Kyle watched as the darkness regrew its limbs, retaking form each time he shot it into a twisted unrecognizable mass. He didn’t know for how long he had been going for, hours for sure but what he was truly sure of was that the darkness was reforming quicker and quicker the longer this went on.

He didn’t know how many times he had circled around the hall of shifting lights, the mass of black stalking after him in whatever way it could. The creature was relentless, dead set on its task of devouring him.

Strangely enough he also seemed to have an infinite pool of mana, his Spirit form never once faltered, his Frostfire armour never seeming to fade and his gatling slime cannons had yet to run out of mana to pull in ammunition.

He never tired too, allowing him to keep up with the unrelenting beast that hunted him. Albeit all that Kyle was afraid. Truly he feared this creature, the longer he watched, no matter how many times it seemed to fall apart it never died.

Kyle knew it was the hunter here, he was just a very pesky prey.

He had picked up his fire-rate, but it only regenerated faster, pushed on quicker, growled at him more fiercely. Truly Kyle felt afraid for his life, the monster that he hated for so longer, the beast he did not wish to become.

It was here, it smelled his fear and it was after him.

He took steps back, keeping the distance between them as he barraged it with projectiles. They tore away at it’s body, shredding it like paper but it only reformed, painless it seemed as it continued to thread onward.

Kyle felt it deep inside him, the seed of doubt that slowly flourished with his fear. His movements grew automatic, having threaded the same steps for hours. His attacks continuous yet also continuously ineffective. His attention was entirely on the dark black mass, it took him a few moments to notice.

It took Kyle a second to see, to hear what was happening around him. The walls, the floor, the ceiling. The light had stopped flashing and instead, slowly like a movie scenes played on before cutting to another.

He glanced back and forth from the walls to the mass of black, entranced by the memories of his life. He watched the memories, the best times of his life pass by. Everything from his first birthday to graduation and further forward to his time with the guild. He watched it all, from start to finish. Over and over it played and he noticed.

His life lacked in so many ways.

Then he noticed that suddenly, the darkness had stopped moving. It lay there in tatters, formless. He did not stop shooting, wanting nothing else but to destroy every inch of the monster. But before he could do so, the mass melted down into the ground disappearing entirely.

(“Is it over?...”) Kyle thought as he glanced around, when abruptly the entire room went dark. Kyle froze, paralyzed by fear of the unknown that now surrounded him. He felt it then, a sensation just as powerful as his own fear. He sensed it lurking about him, he smelled it’s stench, he felt it’s pull and heard it’s whispers promising satisfaction.

The emotion was not his own, Kyle was sensing the emotion of whatever prowled around him. It was hunger, like nothing he had ever sensed before. A gluttony that demanded to be sated, no matter what had to be done.

Kyle stood still in a cold sweat, shrouded in darkness he couldn’t see anything but… He heard its growling, he felt its eyes on him. The monster still lived, the hunt was still on and he was still the prey it sought.

Suddenly the darkness parted, giving way for the light that refilled the entire room. Images began to play again but this time they weren’t his memories. Kyle stared as if watching a movie unfold around him, unable to look away from what he was being shown.

He saw a wasteland spanning forever no matter where he looked, piles over piles of corpses littered the ground, surrounded by even bigger piles of destroyed machinery or bodies of creatures he barely recognized.

Kyle knew a war had occurred here, it didn’t take much to guess that he stood surrounded by a battlefield. He glanced around at the many weapons scattered across the ground, swords, staffs, bows and so many others. He then looked at their wielders.

Kyle took a step back as he felt his stomach clench, disgusted and horrified by what he saw. His eyes continued to scan the ground, what he saw was unmistakable. He was surrounded by the dead, many of them holding faces he knew well.

Kyle saw members of his guild left and right, other adventurers he knew, some well some not so much, people he cared for. Everyone sprawled out dead on the ground, riddle with wounds and bleeding in uncountable ways.

He spun around, panicked by the sight when suddenly out of the corner of his eyes he saw someone. Kyle looked back to see one person still standing, he was giving him his back. Two black furry tails and long black furry ears. Kyle recognized himself even before he turned around to face himself.

His hands were drenched in blood, splatters also covering his leather armor and cloth cloak. As he turned around Kyle saw, the deep black emptiness in his own eyes.

Kyle didn’t know if this was a premonition or simply the darkness playing with his head. It didn’t matter, he knew this was the likely outcome if he failed. He knew this was the future he was trying to prevent.

It was showing him his failure, it was showing him how he lost everything he had left.

The other Kyle stepped forward, closer towards him as darkness oozed out of every orifice on his body. The darkness engulfed him as then even his body lost its form and turned to darkness before finally the Black fox was standing in front of him again.

“Do you see?” the fox asked “Do you not understand?” it whispered, its voice beastial and cold.

Kyle stood unmoving as his form shrunk, his weapons of slime dissipated, his armor of white-blue flame faded, his form changing back to his normal self.

“This is what awaits you.” The fox continued “More misery and loss. More pain…more hatred…” it stepped forward, it’s vulpine face inches away from Kyle “You may resent me all you wish. You know you cannot defeat me, you know you cannot destroy me…The truth is you fear me above all else because you know…You and I are one and the same.”

Kyle remained motionless, unable to respond, unwilling to look away as he stared down at a single body in front of him. He stared at her face, frozen in fear and panic as blood dirtied what was left.

“It does not matter what you do, it does not matter what else may happen around you.” It growled and stomped it’s foreleg “You are too far gone, too shattered to heal. You fear me but at the same time you cling to me. That fear, that inexplicable feeling. It is all you have left. It is what remains of your self. You cannot let it go, you will not let it go. Because without it…without me…you are nothing.”

Finally, Kyle looked up and away from Karnage. His eyes hollow of all emotion as they mirrored his thoughts. He stared up at the creature, meeting its eyes. They were empty, a pitch-black void of darkness.

He realized this monster wasn’t just any being, this darkness…this Nogitsune was himself.

“You failed the moment you tried to resist.” It hissed down at him “All your struggling…was always for naught.”

“Hah…I see now…” murmured Kyle, too quiet too hear.

“Squirm all you wish, you are only fighting yourself. Fight me for as long as you desire, eventually you will give in.” The fox neared closer, opening its jaw and revealing misshapen rows of black fangs.

“You’re right.” Exclaimed Kyle, his voice now loud and infused with power as shockwaves of Spirit forced the fox away from him. Kyle looked up at the creature, realization having hit him “You are entirely right.”

The fox looked at him in confusion, laying still and wary.

Kyle continued on, even stepping closer to the being “I understand now. Yes I cannot destroy you, I will never be able to defeat you because you are indeed me.” He chuckled at his own stupidity, he was so blinded by fear he hadn’t put one and one together. That is…until now.

“You aren’t it, are you?” he asked the creature, as it snarled and stepped away from him. “No…no you aren’t. You’re the same as them, just like my hatred, just like my instincts. You are another shard of me. Unchained by it, to be used against me. It all makes sense now.”

Kyle glanced around the room, the battlefield still present “The cracks, the Spirit that repaired them…” he turned to look back at the creature “Then you…My Fear.” He raised his right hand up towards it “You are what I never accepted, what I grew to hide and cover. You are my deepest fears, my very despair.”

The creature growled and snarled as it backed away from Kyle, its form slowly shrinking.

“No…it is something else…something that has always been present from the start.” Kyle thought to himself out loud as he continued to approach the ever-shrinking black fox “The cracks marked it before, the Spirit that healed the cracks further prove it.”

Kyle had backed the fox into a corner, its size now no larger than an actual fox and suddenly the room went completely white. It whimpered and hissed up at him, he leaned down then kneeled. He offered his right hand to it “My darkest fears, my deepest despair. It is true that I have denied you, I have ignored and resented you.” His hand lay almost on the fox’s head when suddenly it lunged at him, it’s jaw closing around his hand.

Kyle flinched slightly from the pain but did not pull back his hand, he let it bite down and continued to stare at it with a cold smile “But in the end, you are right. You are me, no matter what I do, no matter what happens I will always feel fear. I accept that fact, I accept you.”

Suddenly the chains of ice that were shackled to Kyle’s arms shimmered out of existence briefly before reappearing…with a third chain. A collar of ice now lay around Kyle’s neck, a chain growing out of it tied the collar to another that lay around the fox’s neck.

The fox slowly let go of Kyle’s hand, before abruptly dissipating into a black smoke that rushed into its collar and disappeared into the chains.

Kyle stood back up and glanced around. Kyle looked around at the room, for the creature he was warned about. “So…what now?” he asked, mana still infusing his voice “What, is that all you had planned? No plan B to retreat to?”

Nothing happened, no change at all came to his surroundings. Which only annoyed Kyle “I see, now you’re just going to hide. Trying to come up with another plan? Aren’t you? You little damn parasite.”

Kyle moved to stand in the very center of the room, he focused his senses and felt around only to find that he was right. The gluttonous hunger he felt earlier was still present, and it came from the entire damn room.

He raised his arms, opening them wide “This whole room is a sham, an illusion of where I actually am.” Suddenly a mass amount of blue slime rushed out of his palms, impossible amounts of it began to fill the room as quickly as Kyle could create the gooey substance.

The slime filled the room entirely but…Kyle kept summoning more. Cracks formed around the room, the walls began to shatter, the roof burst open and the floor was crushed to dust before suddenly the entire room dissipated.

Revealing what it hid.

Kyle felt the floor disappear underneath him but he was not worried, he simply floated in place as his slime moved to swirl around him. He looked around, taking in the new scenery.

An open blue sky lay all around him, massive black cracks spread out all over this seemingly empty reality. The cracks glowed a dark blue hue as violet energy surged through them, they separated the sky into several misshapen pieces like a broken mirror. Massive chains of ice pierced through each shard of space separated by the cracks, seemingly holding them together. Some shards of space seemed to glow a bright white as energy flowed out of them, surging through the black cracks and slowly closing them.

Kyle did not know this place, but he knew what it represented. This is how his mind could explain as his soul, the wide open and broken blue sky. The black cracks that scattered throughout it were the fractures on his soul. The chains were Ymir’s power, holding him together. The white glow was the Ancient’s Spirit working to fix him.

And…the black shadow that stood facing him was it.

Humanoid in form, the shadow was also faceless. Tendrils of darkness grew out of its back and fed into the black cracks, the energy seemingly surging stronger where they connected. Its blank face, where its mouth would have been suddenly moved…

An incomprehensible sound reached Kyle’s ears followed by a voice that spoke directly into his mind.

(“You are…the first…”) the voice said, nothing comparable to human’s. It hissed like a serpent’s.

“The first?” asked Kyle with a raised brow.

The creature’s shoulders shook as it laughed into Kyle’s mind (“To survive my trap.”) it cocked it’s head then asked (“Tell me, what made you realize? So you will be the last.”)

“I guess I’m just different from the prey you’ve had before.” replied Kyle with a cold smile.

The creature’s face suddenly stretched out as a terrifying grin formed, it’s mouth too large for it’s head. Lipless and full of fangs. The creature laughed hysterically into Kyle’s mind, even leaning over and holding onto it’s chest as it did (“Yes! Yes you must be! Ah! Then if I eat you, you will be the last!”) it raised it’s face to grin at Kyle again but it’s grin faltered as it met his eyes.

Kyle glared at the creature coldly, this insufferable being was wasting his time, potentially putting his friends in danger and for the last several hours had been playing around with him. Kyle’s eyes were dead cold and murderous.

It chuckled some more (“Oh! Oh! I made the cub angry! Hohoho!”) it teased before suddenly disappearing (“Poor little cub!”) it exclaimed as it appeared to his left but when Kyle turned to face it…it disappeared again.

(“I thought your kind were the paragons of control!”) the creature shouted from far away to his right, Kyle quickly spun around but barely caught a glimpse of it disappearing into thin air yet again.

(“Oh wait no, that makes no sense. If you were, then how have I eaten so many already?”) it asked before laughing, having appeared above Kyle.

Kyle had stopped trying to follow it with his eyes “What are you?” he asked while focusing on its voice, moving his mass of slime to surround him defensively.

The creature chuckled (“What am I? Hmm…Difficult question, very very hard question.”) it responded from below.

(“I am…Ah…Many things.”) it mumbled from up front (“As you said…I’m a…what was it? Parasite?”) suddenly Kyle sensed it behind him as it whispered (“I devour broken souls from within.”) Kyle spun around on instinct but found nothing.

(“I’m the darkness within each of you, the gluttonous parasite that lurks within the veil.”) it explained as it’s voice suddenly began to echo from every direction at once (“You SpiritBeasts are the most delicious, wielding such powerful souls that seem to never expel…Only to revert back to whole once devoured…Ah…I can always get my fill!”)

The creature chuckled as Kyle stood wary, his slime ever flowing around him like a barrier. (“Ah yes…ones like you are simply the best! So full of emotion! Bursting with anger! Frozen with hatred! The texture of your existence as I swallow it whole! The taste of your soul as it unravels!”)

The voice whispered straight into Kyle’s ear now (“The never ending satisfaction of when you create more of your selves…Ha…a never ending source of nutrition!”)

Suddenly the slime stopped dead as Kyle’s mind raced “You’re…”

The creature laughed hysterically (“He gets it! The cub understands! Yes fool! I am the one! The only! I created insanity! I created madness! I am the father of every Void! A being not even Gods comprehend! A creature not even reality can bend! I feed upon the weak and regurgitate them stronger!“)

It suddenly appeared before Kyle, within his own barrier of slime and without even needing to break through it. It’s mouth was curved and ridiculously wide as it grinned (“I am Behemoth! And you shall be a very tasty snack!”) it exclaimed viciously then lunged at him.

Only to find itself entangled in tentacles of blue slime, Kyle’s barrier of slime had descended down upon it all together and engulfed it. Behemoth struggled and tore away at the slime but the gooey ooze only refilled what it pushed way and remerged what it tore apart. Behemoth roared into Kyle’s mind (“You…You cannot stop me!”)

A wicked grin grew over Kyle as he stared at the creature “Oh yes, yes I can. Because you see, this is my mind. You may be powerful, you may be stronger than I could ever become but…in here I am beyond even you.”

Behemoth continued to struggle and screamed with rage, it’s words making no sense to Kyle who’s grin couldn’t get wider…or could but he decided it wasn’t worth the effort “That is the catch isn’t it? You strive for control while making sure to envelop your prey with a sense of chaos. You confuse them, using whatever means necessary to make them fall in despair.”

Kyle chuckled (“A tricky parasite you are, but only an insect in the end.”)

Behemoth roared into his mind (“You dare?! I am a God beyond Gods! The source of all monsters! I created the Devil Leviathan! I gave birth to Demons! I-I forged Apophis! I was a victor of the God wars!”)

Kyle snorted in amusement “Lies followed by a never ending stream of more lies. That is how you work, isn’t it? A colossal drama queen who’s only power is based on robbing control from another’s mind. You are no God.” He raised his right arm towards the sphere of slime as a thick tentacle expanded out of it and reached out to him, it wrapped around his arm as even that turned to slime before merging with the tentacle to become a single whole.

Kyle grinned, eyes wide and wicked “You’re nothing but a pest and You will be a very tasty snack indeed.” Suddenly the slime began to wiggle and tremble “Devour.” Behemoth roared and screamed in agony as his body melted into the slime, breaking apart and evaporating away for several minutes until nothing else remained.

Kyle glanced around, several cracks had begun to heal much faster than before. Then a deafening roar filled his head (“YOU CANNOT DESTROY ME!”) screamed Behemoth as he reformed out of one crack to his left.

Kyle turned to face the creature again as he willed his slime to rushed at it “No, but what was it that you said?...Ah, a never ending source of food!”

Behemoth evaded several tentacles of frenzied slime as he flew around the shattered sky, escaping from the gooey ooze while shouting (“YOU! Y-YOU! I WILL END YOU! ”)

Then Kyle suddenly appeared before it, his fist engulfed in slime as he grabbed the creature by the throat “No, no you will not. You will only keep getting eaten, over and over.” the slime that was following him caught up and splattered all over Behemoth, engulfing him once more “Until I am satisfied. Devour!”

Again Behemoth melted away inside the slime, it’s body falling apart and evaporating as it screamed in agony. And again several more cracks began to heal faster, the shards of sky glowing whiter and brighter as the nearby breaks of darkness shrunk and dissipated.

And yet again Behemoth appeared out of another crack, still enraged it immediately lunged at Kyle only to be once more engulfed in slime and without further ado… “Devour!”

“…Devour…Devour…Devour!” Exclaimed Kyle every time Behemoth appeared, whether the creature attacked or ran the outcome was simply the same…”Devour!”

For what seemed the tenth time Behemoth reappeared out of a crack, which had drastically decreased in number. (“This is madness!”) it screamed out in frustration.

“I heard you’re related.” Responded Kyle as he appeared behind the shadowy creature, his right arm already raised forward as slime gushed out of his palm and engulfed Behemoth “Devour!”

For the eleventh time, Behemoth respawned (“Why!? Why is this happening!?”) it asked no one in particular other than itself.

Kyle appeared in its face, a wicked and cold smile on his own as slime rushed out of his arms and as every time so far engulfed Behemoth “Because you fucked with me. Devour!” and digested it. All the while it screamed.

For the twelfth time Behemoth reformed (“This…this is insane…”) it mumbled to itself while holding its own head, seemingly tearing away at invisible hair.

Kyle chuckled as he appeared back to back with Behemoth “I heard you created that, talk about a Frankenstein story!” as slime oozed out of his back and wrapped around it “Devour!”

For the thirteenth time Behemoth recovered (“Stop…just stop…”) it begged while on its knees.

“Did you stop?” Kyle asked appearing before it, clutching its neck as slime slowly oozed out of his arm “Did you stop when I trembled from my fear? Did you stop when I seated with rage? Did you stop when I was shown my friends’ demise? Did you stop when I was shown my failure? Did you stop when I was shown what I could become?!” he exclaimed furiously “Devour!”.

For several more times Behemoth reappeared before ultimately being devoured.

For the fortieth time the shadow reformed, speechless as it held itself in the fetal position. It whimpered when Kyle appeared before it, an instinctual reaction now after so many times. He stood over it, unmoving as he glanced around the mostly whole sky around them.

A single crack existed now, it was thicker than the rest and seemed to break the sky into two halves spreading out infinitely to either side.

Kyle looked back at Behemoth as it trembled and shook, awaiting another nightmarish end. But it never came, Kyle only stared down at it seemingly in thought.

Behemoth cautiously raised its head to face Kyle (“D-do it…”) it mumbled.

“Do what?” Kyle asked, although knowing full well what it was asking of him yet he wanted it to say it, to further its torture.

Behemoth shook its head (“End me…J-just once more and its over…it will be…o-over…”)

Kyle stepped closer and Behemoth rushed to drag itself away in fear as it stared up at his cold dead eyes “And why should I do that? I’m having so much fun here, I’ve only just begun.”

Behemoth furiously shook its head (“No…No no no no!-”)

Kyle smiled coldly “Then I’ll make you a deal, parasite.”

Behemoth stopped its shaking and stared up at him, seemingly in confusion (“A-a deal?”)

Kyle’s smile broadened into a grin as he crouched down and whispered something to it, before leaning away “Do you accept? If you do, I will end this now.” He said as slime oozed out of his back forming four large blue arms.

Behemoth glanced between him and the arms, unable to decide, both choices seemed nightmarish but ultimately as it felt pressured by Kyle’s cold silver eyes…it chose the least painful one (“I…accept.”)

Celica walked back and forth as Spirit Beasts appeared and disappeared from the circle of white light, Ancients taking shifts between assisting in the ritual and resting. Not having been trained like the Ancients had, Celica was unable to give aid and was left to watch. Impatiently she did as the founders took a short break sitting nearby her, all but Terrance whose Spirit seemed limitless.

“It’s taking too long…” sighed Silvester when suddenly Celica turned to glare at him “Which can happen…sometimes…” he added to appease her.

Aina shook her head “Sit down dear, there is nothing else to do but wait and threading about most definitely won’t help him.”

Celica groaned in annoyance “It will help my nerves.” She responded while continuing to pace about.

When the white light engulfing the ring of Ancients that sat about Kyle -who was sitting unconscious with his head hanging forward- abruptly dissipated. Spirit Beasts moved to stand up but had to make way as Celica rushed through them, breaking through the crowd she stopped to stand in the circle and saw as Kyle woke up.

Kyle stood up slightly dazed “That was…strange to say the least.”

Celica rushed at him without another word, grabbing him and basically squashing him between her arms and into a hug.

“Ah-Auntie…I-I can’t…” Kyle couldn’t breath as she held him, her monstrous strength squashing the air out of his lungs.

“Oh! Sorry! Sorry!” exclaimed Celica as she pushed away and held him by the shoulders, but she wasn’t smiling. Celica had a worried expression as she looked at him and said “Kyle…you need to leave immediately.”

Kyle stared at her in confusion “What? Why?”

“Its…” Celica bit her lip as the words got stuck in her throat “Your friend is about to do something very stupid…Again.”