A month had passed since I had been caught and I was getting tired of this torture. I got destructive thoughts just like normal but my memories brought me to Ted. How will I face Ted in the afterlife, if there is one?


    I went off by myself without even getting close to our goal. I didn’t ask for help. Do I really have the right to give up and die while Ted did all he could to keep us alive? Did I do everything I could to stay alive? I looked at Nilah. The expression on her face almost broke my heart. It was as if she was crying.


    I had decided. I will make one last attempt to escape and I will tear down everything with me. If I have to die, I want it to be spectacular and bring everything down with me. I tried to speak but I hadn’t said anything for almost a month and my mouth was dry.


    Nilah noticed and used some magic to put water in my mouth.


    I started to cough but got some good gulps down. I had gotten a special house where I laid on the floor. I was still bound but I know how to break out of it.


    Nilah, I’m sorry it took so long. We will make one last attempt when my limbs grow back. Let’s go out with a bang.


    Nilah didn’t react much to it, she just kept giving me water. I broke out of the bind and rolled over to the food that the fairies had placed here and I had refused to eat. It was ungraceful but I had no hands. Nilah cleaned up my face after I was done.


    What a good fox. We had gone through much together.


    Dying here was also unfair to her, even though she is a magical skill. Will she persist after I pass away? Normally this wouldn’t be the case but Nilah is anything but normal. Dying here would be even worse if Nilah gets left behind.


    I’m sorry Nilah, I was selfish.


    I managed to lean up to the wall and waited until my arms regenerated. The first thing I did was pet Nilah. Her fur was so rough… I took my brush out of my dimensional pocked and brushed her until her fur was as how it used to be.


    A plan was needed. I had more or less gotten used to the nausea by now. I’m unsure if that’s a good thing…


    [Elgard Overload] is a last resort. I didn’t have the mental stamina to keep its full duration up. I could solve physical stamina with a phoenix flower howver. I slowly started to realize the flaw in how I normally fight. I never fought as if that could be my last fight. Always holding back or arrogant. Sometimes it was in self-preservation because I have a lot of skills that have side effects. But do they matter if I end up dying because I played it safe?


    It required near death to realize this. It might be useful if I end up escaping, or useless if I fail.


    No more playing games, Nilah lets go…


    A spirit tether broke and my spirit left my body. Nilah looked at me as if I’m an idiot. There was no way I could foresee this. I wanted to wait until I got pulled back in my body when that lunar fox mode came to my mind.


    I possessed my body. It took a while but spirit energy burst out of me and all my tails got forced out including the strange moons. I got some Ichor Pneuma to mend my broken spirit tethers and the first thing I decided to do was create the biggest blast I could make.


    Nilah, lets fuck them up!


    I froze the whole cave and blew a hole in the ceiling of the cavern. The fairies started to panic and scream.


    The crescent moon was peeking in through the hole I had made. I wonder what would happen if I used this under the full moon.


    Suddenly the moon shifted away, it swiftly became day, then night again, the moon was a bit fuller and this kept going on until the full moon appeared. I recognized this! So, the day and night shifting in Boshi town was because I’m a lunar fox?


    Nilah and I started to glow light blue and I threw frost around everywhere. The queen arrived and screamed.


    “Why didn’t you do this earlier? You look absolutely delicious!”


    I kept throwing frost attacks around but it seemed that even this didn’t affect them too much. I rampaged for 3 minutes before the sky shifted through day and night again to return to its original state and my spirit got pulled into my body, ending the possession.


    “It’s not permanent? Too bad. Give up, you’ve tried to escape many times, you know you can’t win.”


    I know but I can always try.


    I wanted to go 9t mode but my 9th tail advised against it. Nothing a 9t can do will affect them.


    Nilah tackled a fairy and bit into it and bit off one of its head.


    Nilah, why am I so stupid? Sword form please!


    Nilah demonstrated that these things weren’t invincible. Why didn’t I notice this earlier. I cut every fairy down that approached me.


    I’ve been fighting for so long with skillsets that were uncharacteristic for my race. They even told me nothing my race can do works on them. Why didn’t I realize? I sheathed Nilah. My Iai, are normally vertical slices to limit the amount of damage they do, in cases like this however…


    I used [Iai: Eternal Winter]. An extremely fast horizontal slice obliterated almost any fairy in front of me.


    It seems I’m back to using sword and assassin skills.


    Now I was acting cool and all but that ate all my mental focus and pushed me to a point where my nausea became a problem again. I can’t do this again or any Iai. I will have to cut this queen down with normal slashes.


    “What is this nonsense! Spirit foxes aren’t known for their physical feats!”


    That is true… and this is why I will escape from here.


    I requested mana from Nilah. I made 3 shadow clones and went into stealth. 1 would pretend to be the real me and the other 2 would set up magic circles and harass the remaining fairies. I would go to the edge and find out how to get out of here.


    A wave of strange semi-transparent hands rushed at a shadow clone and instantly killed it. I ignored it and started building a dimensional bridge. That was the only solution I could come up with. I made another shadow clone and had it work on the bridge because the queen was wiping out the other shadow clones.


    The fairies locked on to me after the last fighting shadow clone disappeared. My stealth also disnn’t work well against them. More and more fairies poured in from the rips in the dimensional fabric, screaming and buzzing. The only options were escape or defeat. I would love to wipe them all out but that arrogance has brought me in this situation in the first place. Not all battles can be won.


    “So what is the plan now spirit fox?” The fairy queen said. The words came from her but not her mouth. Mana waves acting as sound?


    I made 8 copies of Nilah and had my tails wield them.


    There is no plan, just to get out of here.


    My 2 free tails were working on a new form of stealth that works against these fairies. The shadow clone that was attempting to build the bridge got annihilated even though he was in stealth. Just hiding my presence wasn’t enough. I needed to [Fade] out of existence. They can’t perceive what doesn’t exist. Until my tails have created that I will have to stay alive.


    I swung my katanas and easily cut the hordes of fairies down. My tails which were holding Nilah’s copies also cut anything down that came near. They were clumsy but after 3 hours they became good enough to have everything fairy-free in a 10-meter radius from my body.


    I never used my tails like this but their full length is 9 meters. They take up a lot of space so I have them in a compact form.


    “Ohh how imposing, this won’t win you the fight though.”


    Winning is context related, escaping with my life is my current win condition.


    “So, you still have a fight left in you. You fully realize that escape is impossible. Give up, I am hungry.”


    A fight left in me, eh? I guess I just can’t bear the thought of Nilah being stuck here with your ugly abominations until this world collapses, she deserves better.


    My physical stamina was giving out. I had to continuously zap myself with lightning to keep myself energized. I would normally use Phoenix Flowers but this swarm didn’t relent so it was hard to find an opening. Zapping myself with lightning was functional however. The painful experiences I had on mount Thunderpeak had revealed to me that continuously getting zapped will keep me energized and awake.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    “Haha, attacking yourself now, eh? Just a warning. Don’t you dare kill yourself!” Her tone went from high pitched in the first half to a bit lower indicating her seriousness.


    I finally created space to inhale the pollen of a phoenix flower.


    <hr>


    I had gotten sloppy. I had seen the sun rise at least twice since I started fighting like this and some fairies had gotten through and taken bites out of me. I haven’t lost a life though but my regeneration was slowing down.


    2 skills finished. [Fade], and [Blood and Thunder] had been created. [Fade] was a superior version of stealth, [Blood and Thunder] was a more efficient way to zap myself and keep me going. It sent lightning magic through my blood. Not very safe but it was better than the alternative, being snacked on forever or dying.


    I made 2 shadow clones that [Faded] and went to make the bridge and then used [Blood and Thunder]. My body sped up and all my attacks became augmented with lightning magic.


    Various attacks flew at me and got cut down, feeding Nilah with mana. I had to exchange mana with her to make sure the mana in my system stayed pure. It would be game over if I got nauseous again as I was doing decent so far. I threw some swords and swapped myself with them, my tails cut down everything and cleared the area from fairies the moment I arrived at my destination.


    The mana in my system had made me sturdier so any fairies that I missed were unable to bite fully into me. I always knew that the lack of mana in my system made me squishier but not to this extent. I had to keep swinging my swords to absorb or swing away the ambient mana before I could use a swing to cut which made It look as if my tails were dancing around.


    My focus slipped and the attack with countless semi transparent hands slipped my notice. My tails wrapped around me in a ball and I got sent flying. I crashed into a horde of fairies that tried to gnaw on my tails.


    “Yuck!”


    “Eww!”


    I always wondered why they never attacked my tails. It seems they taste bad. My tails started to imbue themselves with red lightning and blasted the fairies off me. The fairy queen rushed at me, moved to the side and took wires out of my dimensional pocket. My 2 free tails grabbed them and controled them.


    “This is ridiculous! Spirit foxes should not be allowed to have physical attacks like that!” The fairy queen spat out a noxious gas. I


    spun my tails and used them as a fan to blow it away. I then caught the fairy queen in a net of wires and tugged at them, with no avail.. How heavy is this thing? I couldn’t lift her.


    It wasn’t perfect but it slowed her down. I had to increase the intensity of [Blood and Thunder] because fatigue was catching up to me. I got more and more opportunities to use Phoenix flowers, the only thing that kept me going.


    It had been 2 hours since the shadow clones had used [Fade] and working on the bridge. They were halfway. Just 2 more hours… I used [Fade] to buy time and went to hide.


    “Impossible! He disappeared! Don’t let him disappear!” The fairy queen ordered the other fairies but…


    “Let who disappear?”


    “What were we even doing?” The fairies seemed confused; the fairy queen seemed to get mad at them for forgetting what they were doing. I gathered as much fairy dust as I could.


    Apparently, this is the byproduct of fairies eating spirits. How many spirits had to die for this much dust to be created… this dust was the energy they needed for their nefarious plans. I might not be able to kill them but I can set them back several centuries.


    I decided to rest. I didn’t cancel [Blood and Thunder] because I would collapse the moment I drop it. It seems [Fade] caused me to truly remove myself from existence. While the fairy queen still seemed to remember me, the other fairies were acting as if I had never existed. Some started to doubt the competency of the fairy queen.


    This is a very useful skill. I had bite marks all over my body and I was a mess but I was alive. I returned the original sword back to Nilah and petted her. I would have to get back into the fight soon. I don’t know if they will find a way to see through this but I can’t risk it. As long as my shadow clones can finish the bridge and I don’t get incapacitated I will be able to escape and win.


    I chucked some copies of Nilah at fairies and made them discharge red lightning. It was enjoyable because to them it seemed that swords appeared from nowhere, took out some of their kin, and then disappeared into nothingness. I had some fun like this for an hour.


    Hiding forever wouldn''t help me so I took another dose of phoenix flower pollen and went back in and I sneaked up on the fairy queen. The lightning coursing through my body had gone to black lightning and I would strike when it got to silver. My rest had put Nilah in a slight mana deficit so I had to keep fighting unless I wanted to collapse due to nausea.


    Nilah flashed silver and I drove her into one of the heads of the fairy queen, breaking out of [Fade].


    “Aagh! I knew it! You were real! Fairies attack!”


    I kept chucking silver lightning swords around, having them explode in silver lightning and swap myself with them. I threw many swords straight into attacks so that Nilah could absorb the energy from them.


    Nilah’s mana deficit had been solved. My tails caught a big group of fairies in a net of wires and zapped them with silver lightning. The wires were responsible for crowd control but could also slice the fairies in chunks if they were careless.


    It soon came to a point where none dared to get near me. The place was still filled with fairies but the only fairy-free place was around me. They were outside the range my tails could strike them.


    I was bleeding and my vision was blurry. This [Blood and Thunder] made me a ticking timebomb as it had done more damage to me in this past hour than the fairies had done. Just 10 more minutes…


    “It seems that you won’t be able to keep this up for longer. We will patiently wait until you self-destruct”


    I dropped to one knee and took out some more Ichor Pneuma because I was getting dizzy due to my spirit tethers snapping.


    “What is that substance, it smells sweet and tasty.” It drew some fairies in that couldn’t resist the smell of the Ichor Pneuma and instantly got cut down.


    It doesn’t smell like anything to me but I am not a spirit eating maniac.


    I emptied a jar of Ichor Pneuma and drenched myself. This made the fairies go crazy and they rushed at me.


    “No don’t this is what he wants!” The fairy queen tried to stop her subjects but impatience and gluttony got the better of them as they rushed toward me to take a bite.


    I cut down anything in range, with swords or wires. Others got blasted by silver lightning. I got bitten countless times but I had my tails close so they always bit into a bit of my tails and screeched and backed off due to the taste.


    The bridge was complete. I dropped all 9 swords and made them explode in silver lightning simultaneously. This blasted a big hole in the swarm but also sent me flying toward the bridge. I created an ice cube and swapped it with Nilah. The copies disappeared and she turned into her fox form. I petted her while I flew through the bridge. I was circulating nature energy as that lightning blast had also done a lot of damage to me and I had to prevent losing consciousness.


    A wave of nausea confirmed that I was passing the border.


    Thank you, Nilah.


    I tugged on the [Dimensional Anchor] the moment the nausea disappeared and I appeared in my home in the jungle.


    I vomited and [Blood and Thunder] got dispelled. I tried to make a barrier around my home but I collapsed before I could get to it. I was completely immobilized and I tried o fight agains my body shuting down. Nilah was here. I should be safe. My consciousness faded as I slipped into a deep slumber.


    <hr>


    Something was shaking my body so I opened my eyes. It was blurry but I saw something blue. The blue thing reacted and started to jump on me. It didn’t weigh much so this isn’t an effective way to wake me up. I wanted to close my eyes but realized that I have things to do.


    Nilah? What time is it?


    My internal clock was still working. I had been sleeping for a month, which meant I had last been seen about 2 months ago. My head was still fuzzy and my body felt heavy. My body hadn’t completely healed since I had bite mark scars everywhere.


    I can’t go out like this. This might be the first time ever I need a healer.


    Healerguy is never going to shut up about this though. I tried to stand up but strength had to yet return to my legs. There are 2 options, continue covering this up with illusions or go to Healerguy. The memory of the healerjail after I got put in a wheelchair was still fresh in my mind. I can’t imagine how bad this healerjail will be.


    I created an illusion that made me look like I used to look. I managed to get up and sat in a chair.


    An [Ice Mirror] revealed that I did a decent job, which wasn’t good enough. I remade a new and better illusion and was satisfied. I moved my body and started moving my limbs to make sure everything still works.


    A silver lining to that horrific experience was that my limbs felt lighter and more efficient than my old limbs ever were. I hoped that I didn’t get traumatized by this as I would probably have to fight these again.


    There was much I needed to do and I was behind on scedule but dealing with this was important. I beckoned Nilah and petted her while my tails simulated what I had been through, making me reliving the memories of being eaten alive for a month.


    Unsurprisingly, I was traumatized. It may have been determination to not die or adrenaline and [Blood and Thunder] but I wasn’t affected by it when I was escaping. I had to resist attempting to shut down this experience. I had to overcome this else the next encounter with them will surely be the death of me.


    I mended my spirit tethers with Ichor Pneuma and created multiple simulations and tortured myself and get me over this experience, either due to getting insensitive to it or acceptance. In the end, it was my own fault that I got in that situation and my fault alone.


    Blame could be put on the fairies for tricking me, I could blame them for being spirit-eating maniacs, I could blame them for finding me delicious. But it won’t prevent this from ever happening again. This was the easy part, something I could easily accept. Getting over the trauma, however, took quite a while.


    <hr>


    I have been missing for a bit over 3 months now. I was mostly over my trauma. I had accepted that my fuck up caused it and my continuous torture under my illusions had made me mostly insensitive to it.


    I was mentally exhausted, I wanted to sleep for another month but it was time I should get going. Self-pity won’t solve my problems. I needed to keep moving. There were still 2 more ingredients that I needed to secure. No bullshit this time.


    I will be speed-running this and eliminate any problematic element with extreme prejudice.


    A clone would go to Gittrian and collect the materials. Another clone would bleed himself out for the phoenix blood while I would personally go and get basilisk tears and unicorn horn. I should be immune to basilisk gazes with my Elgards eyes as long as I push the gaze back. The unicorn is unlikely to relinquish its horn but it will grow back so I will just cut it off.


    Are you ready Nilah?


    Nilah showed some fighting spirit, she also had adopted a ‘No bullshit’ stance.


    ?