"Uuuuu..." Breena groaned before she slowly shifted her body up. She opened her eyes only to see Lone fondling her three tails with an excited expression on his face. "Kyaaa!" she screamed before she grabbed her tails and hugged them closely to her chest which forced them out of Lone's grasp.
"Finally awake?" Lone asked after his expression had changed from one of excitement to passiveness. Breena looked at him with fear and weariness before she gently nodded. Breena then took a moment to look around only to find her eyesight to be far clearer than it once was. She was now sitting on a standard bed in what looked to be a room created by Lone's nature magic.
"W-Where are we?" she asked cautiously. Breena was afraid that they were still inside the tower that housed her attackers, the Minotaurs.
"Hmm? We're just outside of the Mage's tower. Anyway, can you tell me what happened? And why do you have three tails now? I'm very interested!" Lone asked with some zeal in his voice. New things tended to excite Lone, and the growth of new tails on his fellow Foxkin was one such thing. Lone had no idea how to increase the number, but such knowledge would help him in powering up Kyuubi.
"... Three?" Breena weakly asked before she took a moment to inspect the tails that she had pried from Lone's grasp. Indeed. There were three tails now, not one. Breena was now instantly excited to see this before her face turned to one of pure dread.
"What's wrong?" Lone asked with a small amount of concern in his voice. He obviously cared somewhat about the mental health of his travelling companion and the expression Breena had just put on was not one that would inspire confidence in anyone.
"The number of tails represents how powerful you are and naturally grow over time... but... but... why are the tips purple? Did I get infected with a disease or something?" Breena asked Lone while tears began welling up in her red eyes that were now centred with an intense shade of dark purple.
"That makes sense. Oh, the colour of the tips of your tails changes colour when you awaken. Even Lossa didn't know that. From my understanding, each awakening happens when you experience an extreme amount of one particular emotion or element which decides the nature of the awakening. For example, my first second and third awakening were started from intense feelings of rage, then my fourth was caused by an extreme force of mana, and finally my fifth was from feelings of calmness and despair. Tell me, what emotion were you feeling before whatever happened down in the basement?" Lone asked with a lot of curiosity in his voice.
"Twelve M-Minotaurs had surrounded me. They-they were going to rape me," Upon saying this, an intense feeling of bloodlust immediately filled the room. Breena was startled by it before she realised it was coming from Lone. She quickly remembered him saying that he hated any form of sexual assault, so she was honestly flattered at the thought of Lone getting angry over this. "All I could feel was fear and hopelessness. I was already scared of the situation of exploring the ruins, so I guess fear was my emotion," Breena finished.
Lone closed his eyes and exhaled in order to calm himself. "I'm guessing you lost control and killed them all as soon as you awakened. But that's incredible. I'm amazed you never went insane from feeling enough fear to trigger three awakenings successively," Lone said before he opened his eyes. "Can you see any blue notifications floating about? I never confirmed it, but people of this world can see skills and their status's and what not, right?" Lone asked with his earlier excitement in full swing again.
"Y-Yes, we can," Breena meekly replied. She felt a little bit overwhelmed by Lone's enthusiasm. Over the course of their travelling, Lone had naturally informed Breena of the fact that he was an otherworlder which she accepted. After all, it made no difference to her where he came from, the only thing that mattered was that he had saved her from the Hero.
"Please look at all your recent notifications and tell me what they say," Lone politely asked but with an impatient tone. He was obviously excited to see what boons the girl had received from her awakenings. Breena happily nodded. She too was anxious to see exactly what abilities she had gained.
Due to the host experiencing a third bloodline awakening, Race Evolved: Evolved Race: Crimson Fox of the Deep Effect 1: Grants immunity to all forms of darkness magic Effect 2: Grants maximum affinity for darkness magic Effect 3: Passively activates the mana brain and mana heart Effect 4: Enables the host to learn darkness related skills Effect 5: Grants the hidden stat, Fear Restriction 1: Makes it impossible to hide the host's racial traits with a skill, magic or by other means Restriction 2: Reduces the host's lifespan by 95% Stat, Fear: The more fear the host is experiencing, the most potent their darkness related skills become
"N-Ninety-five percent?!" Breena shouted. She was quite happy about the new powers she had been granted, but the reduced lifespan made all of it seem almost entirely useless, not to mention the very questionable stat she had now unlocked. Her head immediately dropped down before her crimson, and dark purple ears slowly flopped to rest on her head. The girl then covered her eyes with her hands and started silently crying.
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"Heh. That's rather odd. I can see your notification. I wonder if that's normal or if I'm just even more of a genius than I already knew I was?" Breena was mildly shocked by this pondering of Lone's, but she remained unmoving and continued to cry. "Hey, I can fix you if you'd like," Lone offered with a tone that said it would be no problem.
"Fix what?" was Breena's weak reply. She held very little hope for her future. Lone just smirked before he got a little bit closer to the girl.
"Your lifespan," Lone whispered which immediately shocked the girl. Sure, Lone had shown a significant number of mystical and wondrous abilities during her time with him, but Breena was struggling to believe Lone could alter her lifespan. Not even God-tier healers could do such a thing.
"H-How?" Breena asked with ample amounts of hesitation present in her voice.
"Oh, well, You know that you should be dead right now?" Lone playfully asked the confused teenager. Breena cocked her head to the side before a look of realisation flashed between her eyes.
'Of course! Three awakenings at my age should have killed me instantly. W-Why am I still alive?' Breena thought to herself. This truly was something that she had overlooked. Typically at her age, a Foxkin wouldn't survive even one awakening, let alone three consecutive ones.
"It's really quite simple. I bet that ninety-five percent reduction was originally ninety-nine point nine or maybe even one hundred percent, but I used my unique form of creation magic to fix your most critically injured locations which most likely completely recreated them. Actually, it did. Your brain was the worst affected. I had to completely create a new one for you, which wasted one of my two free body part creations I get every day from one of my titles. I used all of my mana to heal the rest of you, but not recreate you, hence why your lifespan has been reduced so much," Lone patiently explained with an air of arrogance around him. Obviously, he was proud of his creation magic which was easily his most useful power.
"S-So that means..." Breena mumbled with a look of hope surfacing on her expression.
"Yes, I can cure you, so to speak. However, I have a condition," Lone finished for her in a mysterious fashion.
"W-What?" Breena cautiously asked. She was painfully aware of how easily someone could be tricked by deceitful wordplay when initiating a contract, which she assumed was what Lone planned to do. Bind their agreement via a contract.
"Don't look so worried. I hate lying. It's simple really. In exchange for the eternal life I will be granting you, repay me by serving me as a bodyguard until the day you die. I expect there to be times where I need such a person to protect myself in a moment of vulnerability, Sophie or even my adopted child, Kyuubi. And I have a strong inkling that you will become one of the most powerful existences with my help. So, what do you say? Care to make a deal with the new 'Demon Lord'? Eternal life for eternal servitude?" Lone explained then asked with a chuckle.
He was enjoying his control over the situation a great deal. He did feel like Breena was quite close to becoming an accepted being and what he said was the truth. There had been several times where he had been painfully vulnerable but was luckily not taken advantage of, and now that Breena had shown her potential, Lone wanted to make use of the situation to gain another powerful ally.
"I-I..." Breena began mumbled while her eyes started to spin. What Lone had said was obviously a lot for the young girl to take in.