Chapter 690: Enemy Or Friend

"This is also why she’s been gone for months..."

Mika said as he stared at Pasha who was wagging her tail even in her terrifying form.

"There have been a lot of incursions lately—portal ruptures in the western and eastern regions. Pasha can sense where they’re going to appear before they open. So her mother deployed her to close them manually. She’s been traveling from place to place, shutting down invasions before they start. Saving countless lives."

"She’s is a game-changer for humanity." Maria breathed.

"Of course she is!" Mika nodded with pride. "Others have powerful Blessings, but Pasha’s is probably the one being used in the best way possible."

He looked at Pasha and added with a smile,

"And I guess for saving so many lives on this voyage, I should give her a small reward."

He called out:

"Pasha! Send those bears away and return to your normal form."

"Yes, Mika!"

The portals engulfed the nine Dread Maws, and Pasha transformed back into her human form.

Mika walked toward her.

"Sit."

Pasha sat immediately, looking up at him with adoring eyes.

Mika reached out, grabbed her head gently and started rubbing her.

"Good girl, Pasha..."

Pasha’s entire body shuddered with joy.

"Good girl! You’re such a good girl, aren’t you??"

"Mika’s head pats!" Pasha whimpered, her voice cracking. "Pasha missed Mika’s head pats so much! Pasha could die—Pasha could die for these headpats!"

Mika ruffled her wild hair. "You closed a lot of portals this time, didn’t you?"

"Around eight hundred and twenty!"

Pasha announced proudly. Then her expression crumpled into pitiful misery.

"Listen to this, Mika! Pasha wanted to come home! Pasha wanted to see everyone! But Mommy just kept sending Pasha places!"

"Go here, Pasha..."

"Close this portal, Pasha..."

"No, you can’t rest yet, there’s another one, Pasha..."

"Mommy didn’t even give Pasha any treats! Pasha is just a pitiful slave!"

Mika grabbed her cheeks and pulled them outward, stretching her face into a comical expression.

"You’re right. Pasha is the most pitiful creature in the world."

"Yes, Mika! So pitiful!"

"The most overworked, most underappreciated, most tragically treat-deprived puppy in any realm."

"Yes! That’s Pasha!" Her tail was wagging so hard it was generating wind. "Pet Pasha more! Make Pasha’s pity go away!"

"Oh, you adorable little thing." Mika laughed, and suddenly rolled her onto her back. "Look at how cute you are!"

He began rubbing her belly, tickling her sides and her plush tummy.

"No, no—stop it, Mika!" Pasha erupted into giggles almost immediately. "Pasha is ticklish! You can’t— you can’t—!"

"But you’re the one who said to make you feel better, Pasha! And look—you’re smiling!" Mika’s hands found her armpits. "So I’m gonna tickle you all over!"

"PFFFT—no! AHAHAHA—Mika! I love you! I love you SO much!" Pasha writhed and laughed, tears of joy leaking from her eyes. "Pasha has been waiting SO long to be cuddled by you like this!"

Maria watched the exchange with an expression of complete disbelief.

The woman who could summon Dread Maws and command the monsters of a dozen realms was currently on her back, giggling uncontrollably, because Mika was tickling her tummy.

The three sisters had gathered beside Maria and were not in the best of conditions.

Charlotte was still pale from oxygen deprivation.

Astrid was frantically trying to smooth her thoroughly ruffled tails back into some semblance of order.

Anya looked like she had been dunked in a swimming pool of dog saliva.

Maria wanted to laugh at their state, truly she did—but she felt a flicker of pity and asked instead,

"Why can’t you handle her the way Mika does? She’s behaving like a perfect little puppy with him. Can’t you just give her commands too?"

"What do you know?" Charlotte clicked her tongue. "There’s literally no one else in the family who can make Pasha do what they want. Not her own mother. Not even our scary Auntie. Pasha runs circles around all of them."

"Her mind doesn’t work the way ours do." Astrid added, still working on her tails. "She doesn’t fear the things normal people fear. She doesn’t respect the figures normal people respect"

"If you tell Pasha to sit, she will do a backflip." Anya, still wiping her face with a handkerchief, spoke through gritted teeth. "If you tell her to be quiet, she will sing opera. If you tell her to go left, she will go right, then up, then diagonally, then somehow end up in a different dimension entirely."

She wrung out her handkerchief and continued,

"Except with Mika. With Mika, she’s...cooperative."

Maria watched Pasha roll onto her side, still giggling, Mika’s hand now scratching behind her ear.

"Why is she different with him?"

"You’d have to ask Mika that." Charlotte answered before teasingly adding,

"But would you believe me if I told you that Pasha used to consider Mika her sworn enemy? That she used to challenge him to fights constantly and wanted to kick him out of the family?"

Maria’s eyebrows rose. "The same Pasha who’s currently wagging her tail because he’s scratching her ear?"

"The very same."

Maria’s mouth opened—but before she could ask anything more, Pasha froze mid-giggle.

She sniffed the air, and her expression shifted from bliss to alarm. Her mismatched eyes sharpened and her pupils contracted to slits as she slowly pushed herself upright, rising to her full towering height.

She looked around for a bit before her gaze locked onto Maria.

"Who...are you?"

Maria took an instinctive step back. The warmth had drained from Pasha’s face entirely, replaced by something primal and possessive.

"Why are you so close to Pasha’s pack? Why are you so close to Pasha’s family?"

She took a step forward, eyes blazing.

"And why do you have their scent all over you!? Are you an enemy?! An intruder?! Are you trying to break Pasha’s family apart?!"

Her voice rose to a shout, and her energy flared golden-yellow. Sharp fangs slid from her gums and sharp claws burst from her fingertips.

"Pasha won’t allow that! Pasha will STOP you!"

Maria felt her heart seize. One move and she knew her small, insignificant life would be extinguished.

"Pasha...stop." Fortunately, Mika’s voice pulled her out out of the danger zone.

He had stepped between them, hands raised, and now he reached back and took Maria’s hand, drawing her slightly behind him.

"She’s a friend, Pasha. A very close friend of the family. There’s no need to be on guard."

But Pasha’s eyes narrowed with distrust.

"But Mika! She has your scent all over her! And everyone else’s, too! How can she be just a ’friend’? Something is wrong!"

"That’s what I’m saying, Pasha. She’s been with me for years. You’ve just not been around a lot to know. So trust me when I say that she’s not a threat. You’re just meeting her for the first time."

Pasha’s golden-white eyes flickered between Mika and Maria. The predator tension in her body didn’t release. But Mika knew exactly what to do.

"Maria." Mika said quietly. "Hold out your hand."

"What?"

"Hold out your hand. Let her smell you."

"Are you insane? She has claws. And fangs. She just threatened to tear me apart."

"She’s not going to tear you apart. I’m right here. Hold out your hand."

Maria hesitated. Then, very slowly, she extended her arm. Her hand trembled slightly.

"Pasha. Come here. Sniff. She’s a friend. I promise."

Pasha hesitated—but Mika’s word was law to her. She dropped to all fours and padded forward. Her eyes were locked on Maria’s outstretched hand like it might bite her. It took every ounce of Maria’s will not to pull away.

"Go on." He coaxed. "Sniff her."

Pasha leaned in. Her nostrils flared, taking in Maria’s scent

"She’s a friend." Mika said softly. "A very close friend. You don’t need to mind her presence at all, Pasha. She’s part of the family circle."

Pasha went still for a long moment, processing. Then her ears perked up slightly. She took another sniff, and something in her posture relaxed.

"Friend...?" She repeated the word like she was tasting it for the first time.

"Friend." Mika confirmed. "Definitely a friend, Pasha."

And just like that, the ferocious beast was gone.

Pasha’s face split into the biggest, brightest, most radiant smile Maria had seen all night.

"FRIEND! A NEW FRIEND!"

"PASHA HAS A NEW FRIEND!"

Before Maria could react, Pasha had thrown her arms around her—engulfing her in a crushing, suffocating hug that pressed Maria’s face directly into her enormous, pillowy chest.

"Friend!" Pasha crowed. "What’s your name?!"

"M-Maria." Maria managed, muffled.

"Maria!" Pasha beamed, squeezing tighter. "What a pretty name! Pasha’s name is Pasha! And now you’re part of Pasha’s pack!"

"Your...pack?"

"My pack!"

Pasha nodded, pulling back just enough to look her in the eyes with fierce, protective sincerity.

"Don’t worry, Maria. If anyone ever hurts you—if anyone tries to do anything to you—you tell Pasha. Pasha will tear them apart because you’re part of Pasha’s family now!"

And she pulled Maria back into the crushing embrace.

"Heh." Charlotte said from the sidelines, a note of grim satisfaction in her voice. "Now she knows how it feels."

"Payback." Astrid agreed.

"As much as I dislike that vixen." Anya said, gesturing vaguely at Maria. "She’s still human at the end of the day, Pasha. So don’t hug her too hard, or else the friend you’ve made today will become a corpse very soon."

Pasha’s eyes went wide with alarm. She immediately released Maria, who stumbled backward with the dazed expression of someone who had just survived a natural disaster.

"Pasha is so sorry!" Pasha dropped to all fours, her massive tail drooping. "Pasha didn’t mean to almost kill you! Pasha was just so, so, SO excited!"

"After all..." She counted on her fingers. "Pasha made a new friend today! Pasha met an adorable fox! And Pasha got to see her favorite sisters!"

She pointed at Charlotte, Astrid and finally Anya, who was still wringing out her handkerchief.

"And Mika as well!" She turned to look at Mika, and her expression softened into something utterly adoring.

"Pasha got to see everyone she loves most in all the worlds. Pasha is just...Pasha is so happy. So very, very happy. So excited. So—"

Her body shuddered and a flush crept up her sun-kissed cheeks. Her tail, which had been wagging furiously, suddenly went rigid.

"Pasha is so excited." She whispered. "that Pasha is going to—"

The three sisters realized what was happening simultaneously.

"NO, PASHA!"

"DON’T YOU DARE!"

"HOLD IT IN! I BEG YOU, HOLD IT IN!"

All three of them lunged forward. But it was too late.

Pasha grabbed her crotch with both hands and crouched down, as her face contorted with the desperate expression of someone fighting a losing battle against biology.

"Pasha can’t help it! It’s coming! It’s COMING!"

"Pasha, no!" Mika reached for her. "Wait—"

"PASHA IS SO EXCITED THAT PASHA’S GONNA PEE!"

And then, right before Maria’s utterly disbelieving eyes, it happened.

The small cloth covering Pasha’s crotch, already barely adequate for someone of her proportions began to darken.

A wet spot bloomed across the fabric, spreading rapidly and the material, never designed to contain anything substantial, quickly reached its limit.

A thin trickle escaped, running down Pasha’s powerful brown thighs. Then another. Then a steady, clear stream that flowed down her legs and puddled on the asphalt below.

It was almost completely clear. Not golden. Not yellow. Just pure, crystalline liquid, like mountain spring water.

Because that was simply how the bodies of SSS-Class beings worked.

Maria stared in genuine disbelief.

She had witnessed many things in her life. But she had never, in all her years, expected to witness the daughter of the Maiden of War to pee herself in a parking lot because she was too excited to see her family.

And yet here they were.

But the shock didn’t stop there.

The moment Pasha’s urine touched the ground, the world started shaking.