Aetuornos Beta 3a-3

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3a-3: Sciuridae Anthropophagus

Scylla got bored of walking-without-talking very quickly, and audibly set out to find another topic of conversation. "Let's see..oh! If you don't mind sharing...what's your line of work? I own a gym, Kite does uh, computer modding?"
"Magic computer modding," the fox-girl said.

"Right!"

"I'll go as far as to say I'm a professional musician," Hatchet said. "You might've guessed as much from our talk earlier—or at least that it's among my interests, anyway."

"Uh.." The bunny-girl fidgeted nervously for a moment. "Fra—um. I'm, actually still in college," she said, surprising herself slightly by automatically talking in her in-character manner at first. "Haven't really..figured out, what exactly I wanna do yet, either."

"Eh, you'll figure it out," Hatchet said. "That's what college is for, right?"
"I wouldn't know," Kite said. "I'm pretty much all self-taught. Started doin' my stuff as a hobby in high school, and figured: No use wastin' time, money and effort when I've already got a living lined up. That road ain't for everyone, though."

"Wait, how'd you get in the beta then?" Scylla asked. "I mean, not to brag, but the pod and stuff is kinda expensive, right?"

"I um.." Franka found herself tapping her index fingers together a couple of times, and quickly stopped, dropping her arms to the sides. "Guess you could say I'm from a, pretty rich family? Our parents adopt a kid every few years or so, and most of them end up wealthy, or famous, or both. I was super excited about this game when I first heard about it, and my big brother's a major investor in it, so I basically begged him to let me play. He eventually gave in, on a few conditions I'd, rather not mention right now..." One of which was having a female player character.

"Do you...feel a lot of pressure from your family to be successful?" Scylla asked, her tone a mixture of curiosity and faint concern.
"Mmh..it's not that they ever, talk or even act like they expect me to get an amazing career..but, seeing what my siblings have accomplished, it's hard not to feel...I dunno, inferior? Like I'm not contributing enough. If I don't at least do something. I mean, I can't help being kind-of-a spoiled rich kid sometimes, but I really don't like the idea of being a freeloader."

"I bet you'll figure somethin' out," Kite said. "If your family's that well off, you got plenty of time, so 's long as you keep lookin' and really want to, you'll find your niche. Worst case, they cut you off and you work 'cause you have to, right?"

"Um...I really hope it doesn't come to that." Not one of Frank's siblings had ever been 'cut off' before, but again—it seemed like all of them knew what they were doing by this point in their lives.

"Hey, back in character—look over there," Hatchet said, pointing. A bunch of sheepbits were scattering away from something on the other side of a nearby hill. "What d'you think spooked them?"

"I guess we better go find out!" Scylla drew her sword and took off running, leaving everyone else to try their best to keep up with her. She stopped at the top of the hill, pointing down it. "Look!" she said excitedly, but quietly.

Franka's 'ingame lore knowledge' had let her know that man-eating squirrels were pretty big—big enough, after all, to conceivably eat a person. But it was really something else to actually see a pair of them! Even at this distance, they seemed to tower over their surroundings, their gigantic bushy tails looking capable of squashing a person flat all on their own. Their mouths were lined with big, razor-sharp teeth, and their paws were large enough for each one to be currently physically holding a sheepbit up in the air, rotating, shaking, and examining the struggling creature like it was an acorn.

"You all ready to get 'em?!" Scylla asked. Everyone was still somewhat out of breath from chasing after the wolf-girl, Hatchet the least so and the bunny-girl the most.
"Hhf...h-hang on," Franka said, still bent over forward and trying desperately to catch her breath. "These monsters...ffh...work in packs, taking their prey back to their den. Sorta like the way normal squirrels hide nuts?" She finally managed to stand fully up again. "Following them would reveal where they're hiding. To make a new buddy, Franka needs the soul of their alpha, so knowing where it's hiding really would be best!"

"We could still kill these and track where they came from," Hatchet said, "but that sounds like more trouble than just following. Unless they notice us following and turn around to attack."
"If that happens, then we kill 'em," Kite suggested.

While they'd been discussing this, the two giant squirrels had been bashing the heads of their prey on the ground until they stopped moving. Now they picked the sheepbits up gently with their mouths, went on all fours, and began bounding away.

"Okay okay~! If we're gonna follow them, then we'd better start!" Scylla said, hurrying after them.
"Not too close, now!" Kite advised in a sort of loud whisper. She seemed to accept this advice enough to slow her pace a bit, so the others were able to mostly keep up with her without going into a full-on sprint.

The squirrels' path was fairly straightforward: They skirted around some woods, took a cut through a valley between some hills, and then scattered as they came upon what looked like the ruins of a fairly large fortress.

"Which one do we follow?" Scylla asked, darting her head back and forth to watch them as the rest of the party caught up to her again.

"I think this is the den, actually," Hatchet said, pointing as one of the squirrels made its way through an oversized doorway (missing its doors) near the front. The other one went up to the mostly-destroyed ruins of a side structure and straight into a big hole leading to what had once been its basement.

"Well then—which way in first?"

Kite said, "If I had to guess...that basement's prolly 'storage', and the main entrance goes to the 'den'. Maybe we can sneak in easier through storage if it's connected? Though, charging in the main way is an option for sure."

"There's no guarantee that basement is even connected to anywhere else if these big guys can just carry their prey around outside," Franka pointed out. "Franka thinks straight in is the better choice."

"Charging in it is~!" Scylla said, starting off in that direction herself.

"Just try to be a little cautious..it might be bad for us to get pinned between two groups of those things," Hatchet pointed out as everyone followed her.

There were no squirrels immediately inside the entrance, leaving the party to look around on what appeared to have once been a grand entrance hall, complete with a balcony at the top connected to the upper floor beyond—perhaps a place for the ruler to come out and be seen by the commoners going in and out. In its present state, the balcony was half-collapsed, its entire left side converted into a large pile of rubble all across the floor. There was practically nothing left as far as furniture or decoration went, and the once-tiled floor was heavily scratched, broken, cracked, and largely covered in debris with an extra topping of shed fur and dirt from the building's present occupants. The doorways from the balcony to beyond were only human-sized, but the three first-floor doorways—one left, one straight, one right—were either large enough for the man-eating squirrels originally, or had been "modified" by way of some additional destruction.

Scylla led the way through where it was clearest of debris, taking the group over toward the left wall and around toward the forward-center part of the room.

"Which way now? Which door?" the wolf-girl whispered, looking around as she went.

"Hmm...you'd think the leader would be in the throne room, and that should be straight ahead," Hatchet said at a similar volume.

"Who says squirrels'll think like people?" Kite said. "Just as likely it's living in the guardhouse or servant's quarters or whatever."

"Llllet's just go left, then," Franka suggested. "It's the closest entrance."

Scylla nodded, and continued toward that doorway. "Hey, you used the first person," she observed.
"Err. Franka, couldn't think of a way to say that that wasn't super awkward." the bunny-girl said with a small shrug.

"...Me either, actually."

They entered a hallway with several doors on either side, none of which would be large enough for the squirrels, and most of which had collapsed or just led to small rooms full of debris. One of them did lead to a room containing a large blue crystal, the game's equivalent to a 'save point', which everyone made a mental note of. At the end of the hallway, they came to another "expanded" entrance with a large room beyond it. Scylla signaled for quiet (not that anyone was being loud at this point) and crept a little closer, leaning in toward the door to look. There were two of the man-eating squirrels inside, neither of which looked particularly special. But there was also...

"Treasure!" she whispered after turning her head back. "And two baddies. Let's kill 'em and get it?"

After everyone shared a few contemplative glances, Franka said, "Yes, but—allow Franka to take advantage of the element of surprise, please?"
"Me too," the fox-girl chimed in. "Sounds like they're eating?" Everyone present having animal ears made it easy enough for them to hear the noise of sheepbit flesh being torn up and chewed.
"...Yep," the samurai reported, carefully drawing her sword. "What're you two gonna do, then?"

"Uh.."

Since Franka was hesitating to answer, Kite answered first, pulling out a charm from her inventory. "One-use explosive. Not big enough to kill, but maybe leave 'im stunned—has to be attached to the target."
"Ooh..! Target some of the roof instead?" Franka suggested, pointing diagonally forward-up, roughly toward the top of the room the squirrels were in.

"Rocks fall, every-squirrel dies," Hatchet chimed in, "hopefully."

"Yeah, but I ain't sure how I'd reach all the way up there."

"Kite doesn't have to," the bunny-girl said, holding out her 'little friend' and having it wave its left 'hand'.

The miko nodded, "Gotcha," and offered the charm over; the rabbit doll 'held' the charm in its hand. "I'mma charge it up now, hold it, lemme know when I oughta release."

"'Kay."

Franka's doll floated, under her power, through the door, then up to the ceiling over where the two squirrels were. They were too focused on their food to notice something so small floating around, and it had the glowing charm affixed to the ceiling in no time at all. Then Franka floated it over to a corner of the room, well clear of where all that stone would fall to. She nodded to Kite, who'd been holding her gohei up in front of her in both hands this whole time. The fox-girl shook the gohei just once, and an explosion sounded from above, followed by the sound of an entire upstairs room falling onto the pair of giant squirrels. They squeaked and chittered with distress, starting to push and throw the pile off of them in the process.

"Okay—now go in for the kill~!" Scylla proclaimed, running inside without a second thought.

"Wait a—ugh." Hatchet reached to hold her back but was too slow, so instead he just facepalmed and shook his head. Kite ran past him, quickly summoning a barrier in front of herself and the wolf-girl before they could get hit by a bunch of debris being thrown out off of the pile. Franka's doll quickly ran over to behind the two of them to stay safe too, and she herself went up as far as just inside the doorway to wait the barrage out.

"Uh, sorry—thanks Kite!"
"No prob'. Better you're closer to 'em once they're free, anyhow."

"It'd just be better if we'd planned to do this ahead of time," Hatchet said, coming up next to the other melee fighter now that there was a shield to protect him.

Nobody present had actually encountered an angry squirrel before (in the real world), so they didn't really know what to expect. Once the two monsters were free, both of them stood fully upright and loudly squeaked, swiping their forepaws around in the air threateningly. Kite dismissed the shield, and Scylla stepped forward. "What's the matter—you still hungry?" She unsheathed her weapon. "I've got something you can eat right here!" With those last two words, she leapt forward at the nearer of the two squirrels, slashing into its upper belly and kicking off of its underside to jump back and land on the floor before it could catch her in its paws. It pounced after the wolf-girl and landed hard on the floor, catching nothing and leaving its back wide open for her to land on top of, run up, and slash it a few times in the back of the throat.

Hatchet threw one of this eponymous weapons at the other squirrel to goad it his way, and made a lucky hit right in its left eye, sending the already-injured carnivorous rodent into a frenzy. It went on all fours and ran at him with distressing speed, only to bounce violently off of one of Kite's barriers, shattering it in the process. The axe was dislodged from its face and fell loudly to the ground, so he ran up and recovered it on his way to bury another one into the top of the stunned animal's head.

Once Scylla's opponent had landed face-first on the ground, the rabbit doll came up, hands fully converted into flame-wreathed knives, to chop up its face. It stood up and Scylla leapt back; it grabbed for the doll but Franka managed to quickly float it away, just out of reach. The squirrel tried three more times to catch the small target floating around in midair just in front of it, during which time the samurai wolf-girl sheathed her weapon and tensed up, readying a technique. Then she executed it, seemingly disappearing before reappearing an instant later on the opposite side of the beast with her sword most of the way in its sheath again. When she put it the rest of the way in with an audible clink, the attack took effect, making the monster "feel" some ten or twenty slashes all-at-once through its hind legs and lower body.

The wolf-man drew back when the squirrel started to stir, after making his second chop into its head and leaving the weapon behind. It stood up, loudly squeaking again and thrashing back and forth, and so succeeded in throwing the axe off its head and over toward a far wall. He gave it another one, which made a fairly shallow cut into its underside before glancing off, and it went to charge at him again. Kite was ready with a barrier, but the squirrel bounded right over it upon coming within pouncing range of the two of them, and she had to quickly place another one above them so they could dive away to either side and get out of the way of its slightly-delayed landing. Franka quickly sent her doll over to stick some knives in its face while it was still stunned, and—more importantly—to get its attention on her little buddy so her two party members would have time to recover their feet.

Scylla, meanwhile, was having basically no trouble with her opponent. After having its hind legs turned into mincemeat, it was trying scrabble around after her with its forepaws, squeaking and chittering furiously the whole time. She laughed and taunted it in her usual way, letting it get close before leaping over it and slashing through its back with her sword mid-leap. Between all the damage it had taken from the roof collapsing and what it was enduring now, that squirrel was not very long for the world.

The other one obliged Franka by trying to catch her doll as it flitted around in midair, giving Hatchet some time to recover his feet, draw two of his axes in his hands, and ready a technique of his own. He held his arms out in an X-shape in front of him, then jumped at the monster from the side, slashing hard with one axe, then the other, both strikes having enough force behind them to go all the way through the beast's flesh. He kicked his feet off of the monster's side (not quite as adroitly as Scylla's similar maneuver earlier) and landed rolling away, leaving behind two very deep cuts in its side. The squirrel shrieked and tried to jump after him, but got caught by another barrier, skidding down it (as this impact hadn't been enough to shatter it) and crumpling onto the floor briefly.

Franka's doll had traded knife-hands for having a small ball of fire floating over each hand now, and went to work tossing them a few feet over at the prone beast, which quickly succeeded in setting some of its fur on fire. It panicked, shrieking and flailed around wildly—no longer interested in prey or revenge, only in putting the fire out—so everyone just stood clear of it, Hatchet tossing it a few more axes for good measure. When it seemed to have just about gotten the fire put out, Scylla ran up from one side, leapt, and made a clean slash right across the front of the squirrel's throat, finishing it off. She landed, then its body landed loudly on the ground behind her. The other one had died from her assault just a few seconds earlier.

The samurai maintained a dignified stance with her sword out for a second or two, then gracefully sheathed it. Then she raised her hands in the air and celebrated: "WOOOOH~! That was awesome!"

"We didn't bury the treasure, did we?" Hatchet asked, looking around.

"No, it's over there," Franka said, pointing to a part of the room beyond the pile of collapsed upper floor. A few stray stones had been thrown in that general direction by the squirrels in their initial flailing, but a small pile of gold flanked by two treasure chests was all still quite intact.

"Loooot!" The wolf-girl dashed over in that direction immediately.
"Don't forget it might be trapped," Kite pointed out.
"I know, I know..."

"So: What have we learned?" Hatchet said, going around the room to retrieve his scattered weapons.

"These squirrels don't pay attention to much of anything when they're eating," Franka said.

"Rocks fall, monsters die! Or at least get easier to kill," Scylla added.

He nodded his agreement. "Most important, though: Fire status effect, super effective. It basically stopped attacking once its fur was on fire."

"Wouldn't you?" Franka said.
"Sure," Kite said. "So we oughta be ready to take advantage of that 'gainst the alpha, too."

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Another case of managing to write more of a story I haven't touched in a while.

...I feel like Dan Shive wouldn't approve of this episode.

Midas Journal 30

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Entry: May 29

It's a little weird to go to bed female, and wake up male. I guess it's equally as weird the other way around. But really, is it any less weird than kissing your girlfriend and then she starts turning you into a girl? I should probably stop trying to compare weirdnesses. I obviously open myself up to all those kinds of experiences by letting Brie have that power over me, and well, I've never minded.

Anyway, Brie sent me a text this morning saying "Surprise!" and then proposed we go out to the park right after school this afternoon, and maybe continue it into a proper date. I didn't have any complaints with that plan, although I admit there was something oddly specific about it. We met near the entrance to the park, walked around for a little bit, and then she wanted to sit next to me on a bench, winding her tail around mine. It was really nice—we just sort of talked about normal stuff; I think she appreciates how freaked out I can get by my power and everything surrounding it, and knows when to reel things back for a while.

That said, I did almost forget one of the reasons we were hanging out this afternoon until it walked up to us. Or rather, he walked up to us. "Hey!" he said, making both of us jump slightly; there had been plenty of people walking around near our bench who we'd felt free to ignore, after all. "Uh, sorry," he said next, tapping his index fingers together. He was a brown-haired guy with bright yellow eyes, and of course the ears and tail of a fox—also covered in brown fur, except for some white at the tips. I think he was a little on the short and scrawny side, but honestly not bad-looking or anything.

He continued: "It's just—um. How do I put this? You two are uh, werewolves, right?"

"Yees?" Brie said.

"And—well—you know La Lune, right?"
"I'm aware enough of the concept," I replied.
"Uh—it's just. Look, I've been, begging her for a while for...something, and last night I thought—maybe I had a dream from her! It was, uh," he started trying to explain while gesturing around vaguely-yet-excitedly: "the moon was in the sky overrr, definitely this park, and there was a giant oreo on the bench you guys are sitting on, and then there was a whole thing with like a branch growing flowers that I still don't get, but..."

"A, giant, oreo?" I repeated, still a little stuck on that part.
"Well—you—know—like, black and white fur? I guess? Am I, barking up the wrong tree here?"

"Kael," Brie said, gently brushing one of my ears between her fingers. I actually figured out what was going on at about this point, to be honest.
"Oh, right. Is the..'something' you want. To be a werewolf?" I asked carefully and quietly. My concerns about someone overhearing our conversation didn't exactly get through to him, though.
He practically interrupted my last word with a loud, excited "YES!" that got a number of heads turning our way, and then started chattering so excitedly and quickly that I couldn't even understand him.
"Uh, okay then—maybe, we can talk about this somewhere a little more private?" I suggested, halfway talking over him. I mean, my power seems to conveniently keep anyone from seeing it happen who isn't supposed to, but I had some concerns about our conversation being overheard, especially the...more awkward part.

"Uh, sure, yeah!"

I glanced at Brie for a second before we both stood up together—untangling our tails at the same time, which was the main reason I needed her help with that—and gestured in the direction of the little communal convention center building the park has that people mostly go in to use the restroom these days. "Maybe, uh, in there?"

Brie, thankfully, also ran interference—keeping herself between me and the odd Kitsune to avoid any accidental touches. Once we'd gotten around halfway there, I was pretty sure that no one who'd noticed his outburst was still listening, and that we weren't being followed, so I said: "Introductions first, I guess? I'm Kael, this is Brie," I said, gently patting the top of her head.

"Uh, yeah! Sorry, I got a little too excited and totally forgot to introduce myself! Guess that would've helped, huh?"
"Yeah?" I said pointedly.
"Oh! Right! Heheh. I'm Hayden."

"And you..are a Kitsune, but wish you'd been born a werewolf?" I asked.
"Yeah! That's, about how it is."
"Can I ask..why? I mean, not that being a werewolf isn't great, but aren't foxes like, magical immortals with eventual superpowers? You know we age, just uh, slower than humans."

"Oh, I-I know. It's just...I, I don't like. The deception stuff. Tricking people. And I'm no good at magic. I've always kinda felt like, I'm just..not a very good fox. So I don't think I'd ever grow any more tails, at least not for a really long time. And it's weird, knowing other foxes, and them like..expecting me to be like them? When I just don't, want to be. It's...it'd be worth it, to me, to be a wolf instead."

"You know there are honest foxes around," Brie pointed out, "and trickster werewolves. You don't have to live up to your kind's stereotype."
"I..yeah, I know," Hayden sighed. "It's just—I think werewolves are, a lot cooler? Like, being wild and strong, running around with a pack...I guess it's not un-heard-of for non-werewolves to join a werewolf pack, but...I feel like I'd fit in better if I was one."
At this point, we got to the building, and I opened the door, waving both of them inside.

"Look, I'm not gonna argue against what you want if you really want it," I said, coming in after them. "I was just curious. It's totally something I can do."
His ears popped upright in surprise. "You can!?"

"Yeah, I have a...weird kind of power. And I don't mind helping people with it. But there's one thing about it.."
"It exclusively turns people into girls," Brie said bluntly. "Not that you can't turn back, but it's a thing that happens."

"Oh. Well, that doesn't sound too bad. Have you..used this power a lot?"
"I could say that I have."
"And you've...turned people back into guys after using it?"

"I have..but, weirdly, not many people want me to. I don't know if you'd feel like turning back after I used it, either," I said, shrugging.
"Well, hey, even if I had no choice but to stay a girl, I'd still rather be a werewolf girl than a kitsune guy!" Hayden proclaimed. "So—what do you have to do to use this power? Some kind of incantation or something? A sacrifice?"

"Uhhh, no," I cut him off quickly. "I just..touch someone, who wants something badly enough. And it kind of..happens." I was extremely certain that it was going to happen at this point; my sense that my power was able to affect someone had only given stronger and stronger signals from him since we'd started asking him questions.
"Oh, really, that's all?"

"Yeah. It happens...by accident, more than I'd like." I think I could see in Hayden's eyes the realization that Brie and I had both been keeping my distance from him so I wouldn't touch him by accident. "I really prefer that people know what they're getting into if possible, though."
"Well, then—hit me! Pleeeaase?" he said, folding his ears down like a dog begging for bacon. "I'll do whatever you want for it, not kidding!"
"Um—please don't feel like you owe me anything," I said, taking a small step closer and reaching my hand across. "This power's weird enough to have without stuff like that..."

He was maybe half a foot shorter than me; between that and the..expression he had on in that moment, it felt 'right' somehow for me to pat the top of his head a couple of times. The effect was so immediate that I hadn't even gotten to the second pat before his hair had erupted out across his cheeks and shoulders. The second one seemed to cause him to shudder briefly, and the hair flowed out another foot or three to reach his hips. While I dropped my hand back to my side, I could already see his complexion changing, turning a little paler while taking away all of his facial hair—and what were visible of his arms and legs were going through pretty much the same thing.

"Wh-whoaa~aah..!" he let out, his voice cracking slightly as it started to change. "I, I'm re~eally...aa~ah..!" He was starting to slim down, his shoulders narrowing, his arms and legs getting thinner, and his face turning small, round, and cute; however, his height was increasing ever so slightly rather than shrinking. He shuddered again, and I could see the fur of his tail turning noticeably rougher, the white at the tips of his tail and ears starting to darken. This came with some canine noises from his mouth, a soft "Mm~mh, mrrfh..rr~rRRfh..!" of increasingly higher pitch as he shifted from male toward female, fox toward wolf.

At this point, Hayden's clothes changed. Just as quickly as everything else, his pants shrank shorter and tighter until nearly all of his legs were exposed, and his shirt lost its sleeves and pulled tight against his slim, girlish form. The last of the white disappeared from the fur at the tips of his ears and tail, but the inside of his ears paled to that same white; at the same time he let out a soft, high "Aa~aaAAAaaa~aah..!" as the shorts pulled uncomfortably close against a bulge between his legs...which then disappeared.

"Mnnh, mrrr~rRRFffh..!" A high, cute, girlish tone came out of Hayden's lips as her hips visibly spread apart, her thighs growing thicker. She squirmed around excitedly, her tail wagging and her ears lowering out to the sides of her head in delight, as her chest sprouted a pair of small bumps visible through the tight top. "Aah, oo~oOOOh..!" The growth of her breasts continued, pulling the top up off of her belly to reveal some muscle tone that I'm pretty sure hadn't been there before. Her arms and legs looked a bit more toned and fit too by now, come to think of it. I was already starting to remember meeting her as a werewolf girl named Haylie; the contents of our conversation over the last few minutes shifted around on me, too.

Her chest gave one last push forward, growing into an impressive rack; at the same time, she seemingly just couldn't help herself and howled: "Nnh, arf, rr~rfh, AWROOO~OOOH...!"

Just like that—after maybe ten or twenty seconds—it was over. She was left excitedly panting with a lot of red to her cheeks, slowly opening her eyes and putting on the biggest, goofiest grin ever; it was pretty cute, though.

"Ahah, w-wow..! M-my first howl as a werewolf~!" she said excitedly. Haylie was pretty much my height now; even though she was a girl, she was decidedly more buff than Hayden had been. And she tackled me with a hug. "Ooh, thank you sooooo much!"

"Uh..y-you're welcome, I guess?" I said, gently returning the hug before pulling out of it. Brie, thankfully, isn't the jealous type, and I think Haylie knew we were together, since she stumbled backwards a few steps with an embarrassed look on her face.
"S-so, c-can I? Um? Please?"

I was briefly confused as to what she was asking, until I realized that the 'new' memory of our recent conversation included her asking to join our pack. Something about La Lune guiding her to meet us through a dream or whatever.

"Uh.."
"Well, we're not the alpha," Brie said while my mind was busy trying to catch up, "but I suspect she'll like you."
"There is uh..a test. Our pack has an..unusual one," I said, recovering.

"What kinda test?" Haylie asked excitedly. "Really, I'll do anything!"

"Um.."
"Nothing huge," Brie answered for me. "Just some petting of—and by—our alpha or beta. It's more about establishing that you and whichever has enough mutual trust. Lucky for you, our beta's right here~!" she said, gesturing at me.
"Uhh.."

"So, I just need to—um, let you pet me?" Haylie said. "I don't mind!"
"Um—not here! Or like this!" I interrupted, sensing that Brie was teasing me at this point. "Definitely somewhere way more private, like uh, my house?"

"That's fine, I got no plans," she said eagerly. "What'd you mean 'like this', though?"
Brie answered for me again, saying "Oh, just—" before reaching across to boop my nose.

I immediately felt her power rush through me, and let out a helpless "Aa~aaa~aah" in an increasingly girly voice as I rapidly turned into Kaela. I think this set a new record between us for transformation speed—like two to three seconds from guy to girl.
Brie just talked over me, saying, "Kaela's more comfortable if you're both girls for the test. Me too, honestly."

Haylie was immediately (I think somewhat understandably) distracted by the sight of my sudden change. "Whoooaa, you can do that?!"

"It's a thing between the two of us, 'cause of her power," Brie explained. "Not that I think she'd mind changing you every now and then~."
"Uh, y-yeah," I nodded, still feeling a little overstimulated from the sudden transformation.

So...we headed for my place. Along the way, I asked: "Um, Haylie?"
"Yeah?"
"You um..you were a Kitsune because your parents were, right?"
"Uh-huh?"
"Are they...still...foxes? Or did I..?"
"Oh, no, I'm adopted in this version of reality," she said, dismissively waving away my concern. "With fox siblings still as 'natural' kids. That's pretty convenient; I mean—I love this, but I'd feel bad forcing it on my family or whatever!"
"Y-yeah..that'd be, I wouldn't like that, either," I said.

Brie...seemed to want to watch the 'test'. I guess she's whatever the opposite of the jealous type is sometimes. So, less than an hour from meeting her, I wound up on my couch with Haylie hugging me and rubbing my ears while my girlfriend sat nearby and watched. It felt...nice, I admit. She has some very pleasant curves, and she's..pretty strong; those muscles aren't just for show. It had nothing on—well, on Brie—as far as I'm concerned, but I could feel her gratitude, her excitement, her eagerness to jump into the 'werewolf life', I guess. Those things were even more clear once we switched roles and she immediately started softly yipping and nuzzling my cheek. I cut it off before too long, remembering what happened with Lue, and hurried onto my feet away from her.

"Pffh..okay, okay!"

"Uh—did I do something wrong? Too much?" she said, looking concerned with her ears folded down.

"No, uh. You—you did fine. You passed, I'd say. Just..."

"You super passed!" Brie chipped in. "Enough she was getting worried about making me jealous."

That wasn't exactly true, but I decided that nodding and pretending to agree was better than trying to explain any deeper.

"Oh, really? Awesome! So uh—now what?"

"Well um..obviously the final word is with Lue. So we kinda need to introduce you, and get her opinion and everything..."
"I sent her some texts earlier," Brie said, getting out her phone. "Let's see...looks like she's free. So, I'm guessing you don't have any conflicts?"
"Nope!" Haylie said, getting a kind of starry-eyed expression..I think at the prospect of meeting a real alpha.

That enthusiasm didn't seem quite as present when Lue answered the door. Haylie sort of tilted her head a little bit...but still seemed friendly enough throughout the introductions. Since it was just the four of us talking, I was able to tell her that Haylie had been a fox who wanted to be a werewolf badly enough for my power to work...

"A little like Chris then, huh?"
"Maybe not as extreme," I said. "Uh—Chris is our 'omega'. But really, just another pack member. I mean we don't really do ranks exactly aside from obviously the alpha."

"That's cool! I don't really wanna worry about power structure drama. But like.."
"You have some concern?" Lue asked her, probably having noticed it since that head-tilt early on.

"Uh—don't take this the wrong way, but. You're not really, what I pictured an 'alpha' looking like? I mean—you're super cute, but don't look all that strong, or like tall or imposing or anything?"

I thought about mentioning how extremely different Lue's full-werewolf form is, or maybe explaining to Haylie later just how much of a dominant personality she is...but those ideas were kind of stopped in their tracks because Lue had this huge grin on. And I could just feel from her that I didn't need to say anything, or really interfere at all—just watch the show.

"We are total strangers, after all, Haylie. I wouldn't push you into joining my pack if you don't feel like I'd be an adequate alpha," she said first.
"Oh! Uh, that's not really—"
"I know, you don't mean any insult. But I'd hate for you to have doubts. So how about I just prove my strength to you? You ever arm wrestled anyone?"

"Oh? Yeah, some of my older brothers when I was younger, or the guys from my school. Lately nobody'll take me up on it, though. Guys really hate to win to a cute girl, y'know?"

"I really do," Lue said. "So, give me a try?" She put her arm out with the elbow on the table between them. Brie and I only exchanged a very brief glance before both getting up and clearing the area.

"Huh? Well, okay—if you're sure."

I think they both had in mind just one go at first, but it quickly turned into best-out-of-three, and then best-out-of five, and then...

Don't get me wrong—Haylie lost every round. But she put up a lot more of a fight than I expected; I think Lue would have enough force to throw my entire body out of the chair if I tried that, even in 'guy' form. By the end of this, she was panting and huffing, and Lue looked like she'd put in...maybe just a little bit of effort. But either way, the former-Kitsune said, "Okay, yeah..you're the real deal. Sorry I ever doubted. But—like—the way you look!"

"No no, I actually appreciate being challenged for once," Lue said, stretching her arms out above her head. "And I'm up for a rematch any time. But as for looking the part—I'll be sure to show you my true form later."
Haylie headtilted again. "Huh? Oh wait—you mean like, wolf form?" Lue nodded.

"That's something to behold," Brie added.

"So, with that—you're more than welcome to our pack, if you'd still like to join us," our alpha continued.

"Oh—yeah? Sweet! Awesome! Yeah, please!"

"Okay, okay," Lue said through a slight giggle. "Let's shake hands and make it official."

Once they did, Haylie said, "By the way—can you tell me a little more about the others? Including that 'Chris'?"

"Oh, right," I said. "Yeah—Chris was a human guy, under the veil, who was so excited about the concept of werewolves that he managed to 'pierce' it enough to see that they were real."

"And practically begged me to bite him, which I obviously couldn't," Lue said. "Now she's our cute little omega. I'm sure you'll get along great."
"Sounds like fun already!" Haylie said.

So...I guess we have a buff, slightly hyperactive party girl in our pack now. I actually think she'd wind up being the 'beta' if we were going by sheer physical fitness or ability to fight each other like 'traditional' packs do—or, I guess, did in the past. And...I'm not really sure how to feel about nearly all of our members, sometimes including myself, being people my weird power turned into girls. That's not even just our pack, though, now that I really think about it—so I guess I just shouldn't complain. At least they're all fun to be around.

---

I should admit now, I'm pretty dry on ideas for exactly how to move forward with this story at this point. It's running right up against the end of the school year and the start of summer, and the biggest problem is I need to get Summoning up to about the same time-frame and sort out exactly how things move from there in, ideally, a more coordinated fashion. At some point I'm sort of obligated by continuity to have a big "Veil removal" event happen that would be concurrent to both stories.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this bizarre story as it's been so far. This part (obviously) uses a generated image.

Midas Journal 29

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Entry: May 28

For as long as I've been writing these, I've been under the impression that only I—and like, that one “alternate universe” me although I'm not entirely sure if she's he's rather, atm! still looking busy as you are lately, but yep!—can read them. So, today I found out that's not entirely true. Hi, other people! I guess you're used to reading all kinds of things people are keeping private, so I guess this isn't nearly as weird for you as it is for me. Oh well. You haven't exactly exposed any state secrets before now, so...

I guess I should try to explain how this started.

Adena was acting weird, every time I saw her this morning. Well, I say that, but it wasn't something anyone who didn't know her would notice. She's usually really excited and almost surprised still by her own power and status as a Kitsune; instead she seemed super self-assured and confident, like she was totally used to it. It wasn't anything really obvious, just these subtle cues here and there. Then, she sat in front of me at lunch and..didn't say anything too out of the ordinary then. But near the end she just seemed really interested in whether I had any plans this afternoon, and when I said she didn't, she leaned in and was like, “Okay. In that case, can you come to my place so we can talk in private?”
“Why?” I said. “What's going on?”
“Nothing bad, I promise,” she said with this weird kind of grin. “It'd be great for me if you'd come, though, really.”
“Well, uh, okay then?”

“Good.” The bell rang at this point, and I had the distinct feeling that she had timed the request very carefully just so she could get up and dash away the instant I agreed. This was a little terrifying, coming from her.

I considered not going. Or getting advice from Rio or something. But eventually I decided that she was my friend, so I should trust her, and anyway if anything really strange or bad was going on I would be able to handle it. I did send a text Brie's way, saying I would be with Adena that afternoon. I figured in the absolute worst case that I somehow disappeared, Lue was more than capable of destroying anyone who did anything bad.

She opened the door before I had a chance to get the doorbell and waved me in. I haven't actually been to her place before now. It's a nice place. Big, lots of rooms. I don't know for sure if it was like that “before” or her parents became richer due to one or both of them being Kitsune (she hasn't told me which, if either, is one, and they both look human...) She showed me to a seat on a couch in a little kind of library place. “You want something to drink?” she said.

“I'm...good. What's this about?”

“To the point, eh? Alright.” She moved around where she was standing in front of me, but a couple of yards off. “This may surprise you, so I'll ask you to please not react violently and reserve any questions for after I'm done, 'kay?”

“Uhh...sure?”

Adena nodded, and then...started smoking. I mean—not like, she pulled out a cigarette or a pipe or something. I mean like, it was like smoke was coming out of all her pores. It was very...directed smoke, going mostly along the walls and to either side of the couch and behind it (I looked back for a second when I saw it going that way). It covered the ceiling, and somehow made the room we were in seem much darker, even though I could still see her perfectly fine, just as if she was still being lit by the sun from the windows.

After that, she started...growing. She got taller, and, well, bigger in the chest and hips. She started growing extra tails, one after another, in a bunch of different colors. Her eyes were red and also glowing. This was not only surprising but kind of terrifying too, especially when she saw my reaction and just grinned like it was hilarious. Her clothes reshaped into a long kind of kimono thing, and after just a short few seconds I felt like I wasn't really looking at Adena at all, but someone else entirely. When it was over, she gave a small kind of, relieved-sounding sigh. “There we go,” she said, in a very deep, and not-Adena-like voice.

Since I've learned some magic, I've become aware of the magic power that other people have. I can sense a little bit from Rio, and Lue for that matter. A lot more than that from Giri and Ren, and even more from Threa. It's kind of a 'matter-of-fact' sense that doesn't bug me much, or intrude into my instincts or emotions the way normal senses do. In this case, though, it did. I could feel an intense, sharp kind of pressure coming off of this person, and it was terrifying. It was the best I could do not to try to find some way to escape, like using a teleportation spell to go back home or something. I assume that would've qualified as “reacting violently”, and I tried to assure myself that if she'd wanted to hurt me then none of this would be necessary at all.

“Before you worry, you should know that I cannot hurt you,” she said. “In fact my power is unable to touch you, from what I can tell.”

“Um...really?” It sure felt like it could touch me, and a lot more than that.
She nodded. “One of us tried, not long after your power appeared. It told him no while you were fast asleep, and ever since not even a simple messenger spell can reach you. Oh—I ought to introduce myself first,” she nodded, as if realizing she'd forgotten this step, and moved just close enough to extend her hand my way.

“I have no name—my position comes with costs, and losing that is among them. But my title is the Ruler of Foxes. I'm here as an emissary of the gods in general—well, most of them at least,” she said.

“Uh..Kaela.” I tried shaking her hand, but my arm was still trembling. “Guess you know that.”

“Politeness is still appreciated,” she said. “Now that we're acquainted, I'll sit down.” She turned and went to the opposite side of the couch, leaning half-against the armrest to face me.

“You should know that I am not physically with you,” she said. “I am borrowing the use of Adena's body according to an agreed-upon exchange between her and me. Essentially I can use her body today while she experiences something similar to sleep, and that only for the express purpose of maintaining the illusion of her being around—and, more importantly, to arrange this meeting with you. She'll remember the whole thing, unless there are parts of this conversation that you or I would prefer to remain private. My part of the bargain is a good way toward gaining her next tail. A formality, really—I cannot 'officially' just give someone a tail, but it isn't hard for someone in my position to arrange things where one with as few as she has can swiftly earn another one.”

I cleared my throat. “Um..no offense, but, out of all the gods, why would the one in charge of the uh, deception people be the emissary?”
She shrugged. “The others are afraid to make anything resembling physical contact with you, and I am the youngest—well, until recently at least—so risky jobs fall to me. Also, I wanted to meet you,” she added with a grin. “You're fun.

“If you're wondering whether you can trust me, well, you have all kinds of ways to test whether anything I tell you is true, don't you?” she said with this calm, friendly-looking grin. That expression was more terrifying than if she was baring her teeth at me. “So we both know that my lying won't help anything. Now, the first message, from certainly all of us, is please do not destroy us.”

“Destroy you?” I was surprised by the suggestion that I could.

“You know that your power can reshape the world,” she said. “We believe it would be trivial for you to make one where any one of us never existed. Or even to simply depower anyone you like into a mortal. I wish to convince you, first of all, that this would not be beneficial to do.”

“Right now, the world is stable. We do quite a bit to keep order—even those of us who like a little chaos prefer not to see major wars, or the deaths of large groups of people. Each one of us has important roles which the world would miss if we were gone; in my case the entire race of Kitsune would be rather lost, not if I personally were removed, but if my title disappeared entirely. But more importantly—our power keeps this world safe, and we aren't sure if yours can do the same.”

“You did just tell me I can rewrite reality,” I said.

She nodded. “The running theory at the moment is that, whatever you are, it is intrinsic to this universe, and perhaps linked to just one other. But we don't know—and don't want to find out, if possible—whether your power is able to do anything to things originating from other universes. You see, there are a great many other worlds out there separated by what we call 'Void'—something similar to but distinct from outer space.” (I got the impression right away that 'Void' should be capitalized.) “The Void is also populated with many serious existential threats to our or any other world. But the presence of powerful beings such as ourselves wards off most such threats from even approaching our world in the first place, and in addition that power is very effective at crushing threats which approach anyway.

“If you start trying to reorganize the pantheon, we don't know what kind of effects that will have. Any survivors may be angry enough with you to attempt retaliation toward those you care about, which would further prompt you to respond in kind, and...well. My point is that if you destroy one of us, you might as well do it to all of us. And then you must find a way to refill our roles, and quickly. We think it would be much better for everyone if none of that ever happens.”

“Uhh...I don't, really, want to hurt anyone,” I said. “Much less kill them, or..”
“I know,” she nodded. “But we do feel it's best for you to understand the situation fully. Naturally, none of us wants to go, or see our friends go. Oh, speaking of which, La Lune likes you too, and is very proud of Lue. You can tell her so if you want.”

“Okaaay.” I think she meant that she's friends with La Lune, which—speaking as a werewolf, is completely insane to me.

“We're also grateful that you haven't started raising yourself or your friends to godhood the instant it became available as an option,” she said. “And it's a blessing that your power really seems inclined to change as 'little' as possible unless directed otherwise. Really, I think you're better off that way for now; so much power thrust onto someone so young can be difficult to manage. Also, we aren't sure what would happen if you did that now, but it's not as if any of us could stop you, and we'd prefer to let you ascend yourself than try to fight it and, again, get destroyed.”

“I don't feel responsible enough to be a deity,” I said.

She grinned at me again like this was funny. “You're already far more responsible than most of us, but there's more to being a god than that. And you have 'more power' than we do, from a certain perspective, so it's really just a difference in how many people know that. At any rate, that is the first of my message out of the way. I promised to answer your questions, so do you have any so far?”

“Yyyeah, you said something about a god younger than you?” I said.

“Oh, yes. In a strange confluence of the universe which we think has little to nothing to do with you directly, a college student just a few years your elder recently ascended. I think you'd get along pretty well, but the others are adamant about not letting you meet her just yet. Not that we could really stop you if you wanted to,” she said with a shrug.

“Who are 'the others', exactly?” I said. “I mean, I know of some of the gods, but now that I know one is real I don't know which of the other ones I know of are real or not, or if there are others I've never even heard of.”

“Well,” she said. “You know La Lune; she and her brother Sol, god of the sun, are among the oldest and most powerful—therefore important. I am the 'god' of the Kitsune, for as much as the term applies. It's actually a title which any nine-tailed Kitsune can take on under the right conditions, but I have held it for a long while so far by currying favor with the 'real' gods and keeping my people reasonably happy. By the way, you and Brie are welcome to turn foxes any time you like; I guarantee you'd enjoy it! Aside from that, there is Bastet, who is more or less over the Neko race—they don't really 'worship' her per se, but there's an important relationship there—but also has a few other important roles, like presiding over dreams. The god of love—the best and the worst thereof—who has at least six different names, is another you can count as at least fond of you, if not an outright ally. And, there's the ascended dragon Ouroboros, who presides over greed, stability, cycles...but he's asleep this century, so you aren't likely to meet him anytime soon. That's about it, leaving aside various nature spirits and the like who could be loosely called 'gods' and receive some amount of power from 'worship'; but comparing us to them is like comparing..hmm, nuclear missiles to handguns. And, of course...the new one.

"Her name is Zotha, and she presides so far over 'change', 'gratitude', and 'unintended consequences'...more or less. I could send you a list of everyone's domains for you peruse later, if you'd like.”

“I think that'd be helpful,” I said.

“Oh, speaking of messages—I know you don't keep anything in it anymore, but you really ought to check your locker more often,” she said, a piece of paper just sort of appearing in her hand. She offered it over toward me. “This was in there last week.”

She waited patiently for me to skim over it. It seems like I managed to change someone without even noticing because my tail kind of lightly brushed him? Okay then. “Thanks, I think?”
“Heheh,” she chuckled. “Not even your own caution can get in the way of you keeping things interesting, it seems.”
“I dunno if that's the word I'd use for it...”

“On the next part of my message. We have been reading your journal,” she said.

“..Oh.” I guessed that explained why they knew what had been happening. Of course gods have some kind of crazy scrying powers, and it's not like I really did anything to protect this against magic anyway. I'm writing this all from memory in the middle of the night, by the way, so I guess if you send me a message to correct me on what exactly you said, that's fine, and maybe I will?

“Your motivations for meddling with the veil are honorable, it is generally thought, but we'd like to ask you not to rewrite history for it. We are as uncertain as you are of what would happen if you ask your power to go back in time and make that sweeping of a change. Rather, if it is your demand to lift the veil, we'd like the opportunity to arrange that in as orderly and non-destructive a manner as possible.”

“My..demand?” I repeated.

“That is what you want, is it not? No good fox or deity asks so much of someone as powerful as you are without expecting to do something in return. But.”

She leaned toward me a bit and put on a serious face that honestly looked kind of out of place for her. “As the one of our group who disliked the Veil the most when it was started, and still sees its many flaws, I must tell you. There is no removing it without some chaos and damage. And even if it were removed at once and immortality available to all, there are many who would not willingly take it. You yourself had a somewhat gradual introduction to the world of magic; imagine if it had suddenly all been dumped on you at once. Then imagine people who are less well-adjusted, less nice, less mentally stable, millions of them at minimum, all having that happen to them at the same time.” I tried to imagine that and felt my ears folding way back over my head. It did not seem good. “That is why this requires careful, detailed planning, more than you alone can probably manage. Please let us work on this in our own way, alright? Zotha is in on this as well,” she said with a small nod.

“Are you, planning this because I've forced your hand?” I said after a second. “I mean—you know I don't, want to threaten anyone into anything.”

“You're far too nice. But really, this is an excuse to do something some of us have wanted for a decade or two,” she said, “if not longer. You, along with Zotha, give motivation to those who had become complacent about the veil remaining the default state of the world forever to talk seriously with the rest of us about how best to go about lifting it, should it become entirely necessary. It isn't too many steps from there to all of us agreeing to enact those plans. But first, they must be made, and certain 'pieces' have to be put in the right place.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath. Even though she was doing everything she could to assure me she wasn't really a threat, it was intimidating to say this to a god. Or, to whatever she is that's basically equivalent to one. “What about the people who die while you're doing all that planning?”

“Hmmh. Some of them will have been killed,” she said. “Even a world with magic is no paradise. We cannot maintain that people have free will and at the same time prevent all violent death forever. If anything, magic grants a great many ways to kill people that ordinary humans do not have. But I know that isn't who you mean.

“We can't directly prevent magicless people from dying, or at least appearing to die, without the veil itself dying a very premature death. But we can offer a 'reincarnation service' of sorts: Communicate with the mind of someone about to die a natural death, and let them decide for themselves whether to continue that way or be 'reborn' into the world elsewhere as someone new. In fact, Zotha is lending her power to just such an endeavor, using some manpower from a few of us older gods to help accomplish it. The only disadvantage is that, for now, those people's families must believe they really died, so the new identity is...a bit like being in witness protection, but with no chance of being recognized. But they are still alive.”

“That's...really good,” I said. I had a huge grin on, and my tail was wagging in spite of myself. “Even just that would be enough, if you never do drop the veil.”

“I disagree about it being enough, but I'm sure the others will be relieved that you're pleased with the temporary compromise,” she said.

“Now, there are two more things I wish to accomplish with this visit. First of all, a stable method of communication between you and the gods, which you will know is from us and we will know is from you. We had this made for that purpose.” The same way as the paper before, she pulled out what looked like a phone and offered it toward me. “It can do texting and voice, but it's specially enchanted to only communicate between us, to only allow you to use it, and to distinctly identify who is sending messages with it.”

I took it carefully, and the screen lit up right away. It only had a “call” and “message” function visible, but otherwise the screen didn't look very different from my actual phone.

“Surprised to see something that looks so modern?” she asked. “It was largely designed by some of Sol's people. Convenient, and helps it appear unimportant to anyone around you. Rest assured we only intend to use this for serious communication, and hope that you reserve it for that as well.”
“Y-yeah, okay,” I nodded. It's still a little hard to comprehend that I basically have a phone with a direct line to the gods, with what I understand of their level of power and importance. Obviously I haven't touched it since taking it home.

“So, what was the second thing?” I asked after taking a minute to put it away.

“It's more of a personal matter. A small request from me,” she said, “and from La Lune. A certain fox in your neighborhood has been praying to her because he doesn't want to be what he is, and sincerely wishes he'd been born a werewolf instead. I'd happily grant his desire and wish him the best, but it isn't in either of our power to actually do so; ordinarily a person's nature in that regard is very much fixed, and the extremely expensive magic that upends one's nature is too against any god's nature for us to cast or even lend power to the casting of, besides being indescribably risky to the person affected. You obviously have the ability to bypass such issues, after—I assume—explaining the usual caveat.”

“I guess I can do that,” I said. “How would I know this person? Or, what do they look like?”
“If you're agreed, La Lune will send him a dream tonight from which he'll know to seek you out. Perhaps we could've done this without asking, but she thought it best to at least mention it when we're already having a conversation.”

“Well, I probably would've helped anyway, yeah. So that's no problem.”

Something else occurred to me. “Why all this now?” I said. “I mean—I've had this power for almost two months at this point.”

She kind of shrugged. “A combination of politics and strategic thinking, more or less. Enough of the gods who are terrified of you have at this point been convinced that it's worth trying diplomacy, and anyway—if we understand things correctly—you are at this point in your own experience becoming accustomed to the world beyond the veil. You've met a demon and a dragon, and are building up your own repertoire of spells. You knew of a few of us already, and it would only be a matter of time before other mortals would help you assemble a list of the gods anyway, so the strategy of hoping you won't do anything to us if you don't know about us has outworn its use. So those who are worried, well aware that aggression hasn't worked and can't work and hiding is about to fail, can only agree to turn to diplomacy. I would also be lying if I said the tenor of some of your more recent entries didn't have Sol scrambling to get a word out to you before you made any major decision without our input,” she added with a grin that I think was at this sun god's expense.

Having finally delivered her various messages, the fox god woman moved on to asking if I had any questions. I struggled to come up with much, but—or, really because of that—I asked: "Is it. Can I, uh. Who's...allowed to know about our conversation here? Who can I, talk to about it?"
She sort of shrugged. "Whoever you like. Maybe the other gods don't think so, but I believe you have a reasonable amount of discretion when it comes to keeping your power a partial or entire secret. And I'm certain it would help you sort things out to speak with your significant other, at the least, if that's what you have in mind."
"Uh...yeah," I admitted.
"And you have the means to contact me—or the rest of us—if you think of any other questions to ask, or comments to make."

"That's true..."
"If there's nothing else for the moment, then, I'd be happy to relinquish Adena's body back to her control for the time being."

"I—yeah, maybe that'd be best," I said.

After a special-effects-show like the one that had introduced her, but kind of in reverse, the Ruler of Foxes turned back into Adena. She waved goodbye to me with a sort of soft chuckle, then suddenly went sort of partially limp for a moment, staring off into space. She snapped out of this like someone just waking up, shaking her head hard enough for her ears to flap around before shouting "DUDE!" and starting to gush about how awesome it was to have been 'possessed' by the Ruler for even just part of one day. I gave her a few minutes to basically nerd out about it before getting up and saying I really needed to go talk to Brie, and I think she understood how overwhelmed I was feeling, so she let me go.

Brie was...at least as excited to hear I'd been contacted by a god as she had been about me meeting a dragon. "That's amazing! They're real!?" I guess I should've seen that coming. It's funny, even people who've been 'outside the veil' their entire lives seem to encounter the gods so rarely that many of them don't know they exist as people rather than abstract concepts. Maybe they prefer it that way?
"Uh, apparently."
"Well, in that case I guess it was only a matter of time, with what you can do. I mean—I know I'd want to get a handle on a 'reality warper' if I was responsible for a whole entire world."

We talked for a while about it. Brie didn't have much in the way of new input, but it felt good just to talk about it to someone else..no, especially with her. It made the whole experience feel more real, and she had some of the same reactions I did to some of that info, which made me feel a little less crazy. After that, she uh..helped me take my mind off of things for a while, and offered to hang out with me tomorrow afternoon, and said she hopes we meet 'the mystery fox' together. I guess...she may want to watch my power work on him? And I guess I can't blame her. Anyway, if he's so dead set on being a werewolf, there's a pretty high chance we'll wind up with yet another new pack member, huh?

---

Wow, it's been a while on this story, huh? This part has been sitting around fully-written for...a long while. The next part has also been sitting around mostly-written for a while. At first this whole thing was stalled by not wanting to spoil some planned events in Summoning, but I got past those events and...still had trouble finishing things up for publication. But today I finally finished that one, which makes me feel ready to publish both. The next one will come out tomorrow.

Aetuornos Beta 3b-2

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3b-2: Firebrand's Foray

"It's a battle of wits and wills. Manual dexterity too, sure, but that's mostly practice. Once you get good—so good there's no barrier between what you want to do and what you fighter does—it's your avatar versus theirs. Outthink, outplay." He tapped his forehead with an index finger. "The thrill of victory! The cheering of the crowds! The rush of being just two or three pixels of health away from dying! No risk of actually dying," he added quickly. "It's a sport perfect for people of my, uh, physique, too." And then, finally, with a big grin: "Yeah, the prize money doesn't hurt, either."

Blake was fully aware that it was a very slow news day, for them to be covering some nerdy fighting game competition. He didn't particularly care. Being famous wasn't his goal, but hamming it up for the camera was a lot of fun. Miraculously, someone in charge actually liked his somewhat theatric response to a simple question about why he liked these games enough to make more-or-less a career out of competing in tournaments, resulting in maybe dozens of eyes watching that performance from an overweight, bunny-eared nerd. But perhaps one or two of those people would be his future competitors in few years..that'd be nice.

One thing he hadn't mentioned, figuring maybe it went without saying: The ridiculous, fantastical worlds the fighters took place in were a lot of fun. Sure, he was a Rabbit who'd lived outside the veil his entire life, but they still didn't live in a world where a girl who looked like she was twelve years old had an entire army of squeaky-talking, lego-looking robots under her command, or a maid attacked people with brooms and vacuum cleaners, or literally little red riding hood herself beat people up with a purse. It was probably a good thing the real world wasn't like that, but it was fun to be transported into a world so ridiculous and see all those crazy animations play out.

When it came to the reasons people tended to enjoy video games, Blake mainly liked just three things: Real competition-slash-cooperation with other people, raw challenge, and...aesthetics. Okay, he liked the cute girls—he was a dude in his early twenties, so sue him! The point is, not a lot besides fighting games tended to interest him. But, when the consolation prize for second place after he lost a very hard-fought match against a worthy opponent was beta access to the universe's first real, true, full-immersion-tech virtual reality game, he couldn't very well say no! The more he heard about how it all worked, the more excited he got. The game was going to be so freeform and his own player character so customizable that he could basically make the experience exactly what he wanted it to be.

The goal for Blake was simple. His whole life, he'd played as all manner of ridiculous characters with loud personalities—mostly cute girls—and flashy powers and attacks. This time, he'd live out that fantasy as for real as he possibly could: No screen in the way, but his own physical form's lack of physical fitness not getting in the way either. For this, he selected an entire persona to embody from the ground up, kitting out his stats like a DND minmaxer.

A strength-based fire mage, with plenty of agility—firework-like punches and kicks! A voluntary no-weapon, no-armor penalty in exchange for access to unarmed fighter skills. Last-second dodges, fast combos! And loose clothes rather than armor, so nothing would get in the way. A ferocious wolf-person for flair, plus the extra bonuses to strength, balance, and reflexes. And then, of course, a name to reflect this character's bombastic personality: Blaze!

He was very excited for the game's release, and the opportunity to finally embody this person he'd envisioned and meticulously set up. It was a shame he was out of town winning another competition for those first few days, but at least they'd released some new content by the time he was back home and ready to play. Wednesday evening, he finally lay himself down in the weird little pod and mashed go, already feeling pumped for what was going to come.

Blake had been browsing the beta forums off and on since the game's initial release, so he had a pretty good idea of what to expect when things started: His body seeming to fall away out of the real world and into a blank sort of sky, where it would be reshaped into the form he'd chosen. There was still a little bit of reflexive shock and flailing around from the sensation, but he got over it quick. And—the change was already starting, he noticed, with a feeling of tingling rolling across his ears.

The tingling gave way to a pushing, downward and inward, compressing his familiar tall black rabbit ears into a shorter, wider, spikier canine shape. At the same time, his tail suddenly stretched itself out, growing longer and thicker until it was a huge mass of fluffy fur nearly the length of an arm behind him. He turned around, brushing a hand across it. "Haha, wow." All the predatory beastfolk, and plenty of demons too, had super-long tails; he always thought they looked kind of inconvenient for everyday life. But this wasn't going to be any everyday life for him.

After fixing which animal-hybrid he was, the change moved on to pushing Blake's entire body inward: A sharp yet pleasing, almost massage-like pressure causing him to rapidly shrink smaller and shorter in nearly every way. "Who~oa~ah..!" His clothes quickly tented around him, especially his shirt as this shrinking seemed strongest on his belly, flattening it out in a matter of seconds. "Aa~aah..!" At the same time, his voice cracked and squeaked a couple of times as it quickly changed, by the end paradoxically sounding deeper, yet no longer the slightest bit male. After all—just like all of Blake's other favorite characters to play as, Blaze was a girl.

"Mnnh—rrfh!" a high, cute bark came out as he shivered, feeling his skin erupt into tingling and his hair suddenly burst out into a long, wild mane falling nearly down to his hips in the back. Already his very loose clothes were starting to pull closer again, even though he still wasn't quite done shrinking. His flab was all gone by now, leaving his midsection flat and his arms and legs slim, but this last bit of pressure shrank his frame into a particularly slender shape, with narrow shoulders and a soft, round, cute face.

When the tingling hit him between the legs, it didn't stop—even as it faded from everywhere else. Instead it grew steadily stronger, as Blake's pants slid off of his hips and broke apart in the middle, turning into a pair of long stockings, and his underwear lost most of its leggings and pulled quickly tighter about his hips and, of course, down there too. "Maan, aa~aah...mrr~rfh..!" His cheeks felt the warmth of a blush as the tingling progressed into the slipping, tugging feeling of his manhood giving way. It felt strangely good, he thought, squirming his legs against each other as it swiftly melted away.

"Oo~ooh..." Blake's deep, womanly alto came out in a soft cry as she felt a burst of exciting, fuzzy feelings down there—even as her lowerwear pulled snug and flat between her legs. Her t-shirt was actually getting a little overzealous with the shrinking at this point, as its hem yanked itself halfway up her midriff. Exposing more skin was fine with her, really, but it shouldn't disappear entirely! At the same time, she could feel her hips and thighs gently plumping out, followed by a rush of tingles across her chest. "Mm~nnh..rrfh!" A low hum gave way to one more high bark as the wolf-girl's chest burst forward, taking only a couple of seconds to go from flat to—well, some still kind of small but undeniably present breasts, filling out her small, slender form nicely.

"H-heheh..!" Blaze patted her body down with a satisfied grin, letting a cute giggle emerge from her lips. This was perfect! She then noticed the ground had appeared at some point below her, and with a small shrug, she tilted around so that her arms were below her in a full-on downward dive. She wasn't falling at the kind of speed that normal gravity would've provided, and anyway it wasn't like anything in the game could really hurt her, so this just looked like fun! After a moment, she landed on her hands, did a neat, easy front flip to land on her feet. Putting one hand on her hip and feeling her tail wag happily behind her, she lifted the other one in an open, palm-up position, and effortlessly summoned a flame hovering above it. She hadn't seen it happen, but her eyes were now much the same color as that bright orange light.

"Yeah, this'll do nicely," she said, closing her fist to dismiss the flame. Looking around, it seemed she was in a forest. That wasn't a very good place to find people, and—since her character was supposed to be a hero anyway—it wasn't really somewhere she felt appropriate to properly let loose, either. So she just picked a random direction and took off at a run, which soon enough turned into a rather effortless sprint.

After a couple of minutes, Blaze 'felt' something ahead of her and to the right, and quickly jumped away from it, twisting in midair to land facing it. She felt not the least bit sore or winded! Was this what it was like to be fit in real life, too? Questions like that would probably have to wait until, at least, after she'd exterminated the monster that had interrupted her run.

It was roughly the shape of a deer, maybe a little larger in size, and did have hooves, but it had short and spiky horns rather than antlers, sharp teeth in a shorter muzzle, and—most strikingly—was covered in reddish-brown scales rather than fur. Now that she was standing across from it in a 'ready' stance, the creature reared itself up and kicked its feet in the air like a horse, its mouth making a hostile hissing noise.

"Yeah? Come on then, if you're so tough!" Blaze taunted, making a 'come get some' gesture with her right hand. The lizard-deer immediately charged at her, and she ducked aside, wreathing that same hand in flame as she punched into the thing's side, knocking it over into a forward-sideways tumble along the ground until a tree trunk stopped its momentum.

She couldn't follow that strike up, however, as her 'instincts' had her jumping forward and rolling out of the way of a charge from a second member of the same species. It turned itself around to pursue her, but she was ready before it arrived, ducking backwards under its charge, bending into a handstand-backflip that had her flame-wreathed feet kicking up into its body to send it briefly flying up-forward through the air.

The first monster had recovered its feet by now, so it charged at her from her side. "Pfft, predictable," she said, bending slightly to spring up past the reach of its horns and land herself directly on the monster's back. Grabbing its horns in her hands, she sent a fire down into it as it bucked and thrashed wildly to try and get her off of it. She yanked it sideways to point it toward a tree before using the momentum of its bucking to leap off it into the air and land on the other one's back fist-first, knocking it over and leaving her free to hop off and away from it.

The other deer-lizard indeed rammed itself into that tree, and continued flailing around in a desperate attempt to no longer be on fire. In fact, its act of running around with Blaze on top of it had spread quite a lot of fire all around. But that was no problem for the little wolf-girl mage; in fact, this kind of thing was simply a part of her tactics—part of her theming. She spread out her arms with the hands palm-up, and all of that fire swirled into the space above them as a pair of burning fireballs. Then she put her hands together and made a quick 'hadouken' gesture, sending that ball of fire flying straight into the beast she'd just knocked over, smacking it hard in the side just as it recovered its feet. It was bowled over by the impact, and the fire wreathed itself all around its body as it fell and tumbled.

Now that it wasn't on fire anymore, the other monster hissed loudly again and charged Blaze's way. She readied herself to counter it again when something bright flashed into view between her and the beast: A humanoid shape of glowing fiery bright-gray light a little shorter than herself, floating off the ground. It caught the thing's head in its 'hands', not seeming to mind those hands being gored in the process, and pushed it back. Another near-identical looking thing was floating over to the other monster as it shook off the last of her flames, its hand turning into a small knife-like blade as it raised that arm and then slashed into the beast's throat.

"Aaaalright then?" Figuring that these things were on her side, at least for the moment, Blaze ran up and around the one blocking the nearest beast, leaping to flaming-bicycle-kick it in the side. The floating light-man let go when her feet made contact, letting it fall naturally over onto its side, and then floated over to assist the other one in continuing to restrain/cut up that other beast.

Blaze's target stood up shakily, looking pretty badly injured to her eyes, but hissed again, jumping and opening its mouth to snap its teeth at her. She smoothly dodged the bite and socked it in the side of the head, then hopped back out of the way as it raised itself up and tried to kick at her with its front hooves. By now, the other monster was out of commission, and the two light-things floated up to stab some blade-hands into the remaining one from its sides. It was sufficiently concentrated on Blaze to be completely blindsided by this attack, and only briefly convulsed before falling over dead, too.

The wolf-girl looked back and forth between her two 'helpers', not entirely dropping her ready stance. "Sssooooo..." Both of them blinked out of existence, and then she could see someone behind them: A guy in a robe with a staff, the spitting image of a 'normal' mage.

"Hey...I saw a bunch of smoke, and thought someone might be in trouble. Sorry, I guess people don't like 'kill stealing', but..."

"You couldn't let a cutie like me fight all on her own~?" she said teasingly with a big grin, taking a couple of steps closer. "Really though, I appreciate it. We are supposed to work together here, right?"
"Yeah, that..was what I thought," he said a little uncertainly, like he wasn't used to people flirting with him. That just made her want to mess with him a little more.

"So—are you a new player too?" she asked.

"Well, everyone's new if you.." he sighed. "No, I've been on before. My name is Ronin."
"Blaze~!" she said, eagerly offering her hand up at him to shake, which he accepted after a second's hesitation.
"I, came back to these woods to look for..newcomers. Especially mages."
"Oh really~, that's interesting. I'm kinda a mage myself," she said, wreathing her right arm in a spiral of fire for a second or two. "Fire mage, to be more specific. So, what's your interest? Hoping to form an all-mage party for a challenge run or something?"

"No, I..hmm. How do I put this..." Ronin seemed to need a moment to think.

"Follow me out of these woods first, okay? The exit's not far, we can talk on the way."

"Alright then," Blaze nodded. "Lead the way."

He still seemed to need a moment to gather his thoughts, after which he quietly cleared his throat. "Listen...soon, a massive army of demons and monsters will descend on this country."
"Oh, yeah?" That sounded like fun.

"Already I've heard news of some of their leaders and elites scouting out the land, taking out groups of adventurers and seeming to have some mysterious missions of their own to complete, in advance of that army's arrival."

"Oh yeah! I heard about some stuff like that," Blaze admitted—although it was more 'read in the forums' than 'heard'. This phrasing worked for the roleplaying.

Ronin nodded and continued: "Their ruler, the Demon Queen. There is one thing she fears most, and all of those aligned with her will seek to destroy it. I was asked to...spread this thing, to as many people as possible. It's something only mages can use. And there is one specific...'form' of it, that we need."

The trees thinned as they arrived at the forest's edge. "So..you're thinking of 'spreading' this thing to me?" Blaze said, keeping the conversation going as they came out onto a much more open roadway.

"Right. You see..it's.." He took a moment to summon one of those humanoid light-things from before, pointing at it. "The gray glow there. That's what it is for me. It makes my summons a little tougher than they would be otherwise."

"So, it's not just this Demon Queen's weakness. It gives other advantages?"
"Yeah. But, I mean—disadvantages too. And also...I'm not really entirely clear on this, but it might destroy the world later. So there are some...risks."

"Bah, I can handle it! Especially if it's flame," Blaze said. "I mean, did you see what I did earlier? I can handle any fire. I'm literally an expert at it!"

"Okay then." He stopped, turning to face her. "So, to be clear—we're looking for someone with a white flame. But I don't think there's any way to tell what color someone will have until they get it. If someone gets a white flame, the Demon Queen and her minions will target that person especially, so there's a big risk."
"I don't mind a little risk. I'm in this for the thrill anyway," the wolf-girl said, grinning. "I say, let 'em come! So what do we need to do to 'spread' this thing?"
"Well..it's a pretty simple ritual. You..pick it up along with the fire itself. Just hold still...it does involve drawing a tiny bit of your blood."
"Alright," she shrugged, holding out her left arm.

Ronin nodded, having his summoned creature poke her finger with its blade-hand before dismissing it. He placed his left hand under hers, and his entire body started to glow with the same bright gray shade of flamelike flickering as the summon had a moment go. "This fire, kindled as the world began. This fire, to consume the world at its end. In the time between, it must through mages spread. Will you take it in?"
"Yeah!"

"Then...take this Secret Fire. Handle it wisely." Ronin gently placed his other hand atop hers, and the gray flame raced across her arm to the rest of her body. Its color brightened steadily until it became what she thought of as the color fire should be: Bright, blazing orange, like her magic usually was; like her eyes were. It disappeared from view a moment after covering her, but she could still 'feel' it inside of her, now a part of her own magic, and understood exactly how to spread it to another mage.

"Hmm..orange."

"Are you disappointed?" she asked.
"No..hff.." he paused, panting slightly to catch his breath. "We just need to get it to a lot of people. I am curious what it 'means', though. I only know what purple and gray do, and that white is supposedly important..."
"Well, I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough. Anyway, thanks~," she said, pouncing up at him with a hug. He was too baffled by this act to really respond before she'd let go and hopped back a couple of feet, and he was left cutely blushing afterward.

"I guess you're not really looking for a party at the moment, then?" Blaze said. "Just more newbie mages for this Fire thing?"
"Y-yeah..pretty much."
"Well, I'm gonna get back to exploring—maybe I'll find a party to run with if I keep looking. So, see ya later, Ronin! Maybe we'll really party up then, huh?"
"Uh, sure..." He was still blushing! Blaze just giggled and gave one last quick wave before heading out on the road.

A short walk later, Blaze caught sight of an unusual monster from the top of a hill. It was shaped like a wildcat, but very clearly made of ice. If that wasn't a perfect target to test her newly-enhanced magic on, she didn't know what was. So she hurried, running and then sliding her way down the hill to stop off just in front of it.

"Hello there, kitty cat~!" On the off chance that it was a summon like those things Ronin used, or someone's magical familiar or something, an ambush just seemed wrong. However, it proved to be just as much of a generic enemy as expected when it quickly leaned its head back and then jerked it forward, spitting out a big spiky chunk of ice right at her! She dove aside and rolled, popping back to her feet in no time. "Wow, ruuude!"

The ice-cat monster wasn't interested in being polite, however, as it now charged straight at her with clear intent to pounce. But this was really the kind of attack Blaze had been hoping to see all along. She ducked back just out of the way of its pounce, drew her arm back, concentrating a swirling mass of fire around her fist, and punched straight down into the top of its head. The impact immediately shattered the monster apart, much of its mass melting—it was dead in one hit!

"Whooo yeah!" Blaze cheered, punching a fist up into the air. Her fire magic felt hotter and was clearly even stronger than before. Even if that thing was super weak to fire, it definitely didn't look like the kind of enemy that was supposed to go down that easily. "Awesome."

"..Excuse me." The wolf-girl's ears twitched, and she turned to find the owner of that voice making their way down a hill opposite the one she'd come from. It was a human girl with dark hair done up into some stupidly long twintails, wearing shorts and a tank top. Something about her, maybe something 'in the game', told Blaze she was a monk. Her expression was: Stern, severe, serious.

"Oh, hey—did I kill steal on ya? Sorry 'bout that," Blaze said, kicking a bit of dirt behind her. If someone else had damaged that monster first, no wonder she'd killed it in one hit—but that was a somewhat disappointing possibility.

"I was hoping to track the origin of that beast. Its kind is not normally seen at this elevation." The stranger stopped a couple of yards away. "However, more importantly: You are a mage?"
"Yeah. Guess I don't look the part, huh?" It hadn't really registered to the wolf-girl when she was talking to a guy earlier, but—she was really short now! She even needed to tilt her head upward to look this monk in the face. Still, she maintained a winning grin.

"And did I see a trace of the Secret Fire in your magic?"

"I guess so? Some guy called Ronin did just 'spread' it to me."
The monk girl's expression turned even darker than before—if that was possible. Blaze definitely had the sense that this was a real frown she was looking at now. "Irresponsible. Have you any idea of the danger?"
"What, you mean how the Demon Queen's minions will be after me? Just sounds like fun to me!"

"Beyond that. The gods of this world themselves abhor this power. It poses a danger of destroying this world one day. It may even be capable of consuming one of weak will, who uses it recklessly and without consideration."
"Eh, maybe," she shrugged. "My will's pretty dang strong, though!"

In response to this, the monk shifted her stance just slightly. It was still pretty loose, relaxed—but between 'ingame' instincts and years of watching animations of fighting-game characters at the start of their matches, Blaze could spot instantly that she was getting ready to fight. "I will test that claim. Prepare yourself."
"Oo~oh, yeah?" The wolf-girl got ready herself, her grin getting even bigger. "Bring it on!" She could practically hear a deep-throated, male voice saying: Round One. Fight!

The monk came up on her surprisingly fast. It was a good thing she dodged sideways and slightly early, because instead of just a fist, there was a golden blade of light just barely missing her neck. She tried to punch back with some fire on her fist, but her opponent kept moving forward like she'd been expecting to miss, making that fist only hit air. Then she flawlessly continued her run while turning around to go for a diving kick (complete with another of those blades coming from her foot) that Blaze had to dive to get away from. She rolled and whirled as she stood halfway up, more obeying an instinct than making a decision when she put her hands up and caught the monk's wrist between them—the hand attached to which had a light-blade on it, and had been halfway into a downward chop that very well could've cut her head in half otherwise.

Thinking fast, the wolf-girl sent her flames up across her hands onto the monk's arm as she did a kind of judo-throw sideways. Picking up and throwing another person felt effortless, and from that brief exchange it felt like her opponent was physically weaker than her—in terms of pure physical strength, that was, with her arm so easily pushed away by Blaze's hands. She went flying, bouncing off the ground a couple of times before managing to make a perfect landing onto her feet and skid along the ground a couple of feet from the momentum.

By that point, the wolf-girl was back on her feet, and running toward her in hopes of capitalizing on a briefly prone state. Seeing now that that idea wasn't going to work out, she jumped as she closed in, going for flaming bicycle kick and hoping the unexpected angle would at least catch the monk somewhat off-guard. The attack was perfectly and completely dodged, and she had to tilt herself around awkwardly after landing to avoid a couple of bladed hand-chops, then nearly lost her balance—would have completely lost it if not for her tail—to an awkward sideways-downward duck out of the way of a bladed roundhouse kick.

She tilted back upright as the monk went into what her brain registered as a brief 'recovery animation' from that big kick, which made her instinctively want to punish with some kind of counterattack. Remembering what had worked before, she grabbed the monk by the upper leg and judo-threw her straight over her own head onto the ground. Her opponent predictably didn't stay prone for even half a second, cartwheeling to upright and immediately starting to advance on Blaze again.

It occurred to her that she was perhaps underusing her fire magic in this fight—and she was a fire mage, after all! So rather than retreating or preparing to dodge, Blaze summoned up a whirling flame around herself to a distance of a couple of feet, making her opponent flinch back slightly out of her aggressive motion rather than get burned. She dove forward—still wreathed in flames—hoping to tackle the monk-girl to the ground, engulf her in that fire, maybe get some face-punches in while on top of her. This..turned out to be quite a mistake.

The monk's brief hesitation wasn't nearly the opening Blaze was hoping it would be. And rather than trying to dodge partway out of the tackle or the flames, she simply kicked her foot forward and upward into the air, a light-blade flickering into view—placed perfectly where the wolf-girl's belly was going to be in about half a nanosecond. She couldn't very well dodge that, and so managed to impale herself directly into it.

It was a very good thing that injuries in the game didn't truly, physically hurt like their equivalents in the real world. Even though the monk dismissed the blade and let Blaze flop face-forward onto the ground immediately after the hit, she could tell her injuries were 'very bad' and 'hurt an awful lot'. The fire she'd been wreathed in went out with that hit, too—since she wasn't exactly concentrating on keeping it up anymore.

She turned her head over to one side to breathe something other than dirt, and found the monk knelt over next to her. "You show some promise. Not as foolish in combat as you act."

"Pfft. This is a game, you know? Just, hff—smile and...enjoy the.....victory." It felt kind of difficult to breathe and talk at this point.

Kay Oooh!

Dying in the game was kind of weird. 'Blaze' lost consciousness, but not 'Blake'. There was the brief impression of a choice: Stay and wait to be revived, or respawn at a 'nearby religious site'. Figuring that someone who'd attacked her unprovoked wouldn't likely be willing to waste any revival magic or items on her, Blaze immediately chose the latter. She was mentally fed a blurb about a 'kind miko' finding her collapsed in the wilds and carrying her off to be healed...and then she 'woke up' to find herself lying down on her back, on a hard cot sort of bed.

---

That's right, I can kill off whoever I want in this story because it's all in a video game anyway! It might seem weird for Blaze to die in practically just one solid hit, but that's the price of minmaxing. She's still a squishy mage wearing zero armor, even with all the strength, martial skills, and fast movement. Besides, it was a very nasty hit.