Chapter 25
Little White Dragon recognized that sliver of white at once—the white-furred fox that had ambushed Lilith on the first floor. After being driven off by Little White Dragon and Nidhogg, who knew what it had gone through. Now, as Lilith saw it again, a thicker haze of ghost-blue clung to its coat. The Moonswallow Mist spread over it like parasitic algae, tendrils of azure swaying like soft tentacles in the air.
A knight burst out of nowhere, his body stinking of rotting flesh. He was clearly stronger than the Headless Knight. That one, once toppled, never escaped Little White Dragon’s grip. This one hefted a door-sized greatsword and knocked aside the white fox’s snapping bite with a single swing.
The massive fox bounced and skidded across the bare ground like a snowdrift shoved by wind. Mind lost to frenzy, it roared at the knight, a sky-splitting howl that shook the plain. Even with earplugs fashioned from Taint, Little White Dragon winced, pain ringing her skull like iron on ice.
“Ugh.” Lilith clutched her belly and moaned. The towering knight’s blow had left her reeling, thoughts fogged. Then the fox bellowed again, pounding her head until it swam like a boat in storm-lashed surf.
Fear first, then motion. The urge to live pushed Lilith into a safer corner. On the endless black plain, withered night-colored plants thickened into charred thickets. With her slim tail and small frame, she slipped beneath the longer stalks, a pale fish hiding under reeds. Little White Dragon covered her mouth, shivering, praying the fox and the knight wouldn’t scent her out.
Quiet, then resolve. Curled in shadow, Lilith loosened the self-restraint on her power. She let more Taint seep free to knit her wounds. With a White Dragon’s natural regeneration and the Taint’s brutal repair, the ache eased, a cold balm flowing through her like winter springwater.
“Mm… let me see how they’re doing.” As the discomfort ebbed and her mind retook the high seat, Little White Dragon widened her ocean-blue eyes and watched the fox and the knight tear at each other.
Without his skeletal horse, “knight” felt debatable; but his armor was knight’s steel, so the title stood. The tall knight gripped his greatsword. When the white fox lunged, he heaved the weight down, smashing the fox’s skull like a falling slab of stone.
The fox, larger than the knight by far, was almost knocked airborne. It gave a few keening cries, thin as frost on glass. But it didn’t retreat; it fought hotter. When the knight raised the blade for another chop, the fox slipped aside in a sidelong bound and sprang back. One paw hammered down and knocked the knight’s head clean off like a fruit from a branch.
“Gaaoh!” The white-furred fox roared as it pinned the headless body beneath its winter-pale bulk. The knight’s limbs still thrashed, but the fox’s weight locked them like stones under snow. The fox opened its blood-red maw and tore the sword-arm from the knight’s torso with a single savage bite.
“Ah!” The headless knight screamed in a way Lilith couldn’t comprehend, a last cry like wind through tombs. Then the monster that had hurt Little White Dragon became food, easily, brutally, like ice melting into a stream under noon sun.
“Uwa!” Lilith yelped without thinking. The fox gulped down the arm, then chewed hard, head tilting high, throat working. Under Lilith’s horrified stare, it spat out a single pale bone, clacking like ivory on stone.
After that bite, the tall white fox paused. Suspicion lifted its muzzle like a hunter catching scent. It sniffed, breath flaring. Then it lowered its head. Crimson eyes pierced the withered black plants and met Lilith’s wide blue ones—red frost meeting sea.
“Hoo.” The white fox blew out a heavy breath, a furnace gust. In its enormous scarlet pupils, Little White Dragon saw her own frightened face mirrored, small and milk-white. She knew she’d been found. Cold sweat slid down her back like rain on slate. She swallowed by reflex, and her soft little hands clenched the Ancient Ark.
She had confidence she could fight this fox if she had to; cards remained unplayed. But Little White Dragon didn’t want to clash. First, her body was in poor shape. The knight’s heavy strike still made her bones ring, and she hated fighting in a half-formed state. Second, her mood was black as soot. Her head was full of that annoying Black Dragon. If it were some weaker foe, she might’ve brawled to vent. But this white-furred fox clearly wasn’t the easy kind. So Lilith shrank even smaller and, practiced as a street cat, crouched low in the grass with her head tucked, hoping the fox would just pass her by.
The world rarely grants wishes. Curling up couldn’t erase the fact she’d been spotted. The tall fox threw its head back and howled again, a blade of sound. Then it slashed a paw down toward the nest of grass where Lilith hid, like lightning cutting bamboo.
“Uu!” Lilith rolled aside, quick as a darting fish. The tiny White Dragon slipped under the giant fox’s claws. Her flowing cloak whisked up and brushed the talons. Blue-and-white fabric shredded on the swipe; the Holy Cloak burst into shards of sanctity, holy light breaking like glass, and the fragile, tender body beneath stood bare to the cold air.
“So annoying!” With her Holy Cloak torn, Little White Dragon stopped running. Lilith raised her longsword and caught the fox’s next strike, steel ringing like winter bells. She twisted and met the tall white fox’s stare. The small dragon puffed her cheeks in anger; crystal tears hung by eyes bluer than the sea. Lilith slid the pink blade back into nothing. Dark red tendrils unfurled, replacing the Ancient Ark as her weapon. Taint crept over her snow-white skin, painting sin onto porcelain, turning the little dragon a touch wicked, a bloom of night.
“Whether it’s Nidhogg or you, I hate you both!” Fury at the white fox boiled up, words spilling like scalding water. “We jumped down from the same place, and then you vanished! I was already hurt and wanted to rest, and you still had to show up to bully me! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!”
“Don’t you dare show up again!” Lilith swung a fist hard and roared, anger cracking like thunder.
