Agnisotra: Origin Tails

I got woken up by an earth-shattering roar. I hate this. I put on the correct filter and look outside. I instantly try to hold back my nausea. I circulate nature magic through my system. I hate this. Not only is the town being invaded by shades the place is infested with dimensional maggots. Nothing is trying to break through the fabric of space though.

I turn off the filter. I didn't see anything! Nothing is breaking through so we will be fine! Right? I still feel like I should investigate what the deal is with those maggots but I decided to procrastinate. I decided to wipe out some shades by sliding them into the trashcan. I didn't need to do much because the echoes were taking care of most of them. It was unintentional but the echo was helping us now. Or maybe Gregory took this into account with his plan. It wasn't perfect because the big shades didn't get moved to the trashcan but most of the normal-sized shades got moved to the trashcan and got incinerated. I guess the longer this goes on the less we have to do as cleanup duty. Which is good because we have many more problems.

“Did you get enough of your adult form?” Charlize and troll came to help me deal with the big shade. I needed to get rid of it to get rid of maggot goo.

“I don't think I will ever understand you...” We moved the big shade to the trashcan and Boshi town was safe for now. “We will keep an eye on the town you guys go do… whatever you need to do!” Thank you, that is very helpful. I scanned the area. I know where the root is but I haven't found a way to get there yet. This root is the deepest underground out of any root. That is why I left this one as the last but maybe we should have left the easier ones for last. I wanted to make sure that there were some easier ones between the harder ones. But that seems to be a bad idea in hindsight. Hmm what is this, whoa right below Boshi town, there is a city buried here, Is this the city I saw on that map?

I compared its layout to what I had archived, it is a bit different but most main points seemed to line up. This city didn't just get buried; at the moment we are about 3500 meters above sea level. This city is buried 3000 meters below sea level. How did it get there in the first place? Or did someone drop an insane amount of rocks and dirt on it? The map suggested that the capital was on a mountain or was it inside a mountain?

Anyways the map suggested it was elevated. I normally love mysteries but these suck. I decided to stop thinking about it, just more headaches. Now I can't see a connection between the root and the city but I did find a way to get there, of course through the sewers. Gregory isn't going to like this. I couldn't find any other path to get there. This isn't weird because this city is 6500 meters below us, we should be happy there is even a path going there. Some parts seem collapsed but we can easily get there. Worst case scenario we need to drop some nukes to get there. Oh, we can’t because of the echoes. Meh. Maybe Molerock was involved in sinking this city. But I have to remember, there is no indication that this is the city Azu was visiting when she was attacked. Because wouldn't she be stuck underground if that was the case? Does it work like that? I don't know. Only one way to find out!

I kidnap Ted who is training in his backyard and head over to Gregory’s house. Is it time to find out what more this timeline has in store for us? Yup. I knock on Gregory’s door and then ring the bell. What’s up? I whisk him away and head over to Raishin’s hut. He is not here.

Let’s wait here. So, I found a city buried 6500 meters down here.

Down here? Isn't the root over at the Lucidus mountain range? Correct!

So why don't we go there? I don't know how to get there but I do know how to get to that city! Sup guys!

So Raishin I found a city 6500 meters underground. Cool! Let's go! Wait, so you think this city has a path to the root?

No clue. So, what is the relation between the city and the root then?

Probably none. Ted holds his hand over his forehead.

So, remind me why are we going to this city then? To figure out why a city that once was on the elevation of Boshi town or even higher is buried so deep. Do you think it might be related to the battle between the goddess and Azu?

That works. What?

There is no evidence that that is the city Azu visited when they fought but it surely can't be unrelated right? Because Boshi town doesn't look 2600 years old, even the oldest parts aren’t that old the city down there seems to be ancient but if that wasn't the city, she visited either… Then there might be a 3rd city that got wiped out somewhere. Also, it to the root than here so it will be easier to dig from there. Kinda? How deep down is this root exactly?

Uhm do you really want to know? Yes!

Well, as far as I can tell there is magma everywhere around the root, does that tell you enough? No? Is it in the mantle of the planet?

Almost! Hoo boi. What's the mantle of the planet?

Magma layer about 40 km down, gonna be fun to dig there… Maybe leaving the toughest root to reach as last was a bad idea… But it looked so close on that hologram you made!

Well, that wasn't on scale of course else you wouldn't be able to see the root. So, I hope your digging skills are polished because we need to get there within 4 days. So ehm how are your dimensional teleports coming along?

I haven't touched them and I'm not sure if that would even be a good idea with how the dimensional fabric is in this state… Did it get worse?

You have no idea… How deep does your [Solar stream] go Raishin? Dunno.

It went through a mountain that was about 5300 meters above sea level and went as deep as 1000 meters below sea level so a good 6300 meters we would need 7 of those to get there and if an echo starts when we are descending, we might blast whatever is down there. But it's worth a shot. I can only use it once a day. So, we need to wait for an echo to pick it up? I’m not sure that is a great idea.

Do we even know if the echoes work outside the range of the barrier? Good point logically it shouldn't work. Well then let's see if there is a path going there from that city of yours, how do we get there?

Through the sewers. Absolutely not! So, do you have another solution?

I don't… Sewer adventures here we come! I think you are the only one who is excited to go down there…

Wow, no weird puns I’m proud of you! So ehh do we still need a [Shadow cloak] now? Yes, we don't know what other energy is down there and your mana corruption immunity probably doesn't fully apply to us because I had some times when I felt close to getting there. Hmmm, yeah same, cloak us! Gregory cloaked us and we hopped into the sewers while Ted kept up the manhole. Gregory sunk the shades in the shadow and Raishin and I used [Flash bomb]. Nothing of importance happened. Some corrupted green sewer rats attacked. Well, that is inaccurate because they were corrupted, they were some ugly pink-green.

A lot of pink energy here. I hate it here are we close to the rock tunnel?

Yeah. We got into the rock tunnel and felt a slope descend. Ted and Gregory had to clear out the tunnel several times because some parts collapsed. I tried to not think of it because it would cause more headaches but I couldn't help but wonder who was responsible for making this tunnel. The tunnel made a huge detour, which made sense because the city was almost directly below us. There were some larger open spaces that seemed to be rest spots. We followed the path and after 3h we were at the correct altitude.

Hey, Agnis you can teleport us out of here if needed, right? Walking all this way back will kill my feet! Uhh, this is quite far down, I don’t know if I can.

Nooo! Raishin dramatically collapsed to the floor and grabbed his feet.

It will be all right feet; we will find a way! Can’t Gregory shadowmeld us up? The tunnels and the sewers are dark. That should be no problem. We went around the corner and we saw there was an enormous city made out of some golden-brown colored earth. It didn't look like earth at all. The city was earth colored but it stood out from ehm the earth around it. It looked like polished earth if that makes sense. I’m not an earth expert.

Wow! I’m sorry Agnis, I’m glad we came here now! This is amazing! How did this get here? How did they even make earth like… this? I don't know let's ask them! I run over to some weird looking human? He looks odd for a human.

Hey, Agnis share your vision with us, we don't see anyone here. Oh, but I’m not using my Elgards eyes. I activated Elgards eyes and linked my buddies vision with mine.

Hey Greg… Yeah, Agnis these beings are all spirits, that's why only you can see them.

I guess they are weaker than the spirit sisters. So, what is this place? Spirit capital? Don’t think so, because that would be in the spirit world. Hey, excuse me! What is this place? Wait Bunai? Is this golem heaven? In front of me, I saw a golem-looking spirit. It turned around but it didn't look like Bunai at all.

Sorry, wrong golem ehh spirit. The golem responded and started to ask me questions. Another ancient language? I looked at Raishin. What is he talking about? I'm just talking to these spirits normally. Well, I guess we will have to wait till Agnis figures out that only spirits can interact with spirits. It seems that for the weaker ones, this is quite literal.

Oh, you can't understand them either? Well, this guy said that this is a great power spot for earth spirits so many have gathered here to chill at the power spot. Not-Bunai doesn't know any other details though. Did you call that spirit Not-Bunai?

Not Bunai (name tentative), yeah. You need to work on your naming sense.

His name is tentative! I can rename him! Have you asked what his name is? We can't understand what you're saying while speaking to spirits.

He said that he doesn't have a name only the higher, superior, and legendary spirits have names. Sounds like spirits have different rarities! So where do we go?

Well, he recommended that we head over to the palace of earth spirits to meet the spirit in charge. We probably wing it from there. And this is a good idea?

We will just kick their asses if they create trouble. May I remind you that we can't interact with them?

Oh right, here are some frost marbles. I handed over a big load of frost marbles to each of my buddies.

Hehe, they better watch out now! Maybe we can get some answers. We walked toward the big palace in the center of the city. Spirits were just walking around like they have lived here for a while. Does this power spot give you any boost Agnis?

Nope, I’m not an earth spirit, Yeh else he would be able to use earth magic properly! Fair point. We looked around and several spirits looked at us but still continued their daily life. It just looked like a busy normal city; the only thing is that it would look like a ghost town to non-spirits.

This is fascinating! Hey, Agnis can you talk to some of these spirits? I talked to some spirits and they seemed to be very polite. Some had been living here for a good 200 years, and most of them fled from the spirit world. It seems there are some spirits here too that don't have an earth affinity. There was a magma lake a bit further up where fire-related spirits made their home.

Hey, can you ask why they left the spirit world? I think Nayani and Guyani said something similar. I asked this bronze-looking horse spirit why he fled the spirit world. Apparently, they fled because the spirit king started rolling out new policies that displaced a lot of spirits and in general displeased a large group. The normally compassionate spirit king seemed to issue harsh punishments to dissenters. Hey Horze what did the spirit king do that you guys disagreed with? Hmmm, I see Yeah, that makes sense. What did he say?

He said that there were 2 problems, one is the expansion of the area that gets assigned to the spirit king. Normally it is quite small and has been for millennia but suddenly he wanted to quadruple his territory and kicked out whoever ended up in his new territory, secondly, he started issuing a spirit energy tax. Hey Horze what is spirit energy? A spirit equivalent of life energy? Yikes. So, these are all fugitives?

That is sad. Oh, Horze says that the closer we get to the palace the more likely we find spirits that have been here longer. Thank you Horze, can we… well I do anything for you? Oh really? Must be hard for you to translate everything the whole time.

Well, I didn't know I could speak spirit but it's not hard. Horze said that he doesn't mind helping “The Bridge” I have no clue what it means and neither does Horze. Is his name really Horze or did you just name him that?

He doesn't have a name but he liked the name Horze so what is the problem? Never mind… We came closer to the palace and the earth started to rumble and I heard an earth-shattering roar.

Shit this again! Go on without me I have to deal with this! Hey, smartass we can't do much here without you! I circulated nature magic through my system, sighed, and opened the correct filter. Yuck!

Ugh, I feel sick! This is gross! Raishin didn't say anything because he was emptying his stomach, right I forgot that I still had my eyes linked up. More festering dimensional fabric and more maggots but there also seemed to be some big maggots and some… what are these things? Centipede. Is this the point where our adventure slowly turns into horror? The centipedes were black and had red stripes but on each of their many legs were centipede heads. Is centipede even accurate now? It has many legs and heads so I guess? I don't have a big issue with bugs but its more the vibe they give up that is nauseating.

Ugh, how do we fight those things? They are quite easy to deal with but that comes with its problems. Kill them and they explode in super stinky goo, I'm not kidding imagine the most stinky substance you've ever smelled and multiply that by 100 so DONT KILL THEM! So, we just let them do their thing and be creepy?

I can deal with them but I don't know if you guys can help. I shattered an illusion layer and grabbed a shard which turned into an illusionary dagger.

What... what is that! I've never felt energy like that before! I’m following my instincts here! Can't think! Translation: he doesn't know. I guess nothing we can do about this. Hey, look the spirits are gathering. My daggers multiplied and I threw them and crystalized and shattered the maggots, the centipedes, however, were tough and didn't want to get one shot. The bigger maggots needed 2 or 3 hits to get defeated. The festering dimensional fabric didn't seem to recover much. Then I saw something moving behind the fabric.

Shit this thing again! Another earth-shattering roar shook the fabric of space. Aaah my ears! What is that?

So, you hear and feel that too? Those spirits don't seem to notice though, although the ones that are the closest to us seemed to have noticed something. Maybe it is only detectable when in close proximity to Agnis. That is cool and all but if I don't stop that thing who knows what will happen? The big maggot sprays some green liquid at us.

Oh, hell no! I froze it with frost magic and threw it at a centipede. The frozen green liquid seemed to corrode into the centipedes. It started to thrash around and bite its allies. Right, so I keep the fat maggots alive and use their spit to make the centipedes go berserk. This looks like some weird game. Another fat maggot spray and I repeated this. Another centipede went crazy and died after. Sadly, the centipedes started to catch on and started to slaughter the big maggots.

Ugh, I feel like I'm playing a strategy game, Greg, can you bind the centipedes? I will try. I threw some normal daggers and used [Turning leaf] to swap the big maggots with the daggers. What strikes me odd is that they don't directly attack me. Only with ranged attacks. The centipedes seemed to be melee oriented but they stay on the dimensional fabric. Does something happen if I knock them off? The fabric bulged and a claw tore through it.

Shit, I forgot about this guy! Ted Raishin, can you prepare your frost marbles? Something really strong is observing us and approaching! I don't have time to deal with everything that is going on here! I saved more fat maggots but the frequency of their spits seemed to have decreased. And while the maggots didn't increase the centipedes just crawled out of the fabric. Is this what is on the other side? Another claw tears through the fabric and something with uncountable eyes looks at me. I get shivers through my whole body and since I saw it my buddies saw it too.

Wh... What was that? A huge headache if I don't deal with it, Greg? I’m sorry it seems none of my magic or skills can interact with them…

Frost marbles? I’ll try! I throw my illusionary dagger at the claw and yet again it doesn't work but with another earth-shattering roar that causes everything to tremble. Gregory throws frost marbles which are filled with my frost magic but they don't seem to do anything.

Hmm, this is weird I swear frost magic worked. I hit the centipedes with frost magic. Nothing happens, fire magic, nothing happens, lightning magic also nothing. Nothing with water either. What!? it worked on the maggots! I froze a big maggot and it got frozen. I jumped up towards the tears in the fabric and fixed them with spatial magic. I looked at my hand. What if only spatial and illusion magic works on these things? I shot a bolt of spatial magic at the centipedes and they didn't take a lot of damage but they seemed to get impacted by it.

Great, now I also have to practice spatial magic. I dashed at a centipede, imbued my hands in spatial magic, grabbed some of a centipede's legs with heads, dodged the heads on the legs trying to bite me, and threw it off the dimensional fabric. It seemed to be in pain and tried to rush back to the area where the dimensional fabric was exposed. An earth wall appeared and it blocked the centipede's path. The centipede started to screech. Hey, Agnis, it is slight but the energy these things carry changes a bit when you throw it off that fabric, I think we can hit this one! Gregory impaled and one-shot the centipede.

That is good news but it's not like I can easily throw all these centipedes off. But I think I understand what Gregory is saying. Since I stepped on the dimensional fabric, I feel different. I managed to throw 3 more centipedes off but they were quite organized and I was more focused on making sure that whatever is behind here isn’t coming through. I fixed more holes but couldn't keep up with the claws of this thing behind this fabric tearing more and these centipedes were really annoying.

Hey, Agnis someone is coming! I’m sorry I'm busy! I heard footsteps approaching. And then suddenly all the sound disappeared. No screeching centipedes, no disgusting burping sounds from the big maggots, no more low-pitched vibration sounds from the dimensional fabric, no background sound, no battle sounds that my buddies made, nothing. But there was one thing I could hear. A clear female voice.

“I see that you are struggling, but are you not too young to start fixing dimensional festers and infestations?” The moment I hear that a wave of spatial magic sweeps across us, it instantly kills all the maggots and centipedes. They didn't explode, and they also didn't crystalize but turned into motes of green and red lights and floated into the fabric of space. It closed all the tears but didn't do anything about the festering. Whatever was behind the fabric protested and let out another earth-shattering roar. Maybe I should call it a space-shattering roar and another space quake.

“Silence!” This new individual folded her fan and pointed it at the rough location where this thing was behind the fabric and a ball of spatial magic shot out, went through the fabric, and got followed up by another space quake, the thing roared again causing a space quake and seemed to flee. I looked at my illusionary dagger, it seemed that it was more cooperative the last time. Although I have no clue what I am doing so maybe it’s more accurate that it didn't guide me this time. I closed the filter and looked at the newcomer. All the spirits seemed to show her respect. Uhm, thank you, are you, their leader? Hey, why can we understand you?! Raishin shush!

“I do not regard myself as the leader, but I am the oldest spirit here and have been here the longest, so in response to that these kind spirits express their respect towards me but they know they do not have to. But more importantly, are you not going to close that up?” She points at where the fabric of space was opened up. I couldn't see it now because I removed the filter. I activated the filter again and yet again almost had to vomit. Hey Agnis, can you stop doing that? Sorry! Ehm what do you mean by closing it up ehmm, sorry I didn't catch your name. Ugh, not like you would remember it even if she did. I feel sick! Make it stop!

“I apologize, My name is Isi Medri, I’m a 7349-year-old chrono spirit.” She made a polite bow. She looked like a 16-year-old human girl, well besides the extra eye on her forehead. Wow, what a weird name and she is older than our moms! Hey Raishin where are your manners?

Uhh, I left them at the surface? You can’t leave behind what you don't have… Hey, guys am I the only one worrying about why she is just staring at us and not doing anything? Well, be happy, she could probably wipe us out by blinking.

“Oh, I am not your enemy, depending on the situation of course, it is just a very long time since I have seen members of your race and so young, I would have thought they were extinct by now.” It’s that bad, eh?

“It is that bad, yes, but come to the palace, let me hear why you are here, surely not to evict these spirits?” No, we are just trying to get to the pink broccoli root, do you know how to get there?

“Yes, I do, but let me close that for you, it seems that you are new to dealing with this situation.” Isi waved her fan and I saw a spirit magic circle and the dimensional fabric slowly disappeared as if a dimensional band-aid was placed over it. “Please come rest and talk at the palace. I am deeply sorry my fellow spirits but there is something I want to discuss with “The Bridge”. I look around and the spirits seem to understand and go back to doing their own things. We might finally get some answers. I wonder if there is a library here… Should I tell him that I nuked the largest library in Boshi town? I hope that this place has a library so that that fact becomes untrue. We walked into the large halls of the palace, multiple golem-like spirits but also spirits with various appearances were busy doing their own thing. It had the same vibe as Hourai palace. We got led to a big room with a large table and chairs lining the table.

“I apologize, we do not have any food, since spirits don't need to eat, I do enjoy drinking tea so that is all we have here.” A spirit drinking tea… Hey, are you the leader here? Why can we interact with you and are you single? Tea got brought to us by 2 human-looking spirits.

“As I have said, I have not claimed such a title but I am responsible for ensuring the safety and well-being of the spirits here, so in a sense yes. It is not odd to interact with higher spirits although my case is special.” Go on. This tea is good!

“I am currently a spirit residing in a physical vessel.” Do you mean that you possessed someone? Isi took a sip of her tea.

“I understand why you would ask that but that is not the case, this vessel is artificial and was made especially for me 5876 years ago. By a dear friend of mine. Unfortunately, he was a mortal so he has passed away a long time ago. And I am single yes.” A spirit with a physical vessel, that is unusual… Can you stop forgetting that you are exactly what she just described?

“Yes, this idea took inspiration from the nine-tailed spirit foxes. Decades of research went into making this vessel and although it is functional it has many flaws. You see, despite this vessel, I still have to find a power spot every 2000 years and recharge for a year, something that a nine-tail spirit fox does not have to do.” Is that why you are here?

“I arrived here 3481 years ago for that reason but have stayed where ever since.” Wait, so this city was under the ground at that time?

“It was not buried this deep but it was underground yes. I am not an earth spirit so I had a harder time locating this city but after that, I escorted spirits without an earth affinity here. It is a few of the big power spots that seem to be untouched by the dominant races living here.” So, this city is unrelated to the Boshi town on the surface or what happened when Azu got locked up. Can you tell more about this vessel of yours and about the nine-tail foxes? My friend here doesn't know much about them because we all grew up and lived in Hourai but we escaped from it before it disappeared.

“That name sounds familiar but I know Hourai as a person, a promising young woman abandoned by her family.” Wait mom got abandoned by her family?

“Oh, is she your mother? I see that makes sense. The paternal nine tail side of her family is unknown, and the maternal phoenix side of her family abandoned her because she was not a full-blood phoenix, at least that is what I have heard, but this did not stop her from doing the things she loved to do. This is all I know about her.” Poor mom… I guess you really don't know more about her, do you? If you say you came here 3481 years ago then you might have only known about things when she was really young… How old is empress Edea? 3504 years… Yeah, unfortunately, we won’t get to hear about her youth, but we can ask her when we get back home! You said also something about that vessel?

“A lot of questions, I have not talked like this in centuries! This vessel was made by my dearest friend Vo. He was a human but had a passion for spirits. He was a competent spiritmancer but his dream was to ‘bridge’ the gap between spirits and the corporeal beings, just like the nine-tailed spirit foxes did. As you know we don't have physical forms and this is what he was passionate about solving. He befriended a nine-tailed spirit fox named Rignef and together they managed to make this.” Isi spun around in her very human-like body. Hey, this might sound rude but do you mind if I check your body out with my Elgards eyes? Wow! To see the day that Agnis would peep! Raishin shush!

“Sure, I only know the basics of maintenance so if you can see any defects I would like to know, Rignef used to do the same.” I kicked Raishin out of my visual connection and inspected Isi. Hey! I’m going, to be honest, I don't know what I'm looking for but this is amazing. Oh, something is blocking some energy there in your shoulder. Hmm, it is similar enough to a human body that if I wouldn't pay attention, I would think you were but now it is clear that this is synthetic. I’m sorry but I don’t know anything about spirit vessels so I can’t tell you if there is a defect.

“Knowing about a blockage of energy in my shoulder is enough, is it my right shoulder?” Yes. This is fascinating. I’m sorry about Vo’s death, but Rignef should be still alive right? I’d like to talk to one of the creators of this vessel.

“He too died… I think this is an effective way to transition to why nine-tail foxes have a larger responsibility in maintaining the world and why their numbers have been dropping alarmingly, want more tea?” Sure. I’d love to! Yes, please. Hey Agnis! Let me in! I linked my vision with Raishin again and sipped some tea.

“You might have heard the phrase: more tails, more responsibility. This is true, the only exceptions are eight-tailed monkeys. This does not mean that the more tails one has the more important one is, the world will encounter great difficulty when only one of the tailed races goes extinct or has a population low enough to become unable to fill their role. And I do not know what the state is now but it was quite concerning before I came down here. Anyways all of you are very young so I will not be surprised if none of you know what you all can do and what you are supposed to do.” Yeah, we have an idea but in general, we are clueless.

“Well, you are all supposed to start learning these when you turn 3 years old or later.” Uhh, you mean 3 years in their race system, right? Not Kaledonian? “Yes sorry, when your race dictates that you are 3 years old you start to get taught about the specifics and techniques that will help you. I saw this young fox struggling and that is normal, this is not something he should be dealing with at this age.” So that is why we know nothing! It will take forever before we turn 3 though!

“It pains me to say this but you might want to try and pick up as much as you can on this, unfortunately, I can't help you because I do not have the correct race but I can tell you what your roles are.” Yes, please.

"I will use some analogies here. Imagine that this whole dimension we reside in is a house. It has a basement, main floor, second floor, and an attic. Currently, we are on the main floor. Multiple races that are aware of the different floors have different names but personally, I call it Mainfloor, you can call it however you like but I will refer it to as Mainfloor. The basement is the underworld, we are on the main floor, the second floor is where the deities reside and I know there is an attic but I do not know what resides there. Whenever dimensional magic is used and different spaces are made this is still within the main floor. It is confusing but it is hard to move between the dimension which is the house in this analogy.” Ok, this is clear so far, Raishin do you get it? Uhm, I think so.

“Ninetails have the function of repairing the house and making sure nothing in or outside the house breaks things. That thing behind the fabric of space you saw earlier is something trying to invade the house and, in this analogy, it broke a window, which you tried to fix. Your job is to also either defeat it or scare it off. But you also deal with tenants that cause trouble. Deities seem to love breaking systems on the main floor and second floor so it is up to you to discipline them and fix their messes. It sounds unfair but that is just how things are. You can also make separate rooms on the main floor to either protect endangered tenants or isolate problematic tenants.

This brings me to the role of the 7 tails, they can also make rooms and reinforce whatever the 9 tails fix, their role is similar but more focused on construction and reinforcement while the ninetails also enforce. The six tails generate the energy to run the house, it is simple but really important, everything runs on energy, and they have an important relationship with the three tails which evenly distribute this energy and store any surpluses and return it into the system when it runs low. Besides that, they are responsible for dealing with any shadow-related problems. It is common for tenants to cause trouble on the Main floor but only when it gets too bad is when the eight-tails and ninetails step in, the nine-tails will then either uhm ‘beat them up’ or isolate them in a separate room to cool off. The Eight tails are like ferrymen between houses so an eight tail could evict problematic tenants when necessary and bring new tenants in from other houses. Only the seven, eight, and ninetails can easily move between rooms and houses. So now there is the problem which is the spirit world. In this analogy, it is the backyard. None of the tailed beasts have any real influence on the spirit world. The energy the six tails generate and the three tails distribute leaks into the spirit world which keeps it going but systems can break there too and invasions from other worlds can also target the spirit world. But as you know that unless you are a spirit you are unable to interact with spirits.” Is this why you called him ‘The Bridge?'

"Yes, I do not know how this all came into effect but the spirit world is unsustainable like this for an indefinite amount of time. Because the ninetails are the only spirits, they are the only ones that can bring the spirits to the Mainfloor, or alternatively work with the seven tails to extend the Mainfloor over the spirit world, but I do not think any of these races have the numbers to pull this off.” What is in the basement?

“Devils, demons, and the like.” So, this role of mine, is it just for the Mainfloor or the whole house?

"Every tailed beast is responsible for the whole house, most work closely with the seven-tail or nine-tail race since these have the ability to move the most freely around. Since the ninetails have drastically dropped in numbers the other tailed races decided to lend a hand in the only area they can help: enforcement.” So, if Agnis needs to beat up a god messing around it is normal for other-tailed races to help them beat it?

“Correct.” Hey look guys, dealing with gods is now not only my problem but also yours! This doesn't make me happy at all! But I don't think letting you fight a god alone was never an option anyways. So, what do the gods do on their second floor? Do they get to do anything?

“Do they do anything? I wish I knew… They seem to control certain aspects of nature or even abstract things and perhaps interfere when that particular thing is affected but overall, they do not seem to be much concerned about what happens on the Mainfloor, as long as the second floor doesn't get affected.” Well, that is selfish. Do you know anything about what shadow-related problems mean?

“Hmm I do not know the specifics but it seems that ‘basement activity’ can sometimes surface to the Mainfloor. So, this would be a three-tail and nine-tail problem.” Really working us to the bone, eh? So why are we especially low in numbers?

“Well, between things trying to invade the house, and dealing with problematic tenants, especially deities, they have the riskiest role, it did not help that the most abundant race on the Mainfloor, the humans, started hunting them down for various reasons.” Oh, yeah… So, the reason they are kicking the bucket is that they have to fight gods monsters trying to break in and also have to deal with humans hunting them down? I’m surprised they are still around… Is that why this guy here is so reckless? Hey, I'm not reckless!

“Well, they are bad at risk assessment but that never seemed to be an issue, I do not know when the numbers started to fall but this was ongoing when I was born. I am afraid it is an ancient story for which even I am too young for.” So how did your nine-tail friend pass away?

“... he got hunted down by a deity.” Revenge?

“I do not know…” Thank you Isi, do you have any questions for us? Oh, I have another question actually, your name is very unusual, is it from an ancient language? And what does it mean?

“Hmm, that is odd Isi should be the name of this planet, did that change?” Uhh, we know the name of our planet as Yabia. Isi put her head in her hands.

“So that deity is up to no good again?” Uh oh. I might regret asking but what do you mean?

“I do not know many specifics because important memories from that era are gone but information and memories of those events have been wiped out around 3800 years ago. I can only vividly remember events from after that time period. But the one thing I do remember is that I am named after this planet and that my name is Isi. Oddly enough it seems that individuals still managed to remember anything related to names and some information associated with them. Besides that, anything that could hint at anything from before that event got wiped clean… That deity must have gotten opportunistic and used this to combine her name with the ancient word for Justice and renamed the planet." For reference what deity are we talking about?

“The Sarian deity Biian.” Right… this bitch again…

“She is a bitch indeed, she and Zarrazax are responsible for Rignef’s death…” Some familiar names, at least the latter is sealed away now, we are here to escape a prison, this prison is responsible for keeping a very strong witch trapped. This might interest you but this witch sealed away Zarrazax and fought Biian, unfortunately, she got sealed away by Biian. And this prison caught a whole village in its crossfire.

“I see…” Isi stood up. “I will personally lead you to the root. I can not help you because my duties are here but I can make your path to the root as safe as possible.” Oooh!

“I will arrange for my leave but unfortunately this is going to take a while. Will you be staying?” Uhh, we’d like to but we have some things we need to arrange on the surface first, is it ok if we return tomorrow?

“Oh, that aligns perfectly with my schedule, but please at least enjoy your stay here a bit more, I can not guide you because I have a lot to still do but the palace is open for visitation, I will have to take my leave now, excuse me.” Isi bowed politely and left. A lot to take in. So, what happens if we all die? Is this ‘house’ screwed?

It seems it's already screwed because our numbers are quite low. So, guys… about this eight tail… do you think that eight tail that attacked Hourai, manage to ‘evict’ Hourai? We all fell silent.

If that is the case, it might not be so easy to just get out of here and go home… Where would we even look? We can just look around outside the house, right? I don't think it is as simple as it sounds.

It is a possibility but that doesn't mean that something like that happened. Let's get out of here first and then we find out what to think about next. I agree. We decided to focus on our more immediate problem. We looked around in the earth palace. I tried to make an earth spirit teach me and Gregory some cool earth magic. I learned absolutely nothing but Gregory got some new tricks. Raishin instantly headed for the kitchen with Ted behind him. Didn't he hear that Isi said that spirits don't really eat? So, Gregory and I were just looking around, we were both looking for anything that could be a library. I talked with another spirit and tried to learn some spirit magic. This stuff is hard. I only learned a simple spirit magic energy bolt, that's it. I decided to act upon a plan that I was secretly hatching. I made a shadow clone and sent it off to have a short chat with Isi. Also made another clone to be on standby if that chat reaps any rewards.

You are doing something risky again aren't you? I’m just putting in some groundwork for a contingency plan.

Do I even want to know what you're up to? Hmm, I won't tell you everything yet but this is what I can tell you. Don’t you think this lace could make for a good evacuation location?

Well, yes, but getting people down here will consume a lot of time and will be extremely tedious. I don't know what you are planning but it seems to cost more effort than it's worth. Hmm, we’ll see. We found a spirit that gave directions to the library.

Yes! So, I didn't vaporize the biggest library in Boshi town! Gregory asked me what this was about and I told him about the library in potato village. I see, I would recommend storing documents you deem useless or can’t read anyways, they might come in useful later. Fair point We arrived at the location that the spirit pointed us toward. It also matched what I could remember from the map I found in potato village. It was the second largest structure in the city, with the palace being the largest. The spirit did have an unnerving message for us though. It seems that every spirit they sent inside to investigate never returned. If this was about a human or any corporeal being that would still be bad but since as far as we know only spirits can interact with other spirits this becomes a bit more… problematic.

That spirit did warn us but I can’t help to curb my curiosity, is this how you feel whenever you go on an adventure? Pretty much, these doors seem heavy, could you open them? Sure. Gregory worked his earth magic to open the heavy stone doors of the library. We stepped inside and the doors slammed shut on us. I can’t say that was surprising because it was a cliche development. Darkness took over the library. No light source in sight anywhere. It is a good thing that Gregory and I can see perfectly fine in the dark. We did get assaulted by a wave of musty smelling air.

I can’t say I didn’t expect this, this library feels… weird… do you see anything? Hmm, it looks like a normal library to me… a bit too normal. It seems like it hasn’t been used in millennia which checks out but are books supposed to still… look like books after being unattended for so long?

No clue, that’s why we’re here to investigate and learn as much as we can. We didn’t detect any immediate danger so we headed deeper into the library