[Kitsuna – A Few Weeks Earlier]
Leaving the capital without anyone noticing required two bodies, but only one of them needed to remain behind.
I created a single clone and assigned it sixty thousand mana. The process did not require an explanation or a spoken plan. It possessed my memories, shared my thoughts, and knew exactly what it was supposed to do: continue competing in the tournament while the real me slipped out of the city.
One clone was enough. Creating several would only increase the chance of someone discovering the ability.
Once the clone had returned to the tournament grounds wearing my face, I disguised myself as a tall male adventurer with broad shoulders, a stubbled jaw, and a cheap sword strapped across my back. Blending into the crowded streets was easy. The difficult part should have been passing through the gates while the city was filled with angels and foreign soldiers.
A guard stopped me as I approached.
"Heading out to hunt?"
I gave him a quiet nod.
"A silent one," his companion muttered.
The first guard shrugged and stepped aside. "Good luck, then."
I continued walking without changing pace. Only after the walls had disappeared behind the hills did I use Flash Step, putting enough distance between myself and the capital that no one at the gate would notice the sudden burst of speed.
At the edge of the forest, I shifted into my fox form and covered myself with an illusion. Anyone who happened to see me would find a large black wolf moving through the undergrowth rather than a three-tailed fox.
The clone remained at the tournament, behaving exactly as I would because it was still me in every way that mattered. The mana assigned to it was no longer available to my real body, but maintaining the clone required very little beyond that initial investment. Its experiences would return when I recalled it.
Until then, I had just over ten thousand mana to work with.
The journey took two days. I avoided the main roads, hid whenever military patrols passed nearby, and kept my speed low enough that my mana reserves could recover between bursts of movement. By the time the trees ahead began to twist into black, lifeless shapes, the air itself carried the heavy pressure I remembered.
The Dead Forest had not become any more welcoming.
A soldier wearing black-operations armor emerged from concealment before I reached the boundary. His weapon remained lowered, but his stance made it clear that he was prepared to use it.
"Young lady, this area is restricted."
My illusion had already fallen away, leaving me in my human form. I continued walking.
"Code 9246."
The soldier hesitated. "What?"
"Return to your assigned duty and do not question the operative."
His posture stiffened as he recognized the order. He moved aside without asking for identification or an explanation.
Stealing Dean's codebook had been one of my better decisions.
Twin chakrams formed in my hands as I entered the forest. The first pack found me before I had traveled a hundred meters. Three-eyed shadow wolves dropped from the dead branches and rushed me from both sides, their bodies almost disappearing against the darkness.
The first chakram opened the throat of the lead wolf. I redirected the second weapon with a pull of mana, driving it through two more before bringing it back into my hand. The remaining beasts tried to surround me, but Fox Ice spread beneath their paws and locked their legs in place long enough for me to finish them.
I continued deeper into the forest, drawing more creatures toward me with controlled bursts of mana. My clone could handle the tournament with the reserve I had given it. That left my real body free to hunt, train, and gain strength without the angels realizing I was gone.
A three-headed beast covered in bone plates eventually crashed through the trees ahead of me.
Analysis identified it immediately.
KING BRUTUS — LEVEL 312
All three heads opened their jaws, gathering fire.
I moved before they released it. Flash Step carried me beneath the central head, where I drove one chakram into the joint of its front leg. The beast collapsed forward, and I used its own momentum to reach its back. Fox Ice entered through the gaps in its bone plating and spread through the muscles around its spine.
The creature twisted violently, throwing me into a dead tree hard enough to crack the trunk. Soul Regeneration began repairing the damage before I hit the ground.
I rose and recalled both chakrams.
The beast charged again, but its frozen muscles failed beneath its weight. I crossed the weapons through the exposed section of their necks and released the mana stored inside them. The chakrams tore through flesh and bone, severing the central head before cutting into the other two.
When the creature finally stopped moving, I sat against the broken tree and checked my status.
Name: Kitsuna Draig
Alias: Shiro Adachi
Age: 15 (Immortal)
Race: Primordial 3-Tail Demon Fox
Bloodline: Primordial 9-Tail Fox
Gender: Female
Level: 83
Class: Weapon Sage (Wrath)
HP: 4,312 / 4,738
MP: 10,640 / 72,966
STR: 2,989
VIT: 2,884
DEF: 2,504
INT: 36,483
END: 4,282
AGT: 4,929
Skills:
Dimension Storage
Devil Fire / Devil Lightning
Fox Ice
Golden Fox Fire / Golden Fox Lightning
Saint Healing
Analysis
Expert Flash Step
Novice Dimension Teleport
Sword Domain
Mana Sense
Weapon Creation
Pseudo-God Blacksmith
Passive Abilities:
Heightened Senses
Soul Regeneration
Eyes of Intimidation
Human Form
Night Vision
Mana Tails
Tail Abilities:
Clone
Spiritual Magic
Illusion Magic
[LOCKED]
"Thirty levels," I muttered. "The curses are still cutting into my gains."
The missing mana was exactly where it belonged. Most of it had been assigned to the clone in the capital; the rest had gone into the journey and the fighting. The clone was not continually siphoning mana from me. Its reserve simply remained separate until I recalled it.
Golden fire gathered above my palm as I examined a cut across my forearm. Instead of burning the wound, the flame passed into it and encouraged the damaged flesh to close. Golden lightning produced a similar result, although it moved through the nerves and mana pathways rather than the skin.
Both carried something beyond restoration. The energy responded to intent, changing how the injury felt and how my senses interpreted it. With more control, it might be able to interfere with perception or manipulate the movement of mana.
"I haven't seen those abilities in a long time."
I was on my feet before the unfamiliar voice finished speaking. Both chakrams appeared in my hands as I turned toward the woman standing several paces behind me.
I had not heard her approach. Mana Sense had not detected her either.
The woman wore a faintly amused expression, and two cat tails moved behind her.
"Fan lady?"
"The name is Fran."
I lowered one chakram but kept the other ready. "How did you get that close?"
"By being much better than you."
Fran sat beside the remains of the broken tree as though the dead King Brutus and the surrounding corpses were of no concern.
"What are you doing in this forest?" she asked.
"Training."
"You call this training?"
"I gained thirty levels."
"You also disturbed everything within several kilometers. Subtlety clearly remains beyond you."
I dismissed my weapons. "What are you doing here?"
"Sleeping, until you started tearing through the forest."
I studied her more carefully. Her form resembled that of a beastkin, but something about her soul felt wrong for one.
"You aren't really a beastkin."
"No. I was once an ordinary cat."
That explained very little, but the pressure hidden beneath her relaxed posture warned me against assuming she was joking.
Fran glanced at the golden fire still moving around my fingers. "Your control is poor, but the affinity is genuine. Restoration, influence, and deception are all present."
"So it isn't meant for direct destruction."
"It can still cause harm, but that would waste most of what makes it valuable. Golden Fox Fire and Lightning respond to intent. With proper control, they can restore the body, guide mana, interfere with the senses, and conceal what is actually happening."
I closed my hand and extinguished the flame. "You know a lot about it."
"My wife possessed similar abilities."
"Possessed?"
"She died a long time ago."
The amusement left Fran's face, and I chose not to press further.
Her attention shifted toward my mana core. "Why is most of your mana somewhere else?"
"I left one clone in the capital."
Fran looked at me for several seconds. "One of your mana bodies is competing in the tournament while you are here?"
"It has sixty thousand mana and everything I knew when I created it. The upkeep is minimal, and I'll recover its remaining mana, memories, and experience when I recall it."
"That is an absurd amount of mana to hand to a remote body."
"It needed to pass as me."
"And if it is destroyed?"
"The information returns. So does whatever mana remains."
"The backlash may be unpleasant."
"I've survived worse."
Fran stood and brushed the dust from her clothes. "That attitude is one of the reasons your wrath is dangerous."
I narrowed my eyes. "You can sense it?"
"I trained beside its previous bearer for centuries. I know what it feels like."
The space surrounding us folded before I could respond. The forest vanished, replaced by a vast crystal cavern filled with dense mana. A translucent green pool occupied the center, its surface moving with a slow internal current.
Fran had crossed the distance without using a portal I could perceive.
"This dungeon is over a thousand years old," she said. "My wife created the pool after she inherited Wrath. It restores damage to the soul and helps the body recover after the skill's backlash."
"So it prevents the cost?"
"No. Nothing prevents the cost."
Fran turned to face me fully.
"Wrath raises all of your statistics by ten percent for every minute it remains active. If the pressure becomes great enough, your bloodline will temporarily manifest additional tails to contain it. Those tails disappear when the skill ends, but the payment remains."
"One month of pain for every minute."
"Beginning after you deactivate the skill," Fran confirmed. "While it is active, power can make you believe there will be no consequences. That is what makes it dangerous."
She led me away from the pool and into a broader section of the cavern.
"Activate it."
"Right now?"
"You came here to grow stronger."
Wrath answered the moment I called upon it. Heat spread through my body, followed by a surge of strength that sharpened every sense. Fran gave me one simple objective: touch her shoulder once without damaging anything else in the cavern.
I failed almost immediately.
Fran avoided my first attack without moving her feet. The ease of it irritated me, and the irritation gave Wrath something to seize. I attacked again, faster this time, only for her to catch my wrist and send me through a crystal wall.
I returned before the debris had settled. The next impact carried me through two more walls.
By the time the first minute ended, every statistic had risen, but the original objective had nearly disappeared beneath the need to strike her. Fran caught my third attack and forced me to the ground.
"Deactivate it."
I resisted for half a second before obeying.
Wrath fell silent, and the payment began.
The pain did not build gradually. It arrived at once, spreading through my nerves and deeper into my soul. My body stopped responding, but Fran caught me before I collapsed.
"That is what you must control," she said. "Not the anger itself. Your purpose."
She carried me back toward the pool.
"I can walk."
"No, you cannot."
Fran dropped me into the green fluid before I could argue. The pool closed over my head, and the mana within it pressed against the damage running through my soul. It did not remove the pain, but it stopped the backlash from tearing me apart while my regeneration worked.
The last thing I saw before exhaustion pulled me under was Fran returning to her tea.