Isher Notra

Stella:

"Come on, girl! We can go further!"

Her arms were swelling with power. Her veins were filled with energy, pumping in and out of her racing, young heart as her golden glow, weak by itself, created something grander, combined with her packmate's white Saniya. Albeit without the Saniya-sensing technique, she could feel on her bones the sharpening synchrony between their ethereal, double-layered thrum, mere steps away from melding as one.

However, as they approached the singularity, the power they emitted became more volatile, reaching the point where their light forced the Human to rely on every sense but sight. Her hearing was next to be impaired by the booming sound, followed by the powerful shockwaves that dragged her feet further away, pushing her to waste more Saniya in sinking them into the dirt.

"Damn it. I can't even see if it's working or not!" Stella gritted her teeth, cursing her own inadequacy. "I have to trust Lien's lead here. She's the one who can sense what's going on..."

Still, the pup couldn't even detect Yuki-onna's ambush minutes earlier, likely because of the palpable Saniya from the grid's core filling the atmosphere. And now, with what they are producing...

They were gambling with fate, weren't they...?

Nonetheless, Stella's breath hitched when she felt her hand gradually sinking into the cold barrier, the temperature gnawing at her fingers. "Bingo!"

Closing her eyes and clearing her mind, Stella allowed her fears to melt into nothingness, trusting this strange bond between her and the Wolf that seemed to transcend the material plane. The mighty inferno, circling in and out of her, fiercely clashed against Yuki-onna's wintry energy, which appeared to flow directly against her, repelling her as if the barrier itself was fighting for its own life. That, or it was just her brain playing tricks.

Lien's voice broke through the deafening sea in short pieces. "Almost... Stella... MORE!!!"

Three words were enough for the young Human's heart to flare with unyielding resolve, vocalizing as her loudest roar as she poured everything she had into her palm!

Every neuron in her brain was flashing with electric determination, until-

"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yuki-onna's voice blared in her psyche, saturated with genuine horror and agony.

Nevertheless, the initial shock was rapidly drowned out when the actual, overwhelming noise reached its peak. Not even a second after, the Human's entire body was flung at an alarming speed by the mother of all shockwaves! For a brief moment, all she could feel was the cold wind gracing her skin before a dull ache struck her back, pulling her out of momentum with the grace of a raging bull.

Her next grasp on conscience came immediately for her, though who knew how long it truly had been? Her body seemed to be utterly disconnected from her mind, a thin thread of sensation connecting her basic components.

Was she... dying?

No. Fuck no. This would NOT be how Stella's life would end! Not by a fucking accident! The only worthy ways of abandoning this plane would be by Yuki-onna's hands or by shielding someone else! Especially Lien!

"Come on, stupid body! MOVE! PLEASE!!!"

When Stella's eyes decided to open at last, they managed by a smidge, glimpsing only a murky kaleidoscope of whites and greens and...

...

Pink?

Yuki-onna:

Her eyelids shot open. Her entire body was covered in cold sweat.

"No, no, no..." Her limbs were shaky, unreliable. Yet, she willed herself against all odds and gradually supported herself back to her feet, even if all of her senses were yet to reconnect properly to reality. "Where... is... she...?"

While she put her hand over her face, her flat chest heaved, taking a couple of seconds for each inhale and exhale. Slowly, between her bony fingers, her vision escaped the haze of exhaustion after a period she was unaware of...

Separating her palm from her pale complexion, her bulging eyes took the time to stare at the former. The scar carved on its dainty surface, shaped flawlessly like the core rune, glowed with a faint turquoise, emitting an almost invisible cold mist. At least, she absorbed a considerable amount of Saniya before...

Before...

Before her, there was...

...A gaping, smoking crater lay there rather than the linchpin of her entire operation. Her scheme, carefully crafted through weeks of consideration over the mechanics of her rune grid, over the one who would take her bait, and over the hostages she'd keep to halt the advance of reinforcements...

...All brought to ruin by a couple of children, wielding power beyond her ancient knowledge.

It was only a matter of time before the guards waiting outside the ice border realized the grid's deactivation. Her defeat was ultimately assured.

However, she still had Saniya to ensure that the Human population in Sayama would be halved, at the very least. Desperation made her lose the chance to extinguish the adult, but the child should be enough, under this drastic failure.

Her hands picked the twin, blood-coated kunai from the floor. Her eyes shifted and searched with renewed purpose. There was no chance these girls had woken up before her, considering they were much closer to the explosion. If they weren't blown up to smithereens by it, that was.

"Well, well..." She formed a grin once she laid eyes on the unconscious Human child, limp against a tree. "Tizohi's shadows have blessed me, at last..."

Stolen novel; please report.

However, before the first step could be made, the voice of the last Monoke she expected to meet at this point rang loud and clear.

"We re-meet at last, Yuki-onna!"

"No..." The sorceress's eyes twitched with indignation, slowly rotating to meet its source as her mind refused to acknowledge HIM as real yet. "Not. You."

Here he was, the Baku, proudly puffing his chest with his hooves on his hips and a cocky smirk on his lips. Miraculously, he was fully clothed! He must've reacquired his attire on the way here.

"And here's the grand twist, my dear nemesis!" He brought his hooves together, giggling maniacally as his grin became even more offensive to look at, somehow. "The mighty Gentō has sneakily escaped from the main stage of war to hammer the final nail in the coffin of your plot! You see, after I dug myself-"

Yuki-onna never formed an icy orb as fast as in that moment, her instincts yelling to shut the clown's mouth before she was ultimately pushed to the brink of insanity. To her ever-growing ill luck, the rotund fraud rolled his way out, shockingly nimble for his body type.

"HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT MY MONOLOGUE, YOU MALNOURISHED HARLOT!!!" he yelled, shaking his tiny fists while stomping the earth with his peculiar footwear.

She had had enough. If Yuki were to be denied a satisfying finish to these demons, she might as well go for the efficient route.

"I hold more respect for a prostitute than you," she mocked while her hand charged another freezing spell at the fallen girl's direction, wasting no time to shoot it.

Even when the projectile hit the target, turning visible the Human's frozen silhouette at a distance, the Baku seemed... a little upset as if she had merely broken his favorite teacup.

"Real mature, Yūrei!" He huffed a faint cloud of his Dream Mist. "However! I don't need that brat to fuel my power anymore! I'm a strong, independent Baku who needs no battery!"

Silently, the sorceress' Saniya compelled the ice to sink deeper into the Human's organism, painfully stabbing her organs and arteries with razor-sharp crystals before the sub-zero temperature preserved the grim corpse in all its glory. The child was no more, and the adult was too far away to reach before the guards found their way to her. Why not indulge this boor and herself by letting all her violent thoughts loose on him? He did look like an apt dummy with that squishy fat tummy he had.

"Is that so, Baku?" She scoffed. "I suppose your brave crustacean comrade suffered through all that pain for nothing, then..."

His face quickly soured. "Leave him out of this. This battle is between us. A duel between arch-nemesis!"

Yuki-onna covered her mouth, holding a giggle to the best of her abilities, although with not much effectiveness. "Nemesis? I have played you like the bard plays his flute every single time we meet." Her smug grin brightened through this "verbal" catharsis. "Thank you for your absence at our failed ambush last month. It made me alert enough to read your friends' weak minds like a book and determine your location."

The Baku's face softened as he crossed his arms. "Hmpf. So that's how you knew I was in Pantsti. But how did you figure I was kept there, much less allowed to wander through dreams?"

"What if I told you it was all a happy stroke of luck for me?" She carelessly gestured with the bloody kunai. "The legendary elder Wolf of Pantsti was a barrier I could've never forced my way through. I made a risky gamble to step into the far edge of Pantsti's territory and use the full radius of my mind magic to enter the runt's dream." She pointed one blade at him. "Something I assume you have done similarly."

The Baku scoffed. "I can't believe you based everything on conjecture. Amateur."

The Yūrei shrugged. "The greatest minds must sometimes take huge risks to escape the toughest conundrums, boy. I even went so far as to train my magical capabilities for a week to pull off a feat only one of your kind could repeat." Her smile widened. "I had everything prepared in case the pieces fell into place at the earliest moment imaginable, no matter how little the odds were. Frankly, I expected a few more days for the scheme to enter its second phase. After so many failed attempts at capturing me in the Human's dreams, that old dog would employ someone more attuned to the unconscious plane..." Her eyes brimmed with delightful mockery. "Imagine the joy I felt when YOU came and closed your disgusting teeth around my bait the first day. You never even stopped to reflect on your 'lucky break' before running back to Hōkō, did you?"

Gentō averted his gaze, his hooves clenching once more.

"Do not be like that, oh mighty Gentō," she faux-consoled him, extending her hand to him. "Here. You can tell me all about your escape and how you tracked the rune grid's core." Her interest in the topic wasn't entirely false...

The rotund Monoke closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath, lasting a few seconds. Yuki-onna never had this much fun in decades. It made her feel like a young girl again.

But then... Gentō's face softened once more, a solemn smile gracing his complexion.

"No. I think we've said enough." His eyes snapped open. "Do it!"

A powerful, unseen force collided against her gut, sending her reeling through tens of meters until she fortunately willed the air to halt her, inches from meeting a similar fate to the smaller Human. And yet, the excruciating ache in her stomach demanded to be healed, and so she did.

"That... bastard."

This impact... It was too strong and blunt to be a simple air spell. What else was at play?

Her eyes sharpened to an uncanny degree, searching for any indicator of unnatural movement within the area. At her right side, she saw a transparent blur, twisting and distorting a piece of the horizon, soaring straight at her.

She narrowly evaded it. A loud crack was emitted when the mysterious spell crashed against the tree behind her, followed by... grains falling over her shoulder?

...

Was this... an earth spell? Why couldn't she see it, then? If it were glass, it should've smeared her thin skin with red by now.

Unless... she was conditioned by an illusion-type mind spell...

The Baku...

Her conclusion was rudely interrupted by another invisible pressure, which struck perfectly at her elbow, twisting it until it broke. Amidst the urge to scream, her mind quickly recognized it as an actual wind projectile, thanks to the narrow zone of impact and the distinctive chill followed by the pain.

Yuki-onna rapidly ascended, conjuring a reliable barrier around herself to buy time until her elbow was fixed.

"I understand what is going on, Baku..." Her telepathic message was laced with venom while a portion of her Saniya relocated to her own mind, washing every vestige of the boor's unclean power. "Mind magic beyond the extremes between conscious and unconscious. You have evolved."

"Your approval means everything to me, sorceress!" he cheekily retorted. He can communicate with her through his mind, too? How cute. "And you know the best part? Finish with your mind cleansing and find out!"

Slowly, while her mind was scrubbed to find foreign pieces of Saniya she never realized were there, her shield was dissolved, allowing her to witness two distortions right next to the Baku.

Earth magic. Air magic. Could they be Gentō's goons? How much time has passed since she fainted?

That first theory was absolutely demolished once the misshapen colors started popping in her sight. She recognized at least the color scheme of one - brown and grey. And judging by the smaller size...

Did that mean the other one was...?

Curse her... Curse them ALL!

The tiny devil and her furry cohort were finally brought back to reality, as far as her senses were aware, now entirely cleansed.

"When?"

"While you took your sweet nap, I took the liberty of healing these two girls! But not before sneaking a little Dream Mist into your nostrils..."

So everything since she woke up... was merely a RUSE?! This idiot dared to meddle with her brain, invade the sacred temple that is her body with his tainted SANIYA?!

That was IT! No more fooling around! The Human child was still alive and still within her grasp. How fortunate that she was as brave as she was weak...

"You caught me, Baku," she conceded, her toes touching the cold grass. "Congratulations."

The Human and the Wolf prepared their fighting stances. Gentō stood behind them like the coward he always was.

"My final opponents." Her crimson kunai glistened with a blinding turquoise as her attention focused solely on the dark-skinned girl. "Let us see how many surprises you can pull off!!!"