Chapter 215: Chapter 214: The Fox Part 10

When Kyubi finally awoke and found herself on Illerion’s lap, the young Elf groaning and complaining about her legs being dead, she sat upright and began sobbing again.

“Sorry Illerion, I don’t remember falling asleep on you, I don’t remember mu-”

“I need to apologise. I kind of went over there to give Tsukuyomi a piece of my mind for letting Ginrei talk to you like that, but he was pretty mad and had already stripped her of her blessings.

I didn’t really know what to do, kinda weird seeing him that angry. Ishtar was mad too, things got pretty crazy, none of us ever thought we’d see Nergal and Ishtar work together.”

Illerion treated the biggest lie she had ever said like girl-chat gossip, the crushing guilt of sending her dearest friend off to live a lie broke something inside of her she couldn’t quite put a finger on.

“Why do I sense Lady Ishtar’s blessing on you?”

“Oh, you won’t believe it!…” She started.

’Please just go, Kyubi…’ She thought as she did.

“…She was so impressed I came to your defence she gave it to me!”

’…I’m going to throw up I’m so disgusted with myself.’

“You should go back, Tsukuyomi is worried about you.”

’Don’t go back there, please just say you love me and stay where you’re loved in return.’

“I love you Illerion…” The space between her name and the word that followed lasted a century for one of Illerion’s level. “…you’re the dearest friend I will ever have.”

Illerion smiled as her heart broke for the second time and watched what she suddenly realised was her first true-love leave her to live a lie.

As Kyubi arrived back to Lord Tsukuyomi, he apologised profusely and played the part he had agreed to.

They first travelled to a realm that housed one called the moon-eater and climbed a staircase that ascended the inner walls of a lighthouse that pierced the clouds.

They travelled to several realms so that Kyubi could be formally introduced as Tsukuyomi’s attendant, including Samael’s castle where she saw the look of pity on Adramelech’s face and thanked him for his concern and explained what he knew to be a lie.

They visited his siblings, including the one that had been present and gone introduced. He explained he was silent that night because his own fury had bubbled to the surface and that his brother knew introducing him would lead to an outburst.

They travelled to Nergal’s realm so she could thank Nergal for his attendance.

They travelled to many places and she served him faithfully and to the best of her abilities, until three hundred years later she was sent to assist Nergal and the mother of demons with a recent creation of his.

Given leave to try and build a relationship with one who could be a tremendous ally, though unknown to her it was at Ishtar’s request.

When she returned, she didn’t know why, but she felt like she had just had her first genuine interactions in years.

She told herself she’d return to tell Illerion all about her time with the mother of demons and the first banshee, but she had received word from Obelix that she had been fully reintegrated into Elven society and was enacting her plans to make life more secure for all Elves.

Kyubi was so proud of her dearest friend, she held every second of their treasured friendship at the forefront of her mind.

Centuries more passed and she had been named the shrine priestess and started her residency on earth, alongside the humans who were completely blind to her presence but for a scant few.

Then there was a change and many gods, spirits and other immortal entities gave up on humanity and sided with those who wanted to wipe them out and suddenly she received word from Tsukuyomi that Ishtar had summoned him and requested to catch up with her as well.

When they arrived she was left outside during the actual meeting, with both Tenko, who had accompanied Amaterasu and a stranger who had accompanied his brother.

“Do you want to know what’s going on in there, little fox?” Tenko asked.

“No, I can’t explain it, but I have found many interactions fake these past couple of centuries. I’d rather not be here at all and not risk causing Lord Tsukuyomi any issues.”

“So why did you come? Surely one of the others could have accompanied him.”

“Ishtar said she wanted to catch up.”

“Ah, yes…” Tenko averted his eyes. “…For what its worth we’ve all done things we’d rather not to appease an Elder-God, at least Lady Ishtar is one worth stomaching it for.”

“Thank you, Tenko. Don’t take this the wrong way, but that is the first interaction I’ve had other than Lillim and Faylorna that felt genuine.”

Tenko averted his eyes, even he felt nothing but pity for the fox living a lie. “Genuine is supposed whatever we believe is genuine, but what happens when genuine and fake bec-”

He was suddenly interrupted by the door swinging open and both the other attendants and their master and mistress had already left before the door stopped blocking her view.

“Kyubi, how have you been dear?”

“I miss my dear friend Illerion deeply, but I would hate to interrupt her whilst she tries to change the elves so completely.”

“Fair enough, make sure you treasure such a dear friend even in their absence.”

“How is my brother’s creation?”

“Faylorna is doing well, though I fear Lillim may prove a little overbearing.”

Ishtar giggled and stroked Kyubi’s face. “You’re still one of the most beautiful foxes I’ve ever seen. Don’t worry about Lillim, motherhood is the cause, but as soon as she remembers she isn’t her mother that will change.

Take good care of yourself Kyubi, individuals like you have the power to shape the future.”

With that, Kyubi thanked her for thinking of her and then escorted Tsukuyomi home, where she had the last genuine interaction of the old world apart from her regular visits to the moon-eater as his warden.

“Kyubi. I’m sorry for being so cryptic, but things are turning quite grave and I fear that the next time I call for you will be under poor circumstances. I’m genuinely sorry I wan’t a better master.”

To his surprise, Kyubi didn’t reject the notion like she usually did, she turned her back on him and responded without stopping. “It’s not worth worrying about.”

True to his prediction, all creation had been warped and twisted into a repugnant visage of deformation and insanity. Every creature was bestowed a system, some had become villains and were twisted into the most nightmarish version of themselves and Amaterasu was amongst them.

Tsukuyomi summoned her to act as witness and what she watched was his torture and murder.

Amaterasu left afterwards, but not before looking to Kyubi and offering some parting words. “Strange how you don’t seem particularly saddened by your love’s demise.”

The words twisted around in Kyubi’s head for a while, then finally she decided to return, arriving to find her people’s sanctuary littered with the corpses of every fox-spirit that existed besides her.

As she carried the corpses of her people one by one to the nearest garden area where she could bury them, her mind broke. Not just figuratively speaking, her mind-form quite literally ripped itself apart as she carried out the morbid duty of survivors that followed such atrocities.

Thanks to that massacre, the last living fox was a mental wreck and left herself isolated and not even able to remember the fact that the ones she loved most were still alive. In fact, all she could feel, hear and think about was a woman’s hand on her face, a numb motivation both irresistible and completely foundation-less to resurrect her species, a woman’s voice telling her that she must not rest until her kind are brought back and how she would regain everything she either lost or was denied if she followed that instruction.

Everything she felt in that moment was burned into her very being, yet entirely unrecognisable, yet entirely unopposable.

By the time she buried the bodies of her kind, those implanted thoughts had cosumed her every memory and rewritten in preparation of a day that wouldn’t come to pass for a thousand years when her mind-form was healed by the divinity infused soul of a human man who had scarcely reached adulthood.

In the centuries until that day came, her name had been mostly forgotten, a kindness considering the acts that would have forever stained it. Kidnapping mortals and prying them apart to find the secrets of how they evolved from nothing, driven by a memory without context that suggested they were the key to bringing a species back from the edge of destruction.

Randomly making Kimonos and handing them out to keep a promise she didn’t remember making.

Going on rampages and leaving countless dead in her wake as disjointed memories about dealing with the human issue consumed what remained of her mind.

All of it culminating in the arrival of a seemingly random human, one promising to bring her species back from the dead.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep