Alice Thompson ran as fast as she could down the dirt path. That hadn't always been a fast pace, but these days she could really move when needed. There was an emergency, and she was the only one who could help, so she mentally shifted into a higher gear and sprinted, muscles burning with exertion.

  Alice was nineteen years old and an Acolyte of Aphrodite. For her first 18 years, life had been simple - or simple enough. Grow up on a farm in southwestern Iowa, help her parents with chores, attend school, the usual. But a year ago, life had changed. The overwhelming majority of people in the world had vanished in an instant, leaving only those between ages 18 and what they guessed was an upper bound at 25 years old. Also, all major popution centers had vanished, regardless of age, so there were no more cities left anywhere. Modern technology had simirly stopped working for absolutely no discernible reason along with all the other changes. Those who remained were instead greeted by a strange message appearing in their vision that challenged them to grow strong and protect the Earth, or Earth and all of its people would die, and it warned them they had five years to complete their task. Failure was not an option.

  And then one week ter, the monsters came. Over the st year, she had fought with kobolds, goblins, fae creatures, trolls, giant wolves and beetles, and too many other monstrous creatures to list. They were savage and unwilling to negotiate, seeming to take pleasure in attacking humanity. Alice had also met other creatures, more neutral, but they were the vast minority. She'd seen many of her former cssmates die to the monsters, several others receive life-altering injuries, and a small few rise to the challenge with enthusiasm, protecting the rest of humanity.

  Alice's long-time best friend, Bridgette, was one such of the tter group. Bridgette had sailed her way through school, whereupon she pnned to enlist in the Air Force. Instead, the world had come to a crashing end and Bridgette had ended up as a Lusty Warrior of Ares who dove into the challenges head-first with an enormous greataxe. Over the st year, Alice's retionship with Bridgette had changed from being best friends (although she'd had a crush on Bridgette she had refused to acknowledge for years) to passionate lovers. Their companions had grown used to the sign of the two girls engaged in very public dispys of affection, as Bridgette was not shy about making her love known, ciming it helped her grow stronger.

  One other such who rose to the occasion was their friend Colin Martin. He'd been a fairly quiet, nerdy boy who didn't fit into the Iowa farm life like the rest of the boys his age had. Instead, his passion had been engineering, science, and anime shows full of scantily cd elven women. Something about the end of the world had partially fulfilled his wish and Colin had transformed into an elven wizard, capable of casting enormously damaging spells and blowing up their enemies. He still hadn't found any elven girls in this brave new world, however, but the girls were determined to help him look.

  They had assembled a small group of other survivors, the remnants of the town they had lived in after it was destroyed by a troll (and a fire accidentally started by the humans trying to defend themselves from the troll) as well as a few surrounding towns. What had begun with Alice, Bridgette, and Colin had grown in the previous year to a small hamlet of twenty-seven people at present. One of Alice's rewards from helping defeat the troll had been the system helping recognize her farm as the center of a new town, which she named Persistence, and naming her mayor. For the most part, that hadn't required much work from her, but it did effectively mean that she (and Bridgette by extension) were in charge of everyone and had to deal with their problems.

  Problems like where she was headed now, unfortunately. She tried to pick up her pace, running even faster. Alice had been catching up on some long-overdue rexation and reading on the back porch of her house, finally getting to enjoy one of the futa smut novels she had picked up pre-apocalypse, when she had heard the screaming. Some day she was actually going to get to finish that series, she hoped. As she rounded the corner near the bathhouse, she faltered, not expecting what she saw. She had figured a monster had wandered out of the fields and was attacking one of the new folks, something she could easily handle.

  Instead, she saw one of the newcomers to her town, straddling Kyle, who y with his back against the wall of the bathhouse, blood pouring from Kyle's nose, and seemingly unconscious. Kyle's girlfriend Becky y on the ground next to him, her shirt ripped in pces and screaming curses up at the man. Kyle was a complicated matter. In high school, he had been part of the bully crowd, not the ringleader but definitely one of Daniel's good friends. Kyle had been cruel and hurtful to the girls and Colin on more than one occasion.

  And yet, the year before, Kyle had been thoroughly defeated by the troll, losing most of his arm in the process and only surviving due to his rescue by Bridgette. It had caused a drastic change in the now-nineteen year old boy. The Kyle of old was gone, repced by a quiet and thoughtful man, impeccably respectful to women, and who would go out of his way to do absolutely any favor for anyone with zero expectation of return. It had taken a while for those of the survivors who had grown up with Kyle to fully accept that his new demeanor was legitimate and not simply a trick, but he had become a well-liked member of their small community and served as a solid and reliable guy, always willing to help when you needed him.

  Alice's feet slowed as she got within twenty feet of the situation, raising her voice to call out. She didn't recognize the newcomer, but that wasn't necessarily a huge surprise, just unusual. Several of her cssmates had decided to form small adventuring bands modeled after Alice, Bridgette, and Colin. While they were much weaker than the three original adventurers, they specifically chose to tackle less dangerous threats and instead focused on securing the hamlet, surrounding farmnd, and then finding other survivors and escorting them back to safety. It was a valuable job, even if not terribly rewarding, and they generally enjoyed it. As a result, Alice hadn't been directly involved in bringing many of the current inhabitants, including this unknown man, to the farm. They had come up with a fairly rexed but common-sense set of rules for people to follow, just in case, but this was the first instance of actual physical violence so far.

  "Hey, uh, what's going on? And sorry, who are you?" Alice asked, slowing and gncing down at Kyle and Becky. Becky gred daggers up at the unknown man. Becky had been a cheerleader in high school with no particur life goals other than having a great time and finding a man to take care of her. She'd fallen in with the mean girls crowd for a while, ended up getting dragged into Daniel's circle of friends, then found her way into a retionship with Kyle. It hadn't been the healthiest retionship, pre-system, but the st year they had both grown and Becky now occupied an almost sacred spot in their little vilge. Becky took care of Kyle, helping him with his chores where he needed an additional hand, and did the majority of the cooking for the vilge, serving breakfast and dinner most days when enough people were around to make it worth cooking rger meals. She mothered basically everyone, ensuring they always had enough to eat, they had done their chores, and were well-loved. Seeing her so angry and vicious brought back bad memories for Alice.

  "My name's Warren, and I'm just teaching this cripple a quick lesson, no need for you to concern yourself, little dy," the man replied. Alice's hackles immediately raised, and she started gncing around the area, paying closer attention to her surroundings and looking for any additional threats. Alice thought quickly, then decided to see how he'd react to an airhead.

  "Oh? What kind of lesson? I love learning new things," Alice replied, pying up the bubbly student persona, seeing where the conversation would go. She squeezed her arms together, her enormous D-cup breasts jostling freely in her sundress. Alice hadn't always had a massive chest, but one of the amusing perks of her css had been a quest chain she and Bridgette had worked their way through. At each stage, Alice received an increase in her cup size as well as a free orgasm. It had been ... a very amusing introduction to magic. One that she still enjoyed the benefits of, to be honest.

  The unknown man, Warren, turned from where he had been staring down at Kyle and Bridgette to see Alice for the first time. His jaw dropped, the man actually whistling out loud to himself in appreciate as he btantly leered and ran his gaze up and down the girl's body. "Well good god-damn, aren't you a lovely little thing. And no wedding ring I can spot, neither. Just my lucky day. How about you and me go somewhere a little more private and get to know each other some more? We can leave these two here."

  Alice shifted her stance, suddenly uncomfortable in the man's gaze, and pnted her feet in a combat stance instead. Her pn had backfired, a little. Alice's sense of modesty had changed quite a lot over the previous year. Where before the arrival of the system and the impending apocalypse, she was a ft-chested and awkward teenager who was most comfortable in jeans and a farm supply t-shirt, she now embraced her changed physical aspects and her beauty. These days, Alice's typical garb trended toward immodest sundresses or tight-fitting garments that showed off every curve in her transformed body. Some staring was to be expected, after all. They were all very fit and attractive young adults in a frighteningly terrifying post-apocalyptic survival situation, countless new retionships blossomed and people fucked like rabbits every chance they got, so she didn't mind the looks - but Warren was jumping way over the line into creepy, especially since she had never met him before.

  "I think you're going to help me understand what's going on," Alice said, voice growing cold. "What exactly is going on here?"

  "Well, like I told blondie here," he gestured toward Becky, "the cripple started making a bunch of demands about how I had to do chores around the farm to earn a meal. I told him that was bullshit, the whole point was that the strong make the rules, and I'd be helping run things around here, keeping them safe, not wasting my time milking cows or some other fucking stupid task. We had a spirited discussion, boys will be boys you know, and I took him outside to help him see my side of the story. Then she objected, and I had to expin it to her, just like I had to expin it him." Warren ughed, gesturing back at the two and shaking his fist, where Alice could spot blood on his knuckles. "But it's okay, I told them both what's up."

  "Becky, is that accurate?" Alice gnced past Warren toward Becky, who had climbed to her feet and stood between Warren and Kyle, her hands balled into fists. Becky's face was a twisted visage of wrath, but kept her mouth shut and jerked a short nod at Alice. Becky could undoubtedly sense Alice's mood and knew to let the other girl handle it. "Hmm. Okay, well, we have a little bit of a problem here, Warren. That's not how people behave in this vilge, might doesn't make right."

  "Oh? That's not what I had heard. I heard it was run by some redheaded bimbo with a giant axe who was stronger than everyone else. I figured you guys just hadn't seen what real strength looked like, so I'd be happy to help guide the vilge. I've taken more than a few monsters on my own, you know. I've got quite the collection of scalps."

  Alice sighed, pinching her nose. She did not want to have to deal with people drama. What was she going to do? Alice thought for a minute, then decided to pass the buck back to the injured party. "Becky, what do you want me to do with him?"

  Warren started, gncing back and forth between the two women. His face, which had been jovial and lusty, shifted into anger. "I don't think you understand what's going on, little miss." He took a threatening step toward Alice.

  Becky thought for a quick second, answering, "I'd love to say execute him, but I think exile is fair." Alice shrugged her agreement.

  "Okay, Warren. You're lucky she decided to be merciful, even after everything. Get the fuck out of the town and don't come back, ever. We won't be as nice the second time around. You have two minutes to clear the property line, or I will find someone to put an arrow in your asshole and see how deep the shit goes."

  Warren stalked toward Alice, reaching toward the girl. "Now you see here, bitch. Who the fuck are you to tell me I can or can't stay? You need me and my strength a lot more than we need this fucking cripple or a cook." Warren drew close, hand striking forward toward Alice's face.

  "STOP," Alice intoned, casting Hold Person. Warren froze in pce, his body absolutely locked into position, except for his eyes which suddenly grew wide and panicked. "I am two seconds away from putting you into a shallow grave and watching you die as painfully as I can possibly envision. We don't need you, your bullshit, your weak-ass threats, or any of this fucking drama. We were just fine without you and will continue to be just fine. Whatever monsters you might have killed that makes you think you're so badass? No. If you truly were a badass, you wouldn't need to beat up Kyle to show off how great you were. Now, please apologize to the people you injured and leave. If you're still here when my girlfriend, the redheaded bimbo, arrives, I doubt you'll live until the morning."

  Alice stepped around Warren, walking over to where Becky and Kyle stood, and released her grasp on the spell. Warren spun, his face white with fear and anger. "You'll regret this, you fucking cunt" he warned, then ran for the edge of the vilge as fast as his legs could carry him, quickly disappearing into the corn fields beyond.