The sight of the spear, penetrating through Lunaria's back froze Risa. Tsukiharu's weak grin was still there, but it didn't lasted long after what happened next.
The frost around Lunaria's free arm disappeared, her gaze normal again, as she put a hand on the spear's blade. In the next moment, the spear shattered completely, falling on the ground like debris.
Tsukiharu's grin disappeared completely, as Lunaria pulled the other end of the spear, out of her back without any hint of pain or any other sort of reaction. Then he noticed smoke coming out from the areas of her clothes, torned by the spear.
He watched, as the blood started to disappear from her wound, the skin starting to form itself back together, until it was back to normal again. Giving out a sigh, Lunaria glanced at Risa, who was equally shocked as Tsukiharu.
"Risa, you do realize this is not the first time I have been stabbed?" Her tone was tiredsome, as if she faced such attacks countless times before.
Risa responded back in embarrassment and annoyance. "You can't expect me to not scream, if you are stabbed in the back. And how could I have known that you can regenerate yourself from such wounds!?"
"How can you not know? It should have been obvious that I could regenerate myself ever since I became a caster as well?"
"That still doesn't changes the truth, that it's scary to see someone stabbed in the back!"
"..." Lunaria gave no reply to that. She found it dumb to worry about such things for a caster. After all, a caster type magic user could learn the art of regeneration.
She gave out a sigh, as she let go of Tsukiharu, and raised her left arm right away. A small glacier summoned, blocking another one of those spears that looked like the arm of a clock. "I figured, that it couldn't be that easy for someone to be faster than I could react." She glanced at the spear carefully this time. "I see... Time magic, huh?"
Risa, hearing the word 'time', stayed alert. "Time magic, you say? Then we have to stay alert."
Lunaria closed her eyes, as she focused on the mana around her. She felt the movement of wind within the grass, sound of Risa and Tsukiharu's breathing, and the pressure of the tornado. And among all that chaos, she felt something coming from front.
She launched an icicle in front of her, as it collided with a shock wave which stopped in the middle after hitting the icicle, the latter shattering from the impact. "You need to do better tha-" Her words were stuck in her throat, as she noticed that she already lost the hand, from which she launched the icicle.
"Huh? That's intresting." She said, as frost replaced her missing arm, as it regenerated back to normal. "Risa. Change of plans... That is an intermediate level time user, at the bare minimum."
Risa jumped, as she dodged a spear coming at her as well. "Intermediate? So they can stop time as well, huh?" She said as she saw a cut on her shoulder. "This will be annoying."
Tsukiharu tried to crawl out, but his efforts were in vain, as Lunaria stepped her foot on his back, preventing him from leaving, a small grunt audible from him.
"Hmm..." Lunaria looked up in the air, thinking of some method to deal with the situation.
"Any idea?"
"Not yet." As she flicked away an incoming spear. "The problem is, we don't know that for how long can this person stop time." Tsukiharu kept trying to escape, but her foot made all efforts pointless, eventually he gave up and lay down there with his face on the ground.
Lunaria looked down at him. "Perhaps... I found one." She said, as she raised her foot high.
On the other side, there was another cloak figure, not Miharu nor Tsukiharu, but someone else, they were slightly taller. Something is off... Her mana concentration suddenly became low? The figure wondered, as it moved slightly out of it's hiding. Taking off the cape of their cloak, revealing a woman, older than Miharu, her hair also dark with sharper ears, her eyes also red like hers.
She focused her gaze in the distance, a soft light coating them, as her vision sharpened. It allowed her to look far away than normal, as the sight got clear to her.
She only saw Tsukiharu there, not Lunaria nor Risa, just Tsukiharu. How did they suddenly disappeared? She thought, but she didn't cared. She positioned herself, using time magic on herself, she increased the speed of her movement as she dashed there at lightning speed.
It took her less than a minute to reach there, halting herself, she slowly walked towards Tsukiharu. She stayed cautious of her surroundings, as she turned him around. He was passed out, bubbles coming out of his mouth.
What did those two do to you, my boy? She picked Tsukiharu up on her back, staying cautious still as she looked around before turning away. She used her power, as the world stopped moving, time was frozen. But the moment she tried to run, her body stopped moving, it was as if she was completely numb. Huh!? She was shocked. Why am I not able to move? No one should be able to attack me if time is frozen.
A few moments passed, as she kept trying. Damn it! She cursed in her mind. Eventually, the frozen time, melted again. The world's temporal flow was back to normal.
The moment that happened, her body immediately started to move again. She grinned, her annoyance gone for a moment. But it didn't lasted long, as Risa appeared right in front of her suddenly, her blade swing straight at her.
The vixen barely dodged, as Risa continued attacking. She froze again, to do a counter attack and get away. But her body froze up as well when she did so.
What is happening? Why am I not able to move my own body whenever I freeze time? The question ran through her mind, but she found no answer. Purposely allowing time to flow again, she barely dodged again except this time, instead of running, she kicked Risa in the chin, halting her for a second.
She tried to use the second to escape, except a glacier came straight at her from the side, faster than she could react. It launched her away, Tsukiharu launched out of her grip as well, landing on the ground with a loud thud, hard enough to wake him up. "Ow!"
The woman managed to maintain her footing, preventing herself from hitting the ground, her cloak torn with an injury to her side from the impact.
"Twenty seconds for the duration, fourty for the cooldown after use, I see." Lunaria said, as she walked out from behind the tree where she was hiding.
"What?" The woman got surprised for a moment, it was the exact duration and cooldown for her ability to freeze time.
"Surprised right?" Lunaria said. "It's a cheap trick but an effective one against an intermediate level time magic user."
Then she explained what happened. "I knocked that boy out, since I pretty much figured out from his earlier grin that you and him are allies."
She points at Tsukiharu, the fox flinched out of fear from her. "Look at his hand. There is ice on it, sharp enough to dug into the skin. Without the nerves sensing any pain or touch from it."
Then she points at her. "When you picked him up, the unconscious movements of his arm caused the ice to dug slightly into your skin."
"That's one of my compressed ice, if it dugs into something, it slows down movements by getting in between the waves sent by the brain to the body."
"And against someone who stops time, it freezes their internal nerves as if they are paralyzed."
The woman stared at her, as she slowly got up, also noticing her body behaving slower. "I never thought, that time magic can be countered this easily by frost magic."
"Hmm... So are you their older sister, mother or any other relative?" Lunaria questioned.
"Huh?"
Lunaria raised one finger. "Before we got here, another foxian attacked us in the forest." Then she raised the second. "When we got here, we saw this boy next, who looked identical to the first one." Finally she raised the third. "And the third is you now, another foxian. Moreover, the boy confessed that he was doing this for revenge for his elder sibling. Which implied that the two might be siblings because of their similar look and appearance."
"And you look similar to both but older, so the three of you must be related by blood."
The woman stared at Lunaria, before she let out a chuckle. "Nice observation... And you are correct about it. Both Tsukiharu and Miharu, are my twin children. I am their mother, Kurenai Kara."
"Well that says a lot about why you didn't let go off him when fighting Risa." Then her tome changed to a serious one, as she cracked her knuckles. "Unfortunately, I don't care about your family and reasons, you are interrupting my work."
That was what she said, as she summoned the frost blade around her arm again.
Back in the forest, Miharu and Chiharu were walking out of it. "Chi? How come you are here again? What do you mean that you aren't completely alive yet?" The list went on, over and over. Ever since Lunethra, or now Chiharu, appeared in front of Miharu, she had been questioning him constantly.
Chiharu, who was walking out of the forest with a vixen holding onto his tail with one hand like a child, eventually sighed. "One by one... I'll answer your question individually, don't open your chatterbox all at once."
Miharu pouted at the chatterbox comment but let it slide. "Ok, so what did you meant that you weren't completely alive? The answer to this will probably answer all my other questions."
Miharu waited for an answer, a second passed, then another. Chiharu spoke. "Soul magic. It's technique 'Split souls' to be exact."
"Split souls?"
"Soul Magic would normally allow you to summon dead souls, since it's supposed to be a branch of necromancy, correct?"
"And 'Split Souls' is a technique that divides the soul into different parts, essentially giving one more than one soul, it's helpful for specific situations."
Miharu listened but she still couldn't understand how that would answer her. "But how is that related? I can understand Soul Magic having a connection to this but what does the technique has to do with this?"
"I was about to answer that." Chiharu continued. "When 'Split Souls' is used on one soul, it's aspects are divided into parts. But if it's used on more than one soul at a time, it makes the body be a vessel for not just your own, but of a different soul as well."
Miharu's eyes widened at the reveal. "So that means, your soul and the soul of that guy from before. Both of them are inside this body?"
"Correct."
"Then the form..."
"Depending on which soul is in control, the form and structure of the body shifts to match their former one, we can mix it with each other's as well depending on who takes control of what. Right now, I am in full control."
Miharu's jaw was left wide opened at the explanation. "I never thought, Soul Magic can be this useful." Then she thought of asking something else. "So, how many souls are inside there?"
"Two more excluding myself." Chiharu answered. "One of them is Lunethra, the soul who was behaving the most carefree."
"I see..." She muttered. "Ok next question, you pretty much implied this earlier that you can be completely alive again, what does that mean and how?"
Chiharu processed the question before answering. "Well, about being completely alive. I meant that I would be alive again with my own flesh, without sharing the same body with the other souls." He continued. "As for how... It's connected to the Abstract side of the Planet."
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..
...
"And these are the last ones." Solara said, as she carried the last few orcs all together to safety, her strength bewildering the people of Elvin at lifting them so casually.
"Seems like, we got everyone." Orion mentioned, as he looked at everyone. "Now then." He turned towards Sera. "Mind explaining everything?"
Sera's expression got serious. "Right..." She muttered, facing him. "I'll first explain about who are those people."
Sera started explaining, she told them about the identities of the people. The twins, Tsukiharu and Miharu, and their mother, Kurenai.
"Tsukiharu, Miharu and Kurenai. Those three are from a large area known as the Empire, an area filled only with foxians. While it may seem large from how it sounds, ever since our world's source dried down and became impossible to use, our population had been decreasing overtime."
She pointed towards the elves, they weren't many but were the most in numbers. "Elves have the highest population on this planet, and these are in fact all the remaining elves. So you can already imagine the number of foxians left there."
"That's all the elves!?" Orion asked in bewilderment. To which Sera nodded in confirmation.
"Among all those foxians in the Empire. Those three foxians for some reason always intend to target us, Miharu's situation at first wasn't like that but eventually she also started to try and kill us, we don't know why but our survival became more difficult day by day after that."
"That's a bit strange." Solara wondered. "No one will start trying to kill everyone for no reason whatsoever, especially not in a situation where everyone including them are trying to survive." She looked at Sera to ask her something. "When did all this started?"
Sera tried to remember. "About eight years ago... Kurenai lost her eldest child during then. After that, her behaviour started to change, eventually Tsukiharu also started to behave differently. Miharu still behaved the same but her hatred for us developed later."
"Got any idea, senior birdie?" Orion asked, glancing at Solara, who was trying to find a logical answer. "Hmm. I can't think of any proper reason. It can't be a mental illness, none of them would be behaving sane still otherwise." She looked at Sera again. "Was there anything else that was different about them other than their behaviour?"
"Hmm... Other than their strength, I can't think of anything else." Sera mentioned. "Kurenai's power increased a lot and her growth also got better time to time. Tsukiharu's situation was the same as the gap between him and Miharu became larger and larger."
"Personality change, increased power, killing intentions and higher growth... That is an interesting combination." Orion said, just as much confused as Solara about the situation. "How did her eldest died in the first place?"
"Kurenai's eldest son, Chiharu died after killing some dark creepy figure to protect us from it." The moment those words left Sera's mouth, Orion, Solara and the other from the H-200, all of them went silent.
Solara immediately grabbed Sera by the shoulder in a hurry. "Sera, answer me carefully. This dark figure you speak of, did it looked like an altered form of some species here and also had dark liquid in the place of blood!?"
"Yes, of a minotaur." Sera's answer left Solara silent. She gritted her teeth, turning her neck towards Orion and the others she yelled. "Everyone! Get in formation quick, we can't risk anyone facing those things alone!"
"Roger captain Solara!" They all yelled back in confirmation.
"Huh, what's wrong. Why are all of you so tensed!?" Sera asked in nervousness, she had seen how powerful all of them were, yet seeing all of them in such panic and with so much seriousness, made her stomach sick.
"Ask Orion, I need to tell Risa and Lunaria about this!" Solara yelled, as she shifted into her full phoenix form, and flew straight towards where the fight was happening. Sera looked at Orion, nervously waiting for an answer.
"You see... Those dark things are what came during the Veiled Century and ended up turning all the cosmos to how they are today. Simply put, if our assumptions are correct... Then both Kurenai and Tsukiharu are victim to an incurable disease that affects their mentality and thoughts." Those words left Sera and the other survivors of Elvin in complete silence.
Back with Lunaria and Kurenai, the fight was destructive. BOOM! The ground erupted as large glacier, the size of the largest mountains bursts out of the ground constantly.
Kurenai kept dodging and sending her time spears back at them to avoid them. Just how much mana does this woman have!? She was bewildered, frost magic already consumed more mana than any other magic, and here Lunaria was using it so effortlessly at such a large scale.
"You are good at dodging." The words struck Kurenai's ears, as she looked behind. Lunaria was there, summoning another glacier. "Unfortunately, your mana has almost ran out." The glacier erupted from the ground beneath Kurenai, far larger and wider than the other glaciers. Kurenai barely had any mana left to counter back, and she couldn't dodge it in the air. She formed a barrier in front of her with the little mana she had left. "Don't think that will save you." Lunaria mentioned.
Suddenly, another glacier of similar extent erupted out of the ground opposite to the other glacier. Kurenai's eyes widened, she could have survived one glacier somehow, but two at once? That wasn't possible for her after spending so much mana already.
Both the glaciers collided, trapping Kurenai in between them. The sheer force of their collision caused both of them to crack and shatter, the destruction powerful enough to send tremors throughout the area, Kurenai fell hard on the ground, her body covered in frostbites and blood from the impact and cold. "I-I ca-nn't even lift my fi-ger anymore." Blood came out of her mouth as she coughed.
On the side, Tsukiharu tried to scream in pain, tears fell from his eyes. Risa's claymore was forced through his stomach, as she watched his reaction with no sympathy whatsoever. "I hold no care or sympathy about your goals or reasons. You were practically begging for death when you tried to fight us."
Tsukiharu weakly tried to pull the claymore out of his stomach. Risa watched as she mentioned something in confusion. "Strange... This would have killed you by now, your vital spots were attacked by me and you lost too much blood as well." She continued. "How come are you alive still?"
Back with Lunaria and Kurenai. Lunaria walked towards the blood covered vixen, who slowly got up, staring down, still sat on the ground in exhaustion. "Impressive. That would have killed even a herd of sea serpents, yet you are alive still? I'll praise you for that." She summoned the frost blade once again.
"But now you have to die." As she swinged her arm straight down at Kurenai.
Clang! The sound echoed, as Lunaria looked a bit surprise. Kurenai blocked her blade with a folding fan. "Well this was unex-" She paused as she noticed Kurenai's eyes look darker than before, the blood in her mouth replacing with dark liquid. Lunaria's eyes caught a glimpse of that. "Hold up."
On the other side, Risa noticed something similar with Tsukiharu. "What the hell..." She watched as white in Tsukiharu's eyes started turning black, his skin turning pale.
LUNARIA! RISA! Solara's voice echoed through their ears via their telepathy. DON'T TRY TO KILL THEM, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO!
The next words sent a chill of realization through them. TSUKIHARU AND KURENAI, BOTH OF THEM ARE INFECTED BY A MIND LEVEL CORRUPTION FOR THE LAST EIGHT YEARS, THEY ARE IMMORTAL TO NORMAL KILLING METHODS NOW!
Both Lunaria and Risa tried to make distance, as Kurenai's and Tsukiharu's body unleashed a dark wave of mana. Lunaria's glaciers and Risa's claymore, both started to crack from the pressure.
BOOM! The explosion was loud and clear, the giant ray of dark mana pierced through the sky. Chiharu and Miharu who were almost out of the forest, ran as they heard the explosion. Chiharu put his one hand on a tree as she stared in panic. "Crap."
"Chi, what's happening!?" Miharu asked in worry. Chiharu gulped slightly. "If my assumptions are correct."
"Then both mother and Tsukiharu have been mutated now."