"Look, look, the transformation is about to start. Honestly, for a minute there I had thought he was going to die!" said Richard while watching Rina and Linri"s fight from his smartphone.Lyra was not speaking and intently watching the fight. She did not think her son would be able to cast ice magic. Maybe his kitsune blood was thicker than she thought. From his fighting tendencies, she had always thought he would always awaken to be a werewolf. He also seemed to have a knack for it. Those moves were that of a seasoned spell caster. He seemed rash and did not seem to mind taking a hit but that needle attack and the last ice net needed a ton of concentration. He should have only been able to cast magic for 3 months tops, how did he get so good? Then her eyes caught the sight of [Silver Serpent Bracelet] coming to life and biting him. She paused the screen.
"What"s that? I haven"t given him such an artefact?" said Lyra.
"You didn"t give it to him? Well, I didn"t - Oh! I think I know where he got it from"
"Where?"
"Your son said he made a deal with forgotten deities for power and glimpsed into the future"
Lyra smashed the phone in her hands.
"You said what!?"
It was the G.o.ds! Those pesky leeches messing with her life again! Wasn"t it enough that they had driven her out of her clan? Now they were putting their disgusting claws into her son!
---
Linri(?) slowly regained his consciousness. He found it odd that he was still alive. Wasn"t he drowning in a lake just now? Now that he thought about it that must have been a dream. How could there be a giant magical wolf that spews ice? That really didn"t make sense.
Then he found one thing weird. Why couldn"t he move his body? Also, why did it feel like he was moving? He opened his eyes to see that his body was encased in ice and he was sitting on top of the giant magical wolf. Oh G.o.d, he imagined that he would die either by starvation or cold but he never imagined that he was going to be eaten by a giant magical wolf. He was debating whether he should be amused by his situation or be desperate.
"Hey, Wolf, what"s your goal? Why didn"t you eat me? Are you perhaps going to feed me to your children?" Linri(?) said sarcastically. There was no use in feeling fear or desperation in this situation. Since the wolf didn"t outright kill him that meant he had some sort of use for it. Maybe he could work something out with this wolf. After all, in fiction wolves were always known to be cunning and vicious, it wouldn"t just keep him alive for charity.
The wolf did not reply to him. He was sure that it was ignoring him but he decided to play dumb and speak louder.
"HEY WOLF! WHAT"S YOUR GOAL?" Linri(?) screamed loudly.
"SHUT UP!" The wolf growled at him.
So the wolf had a short temper, got it. This also confirmed that it had some sort of use for him as otherwise, he was sure that it would have eaten him by now.
"Now, don"t be like that! We are all friends here, aren"t we? I know that you have some sort of plan for me. Come on, spill the beans. Maybe I can help you?" Linri(?) pestered the wolf. Now that he was sure that it wouldn"t kill him, the last speck of fear he felt towards the wolf melted away.
"SHUT UP! If I wasn"t going to use you as bait you would have been dead by now?"
"Oh, a bait huh? What are we hunting? A bear, another wolf, maybe even a yeti!" Linri(?) said sarcastically.
"No, I don"t know what those are but we are nothing hunting them. Including you, there are only 3 living beings here and I have been fighting that deceitful fox for almost an eternity."
Linri(?) did not reply immediately. He was thinking about the new information he gained from the wolf. Including himself, there were only 3 living beings in this frozen wasteland. But that should have been impossible. Even in the north pole, there were fishes and the like so how could there be something like that on earth? Maybe he wasn"t on earth? But if he wasn"t on earth where was he? Did he possibly die and went to heaven?... At least he hoped not. I mean if this place was heaven he could not imagine how the h.e.l.l would be. Then again this place did not match up with the description of the afterlife in any religious text he had read. So he was not on earth but he was not in the afterlife either. So where was he? Most importantly how could he get out?
"A fox huh? Honestly, should you be able to defeat it easily by just spewing some ice?"
"Huh, if only it could be that easy! That fox spews fire which counters my ice so I can never get the upper hand and whenever I think I did, it escapes by creating an illusion"
A fire-spewing fox with illusion abilities. That sounded familiar. Actually wasn"t there a j.a.panese myth about a mischievous fox spirit that had nine tails. Normally, he would have disregarded this idea but seeing his situation he could not help but think it might actually be it.
"Hey, how many tails does that fox have? Could it be nine?"
"Hm? Yes, don"t all foxes have nine tails?"
"Of course they don"t!! If I am not wrong that fox should be a kitsune. A mischievous fox spirit. Just so you know they are not known to eat humans so if you want to just lay a trap using me it won"t work"
"Of course it will work! We have been alone all this time and you are the only other being we saw from the start. He won"t be able to keep himself from checking you out and that"s when I will kill him!"
"*Sigh* You know you are an idiot right? Even if he is curious at first he will probably think it was a trap laid by you. Actually isn"t this the reason you didn"t catch me outright? I am pretty sure you followed me for a time to observe my behaviour. The fox will do the same and who is to say that I won"t warn the fox out of spite? I mean once this is over you will kill me won"t you?"
"Then I guess there is no need to keep you alive anymore," said the wolf after slowing down its steps.
"Yeah sure do that. I am not the one losing anything from this. After all, from the moment I met you my fate was to die anyway. At least, I can die happily knowing that I messed up your plans and you can go on to keep fighting that fox for eternity" said Linri(?).
The wolf finally stopped moving. It stopped to think. No matter which angle he looked from he was the one holding the short end of the stick. Even though he had caught this human why did it feel like he was the one being caught instead?
"Then how about this, if you help me I will let you live," said the wolf. Of course, it wasn"t planning to let this little thing live but for now, it could only play along with him.
"No way, I think you don"t know but your kind is known to be cunning and bloodthirsty so I won"t accept that. Offer me something or kill me right now and go on keep fighting your endless battle"
"That... I don"t have anything else to offer you" said the wolf. It was the truth. From the wolf"s knowledge, this world was divided in two. One side was covered in flames and the other side was this frozen tundra.
"Then kill me and let"s get this over with," said Linri(?). He was bluffing. Of course, he was bluffing! Who would want to die? But he was no going to let the wolf know that. Since it was the one that wanted something from him, he needed to squeeze it dry so that it wouldn"t even think of crossing him again. G.o.d, he was ruthless, wasn"t he? Maybe he wasn"t really a good guy in his past life. Well, villains always died last so that was a good thing, right?
"Wait, I can... I can give you a fraction of my power?" The wolf said in desperation. It needed to defeat that d.a.m.ned fox. It did not know why but ever since he came to life that was the only thing in its mind. It needed to kill that fox.
"Okay, deal"
"Good then after I defeat the fox I will give a part of my power," said the wolf.
"Hold up a minute. Who said it was after? If you want to do it give it to me now. It"s not like you will need your full power when ambus.h.i.+ng the fox right?"
"No way!" the wolf growled at Linri(?).
"Fine then, kill me. I can"t trust you anyway so I will definitely tattle on you if you decide to use me as bait. If I at least had some sort of self-protection we might have worked something out but it seems like it"s not going to happen"
The wolf stood still in silence. Then it threw Linri(?) off of its back and the ice encasing Linri melted. The wolf closed its eyes and the runes on its body started to give off a blue hue. Then his head started to hurt and blurry scenes appeared in his mind. Were those his memories?