FSE

Furry search engine

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I would love to say everything went according to plan, but sadly that wasn't the case. When I landed, I didn't land on my feet, which does happen on occasion. So, I was knocked for a period of time. When I came to I realized I landed outside of Zootopia, so I tried to catch a train. When I say I had to catch a train, I don't mean I went to a train station and boarded a train like a normal person. No, when I awoke, with a bitch of a headache, the train was already on its way to Zootopia. At least, I hoped it was Zootopia, the city that I saw certainly had the biggest buildings.

So, came up with this brilliant plan to jump on the train. I didn't worry about all the things that can go wrong with that plan. I could the train coming my way, so I knew I had less than a minute to pull this off. Getting to it isn't a problem. The problem was how fast I needed to be running to land on the train. I've never been good at calculating such things. My foster father used to always say, "When in doubt, let your instincts guide you," so that's what I did. I didn't try to guess, estimate, or anything like that. I just jumped. I knew it was a stupid idea, but it was a fun one. That is until I landed.

It wasn't until I landed on the train, that I realized that my Sovereign Wolf Brand on my chest was burning. The Sovereign Wolves is an order that my foster father created. He believed that there would be a day when all inhabitants of all the realms would be in such despair that they lost all hope that it will ever get any better. He believed that one day all those who stood up to defend, protect, and avenge others had fallen. He believed on day that one day darkness would cover everything to the point no light was left. In preparation of such a time, he created a group of seven people, including himself, known as the Sovereigns Wolves, he had a thing for wolves.

Each one of us have a brand on our bodies, created by magic, and placed on ourselves after we swore the Oath of the Sovereign. Never back down, never give up or never give in, never cruel nor cowardly. That's all I can recall of the oath. The Alpha of the Wolves wanted the Oath to be nearly impossible to remember, unless he tells someone to recite it. I have no idea why.

When I landed on the train, I landed hard. Pain reared up from both my legs. Instantly, I knew they were most likely broken. I also knew that they would be fine by the time I got into the city. Unfortunately my healing factor does absolutely nothing for the pain of the injury, if anything it makes the pain worse. I knew that even when they were done healing walking was going to be difficult. So I chose to enjoy the sights.

And let me tell you, I was enjoying the sights. The map of Zootopia that I was shown didn't do the city justice. When the city fully came into view, my mouth dropped. All I could really see where the city's skyscrapers and even they were magnificent. Then, the train arrived in a desert. At first all I saw was sand, sand dunes, and the like, but then the houses came into view. They reminded me of mud houses I saw once. That thought left my head the moment I saw the biggest building there. It look looked like a hotel of sorts. It kind of reminded me of a palm tree but the trunk was too wide for that. The ride through was pretty short. Before the train went through the tunnel to get to the next area, I noticed several devices that resembled giant heaters. So that's where the heat comes from.

When the train exited the tunnel, the first thing I noticed was the cold. Where is the cold coming from? The train just left a freaking desert. As if in response, I was soon greeted with a frozen paradise. I saw a sign that said, Welcome to Tundra Town. Tundra Town, huh. The name suits the place just fine. When the train passed a certain part, a set of geysers went off, blasting ice and snow into the air. The reason behind how a land of ice could exist soo close to a desert was still lost to me. Most of the houses I could see, appeared to be carved out of ice. The fact that there were no igloos kind of disappointed me. Once more, the train went through a tunnel.

I didn't know what I was expecting. Maybe something even more impossible than a desert and an ice land existing side by side. I definitely wasn't expecting it to be a freaking rainforest. I may be able to shrug off extreme heat and extreme cold, but my clothes will still get soaked by water. Damn it, and there's nothing I can do about now. My legs are still mending. I noticed that the rain wasn't actually rainwater but a kind of giant sprinkler system, which is cool I guess. I also noticed that, unlike the previous two, this ecosystem appeared to have different levels you could go to. The various levels of the trees, I suppose.

This time there wasn't a tunnel. It just slowly transitioned from rainforest to city. Huh, I guess the walls are to keep the desert hot and the tundra cold. Despite the numerous cities I've been to, nothing could have prepared me for the buildings. I have never seen buildings so extravagant, so unique, so strange. I couldn't help but wonder to myself if they were structurally sound or not. The train entered the station shortly after it left the rainforest.

I was soaked, which I was far from satisfied with, but on the bright side I knew I could move my legs once again. They might be a little stiff for a while but they would be fine. The train slowly settled to a stop. When it fully stopped, I jumped off. The moment I landed on the ground, the doors of the train slid open. Each of the train cars had multiple doors, each door a different size. Mammals of many different sizes began to pour out. No one seemed to stare at me, which I thought was odd. I've always known when someone was staring at me and no mammals were, but they weren't intentionally avoiding gazing at me either.

As I was exiting the station, the mark on my started burning up once again. Only this time it didn't fade away. The burning sensation started to progressively get worse. By the time I exited the station, it felt like fire was filling my veins. It was like a molten spike was shoved into my chest, lava was coursing through my veins, and my entire body was ablaze. I don't know how long it went on for before it stopped and I could finally breathe again. When it stopped, I realized I was sitting down of to the side of the doors of the train station without any recollection how I got there. I glanced towards the ground but stopped when my sight reached my wrists. I checked them multiple times just to make sure. I felt a smile grow on my face. The Crest and Stigma were no longer on my wrists.

Imagine if you were in a church full of worshippers of God and you had a series of sixes permanently branded to your face. That's how it felt to have the sigma of a demon on my wrist in a land filled with angels Conversely, having the crest on an angel on my wrist always reminded me that the angels were always watching. Which could have been a nice feeling if they actually cared for me, but no, all of them thought I was trash. I was thrilled that I wouldn't have to go back for a while. I didn't really want to go back, either.

“I'm Gazelle. Welcome to Zootopia," A voice rang out, quite loudly. I looked up towards it. A large electronic billboard on the side of a building had a gazelle on it. Wow, what an original name, I couldn't help think to myself. I got up and started walking around the city, taking in the sights. It truly was a miraculous place, but something was bothering me. When I realized that something was off, I also realized that mammal were noticing me, not that it mattered. I knew it would happen eventually, and after all I still had a job to do. I didn't know what it was that was bothering me. I knew it was really obvious, right in front of my face, but I just couldn't figure it out.

It took me an hour to figure it out. One Goddamn Hour! Some of the Zootopians were wearing collars. At first I thought they were regular collars and, frankly, I wish that the were, but no, no they're not! I saw two rodents of some kind, looked like gerbils or something, driving a tiny, tiny car, and run over a wolf's tail. Naturally, it would hurt, yes, but from the wolf's expression, I knew he was hurting a LOT more than from a hurt tail. That's when I looked, and I mean really looked, and I realized the one thing I didn't before. Only predators were wearing collars. On top of that, they seemed especially aware of the fact that they were around prey animals.

I knew a couple things at this point. One: All predators were required to wear collars. Two: said collars harm the predators some how when predators experience certain emotions. Three: Predators were the minority in this city and they were treated as such. I wasn't happy when I realized this. No, I was Pissed! I felt my hands clench at my sides. In the next moment, I also felt the demonic aura surrounding the town. I don't know why I didn't feel it before. Maybe, something was blocking it or maybe I recovered enough of my Umbran magic at that point that I was able to finally sense it. Either way, It hit me with the force of a hurricane and forced me to my knees. I did notice a few mammals glance in my direction, but my mind was focused on other things.

How can there be this many? This much of an intense aura, there has to be thousands if not millions of demons in this city. How have I not seen any yet? Where are they all alt? They aren't trying to do That are they? Have they managed it, yet? I shook my head. No, if they had, they would have made it obvious. At my current strength, can I even fight one of Them? All these thoughts ran through my head. At that point, I realized, I couldn't do it by myself. But who was going to help me, Angels? They wouldn't. Jackson? No, the angels would keep him on a tight leash. I kept asking myself. Who, who could help me? My eyes shot open when I got my answer. The Sovereign Wolves. One of the other members had to be free, I just needed talk to one.

It didn’t really seem very odd to me, just how quickly I got used to the vast demonic aura. It hit me so suddenly because it took that long for my reiku to recover enough from my Umbran Arts being sealed. All magic works in the same way, theoretically. The internal energy one generates, reiku, must align and be used in conjunction with another type of energy that is in abundance around the user. Reiku is commonly referred as Life Energy. You run out, you die, plain and simple. All living things have reiku but most don’t have enough to do anything extraordinary with theirs.

I started walking around the city some more, wondering how I could contact one. It would probably be easier if I had a phone. Sadly, though, electronics and magic don’t really mix all too well. The frequency of one’s reiku and most electronic devices, disrupt each other. Still, I had to contact them some how. Blaze and Maru, the two betas, Jackson, Aaron, Crest, Drakin, the Omega, and then the Alpha, the founder of the Sovereign Wolves, the man who raised me, who I refer as my foster father, Or-.

“So, Gazelle, How do you feel about singing on stage with two predators?” A formal voice forced me from my thoughts. I glanced around. I found that I was standing next to an electronic store that had several TVs in the display window. It looked like an interview for that celebrity that greets all newcomers to Zootopia.

“Not bad, actually. The previous times I have worked the two canines were an extremely fun experience,” from the way she was talking about them, it seemed like she didn’t share the public’s opinion on predatory animals.

“Do you have any ideas of what songs Shepard and his associate will be singing during the concert tomorrow?”

She shook her head, “ Shepard has been talking about doing something different this concert and Orin always does something strange when he sings,” Wait, what? Is she talking about, I shook my head, she couldn’t be. Orin has been missing for a year and a half, there’s no way he’d be here, “Take the last time he was on stage, for example. He didn’t even say he has plans on a light show playing out a story while he was singing. He has told me he plans on bringing someone from the audience up to sing a song of their choosing, so look forward to that.”

It’s not him, it can’t him, I kept trying to convince myself, “Orin Mesotta certainly is a wild card, isn’t he?” Damnit! It is him! What the hell is Alpha doing here!? “I heard a rumor that the concert has been open to predators, is this true?”

Both my fist were tightly clenched at my sides. I could feel my reiku surging. I was just so freaking Pissed! All of us have been worried sick about him, and the entire time he’s been here singing!

“Yes, yes it is. I thought it might be a good id-,” I didn’t hear what she said next, because every TV is the display window exploded. It looked like a bomb went off. A massive BOOOM! was heard. The glass shattered and blew outward and fire erupted from the store. Prey and predator alike were running chaotically through the streets. I just stood there, shocked. I knew it was my fault. My reiku must have caused a very negative effect to them. I jetted off with the crowd as soon as I heard the sirens.

When I stop running, I can’t stop myself. I just start laughing. This day started bad and progressively gotten worse. The highlight of the day was when the demonic stigma and the angelic crest were removed from my wrists. At least I know now that there is another sovereign within the city, so that’s a plus. But I was soo gonna deck him in the face when I next saw him.

When my laughter finally subsided, that’s when I sensed it. It felt like a bolt of electricity zapped through my brain, except not in a painful way. In that moment, I knew that there was a demon close by. One of the middle ranks by the feel of it. The ranks go from E all the way up to SSS. This one felt like a D rank, maybe a lower C.

I looked around, but I didn’t see it. I was about to go check somewhere else, when I realised where it was. There was a tiger conversing with a small, sandy brown fox wearing an elephant costume. The fox wasn’t important. The tiger was the demon’s target, he had two shadows.

Vastra Nirvada, or Vashta Nerada (as I heard others refer to them as). Shadows that melt the flesh. Extremely difficult to kill, but incredibly easy to exorcise. Especially when one has a katana forged with holy fire by angel blacksmiths. I named it ?????, russian for angel.

They didn’t hear me walk up to them, mainly because they were arguing with each other. “Well, I’m not Nick. I don’t want to be Nick, and I sure as hell don’t want to be your babysitter!” the tiger said to the fox.

“Yeah, I know. Nick wasn’t such a dumbass at this. I may say many, many things about that fox but one things for sure, Nick at least knew what he was doing. You don’t have a damn clue!” I thought the fox was a child, I really did. But there is no way a child can have a voice that freaking deep.

They didn’t hear me walk up to them, they didn’t hear me remove ????? from its sheath, and they certainly didn’t hear me stab it in the ground, into the tiger’s second shadow. But they certainly heart the ungodly screech that followed, hell, I’m pretty sure the entire city heard it.

They turned around in flash, I’m standing casually, ????? in the ground, and my elbow resting on the tip of the hilt. The lights on their collars turned from green to yellow. The tiger opened his mouth to say something, but in that moment the shadow erupted from the ground. It tried to attack someone, probably me, but, before it could, I grabbed ????? and impaled it in its chest. Soon after, it disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

“Yep, definately a D rank,” I announced to no one in particular.

“What the Hell was that THing!?” the tiger asked.

“Would you like the truth?” I replied.

He looked at me like I was an idiot for asking that, “Of course I do.”

I just smiled. I knew he wouldn’t believe the truth, no one ever does. “That was a D rank demon, know as Vashta Nerada. The shadows that melt the flesh. And it was going to kill you. They hunt by latching onto their prey in the form of a ‘second shadow’ and when they deem its time, they attack.”

“That’s impossible.”

“You heard it screech, you saw you had two shadows despite there not being a source of light around you that could cast it, you saw erupt from the ground, and you saw it ‘go poof,’” I listed with a neutral expression, “If you deny the truth on the basis of ‘its impossible,’ will you also that those things didn’t happen?”

Before he could retort, however, the fox spoke up, “What kind of animal are you, anyway? Up close, you have prey qualities, but you’re different than most prey.”

I was about five foot ten, the tiger looked about seven foot something, and the fox was about two feet. In that moment, that fox intimidated me far worse than anything else ever did. He was glaring at me, the tips of his claws and the tips of his fangs were showing. He was very intimidating, especially in an elephant costume. That just screams, ‘nobody better fuck with me, or they’re gonna regret it!’

“I’m a human,” I looked down at the ground, then back up, and I nodded my head a few times from side to side, “Well, Human Plus, would be more accurate, I suppose. The name’s Rufus, and you are?” I asked the fox as I held my hand out to him.

“None of your damn business,” he said as he smacked my hand away.

“Geez, and here I was trying to be polite. I’ve been in the city for about three hours, and I can already tell that it's quite a gilded city, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean by that?” the tiger asked carefully.

“Well, the city looks nice, right? A modern day Utopia. Everyone gets along and every one’s happy, only that’s not really how it is, is it? You dig a little deeper and you find out that not everyone gets along, not everyone is equal, and , quite frankly, it pisses me off how predators are treated here.” Both of them looked at me with like I told them I was the second coming of a god or something. “What?” I asked.

The fox spoke first. “Aren’t you a member of the prey family, yourself?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“Lack of fur, no claws, and no fangs, no sharp teeth at all, really,” he listed as he counted off on his fingers. I had to admit, he had a point.

“Regardless, I was raised by a wolf, so I’m kind of sensitive to this matter,” I stated. Orin certainly didn’t look like a wolf all the time, but he always referred to himself as one.

I was about to walk away until something caught my eye. In the distance, there was a skyscraper. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like someone was on the roof. I might have enhanced senses from the reiku training I went through but even enhanced senses have limits.

“Hey,” I called to them, “do you care if I ask you some questions? I’m quite new to the city, so there are a few things I don’t know.”

The fox nodded, “Sure, it’s not like we have anywhere or anything.”

The tiger, however, looked very cross at his reply. “Speak for yourself! I have places to be!” The tiger exclaimed as he walked off.

“Geez, what’s his problem?”

“He doesn’t . . . like . . .very many people,” He carefully explained quietly.

“Hmm. Anyway, on to the questions. First up, and I just know I’m really going to hate the answer, but what’s the deal with the collars every predator wears?”

“They’re called T.A.M.E collars. Whenever a predator gets angry or anything, it gives the predator a little shock,” I had to do a double take at that. My hands clenched and my breath came out in short, forced breaths. I had to force myself to stay calm, to prevent another electronic malfunction explosion. “You get used to it, after a while.”

“You shouldn’t have to! Who the Hell came up with that?! What kind of sick, prejudice, fuck thinks that’s a good idea?” I couldn’t prevent spitting the words out. I may have gotten a few looks from some onlookers.

He looked genuinely surprised, as if he never really expected a stranger to take his side. “Unfortunately, the majority of the population feel that way.”

“That’s fucked up. How exactly do they think those collars help with?”

“The point is to prevent any kind of savage regression that a predator might have.”

It was odd to hear him speak. Not just the fact that his voice’s deepness doesn’t match up to his size, but because everything he said, he said without emotion. As if, they were just facts to him and he had no emotional connection to them whatsoever.

“I swear to you, on my honor, I will change the way all predators are treated,” I declared. When I did, however, I felt a rush of power burst from my Mark. Even the fox’s fur ruffled as if a gust of wind just blew around us.

He opened his muzzle to say something, when I heard the pounding of several footfalls upon pavement.. From the twitch of the fox’s ears, I knew he did too. Soon, a stampede of animals, both prey and predator, alike, starting running chaotically around us. Some were screaming, although most were just focused on running away. Obviously, something was in the opposite direction. I’m not an idiot, I knew that it was most likely a demon. I looked back to the fox, the expression he had said that he wanted to run towards it.

This fox would definitely make a good sovereign recruit, I thought with a chuckle. We used to do that before Orin disappeared, just recruit people as honorary members. They never did any dirty or what could be considered ‘dark’ stuff, all they ever really did was to live their lives following the values the Sovereign Wolves fight for.

“Hey,” he looked to me, “What’s your name? I don’t feel like calling you, Fox, all the time.”

“Finnick. My name is Finnick Deserttail.”

“Nice to meet you,” I held my hand out and he shook it.

I decided to head towards the chaos when I saw pillars of fire in the distance. Damn it, just when I catch a break. Right when I find someone I actually like. I guess it's all work and no play today. I was about to turn to Finnick and tell him to run to safety but he caught me first.

“Don’t you dare tell me to leave when you’re about to run off towards that. I’m not letting you go alone. I’m not a fucking coward.” He said with a smirk.

“You know, after this is over, I’m gonna so you something you are not going to believe.”

“We’ll see.”

We ran off, together. I honestly was quite surprised that he was fast enough to keep pace with me. I’m incredibly fast, not Flash fast but pretty fast. The reiku training I went through, which includes a very intense physical training regiment, plus the demonic residue the still dwells within my veins.

What we arrived to was carnage. Buildings on fire, corpses covering the ground, and the cause of all the chaos. It looked like a spider, except it was taller than me, I’m five foot ten. Its body looked like it was made of stone with segments of his body resembling magma like veins.

“Finnick, I need you to find a way to get the ones who are still alive and get them to safety. Once you’re far enough away, get them to the hospital. I’ll handle that thing.”

“Are you Insane?!” He screamed at me, “ You can’t possibly take on that thing!”

“Maybe, maybe not, but I have to try. If I don’t, a lot more animals will die.”

Of all the things that I am, I am definitely not subtle. It was crawling towards a adolescent lion. Finnick was no longer on my mind. If I wanted to kill this thing, I knew that I couldn’t be worrying about anything else. I didn’t try to sneak up to it. I just walked up to it and stabbed one of its legs with ?????.

Despite the beast’s appearance, ????? sank into its hide. I could hear sizzling from the flesh surrounding ?????. The sound that it made wasn’t like the demonic screech that the Vashta Nerada made. It sounded like a mix of a high-pitched yelp and nails on a chalkboard.

For an instant, it completely vanished from my sight. My blade was still firmly held in my hand. When he moved, he must have ripped it out of him. Which would have definitely made the wound much bigger than I intended. I smirked at that. When I finally noticed it again, it was a few feet behind me.

“What manner of blade is that,” it spoke with a lisp. Which isn’t really a surprise, as it looked like the mouth of the demon was made entirely of lava. Its voice was masculine and sounded like he was growling along with each word that he spoke.

I raised ????? to my eye level. Looked at it, then at him, then back at it, then back at him, then back at it, then back at him, before finally saying, “Does it matter?” I noticed the cut that was caused by ????? was still there. It looked black and dead. It was jagged, not surprising since he ran away when I stabbed him.

He apparently didn’t like that answer, because he charged at me. This demon is taller than me, certainly, and easily over seven hundred pounds, probably closer to a thousand if not more. The one thing I couldn’t understand was how it could be so fucking fast! With the current level of reiku I had, I could barely, just barely, keep track of him and, on top of everything, due to how low my reiku was, He was faster than I could be, too.

The moment Michael had unlocked my reiku, the usable levels have been regenerating, albeit very slowly. When I fell to my knees from the vast demonic pressure that surrounds the city, my reiku was finally at levels where I could use it for some minor spells. However, it's been surging erratically. Sometimes, I’m releasing too much reiku and other times to little. The electronic shop exploding is an example of a moment where I was releasing too much reiku. My reiku was locked away for a while, exactly how long, I don’t know. (Angel time doesn’t transition to normal time very easily). It has been try to regulate itself through my body, but it couldn’t until I swore my promise to Finnick. Which is by far one of the most dangerous things I have ever done. If I fail to live up to what I swore, it could kill me.

Right now, my reiku is completely under control, the only problem is the fact that its not even ten percent of what I usually have access to. I’m not going to tell the demon that, of course.

He vanished from my sight, once again, only to reappear a second later, in front of me. He raised one of his legs to strike me with. He forced it down, but by the time it hit the ground, I was already gone. It wasn’t even a second before he was onto me again. This time, however, I chose a different tactic. I hardened the blood and the organic material around the area of my body, I believed he would strike, into a diamond hard substance. A skill I developed, I call it Titan, where I use my reiku in conjunction with the demonic residue the still exist within my body.

His leg hit exactly where I thought it would and he paused, confused, and I made my move. I swiped ????? in an upwards arc. I felt his flesh give way to the blade. I could hear sizzling, like water on a hot burner, from the flesh that it cut away. Once again, he backed off with a screech of pain.

He stared at me, with all eight of his eyes. “You smell reminds me of Bhenivall.”

Of all the things he could have said, he chose to speak the name of the demon that was once bounded to my very being. White hot anger coursed through my veins. I sheathed ????? and walked up to him.

I walked right up to him, right in his face. He cringed away slightly. “A little piece of information you might not be aware of, I really hate that name. Whenever I hear it or think of the one it belongs to, I am filled with so much anger that I don’t know what to do about it. I was just going to kill you, but know I’m going to make it excruciating.”

A sound escaped from him, I’m guessing it was a laugh, “You don’t have the power to get me on the ground, much less kill me.” His abdomen uncoiled to reveal a scorpion like stinger. He tried to impale me with it, Keyword: tried. Before it even touched me, I just grabbed the fucker and ripped it off. The sound that escaped him was more of an exclamation of discomfort than a screech of pain.

I watched patiently as the stinger slowly grew back. It was like the magma coursing within him oozed out of the wound, took the form of the stinger and then hardened. The expression on his face was quite smug. It really infuriated me.

I took one of my devil weapons out of my cloak. It was a hammer, similar to Mjolnir, but completely black with silvery grey instriptions. Of all my devil weapons, this one had the strongest striking force. He looked at it confused, before I swung it in an upwards arc. When it hit him several things happened. One: a sound similar to a gong only much louder rang out. Two: Cracks spread across his body from the point of impact. Three: He went flying.

He wasn’t just pushed back a few feet. No, he was flung up into the air with so much force, he crashed through five buildings before he hit the ground again. I suppose it’s a good thing that his body temperature is so intense, otherwise the damage to the buildings would have been a lot worse. The area he hit just melted upon impact, but the buildings themselves were mostly intact.

I walked through the wreckage, apologizing to any animal I bumped into. He was on him back, on the ground, when I reached him. He was just, sort of gazing at me. Contemplating his next move, I’d guess. His entire body was cracked. I suppose it made sense since most of his body was made of a rock like substance and the hammer was aligned to the earth element.

We just stared at eachother for a while. All the while, a crowd of animals gathered around us. I knew he couldn’t move, whether from pain or another reason, I didn’t know. His eyes were pleading me to kill him and get it over with. I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed seeing it in excruciating pain. Eventually, I calmly walked over to him, raised the hammer, and smashed it into him. He crumbled into dust.

Then, I fell to ground onto my hands and knees. I used to much reiku, I knew I did, but the fucker pissed me off. My skin felt hot, I was out of breath, and my sight was blurry. I just wanted to lay there and wait for my reiku to recover. However, it seemed fate had other plans for me.

People who use reiku are often associated with having a ‘sixth sense’. Which is wrong. Our senses are just expanded far more than those who haven’t trained to use their reiku. At that moment, I felt like someone was about to die. I also sensed a demon.

I looked up.The building that I noticed while I was talking to Finnick was right across the street from me. It was called, Savage Enterprises, apparently. Instinctively, I knew, someone was on the roof, probably being persuaded by the demon to jump, so the demon could claim its soul. It happens more times than you would think. About ninety one percent of all suicides are because of demonic influence.

I slowly got to my feet. I started walking towards the skyscraper of a building. No matter how I felt, I had to at least try to save the mammal. I got a few stares when I entered the building. There were some predators in the building. Which wasn’t as surprising as what I noticed next. The collars they were wearing weren’t on. The light was blank, not green, yellow, or red, just blank. I honestly don’t know why no one else didn’t seem to notice.

I ran up the stairs, I didn’t like elevators. They always broke down when I used them. There were more than fifty floors so I had a ways to go. Still, running up that many stairs without taking a break, was nothing compared to some of the things I did in the reiku training I received. Geez, the first day of training was terrible. I could barely move for days afterwards.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the door to the roof, was the wolf. When the man who raised you calls himself, the Wolf King, and has hundreds of different types of wolves at his beck and call, most of which are not native to Earth, you tend to recognize different types of wolves more easily. He looked like a Dire Wolf, an ancestor of the average wolf, but he also had characteristics of Ashwolf in him. Orin only had one, so I’m not an expert.

Ashwolves were native to a volcanic realm known as Ignearae. All really know about that place was the ground was always covered in ash and Ashwolves were at the bottom of the food chain. Despite all that, the one Orin had was a superior fighter. We fought on multiple occasions and I always lost.

The door slammed shut behind me with a Bang. The wolf was standing on the edge gazing down to the street below. When he heard the door, he turned and gazed at me, curiously.

“Enjoying the view?” I asked casually.

“Not really. I’m just thinking.”

“About?” I asked as I stepped up to the edge.

“Whether jumping would be worth it,” he looked at me again, as if he was waiting for me to stop him.

“Well, if I was thinking about committing suicide, I’d want to make sure there wasn’t anything or anyone I’d be leaving behind.”

“No one will miss me.”

“You sure? I mean there might be people in your life that actually care a great deal about you.”

“They sure have a hell of a way of showing it.”

“Sometimes people are like that. Sometimes they just don’t know how to show that they care, or its the simple fact that it breaks their heart to see you happy because they know you’ll be sad later.”

“Why aren’t you trying to convince me to get down?” he asked nonchalantly.

I sighed. “Because I think it would fall upon deaf ears. The way I see it, if you truly thought it through, nothing would be able to convince you to change your mind.”

“You’re different.”

“Really? I never noticed. No wonder everybody’s been giving strange looks today,” I said sarcastically.

“No, not your appearance, I mean your way of thinking is different than others.”

“I certainly hope so. I don’t think I could handle another me.”

He chuckled. It was quiet, but I still heard it. We just stood there like that for a while, he was standing on the edge and I was next to him standing by the edge, both of us looking down.

“You know, don’t you?” He looked at me with a puzzled expression, “that the thoughts you’re having aren’t your own.” He nodded. “Then, why are you doing this?”

He was quiet for a few moments before speaking, “Because they’re too loud. I tried ignoring them, but they just get louder and louder. I’ve begun to think that maybe they’re right.”

I didn’t know where the demon was at first, but after talking to him and especially after he said that, I knew that the demon has been trying to possess him. He’s quite strong to resist their influence for so long.

“If you jump, I’m jumping after you.”

He looked shocked, then angry, “ Why on Earth would you do that? You Don’t Even Know Me! Why would you put your life in danger to save me?”

“Because, you’re worth it.”

Whatever he expected me to say, that definitely wasn’t it. He just stood there dumbfounded with his muzzle wide open.

“Your life is terrible, I can understand that,” I began, “Life is unfair. It always seems like someone got a better slice of it than you did, but if you end your life, you lose any chance of it getting any better. Worse, you will curse all your loved ones. They will always look to this day, as the day you died, as the day they failed you, as the day they didn’t say what they should have or did what they should have. Are you willing to do that?”

“What about your family?

“As far as I’m concerned, they would know I died to save someone and they would respect that. They wouldn’t even blame you for it either. So what do you say? Will you get down from there and live for all those who would miss you, if you left like that?”

I held out my hand and he reached for it with his paw. He grasped it. I felt him shift. I saw him try and get down. The next thing I know, we’re both falling. I grabbed him by his torso, turned around so that my back was facing the ground. I could feel the demon within him. At that moment, I knew I had two choices. I could use Titan to survive the fall or I could use the remainder of my reiku to purge his body of the demon that dwelled within him. The choice was a no brainer, really.

“Umbran Art: Shear away,” I said, even though I knew no one would hear me. I watched my reiku envelop him and rip away a dark mass from within him. The mass was solid only for a moment before it disintegrated into nothing.

My vision went black. I barely registered it when I hit the ground, or what I thought was the ground. When the darkness enveloped me, I knew that I died. I didn’t expect to come back. I believed that wasn’t going to. I resigned myself to that fate.

Then, I felt a searing pain enter my chest and course through my entire body. Suddenly, I could feel again. It was like something pulled me back from the brink. At that moment, all I registered was the pain. I climbed out of the wreckage of, whatever the hell I landed on, and landed on my hands and knees on the ground. I tried to breathe, but instead I coughed up blood. Soon after, I fell into darkness.