We kept walking, and an awkward silence hung over us all."To the... 5th test I guess?"
I just kinda nodded dumbly as Luna tentatively asked.
Yeah... this was all kinds of weird feeling.
We traveled uphill, unsure of what exactly was to happen next.
As fog cleared and afternoon came, the 5th test came into sight.
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The usual process of a building coming back to life, the next ghost appears.
"Of course there was a loli fox ghost. Of course."
My attention is grabbed out of this weird gray-feeling by the other thing however; a tree.
Well... okay the floor split in the center of the building, and a tree grew into the room. Full-on cherry blossom tree, except instead of pink petals, these were white with shimmers of color on them, as if each were covered in an oil slick.
I just kinda dumbly pointed at the tree. "What...why?"
The ghost laughed at my expression.
"Ah, this will be fun! Welcome to the test of mentality! Well, it"s not so much a test as it"s not something that"s easy to fail, but it"s more to show you what your own mentality is like."
"...I"m so confused..."
She rolled her eyes at my expression. "Keep up, idiot. Honestly."
Hey! I"ve had a very consuming couple of days, and a very weird time, okay? Give me some slack! You try adjusting to every change that could possibly occur in this wacked-out funhouse of a world!
I looked at the tree again, trying to a.n.a.lyze it.
"I do NOT like the combinations of light and poison in there."
I looked at the girl again, noticing a pair of sharp ears poking out of her head, and how her fur was shining an unnaturally bright gold.
"L-Luna..."
"This feels off. Something is wrong. That tree is... illusions and poison? This is bad!"
"Yeah Kyoku?" The poor girl is just looking bedraggled by this point.
"Get out! I"m pretty sure that tree is releasing hallucin-...nogens"
Where did the ghost go? I don"t know. Why is the room getting all bendy? I also don"t know.
"Hallucinogens... sounds like a funny... words..." Luna"s voice trailed off, in dreamlike stupor, and a bit of panic surged in my mind, disrupting this placid stillness...
"...mm... it"s so... light."
Everything was easy... simple. Just lie down. Just relax...
A thud I barely registered, something fallen.
"I should... fall too... it"s easy... and then I can... relax..."
"Hmm...?"
Something flying across my field of view... it"s black? A black dot? No wait that"s... Shade right?
Why was this light so comfy again? Isn"t Shade even softer?
"The dark... has no less to offer..."
Suddenly I was stumbling, the world sent askew, the ghost before me again as nausea hit me like a truck.
"Shut up!" A crack as something hit me, and the world went all bendy again.
"No, no no no somethings wrong... Sharp... elf... bad..."
I could feel something wrapping around me... it was so comfortable and warm and LIGHT.
"The Light is only a cage to me."
Once again a thought I don"t understand ripped the world apart, and this time I did puke all over the floor.
I looked up, the world ripped into pieces, as half of it bent away while the rest framed forward.
"They want to see the cute fox!"
I giggled at the thought, as the walls seemed to reach for me, and staggered back.
"Can"t fall... stand."
Why am I standing? What"s wrong with lying down?
Come on... think...
"But it"s... so nice not to think... so just... let someone else do it..."
I looked up, a shadow of something playing in my head, as if some part of me couldn"t accept this.
"AAAAAGH!" I clutched my head, shouting as pain dragged along it, the world snapping back to clarity.
"No! No no no! Go back to sleep you stupid-"
I looked up at the girl, cutting her off just by whatever she saw in my eyes.
"Half...elf." Hissed out of my teeth.
"...d.a.m.n it, why couldn"t you have let the illusions take you."
I looked down, pain still bursting through my head as something was warding me from the trees effects, and saw Luna lying on the ground, with roots curling around her... as the tree slowly drew her in.
I looked back up, mind snapping back and forth like a wildfire.
"Fenrir... also asleep. Danger, elf, traitor..."
"Why... did you betray your duty?"
I managed to get that out, and the girl laughed.
"The only duty I have is to make sure no mangy foxes ever disgrace the name of the G.o.ds of light!"
Oh a religious nut. Fantastic.
"You betrayed your own kind and stayed here just to serve Milaki...?"
She sneered, any hint of innocence gone, a childlike mask warped into a demonic visage.
"You foxes should"ve stayed out of elven business! I was born half-fox so I could be here, to open the gates to the invaders! If it wasn"t for you d.a.m.n foxes, I could"ve been born a proper High-Elf!"
I staggered against a wall, leaning on it. "Oh... you are... a racist, religious nut job... okay..."
I blinked harder. Come on! Stay awake!
There was another me here earlier... agh I can"t split my focus with this d.a.m.n fog in my head!
"Listen... I don"t know your story, or why you chose to do this-"
She exploded in rage, "I CHOSE THIS BECAUSE THE KITSUNE ARE CORRUPTED BY THE DEMONIC BLOOD IN THEM! For such a race to be considered more pure and good than the High-Elves is blasphemous!"
Agh, darkness against the light? Seriously? That"s what this is about? She was raised with a large bias.
My eyes narrowed at her, my legs finding strength to stand. "Did you... help?"
"What?" She tilted her head, confused.
"Did you... help them... as they died? Or did you betray the Kitsune completely?"
She gave a sigh, looked down... and as her face came back up, it did so with the most sickening grin I"ve ever seen. "I"m the one who made sure there wouldn"t be a 6th guardian anymore. If only I could"ve gotten some of the others before I died..."
You know what. It"s messed up. She died for whatever-the-f.u.c.k it is she believes in, yet she still feels triumphant about murder, and who knows what else. And now, in the middle, literal MIDDLE, of the sacred rites of pa.s.sage of the Kitsune, she pulls this bulls.h.i.t.
Because Foxkin don"t deserve to be considered good, as half-demons.
"I... hate." It came out as a whisper, heat cooling in my stomach.
"Hmm? What was that? There"s nothing you can do, stupid fox! You can"t burn down a tree blessed by the G.o.ddess of nature, and you"ll succ.u.mb eventually! Your friends are already as good as dead!"
I stumbled forward, walking towards her.
"I"m a ghost, a soul! You can"t harm me!"
"I... hate."
She shouted, and I could see she felt anxiety and apprehension, some part of her warning her, even if she was too stupid to understand.
"I... hate... you."
I reached her, my hands clawing at her as she backed away, fear taking over before she came back to her senses.
"How DARE YOU!"
And then... my hands grabbed onto her, and she froze.
Because my hands... could touch her.
"Tha...that"s impossible."
I looked her in the eyes, seeing the reflection of my rage in them.
"The only demon I see... is you."
And with that, I took all my soul, and I didn"t entrance, or tempt. There was no music in what this was.
I took my soul, and brute-forced into her.
She slammed away as if shot by a rocket, hitting the metaphysical walls put upon her by this s.p.a.ce, as it"s guardian.
I could feel the panic, the fear and terror in her mind.
It was... delicious.
She looked up as I walked to the tree, pulling out my blade and stabbing it into the bark.
"f.u.c.k your G.o.ddess."
I smiled, watching the elemental energies in the tree be rapidly sucked out, letting go of the spirit vessel.
I pulled my mind through the fog to give a last message, and let go.
And then the clouds claimed me.
***
The ghost laughed shakily. "A futile struggle... all are lesser, beneath the elves..."
Her eyes landed upon her own tail, and a look of self-disgust crossed her face, before she looked back up.
"With this, I can be cleansed of the evil fox bloodline forever! Now that there no longer will be any living Kitsune... Milaki will take me in as an elven heroic spirit!"
She crowed at the heavens, laughing.
The roots slowly grew and entwined around the strange Foxkin, already drawing the other two towards the tree as food.
Unaware of the hungry spirits in a certain blade, ignored by her.
A little spot of darkness sank back into the blade, to do what his master had asked.