Kitsune of the Blue Sun

Chapter 197- Effects of Dead Zone Removal and Ending Trouble Early

[Keeno POV]

After having my fill of messing with a surprised Ashe, I left the clinic so I wouldn’t get in the way of things. I wanted to go and speak a bit more with Pram, but before I could go find her, I saw her and Freya locked in a passionate kiss through a window.  Turning away, I left Pram’s house and started making my way into the city proper, one of my ears twitching along with my tails.

{Only a few more days, Keeno.}

“I know. It feels like forever since we’ve seen each other.”

{I know. Is there anything special you want to do?}

“Hmm.”

Tilting my head, I continued to walk without paying much attention to where I was going.

“I can’t think of anything. Is there something you wanted to do, Ama?”

{Um…}

“It was a spur of the moment question, wasn’t it?”

{…Yeah.}

I chuckled at her meek reply when inspiration hit me.

“I just got an idea.”

{Oh?}

“Can you make the place mountainous with really, REALLY deep valleys?”

{Easily.}

“Then do that.”

{Not going to tell me the idea?}

“Nope.  But it’s going to be fun.”

{Then I’ll look forward to it.}

Turning a corner after finalizing a few more things for our date, I looked around me to see where I ended up.  Among the piles of freshly fallen snow were headstones that were completely free of the powder. The solemn atmosphere of the graveyard permeated the air.  In the silence, broken only by wind and the sound of pine needles rustling in the nearby trees, I felt a faint connection. Not one like with Ama, or the others, but more along the lines of I’m needed here.

“Is Phobos playing around with Fate again?”

{I don’t think so. He’s actually been busy. He finally made up with Hresvelgr and they’ve been putting together a play. And guess what its theme is.}

“Something to do with me?”

{He titled it “The Tragedy of Falheim.”}

“Hmm.  We’ll have to see it one day.  To make sure it’s accurate.”@@novelbin@@

{We will. I was promised we’d have the best seats for its first showing when they finish it. They’ll even have it on a Solar Convergence.}

I nodded while looking around the graveyard.  A few normal ravens landed on a headstone and silently ruffled their feathers.  A stronger gust of wind then blew, causing some clouds to cover the suns, casting shade over the graveyard.

“Seems like more snow is coming.”

It was then that something shifted. The ravens took flight as a spectral figure slowly rose from one of the graves.  It silently looked around with its ethereal eyes that seemed to shift between looking human and being empty sockets. When its gaze landed on me, its light grey form blurred a bit, becoming darker before shifting back to light grey.  It floated over and started circling around me, clearly confused about something. Moving one of its hands, it poked my cheek.  I felt a tingly sensation while the specter became astonished. A smile appeared on its face, and it started hugging me.

{Back off ghost!  She’s mine!!!}

“…cold…found…warmth.”

The faint whisper of the ghost’s voice was almost carried off by the wind, but I still managed to hear it.

“Ama.”

Ama fell silent as I tried to listen to the ghost’s words.

“Want…warmth…so…cold.  Consume…life…saint’s…protection…can’t…leave…need…warmth…consume…you!  Can’t…comforting…warm…save…us?”

The strength in the ghost’s voice increased to above a whisper. It wanted to leave this graveyard and consume life to preserve itself, but some kind of saint’s power kept it here.

“Would you like to move on from this world?”

The ghost separated itself from me and looked at me with confusion.

“Free…us?”

“From whatever is keeping you in this world.  I will let you finally move on.”

“No…more…cold?”

“No more cold.”

Raising a hand, I covered it in mana and the ghost stared at it, small flames lighting into its eyes. Placing my hand on its head, the grey color of its body slowly started changing to blue, then, starting at where its feet should be, it began to fade.

“Warm…so warm…thank. . .you.”

The ghost started fading faster until nothing was left but the memory of it being there.

{Hmm. Ghosts are rare. Good thing you are who you are, Keeno. They can drain the vitality from the living so fast that, by the time someone notifies something is wrong, they are no longer savable.}

“Why was a ghost able to manifest anyway?  Aren’t they made from amalgamated lingering regrets?  And it said something about a saint’s protection, so it should t have been able to form in the first place.”

{There are no more Dead Zones on this continent.  My guess is that things like this are going to become more common. Even if Solheim didn’t have one, their influence would still reach.}

“Fun.”

{The sarcasm is t needed, Keeno.}

“Hehe.  Yeah, bu-hmm.  Heh.”

{What happened?}

“They. Found. Them.”

{Ah.}

Sharing sight in one eye with Huginn, I made my way from the graveyard in the direction of my quarry.

[Outside the city; Keeno’s quarry POV]

Slashing my new sword through the air, I struck the white furred fox.  Hitting its neck with the flat of my blade, I heard the satisfying crack of bone and the pained whine of the beast.  It flew into some bushes from the force, and I gave chase, my partymates following behind me laughing at how far the beast flew.

“You really know how to hit em.  Seeing how far it went; guess I lost the bet.”

“Yeah you did. Hope you don’t mind me getting a feast when we get back on your dime! Hahahaha!!”

“Heh.  Maybe I should have joined this bet. I’m trying to get a new personal record for distance.”

My two long-time partymates laughed with me, only stopping when we reached the dying fox. Looking down at the beast, its pristine white fur colored red near its mouth with blood looked up in fear.  The sight filled me with sadistic joy. I lived for that look.  Especially when it comes from such adorable things like these.

“She’s got that smile on her face again.”

“Bet on how long she takes to kill it?”

“Five minutes.”

“I say two.  It’s already almost dead, so it won’t last long.”

“Eight minutes then.”

“You really are bad at making bets.”

We both know she has ways to make stuff like this last.”

“I’m still sticking with two minutes.”

Tuning out the other’s banter, I stared down at the dying fox.  Deciding on my first action, I gently grabbed one of its hind legs and, as slowly as I could, applied pressure on one of its claws. Its quiet whines turned to yelps as it tried its hardest to scratch me away, the fear and panic lighting up its eyes with a flame so bright I felt warm.

“U-um.”

“What, can’t you see I’m busy?”

“L-look up.”

With an annoyed grimace, I looked up.  In the trees above me sat two ginormous black birds, both with four wings and exuding a chilling vibe that made my skin crawl.  Staring into their beady eyes made it feel like my entire being was being judged.  One of them opened its four wings and flapped them once, causing a gust of wind to push me back.  The other one hopped from its perch and landed in front of the fox. It stared at it for a moment before turning back to me.  The air then became heavier, causing the three of us to freeze.

The first bird joined the second in front of the dying fox.  They both began making deep rumbling noises in their throats and soon the rest of the trees in this snowy forest burst into movement. More, smaller, black feathered birds that we’d failed to notice looked down at us, the entire canopy of leaves turning into an undulating black mass of feathers.  My partymates moved closer to me as we all put our backs together. The coiled above us grey darker as well, and snow began to slowly fall.  One of the giant ravens then cried out in a deep, earth-shaking tone and the ravens in the trees took flight and began circling around us, trapping us in a dome. More terrifying yet, everything was utterly silent, the only sound breaking it being the quiet whines and whimpers of that fox.  That is-until we heard them. The sound of slow footsteps on snow.

The pressure around us became even more suffocating as the steps got closer. It was like the feeling one gets when a beast stares at its prey, ready to devour it at a second’s notice. Outside the dome of birds, through the gaps of their bodies, I saw flashes of blue light, reminiscent of eyes. An opening then formed and a kitsune woman walked in, the opening closing behind her.

“Ya know, my original plan was to just come kill you three and play with your souls a bit, but after seeing this, I’m thinking I need to be a bit slower. Treating my homunculus friends badly already pissed me off, but this, this adds a whole other level to it.” (???)

One of my partymates opened their mouth to say something, but the kitsune’s glare shut her up instantly. It was only now that I noticed the irregularities of this kitsune woman.  Five tails, glowing, piercing, slit-pupil eyes, and an aura so oppressive, it was like a physical weight pushing down on us.  I tried moving a little, but one of the giant birds made a noise, indicating that it was right behind us.

“Doing such things to OUR foxes is blasphemy of the highest order.” (???)

In the kitsune’s hand, a sword connected to a chain appeared.  It’s blade glowing blue, bordering white.  Stopping her forward walking, she twisted, throwing the sword toward us, and skewering one of my friends in the shoulder and pulling her away from us. She tried to resist, but it wasn’t effective as she was screaming in pain.

“Such grating noise.” (???)

She stopped pulling my companion toward her and whipped the chain.  A wave of blue-white flames traveled along the chain until hitting my friend in the face, searing her skin and causing so much pain she passed out.  Seeing this, I took a shaky step forward to try and help my friend, but the glares from the ravens behind us, and the kitsune in front of us kept us pinned.

“I didn’t tell you to move, so stay put.” (???)

I froze again, my body refusing to listen to me.  The kitsune finally finished dragging my friend to her and looked down at her.

“Not even muddy.  Tell me, why do such despicable things when it doesn’t benefit you?  Torturing that poor fox, abusing and even killing homunculi.  It makes no sense.” (???)

She took the hilt of her sword and slowly pulled it out of my friend’s shoulder. She clearly woke up and tried to scream, but it seems her throat was severely injured from the earlier attack, so all that came out was gargling sounds.

“Seems I went to far with this one.” (???)

Raising her sword again, she plunged it into my friend’s heart, killing her. When her body fell to the floor, a gray, glowing ball floated up and the Kitsune grabbed it before placing it on one of her tails.

“Answer my question.” (???)

The anger simmering inside me began to boil at the arrogance of this murderer.

“Because I like seeing the pain and fear in their faces. That gleam that only shows in situations like that, especially in those emotionless toys of the Guild. It’s such an addicting feeling.  And, seeing as you are a monster yourself, I’ll be ecstatic seeing that look in your eyes.”

“That’s it?  You enjoy seeing their fear and pain?  That’s such a stupid, USELESS reason!” (???)

The temperature in the immediate area spiked, making the raven dome falter for a split second.  A second later, my other friend was pierced by a lance of flames that appeared out of nowhere.  Another glowing grey orb flew out of her body toward the kitsune before, again, being placed in one of her tails.

“N-no chant magic?”

“That’s what surprises you?  I swear, mongrels like you are so stupid.  But then again, this stupidity and embrace of pleasures is what leads to easy atrocities, and I’m not better, seeing as I’ve done much worse.  Meh.  I was going to torture you and all that for my homunculus friends, but seeing you now, I’ve lost the motivation.  Huginn, Muninn, make sure she doesn’t move.” (???)

The gaze at my back intensified as the kitsune moved closer to me.  Stopping just out of reach of my sword, she sat down and pulled the two orbs she stole from my friends out.

“See, these are souls.  Strange little things that are the core of every being but insects.  They hold the memories, experiences, skills, all the information that makes a person who they are.  A physical, or well, spiritual, representation that says this person existed, at least until they die and are sent back into the cycle, purified of all things and reincarnated, then its up to those the person left behind to remember them.  Philosophy aside, it’s the most important part of any person or being.  With my Authority, I can purify the soul myself, but I’ve only ever done that and instantly sent them back into the cycle or destroyed them outright.  Then, my wife gave me an idea after I said I wanted to help the homunculi.  They are manmade beings, after all, so they don’t have souls…does that make them, technically, insects?  No, nevermind that, she said that I just need to provide them a soul, and they should be able to fully integrate into mortal society without repercussions.  The problem is the lack of a soul.  I can’t just open the cycle and give them out, that’d break a fundamental rule of existence, so we thought, why not use souls already in the world.  I mean, things like you who treat lives of those you deem underneath you like playthings clearly don’t need your souls, so why not just wash them of everything that makes you, you, and give them to someone who would make proper use of your souls?” (???)

I started trembling at the weird nonsense this kitsune murderer started spouting.  She was clearly insane.

“Now, let me show you what’s going to happen with these two souls, as well as your own soon.” (???)

Holding one of the orbs in front of her, she concentrated on it.  A strange, ominous black magic power poured out of the kitsune’s body, concentrating on the orb.  Not much happened after that, though the expression on the kitsune’s face finally changed for the first time since arriving here.

“This is much more difficult than just purifying a soul normally.” (???)

The sound of glass cracking and then shattering sounded in the eerily quiet dome of ravens.

“Damn it.” (???)

The pieces of the shattered grey orb floated around before fading out of existence like embers.  Seeing that, something deep inside my being trembled.

“Let’s try this again.” (???)

Pulling out the other grey orb again, it was covered in the black magic power.  This time it shattered almost instantly.

“Tch.  Too much at the start this time.” (???)

She then looked at me.

“Huginn, Muninn, still like eating eyes?” (???)

The birds behind me made some kind of nonsensical noise.

“Well, your beaks are so big now, doing that will kill her too, so go for it.” (???)

I tried my best to break through the fear and run, but before I could even move, the kitsune kicked me onto my back.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be quick.  You won’t even have time to register the pain before you die.” (???)

Laying on my back in the snow, I saw two giant birds standing on either side of my head, their faces looking down at me.  They moved and everything went dark.

Chaos Realm:

Luna: Oh?  Keeno didn’t immediately succeed with soul rewriting?

Why did you think she would?  It’s the first time she’s ever done something like that.

Luna: Cause that’s just how it works?

…

Atmos: Payto.

Don’t you say a word, Atmos.

Luna: ???

Fate stuff, don’t worry about it.

Luna: Oki.