Time to see what Owen really knows

"So I don't mean for the first thing I do to be asking for something, but this is supposed to be some sort of sex paradise, right?" Owen asked as he, Aires, and Aphrodite walked through the city. "Like, that's kind of your whole shtick, isn't it? Any chance you've got a girl around here that could take a load or two? I'd prefer uninfected if you have any."

"Yeah, there's a few around. Why the preference though?" Aires asked, still wary of his new ally.

"Couple reasons actually. First, my strain of the virus, Contagion, whatever - can we get a specific term for that, by the way? - really matches up with my tastes super well and I love to see it work."

"What does it do?" Aphrodite asked, finally speaking up. She had been quiet during the negotiation and while walking back, her eyes focused on her belly and her baby, but also flicking around with a ravenous, nearly manic glint to them.

"Find me a girl to fuck and I'll show you. No sense in ruining the surprise. Anyways, second and piggybacking off of what I said earlier, it's not a great idea to mix too many strains. Think of it like combining paint colors. One or two works out and you get some interesting variations, but too many and you just get brown. And no one wants to fuck the color brown."

"What happens if you do get brown? What does too many strains do to a person?" Aires asked, a bit of unease stirring in his gut. He had a suspicion from his own limited testing and it wasn't great.

"You guys know who Lovecraft is? Some of his brain monsters? Unparalleled cosmic horror with a lot of eyes and non-sexy tentacles? If you're lucky, it's that, but fuckable and with some questionably-sexy tentacles. I wouldn't recommend it. If you're not lucky, the mind snaps and you get what can charitably be called a sex doll or the body breaks down and you get cum soup." Aires couldn't help but find Owen's casual demeanor about the subject a little unnerving, but maybe a callous, scientific approach was best for such things. On the plus side, his suspicion had been right.

"What's the limit?"

"For number of strains?" Owen asked, to which Aires nodded. "Well fortunately, the virus mostly takes care of that itself. Best I can tell, once someone gets it, they're kind of inoculated against other strains. That's why most Infected can fuck each other without issue. Some people can take two, or rarely three, which usually ends up with some wacky combinations or one strain overwriting another. The real trouble comes when you **** multiple strains into one person, that's usually when you end up with undesirable effects."

"How quickly do those show up?" Aires asked, urgency and fear pooling in his stomach. He had done that to at least himself and Aphrodite, maybe some of the other girls too. He'd had no idea it could end so poorly.

"In my experience, immediately," Owen said, partially putting the Divine at ease. None of his harem were tentacle monsters or brain dead, so they were probably safe. "The strains seem to attack each other and kind of implode on each other. Like I said, it's bad. That said, I still wouldn't go around pushing the envelope. If the body does it naturally, its probably fine, but approaching the diversity threshold can cause personality changes, shifts in form, wildly varied taste in kinks, and probably more that I haven't noticed yet. It all depends on what the strains are and how they interact. If they're similar, it's usually better, but if they're too different, the strains actually fight each other for dominance, which makes the Infected weaker."

"Early on, when we found each other, we assimilated each others' strain," Aphrodite said, peering around the tall mass of her king and love. "We gained some of the others power and we haven't noticed any issues. Is that normal?" Aires was curious too; he hoped he hadn't inadvertently made himself and her weaker.

"Kind of. I've seen it happen once or twice, two strains combining to be stronger. So maybe you got lucky. Either that or Mr. Original here has some extra pull that made it smoother with the 'pure strain' or something. But before you ask, no, you shouldn't push it. End of the day, it's the same virus. Too much variation will not go well for you, same as everyone else."

"So you're saying I'm nothing special? Just an Alpha like all the rest?"

"Given what I've seen, fuck no. I've been studying you from afar - thanks for that livestream by the way, really helped out - and I'm pretty sure you're the opposite of 'nothing special'. You've got the virus in its most basic, least mutated form. The magic stuff you can do, as much as I hate that term for the probably scientifically explainable bullshit you do, is pretty far beyond what I've seen other Alphas doing. They manage a bit, those that can control it anyways, but nothing like you. Not to mention the control! Do you know that the other Alphas don't really retain control of those they infect? Rare exceptions, sure, but definitely not 'I control my private, gigantic sex army from my mind' levels. I'm amazed you're only now having that control slip."

"That was the other thing, you said I had an Alpha problem. I think it's safe to say at this point that you're probably right, but how did you know?" Aires asked, slowly letting his guard slip, if only slightly.

"Oh, that's easy. I figured if I could manage it, someone else would too. And after looking into it, I was even more sure. This thing works on constant mutation, that's why everyone displays different symptoms, to put it simply. I figured the more iterations we end up with, i.e. people getting infected by other people, the further we get from your 'pure' strain. Naturally, less control for you."

"But they still came from me. I have the source virus, so shouldn't they all listen to me?"

"Crocodiles are thought to have not evolved much since the dinosaurs, but you don't see all other lizards looking just like them, do you?"

"Hmm, fair point," Aires conceded. He had to admit he was irked at not being as powerful as he had thought. Still, that wouldn't stop him from dominating all others and securing a dynasty for himself, his wife, and his unborn daughter. He just had a little more work to do than he thought. Though he'd been having fun so far, so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. "How'd you figure all this out?" Aires had to ask, more than a little impressed. Owen just laughed.

"I was curious and bored. Dangerous combination, let me tell you."

""You got bored of fucking?"" Aires and Aphrodite both asked, simultaneously and incredulously.

"It's not the most mentally stimulating thing, you know. I'm allowed to have a hobby. We can't all be evil overlords."

"But...dude, by your own admission, you were a fat weeb. Getting laid had to have been the highlight of your life," Aires said. "How did you get bored after the change?"

"Huh, I bet we're actually about the same age," Owen mused idly before returning to the topic. "Just because I got hot doesn't mean I stop being what I was. Now I'm just a hot weeb."

"Who got bored of having sex," Aires stated.

"Who got bored of only having sex," Owen corrected. It was a small difference, but one he felt was important, and Aires had to concede as the rest of his harem came into sight, with Grace and Rebecca already among them.

"Alright, well that's all very interesting and good to know, but let's get back to the original question: what does your strain do?" Aphrodite asked, unconsciously licking her lips at a pair of guys fucking a girl a little ways away.

"You know, there's been a lot of telling going on, I'd rather do some showing. Do you have any clean girls or not? Clean as in uninfected. Though clean in general is appreciated."

"I'm sure we can find one, I'm sure there's still a few holdouts around here somewhere," Aphrodite said, being much more familiar with the town she had taken over.

"What about her, she looks pretty normal. Leaking like a nympho, but otherwise fine." It didn't take Aires more than a second to realize Owen meant Kayla, who had somehow ended up chained and restrained in an odd apparatus that had her legs open at a ninety degree angle, showing off her gushing pussy that she couldn't rub with her equally restrained hands.

"She's actually has the same strain as the rest of the army out there, something to do with abstinence, I think. I was going to **** her to cough up any information she knew and then do who knows what to her, but given the look of things, my girls might have beaten me to it."

"She already told me everything she knows, Master," Zoe said as she sauntered over to him. "I can tell you, so there's no need for her anymore."

"Abstinence, huh? Sounds interesting. Though probably pretty easy to overwrite. Plus she's already sopping wet and damn if that pose isn't super hot. If it's cool with you, I'll take her," Owen agreed readily, already pulling off his shirt.

"Feel free," Aires said, already in the middle of having his clothes pulled apart by a few of his girls. He absolutely wanted to indulge in six of his girls, but he made sure to keep an eye on Owen and Kayla as well, decidedly curious about the causal Alpha.

If anything doesn't make sense here as far as the explanations go, just ask and I'll do my best to clear it up.