Side Story 35: A Fenrir’s Legacy.

Side Story 35: A Fenrir’s Legacy.

Erm

There was a pain in my head. My bed, no, the floor was cold and dirty. While opening my eyes, I pushed myself up, only to feel something soft fall off me as I did. Deja vu? This sudden realization woke me up entirely and I snapped my head towards the object, only to actually see my husky plushie.

Goma-kun? I picked it up, but quickly recognized from the feel of it that it wasnt my old toy. It was actually my slime! Shoyi?!

The husky plush squirmed, even twitching its stitched-up ear, before its form softened and turned into some fluid. Eventually, it transformed back into my black-purple slime, Shoyi. While I was still surprised at this transformation, Shoyi took advantage of my hesitation and moved right up to my shoulder.

Oh, hey, dont be like that! You know Im ticklish! I grit my teeth, trying my best not to laugh but couldnt help but form a grin.

[Alpha!] Four voices appeared in my head as Shoyi kept playing with me. I turned my head around, only to be surprised at my four garms charging and pushing me onto the ground, only to assault me with a storm of tongue licks.

[Alpha, you woke up!] Unos voice showed an explosive elation, sounding as if he was waiting for me for an eternity; however, I couldnt begin processing what he said as my face was starting to feel disgusting.

Stop! Stop it! Argh, eww! Urgh! Stop! I grimaced as I got some of my garms saliva into my mouth, trying my best to spit it out, only for my garms to continue licking my face. Strong I might be, but it felt like it was impossible for me to break out of this.

[Master!]

[Alpha!]

Even more voices suddenly appeared, this time they came from three of my virigresses. When I looked out, Ajay and Shere, the two virigress cubs, jumped into the mix and began cuddling me. Thankfully, Varya wasnt doing anything, but it felt like she was watching me die like a bystander. I could use some help here!

Jeez, what is wrong with them? Hahaha!

I was confused, left in the dark, so to speak. Just why and how did I earn such a greeting?

But it only took a few more seconds for me to finally piece together the puzzle. The puzzle I had inside my dream. The fog was being lifted, unveiling the threads of memories and patching up the holes. I remembered everything, and once I did, I commanded everybody to stand down.

Hearing the tone of my voice being more assertive, my garms, virigresses, and Shoyi stopped playing with me. I pulled some water out from my [Storage Magic], confirming I was back in reality, and cleaned myself up before standing up. Once I did, I gaze at my surroundings.

Black sphere? Right, now I remember.

Uno, how long have I been asleep?

He nodded and gave a quick answer, [Almost two weeks, Alpha. We counted the moons while you were in your trial.]

Right. Right. Still, two weeks? I was stuck in that black forest for two weeks until I figured it out? Wow. Not the best, Saori.

Got it. Right, that happened. Now I remember

[Saori Segawa.] The voice of an older man entered my mind as I gazed upon the stone statue of a once proud fenrir. It was made in his appearance. [I have waited for you to come for a long time. Hmm. Already B rank and you are still only a pup. Outstanding.]

After he greeted and thanked both Hanazawa and Tatsuya, the Belzac, the S rank [Three-Eyed Fenrir] spoke to me, treating me as if I was a long lost kid, or something. With his deal with Edna, his soul didnt reincarnate, but was transformed into an onnikai, so I was actually speaking with a person from over 2000 years ago.

If I were still the old Saori from back on Earth, getting to personally speak with someone that old would have probably made me giddy, albeit, also a bit scared. After all, getting such a chance would have been so monumentally small, only some weird magic or eldritch-like science could cause something like that.

However, I was, more or less, apprehensively nervous about being here.

[I heard Goddess Ilsaphone had told you what I wanted with you and about my deal with Goddess Edna,] he continued.

Hmm? Wait, where did you learn that? Did you speak with her? I noted the hints in that sentence immediately, but Belzac himself wasnt really willing to answer it in full.

[Does it matter? No.]

Oh, right? Fuck you, too, smartass. Thankfully, I did not send that message. Phauuuewww.

[Then I shall be brief about it, but first, did you learn what Ilsaphone wanted from all of this?]

I tilted my head, unsure what he meant by this.

[I had made two deals with the gods. First, Edna, to make my bloodline sworn to her as Champions. In exchange, I would not be reincarnated by her authority and I would be allowed to receive my revenge. The second is with Ilsaphone, to assure my soul doesnt deteriorate with how long it could take for me to take my revenge. In exchange, I became an onnikai, sworn to aid her in her creation of a patron race.]

The statue began to twitch and shake. I couldnt see his onnikai form, but I remembered Hanazawa telling me his soul was trapped in the statue in order to prevent him from going feral like Kiiro.

If youre talking about onnikais, then we already have some of them settling down, Hanazawa chimed in. They are already taking over undead remains. Ive seen it with my own eyes, so what does a Goddess need our help with, anyways?

She was right. My four garms and the onnikais from Estralia were prime examples of Ilsaphones plan succeeding. She should know everything going on with them, so why was Belzac stating such a request? If Ilsaphone spoke with him, then she should have mentioned that part.

[Wrong.] However, Belzac declined our assessment. [I know naught of what you speak, but the only four successes in Ilsaphones plan are yours, Saori. Your pack. Come!]

I snapped my head to the ground, hearing some low growling coming from there. My four garms head peeked out from my shadow, scowling and baring their teeth at Belzac. Theyve been feeling uncomfortable ever since we came here.

[Hrm? What is this attitude? Pups! Do you not know who I am?!]

A terrifying aura erupted from the statue, paralyzing everybodys body. It had to be [Tyrants Aura]! That oppressive feeling of some giant monster staring you down, thinking of you as nothing but an ant in its way. That instinctual fear to run away was there, but every single cell was too terrified to listen to my mind.

[Terror (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]

Urgh! Sensei! Tatsuya and Kyouya fell on the ground, having lost their strength.

Arck! Not this shit again! Hanazawa tried to use her new unique skill, but she could only kneel in the end, too overwhelmed by Belzacs presence.

Urgh! I stepped forward and shrouded my students in my shadow before manipulating a separate part into a shield for them. I glared at Belzacs statue, channeling lightning around my body despite how much my cells were telling me to run and to not fight him!

This is a test. Remember what Ilsaphone said! He needs me. I will not be dominated!

Controlling my mana, I infused energy into my muscles, slowly raising my trembling arm up, ready to shoot a lightning bolt at him to stop. The pressure was getting to my head, making it feel like it could explode at any moment. With every step I took towards Belzac, the more suffocating it became.

[Terror (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]

St-op! It Arghk! I tried to shoot out the stygian lightning, but I tripped, having lost the necessary strength to stand up anymore.

Gotta turn back! Shadow Dash!

But before I touched the ground, a black magic circle appeared underneath me before my garms [Black Tendrils] grabbed my arms and pulled me directly into the shadow world. The momentary respite of not having to feel Belzacs aura was refreshing, but a chill went down my spine as I felt something lurking behind me.

When I turned around, I

[Hmph!]

saw Belzacs statue. I looked around, noticing the rocky walls. I wasnt in the shadow world anymore.

[Hahahaha! Brilliant! Brilliant! You really are the one, Saori! Gahahahahahahaha! Yeessss! Ive been waiting for you for 2000 years! Gahahahahahaha!]

W-What? I looked up. I felt my butt on the ground and I could see my students sweating profusely from all that pressure from before.

[What brazenness! What bravery! What stoicness in the face of indomitable power! Ooh, you remind me too much of myself when I faced that archdemon of lust, pup! Gahahahahaha! Ahh, like staring at a younger me!]

He really sounds like some yakuza boss at this point.

[But, let this be a lesson to you, Saori. The shadow world is not yours alone! It is the domain of the God of Darkness and every dark mage can enter it. But, if you face against a master of the shadows, then be prepared to witness the horrors looming in the abyss.]

I gulped. That was no threat. Something happened in the shadow world, but it was a total blank to me right now. No matter how much I tried to remember, I couldnt.

[A taste of the powers I can bequeath unto you. What you may learn.] The statue shook and the four garm onnikais Hanazawa controlled created a purple, ghostly hand. [Accept my proposal. Become my successor, get revenge on the person who doomed our bloodline, become a Champion even Edna would have never imagined, and become the catalyst for the creation of a new race!]

Uno, Song, Sarasa, Quatre, Varya, Shere, Ajay, Shoyi; all the members of my shadow pack, minus Rajah as he was with Hestia, were immediately ejected from my shadow, falling onto the ground. They immediately got back on their feet, glaring and growling at Belzac, but the wolf only laughed.

[Gahahahaha! Your pack looks passable, but there is still so much more they can accomplish. The summit is yet so far!] Once his laughter stopped, his attention was back to me. [I can show you the extent of our bloodline, Saori. We are more than just an S rank bloodline, we can and will reach the peak! Join me, my descendant.]

No.

[Huh?!]

Sensei?!

Oi, what, Segawa?!

I surprised everybody with my answer, but it was all too obvious to me.

I am not your pawn. Bloodline? I havent even accepted you as anything but a random dead wolf. I scowled, despite knowing what would happen if I were to get angry here. I am not your errand girl, Belzac. I am not here to do your bidding or get your revenge.

I stood up, lightning wrapped around my body.

I came here to learn more about being a garm, but what am I looking at here? A dead wolf who built up a grudge for over two millennia. You arent that [Three-Eyed Fenrir] anymore, you are only another onnikai. Anger consumes you, driving you forward with every step. I boldly announced. Maybe you can show me how to master my abilities, but family? We are not. I will never accept you as anything but a stranger!

[]

A complete silence. I couldnt feel any hostility or malice coming from the statue, only awkwardness. Eventually, the quiet was broken by a single person clapping their hands. I snapped my head around, bewildered I couldnt detect them prior.

Itay. zac. A weird, indistinguishable accent filled my ears, only managing to pick up a few words there and there.L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøv€l--B1n.

When they finally came into the light, my eyes widened as their silhouette were revealed. Three people. All women.

They were the

A rumbling. Grruwwwwuik! Or something similar escaped my stomach. I was hungry.

[Ancestor told us these shadow cocoons are similar to an evolution cocoon. The mana would keep you from starving, but]

Ill be hungry when I wake up. Right. I need to account for how the System works.

My flashback stopped. My memories were there, all neatly placed in a neat row for me to remember. Now I knew again how it all happened, but remembering any further was too much of a drag. I was starving.

Effects: [Starvation (Moderate)]

Ah, thats why I felt like I was withering away a bit. Good thing I have a high amount of Health to endure this.

Even with how I made it seem so non-threatening, the fact still stood that I was losing Health and with all the playing I did with my shadow pack, I had ignored the pain coming from my body. Thinking could wait for later. First, I needed to eat.

I pulled out a Health potion and drank it to recover my Health before taking out multiple dishes and also food for my garms. They werent hungry like me, but it was still good for us to have a meal together since it had been almost two weeks for them.

Itadakimasu. I clapped my hands together before cutting up a steak for myself, signaling my shadow pack to begin feasting, too. After I remembered how they rejected Belzac with me, I felt our bond growing even tighter.

As a pretty large fenrir, I had to eat a lot to keep myself from going hungry, so when I was starving, I could probably challenge Hestias normal eating habits. Plates and bowls began to be emptied, all neatly piled up until there were three stacks of ten. My garms were already finished, but I still needed more.

After ten more servings, each which would have been enough to fill a single athlete from Earth, I let out a giant sigh and touched my bloated belly and fell to the ground. I could feel my head warming up from shame, embarrassed at how unladylike I was acting right now. I lamented how I should have gotten a bit drunk, just so I could ignore this unnerving feeling.

Whatever, not any different from stress eating.

Eating a lot to calm down my nerves after looking at my mothers medical bills, while the stress itself helped me stay thin in a way. Balanced lifestyle. That dream honestly brought up some rather sad memories which I really would have liked to stay hidden. I loved my mother, but it really wasnt a pleasant time, to say the least.

I then stood up, groaning a bit from the food moving in my belly, before going over to the wall of this black sphere. I covered my right arm with [Shadow Armament] and pulled a piece of it off, creating an opening for everybody to leave.

Once outside, I noticed I was still inside the cave where Belzacs soul was. I turned around, noticing the shadow ball was see-through from the outside. Meaning, my shadow pack outside of Shoyi I believed [Shadow Dash] inside once they saw me awake. No wonder I hadnt noticed their presence until the very last moment.

Thanks for staying with me all this time, Shoyi. I caressed my little slime. Despite not spending as much time with him and only using him as our companys trash and waste disposal, I could still feel a ton of affection coming from this little guy.

The little guy wobbled around in happiness, making me feel even worse.

I heard the wind. I turned around to see my garm mother passing through the tunnel entrance, too slow compared to even my wolfkin form.

[ your true family.]

Family? Thats right, that is why I came here. The whole self-reflection and closure part was just the icing on top, right?

There was a reason why I didnt follow either Hestia or Grimnir in their objectives. I came here because of Belzac. Right, I had to keep this in mind. It didnt matter how I achieved it, but the goal of this trip was to learn from Belzac about my bloodline and to become stronger. That was the only thing I needed to think about.

Similar to how I compromised with a teachers position instead of following my dream of becoming a historian, sometimes, it would be better for everyone and myself to endure some pain. To live, was to struggle. My time on Earth had taught me that in abundance.

Okaa-san. Otou-san. My family. Hestia. Tasianna. Ellaine. Grimnir. The Aurora is my new family. I lost the former, so I must do my best for the latter now. I gripped my red scarf, made entirely from Hestias fire mana.

I lost one family, but gained a new one in the form of Aurora. There was no reason for me to keep rejecting my fenrir bloodline. I lost my first mother with my death, but there was now a chance for me to make a new one. Every mother deserved a chance to love their child

Whats another family? The more the merrier, right?

However, what use is it to have so many people caring for you, if you cannot defend them? For Hestias Quest, strength and cunning was extremely important. Hestia represented that strength, while I am her shadow.

From my experience in Gleisvale, I started to remember why my father became a firefighter in the first place it was to make sure fires wouldnt take a persons life. He always impressed me with his tales of being a hero, and I always focused on the heroics instead of how he felt about them.

He loved saving people, he loved to see others smile after an inferno. I couldnt speak with him, but I was starting to understand him better after what I did in the slave auction and my time in that illusion. He went into the fire disregarding anything outside of the situation, only being able to think about the family stuck inside the aflammed building. He died, but he managed to save them. A family existed because he was there.

It broke ours in return, and I couldnt forgive him for that. It gnawed at me. I didnt want to become like him, but I guess my time in Peolynca had exposed that part of him in me. His stories affected me. Seeing Hestia being a hero inspired me. The personality I developed as a teacher, as an adult, was being pushed back, whilst my idealist side came forward.

However, that wasnt what I wanted.

Now I get it.

I had to embrace both sides of myself. My pragmatic, rational side with my brave, heroic one. Hestia could be reckless because she ias that strong, but I didnt need to emulate her. I had my own distinct fighting style, and becoming a [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir] shouldnt change that. I gained more power from my evolution, but I couldnt forget about my roots. Yes, what made me this strong in the first place.

The dark element was a flexible one, filled with more trickery than power. I had to remember what Hestia told me in the past. I think I am the problem, she told me concerning what was holding me back. At this point, I could completely say, I disagreed.

Me imitating Hestia wasnt her fault, it was mine. Even back when I was a teacher, all I did was follow my senpais and constructed a personality to fit Shiroko High School. To make them feel I was a part of them. Even with my own dagger mastery, I hadnt innovated on it as much as I did my shadow mastery. All my techniques came from my time with the saurians, when they trained me.

However, dark magic was fluid. It had a tool for every situation, you could say. [Smokey Haze] was the perfect example for a spell with a multi-facet of usages. To become stronger, I couldnt be reckless and rely on my strength alone, I had to be cunning. I needed to understand the true nature of the shadow world.

And for that, I needed good mentors. Teachers who looked at the abyss and came out of it unscarred. I needed

Now that I think about it, my time inside that dream did make me reconsider things. I turned my attention back to Belzac.

him.

[ Your eyes. That red mist. Arent you eager, my descendant?]

Speaking with Mother gave me the time and chance I needed to look back at my life and how I grew. The current me, you could say, was similar to my Earthen life as I was willing to do whatever was needed to survive. Even if I considered my students good friends, my primary reason to become an amazing teacher was for the money. Intentions mattered to me.

So, what did it matter what Belzacs goal was? How he ended up in this cave was not my problem and I could care less about it. However, this was the obstacle for me to get that paycheck. That trove of knowledge to exceed my current limitations. I wanted it so badly.

Travel the world My deal with Hestia. Right, how could I drag her around the world if I keep being so stubborn? Im already dealing with criminals and underworld scum, after all, ahahahaha!

I need to become stronger. More than I currently am. Can you help me with that?

[Of course.]

Will you help my shadow pack become the most frightening force there is?

[Of course!]

I smacked my chest, holding my hand over my heart as I stated my last demand. I want the ability to protect my pack and family. I require it! The power of the shadow world to defend and attack. Will you make me a fenrir who will even surpass the notorious [Three-Eyed Fenrir]?

[]

The shadow underneath his statue moved once again, but this time, instead of transforming itself into a woman, it morphed and grew ever so large. Fur and claws appeared as the shadow transformed itself into a wolf, peering down at me like a giant. Its humongous body was too huge for the cavern, denting it and expanding it to fit its size.

Its black eyes glared at me with a third one sprouting on its forehead. [The abyss calls, and as its ambassador, you will answer. As the harbinger, I shall pave your way forward. The secrets of the void, the domain of the God of Darkness. You will become my successor, and the inheritor of my techniques. You will become the legend I couldnt be.]

Slashes and bites werent the only things we wolves did well. We could howl really well.

Then lets talk. I took a breather, steeling myself for the path forward.

He wanted me to kill somebody? Well, let us just say there was enough time to talk this out. Play it smart. I just needed to use my current position and his impatience to my advantage. Better use Gaels and Murainas training to its fullest now.

Sorry, Hestia. It will probably take a while until we meet again. But until then I turned my head back to my garm mother.

Its time to get used to my estranged family.

A note from AbyssRaven

Saori and her garm family. The pack about to grow?

If you guys want to support me, Hestia and "A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale" (or just read up to 20 advance chapters + any Patreon-only chapters) please check out my Patreon: Rawr!

For two dollars, for the cost of a coffee, you can read up to four chapters for the whole month! You will have my eternal gratitude for any support you can give me! Please.

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Tuesday, June 21, 2022 3:18:22 AM Germany [Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

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