NOVEL WEB Chapter-74 The Fog
A crack raced across the sky; a colossal alabaster-furred claw tore the space and barged in. It reached for the giant in the air and scratched him. Time stood still, the wind held its pace, the moons dimmed. And the giant dissolved into mist strands and vanished, only the carnage he left behind proving his existence.
Ewan gaped at the claw, his mind in a mess. He sniffed; his nose twitched.
Minty…
His hindered thoughts rebelled, the fog clouding his clarity boiled. The same minty smell, he repeated in his mind and looked towards the wolf lying on the ground, weak and feeble, screaming for sympathy.
Fucking whore!!
He gritted his teeth and growled. His spirit pool bellowed; his runes trembled. And the fog fissured. He roared in his mind and his thoughts collided through the damaged fog.
The escalated outburst that night, the unrestrained emotions and impulses, they all had an answer now. The wolf was a parasite, a leech, she was never in their lives yet creeped into their memories. She induced sympathy and pity with those eyes; Ewan wanted to stab them blind and stir her brain out. The whore took away his logic, his rationality, his thinking. He couldn’t even notice the obvious discrepancies—the cracks spread through the fog, it fractured.
He had the answer all along, the Astylinds from Yurnawa attacked because of this damn pest, they abhorred their nemesis. Yet, he took it upon himself to fight back on her behalf, unbeknown of what he was doing—the fog snapped.
An unknown non-contracted Astylind; he would never allow such a risk to travel with him. Yet, she manipulated him from the moment he laid his eyes on her, no, from even before that. That night he first whiffed the minty smell…. His rage erupted, and the fog withered.
His eyes were bloodshot as he glared at the wolf, her image squirming and twisting. Soon another illusion shattered, and the black and orange furred wolf became an alabaster-furred fox, her long tail swaying, her pearly amber eyes looking at the claw in the air.
Identify.
[Astylind Name: Nine-Tailed Fox (One-Tailed)]
[Astylind Level: Level-4]
[Astylind Grade: Grade-D]
[Anima Affinity: Mystic]
[Gender: Female]
[Description: ----]
[Remark 1: Mythical Astylinds. If only they could be tamed and controlled….]
[Remark 2: Too much risk. Contract spell doesn’t work on them.]
The World Eater….
Ewan squinted, and the fog finally quit his mind with nothing left behind. He was free from her clutches.
He took a deep breath and suppressed the boiling anger. She could do it once, she could do it again, she was the infamous ‘World Eater’ after all. Even at the same level, he was too vulnerable in front of her. He must study the ‘Mystic’, he decided. He needed a way to defend against her illusion and mind tricks, it was the only way to survive.
“Don’t antagonize us, fox.” A man’s husky voice blared in the sky, and Ewan’s hub connector hurled a string of introduction for him, but he didn’t have the mind to check it for now. “This is Airadia, you’re not welcome here,” the man said with a reverberating echo. An orange streak ripped the air and blasted through the claw, raining blood on the forest below.
The claw trembled and scuttled back into the crack with an echoing howl. The fox must be livid, Ewan smirked, wiping the hot blood off his face, and storing it in a test tube. He also gathered more from around him—the amount of Mystic-Anima in that blood made it a top-class research material.
Though not enough, the damage to the claw did appease some of his fury. He looked at the fox in Nana’s arms. She hugged it, cleaned the blood, and checked her for injuries with an ashen face. She stuck with the fox longer than him, always kept her around, her fog must be thicker. It would be nigh impossible if he tried to break it with just words.
Death could solve the problem. The source was the baby fox, if she died, Nana could recover. But…the ‘World Eater’ wasn’t someone he could fight against; the mere thought was an absurdity. If he killed the baby fox, who might be the claw owner’s offspring, they would become irreconcilable foes, blood enemies. Was it worth it?
This was Airadia, the ruler of its star system and an overlord. Even the infamous Nine-Tailed couldn’t come in here as it wished. The Guardians of Airadia made it clear, the fox wasn’t welcome here. He could take advantage of that and rid himself of this plague. But what of the expeditions then? He couldn’t not go on any his whole life; it would kill his dream in its infancy. Yet, leaving the baby fox alive was also a death threat, to him and to Nana. The two sides of a scale, he had to decide which weighted more.
The possibilities flipped through his mind while the surroundings woke up after the succeeding shocks. In the end, his present returned heavier. Expeditions were his future, but he had to survive the present to get to that. The baby fox must die for it….
But should he just kill her now and be done with it?
His mind simmered and a plan cooked. There was a risk in keeping her alive, but the cage was still there, it still trapped them inside. The threat the Crown posed to Ewan wasn’t any less than the fox, both could kill him in a heartbeat. If he could use the baby fox against him, he could gain an upper hand in the trade. The possibility of the Crown doing an honest exchange with them would skyrocket. He had to take this risk.
The plan brewed and boiled—his clarity and his critical thinking was back; they comforted him. Not only the trade, but he could also use the baby fox’s death to fuel his own promotion. Seventh awakening, he needed an Astylind for its innate skill, the ‘Bridge’ part of its initiation could be another safety net too. And what would be a better choice for it than the World Eater’s child.
Also, if he could manipulate the baby fox’s death to incite the World Eater’s impulse, he could force it into a deadly battle. If it came in hostile, the Guardians would have no choice but to counterattack with fatal force.
Hope you love you child…
Ewan looked at the mended space crack.
