Chapter 7 Commissioned by Kriegan

She saw the worlds in naught but different shades of grey. Nothing but grey, sure some things were the pure darkness of black or an incomprehensive pure white, but everything ever since that day could only be seen in shades of grey leaving her life dull and mindless.

"Lady Kiyohime, the portal has locked onto the Gumiho realm with our aimed landing going to be beside the imperial palace." A pale-skinned beauty spoke to Kiyohime who only dully blinked before shallowly nodding.

The Yuki-Onna bowed her head and quickly beat a retreat despite Kiyohime's great age, power, and experience. It didn't change how the temperature naturally rose to an uncomfortable level around her with how she was a dragon. Which made it highly uncomfortable for a snowwoman to be close to her.

Kiyohime blankly looked at the assembled female supernatural beings and envied them. They were a vivacious species who would hunt down and aggressively love their husband once they found them and with their beauty and upbringing they rarely if ever had difficulties in snagging the man they desired.

How she envied them.

Ever since that day, ever since that day she gave into her envy, wrath, and other emotions she became a dragon and in that birth of passion, she found the monk she fell in love with during her time as a normal human... And seeing the man who she swore to love for eternity giving up all emotions to become a monk, including love... She mentally shattered and burned him alive as he cowered within the monasteries large prayer bell uncaring of her tears and begging for him to love her as she did him.

And ever since that moment she breathed her blue flames upon that bell and killed the light of her world, she could no longer physically see any happiness or color in the world. She was content being the Shinto's angry dragon that would burn their foes to ash... They supplied her with divine Sake that would allow her to ever so briefly dream of those simple days when she was a waitress and she would serve her beloved the food she would especially cook him before he left to continue his pilgrimage.

The Gumiho would be no different, their ashes would be used to trade for a drink that would allow her to dream of better days.

Kiyohime's crimson-slitted eyes slid over the few assembled mercenaries that the Shinto invited that had a history of working with them and she idly noticed how they all refused to meet her gaze... For good reason, they knew she had a violent history of dealing with men or women that dared to flirt with her.

After her beloved Anchin, such poisonous words and intentions were the definition of blasphemy and would not be tolerated by her in the slightest

A few more minutes passed by with her in a daze as she counted the seconds she would need to arrive at the Gumiho realm and burn every last living being living within the realm so she could receive her payment and then it happened.

Like a blur at the corner of her eye that made her tense and the room's temperature rose by more than fifty degrees making even the supernatural mercenaries gag at the abrupt heat rise that their bodies weren't expecting, the Yuki-Onna clan reacted by almost instantly bringing out a swirling mist of cold air as the Yuki-Onna priestess demanded what the meaning of her flaring her power was for.

But Kiyohime's eyes were staring past the annoying gnat of a priestess... Within the sea of people of grey, black, and white. Was a boy, not a young man, wearing a black suit that made her feel revolted, as not only did his skin have an actual cream color to it... But his eyes, after millennia, she finally saw a color again.

She never thought she would love the color blue so much after her blue flames burnt her beloved to ash... Those same blue eyes that her Anchin had.

'He must been his reincarnation!' She thought with her heart filling with passion-filled ecstasy, with an insane smile crossing over her face as she held up her divine gold-plated fan to cover the smile she knew would have been unsightly as she walked towards the Yuki-Onna clan that had closed ranks around their clan and unfortunately her man!

-

I stood beside Yuki who had manifested a bow made out of Never Melt Ice and was using ice arrows she made with her Yuki-Onna powers. We were all on edge as the supposed leader of the expedition who was one of the head enforcers of the Shinto. Being more of a butcher than anything according to Yuki, who was going to be our chaperone and going after the Gumiho leaders walked towards us with heavy intent.

I only glanced at her a couple of times as I took in the sorta smaller young-looking lady that clearly had a dragon heritage with the horns popping up from her head and I realized her name was quite apt as she looked like Kiyohime from FGO with her having bone-white hair and crimson eyes.

But as I went back to speak to Yuki to ask about the time of our leaving, I felt an oppressive wave of heat slam into my form, it was like standing in front of an industrial oven when it opened and the dry heat stung my eyes and dried out my mouth and for Yuki=Onna I bet it was even worse as they all instantly began using ice magic to lower the surrounding temperature with the leader of the Yuki-Onna clan, their priestess snapping at Kiyohime. "Lady Kiyohime, I insist you stop now!"

But Kiyohime was undeterred and I realized she was walking directly towards the snowwoman clan with a scary ass smile barely hidden by her folded fan.

Finally, the priestess waved her hand, and a small pillar of ice formed in front of Kiyohime that blocked her view of us she seemingly paused with the block of ice visibly melting quickly, and then the temperature quickly dropped as she retracted her power and inner flame with the temperature of the room dropping into a bone-chilling cold with how the snowwomen were still radiating their chilling magic.

The priestess again waved her hand and the pillar of ice broke apart and as our view of Kiyohime returned we saw the dragon woman demurely bow her head as she spoke softly. "Please forgive me, I merely haven't fully woken up from my long sleep and I was trying to walk past your people, not start an issue." She explained with her golden fan gently held in front of the lower half of her face.

For a second I wanted to use 'inspect' upon the fan but I could feel the magical and otherwise power radiating from Kiyohime... She was a true dragon, and messing with her at all when she was clearly mentally unstable sounded like a quick way to die. So I averted my eyes as Kiyohime and the priestess of the Yuki-Onna moved aside to begin a hushed discussion with the leading snowwoman obviously not buying the dragon's words.

"What the hell was up with her?" I questioned Yuki softly as the other snowwomen were muttering amongst themselves and I was glad to see how they had closed ranks with even myself not being excluded from the pack when the weird dragon lady came over.

And to my question, Yuki shook her head with a frown clear across her face as her eyebrows tightened with her quiet reply. "I have no idea... Kiyohime is an odd one for sure. But unless she is sent after you, or if you make the mistake obviously flirting with her, she has been harmless for centuries."

Kiyohime and the priestess apparently finished their conversation, with the priestess of the Yuki-Onna clearly being unhappy as she walked backward into the clan's group, not turning her back to the clearly unstable dragoness for a second.

But once she rejoined the clan she spoke up loudly so the mercenaries that had retreated to the other side of the room and close to the exit could hear her. "We will be moving out in less than three minutes! Check your supplies a final time as the culling expedition will be spending a week within the Gumiho realm killing all we come across. The only exception will be Gumiho that give up their fox marbles and you will take responsibility for their actions." The priestess said with some distaste as she threw some looks at the male mercenaries who shamelessly chuckled and nodded.

Either way, she continued. "My name is Kanna, priestess of this Yuki-Onna clan and I will be in charge of logistics, bear in mind the Gumiho realm is about a quarter the size of Japan's mortal side so it's of a fair size even if you can fly or teleport so be careful as the Gumiho already know we are coming to cull them, so don't be caught out." She finished with that deadly warning and I grimaced at the thought.

So with the last couple minutes left for me on Earth, I quickly peaked into my inventory to make sure I had enough food for a couple of dozen sets of meals as well as a couple of books for me to read if I had any downtime. And seeing everything was in order I looked to Yuki who nodded as she waved away her magical glyph that probably led to her own spatial storage.

"Anything I should look out for, on these missions?" I asked quietly and Yuki grimaced and visibly paused before answering with a frown.

"Don't let the begging and screaming get to you." She said finally and with that said Kanna the priestess and leader of the expedition clapped her hands as a powerful swirling portal of multicolor light formed.

"Alright, Kiyohime and myself, will go to secure the landing site. Should we land in a hot zone, help us if you can. If not get to cover, and begin picking off the Gumiho to await reinforcements as the gods are watching our movements." She spoke and I realized she meant that unless it looked like we were about to be wiped out... We wouldn't be getting those reinforcements at all.

But as Kiyohime threw us a look, I very much hoped I was imagining it. It looked like her eyes rested on me for longer than the others she looked at, She then stepped through the portal, with the priestess waiting ten seconds before she then walked in.

"Count to twenty, we are the next wave in," Yuki said taking a breath as she held an arrow knocked into her bow I nodded and did the same with my own bow with the bow being Celestial Bronze with the arrow being the same but the golden arrow pulsed with blue light as I was prepared to use it as disposable missile basically.

Then at an unseen signal as I was too stressed to actually count honestly, the Yuki-Onna clan and I in unison walked through the portal and I was welcomed into the hell that was literal ethnic cleansing.

-

The fire was everywhere, the previously dark night was set alit with violently roaring flames that billowed from the small townhouses we seemingly landed beside. Contrasting with the bright flames were glowing pillars of magically enhanced ice that had razor-sharp spear's like rods growing from the pillars that held up the grizzly sight of silhouetted forms of the townspeople impaled on the ice spears.

I swallowed the bile that rose at the grizzly sight as I remembered these beings were monsters and I just shut down my thoughts as I pulled my bow taunt and sent the golden arrow flying at great speed into a flying two-tailed woman who was flying away and I could see the arrow sticking from the side of her chest as she cartwheeled out of the air landing in the nearby forest as Yuki and the other snow women joined their priestess in taking out the Gumiho in the area.

This was just a small town or large village, there weren't any notable fighters either Gumiho or otherwise at all. And with it seemingly being an isolated area, they weren't prepared for us. With Kiyohime having created a large ring of fire that surrounded the area around the town, I knew for a fact that other than a couple of young and very weak single-tailed Gumiho that surrendered their Fox Marbles to some mercenaries that spared their lives.

Not a single Gumiho other than those that surrendered survived.

Yuki was clearly used to this kind of grizzly work, as after the slaughter was complete, she didn't hesitate to begin her tutoring while Kiyohime and Kanna the priestess were busy gathering information on where we were, here in the Gumiho realm.

"Don't pinch the arrow, only pull the string, and don't hook your finger around the string as that will get caught and cause issues when it releases." She advised me while checking my stance and making some adjustments while she continued. "Your stance isn't as important, as no archer or combatant will be standing still, but regardless you have shown significant talent in actually aiming the arrow from the bow to the target you desire to hit." She complimented me after some corrections business as she then began teaching me how to sidestep and use the bow at the same time.

"How long have you been an archer?" I asked softly as I had to pay attention to the makeshift targets down range due to Kiyohime and the rest dispelling their magical lights so we could stay mostly hidden if the stronger Gumiho didn't around know where we were, to begin with.

"Oh. As long as I could walk really, there was never much for powerful displays of ice like our priestess can conjure... And that's the norm as Yuki-Onna despite being a supernatural species aren't that powerful, so most snowwomen typically use strong ice weapons we conjure on the fly to fight rather than wasting a lot of mana making large constructs." Yuki explained patiently in full teacher mode.

I nodded to her explanation while using her advice to skip around across the ground with my body moving quite quickly as I tried to multitask that process of running around and shooting arrows down range. And even my Gamer boosted skill and precision with the bow, there was a noticeable drop in my accuracy, that I knew I would need to work on.

And so I did.

"Jake, why did you accept this mission?" Yuki asked suddenly as I put away my bow to take a drink after sending a couple of dozen arrows down range I would need to retrieve. At her question, I paused before I shrugged.

"I would need to come with you here to get your tutoring to remember?" I answered wryly and she snorted with her cool form getting closer as I put away my water bottle.

"I would have skipped this mission to teach you in a more formal setting, but Arianna specifically used the favor to have me keep an eye on you while you are here in this realm... Why is that?" She asked with a bit more force and I sighed as it was all too clear I was too green for literal ethnic cleansing.

So I answered flatly. "I have a reason to be here that will help my growth. It won't affect you, nor make it more difficult to keep an eye on me." I said with finality and I slightly jumped as I felt her hand clap on my arm softly.

"Just talk to me if you need." She said softly as she pulled back and then watching her walk away I took a breath and with a snap of my finger the arrows down range glowed before they teleported back into my hands to be put back into my inventory so I could follow my teacher to the illusion covered tents we had set up for somewhere to rest through the night.

When I followed my teacher into the tent my face twitched as I realized we didn't have assigned cots or whatever and we literally had to make do with the supplies we had. So I thanked the gods that Arianna told me to get a small blow-up mattress that made the Yuki Onna girls stare at me in betrayal as they rolled out their own thin sleeping bags for themselves to sleep on.

One brave one even whispered loudly enough for the whole room to hear. "Dammit, Yuki is going to get an actual bed to sleep on with her boyfriend, I am so jealous!" Yuki who just came out of the bathroom/changing room, metaphorically froze with a healthy blush coming to her face at her cousin's words.

I chuckled and then just to be mean I patted the side of my bed as I called out encouragingly. "Just ignore them beautiful, they are merely jealous that you will have a warm pillow to hug to sleep tonight," I said sending a smug smile at the other ladies who boo'ed me and by extension Yuki her getting some glares and some of the ladies muttering under their breath.

As Yuki still blushing like a maiden came and sat on the edge of my blow-up mattress and I realized she had one of those throw/folding pads that were basically just a compressed yoga mat.

"Jake!" She hissed obviously embarrassed and I flinched as I recalled Arianna telling me how her family kept bullying her for being a hopeless Christmas cake virgin. So I winked and took her hand and whispered into her ear while the girls in the room hissed and held their chests dramatically at the affectionate gesture as they obviously imagined I was whispering sweet nothings into the snowwoman's ear that was beside me.

"Just lay down beside me, I won't do anything and you can use your sleeping bag as a blanket to separate us," I whispered before I pulled back and laid down on my with my head propped up on the one pillow I brought.

Even as Yuki carefully laid down beside me on the air mattress, I was just staring up at the ceiling as I let the day's events pass by me. I knew that the shit I saw today was going to haunt me honestly. As sure they were monsters and seeing hundreds of magical jars filled with preserved hearts and livers made me lose any sense of pity for their creatures.

But their screams for mercy most definitely got to me.

Eventually, Yuki fell asleep as did most of the other snowwoman clan in the tent, with Yuki it turned out to be a bit of a snuggler as she rolled over as though seeking my warmth and her cool body wrapped around my own. Laying on my back, she threw a leg over my hip with one of her arms over my chest with her large breasts pushing into my side and chest while her face and nose were cutely stuffed into my neck as she softly yet deeply breathed in her sleep.

And her soft breathing is what finally silenced the feminine screams of the Gumiho within my mind as I finally fell asleep.

-

My sleep was violently ended, as I was awoken by a loud scream that came close to the tent. But as I sat up quickly while holding Yuki in my arms she also jolted and I felt her body go so cold that it hurt my hands before she cursed under her breath as she hissed. "Sorry Jake." She whispered as we both rolled out of bed along with the other snowwomen who ran out of the tent to see what the hell had happened.

Running outside I grimaced as it turned out the night watch had picked up some gumiho scouts and they were in the midst of 'gathering information' and the scream was the result of them dropping the sound-deafening wards before they cleaned up and the two scouts got a scream out.

"Ladies you can go back to sleep." A large male mercenary said calmly as he cleaned off his sword I grimaced as I saw how the man had clearly decided to torture the Gumiho by cutting off her tails.

The girls just shook their heads as dawn was about to break anyway and with our supernatural bodies we were good with a good six-something hours of sleep so we just got some food in ourselves and after we got done Yuki asked me the pressing question. "Do you plan to stick with the main squad or look around Jake?"

At her question I paused as I realized I didn't look like some butcher mercenary like the other dudes in their bodies clad in armor and being armed to the teeth with how I had enchanted my clothes and kept my weapons in my inventory I could move around attracting less attention.

Before I could answer Yuki sighed and rolled her eye's before she spoke pointedly. "I see that you are planning to go solo... Very well I will follow you, but if we come across a Gumiho with four tails or more. We run." She ordered bluntly and I nodded in understanding.

I smiled at her willing to go out of her way to accommodate me. "Alright sounds good. Also thank you for keeping my bed nice and cool." I teased her and she flushed, of so damned cutely with how that cherry-red flush crossed her pale face... 'Guh, Christmas Cake Yuki-Onna waifu is too cute!' I couldn't help but mentally cry out.

She turned away as she knew I was enjoying seeing her blush and she coughed to clear her throat as she spoke more seriously despite me being able to see that adorable blush had crept around the back of her smooth pale neck making it red as well as her ears also being red.

So once we told the priestess we were going to scout around and she gave the 'Ok' with us having a quota of twenty Gumiho tails we needed to return with to earn our day's exorbitant pay. We set out, according to the captured and surrendered Gumiho's information of an even smaller village a couple dozen miles away.

Thankfully with my supernatural strength, I was able to pedal a mountain bike to keep up with Yuki who could use her magic to float off the ground though she couldn't really fly, so it's not like I was a being an anchor around her or something. But I reminded myself to see if I could find some antigravity or something runes I could put into my shoes so maybe I could glide or fly.

But within half an hour we arrived at the homely village. And staring at it, and knowing there was no Gumiho within that had more than two tails as it was a small village holding old Gumiho who couldn't hunt anymore and dying. And the weak children the Gumiho in the large towns and cities sent here so their own family members and the other Gumiho wouldn't snatch them up to eat. Meant that it was easy pickings to us.

The old weak Gumiho would be paid in hearts and livers by the kid's mothers to keep them on a leash and orderly while the growing Gumiho would be safe from the bigger settlements' depravity and dangers.

"How long does it take for a Gumiho to grow," I asked suddenly as I realized something extremely terrible in this ethnic cleansing I had pushed out of my head. What the fuck was I going to do with a bunch of kids? The thought of slitting a child's throat... I realized I couldn't do that.

Standing here I realized that was the truth and as Yuki looked at me she seemingly picked up my issue as she sighed and patted my shoulder as she spoke thickly. "Jake, this world fucking sucks... We supernatural beings are made, cursed, and thrown aside at will by the gods who created us. The Gumiho was born out of the original, being cursed for irritating him during a feast by eating too much. That god then cursed her to be eternally hungry and when she ran out of food, she ate her servants, and then the curse was solidified within her bloodline." Yuki spoke softly before she looked over towards the quiet village that only had a couple of candles lit in the windows to mark how there were people living there.

"Many Gumiho begged forgiveness from the divine, even from other Pantheon's gods swearing their service, their beauty, and anything they could to have their dependence on killing others to eat removed. But little was given, besides some gods who took on individual Gumiho as their toys who they at least cured their dietary needs or transferred the curse to something like having to eat fish or something." Yuki finished before shaking her head as she manifested a razor-sharp dagger in her hand.

"They are a sad species, but even after this purge, they will survive... The monster races always do survive somehow." She muttered before she looked back at me and said simply. "This is the supernatural world Jake, the appearance of a child means nothing. If it's truly a child, that means nothing... You will kill what stands in your way or that child you spare, will rip out your own heart and eat it in front of you, in half a decade." She finished before walking forward towards the village.

Yuki was silent as she broke into the largest building of the village by sliding a blade of razor-sharp ice through the simple bar lock on the door so she could just push it open as we walked in. I saw that the people living within the house were still asleep as this building seemed to be the village's general store.

And with it being a general store they obviously were selling the Gumiho brand of food, and the sight of hearts and livers floating together in jar's made me harden my will to do this. I followed Yuki upstairs to the living section of the shop and as I came to the top I saw Yuki had opened the first door silently and had walked in with no hesitation and within seconds, her pale hair obscured my view of the occupant of the bed she was hovering over.

But I could hear the soft twitching and gurgling as Yuki had rammed her ice spike through her neck and severed her spine.

Unlike humans, most supernatural species literally had to sleep on their stomachs or side due to their extra appendages that would commonly come out as they were sleeping so it wasn't as easy to deal with them.

So with Yuki taking that room, I took the next. The room was bereft of decorations except for some dressers that held some knickknacks. The room's paper walls on this side were seemingly painted with some honestly bad drawings but regardless I focused on the shifting form of the obviously feminine form that rolled over at the sound of the soft squeak the door made inevitably when I opened it.

Although the door made a noise, my footsteps did not. So within a couple of moments, I was standing over the Gumiho's bed and I saw the pink hair that covered her fox ears peaking out of the top over her blankets that were pulled over her head with only her large ears pop out.

I took out a simple Celestial Bronze dagger and looked at my reflection in the mirror of the blade. I stared at my reflection and I blinked as I heard the blankets beneath me shift and a feminine mumbling groan rang out as the Gumiho rolled over but as she rolled over. Her blanket shifted down.

Green-slitted eyes met my blue, and as she went to scream. As she deeply inhaled I reacted. The Celestial Bronze dagger ended her life instantly as I rammed the knife down through one of those emerald eyes as I feared the whole town would be awoken should she scream like those scouts woke our entire camp did with their screams.

She died gurgling on her scream that I covered with a hand and in the back of my mind I could hear Yuki move past this room and enter the next room with another set of gurgling accompanying this one's.

Finally, with her expiring I went to the last room and dealt with the owner of this General Store. But instead of walking over to her and dealing with her via a knife in such an intimate murder, I just shot her in the head with a slightly oversized arrow.

Seeing that method of killing, Yuki nodded and said softly. "So long as you don't miss it's fine." Can you get your own tails?" She continued to ask with some concern and I nodded with a grimace and went about the task of acquiring proof of my own kills.

And thus that's how we cleared the majority of the small village. Yuki would go into a room first as she was in her own words. Very experienced in opening a door silently and killing the person within, and I would follow in with my bow with an arrow knocked and would deal with anyone else in the room.

But our silent cleansing of the village of a dozen-odd homes hit a snag. When we broke into our fourth house the owner was sitting there at her table frozen in shock, with a chunk of uncooked red heart on her fork. The older lady didn't hesitate to yell out. "Intruder!" And even as she yelled she sent a wave of powerful blue flames at us that I recognized as fox fire that all fox races could use.

A thumping noise rang out even as I heard someone rush through the house as my arrow didn't give a shit about the wall of flames that she conjured with the arrow flying true and landing in her chest with the magical arrow exploding and blowing her chest cavity open as I knew the time for stealth was over.

Yuki herself knew as well, as she powerwalked into the house and as a door violently opened up. Yuki slammed a spike of ice up through the girl's chin and into her brain and then seeing a man behind her that was probably her lover or something she didn't hesitate to conjure a spear of ice and throw it across the room that rammed through his chest and pinned him to the wall across the room.

"Come. We will clear them, as they run out." Yuki said and I saw how her eyes were glowing with a silver icy glow as she drew upon her Yuki-Onna blood for open combat. I nodded and she was spot on as within the half minute it took us to kill the last Gumiho in the building and their lover.

The rest of the village had woken up. As we walked out of the building I saw a Gumiho with black hair and two tails eyeing us angrily with her yelling. "Do you cattle know the agony that awaits you for this affront!" I took in the other Gumiho and although some of them looked angry, hungry, or even wore sadistic smiles.

Only a couple looked unsure of their actions in directly confronting us in the three dozen that still lived.

Yuki had no words for the Gumiho, the only answer she had was a beautiful killing move of grace that was obviously born of years of practice. Within not even a quarter of a second, Yuki took out her ice bow made out of Never Melt Ice and conjured an arrow on the string of the bow as she pulled it. And then released the arrow that made a cracking noise as the ice arrow pierced the leading Gumiho's head as she nailed her right between the eyes.

I knew the Gumiho were skilled at range with magic with their inborn fox flames, and other magic's. So I dashed forward with my enchanted clothes pushing my bodies running speed greatly so within a couple of moments I fell upon the screaming Gumiho with a Celestial Bronze axe in each hand. I was a whirlwind of swinging arms with the divine metal dispelling the bolts of magic while I dodge the balls of weak fox fire the single-tailed Gumiho threw at me desperately.

And I killed all I got close to, my axe split them into pieces. My axes were boosted to great sizes by the Giants Blade technique made the single-handed axe's like I was comically swinging a folding chair-sized great axe with little effort as the technique didn't make the weapons weigh anymore to me despite them somehow gaining great momentum with their size.

Yuki let me tear apart the Gumiho while she kept my back safe from any spells or magically hardened tails that sought to pierce me with her casually nailing Gumiho in the head that attempted to run away or attack me in the back. Other than that, she purposefully allowed me to kill the Yuki-Onna until there were only three left.

One of which was one of the ones that had smiled sadistically but the other two were the ones who were unsure of the battles and were clearly terrified of my large gore-covered axes as I powerwalked over to them with my eyes coldly taking in their forms and the surroundings for other threats.

"Wait I surrender!" The one with a sadistic smile said. No longer with any confidence but complete fear so I blinked but shrugged and continued on towards the last two and even as the other two cowards finally began to fight back I killed them with my large axe cutting them in half before I eyed the one who surrendered and I paused before glancing to Yuki as I looked back at the Gumiho. "Yuki, do we need to question her or does she have value?" I asked simply while keeping an eye on the black-haired typically beautiful Gumiho.

Yuki coldly answered. "Beyond telling us where some treasure is buried where we could bury her fully intact corpse afterward. Or her giving you her Fox Marble and becoming a slave... No" Yuki finished and then before the Gumiho could react she launch another arrow straight at the face of the Gumiho.

But a harsh clanking noise rang out with a grimace coming across my face as I saw how her arrow pierced through the expanded edge of my axe's blade but the ice arrow didn't hit the Gumiho who shivered in fear with her eyes dilating at the sharp spike of ice inches away from her eyes.

"Jake?" Yuki asked almost tiredly and I held up a hand as I considered something now that there were no more Yuki-Onna or anyone else in this village beyond myself, this Gumiho, and Yuki herself.

I had an idea.

"When you give your Fox Marble to someone. Do you still hunger for hearts and livers?" I asked the Gumiho and she stilled and for a moment there was silence as I met her eyes before she slowly nodded and spoke with a rasp in her voice.

"Yes... Even as our souls and minds are twisted into loving the one who holds our marble and making our personalities change into what the holder desires... The curse is woven into our very blood." She answered and I considered my options before I calmly responded.

"Your race is being culled right now? Across the realm, an army of beings from Earth like us are clearing you out... Either you die here and now, or give me your fox marble." I finished with Yuki grumbling in the background but I paid her no mind.

I stared into the brunet Gumiho's eyes as she stared at mine and she finally answered. "Either way is the death of who I am." She answered softly but Yuki cut in coldly.

"No. If he owns your soul, he will be responsible for you and when you die, your soul would be forfeit and unlike the rest of Gumiho won't spend millennia being cleansed with your soul being burned within the black flames of Yomi for millennia to remove the tainted karma of all the lives you ended to live off your diet." Yuki explained coldly the Gumiho flinched at that reminder... 'The gods were truly dicks weren't they?' I thought with a shiver.

It seemed the reality of eternal torture and having her soul burned clean was actually worse than becoming the slave to me as she paled as I realized she was retrieving her Fox Marble. She kneeled in front of me and like the men I saw before I held out a bare hand in front of her and held in my reaction at how the Fox Marble was given to me, as she gagged and then the large rainbow-like glowing marble that was larger than a jaw breaker was ejected into my hand.

And as my hand made contact with the Fox Marble, I felt my system ping as a message came within my view the Gumiho shivered and her eyes rolled up.

[User has acquired his first fox wife! Hidden accomplishment acquired- Maidenless no longer!] [User has performed the first step to the mission Emperor's Domination! - Reward for the first mission is as follows A Fox Wife, Ten Job Tokens.] [Emperor's Domination II - Aquire five concubines, wives, and women that are incapable of betraying you.] [Rewards - twenty job tokens.]

Even as I saw the notification that I had enough Job Tokens to unlock the Unarmed Master job, I saw a whole new message in bold that stated. [Warning, Fox Wife Amagi had curse spread throughout the body... The system recommends kissing fox's wife to cleanse the curse.]

'So much for the fucking undefeatable curse.' I thought as I heard Yuki squeak in outrage as I leaned down grabbed a handful of her admittedly soft brown hair and with one hand pulled her up as she moaned at me being forceful I used my other hand to cup one of her fat tits while I kissed her deeply and in my mind, I heard a ding as the Gumiho flashed with oppressive heat as the system flushed out her body in the matter of a couple seconds.

[Fox Wife Akagi, curse of endless hunger removed. Warning, the user may not use the system to endlessly remove the curses off wives, User is banned from doing so until timer runs out 20:00]

What kind of harem lord did they think I was... A measly twenty-minute cooldown to remove a divine curse?

But then it hit me. The game didn't account for the level of the curse or when it was cleansed, it was actually a combat mechanic so I couldn't just spam dispel curses in the middle of a fight.

Then another piece of information hit me. Even if I around the clock saved and hit Gumiho with Yuki knowing and believing my kiss could somehow remove their curse. I would be unable to save many of them... But the few I could save would be important, as they would be the bedrock to me owning this realm!