Dreadwolf, Lord of Runes

Once again, Kane found himself in his own soul world. The comfortable floating platform he'd created before was still there, so he quickly settled down comfortably and reached out through his bond with Mána.

It didn't take long.

"Master!" Mána exclaimed excitedly as soon as she appeared on the platform. As usual, a mischievous smirk hung on her lips, and her sensuous body was barely covered by a crimson halter top and flowing sarong.

She appeared a few steps away, but quickly closed the distance and deposited herself on Kane's lap, where she draped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips hungrily.

"I knew you wouldn't forget about my reward!" she grinned lustfully, confusing Kane for a moment.

But then he remembered.

'Right…' he groaned inwardly. 'I promised I'd reward her for training me, but then I disappeared when Luna was being taken away. Actually, I can't believe it's been less than a day since then. A lot has happened in a short time…'

He shook his head, focused back on the crimson woman in front of him, and sighed inwardly. 'I guess I might as well give her what she wants first. Not like I mind,' he decided.

Meanwhile, Mána kept looking at him with anticipation, and she wasn't disappointed. Kane snapped his fingers to make both of their clothes disappear, grabbed her by the waist, and instantly inserted himself. Fortunately, they were both ready.

Mána gasped and tightened her grip around his neck as her pussy spasmed. "Hnnaagh! Y— You brute!" she cursed, but then grinned widely. "More please!"

As the patron spirit of a wild species like the volfar, Mána was quite partial to rough and animalistic sex. Something that Kane was perfectly willing to provide.

About an hour later, Kane was once again seated in the same place, still naked, while Mána was splayed out in front of him, with her head on his lap. Fluids were leaking everywhere, and she carried a satisfied grin, while lazily lapping her tongue against the tip of his cock.

"Happy?" Kane asked her with a smirk. His left elbow was planted on his knee, while his head casually rested against his fist. His right hand lazily played with Mána's firm breasts.

"Very!" Mána chuckled while remaining in the same position. "So, since you had time for this, can I assume things are better where you are? You disappeared a little suddenly."

Kane nodded slowly. "Things are better, true. But events there have also raised a few more questions I need to ask you."

If any part of the crimson woman suspected this was the real reason he came here, rather than to reward her, she didn't show it. Instead, she disappeared from Kane's lap, before reappearing on a pillow in front of him.

"Then I suppose I'd better answer them, before my master decides to punish me," she grinned mischievously and winked.

Kane rolled his eyes, knowing perfectly well that Mána would enjoy such a thing immensely. But the important thing was for her to explain all these strange phenomena he'd encountered. Thus, he began telling her about everything that happened since he left their training.

Neither of them bothered to cover their naked bodies again.

When he was done, Mána stared at him with eyes wide in utter disbelief. "That's impossible!" she exclaimed in denial.

But Kane shrugged, "That's what I said, but Ella pointed out, very astutely, that it's obviously not impossible, or we wouldn't be there."

"No, no," an utterly confused Mána quickly shook her head. "You don't understand! I don't mean the world is impossible, I mean you ending up there is!"

Kane frowned seriously. "Explain," he immediately demanded. Even if Mána was still confused, she at least appeared to know something.

"I…" Mána began, but then fell silent again, as if having to consider where to start. She frowned, and her eyes darted back and forth, clearly deep in thought.

After a few moments, she began again. "W— What you're describing sounds like a quarantined world. But again, that's impossible!"

Kane rolled his eyes, which quickly caused Mána to groan and continue before he could say anything. "I know, I know! Clearly not impossible!"

She sighed, "Alright, let me explain. Quarantining a world, is like… a punishment, or containment strategy. It requires every patron spirit on multiple nearby worlds, and at least one spirit from the target world, to work together on first lowering a planet's phase, and then cutting it off from the universe at large. That means no rifts in or out, and you can't even get there through space anymore!"

'Space travel?' Kane instantly wondered, intrigued at the options that opened. But then he shook his head and focused on the issues at hand.

"But we came here through an unstable rift…" he frowned thoughtfully, now understanding why Mána considered it impossible. "More importantly, though, why was this world quarantined? I don't like the sound of being locked inside a world with something that needed to be contained."

"I have no idea, Master," Mána shook her head helplessly. "I'm as much in the dark as you are. I'm not that old among patron spirits, so this world was probably quarantined before I was even born. Fortunately, they could have also been quarantined as punishment for something, in which case it should just be a mostly normal world."

"Fine," Kane sighed, once again forced to add another unknown, potentially dangerous variable to his future plans. "How did I end up here than?"

Mána sank into thought for a moment, before answering.

"I can think of two options," she finally continued while looking up at him with a frown. "They're both equally improbable, but still the only options in my mind. Either the quarantine has weakened somehow, allowing unstable rifts to open again, or the unstable rift you took went to another world, but it passed close by this one, and one of the native patron spirits forcefully pulled you in."

Kane frowned, "Can't you tell which it is? It wasn't the first time an unstable rift opened to this world, right? Aren't there still rifts opening to the same place?"

Mána nodded helplessly, "That's true, but all I can tell from those rifts is that it is a world is in the second phase, and has patron spirits for the human, beastling, and demon races. Is it the same world as you are on now? Possibly, but I can't be certain."

Kane grumbled a little in annoyance and scratched the stubble on his chin thoughtfully. But then he thought of something. "Wait, what about the desire shard?" he suddenly asked. "Is it still here?"

"No idea," Mána shook her head. "To be honest, I only felt the shard very briefly, and from the same rift you travelled through. I assumed a patron spirit was preventing the shard's detection, like I'm doing with you, but the cloaking failed momentarily for some reason, allowing me to detect it."

Then she gave a hopeless shrug and continued, "But that could have also been the moment where a patron spirit pulled you into the quarantined world, giving me a glimpse of the other side. Either option is viable. I don't feel the desire shard anymore, but that might as well be because its being covered up again."

Kane sighed, intertwined his hands in front of his chest, and created a backrest for himself to lean against while he looked up at the slowly swirling darkness that was the sky in his soul world.

"So, all we know is that this is a quarantined world…" he muttered softly. "We don't know how I got here, or even if there's a desire shard here or not."

Across from him, Mána nodded wryly, "I'm afraid so, Master."

Neither of them suggested that Mána seek to contact the spirits on that world, or temporarily lift her cloaking of the lust rune so she could pick up its presence through the unstable rifts.

They both knew that either option might alert the desire shard holder's patron spirit to Kane's presence, and that would be far too great a risk just to find out what world he was on exactly. At least for now.

The fact they weren't even sure if the desire shard was there or not had no impact on that equation.