Solus(with Nebula piggybacking on his shoulders), Lumina, and Lumios took one last step as they reached the top of the trailing staircase leading to the shrine grounds overseen by the silverwood shrine. Solus felt his legs go numb before going fully limp as he involuntarily swung forward while thinking his life was over, given where Nebula was. Nebula frantically pulled on Solus' head to try and stop his fall, but her attempts were null due to the nature of her sitting on Solus' shoulders. A pale hand reached out before grabbing Solus' by the back of his school uniform and halting his fall.

"For your first time armatizing, plus your physical condition before doing so, I'm impressed you made it back home before your limbs turned into noodles," Zalroth remarked as he held onto Solus with one hand and carried Oshi on his opposite side's shoulder. Lumina lightly snickered at Solus as his arms and legs wobbled around like wet noodles. A green wave of qi coursed over Solus, restoring his school uniform to pristine condition and rejuvenating Solus' body to working order.

"We can't all be big shots from the get-go, now can we gramps?" Solus remarked with a playfully snarky tone as he staggered to his feet. Zalroth smirked cheekily before he took a glance at the shrine grounds.

"Where'd the trees go?" Zalroth asked amusedly as the shrine spirits booked it out of Solus' house and floated over to Zalroth. The shrine spirits excitedly flew around Zalroth while asking him a myriad of random questions in an attempt to distract him. Zalroth requested for the shrine spirits to settle down before he asked Rose about the absence of trees.

"Oh, Gold used her mirage azure ability to make them disappear, so the yokai that trespassed onto the grounds didn't possess any other trees," Rose explained.

"A yokai you say?" Zalroth asked with a slightly serious tone, making the spirits flinch. Zalroth exhaled from his nose in an amused manner.

"So, Inaka's oversleeping again is she?" Zalroth asked, making the shrine spirits awkwardly chuckle. Gold raised her hands before swinging them down, conjuring a mirage to waft around the shrine grounds before a forest of red-leaved silverwood trees formed around the shrine grounds, followed by a larger red-leaved silverwood tree sprouting out from the roof of the shrine. Zalroth stared at the shrine before he shook his head and said he'd deal with Inaka in the morning. Zalroth felt a tug on his sleeve and turned his head to see it was Nebula's doing.

"Can't... you be lenient with her? She did help with defeating the Lorudio Yokai," Nebula mumbled meekly. Zalroth stared at Nebula with her puppy dog eyes staring straight into his. Zalroth half-heartedly sighed as he felt his conviction melt.

"Very well, but I'm still going to talk to her about it, you know, so Chronia or Minia won't in the future," Zalroth said cheekily, eliciting a relieved sigh from the shrine which all the kitsunes heard and making them snicker. The door to the shrine slowly crept open with a creeky creek creeping from the door's hinges as Inaka poked her head through the gap in the door.

(Inaka is a light-tanned-skinned, short-kid-sized aether vampire bunny spirit: she has long azure blue rabbit ears and three rabbit tails, sharp vampire fangs, super long azure blue coloured hair with rainbow coloured stars floating out from her hair, and rainbow gradient coloured eyes with thirty pointed star shaped iris')

(Inaka is wearing a fuzzy dawnite cotton hoodie, a black one-piece swimsuit with dark blue frilly trims, and silverwood getas)

Inaka exits the shrine and slowly floats over to Zalroth with her tails, metaphorically, between her legs. She held her head low as she mumbled a greeting to Zalroth while fidgeting with her small hands. Zalroth rolled his eyes playfully before he placed his closed hand on Inaka's head.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"No oversleeping when there are trespassers," Zalroth said with a goofily and playfully stern tone as he lightly noogied Inaka's head. Inaka mentally grumbled at being treated like a child but swallowed her pride, given Zalroth's leniency. However, despite her best to hold in her annoyance, Inaka's pride eventually broke through her patience and she angrily huffed before breaking free from Zalroth's hand and flying back to the main shrine building. Inaka slammed the shrine door behind herself, eliciting a quiet chuckle from Zalroth as he picked Oshi off his arm and placed him on the ground.

"As much as I'd like to stay, I've gotta get back to what I was doing before I got whisked to Aioniotita out of the blue," Zalroth stated. Lumina turned her head and swivelled on the spot to face Zalroth before staring him down with a puzzled look.

"Aren't you going to at least say hi to Lola?". Zalroth adamantly waved his hand in dismissal.

"Fraid not, you wouldn't believe how long it took Chronia and I to calm her down enough to get her to leave with Kusana," Zalroth explained. Lumina half-heartedly giggled and rubbed the back of her head as she imagined how much worse an upset Lola would be compared to a happy one. A rainbow-coloured and circular portal opened nearby as the group began bidding Zalroth farewell.

"About time Nola noticed I was missing," Zalroth remarked playfully. Zalroth encased his body in a cyan cloud before bursting out of it in his small kistune form and diving through the portal. The portal closed leaving the group with the only option of heading off to Solus' house.

After watching the other walking off, Solus let out a pained sigh as he placed a hand on his hip and pushed into it until a clicking sound echoed out from it.

"Um...," Oshi muttered as he raised a hand to Solus.

"Yeah?" Solus said exhaustedly, making Oshi lower his hand. Solus glanced down at Oshi, before sighing and offering his hand to him. Oshi grabbed something from his pocket and handed it to Solus without a second to spare. Solus glanced at the piece of fabric in his hand before rubbing his eyes in disbelief.

"Now I see why you'd run away," Solus uttered, vaporizing the fabric with light mana and offering his hand to Oshi.

"Don't fret, Oshi, if that guy's anything like he was in high school, then he got what he had coming to him... well I suppose it'd be her now," Solus said with an upbeat tone, mentally cringing at having to say what Zalroth telepathically requested him to say earlier. Oshi looked to his feet and grabbed onto one of Solus' fingers while not responding to Solus' remark. Solus mentally yawned before he headed to his house while leading Oshi by his side.

Meanwhile, in Solus' Shinsokuko Realm, Kyoshina's rhythmic whistling chimed across every inch of the small island as Solmeuetzo sat in his small shrine. As Kyoshia dangled from the roof beam of the shrine and continued to whistle, Solmeuetzo opened his eyes from his meditation and disappointedly sighed.

"As much as your noises are pleasant to listen to, I'd appreciate some silence so I may focus on my meditation," Solmeuetzo stated calmly. Kyoshia stopped whistling with a shocked expression before a sinister grin formed on her face.

"Don't you mean hibernate?" Kyoshia said cheekily as she let her arms dangle by her head. Solmeuetzo exhaled from his nose as a small smirk formed on his face.

"Try not to mistake your daily habits for training, even if it gives you the same results as meditating," Solmeuetzo remarked, making Kyoshia pout and placing her fists on her thighs in a huff.

"Just sounds like you're jelly, things are easier for my branch of the species," Kyoshia uttered poutfully.

"Speaking of yokai, what made you want to help Solus earlier?". Kyoshia frowned as she crossed her arms and huffed in frustration.

"That Zykorlz was too full of himself, so could you blame me for wanting to give him an existential crisis by having a spirit wielder attack him with yokai energy?" Kyoshia asked with a snarky tone. Solmeuetzo lowered his head and let out a long groan of annoyance.

"And I thought you wanted to trick Solus into letting you possess him," Solmeuetzo said amusedly, making Kyoshia gasp in surprise before her chonky dragon tail lost grip of the roof beam. Solmeuetzo opened his mouth to speak before being interrupted by Kyoshia crashing on top of him, knocking the duo out in the process.