Outrun - Chapter 477 - Magic? (Patreon)

AN: Got signed out of my account and totally forgot my password today. Thought I got locked out. Scary scary.

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“See! Shiro agrees.” Fox took my silence as agreement. She poked her paw toward the doorway. “And look! It’s totally snowing across Nine Peaks.”

”’Course it is.” Bear snorted coldly. “You control the weather. Do you really think I’d fall for such a basic trick, Little Fox?” 

Fox just rolled her eyes, and shuffled back to her throne. “It’s not a trick—“

”How many times have I told you not to lie? I swear I’ve beaten honesty into your hide, so why do you still keep on lying?” The giant of a bear idly traced the rim of his keg with what looked like a frown on his face. It was weird seeing a creature that looked like the very earth itself manifested with such an expression.

“I… I’m not lying! And quite embarrassing me! Gah, it’s like that’s all you ever do!” Fox’s eyes darted back to me with a silent plea to forget whatever I just heard.

Beaten into her hide? For some reason, the image of Bear spanking Fox like a bratty little sister floated to the top of my mind. That was crazy, though. No way such a thing happened… right?

Bear stood up to his full height, and levered a glare on Fox. I wasn’t even the target, yet a shiver went through me as my instincts screamed danger. ”If you still want to lie, I guess I should give a repeat—“

”It’s April!” Fox immediately changed her tune. “Oh, hey, Shiro! Hehe… Bear was just coming to help you figure out your weird physique!”

I stared at Fox blankly. Did she seriously just call me body weird? The body that she herself basically gave me? “Really now?”

Fox must’ve recognized the look on my face for what it was. She once more changed her tune. “I meant your wonderful and mega powerful physique that we can’t understand just yet!”

Hmm… if she wanted to say hurtful things, then it took two to tango, didn’t it? ”Bear’s right. Crow’s much more reliable.” 

The eidolon shot me a betrayed look. I didn’t have time to appreciate it as the ground below my paws started to tremble violently. The mega-sized black bear slowly approached me with his kegs full of alcohol floating around behind him in a telekinetic grasp. “Hold still, little one.”

“I-I am!” My legs were shaking so bad as he approached I doubted I could move if I wanted to. Bear had a casual aura of intimidation about him that was nothing like I ever felt before. It wouldn’t surprise me if Fear the Reaper came from him. 

He stretched out a single claw toward my body. His paw alone was bigger than my entire fox form, so it was hella intimidating having it so close to me. One sneeze, and he could splatter my body across the walls accidentally. Shiro Slushie would go literally everywhere.

Despite his massive size and the amount of alcohol he’d already consumed since I got here, he precisely tapped the center of my forehead with his claw. One of the gigantic runes spread across his body glowed with a dim light. I felt a pulse of something cool go through me. It ran down to the tip of my tail, and the back up through my body to his claw. The feeling repeated several times until he withdrew his claw.

”S-so?” I asked.

”You’re a Magus? Or close enough anyway.” Bear rumbled softly. He blinked his massive eyes at me. “How strange. A sprite being a Magus… that’s something you don’t see everyday. Or ever.”

”So… like… I can summon sprites?” I asked hesitantly. Wait, no, I could already do that thanks to Fox’s Maid Service tokens. Nothing changed.

He dropped back onto his back legs and took a seat. The motion sent a shockwave throughout the entire pavilion. ”Maybe. Your item, Fox’s Fluffy Cloak, was made from the remains of Corvin’s failed ascent to eidolon-hood, correct?” 

“Yip! I made it myself!” Fox padded over to us with her tails swaying proudly. “Aren’t I amazing?! Tell me I’m amazing, mister Bear!”

”Right, right, my little Fox is soooo amazing.” The ursine eidolon’s voice rumbled across the pavilion as he played along. 

“Hah! Don’t I know it… now if I could just get Echidna to believe that too. Tch.” Fox flicked her tongue in disappointment. 

“Eidolons, and Fallen for that matter, hold a deeper connection to the Aether than anything else,” Bear explained slowly. “While Corvin was trying to ascend, he would’ve been rapidly deepening his connection to match what we can do. He’d be weaker as a newly minted eidolon, ‘course, but it’d still be beyond any other sprite.”

”Chek, that makes sense.” That would’ve just made the materials from his corpse all the stronger, then… hmm… did that mean the parts of eidolons could be crafted into extremely powerful, eidolon level items? 

A shiver went down my spine as my mind drifted to that idea. The corporations could never know about this, or they’d invade the Aether in a heartbeat. Or maybe they already knew? Then… I guess it wouldn’t be easy to invade another dimension, even for a corporation. Given the Aether’s non-linear state and the eidolon’s absolute control over their domains, it’d be even harder.

”You used your fur in the creation of the cloak, right, Fox?” Bear asked.

Fox’s tails swayed slightly, and she looked away from my questioning look. “Just a few loose strands I shed.”

Did eidolons even shred? Wait, scratch that, did sprites shred? I feel like I’ve never seen any sprite shred in all nearly seventeen years of my life. Then… did she pluck out her own fur to create the fox cloak? And since it turned me into a silver furred fox—I didn’t even want to think about the ramifications of that. Right, we were just scion and eidolon, not sisters and definitely not mother-and-daughter. Check, and I also didn’t have a title called Child of Fox. That would be crazy…

Bear, not noticing or not caring about my spiraling thoughts, kept musing idly. “It's possible that by being transformed to a sprite form through an item made for him could grant a lesser version of that connection. It’s worth testing when you get the chance.”

Did I get three Traits for free back then, not just two? There was Spectral Flock for killing Corbin, Flora’s Daughter from Mother messing with my body, and potentially Magus? Assuming I could actually summon a sprite. Wild. Killing a Fallen was a much bigger deal than I originally thought. 

“Swap back to human,” Bear ordered.

“Chek.” My fox form melted away as I found myself standing before two eidolons. If I felt pressure as a sprite, it was a thousand times worse as a human. A shiver went down my spine, and I pressed my hands into the pocket of the soft silver hoodie I had on. 

“Don’t move.” Bear repeated the process of tapping my head with his claw. It was just as unnerving as last time, though I barely felt the pulses this time around. “Interesting.”

”What’s interesting?” I asked as he pulled away. 

“Quite a few things. Even if you can’t summon a sprite, it’d also be worth testing if you can enchant things or make talismans,” He rumbled softly. “Theoretically, I don’t see a reason why you shouldn’t be able to leverage your body’s unique constitution to do that kind of thing.”

If he was right, then I wouldn’t need to find a trustworthy Magi to come help me set up stuff for Aether Imbuement either. That was half the reason I hadn’t progressed to the next step for that Perk. I was just about to suck it up and bring in Feras, but maybe this way I wouldn’t have to? ”Really?”

”Why would I lie? I’m not a stubborn fox like this little one.” Bear poked Fox in the side.

”Quit calling me little, you stubborn oaf!” Fox bit his claw as her tails lashed in annoyance. He pulled away quickly, but not before she tore off a chunk and spat it to the side. “Ha! Show’s you right!”

”When’d you become so rebellious, Fox? You used to be so sweet after we first ascended back then.”

”No shit! I had my eyes burned out by that dumbass fucking bomb. I had no other choice than to be sweet.” Venom practically dripped from her voice. It, combined with her cussing so angrily, made me take a step back in surprise.

“Ah, those were the days.” Bear waved a paw, and picked up the piece of his broken claw with his telekinesis. The tiny black nub, probably about the size of a coin, floated in the air. “I am glad your eyes recovered, though.”

”Hard for them not to when I had you, Vulpes, and Echidna shoving miracle medicines down my throat every second of the day.” She let out a huff, though no longer looked so annoyed. Instead, she had the same nostalgic tone that Bear did. It was times like these that drove home just how ancient the two of them really were. At least, if they were talking about the Aetherial Concourse like I thought they were.

”Here.” Bear stretched out his paw, and the piece of his claw floated over to me. “Could probably be made into something useful. If you take it to one of my shrines, you could have a top-tier focus made.”

“Oh. Thank you.” I gratefully accepted the piece of his claw. I treated the precious loot with a level of reverence I usually saved for hyper-advanced tech blueprints. How could I not after just hearing them talk about how valuable this kind of thing was?

”Hmph, hmph.” Fox lifted her own paw, and bit off a chunk of one of her claws. “Make a fox focus instead! Foxes are so much better than stubborn bears who sit around drinking all the time!”

”Thank you!” They were just drowning me in gifts, weren’t they? Not that I minded a single bit, ‘course. I should go have a Fox focus made. Bear didn’t have a shrine in Aythryn City, unfortunately.

Bear nodded his head sharply. “It seems being a sprite might have an effect on your human body as well. Hmm… in a month from now, come to my domain and I’ll check you again.”

Bear waved his paw, and a brown crystal appeared. It was covered in a dense array of runes that looked extremely similar to the ones covering Bear’s body. It dropped into my hands, and emitted a subtle warmth just like the crystal that I used to get to and from Fox’s domain.

”I will,” I promised. Outside of trying to figure out how my mutated body worked, I was also extremely curious what another eidolon’s domain looked like. 

“Spend as much time as possible in your fox form between then and now.” Bear gave me one last instruction before he turned around and walked deeper into the pavilion. His eyes were unfocused like he was still thinking deeply about my situation. 

Ugh… I didn’t want to. Being a fox was okay, but it was kinda mortifying, almost? It wasn’t so bad when I was in the Aether. Being stuck as a fox out in the material world was a whole other matter.

”It feels like you just got here, and you’re already leaving.” Fox sniffed dramatically, and picked herself up. She floated right next to my head, and rubbed against my cheek lightly before pulling away. “Stay safe, Shiro. Especially in Lathvin. Echidna isn’t as deeply involved with Mystech as they’d like you to believe, and she’s spending every waking moment on a new project.”

“I will.” I stretched out a hand, and softly brushed Fox’s tail. It was kinda weird having an eidolon worrying about me. A good kind of weird, I think. 

“You better.” Fox dropped back to the ground of the pavilion, and chased after Bear. The giant eidolon had moved to her throne, and looked like he was about to make himself comfy right then and there. “Hey! Bastard! Get your own throne!”

I watched them with a laugh as I used Fox’s crystal to return back to my Aether bunker. As much as I would like to stick around, I still had way too much work to do.