Inari’s crimson wings, lined with black fur, stretched across the shattered skies, each beat a thunderclap of righteous fury. He moved uninhibited by notions of fear or concern, propelled by the raw, visceral pain of his bond sullied, his trust fondled. Around him, the twin lunar beams of Bako Kagemi, an extension of his will made manifest, surged forward with the proverbial force of an orbital laser. They cascaded upon Caim with power that scathed reality, a flood of emotion, mana, and naten carrying the untamed ferocity of the Crimson Crown’s resolve.
Caim, the enigmatic Sage, met this onslaught with a serene detachment that grated on Inari’s frayed nerves. He forged a temporary bastion of wood and crystal trees, conjured from his own power, a shimmering, ephemeral forest that sprouted between him and the annihilating beams. But their siege of defiance was brief, minuscule, almost as if it was meant only to give Caim enough time to observe the attack’s nature – no, deeper than this, for him to satiate his curiosity concerning Inari himself.
The forest evaporated under the molten assault, but Caim remained unperturbed. His eyes, keen and ancient, seemed to peel back layers of Inari’s very soul.
"I sense suffering," Caim’s voice echoed, not just in the air, but within the seams of Inari’s mind, a cold, clinical pronouncement.
Yes. It was no secret to anyone here, least of all Inari's companion, the depths of sorrow that Inari once struggled under. A weight so impossibly heavy that every step he took felt like he was moving the tonnage of mountains on his shoulders. But shoulder it he had. Yes, he had suffered; his tale was wrought with the pain of betrayal, of loss. Over countless lifetimes, it had existed as a cycle of rinse and repeat.
Life, longing, suffering, happiness, then bitter loss and death.
One thousand years of this… many faces, many names.
So many names.
He had struggled for his sense of self, to find the root and nexus of experiences and memories of past trauma. It was a perilous voyage, sifting through centuries of piled anguish, yet here he remained. Aurelius’s lamentation, Nagase’s angst, Caim’s cold observation—they flooded through him, around him, at intervals, obscuring what he knew to be fact and fiction.
Yet it did not stop his fury. The twin lunar beams that comprised Bako Kagemi pushed forward, decimating Caim’s defenses with prejudice, erasing half of his form from existence, leveling the landscape for miles to come. A small, quinet vindication bloomed in Inari’s chest as he witnessed his arbiter tear through the Sage.
"If you killed him, Inariel, I’m gonna have to fight you." Nagase’s voice, a somber jest, cut through the momentary satisfaction. But the jest would turn to bile before he could even revel in it. For no sooner had those words left Nagase’s lips than reality rewrote itself. And with its redefining, Inari’s entire understanding of what was and what is was rewritten alongside it.
"Care to introduce yourselves?"
Those words sat in Inari’s stomach like a hill of iron. They were the very same words Caim spoke when they first arrived. It was as if the Sage had rewound time, no, beyond this, he had brought them back to a point of reality before Inari defiled the realm with his grievances. There was no wind, no sun, and the sky was falling. It was no figurative statement. As Inari’s gaze reached heavenwards, he saw him—Caim was untouched, unscathed, as if Inari had never touched him.
"Impossible…"
This realization paralyzed Inari. For a single moment, he hesitated, transfixed by the sheer absurdity of what they faced.
No longer in Akasha? What did she mean? When Caim pulled them into his memory, it wasn't as simple as that? He… manifested them into some sort of...personal realm? This… was something he thought only the Myotis were capable of. Perhaps it was foolish to assume that the ancestor did not first have access to this legacy. The weight of the falling sky was insurmountable; it hindered movement, it disrupted cognitive function, it created a sense of awe so vast that Inari felt like he was witnessing the force that bound stars together. He began to doubt, question, could he lean on them, would he hurt another person he loved? Would he repeat a meleina of pain all over again?
Yet in the moment where Inari’s will faltered, his companions did not. In fact, they acted in a way that did nothing short of shake him of his foolish doubts. They dared to persist. Aurelius’s grief propelled him to action, his golden visage sacrificing its corporeal form, taking the guise of innumerable gilded butterflies. They swarmed, a shimmering cloud of sacrifice, each butterfly a momentary life, dying and being reborn with every application of his rejuvenating technique, endlessly restoring his team’s functions. Alongside him, Nagase, pushing her conjuration to the brink, summoned a massive spectral whale. Its ethereal form materialized with a groan that shook the rewritten dimensions, its colossal maw devouring the plummeting arc of the sky, its vast body groaning under the impossible weight of reality.
But their actions did not come without a cost. Aurelius was dying, and being reborn, with every application of his rejuvenating technique, a beautiful, tragic cycle of self-sacrifice. Nagase was physically and psychologically tethered to her conjured whale, experiencing its wounds and pain as if they were her own, blood trickling from her lips, her eyes widening with strain. All the while, Inari stood frozen… until he heard Nagase’s voice call out to him, a raw, desperate whisper amidst the cosmic crunch.
"Alleypoo…" she gasped, her voice ragged.
"I lied…" Every syllable was a spear of pain, yet laced with a fierce resolve.
"Please… Kill him…"
Those words, stark, simple, and yet what they inspired in him was nothing small to scoff at. In short words, she had entrusted Inari to act. He had begun to… doubt their bond, their tether, their connection. But as he watched Aurelius’s cycle of rebirth, rejuvenation, and death loop endlessly, and Nagase’s tortured form embracing the whale’s agony, he came to a profound realization.
"Yes, Inariel…" Caim’s voice, now a sounding alarm of worry, cut through the din. A beacon of anxiety-inducing angst, of questioning. Of doubt. He manipulated Aurelius via his name because he was perceived as the easiest of the three. But that didn’t mean that Inariel himself was immune to his provocations.
"All their hopes are riding on you."
"Alleypoo," the moniker replayed again… and again… and again until finally Inari saw a reflection of Allen, the last link in the chain of his cursed existence, before he returned to his original form. It brought back to mind when Azaki Kizu manifested the unseen around him, thousands of faces of lives of names… his surrender to their grief, acknowledging that he was still hurting. It was this pain beneath his fury that Caim sensed. And it was this understanding of self Inari possessed that would render Caim’s manipulations inert.
Inariel Myotis wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:31 pm
The sonnet of sorrow sang by the Hand only further exemplified this world's soon-to-be future and all subsequent worlds: total unity, total annihilation, total rebirth. Inari was... helpless. The last time the demon held him in its grasp it was only by the memory of his parents, the last echoes of their love residing within him coupled with Amrit's metamorphosis, that he was able to resist...and even then, that was but a sliver of the demon's presence. Here, after gorging itself on Xora's inner being, hollowing your flesh, and wearing her skin she served as an avatar for one of the most dangerous cosmic horrors. Its presence alone was mountainous growing larger still with each fleeting moment. The ground was saturated in sanguine rot, the air filled with horrid screams and sullen songs while Helena suffered in the background, a morsel waiting to be consumed. Despite his best efforts, despite actually wanting to make a change, wanting to right his wrongs it seems that he was still lacking.
For all his bravado, all his proclaiming, when it came down to it, he simply wasn't enough. These thoughts pulled him deeper and deeper into despair. The Fel one's voice was Deep, guttural, laced with Xora's cadence.
" You will release the seed, you will let go of the stone... Give in, Inariel. Unity awaits. Annihilation precedes rebirth. It is the natural order, the song of creation and destruction."
Inari's eyes became swollen with blood as the demon's grip tightened. His line of vision blurred as he felt his spirit began to slip away from him. All of it, everything that he had done, all the searching he had done, all for naught...all yielded to nothing.
"Aurelius...
Mother...Father...
Forgive me...in the end I simply...wasn't enough"
Tears mixed with blood streamed down his face. He closed his eyes, the image of his parents' faces, fading memories, flickering in his mind. His bloodshot eyes bled on the stained earth. The demon dug its hand deep within Inari's chest, the pain unbearable as his warm blood coated the demon's hand feeling its hand caress his CORE. Inari's vision swam with crimson. The demon's grip on his chest was like a vise, crushing the air from his lungs. He could feel his lifeblood seeping into the festering earth below. Despair, thick and suffocating, threatened to drown him. He felt the demon's hand probe deeper, closer to something vital within him. Then, as his consciousness wavered, a different voice, calm and familiar, resonated in the fragmented realm of his mind.
"So this...is the legacy of the Myotis? What I would've given to be able to see it with the eyes of the living."
Inari’s eyes flickered open, not in the physical world of rot and screams, but within the blood-red landscape of his inner world. Allen stood before the shimmering golden tapestry, its threads fraying at the edges as the dark sky above cracked like shattered glass. Inari’s physical pain receded, replaced by a hollow ache in his soul.
"I…have failed… I failed you, Minratha, Sophia, Hyomyn… everyone. I promised…"
His voice was weak, echoing faintly in the Red Realm. Allen turned to face him, a melancholic sadness in the phantom eyes.
"No...quite the opposite."
Allen’s hand reached out, fingers brushing against the luminous strands of the tapestry. Wisdom, memories, the collective knowledge of generations, threatened to unravel into the encroaching darkness.
"It is we… who have failed you. For each of us placed upon your shoulders our hope and desires, even knowing that it could fracture your mind… we should’ve sought to assuage you of your guilt, knowing that it was the truth beneath your facade of fury."
"My fury is no facade. Look at this! At everything! I've watched myself fail and fumble everything in my grasp. The demon blames it on my curse… but perhaps… this was always my fate. To break."
"Hmp… fate? And here I was thinking how alike we were… but our vantage points couldn't be more different."
Inari gestured around the crumbling Red Realm, mirroring the despair of the outer world.
"Look around you! Around us! At every turn we are hunted, desired, pursued, and culled along with everything dear to us. Hiding… masking. This is the result of the foolish… hope."
Allen stepped closer, his phantom form emanating a gentle warmth.
"Yes… but if we were so useless, if all of this was all so pointless, for what reason then did you seek me out Inari? If it all held no point, if all of this was purposeless why then did you come here? Into this realm of echoes?
"Xora… said it was the design of the Eye… that I had to…that I held no choice."
A hint of steel entered his voice. A deep sigh, heavy with ages of sorrow and understanding.
"There is always...always a choice. Xora… Minratha… is blinded by grief, beset with the tragedy of all she lost, of what I took from her…
"...."
"When I… sullied the Moonflow, our curse spread to her, my madness became hers. It… tainted our connection. But… it was never severed. Isn’t that obvious? Or would you rather accept the convenient folly of fate?"
The crown's eyes widened slightly, a flicker of recognition.
"E’vanoris… that silver eye… so I didn’t just imagine it. That was… her?"
"She recognized me… her fury, her lament. When we came in contact with the tree upon our first visit, the land recognized our scourge… but also… its parent. But that the tree gave you the last of its light, means that she is still in there, somewhere."
"But...she is far beyond my reach."
"When you revisited the past through our shared bloodline… the memories of my life before coming to the Black Forest returned to me… I had been running for years… centuries. I once belonged to an enclave of scattered Myotis who decided to leave the caverns long before I was born, so I never knew our people, only stories of past glory. My parents were hunted, giving their lives to ensure I live. I… tried so hard to fit into society. Tried to make friends, to form bonds. But at every turn, I was either outcasted for being an Elv, or my ignorance of this world's customs placed a rafter between me and others….I had given up hope, that I could ever be a puzzle that fit comfortably in the world."
"For years I wandered the planet aimlessly, attacked by many creatures, agents of the Eye, but I survived. I was a feral beast, a prime vessel for the Eye in nature and deed. I knew nothing but the shadow of the moon, the darkness of life. A life of solitude, and existence of seclusion… and I felt that was for the best. Because I could do nothing but kill, and harm. But… then I came upon Moonfang, so close to death… so close to destruction...I would have never thought the day would come when a new crown would sit from my bloodline."
"Then you met Hyomyn..."
"Yes...for the first time since my parents there was someone who looked at me, with worry, concern not for their wellbeing, but for my own. In this world that had only ever given me disdain, here this person, a shining light...to me...Hyomyn was like the sun rising after a cold dark moonless night..."
Inari's gaze became piercing, the despair momentarily pushed aside by a sharp question
"So why Allen? Why did you betray them? Why did you betray him?"
Allen’s smile falters, his phantom form momentarily flickering. He looks down at the fraying golden threads, a deep sorrow etched into his features. Pressing, sensing a vulnerability beneath Allen's stoicism.
"Because I...was afraid and ignorant. The Desire I consumed was intentionally sent to me by the eye, a seed planted that in time bloomed. It used me, to get to the goddess...to deepen my madness."
"I had only ever known loss; every connection attempt was only met with a severing afterward. I didn't understand my own emotions for him, and by the time I began to comprehend them, his heart had already belonged to Sophia. I...wanted so desperately, Inari, to be happy for them. To be able to accept things as they were and live out eternity with them and Minratha. Though I did not have the family I wanted, I had exactly the family I needed...but in the back of my mind...I could feel the darkness festering. I... didn't want them to see me as ungrateful...as a monster. I...didn't want to lose anything ever again. So I took up a mantle I cared little for, to protect and draw closer to that which meant everything to me...I've earned their hatred...and now, they all are demons. You must think me a fool..."
Allen said.
"I do...I think you're downright stupid."
Inari looked at Allen, his expression a mix of frustration and determination.
"But...I deeply understand your feelings. I have often found myself battling the same concerns. So many have placed their faith in me, and because of my past choices, I often feel that I am undeserving. That I don’t have what it takes to be what all these people see me as. What I speak for myself. To be the crown our people deserve. But...there was one person, one being who only ever encouraged me to do what I thought was best to do. One willing to embrace me in the light, or walk into the abyss. Though I find it hard to have faith in myself at times...I...I want to have faith in those who have faith in me."
He said to Allen, who cracked a slight smile.
"Minratha held faith in me...it is the source of her curse and that which tethers her to the Eye. Yet, she is not gone, there is still a chance, Inariel."
Allen's voice was valiant, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
Whether he was Allen or Inari did not matter. Whether those lives ended or he began didn’t matter. For he carried each of those lives with him, all as extensions of his true self. Aurelius and Nagase trusted him; he didn’t have to lean on his own understanding, for the fact remained that their hope was riding on him. For he was, regardless of name: The Crimson Crown!
His eyes, once shadowed by doubt, now narrowed with blazing resolve.
"You could not know this Caim… for despite your age, your relevance… You have lived but a single life." The words vibrated with newfound power, a statement of inherent superiority in the face of Caim's limited experience.
"You are not a crown… You do not know what it is like to carry this weight… You wish to see it? This pain… fine. But you will also witness that my power is not born from suffering and anger alone!"
Another movement. The golden butterflies of Aurelius, sacrificing themselves in a constant flow, imbued Inari with a surge of renewed power, his vigor incarnate. Nagase, gritting through blood and pain, manifested a slit in space before Inari and another directly above Caim. But it was not for Inari to travel through. Inari took in a breath, almost as if copying the way Caim duplicated Nagase's smile, and with that inhale, he became connected to what, he was unsure, but it felt like something so similar to a Soul Beat but older...as if he was reaching back so far within himself he nearly touched the forgotten. In his mocking, he had shared with Inari perhaps more than he might have intended. He saw the way the world folded around Caim, the way space held him, time carressed him, the weavings of the universe answered to him.
Sometimes you have to fake it until you make it.
For what is reality if not dreams finally realized?
It was but an incling...but it was enough to ground him.
"Sunder all beneath you…"
The invocation began as a whisper, barely heard above the falling sky's groans. But with each syllable, Inari's voice grew stronger, resonating through the very fabric of existence. This call shook Caim’s space with a vibration that felt like something adjacent to technique, like the suspense of arrival, like a coming of something indecribable. As if something was arriving that pressed against the boundaries of this realm so deeply it could be likened to continents rubbing against one another. Reality itself seemed to hold its breath, the collapsing sky freezing mid-fall as every atom in the realm turned to witness what was about to be born. It was then that from Inari’s right hand, an obscene amount of mana began to manifest.
"I will protect them...all of them!"
Inariel Myotis wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2025 1:57 am
"We...we all had it wrong, all this time."
Allen said, Amrit, stepping into the chamber wearily, his fur standing up as if sensing the danger being placed here.
"It...feels like we're not supposed to be here Allen."
"This is the domain of a fallen goddess; it is sacrilege for us to even know about it. But all this time, I assumed the Moonflow was but a product of the oasis. But all along, the Moonflow was the oasis itself."
"What...is that thing?"
Amrit could feel Allen's recollections as they observed that slowly beating structure, pieces of its woodflesh flaking off.
"This...is...was, where the goddess slept. Sophia and Minratha were fae born from the affluence of Kirin and Bako. Their task was protecting their respective domains, which required a great amount of power. Thus, every two centuries, one of the goddesses would venture into a slumber that lasted 50 years to recuperate. This is where they slumbered and it was this chamber that the Guardians of Twilight were set to guard as they could not defend themselves whilst they slept."
"So...it's some kind of cocoon?"
" I once read about structures of the old world amalgam of mystic ingenuity that protected Oases from being mishandled. This...heart seems to be a vestige, and the Moonflow, the blood that flows through it, this entire time what rose to the surface was but a sliver of the whole....This is it, the birthplace of the Goddeses"
"These red spires, they feel like that demon out there."
The fox's brow furrowed.
"So this was the Eye's true aim. It...used me to corrupt this vestige in turn corrupting the moon flow and taking its power for itself. Xora, a goddess gone mad, still held her connection to this place. If we can cast out the Fel one's influence from this heart, we can start detangling this shit show."
"Well, we're here, tell me what I have to do..."
Meanwhile, Inari and the Fel one were locked in mortal combat. An encounter shook the realms of seen and unseen producing shockwaves that threatened to bring the castle tumbling down. The Crimson crown was holding his own, but Allen's influence was finite and burning away quickly. Time, was unfortunately not on their side.
"Amrit, as part of Inari's soul, you possess the spiritual presence of his divinity. You must infiltrate the heart and release the seed of creation into it. Doing so will provide the connection I need to begin the spell, but..."
"But what?"
"This corruption is far more diabolical than even the curse of the Moonscar, being this close to it I can barely keep my mind intact. I...I don't know if you will survive this...if the demon mana takes you...you could devoured by it...or worse become its slave."
The fox spirit despite the stake strode forth without an ounce of hesitation.
"Just who do you think you're talking to Allen?"
His tail twitched with anticipation, preparing himself for what was to come.
"I am the better half of the first Myotis to be crowned in over a thousand years. An incarnation of the moon's serenity, and the claw of its shadow. Inari's heart...his soul is stronger than any of you give him credit for...even he seems to lack that understanding...but I was born from the pit of his being...and have seen first-hand his resilience. Since he became aware of me...Inari has survived one catastrophe after another. "
Amrit recalled Inari's memories. His regret for killing Bora, the spark that opened his mind, and his heart.
"From the moment his eye first opened he has faced nothing but ridicule and assumption of his nature. Labeled a bloodthirsty beast.... not that they were always wrong. But..."
"He is the type of person that despite his vast potential, constantly searches within for ways to be better, stronger for the pursuit of his ideals...and to safeguard those who are precious to him. To take back that which was stolen from him. His family, his right to one! He's managed to surprise everyone who met him. Going up against a demonic god to do so. He even managed to get a leg up on me, I was sure he was going to slaughter all the Myotis because of their weakness...but I think Inari chose to save them because he saw himself in them. What injustice had done to them, to him."
The spirit's gaze drifted to the corroding canopy above them. Even now he could smell the lingering traits of its prior luminance.
"Lightless, forgotten, condemned...isolated. He had a choice, given a chance to finally become a part of something rather than proving how different he was...do you know what Inari's wish is?"
"To become the most powerful being there is, to stand upon the pinnacle of all existence..."
"Can you imagine why that is?"
"I...cannot"
The fox spirit stood firm against the pulsing waves of madness calling it.
"Because he is tired of losing the things and people precious to him. He knows he can protect nothing without power and has been willing to delve into forbidden magic to save that which he cares for. There is no evil he will not face, no foe he will not slay, even risking becoming a demon to do so. In that, you are very similar. The only difference is, he continues to fight! He laments his powerlessness and hides this through bravado and brave speech, but on the inside, he is crumbling from the weight of watching people constantly sacrifice themselves for him. That desire...that wish...."
"..."
"That conviction is his true Root, that is what Inari is, who he has chosen to be. And he will have it, even if it means I cease to be, I will risk it to see him free of this nightmare!"
At that moment Amrit's chest began to pulsate as the Seed Of Creation, font of his existence and connection to Inari, its sanguine light emanating from him from a beacon, like the stars above. Allen could not help but be moved to watch this courageous little fox tackle the task before him. In that moment Allen himself held a vision. He witnessed Hyomyn standing where Amrit was. His eyes widened as his friend looked back at him.
Inariel Myotis wrote: Sat Dec 14, 2024 4:35 pm
Inari found himself no longer in Minratha's company, but now that Hyomyn's, the two of them were venturing deeper into the realm, away from the peaceful shores of the Moonflow. They walked through a forest of shadows, where the trees seemed to whisper secrets. The path was lit by the faint glow of bioluminescent mushrooms, casting an eerie, fleeting light.
"You ok, Allen? You've been spacing out a lot lately, brooding more too, well, more than usual."
He looked over to Allen, his bright blue eyes seeming to command the truth of whatever they laid upon. Inari could feel Allen's inability to keep the truth from his closest confidant. He had been chosen, but he couldn't fathom why. Hyomyn, his childhood friend and a beacon of light in the darkest times, seemed the obvious choice. Allen felt that his ability to protect stemmed solely from his capacity for destruction, and he feared that this would be his downfall. His gaze is earthbound as they travel.
"Why do you think Sophia chose me for this trial? I feel like a shadow among the trees—like I don’t belong here. I mean, look at you. You shine with purpose. You’re meant to be a Guardian of the Moon."
Hyomyn, on the other hand, moved with a lightness and confidence that belied the gravity of their mission. He had always seen the good in Allen, even when Allen couldn't see it in himself. As they walked, Hyomyn placed a reassuring hand on Allen's shoulder.
"That’s where you’re wrong, my friend. It’s not just about shining; it’s about understanding the darkness, too. You have a depth that many don’t. That’s why Sophia sees something in you."
Allen shook his head in disagreement.
"But what if that darkness becomes a madness that consumes me? I can only protect myself with the sharpness of my fangs or the burn of my spells. Even still... I don’t— I don’t want to be a vessel for violence; I want to be a Guardian, but all I know is how to slay."
Hyomyn becomes visibly irritated by Allen's self-deprecating words. He gripped Allen's shoulder tightly, holding him firmly as he glared at him.
"Listen to me. The darkness you feel isn’t all you are. It’s only a piece of your story but doesn’t define you. Your story has yet to be entirely written. Every shadow holds a glimmer of light, and I see your light. It shines even brighter when you protect those who can’t defend themselves."
Inari could feel the weight in Allen's heart begin to lift, the stirring chaos within him quelling. Here was a man who possessed just as much power as he had yet seen the world through many different, softer eyes. At the same time, Allen wanted only to reject his calling. One more reason he felt Hyomyn was better suited for the task. Yet...one thing was true indeed. Allen was accustomed to the darkness in a way he prayed his friend never had to experience. That was his purpose for being here, for undergoing this trial. To be the one to bear the darkness so that those around him that he cherished, including the Alondra who raised him, could enjoy the serenity of light. Even still, He could not help but doubt his success in the trials ahead.
"But what if I fail the Trial of Twilight? What if that darkness pulls me under? Sophia’s trials are meant to test our grit, and I fear mine is built on a foundation of rage and despair. Whomever I was before you found me, Hyomyn...these nightmares...I...I wasn't a good person.
Inari's heart grew heavy as the ebbs of Allen's words rang out into the black forest. He knew precisely what troubled Allen, having also long brooded in the mire of his known and unknown past sins. Not only that, but to be a being that held no moral compass, no emotional intellect to now trust in an awareness of it sent him down a habit hole of regret. To know now the weight his former self carried and how he struggled with it was a somewhat comforting comparison to the first vision that gave the impression that he was beyond the demon's influence. He fought...is friends fought.
" Trials are about growth, not perfection. They push us to face our fears and confront what we hide in our hearts. Trust me, I’m terrified too. No one has ever been known to survive Sophia's games. Not since the founder when the village first came to be. But instead of running from the darkness, we must embrace it to find our strength."
"How can you be so sure? What if I lose control? You know what I’m capable of when I’m cornered."
"I have, and I have also seen your capacity for change. When you first came to, you were like a feral fox, cold, untrusting. Many of the villagers were scared of you. But when our village was under siege by a group of wild monsters, you stood by my side to defend them.
Allen blushed slightly, trying to hide his embarrassment. The memories of those times flashed before Inari, a menacing foe, fell in defense of a little girl...who happened to be the elder's daughter.
"You’ve shown kindness and compassion in the darkest moments. Fighting isn’t the only way to protect—there’s also understanding, courage, and wisdom. You have those qualities, Allen! I’ve seen it. When shit hits the fan, you do not flee; you do not fold, you stand!"
His convictions were like threads of faith sowing shut the innumerable rears in Allen's confidence. At one point, Inari would've been completely baffled by such words. But since he met Aurielus, someone who shared blind faith in him, he understood the breath of Hyomyn's determination in his belief in his friend. He thought he could barely imagine it coming from someone with whom you have shared much of your life. Allen...he took Hyomyn's words seriously.
"I value your faith. It feels like an impossible burden to carry the potential of failing the people who depend on me."
Hyomyn smiled at his friend, a smile that carried an almost divine warmth like being bathed in the sun's illustrious glow. This feeling was one he felt after he witnessed Bora's emotions.
"You won’t be alone. We’re in this together. We’ll face the Trial as comrades, and if you stumble, I’ll be right beside you to lift you back up. We’ve trained for this moment; we need to trust ourselves."
"If you say so..."
"Ha, you're impossible, man. I mean, look at this forest. It may be full of shadows but remember: the stars still shine above us, even when hidden. Like the moon, we can find our way through darkness together if we commit to facing it. And even should something ever happen to me... remember this, if you remember nothing else."
Hyomyn turned from him, now facing the sparkling sky above.
"Should you ever stray from your path, if you ever fall back, I will be your backbone...just look up towards the sky, and you'll see me, man; I'll be your guiding star. Even if you become a bad guy, I'll knock some sense into you! Cuz well..."
Hymoyn turned his head back toward Inari, a secure cat grin on his face nervously stretching his face; his cheeks flushed red from embarrassment.
"That's what friends are for, dude."
At that moment, Inari felt a flood of feelings cascade through him like a torrential maelstrom. It almost sent him into a dizzy spell, an overwhelming sensation of euphoria. This was a feeling he had never encountered, but it was intense... incredibly so to the point that he nearly felt himself being consumed by it as if Allen's persona could also devour him. But he stood firm amidst it as it quelled in time.
"Friends...yes...of course. Thank you, my friend...let us keep the lady of secrets waiting no longer..."
Hyomyn took off running.
"The last one there has to rub the elder's feet!"
Allen let out a dry chuckle before taking off after him. The two companions walk deeper into the shadows of the Black Forest, a new resolve stirring in their hearts. The path ahead may be uncertain, but he could feel that Allen was more resolute to face these trials than before. The image of the black forest would fade transition with an almost acquiesced countenance before revealing the next part of his initial inquiry.
The memories of his time with his closest friend came rushing back to him. Flashes of their time together, the many trials and tribulations they staved off defending Moonfang, defending the goddess, their patrons, and family. Allen filled with heart ache reached out to the phantom of his friend. His only gesture was pointing towards the heart. Before he could reach him the image dispersed and only amrit shimmering form remained. Allen watched as the light wisped around his hand and then, felt an immense resolve overcome him.
"Heh...you're right Hyomyn...you're always right."
With his vigor emboldened brighter and bolder than ever before Allen began his incantation.
"Let's go, AMRIT!"
He bellowed his will stronger with the memories of his friendships behind him. Guiding his voice as he recalled the hum of Icarions spell.
"Right!"
The spirited fox lept inside an open lesion, digging into the heart and reaching its center.
The axe took form slowly, as if the universe itself resisted its creation. It twisted and writhed like a living madness, coalescing and congealing into a massive, obsidian axe.
Its surface drank all light,
not figuratively
Literally for the moment, it manifests all traces of light vanished, blanketing them in a starless night.
Its edge, sharp enough to cleave dimensions, burning like a pulsing, simmering star, was the only perceivable light for miles. The Primordial Red that gathered there was not merely the energy of Inari's soul—it was the accumulated weight of the dead.
Of those who had come before.
Of the thousand lifetimes of suffering, of loss, of betrayal that had forged him into what he was.
It was the legacy that would carve the path for those who came after.
Not just after Caim
But after Inari and the present system of things as he and his friends knew it.
It was a promise
A vow
An oath
An Ode
It was his
Animus. The evolution of his Anima; Amrit. His closet companion, the one being he was connected to that no force could befoul.
Inari exhaled, and the"universe" conceided. Returning the stolen light in a
sanguine flash, likened to the birthing of a galaxy.
"Moonscar."
It was a weapon of incomprehensible density, the manifestation of the lives and bonds he had forged in innumerable lifetimes, bound to a single presence. It was so heavy, in fact, that Inari, even with his restored vigor, was incapable of wielding it properly, of swinging it like a traditional weapon. Able to only wield it for even this fraction of a moment because of Aurelius ' embellishment. It existed simultaneously in the physical and ethereal planes, its blade an absolute that recognized no defense, no barrier, no
excuse.
Before his arm gaze out, Inari allowed the weapon to fall through the slit in space that Nagase had crafted. One moment, it was in his hand, the next, it reappeared directly above Caim, falling upon him like a cosmic guillotine, an inescapable force driven by the impossible weight of a thousand lives and the collective sins of existence, poised to crush, rend, and obliterate.
The impact was not merely physical—it was philosophical. Where Moonscar struck, the distinction between flesh and spirit, between matter and mana, ceased to exist. The blade aimed to cleave through Caim's defenses as if they were morning mist, and the metaphysical weight of a thousand lifetimes crashed into the Sage's essence like continents colliding.
Physical eradication.
Spiritual annihilation.
Both at once.
In the epicenter of the collision, the condensed Primordial Red mana explosively decompressed, creating a localized zone of erasure. It was reflective of what grief can take from you
Everything
What loss could leave you with
Nothing
The
landscape cratered, reality rewrote itself again—but this time, it was Inari who held the pen. The resulting explosion of mana and force plumed into a cataclysmic shockwave that destroyed everything around them. Aurelius's butterflies congregated around Nagase, whisking her high in the sky just beyond the point of annihilation, the two of them watching in awe as Inari took back the power of thier faith from Caim.
