Axel should’ve been accustomed to pain by now, after everything he’d put himself through mastering Overdrive. Even so, he couldn’t help but cry out loud.

The pain in his head didn’t feel real—almost magical in its cruelty. With each beat of his heart, it expanded, multiplied, and intensified. Enough that it genuinely felt as though his head would literally explode.

Pressure was building from within, making him feel as if his eyeballs would pop free if he dared open his eyes.

"AAAACK!"

"Husband!"

"Sir Axel!"

As all the girls stirred awake, Ria and Nina clung to his sides. But they could only watch him writhe, completely at a loss for what to do.

Unlike the two panicked princesses, however, Queen Wisteria was fast to act.

"This is...!"

One glance told her what she needed to know. Without wasting a second, she waved her hand.

She used her Interdimensional Shop system to purchase a specific item—a small vial filled with a thick red liquid. The contents squirmed faintly, almost as if alive, making for a deeply unsettling sight.

Without delay, Queen Wisteria moved to pry his mouth open.

To her surprise, his jaw didn’t budge even slightly.

It was to be expected, really. The gap between their stats was simply too vast. Even with a hundred times her current strength, forcing open Axel’s mouth would’ve been impossible.

"My daughters...!"

Left with no other choice, she called for help.

Ria and Nina had already caught on to what their mother was attempting. They moved quickly—squeezing Axel’s jaw until it parted, then jamming their fingers between his teeth to hold it open.

"...!"

But wracked by pain and stress as he was, his mouth fought to snap shut. The two girls’ fingers were bitten clean through, deep enough to scrape bone, bleeding freely.

They didn’t care. They wouldn’t have cared if they lost their fingers entirely. Axel’s safety came first.

"Mother, now...!"

Queen Wisteria had already seen her opening before they even called out. The gap was small, but enough. With careful precision—on hands that trembled only slightly—she tipped the vial and poured the liquid down Axel’s growling throat.

His throat moved, swallowing the solution. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

His screams, however, didn’t stop. Not for the next several seconds.

Then, gradually, they began to lose their edge. His expression shifted—still pale, still drenched in cold sweat, but carrying a faint trace of relief beneath it all.

His jaw went slack, letting the girls ease their fingers free. His breathing steadied, and his hands dropped lifelessly to his sides.

The moment the pain released its hold, Axel lost consciousness entirely.

He listed to the side, his full weight falling into the hands of the two witches.

Before the girls could spiral into panic again, Queen Wisteria rested a hand on each of their shoulders, shaking her head gently. Like a calm mother reeling in worried children, she settled them with quiet words.

"Now that the medicine has taken effect, we should let him rest. You two should rest as well."

Still worried, but too exhausted to argue, the two girls listened.

They laid him down comfortably in the center of the bed. Then, on either side of him, Ria and Nina settled in. Both stared at Axel’s face, keeping quiet vigil over his breathing, the shifts in his expression, every small detail.

That continued for quite some time.

Queen Wisteria, being the actual owner of the bed, had no particular desire to be left out. But with the two girls still guarded around her, she didn’t push it. She waited patiently instead—biding her time until all three had drifted off to sleep before making her move.

She carefully licked her lips, eyes narrowing with quiet, mischievous satisfaction.

"Tonight might be fun..." She murmured, then glanced toward a corner of the room. "Don’t you think so too?"

Her gaze didn’t waver—fixed, as if she could see something concealed there. And from the shadows, like a phantom taking shape, a faint silhouette stirred and solidified into a familiar figure.

A woman with grayish-white hair, dressed in something like a summer gown.

The third member of the team that had hunted Envy—Fenrir—finally made her appearance.

...

"Ugh..."

Axel groaned as he stirred awake.

The reason was simple enough—his body felt completely unresponsive. As if every limb had been sealed in cement, leaving him unable to so much as twitch a finger.

Before he even opened his eyes, his mind began piecing together the events of the night before.

Everything that had happened after the Soul Dive started.

The dark space. The flashback of his ex-wife. The strange tentacles. Navi and Mimir. And finally—the splitting headache that had torn through him the moment he returned to reality.

His mind was clear now. No pain whatsoever.

A faint dizziness lingered, but nothing worth worrying about.

Slowly, he opened his eyes.

And immediately faltered. Even with them open, everything was still dark.

’No...’

He gave it a moment, letting his senses piece things together properly.

He was lying in the center of Queen Wisteria’s enormous bed. To his right leg, Nina clung tightly, draping herself over it as if determined to keep him from moving. Ria had claimed the other leg entirely—arms, legs, her whole body wrapped around it, drinking in his warmth.

Both were upright. A little unexpected in positioning, but normal enough.

What he hadn’t expected were the other two.

To his right, Queen Wisteria lay with her head resting on his chest—and her giant cannons pressed snugly against the side of his face. From Axel’s perspective, she was upside down, her soft bumpers half-serving as his pillow.

On the opposite side, mirroring the Queen perfectly, was Fenrir.

She, too, had settled onto his chest, her twin peaks pressed firmly against the other side of his head, locked together with Queen Wisteria’s in an airtight arrangement.

With two enormous slabs of softness blanketing his face, it was genuinely a mystery how Axel was still breathing at all.

’These girls...’ He thought. ’What on earth are they doing to someone who collapsed in agony...’

Not that he had any complaints, of course.

By any reasonable measure, his situation was rather heavenly. Three of the four were still dressed in nothing but their underwear—and the last one, Fenrir, wasn’t wearing anything on top to begin with.

"Hmm..."

As he gradually came to his senses, details continued to register one by one.

The first thing he addressed, however, was the most immediate.

"Queen Mother, Fenrir—you’re both awake, aren’t you?" He said, voice muffled. "Please move."