“Alright, finally!” Metra declared, when they were back home and the entire harem gathered on the Couch. “Does anyone have any reason why I should not immediately dig into that?” she asked, pointing at the two claw pieces lying on the table.

“Nope, ya go right ahead,” Rave answered for the harem. They had been kept up to date through Jack throughout the day(s). It was Saturday morning by now and John was not looking forward to his workday, having not slept due to time zone shenanigans. That was a small concern though; between superhuman physique and coffee, he could pull an all-nighter.

Eagerly, Metra picked up the first of the two basketball sized objects, found herself an edge, and started eating. The Gamer wasn’t even fazed by the sight: a tall, Amazonian woman eating a massive claw. His only concern about the situation was whether or not her breath would smell like dog next time they made out. All actual problems, he had done the best to prevent in advance. They still lived rent-free in his paranoid head, but he had assuaged them to the extent of his abilities.

More importantly, if Metra’s body would have rejected the claw, it would have done so already. Like a gym bro on his cheat day, the First of Wrath was practically inhaling her meal. Bite after bite vanished into her. After just half a minute, her stomach should have started to bulge. Unlike biological entities, she, as an AS, kept excess materials in a pocket dimension.

Hungering for her completion, Metra continued unstoppably. She yearned to be whole again, to have access to her full might once more. Beyond her full might, even, as what she had been created as had long been exceeded thanks to her connection to John’s system. With each chunk of claw she swallowed, John could see her debuff decrease in its crippling intensity.

Three-quarters through the claw, when her Stats were only diminished by 25%, the transformation began. Parts of her blonde hair liquified into two smooth spots on top of her head. Points surfaced at their front edge, gradually rising until it became clear they were the tips of a triangular shape.

Nobody was surprised by this process, even if Sylph exclaimed, “Audible gasp!” in her bubbly fashion. After all, the potential of physical changes had been advertised by the same Perk that guaranteed that this process would take place without complications.

The triangular shapes expanded further, until they had reached the size of a hand. They had extended backwards in the process, using the rest of the smoothed area to create a semi-circular base. Fully shaped, the surface frayed into many hairs, which lengthened to properly cover those shapes, now clearly recognizable as wolf ears, in fur – inside and outside. They were the same colour as Metra’s hair, a platinum blonde, with a couple of darker spots and streaks on the back of the ears.

Smaller changes followed rapidly. With each bite Metra took, John could see her teeth change. The canines expanded and sharpened, reaching an almost vampiric level of relative size. The growth stopped before her jaw or beauty were compromised by the change. Simultaneously, her pupils changed from round to slits.

To say that John was pleased to see these changes stay minimal was to understate the relief he felt. Beyond her being pained or permanently damaged by the changes, her turning into a living, breathing furry had been his greatest concern. Sex appeal of his partners was important to him and he had no issue admitting this, nor did he decide to change or develop an attraction to animals. He liked monster girls, animalistic additions to a clearly human woman, not critters turned humanoid.

While her teeth set in their new shape and her ears finished forming, her body stayed exactly as it was. Athletic, toned to an unusual but not unsexy degree, tanned equally all around in a caramel shade, with a midriff that was just delicious in every way. No fur spotted anywhere.

No sooner had John thought this, that a tail, having quietly formed behind her back, exploded into prominence with the last bite of the claw. Bushy fur fanned out and spread out further, until the tip of the tail reached far enough that Metra could curve the tail around her left side and have it tickle the top of her right leg. It was darker than her main hair, although that changed towards the tip in a gradual fashion.

Visibly swallowing the last chunk, Metra stood up to inspect herself. Dangling, the tail reached below her knees. When she tested its movement, it swayed from one side to the other and then came to a standstill again. One of her ears flicked.

John had to do it.

“Good girl,” he said with every ounce of love he felt for her put into those two words and through their mental connection, prompting Metra to direct her green eyes at him. Before she could even commit to an answer, her tail decided to do what John had hoped for and began to wag left to right. ‘Adorable,’ he thought.

Metra did not at all care about this very visible display of affection. Straightforward and honest, she cared as little about the wagging of her tail as she did about the honest smile on her face. “Don’t make too many dog jokes,” she warned the lot of them, many snickering. “I can bark and bite.”

“Question: love bites or painful bites?” Beatrice asked.

“For you, socially obtuse robot, it’s definitely the painful variety,” the First of Wrath responded.

“Statement: It is discrimination to inflict pain on me based on my lack of general empathy.”

“It’s not because of your lack of empathy, it’s because you’re annoying the fuck out of me,” Metra responded, her tail still wagging, causing the long hairs to whip left and right. That she was close to hitting the women sitting close to her in the face with the extra appendage was the only reason she tried to restrict the movement. That and, when she sat back down, the drumming quickly got annoying.

For the moment, she fixed it by physically holding her tail. Down the line she would doubtlessly learn how to control herself, just like people learned to control other involuntary reactions with time. Had Metra had the hobby of playing poker, this would have ruined her chances at playing properly for at least a couple of days.

Rave’s tail, meanwhile, was happily flopping next to her on the couch. “Looks like we got our partner look back.” She grinned.

Since Metra’s appearance was partially based on that of the Lightbearer, the two had always shared a half-sister physical similarity. With Rave’s catification, that had been somewhat diminished, but this new development put them closer again. Dogs and cats (or wolves and jaguars in this case) were the opposite forces in many people’s minds and the mirroring contrast served nicely to bring them closer together again. It was similar, albeit not quite as intense, to Aclysia and Beatrice’s black and white dragon features.

John loved every symmetry in his harem, accidental or deliberate. It tickled that part of his brain that spent thirty minutes sorting chests in Minecraft or ordering gems according to the light spectrum. Adding that to sexual pleasure made his nerd soul feel truly satisfied.

“We should beat some people up together sometime, it’d look impressive,” Metra said, half-jokingly. Making a fist with her right hand, she added, “Imma be honest, having power again feels absolutely incredible. How about you raise my Stats now, John?”

“Sure thing,” the Gamer nodded and pulled up her Stat screen. Metracana Master had given him a Perk to attribute her Stats manually and he took full advantage of that. First order of business was to get all of Metra’s Stats to nice, even numbers. Second was to prioritize her Mental Stats and get them considerably higher. Although her re-enabled Sin of Wrath Attribute practically tripled the value of every point in her Physical Stats (and Libido), the fact that she could barely take advantage of her dimensional magic due to mana constraints was an issue. That variety of magic was too powerful not to invest into, particularly with how well it supported her physical might.

All the strength in the world was worth nothing if she couldn’t get close to her opponent.

Even with those investments made into Mental Stats, her mana remained pretty poor. Poor was better than atrocious though and John would make sure to get her Intellect to 250 as well before he went back to Physical Stats.

“Good news is that you made a full recovery,” John told her. “You got your magic and the Sin of Wrath passive back. Bad news is that you will be stuck with these. Adapting Powers and Chaos Principle is gone.”

“Who cares about the Adapting Powers, you will be my final master,” Metra waved off carelessly. “Chaos Principle could be an issue though.”

The Chaos Principle Attribute had ensured that any small bits of her body that were lost during combat, be it through grinding of weapons or other small damages, miraculously made their way back to her. This ensured that she remained whole no matter how often she fought, as even Astrotium could be scratched, and with enough engagements, she would gradually be whittled away.

“Let’s see what the replacements are, maybe they’ll fix the issue,” John said and tapped on the first of the two new Attributes.

“This kind of fixes it?” John scratched the back of his head. “The artificial Astrotium on the outer layer can be lost without any long-term consequences. For the rest, I guess we’ll just have to feed you every millennium or so? Not the worst drawback.”

“Thankfully Astrotium is pretty resilient,” Metra agreed with a self-assured smile and pulled at her skin. Adapting Powers had made it so she was effectively made out of metadermis, the same material Aclysia had unlocked through a Perk. Thankfully, that stuck around via the Stainless Life Attribute, not the one that had now been replaced.

“And the second Attribute…” John hummed and tapped on it.

“…does nothing right now,” he finished with mild frustration in his tone. The name implied something awesome, yet it was just a set-up for something down the line. “Out of interest, what would get you so incredibly mad that it could be described as the ‘absolute pinnacle of your Wrath’?”

“Someone could murder you in a dishonourable manner,” Metra suggested, her tail coming to a complete standstill at the mere idea. Her expression turned dark when a second idea surfaced. “Or someone could plunder Sargon’s grave,” she growled, a sound that was more animalistic than ever before.

“I honestly hope neither of these things happens,” John said.

“Best not.”

Those two words were spoken with such casual hatred that it felt like a warning to the entire world. Around the Couch, the haremettes and John stayed quiet for a moment, allowing Metra to disengage from the scenario and return to the happy present. A faint glimmer of anger remained in her eyes and soul. That much was normal. The entirety of her existence had taught her that keeping an ember to ignite at all times was the proper way to prepare for all eventualities.

“The pinnacle of anger put aside,” John said and stretched on the couch, “and with this done, I should get back to work.”

“You will not,” Nathalia interrupted before he could get up. “Before you do anything else, you will come with me. I have a territory to mark from Faithborne harlots.”

John wanted to debate this. He had done nothing inappropriate with Nightingale and, even if he did, it wasn’t worse than what he had done with Wendy. There was no chance given to voice such concerns. Grabbing her naked lover and throwing him over her shoulder, the dragoness carried him over to the bedroom.

The treatment rubbed John the wrong way. This was how he liked to transport his women, not the other way around. How he got to the bed was unsatisfactory, but Nathalia mounting him quickly made him forget the minor slight against his dominating ways.

‘I guess Jack can keep doing the work for a little while longer,’ he thought while Nathalia grinded back and forth on top of him, her pussy lips sliding over a quickly growing erection. Several of the other girls followed into the room, hungry for the morning orgy that John had almost postponed in favour of coffee and paperwork. ‘Woe is me, I have so many obligations,’ he thought while they piled on top of him.

Buried under giggling and moaning haremettes, he felt Nathalia rise from his crotch and then drop down again once his dick was properly angled. He caught a glimpse of her straddled on top of him, her eyes halfway closed, her lips parted with a wanton sigh. Then his field of view was claimed by Siena’s bubble butt. He needed no instructions to start eating her out. His fingers were inside the pussies of Sylph and Beatrice. They had simply been the fastest to claim what remained available of him.

Although much of his harem was eagerly joining them in whatever capacity they could, a good chunk of them decided to follow his original intent and headed out. Least surprising were Momo and Scarlett, always ready to work. Metra usually would have been all over the scene. Today she also left. They had an agreement, after all.