There, standing just inside the doorway, was Lance of all people. His pointed wolf ears were ft against his head while his tail hugged a leg. These two things, combined with his expression, told me all that I needed to know. He was afraid. Unfortunately, none of these things told me what he was afraid of. Was he afraid of me? My possible reactions to seeing him?

  The thing was, he had a right to be afraid. There was no reason that he could give me, no excuse good enough to excuse what he did to me. In fact, I could reject him right now and move on. I should reject him. While Xander wasn’t all that clear, I was fairly sure that he would be willing to give us a go. Sure, he and I might not be perfect for each other, but who was?

  “Give him a chance.” The old woman’s soft whisper nearly caused me to jump. She had, somehow, made it around the counter and behind me without me even noticing.

  “Why should I?” I sneered back. “Do you know just what he did? What those in his party did? He was lucky that I was feeling merciful the st time I saw him. Now, I don’t feel so bad.”

  “But…”

  “NO!” My yell caused his mouth to audibly snap shut. “You don’t get a say in any of this! The only reason I am not killing you here and now is because I have no fucking clue what is going on.” Yeah, that was the reason. Not the little voice in my head that seemed to agree with the old woman. Thankfully it was small enough that I could drown the fucker out.

  “But you don’t understand…” she started.

  Before she could go any further, I spun around as a hand cut through the air between us to stop her from finishing her statement. “I DON’T CARE! Now, I am going to go over to that corner and call a friend. DO NOT BOTHER ME!” The st bit I said while looking the wolf in the eye. While the look he gave me was pitiful, I did not care.

  I wanted to stomp off, to take some of my anger out on the stone below me. It took all of one step for me to remind me that I was much stronger than before as a loud crack reverberated through the room. Where the stone floor was mostly smooth before, there was a spider web of cracks centered around my foot.

  A soft, rumbling growl vibrated my chest. God how I already missed Gravepoint. The stone there wouldn’t have cracked from something so simple, at least, not with my level of strength.

  With care, I made my way to the corner. Resting my head on the wall for a moment as I tried to think of ways to distract myself. Sure, I could do as I said and call Xander, but he said he would call me back when he could. And while the time he had specified had come and gone, there could have been reasons for that. For all I knew, he was fighting with some stupid politician or something. It would be best if I didn’t rush him. To let him call me when he was able to.

  Instead, I chose to look over my new tabs. Maybe they would make this trip worth dying for. None of them were all that hard to find when I thought about it. Each and every one of the new tabs were relegated to the species section of my stats screen.

  Race:

  Kitsune*

  Variant:

  Demonic

  God:

  Inari*

  Tier:

  1*

  Power Category

  Fire

  Power Tier:

  1

  Race Skills:

  None*

  Race Points:

  5/1*

  Mated:

  No*

  The st line reminded me of the wolf which was the exact opposite of what I was trying to accomplish at the moment. So I forced myself to start from the top. Almost as soon as my attention nded on my race, a new screen popped up.

  Race Evolution:

  Current:

  Kitsune

  Variation:

  Demonic

  Options:

  Cost:

  Healer

  Requirements Not Met

  Demon

  Requirements Not Met

  Unknown

  Requirements Not Met

  Unknown

  Requirements Not Met

  Unknown

  Requirements Not Met

  …

  …

  From a list that seemed to go on forever, only two options were even visible. Not that I apparently met the requirements for either. On top of that, healer seemed like more of a skill than an evolution. Or was it that I would lose most of, if not all, my abilities to fight in exchange for the ability to heal? It didn’t matter. It wasn’t like I could do anything about it at this moment. I would just have to wait and see if any other options came up.

  Closing that screen, I focused on Inari next. A little messaging app fshed into existence. Foxes with various numbers of tails ran back and forth as they chased multicolored fmes. Every one of the foxes had a name that hovered over their head. The most prominent of which stopped running as I looked at it.

  Its eyes were the same as the goddesses. Given that and the number of tails it sported, I didn’t even need to gnce at the name to know that it was her. What got me about the way she was looking at me, it looked bored and hopeful. Like it wanted me to send her a message. With her being a goddess and all, I wasn’t sure that was such a good idea. At least, not without a good reason to do so.

  With a flick of my hand, I vanished the window before I did something stupid. Quickly homing in on the next asterisk and the window that would appear with its selection. The instant it came up, I nearly cried in joy at finally having a goal.

  Current Tails:

  1

  Trials Completed:

  10/13

  Trials:

  Status:

  Adult

  Yes

  Forms Used

  3/3

  Element Selected

  Fire

  Met Inari?

  YES

  Vitality

  101/100

  Intelligence

  121/100

  Wisdom

  115/100

  Level

  43/25

  Tricked a creature with a higher level?

  YES

  Tricked a creature into killing another?

  YES

  Strength

  85/100

  Agility

  90/100

  Dexterity

  93/100

  Well damn. Apparently a second tail wasn’t as far off in the future as I thought. With how many points I had sitting around, I might as well push everything to one hundred. Sure, Barti and the rest of them insisted that spending points on my stats was a waste, but it wasn’t like I had much a choice. If I was going to be fighting, that meant I was going to be leveling. A single level would be enough to cause my strength to go below the minimum threshold yet again. At least doing this would buy me a little time, probably. It would depend on how fast I leveled and if a skill upgrade increased a stat or not.

  One mental command ter and the world around me stuttered as my body changed. It felt like I was leveling up a ton, but it cked any mana. Given that I was only upgrading my body stats, that made sense. Still, my mind was like a computer that was on its st legs. It rebooted a number of times before finally catching as it tried to digest all the new information it was being fed.

  As I flexed my fingers, I realized they felt both stronger and more flexible. Almost as though they were capable of much more than they were before. Then there was the agility. If I had a pair of chopsticks and a fly to practice on, I felt like I could recreate the scene from Karate Kid without a single issue.

  The only stat that I felt meh about was my charisma. Sure, I knew what it did in games and books, but I had yet to see any real effect on those I interacted with. Then again, it wasn’t like I had given it much of a chance. Not when I consider all the other changes I had undergone in the st few weeks.

  Before I could test anything more or even move on to the next tab, the trials tab reasserted itself. Only this time it was all grayed out with a single question.

  Increase the number of tails from 1 to 2?

  Yes

  No

  I didn’t even hesitate to press the yes button.

  Fire raced out of my mana pool. Treating my blood vessels like a racetrack as each tendril raced to see who could reach the finish line first. Over and over. Around and around. They seared the very memory of their passage into the cells lining each vein and artery until they suddenly stopped.

  Everything grew still as the residual heat settled into my muscles. I couldn’t tell what the heat was nor what it changed, but I could feel that something had changed. It felt as though something was burned away only for something else to repce it. Something indistinguishable to the original, at least to me.

  Then, as if it had simply been stalking me, waiting for me to rex, my mana fred out a second time. Unlike st time, every drop of it raced for my spine. I have no clue what it was doing. Hell, I didn’t know what was going on around me. All I knew in that moment was pain as every bit of my spine, and the nerves inside, burned. As some parts turned to ash, other parts melted. The same force that washed away the ash acted upon the melted sections. Molded it, changed it, reformed it before letting it solidify.

  This force worked its way down my spine until it reached the base of my tail. At that point, I had grown a bit numb to the burning pain. Well, not really numb. I just found myself unable to think about it as my consciousness wavered from what was likely oxygen loss. Not that I was able to pass out. Not when something forced me to stay awake even when I prayed that it would release me.

  A loud crunching sound vibrated through my body. It was loud enough that I was able to make it out over the muffled white noise that filled my ears since I pressed the button. The crunching sound continues as each bone in my tail is split down the middle. Material flows in from every bit of my body as the process steals from anything and everything it can to feed the beast that is my body.

  Where there was once one fluffy tail, there are now two. Only, they are nowhere near as fluffy feeling. If anything, the hairs brushing against my back feel dry while the rest of it feels limp, almost lifeless.

  They are not the only things that feel limp and lifeless though. As the final whisps of mana vanish into the ether, I feel tired. Every cell feels as though they have been drained of energy. Hell, I was sure that some of them were on the brink of dying from the amount of abuse they were subjected to. I almost wondered if getting a second tail was worth it. Was worth all this pain and how weak it left me.

  It was only as that thought went through my head that I realized someone was gently running their hand through my hair. Each stroke started just above my forehead before traveling back. Thankfully, while the fingers came close, they never touched my ears.

  I wanted to flinch away from whoever was touching me but everything hurt. Every muscle was strained beyond belief. Then there were the tiny little sparks that flit across my skin with every touch. They zipped and zapped around before dissipating. While that sounds like it would hurt, it didn’t. If anything, they felt nice. Almost rexing.

  Out of open curiosity as to who was capable of getting my body to rex like this, I opened my eyes. Sitting there, with my head cradled to his p, was the fucking wolf of all people. His eyes were akin to a melting pot of emotions. Fear. Trepidation. Anxiety. Helplessness. Longing. Even a bit of peace and love. I understood the majority of them and why they were there, but the st two confused the fuck out of me.

  They confused me because there was no way that he truly could feel that way about me. Not after what he did. Not after everything that had happened between us. But what would be the point in faking such an emotional reaction? Was he trying to set me up? To hand me over to the demons.

  If he was then he was in for one hell of a surprise. I wasn’t the same weak human that he remembered. It wasn’t that I just switched species or gender, I was stronger than before. Less willing to take their bullshit ying down. If they came for me, I wouldn’t back down, I would hit back.

  But what if he wasn’t here because of some mispced loyalty to the demon and his spawn? What if he was here to help those hiding out here? Could he be trying to make up for the shit that they forced him to do? And if so, how would I know? While I could ask, I didn’t believe for one second that I would be able to trust his answer. No, I needed to see for myself. To judge him for myself. To see if he was worthy of even being forgiven. That he was worthy of being allowed to live.

  So, here we were, in the same room where I had all but broken off the bond between us. Yet he stayed. He even managed to hold me, comfort me, through something that I wished I could forget. While it wasn’t enough, nowhere near enough, I could use it as an excuse to let him stay close so that I could keep an eye on him. So that I could judge him for myself. Not that I would tell anyone the truth. To everyone else I would say that I was trying to follow the old woman’s advice. That I was going to give him a chance.

  Unfortunately for him, even with that excuse, there would be a few conditions that I would force down his throat if he wanted to even be near me. Still, something told me that he would accept any and every condition I id out for him.