Ten minutes later, the session finally concluded, leaving the pavilion air thick with the heavy scent of their combined heat.

Hana lay back against the cushions, her white nanofiber dress slightly damp but completely intact as her system interface quietly updated her balance.

> [BOND QUEST NURTURED: JOINT SESSION COMPLETE]

> Reward: +15,000 Karmic Points.

> Current Balance: -597,880 Karmic Points.

Hana swiped the blue screen away, her breathing finally slowing down to a normal pace. She had no idea the system would reward her for sleeping with them when it wasn’t the designated two days.

Well, it didn’t matter. She was almost out of debt so she wouldn’t have to be worried about compulsively sleeping with them every two days either.

She would only do it if she felt like it.

She sat up and adjusted her tactical harness over her chest, anchoring the stun gun to her thigh like someone who had not just been defiled in all holes.

After Caspian took over for his second round, Kulu ended up fucking her mouth. He was so big that she could feel her jaw slightly slacked and the corner of her mouth felt sore, but it would heal up soon so it was fine.

Her belly felt warm, the dull ache completely gone, replaced by a surge of renewed energy.

Yeah, she definitely needed to go wild once in a while.

"We need to head out soon. We spent twenty five minutes already," Hana said, her voice dropping right back into that flat, clinical business tone as she checked her tablet.

She was glad they didn’t take up an hour.

"Clean yourselves up. Raiden’s grandfather should be waiting for us in the courtyard, and I don’t plan on keeping him waiting for much longer."

She turned to them, looking at their thoroughly drained forms. They definitely came to their fill.

"Come on, don’t dilly dally," she said to them and Caspian got up.

"Yes, Hana. I’ll get dressed now."

Seven minutes later, they stepped out into the main courtyard, the crisp morning air cutting through the lingering heat of their skin.

The scene was already set. The six red-tailed elders stood on the white granite steps, their arms tucked into their silk sleeves, their expressions full of contempt from this morning stunt that they definitely heard and hidden anticipation for what was to come.

Celene stood slightly behind them, her face still pale from the double trauma of last night and this morning, her green eyes fixed on Caspian with a mixture of fear and venom.

And at the center, sitting on a temporary stone chair brought out from the hall, was His Imperial Excellency, Lord Kaelen. His pristine white fur gleamed under the morning sun, his eleven red-tipped tails resting in a perfectly still fan behind him.

He looked at Hana as she approached, a slow, condescending curve touching his old lips.

"The sun has risen, human," Lord Kaelen’s deep baritone echoed across the silent courtyard. "The spires are waiting. Let us see if you truly hold the key to the ancestral shrines, or if your dragon must begin shedding his pride."

Hana didn’t even look at his face. She walked right past the assembly, her boots crunching on the gravel as she stopped precisely between the two massive, rectangular metal structures of the Aegis Bunkers.

Up close, the weathered alloy was cold, covered in thick green vines and dents that the foxes had spent generations trying to pick apart for scraps.

A system window opened up in front of her.

> [BUNKER: AEGIS SUB-STATION 03]

> Status: Locked.

> Security: Biometric/Voice Encryption Active.

Glad it’s not like the one we found at the Red cliff. This one doesn’t need a core to initiate. I can work with this.

"Stand back," Hana said flatly to her men, her lips curving into a sharp, superior smirk as she looked at the heavy pneumatic doors. "I’m about to work my magic."

Just then...

Clink. Rolllll.

A small, metallic canister bounded across the gravel courtyard, ricocheting off the base of the stone stairs before coming to a hard stop right at her feet.

Hana looked down, her dark eyes widening in genuine surprise as her old-world knowledge instantly recognized the sleek, charcoal-plated shell.

A smoke grenade?

Pshhhhhh!

Before she could even yell a warning to her men, the canister exploded with a sharp hiss, spewing a thick, suffocating cloud of dense white chemical smoke across the courtyard.

Within seconds, the morning sun was completely choked out. The white stone walls, the grand platforms, and the massive metal bunkers vanished into a blinding fog.

Hana’s breath hitched. She took a step back, her hand instantly snapping to the grip of her stun gun as she coughed against the acrid air. Where? How? How did a primitive faction get their hands on standard-issue military ordnance when they hadn’t opened the bunkers yet?

Before her brain could even calculate the coordinates of the thrower, a harsh, crimson error screen fractured across her vision.

> [CRITICAL INTERFERENCE DETECTED: UNREGISTERED GARRISON IMPACT]

> Quest Status: INDEFINITE PAUSE.

> Current Progress: Locked at 55%.

> System Warning: Mainframe integration cannot proceed while there is obstruction from a secondary hostile faction.

Hana’s jaw clenched, a surge of pure fury rippling through her chest.

No, no, no! she screamed internally, her fingers violently tapping the system screen to override the notification of something but nothing happened. You can’t just put an indefinite stop to the mission! I am literally seconds away from opening the bunker! Override it!

The quest was almost done. Once she opened these heavy alloy doors, she just had to display her absolute dominance, override the old fox’s ancestral claim, and collect the half-million payout.

That massive chunk of points would finally wipe out her astronomical deficit, leaving her system debt down to a measly hundred points. No, it wasn’t even up to a hundred anymore. It was just ninety-seven thousand, eight hundred and eighty points she had to pay afterwards.

She was right at the finish line. The system couldn’t just freeze the quest now.