(Raina POV)

Following my Kitsune guide into the garden, we ended up walking past multiple perfectly manicured rows of flowers.

None of the flowers here seemed to be deadly in the slightest unless, of course, you considered their color and thorns to be dangerous. That, of course, was until I watched a Kitsune looking almost exactly like my guide appearing in the middle of one of the rows, holding a person in the air by their collar. The person in question was completely see-through and appeared somewhat hazy around the edges, which was indicative of a person's soul that was only partially condensed. This type of soul would only last for a short time outside of a cultivator without the help of external tools. It was also the weakest part of a cultivator that, once destroyed, would result in the complete destruction of a person. Not even reincarnation would be a possibility anymore.

That is why I was shocked and terrified when the vines of a rose suddenly speared themselves through the soul and started tearing it to pieces while absorbing the remnants. The speed and efficiency with which did this were terrifying. I don’t think that even a primordial would be able to avoid it, but I am not entirely sure, as I have never seen one and only read the old records. I do know that an ascendant would get caught. 

They might not be harmed as easily, but they would still be captured.

I suddenly heard the sound of something striking into wood behind me. Quickly spinning around, I saw my guide swinging the flat side of a blade into a few vines that had tried to grab me. The sight of those vines and the fact that I did not even hear or feel anything sent a bolt of fear racing through me. My guide then looked over to me after fending off the plant and said, “I could have sworn that I said to follow me through the garden so you don't get eaten.”

She then turned around without waiting for a response and headed for the castle. However, something about her smiling the entire time during this event threw me off. Besides this, we made our way towards the castle with only a few detours.

During this walk, I saw the same scene of the plants being ‘fed’ multiple times. Thankfully, this ended when we made our way to the castle's front gates. The gates were open slightly, and for some reason, they led directly into the main hall. My guide stopped just outside the doors before turning to smile at me and motioning for me to enter.

Something about this was making warning sirens go off in the back of my head, and the ominous feeling I was getting increased by multiple times. It was not at the level of immediate death yet, but it was still at the level that I would not willingly mess with. Sadly, I did not have much of an option, so I took a deep breath and walked through the gate.

Right as I passed the gate, I was greeted by both the sight of a hall that seemed carved from gold and obsidian as well as the sound of the gates slamming shut behind me. Now that I was locked in here, I took a second glance at the room.

The hall itself was massive and looked to have been carved from a single piece of obsidian, which had gold threads running through it and was polished to a mirror finish. I was standing on a segmented red carpet that ran down the middle of the hall, with gold thread embroidering the edges. On either side of this carpet was a channel of flowing blood that originated from two fountains that jutted out of the wall on either side of a throne sitting opposite the hall from me.

Next to these fountains were two nine-tailed kitsunes wearing armored kimonos that were clearly designed for look-over functionality, with blood-red fur and hair that was black at the tips. This in and of itself would have been shocking to me if it was not for the over fifty other kitsune that were standing in bleachers on either side of the hall. None of which had less than seven tails. That was if you discounted the woman sitting on the throne, who normally would have looked beautiful if not for the atmosphere of the room, which made her downright terrifying.

Based off of the statue that I had seen in the shrine, I could assume this was the goddess Haruka, and from the look she was giving me, my instincts were screaming at me more than they ever have in my life. This included the time when I died in battle.

Regardless, this was clearly some form of noble court, and etiquette had to be followed. So I slowly and cautiously made my way before the throne and bowed while saying, “This humble one has come to answer your summons.”

D***, this felt weird.

Haruka, however, did not seem to care about how I felt and glared at me for what felt like an eternity before asking me, “Do you know why I have called you here?”

This was something I had been trying to figure out myself, but I was clueless, and since the goddess already seemed angry, so I tried to placate her by saying, “I am not privy to the matter as to why I was summoned.”

My admission of ignorance did not seem to help my situation as the goddess quickly bit back, “Do you know how long it has been since you met Vale?”

That cleared things up for me instantly and also gave me some insight into the situation I now find myself in. There was no way I could get out of this, and I did not have any desire to either. So I swallowed my pride at this moment and said plainly, “It was around a little over five months ago now. That was also the time when I had placed that curse on her, and I must admit that I was not in my right mind to have done so. It was also my oversight as someone who does not know how to be a parent, as well as someone who has been around that world’s throne of power for too long, that allowed that to happen. I am willing to accept any punishment you have for me.”

My words did not seem to help me at all at first, as I heard the cracking of stone and looked up to see that Haruka had turned part of one of the throne’s armrests into dust. However, she quickly calmed down and took a breath before saying, “Since you seem to know what you did wrong, then how about we help you fix it? The first thing we should help you with would be your power problem, followed by a ‘few’ lessons in parenting.”

As her words ended, she started to get up and continued saying, “However, before that-” Before being interrupted by a gem on her armrest sparking with light that then shot into the space between us.

This light rapidly molded itself into the shape of a very beautiful and well-endowed kitsune woman with whom I was unfamiliar. Sadly, I was unable to see what she truly looked like as the light was more like a monochrome hologram made of only one shade of red. The one thing that stood out was the ever-shifting number of tails that made my head spin whenever I tried to count them.

The woman then glanced at me before looking at Haruka and saying, “Is this thing working? I was handed this crystal and told it could communicate with this world but never how to operate it. Anyway, I think that you forgot to mention proper fluff care as one of the lessons. But don’t worry, as I have already sent you all of the relevant material so it should not be that much of a problem. Though now I need to write the books after figuring out what the limit of the information I should give is. This is supposed to be the Earthly volumes as they were the only ones I was given permission to send at the moment, but what exactly is the limit of the Earthly volumes? I know that the limit should be an A-grade in my world, but that is only according to your ***** **** ***** ***. Even then, that is only the basics of the basics, so it would not be that much. I guess I could put the more complicated stuff in the Heavenly volumes, but then I would have over twice the number. Hmm. Maybe I could-”

The woman kept talking and left many of us confused before the hologram eventually disappeared, followed by a message that said {Power Low. Please Charge To Continue Communication.}

The message then removed itself, but not before another problem appeared. This one was a small fox-shaped mass of darkness and constellations popping its ‘head’ out of a hole that just appeared on the floor of the hall. The fox then climbed out of the hole and tapped its paw on the ground next to the throne. This made twelve thick books that looked like they could contain the entire history of Astérion each. On the cover of one of the books was a title that read ‘1st Earthly Volume of Heavenly Fluff.” The fox then jumped in the air, backflipped, and dived into a hole that appeared beneath it. As the fox left, both of the holes it left behind disappeared, leaving only silence in its wake.

This silence was only broken a moment later when Haruka turned towards me and said, “With that interruption out of the way. We can now move on to your first lesson, swordsmanship.”

The moment Harukas words landed, I instantly realized what was about to happen and wanted to dodge. Still, it was already too late as before I could even register anything happening, I already felt the flat end of a blade crash into my right arm.

Vulthurtoor

Merry Christmas to anyone reading And have a good day!