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"Where are you taking Master?"
A chilling voice, seemingly freezing the very air, echoed through the night.
Rin hovered in midair—like a deity descending to earth, gazing down upon the world below. The fox people, who moments ago had sung of freedom, collectively faltered.
"Calamity Fox?! H-How did you find us here?"
The elder frantically checked the barrier, but it was still functioning normally. The distortion talismans stuck to the trees were also working as intended.
He couldn't even begin to fathom what kind of spell Rin had used to locate them.
Reading the bewilderment etched on his face, Rin spoke as if it were a matter of fact.
"Rin is Master's slave. Did you think I wouldn't know his whereabouts?"
For anyone with a certain level of proficiency in magic, tracing the shackles to find Karami's location was child's play.
Moreover, the soul shackles were a binding even Mirabelle couldn't sever. A low-level magic from a mere elderly three-tailed fox could not possibly hope to obstruct it.
"Hand over Master. Now."
Ever since Karami danced with death at the Blood Wolfman's hands, Rin's obsession had intensified tenfold.
And now these fox people, whom she already detested, had kidnapped him—this transgression was unforgivable.
One fox, grasping the gravity of their situation better than the rest, pressed sharp claws against Karami's throat.
"D-Don't move! One step and I'll pierce this human's throat!"
"…"
"Begone, Calamity Fox!"
As the fox cautiously retreated, something suddenly seized the arm threatening Karami.
Glancing down, the fox beheld tree branches entwined around their limb. A withered tree spirit had extended its reach.
Before they could react, the spirit twisted, snapping the fox's arm.
Crack.
"Gyaaaak!"
The fox collapsed, howling in agony. The others, too panicked to regain their senses, stood frozen.
Unbeknownst to them, the yokai of White Cloud Valley had surrounded them.
Yet they posed no threat to Rin… as if they were submitting to her.
The strong prey on the weak.
The weak submit to the strong.
Yokai are simple creatures.
They bow before those mightier than themselves.
If they had submitted to the Ghost Bear, White Cloud Valley's former strongest, it was only natural for them to submit to Rin, who had crushed it.
"H-Hey, wait a second—"
The fox people finally grasped their dire predicament.
God had forsaken them.
And a merciless slaughter commenced.
Will-o'-wisps set the fox people ablaze, while the withered tree spirit shattered their bones joint by joint, folding them neatly like origami.
A massive bird yokai, the Mutant Bird, swooped down from the sky, snatching two foxes in its talons before vanishing into the night.
It was utter chaos.
"Please, spare us! You, she called you her master! Tell her to stop this madness!"
A quick-witted fox person begged Karami for their life. He smiled, gently pushing away the woman clinging to him.
"Rin, we need the elder alive. Only he knows the shrine's location."
"Mhm, okay. I'll keep him alive."
The implication of those words was obvious, draining color from the faces of those who heard.
That night, new ghostly wails were added to White Cloud Valley.
***
Only three returned to the fox den.
One was Rin. She was slightly dusty and her hair slightly disheveled, but otherwise unchanged from her departure.
Another was Karami. He was unscathed save for faint marks where the vines had bound his wrists.
The last was the fox elder. His walk was unsteady, for one simple reason: his three tails had been reduced to one. The rest had been plucked and burned away.
Since he was born a three-tailed fox, he may regrow them given time and spiritual power. But his life, not his tails, should be his primary concern now.
All the other fox people, except for the elder, had become yokai food. He alone remained of the fox clan.
Even that meager grace may soon vanish.
The two had the limping elder lead the way. They passed through the empty village and stopped at a corner. The elder muttered an incantation and the ground rippled, revealing hidden stairs descending into darkness.
They entered a subterranean realm where sight failed. Its abandonment was evident in the thick dust, which choked the air with a musty miasma.
Rin conjured a fox fire for illumination as they ventured deeper.
Though labyrinthine, spells guarded every turn. Without dispelling these enchantments, one would be forever trapped in maddening hallucinations, rotting in the underground maze.
Only the elder knew how to dispel this magic. It was no exaggeration to say this was the sole reason he was alive.
After about 30 minutes of walking through corridors, Karami hummed casually, hands clasped behind his back. Rin's eyes, however, trembled slightly with each step deeper.
She felt something drawing her towards it, like a magnet.
At last, they reached their destination. Fox fires were placed in the installed lanterns throughout, bursting into flames and pushing back the darkness.
What was revealed was, quite literally, a small shrine.
A stone altar.
A fox-shaped statue.
Behind the altar loomed a grand mural depicting a nine-tailed fox, its tails fluttering majestically, as if connecting heaven and earth.
But what captured Rin's attention more than anything else was the golden fox orb placed on the altar. It emitted a radiance, glowing like the sun in the long-forgotten dusty shrine.
The elder spoke.
"Here lies the sacred ground of our fox clan. It is a shrine built by our ancestors trapped in White Cloud Valley."
It was from an era when the gumiho was still revered as a clan deity, not merely a yokai. The fox people of that time built this shrine to honor their god.
The golden fox orb served as a vessel, containing fragments of the sealed gumiho's power. It was this very reason why the other yokai, fearing the gumiho's might, had not invaded the fox den.
Of course, as time marched on and the history of the gumiho was erased, the shrine's existence was buried alongside it.
Karami, out of curiosity, tried to touch the fox orb.
Sizzle!
"Ouch!"
The fox orb burst into flames.
Karami yelped and quickly withdrew his hand.
"It is unwise to touch it carelessly. None but the gumiho may approach."
"Then how was it moved here?"
"That's…"
It wasn't recorded.
Did they collectively blow on it?
Or perhaps they used some kind of tool to move it?
The fox elder, after a moment of serious contemplation, snapped back to reality with a "Huh!"
"That is not important. The moment the gumiho claims this, they will actively move to suppress her."
"Rin, did you catch that? You just need to take this."
"Understood. Loud and clear."
"When did I say it like that?! You won't be safe either, you realize that, no?! It would be wiser to be content with your current state and live in obscurity…"
"That's not what I desire. As her master, I seek the complete liberation of my slave."
To do that, she needed to take that fox orb and inherit the gumiho's power.
"Mere wishes do not grant you the right. If you fail the gumiho's trial… you will be devoured where you stand."
"If we were to back down now, we wouldn't have come in the first place. Isn't that right, Rin?"
"Yes."
Rin slowly approached the fox orb and took a deep breath. Feeling fate's call, she carefully placed her hand on the orb.
At that moment.
Hiss!
Intense flames erupted, engulfing Rin. While her physical form remained in the shrine, her consciousness flowed away, like water following a stream.
Where her consciousness arrived, following the stream, was pitch-black darkness.
Rin looked down to check her body. When she touched herself, she could feel the sensation. It was an ambiguous feeling, as if standing on the boundary between reality and illusion.
What am I supposed to do here?
There's nothing but darkness.
What kind of trial is supposed to appear?
No sooner had she tilted her head in confusion than color filled the darkness. What appeared was the all-too-familiar fox den. But the fox people she was certain she had killed were walking around brazenly.
Rin's expression immediately soured, and she instantly ignited and threw fox fire, but it disappeared without causing any damage. As if it wasn't real.
Could this be a trap?
Did that crooked old fox deceive me?
But the power of the fox orb had felt real…
Now that she looked closely, the fox den was subtly different from her memories. The layout and shape of the buildings, and even the fox people walking around the den.
It felt familiar yet she couldn't remember exactly.
As Rin furrowed her brow, irritated by the unresolved questions, she heard a commotion.
"Children, didn't Mommy tell you not to play with the Calamity Fox?"
A mother fox taking away her young cubs.
As if separating them from something.
That something was Rin herself.
However, it wasn't the current Rin, but one wearing rags instead of shoes, covered in scratches, with only one tail. It was Rin from when she was young.
No. Although Rin had grown this much in just a few months, this wasn't the recent one-tailed fox, but a one-tailed fox from the distant past.
With that realization, the strange sense of déjà vu that had pricked at her mind like needles suddenly made sense. This was the fox den from long ago.
Rin could roughly guess the nature of the trial.
Liberation from the past.
That was the trial set forth by the gumiho.