Day 128 Post-Impact
They departed at dawn.
The gates of Harmony stood open behind them as the expedition team gathered in the pale morning light. Five people - Sarnav, Elena, Yuki, Jade, and Jiyeon - each carrying supplies for an eight-day journey into territory none of them had explored since the Impact.
The wives who remained had gathered to see them off. Nisha pressed a kiss to Sarnav's cheek, her nature magic leaving the faint scent of flowers on his skin. Sana held him tight for a long moment, her holy light warming him against the morning chill. Ishani punched his shoulder with athletic casualness that didn't quite hide her worry.
"Bring them back safe," Zara said, her soldier's composure firmly in place. "All of them."
"I will."
Mythili stood at the edge of the group, watching. She'd said her goodbye the night before - brief, formal, her eyes holding things she couldn't voice. Now she simply nodded, trusting him to understand.
Meera stood beside her, one hand on Mythili's arm in silent support. The knowing look she gave Sarnav promised conversations to come when he returned.
"The entity is already moving," Jade reported, her eyes flickering with data feeds from surveillance drones she'd sent ahead. "Maintaining distance but tracking parallel to our route. It'll meet us at the caldera as agreed."
"Then let's move."
The jungle had changed since the Impact.
What had once been managed forest and plantation land had exploded into something older, wilder. Trees grew impossibly tall, their canopies blocking the sun in places, creating a perpetual twilight beneath. Vines thick as a man's arm hung between branches, some of them pulsing with faint bioluminescence. The air itself felt different - charged with ambient energy that made Yuki's ice crystals form and dissipate unconsciously around her hands.
"Mutation rate is significant," Yuki observed, taking readings on her tablet as they walked. Ice crackled around her fingers as her powers responded to the heightened energy in the environment. "The ambient energy levels here are three times what we recorded near Harmony. The entity's presence must have been affecting local evolution for years, perhaps decades, before it fully awakened."
"Meaning everything in here has had time to adapt," Jade added, her purple-streaked hair catching on a low branch. She pushed it aside irritably. "Perfect."
"Great," Jiyeon muttered, her idol's composure strained by the humidity and the constant press of vegetation against her designer hiking clothes. She'd refused to wear anything "peasant" despite Elena's practical suggestions. "Mutant jungle. Super-powered plants. My absolute favorite way to spend a week."
"Stay alert," Elena said from the front of the group. Her platinum blonde hair was tied back in a tactical ponytail, her cold blue eyes constantly scanning the undergrowth. Shadows flickered at the edges of her vision, her power reaching out to probe every potential threat in a thirty-meter radius. "This isn't just wilderness anymore. It's awakened territory. Everything here is stronger, faster, and smarter than it should be."
"How comforting," Jiyeon muttered.
They encountered their first real danger three hours in.
The creature had once been a tiger - or something like one. Now it was twice the size, its stripes pulsing with bioluminescent energy, its eyes showing far too much intelligence for a simple predator. It watched them from the undergrowth, muscles coiled beneath mutated fur that seemed to shimmer between visible and invisible.
Elena's shadows coiled around her, ready to strike at a moment's notice. Jiyeon's charm ability flickered to life, attempting to soothe the beast's hunting instincts. Yuki's temperature dropped the air around them, frost forming on nearby leaves as she prepared a defensive barrier.
Sarnav stepped forward slowly, one hand raised.
The tiger-thing stared at him for a long moment, those too-intelligent eyes examining him with something that might have been recognition. Its nostrils flared, scenting something beyond the physical. Then, slowly, deliberately, it dipped its massive head in what could only be called acknowledgment before turning and vanishing into the jungle.
"It recognized him," Jade said quietly, checking her surveillance feeds for any sign of other predators. "Or recognized what he is. Seal Warden bloodline must mean something out here. Maybe the entity's influence has spread further than we thought."
"Let's hope everything in this jungle is that respectful," Jiyeon said, her voice shaky despite her best efforts to sound casual. Her charm ability faded as the threat passed. "Because I really don't want to test my powers against mutant super-tigers."
They made camp as the sun began to set, finding a defensible position near a small stream where a rocky outcropping provided natural shelter on one side. Jade set up a perimeter of surveillance drones, their quiet hum blending with the jungle sounds. Yuki created ice barriers at key approach points, crystalline walls that would shatter loudly if anything tried to breach them. Jiyeon used her charm to discourage wildlife from investigating their camp, projecting an aura of "nothing interesting here."
Elena took first watch, positioning herself on a rock with clear sightlines in every direction.
He found her three hours later, perched on a rock overlooking the camp.
The moons had risen - two of them now, since the Impact had done something strange to the sky - and their light turned Elena's platinum hair to silver. She didn't turn as he approached, but her shadows relaxed slightly, recognizing him.
"You should be sleeping," she said.
"So should you. Jade can monitor the drones."
"Jade isn't S-rank. If something attacks-"
"Then we'll handle it together." He sat beside her on the rock, close enough that their shoulders touched. "You've been wound tight all day. Even for you."
She was quiet for a moment. When she spoke, her voice was softer than usual. "I don't like this. Being away from Harmony. Away from controlled territory." Her jaw tightened. "Away from places I can guarantee your safety."
"You can't always protect me, Elena."
"I can try." She finally turned to look at him, her ice blue eyes holding something vulnerable beneath the cold. "Before you, I had nothing worth protecting. Nothing worth dying for. Now..." She shook her head. "If something happened to you out here, I would burn this entire jungle to ash."
"Romantic."
"I'm not joking."
"I know." He cupped her face, thumb tracing the small scar on her cheek. "That's what makes it romantic."
She kissed him - not the aggressive claiming of their usual encounters, but something softer. Desperate in a different way. When she pulled back, her composure had cracked entirely.
"I need you," she whispered. "Not rough. Not fighting. Just... I need to feel you. To know you're here and alive and mine."
"Then come here."
He pulled her into the tent, sealing the flap behind them. The space was cramped - barely room for two - but neither of them minded. They undressed each other slowly, her pale skin luminous in the filtered moonlight, her 36DD breasts heavy in his hands as he freed them from her tactical top.
"Quietly," she breathed against his lips. "The others are close."
"I know."
He laid her down on the bedroll, covering her body with his. She wrapped around him immediately - legs around his waist, arms around his shoulders, pulling him close like she could absorb him through her skin.
"Moy Sarnav," she murmured as he positioned himself at her entrance. My Sarnav. "Mine. Only mine."
"Yours."
He pushed inside her slowly, feeling her gasp against his neck. No roughness tonight. No CNC games. Just connection - deep and intimate and achingly tender. Her pussy welcomed him, slick and warm, her walls gripping him as he sank deeper.
"Da," she breathed as he began to move. "Da, just like that. Slow. I want to feel every inch of you inside me."
He made love to her in the darkness of the tent, the sounds of the jungle surrounding them, the distant calls of mutated wildlife a reminder of the dangers outside. But in here, there was only the two of them. Only the slide of skin on skin, the soft Russian endearments spilling from her lips, the way her pussy gripped him like she never wanted to let go.
Her 36DD breasts pressed against his chest as she pulled him closer, her nipples hard points of sensation against his skin. He kissed her deeply, swallowing her soft moans, feeling her hips roll up to meet his slow thrusts.
"Deeper," she whispered. "I need more. I need all of you."
He obliged, changing his angle to press deeper inside her. She bit her lip to stifle a cry, her pale skin flushing in the moonlight that filtered through the tent fabric. Her scars stood out against her skin - reminders of the violence she'd survived, the danger she'd faced. Now she was his. Soft and vulnerable and desperate for him.
"I love you," she whispered, and he knew what it cost her to say it. Elena didn't do vulnerability. Didn't do softness. But here, now, with him inside her and the weight of the mission pressing down - she gave him everything. "I love you and I will kill anything that tries to take you from me."
"I love you too." He thrust deeper, feeling her shudder, her pussy clenching around him. "My beautiful, deadly Elena. My assassin."
"Yours," she agreed, her voice breaking. "Only yours. Forever yours."
She came quietly, biting his shoulder to muffle her cry, her body convulsing around him in waves. Her shadows flickered wildly for a moment, tendrils of darkness caressing their intertwined bodies before she regained control, pulling them back before they could wake the others.
He followed her over the edge, spilling inside her while she held him tight, her legs locked around him, her breath hot against his ear.
"Spasibo," she whispered afterward, her voice soft against his skin. Thank you. "I needed that. Needed you. Needed to feel something other than fear."
"You were afraid?"
"Terrified." The admission cost her. "Not of the jungle. Not of the creatures. Of losing you. Of failing to protect you. Of this being the mission where my luck runs out."
"We'll make it through. Together."
"Together." She pressed a kiss to his chest, then another to the mark she'd left on his shoulder. "I like that word. I never liked it before you."
They lay tangled together in the cramped tent, her head on his chest, her fingers tracing the new scratches she'd left on his shoulders despite her best efforts at gentleness. Outside, the jungle continued its nocturnal symphony - calls and cries and rustling movement that reminded them how far from safety they'd traveled.
"Tomorrow will be harder," she said quietly. "We're moving deeper into awakened territory. More creatures. More dangers. The energy readings Yuki's taking suggest we'll hit the real mutation zone by midday."
"Then we face them together."
"Together." She smiled against his skin. "Get some sleep. I'll wake Jade for the next watch."
"Stay with me a little longer."
She did.
[HARMONY POINTS: +750][BOND WITH ELENA VOLKOV: DEEPENED][ELENA VOLKOV: S-RANK - RESONANCE STRENGTHENED][SHADOW ARTS: ENHANCED - PROTECTIVE ASPECT]
Dawn came with mist rising from the jungle floor, turning the world into a haze of green and grey. The team broke camp efficiently, Yuki's ice barriers dissolving as they prepared to move deeper into awakened territory.
Three more days to the caldera. Three more days of danger, discovery, and the unknown.
But they faced it together. And that made all the difference.
[DAY 128]
[SARNAV: S-RANK (HARMONY SOVEREIGN - FIRST STAGE)][PROGRESS TO SECOND STAGE: 48%]
[WIFE CULTIVATION STATUS][1. NISHA - C+ | 2. ISHANI - C+ | 3. ANANYA - C+][4. MINJI - C | 5. JADE - C+ | 6. SANA - B-][7. JIYEON - C+ | 8. SERENA - B- | 9. ZARA - B-][10. ELENA - S | 11. YUKI - D+]
[EXPEDITION STATUS: DAY 1 COMPLETE][LOCATION: 25% TO VOLCANIC CALDERA][TEAM CONDITION: ALL HEALTHY]
[SEAL INTEGRITY: 90.4%]
[WIVES BONDED: 11/32]