I've Turned Into A Fox Girl?

<Shaman POV>

At the front of the palace, we all sat on the stairs leading to the front door, watching my father examine the barrier. We had no idea what he was doing, leaving even my mother clueless.

"So what other companions are you travelling with?" Since there was nothing else to do, my mother asked more questions to pass the time.

"Currently, we have Himeko travelling with us as Klaus destroyed the city she ruled over." Remembering back to when we came out of the dungeon, I have never felt closer to death than that time, when he was mere inches away from discovering us. Even the dungeon itself left me with mental scars, leaving me with some bitter memories of the lost city.

"Good to hear that she is okay." My mother's face looked relieved, as she still had at least one friend alive.

"Mhm, we also got the princess of Elfhiem Elanor with us. We had quite an ordeal involving the royal elf family and ultimately Elanor decided to travel with us." It was certainly an interesting time, as it was also when Clara joined our relationship.

"That's quite the party you got—daughter of the vampiric foxes, elf and demon princess. Anyone else?" My mother saying it out loud made it sound like I was collecting royalty from all over the continent.

"There are two more and one of them joined us recently for this mission. Her name is Luna, a half-demon cat girl who is our support specialist. She probably has the most normal origins out of everyone." Luna was easy to introduce, but whether she would be a permanent addition is still up in the air.

'Oh god, how do I introduce Silver.' I didn't want to say outright that I have a son since I knew that would freak my mother out. By all accounts, he was my son, but it wasn't by any natural means.

"As for the last one… I don't know how to introduce him properly." I glanced over to Elysia, but she instantly turned her head away, refusing to bail me out. If anything, it's probably better she keeps to herself before she creates any further misunderstanding.

"This better not be a boyfriend as well." My mother already assumed the worst, which made me panic.

"No, no, no, no, nothing like that. To put it simply, I have a son named Silver, but only because I dripped some blood onto his egg to create a familial bond." I urgently spoke, as I didn't want my mother to conjure up any more wrong ideas.

"I… Have a lot of questions." I could see on her face that she was trying hard not to scream.

"Uhhh, well it's kind of a long story, but technically, you have a grandkid now… You'll understand when you see him." If Silver were still his young self, he would be easier to introduce, but as things stand it would be hard to explain how he evolved his way into adulthood.

"You are honestly full of surprises, honey. I hope there isn't anything else… Otherwise, I think my heart will fail me."

"I think that should be all. I'll explain in more detail when you see Silver, as it will probably make more sense then." He looked like just a male version of me, so there was no doubt that he had my blood, which should be evident to my parents.

"I need to mentally prepare anyway, plus it looks like your father is about to do something." Our attention now drawn to my dad, it appeared he had stopped walking up and down the barrier. Instead he had placed his hand on it, seemingly trying to do something with mana. However, his attempts proved fruitless, only causing slight ripples.

"Shaman, come over here for a moment." It felt weird being called over by one of my parents, but it certainly wasn't an unpleasant feeling. I quickly rushed over, eager to help my father with his current lack of mana.

"After some closer inspection, the barrier itself is the outline of a magic circle. The only issue is that since the ground isn't flat, we can't necessarily get to the centre unless we destroy the palace." My father pointed to the edge, where glowing marks came out of the ground, resembling parts of a magic circle.

'I'm sure Elysia wouldn't mind doing that to kill some boredom.' It sounded like if we had access to the centre, we could break free.

"Soooo are we going to?" Rebuilding shouldn't be too much of a problem, but then again, we are in a time stasis, so digging up the ground might be harder than I think.

"I'd rather not do that just yet. First, I want you to pour mana into these markings and see if you can overload or dispel them." It was an interesting idea, but I doubt the barrier would collapse that easily.

"Here goes nothing." Squatting down, I placed my hands over the marking and poured as much mana as I could. Dispelling was beyond me, but overloading was simple enough. Surprisingly, sparks of yellow light soon emitted from the marking and it wasn't long before it fizzled out of existence.

Cracks then began to form on the barrier wall. That got me excited, unfortunately, to the point it broke my concentration. The markings then reappeared on the ground, causing the wall to repair itself.

"Just as I thought. Elysia, can you lend a hand as well?" It all seemed to be within my father's expectations, so I wondered if this would be our chance to get out. .

"When that crack appears on the wall, I want you to hit it with as much mana as you can." Hearing my dad explain her role, I suddenly felt like this was a bad idea.

"Hehe~ sure can do dad." Excitement was clearly in her voice, a testament to how clearly she was itching to go all out. Unexpectedly though, she called him dad, which threw me off.

"A-ahem, wait until you are officially married." Although she caught my father off guard I still noticed a grin forming on his face.

"Hey dad, are you sure? Elyisa is kind of explosive when it comes to power." Although Elysia was probably the best person for the job, I couldn't help but feel that it might backfire.

"We'll just have to find out and see." As he shrugged at my warning, my confidence in this plan took a dive. Your journey continues with m v|l-e'm,p y r

"Please just work." It was our only option, so I swallowed my worries and began to overload the markings. The cracks appeared again in the barrier, so Elysia prepared a punch packed full of her mana.

Blood flames swirled around her fist, the mana so palpable I could feel it pouring into this punch. After a couple of minutes, Elysia finally threw the punch into the crack.

As her fist made contact, a burst of flames shot out, enlarging the crack in the barrier a fair margin. Still, she ran into some kind of resistance as if something was pushing back her fist. She didn't let, continually adding more and more power to her fist.

My father quickly backed away, cautious of the stray flames that were blowing all over the place.

However, just as Elysia was making some progress, lightning surged towards her hand from the barrier, as if retaliating against her attempts. Forced back by the pain, Elysia quickly retreated once she noticed that another strike was forming.

I also quickly backed up, as I didn't want to be caught in the second lightning strike.

"Are you okay? Nothing weird happening to your body?" Being a safe distance away from the barrier, I quickly examined Elysia's hand to see if it had suffered any severe damage. Between the time stasis and this unique barrier, I was concerned taking damage here could cause some side effects.

"I'm fine, my flames should be able to heal it." Elysia pulled her hand away to coat it in her red flames.

"Looks like we'll need to do that a couple of times." My father was already back to inspecting the barrier, not showing any concern.

"Jeez, you could show some worry, dear." My mother had walked over to Elyisa and, despite the flames on her hand, still grabbed it to have a look.

"U-umm I'm o-okay." Elysia didn't know how to react to my mother suddenly grabbing her hand.

"Hmm, if you say so." My mother gave it a closer look, confirming the flames did a good job at healing. With Elysia all good, I turned my attention to the barrier, which wasn't healing the crack right away.

"Perhaps instead of brute force, we could use a more precise attack now?" I didn't want to put Elysia in danger, so I figured a strike with my Kotetsu might do the trick.

"Possibly, just need to be careful of the failsafe electrocuting you." My father was lost in thought. thinking up who knows what.

"Yes, that might work. Shaman, show me your best attack on this barrier."