Ch 37: A new ally.

*POV Alvey Lebal."

It had been a little over an hour ever since I had entered the forest, I occasionally marked a tree with my energy to be able to keep track of where I was going. The Silvercloud forest was marvelous in terms of sight, but I didn't come here to sightsee, I came here to find the spirivulpes, which showed no signs of it appearing, frustratingly, there were no clues on its whereabouts, so I was now walking through the forest like a fool.

As I was brooding over this search, suddenly, I hear a roar echo through the forest, this roar was that of a drake, water drakes existed in this forest pretty rarely and one of them would only roar this loudly if either angered or if it found a powerful enough enemy, this roar right now was the best indicator I had of the whereabouts of the spirivulpes, but I'd rather not fight a water drake as my chances against it are pretty even.

Using my ears, I figure the rough location of where the drake was, it was around 10 minutes of running away from me, 5 minutes if I used body strengthening, and so I dash with body strengthening towards that sound.

Upon reaching the location, I was greeted with the sight of a battlefield, the drake had already left to return from wherever it came from, the spring was filled with the dead bodies of pixies and Man-eater fish, the side of the spring was covered in craters, but the most destruction that happened here was the trees that were destroyed by the battle, most of these fallen trees were in a straight line, likely due to the breath attack of the drake, whatever fought it was likely dead.

I hope that the spirivulpes didn't meet this fate, otherwise this would have been a fool's errand, so to make sure that it wasn't it that was killed by the drake, I decided to follow the destroyed trees so I can find a body.

Spirivulpes, you better still be alive.

*POV Nozomi.*

I was back in the same white world as before, something did feel a little off here, like it was different from last time.

Then, just like last time, foxes appear suddenly, 3 of them at that.

The first of them was a large two tailed fox with black and white fur, markings across its face and back and golden eyes, looking at it gave me more knowledge about it, it was called a Equilibriulpes, apparently it was a derivative species of the spirivulpes, it was available for anyone who had a light affinity before evolving and had experienced both the good and bad in balance, it had pretty good melee and ranged abilities and added a darkness affinity for me, it also had practically the same abilities as a spirivulpes.

The second of them was a fox that had a human skull attached to its head, its fur was colored pitch black with the occasional red markings on its sides. That was not all the information I got as I had also gotten a description of it. The Mortelupes was a creature that appears after consuming human remains, it fuses with a compatible human skull throughout its juvenile period until it reaches adulthood where it breaks it off to reveal its complete form. The Mortelupes has powerful necromantic techniques as one that deals with death, as well as a dark affinity, its melee skills were below average for a second evolution.

This one seemed pretty good, but the first option gave everything it had but better except the necromantic techniques, so no reason to pick it.

The third and final option was a fox that looked very similar to me right now, the only major difference being the presence of feathers on the back of it and way thicker fur, it was called an Aeroulpes, it appeared as a further evolution of the golden wind fox, it's abilities included flight as it had way better efficiency when using telekinesis on itself and a fire affinity, its melee abilities were average. This one had just flight for show and not much else, overall not a very good choice.

I had decided almost immediately, I was going to pick the Equilibriulpes as it was the basically the same species as Rai, and that it was the best of all three.

When I think that, just like last time, my conciousness floats away from my body and switches into the new one, I see my previous selves standing far away in this world, before everything vanishes into mist and I wake up.

When I wake up, I see my brother was already awake and was staring at me, what more, we were in a burrow and beside him, there was a blue horned rabbit.

*POV Rai*

I woke up after I had fainted, immediately I was thankful that I was alive, but after looking more, I realized we were inside a burrow, that meant that someone had moved us here, but who?

"Nice to see that you're up and running fox."

I immediately turn my head to find who was there, my eyes fall on who told that to me, it was the same rabbit from last time, at least I think.

"Where did you take us, and why didn't you just kill us while we were down."

I stand up and try to protect Nozomi who was still out cold, when I try to stand up I stumble a little, I was confused why but when I look back I realize why, it was because I had three tails now instead of two.

"Easy there, I didn't kill you because I find you interesting, even though you had the power to kill me, and I had attacked you first, you still let me go, no creature in this forest would have done that, which is why I thought to help you."

"I'd like to thank you for saving me, but that doesn't mean I completely trust you, although I do trust you a little."

"Haha, I'm honoured, but I do want a service from you, since you are indebted to me."

"And what makes you think I'll do it?"

"That you seem like a respectable guy who'd pay off his debts."

"Fair enough."

This rabbit seemed strangely human like, almost as if...

"Hey, were you a human in a previous life?"

The rabbit looked shocked by that question, it turns out that my suspicions were indeed correct.

"How did yo-"

"Because I was also once human."

I felt a strange feeling, like an invisible bond between us, it turns out that both of us being ex-humans made me feel like we were connected.

"What's your name, and what happened before your death?"

"Me? My name is Ethan, I was practicing the guitar in my room before suddenly a hole appeared in midair in front of me, its appearance caused a rumbling that caused my room to collapse on itself, I am fairly sure that my pet rabbit was caught in that disaster, but I do hope he is alright."

he looked slightly worried and disturbed when he recalled his death.

"Oh? So you were a boy? Well my name is Rai, what happened to me was similar to you only that a hole appeared in midair."

While we were talking with each other, something happens to Nozomi, she begins to glow and her body starts changing it changes to that of a large two tailed fox with black and white fur, with markings across its face and back and golden eyes. She stops glowing and then wakes up, she takes a look at me then spots Ethan beside me.

I had a feeling that explaining this was gonna be a pain.