Day 130 Post-Impact
The terrain changed as they climbed.
The lush jungle gave way to rocky slopes covered in hardy vegetation that clung to volcanic soil. Steam vents hissed between boulders, releasing sulfurous plumes that made Jiyeon gag and even Elena wrinkle her nose in distaste. The air grew warmer despite the altitude, heat rising from the earth itself like the land was breathing.
"Geothermal activity is increasing," Yuki reported, her tablet displaying temperature gradients that shifted from green to orange to red. Ice crystals formed around her hands as she automatically compensated for the rising heat. "We're entering the volcanic zone proper. The caldera should be visible from the next ridge."
"Is this going to be a problem for the ritual?" Jiyeon asked, picking her way carefully across a stretch of unstable-looking ground.
"Actually, no. The thermal energy will help power the Covenant binding. The original Seal Wardens chose volcanic sites specifically because the natural power amplifies ritual effects." Yuki paused to take another reading. "It's elegant, really. Using the earth's own energy to reinforce magical constraints."
The next ridge nearly killed them.
The ground shook without warning, a tremor that sent rocks cascading down the slope in a deadly avalanche. Elena grabbed Sarnav and shadow-stepped them both to stable footing just as the ground they'd been standing on crumbled away. Jade caught a boulder with a desperate surge of telekinetic force she didn't know she had, redirecting it away from Jiyeon's head. Jiyeon's charm flared, somehow convincing the mountainside that they weren't worth burying.
Yuki simply froze the ground beneath her feet and rode out the quake on a platform of ice, her scientific mind too focused on analyzing the seismic data to panic properly.
"Everyone okay?" Sarnav called when the shaking stopped, his heart still pounding from the close call.
Confirmations came back, shaky but alive. They'd been lucky. A few feet to the left and half the team would have gone over the edge into a crevasse that hadn't existed thirty seconds ago.
"The entity's power is destabilizing the local geology," Jade said, checking her equipment for damage. Her purple-streaked hair was full of dust and her hands were trembling slightly. "Or maybe stabilizing it. Hard to tell. Either way, the closer we get, the more... reactive everything becomes."
"It knows we're here," Elena said quietly, her shadows probing ahead for more danger. "The land is responding to our presence."
They crested the ridge an hour later, and there it was.
The volcanic caldera spread before them, a massive bowl of black rock and bubbling hot springs, with a dormant cone rising at its center like the broken crown of some ancient god. Ancient structures dotted the landscape - ruins of a civilization that had worshipped or feared or simply coexisted with the entity for millennia before the original Seal Wardens came. Temples and observatories and structures with no clear purpose, all built from volcanic stone that seemed to pulse with inner light.
And at the heart of it all, waiting, the entity's presence hung like a weight in the air. Not threatening. Expectant. A patient consciousness that had waited three thousand years for this moment.
"It's beautiful," Yuki breathed, her scientific mind already cataloging a thousand questions.
"It's dangerous," Elena countered, her shadows reaching out to probe the distant structures.
"It's home," Jiyeon said softly. "Or it was, for thousands of years. Before they locked it away."
"Tomorrow," Sarnav said, feeling the entity's attention settle on him like a physical touch. "We arrive tomorrow. Rest tonight. We'll need our strength for what comes next."
Jade had set up her surveillance relay on a rocky outcrop overlooking the camp.
The signal was weak this far from Harmony, but she'd managed to establish a connection through a chain of drone repeaters she'd been deploying throughout their journey. Now she sat alone in the darkness, her pale face illuminated by holographic displays showing feeds from home. Multiple screens floated around her, each showing a different angle of the settlement they'd left behind.
Sarnav found her there three hours into the night watch.
"You should be sleeping," he said, climbing up to her position. The rock was treacherous in the darkness, but he'd learned to navigate worse terrain over the past few days.
"I'm fine." She didn't look away from her screens, her fingers dancing across holographic keyboards as she adjusted signal parameters. "Someone needs to maintain the relay. The signal degrades if I don't monitor the handshake protocols constantly. The ambient energy interference from the caldera is making everything unstable."
"You've been up here every night since we left."
"So? That's my job. Intelligence. Surveillance. Making sure we're not walking into a trap and making sure the people we left behind aren't being attacked while we're gone."
"Jade."
"What?" She finally turned to face him, her dark eyes flashing with irritation behind the glow of her displays. Purple streaks in her black hair caught the light, and he noticed dark circles under her eyes that her makeup couldn't quite conceal. "What do you want me to say? That I miss them? That I've been watching Nisha help in the medical bay and Zara run drills and Minji pretend she's not scared by streaming games at 3 AM? That I feel guilty for being here while they're there, potentially in danger?"
"Something like that, yeah."
"Well I don't. I don't feel anything. I'm a cold, antisocial hacker who doesn't care about anyone or anything except data and systems." Her voice cracked slightly on the last word, betraying the lie. "So go away and let me work. I have signal degradation to compensate for."
He didn't go away. Instead, he sat down beside her on the cold stone, close enough that their shoulders touched. She stiffened but didn't pull away.
"You're a terrible liar, Jade. Always have been."
"Diu." The Cantonese curse was half-hearted, lacking its usual venom. "I hate you."
"I know."
"I hate that you see through me. I hate that you make me feel things I spent years learning not to feel. I built walls for a reason, Sarnav. Good walls. Walls that kept me safe when everyone else was dying or betraying each other." She was trembling now, though whether from the cold night air or suppressed emotion he couldn't tell. "I hate that I care about those idiots back at Harmony. I hate that I care about the other wives. I hate that I care about you most of all."
"Jade-"
She kissed him before he could finish, hard and angry and desperate. Her hands fisted in his shirt, pulling him closer with surprising strength, her teeth catching his lip hard enough to draw blood. The holographic displays flickered and died as her concentration shattered, plunging them into darkness lit only by distant volcanic vents and starlight.
"Shut up," she growled against his mouth, tasting copper. "Just shut up and fuck me. I don't want to talk about feelings. I want to forget I have them. I want you to make me forget everything except how good your cock feels inside me."
He pushed her down onto the rocky outcrop, not gently. She wanted rough? He'd give her rough. His hands tore at her clothes while she clawed at his, both of them stripping with frantic urgency that spoke of desperation rather than seduction.
Her body was pale porcelain in the starlight, her 34DD breasts heaving as she caught her breath. The purple streaks in her hair spread across the stone beneath her. Her dark eye makeup was already smearing.
"You're beautiful," he said.
"Don't say that. Say something mean. Call me a bitch."
"You're a beautiful bitch who cares too much and hides it behind sarcasm."
"I said mean, not accurate." But she was pulling him down onto her, spreading her legs to accommodate him. "Just fuck me already. Make me stop thinking."
He thrust into her without preamble, and she screamed into the night air. Her pussy was tight and wet, her body welcoming him even as her mouth spat curses. The surveillance feeds flickered and died as her concentration shattered, but neither of them cared.
"Yes! Harder! Make it hurt, you bastard!"
He fucked her on the rocky ground, one hand pinning her wrists above her head, the other gripping her hip hard enough to leave bruises. The stone beneath them was uncomfortable, unforgiving, and she didn't care. She wrapped her legs around him, pulling him deeper, her nails raking down his back and drawing blood.
"That's it, scratch me," he growled into her ear. "Mark me like I'm marking you."
"You're mine," she hissed, her nails digging deeper into his flesh. "Mine, you idiot. I don't share well but I have to share you with ten other women and I hate it and I love it and I need you to fuck me harder!"
He obliged, driving into her with punishing force that made her 34DD breasts bounce with each impact. The sound of their bodies meeting echoed off the rocks, accompanied by her increasingly desperate cries. Her tsundere mask had completely shattered, leaving only raw need and honest emotion.
"Diu! Right there! Your cock is so deep, I can feel you in my stomach!"
"You love it."
"I hate that I love it! I hate that you make me feel this good!" But she was clinging to him, pulling him closer, her pussy clenching around him with every thrust. "Don't stop, don't you dare stop!"
"Wouldn't dream of it."
He changed his angle, hitting deeper, and she screamed again. Her pale skin was flushed pink now, sweat glistening despite the cool night air. Her dark eye makeup was completely ruined, running down her cheeks, making her look wild and debauched.
"I'm going to cum," she gasped. "You're going to make me cum on this stupid rock in the middle of nowhere and I hate you for it!"
"Cum for me, Jade. Let go."
She came with a scream that probably woke the entire camp, her pussy clamping down on him, her nails scoring bloody tracks down his shoulders and back. Her whole body convulsed as pleasure overwhelmed her, Cantonese curses spilling from her lips in an incoherent stream.
"Sei yan! Still cumming! Your cock is making me- diu, I can't stop cumming-!"
The sight and sound of her losing control pushed him over the edge. He buried himself deep and came, filling her while she continued to shake through the aftershocks.
They lay tangled together on the uncomfortable rock, both breathing hard, both covered in scratches and developing bruises. Below them, the camp remained quiet - either everyone had slept through Jade's screaming, or they were politely pretending they had.
"I still hate you," she mumbled against his chest, her voice soft and satisfied.
"I know."
"I hate that I love you. I hate that you make me feel things."
"I know that too."
She was quiet for a moment, her fingers tracing idle patterns on his skin. Then, softly: "They're okay. The feeds showed everyone safe before I... got distracted. Zara's running things well. Nisha's been helping in medical. Minji's keeping morale up with her gaming streams. They'll be fine until we get back."
"Good."
"I'm still not admitting I was worried about them."
"Wouldn't expect you to."
She snorted, something almost like a laugh, her tsundere mask slowly reassembling itself. "Idiot."
"Your idiot."
"...Yeah." She pressed a kiss to his chest, surprisingly gentle. "My idiot. Now go to sleep. We've got a god to negotiate with tomorrow, and I refuse to let you look exhausted while doing it."
Dawn broke over the caldera, painting the volcanic landscape in shades of gold and red. Tomorrow they would descend into the entity's domain and perform a ritual that hadn't been attempted in three thousand years.
But tonight, surrounded by his wives, Sarnav felt ready for whatever came next.
[HARMONY POINTS: +850][BOND WITH JADE WONG: DEEPENED][JADE WONG: C+ → B- ADVANCEMENT][DIGITAL MANIPULATION: ENHANCED - EMOTIONAL INTEGRATION]
[DAY 130]
[SARNAV: S-RANK (HARMONY SOVEREIGN - FIRST STAGE)][PROGRESS TO SECOND STAGE: 52%]
[WIFE CULTIVATION STATUS][1. NISHA - C+ | 2. ISHANI - C+ | 3. ANANYA - C+][4. MINJI - C | 5. JADE - B- | 6. SANA - B-][7. JIYEON - C+ | 8. SERENA - B- | 9. ZARA - B-][10. ELENA - S | 11. YUKI - C-]
[EXPEDITION STATUS: DAY 3 COMPLETE][LOCATION: 75% TO VOLCANIC CALDERA][CALDERA SIGHTED - ARRIVAL TOMORROW][TEAM CONDITION: ALL HEALTHY]
[SEAL INTEGRITY: 90.0%]
[WIVES BONDED: 11/32]