Chapter 18

The port came into view, shining like a pearl in the setting sun.

"The shield must be up," I smiled to myself.

I had heard about the infamous shield and how powerful it was. It was said that it couldn't be breached, not even by the powers of a devil.

Its why Jezebel didn't want me to attack here in the first place.

That's alright. I have an ace up my sleeve.

With my new assassin bodyguards, I continue to close the distance between me and the city. I could just begin to make out the white armored soldiers of the Seventh army's paladin division, the largest and the most potent force.

I would presume that just the paladins were the only main force here with a small division of ninjas supplied from the Winters. The rest of the magi were being held in reserve.

Curiosity was beginning to itch at my brain. I touched one of my assassin's shoulders, and her body melted away, leaving a white glowing orb in my hand. I pricked a finger from my opposite side and dabbed a droplet of blood into the orb.

The infusion was violent but stable.

I held my arm out with the orb floating in front.

The sphere suddenly blasted forward at incredible speed. The water behind be splashed backward, and the orb left a white trail of water behind it. It smashed into the barrier, shaking the ground, creating a massive explosion, pushing the water from the shoreline, and leaving a mile deep and wide creator.

"Hm."

The shield was unscathed.

"Let's try this," I mused, touching two more of my assassins.

I combined their orbs and tainted the color. I launched the next attack, making a far bigger creator than the first, but yielding the same results.

That was it. The shield wasn't going to be penetrated from the outside.

"Feel safe for now," I bantered.

Immediately, in retaliation, came the sound of thunder. I lifted my hand, forming two ghoulish, boney hands around my party. Artillery round fell all around me like rain. The bombardment lasted a few minutes before quieting.

I opened the hands, and there standing in front of the shield was none other than my old kitsune, June Mimiku. She looked well taken care of, and in her usual Seventh military attire, but if this was war, she wouldn't be in something that the Seventh provided.

Her nine tails fanned out, and Mimiku's hair was brown. She didn't look like June Mimiku, Deity of the Chaos.

A chuckle escaped my lips then turned into roaring laughter.

Mimiku stepped onto the water and gracefully made her way to me, keeping a reasonable distance between us.

"You look like a new fox Mimiku," I introduced.

"I feel refreshed," she replied sweetly.

"Let me guess," I started, seeing her collar.

"You have a new master, who has put a collar on you and has 'purified' your flame?"

"You would be correct," she answered simply.

"The Director is a fool, then."

Mimiku narrowed her eyes and pointed her ears back.

"Don't give me that look, June. Sure, you've dyed your hair and can sport your tails, but let's face it; it really doesn't suit you," I said, waving my hand at her figure.

Mimiku growled low.

"You were much more gorgeous with black, purple, and imbued with the chaos," I smiled.

"I have been cleansed," Mimiku snarled, throwing firebolt from her tail.

The balls of fire roared towards me. I flicked my finger, and the remaining assassins raised their hands in unison. A wall of ice froze in front of us, stamping out the fire with a hiss.

Once the barrage was handled, the wall of ice crumbled into the water.

"And look at you know," I shouted back at Mimiku, "weak enough to have three mere assassins block such an attack."

The fox smiled at me, I cocked my head and frond, and she snapped her fingers. I, and the assassins, were swallowed in a column of fire that shot hundreds of feet into the air.

The heat boiled the blood, vaporized the flesh, stole the sounds of agony, and left black and chard corpses when Mimiku decided that she was done cooking us. The skeletons of the assassins blow away to dust, leaving white orbs where they once stood. My crisp, horror-stricken, body stood in place.

Mimiku held her smile, but when I snapped my bone into a straighter position, Mimiku jumped back, not wanting to believe that I could still be alive.

"Is that the best you have?" I challenged.

My eye sockets formed green balls of fire for eyes. My teeth sharpened, and black smoke wisped around my body, giving my robes back. Two curved khopshes set in my hands.

I blared a ghastly horrifying battle cry, lunging forward at Mimiku. Her animal reflexes reacted well against my assault. A dodge here and a dodge there, a swing here and a swing there.

I didn't land a single hit, and Mimiku was purposely evading me. Something was making her.

"What's the matter? Your cleansed, and now it's making you pathetic," I insulted.

Mimiku bared her teeth, planted her feet, found an opening, and plunged her claws into her foe.

My body blew up in black smoke that lashed out into the kitsune's eyes, blinding her temporarily. I rematerialized just to the side of her landing a deep slash to her side and cutting off three of her tails. I didn't cleanly cut one off, so I yank it off.

Mimiku screamed in pain and loss, stumbling away from me, clasping her side and missing tails.

I let a burst of sinister laughter escape my boney mouth.

"And now you're three tails lighter."

I held out her three tails and made her watch as I used my powers to decay them into nothing. Mimiku snarled hatefully at me, leaping to me. I had awoken her full animal furry.

Mimiku slashed, stabbed, and even tried to bite me. She reinforced her attacks with her flames.

My enticement is working.

Mimiku pounced but was swatted away with a wave of my boney-sharp hand. I left three long cuts along her face causing blood to pour into an eye. The cuts were infected with poison and festered.

This made Mimiku dive deeper into her frenzy, attacking wildly and carelessly. For that, the kitsune lost two more of her tails. Her ability to heal quickly diminished.

She was getting slower and easier to predict. Mimiku's focus was waning away with her power, and the fox started to lose her footing to the water. A foot would sink, and she would stumble back or to the side to stay away from me.

The fire she produced and shot at me did me no harm and was immediately extinguished with ease. Mimiku stood there, panting heavily, bleeding, staining her clothes and fur.

The poison from my blades and hands were having a more significant effect on her now.

She's close.

"Look at you now, June," I spoke.

"They have left you here to die."

"They wouldn't," she panted.

"Look around you," I shouted, "there is no one here to help you, nor are they going to come to save you. They thought that you would be their savior, and now you're lamb for the slaughter."

"My master will come," she whimpered.

"I am sure that he won't," I corrected.

"He," Mimiku quivered.

I regenerated my body, removing the hood that covered my face. I walked up to Mimiku, who was having greater difficulty staying on top of the water. When she lost her footing with both feet, I quickly grabbed her and held her in my arms.

She couldn't fight back; she had lost too much.

"When you were mine, did I ever collar you?" I asked.

"N-no," she whispered weakly.

I gave her a warm smile.

"Did I ever ask you to stop being who and what you were?"

"No."

"No," I replied.

"I would never ask you to do that. You are June Mimiku, Deity of," I allowed her to finish.

"Deity of Chaos."

"I can heal you if you'd like?"

She looked up at me with her good eye. She was full of pain, pain that I had needed to cause her.

It's for your own good.

"I can't take this off of you," I stated, tapping the collar.

"Only the Director can," Mimiku said weakly.

I nodded my head.

"I will make an offering to you; to June Mimiku of Chaos," I offered.

I was suddenly cut off short. A battle cry sounded above me. My head shot up to see the Director himself, plunging his sword down at me.

He was accompanied by Fitzy, Abby, and his right hand. I had no choice but to jump away from Mimiku and to safety.

"Kesha, get the fox to the shield, we'll hold him off," the Director commanded.

The right hand scooped up Mimiku and made a run for the shield.

That's what I get for letting my guard down.

"No!"

I made an attempt to get past the two paladins, and templar and it almost cost me my arms and head. They kept me rather busy on defense. A quick look and I could see that Mimiku was getting further away from me.

I growled.

Hot pain shot into my stomach, and a glowing white sword was stuck in me by Fitzy. The Director, then, thrust his hot blade into my chest.

"Abby, now!"

Abby reached her arms out to the Director and Fitzy. She was saying some sort of prayer. Fitsy's and the Director's armor began to glow a pure white.

The fire that I felt inside me intensified.

"Die necromancer!" the Director screamed at me.

"You first!" I snarled.

I grabbed both of the blades and produced a current of electricity that surged up into both attackers. They convoluted for a moment before they fell into the water.

I didn't lose a step. Pulling the blades from me, I flung them at Abby. She was quick and planted her shield in front of her.

Her shield gave me the moment to escape and go after the right hand. I materialized into smoke and appeared right in front of Kesha with a hand gripping her spook mask. It groaned and started to rot.

She dropped Mimiku, whom I caught, and ripped the mask off. There, for a second, I thought I was looking at an older Emma.

This is her older sister.

I summoned a Kavash, a smoke demon with six arms wielding swords. It engaged the right hand to keep her busy. Her ice magic was of no effect on it, but it wouldn't be staying in this world for very long.

I was about to leave when I heard a familiar yell. The Director had recovered.

"I didn't kill him?" I asked myself.

He was so close that I wouldn't make it out without one of us getting hit. That was just it, the Director was aiming for Mimiku, but it wasn't me that countered.

Mimiku sprang from arms and guided the sword's edge along her neck. Once the weapon had followed through, the Director's jaw was hanging wide open, and the collar around Mimiku's neck fell into the water. Mimiku glared at the Director.

"You'd rather kill me?" she questioned through gritted teeth.

The Director was speechless and frozen. Mimiku snarled and planted a solid punch to his gut, launching him right into his right hand. It was perfect timing, the Kavash had just been sucked back into his world.

The two tumbled and skipped across the water. They skipped passed Abby helping Fitzy out of the water. Mimiku then turned her full weak attention to me.

"You said that you would make an offering to me, June Mimiku, Deity of Chaos," she asked.

I smiled widely, "Yes, I did."

From a pool of smoke, I pulled out a goblet, slit my arm, poured blood into the glass, and offered it to Mimiku.

"Is that it?"

She sounded disappointed. I smirked and pulled from the same pool of smoke, the tails I had cut off.

Mimiku couldn't hide her delight.