Chapter 34 - The Price

"Grrrrrrr..."

The towering, gigantic nine-tailed fox stood firmly planted on all four paws, its blood-red fur fluttering wildly in the wind like roaring flames. Its pupils were glowing pools of pure crimson as it bared its massive, razor-sharp fangs at the tiny, white-robed cultist below. Steaming breath puffed from its massive maw, sweeping over the street like a hurricane gale with a heavy, deafening whoosh.

"Hehe. Interesting." Orodes slowly craned his neck upward.

He locked his eyes onto the colossal fox with apparent solemnity, the corners of his mouth twitching upward into a tight, almost nervous smile. But anyone looking deep into his eyes would see past that thin veneer of caution. What lay beneath was something far more: an intense, burning battle lust. Deep within his gaze was an overwhelming, fanatical desire to spill the blood of such a magnificent beast.

**********

"Kon..."

The teary-eyed boy, still lying broken on the pavement, looked up at his transformed best friend. His gaze held deep worry and anxiety for the Yokai's safety, but beneath all of that, deep within his heart, an overwhelming sense of security washed over him.

It was a feeling that had been with him since his infancy. A warmth that had comforted him when he was at his absolute lowest back at the Ritsuzen estate. A steadfast presence that had guided him as he grew up.

Realizing this, fresh tears spilled from his eyes. 'It isn't gone after all...'

A merely nullified contract could never break the invincible, unspoken bond between them. A broken spell could not erase his mother's final gift—a lifelong companion, a true friend who would stand by him through his absolute darkest times.

'Ah... I’m safe...' Ren thought, smiling warmly as he gazed up at the giant, crimson beast shielding him from the world.

Finally succumbing to his internal injuries and an overwhelming wave of weakness, Ren's vision darkened. He quietly slipped into unconsciousness, a small, peaceful smile still resting on his face.

**********

Looking down at the unconscious boy, the giant fox's crimson eyes softened for a brief, fleeting moment. 'Don’t worry. I will protect you this time, Ren-chan.'

"ROAAARRR!" A deafening roar erupted from his massive maw, whipping up a fierce, hurricane-force gale that radiated the raw power of a High-class being.

"Ggh!" Orodes crossed his arms tightly over his face, shielding himself from the tearing winds. The sheer, violent force of the gale instantly ripped the sleeves of his white robe to shreds, scoring his bare arms with dozens of bloody cuts. But behind his raised guard, his mouth stretched into a manic grin so wide it seemed to split his face in half. "HAHAHAHAHA! COME!"

The exact moment the wind died down, he whipped both hands forward. Intricate blue magic circles instantly manifested in front of his palms. ‘Kairokrýo!’

Kairós, the opportune moment, and krýo, cold. Together, they formed the spell of Time Freeze.

While the magic Orodes wielded sounded omnipotent, it came with a severe limitation: he could only affect a single entity at a time. This power, born from the blessing of his patron god, granted him mastery over many aspects of time, but the spell would outright fail if the target’s raw power vastly eclipsed his own. In this clash, Kon was now stronger than the First Commander, though not by an overwhelming margin. Hence...

Grrr... grrrrk... grrrrrrk.

The harsh, metallic sound of massive, unseen gears grinding against each other echoed through the air, as if a physical force was violently tearing against an invisible film. Kon, though technically frozen by the spell, was so overflowing with raw power that he was actively straining against the temporal restriction. His massive crimson pupils twitched and rolled within their sockets, slowly angling downward to glare at the trembling man below.

"Hehe, ugh... I guess you aren't so easy to deal with," Orodes wheezed, his voice heavily strained.

His outstretched hands were shaking violently; his entire body locked in unbearable tension. In forcing the time snare onto a peak Ultimate-class beast, Orodes had essentially trapped himself. Pushing his magic to its absolute limit just to hold the nine-tailed Yokai in place, he was now, just like Kon, completely unable to move.

Realizing the temporal snare was failing and straining his own body, Orodes abruptly severed the spell. Dropping his hands, he launched himself backward in a swift, desperate evasion.

But before his boots could even touch the pavement...

BOOM!

A colossal crimson paw slammed into the exact spot he had just occupied. The asphalt shattered instantly, violently carving out a gigantic, spider-webbed crater as if a meteor had just struck the earth.

The moment Orodes finally landed, a heavy shadow eclipsed him. One of the beast's nine blood-soaked tails swept viciously toward his flank, moving with the speed of a whip.

Orodes hastily threw his arms up to guard.

CRACK! "AGH!" Orodes grunted in pain. The devastating impact hit him like a freight train, launching his body violently to the side.

Though his century of gruelling physical training allowed him to twist in mid-air and slide to a halt firmly on his feet, the sheer blunt force of the strike was undeniable. His trembling forearms throbbed with agony, the skin beneath his shredded sleeves already blooming with deep, black-and-purple bruises.

'I can’t go on like this!' Orodes thought fiercely.

Quickly, he raised his hand, flattening his palm and straightening his fingers to form the shape of a blade. Before another massive crimson tail could sweep in and crush him, Orodes thrust his hand violently forward, focusing every ounce of his bodily strength into a single, concentrated point.

SHING!

It sounded as if a literal sword had just cleaved the air. A sharp, distorted line visibly tore through the space before him, the sheer physical force sending violent vibrations rippling outward from the point of impact.

PSSSSHHH!

A geyser of dark blood suddenly erupted from the centre of one of Kon’s incoming tails.

"ROOOOAAAARRR!!!" An agonizing, earth-shaking roar escaped the giant Yokai's maw as the wounded tail recoiled in pain.

It was Diapérasis, the Art of Piercing Through. Forged during Orodes’ hundred years of solitude, the martial technique was designed to focus all of his kinetic energy into a single point and release it as a highly destructive vibrational wave. The attack was specifically crafted to completely bypass thick armour and tough hide, instead violently shredding the muscles and arteries deep within. The internal rupture was so devastating that Kon's blood had literally burst outward from the sheer pressure beneath his skin.

It was the exact same technique he had used to strike Ren down moments ago. However, against the boy, Orodes had intentionally used his entire open palm. By widening the surface area of the impact, he had dispersed the vibrational wave, ensuring he would only incapacitate the boy rather than dealing permanent, lethal damage to his internal organs.

STOMP!

Focusing his kinetic energy entirely into his foot, Orodes slammed his boot down, violently cracking the pavement beneath him. Using the explosive recoil, he charged at a blistering speed toward the roaring fox.

But abruptly, the beast's agonizing roars ceased.

The giant fox fell terrifyingly silent. Deep within his still-open maw, a condensed, blindingly bright orb of crimson fox-fire materialized without a shred of warning.

'A trap!' Orodes realized in alarm.

Though the First Commander had managed to severely injure the beast, it was, ultimately, just a tail, not a vital organ. Kon could withstand the pain. In that brief clash, the Yokai had instantly realized that his raw physical strength couldn't overcome Orodes' piercing martial arts, so in a fraction of a second, the fox had formulated a cunning ruse.

He had intentionally shrieked as if the strike had dealt unimaginable, crippling agony, purposely pausing his own assault. He was banking entirely on Orodes' battle experience, knowing the arrogant cultist would immediately seize the opening to dash in before his opponent could recover. By baiting Orodes into using a high-speed movement technique, Kon ensured the man would have far too much forward momentum to stop or dodge.

Then, he would unleash the devastating spell he had been secretly condensing in his throat.

Kon’s gamble paid off flawlessly. And the result was absolute devastation.

"You cunning little—!" Orodes roared, but his final words were instantly swallowed by the deafening blast.

BOOOOOM!!!

The condensed orb erupted into a massive, earth-shattering beam of crimson fire. It swept violently over Orodes, completely engulfing the First Commander and instantly reducing him to floating ash.

Yet, strangely, when the blinding crimson beam finally dissipated, what should have been the First Commander’s ashes were completely gone, as if they had simply vanished into thin air.

Exhausted and running purely on battle instincts, Kon didn’t think too much of the anomaly. The giant fox simply assumed the sheer force of his attack had scattered the man's remains to the wind.

He had won.

The moment that realization washed over his mind, the malevolent crimson aura surrounding his massive body abruptly shattered.

The terrifying toll of the Blood Burning technique finally crashed down upon him. With his Heavenly Kitsune bloodline completely incinerated, his towering, nine-tailed form rapidly began to shrink. The deep, blood-red hue drained away, leaving him as a tiny, severely battered fox once more. However, instead of his signature pristine white, his fur had dulled to an ordinary, earthly brown.

His legs gave out instantly.

Plummeting to the cracked pavement, Kon dragged his trembling, agonizingly heavy body inch by inch toward the unconscious Ren. Leaving a small trail of blood behind him, the little fox finally reached his best friend's side. With the last ounce of his fading strength, Kon curled his small, battered body protectively against Ren's chest, closed his eyes, and slowly slipped into a deep, death-like coma.

"Konyo! Ren!" a distant, frantic feminine voice cried out through the smoke.

'Ah... Yasaka is finally here...' Kon’s ear twitched weakly. 'You're... late...' And with that final, fading thought, his consciousness slipped away.

**********

Still near the border of the barrier, the surroundings had been utterly devastated. Distant trees and rocks were either entirely incinerated or melted down into glowing slag. A deep, violently scorched trench scarred the earth, a horrifying testament to the apocalyptic clash that had just taken place.

"Konyo! Ren!" Yasaka shrieked in panic as her eyes fell upon her two precious boys lying motionless on the ruined pavement.

Sprinting to their side, she dropped heavily to her knees. Her hands trembled as she reached out, pressing two fingers to Ren's wrist and gently taking Kon's small paw in her other hand, desperately searching for a pulse.

Ba-dum... Ba-dum...

Two incredibly faint, fragile pulses beat against her skin. A shuddering sigh of relief escaped her trembling lips. "Whew..."

Wasting no time, she closed her eyes and extended her spiritual sense to scan their internal injuries. But what appeared in her mind's eye instantly made her blood run cold.

Ren's abdomen was a terrifying mess of internal bleeding; several of his organs were severely bruised, and a few had completely ruptured. But as horrifying as the boy's condition was, it wasn't the main source of her despair. It was Kon.

When she had first seen his dull, brown fur from a distance, she hadn't thought much of it, assuming his coat was merely caked in mud, blood, and ash. But now, as her magic swept over his tiny body, she realized the devastating truth.

"Konyo-chan... W-why... why were you so stupid...?" Hot tears welled in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks as her expression warped from frantic panic into soul-crushing sorrow.

Kon’s current state was practically no better than death. There was no concrete timeline for his recovery, if he could even recover at all. He had essentially been reduced to an empty, comatose husk. With the divine half of his bloodline completely incinerated to fuel his final attack, it was an absolute miracle the little fox was still breathing.

The majestic, radiant signature of the Heavenly Fox was permanently gone. And as a Heavenly Kitsune herself, Yasaka felt that agonizing, hollow emptiness more intensely than anyone.

Carefully, as if handling fragile glass, Yasaka scooped the bruised, unconscious boy into her arms. She then gently lifted the tiny, brown fox, cradling Kon against Ren's chest just as they had been lying.

The physical weight of the two children was nothing to the Yokai leader, but the emotional weight of their broken bodies nearly brought her to her knees all over again.

A warm, radiant sphere of youki ignited around them, swirling gently to shield their fragile, battered forms from the cold wind and the lingering ash of the battlefield, whisking them both away from the devastated land.