“What next, Mistress?” The question rolled off my tongue too easily and eagerly. My mistress never took her eyes off me, and I couldn’t help but squirm. A need to redeem myself grew and started taking over my thoughts.

I can’t be bad again. If I disappoint her again, she’ll be angry and do worse to me. I can’t imagine anything worse, much less want to experience it firsthand. If I make her happy, she won’t punish me. If I’m a good girl, I won’t be punished.

Mistress Elveil hummed. “Giving such a big task so early was a little cruel. But it was within your capacity to handle. All you had to do was obey. So, moving forward, Mommy’s going to give you small, simple tasks. How does that sound?”

I kept looking at the ground. The only thing i could look at without feeling shame, fear, disgust, or rage. “Whatever you want, Mistress.”

“We’re going to do something you’ll probably enjoy.”

I doubt that. No! Bad thought. A phantom pain coursed through my body at my errant thought. My tail curled around as I braced from the pain.

“Dagiel, get out here, now,” Mistress said in a deadly tone.

Dagiel marched in, slowly yet steadily. “Y…yes, my queen?”

My mistress sat up perfectly straight. “What task did I charge you with?”

He ducked his head into his shoulders. “Capture Both Killa and Shadara.”

“Did you?” Her voice grew more sinister with each question.

He dug his feet into the ground as he cowered. “I sent twenty of our agents to challenge them.”

“How many came back?”

He wasn’t hiding his fear anymore. I could smell it. It smelled suspiciously like urine. “None.”

Mistress Elveil’s eyes bulged as she shouted, “That’s right! Not only did you not do as I commanded by passing it onto others, you wasted resources, and they got away.” Her paw slammed down right in front of him. “In one action, you failed me thrice over. But I’m going to be merciful and punish you once, and I’ll give you a chance.”

She turned to me. I'm going to give you some mana, and for the next thirty seconds, you can do whatever you can to kill him. Does that sound like fun?”

I looked at Dagiel. If I don’t do what she says, I’ll be bad. I don’t want that.

I gave my mistress a nod.

A wisp of shadow mana trailed off her mane and onto my head. Whatever restriction the collar had to prevent my mana regeneration didn’t stop me from absorbing that mana. Odd. Maybe because she gave it to me. My mana surged to three hundred percent. That’s not much for my lycan form.

“Your time starts now,” Mistress said coyly.

Dagiel turned and tried to run. I didn’t need to enhance my speed to catch up. Running on six legs was awkward, so I lifted the middle set and tucked them out of the way. Four legs was enough of a challenge to coordinate.

I hammered my shoulder into his back. We hit the ground and slid another dozen feet. Then I tried to pry open his armor, but my claws wouldn’t penetrate the plates. But I noticed that my half ton weight put a substantial dent in it.

Throwing his elbow and rolling over, Dagiel forced me to the side. He didn’t get to his feet. There was an unmistakable wheeze in his breathing as I heard fluid filling his lungs.

I pounced on his head. My jaw clamped down on his helmet. It would neither come off nor crush as I thrashed him around. The fallen angel pried my jaw apart and shoved me away. He managed to focus enough to draw his sword. When he slashed the ground between us, a shower of rocks threatened to wash over me.

A quick hop, and I avoided it. I’m taking too long. At this rate, I’ll fail my mistress. That will upset her. I can’t do that again. When I tried to activate my lycan form, it failed. Before the mana dissipated and was lost, I tried to imagine myself stronger. My mind has been imprinted with the lasting image of myself as a quadruped with six legs.

Growling with frustration, I tried imagining myself as a larger, stronger wolf. But I was her pet and not an independent or powerful wolf. She didn’t make a wolf. I racked my brain for anything that could improve my strength but not use a restrictive amount of mana.

But as I focused, I couldn’t look past my foxy body. In the briefest flicker, a single word popped into my mind.

Kitsune.

I didn’t know what that meant or where it came from. It was like there was a voice in the back of my mind. There was nothing more than the faintest whisper. The more I looked for it, the harder it was to find.

Then came another flash in my mind. It was a large black fox with two tails. Is that some kind of creature? Is Orange telling me something? No! I can’t listen to her. That’ll make me a bad girl. I’m going to be a good girl now.

At the mention of being a good girl, I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. Accepting the two-tailed fox form was as good as any for the moment. My body was mostly the same already. Maybe it’s a very faint memory of mine and not something from Orange.

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The shadow magic swirled around me as I grew about fifty percent larger. The distance between my front pairs of legs was small enough so that they fit together in the front legs of my new shadow form. My tail doubled in length as a second one formed alongside it.

Shadow power obtained: Shadow Kitsune Beast Form.

Shadow Power Infusion level up.

Shadow Power Solidify level up.

Shadow Power Solidify level up.

Shadow Magic Power—Shadow Kitsune Beast Form Spell:

The caster’s body is enveloped in shadows and becomes a powerful kitsune. It costs 27% of the caster’s mana capacity per second and doubles all the caster’s stats except arcane.

Increased levels of Solidify and Infusion will decrease the mana cost.

Not bad. It’s a little boost.

The “little” boost let me zip around to Dagiel’s back. My claws swiped his leg, sending him into a cartwheel. He let go of his sword when his head bounced off the ground.

The fallen angle rolled on the ground, dizzy, disoriented, and doomed. His leg was bending in the wrong direction. What little air he was getting, he used for screaming. Somehow, his armor remained unmarred, but it had crumpled so severely that it was now crushing the bones in his leg.

For a moment, I felt bad for him. I did that to him. He was wallowing in agony because of what I did to him. Mistress told me to kill him. It’s his fault for being bad and making her angry.

I pounced on his chest again. The armor deformed more. His screams stopped. His lungs were being pierced by the fractures in every single one of his ribs. He couldn’t breathe. But his thrashing didn’t stop. To put him out of his suffering and finish the task I was given, I jumped again, this time landing on his heart.

He went completely still after I completely crushed his heart. I received no stat points, but I got 405,480 shards for killing him.

I got off him and deactivated my kitsune beast form. When I turned to face my mistress, I sat on the ground like I had seen dogs, since my body shape was more similar to theirs than a human’s now. It was more comfortable to curl my tail around me than have it stick straight back behind me.

“Seven seconds,” Mistress Elveil hummed.

Her shadow clone appeared in front of me and placed a hand on my head. “Good girl.”

I felt the warmth again. The warmth that comes from pleasing her; from hearing those two words. It made me feel safe. Her hand rubbed the top of my head, scratching behind my ear.

Mistress’s voice was a mix of amusement and satisfaction. “Your new form is beautiful, but not nearly as beautiful as you are. You really are a good girl. I’m proud of you for handling that so well.”

Her words filled me with a warm sense of satisfaction. It was exactly what I wanted. She pulled her hand away, and I tried to follow it, desperate for more contact. She laughed softly and patted my head one last time.

The absence of her hand almost filled me with dread. Don’t leave me alone. “What now? What can I do? What will make you happy?”

If she’s happy, she’ll stay with me. When I do what she wants, she’ll be happy. And if she’s happy, she’ll never be angry at me.

She looked down at me, her eyes glimmering as she gave me a knowing smile. “You really are eager to please, aren’t you? That’s very good. And I know just the thing to keep you busy.” She pointed to my center pair of legs. “You need to learn how to walk on those. Tucking them in is rather unsightly.”

Oh no. I did something wrong. I dropped my head and made myself as small as possible. The fear of the inevitable punishment coiled around me and crushed me, making me smaller and smaller.

Mistress reached down and petted the top of my head. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m not upset. This is not a usual form for you. There will be an adjustment period while you learn to walk on six legs. That is precisely what I want you to do.” She tapped the tip of my nose playfully. “Now, go find my kitten, Kuljack, and bring him here.”

I raised my head slowly, afraid that any sudden movement would make her mad. “Yes, Mistress.”

I rushed over to the side of the room and to the door. Mistress told me to bring Kuljack. I tried my best to run using all six legs. It was impossible. I ended up tripping and falling face first into the floor.

After a dozen attempts, I gave up. It was too difficult and took too long. There has to be some trick to it. Bugs do it all the time. But how?

I tried to recall the movements of the ants I had seen. They used all their legs to move and walk. But I couldn’t figure out how. Maybe if I moved them in time with the legs like a centipede?

It was a long shot. But it worked. I managed to get up and started walking on all six legs. It wasn’t perfect. I had to consciously think about the use of each of my limbs. But it was much faster than walking on four legs.

As I walked, I could hear my claws clicking against the stone floor. Uh, where’s Kuljack? I didn’t ask again. I was so eager to go get him, I never asked where to find him. But maybe that’s why Mistress never told me either. She wants me to walk around more. This is another test.

My steps came faster as I bolted through each room. I won’t fail this time.

***

I watched everything from the inside of my mind, hidden from my alter ego that lived to please Elveil. “Orange, there’s so much wrong with this. Splitting my mind like this was quick thinking on your part.”

Orange’s presence hugged mine. It was her idea that we hide ourselves from the new personality so that Elveil thinks she won. “This was the only way we could save what parts of you we could, but also let her do half the work for us. Now all we have to do is train the new personality with the memories of the blade devil we got from Gary before we make another move.”

I sighed. “It doesn’t feel right, treating her like she’s someone else. That could’ve been me. But still, I don’t know what’s worse; sitting in my own mind like a passenger witnessing an alternate version of me, or knowing that I could’ve been the one running around living to please the evilest creature ever.”

Orange hummed. “Don’t think of it like that. Think of it like the two of you are siblings, sharing a body. She’s the youngest of the two of you. She’s young with all the innocence of a child.”

“Yeah, she does seem childish. Is that normal?”

“There’s nothing normal about fracturing one’s psyche. But remember, she always is, and will be, a part of you.” Orange’s somber tone revealed the volumes of anguish she was feeling.

“It’s so hard not to see her as someone completely different.”

But I remembered the pain. The endless pain Elveil inflicted on me while I was trapped in that stone coffin. Just as I was about to break, a sudden clarity washed over me, and I realized that Orange had been silent to put all her effort into dividing my mind so that a second personality could develop.

I was thankful and terrified at the same time. She could do all sorts of things to me but always waited for my consent. Since we had already planned to split my consciousness after we got the devil’s memories, she took it as me already giving my consent.

I was right to fear Elveil. Now, I have to do everything to not fail again. There will be no second chance. But until the time is right, my alter ego will have to earn Elveil’s trust until we can separate from her for long enough to enact our plan.

I wanted to hang my head at the situation. It looks like I’ve finally, truly, and completely gone insane. No amount of therapy is going to fix me after this is over.

A horrifying chill ran through me. “Orange, if we have to go this far now, how much worse will it get the higher up the Nexus we go?”

She didn’t answer me.