Return of the Mythic Bloodline

Gumiho's pink eyes glowed intensely with unadulterated rage as she stared at the two human knights.

"This little bitch has two tails?"

"Haha, her whore of a mother must have taken two foxy rods at once."

The knights babbled, totally unaware that what awaited them was something more brutal than anything they had faced in war.

"Tch, I let my guard down thinking they were just some twerps," the knight with the bleeding arm muttered.

"She must have already formed a core. Khekhekhe, we just found a treasure chest," the other one said with a wide smirk, drawing his sword.

Gumiho, on the other side, didn't respond to any of the insults thrown at her. It might have been because she was too young to understand, or she was simply unbothered by the words of nobodies.

She wasn't a five-year-old silly girl anymore who wanted to play with her friends. At that moment, what I was seeing was a monster among men, radiating utter bloodlust toward the knights who dared to hurt her father.

"So this is what Father meant when he said humans are the spawns of devils," Gumiho said as her body rose upward on a platform of flowers.

"Don't get cocky, bitch. Do you think we haven't dealt with an awakened before?"

The knight with the broken arm shouted before leaping off the ground.

In the blink of an eye, plum blossoms wrapped around the arm of the charging knight, the very arm that held his sword—and…

BOOM

His arm exploded into millions of pieces before he could even react.

"Agghhhh, my armmm!" the knight screamed in agony as he tried to clutch his imaginary arm with the remaining broken hand.

The other knight trembled, his sword slipping from his grasp. His lips quivered, refusing to form words. He turned in a futile attempt to run away, but the moment he raised his foot, he realized the ground beneath him was already painted pink with petals.

"Humans really are the devils," Gumiho murmured. "How could you run away, deserting your suffering friend here?"

She clenched her fist and, with it, another explosion occurred, turning the ground crimson with blood and scattered flesh.

"Is she really five years old?" I gasped, observing the situation.

"De… demon. She is a demon," the crippled knight scowled, his face twisted in pain and terror. Froth foamed at his mouth, and his body shuddered from the seizure. And just like that, the knight drew his last breath.

The petal platform beneath Gumiho moved forward as her focus shifted to the remaining knight, who left a trail of blood as he crawled into the forest.

She grabbed him by the hair and pulled him upward, speaking in a low, dominating tone, "You are only a weakling. There is no chance you could hurt my father with these lowly skills. Tell me… how did you do that?"

"I-I don't know your father. Please don't kill me."

"I am asking how you injured Aruma."

The knight was too terrified to think clearly. He blurted out everything he knew, unaware that it wasn't just his hair but his very life that was in Gumiho's hands.

"Th-That bastard was too cocky for his own good. Every time we were about to break through this territory, he would come in our way, killing hundreds of us. But one day we heard that he had a wife and a young daughter. So we spread the rumors that his family had come to visit him, but were kidnapped by our army. He was a sly fox, but when it came to his family, he turned into a mindless animal. He attacked our entire army head-on, and once he was exhausted, we ambushed him and severed—"

Before he could finish his words, petals wrapped around his face and blasted his head from his body.

Pieces of his brain, flesh, and bones littered the ground, and a crimson rain of blood poured over Gumiho, turning her white skirt a deep rosy hue.

This was the first time I had witnessed a murder of such extreme brutality. Logically, I should have been feeling sick and petrified. However, I felt nothing. It was as if this scene didn't bother me one bit.

"It might be because I am currently in her memories," I thought inwardly.

Gumiho grabbed the bracelet from her pocket, and as she wore it on her hand, the cloth belt rose from the stream and wrapped around Gumiho's belly inside her skirt, hiding one of her tails again.

Her intense eyes returned to normal, and the petal platform below her vanished.

"What-what have I done?" Gumiho murmured and began sobbing uncontrollably.

She quickly ran toward the stream, trying to wash the blood from her skirt. Her lips were shivering as she whispered continuously,

"I killed them... I killed them... I killed them."

She took repeated dips in the stream while rubbing her skirt with her tiny hands. And then she burped, clutched her stomach, and began vomiting.

"Why is she behaving like that?" I wondered in confusion. "Does she suffer from multiple personality disorder?"

While she was trying to remove the blood from her clothes, the sound of heavy breathing came from behind. It was Riku. He had been hiding behind the waterfall all this time.

Gumiho's eyes widened in shock as she saw him. She moved toward him with a desperate expression on her face, perhaps wishing that he hadn't witnessed what had unfolded here.

Riku's knees knocked together, his face pale as a dried leaf. He staggered backward and shouted, utterly petrified, "Don't-don't come near me. You are a de...demon."

Riku's words broke Gumiho inwardly. Her legs gave out as she knelt in the water.

"I-I was only trying to protect you," she gasped, struggling for a single breath.

Before Gumiho's little heart could break any further, a warm hug embraced her, and a calm voice filled her ears.

"I am proud of you for protecting your friends. You have done well Ume."

These were the words she needed to hear most at that time. And they hit her even harder as they came directly from her mother.