Not all of the immortal beasts were as arrogant or vicious as the dragons or those of the empire of beasts; though it was true that most of them were.

It was not incorrect to state that most beast clans got inflated importance due to their own unique abilities and each eagerly wished to be on top. For them the truth of life was that the strong should rule over the weak while the weak could only desert for the winner - still they felt that the dragons were merely lucky with having the azure dragon. That being said they also saw no issues with the treachery of the beast against Atlas.

If any of them were given the chance they would seek to overpower their superiors since to them it was as natural as breathing. To the majority beasts, the only thing that truly mattered, was how much power one had. Often they mocked the “bird-brained fools” who preached such a pointless concept of “justice” as it clearly got Atlas nowhere. As expected, just as one should expect from beasts, they only respected the strong who agreed with their view of life while offering them exactly what they wanted.

What they wanted was clearly to know that they were “right” in subjugating the weak mortals at the same time as not needing to worry about punishment for their vile acts. In some regard they weren’t wrong as the one who was supposed to issue punishment - the azure dragon - was actually one who was most guilty of the injustices they were chastised on. There was still one isolated race that didn’t fall into the toxic group, think of other beasts.

Foxes.

Unlike other races they weren’t obsessed with overpowering even nature itself but instead lived alongside it. They lived in the vast untouched forests without harming the natural beauty to develop the dens where they raised their young; instead they used their connection with the world itself to manipulate the trees into homes.  This led to their dens becoming a beautiful vestige of interlinked roots & branches forming bridges or floors. Tree’s opened up into beds of leaves while various colourful bushes followed along like railings with floors & fruits seemingly always in arms reach.

Along with this they often enjoyed living off the bounty of the forest itself although this wasn’t to say they were pacifist as they certainly enjoyed their meat & fish like any beast would. In fact one could say they were even worse than other beasts since they didn’t hunt to show dominance but more for the sport of it. They didn’t require meat yet they found great pleasure in hunting for their very own meat. Other beasts may invest in livestock (not that they did the actual rearing themselves as that’s what the lowly weaklings did) however these beasts were absolutely disgusted by the idea.

Why take away the best part of eating meat; the satisfaction of a good hunt?!

Despite their apparent bloodlust they didn’t discriminate against the weak as they understood that life worked in a balanced manner. If there were no weak there would be no strong and in a way they were jealous of the weakness in mortals - no matter what they hunted it would always be satisfying. Either way they understood that life was a cycle where the strong eat the weak then become sustenance for the weak as time goes on… Or that was supposed to be the case if not for the greed of the primordial gods who foolishly didn’t understand the balance of life and only cared about making the strongest servants to do their bidding.

Being servants of Gaia they understood the deeper insights and, even if nature was suffering due to greed, they still had a job to do in maintaining the world. With the unchecked balance of unchecked power sometimes resulting in cracks which could lead to many disasters with the worst being letting the void ‘spread’ and erase all matter it meets. Fortunately they were good at their job and had the tools needed to deal with it.

Thanks to their connection with nature they also instinctively had talent with the [Spiritual Arts] to utilise spirit in various defence & offensive moves. Furthermore they had the ability to cross then utilise the spirit world, which is best described as the blueprint for the world, to repair the world itself despite the damage being done. One could say it was a thankless job however since the gods & their servants ignored the damage they did since they were aware it would just be repaired before it grew into too big of a problem. Additionally the fox also didn’t fall into the trappings of the other beasts who constantly fought for supremacy hence they were treated as weaklings by the other races.

This was far from the truth though as many of the foxes had no issues when it came to hunting the other immortal beasts; even having hunted heavenly beasts in their long history.

To the beasts these tales were either outliers or exaggerated with the foxes hiding in their forests due to being too ‘scared’ to join their empire. Meanwhile the dragons believed them to just be the useless servants of their ancestors from the sea so considered themselves greater than them just from this. That didn’t dissuade the fox from their way of living though as they couldn’t care less about what others thought of them since they knew the truth.

In truth they cared more about mortals since there was a serious concern about the various races' longevity as they may evolve ‘backwards’ at their harsh treatment. Due this they had become somewhat of a bastion for the mortal races which ended up having somewhat unintended consequences in the form of love.

Many of their numbers ended up falling in love then breeding with mortals or other races leading to a large variety of races. One such race was with humans and ended up in a more slender and long earned race called ‘elf’ who shared their immortality. In addition they still held a strong connection to nature as well as a desire to protect it.

A certain strength started to form thanks to their diversity however this didn’t change the fact that the fox were still the strongest thus leaders of their dens.

As they became older they gained the ability to use divinity far faster than any other non-innately-divine race. By the time they gained the ability to transform into a humanoid they gained divinity to utilise with their [Spiritual Arts] - this milestone gaining them the honorary race change of ‘kitsune’. Not all the kitsune were equal as they had different levels or talents between themselves yet it was easy to tell how powerful a kitsune/fox could be; it was all in the tails.

Specifically the foxes could have anywhere from one tail all the way up to a voluptuous plume of 9 fluffy tails. To the race the nine-tailed foxes were akin to royalty while the one-tailed foxes had the potential to be even weaker than mortals as they were mortal themselves. There were cases where one gains more tails in their lifetime yet for most it’s an impossible task and even if they manage it appeared 7 was the limit as none had gone beyond it.

Those families with 8 tailed foxes were treated with great respect, if a comparison was made they were akin to high-nobles, while 9 tailed foxes were like royalty. Just like other races they had clans/families who had differences among themselves yet they tended to solve their issues through more direct yet less brutal fashion than others. The most commonly sorted way was to discuss it among a council of seniors yet at the very top of all this was the Bloodleaf clan.

Within the fox community none were as highly respected as the bloodleaf as they were the royal clan who possessed 9 silver tails. Even the weakest of them in history had 7 tails yet even that person supposedly grew up to have the full 9 when they needed to fight against the legions of dragons who seeked to burn down the forests. Due to their position they had members all across the globe in order to manage the many different branches of kitsune.

Even when other foxes managed to gain the same amount of tails as them it appeared that the renowned Bloodleaf clan were truly special. Their talent with the [Spirit Arts] seemed to transcend even the number of tails - the 7 tailed kitsune from legend even beat an 8-tailed successor of another prominent clan to protect his elven lover. Many such stories proved just how proficient the Bloodleaf family was in such matters hence there was little challenge in their placement as representation.

In fact, with their power, their females often worked directly as shrine maidens even in foreign territories in order to help with fast response to issues related to their duty. This ‘duty’ of theirs being the maintenance of the world; managing the safe passage of souls as well as the prior mentioned repair of space no matter how the damage occurred. Females naturally are more receptive to the [Spiritual Arts] as well as other divinities related to nature which should be obvious considering Gaia’s title of {The Mother of All Life}.

Despite this there was one fox born to the Bloodleaf that was unlike any before; it was a baby boy who’s tails were all wrong.

Not because there was a low amount… Rather he had one too many.