Kitsune of the Blue Sun

[Freyr POV]

The inside of the once beautiful capital had become a nightmare.  Bodies littered the sidewalks and canals. The waters that were once pristine were polluted with something I had no words to describe how foul it was. My men, both current and previous were locked in combat, with the latter all in a mad frenzy, no emotion but rage driving them. It brought me no sense of relief to cut them down.  I continued to cut through possessed soldiers until I made it to the plaza of ceremony.

 

“FREYR!!!!!”

 

I turned to the one who yelled my name.  Standing on top of a pile of corpses, wearing broken armor and several bleeding wounds stood Ivaldi, my once second in command.

 

“Ivaldi…you’ve seen better days, old friend.” (Freyr)

 

“You’re no friend of mine, all you are is a traitor. Someone not even fit to breathe the same air as those of us who support the king, our god.” (Ivaldi)

 

“I am no traitor.  I did what I did for the sake of this land. The king is beyond old, it is time for new blood to rule, especially with the cruel the king had become since even before I left.  You must have seen it, Ivaldi!  The dungeons, the entrance to the Dead Zone!  Even the king’s private chambers!  Full of corpses, most of them children. I’ve heard the screams and seen the tools. He takes them and tortures them for fun before taking a piece of them and mounting them on those grotesque piles he calls art!” (Freyr)

 

“Of course, I’ve seen them. But who am I to question my god!?  What the king says is absolute!  And Freyr, you naive fool, do you really think that Prince you serve is any better?  Let me be frank with you, it’s all a game for them.  That Prince is going to have all of you killed once this is all over, if any of us survive that is.” (Ivaldi)

 

His words shook me to my core for a moment before I fully processed his last words.

 

“You mean that…THING isn’t something you’ve had prepared for us!?” (Freyr)

 

“No, though if it takes all of you traitors down, then I don’t care what it is or where it came from.” (Ivaldi)

 

The monster let out another roar, only for it to be cut short as its jaw was slammed shut from below.  Shortly after, something covered in blue flames was thrown and a silver shadow followed swinging another line of blue into the beast. A pained shriek that sounded like it came from thousands of different beings at once was heard before the monster turned toward its opponent and began fighting it.

 

“You’ve grown old and forgetful, you’re the one who taught me to never turn your back on an opponent!” (Ivaldi)

 

Ivaldi had jumped at me from where he was standing and swung his axe at me.

 

“I also taught you to never announce when you attack, especially in a situation like this.” (Freyr)

 

I swung my great sword to meet his attack. After our weapons clashed, we were sent sliding in opposite directions. I grasped the hilt of my sword with both ands and pulled it apart before stabbing my twin swords into the ground to slow by momentum.  Once I stopped, I pulled my swords from the ground and burst forward. Ivaldi had stumbled over a piece of rubble and I was before him just as he regained his balance. Swinging one sword diagonally towards his chest, he blocked it with the haft of his axe.  Once I was sure he was too occupied with his defense, I stabbed forward with my free sword.  Just as it scratched his armor, he raised a foot and kicked, sending me sliding back as he dashed forward in an attempt to cut me down.

 

As soon as he was at the apex of his swing, I grabbed some stone dust and flung it in his eyes.  He recoiled, allowing me to push him back, pirouette while combining swords into a great sword once more, and slash. My sword cleaved through his armor and flesh with hardly any resistance.

 

“Too hasty and arrogant as always, Ivaldi. I also taught you to think on your feet and use everything at your disposal, event the lowliest of tricks.” (Freyr)

 

“*spluttering cough*Seems…this is the end for me, but you’ll get yours. *cough*Duke Fa-Lucius is still alive, and once he takes the field, you’ll all die. Hahahahahaha*cough, cough, cough*” (Ivaldi)

 

Those were Ivaldi’s last words before his head fell to the ground.

 

“…” (Freyr)

 

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

 

I turned in the direction of the pained roar and saw the monster get slammed into a building.

 

“No time to think, get through this first, then I can figure this out.

 

[Keeno POV]

 

A blast of my magic sent the monster into the side of a building, destroying the building and knocking off some of the black sludge covering its body.

 

“Keeno, on your left!” (Freya)

 

Appearing in a flash of light, Freya slashed at the bony, membrane-less wings, searing some more of the sludge from them, though it quickly got replaced by more.

 

“Can you stop dropping that stuff down here!?  I’m still new to this, so it takes a bit to get rid of it!” (Emma)

 

“No talking, just purifying!” (Pram)

 

The clear, distinct sound of Pram’s bell sounding nonstop during this fight was helping us much more than I thought it would, as it seemed to be severely loosening the sludge.

 

“Blessing of Nature at work there, mixed with Blessing of Life.  That stuff isn’t naturally like that, so my blessing is helping make it easier to get rid of.  Otherwise, it would probably be like armor made of stone.” (Fu)

 

{Hehehehe.  Good Pram, good, make more progress.  Soon, you’ll hit the threshold and only need one achievement to pass into Life magic.}

 

“That’s great news, Ama, but it’s really not the time for that!” (Keeno)

 

I tossed one of my blades into the side of a building and used it to swing over a tail swipe.  Sigurd, who was behind me, wasn’t in time to move out the way, so taking a stance with his sword held aloft, he swung it down, cleaving through the thinnest part of sludge, skin, and bone, and completely severing the tip of the tail.

 

“GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

 

Reacting to the pain, the monster whipped its head around to try and bite Sigurd, only to be met with a combined attack of potent Solar magic from me and Freya.  The hit sent the beast’s head into the ground, shattering the stone around it, throwing chunks into the air.  This constant beatdown of the beast must have enraged it, because almost as soon as the rubble landed, it raised itself on its rear legs letting out an ear-splitting roar.  While it did this, its wings spread, and the sludge moved to the places where a wing membrane would be.  In the split second it took for this to happen, it started to beat its wings, and with every beat, a deluge of sludge would rain everywhere.

 

It started to lift off the ground a small bit, crushing any building that was in the way before looking down on us.  In the place where its eyes should be two orbs with an eerie green light that seemed to shine from behind them rested.  As it was floating there, a similar green light started to shine in its chest.

 

“BREATH!!!” (Keeno)

 

The light was building in brightness fast and in just a short few seconds, it traveled up the beast’s throat and a beam of green light shot from its mouth accompanied by a roar.

 

{Keeno, displace it or else it will raze this entire area!}

Channeling my mana, I made a condensed fireball as fast as I could and shot it toward the breath.  The two connected and when the fireball exploded, the breath was redirected into the sky, where it cut through the storm clouds, creating a rift for the suns to shine through.  My fireball also managed to burn away a good bit of sludge, causing the beast to fall to the ground with a hard thud.

 

“…I’ve got an idea, but we need to get it to fly again!” (Keeno)

 

“Say the word, my Lady, and we’ll do our best!” (Emma)

 

“What she said, Keeno, explain as you start doing whatever it is you thought of.” (Freya)

 

“Simple, fight breath with breath, we just need it to get into the air, then when my breath connects and it falls to the ground, enough sludge should be gone to deal some damage.” (Keeno)

 

“Then we need to make it angry again!” (Pram)

 

The monster swatted at Pram with one of its wings but didn’t do anything due to Freya blocking its attack.

 

“YOU FILTHY LIZARD!  I’LL RIP YOU FACE OFF!!!” (Freya)

 

Freya then shot toward the beast with the fastest attack I’ve seen her perform to date.  Her swords cut deep into the beast’s wing, and she continued to attack until reaching its neck where her swords sunk through the sludge, burning it the whole way and cutting deep into its neck until they stopped at the spine.  Letting out an extremely pained groan, the beast reared up and flung Freya into a building where she crashed through the wall in a rain of stone and wood.

 

“FREYA!” (Pram)

 

The sound of Pram’s bell stopped as soon as she ran towards the building where Freya was sent flying into.  I wanted to do the same as Pram, but the beast blocked my way as it flailed around in pain.

 

“Emma, Sigurd, get ready to go all out, we need to finish this quickly!” (Keeno)

 

The two just nodded in response and rushed forward.  Emma, using her speed and the weight of her weapon to her advantage dealt several small cuts, relative to the size of the beast, in a short amount of time, focusing on places like between its claws, the back of its joints, and especially in the joints of the wings.  Sigurd on the other hand focused on trying to increase the pain and damage Emma’s cuts did, though he was much slower than her and couldn’t reach the places higher up on the beast’s body like its wings.

 

“I’ve come to assist!” (Freyr)

 

“Good, go and help Sigurd and Emma, make that thing start flying again!” (Keeno)

 

Freyr joined in the fight and broke his sword in two, turning it into twin swords.

 

“Oooo!  That’s such a unique Soul Weapon!  How cool!” (Moco)

 

“It is super duper cool!  I want a sword like that too!” (Fu)

 

“Let’s go get someone to make some for us!” (Moco)

 

“We’re totally doing that, and let’s get some for Red and Ortlinde too!” (Fu)

 

“That’s such a good idea!  We’re doing that once this is all over!” (Moco)

 

“Bau!” (Fu)

 

“Bau, bau!” (Moco)

 

{…}

 

Ignoring the antic of those two, I started to concentrate on making a breath attack.  I started to get that nice, hot, tingling feeling in my chest and I started to see the area around me glow blue.  Glancing up, I saw the suns were at their apex, meaning one of Ama’s Sun Blessing effects was working.  As the blue glow got brighter and brighter, the sounds of the fight began getting more hectic.

 

“GrrrrrrrrAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

 

The beast made the same move it did earlier and the sludge formed wing membranes again.  Once it was in the air, it started to prepare a breath attack again, but I was faster.  The blue glow from my chest came up and condensed in my mouth before I released it.  The beast tried to release its breath attack to counteract mine but was too late.  As the bright cerulean beam hit the beast in the chest it let out a piercing shriek.  It crashed to the ground, blowing Emma and Freyr back while Sigurd braced himself next to some rubble.  I fell to one knee having exhausted a lot of mana doing that attack.

 

“Sigurd…do it!” (Keeno)

 

Sigurd ran up to the beast and, putting all his weight and strength behind it, swung his sword at the wound Freya left in its neck.  Striking true, Sigurd’s sword but through the greenish-black scales that had half formed on the beast’s neck, through its flesh, the spine, and out the other side.  The beast let out a hoarse scream as its massive head fell to the ground with a heavy thud.  I stood up from where I was kneeling and shortly after the beast’s head hit the ground, one of the most disgusting souls floated out of the body.  It was such a muddy pitch black that it made moonless nights look like the brightest day.

 

“*retch*My Lady, that’s…” (Emma)

 

“Just look away, Emma.” (Keeno)

 

I resummoned one of my Soul Weapons and approached the soul.  When I got closer, I saw just how broken the soul was.  Through the muddiness, it was like a shattered window being held together by spiderwebs of dust.  Without a spec of hesitation, I swung my sword through the soul.  Though it felt a tad bit different than what usually happened, I choked it up to how corrupted it was as, a second later, it disappeared into nothingness.

 

Once I was sure the soul was gone, I rushed over to the building where Freya and Pram were.  I found Pram laying over Freya who was hugging Pram with one arm while holding her head with the other.

 

“*sniff*Freya, are you ok now?” (Pram)

 

“I’m fine, Pram, you’ve been healing me this whole time.  Anymore and you’ll just exhaust yourself.” (Freya)

 

“That doesn’t matter, dummy!” (Pram)

 

Pram grabbed Freya by the collar of her shirt and pulled her close before kissing her.  It only lasted for about a minute, and when they broke apart, Freya’s face was as red as a ruby.

 

“Never scare me like that again.  If you do, I’ll have to lock you up somewhere and never let you out.” (Pram)

 

“…Pram, that’s a very scary idea.” (Freya)

 

“Sounds reasonable to me.” (Keeno)

 

{Me too.  I’d have done that to Keeno a long time ago if she was able to just stay here with me.}

 

“She says like I’m not the one who’d do that to her first.” (Keeno)

 

“…Anyway, can I please get up now?  This rubble isn’t very comfortable.” (Freya)

 

Pram dried the tears in her eyes and stood up, offering a hand to Freya who took it with a small smile on her face.  Leaving the building, we found Emma, Sigurd, and Freyr sitting or leaning on some of the rubble.  When he saw us, Freyr stood straight and spoke.

 

“Lady Okami, I need to talk with you about something important.  I would normally say it could wait, but I fear we could be out of time if we don’t do it now.” (Freyr)

 

“Make it quick, Freyr, we still need to get to the castle.” (Keeno)

 

“I know…” (Freyr)

 

Chaos Realm:

The first soul, or whatever is left of it acquired.

Order: To containment with you! *poof*

Ray of the Abyss: I shall take it.  I have a list of things I want to do with it.  If you have any more ideas for…fun with it, I take suggestions.

Noted.

Luna: One down, two to go.  Let’s see what happens next!