Akiko remembered standing with Kaede beneath vast emerald canopies, the kind of ancient forest only their world could grow. Shafts of light broke through the leaves in molten columns, catching on drifting motes that smelled of earth and distant rain.

Lanterns of soft light hung between moss-heavy branches, bobbing gently as though greeting them.

Kaede stood a little ahead, head tilted back to watch the sway of the highest boughs, her dark hair tangled with fine green needles. When she spoke, her voice was low, reverent in a way Akiko had never felt.

"Gaia breathes here more deeply than anywhere else," Kaede murmured. "Can you feel it?"

Akiko scuffed a claw through the damp loam, tail flicking, not quite meeting her sister's eyes. "I feel… something. Like the air's too heavy. Or listening."

"That's her. The world itself." Kaede's hand brushed Akiko's shoulder, warm and certain. "Not conscious the way we are. But aware, in her own slow, endless fashion. Everything that grows here sings back to her. That's why the mana flows thickest under old trees. Why it feels alive."

Akiko had just snorted. "Or maybe that's the foxfire making you sentimental."

Kaede only smiled, turning back to watch the canopy shift. "You'll understand one day. When you stand somewhere the world's breath is strongest. It humbles you. Makes you small and precious all at once."

Akiko's memory of that moment blurred at the edges, softened by years and by pain. She'd never really grasped it then, what it meant to live on a world that was more than dirt and oceans, that dreamed beneath their feet.

She wondered, now, half-bitter, half-awed, if this cold moon she'd spent the last few weeks fighting to protect might have a breath of its own. A heart.

And if so… what did it see in her?

But then the air shifted. Grew thin.

Akiko frowned, claws flexing at her sides. The light above seemed to shiver, rippling in unnatural waves. Through a sudden gap in the branches, she could see the sun, bright and distant.

It began to darken. A black curve crept across its face, slow and relentless, casting long shadows through the forest. The shafts of light grew sharper, colder, turning the rich greens to a brittle, sickly hue. Leaves shriveled where the shadows touched, curling into ashen spirals that drifted away on a wind she couldn't feel.

Akiko's breath caught. Her tail twitched in uneasy loops. "Kaede…?"

No answer. Just the slow grind of silence as the eclipse deepened, swallowing the sun entirely. For one fragile heartbeat, the sky was breathtaking. A swirl of countless stars, a galaxy's worth of light spilling through the dark, so close it seemed she could step into it.

Then the stars, too, began to fade.

The ground buckled. Cracks raced through the moss and loam, splitting the roots that had once sung with Gaia's breath. Chasms yawned open, swallowing trees, lanterns, memories. When it was done, nothing remained but a glassy, black surface, semi-reflective, swallowing light instead of returning it.

Akiko stood alone. It was almost like her inner space, that private mental sanctuary where her mana core floated, small and defiant.

Except this wasn't hers. From above, a shape descended. Massive. Incomprehensible.

It was like a gas giant. Vast beyond scale, roiling with blue swirls of water-aspect mana that churned and clashed in endless storm systems. Each spiral seemed to breathe, exhaling currents that raked across the empty plane.

Akiko's heart stuttered. Her claws dug into the slick surface.

A name rose in her thoughts unbidden, as if it had always been waiting there, just beneath the surface, a subtle thrum through her being that announced its presence. The Heart of Zephara.

It didn't speak, but the weight of it pressed against her aura, peeling back her foxfire in curious, almost playful gusts. Like a creature testing the resilience of a new toy.

She tried to steady her breath.

It was just another threshold. Just another veil. But her mana core felt fragile. Raw, hollowed from the kraken's death throes and everything that had come before.

Then she saw it. Her reflection in the polished not-ground was… wrong. The posture was hers, the slight forward lean, the wary set of her tail. But the face that peered back was older, sharper in its calm. Her hair was bound in intricate braids threaded with arcane clasps, her robes dark violet embroidered with sigils that seemed to ripple even in the stillness.

Akiko's breath caught, a small, strangled sound breaking past her lips. "Kaede…?"

The reflection smiled, gentle and unbearably sad. It lifted one hand, mirroring a gesture Akiko hadn't made. When it spoke, the voice was not filtered by memory or machine. It was Kaede's voice, as sure and bright as ever.

"We've been searching for you, little sister. Gaia herself lent me her sight to peer past the boundaries. Just for a moment."

Akiko dropped to her knees, claws digging small cracks into the surface. Her foxfire guttered. "You're alive. I… I didn't know if—"

Kaede's reflection flickered, a ripple of interference passing through the void. "I am. And I will be. Because I still have to bring you home."

Akiko's ears pinned back, a sharp, broken laugh escaping her. "This is home now. Or what's left of it. I brought mana here, Kaede. I… I changed this entire system. It's my fault the boundaries are thinning. My fault these realms are colliding."

Kaede's eyes softened. "No. You were only the herald. The weave was already fraying, across more worlds than ours. Forces older and vaster than you… than Gaia herself are straining to rewrite existence. Each wants to tear it down and remake it in their image."

Akiko's shoulders hunched. Her tail coiled tight around her ankle. "And I'm supposed to stop that? How—"

"Find your allies, Akiko." Kaede's voice sharpened, became the tone she used when Akiko was small and stubborn. "You build your side of the veil. I will do the same on ours. When the great powers finally move in earnest, we will stand across the breach. Together."

The void seemed to shudder. Kaede's form blurred, her edges breaking into rivulets of blue-green script that spilled across the floor.

"Time's short," Kaede whispered. "But hear me: we have not stopped looking for you. And I will not let you face this alone."

Then she was gone.

The reflection was just a reflection again. Akiko's own exhausted form, claws sunk deep into the glassy surface, foxfire leaking around her.

Above her, the immense Heart of Zephara rotated slowly, currents of water-aspected mana rolling across its surface in graceful, endless storms.

But then it turned and she saw it. A jagged wound marred the Heart's side, glowing a malignant red-white. Water boiled around it in frantic spirals, steam venting off into the void. The scar pulsed like something trying to heal around a buried splinter, except this was no ordinary infection.

A shape slipped from the wound. At first it was just another swirl of blue-white fire, reminiscent of Akiko's own foxfire. But then it coalesced, limbs and tail and sharp vulpine ears taking form.

It was her. Or rather, what the entity had made from her, a perfect silhouette of Akiko, crafted entirely of searing blue-white flame. Its face was calm, eyes empty but for distant, cold stars.

"Akiko," it said. Its voice was her voice, but stripped of breath, vibrating with mechanical resonance. "The board is set. You, of all creatures, must understand the shape of it now."

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Akiko's tail lashed, foxfire guttering in weak, defiant whorls. "Get out of my way."

The entity tilted its head, as though amused.

"You stand at a crossroads. Your soul bridges two realms. I have already claimed a portion. It was enough to grant me purchase beyond my siblings. But it leaves you uniquely unstable."

It drifted closer, each step silent on the glassy void.

"Become my vassal. Play as my piece. Or be removed from the board entirely. This Heart will serve my purpose, whether through you, or over your ashes."

A tremor ran through Akiko's core, echoing down to her claws. She was exhausted, foxfire running thin and painful through her veins. But she straightened. Lifted her chin.

"No."

A simple word. Barely a whisper. But in this thin place between worlds, it rang out like a war cry.

The entity's foxfire tail flared, eyes narrowing to slits of violent star-fire.

"Then removed it is."

It launched forward, trailing spears of blue-white flame, a grotesque parody of her own fire, aimed to tear through her aura and claim the rest of her soul.

A flicker of foxfire, barely a breath ahead of Akiko's own reactive step. Claws met claws in a hiss of colliding energies, blue-white flames sparking off in dazzling arcs.

Akiko twisted, her usual fluid momentum carrying her around to slash at the entity's exposed side, but the blow slipped through it, like trying to cut water. Before she could recoil, its form snapped solid again, elbow driving into her forearm with punishing force that numbed her from wrist to shoulder.

She gritted her teeth, tail whipping for balance, and ducked under a second swipe. Her mining laser barked, a pulse of foxfire-laced energy blasting through the void. It punched a hole clean through the entity's midsection, for all of a heartbeat.

The foxfire simply flowed back, sealing over the wound with unsettling smoothness.

They collided again. Claws flashed, tails snapped, bursts of foxfire scattered like tiny novas in the dark. The ground fractured beneath their feet, semi-reflective surface warping under the heat of their struggle.

Akiko tried angles, feints, spins that would have left any other opponent flailing. But the entity moved with the same instincts. And more than instincts. Its form bent wrong, twisted through attacks in a way no flesh could mimic, then snapped back solid with brutal precision.

Every impact sent sharp pain lancing through Akiko's core, every narrow dodge fed a sick twist of fear in her gut.

She dropped low again, trying to rake its legs out from under it.

But the entity simply poured around her strike, its limbs momentarily liquid, then hardened, its knee driving straight up into her chest.

Pain flared through her entire torso, sharp and crushing. Her lungs seized, foxfire spasming inside her.

Then the world tilted. The impact launched her upward, higher than felt possible, her body folding in around the pain. Black glass fell away below her, the Heart of Zephara turning slowly far beneath as if it barely noticed the violence scarring its quiet.

Her limbs flailed once, foxfire stuttering. Then with a sharp, guttural breath, she forced it to flare. Blue-white jets snapped out at her ankles and wrists, catching her tumble. She twisted midair, momentum bleeding into a controlled spiral, tail lashing to realign her center.

The void stretched endlessly in every direction.

Akiko snarled under her breath. Not done yet.

She shot through the void, foxfire bursting at ankles and wrists, twisting her path into erratic corkscrews meant to keep the entity guessing.

For a moment it worked, the entity's grasping claws slicing past empty space.

But then it stilled, almost imperceptibly. Its own foxfire flared, reaching out in thin, intricate threads that hooked into the very currents Akiko was shaping.

Her propulsion stuttered. Veered.

She snarled, trying to rip free. But the entity pivoted in perfect concert with her momentum, closing the gap in an instant. A backhanded claw raked across her shoulder, spinning her sideways. Then a kick caught her ribs, pain flashing white-hot, and sent her sprawling through open void.

She managed to right herself, tail whipping to kill the spin. Her chest heaved, foxfire snarling around her in panicked, uneven spirals.

Her claws flexed around the mining laser. She fed the Pulse Vector into it, core flaring painfully as the regulators surged to catch up. Then she fired. A screaming lance of blue-white light that should have punched straight through the entity's chest.

Applied Spellform: Foxfire Pulse Vector (Tier II) — Channeling through [Modified Mining Laser]

Instead it twisted. The beam curved around the entity as if caught by a gravity well, the edges warping in a dizzying ripple, and then snapped back toward her.

Akiko's breath caught. She threw her hands forward, Harmonic Barrier igniting in a bright convex arc. The redirected beam smashed into it a heartbeat later, splintering light across the void. The force slammed into her chest like a sledgehammer, knocking her breathless.

Then she was falling. The Heart of Zephara rose up to meet her, turbulent waters churning with mana that sang in eerie, beckoning currents.

The depths swallowed her without sound. Everything went dark and cold, muffled by the waters she punched through. Pressure, immense and total, pressed against the walls of her soul like she was nothing more than a fragile candle flame caught in a hurricane.

Akiko's foxfire guttered. Her core spasmed, pain lancing outward in fractal lines that left her vision flickering.

This is it, some raw, distant part of her thought. This is how I die… hollowed out, unmade—

Then the pressure shifted.

Daughter of flame. Descendant of spark and ash. Forged in heat and hunger. You are the breath of change.

It curled around her, vast and patient. A weight so deep and old it had tides of its own. It pressed into her aura, finding every crack left by the dungeon, by the kraken, by the entity's claws, and settled there like warm hands on shivering shoulders.

Akiko's breath caught. The space inside her, the hollow that the entity had so eagerly clawed into, shivered. Something moved there, coiling tighter, hotter. A line of foxfire extended from her core like a breath made visible. Then another. It twined into place behind her with an electric snap that lit up every nerve.

Her second tail unfurled in a flare of blue-white, sending ripples through the dark. Her aura surged, not just refilled but reshaped. Wider, denser, singing with power that answered to her alone.

Notice:

Racial Evolution Achieved

Your form advances, the threads of spirit and mana intertwine in perfect resonance, unlocking the next stage of your Kitsune heritage.

A second tail unfurls, its power joining the first in harmonious balance.

Your aura deepens. You presence sharpens. The path ahead glows brighter… and more dangerous.

New functions unlocked:

— Enhanced mana capacity

— Improved ability synergy

— Heightened aura influence

The sudden notification froze in her vision. Too ornate, too unlike her System's usual clipped tone. Wrong, in a way she couldn't name. Almost as if someone else had written it.

She shoved the thought aside. Later. Right now, the entity needed to be carved down to size.

She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. There would be time for figuring it out later. The entity needed to be torn down a peg, and it wouldn't wait for her to clear her head.

Foxfire erupted as she tore free from the Heart's surface, no longer prey but a storm given form. Twin tails blazed behind her, cutting bright whorls into the void. Her claws flexed, mining laser regulators winking eager green, while roiling waves of heat and light poured from her shoulders.

Far below, the entity twisted to face her, its cold mimicry of her form flickering with sudden, almost imperceptible hesitation.

Akiko bared her teeth in a grin that was all defiance and wild, hard-won joy.

"My turn."

The entity launched at her, a comet of snarling blue-white foxfire. Its claws stretched out, tail lashing in mirrored arcs of lethal grace. Akiko met it head-on, her own twin tails spiraling around her like living flares.

They collided in a violent tangle of limbs and burning mana. Akiko's claws raked across its chest, expecting once again to pass through empty flame.

But this time, something caught.

A thin strand of the entity's foxfire clung to her claws, twisting in panic. It tore free in a bright streamer that curled around her arm like a serpent. For a heartbeat, Akiko felt the old familiar terror, that electric wrongness of foreign essence clawing into her core.

[Essence Layer Activated]

Foreign Essence Acquired: Unknown Foxfire Derivative.

Channeling into external conduits…

Heat Efficiency: +17.8%

Fusion Focal Range: narrowed.

1/1 Essence slots filled.

Akiko's grin sharpened into something feral.

Her suit shivered as the new power flooded its channels, foxfire regulators flaring bright enough to hurt the eye. The entity recoiled midair, tail flickering in uneven pulses.

"Oh no you don't," Akiko snarled. She launched again, a vicious twist of her twin tails sending her spinning. Her mining laser roared with stolen heat, and her claws raked forward. To tear into its essence.

They met the entity's chest in a bright burst of violent pressure. The foxfire there shredded, scattering into wild, uncontrolled plumes that left the entity visibly dimmer.

It flailed, momentum failing, and Akiko followed through with a brutal kick that cracked against what passed for its ribs.

The entity careened away, trailing ruptured flame. It hit the black ground far below like a meteor, sending up a burst of shattered not-glass and startled waves across the mirrored surface.

Akiko hovered above, twin tails coiling around her like smug, living brands. Her foxfire burned clean and hungry, fed by the very essence the entity had once used to torment her.

She flexed her claws, pulse racing.

"Now we're even," she whispered.

The entity was still trying to rise, blue-white flames stuttering around ragged wounds. Its tail lashed once, weak and off-balance. Then Akiko dropped on it like a meteor.

Her claws slammed into its chest, sinking deep. The foxfire there spasmed around her hands, fighting to close even as she dug in harder, tearing at the unstable heart of its stolen mimicry.

The entity's claws shot up, gripping her forearm. Heat bit through her suit, not painful so much as coldly wrong, a taste of void and unraveling.

"This is nothing," it rasped, voice echoing in weird, broken harmonics. "I am only a fragment. You are dust before my totality. This is a—"

"Yeah, you keep saying that." Akiko's grin was savage, teeth bright against the shadows. "I'll keep tearing you down. Until there's nothing left."

The entity shuddered. Its tail flared once, a last convulsive effort, then the entire shape collapsed inward, foxfire rippling up her arms in hungry spirals.

[Essence Layer: Assimilation Complete]

Heat Efficiency: +24.2%

Stability: Maintained.

Akiko exhaled slowly, foxfire curling around her shoulders like a satisfied predator. Her claws flexed once more in the empty air where the entity had been.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.