《Azure Chronicles: Soulbound Crusaders》


 Chapter 1: Impromptu Vacation

    Within the droves of snow-fitted trees, the crinkling of their leaves was muffled by the snow covering them as the many branches swayed from the mild breeze brushing against them. Other than the rustling leaves, the lone sound of muffled and slightly crunchy footsteps echoed through the forests. Solus, the causer of the footsteps, marched through the forest with his eyes firmly shut while his kitsune ears flicked and flopped rhythmically to seek out any useful noises. Solus callously cast his gaze between and through the tree line, his mood teetering on full frustration despite his desire to remain stoic before his spirit companions.


    (Solus is a light tan-skinned teenaged humanoid with two white alkorian horns on his forehead and six fluffy kitsune tails with different coloured ends [three of them are blond with a dark royal blue, a rouge red and a pale green tail ends respectively, and three of them are lime-coloured with a purple/magenta, a black and a white tail ends respectively]; he has curly knee-low mostly blond hair with some lime parts and a single night sky ahoge, and blond with lime iris'')


    (Solus is wearing a pale blue headless full-body suit with a snake scale texture, a knee-low pale yellow trench coat with a wide hood detailed with two large eye-shaped ovals and two holes (the hood looks like the head of a king cobra and has semi-transparent fake eyes), black fur trousers, and pale yellow metal hiking boots)


    "Do any of you lot sense the yokai?" Solus asked, his voice stern and firm. He forced his frost-covered eyes open with a minor amount of effort, flinging small shards of ice off his eyes. In response to his question, a torrent of varying voices sang in Solus'' mind while all telling him the same sentiment of not sensing where the yokai was. Solus sighed and crossed his arms in agitation, causing what little restraint he had to melt away into a scowl.


    "And the lack of footprints doesn''t help... what could be causing its spirit chakra to be obscured?" Solus uttered in an aggressive grumble. As he continued to ponder in annoyance, a faint tug pulled at the forefront of Solus'' soul, making all his anger dissipate in one go at the spirit''s attempts to steal his attention. He mildly grinned at the boldness of the spirit; who Solus could only think to be one individual.


    "Something on your mind, Sweetie?" Solus asked with no hint of anger or aggression. Almost in time with his question, a mass of golden mana(wavey energy) phased out of Solus with a playful twirl; it bundled together before taking on the shape of a human toddler with kitsune ear-shaped horns on the top sides of her head and two kitsune tails floating behind her. The young spirit fiddled with her non-existent clothes, ensuring she was presentable, before fist-pumping to psych herself up. She raised a hand to her chest and began speaking her mind.


    "Couldn''t I just use my play cube to locate the yoku?" the young spirit asked with a flowery pleasant high-pitched voice. Solus amusedly smirked as he peered around, checking for any potential observers.


    "Sylvie sweetie, I appreciate the offer but...". Solus couldn''t bring himself to even finish his sentence at watching the form of his daughter begin to wobble as she pitifully whimpered and yelped like a fox, striking directly at Solus'' soul and making him stagger back in pain from Sylvie''s intoxicatingly cute sulking.


    "As much as it sounds like a great solution, Master Solus is simply concerned about what effect an abnormal yokai would have given what a normal one did to the GoG cube," Sosuzoku, a reserved regal tone to his voice, stated telepathically to the duo. The spirit''s voice cut through Sylvie''s whimpering like a sharp knife, filling her with anxious embarrassment as she turned mildly red in the face.


    "Oh yeah... grandaunt Nola and Lola weren''t happy when we had to reset the cube," Sylvie muttered meekly, giggling slightly as the image of her aunts learning the news their a thousand plus records had to be wiped and almost passing out flashed in her mind. Whilst Sylvie''s mana form dispersed and phased back into Solus, a mild yawn reverberated through Solus with every fibre of his being rattling like an active microwave oven from the yawning''s tremors.


    "Mmn... it was anything but pleasant having to reset that thing," Nebula grumbled aggressively, directing her telepathic voice to Solus for only him to hear. Solus rolled his eye playfully, his mood greatly heightened at the sound of Nebula''s voice.


    "Nice of you to join us, Nebi," Solus remarked with a cheek to his tone, eliciting a pouty huff from Nebula. Her pouting only served to elevate Solus'' mood to even greater heights as he slowly gathered light mana(white wavey energy) into his palm and aimed it towards a particular tree, one which stood out like a sore thumb given the viscous, flame-looking leaves adorning its branches.


    "How''d we miss that?" a snarky girly spirit voice asked as black spirally spirit energy seeped from Solus and merged with his light mana, causing the mana''s texture to take on a fuzzy appearance. Solus nodded, finding the situation mildly humours with how obvious the yokai was, yet none of them could detect it despite looking right at it.


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    "Eusia! It was my turn to help Solus make spirit mana!" a frantic and childish young male-sounding voice exclaimed. The spirit''s outburst unleashed a torrent of shock through the sea of spirits residing within Solus, sending the spirits into a shock-filled frenzy as they couldn''t believe Oshi was capable of raising their voice. Solus smirked at hearing the tsunami of voices before closing his eyes and firing off the spirit mana sphere in the direction of the yokai-infused tree.


    The spirit mana blast careened directly for the tree at blinding speed. The yokai did not even bother to dodge not until it was too late as the spirit mana pierced right through its wooden trunk and shredded it to splinters. A distorted howl erupted from the tree, its leaves exploding into violent flame-spewing fountains as they merged into a vaguely animal-ish form. However, the yokai''s howling abruptly ceased and its gathering body bursted into embers which fizzled out before even reaching the ground. The now leafless tree turned a dark grey, its texture becoming flakey before it crumbled to a pile of ashy sawdust.


    "Didn''t even know what hit em," Tsarina said condescendingly from within Solus'' mind. Solus scoffed in amusement before lowering his hand and strolling over to the pile of ash.


    "It only means the Yokai was sure in its concealment abilities," Vaillan stated calmly, her voice astute and firm.


    "Seems like it-.". Solus held his tongue, abruptly halting himself mid-step and slowly brought his foot to the ground as something about the ash caught his eye. From the subsiding and smouldering ash, a rainbow-coloured crystalline ring, containing a crossed-out eye, rested on top of the ash pile and glistened under the moon''s light.


    "What''s that, Pa?" Sylvie asked perplexedly while her spirit form scratched the back of her head. As she floated towards the ash pile, Solus pinched his thumb and index fingers together, and Sylvieinstantly stopped in the air from the teal glow encasing her and dragging her away from the ash.


    "Hold your tails, we better not mess with something we can''t sense," Solus stated before adding, "And we should inform Kara or Kusana.".


    "Thou doesn''t need to bother for One is already here," Kara stated emotionlessly, catching Sylvie''s attention and forcing her head to turn in the direction of the passionless voice. Kara gracefully descended from above, her sprawling fuzzy wings obscuring the moon and casting a shadow over Solus as he crossed his arms with a slightly ticked-off expression.


    (Kara Raiden is an extremely short kid-looking humanoid half-angel/half-mothion; she has deep Lavender eyes with a red open book-shaped right iris and two small deep lavender compound eyes under her human eyes, super pale skin, four large twenty feet long fuzzy lavender moth wings, has pale lavender fur[on her entire arms, her shoulder blades, hip section, and entirety of legs] and fuzzy black insect antennas)


    (Kara is wearing black shark-themed metal bracelets and lavender-coloured sunglasses)


    "So, you were tailing us... again?" Solus asked unamusedly, watching Kara as she landed beside him and casting a side eye to pass on his annoyance to her.


    "It was merely a coincidence," Kara stated as she wrapped her fur wings around her body into a cloak.


    "Hardly. I believe you and the word coincidence are antonyms, Little Miss Truth et Knowledge," Solus remarked while commenting on Kara''s mastery of Vivo''s wing cloak technique, leading Kara to boastfully ooze smugness like a fountain as her neutral expression melted away into a crooked grin at someone acknowledging her accomplishment.


    "Indeed, for one....". Kara covered her mouth before sharply coughing to expel her surface-level pride, "It''s not important, what we should be focusing on is this outerworldly object.". Solus raised an ear


    "Are you saying you can''t get a read on its information?" Nebula asked telepathically with a hint of concern to speedy speech. Kara nodded as she turned to Solus, her face displaying a serious scowl as her antennae wiggled furiously.


    "As much as it annoys me to say, this object appears to come from The Realm Beyond making it immune or invisible to my heavenly qi," Kara mentioned while lightly grabbing one of her antennae and flicking it into the other one.


    "Must be for you to refer to yourself by anything but one," Solus remarked cheekily, causing Kara''s cheeks to turn mildly red. Kara swung her arms straight down in a pout, puffing up her cheeks as she clenched her fists in utter fury; her pouting only exploded as she watched Solus completely ignore her for something else.


    "Sometimes I- ONE has to question if your family have any care for etiquette when talking to royal-". Solus abruptly wrapped his arms around Kara, making her slur the last word of her sentence, and Sylvie before springing backwards as the rainbow light of the crystalline object became too bright to ignore. Despite his effort, the light easily caught up to Solus, washing over everyone and enveloping them in seconds before instantly disappearing along with the individuals caught by it, leaving nothing but the ashy remains of the yokai behind.

 Chapter 2: Deep Below A Canopy

    A pervasive clash of temperatures enshrouded Solus enveloping him in their conflicting embrace, the sensation of which rippled through him like raindrops in a lake. The flipping sensation pulled at Solus'' very soul, clawing his resolve into shreds as he stirred into his inner world. Upon opening his eyes, Solus silently stared at the pale yellow sky, watching the fluffy dark yellow clouds gently flutter across the sky in resignation at his failure to escape the flash of light. He sighed deeply as he shut his eyes, despite the relaxing aura perpetuating the realm. He basked in the light of the realm''s artificial sun while taking in the sounds of the waves and the happy cheers of the many spirits relaxing on the island''s silver sand beach.


    "Better get out of here before the fossal ropes me into listening to one of his stories... again," Solus grumbled exhaustedly. A hearty and girly laugh bellowed directly into Solus'' ear, filling him with utter defeat as the girly laughing drilled at his psyche and brought him to bated breath.


    "Hah! If I weren''t as old as him, I''d totally call him that," Kyoshina proclaimed cheerfully, slapping her chonky tail into the beachy ground and kicking up sandy dust clouds. Her remark was both condescendingly playful and painfully infuriating to Solus; Kyoshina happily clapped her hands away to show her praise to Solus but also to tease him for getting caught off guard by a crystal.


    (Kyoshina is a human kid-sized anthropomorphic humanoid; she has sharp fangs, freakishly long trailing dark cyan glowing flame-textured hair which floats around as if it were submerged in water, glowing bright pink eyes glowing pitch-black scleras, dark skin, from the neck down and above the hips is covered in fuzzy faint cyan fur so faint it''s practically white, a circular cream white fur belly area, lower body is covered in dark cyan metalic dragon scales, an anthro a black cat nose, large fluffy cream white hourglass-shaped rabbit ears, chonky thighs, and a chonky trailing dark cyan dragon tail with a football-sized ball of cream white fur on the end of it)


    "Could you quit it with the tail flopping, you''re getting sand in their eyes," Solus requested with an exhausted huff to his voice. Kyoshina narrowly halted her tail from striking the ground, stopping her laughing as well, and took a peek behind herself to see the short and young spirits in swimwear rubbing their eyes.


    "Oh...," Kyoshina uttered before breathing in through her nose. She effortlessly shot a mini blast of concentrated air from her mouth at the trio, dispersing the sand from their eyes in one go, trying her best to be gentle but ending up sending the spirits flying into the pale pink ocean encompassing the island.


    "Now onto what I wanted to... say?" Kyoshina said before her voice turned from confidence to confusion at seeing the empty Solus-shaped dent in the ground. With the feeling of being ignored hitting her right in the soul, Kyoshina clicked her tongue and kicked at the sand, cursing herself for letting Solus get away. As she poutily flailed her limbs, the surrounding spirits slowly backed off from the immediate area, hoping Lord Solmeuetzo would deal with Kyoshina before she destroyed Solus'' beach again.


    Back in the physical world, Solus snapped his eyes open, using the brief moment to catch his senses before instantly frowning at registering Kara looming over his head with her face mere inches from his. Kara stared daggers into Solus as her book-shaped pupils glowed, inspecting every minor reaction he had to her staring before unamusedly huffing.


    "What are you trying to do?" Solus asked as he sat up with Kara moving out of his way while keeping her eyes locked onto his, emulating a predator eyeing its prey.


    "Who can say, one certainly wasn''t trying to see if one could see into your Shinsokuko Realm, most certainly not," Kara stated defiantly, crossing her arms and antennae to strengthen her words. Solus rolled his eyes as he bunched up his tails, pushing them against the ground and launching himself to his feet.


    "Didn''t Gramps tell you the reason why you can''t see into other''s Shinsokuko Realm with your heavenly qi powers?" Solus replied as he raised his head to the faint god ray drumming against his head. The gigantic dark oak trees towered high above the ground, their trunks twisting and weaving between each other like knitted cotton while their canopy of black leaves blocked the majority of incoming light, making it impossible to tell the time of day while inside the forest.


    "Even if that''s the case, how can one take pride in one''s title if one cannot confirm knowledge with one''s own eyes," Kara retorted, angrily huffing and puffing as she pouted like a child with her face remaining perfectly neutral. Solus rolled his eyes, raising a hand to the forest canopy before slapping his hand over his eyes.


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    "Would it kill you to talk normally?" Solus grumbled while lightly squeezing the sides of his face and offering a hand to Kara. Kara huffed at the notion and lightly kicked Solus in the elbow of his raised arm. The kick sent a shivering ripple through Solus, making him freeze up for a split second before he jaggedly lowered his raised arm back to his side.


    "She sure showed you, Kiona," Kyoshina whispered, her snarky voice echoing through Solus'' mind.


    "Knock it off," Solus mumbled mentally, getting a cheeky snicker from Kyoshina before he felt her presence fade from his consciousness. Solus closed his eyes, threw his head back to the sky and deeply exhaled as he lowered his shoulders. In his resignation, Solus lowered his head and slapped his arms against tails.


    "The trees sure are noodly," Solus remarked defeatedly.


    "So, we''re moving on from the last convo?" Kara asked, rhetorical snark chiming with her voice. Not feeling like responding, Solus remained silent but eventually sighed as Kara''s antennae wobbled their way under his head. The antennae teased Solus with their wiggling, goading Solus into speaking his mind or at least expressing it in some way and even booping him in the nose for extra measure.


    "Good grief...," Solus uttered before raising his head from Kara''s relentless antennae strikes. As she suspended herself upside-down off the ground with one of her wings, Kara peered up at Solus with callous energy behind her blank expression as she crossed her arms at him.


    "Chronicle Codex?" Kara asked emotionlessly. Solus simply rolled his hand, leading Kara to flex her wing before bouncing off the ground and landing on her feet as she rewrapped her wing around herself. With her first bit of emotion, Kara swung her arms up bombastically, waving her hands with determined jazz as red heavenly qi(dense particley energy) gathered on them. With violent confidence, She slapped her hands together and blasted a cloud of qi in front of her. The heavenly qi began to condense, mould and culminate into the shape of a book before the qi exploded off the book, revealing the Chronicle Codex in its normal-sized mode.


    [The Chronicle Codex is a purple magical book with black spikes and an octagon lavender gem on the front cover]


    Kara carefully placed a hand on a spike from each side of The Chronicle Codex, ensuring her grip was firm and secure before violently swinging her head back as she struggled to pry the Codex''s spines apart to get access to its content. Despite her huff and puffing, The CC showed no signs of giving way, not even for its owner, leading Kara to angrily pout in resignation as she whispered the password to The CC. With the password received, The Chronicle Codex sprung open and speedily spun through its endlessly flicking pages until landing on the page of Kara''s desire.


    After taking a single glance, Kara closed The Chronicle Codex, retracted its spikes into circles and hid it under her wings before turning to Solus and calmly addressing him, " Another reality, currently in a forest called Quionvail Forest, and you should hide your none human features given demi-humans aren''t a thing in this world.". Solus raised a hand to his head, itched his horn lightly before retracting them along with his kitsune tails and ears into his body.


    "Anything else I should know?" Solus asked reluctantly as he watched Kara''s antennae sway from side to side. Kara mildly raised an eyebrow, her face remaining neutral as she watched Solus'' demeanour for any sign of deceit in his question but eventually concurred with the conclusion that Solus was sincere.


    "Did you get the strange sensation of being surrounded by both the hot and cold?" Kara asked. Solus nodded, his face a clash of a poker expression mixed with his pupils slightly constricting into vertical ovals.


    "One will take your silence as a yes. So, to put it into simple terms, this reality appears to have some sort of ambient energy that neutralizes most spiritual types of magical abilities, and that is what caused the strange stimulation around you," Kara explained. At hearing their predicament in its entirety, Solus mildly huffed, raising a hand to the spot his horns previously were and pressed his thumb against the spot, caressing his forehead with mild annoyance as he mulled things over.


    "At least tell me if Tree Enthusiast knows of our predicament," Solus grumbled as he freed his forehead from any further thumb attacks. Kara couldn''t help stifling a smile, smugly planting her hand firmly on her hips and playfully hopping onto The Chronicle Codex with one foot as it hovered above the wooden ground.


    "One doesn''t even need one''s heavenly qi to tell you that," Kara remarked, her antennae snuggly wobbling like audio waves as Solus rolled his eyes.


    "I suppose the answer is rather obvious, isn''t it," Solus uttered. With his face being a conflict of apathy and self-deprecating amusement, Solus silently turned around and marched off, informing Kara he sensed spirit energy ahead as he went. Kara sat on Chronicle Codex and hovered behind him, asking if it was purely spirit energy or if it was mixed with something else.

 Chapter 3: Unintentional Outcome

    After the duo travelled for a surprising amount of time and distance, the towering trees once commonly intertwined and interconnected now resemble a more traditional rainforest, allowing the light rays to break through the once obstructive leaf canopy. Sitting on Solus'' shoulders, Kara watched the spots on the canopy where the sunlight broke through, noting the repetitive pattern of the spots in the trees'' canopy being oddly intentional but otherwise finding the matter disinteresting.


    "Mind getting off me?" Solus requested as he felt Kara press The Chronicle Codex''s base harder into his skull, her focus on reading its content so strong it distracted her from realising the amount of pressure she was applying to Solus with the CC.


    "One can''t read and fly at the same time," Kara retorted while flicking to the next page of The CC. Solus rolled his eyes at Kara''s disregard and slowly lowered his head making sure not to alert Kara, not that she''d notice even if Solus moved sporadically or aggressively. Solus remained quiet, contemplating his next course of action and whether he should knock Kara into a tree or the ground. As he came close to enacting his Knocking Kara Down A Peg Plan, Solus shook his head deeming a stroppy Kara to be more of a hassle than an absently annoying one and decided to let her be as he corrected his posture. Kara stared at Solus with a mild smirk on her face, her eagerness to divulge the info she discovered from The Chronicle Codex making her mannerisms resemble one of a normal kid.


    "Word of note, one noticed The Codex mentioned there were humans up ahead, so mostly likely they are by the spirit energy you sensed," Kara explained before slamming The Chronicle Codex shut. She raised The Codex above her head and brought it down on Solus, smacking him in the back of the dome. Kara remained still for a second, the impact of her book hit reverberating back through her, travelling up through her bones, and making her antennae spring up into the shape of zig-zags.


    "What was that?" Solus asked, not realising the thing which hit him was Kara. Despite being overwhelmed by the recoil, Kara remained strong, continuing to act in her usual aloof and emotionless way, by angrily huffing and stating it must have been a bug, even if her voice was jittery. Solus couldn''t help but snicker aloud at hearing Kara''s voice addition, his snickering only going to make Kara pout more and lightly pound her fists against Solus.


    "Would it be considered racist for you to be scared of bugs?" Solus asked jokingly; despite trying to antagonise Kara and much to his surprise, the abrupt onslaught of quiet mumbling from Kara caught Solus completely off guard, causing him to meekly sigh at triggering one of Kara''s self-discussion incidents, wondering why it had to happen now of all times.


    As he covered his eyes to hide from Kara''s rambling, Solus inadvertently walked straight into a clearing, his mind so preoccupied with drowning out Kara that he was completely unaware of the battle between some humans and a larger monster he had cut to a halt by walking between the two parties. One of the humans dressed in an academic-looking uniform, a teenaged human female stood in front of the injured students also wearing the same uniform as her, her arms up in front of her with her hands primed to conjure a spell.


    (The girl is a sixteen-year-old slightly short teenaged human; she has faded black fluffy and woolly hair tied into one large pompom, a dark blue right eye, a dark purple left eye, and dark tanned skin with obvious tan lines)


    (She is wearing golden bracelets with silver studs, a white tailored button-up shirt, grey suit trousers with two thin lines on the sides of each leg, black shoes, and a dark purple elbow-low cloak with yellow trims)


    The girl''s gaze followed Solus, her expression a mix of confusion and bewilderment as she watched him walk right between her and the monster. Along with her companions, she was at a loss for words at the absurd sight of a guy in a snake-theme hoodie and a girl with moth-themed accessories.


    "Oi! Girl with the staring problem," Kara barked, snapping the girl out of her bewilderment-fuelled state.


    "Huh?" the girl mumbled before quickly raising a hand to her chest as she regained a hint of her composure, even if the looming silhouette of the burly monster standing behind Solus made that composure fickle at best.


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    "Ahem... what might it be, little one?" the girl asked with a semi-noble and dignified tone of voice. Kara mildly flinched, finding the particular use of adjective for her insulting but decided to overlook it on the sole fact she was referred to as one, and wanted to bask in the novelty of it for a bit.


    "Is this thing someone you know''s pet or something?" Solus asked as he raised a hand and pointed a thumb at the monster behind him.


    "Only a maniac would have a xilophae as a pet!" a battered guy exclaimed with his face in the dirt. As Kara hopped off his shoulder and glided to the ground using The Chronicle Codex like a paraglider, Solus raised a hand to his side, his fist clenched as his pale blue mana swirled from him and coiled around his hand with a vice-like grip with any part of the mana that splits off from him instantly turning to dust.


    "Then I''ll get to saving you then," Solus remarked as the torrent of voices from the spirits inside his mind stumbled over each other to get his attention, hoping to be chosen to help deal with the monster. However, they were instantly silenced by the simple huff from Nebula followed by her stating it should be her, mentioning this is an unknown monster so it''s best if Solus uses the spirit weapon he is most familiar with. After letting her explanation sink in, the other spirits gradually got on board and reluctantly agreed, not knowing Nebula''s true intentions were simply to monopolise Solus for herself at any chance she could.


    Knowing what she was up to, Solus could only pessimistically sigh at the situation, reluctantly going along with Nebula''s antics to save himself the headache of listening to the spirits bicker on who gets to help him. Solus raised his gaze to the tall monster, towering over him at double his height, its overall shape being mostly humanoid save for its deer-shaped legs, turtlehead, and the metalic knight-armour turtle shell chunks covering its body.


    The monster reeled its head into the air, snapping its jaw open, and unleashed a guttural roar, sending bone-tingling shivers through the girl''s companions while she remained mostly unfazed by it. As she watched from a distance, the girl gritted her teeth, an undeniable and overbearing sense of shame overcoming her as the recollection of the group''s escorts getting killed by the monster played in her mind, the shame only being compounded now that a stranger was currently defending them.


    However, despite Solus'' relaxed demeanour, the girl could not help the uneasy sensation in her chest as she couldn''t get over the glaring issue of Solus being seemingly unarmed. Clutching at her forearm, the girl felt her growing guilt pang to her limit, goading her to take action and try to stop Solus. But as she took a step forward, Kara''s small hand appeared before her face, stopping the girl in her tracks as Kara sat on the floating Chronicle Codex with a smug bounce in its swaying.


    "No need, Keuikae, those lot can handle it," Kara explained while rocking her hand from side to side. Keuikae paused momentarily before lightly itching her head, finding the right words to say hard to come by from the two puzzling parts of Kara''s statement.


    The monster continued to howl, drumming and bashing Solus'' ears with its ferocity, and mildly causing Solus some pain. Solus raised his mana-less hand, balling up his fist as he reinforced his body with chakra, before reeling his fist back. Solus slammed his foot into the ground, mildly cracking the ground and catching the monster''s attention causing it to halt its howling sharply.


    A split second later, a metalic bang exploded through the forest, startling the nearby birds from the roof of the forest, and the monster''s entire body jolted. Keuikae stood on the spot, her eyes wide like a deer in headlights with her mouth on the cusp of dropping from pure shock but she managed to catch herself before it happened. Solus stood firm, despite the faint shock on his face, as his fist pierced smoothly through the monster. The monster briefly writhed on the spot before its body went limp, collapsing to its knees as Solus felt a sudo increase in weight from the monster.


    "Seems someone altered the amount of chakra I made...," Solus remarked mentally, his voice laced with dread as he heard the pouty murmuring of an angered Nebula ringing in his mind. The faint sound of smug snickering danced through Solus'' Pulling his arm free, the monster corpse wobbled and slinked backwards, collapsing like a crumbling building or stack of cards, before slamming against the ground.


    "Oooh~ you''ve gone and done it now Solus, I can''t believe you went and upset Nebi-gah!?" Eusia''s telepathic voice asked cheekily before the sound of her getting strangled rippled through Solus'' mind. Immediately knowing Nebula was the one doing the strangling, even without the pleading from Eusia saying she was only doing a little trolling, Solus raised a hand to his forehead and itched it.


    "Nebi, if you don''t stop, I''ll have to revoke your access to-.". Suddenly, a loud distant splash boomed in Solus'' head and he could only sigh in mild amusement as Nebula stated she let go of Eusia and wouldn''t be having her favourite pass time taken from her.

 Chapter 4: Temporal Troubles

    Watching the monster slowly crumble away, Solus left his eyes to linger on the magical particles the monster decomposed into, furrowing his brow in contemplation. As he stood there, its flame-textured and slightly viscous appearance was undeniable. The emergence of such a familial energy set off all of Solus'' red flags, cascading a wave of concern through his mind as it entered overdrive to piece things together.


    It was nothing short of a yokai in Solus'' mind, given how it unravelled into spirit chakra and especially the sinister aura the creature released. He was adamant on his conclusion but he had to relent, despite what his brain had him believe; given the facts, the main one being how he defeated it without Nebi or the lots'' help, the monster was at the very least not the same as the yokai back home.


    "The nerve of that thing, to brazenly use spirit chakra and not fully commit," Kyoshina announced aggressively inside Solus'' mind, her words alone conveying her animosity for the monster. Despite sharing the same animosity for the monster, Solus thought Kyoshina should refrain from badmouthing it, given her track record involving yokai.


    With a tempered sigh, Solus shook his head lightly, his expression unfazed as he heard Kara''s light-footed approach.


    "Got any clue what that thing was, Miss Know-It-All?" Solus asked as he faced Kara''s direction. Kara scoffed, flipping her bangs at the preposterous undertone of Solus'' request.


    "Luckily for you, The Chronicle Codex does have a few entries on this world; although...," Kara replied sullenly as her wrapped-up wings twitched with mild annoyance. Knowing what she was going to say, Solus couldn''t hold back a begrudging exhale.


    "Locked pages?" Solus asked unamusedly, expecting such course of action the moment Kara mentioned that consistently inconsistent book. Kara snapped her fingers at Solus, a cheeky grin miraculously adjoining her smug expression.


    "Seems One''s intuition has rubbed off on you," Kara said in a teasing manner as she hopped beside Solus and lightly jabbed him. But, given the difference in their statures, Kara''s elbow met with the guy''s knee instead of his side like she intended. The ill-aimed jab sent a sharp and stinging shock through his nervous system, coursing through him in one united wave.


    "You''re lucky I don''t punt you for that," Solus whispered under his breath. Kara feigned ignorance, raising her arms in a sudo-confused W as a red wave of qi washed over her and gathered at her forehead. The red qi condensed, solidifying to fit around Kara''s knowledge bank before its outer ayer bursted off it to reveal a pale pink metal headband with two small red LED demon horns underneath.


    Feeling the weight of the headband form on her head, Kara''s insectoid eyes shimmered with embarrassment while her human features remained neutral as if she wasn''t sulking on the inside.


    "Betrayed by one''s own codex," Kara grumbled defeated as she pinched one of the Chronicle Codex''s horns, punishing it despite how fruitless it was to do so.


    Whilst the mothly girl aggressively pinched the codex''s other horn as its arms tightened against her dome, Keuikae crouched down beside the battered guy with his face in the dirt and rolled him over onto his back. She didn''t quite understand what had transpired right before her eyes when Solus defeated the xilophae. Sure, she understood on the basic level of what happened but the why of it seemed to illude her as she tended to the sole survivors of her guard.


    "Father, can''t you use the lumilight spell to hill them?" Sylvie asked quietly in confusion, popping her head out from over Solus'' shoulder as her spirit energy body formed behind him. Recalling Kara''s mention of this world being a human-dominant one, Solus gave his daughter a concerned glance before closing his eyes, hoping to hide his worry from her, as he figured it''d be fine since Kara never mentioned it being a magicless one.


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    "You recall what Kara mentioned about the air?" Solus whispered while booping Sylvie on the nose, causing her to giggle and boop him back.


    "So, she wasn''t joking about there being something in the air?" Nebula remarked from inside Solus'' mind. Kara subtly side-eyed Solus, knowing Nebula was slighting her without even hearing it with her ears.


    "Naturally, you big boob-eck" Kara quipped, indignantly flipping her antennae like they were hair bangs before wincing as her antennae stuck each other and cutting her off.


    "What is with you and your strangeist words?" Sylvie asked cheerfully as she swished around Solus until reaching the side Kara was on. Kara silently mumbled in discontent, not willing to verbalize her retort for Sylvie when Solus and Nebula were on the same continent as her.


    Meanwhile, maybe? Back in the gang''s original reality, the forest that once housed Solus and Co was now tranquil and devoid of any disturbances, excluding the illuminating light swiftly weaving through its trees. Soon, the light broke free into the clearing where Solus defeated the abnormal yokai. The light gradually slowed down revealing it to be Lumios with a barely awake Kimmi-Ka sitting on one of his miruku head tendrils.


    "So this is where their signatures disappeared," Lumios mentioned amusedly as he settled Kimmi-Ka beside him using his miruku before trotting forward.


    (Lumios is a very tall wu-ling, miruku, and acolyte hybrid with the appearance of a twenty-two-year-old human male; he has trailing spikey woolly[like a sheep] pure white hair with two ahoges having a faint cyan glow, a glowing azure blue right eye with a yellow iris, a pure white left eye with a white iris and pitch-black sclera, radiant fair skin that''s slightly anorexic, eight large and long[to his knees] grey miruku tendrils[plated tendrils sprouting from the head with mouths on the ends] with a faint cyan glow, and glowing rainbow fingertips)


    (Lumios is wearing an almost entirely white form-fitting outfit that only reframes from covering his hands and above his neck, black claw-like engravings and trimming running up the sides of his arms and legs, a regal golden fur mantle with a white fur collar, and on top of the mantle''s collar is a black fur scalf with flame-shaped metal dots all over it)


    (Kimmi-Ka is a short-kid-sized wu-ling, miruku/kitsune and acolyte/alkorian hybrid with the appearance of a four-year-old female human child; she has long woolly hair[half snow white(left) and half blond(right)] hair all with lime hair tips, her hair is styled to look like a cluster of kitsune tails, a pure gold right eye with pink/lime gradient pupil, a glistening deep blue left eye with the right pupil being multiple concentric white stars, fair skin, nine small and long[tripple her height] blond to snow white gradient coloured fluffy fur-miruku tendril tails with lime coloured tips, glowing fingertips, and slightly curved upwards glowing ram-like horns on the sides of her head)


    (Kimmi-Ka is wearing a super long fuzzy white scarf with a scale texture covered in golden and red poker dots, and a rainbow-gradient rabbit-themed onesie)


    "Indeed father, I was observ- The Eye of Revelations captured the moment the strange object teleported them and I happened to notice said recording," Kimmi-Ka stated astutely, even pointing to the spot where the rainbow-coloured crystalline ring once stood and where the yokai''s ash pile remained.


    "Heh, it''s always that side of the family that gets all the interesting encounters," Lumios remarked, his mood enlightened at his daughter''s correction and feeble attempt to hide her true reason for knowing the events had even occurred.


    "Well, aren''t they lucky for that recording," Lumios stated, putting extra emphasis on the word recording which caused Kimmi-Ka to audibly pout. The girl''s pout entertained her father once more, eliciting a rattle-like chuckle from his many miruku tendrils as the guy raised a hand and conjured red lightning-like energy from his body.


    "Let us see if there''s enough residual temporal energy to create a portal so we won''t have to bother those E lot," Lumios added as the crackle of his lightning rang in his ear and through the quiet forest.