Kitsune of the Blue Sun

Chapter 170- Not Even a Day and Something Happens

[Mostima POV]

We left early the next day. Not that long after we departed Huginn and Muninn flew up to us and landed on top of the shaded wagon Pram was riding in. I feel so bad for her. It’s like her entire being is rejecting being here with no say to what she personally wants.  I’m hoping that once we reach the city things will be better, as well as when Keeno puts out all of Fia’s flames.

We traveled for most of the day without interruption. We did pass a few people who seemed like merchants and Margaret bought a few supplies off of them.  The knights guarding them seemed to look at Margaret and her knights with something that I couldn’t tell if it was scorn, jealousy, or mockery. Margaret and the others ignored it and we moved on. A few more hours later and we had to find a space for the night. The suns were setting, making the ash of the desert shine in interesting ways with the colors of sunset.  Huginn had flapped over to me as I stared off into the distance watching the suns slowly sink.  I moved a hand over to it and scratched its neck.

“I wish I could understand you the way Keeno and Pram do.  But all my focus recently has been on Fia and Runes. I don’t have time to try and learn your language just yet.”

Looking next to me my tail was unconsciously drawing runes in the soft ash. With my still shallow understanding, the Runes I was drawing meant fire, feathers, and love.

“Such interesting things, these Runes. I hope Keeno understands just how insane these things will be once she fully ascends.”

Huginn looked down at the Runes and ruffled its feathers.

“Does that mean she understands and knows what she’s doing?”

Huginn bobbed its head up and down.

“Hehehe.”

I scritched its neck again when its head immediately turned southward.  I followed its gaze and saw several small shadows on the slowly darkening horizon.  Huginn cawed lightly in what I guessed was agitation.  Sighing, I stood up and summoned my Soul Weapons.

“Want to go get the others, or do you want the two of us to deal with it?”

It ruffled its feathers again and spread its wings, letting out a kind of pressure that Keeno and Fia sometimes give off when they get serious.  I grinned and made a small platform of stone spike out of the ground. Knocking it flat I jumped on it and, using a mix of earth and gravity magic, started rapidly moving toward the shapes.

“Keeno has novel ideas. This works just as well on ash as it does snow.”

The two of us managed to reach the approaching shapes in hardly any time at all, surprising them.  Once we were close enough, we discovered that they were a flock of ravens with feathers tinted a light emerald green.  Seeing this, Huginn flew ahead of me and let out a loud caw. Its eyes seemed to shine faintly as all the ravens’ attention was drawn to Huginn.

Several of them tried to land but let out small, pained shrieks before unsteadily flapping higher into the air. The entire flock then began to fly around the two of us while their feathers began to lightly shine.  The wind around us began to pick up rapidly and ash was starting to form a cone.  As the speed picked up, the cone began to close in on the two of us and it started to get hard to breathe due to the ash.  I slammed the end of my gravity stave into the ground and created a bubble around us where the ash was pushed away from us, giving us some breathing room.

“Any ideas?  I don’t want to kill them since you seem to want to do something with them, but I may have no choice.”

“Caw!”

Huginn’s voice had an unnatural echo. The cone of ravens around us faltered, but another strange sound made them reinvigorated.  After hearing that strange sound, I was able to focus on it more and eventually find the source of the sound.  Using my other stave, I shot a few small rocks in the direction the sound was coming from.  This, in turn, caused all the ravens to flock toward the source of the sound.  Using my gravity stave, I forces all the raves to the ground as gently as I could, but I know several of them died or broke bones.  Regardless of that, the place where they were trying to flock to stood, or more aptly floated, a strange figure.

It had ethereal robes that ended in tatters and trailed off behind it like they were being perpetually blown in the wind.  Its head was covered in a deep hood, though I could see the soulless eyes inside it.  On its head was also a pair of antlers that branched out like trees, though one was broken and much smaller than the other.  It was hunched over like a hag and held a long staff that forked at the end and looked like a perch.  There were small holes all along the staff that, when wind passed through them, made an eerie sound that, when the creature swung the staff, seemed to force the ravens to attack us.

“A new pretty to join our flock.  Give it to me!  Its feathers are beautiful, and its power is too much for a lowly creature like you!”

The monster’s voice was scratchy and sounded like scraping metal against a porcelain plate.  It swung its staff again, mostly in the direction of Huginn.  Huginn stared at the staff and flew over to it, completely ignoring my gravity manipulation.

“Yessss little pretty.  Come to me.  Be mine forevermore.”

Huginn landed on the top of the staff and, with surprising strength, shattered it into splinters before letting out a noise similar to laughter.  It then flew up higher and glanced over to me.  I let up on the gravity and the green wind ravens that could move, got up and started flying around Huginn.

“Noooooo.  My pretties!  You foul feathered fiend!  Do you know how long it took to claim their little minds!?”

“No clue, but you better be glad I’m the one who witnessed you trying to do that.  SHE would make your death much more painful.” (Mostima)

“Do not sully my ears with your foul words, fallen one.  Wretched beasts like you should all just die!”

“Says the actual monster.  But, seeing as you said that about me, prepare for a death more painful than I originally planned to give you.” (Mostima)

Slamming the butt on my earth staff into the ground, a spike appeared underneath the creature.  It tried to move away, but Huginn and the other ravens kept it in place by diving at it.  Once the spike was large enough, I made it rise higher until it pierced the monster.  I then waved my gravity stave to weigh the monster down while the spike continued to grow taller and more robust.  When the monster on the stake was a person’s height above me, I increased the gravity a bit more, fully securing the impaled monster onto it.  Its shrieks quieted when the stake passed though it’s now visible mouth.

“I don’t usually use this method due to how cruel it is, but this occasion is an exception.  Huginn, feel free to let your new friends play with it until it dies and even after if they want.  It can last a few days like this, so have fun.” (Mostima)

Huginn cawed, relaying what I said, before flapping over to me.  We started making our way back to the camp and joined the others by the fire they had while they cooked our evening meal.

“Where did you go?” (Margaret)

“Huginn and I saw something heading our way and went to check it out.  Turned out to be some weird monster that could control ravens, so we took care of it.” (Mostima)

“Did it have weird antlers?” (Margaret)

“Yep.” (Mostima)

“Tch.  I hate those things.  They started to show up a few years ago and have become a nuisance due to their resemblance to old women.  They try to get into the city all the time and wreak havoc.  If we could find out where they are coming from, then we could hopefully eradicate them, but we’ve never been able to send any teams out to find the source.  It’s too far into the desert for any of us to travel to due to the heat.” (Margaret)

“Hmm.  Who knows, maybe Keeno will find it on her way to deal with the fires.  That seems to be the kind of luck she has.” (Mostima)

“She’d be upset if you said that to her face.” (Freya)

“Sure, but you can’t deny the truth.” (Mostima)

“And I wasn’t denying it.” (Freya)

“Fair enough.” (Mostima)

Chaos Realm:

Luna: …

No, she is a fallen angel, not a vampire.

Luna: Is she that world’s version of Vlad?

No.  It was a fairly normal tactic in this world’s past.

Luna: Can you show me?

I forget that you’ve seen Fiends already, so sure.

Luna: …Quick question, since I’m the Abyss of Fluff, would I give Fiends sanity damage?

…Heh! Hehe!  Hehehahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! I don’t know, but I want to find out…we can test it next time your world goes through a Fiend Season.

Luna: Any idea on when that’s gonna happen?  Not that I want it to.

You still have a good LONG time before the next one.

Luna: Good.

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