Argul and Alyra ran in the direction they had heard the gunshot from. Running through a forest was a highly unpleasant experience for Argul because of her height. She left behind a path of broken branches that had been in her way. Thankfully it didn't hurt as much as it would have as a human because of her fur.

A second round of gunshots sounded through the forest and was followed by an explosion. That made Argul a lot wearier. She was not prepared for explosives right now. As she searched for fire or smoke, she found nothing, which was weird.

Something screeched horrifyingly.

They continued their run, and Argul could now make out the smell of blood in the air. After two minutes, they came upon a blood trail leading to the corpse of some kind of abomination. In a tree nearby, another of the things was hanging limply. It had been impaled on the branch, and blood was still dripping to the ground.

Argul looked disgusted at the scene. "What the hell are these things?" Then she sniffed at one of the corpses and retched. That was awful.

Alyra continued walking in the direction of the explosion and didn't regard things further. "Humans, at least they had been until they came into contact with too much mana."

Argul looked at them. It was definitely not a nice way to leave this world, and killing them might as well be considered a service.

She followed Alyra and looked for clues of what had happened there. She noticed a rifle lying on the ground as if it had been thrown away and really wanted to pick it up but let it be as it would only slow her down. 

They followed the trail, and it slowly became evident that only one human had fought here. There was only one pair of footprints beside the ones of more abominations. On the tree in front of them, there was a piece of fabric that had been ripped off of some clothing.

About twenty meters behind the tree, another corpse lay. Argul decided to call them corrupted. Its legs were missing, but she guessed there had to be a reason for all the fleshy bits strewn around the place.

They walked another forty meters before the next corrupted corpse came into view. A part of its back was missing, and its eyes had started to melt for some reason. It was disgusting, and Argul gave it a wide berth. 

She heard something wheeze and gurgle and turned her head in the direction of the sound. In front of another birch tree, one of the corrupted was still living and slowly dragging itself through its own blood puddle. The legs of the corrupted were a mangled mess, and one of its tentacles had been ripped in half.

Argul immediately shot it with a magic missile and missed. The missile hit a random tree and punched a hole right through it. She blushed, embarrassed, and made sure not to miss the barely moving target the second time.

This time she hit the center of the corrupted. It rocked forward from the impact and then stopped moving. There was now a hole in its back that started to fill with blood. Argul cleared her throat. "You have seen nothing."

Alyra looked at her and gave her an evil grin. "Of course, mom. I have not seen you missing a square meter of unmoving flesh. It never happened." 

Argul stuck her tongue out at her, which considering her current appearance, had not the intended effect, and turned away from her daughter.

Aina jumped from Argul's back and started to gobble up the corpse. It could have looked cute were it not for all the fleshy bits and blood.

Something snored, and Argul nearly got a heart attack. She laid her ears flat and bared her teeth toward the sound. Alyra looked at the source of the sound and then at Argul before she laughed.

Argul blushed again when she saw the man with the rifle on the back who was lying face down in the dirt. It didn't look like the most comfortable position, and Argul rolled him over using her head.

A dirty sports bag lying underneath the man came into view. She decided to risk it and changed into her humanoid form. Then she took hold of the bag and was surprised by its weight. What the hell was he carrying around?

When Argul opened the bag, a lot of ammunition came into view, which explained the weight. She rummaged around in the back and found some hopefully unused clothes. To be sure, she concentrated on her mana manipulation and made the mana move in a complicated pattern of crossing lines with the intent to clean.

She noticed a lot of things that should not happen, like the fabric being destroyed, and started to actively improve the spell. It took about 5 minutes before she couldn't find anything to make it better, and the clothes were as clean as possible, though they were a bit bleached and the fabric thinned in some spots.

Argul put on the boy's shorts and a muddy green shirt. Then she looked at the trousers. They looked like they were part of an army uniform with green camouflage coloring, so maybe the man was some kind of soldier. 

She looked at him again. He wore a light blue, mostly shredded shirt and brown outdoor pants. Why carry around an army uniform and wear your own stuff?

Argul shrugged. She didn't care and could ask later. She tried to put on the pants but had a problem with her tail. Argul looked at Alyra's claws for a second. "Could you give me a paw or, even better, a claw?"

Alyra rolled her eyes and walked to Argul before she held out her paw. Argul took it and started to cut a hole inside the pants where his silver tail would be, using Alyra's claw.

Then she put on the pants, and they actually fit, even if they were a bit tight around her rear, unlike the shirt that was not made for people of Argul's height. She looked at the man again, and well, he was maybe 160 cm tall, so it made sense that he wasn't wearing the pants. They were just too large for him.

Argul was a bit annoyed with the shirt. It was too short, and her belly was showing. Actually, wouldn't she look kinda lovely in that outfit if she also had an army jacket and cap?

She rummaged a bit more through the bag and found what she had searched for. Then she put on the jacket, which was too large for the man, and shot two holes inside the cap for her ears before putting it on her head.

Argul pirouetted until she faced Alyra, put her hands on her hips, and made a serious face. "How do I look?"

Alyra looked him over for a bit with a thoughtful expression. "It does have its charm. The pants punctuate your behind, making it appear even bigger and more arousing."

Argul blushed hard, and Alyra grinned gleefully at him. "You know, if you wore the jacket just on your shoulders and put on a taut breast band instead of the shirt, it would look even better. With the sniper rifle there, you would like the squad captain in some kind of comic."

Argul looked down, embarrassed, and then thought about what Alyra had said. As she imagined her current form the way Alyra had described it, she realized she would actually look super cool. For the first time in her life, she would have style. Argul looked at the shirt she was wearing thoughtfully and then at the sniper rifle still strapped to the man.

A plan appeared in her mind. A plan that would likely be super embarrassing in the beginning, and she would be ogled at a lot, but people would do so anyways, and now she would also look nice. It would really add to her already fierce face.

Argul took off the jacket and shirt. Then she mutilated the shirt, turned it into a breast band, and put it back on. She laid the jacket around her shoulders, completing her looks. Argul walked to the man and started to try to take the rifle without waking him up. It was a bit difficult, but she eventually managed it.

Argul turned back to Alyra and smiled brightly. Fuck people, now she looked nice!! 

—

Arthur woke up with a start and looked around, panicked. A huge white fox lay left to him, and beside the fox stood the angel that would tell him he would go to hell. 

He sighed. He had not wanted to die today, but it was likely the same for his teammates.

He looked at the female angel. She wore a standard military jacket and pants with green camouflage coloring and an army cap. The woman was currently leaning against a tree while playing with a rifle- Wait, that was his rifle!

Also, why wasn't she wearing any boots?

He eyed the clothes of the woman and felt for his bag. It was open, and his neatly stacked ammunition holders were a mess. Those were his clothes as well!

What the hell was happening right now?

Arthur moved his left arm, and it hurt like hell, but it at least wasn't dislocated anymore.

The woman looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "So you are awake. Mind telling us your name?" 

Arthur had to admit she was beautiful and arousing in a dangerous kind of way.

She pointed at herself. "I'm Argul."

Then she pointed at the large fox. "That's Alyra. She can speak, just so you know."

The fox, Alyra, sat up and glared at Argul while also growling. "You destroyed all my fun! How could you?" 

Argul grinned at her. "Payback time"

Alyra pouted.

It was all too much for Arthur, and nothing made sense anymore. First, his team mutated into some kind of abomination, and now this. Wait! The things. "What happened to the things that were hunting me?"

Argul pointed at the tree Arthur had run around before tripping. "Well, the last one we killed before it managed to get to you, even though, going by its condition, that was doubtful to happen anyways. Aina is currently eating it. The other four were already dead."

She turned and stared him directly in the eyes, her gaze full of curiosity. "Actually, where did all the explosions come from? Your bag doesn't look like it's safe carrying such stuff around in it."

Arthur sighed. Everything hurt, and the day was shit. He decided to answer. He couldn't move anyway right now and was entirely at their mercy. "Name's Arthur. The explosions were my guns blowing up for some reason." Then he cursed about how shit his day was.

Argul looked at him and then nodded while tapping her index finger on her chin. "Makes sense. Mana would mess with the current technology. We would have to develop some kind of rune coding and then safeguard the current technology with that."

Arthur only now noticed the animal ears and the fox tail, which was swinging a bit, on Argul. It was weird but didn't look necessarily bad. Arthur nodded himself. Of course, mana would mess with the current technology. Wait mana?

Had he heard that, right? "Mana?"

Argul looked at him as if he was dumb, but then you could slowly see realization dawning on her. She facepalmed. "Right, of course you wouldn't know. Mana is slowly spreading through this universe."

She waved her hand as if it wasn't anything special. "Which is, by the way, not the universe our earth had been in anymore."

Argul's tone became severe, and there was a lot of urgency in it. "Sadly, our old universe still holds influence over many of us. What happened to these five will happen everywhere else, too, in a while. I would like to save as many people as possible, but I don't know the surroundings. Mind showing us the way?"

Arthur's day had just gotten worse. He cursed and nodded, an action his bruised body immediately punished with pain.