Nana stumbled back, her neck strained to her right; her eyes widened, and her lips bled. Her cheek soon reddened with a palm print, and she teared up.
“Do you still remember Xylla?” Ewan asked, still feeling the stinging burn in his palm, and the hurtful twinge in his heart.
“W-What happened?” She looked at him, a teardrop caressing down the slap, and asked as her pupils contracted.
Ewan gently wiped the blood off her lips with a sigh and licked it on instinct—it had lost the bitterness. His method worked, the fog shattered, or at least thinned enough for her to regain herself. “Hold her down, don’t let her move,” he said, handing her the thrashing but weakened fox. “Hold her down tight.”
Nana obeyed, her eyes still a bit blank and wet, and restrained the fox in the air with her Ryvia.
“The absolute gap in power can't diminish with tricks.” Slate squinted at them from a distance.
Give me more time…
“So, let’s end this farce now. Be on your way, I have things to do,” he said and aimed at Ewan. “Apologize to her for the slap and your hurtful words if you find her in afterlife, be a decent man there at least.”
Fuck!!
Extract!
Ewan clawed the fox’s head and cast the spell. The ‘thread’ stretched taut as he pulled on her soul with the spell. The baby fox howled, it struggled and tussled, but Nana’s Ryvia held her down.
“Almost there!!” Ewan grinded his teeth as a deathly pressure crushed him down. His chest constricted, and he suffocated again.
“Goodbye, Ewan,” Slate said and moved his hand down. “And you too, Ms. Elsworth. I wish you meet your parents again.”
“E-Ewan, I-I ca-can’t brea…..” Nana almost crumbled under the pressure but still held the fox in place.
And with a roar that took all his breath away, Ewan yanked the soul out.
“H-Have fun with it,” he said in a coarse voice, sweat burning his eyes, and flung the soulless body of the fox towards Slate.
The wheel of the Luck Roulette dinged in his mind—the seeker kissed the number two, the highest his soul could sustain currently.
Slate minced the corpse midair and aimed for Ewan again. But before the blood splattered the grass, before her mushed body plopped to the ground, before her argent core glimmered, the sky had seethed.
An enormous claw ripped open the fabrics of the sky and let in a raging howl. It shook the ground, tore the clouds apart, and the space cracked around the area. The birds stayed put, the Astylinds shushed. No one moved, not even a twitch—no one made any sounds, not even a gulp. The Nine-Tailed Fox slammed its head onto the unfitting crack, its narrowed amber iris staring at Slate from the other side.
The wind halted again, the sunlight faded, and the world muted. The pressure from the fox drowned everyone, but most of it was on Slate. His knees buckled and he gasped for air, gaping at the gigantic eye in the sky, the horror draining the blood away from his face.
Condense!
Before the fox could find anything out, Ewan traced the circuit. The spell compressed the misty soul threads he’d pulled out and dragged them towards a central point. Soon it formed a glossy inky pearl with silver specks. Ewan kept it in his claw-ring and prepared for the roulette’s effect. He’d already dealt the cards; the situation was now out of his hands.
“You were warned, now pay the price.” The Guardian’s husky voice resonated in the sky, breaking the silent state. The world resumed its life as Slate fell on all his fours, panting, streams of sweat trickling down his nose.
“Stay close,” Ewan whispered and grabbed Nana’s hand. She stood behind him, grabbing his t-shirt, shivering as she stared at the menace in the sky.
“W-Will we die?” she asked, her warm breath tickling his neck.
The fox roared, the crack gaped, and it barged in.
“We won't,” he said.
We won't…. He hoped.
An orange streak bombarded the fox, and it fought back, its seven alabaster-furred tails swaying about.
“I’m sorry,” Nana said, looking down, her eyes watering up again.
The fox and the orange streak crashed in the air, their booms echoed, and the earth trembled under their barrage. The vibrations rolled the fox’s core over to Ewan’s feet.
“It’s not your fault.” Ewan tightened his grip on her hand and ignored the core, it was a hot potato right now. “The fox wasn’t your fault, and neither is this,” he said.
It’s my mess….
The fox aimed at Slate, over and over, but the Guardian pushed it back. Its wounds increased, and warm blood brimming with Mystic-Anima showered on the earth.
“I just wanted to live with you.” She rested her head on his back and sobbed, biting the scabbed wound on her lip.
Ewan chuckled. “We’ll live together,” he said. “We’ll live, no matter what.” He looked up and squinted.
The fox only aimed at Slate; it mustn’t have recognized Ewan as the killer. Extracting her soul didn’t kill the little fox, she died when Slate crushed her to pulp… Or was this the effect of the ‘Luck Roulette’? If so, if the ‘number two’ could affect an entity such as the World Eater, he couldn’t imagine its backlash… Ewan broke out in cold sweat, he’d dug his own grave, out of the frying pan and into the fire…
But worrying over it was pointless. What was to come would come, he couldn’t control it anymore.
“Son of Ulrath!!” The man’s husky voice resounded in the sky again. And the ground beneath Ewan rent apart.
Shit!
Both him and Nana plunged into the unending abyss with flashing lights of the torn sky zooming away from them, the lingering howls fading out.
“You’ll pay me for this!!!” the Guardian roared.
“Ewan!!” Nana yelled; her hand slipped away from his. It was the last thing Ewan heard before the darkness engulfed all his senses.
It wasn’t the fox; it was the space cracks….
And he blacked out.
Spoiler| Status: Healthy | |
| Step-0 [6th Awakening] | |
| Name: Ewan Ayres | Species: Human |
| Vitality: 1.7 | Spirit: 12.8 |
| Anima: [Fire – 12.8 | Ice – 12.8 | Blood – 12.8] | |
| Astylinds: 4 [Potential: 0] | |
|
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-0 [6th Awakening] Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-0 [Level-6] [Grade-B] Imp [Frost]: Step-0 [Level-6] [Grade-B]
| |
| Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter]. | |
| Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Anima-Crystals; Obsidian Dagger; Hub-Connector; Ingredients. | |
| Novas: 491 | Crelith: 4984 |
Aleth08 And so, that was end of the Volume-1 'The Fox and The Crown'. I hope you guys enjoyed the book so far. Coincidentally, the book also officially left the rising stars list with this finale, almost seems poetic.
On a side note, I've been made aware of the faults in the plot and the writing from the genuine feedbacks [along with the raging comments in the early chapters about why there's no explanation on anything, or why mc's dumb, or I suck, etc etc. you know the drill]. I might not be able to do an overhaul on the book as of now, since I've already written several chapters, but I've kept them in mind, and will work on improving things.
Also, this marks the change in the release schedule. Next chapter will come out on 20th april, at about 9-11am IST, and from then on, it'll be 1ch/2days. Look forward to more of Ewan's story.
That'll be all from me, I'll see you guys again in volume-2, 'The Search for The Mystic'. The adventure shall continue.
Nana stumbled back, her neck strained to her right; her eyes widened, and her lips bled. Her cheek soon reddened with a palm print, and she teared up.
“Do you still remember Xylla?” Ewan asked, still feeling the stinging burn in his palm, and the hurtful twinge in his heart.
“W-What happened?” She looked at him, a teardrop caressing down the slap, and asked as her pupils contracted.
Ewan gently wiped the blood off her lips with a sigh and licked it on instinct—it had lost the bitterness. His method worked, the fog shattered, or at least thinned enough for her to regain herself. “Hold her down, don’t let her move,” he said, handing her the thrashing but weakened fox. “Hold her down tight.”
Nana obeyed, her eyes still a bit blank and wet, and restrained the fox in the air with her Ryvia.
“The absolute gap in power can't diminish with tricks.” Slate squinted at them from a distance.
Give me more time…
“So, let’s end this farce now. Be on your way, I have things to do,” he said and aimed at Ewan. “Apologize to her for the slap and your hurtful words if you find her in afterlife, be a decent man there at least.”
Fuck!!
Extract!
Ewan clawed the fox’s head and cast the spell. The ‘thread’ stretched taut as he pulled on her soul with the spell. The baby fox howled, it struggled and tussled, but Nana’s Ryvia held her down.
“Almost there!!” Ewan grinded his teeth as a deathly pressure crushed him down. His chest constricted, and he suffocated again.
“Goodbye, Ewan,” Slate said and moved his hand down. “And you too, Ms. Elsworth. I wish you meet your parents again.”
“E-Ewan, I-I ca-can’t brea…..” Nana almost crumbled under the pressure but still held the fox in place.
And with a roar that took all his breath away, Ewan yanked the soul out.
“H-Have fun with it,” he said in a coarse voice, sweat burning his eyes, and flung the soulless body of the fox towards Slate.
The wheel of the Luck Roulette dinged in his mind—the seeker kissed the number two, the highest his soul could sustain currently.
Slate minced the corpse midair and aimed for Ewan again. But before the blood splattered the grass, before her mushed body plopped to the ground, before her argent core glimmered, the sky had seethed.
An enormous claw ripped open the fabrics of the sky and let in a raging howl. It shook the ground, tore the clouds apart, and the space cracked around the area. The birds stayed put, the Astylinds shushed. No one moved, not even a twitch—no one made any sounds, not even a gulp. The Nine-Tailed Fox slammed its head onto the unfitting crack, its narrowed amber iris staring at Slate from the other side.
The wind halted again, the sunlight faded, and the world muted. The pressure from the fox drowned everyone, but most of it was on Slate. His knees buckled and he gasped for air, gaping at the gigantic eye in the sky, the horror draining the blood away from his face.
Condense!
Before the fox could find anything out, Ewan traced the circuit. The spell compressed the misty soul threads he’d pulled out and dragged them towards a central point. Soon it formed a glossy inky pearl with silver specks. Ewan kept it in his claw-ring and prepared for the roulette’s effect. He’d already dealt the cards; the situation was now out of his hands.
“You were warned, now pay the price.” The Guardian’s husky voice resonated in the sky, breaking the silent state. The world resumed its life as Slate fell on all his fours, panting, streams of sweat trickling down his nose.
“Stay close,” Ewan whispered and grabbed Nana’s hand. She stood behind him, grabbing his t-shirt, shivering as she stared at the menace in the sky.
“W-Will we die?” she asked, her warm breath tickling his neck.
The fox roared, the crack gaped, and it barged in.
“We won't,” he said.
We won't…. He hoped.
An orange streak bombarded the fox, and it fought back, its seven alabaster-furred tails swaying about.
“I’m sorry,” Nana said, looking down, her eyes watering up again.
The fox and the orange streak crashed in the air, their booms echoed, and the earth trembled under their barrage. The vibrations rolled the fox’s core over to Ewan’s feet.
“It’s not your fault.” Ewan tightened his grip on her hand and ignored the core, it was a hot potato right now. “The fox wasn’t your fault, and neither is this,” he said.
It’s my mess….
The fox aimed at Slate, over and over, but the Guardian pushed it back. Its wounds increased, and warm blood brimming with Mystic-Anima showered on the earth.
“I just wanted to live with you.” She rested her head on his back and sobbed, biting the scabbed wound on her lip.
Ewan chuckled. “We’ll live together,” he said. “We’ll live, no matter what.” He looked up and squinted.
The fox only aimed at Slate; it mustn’t have recognized Ewan as the killer. Extracting her soul didn’t kill the little fox, she died when Slate crushed her to pulp… Or was this the effect of the ‘Luck Roulette’? If so, if the ‘number two’ could affect an entity such as the World Eater, he couldn’t imagine its backlash… Ewan broke out in cold sweat, he’d dug his own grave, out of the frying pan and into the fire…
But worrying over it was pointless. What was to come would come, he couldn’t control it anymore.
“Son of Ulrath!!” The man’s husky voice resounded in the sky again. And the ground beneath Ewan rent apart.
Shit!
Both him and Nana plunged into the unending abyss with flashing lights of the torn sky zooming away from them, the lingering howls fading out.
“You’ll pay me for this!!!” the Guardian roared.
“Ewan!!” Nana yelled; her hand slipped away from his. It was the last thing Ewan heard before the darkness engulfed all his senses.
It wasn’t the fox; it was the space cracks….
And he blacked out.
Spoiler| Status: Healthy | |
| Step-0 [6th Awakening] | |
| Name: Ewan Ayres | Species: Human |
| Vitality: 1.7 | Spirit: 12.8 |
| Anima: [Fire – 12.8 | Ice – 12.8 | Blood – 12.8] | |
| Astylinds: 4 [Potential: 0] | |
|
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-0 [6th Awakening] Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-0 [Level-6] [Grade-B] Imp [Frost]: Step-0 [Level-6] [Grade-B]
| |
| Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter]. | |
| Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Anima-Crystals; Obsidian Dagger; Hub-Connector; Ingredients. | |
| Novas: 491 | Crelith: 4984 |
Aleth08 And so, that was end of the Volume-1 'The Fox and The Crown'. I hope you guys enjoyed the book so far. Coincidentally, the book also officially left the rising stars list with this finale, almost seems poetic.
On a side note, I've been made aware of the faults in the plot and the writing from the genuine feedbacks [along with the raging comments in the early chapters about why there's no explanation on anything, or why mc's dumb, or I suck, etc etc. you know the drill]. I might not be able to do an overhaul on the book as of now, since I've already written several chapters, but I've kept them in mind, and will work on improving things.
Also, this marks the change in the release schedule. Next chapter will come out on 20th april, at about 9-11am IST, and from then on, it'll be 1ch/2days. Look forward to more of Ewan's story.
That'll be all from me, I'll see you guys again in volume-2, 'The Search for The Mystic'. The adventure shall continue.
