They froze. Even Silas—cocky, chaos-proof Silas—stood like a malfunctioned sentinel. No jokes. No quips. Just a blank stare of what-the-actual-hell-just-happened plastered across his face. Then—THUMP.
Barry's limp, half-conscious body crashed at their feet like a sack of broken furniture. He groaned, now back in his human form—bruised ribs, and bite marks suspiciously strategic in placement. His hair stuck up like he'd wrestled a blender. He looked up with bloodied lips and spat weakly, "I hate foxes... so damn much."
Kai blinked. "Did you win?"
Barry winced, clutching his side. "Win? Dude, I was a chew toy in a furry tornado. I think one licked me. Twice."
The Kitsunes giggled near the shattered doorway, lounging like pop idols at a fan meet. One twirled a lock of Barry's hair between her fingers, teasingly sniffing it. Another blew him a kiss that may or may not have turned into literal sparkles midair.
Silas muttered, "They weren't attacking him… They were flirting at light speed."
"Or hosting a group spa day with claws," Kevin added, side-eying the furball crime scene.
Nurarihyon, still relaxed and draped in Daji's tails like he was posing for a legendary painting, took a long sip of his tea and finally said, "You're welcome."
They all turned toward him. "I gave your werewolf boy a little... bump," he continued. "An evolution, as your scientists would say. A Class Four made into a Class Seven. A gift. A flex. A… surprise party with body horror."
Langley's brow twitched. "You changed his classification… just like that?"
Nurarihyon gestured casually. "Check your little scanners. Or your military pamphlets. Or whatever shiny toys you grade each other with."
Kai tapped his datapad. The screen blinked. "Leighton, Barry: New Level – Class 7-A. Mutagenic Evolution: Unstable. Mental Integrity: Questionable."
Seraphina squinted. "What does Questionable mean?"
Barry, still on the ground, mumbled, "It means don't ask me about moon phases right now... I might turn into a goddamn furniture set."
Daji giggled again and kissed Nurarihyon's jaw. "They're so dramatic, darling."
Nurarihyon's eyes sharpened. "And yet... all that power—still not enough to touch me. Or her."
He stood, tall and timeless, his aura pressing against the air like gravity had opinions. "You came to my realm, bearing your shiny tech, your little soldiers, your teenage sass... and thought I was the mystery to solve? I am not your riddle."
He leaned forward just enough, voice dropping to velvet threat. "I am the answer you never wanted."
Silas swallowed, eyes darting to his scorched datapad. "…I liked him better when he was just a footnote in a creepy myth book."
"Still here," Nurarihyon said, smiling. "And still feeling generous. For now."
Professor M's eyes glowed faintly as his voice echoed directly in Kai's mind. "Blink out. Hit and run. Go now."
Kai didn't hesitate. In a second—fzzzt!—he vanished in a blur of violet light, blinking through space like a phantom bullet. One second near Seraphina, next behind Nurarihyon with a burst of energy, his blade drawn.
But before Kai even exhaled, a hand—calm, ancient, impossibly fast—gripped his throat mid-air. CRACK.
Kai's eyes bulged, blade clattering uselessly to the floor. Nurarihyon didn't even turn. Just held him there like a cat plucking a moth from midair.
"Predictable," he muttered, casually tightening his fingers as Kai gasped. "The moment you vanish, I know where you'll reappear. I wrote the pattern before your bloodline existed."
He finally turned, smiling—pleasant, fatherly, terrifying. "You think telepathy is your Professor's fancy hat trick? Please. I use it like a whispered bedtime story. I was inside your head the second you walked through my fog."
Professor M's eyes narrowed. "Impossible…"
Daji stepped forward now, tails curling behind her like hypnotic fire. "Oh, you poor little scholars. You really haven't figured it out, have you?"
She smiled sweetly, gesturing to Nurarihyon like he was the answer to a riddle no one wanted. "He's not just some ancient spirit sipping tea while flexing your strongest into therapy appointments."
Her voice softened—dangerously. "He's the source. The origin. You call them mutants. We call them borrowers. Because every ability your kind has ever awakened... every spark, every echo, every blink—was his first."
Nurarihyon let go of Kai, who coughed and dropped to the ground, clutching his neck, eyes wide.
Daji knelt beside him, brushing a claw gently under his chin. "Write this down for your precious mutant history," she whispered. "He is not just the amplifier of all powers. He's their ancestor. Their blueprint. Their archive."
Silas, bruised ego and all, slowly stood up and cracked his neck. He exhaled hard, then gave Nurarihyon that familiar smug grin—the one that usually came before something blew up or someone regretted inviting him to meetings. "Well, sure, you shattered my Sentinels," he said with a shrug. "But let's be honest here…"
He reached behind his coat and clicked something on his wristband. "…you just gave 'em a software update. So let's dance, Grandpa."
BOOM! In a flash, Veymar channeled a torrent of arcane sigils, forming a rotating ring of energy above his head. "Tenebris Lux—collapse!" he roared, launching a beam of compressed starlight at Nurarihyon.
Kevin raised his hands, igniting a spiraling inferno around his fists. "Burn for once in your life, you smug candle-sniffer!" He hurled twin fire-lances into the fray.
Professor M's eyes glowed blinding white—his psionic presence ripping the atmosphere around Nurarihyon's throne. "Let's see you remember this!" A mental spear surged straight for his core.
Meanwhile, Seraphina stepped forward, hands spread, her silver aura blooming like a shield dome, intercepting the shockwaves. "Come on, hold together—just long enough!"
"My, my," Daji purred, suddenly mid-air with a twirl that shouldn't be possible in heels that high. Her fingers drew lazy hearts in the air, absorbing Veymar's beam into a glowing sigil of her own.
Then, she licked Kevin's fire and blew a kiss. The flames froze mid-air, turned into flower petals, and scattered.
While dodged psionic blast with a mocking yawn, then winked. "Oooh, telepathy" she cooed. "How intimate. I like it rough, but you're just overcompensating, darling."
Then—FWOOOOSH! A sudden flash of air. No bang. No scream. Just… a shift. And then, the weight hit. CRACK. The ground beneath them groaned. The walls pulsed. Everyone collapsed to their knees. Gravity. Increased a hundredfold.
Silas groaned, face smashed into the floor. "What… the hell…"
Veymar's arms trembled under pressure, trying to chant but only managing a raspy curse in ancient Elvish.
Kevin was pancaked flat like a squished action figure, grunting, "I swear… when I stand up… I'm setting something on fire…"
Seraphina strained, shielding cracking like glass, "We're… pinned…"
Daji giggled from above, gracefully floating, not a single tail out of place. "Oops! Did you forget we control the very laws here? That gravity? Space? Time." She twirled mid-air.
Professor, still pinned by the crushing weight, gritted his teeth. Blood trickled from his nose as he forced out a breath, mind reeling. "What exactly… are you…?"
Nurarihyon, still calmly sipping tea, slowly opened his eyes. And the room died. His irises weren't just glowing—they bled crimson light, like twin moons eclipsing reality itself. The color of wrath and ancient sins. Then—the shadows moved. But not like shadows should.
They twisted with screams. Not echoes—actual screams. Faces, limbs, wings, claws, unknown languages and symbols older than time folded out of nothingness, swirling behind him in a spiral of unholy geometry. The walls buckled under their presence, and even Daji stepped back, reverent and silent.
The shadows stood up. And towered. The figure that rose from Nurarihyon's throne wasn't a man. It wasn't even a yokai. It was—An infinite, towering wraith of ancient gods—a tangle of tusked dragon skulls, weeping angel masks, and serpentine wings made of ink and starlight. Hundreds of tails lashed in every direction like knives. Every breath it took made the ground quake, and its voice…
It was not meant for mortal ears. "I AM THE BIRTH OF TERROR. THE WOMB OF NIGHT. THE GHOST THAT WALKS BEHIND YOUR DNA. I AM NOT A KING. I AM THE REASON KINGS DIE."
Professor screamed—not aloud, but in his mind. The pain was immeasurable. "SOLUS! NOW! GET US OUT! GET US OUT!!" he projected desperately through the telepathic ether.
A crackle. A shimmer. FWASH! They vanished just as a tidal wave of shadow lunged for them. They crashed into the marble floor of the atrium with a sickening thud.
Professor rolled over, gasping, eyes bloodshot. His entire face was streaked with blackened veins.
Kevin lay unconscious, one arm burned and barely attached.
Veymar's robes were torn, his ribs visibly crushed beneath them.
Seraphina vomited a stream of shimmering blood, shielding aura flickering out.
Barry back in human form, unconscious, covered in claw marks—his monstrous transformation gone, and his body smoking like something had tried to purge it.
Even Silas… Silas was on his back, eyes wide open, mouth muttering something incoherent.
Then they moved out into medical room, the room was a disaster. Beds overturned, medbots beeping in pure confusion, and everyone talking—or more like yelling—over each other.
Barry groaned as he tried to sit up. "Next time, can we not throw me into a hentai fever dream with murder foxes?"
Kevin, his arm in a high-tech sling, snapped back, "You were the one who turned into Gigantic's fursona and got yeeted like a chew toy!"
Seraphina limped over, hair frizzed, eyes bloodshot, shielding aura flickering like a broken neon sign. "I'm literally coughing glitter. GLITTER, Kevin. What even hit us?!"
Professor, still dabbing at his bleeding ears, muttered, "My brain is now 12% scrambled egg. Thanks for that, Silas."
Silas sat slumped in a wheelchair like a war-hardened grandpa, muttering, "Worth it. I almost scratched him. I felt it."
Veymar, wrapped in enchanted bandages, hissed, "You felt his aura, you maniac. I felt my spine fold in half like origami!"
Kai, half conscious in a medpod, blinked groggily. "Did I win?"
Everyone: "NO."
Professor wheezed. "This is why I told you NOT to knock on cursed gates like a Jehovah's Witness on acid."
Meanwhile… Back in the Castle of Eternal Night. The atmosphere, once swirling with unspeakable horror, returned to its usual elegant madness.
Nurarihyon, now back in his humanoid form, calmly sat down, adjusting the lapel of his silk robe, breathing like nothing happened.
Daji slinked behind him like a shadow dipped in perfume, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and whispering into his ear. "You promised you wouldn't show them that form anymore, my moon. They always run away and scream. Ruins the vibe."
He smirked faintly, eyes still glowing faintly red. "They were getting lippy."
"Mmm... poor things. But look, you scared your guests so badly, again." She nuzzled into his neck, one finger tracing symbols on his collarbone. "Come now, let me calm your rage… You were so handsome when you obliterated those tin cans. Like a mythical microwave."
Nurarihyon chuckled, placing a kiss on her wrist. "You're too kind, my storm. Shall we dance again?"
"Only if you promise not to vaporize the floor this time."
They swayed, the Kitsunes joined in, and the castle glowed once more with haunting, romantic mischief.