Yvonne had gone in front to scout out so it was just Greg, Giana and I are heading toward the village. Nothing seemed off to my eyes. The villagers seemed alive and acting relatively normally. But as I’ve discovered, I’m blind to charm most of the time.

  Giana linked us up.

  That’s a lot of pink. Isn’t it supposed to only stick to whoever the charm user likes?

  “Not always, it can be attached to increase the effectiveness of charm-based attacks.”

  We entered the village and the pink energy was visible even without Giana’s aid. Something bothered me though… what happened to Yv?

  Deca, I can’t find Yv…

  Giana looked around, but she couldn’t find her either.

  They don’t seem to be acting strange. I also don’t sense any hostility.

  Shit! I forgot something!

  I opened the filter to see the dimensional fabric but no dimensional island. We didn’t wander into a fairy nest. The absence of peculiar sounds should have been an indication, but they can hide it.

  I sent out a shadow clone to look for Yv, but he instantly dispelled himself.

  “There is too much residual charm in this area, whoever did this has been doing this for a long time.” Giana attempted to counteract it, but to no avail.

  How long do I have if I separate from you?

  “Deca, don’t! What if you also become charmed?!”

  We can’t leave Yv behind!

  Ahum… I will look for Yvonne. Don’t do anything reckless. I last felt her presence in this approximate direction.

  Greg put on his [Shadow Cloak] and went to look for Yvonne. Giana and I high-fived after Greg was out of sight and earshot.

  Let’s hope that goes somewhere, I hope that Yv is ok, but if she did this to make Greg look for her then she deserves a gold star!

  “Yeah… her disappearance is concerning… and the answer is 32 minutes.”

  Huh?

  “You are at risk if I don’t pour charm magic into you for 32 minutes, please don’t leave my side. I don’t want to fight the ‘charmed’ you, for more than one reason…”

  Heh, the Nightmare Dungeon roughed you up, didn’t it?

  Giana squeezed my arm, and we continued walking through the village. We struck some conversations, but they seemed fine. I did notice that there seemed to be people here from various places. Few looked similar enough to come from the same region. The diversity rivaled Gittrian, besides everyone being human.

  And then out of nowhere a girl of 15 or 16 appeared.

  “Hey, there, have you come here to become my siblings?”

  Ugh another one of these, is this an epidemic or something. I’m sorry I have more siblings now than my mother gave me...

  “Are you sure? You don’t want to become my big brother?”

  I wanted to respond but Giana pulled me back. “Deca, we’ve found the charm user…”

  “How about you? You would make for a wonderful big sister.” The girl said with an unnerving smile.

  Humans with charm magic? And this strong?

  “It’s more common than you think. My mother had made a hypothesis about this phenomenon but she was unsure of how true it was….”

  We slowly stepped back as the villagers started to gather around us, saying something like. ‘Become our siblings’ or ‘You’re making our little sister sad!’

  Wait, charm magic can do this too? It’s not only for sexual attraction?

  “Charm magic can do much more than that.” Giana said while flinging charm magic at the girl and pouring more into me.

  So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how smart would it be to use frost magic here?

  “With this amount? 0, maybe -3.” Giana started singing, and the villagers backed off while clutching their heads.

  “I have no need for those who don’t want to become my little brother or sisters! Get them big brothers and sisters!” The girl's charm magic flared, and the whole village got into motion.

  I held up a [Fireball] and they backed off due to the heat.

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  Not quite zombies but that doesn’t change your weakness to fire, right?

  “Ohh how strong! I’ve changed my mind. How about you become my favorite older brother?”

  I felt a strange tug, and it caused my [Fireball] to drop. Some villagers got scorched and 2 died, but it wasn’t a great situation for us.

  Ugh, they should call it ‘Brainwash Magic’.

  “Hey rude!” Giana took out all her tails and the girl backed off and showed terror. “You have forced my hand, Anything you want to say before I dissolve your family?”

  Wow Deca, how brutal, she’s just a girl…

  That earned me a charm blast.

  “What… how! How is there anyone with better charm magic than me?! All I wanted was a big family!” The face of the girl contorted due to her emotions. “All I want is for someone to say ‘Good job, little sister’! Is that too much to ask?!”

  “You are ripping already existing families apart, but more important you’re attempting to steal someone who’s dear to me, either cease this or start anew, I don’t care.” Giana blasted the whole village with a charm nuke and then dispelled the [Charmed] state on anyone besides me.

  My body didn’t want to listen and I embraced Giana.

  “Oh, Darling, I knew you were weak to charm magic, but this is quite severe, you should have been immune to that after I poured that much charm into you. How about we show her how a family is really made?” Giana’s eyes turned pink purple, and she made the motion to strip her top when waves of shadows washed over us.

  I come back and what do I find? Agnis about to get devoured by our healer? What in Hourai is going on here?

  Greg [Shadow Melded] me away from Giana and [Shadow Bound] me as he noticed that I was still drawn to Giana.

  I see… that you found Yv…

  I had to knock her out as she wanted me to become some stranger’s big brother… what is going on?

  Almost passing out, fighting against brainwash magic… Giana is going out of control.

  How do we stop it?

  Greg blocked another wave of charm magic with [Shadow Wall]

  Knock me out.

  I mean her! I doubt that the situation would get better if I knock you out!

  “Come on, Deca, let me have a taste.” Giana started dancing, created jellyfish and continued flinging charm attacks while the jellyfish barraged Greg’s walls and managed to splash water on him.

  I’m a bad match against water, we’re lucky that the attack power is low…

  Greg body blocked a charm blast aimed at me and I started my MVP, [Blood and Thunder].

  Also Is it me or did her personality change a bit?

  It didn’t change, her self-control went out of the window, just imagine how I would act if I throw my self-control out of the window, this is the vixen equivalent.

  So, the men burn cities and countries and the women charm cities and countries?

  Pretty much…

  I swapped myself with a random villager who became Giana’s slave after getting hit.

  “Bring him to me unharmed.” Giana started a magic circle that I couldn’t recognize. It was in exotic runes and I bet my tails that it’s attribute is charm magic.

  Greg, I’m done for, take Yv and run!

  Are you insane?! I can’t leave you behind!

  He [Shadow bound] me again.

  I suppose Nilah can’t help out.

  Are you crazy? You want to fight Giana and Nilah?

  Right… can we run?

  My [Ice wall] got blasted, I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t defend as my defensive options suck, especially against skilled water users like Giana.

  “Greg, I have a special edition of the Gittrian Encyclopedia. It’s the 3 rd press, which only has 14 copies.” Giana said as she pulled a thick book out of her cleavage and showed the pages to Greg and flipped through it. I assume she’s abusing his 3x reading speed buff.

  That! How! Ugh…

  Greg, just take it and run!

  What will happen to you?

  Dunno but what will happen when Yv wakes up? she’s quite pink…

  I gestured toward Yv who was still passed out and quite pink from the bullshit Giana was throwing around. I slipped the charmed villagers and froze their butts to the floor. Giana started to blast the [Frozen Ground] as I had used frost magic.

  Uh oh…

  My focus waned, and inappropriate thoughts started flooding my head. Would Nilah be able to help here? Is this what she tried to warn me about? But fighting her and Giana will be impossible.

  I took Nilah out of my dimensional pocket and turned her into her fox form. She went to her original size and encased me with her body and tails as my consciousness waned.

  follow if the story is interesting enough.

  Ayaru Mistflower