by dying too many times within the same universe… It can also occur when fusing with other souls. Hyper Spiritual Temporal Displacement is a symptom of Soul Degradation Syndrome as well as temporary or permanent memory loss. When multiple souls fuse into a single entity, there are many unfortunate side-effects…”

He complained “You’ve gotta be kidding me! Why didn’t you mention any of this before we did the whole yin-yang fusion technique? Aren’t there any ways to like, fix our problems? Maybe a magical super-awesome soul-mending sutra or something like that?”

Arcana was silent for a moment, before suggesting “Perhaps the seven of you should spend some time together? From my observations, I have discovered that you have a very unstable relationship. Each of you are attempting to maintain your individuality, when you need to fully merge together into one. It does not necessarily have to be permanent, but as you are now, I fear that there is little possibility of completing your mission. I have warned you several times now… You must awaken your true abilities before it is too late. There are nine ‘Seeds’, each of which will become extremely powerful when they have fully matured. It is important that you defeat them individually, rather than all at once… Either way would have the same effect, but the difficulty may be impossible.”

Michael crossed his arms and wondered “So~, what about all those people, animals, monsters and stuff in our Soul Realm? Is that like, harmful or dangerous in any way? Should we clear it out or collect more?”

The Goddess sighed, “Have I not gone over this problem with you before? Too much of anything is almost always unhealthy… Think of this world as if it were the body of a human. Every living creature in this reality can be considered as a parasite. Without any rules or regulations, such as my ‘System’, it is impossible to prevent those worms from feasting on the mana within your soul. It may be possible for them to consume or destroy any memories you possess as well. There are ways to create a ‘profitable’ symbiotic relationship between the life-forms that exist within your Soul Realm, but for now, I would suggest… cleansing yourselves. As long as the power that they now possess had originally belonged to you, it should be a simple matter to take it all back. However, if you decided to release them from your Soul Realm right now, you would be losing a considerable amount of mana and power…”

Elina nervously asked “Then… what will happen to their souls? If we really do um, ‘eat’ them, will their spirits be able to pass on properly?”

“Devouring souls requires time and patience that neither of you possess… I merely suggested that you should consume their physical forms and then send their spirits over to ‘me’.” Arcana had a sinister grin on her ethereal lips, as her pitch-black eyes seemed to pierce through the cat-girl’s mind.

Michael snickered, “Welp, I don’t really have a problem with that… I mean, it ain’t like I actually know any of these assholes, right? But~, we should probably leave something like this up to Inari…”

However, Elina immediately reprimanded “No! How can you even consider something like that… Wait a second, didn’t she just admit to us that she’s going to eat their souls?! Michael, did you know about this before?! How can you just, let her do this?!”

He grumbled “I don’t fucking know, maybe I’m a sociopath? Anyway, why the hell do you even give a shit about them Elly? Did you miss the part where she told us that our goddamn souls are ‘degrading’?! Besides, it’s not like she’s just gonna straight-up eat the bitches… It’s more like, they’ll live inside of her for a while and eventually, either become part of her ‘body’ or leave. Not everyone wants to live forever… Alright, enough talking! We need to actually do stuff! And by that, I meant let’s go have sex while our little foxy-friend is committing genocide!”

Without giving her a chance to continue arguing about it, Michael picked the angry kitten up and teleported the two of them into a luxurious bedroom within their ‘house’. There was a huge fluffy mattress, reminiscent of the one she had in their real home. After he laid her down onto the glowing blanket, he immediately pressed his lips onto hers and began grinding his entire body against her soft luminescent porcelain flesh.

As his hands were fondling her breasts and his groin was nearly interlocked with hers, the Nephilim suddenly pulled his face back. He stared into her reflective golden cat-like eyes and complimented “You know, you really are like an android, hahaha~! Don’t take it the wrong way, I actually think that’s really awesome!”

She pouted, flapping her wings and lifting the two of them a few meters into the air. Then she flipped him over and dug her silver fingernails into his chest, while riding on top of him. Elina complained “Then why does it always sound like you’re making fun of me? I’m not the same naive little girl that you saved all those years ago…”

Michael smirked, “Elly, you were like twenty-seven when we first met. Also, were you even a virgin technically? You and JJ did the kitty-titty meow-meow tango like a decade before I ever popped your golden angel cherry, hehehe~…”

***

Meanwhile, outside of their Soul Realm, an adorable green fennec fox was cuddling with Carly. The two of them were rocking in a comfortable hammock made out of soft, rubbery brown vines that were hanging from the fig tree’s enormous branches.

Inari was having a wonderful dream. She transformed into a gigantic dragon and soared through the skies of her jungle, devouring any flying beasts she encountered.

At one point, she played a game with Sarah called “War”, where one side would be an army of undead monstrosities and the other was her own tribe of shapeshifting Nature Vampires. She had originally started out with two of them, but they ‘mated’ and spawned a few dozen offspring. Over the centuries, their population had surpassed ten thousand. Fortunately, they had plenty of predators and with the occasional ‘games’ that the vixen and Death Elf would play, the Cummings Clan was always kept in check.

However, nothing lasts forever. During her ‘dream’, she saw Michael and he told her “Oi, Inari, ya can’t keep collecting all these fuckers! I’m sorry, but you need to get rid of all this shit… Not just the people, but the animals and plants, everything. Don’t give me those sad puppy-dog eyes! Listen, you can’t just kick em outta here either, okay? You need to eat the bastards! Everything including the trees and stuff, all of it needs to be consumed! Now be a good girl and clean up your mess.”

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