'Shit!' Loud explosions shook the earth of the snowy forest—a forest that was now more of a plain than a forest. All the trees in the vicinity of several kilometers were nowhere to be found. Most of them had either blown up into pieces or were just turning into ash.
Two streaks of different colored light were racing across the now treeless forest. One was bright red and deep blue, while the other one was silver in color.
Wherever the streaks of light went, only chaos followed. Anything that got in the way of those racing lights disappeared from existence as if it had never existed in the first place.
With each collision of the two lights, the entire forest shook and the sky cried. It was as if the whole world was pleading to those streaks to stop their battle.
"Dodge, now!" The hurried voice of Yuki sounded inside Aurora's mind, to which she reacted immediately by jumping to the side with all her might.
The next moment, a silver arc of light zipped through the spot where she previously stood. The arc easily cut through the air and ground alike, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake.
'This bastard!' With a furious and anxious face, Aurora looked at the rising cloud of dust, from which a silhouette soon emerged.
From the dust cloud came out a perfectly normal-looking man. The man had silver hair and gray eyes, and while he could be called very handsome, there was nothing that made him look abnormal. But in fact, this man was far from normal.
The man was a rank 2 individual, someone who wielded great power. For god's sake, this man was in the same realm of power as Aurelius, who was the final guardian of a dungeon! Even with all the power she had, Aurora wouldn't have been able to do anything to the wolf back then were it not for the sudden appearance of the Flame of Burning Desire.
But now, a man of the same rank as that monster of a wolf appeared and was casually exchanging blows with her. If this wasn't an absurd situation, then she didn't know what was!
"I must say, I'm quite impressed with how well you're holding up. Well, at least you're more powerful than I thought you would be, beast." The man scoffed, his tone amused but vicious.
'This bastard.' Aurora grinded her teeth in frustration. It was true that she was able to hold her ground against the man in front of her, but that didn't mean she was winning.
Just survivng and being encounted with a being in the second rank while being a rank 1 individual was already a feat worthy of the highest praise. But in Aurora's eyes, none of that mattered.
"Well, I took longer than I hoped I would, so I would say it's about time we finish this." The man's clearly provocative words fell deaf on Aurora's ears. She only reacted when the man disappeared from her sight.
They got once again entangled in their little dance of death, a dance in which Aurora could only do her best to not fall behind.
But to understand how our favorite little fox got into such a dire situation, let's go back in time real quick.
-----
After converting the hundreds of dead Snow Snoopers into attribute crystals and handing those crystals to Rejoke to use, Aurora stared at the night sky absent-mindedly.
"Troubled over what just happened?" It was only when she heard Yuki's voice inside her head that Aurora snapped out of her daze.
'You mean killing hundreds of beings in such a short time? Not at all. While my mentality is that of a human, there are many things that were influenced by my current nature.' Aurora shook her head softly as she replied in a calm tone devoid of any deep emotions.
'Killing isn't anything unnatural. Just like you said, the one who survives is the one with the strongest fist. To me, killing is as natural as breathing, at least when it comes to monsters and magical beasts. I'm not sure if I could kill a human without a second thought, but I highly doubt I would hesitate to do so for long.' Aurora's consciousness left her body, appearing inside her soul.
"Heya." Yuki greeted her with a small smile on her adorable face, sitting down in a dog-like fashion.
Aurora returned the faint smile and sat down in front of the fox identical to her. The two merely stared at each other for a bit, neither saying anything. Only after about a minute did Aurora break the silence.
"I'm not hesitant and won't hesitate to kill those who are my enemies. No matter whether it is just a single being or even thousands." Aurora moved her head to the side, staring off into the endless expanse of her soul.
"However, what I'm worried about is that I'm slowly losing myself. I'm a fox, a kitsune. I accepted this fact a long time ago. But I'm still somehow who was and still is a human, at least mentally." Her eyes and expression remained the same; even her voice did. However, Yuki could easily tell that her 'sister' wasn't as fine as she seemed to be.
Despite feeling and understanding Aurora's troubles, Yuki said nothing, merely waiting for her to continue speaking. Yuki knew that Aurora probably needed to clear her mind, and as her good sister, she would be there for her in the time of need.
(AN: I will stop putting the word sister into quotation marks. I think everyone understands that Yuki and Aurora aren't actual sisters by now, so I think there's no need to use them anymore.)
"I am who I am. I came to accept that fact, and I no longer question my existence. I have to thank Aurelius for that. But, despite accepting who I am, I definitely won't stand idly if I'm slowing becoming someone I'm not." Aurora muttered, and from her voice it was obvious that she was talking to herself rather than Yuki.
Another minute after saying those last words, Yuki finally said something in order to maybe help her sister.
"Who we are is difficult to say while also being extremely simple. We are we, just as you said. And that will never change. Even in the future, when we change and act differently, we will still be us." Yuki's voice was really soft and gentle; it was as if she were talking to a baby.
"However, we are the only ones who can judge whether or not that change that will or already had happened was a good change or not. And if it wasn't or won't, we can always do our best to negate that change." After saying those words, Yuki said nothing else. It was obvious that Aurora had a lot on her mind and that she needed time to process anything.
The two continued to sit on the snow-covered ground; the faint crackling of the flames spread around Aurora's soul was the only sound that accompanied the two foxes for a long while.
Since Aurora wasn't saying anything and wasn't intending to say anything out loud, Yuki wasn't able to hear her thoughts. But it didn't take a genius nor the ability to read minds for one to understand that Aurora's current thoughts were a mess.
Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, it has already been half an hour in the outside world ever since Aurora's mind moved to her soul. Except for the first few minutes, the two foxes said nothing for most of those thirty minutes.
"We should get going." Those were the first words Aurora said after the long silence. She said nothing else regarding the previous matter, nor did she look at Yuki.
Even then, Yuki merely smiled. Even if nothing seemed to have changed, she could easily tell that Aurora had cleared up her mind a bit. At the very least, she was now ready to continue moving forward.
Aurora got up to her feet, taking a few steps away from the place she sat at for the past thirty minutes. Then, with a soft sigh, she looked over her shoulder at Yuki.
"Thank you." Two simple words left the fox's mouth together with a small smile before she disappeared and her consciousness returned to her physical body.
"You're welcome." Was all Yuki said. There was no need to say anything else. She understood her sister enough for words not to be necessary.
'I didn't want to do it, at least not so soon, but it really looks like we'll need to leave this forest.' Aurora said nothing about the previous matter either, changing the subject to a different one.
"It certainly is a bummer. Most of the monsters and magical beasts here are ice-type ones, ideal for farming attribute crystals. However, now that our ice soul vessel is such high level, these weak monsters will hardly be of any help." Yuki nodded in agreement as well.
'The lack of normal exp is a problem as well. During the last week, we encountered only two monsters that could maybe move my levels. The monsters were level 31 and 34, respectively, not to mention that I let Rejoke take care of them so I didn't get any exp from them.' Aurora sighed helplessly. It was true that this forest was a great place for ice users like her, but the monsters here were simply too weak.
"Even if we did kill those monsters, they would give us 4 levels in total at best. It was definitely a better choice to let Rejoke take care of them." Yuki said, trying to increase Aurora's mood at least a bit.
'I know. Still, this place is simply lacking for us now. Even Rejoke can easily take care of any monsters here now that he reached level 30 and has a total of four treasures equipped.' In the end, Aurora merely shook her head as she made her decision.
'Let's start looking for a new place to move. As long as the monsters there are still rank 1, I should be able to take off just about anything. Even Rejoke should be able to easily handle level 40 monsters.' Aurora gave the final verdict, to which Yuki could only nod.
Even if it pained her heart to leave a potential farm like this forest, it was undeniable that staying here would do them a disservice rather than a service.
How, just us Aurora was about to motion Rejoke to follow her; she froze up as she felt two auras approaching them. They were both powerful, one of them belonging to a being of about level 45.
However, it wasn't the aura of that almost peak-level first-rank being that made Aurora freeze up; it was the second aura that did. The second aura was much more powerful and terrifying than the first one. It was an aura of a rank 2 being.
"Now, isn't that interesting? An evolved Shadow Wolf and a fox-type magical beast? That's an interesting combination indeed." Hearing the words spoken in a very familiar language, Aurora turned around, her eyes falling on the two powerful beings.
They both looked like perfectly normal human males, with one of them having short blond hair and the other having short silver hair.
'Humans? Not to mention that they speak English?' Aurora frowned. This was the first time she met the humans of this world, and while they looked slightly different from the humans she remembered from her past life, there were some minor differences.
However, what caught her eyes the most was the language the silver-haired man spoke in. Even if her memory was broken, there was no way she would completely forget the language she spoke every day in her past life.
"English? What is that?" But there was someone else who was even more confused than Aurora, and that someone was Yuki. Naturally, she had no idea what English was.
'English is a language I know from my past life and a language I use very often. Even right now, we're talking in English.' Aurora explained to her sister, her eyes never leaving the two men.
"Huh? What do you mean? This whole time we were speaking in the universal language. It's language spoken by most races across all the worlds of the universe. These two humans also spoke that language." Yuki words left Aurora confused as well. Universal language? It was the same as the English she knew.
"Master, what's so interesting about these filthy beasts?" But before Aurora could say anything else, one of the men spoke again, this time the weaker, blond-haired one.
"Foolish disciple. It is very uncommon for two beasts that are so different to cooperate. Not to mention that I can't recognize that small fox." The silver-haired man spoke with a small, disdainful smile on his face.
"Besides, these beasts are very interesting indeed. Look, they're even wearing treasures." The man's eyes swept over the various accessories on Aurora's and Rejoke's bodies.
"Huh? Now that you mention if, you are right, master. Still, why should we bother with them?" The seemingly younger, blonde man asked with an arrogant smile on his lips. It was very clear that he didn't take the two beasts in front of them seriously.
"Don't underestimate these beasts, my disciple. How about you fight that wolf for now?" The older man spoke again, pointing at Rejoke.
"What? Why? I can easily take both of them on!" The young man exclaimed, irritated that his master was underestimating his power.
"You sho-" The older man was about to speak again; however, his words got cut short by the cute sound of the white fox.
"Kyu!" Aurora looked at Rejoke and motioned with her head to attack the younger man. Rejoke's eyes locked onto the blond-haired man, and with a simple nod, his body disappeared into shadows.
"What!?" The young man exclaimed, barely able to block Rejoke's claw with his sword. Even then, the wolf's sudden attack forced him to retreat several meters.
"Now, that's even more interesting than I thought." The silver-haired man watched with an amused smile as he saw the black wolf only focus on his disciple and completely ignore his presence.
Unlike with Aurelius when Rejoke froze up and wasn't able to even move, he was much better off now with the silver-haired man. Even if he couldn't fight him, he refused to get frightened by him.
"It seems that even I underestimated you. I wonder what you are, beast." The man's eyes fell onto Aurora, who merely returned his stare with a cold glare.
This man had already pissed her off enough. Even if he was a second-rank individual, she wouldn't run. Heck, she already defeated one such being in the past! A life would perish today, and it wouldn't be hers or Rejoke's!