Chapter 12

Being balls deep in one Kitsune, led to me over the next couple of days obviously doing the same with the rest as the whole culling ground down to almost a halt due to Kiyohime going to attack the largest and most populated city within the realm on her own. So with the main heavy hitter of the culling going literally AWOL and ruining the plans to properly sweep the area of all Gumiho.

It was now the Yuki-Onna priestess sending us, the mercenaries, and the strong Yuki-Onna into small hit squads to eliminate the other settlements. This obviously included me and Yuki who were given our first assignment in the middle of the second day of Kiyohime leaving the camp.

Other than sleeping with my kitsune, I also spent some time getting to know them as well as doing some light archery and dagger/shortsword training with Yuki as that's what she focused on. But that bit of relaxation and chilling out had obviously reached its end.

"Alright Yuki, you and your squad will be in charge of this major settlement out here near the mountains that make up the border of the realm. The city was built into the valley of the massive mountains that act as the natural border for the realms so even should they flee after the battle starts they will almost naturally flee in our direction either way. So standard operation procedures, no prisoners unless they give up their fox marble, and whoever takes them on is responsible for their actions." She reiterated making sure the mercenaries who had been unlikely enough to not have a pet Gumiho by now, nodded in understanding despite the multiple times she had said it at this point.

So with that meeting done, Yuki took me aside as the mercenaries used their various methods of travel to head toward the designated city. Yuki was waiting for the others to leave first as it was very noticeable that none of the mercenaries were waiting for Yuki to act as their leader. Nope, they all but charged out of the encampment chomping at the bit to go loot and pillage the actual city to get some riches.

I raised an eyebrow as Yuki visibly took a breath a small blush filled her cheeks and she stammered oh so damned adorably. "You!" She pointed at me! "We are going on a serious mission now! No more shopping for pets as you already have seven of them!" She tried chiding me and I couldn't help the evil grin that crossed my face as I simply stated her weakness.

"Virgin."

I didn't tease her, I didn't ask if she was jealous or anything... No, the simple statement made her shudder with her flush cross down from her cheeks and down her pale neck as the home run slammed into her greatest weakness.

She pouted and didn't say anything as she had no retort... She was very aware I was most definitely not a virgin, after walking in on Amagi giving me that good morning sloppy toppy when she wanted to wake up for early training.

"Come on Yuki, let's get going... As the mission leader, we at least need to loot the governor's mansion or something before those other vultures get there." I said to get her moving while she rolled her eyes, retorting.

"And we aren't the same vultures?" She asked sarcastically and I shamelessly nodded but still answered.

"Yup, but we are the biggest and need to be the fastest vultures, so let's go!" I said with a small smile coming to my face as Yuki and I raced off with myself using my Phantasmal Wings to glide through the air.

The minor city we were in charge of culling or just making the Gumiho flee randomly into the realm to be more easily picked off, was named Nagasaki. And I didn't know if there was some significance to the name or whatever, but the small city supposedly had three thousand Gumiho with 'cattle' accounting for an additional population of five thousand. So there were a lot of beings we needed to deal with or account for.

"So how should we deal with fighting so many beings? Stay back and hit the city with long-distance spells?" I asked frankly as I knew I couldn't kill a thousand plus Gumiho and probably more 'cattle' who would see me as some kind of butcher and attack me. Not that I was too weak to do so as even now with my claim taking on more and more of this fertile land I felt myself growing slightly more powerful.

No raw power wasn't the issue, it was a pure numbers game, and the issue of running out of stamina in such a fight. At my question, Yuki nodded with a weak smile as she sighed and took a breath. "Yes Jake, we will most certainly not be rushing to fight several thousand plus beings in melee combat... We have prepared a seal matrix that will end up doing the work for us after the Yuki-Onna charged the spells these seals for the weeks we had knowing of this mission was coming." She explained and I got to learn how real supernatural genocide is done by professionals.

Once we reached the city, we didn't rush in guns blazing like Yuki said we wouldn't. We merely stabbed four large pillars into the ground to form a perfect square using some laser pointers a good dozen miles around the walled-in city way out of sight or care of anyone who might have noticed us.

"These pillars are a four-part seal matrix that uses Yuki-Onna's natural great talent with ice magic to violently rip the air out while also violently lowering the temperature within the sealed area... Even for three-tailed Gumiho if they do not flee the area within three minutes or be durable enough to resist the cold and lack of air, they will die and within five minutes their bodies will begin to be freeze-dried due to the air being pumped out creating a vacuum." She explained and I swallowed at the sight of the menacingly deceptive light blue and white pillars that looked like they were carved out of ice and marble.

I had spent some good time enchanting my clothes to reinforce my body and give me a bit of magical resistance but in the face of enchanted tools that literally made an on-demand portable war crime gas chamber... My magical weapons and methods needed an upgrade.

"This must have been difficult to make," I said wryly, and Yuki who was making hand seals visibly shuddered with her muttering.

"Yes... Each seal pillar requires the body of a Yuki-Onna to be used in its creation in order to make it so efficient for other Yuki-Onna to use the spell and allow Yuki-Onna to fill the pillars with mana before deploying the formation." She said weakly and I grimaced as I looked at the central pillar in front of us.

This world was cruel, the gods were assholes and the inclusion of DXD titty logic didn't change the fact that this world's supernatural world was built on who was the strongest.

I watched silently as from the central pillar, a thin silk-like fog blanket spread through the air towards the other three formation pillars, and just as I went to say something Yuki spoke quickly. "Follow me quick." She said sharply as she flew up into the air and I followed with a strong leap into the air with my Phantasmal Wings keeping me in the air though I was slowly drifting back towards the ground but before that, a harsh wind slammed into me, and my wings that propelled me higher into the air but as I flew up Yuki held onto my jacket so her floating form glided up with me.

'That's the air from within the formation.' I noted the sheer biting cold that made my face sting along with my eyes water that escaped with the air that the seal formation had pulled out of its surroundings.

"Now we just wait... See that large castle, Jake." Yuki said as we flew high into the air on the updraft coming from the seal pushing all the local air out violently. Either way, I focused on the large Japanese-style Keep/Castle in the far distance that towered over the collection of overly large buildings around it. As well as the smaller buildings that surrounded the collection of larger buildings that were assuredly the more residential buildings.

My introspection was cut short as Yuki spoke up explaining as to why she pointed it out. "That's the main governmental building, it will likely have a safe or treasury in its basement for the precious metals and treasures that were retrieved from the local mines to be sent to the capital in the annual tithes. But the governor of the city will also likely have their own treasury in their own abode... Which would you prefer to focus on finding first?" She asked and I paused at the thought before I honestly quickly made my mind up.

"The city treasury. I need a lot of metals and stuff to practice my enchanting, weapon refining, and of course to begin mass-producing golems... Well, make better golems." I finished with a wry smile at the reminder of the lesser golems I managed to make back home in my territory in the sewers.

They were simple contraptions rather than magical 'robots' that could carry out simple tasks. At my answer, Yuki chewed on her lower lip before shrugging with a small smile crossing her face as she said with a smile. "Very well, we can go your way. Though I would like if you could make a good dagger at some point that helps channel ice magic." She stated and I realized she was only using the dagger excuse to give me the vast majority of the loot to be kind.

I confidently assured her even as I looked away from the city dwellers trying to flee from the future mass grave. "Alright Yuki, I will do the best I can to make you the best dagger I can," I promised her and she silently held my arm to distract me from the sight in front of us.

-

Being within a non-hermetically sealed building didn't help the people that tried to take shelter from the formation that culled them. Within five minutes only the city's governess a six-tailed kitsune was able to claw their way through the thick freezing fog cover that hovered over their small city and it wasn't within cost.

The Gumiho's hands bare legs and even their nose were blackened by frostbite after going through the coldest part of the formation in the barrier. "Support me, Yuki," I said taking a deep breath as I shot a blitzing fast Celestial Bronze arrow that screamed through the air as it shot air but it turned out that even if the governess didn't have the best sight from her trip through the formation, her kitsune ears being padded with fluff were still working just fine as she threw up a magical seal that my arrow collided with and created a violent explosion that sent her flying through the air from the force of the explosion.

"You bastards dare! I am going to skin you alive and cook your still-living forms over a slow fire for freezing my city!" She snarled and I already dashed over as she yelled like before with Shinano I smashed down on her with a razor-sharp axe, her tail enhanced with Touki or something was able to block the sharp blade of my massive axe somehow.

But she was still blinded by the condensed ice she had to fly through so even as she swiped at me with far too strong tails I couldn't block, I just kept her busy as Yuki utterly silently broke apart into motes of snow that merged into the surrounding snow storm and then her eyes seemingly recovered and she slapped my axe out of my hand. Yuki made her move when the Gumiho sneered at me.

"I am going to enjoy eating herk!" She gagged and shuddered as Yuki's upper body formed out of the swirling snow from behind her. And within a moment of her arms reforming, she almost instantly rammed a glowing blue icicle into her skull making the Gumiho break into deathly twitches as her brain was scrambled by the ice spike.

I could tell why Arianna wanted me to train under Yuki so much. She was probably not even half as strong as this Gumiho should she have been in perfect condition. And neither would have I. But with her wounds and that perfectly timed assassination, there was nothing the much stronger and probably far more experienced opponent could do.

I needed to take such cunning and tactics in mind, as I likely wouldn't be fighting people directly all the time and who is to say I couldn't do the same?

Yuki floated back over to me as I glided back down to the ground quickly to save my energy but as we landed Yuki snorted as she said dryly. "The vultures tried to get through the barrier to get loot and paid for it... Be ready should their friends challenge us for the treasures, or attempt to get revenge for their teammate's greed and stupidity." She warned me and I nodded with a wry expression.

As much as I wanted to suggest we allow the barrier to fade, allowing the mercenaries to rush in to loot and just turn it back on... For one that was beyond cruel, and secondly, and most importantly the formation didn't have the energy to be so frivolously used.

"Alright, I am ready to go loot if you are," I said nodding to her and she bit her lip before she took a breath.

"Then excuse me, Jake." She whispered and then dipped forward and I blinked as she pecked my cheek, but before I could ask what that was about I felt that cheek burn as though I touched some liquid nitrogen or something excessively cold. "I gave you a Yuki-Onna's blessing to resist the cold... It was only a kiss on the cheek so it will only last a few minutes but that will give the formation's ice time to break apart so we can take advantage of it." She explained while still blushing heavily as she created a magical glyph in the air that connected to the formation and a loud hissing noise rang out as the formation's vacuum sucked in the outside air.

And after a few seconds to allow air to enter the space, we ran in. Rushing directly towards the four or five-story castle in the distance and while doing so I watched as a couple of dozen rushed in and found out that. A it was beyond fucking cold, and B there was still not enough air to actually breathe.

"The store room will be in the basement!" Yuki told me quickly as we flew over the frozen corpses of the Gumiho who couldn't get past the barrier and just froze/asphyxiated to death when we reached the castle I saw a large paved road that led into the bottom section of the castle and with a grunt of effort I blew open the thick metal wall with a trio of explosive arrows that blew up hard enough to break the arrows and their Celestial Bronze arrowheads.

Rushing into the bottom section of the castle through the hole I punched through that five-or-so-inch thick gate, I saw the room we entered was clearly a large storage area that had dozens of crates in lanes from wall to wall and between the large pillars that kept up the castle above us.

"Look for the valuables in the back and throw them in your spatial storage!" I ordered as I ran forward and just threw every single crate and its contents into my inventory, uncaring of figuring out what was what as we were clearly on a timer. Yuki elegantly rushed to the back via a couple of gliding steps and she used a magical glyph that opened a pitch-black void telling me it was a standard dimensional pocket spell she was using to manually throw the crates and their contents into that pocket dimension only she knew the coordinates to.

We made quick work of the main storage room and from there we got out of the building and using our own methods of enhanced movement we went to the top floor where the governor would likely have her office. Once there we looted the safe that was hidden under the rug on the floor and all was well... Until we went outside and three men were standing in front of the door waiting for us.

"Hey, captain." The leader of the three men said with a confident smile. "You didn't let us know you had some kind of scary formation you were going to use... Killing all the Gumiho before we could get a chance to get their fox marbles isn't fair you know?" He taunted and I noticed he was armed with a jian style sword with a red ribbon tied around his chest, another was armed with a staff with a gem inlaid upon the top so probably a magic staff making him a caster, and the last one had his hands covered in gauntlets making me think he was a brawler.

"Out with it. What do you want." I said dully as I kept my eyes on the three of them while still mentally checking my minimap and saw how they were the only innately hostile people in the area though if others found us. That could change real quick.

The leader of the three mercenaries coughed with a small smile crossing his face as he nodded and spoke affably. "I like a smart greenhorn like you kid, you surrender the loot, and if there is enough you guys get to walk away without issue, while we return back to Earth and we never see one another again most likely."

I 'observed' them and besides the mage who had the highest danger level or level in general, they themselves were weaker than I was... And weaker than Yuki was by more than a good amount. As I looked at them I realized something. I didn't to give up my loot.

I wasn't a kleptomaniac despite being a gamer... But to be literally made into a punk and have my shit stolen from myself?

I sighed and my frame loosened. And at the sight, the three also loosened up as they thought I wasn't going to do anything... But that was the issue, I loosened up. And in my loose position, I whipped out my celestial bronze axe, and even as I whipped my arms forward through it, I charged it with martial intent and used the Giant's Blade technique to make the axe double in size so the massive axe head became a spinning blur of death that bisected the mage at the upper chest before he could react.

Yuki, seeing the axe appear in my hand summoned her Never-Melt Ice bow and began shooting arrows as I ran forward at the leader who used his saber to block Yuki's arrows while the gauntlet wielder ran past me to go after Yuki to stop her arrows from upsetting the fight with the leader.

"You dumbass! You could have walked away!" The leader growled as his curved sword slashed at my arms as I swung my own saber made out of Celestial Bronze at him. But I didn't verbally respond.

Its mind boggling the bullshit you can pull on someone in a close fight when you can make different weapons just appear in your hands, so I allowed the man to do some fancy blade work that resulted in my hand being cut and my saber being thrown out of my hand, I hid a smile as his eyes widened with glee as he brought up his saber above his head and took a powerful step forward to all but cut me in half from head to groin.

With the ability to summon shit from my inventory with merely a thought, it I only had to match his powerful step forward, and as we came too close for his saber to properly come down he gurgled as I summoned the dagger Imperial Eulogy that I got from the Dracolich that John Wick killed and the dagger was buried within his chest while I used my free hand to grab his hands that were wrapped around his saber to keep it from coming down on me.

I eyed the man and as the cursed, poisoned dagger stole his life quickly with the blade puncturing his heart, I dispassionately ripped the serrated dagger out and then rammed it into his skull making his form stiffen and go limp as I ripped out the blade. I learned a good lesson from Toji Fushiguro... Never think a single lethal wound was enough, otherwise, you may get fucked over.

With that done I looked over and saw Yuki had impaled the other guy with a spear of ice that had bloomed like a flower on its blade before spinning within his chest cavity and tearing it apart from within like some raw meat being put within a blender.

With Yuki clearly fine I mentally glanced at my mini-map and saw some people in the vicinity clearly watching us from the way they were stuck still and marked as hostile. But it seemed they didn't want to press their luck after seeing this group get wiped out.

"Let's move to the largest house to loot it next," I said quietly as I stiffly walked away with my head held up so I didn't look too mentally disturbed to any watchers who could make out my facial expression thankfully Yuki didn't say anything,

She followed me silently to the large mansion that was down the street from the main castle and we entered it and had to step over the corpses of the help who were taking care of the large estate before they died via suffocation. Once we got inside and got to a private office with no Gumiho who died scratching out their throat from suffocation and being blue, I could finally have the peace and quiet to have a little mental breakdown.

I wasn't a bitch, nor was I stupid enough to throw a tantrum or just scream after doing all this killing... But this whole genocide thing and my first human kill were at the same time, just...

While I sat down on a couch and buried my face into my hands as I regathered myself mentally, I heard Yuki sigh and felt the couch shift as she sat down beside me. "First human kill?" She asked frankly and I nodded and she continued coldly. "It gets easier you know... Killing your species, you start making excuses to justify it, to make money, they were a threat, you were protecting your friends and loved ones." She listened and then I felt her cool body smush up against me as she whispered with her breath being cold upon my ears.

"Get over it Jake, you lived they died. Man up and move on... Go home, eat some good food, drink some alcohol, and... Sleep with your harem I suppose." She finished with her moving away and I looked at her while she snorted at my confused expression. "Getting some sexual relief is a good way to wind down and allow your mind to empty itself." She said somewhat defensively.

I just shook my head and said with 'confusion' in my voice as I teased her. "But you are a virgin Christmas cake, what would you know of blowing off Mghmm!" I cried out as she grabbed my head and began smothering me in her tits.

"Silence to the normie who can snuggle with their woman, whenever he wishes!" Yuki yelled drowning out my struggles as she began hysterically muttering about how it was totally unfair and how she considering getting her own Gumiho waifu to snuggle with at night to keep her warm.

Thankfully due to her thick sweater, I wasn't actually suffocating so eventually I just leaned in and relaxed into her arms. Allowing the soft large breasts to squeeze around me with each breath she naturally took.

Actually, now that I was fully pressed into Yuki's chest I realized a crucial fact. She undoubtedly had the largest breasts I had been in contact with, even bigger than Shinano and Amagi's for sure.

Finally, though Yuki sighed and her tight hug loosened and she patted my head as she spoke wryly. "You damned pervert... I can tell, you are enjoying this punishment." She said with blame clear in her voice.

And in response, I shamelessly nodded with my arms coming around and pushing her down on the couch so I could just snuggle into her soft sweater pillows.

She snorted but didn't push me off, I could feel her shift slightly on the couch to get more comfortable and then her cool hands returned to my head, and I got to enjoy her cool almost cold hands running through my hair as she lightly spoke. "This is one of the closest moments I've had with a man truly... Back in Japan, they are so reserved that any such physical affection is seen as off-putting or even seen as desperation." She said quietly and I didn't say anything, I only tightened my grip on her letting her know I was there.

Her voice became wry as her hands continued their ministrations through my soft hair. "It boggles the mind truly... I am a beautiful woman I know that, and I am not embarrassed of that fact nor do I question it, but are my beauty and feminine aspects so great that no man can relax and accept me?" She mused to herself and I couldn't help but look up at her face.

And like how she told me to get the fuck over my killing my first human, I treated her just as delicately. I patted her soft thick backside with a hand making her flinch with her pale blue eyes widening dramatically and a flush filling her cheeks while her mouth opened slightly to gap in shock at my following words. "You want to be a wife so badly? Then get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich Yuki."

A sound not unlike a pillow being slammed into a mattress rang out as Yuki growled and now tried to legitimately strangle me with her tits while I just snickered about how she utterly failed due to the thick sweater.

"Your sweater pillows are weak Yuki!" I called out victoriously and she once again growled with a cough ringing out from me as her other hand had balled into a fist and thumped me in the back. "Okay... You win mercy please!" I said jokingly and she snorted before her frame relaxed and I felt a good bit of my angst having flowed away from my headspace with the game we played.

Yuki then said blandly. "Alright, now that I made sure you weren't going to become some kind edge lord and shoot up a school after having gotten your first kill. Let's finish our goal of looting the governor's house so we can return to camp." She said pulling away from me and as we stood up I heard her mutter. "So we don't continue to get attacked by our own supposed allies anyway."

Too which I couldn't really respond to, nor did I attempt to. In either case, we began to comb through the city lord's mansion and systematically removed chunks of the walls and even floors to look for hidden safes and hiding places for valuables.

And besides some more classical art that I couldn't be bothered to collect due to having no connections to sell them nor the names of the artists being worth anything. We didn't really acquire anything of value beyond a large store of hearts and livers that the governor likely used as food storage for the city if need be.

'I could stick the hearts and livers into a jumbo blender, drown them in spices and such to make a slurry and make ground meat or soup out of it.' I mused with a slightly disgusted expression but the amount of hearts and livers which were the most magically/essence concentrated of a sentient's body were enough to feed my Kitsune to help the one tails reach their more mature status of having three tails. And maybe help the older or more talented ladies like Shinano and Amagi acquire their fourth tail.

It's not like I could give the fucking hearts and livers back to their original owners after all... So might as well get some use out of them.