Chapter 10 Commissioned by Silencian, and Evil

The kitsune were hiding deep within a literal foxhole they had dug out under a tree that led to a tunnel leading extremely deep underground in hopes that more powerful roaming Gumiho wouldn't sense them if one went on a killing spree or something. Now that hiding hole was being used to hide from the hunters from Earth.

After Yuki helped me with my burn we destroyed the front entrance to the property and the living room and I even rubbed some of the blood from the severed tails I had collected onto the ground to leave a sort of trail if any other hunters came through the building as these Kitsune were told bluntly to hide for the next week as we would need to follow up with the rest of the hunters as they swept through the town.

By the end of the week, once the hunters had returned to the Earth and the god's eyes probably weren't looking so much at the realm, I would return and my real plans for this realm could begin to unfold.

"After all this, do you have another job planned already?" Yuki asked quietly as we sat together in the middle of the town watching the Gumiho go about their lives, watching hearts and livers be sold by strong street hawkers who had hunted down and taken those hearts and livers to be sold for gold and gems that were used as currency here in the realm.

I thought back to Arianna's mission to bring back children of the Olympians, and then the mission in which I would need to go to Detroit to help an enclave of demi-gods fight off the waves of monsters that were assailing them... Both missions played off the other especially if I could bring those demi-gods back to Camp Halfblood, but who knew if they would utterly refuse to go to Camp Halfblood to get wrapped up in the Olmpyians nonsense?

I grunted as I shifted in place as I muttered. "Yeah... Sorta got a job with helping some Demi-Gods of the Greeks deal with a wave of monsters coming for them all the time apparently." I explained and with Yuki sitting next to me, I couldn't see her expression but her clear snort of derision was clear to all making me turn sideways on the park bench we were sitting on to look at her properly.

Seeing me turn to look at her fully Yuki continued with an explanation of her reaction. "Working for the Olympians directly is taboo in the mercenary and freelancer world... They are all but blackballed, due to them always either refusing payment, paying so little as to be worthless, or just finding fault in the worker's work so they could do the previous two options or outright curse or kill them to avoid having to pay."

I just realized something. Each child of the Olympians I brought in would lead to fifty Drachma's being paid to me. "Yuki... How much is a Drachma worth in the supernatural world?" I asked dully and Yuki looked at me with naught but pity in her fucking eyes.

"Drachma are typically made out of low-grade Celestial Bronze, the weakest and cheapest divine metal there is. That the Olympians literally throw away when they get too much stocked up. So the coins themselves don't have much value, and their promissory value isn't worth much due to the Olypmain currency having a standard actual asshole tax the rest of the world puts on them... Typically a single Drachma if used for mundane things and services can be around.-" Yuki's head bobbed around as she clearly did some math in her head before she said. "Oh, about ten US Dollars each if they are the standard low-grade celestial bronze minted ones."

Dear gods... The Olympians literally were only willing to pay me five hundred USD for saving their very children and bringing them to camp while also making it so I couldn't teleport them or anything easy, I had to bring them via vehicle or on foot there.

I mean I could technically carry a kid probably with my Phantasmal Wings now... But a demi-god life is literally worth less than a person's organs on the mundane black market. Hell, I sure as hell can't pay rent in NY without like two thousand at least!

I buried my face into my hands as Yuki chuckled and patted me on the back. "Sorry Jake, the Greeks are total assholes unless you can get direct quests and have preplanned rewards or you take a quest for one of the more reasonable gods like Artemis, or Ares." She said wryly and I looked into her pale blue eyes as I asked in some confusion.

"Reall? Ares? Won't he also be one of the ones to fuck mercenaries over?" I asked and she firmly shook her head in denial.

"Actually not at all, he is the only Greek God to have a relatively good record for giving out quests and giving out his promised rewards... Sure his quests are almost unanimously the most dangerous, due to them being long slogs of constant battle like this Gumiho clearing mission, but he pays when the job is done and doesn't try to weasel out of the payment." She shrugged at the end in a what can you do motion.

I just processed that information and eventually nodded and as the final rays of light were retreating beyond the tree line marking the start of the event of slaughter to come, I decided to ask more as who knows when I would have such a chance to talk to someone so experienced in the supernatural world. "So what about the other factions and Pantheon's? What are they like working with?" I asked eagerly and for the first time, Yuki actually looked at me with a raised eyebrow before chuckling softly as she looked up into the twilight sky above us that we could already see the stars coming into the night sky.

I didn't hurry her, I allowed her to gather her thoughts and finally, she took a deep breath and sighed in relief as she looked down from the stars and met my eyes again as she spoke. "Hmm... You are my student even if in only archery, and myself watching over you here in this realm so giving you some valuable life advice would be good for you." Yuki seemingly spoke to herself before getting into a monologue.

"The true habitable universe around us is massive... The realms and actual worlds the Pantheons had created in times since primordial are in the literal hundreds, so I shall cover the important factions that you, yourself can meet and not be instantly sacrificed to their fading gods or be eaten by a monster." She started before taking a drink and then began in earnest. "The best faction by far to work with as a mercenary is the Chinese Celestial Beaucrucy, like cultivators from legend and novels they have a lot of very powerful humans within their faction along with dozens of realms under their control that are split into two major factions that follow the Jade Emperor and the Celestial Emperor. The Jade Emperor is an ascended human who became immortal, unlike the Celestial Emperor who was born an Earth Immortal who with the faith of humanity ascended into a cosmic being." She began and then explained how sure that Celestial Bureaucracy's people were assholes.

But they were assholes that could be counted on to pay their dues and other obligations due to them being obsessed with their own reputation and face. For good reason as for the deities within the bureaucracy, they could lose faith and power if everyone thought of them as trash.

Then Yuki moved on to the next faction. "Now as for my own pantheon and faction in the Shinto Pantheon... Well, it's a bit complicated." She said wryly before getting into it. "I am a Yuki-Onna and thus obviously a Youkai so I would belong to the Shinto Pantheon, but there is a major schism within the Shinto as the gods all live within the massive realm or world of Takamagahara and don't really care for the humans and supernatural being's of Japan and their area of influence in mainland Asia. So that leaves the Youkai and the human magical clans to feud endlessly with the gods sometimes pushing us to fight for either entertainment or when either the Youkai or a human clan get too strong." She explained before pausing and thinking something over as she wryly smiled and continued about the Shinto.

"The human clans could and would likely treat you well, as you yourself are a pure human, especially should you become stronger. You could also even expect marriage offers for their cast-off and mundane members to be married to you to enhance their flagging weak supernatural blood." She finished with a teasing smile that made me roll my eyes.

I already had four 'wives' now, no need to cause more trouble when I still had plans to acquire more Gumiho anyway for my plans for this realm to become mine.

She coughed and then continued on. "Anyway, Youkai are very much a toss-up. On one hand, you have Lady Yasaka who leads Kyoto's, and the more civilized Youkai like the Yuki-Onna clans that you likely won't have any issues working with. But working with the dark Youkai who still regularly eat some humans and supernatural on the sly... Well, you are working with a predator, you may just become food so they don't have to pay." Yuki said dryly making my lips twitch at her words.

That good ten-minute conversation about a couple of factions was all we could get into, while I talked with her about getting some missions and what kind of pay I could expect from the onmyoji clans, and the 'good' Youkai. Time had run out, and a flare of fire gave birth to the hell that was to become of this town as Kiyohime created a massive box of flames that sealed in the town and its surroundings while Hunter rushed in.

And of course, Yuki and I went into battle, tearing through Gumiho left and right with the strong Yuki-Onna and Kiyohime herself killing any Gumiho that flew into the fair to escape the ring of flames.

-

Kiyohime POV,

Dull flames raged all throughout her unfocused sight. But as she idly burned the annoying running fox-women to death, all her eyes could truly see was a dull red shirt and the odd modern blue pants humanity seemed to love when working in manual work. 'Does he love the color red? Or is his favorite color blue?' Kiyohime thought as she wondered what her beloved's favorite color was.

Suddenly a thought struck her, 'Does he actually have a favorite color? What he doesn't and when I ask, he gets uncomfortable and runs away at my odd questions what do I do!' Kiyohime mentally howled as she realized just how dangerous the approach to the reincarnation of her Anchin was.

After all... She couldn't bear the thought of scaring him away losing herself and burning her love alive again.

She watched his every motion so carefully, each swing of his distastefully Celestial Bronze weapons, whether they be axe, sword, spear or even switching to use a bow and arrow. She watched his every motion, catching what she believed his preferred weapon of choice was.

The only thing she hated was seeing the dirty Gumiho's blood coating his form over time, their filthy blood dying his red shirt grey in her vision that only saw him and his belongings with color in this dead, broken, uncaring world.

"The town's mayor is fleeing Kiyohime!" That annoying priestess yelled at her, and her eyes twitched with barely concealed dragon's fury at being forced to look away from the color in her world once again when the young man left to go on his own hunt.

'Oh, you strong-willed young man, you shouldn't have left my sight and protection, what would I do if something had happened to you...' Kiyohime thought with fear and abject despair tainting her mind at the thought, but she still painfully looked away from the light of her world and saw the six-tailed Gumiho that was the leader of the town fleeing from the city.

With a sneer, Kiyohime merely snapped her fingers, and within the space of air that the Gumiho was flying in the direction of, the air violently combusted turning into a bar of blinding blue flames that screamed like a high-power blow torch burning away the atmosphere. After merely three seconds of the blinding bar of flames existing, Kiyohime dropped and released the mana she was using to support the conjured flames. Only a blackened charred corpse falling from the sky remained as proof of the action she performed.

With that annoyance out of the way, she looked back towards where her beloved was adorably for a human, fighting the Gumiho with just... So much vigor, despite him clearly not enjoying the actual killing.

'Hmm. So he doesn't enjoy killing? Well, that's alright.' Kiyohime thought with a smile at having her beloved be a more gentle soul just like his past reincarnation but then she froze. She looked at her hands and remembered that the blood of literal tens of thousands of sentient beings covered her hands that she killed with her flames over the millennia she worked for the Shinto.

"Oh no!" Kiyohime whispered in fear... She wasn't an unknown figure to the world, far from it as she was well known to be stronger than lesser gods and was a powerful dragon. "What if he thinks I'm a monster and becomes afraid of me!" She continued to whisper to herself feeling terrified at the thought, but even as she was consumed in her mental fantasies. She continued to idly conjure spears of solid fire that pierced the flying away Gumiho, but even though the spears of fire gave them terrible burns, while she was distracted the spears weren't actually killing the Gumiho, only knocking them to be killed by the human mercenaries or Yuki-Onna.

-

I didn't enjoy killing, but eventually. After the fiftieth thing you killed that day, it became monotonous, it became a chore. The human mind simply couldn't muster up the emotional energy to be an angsty little shit when the things you were killing were also trying to kill you in turn.

Skulls split, and blood flowed. If this was Warhammer, I would have been shot for being a disciple of the blood god. My fighting style was that of efficiency, I had no grand martial art style that spanned millennia and was made by some divine fighter or master. No, I took my weapons and when I chopped someone in half I knew my job was done, I simply didn't need any fancy blade work against the Gumiho.

But even as I fought, I saw not all Gumiho ended in a puddle of gore as several Gumiho volunteered to surrender their Fox Marbles to some mercenaries and surprisingly even a couple of Yuki-Onna who accepted the offer though Yuki snorted and muttered about how they were going to use the Gumiho to make their boyfriends or husbands happy.

From there I saw a system form and even took part as mercenaries took out literal bright rave glowstick necklaces and accessories to put on the Gumiho that surrendered to mark them as their own property and officially safe from the purge.

"Why do you look like you are ready to go shopping Jake?!" Yuki hissed as I bought a packet of the glowstick stuff from one of the dudes who only winked and patted me on the back before he went back to killing the last few Gumiho that were running around openly.

To Yuki's question. Yeah, I was basically now just thinking about what I wanted physically in a kitsune before I you know... Enslaved/married her for the rest of her long supernatural life.

I shrugged and asked wryly. "I mean, what's wrong about being picky?"

My only response was a snowball being dropped onto my head as I could all but feel Yuki roll her eyes as she said blandly. "Oh, well go ahead and have fun 'shopping' I am going to begin clearing out houses... Don't get killed, stupid." She snarked and I couldn't help a chuckle at how she was clearly still worried about me biting off more than I could chew.

So we split up, with the stronger Gumiho having been killed and the vast majority of surviving just cowering in their homes if said home hadn't already been burnt down, so things were simple.

Unfortunately, all the Gumiho in the three houses I cleared, refused to speak or even reason with me. They, upon seeing my armed form, just attacked so they were dealt with. Due to their refusal and one even called me cattle with her dying breath so I didn't exactly feel bad about their deaths.

But as I broke into another house and I stepped into the house I stumbled forwards as the weight fell onto my shoulder and feeling it I rolled forward instantly with a feminine voice cursing as I felt a hot lash of pain ring out across my scalp and as I dipped forward in the roll I felt the weight on my shoulder smash into the floor with a feminine grunt of pain.

One of my eyes was blinded by blood that streamed down my scalp from whatever she did, but either way, I was clearly able to see via my other eye the three-tailed blond gumiho was clad in some kind of tight-fitting body glove with a loose-fitting short kimono over that. And with her armed with a short single-edged tanto of a sword, I knew she was some kind of ninja or something.

I didn't both to speak, this was a three-tailed Gumiho like Amagi and Shinano. She was supposed to be a bit weaker than my level so I needed to take her seriously. "Got any last words before I escape via my tunnel?" She asked confidently as her form bristled with lightning which was probably some kind of self-buffing spell but unlike Touki being natural I could tell this lightning enhancement was causing her muscles to spasm slightly.

I took in her form clad in lightning... I took in how she was obviously specialized in short rang high-speed fighting with her lightning enhancement, assuming that it wasn't just another smokescreen for her to more easily kill me with another technique.

So I dashed forward and as her other hand that wasn't holding the small sword came from behind her back holding a handful of glowing paper talismans, I stopped on a dime with my Phantasmal Wings violently beating through the air to stop me and the sudden growth of the wings definitely surprised her as well, but at the moment I was in the air with the violent beating of the wings holding me aloft, I took out my bow and within a half a second shot a Celestial Bronze arrow into her guts.

"Dammit!" She cursed cradling her stomach as the arrow pierced through her stomach and with a dulling thunking noise impaled the wooden floor behind her.

And finally, as I landed back on the ground I spoke, as I cradled the top of my head and felt only a thankfully thin and shallow cut she left on my head from her failed assassination. "Will you surrender your Fox Marble, or will you be dying here," I asked simply as I took out a couple of arrows and knocked one, and aimed at her upper chest with the arrow glowing an ominous red as it filled with my Martial Intent.

The Gumiho held her stomach a thumb-sized hole punched through it and she took a deep breath and as she smiled I cut her off. "Don't give me a chunni speech, yes or no, yes means you get to live a happy life, and no means I kill you, cut off your tails as proof of the kill while the rest of your corpse gets rendered down for alchemical ingredients or sold to necromancers as fodder," I said dully making the Gumiho's proud smile of accepting death, die right then and there.

I could literally see the thoughts whirling in her head, and when she made the realization that... No, she didn't want to die, she wasn't ready to die, and she still had something else to live for as I said something else. "Oh, and I suppose I will need to go check that tunnel as well," I muttered to myself as I tightened the grip on my bow and pulled it back and she finally gritted her teeth and spoke coldly.

"Fine. I will give my Fox Marble... But you cannot go down the tunnel." She hissed and I merely blinked before I nodded slowly while taking out the glowsticks making her look confused as she gingerly kneeled to the ground even as blood seeped from her gut wound that I would need to take care of.

While this Gumiho was busy... Upchucking her Fox Marble out of her body, I snapped the glowsticks to life, and after she handed me over her Fox Marble and I felt the connection form between us as well as my system pinging me on congratulating me and reminding me I only needed one more Fox Wife to get the next rank of Emperor's Domination. I then took out one of my Gamer healing potions I got from monster drops.

Due to Ariana's questions during that monster cleanup in the sewers. I had purposefully turned off drop loot and supposedly my system would save all the loot until the end of the day and would only then give it to me. Either way, I still had a good number of healing potions.

"Here drink this as well," I said handing over the potion, I didn't want her to get super sick from whatever torn organs she had from my arrow going through.

She looked at it and raised an eyebrow as she muttered. "A healing potion? This isn't a video game and Phenex tears don't look like this?" She muttered reminding me about how stupidly rare healing potions were in fact. But rather than answer her, I took out a mirror as she drank the potion.

"Look, this is why I wanted your Fox Marble... Beyond you know, for the Fox Wife bit, you are no longer a Gumiho." I explained gently and as she instinctively looked into the mirror, and no longer seeing the red ring beside her pupils next to her admitted nice blue eyes, she choked on her potion and began patting her large breasts to get her breath back.

"How!" She rasped as she coughed out the glowing red potion making my lips twitch but before that, I merely pointed at her stomach which had a prominent hole through the tight-fitting body glove but now there was but red inflamed skin.

"The same reason, the hole in your gut is already gone, I am an alchemist of sorts... Either way, do you have family or something you want to save down in that tunnel otherwise this house will likely be sifted through for valuables and said tunnel found by the other mercenaries once they are done killing the ones outside." I explained and she nodded hurriedly before pausing and she bit her lower lip.

"I have a sister who is very sickly... You have to promise not to force her to give her Fox Marble to you." The Gumiho said and I raised an eyebrow before shrugging and saying evenly with a small smile.

"Alright, first of all, what's your name? And fine, I won't force anything though. She will need to wear these glowsticks so she will be seen as claimed by me and thus exempt from the purge." I explained patiently now that I wasn't in pain anymore but as I finished I realized the screams and sounds of battle were dying down so I hissed. "Now hurry, we don't have time!" I said as I saw a couple more Yuki-Onna through the window patrolling around and begin inspecting for hiding places like trash cans and other things.

This meant this building was going to get searched by the Yuki-Onna with a fine comb.

The new Gumiho I bound to myself, shivered in realization and grabbed my hand, pulling me deeper into her house and beneath/behind her cold box of a refrigerator was a tunnel that led under the house that was barely lit by some kind of magical glowing moss. "My name is Yukikaze Panettone. Follow me!" She said quickly before she dropped down and slid down the tunnel that I realized was actually a smooth slide with the way she so smoothly slid down while wearing a body glove.

So following her lead, I got down and dropped into the slide and realized the glowing moss felt like some kind of smooth rubber that allowed me to slide down the tunnel with ease.

Finally, there was a more bright light at the end of the tunnel and as we came to the end of the slide, I saw Yukikaze already standing over another Gumiho, this one with more of a sunny golden hint to her hair, and her single tail... Was like three or even five times larger, and then thicker than any of the other Gumiho I have seen!

"This is my sister Senko Panettone." Yukikaze quickly introduced us and I blinked as I took in her form and then scanned her via my observation due to how weirdly large her single tail was which was weird as most Gumiho that dared live within a town had at least two or even three tails. But as I read her description, it all made sense. [Senko Panettone, Lvl 24, Mutated Kitsune, Essence of Inari.] [Due to the target being born a Gumiho instead of a standard Kitsune, and combined with her not taking in enough 'nutrients' the target was unable to grow further tails properly and the divine essence is congregating within the sole tail and is weighing down targets lifeforce.]

I blinked and then I saw how she was... Yeah, she was right now a liability as she couldn't even crawl a dozen meters away from the slide she slid down into the tunnel. So combined with her low level, I relaxed and held up a hand even as I flinched as the tunnel shook with some loose stones falling down as something seemingly exploded or something on the surface above us.

I tried again to introduce myself with a wry smile. "Hello Senko, my name is Jake Barris, and if you look at your sister's eyes. you will see I helped turn her into a normal kitsune instead of a Gumiho." I explained briefly and she froze and quickly looked at her sister who flushed at her sister's inspection and while she did so I checked Senko out more.

Senko was like the rest of the Gumiho I came across, in being a busty beauty but if anything, she held a very delicate demeanor due to her obvious frail health... Though that could very well change depending on how my removal of her curse would change her body. Otherwise, she had darker golden hair than Yukikaze had which was more of sunny gold, while her large fluffy tail had the same color as her hair but like a paintbrush, the tip of her tail where it slimmed down was snow white.

After I finished inspecting Senko, so did she seemingly finish inspecting her sister and she sighed tiredly as she smiled wryly. "I thank you for the great blessing you gave my sister, but with the purge, we were warned about coming so early... I imagine that service and her life cost, her Fox Marble correct?" She questioned sussing out the entire situation merely by taking in the whole situation which impressed me.

Honestly, even if she was all but bedridden, and couldn't be a combatant. A good strategist and economist was imperative for a realm, so even if she was useless in more physical attributes I would have been glad to have taken her into my retinue if she could continue to show that level of observation and intelligence.

As, the whole point of coming here to the Gumiho realm, was to expand and take over the realm. Killing monsters and even taking Gumiho as Fox Wives to level up my Jobs was second to me leveling up my Emperor's Skill and allowing myself to be able to even use magic and create new skills.

And I needed people for such a territory to be ran.

I nodded to Senko's observation confirming her thoughts making her close her eyes as she processed her thoughts. Either way, I continued. "All Fox Marbles are one of a kind and when I am questioned about your survival, I would need your Fox Marble to prove you are mine... And I would also be removing your Gumiho curse when I recover the mana I used to purge the curse from your sister." I said frankly and Senko opened her eyes with those amber-slitted eyes staring at me with intense thoughts behind the red-rimmed pupils that I couldn't make out what she was thinking.

Finally, however, she did speak as she took a hollow breath that visibly seemed to strain her. "If I say no. my life is forfeit correct?" She questioned and seeing my lips twitch and her sister flinch she lightly sighed before continuing and I realized my thoughts on her level of intelligence were correct as she seemingly sussed out my thoughts should she utterly refuse. "No... You already have claimed my sister, and wouldn't ruin your coming relationship with her... You would give me one of those weird glowing rings around Yukikaze that act as an identifier for claimed Gumiho, and then when I get caught you would either pressure me to give it up then... Or stand aside and allow myself, to be killed in the heat of the moment to save some semblance of a relationship with my sister while you protect her from any reprisal from the deception."

I responded clearly and calmly with a wry smile. "I wouldn't have left you out to dry if I could help it, that I swear on my life. But yeah, you would likely either die via an ice implement or be burnt alive by the insane dragon who is leading the hunters." I answered and before she could continue I raised a hand. "I want you, Senko. I can tell you are an intelligent woman with a good sense of observation, so let me be clear. I will protect you, and beyond even removing the Gumiho, I can also help with your weak body and allow you to walk beyond a couple of steps." I finished my speech and... Senko obviously had nothing to refute.

Sure there was the whole unwilling mental tune-up. But let's be honest. In the face of being carried to the bathroom, being too weak to make her own food, being unable to stand long enough to take care of washing herself in a shower... Her physical body was all but failing her great mind. She either died today or in the next couple of days to hunters or died via her body falling apart in the next couple of years due to her tail absorbing all the nutrients she absorbed from the hearts and livers she ate that her sister had to get.

Senko smiled softly and then her head tilted softly downwards with her angular fox ears pointing at me as she elegantly laid her palms flat on her knees as she spoke formally. "Then Jake Barris, then this Senko Barris, will accept your offer and become your Fox Wife." She said with a small smug smile at seeing my surprise at her actually going for the offer.