Chapter 1
The cold breeze seeped up from the ground, whirled into a small funnel, clawing at her pale skin. She didn’t remember this bleak weather at all. Yorin was supposed to be peaceful and safe. Mori shrugged and snorted at her conflicting thoughts. If Yorin was at peace, she shouldn’t have to come back here. This was too quiet for her liking.
She tied back her flaming red hair, which had grown too long since she took residence in Eudaiz, a world that was far away from Yorin.
Eudaiz had given her a second chance at life. At love. And an opportunity to redeem herself from the mistakes she’d made on Earth.
She wouldn’t take that second chance for granted.
From the corner of her eye, she saw a shape of something moving in the dark. A creature. She squinted. Then she couldn’t help but smile to herself. In Eudaiz’s terms, they’d call it an Earth creature. In her terms, it was … a dog.
“Hey!” she crouched and reached her hand out. A reddish mature Irish Setter approached her, wagging its tail, and licked her hand. “You’re very friendly. Look at you.” She almost giggled, but refrained from doing so.
She was on an important mission to earn her silver blood and keep her place in Eudaiz. She had to be alert. Plus, she used to be an alpha of a Firefox clan on Earth. She had to be careful, or she’d make a fool of herself.
This mightn’t be an ordinary dog.
When the dog withdrew, bared its teeth and started barking, Mori turned around. Behind her was a funnel of smoke and dirt, growing from the ground and gradually forming into shape.
Werewolf. Yakuz clan.
Mori clenched her teeth. “That’s what you call a warm welcome!?” She drew the sword she’d tucked at her back.
The smoke funnel totally settled in front of her. It wasn’t just a werewolf. It was the alpha of a werewolf clan she had terminated on her way up, claiming the territories for her Firefox clan.
“It’s always good to see an old friend.” Mori chuckled. “If you want to seek revenge, I’m here to take the challenge. But I have something to see to first. I will meet you back here in two days to settle this. How does that sound?”
The man in front of her didn’t shift into his werewolf form. But in his human form, he had the physical advantage on her that Mori couldn’t ignore. He had a foot on her in height and God knew how many tons of muscle underneath that shirt.
The fact that he didn’t bother to shift and he looked at her sword with disdain was a very good indicator that he was going to kick her ass in no time. Mori shifted her stance and did a quick mental inventory of the resources available to her. In addition to the sword, she had a gun, but she wasn’t sure it would work in Yorin.
Apart from that, she had her wits. She could run fast. And … she had Roy.
The sudden thought of him now was damn inconvenient. It slashed at her heart. What would it be like if she died here and could never see him again? They were newlyweds. She wished she wasn’t so stubborn and had told him she loved him a bit more.
The man in front of her smirked and took a step forward.
Mori heard a low growl behind her. She needn’t turn around to know that the Irish Setter, as she predicted, wasn’t an ordinary dog. It was standing behind her and the only rationale she had for her survival was that the dog was on her side.
The growl behind her intensified. She wanted to turn around and look, but turning away from the obvious danger in front of her was a stupid idea. She was sure of that.
If the dog was not her friend, one swing of her sword and it would leave this world without a chance to make a sound … and possibly without a head.
She took a deep breath and gripped firmly at her sword.
Chapter 2
“Where are you, Mori?” Roy cursed under his breath. Yes, Mori was an alpha in her Firefox clan on Earth. But what made his blood boil now was that, in Eudaiz, she wasn’t an alpha of any kind. She hadn’t even gotten her silver blood yet. That meant she had no power and advantage to take on such a mission on Earth.
And she was his wife.
Maybe that angered him the most. She didn’t just say yes to him because she thought she was going to die. They had spent a lifetime together. They had been through so much together. And she’d just left him in a heartbeat to go back to Yorin.
The fear clawed at him now.
Yorin.
A world within the town of Kyoto. A world that belonged to the most notorious creatures. While humans could walk through Yorin in oblivion, every creature fought for every inch of their territory there. The only person who would think Yorin was peaceful was his naive wife.
But that was their past. Their future belonged to Eudaiz, a universe where they could fight for happiness and righteousness. They no longer belonged to Earth, let alone this bloody town.
“Mori!”
Roy called for her, but what came out of his mouth was a howl. He hadn’t thought his mixed werefox and werewolf nature had taken such prominent form here. He almost shifted by accident.
The howl pumped out the energy from him and bladed up a funnel of wind and exploded a large rock at the bottom of the Black Hill. As much as he was pleasantly surprised by the power of the silver blood — the supernatural power that they often called eudqi in Eudaiz — had given him, he knew the howl was a mistake.
He had alerted the creatures in Yorin of their return.
The gusts came from nowhere, carrying with them a strange chanting sound he despised — the sound of Yorin in its dark ages. Mori had never experienced this first hand. He had.
Too late. All the creatures in Yorin had been alerted.
“Mori!” he called again and charged toward the Black Hill. She had to be around that area for her mission.
Her mission was to save a newborn werefox who would be the alpha of the Firefox clan she had abandoned. This was no ordinary werefox. The fox was born under extraordinary astronomical time and was destined to take control of all species in Yorin.
Roy didn’t mean to be sarcastic, but his realistic mind was telling him that not all creatures in Yorin would like this baby fox to live. Not one bit. The problem was that his righteous King of Eudaiz, Ciaran LeBlanc, granted the support for this fox to unify the power of all breeds in the region. He wanted to end the blood-bath fight between creatures.
Roy snorted on the inside. He was Ciaran’s commander and he wouldn’t say Ciaran had sent him back to Yorin to protect his wife. The issues that Ciaran had to handle were at the multiversal caliber; not at the level of a were-creature territorial fight.
Eudaiz was a multi-billion citizen universe, and as the king, Ciaran would send his commanders to other universes to fight for the citizens of Eudaiz. But Ciaran was more than his king. He was a friend and he had saved Roy and Mori’s lives countless times.
Ciaran used to be human. He probably still was. As far as Roy was concerned, he was far more humane than many humans he had dealt with during his werefox life on Earth. Ciaran had taken him and Mori to Eudaiz when they didn’t have anything to contribute, except a list of enemies from their paranormal world.
Now was a chance for Roy to contribute; and he swore he would make the most of this.
Roy’s mission was to retrieve the Libra key, hidden in the temple where the baby fox received his power. It wasn’t just any magical key. It was one of those six keys that could unlock one of the most powerful sources of energy in the cosmos.
Hoyt Flanagan, the most notorious criminal in the multiverse was on a key collecting frenzy. Once he had gotten the keys and hence the power, he would take over Eudaiz at once; enslave the citizens and destroy the resources.
When a key was taken out of place, the astrological hole would make the corresponding dimension collapse. That dimension was Asia, Australia, Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. Roy shrugged. For a guy like Hoyt, two continents and two oceans weren’t much for what he was getting.
For Ciaran, everything related to life mattered.
Damn, and he was a friend. What mattered to him, mattered to Roy.
Ciaran had developed a protective shield that could replace the key when it was taken, so that the hole was covered and nothing was destroyed. As a sidekick, Roy was to take the key and put the shield in place before Hoyt could do so.
The key was important to Hoyt as much as it was to Ciaran; Hoyt would pull all of his resources to get this key, including the use of the most gruesome soldiers from space. Roy had no idea which form they would take: were-creature? Human? Robot?
Ciaran told him to warn Mori, but she had left before he could. That was why he was standing here, staring at the Black Hill, worried sick.
Roy charged faster toward the hill.
An aura blasted at his senses now — the essence of Hell — the practice of dark magic. Roy shook his head. If they hired a sorcerer, even with him and Mori together, they would be in serious trouble.
As much power as the silver blood could give him, one thing he didn’t have was … magic.
Chapter 3
From the distance, Black Hill stared down at her in challenge. She knew where they had the baby fox on top of that hill. The only problem now was how she’d get up there with an alpha werewolf in front of her, waiting for every opportunity to savage. She supposed she might have another problem — the used-to-be dog behind her, which now might turn out as either friend or foe.
She had to make it up the hill. That was the only way to complete her mission and see Roy again. At the back of her mind, she wondered if she had ever said she loved him without him prompting.
It only took a few hundred yards and two swings of the sword and she could be up the hill. Mission accomplished.
She didn’t want to kill the dog behind her. She fixed her stance and charged at the werewolf in front of her.
It vanished.
She stepped back.
The werewolf appeared and smirked.
She charged again. It vanished.
Yorin was no longer the same. Her palms were clammy and, even in the freezing air, a bead of sweat trickled down her forehead.
The wind grew stronger, and she thought she heard a howl echo from somewhere in the air. A dried tree branch on the ground flew up, whirling in the wind. She slashed at the branch before it hit her.
A tree on her left cracked and collapsed. Mori just had enough time to jump out of its way. She turned around and was astonished to see the Irish Setter had turned into a stunning woman, wearing only Mother Nature’s clothes.
A rock suddenly emerged from the ground, raised and stood next to her. She remembered what Roy had said — creatures from the multiverse had come to Yorin, and they could play with dimension and vision. Roy could deal with them as he had already received his silver blood. She couldn’t. All she had were her physical ability as a werefox.
More rocks raised, surrounding her like a maze. A rock came in close proximity to where she stood and hit her from the side, shoving her to the ground. She scrambled up to her feet, slashed her sword at the rock and it disappeared. It’s an illusion, Mori thought.
The woman behind her shook with fear, but she didn’t cling to Mori and tried to get out of the way of the moving rocks.
Mori whirled around, looking for the man. It seemed the rocks appeared with her movement. If she stopped moving, they stopped poking up from the ground.
Mori stayed still, testing her theory. It worked.
“What’s your name?” Mori asked.
“Irish.”
She couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. “You shift into an Irish Setter and your human name is Irish!”
“I don’t have a choice over that, do I?”
“Sorry. I shouldn’t laugh. What do you need from me?”
“I care for the Zanxi fox. His mother died.”
Mori arched an eyebrow. “And they gave you the Zanxi fox because…?”
Irish shrugged. “He fell in my lap. Literally. I didn’t want him. His parents were good friends with my boyfriend. They ran a business together. My boyfriend brought him home one night and said his parents were killed.”
“Where is your boyfriend now?”
“He went to get help. His family is not here. He lives here because of me.”
Mori glanced at Irish up and down. “I don’t mean to offend, but what is your talent, may I ask? You know that Zanxi is not just a fox, right?”
“He’s a baby fox to me. I don’t need much magical talent to take care of him. My boyfriend, Sam, said you’d come to help me.”
“Right…”
Irish stepped back and forth in discomfort. “I don’t shift often … or not at all for a long time…”
Mori rolled her eyes. “Apparently.”
“Look, Sam has been gone for three days. I don’t get involved in any of the clan matters, I don’t know who is who or what they want. But there were creatures crawling into my backyard yesterday. I think they figured out that I’ve got the baby.”
“Where do you live?”
“I run a diner in town. We live on the premises.”
“Right. Take me to the baby. I’ll follow you. You can shift back into your animal now.”
Irish nodded and shifted back into her animal form.
A flying rock appeared out of nowhere and hit Mori. She fell, but stood up immediately, her hands balled into fists.
“That’s enough. Come out and fight me.”
The werewolf appeared again. Before he could say anything or disappear again, Mori kicked at a loose rock on the ground, spun it in the air like a soccer ball and hit it with the blunt edge of the sword.
The rock cracked, broke and rained toward the man like bullets.
He covered his face. When the dirt settled, he said, “Impressive,”
“What do you want?” Mori asked.
“You know who I am?”
She raised her chin. “Alpha of a werewolf clan that I defeated a while ago. I don’t have an issue doing that again.”
The man smirked. “You have a good memory, Mori. So do I. I’ll settle that debt later. I’m not here for you. I want Irish.”
Irish staggered back and snarled.
The man chuckled. “I was only trying to protect my clan. Zanxi is everyone’s threat. You were an alpha, Mori. I hope you understand.”
Now her blood ran icy cold. He knew she was no longer the alpha. “I don’t know what you mean. I just visit my friends in Yorin.”
“Let’s cut to the chase, Mori. I don’t have much time, and I don’t think you have much time, either. I’m the friendliest guy you can get now. Give me Irish and I’ll let you leave in one piece.”
Fighting one on one with him was a stupid idea. Mori looked at him, measured. Then in lighting speed, she pulled her gun and shot.
She hadn’t tested the gun. If it didn’t work, then she and Irish might be in deep trouble.
The gun recoiled and let out a wave of laser beam. Mori grinned. It worked.
The man jumped aside and flashed a shield. She hadn’t seen this shield before. It reflected the beam and it blasted toward another direction — the direction of Roy running toward her.
It was too fast and too dark for Roy to see the beam flying at him.
“Roy, look out!” Mori screamed.
Chapter 4
Mori had never recalled the wedge of the woods where she used to live being this dark and creepy. Roy kept pushing her behind his back.
“For your information, you’re no longer my bodyguard,” Mori growled.
“Thank God,” Roy muttered. “I could have done a better job if you cooperated more.”
“I saved your ass just now.”
“No, I blocked the laser beam myself. If I’m not mistaken, the beam reflected from your gun. If you would learn to use guns properly, then it wouldn’t have happened.”
She stiffened and lifted her chin. “I don’t need to learn how to use guns. I am good with my katana.”
Roy rolled his eyes. He approached the alley with caution, still pushing Mori behind him. Mori wasn’t sure if coming here was a good idea, but they had to start somewhere. The aura of the Black Hill made it easy to imagine werewolves lurking just around the corner. It wouldn’t have surprised her to see space creatures darting at them from seemingly nowhere.
Space creatures. Mori snorted to herself. A few months ago, she wouldn’t have even considered the idea. Their paranormal world was weird enough for her to consider anything else, let alone, the possibility of a multiverse.
They were looking for a small hut of a shaman for information. He had helped the mother fox deliver baby fox, Zanxi.
This wasn’t exactly a shaman’s hut. Perhaps it hadn’t been in operation for a long time. There were no lights, no jars of potions, and no sign of living creatures. The dark archway peered down at them, imposing and full of secrets. Mori leaned against a stone wall. It was too dark to see much. Suddenly, she stepped on something damp and moving. She yelled and jumped aside.
From a dark corner, a man stood up and blinked. His odor engulfed Mori. It might come from the rags he was using as clothes, and maybe the lack of personal hygiene.
Roy shoved Mori away from the man. He didn’t need to as she now stood several feet away anyway.
“You stepped on me!” the man grumbled.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t see you,” Mori said.
Roy peered at the man. “We’re looking for the shaman.”
“You’re looking at him,” the man muttered, lying back down on a pile of cloths.
“Right!” Roy muttered. “If you helped a baby delivery in this condition, I think the baby would die of infection.”
“What are you saying?” the man sat up and asked Roy.
“Nothing. We need to find Zanxi. We talked to the person who is caring for the fox now, but we were attacked and she ran away,” Mori said from the corner of the room.
The man shook his head. “I know about the deaths of Zanxi’s parents. Tragic. Whoever is taking care of Zanxi right now has to be very careful. Everyone thinks Zanxi is in Black Hill. So stay away from it. Also, avoid the crowded stretch of the town. Lots of strange creatures lurking around the area in the last few days.”
Damn! Irish had said she was running a diner. Mori assumed it wouldn’t be in the bush, but in the stretch of town the shaman just mentioned. But there are many shops and diners in that area, how could she tell which one was the one?
Roy shook his head. “I didn’t ask you where we shouldn’t go, but where we should go. We are looking for Zanxi. We’re taking him to a safe place.”
“The temple…”
Whoosh.
Mori’s instinct urged her to move just an instant before the arrow hit, so it only scraped her left arm. Roy charged in the general direction of the arrow’s origination. Then all Mori heard were the sounds of men grunting and of kicks and punches hitting their target.
Soon Roy emerged, dragging the man who had attacked her earlier. He was barely conscious. Roy continued to pound on the man, but Mori pulled Roy back.
“You’ll kill him, Roy.”
He gave the man a last kick before Mori pulled him out of reach of the man.
Lying on the ground, the man chuckled. “The Yakuz is here already. Soon, you’ll find out I’m your friend.”
“Friends don’t shoot at one another,” Roy snarled. “What do you want?”
“I told Mori, I wanted Irish. But she’s run now. Taking the baby fox with her.”
“That is because you attacked us!” Mori said.
“Irish can’t protect Zanxi,” the man said.
“Who are you?” Roy asked.
The stranger raised his chin, glaring at Roy. “Alpha of an ass kicking clan.”
“Does the Alpha have a name?” Roy asked.
But before he could answer, a web of ravens fell on them. The room filled with creatures, coming from nowhere. Ravens flew in flocks.
The alpha startled at the ravens attack. He stumbled and lunged for an arrow, raising it and shooting wildly. The arrow pinned on the shaman’s chest. He fell down and died instantly.
“You shot the shaman!” Mori exclaimed.
“I didn’t mean it. Ravens are everywhere.”
Mori’s blood ran cold. These were ravens from the Yakuz clan. Ones with poisonous claws that had once almost killed Roy. She grabbed all the rags the shaman used and covered Roy, despite his objection. They hid underneath the rags for a long time. When it was quiet, they crawled out.
In front of them was a pile of meat that was once the alpha they’d just had a conversation with.
“These were the ravens with the poison you couldn’t handle, Roy.”
“No one can handle poison,” he muttered.
“This was designed for you. Someone followed us here and I am pretty sure, for whatever reason, that person is going to make this mission very difficult and dangerous.”