Letting her aunts take care of Mofupsi and Emilia, Sora continued Wendy’s accelerated training session, helping her at least maintain corporeal form without blowing up and wasting a ton of energy, and things weren’t going… too badly.

Her sister-slave or pet—Sora couldn’t be sure what Mofupsi actually saw herself as, or if she understood the concept at all—would have a personalized Intelligent Construct crafted for her by Seiōbo.

Sora was glad her pre-teen daughter hadn’t picked up on the possibility of her aunt making one for herself to train with; personally, she felt like Emi did far better having an actual tutor like White as she supported her twin Vulpes friends.

Her thoughts on the topic occasionally came up as she helped Wendy calm down and feel the flow of Existence around them. There were a lot of phenomena Sora didn’t understand or know herself; there were certain flows or barriers for a reason and Sora knew she shouldn’t mess with them until she could better experiment.

As to Vix-chu, Sora already knew Emilia would love him, but his personality was… questionable at best; his little smug smirks, cuter than a button attitude, and how he totally swapped from an adorable cuddle bug with Wendy to giving her that side-long look, made her lips tighten.

Catching him floating in the air again with that fox-like smile also made Sora wonder if she was just reading too much into it. He’s certainly all sorts of fluffy chocolate to nuzzle, but… Do I feel threatened? Emi’s probably going to want to sleep on her own soon, and with him around…

“Chu?”

“What’s up, Sora? You’ve been—bah-bleh… How do you just stop without your hair flying all over the place and getting in your mouth?!” Wendy cried, unconsciously spinning upside down while trying to manage her Medusa-like, living, fire-brown locks. “And… there goes my sweater…”

Sora giggled at her half-sister’s totally done-with-life look, watching most of her falling Null-Void article drop to the grasslands below, yet her sports bra stayed, which was an improvement.

“It’s whenever you aren’t concentrating.”

“Uh-huh… So, I just need to get more comfortable with being solidified rather than these shifting flames. Easier said than done.”

“Give it time; you’re doing great!”

Following her descent to snatch her sweater out of the sky before it hit the trees, Sora held her hands behind her back and looked up at the sky, sending Null-Void pulses that would be heard past the wind resistance.

“I’m just thinking about Emilia. She’s growing up so much faster than I thought.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“No, it is—don’t get me wrong—it’s just a bit sad. I was hoping she’d be more like six or eight years old, but she’s becoming more of a teenager every time I see her… I don’t know. I guess I just thought her always wanting my attention would last longer.”

“Makes sense,” Wendy muttered, plucking her top out of the air to slip it back over her head. “You’ve only had what—only several weeks where you’ve kind of been daughter and mother, right?”

“Mhm… It really doesn’t seem fair, but I guess Aunt Inari didn’t want me having to take care of a complete child that needed my total attention.”

Rolling around her neck, Wendy smiled as Vix-chu shot into her arms to be petted since they seemed to be taking a break. “True… Hehe, you’re such a little attention thief!”

“Chu!” he cooed, ears folded back and tails swaying on either side of her chest.

“I still think it’s crazy we’ll have our birthday soon… Seventeen. Hehe, remember when we were kids, and you said we’d sneak out in one of your dad’s cars?”

“Hehe. Yes! He would have killed us!”

“No! I bet he would have given you one to show off or something at school,” Wendy mumbled, smile softening as she thought back on their childhood. “I always liked your dad.”

“Yeah… I-eh, had my issues with him—always being away, being one—but I can understand why he’d be so distant… He was heartbroken, and I reminded him of Mom; still, he always tried to make up for it when the guilt would get to him… I think he was a good dad, even if he wasn’t perfect.”

A sad smile creased Wendy’s eyes, and Sora knew she was remembering her mother; she really tried to be everything possible to live up to her mother’s expectations.

“I suppose there’s no perfect daughter or parent… I tried to be perfect—do everything I could to make her happy or lessen the weight on her shoulders, but… No, I guess we all do what we can. I wasn’t perfect.”

“Humph.” Wendy looked up as Sora put a hand on her hip. “No one is perfect, but that’s not the issue with your mom—she wasn’t even your mom—you were practically her mom! She took all the mistakes she made in life and shoved them on you, or anyone else but herself, which was abuse.”

“I know… It’s just hard not to feel like if I did better, then maybe… I don’t know…”

Sora floated forward to sandwich Vix-chu. “Want to talk about it for a bit?”

“Not really,” Wendy sighed, returning a soft hug. “I probably should… After everything Inari showed me—the whole unlocking my Core thing—it helped a ton, and with being your sister, I couldn’t be happier… I don’t know why this is even coming up again,” she choked. “It really shouldn’t…”

Lowering to a field to sit underneath a big tree, they looked up at the partly-cloudy sky, and it took a bit for Wendy to speak again; most of it were things Sora already knew, but she listened anyway, not giving much input once understanding Wendy just wanted to talk and get things off her chest.

Jane’s alcohol addiction only exacerbated the envy and jealousy that was already present, and Wendy thought it was her fault for her mother’s misery; she’d made poor decisions in her teenage and young adult years, and if only she’d had a friend—a rich friend—like Sora, then everything would be different. She’d wasted her youth and blamed everyone for all the failings in her life.

Wendy didn’t want to be the reason for her mother’s depression and to make matters worse, she was crushed between the guilt of her mother—partially blaming Sora for her mother’s anguish—and using Kari’s bullying as an excuse to actually cut ties.

Sora couldn’t help the heartache at learning that Wendy had taken her mother’s side but could understand it with how impressionable Emilia was; after all, they’d only been thirteen when Kari showed up—a year younger than Emilia.

Sighing internally, Sora knew her little, pre-teen fox would snap at anyone who she felt wronged her mother, even if it was Sora’s fault; she was her mother, and Emilia had to defend her.

Her best friend had been caught in a vice of trying to break apart their friendship, yet at the same time not wanting to—just not wanting to go home and see her mother’s self-torment—and used Kari to finally sever their friendship.

In truth, she knew it was wrong but couldn’t handle it anymore, and worse, Sora hadn’t even noticed.

Puffing out a hot stream of air, Sora found Wendy’s hand to link their fingers. “I’m sorry, Wendy… I didn’t know you were hurting before Kari even showed up.”

“It was just… I was stupid… Emotional about something that wasn’t even your fault.”

“I still didn’t notice…”

“Yeah… which did hurt—I won’t say it didn’t… I thought you should have seen it and tried to help me, but… at the same time, I never really brought it up… I just expected you to read my mind or something, which wasn’t fair.”

“Haaa… I guess we’re both growing up, huh?”

“Mhm… Still, I never thought I’d actually lose my mom… You remember she wasn’t always like that?”

“Yeah. The first year or two—heh, it’s hard to even remember back that far—you couldn’t reach the monkey bars, but I could.”

“I thought you were so cool!”

“Hehe.”

Head rolling to the side to see Vix-chu sleeping belly-side-up on Wendy’s stomach, Sora released a long stream of air. “You haven’t slipped out of your clothes once since we’ve been talking—big.”

“Heh, imagine going to school and trying to learn how to not slip out of your clothes?”

“Duncan?”

“From preschool?! Ha! That brings back memories… He couldn’t keep his clothes on. Mmh. Wait, wasn’t it something to do with itching or something?”

“Wi-dunno,” Sora chuckled. “I just thought he was weird, but maybe that was it.”

“Hmm… Sora?”

“Mhm?”

Keeping Vix-chu stable, Wendy pulled herself up and unwound their fingers to look down at the book attached to her hip. “Can you show me what you can really do with your Null-Void? I just… don’t know what else I’m supposed to do besides getting pummeled by you.”

“C’mon,” Sora snickered, gesturing at her pages nearby, currently subconsciously cutting the grass. “I think you make a pretty good lawn mower!”

“Shut up! Heh, I’m serious… Making creatures is cool and all, but that can’t be the only thing I can do. My pages are like… well, paper, and my ‘actual body’ can’t even hold a candle to your ‘copied’ chakram. It literally feels like I’m body-slamming a pool off the high-dive every time we meet, and it freaking kills!”

She directed her focus to a dark bruise on her left thigh. “That’s what happened when you hit my book with a copy—and it, gah… it stings… See, my metal front—metal front,” she emphasized, “has a small dent in it from the first time you smacked me.”

Sora forced a smile while sitting up. “You can tell people you, heh, fell down the stairs!”

Wendy slapped her arm with an accusatory glare. “Sora!”

“I’m joking! Hehe. I said I’m sorry; I didn’t know we could actually hurt each other.”

“Ahem! Correction! You can hurt me.”

“I mean, eh-heh, you are kind of a book, Wendy; I don’t think you were meant to go up against an actual weapon like a chakram. You’re more of a… magician, or something like that.”

“Uh-huh… A magician that can’t even budge you with my blasts, but a single ray from your copy chakram, and I stress, copy chakram, lays me out flat! You were the one that was surprised by that, remember?”

“Yeah, no, it’s just, eh… you don’t… really have much of a kick from your attacks, and Vix-chu can actually hit harder than you.”

The fox’s ears wiggled, a smug smile in place that said, Not everyone can be as amazing as me.

“So… what you’re saying is… I’m a summoner?”

“Uhhh… I guess,” Sora mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck and looking away.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You aren’t really summoning, per se, but like… How do I put it? You can create magical constructs, of sorts… that have a personality?”

“…”

“What?”

“I feel like you’re just parsing words.”

“Hehe. Maybe. In any case… You want to see one of the cooler things I can do?”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Mhm. Just—give me something to judge how strong you’ve really gotten—so I know what I’m aiming for.”

“Hsss…”

“Okay, what?” Wendy asked at her hiss.

“It’s just… I haven’t really tried to show anyone everything I have so far because… Well, I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“You can’t do it without hurting anyone?”

“Mmh… Okay, I can make it go slower… So, just make sure you and Vix-chu don’t get hit because, eh… yeah, this will be way stronger than what I’ve been hitting you with.”

“Got it. Vix-chu?”

The little fox hovered into the air to point at her while folding his paws across his chest and holding his head high. “Chu-chu-vix-chu! Chu-chu!”

Somehow instinctively knowing what the arrogant Null-Void fox was saying, Sora returned his smirk. “Oh, by all means, Vix-chu, try to blow it away with your own, unfathomable power.”

Her true chakram separated from the tips of her hair to spin above her palm, causing her locks to flare outward, a vicious look in Sora’s eyes as she met the fox’s goading stare. “Try not to run out of gas this time ‘cause… you’ll get incinerated.”

Wendy giggled at their intense glares; the fox had no idea what he was trying to fight, and if she put it on hyper-speed mode, it would be over—of course, she wouldn’t add the true terror of this move—Sora wasn’t trying to kill her new sister.

“Ready?”

“Chu!”

Wendy held up her hand as if in class. “Oh, one question before that… How in the world do you not need to be attached to your chakram and keep your body?! Gah… If I’m not attached to my book—I just collapse—and it’s so annoying!”

Sora snickered as she collapsed into flames, her pages quivering with rage upon leaving her side. “It’s probably just experience.”

Allowing Wendy to loosen up and ready herself, Sora floated up. “Here we go…”

Sora took a deep breath, tingles spreading across her inner rings as she expanded her chakram by a meter for a vortex of Null-Void to spiral out of the edges; a growing Null-Void star sparked in its center.

Grinning, she held out her hands on the upward rise of the sphere, compressing it further, providing pressure while consciously slowing its rotations instead of increasing them.

Wendy took a step back, face growing pale as Vix-chu’s expression became serious, sparks of Null-Void connecting between his tails. “It’s… I can feel it pulsing every time you compress it, and it expands again… It’s eating everything.”

Forcing a grin, Sora felt the heat around her chakram increasing as the radial force continued to build; she had to drive it to a certain point for this much effort to be worth its use, yet it felt like she’d entered a pot of water, slowly reaching a boil to steam her alive.

Instead of sending wind currents outward, Wendy’s hair was drawn toward the Null-Void star, as it drew in anything it could use to further gain the self-sustaining mass it required; the tree, grass, and dirt around them were broken into base Existence particles from the unseen radiating Null-Void particles sweeping the area.

Wendy floated further away with Vix-chu on the fifth pulse. “You’re not eating it—you’re converting everything around us? I didn’t think you could do that without processing it.”

“Normally… you can’t,” Sora grunted, arms shaking as she pressed down on the beach-ball-sized sphere to get the sixth compression. “You have to… make a processing core inside it… and then stabilize it with your own… It’s about half and half… Any more or less, and it will explode… heh, and that hurts—a lot.”

The cyclone ended with them hovering over an enormous crater that used to be a large field, and Sora wiped her sweaty brow to hold up the stabilized star inside her shrunken chakram. “Well… Here it is. I’m going to send it into the sky, and, heh, I hope you’re ready.”

“Okay!”

Wendy held her book, sending out her pages and opening it to try and shoot her own rays at it.

Oh, how naive you are, Sora internally mused, bringing it overhead and putting her hand at its center to fire it through a copy chakram. It shot into the heavens like a rocket before expanding high overhead into a slow, spinning orange and yellow sun.

“Let the Bullet Hell begin!”

Wendy glanced at her before looking up, eyes growing big. “Huh?”

Hundreds of Null-Void bullets rained down on the pristine valley, each generating an explosion that vaporized everything they touched and sending more fragmented Existence into the increasing pull of the raging sphere.

Vix-chu darted around the spray, firing his own little rounds from his nine tails as Wendy panicked; her pages were blown away by the slow-but-not-too-slow Null-Void globes, and any she managed to overload simply exploded where they were, sometimes causing a chain reaction that drove a wave of chaotic wind for them to fight through.

Sora let the pair experience the nightmare for a minute before snapping her fingers, creating a colossal detonation that may not have touched the ground, but devastated the area by the pressurized currents alone.

She rose to give Wendy a slight grin, her friend huffing and puffing, hair an utter mess. “So… that was around 10% speed. I can make it hyper-mode, too, but that’s way harder to maintain. Thoughts?”

Wendy gave her a tight expression, gesturing at the valley—what used to be a valley—as if saying what more did she need to say. “Lava… I see lava, because you destroyed everything keeping it down—look, it’s pumping up like a geyser—and that’s 10%?!”

“Speed,” Sora quickly added.

“Still! That’s insane—Vix-chu could hardly stop ten before he was basically down!” she hissed, looking down at her passed-out pup that she’d scooped up near the end of the showcase. “He couldn’t even use them to recharge since they were so concentrated—it’s literally insane!”

“We’ll get there with you!” Sora reassured, going over to nudge her side with a laugh. “I’ve had several months to learn how to do this stuff, and look at you—your clothes!”

“Yeah… Still there.”

“Mhm! You didn’t slip out of them! I think you’re at least ready for that.”

“Mmgm… Just a bit longer.”

Sora’s lips pulled in as she scanned the hellscape she’d created; not a single piece of green, river, or mountain had remained from just a minute of her second-most-potent attack. Although… That’s only stage one… I still have another move up my sleeve, but that’s not perfected yet.

“Sure! Eh-heh, let’s have the room fix this stuff, though—eh, Realm, can you fix, ah—nice!” she giggled as it returned to its relaxed look. “Okay! Back to our training. Want to try to work on being independent of your book?”

“Please,” she mumbled, seemingly somewhat annoyed with how big a gap was between them. “I feel like I’m chained to the thing—I basically am!”

“Hehe. I hear you!”

Spending the next week inside the hyper-accelerated chamber, Sora gradually got Wendy to the point where she was comfortable not exploding when embarrassed or surprised, and she thoroughly enjoyed the haunted woods arc of their little adventure.

She learned a lot about Wendy’s personalized change in that time, including her ability to create more pages, but they were at least half as strong as the real thing, and, since they weren’t that durable to begin with, it wasn’t super reliable—at least against Sora’s own highly durable and destructive weapons.

Wendy’s powers mainly involved using her pages as mediums for her imagination in creating guardians or pets—she could even copy Sora’s chakram—although a duplicate of her with a personality was quickly dismissed to be reformed into other projects.

Her maximum was keeping three of her current eight pages, and they built up strength over time and seemed to affect her own growth, so having as many active at once appeared to be the way to go.

After Wendy was positive she wouldn’t utterly embarrass herself, they prepared to leave their private session; she selected a shy, little fairy, always hiding in her hair or tail that could be her small, concealed dagger and a giant, blue-scaled Chinese dragon.

Wendy ran her hand down the large, bus-sized serpent once she’d mastered the image she was looking for, a fond smile on her lips. “Isn’t he so cool? What should I name him?”

He certainly looked intimidating with his glowing eyes and gem-like stone on his forehead; small horns grew out of his head with a mane that would mature, and whenever he moved, little trails of blue light followed as if dancing away from him—when he was grown, he’d be an absolute terror.

“Uh… Goliath?”

“A little more original,” Wendy muttered, giving her a dry look. “Oh, what about Kedragor?! Doesn’t it sound dragony and noble?”

The giant serpent-dragon gently rubbed against her cheek with his light mane, making her giggle. “Yeah—Kedragor suits you! What about my little, shy fairy girl—she’s adorable, huh—think Emi will like her?”

The petite, red-haired butterfly lady poked her head out from behind Wendy’s hair, showing the rose-like flower decoration that wrapped around her head with a tiny vine; she wore a fairly fantasy-style dress that was a tad revealing on the open sides.

“Hmm… Okay, how about Rita? It’s simple and cute.”

“Rita, hmm? Do you like it… You do? Hmm-hmm. Aww, I love this power… Thanks, Sora!”

“Hey, heh, this is all you. I just provided the spark—I’ve barely gotten to see her at all—she’s always hiding in your tail or hair.”

“She has to get to know you better!”

Sora lifted an eyebrow. “It’s been almost four days.”

Vix-chu floated down to put his head on Wendy’s shoulder, another one of his cute smirks in place as Rita transferred to his head. Freakin’… You always have to try and one-up me on everything!

“Chu-vix-chu…”

What do you mean, don’t be so intimidating?! I’m not a brute!

Wendy didn’t seem to be able to tell what he was saying, but Sora knew—she knew—he totally had it out to dethrone her… From what? She didn’t know, but he did!

Since day one, he had it out for her, and he’d been perfecting his lazy, belly-sleeping positions to be cuddled, and big-eyed hug-me looks that would melt Emilia’s heart! He was practicing to steal her daughter and flaunting it like he was asking her to do something about it!

Trying not to let her leery, internal vibe bleed into her voice while following the fox’s rise to sit on Kegragor’s head—a fairy on a fox on a dragon—Sora hummed. “Ready to go see my daughter and taste some chocolate?”

“I can’t wait; oh, and to see what she thinks about Vix-chu! Hasn’t he been adorable lately—hehe, he’s such a cuddle bug!”

“Mmh-hmmm… He certainly is with some people.”

“Chu-vix-chu…” he yawned, giving her a sleepy smirk.

Try harder… What does that even mean?! We’ll see who’s laughing when Emilia dresses you up, and you become her little doll!

“Hehehe.”

“Sora?”

“Nothing. Okay, let’s get out of here!”

Internally fuming at the arrogant yet infuriatingly adorable fox, Sora had the Realm teleport them to where Emilia was.

The giant dragon suddenly appearing in the air caused a bit of a commotion, but no one panicked—no one had a reason to since there weren’t any predators in the Vulpes Realm—and more looked at the blue serpent with awe, considering Qebhet now ruled the Realm.

“Mom! W-Woah… Who are they? Huh…”

Before Sora could even get a word out, Vix-chu was jumping off Kedragor with a happy chirp, paws and tails spread, to land right in her daughter’s surprised arms.

“Hehe—that tickles!” she cried as he nuzzled her cheeks. “M-Mom! Hehe. Who is this?”

Wendy bounced forward with a big grin, Rita having flown from Vix to hide behind her neck again. “That… is Vix-chu; I made him to be your little friend! He’s pretty dependable, too.”

Emilia held the smiling pup out, momentarily overcome with emotion as her bright blue eyes sparkled. “M-My own little fox pet?! Aunt Wendy—really? You made him—just for me?!”

“Mhm! He loves games and cuddles and will help you with chores or anything else!”

“I love him; he’s so soft… like Mom’s tails, but even more!”

“Gah…” Sora choked at the comparison, knowing precisely what the smug fox thought as he glanced her way with that one-eyed twinkle and smirk.

Shut your face! I’ve got the key to your food bowl, Buddy!

To make matters worse, the unheard vibe between them made the pup's ears pull back and snuggle closer against Emilia’s neck. “Aww… Mom, I think all the noise is scaring him… Here! You can be with me—oh, hehe—you want to sit on my hair? Wow, you’re so light, Vix-chu!”

“Chu!”

“Cute! I can’t wait to introduce you to Rayla and Luna; we’re going to have so much fun!”

“Chu!”

Sora wasn’t too happy with how devious this tiny fox was as he gave her a side-long look that said, I am the supreme fluffiness; bow before my throne! But… at least Emilia was having fun.

Getting into the swing of things, Sora began helping get all of the chocolate set up to give out to people; Emilia just wanted to share the bounty of her harvest since they didn’t really need money, and she was proud to introduce the Vulpes Realm to chocolate.

Wendy got to know her new aunts more, Mofupsi being their mascot to attract new tourists; being the former Yellow Seat, her face was well-known worldwide, even if no one had ever met her. Naturally, Emilia crafted a café-girl outfit for her to wear, and instead of just a booth, Nari fashioned a whole chocolate café for them to manage as a family.

Overall, Sora had a blast, and somehow, in some way, her little nemesis of a fox had put the idea of Sora joining Mofupsi as a café-girl in Emi’s mind; being presented with the cute outfit her daughter made, she couldn’t say no. Sora sighed, sending a slight glare at Vix-chu; this wasn’t what she wanted and the fur-ball knew it by the hidden twinkle in his left eye.

I’m not dancing to your strings, Vix-chu, Sora internally growled as she hesitantly took the outfit, the fox happily sitting atop her daughter’s head. This is for Emi… I’ll get you back when it’s shower time tonight, Boy… Just you wait!

Serving the many customers, Nari tried to rope her big sister into playing café-girl but ended up being manipulated in a reverse sweep that had the blonde bombshell in a dress, and Seiōbo, the manager behind the counter, making the drinks.

Wendy and the twins were the first ones to accept Emilia’s desire to have serving staff, and Tola was soon out with Mofupsi, drawing in customers with their notoriety.

Night fell, and as they walked home—the accursed fox sleeping in her daughter’s arms—Sora scooted over to put her hand around Emilia’s back. Wendy was sleeping on the back of her dragon overhead, tiring out near the end as Nari and Seiōbo privately handled Mofupsi’s Intelligent Construct.

She shot the resting pup a light glare for him to open one eye and give her a small smirk before yawning and closing them. I bet you’re faking it… Freakin’ fox, playing dirty games; I knew it!

“Did you have a good day?”

“The best! Rayla and Luna want me to have a sleepover so we can all get to know Vix-chu better. Can I?”

“Mmh… Yeah, of course. Want me to get you guys for breakfast in the morning?”

“Eh… I wanted to see if we could cook something ourselves, but umm… Can you stop by with everyone before you go to train with Aunt Wendy?”

“Of course! Wait,” Sora’s eyebrow lifted as she studied her excited daughter, “so… you want to get your stuff ready and head over there?”

“Can I?”

“Yeah. I’ll help you pack… Did you want to go yourself?”

“I know the way, Mom.”

“I know. I know. Hmm… Okay.”

A little down that Emilia would be away from home tonight, Sora felt an unusual way she couldn’t explain; it was a strange feeling that wasn’t necessarily bad, but it did tug at her chest.

Making sure her daughter had everything she needed, Sora let her go off on her own little overnight adventure and helped Wendy into a new, second bedroom one of her aunts had set up for their new niece.

Things are moving so fast… I wonder how Kari’s doing? Maybe I should go see her if we can’t meet up this next week. Wendy wants to be friends with her anyway… Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

Getting ready for bed, she puffed out a long sigh and entered her fox form to cuddle up against her pillow and drift into her dreams—utterly forgetting about something that tickled at the back of her mind—things were changing.