Chapter 63: The Living Dead

Sakunae Mashiro felt the truth settling in her bones like winter ash. Maybe Eternal Life had seeded a whisper, a gentle mirage that told her she was still just a normal beastkin. But the haze lifted; she knew she was Undead now, a walking corpse under a cold moon.

A strip of skin peeled from her cheek, unveiling dark-red muscle, spoiled like bruised fruit. She opened her mouth; lag weighed every motion like thick mud. Her muscles were dry, rough as old bark; with each step the vixen felt a syrupy drag, like wading through glue.

Thinking back, she might have died long ago. She hadn’t survived her battle with Eternal Life; like her teammates, she fell in that storm of blades and breathless silence. Only luck, or stubborn spirit, kept her from yielding. Her soul refused the grave, hauling her wreck of a body until, under the Grand Mausoleum’s pall, she became a zombie.

“This isn’t funny at all,” she sighed, voice as light as falling leaves. “I was going to go home, buy a little house, open a tiny general store.” She smiled, warmth glinting beneath the chill. “But this isn’t so bad. Now I can openly ask her to marry me. If I save the Undead commoners of the Grand Mausoleum, I might even pass for a hero.”

“Arrogant!” Eternal Life’s teeth clicked shut like steel, rage ringing through the Reaper Fragment’s voice. Her wrist flicked; a ghost-blue longsword bloomed in her hand like an icy flame. She leveled the blade at Sakunae Mashiro, fury bright as a blade’s edge. “You think you can defeat me? Keep dreaming.”

“That’s not written,” Mashiro laughed, a spark under snow. “I’m a bit stronger than you think.”

Her words barely fell when red-black lightning surged from within her, like a blood tide breaking stone. Her slim frame swelled; limbs thickened; white fur washed over her skin like winter frost. Claws unfurled on hands and feet, and her paws grew into enormous fox talons.

Scarlet bolts wrapped the great fox, embers dancing on snow, hinting at a storm of violence and killing intent. Her pelt wasn’t the glossy white Lilith first saw; gaps split the fur, exposing the rot beneath. The hair at her muzzle thinned, baring teeth sharper than any common fox’s. Mashiro grit her ruined jaw; drool dripped from the fox’s mouth, turning her from majestic beast into something rabid, a fevered hound under crimson light.

Awooo! The transformed Mashiro threw back her head and howled, a temple bell cleaving the air. The electric sheen on her white fur flared brighter; red-black light stained the pocket realm’s blank sky and drowned the emptiness in shadow and scarlet.

“Bluster. Nothing more.” Eternal Life’s voice lowered, cool as deep water. The Reaper Fragment reversed her grip, then filled her left hand with a matching blade. Petite as Lilith, she looked small before the blazing fox, yet she didn’t flinch. She held her twin ghost-blue swords and waited, winter-still, for Mashiro to move first.

Awooo! Red lightning blinked, and the massive white paw crashed down. The Reaper Fragment slid right, quiet as a cat across snow, evading the claws by a breath. As she passed, she flicked two swift cuts across the fox’s paw.

The cuts did nothing worth counting. Mashiro scraped the floor, spinning once on the spot; her thick tail, steaming with scarlet arcs, swung in a circle, a burning radius drawn by fur and thunder.

Eternal Life couldn’t escape that sweep; she didn’t have Lilith’s scorching speed. This Reaper Fragment fought by technique. She took a light leap upward, knowing the lightning would catch her regardless. She wrapped herself in Moonswallow Mist, condensing ghost-blue armor that blunted the shock. Then her twin blades bit hard into Mashiro’s flank and opened a ragged wound.

Eternal Life plunged both swords into Mashiro’s tail, splitting fur and flesh into two bloody mouths. She spun like a top on her axis, twin edges grinding, widening the gashes with ruthless precision.

Mashiro’s white fur tore under those keen blades; her tough hide ripped into two great wounds. The fox yelped, pain raw as salt. She vaulted into the air and slammed her tail toward the ground like a falling pillar.

Eternal Life let go the instant Mashiro leapt. The two ghost-blue swords stayed buried in the tail like arrow shafts. The Reaper Fragment landed, rolled, rose in one fluid motion, and called another pair of ghost-blue blades into her hands.

High above, Mashiro twisted midair, the giant paw tracking Eternal Life’s sidestep. The heavy mass dropped like a boulder through cloud; claws split the dull air and hammered down toward the small Divine Fragment.

Scarlet light burst as the paw struck. Eternal Life took a step back, dodging the direct blow, but the delayed electric bloom licked her armor. Crimson arcs braided around the Reaper Fragment, shocking her hard.

It wasn’t severe. Her defense was a fortress, and the Moonswallow Mist had shunted part of the damage. Mashiro’s strike was only a fraction of her stored thunder. But pride took the deepest cut.

The high-and-mighty Reaper Fragment had been hurt by her own “pet.” Already infuriated by Lilith, she was rattled twice now—first in spirit, then in flesh.

Mashiro didn’t spare Eternal Life’s feelings. On the hit, the fox snapped her tail; crimson lightning coalesced into several red, ball-shaped bolts that streaked toward the Reaper Fragment like meteors.

“You dare humiliate me like this.” Eternal Life’s fury burned clean; the Moonswallow Mist around her ignited, ghost-blue fire blossoming at her edges. The same haunted fire flared in the eyes of the Undead she controlled.

“I’m done playing fetch with you.” In the next blink, Eternal Life stood before Mashiro. Mashiro wasn’t a veteran of a hundred battles, but a carnivore’s instinct and her years of adventuring held her steady. Faced with twin blades and sudden presence, she didn’t retreat. She opened her bloody maw and bit down at Eternal Life.

The bite snapped on empty air. Mashiro knew Eternal Life wouldn’t give her something that easy. The Reaper Fragment flashed behind her again, hovering just above her tail.

Another assault targeted the wound on that thick, furred tail. The instinct to sever the tail of a giant beast ran deep, and Eternal Life favored it, eager to blunt her foe. But Mashiro wouldn’t grant it.

The white fox lunged forward, a quick surge; Eternal Life’s slash fell to nothing. Mashiro didn’t spare a glance backward. She lifted her head and sounded a second long howl.

Awooo! Crimson lightning seeped into Mashiro’s fur, dyeing it red like sunset on snow. The white giant turned scarlet; the red that had circled her now climbed her body, erupting from within, a glow from marrow to skin. The lightning no longer gathered around her; it poured out of the giant fox’s core.

“Harder to handle, are we?” Eternal Life swung and missed. She blinked into place before Mashiro again, space folding like silk in her hands, and slashed for the fox once more.

This time, Mashiro didn’t bite at a target that could slip away. She released the stored red thunder. Scarlet light strobed; she burned like a red lantern, flooding the world in a crimson wash and tinting the air as if stained with blood.

Lightning saturated the ring around her. The space near the fox turned into a zone no one could enter without drowning in storm. If Eternal Life wanted to approach, she’d have to face that swelling thunder head-on. Space tricks no longer carried her safely through.

“It’s just lightning. Watch me cut you open!” Eternal Life chose to meet the storm. She wrapped herself in Moonswallow Mist and swung both blades for the fox’s head.

Mashiro didn’t dodge. The fox opened her blood-wet jaws and struck for the bite.

Just as Eternal Life braced for a trade—wound for wound—a cold beam lanced into the Reaper Fragment from the side, clean as winter ice.

Caught off guard by the intruder, Eternal Life reflexively teleported behind Mashiro, evading both bite and beam. By bad luck, she still took a whipping hit from the fox’s tail and went skidding.

“Ugh.” She rolled once, came up ready, and looked toward the source of the beam. There stood a figure wrapped in living flesh, wings unfurled behind her, humanoid only by outline.

Meeting Eternal Life’s gaze, the newcomer shed the meat from her face like a mask, revealing Lilith underneath, cheekbones cold as moonlight.

“You?” Eternal Life stared, shock cutting through her anger. “You’ve mastered this power. Did you discover your identity?”

“What identity?” The Little White Dragon drifted to Mashiro’s side, a great beast veiled in Taint. The dragon tilted her head, playful as wind through reeds. “Still speaking riddles, perfectionist?”

“Enough.” Lilith didn’t humor Eternal Life. She raised the Ancient Ark, and her voice fell like a blade. “Let’s finish you quickly.”