"You'll end me?" The fox fairy laughed, the apathetic mask she kept up all along with slipping. "Too soon to make your conclusion on that. None of you will get off my dream butterflies alive. You're no more than a child, we'll see how you deal with me—"
Axiang didn't even wait for the fox fairy to finish sputtering before he rushed forward and backhanded her across the face. The sharp, stinging blow threw E'mei and her baby five feet to her right and slammed her into the damp metal of the lair floor. Her underground lair rumbled from his explosion of power. She hung on to the coffin and slowly used it to push herself upright. Then she turned to face Axiang again.
He had to give that fox fairy credit. Even celestial-beings couldn't stand his power, but she didn't cringe—much.
Instead, eyes wide, she blinked like an owl for several seconds before slowly raising a hand to her face, which was bleeding. Clem had opened up a cut low on her left porcelain face, probably with the sharp edge of the rock.
She blanched at the blood on her hand and slowly stepped back. Axiang thought she was retreating, but a part of him, the deep dark part that felt an ominous magic pulsed. That fairy fox shivered on her knees for a moment, before laughing hysterically and wincing from the pain, which he couldn't tell if it was for her wound or her laugh.
Bulges rolled over the fox fairy's skin, like billiard balls moving through her body.
"You're right, you could've ended me." She swayed, an eerie smile on her face, reached and brushed the coffin with her fingertips, caressing the metal with gentle tenderness. "But what to do, all you can kill is this human body I possessed. When gods cannot lay a hand on mankind, you've lost. If you hadn't provoked me, I could have let you become a member of the family, but you've passed your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Axiang cocked his head to one side. He was thinking about her words. Gods cannot lay a hand on mankind. He was well aware of the gods' principles. To not seek for Three Worlds' destruction. To not wish intervening mortals' fate, even did not wish to rid their peasant life. It was the price of immortality every god had to come to terms with.
He knew this, but he was having a hard time resisting the urge to slit her throat. He was still a five-hundred-year-old god, without any experience on the battlefield. Could he do that?
And to kill a human, meaning the Sky Realm would be alerted to both of his parents' whereabouts. And yet—no. Not after his father's years of effort to reunite their family.
She took several steps back. "What a pity. If we cannot become a family, then I'll have to eat your liver and suck your bones dry. It shall be one delicious fat liver."
The red light shone out from the coffin, illuminating the fox fairy in shimmering streams of dark magic. Her whole body jerked and shot upward. Her ripping red dress ruptured, and a huge body spilled out, growing bigger and bigger. She fell straight down and clawed the ground with her hands, her elbows up as if she was about to do push-ups.
"..." Axiang breathed out.
Her legs turned to a shaggy mane in muscle-bulking expansion, until her knees stuck straight up. Her neck lengthened, thickening, the skin dripping down to form a pouch on her throat. Her perfect curls hair fell loose around her giant head, her wrinkled breasts sagged to the damp floor, and a spiky gray fur sprouted on her whole body. Razor claws curved from her fingers and toes. All her nine tails spiked up, readied to attack the little boy at any moment. Her eyes burned as red as the mountains' fiery peaks.
She was the size of a bus, while Axiang only appeared like a speck of dust.
At his feet, she growled low, clicking sharp conical teeth, "My, my a young god's liver!"
'Try me, auntie,' Axiang mentally shot her.
Her mouth tightened, as though she had heard him. Maybe she had. A nine-tailed fox of her level had telepathic powers. Just in case she was tuned in to his thoughts, Axiang shot her an image of him setting her tails on fire with his azure light. If she had read his thoughts, she didn't betray any hint of emotion.
The fox fairy—beast—dashed forward in predator quickness, straight at him.
Axiang simply held out his hand. Instantly, a blue flame crackled to life in his palm, the flames flaring into a murderous explosion.
He shoved his flames across her face. A bloody line swelled across her skin, severing her lip. Her claws claimed for him. Axiang flew back, landed on the ground, and rolled to his feet in time to see her crushed the coffin with her strong tails.
The Goddess of Souls' body.
He refused to think the goddess's body was so fragile that it would be shattered into pieces. His mother needed her. The entity of both life and death. The goddess was the answer to his mother's ultimate beauty poison.
Axiang sprinted to her, throwing his ball of blue flames to her sides. She howled and rolled sideways, right over the coffin direction. Crush! The coffin was pinned under her massive body.
He reared back his hand, slashing out his fire like a burning sword at her shoulder. 'Move off, you beast!'
She snapped her teeth at me, trying to bat his little body aside with her giant clawed hand, and dug in, grinding the coffin with the goddess's body beneath her bulk. He slammed her across the skull. She growled in pain, but he went after her again and again, attacking her across her neck and chest as hard as he could.
Lots of nerves in the hand. 'Don't crush that! Get off!'
A light blue flame burst out from his hand and thrust into the beast's spine. She rolled, trying to pin him with her weight. He jumped off and landed on the other side, away from that beast.
Looking at that nightmarish coffin crumbled, sprinkling to the ground like black dust, Axiang gritted his teeth. Strong, dominating blue waves rippled from his tiny body. Sparks shot out from clenching tight fists, but his eyes never once darted away from that crushed coffin.
If only he could use his powers to protect the goddess's body… He reached out with his mind toward the pulsating waves…
Before he could unleash his deepest power, that beast had rolled to her feet and hands. With a howl, her head sagged to the sides, lolled, hanging for a moment by a thread of skin and muscle. The body crashed into the ground, blood pouring from the stump—but it wasn't Axiang's doing.
Then who?
The pale glow of his magic abruptly faded from his eyes, he unclenched his fists. He swiveled his head around only to meet an utter shock of what he was seeing.
A young woman yawned from the crushed coffin, stretching her hands out. She tilted her back up, moving herself into an upright, seated position.
She turned on the beast's body, her eyes sharp.
"Good Hell, I was only back to my body and I've tasted blood," her hand closed her mouth to cover her gasp, which was more to herself. "I should have done better, this is just chaotic."
Her long wavy white hair fell loose on her fair face. Not pale blond or bleached platinum, white. Her eyes met Axiang's, he saw her ruby red irises glowing as if magic whipped inside her.
"And who might you be?" When she spoke, her full rosy lips showed her perfect teeth.
For a second, he was stunned. The air around that young woman glittered, making his heart beating fast, pulsing with life. Woah, a figure of impeccable perfection like a fairy, he thought. But somehow, those ruby eyes looked so familiar… like he had seen her before. He just couldn't quite recall where.
She arched one eyebrow. "Tongue-tied? Well, a child like you must've never seen a massacre before. No need to be that surprise, wherever I go, death follows."
The Goddess of Souls, Axiang realized. If the Three Worlds knew the goddess had risen from her slumber, the Celestial Emperor would come in-person to pay his respects and even call her to the Heavenly Court. He didn't want to expose her. Whatever was about to happen, she must have helped his mother first.
Axiang knelt in front of her. He didn't want to show who his real identity was. The son of Sky Realm's crown prince.
But then this strange feeling kept returning, threatening to rip his chest. A reminder to Axiang of how he seemed to have been acquainted with the goddess. Weird, this was his first time meeting her—
A small amused smile bending the goddess's lips. "Smart child. I see this fox here has a part of your responsibility as well. A place with bloodshed is no playground for children, but if you're with me, blood is inevitable. Seeing how respectful you are, I shall do you favor, you don't want your parents to see you slaughter a beast, do you?"
He innocently nodded.
"But I don't do things for free. I need you to tell me something in return. Deal?"
Again, he nodded, eyes blinking full of agreement.
She raised her arms to the sides, magic streamed toward her. And she was glowing like fire.
Poodles of blood from the beast's body suddenly rose, hovering in the air. She didn't touch nor absorb it. Not even use or channel it. Just like that the blood merged into one big circle of blood. Slowly revealing the form of a human body, the one that the beast had taken. The blood even swirled around the human's bare skin, cuddling her before it turned into a simple black dress.
The smears of her magic faded as the human fully regained her revival, lying soundlessly on the ground.
"Now, child," the goddess called, putting a particular emphasis on Axiang. "You're not mute, are you?"
"I'm not," Axiang pouted.
"Good, because I don't have much time. I've my business to attend to. Now tell me, where am I?"