I watched the trees flow by the taxi’s window. It was dark, but that wasn’t too much of a problem. Although I didn’t get a ton of benefits out of being a Nine-Tailed Fox, nightvision was something I did have. I would’ve traded it up for magic in a heartbeat, but it was still nice to have nonetheless.
“Here we are, miss… are you sure this is the right place?” The taxi driver pulled to a stop along an empty expanse of road. There was nothing out this far from the city, and even other cars were few and far between.
“I’m sure.” I hesitated for a moment, and then pulled out my phone to pay the driver. It was a steep price given how far out we’d come, but this was the place Selene told me to come.
”Okay… I’ll be in the area running some errands until later tonight.” Although the driver said that in a conversational tone, I could appreciate what he was trying to do. “Well… I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
”Thank you, driver. It’s just up into the forest there.” I smiled gently at the driver as my tails swayed around. Well, most of my tails. Two of them were curled protectively in my lap holding a certain sleeping fairy.
“If you’re trying to reach the Clydesdale Farms, I can just take you right there.” The driver shook his head. “It’s the only thing that’s around here.”
”I’m here for something else. Thank you for looking out for me, though.” One of my tails flicked forward, and lightly patted his shoulder as if to reward the man for his efforts to protect me.
“Uh-huh…” The driver just shook his head, though scanned the forest with his eyes as if he could see what I was talking about.
Without any further delay, I opened the door and stepped out of the taxi. The two tails holding Selene swayed and lifted beside me as if they were adjusting to keep her comfortable. I shut the door behind me, and hopped over the road’s barrier. Even as I walked in between the trees, the taxi stayed parked exactly where I left him. What a good guy… I should reward him if he was still there when I got back.
I stuffed my hands into the sleeve of my hoodie. Originally, I was going to wear my new favorite flannel, but Selene had made it clear that I should be prepared in case things got… messy. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
Selene stirred in the comfort of my tails as I walked deeper into the forest. The fairy had treated me like a mount from the moment she appeared. I’d rather be used in other ways, but it was fine I guess.
Off in the distance, an owl hooted. The sound bounced between the trees eerily and drove home just how far I was from civilization. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, though?
Maybe it was because I spent ten years on an isolated island before coming here? At least, from what I’d managed to put together based on conversations with Selene. Even if my memories from before Oblivion Consignment were totally gone, it seemed my instincts weren’t. That was proven even further as I caught the scent of blood and my posture instantly lowered.
”What’s wrong?” Selene stretched out, and fluttered her wings. The small fairy ascended from my tails into a low hover just next to my face.
“I smell blood.” For a moment, the bizarreness of the situation hit me. Here I was, a bright pink fully foxgirl hiding behind a tree like I wouldn’t be spotted the instant someone looked in my direction. My tails weren’t exactly conducive to stealth. This body had been fully maxed out in terms of gathering attention.
”Mhmm. I think this is the right place.” Selene brushed up against my cheek. “The disturbance is right ahead. Be careful, Seren.”
”I will.” I hesitated for a moment. There was a lot of blood in the air, and if whatever caused it was still around… I then pulled up my status screen to see if I had anything that could help
Origin: Streamer
Perks: [Porn World], [The Model], [Great Rig], [Top Tier Design], [Mommy? Sorry. Mommy? Sorry.], [GET ME PREGNANT!], [sex. Now!], [God Gamer]
Items: [Channel], [Good Connection], [Sexy Shmexy], [Game Library], [Beef PC], [Listener-San], [Pretty Privilege]
Drawbacks: [Most Terrifying Simps Around]
Maybe [GET ME PREGNANT!] or [sex. Now!]. Everything else was so hyper-set for streaming. I didn’t think I’d get into combat in a place called Streamer’s Paradise, so I hadn’t bothered to even really prepare myself for a moment like this. Maybe [Great Rig]? If I moaned really loudly, I could potentially turn on whatever it was and not have to worry about being attacked? New chapters come out on g.com first.
I shook my head and pressed forward. The scent could just be a wild animal—was what I would say if I didn’t find the source of it almost instantly. Up ahead, the trees opened into a clearing around a house. The lights inside were on, casting a dim glow across the surrounding forest.
Beyond the house sat a field of crops softly swaying in the wind. A silo illuminated by the moon cast a long shadow over the place that reached all the way out to the forest I stood in. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the Clydesdale Farms the driver mentioned.
”We’re close now,” Selene said.
“Is that… a person?” I paused just at the edge of the clearing. There, in a pool of his own blood, lay a man propped against a tree. He was entirely still with a double-barreled shotgun laying across his lap.
The scent and sight didn’t affect me as much as I thought they would. Did I run across this kind of thing often in the past? I should be freaking out, no? Instead, I approached the corpse and crouched down to get a better look.
A deep gash ran from his shoulder down through his torso. The guy probably didn’t even get a chance to realize what was happening before he was nearly bisected considering the shotgun was still loaded. Whatever did this had an insane amount of strength to go down through ribs and spine like that in one strike.
“What’s going on, Selene?” I asked the fairy as I stood up and pulled away slightly from the fresh corpse.
“I… I’m not sure.” Selene fluttered in front of the body with a sad sigh. “Maybe something from a different realm slipped into this one?”
”Is that kind of thing possible?” It couldn’t have been easy. The only reason I was able to do it was thanks to Afterglow. “Did Afterglow send someone else here? Or… are there other patrons?”
It was something I’d thought about a few times. There was no way I was the only Realmwalker to exist. Where there was one, there were usually others. That logic naturally applied to my patron too. It was highly, highly doubtful that Afterglow was the only patron.
“I’d know if there was another Realmwalker.” Selene shook her head. “This isn’t that. For a living creature to breach into another realm is nearly impossible, though.”
“Nearly?” I prompted her. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little relieved by hearing there wasn’t another Realmwalker here. There was no telling what kind of powers or abilities they might’ve had.
The fairy fluttered down to the man, and gently closed his eyes. “Well… it isn’t impossible. They’d need—“
“AGHH! DONNY!” A woman’s scream came from inside of the house. The instant I heard it, I flicked the man’s shotgun into my hand and charged toward the house. “HELP ME!”
The heavy sounds of metal on metal echoed out of the building. The front door was already blown off its hinges by a massive impact, leaving no barrier as I slipped into the house.
The source of the screams came from the second story. Although I didn’t use my body for much beyond eating, gaming and sex, I was incredibly fit. I flew up the stairs one after another, quickly approaching the sounds. The heavy clangs of metal on metal grew louder and louder as I approached.
I followed blood tracked across the hardwood floor, and darted into the master bedroom of the farmstead. The moment my eyes snapped onto what was happening, I felt my mind break into confusion.
A massive man stood just in front of a metal panic room, bashing on it with some kind of curved weapon. A khopesh? The truly otherworldly aspect of the intimidating man was his head. He had the sleek, muscled body of a human that led up into the black head of a jackal.
A golden collar inlaid with blue gemstone covered the connection point of the two. He was almost totally bare outside of white linen kilt held onto his body by an ornate golden belt. Gold armbands and bracelets covered his body, radiating a mysterious aura around the man.
The man reared back, about to slam the khopesh into the panic room once more. There was already a gap cut down into the metal made purely from the jackal’s strength. He paused just shy of slamming down, though, and his golden eyes snapped to me.
“Void-touched! Shoot, Seren!” Selene shouted at me, breaking me from the confusion I’d been stuck in.
Just as I lifted the shotgun, the jackal sprinted at me with clear intent to kill. He closed in, khopesh whistling through the air—
Bang-Bang!
Two shots rang out, and the jackal was tossed backward. A bloody hole was torn up through his chest, and the khopesh flung backward to clatter against the wooden ground. For however strong he was, he didn’t even have clothes covering his muscled chest. Gun beat muscles any day of the week.
The sharp jolt took me by surprise, nearly ripping the shotgun out of my hands. I’d fired guns in games before, and none of that could’ve prepared me for the actual kick of a gun against me. I barely managed to keep hold of it.
He wasn’t breathing… it’d be hard to breathe with a hole blown through his chest, but that was the first thought I had. The gun slipped from my hands, and I moved past him to check on the woman I’d heard screaming. Get faster updates on novelping.com.
Through the gap cut into the metal by the theriocephalic, I spotted the woman passed out. She was still breathing, thankfully, but it seemed the shock had been too much for her and she fell unconscious. “She’s still alive.”
I leaned against the side of the panic room and looked back at the fresh corpse on the ground. I just killed someone… I used to think of myself as a kind and empathetic girl. Sure, I was just a little perverted, but actually killing someone? I didn’t think I had it in me.
And yet here I was. Shouldn’t I be in shock or something? I always read about being shocked on first blood, but I just kinda felt annoyed more than anything. Annoyed and a little frustrated to be caught up in this mess. That wasn’t normal, was it? Then again, since when was I normal?
Selene fluttered in front of my eyes, breaking my line of sight with the blood pouring out of the jackal’s chest. “Seren, you had no choice. It’s okay to feel—“”I’m fine.” My voice came out a little colder than I meant it to. I forced a smile and stroked the top of her head. “It just took me a little off guard.”
”Are you sure?” The worry in her eyes was unmistakable. She looked more distressed about me killing the jackal than I did.
”Yep.” My tails swayed softly as I focused on her. “This realm is peaceful… but I’ll be going to realms that aren’t so peaceful at some point, right?”
“I mean, yeah. I was going to try and ease you into it, though.” The fairy looked like she was about to cry. “I’m so sorry.”
One of my tails reached forward, and pulled her into a gentle hug. It also pulled her to the side slightly so I could see what we were dealing with. “What is this guy, anyway?”
”A theriocephalic,” Selene muttered softly around my pink fur. “They’re human-bodied people with animal heads. He obviously shouldn’t have been in this world.”
“Obviously.” His attire alone looked otherworldly. The only time I’d seen something similar was in games and media on my phone.
Selene fluttered to the corpse, and pulled at a golden collar around his neck. It was an ornate piece marked with an ankh. The center of said ankh was filled with a multi-colored gemstone that swirled and swayed as if holding immense magic. “Realmstone?”
”What’s that?” I asked. “And you said something about Void-touched, right?”
”I… it’s a long story.” Selene looked around the place sadly. “What a mess.”
“What do we do?” I wouldn’t be able to accomplish my streaming goals if I was locked in prison for killing a guy. The police definitely wouldn’t believe me if I told them he was a threat from beyond this world.
“Call the police. We’ll figure out a story before they get here.”
“Are you sure that’s smart?” I asked.
”The man outside is dead, and I can’t rewind time or resurrect him.” Selene hugged her arms to herself. “It’s sad, but it’s better that we cover up the extradimensional nature of this, and let the proper authorities handle the rest.”
“Right.” I shook my head, and looked around the room. “What about him, though? The police will ask questions like why I was here in the first place.”
”I’ll handle it.” She dropped into a hover right above the jackal, and a glow emitted from the small fairy. “Since he wasn’t from this realm, I can clean this up without any issues. We’ll work out the story while they’re on the way here. Grab the Realmstone, Seren.”
“Got it.” I reached down, my nose wrinkling at the sharp scents radiating from the dead jackal. It took a few tries, but I managed to yank it free of its golden confines.
I checked the panic room one more time, but I had no idea how to open it and get the woman out. Instead, I headed out of the room to call in the police.