A New, Pet?

I looked around, wondering if it would manage to hide from my senses like before, but fortunately I caught it with its guard down this time.

At the edge of the crater, I found the little fox peacefully sleeping. As someone who was very fond of the act of sleeping I was a little reluctant to wake it but I did so nonetheless.

"Oi, wake up."

Just in case I looked scary, I reverted to my human form as I approached the creature. I thought I would have to gently nudge it awake, but once I got within five steps it jolted to its feet and growled at me.

I understood that it likely didn't see me in a positive light so I took a few steps back and waited for it to calm down.

The fox continued to be wary of me, but eventually it stopped growling.

"You're finally awake," it said.

"Oh? How long was I asleep?"

"Three days."

"I see."

Looking up, I noticed that the sun was in a different position than I remembered it so I wondered if this place experienced both day and night.

"Are you leaving now?"

"Uhh,"

I was definitely curious about this fox, but if three days had passed then I needed to get back to my castle to see what had happened. However, there was a bit of a problem.

I didn't know whether it was because of my spell or the portal itself but, I didn't know where the exit was.

"I was hoping you could tell me."

Or at least I was hopeful until I saw the disappointment that flashed across its eyes.

"You don't know either, do you?"

The fox didn't answer but that was enough of a response.

"Well this is a problem. Do you know of any way we can get out?"

"...The door."

"That big one?" I asked while pointing at the humongous door in the distance.

"Mhmm. But, can't open. I need to, first adult."

"Huh?"

"I'll show you."

As soon as it offered to show me, the fox suddenly disappeared. I double checked and triple checked but I still couldn't find any sign of its presence in the area. I didn't know how it was able to pull this off, so I became increasingly curious in seeing its status.

Guessing that it would be waiting at the door, I flew towards it at a gentle pace. Once I got closer to the door, I noticed that it was bigger than I thought and covered in mysterious carvings that seemed to possess a special power.

'I can't properly examine it. But rather than it being intricate or complex, it just has an archaic feeling to it.'

As expected, I found the fox near the base of the door. Compared to the size of the door, the fox was like a tiny mouse but I couldn't say much to defend myself since I was also puny before this door.

"Well I guess its not surprising that you can't open a door like this. It looks ridiculously heavy after all."

"No, that's not the reason why, can't open."

"?"

While I raised an eyebrow in confusion, the fox walked towards the door and laid a paw on it. From where his paw made contact, a light blue light spread on the door, but before it could cover all of the door the light stopped and faded.

"It's written on the door. 'Only adults may attempt to pass through this door'."

When I followed his gaze up the door, I also found the line he was referring to. Fortunately it was written in ancient demon language so I was able to decipher and confirm what the fox said.

After it withdrew its paw, I stepped up and tried to touch the door, but unlike with the fox my hand was rejected by an invisible shield of electricity which managed to land a temporary wound on my palm.

"It's useless. Just wait for the next visitors."

"And when was the last time you had visitors again?"

"You're the first in hundreds of years."

'Hundreds?'

I figured that this fox was trapped here for a long time, but I didn't expect a number with three digits to represent the years. I knew of races that aged slowly but this was too extreme so I assumed that it was something else. Rather than aging slowly, I wondered if it was of a race with bodies that mimicked their mental age. Unable to suppress my curiosity any longer I tried to check its status, but it was useless.

It wasn't that I didn't find any good information, my attempt was just blocked. And the fact that it didn't seem to be aware that I tried to peek at its status kind of made that more frightening.

"Um, could you tell me about your tri-?"

In an effort to gain a better understanding of its background, I tried asking my question directly but faced wary eyes and a sealed mouth.

'Welp, this is difficult.'

While this place was peaceful and quiet, the fact that I knew little about it made me reluctant to stay here. Furthermore, I wasn't irresponsible enough to abandon my familiars after leaving them with work. So I had to find someway of getting out of here.

While brainstorming, I stared at the door to find some hint that I could be missing, but even if there was such a hint, my ignorance would make it hard to spot.

'There must be something, something!'

As I wracked my brain for a solution, I felt time blur and the things I was imagining would pop up before my eyes, but I was likely just too focused.

Thankfully, this focus paid off.

'That's it! Possession!'

In addition to Soul Perception, Possession was the first ability I gained after unlocking Soul Magic. It mainly dealt with connecting the dead to the living so though it was rare for me to find a use for it, it was exceptional when I did need it. Like now.

To use Possession, I needed to first fully open my eyes to the souls around me. Seeing the ethereal bodies of dead people wasn't pleasant so I learnt how to turn my perception of them on and off, and even when using Necromancy I would limit my perception to just feeling. However, such a convenient method wouldn't allow me to draw information from souls who were here for hundreds of years.

After taking a deep breath with my eyes closed, I took my time preparing myself before opening them again.

"!"

The moment my eyes were open I instantly froze in place. The sight of translucent dead foxes and humanoid bodies was unpleasant but nothing to fret over. Even the clump of souls around the red fox, though impressive, was nothing surprising since it allowed me to confirm a few speculations.

However, the moment I used Soul Perception at full power, I detected something ominous above me. No, to be more specific, it was above this entire space. I kept telling myself that it was just a bad feeling, but I knew that when messing with the supernatural there was nothing you could trust more than your gut feeling.

So while not daring to look up I closely examined the souls sticking to the fox, but it was no good.

When demons died, some would be reincarnated as monsters and a few would remain in their astral forms if they possessed a strong grudge or regret. But of the souls that remained in this world, ninety percent were dead souls which didn't have personas.

Since it was hard for an unbound soul to last more than a year, I was a little hopeful that there would be one or two awake souls, but that was expecting too much. Just the fact that these souls had stuck around for hundreds of years was astonishing.

Fortunately, I had a plan b which I needed Possession for. The only problem was that for me to use Possession on someone else I would have to touch them.

'How should I go about this?'

I didn't expect the little fox to easily believe that I needed to touch it to help us escape. Even I thought that sounded creepy. Maybe it would agree if I patiently explained everything to it, but I found that to be too much of a hassle so I went for a more, covert approach.

'If I concentrate I should be able to make a brief connection with the soul closest to it.'

The reason I was doing it wasn't easily justifiable but I relaxed my body and dampened my presence. I didn't try to erase my presence because that would be too suspicious. Instead I fused into the background as much as possible.

Since I didn't know how it was able to conceal itself or seemingly teleport, I had to do this so perfectly that it couldn't tell that I even moved.

'Ready, Set...Go.'

Like the gentle wind, my fingertips barely brushed its head before returning. I remained nervous but soon after I saw one of the several souls slip into its body.

'Please work.'