*Gasp*

A young woman gasped as her body shot straight up. Her hand clutched the talisman hanging from her neck so hard her fingers went white before realising she was not in any immediate danger after seeing her guard's dark red eyes staring at her. The demi-human's flaming tail appeared from behind her with all of the hair on it standing straight from being spooked. Nakatei began to run her hands through her messy fur, setting the standing hair back down not wanting the old nekos to laugh at her, it wasn't her fault that it was this time of the year.

"I see you have woken up." Her guard's whisper confused the young nekos. Shiro was calmer than most nekos but not to the degree to lower her voice to a whisper for no reason.

The young fox looked around, realising that they were still nearby where the undead elf had viciously attacked them as thick fog covered the alcove they were in. Thankfully Shiro must have killed the undead or it must have run away given that both of them were alive.

"!?-" Nakatei felt Shiro putting her callous hand around her mouth just as she realised the undead, still covered in her blood was lying motionless, no further than a kick away. "B-iro?"

"Shhhh," The high-level warrior easily maintained her iron grip before motioning Nakatei to be quiet. "They're still asleep."

"...Are you insane?" The younger demi-human asked as her eyes were glued from fear onto the elf who appeared to be in some sort of magically induced slumber as undead can't normally rest. "She is going to kill me for real now."

"Maybe..."

"S-S-Shiro, why are you speaking like this?" The fox demi-human suddenly had her heart sink as her guard threw her right into a jaw of a bloodthirsty undead.

"You should see how you look right now." The neko's true nature showed itself as a jovial smile feeding off Nakatei's suffering appeared on her face.

"..." The fox's mouth hung open while she stared at Shiro, feeling her heart pound inside her chest like a war drum.

"It is rude to gape at someone like that."

"What happened after I lost consciousness?" The young fox closed her mouth before asking the much older demi-human in front of her.

"Exempt you screaming and moaning? A couple of things," Shiro flashed her fangs once again before her face turned much more serious than before. "I think there was some sort of misunderstanding or rather a problem of us being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That human seemed to have reigned in the knife-ear's temper. She even looked somewhat apologetic and used an entire health potion on you and then finished patching you up although I had to give up my last bottle of booze for her to spill on your stomach." The nekos' ears dropped down in sadness as she whispered. "Then the human did something to... I think her name is Iris and the two went to sleep together.

The beast woman looked down and saw that her white robe had a large hole made in it with dried blood surrounding the opening. Rolling the robe up the fox noticed a silver thread knotting her skin together left to her belly bottom.

"She did that?" The fox pointed in the direction of the two sleeping women as she gently rubbed the silver thread with one finger.

"Yes."

Nakatei turned her head toward the sleeping undead elf and tried to find the human her guard was talking about. The elf wearing a torn and dirty white shirt cradled someone in her hands. She couldn't see how the human looked since she was covered with an elf's armoured jacket with only a pair of muddy black boots sticking out.

"Why aren't you calling the human pink skin?"

"Because she has pale skin, whiter than the undead's skin." The catwoman said pointing at the elf's face on which drops of crimson blood had dried out long ago.

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"Why don't we eliminate them now? The elf is a literal undead." The young shaman eventually whispered quietly not sure if the two were actually asleep.

"I did think about doing that," Her bodyguard looked to be still mulling over that thought as she turned to stare at the two. "It wouldn't have been the worst thing I did in my life but... when that human put the undead to sleep, she stared at me with her big colourful eyes as if examining me before deciding I was worth a bit of her trust."

"I didn't know a single look can stop someone like you from killing."

"I didn't know that either. Her eyes are like bottomless Wyrmpits on the surface which can stare back at you. Killing someone who put faith in you feels different then killing an enemy."

"Well, I can do it," Her bodyguard raised her eyebrow upon hearing what Nakatei had to say. "It's not like anyone will know. From what I heard she is undead and the human is a necromancer, we will be doing good things for the world."

"We will know." Shiro said before leaning on the wall and letting the fox do as she wished.

The fox closed her eyes and casted [Call Spirits] before waiting for a spirit to hopefully answer her call. Somewhere in the fog, quiet whispers began to appear growing louder and louder with each moment Nakatei maintained her spell. Shiro's white fur stood up causing the warrior to turn toward her companion.

The demi-human shaman began to see vague shimmers appear in the fog causing her to begin to worry she had gained an eerie of a malevolent spirit. As swiftly as the disturbing visions appeared to plague the inexperienced shaman the whispers disappeared in uneasy silence as a pile of rocks began to take a humanoid shape.

[Inspect]

[Minor Earth Spirit Level 15]

[This Spirit has answered your request. Cost 2.5 Mana per second]

"Mmmm?"

"What is it?"

"The spirit that answered is level 15. The best I ever got was level 10 with my current level and it also costs very little mana to maintain." Nakatei scratched her head not knowing what to make of this. "Maybe I'm correct about making the world a better place."

The beast woman looked for her weapon which she lost during the fight with the undead elf, finding it laying beside her feet. She gripped the sword's hilt gifted to her by her tribe before she ordered the spirit to attack the undead.

Stopping herself from lunging forward, Nakatei noticed that the spirit stood still, slowly rocking from left to right. She stepped toward the spirit before she kneeled beside it.

"What's going on lil' bud?" The rock acting as the spirit's head turned to look at the fox above it. "Why are you not listening?"

The rocks and pebbles making up the earth spirit's small body began to chafe against each other for some reason. It was the first time Nakatei had seen a spirit doing this.

"Do you want more of my mana?" She asked the fickle spirit while patting its head. The earth spirit surprisingly ducked under her hand before moving forward. As her green eyes followed the spirit with confusion, its body suddenly crumbled away as the earth spirit broke away from her contract leaving the shaman stunned. From what she heard, minor spirits crave the mana given to them by shamans as they are unable to compete with the more powerful spirits in gathering mana in the wild but this earth spirit seemed to go out of its way to break her contract.

"Mmmm?" A quiet hum caused both of the demi-humans ears to twitch. Realising the girl was waking up the fox let go of her weapon causing it to bounce off the ground twice causing a bit of a ruckus before settling down.

"Hello." Shiro greeted the human with a small wave of her hand like nothing had happened.

"Dats not de line."

"'Cuse me?" The awkwardly standing fox took her chance to sit down seeing that the human was barely aware of what was around her.

"Grumble, grumble."

"Are you sure she is a human and not a dwarf?" The fox elbowed the nekos as both of them watched the incredibly pale being stick out her head from the protective layer encasing her small form.

"A stuntie? Stunties are hairy and have short legs and not long sticks like she has." The older demi-human huffed, annoyed the younger woman doubted her.

"?" The pale human glanced in the direction of her legs, moving them around a little before turning back to the two demi-humans while supporting her head with her arm.

"Is something wrong with me?" Nakatei felt, the hair on her tail standing straight up as the human's different colour eyes began to examine her. In an instant, Shiro's words became crystal clear as the two glowing pairs of eyes stared at her. Even when the girl's face was constantly showing signs she was in some sort of pain her large eyes seemed disconnected from her body's plights. The inside of her eyes resembled the surface of a mellow lake giving Nakatei the feeling more thoughts went behind the two vast lakes stuck inside the girl's eyes in that very instant than had ever past through her own mind.

"Why are your souls so small?" The human finally said something after an awkwardly long silence. Her mouth hung open showing a set of bone-white teeth resembling what Shiro or Nakatei teeth more than the two expected while her brows were dipped into a baffled frown.

"I-I don't understand, what do you mean our souls are small?" The beast woman with fiery fur asked, equally confused as the girl was.

"..." The human clearly allowed her tongue to spill her mindless thoughts out before her mind could intervene.

"Kia?" Before either of the demi-humans could ask the girl any more questions an anxiously worried mutter came from behind the human.

"Iris!?" Kia's body snapped toward the undead elf with lightning speed.

"You are alive or is this a cruel dream?" The stupefied elf grabbed the girl as if to check if she was really there, unable to take her eyes off the blood covered girl.

"Iris!" The human jumped at Iris's neck wrapping her bandaged arms around. To the two observers' confusion, black shale-like plates began to fall off hitting the ground like an actual rock before shattering into a million pieces. "I order you to hit me." The demi-humans opened their eyes wide open upon hearing the petite girl hanging on the elf's neck but Iris flashed the girl a comfortable smile.

"Why would I ever hit you?" The doll-like human radiated pure happiness at her order being denied.

"Your back! I managed to do everything right!" The fragile girl managed to gather up enough strength to pull Iris's head as she fell into the elf's arms. Without stopping the girl rubbed her face covered in bloody finger marks against the elf's head. "I'm never doing this again... you have to level..." The boundless energy of the human appeared to have quickly fled from her body as she sank into slumber in the undead's hands quicker than stone could sink. "...alive... hehe...silly..."

The undead remained completely and utterly focused on her little blood-covered ward for a very long time in which the demi-human remained too confused to say anything before the elf's purple eyes shifted like an animal guarding her nest onto the two.

"You must be Iris, I'm Aneko Shiro and beside me is Nakatei Akane and I'm very thankful to Kia for saving Nakatei's life." Shiro introduced herself and the fox to the undead who grabbed her head with one hand looking like she was drinking heavily last night before looking at them with a worried but not outright hostile stare.