“HAHA! Impressive… it seems that the weaker humans are getting stronger, but that’s not enough—I will still kill you!” The goblin king laughed as he rushed at me with both swords raised!
My claws clashed with his swords, the sound of metal on the claw resounding as the shockwave sent some goblin knights flying!
“You’re strong.”
He smiled as he slipped his right foot back, twisting his green hips with a crafty attack, swinging his swords and cutting into my chest and shoulder.
However, I just laughed as the wounds healed in seconds and smashed the bastard with a fierce headbutt, my eyes gazing as Kana tore the head of the second deformed goblin clean off—her eyes were filled with a euphoric glow as she looked towards the goblin king and me.
I couldn’t let her outshine me, right? Her speed was about equal to mine, but her strength was lower. I was sure she could probably beat me in our normal forms now…
“GRAA!” The goblin king screamed as he pushed me back, yet with a twirl, my claws and body danced around his blades—with a flick of my right arm, I tore off chunks of flesh from his body, and then my left arm began burning them with my flames…
“King~ your dancing skills are far too low.”
“Grrrr! You useless dregs, get back and defend me!” The king yelled to the goblin knights, but they were currently being crushed by the other fighters, Midori specifically, as her fists caused their chests to explode.
The goblin knights were no longer a threat to me, as the ability users had them under control, and Kana was moving around us, her fists smashing through any goblin knights who got in her way… While waiting to land a haymaker on this king and win our bet!
A cheeky girl… but after all, I like it this way!
With a spin, I avoided another sword slash and grabbed his green neck, lifting him into the air, his swords falling to the ground as my claws dug into his throat while I grinned at him…
“How about I eat you?” I grinned, my fangs biting into his neck, tearing his flesh and drinking the goblin king’s blood… it tasted awful… like sour milk and rotten eggs.
I spat it out as Kana arrived next to me, panting slightly from the fatigue of fighting goblin knights.
“Hey~ I’ll let you touch my tits if you give me the killing blow,” she whispered with a sensual voice that caused my mind to blank for a moment at the image.
Before I knew it, her fist was already shooting towards the goblin in my hand because I held him in the air—she jumped with a Superman punch…
Now stealing my moves!?
BOOM!
The goblin king’s head exploded, his brains splattering all over my fur… it felt disgusting, so I threw the rest of the body into the air, and Kana hit it with a superkick… causing my heart to throb, sending the body flying into the sky.
“I won!” She grinned as her arms wrapped around my neck, hugging me, her large breasts pushing into my chest…
“Cheat… but you did win, so what do you want?”
Ever since this woman appeared… she always seems to catch my attention when I least expect it.
However, even when the king’s body was turned into complete mush, there was nothing that showed the gate closing, and it was then I figured out that I needed to go inside to close the portal.
Stepping forward to this strange black vortex, a completely different portal than before…
“Rai!?” Kana yelled, but I turned and smiled at her as the black vortex engulfed my body, and I felt a strange sensation, my body being pulled… but the moment I entered, it seemed like the entrance closed off as I began falling through the air with a sense of vertigo and air pressure.
Bang!
I landed on the cold floor, the air around me freezing, my fur bristling up as I rose to my feet, looking around at the surroundings…
The room I was in was huge, with dark ice everywhere…
Inside the room, there weren’t any monsters or enemies, but there were paintings on the walls like church murals and a huge black throne… it was empty and frozen in time thanks to the dark ice… I began to step forward, using the flame on my hand to make more light.
Even though I could see without it, the temperature was freezing…
“Strange… all the murals, why does the divine word for “Mother” “Sister” and “Our Lady of Darkness.” I tried to read more, but the strange language was like scribbles done with claws in the dark… only those that contained a slither of divinity seemed to resonate with my memories as Iranos…
Then I looked above the throne…
A woman was frozen in the beautiful black ice… her features ethereal like a fairy sleeping and waiting for her prince… she wore a black and red dress with various frilly decorations and a lovely ribbon across her chest.
The woman wasn’t huge, or some monster, but a rather petite girl… and her face…
“Haru…ka?” I called her name…
It was like looking at Haruka, except her hair was silver, and her eyes were closed with a strange but pretty tattoo on her forehead, but her features were similar… I couldn’t help but raise my hand and touch the dark ice, but it was extremely cold to the touch…
“Such a beautiful woman, why is she left alone in this cold, dark place… I want to give her a warm burial surrounded by warmth and beauty…”
I then tried to melt the ice, but the moment my flames flickered, the black ice began to form spikes penetrating my flesh, causing blood to ooze down the frozen tomb—a moment later, the wound began to become infected, and I suffered from necrosis and frostbite…
Why does she look so alike… what feeling is making my heart so adamant when there are subtle differences?
Ba-Dump!
Ba-Dump!
There was some strange connection… I felt her heart still beating as it instantly synchronised to mine… a sense of fear began to creep up my spine as the sound of ice cracking filled the room. Yet nothing changed—I was just being paranoid… stepping back from the beautiful woman after placing my palm on the ice, it was like a permanent imprint of my hand was left.
Stepping down from the throne, a portal appeared behind me, and on the outside, I could see everyone celebrating… “Did the gate close?”
Turning back for one last look only to find nothing had changed.
“I don’t know who you are… but I am sorry for disturbing your tomb… My name is Rai, Shibuya Rai… Please rest well, and I hope you are not suffering.”
I was filled with questions and a few worries because of that dark and twisted language of scratches that physically hurt my eyes to read…
I felt it was connected to THEM.
***
? ?????? POV
There was a warmth that filled my empty husk in this world of frozen silence…
His hair was beautiful like the sun, and his eyes gentle like the bright sky of those worlds that rejected my presence…
Who are you? I tried to ask, but the frozen prison stopped my voice and mouth from moving.
I want to know you…
He gently stroked the tomb and began to change into a human form. Such a beautiful man, why do you look so forlorn?
Is it because of me!? …such a gentle and sweet boy.
His skin began to bruise and necrotise, but he just smiled at me… stroking the place my face would be… he even called me beautiful and wanted to bring me to his warm, gentle world… ah, the spikes are hurting him because he tried to help me!
Haru…ka? Haruka… Haruka? Is this… the name he has given me?
The one only ever known as her, she, the enemy, mother… lady of darkness… finally someone gave me a true name?
Is this feeling in my chest happiness… delight? I feel like my heart might burst!
Will there come a day when I can see him again…
What is your name?
Why do you look like a wolf but transform into a handsome man?
Are you my destiny?
Wait for me… I will come to you soon.
He seems to be on the other side of that gate… ah~ he spoke… what a handsome and adorable voice…
Shibuya Rai… Rai….Rai…. hehehe… Rai…. I will come… soon…
I will come…!
The entire room started to tremble as the divine words started to crack, breaking apart as if something was overpowering them… destroying their power like a curse… or rot.
In the darkness, suddenly, a pair of eyes opened, causing the entire room of black ice to shatter into millions of shards—the beautiful red eyes with a black sclera watched into the distance as if she could still see Rai’s back.
“There you are…”
“My lovely wolf prince!”