Agnisotra: Origin Tails

I met up with Horze in the palace. The majority of the spirits relocated to the palace to not get disturbed by the humans that got teleported down here. They won't bother each other but the spirits can see everything the humans do and the humans are noisy. I managed to calm the majority down but there were still a lot of humans that didn't want to listen to reason. It didn't matter if I, Paula, or Charlize explained the situation they decided that they know better. That is fine but it gave me a headache. Originally, I was planning to use a random house here in this underground city but after all this, I will just see if I can get a room in this palace. I was talking to Horze to ask if he knew if there were empty rooms left. He told me that anyone would gladly clear out the room they claimed for me but I don't want any of those special privileges.

What? Any spirit would be happy to be my roommate? Well, that is nice of them but just an empty room would be fine, maybe also some for my buddies. We walked around the palace to find some empty rooms. It was quite lively here with all these spirits. I still don't have access to my Elgards eyes or my tails but I can still interact with the spirits so this means I'm still a 9t fox. To anyone else, this palace would seem empty or maybe haunted. It certainly looks like things are living in here I don't know how others would see it. I think Isi will go greet the humans soon but I don’t feel like going back there at this moment. I got distracted by how lively the palace was. Horze was still talking to other spirits and then addressed me.

“There is only 1 small room left Agnis, it is just big enough for your 3 friends.” Oh, that is great! Wait what about a room for me?

“Won't you become my roommate?” Eh? Are you sure?

“Well, I share a quite big room with my family and they got interested after I ehh, bragged that I met the ‘Bridge’ So can you do this for me please?” Uhh, I don’t mind, just a warning though, I’ve been told that I’m a difficult person to deal with.

“Oh, thank you! I won't forget this!” Oh, come on I'm not some celebrity and you’ve helped me quite a bit this is the least I can do, even if it's just resting in a room… Huff, there you are!

Oh perfect! Horze fixed a room for you guys, it's ehh, where was it again Horze?

“Room 441 in the east wing” Well you heard it! I will stay in Horze’s room as a thank you. You know that I can't see or hear him, right?

Oh right, you guys are in room 441 in the east wing. How did things go on your end? Gregory explained to me how Raishin brought some gold to his house, how the magic circle activation went, and how Raishin destroyed the town with a Fusionado. A [Fusionado] eh? Interesting. What have you been doing?

Napping and dealing with angry humans. Did you give up on training shadow clones in your separate dimension?

Ehh, well about that… I explained to Gregory what happened.

I guess I can let it slide this time because you didn't know the risks and you needed it to deal with that disgusting-looking dimensional fabric but be more careful next time. It is good that this didn't happen mid-battle. Yeah, I will only use this outside battle and when the dimensional fabric becomes disgusting like that.

What was up with that full moon though? It was noon. I have no clue sorry.

Hmm, fine, are you still using shadow clones? Yup!

So, I’m talking to a shadow clone? Nope! …

Go nap and let your shadow clones do everything! Okok! Horze take me to your leader!

“Do you want to meet Isi again?” No! I mean the leader of your room, you know what never mind, let's go to your room! I waved Gregory goodbye and got led to our room on the 3rd floor.

“Here we are!” Horze opened the room and inside this spacious room, I could see a Horze Senior, Horzina Senior, Horze Junior, and a Horzina. I assume these are his parents and 2 siblings. It would be awkward if I got this wrong. Ehh, hey! I’m Agnis.

“Is this a nine-tailed spirit fox?!”

”Ooh My son has told us a lot about you!” Horze senior said as he approached me. “You even gave him a name!” Uhh, it is kind of hard to address him without a name, is it that big of a deal?

“Oh yes! Medium spirits like us don't have names, every spirit that isn't a higher spirit or stronger with a name always accomplished great things and sometimes even made it to become a higher spirit!” Oh... I’m sorry I wasn't aware of that and uhm maybe gave him a half-assed name...

“Oh no, I love this name! It fills me with energy!” Oh... oh really, well then, more power to you! Horze who looked like a humanoid horse with a horse face flexed his horse muscles.

“Can you show us your tails?” Horzina senior said with a curious look. I think it is curious. I’m not that great at reading horse faces. Uhm my tails are under maintenance at the moment, I will show them later!

“See, I told you, darling, nine-tail spirit foxes are overly conscious about their tails. You remember the stories right about how the humans hunted them and the fox beast kin for their tails?”

“Oh! I’m sorry! Whenever we heard that story, we got so mad!” Uhh, it’s fine.

“But you’re so young! Where are your parents?” Uhm, I ran away from home, I will return to them soon, don’t worry. I decided to lie to them because I don’t want to put more people in distress by revealing that Hourai is gone.

“Good, good I wasn't there myself but my grandpa witnessed how a goddess led a genocide against the nine-tailed spirit foxes. He tried to help the spirit foxes but he was just a weak medium spirit so he got defeated and sent back to the spirit world” Wait genocide? I never heard that it was that bad I thought they just were at war.

“Hey, dad didn't information of events that happened before the Great Eraser get wiped from everyone that isn't a spirit? I don't think they know.” But we’re spirits too, kinda shouldn't we have remembered too?

“I don't know.” Horze’s dad smoked a pipe and continued. “My grandfather was just a weak Equuspirit but he was befriended with a young nine-tailed spirit fox boy. He wasn't even 3 years old. But despite being this young the spirit fox was very proficient at frost magic.” Oh, did he have a three tailed shadow cat friend?

“What? No just a random nine tailed spirit fox kid, he was very skilled at frost magic. The problem was that this was very effective against a specific god. It was a troublesome god and he got killed multiple times by the spirit foxes. But it was necessary, he wanted to make some stupid army or something and use it to fight another god.” It would be nice if they would just keep their business to themselves and not bother us on the Mainfloor.

“Ohh you've talked to Isi about similar stuff! That makes things easier! So, when the Great Eraser happened all the knowledge and information just disappeared from the Mainfloor, and we in the Garden that is the spirit world got untouched.” Wait, so the gods on the first floor remember?

“That is correct, the reason some gods started a genocide against the spirit foxes was to secure their own safety. Not only are they equipped to fight gods but their frost magic was especially effective. This also extended to other races and individuals who could use frost magic. It was more targeted to frost users but the spirit foxes took the biggest hit because a high percentage of their population could use it, unfortunately, there are none left now that can use it so the gods have a relatively easy time against them…” So, the reason that frost magic is rare to nonexistent is because the gods decided to wipe them out?

“Only 2 gods were responsible for this and they targeted frost magic users and abyss users.” So that’s how the 3t shadow cats fit in that war…

“Back then there were 3 races that could use abyss magic sadly 2 of them went extinct…” I put my head in my hands. My headache started to get worse and worse. So hypothetically, what would happen if a 9t fox appeared that could use frost magic?

“He or she would probably become a high-priority target for those 2 gods, but fortunately I heard that one got sealed away.” Wait… don’t tell me... The gods you're talking about are Zarrazax and Biian?

“Ohh! Yeh, I completely forgot their names but those are the names yes! So, you have heard this story?” Ugh, these assholes again, I think I need to lie down.

“Look dear, you made him upset!”

“Hey, dad you can't just casually tell him how his race almost got wiped out!”

“Oh, I’m sorry…” So, if I understand this well then, the moment I step out of this prison and Biian catches wind of my identity I’m toast. At least the silver lining is that this was already the case but instead of hopefully being non-important to her I will probably have a high priority on her list. Added to that Gregory also has crosshairs on him. If I had this information and I was a god and I learned that a frost using 9t fox and a 3t shadow cat were traveling together I would make sure to wipe them out asap.

“Hey, are you ok?” Oh, sorry Horze, I was just deep in thought and dealing with my headache.

“Oh, ok, hey guys shoo! Let him rest!” Horze’s curious family returned to whatever bronze horse spirits do. I took some rest. My clones were still moving around in the underground city and scouting out the area. Most of my clones got vaporized by Raishin’s Fusionado so I had to replenish them. Only 1 clone was still alive above ground. The Fusionado was going out of control and melted almost the whole area. Boshi lake is no more, just some empty holes where there once were 3 lakes. I decided to let my main body sleep and selected a clone to investigate a tunnel that looked like it would lead toward the pink root.

I walked through the tunnel while the main body went to sleep. I have to be extra careful now because I won't get any more mana fed to me in case of emergencies. No 9t fox powers, no extra mana. This a high-difficulty quest. I pass by an underwater lake and see various water spirits. This place really is a haven for spirits. I’m starting to feel bad for bringing noisy humans to their paradise. I approached them and apologized. They didn't seem to mind but I still insisted on my apology. I saw some humans playing at the edge of the lake.

“Hey, that's the guy that killed our parents and brought us here! Let's get him!” Why am I still surprised that I bumped into these idiots? Donkey and his group approached me.

Scram Donkey, I don't have the energy to deal with your idiotic takes. I got surrounded by Donkey and 12 other 14-year-olds. Wait I think there are some between that are older. Where does he get all these idiots from? Do they sell idiots at the Boshi market? You guys are making a terrible mistake, go back to school, messing with a water user in a lake is a very bad idea.

“That is why we have Chad and Brad with us today, these brothers are very strong water users!” Right, so you got them and waited here all the time until I would pass?

“Hey! who told him!?” That was a joke... Are you kidding me? How stupid are you? From the corner of my eye, I saw the water spirits gather and surround the bullies. From those that I could read their expression, they didn't seem happy with this development. Uhh, this is bad, hey guys maybe you should stop.

“Hah! Acting all tough but now you know about Chad and Brad, you're getting cold feet!” Donkey and his friends started laughing loud. I told the spirits to calm down. “Haha! Hear that he's starting to talk gibberish in fear! Chad, Brad if you would be so kind!”

“Sure, Dunkey, don't forget you promised us a week of free Hurado cuisine!” Chad and Brad started to use water magic but the spirits hijacked it. Great, you pissed off the spirits, can't say I didn't warn you. Good luck! Spirits go for it, don't forget to have fun!

“Hey! What is going on!”

“The lake is attacking us!” I made a [Waterspout] and shot myself in the air and landed on the other side of the lake. A spirit approached me. What? You want to join me? I don't think there is water where I’m going, there might even be magma there. The seahorse-like spirit insisted saying that it stored up a lot of spirit energy on this power spot and will just return when it runs out of energy. I looked back and the spirits seemed to be playing with the bullies by throwing water attacks at them to keep them airborne. I felt like joining them but I decided against it.

Alright, Cee Horze but promise me to return to the lake when it gets too much for you, I’m a clone myself, not the real body. Whud? No not Chorze, Cee Horze. I wrote 'Cee Horze' with water magic but I realized that I don't know how to write in spirit language or however it is called. I asked what Cee Horze could do. It could make anything act like a body of water and had some useful-sounding spirit skills.

Hey, Cee Horze does that mean that we can swim through the air or ground when you use this? Cee Horze used his skill on the ground. But nothing happened. Maybe because I can stand on water. I used a simple [water pillar] but instead of a pillar made of water appearing the ground acted like it was water and I made an earth pillar. Huh? This is actually overpowered. Cee Horze blew some bubbles and they popped on the earth pillar turning it into water, which made the water drop to the floor. It stayed water.

Why are you a minor spirit? This is super strong!

What? Oh, water also is seen as a weak element under the spirits? And this is useless in water and without allies because you can't control what you turn into ‘water’? Hmm, I can see how that is a valid argument yeah. Don’t worry I think I’m a decent water user! With my new ally, I continue down this tunnel. Not much happened, just some annoying bats that tried to attack me. They were no match for me but at least I made this tunnel safer. It started to get warmer and Cee Horze seemed to struggle a bit. Water is strong against heat and fire, yes but remember when I said the power of water depends on how much moisture there is in the air?

Cee Horze, use your skill. Cee Horze made it so that the air would act like water. I used [Water jet] And moved the air with us in it like we were well… in a water jet. Cee Horze blew bubbles at the moving mass of air and it turned into water. We shot through the tunnel like this. After a while, I moved to the back of the water mass because I was running out of air. At that moment we entered an enormous room with magma everywhere and only some narrow rock paths through it. The water mass shrunk quite fast. I don't know if Cee Horze can chill in boiling water so I dispersed the water and formed a [water ball] around Cee Horze with some frost cubes in it to keep the water cool.

Well, this seems quite water spirit unfriendly, I would have expected fire spirits here but nothing... Are you alright Cee Horze? Cee Horze confirmed that he was ok. I walked over the rock path. Oof this place stinks like rotten egg or Raishin’s farts. Ugh this smell is summoning my 2 best friends, headache and nausea.

Hey, Cee Horze can you turn this stinky gas into water? Cee Horze used its skill and blew some bubbles. The stink disappeared and I felt the humidity rise slightly. Thanks! This rock path makes some stupid long detours. Screw it. I jumped on the magma. Cee Horze yelled at me to not kill myself. Chill, Cee Horze, see I'm fine! I walked over the magma to where it looks this rock path was heading. I had to endure Cee Horze scolding me for being so reckless. As I walked over the magma, I felt a ripple. That’s odd, the magma has been quite quiet all this time. It is molten rock, after all, only seismic activity or something colossal would be able to move it like this.

Just a question Cee Horze, how long have you lived on your power spot?

312 years? Have you heard of any non-spirits living down here? Hmm not that you know of? I decided to run toward a big solid rock island a bit further. The rock path would lead me there eventually. A small earthquake and something came out of the magma.

Hey look Cee Horze, we’re lucky that it isn't a fire dragon! Cee Horze started to complain that I shouldn't be so optimistic in this situation.

It is just a magma snake it is not that strong!

What? My perspective on what is weak and strong is warped? Hey if you have to deal with incoming divine activity then everything is weak! The magma snake locked on to me but was just observing.

“Turn back mortal!” Oh hey, it speaks! Hey Mr. Magma snake, have you seen a broccoli root ye high and uhh pink?

“I said turn back! There is no place for weak mortals here!” Sure, sure but can you answer my question? I’m a bit lost and uhh yeh! My parents are waiting for me at the root! Because as you can see, I’m just a kid!

“Nonsense! You can't fool me!” Well, if I can't fool you why do you think I’m a mortal then?

“Tricks won’t work on me! I won’t repeat myself again! Turn back!” So, hey what are you hiding? Is it treasure? Are you hiding naughty magazines? Maybe of some sexy fire dragon?

“Hey, can you just shut up and go back while I'm still asking nicely!” What do you think he is hiding Cee Horze?

Hmm, naughty magazines? Of Lamias? Ooh, that is also a possibility!

Hey Horny Snake, don’t worry we won't kink shame you unless you tell us where the root is!

“Aagh! So annoying! I will roast you!” How do you want to roast me while you have been on the defensive all the time?

“I mean literally! Not verbally!” So, your verbal ineptness makes you resort to violence? I can't say that is something to boast about.

“Ugh, I'm getting a headache, ok mortal you are dead!” Horny snake made a [magma tidal wave] and sent it at me. I moved Cee Horze away so he wouldn't get hit and I dove into the magma. If I had my tails, I could be able to move in the magma but because it was so dense, I would just dive under to evade the tidal wave and pull myself out of the magma afterward. The magma tidal wave passed and I tried to pull myself out of the magma but it was heavy so I was a bit stuck. “What the! You are not a normal mortal!” Seems, I fooled you after all! Hey, Cee Horze can you help me? I’m stuck. Cee Horze used its skill on the magma. It became easy to move through the magma as if it turned into water and I got out. Don’t blow bubbles at it yet I have an idea!

“What are you? And what are you doing here? No mortal can bathe in magma without the proper preparations!” I can tell you, but you won't believe me anyway. I removed some magma patches from my clothes.

“Try me!” Well, here it goes! I am Agnis, Hourai, the son of Edea Hourai, which makes me part phoenix part nine tailed spirit fox. I am here to destroy a pink root that is part of a 7-point barrier to lift a prison that is imprisoning a 2800-year-old witch that ended up imprisoned because she sealed away a god and got sealed away by another god. I’m here with my spirit friend Cee Horze, to locate the root.

“Ha! If you are going to lie, you should have made up a more believable lie!” See Cee Horze, I knew he was an idiot, claiming that I can't fool him but if I tell him the truth, he doesn't believe me!

“Enough!” Horny snake started to spit fire at me. I covered Cee Horze’s water ball in frost. I used [water ball] on the part of the magma that still acted like water and sent it at the Horny snake. I got hit by the fire but it didn't do anything to me. “What! Impossible!” Hey, Horny snake I would advise you to just give up unless you have attacks that aren't fire based.

“Ha! Fool telling me your weakness!” Horny snake got its tail out of the magma and went for a tail slam. Good thing that I’m quite agile. I dodged the tail slam. Hey, Cee Horze can you use your skill on this whole magma pool?

You won't be able to use the skill after doing that for a long time? That is fine, can you turn it into water when I give a sign? Perfect! Cee Horze used its skill on the whole magma pool. It looked like it tired him out.

Right time to give this a spin. [Tsunami]. The magma pool multiplied its volume 8-fold and turned into an enormous tsunami. Go for it Cee Horze! The magma tsunami and the magma pool turned into water after Cee Horze spat bubbles at the tsunami.

“Hey! Wait! Ok, I apologize! Wait I can’t deal with water!” The tsunami crashed into Horny snake. The whole magma pool turned into an enormous underwater lake. The rock paths and everything got drowned. Woops, guess I will have to freeze a path when we go through here. I couldn't see Horny snake anywhere. I released Cee Horze from the [Waterball] and we jumped into the new lake. We dove and saw a rock version of Horny snake on the bottom of the lake. This lake was incredibly deep. Rock Horny snake was lying on a part that wasn't so deep but I couldn't see the bottom. Azu gave me one overpowered skill, but Cee Horze is overpowered too.

I surfaced and walked over the water. I used up quite an amount of mana. Using this in my main body would pose no issue but this took one-fifth of my available mana. Luckily my next 3 skills are completely free, I would have turned back if that wasn't the case. Cee Horze looked quite comfortable now that there was water everywhere. We walked and walked but I noticed that the speed at which this lake flowed started to pick up.

Where have I seen something like this before? I froze a path on the surface because the water would become too fast to properly walk on it if it would continue to speed up. A bit further and I saw an enormous steam column in the distance. I don't like this. My suspicion was right this was a waterfall. Originally a magma fall. But because magma is heavy and flows slowly this would probably be no big deal. This water was falling into a big pool of magma deep below and evaporating creating this steam column. It was hot and humid here. I am fine, anyone else, oof. What I was looking at below was like our water ride in the first timeline but this is the magma version.

My buddies will have a blast with this… I think this is where my investigation stops. I don't have my eyes to find out how to navigate around here and I won't be able to get back up here because any form of teleport is risky since I'm not used to doing these without my eyes. Are you alright Cee Horze? Cee Horze seemed to be drained of spirit energy. Turning all this magma into water was impressive though, I'm not surprised that it drained him. Sadly, this skill is useless if you're always surrounded by water. He might be a valuable asset to a spirit mage though.

Hey Cee Horze, if you ever encounter a spirit mage, drop everything and escape, your skill might be useless if you live in the water but anywhere else this is super overpowered, can you promise you will do this?

Good. I don't know how spirit mages form contracts but there will always be good and bad people and it doesn't matter what group you're talking about. I'm sure some evil ones would enslave spirits to do their bidding. I stopped for a moment, am I at risk too? It really started to sink in why my mother created Hourai. So many things here to screw us over. We might be strong mythical beasts but we’re not invincible. Cee Horze seemed to sense what I was thinking about and comforted me.

Thank you, Cee Horze, but I’m not sure if even I will be safe out there. We reached the tunnel we came out of. At least we were supposed to. We were met by a rock wall.

So, how big is the chance we completely flooded our tunnel?

Extremely big? Yeah, I agree. We dove down and saw 2 openings. Well, this sucks, which one did we come out of? I will go with my gut feeling and pick the other opening. I have been so unlucky lately so I’m sure this will work. My gut feeling says right so left it is! I sped up using water magic and entered the left tunnel. We kept going for a while and I really needed to breathe but the tunnel kept going. I must be wrong but the tunnel seemed to descend and not ascend. I started to slowly run out of breath and the pressure kept increasing. This isn't good. I relieved the pressure but I still needed to breathe.

Do I remember the magic circle for [Air ball]? I saw Raishin using it when we dove into Boshi lake but I only remember how it looked overall not the specifics. Cee Horze told me that he would turn the rock above us into water-like so I could [Water jet] Upward until I hit a tunnel or surface. It was mean of him because I couldn't argue back. He said it would completely drain him and make him disappear and probably send him back to the spirit world. I know this means he will be fine but this can't be comfortable for a spirit to do. I wanted to tell it that I’m just a clone and that he shouldn't bother but my life as a clone would be over if I tried to speak underwater.

Cee Horze used his skill and made the ground above me act like water. I gave him a nod before he disappeared and used [Water jet] to propel myself upward. I threw caution in the wind and went at max speed. As I started to feel like I ran out of breath I shot out the ground and appeared inside the underground city. I gasped and clutched my chest. The humans looked at me with a mean look and cleared away. I walked to a wall and sat down.

I wonder how long it would take for Cee Horze to return to the power spot. I know spirits return to their power spots after they manage to leave the spirit world and reform there but he omitted how long it would take. I guess the stronger the spirit the less time is needed. I just hope it won't take too long; I would like to thank him before the timeline reset. A mild nausea and its usual headache welled up. Are my 9t fox powers back? I tried to take a tail out and it appeared. Oh, how I've missed you! I cuddled my tail and then I noticed that someone was looking at me.

“Hey, Agnis, uhm I know the people haven't been kind to you and I didn't get a chance to thank you but thank you for saving the town!” Oh, don't worry about it Kanna, but I didn't do it for them I did it for you guys, to be fair I have had it with these people.

“Hey, are you alright? You remembered my name!” How rude! Given enough time I will remember names, kind of.

“It took you over 18 months though!” Hey, let's be real here. The first time we met was when I blew up your house!

“We met multiple times before that!" Ha, you can't fool me!

"Your memory is just bad!" I don't remember having a bad memory!

“Ugh, why did I even try...” Kanna sat down next to me. “Hey, what are you guys going to do after you escape this town?” Probably go back home.

“Didn't you guys say you lost it or something?” How much did Greg tell you... Anyways that is true, we just have to find it. Just… I bet it isn't that simple but we will manage somehow. We just have to make sure we survive all this. And after we survive this, we have to make sure we don't grab the attention of some petty goddess.

“Huh, what? You're pulling my leg, right? You guys are super strong and gods and stuff it is hard to imagine that they exist but they surely won't come after some kids, right?” You see if you say it like that it makes perfect sense but sadly, I have reason to believe that it won't go like that… but you don’t have to worry about that after we break this stupid prison you guys are free too. This is good because there is a 99% chance that there will be nothing left of Boshi town after we break this prison…

“How many times do we... you guys have to do all this and defeat roots?” After we destroy the one in this loop we're at the last one. If you guys remember everything after this one resets, get ready to leave this town, and don’t take any risks. People have died this time loop this will only get worse next time loop. Make sure you tell this to your mom and Cecilia.

“Ok, thank you.” Kanna got up and offered me her hand. Oh, thank you but I think I will stay here for a bit longer.

“Ok, and hey, be careful, bye!” Kanna ran off. Now that I had access to my Elgards eyes I could see that it was 22:14. I don't know what the other clones are doing but I think I should retire for today. I will check if Cee Horze is back tomorrow.