My Pet Fox Is Actually A Demon Prince-Chapter 35: The Sacred Order

Kyva found herself back in the woods in the mortal realm, running away from the warden and his men.

She was surrounded, and she witnessed how she had taken the leap of fate by jumping into the water. But instead of drowning till her life force drained from her system, she found she could somehow breathe beneath the surface. Yet, she was too exhausted and in pain to move.

That barely registered before the scene transitioned into something else.

She was back in Grayfall village as the slave traders raided it, forced to watch her mother die before her eyes. From there, the nightmare carried her through the terrible years that followed,the cruel places she had been taken to, and the hardships she had endured.

Yet she always survived

Kyva had lived with abuse for so long that she no longer reacted to it the way most people would. After eleven years, she knew what it felt like, but she never gave it a chance to define her.

It had been physically and emotionally draining, but she never gave up.

Whenever she was trapped in those situations, she learned to make herself useful. If she could not escape, then she would watch, listen and learn. She picked up several skills, memorized routines, studied people and found small ways to protect herself. Focusing on those things kept her from thinking about everything she could not control, like being unable to give her mother a proper burial.

Or being transferred from one establishment to another.

Her life had been cruel, frightening and painfully unfair. But in surviving it, she had become observant, capable, and stronger in her own ways. Not because what happened to her was good, far from it. But rather because she refused to let it break her.

Or...maybe, on some deeper level, she simply stopped caring.

Attempting to join the Sacred Order had probably been a foolish thing to do, but at that time, it had seemed like the only choice she had left.

Not only was she being accused of murder, but also hunted by slave traders. Returning to town wouldn’t be any different.

Before she gave in to the idea of joining the Sacred Order, she had clung to one hope, and that was to be able to earn an identity of her own, some kind of power, and this place happened to have promised it. When the pillars lit up during the Trial of Calling, she had assumed it was a positive sign from the heavens.

But now, she doubted she’d be able to pull through.

However.... this was a dream... wasn’t it?

How strange...

It suddenly dawned on Kyva that this nightmare was different. She could still feel everything that was happening around her. It was as though she was truly there, fully aware of every choice she made.

Then the dream shifted again.

Suddenly she was falling, straight into an endless abyss. Her fingers reached out instinctively, grasping at empty air like she could somehow pull herself up.

Panic bloomed.

What... was happening?

Was she dying?

Her blue eyes widened. Before the realization settled, the motion suddenly stopped. She was no longer falling, whilst the abyss vanished so abruptly it left her breathless. She blinked once, and the abyss was gone.

She found herself back in the jungle.

But she was no longer trapped in that suffocating, airless tree.

The orange sky had darkened completely into the night, and Kyva blinked once more, wholly disoriented.

She was lying on the forest floor, but there was someone above her.

Kyva struggled to keep her eyes open, and through the haze, she saw a young man kneeling over her. One hand was pressed against her chest, and she flinched when an unfamiliar current of energy flowed through her body.

Wait... what about the monster?

"Stay still."

The voice that spoke was low and commanding, and something about it made her obey at once.

Kyva squeezed her eyes shut, forcing herself to endure the pain that came with whatever he was doing. She felt terribly weak, as though her body no longer had any bones at all.

Then, slowly, the pain faded.

Her eyes fluttered open again.

Her vision was still blurred, but she could make out the figure in front of her. He looked almost unreal.

Silver-white hair spilled over his shoulders, pale against the darkness of the jungle. A strange white half-mask covered the upper half of his face, shaped like a fox. And only the lower part of his face remained visible.

For a moment, he did not seem human at all.

He looked like something divine.

Then she saw his eyes.

Bright and unnervingly clear, those golden eyes stared directly into hers. There was something familiar about those eyes, but her mind was far too clouded to understand why. Lifting a trembling hand up, she placed it against his cheek and thought of Snowpuff.

He stiffened under her touch.

"S... Snowpuff?" she whispered weakly.

The corner of the man’s mouth twitched at the name.

"The name is Master Caelion," he replied, but did not pull her hand away. "Remember that."

What happened next wasn’t known to Kyva as she surrendered once more to the darkness clouding in.

****

"Kyva...!"

The voices calling out to her from somewhere in her unconsciousness made her eyes snap open.

The first face she saw was Selene’s, followed by Cassian who stood worriedly behind her, and for a moment, Kyva only stared. Seeing them again felt so unreal to her, like she was still dreaming.

But in this dream, she did not mind it.

It felt... peaceful.

A very unfamiliar feeling.

Slowly, she turned her head.

She was lying on a wooden bed within a quiet room of polished cedar and pale paper screens. Her gaze drifted to the open shoji where sunlight poured through, and it painted the floor in warm and gold. Just beyond it lay a garden so beautiful it scarcely seemed real.

Stone bridges arched over narrow streams, the lanterns standing silent among the moss. Violet blossoms cascaded from the great trees outside, and it drifted slowly upon the water below, gleaming beneath the light of day.

For a brief, disorienting moment, Kyva wondered if she had truly died and awakened in the heavens.

The air smelled clean, the beddings clean. Her surroundings neat. Everything felt so nice.

She turned her attention back to Selene and Cassian, studying them in silence. For one strange moment, she wondered if they had died as well.

"You’re finally awake," Selene spoke first, sounding so relieved that her voice nearly trembled. She sat upon the edge of the bed and clasped Kyva’s hands between both of hers. "We were frightened you might never wake."

"...Selene? Cassian?"

Kyva blinked slowly, as if finally coming to the terms that they were really here, and not a fragment of her questioning thoughts.

"The trial took an unfortunate turn," Cassian said. "Many candidates lost their lives when the high-level monsters breached the trial grounds. They weren’t supposed to be there. We were lucky to not have run into it, but when the disciples came to get you, you were in awful shape. We thought it got you too."

Selene nodded.

"But you did it Kyva. We all did. Welcome to the Sacred Order."

Kyva stared at them in disbelief.

"I... got in?"

"I’m still uncertain how you managed such a feat without any prior training," Cassian said. "Yet you did. Each of us were able to resonate with an orb,and its powers proved useful against the monsters."

His gaze softened slightly.

"So you may rest now. There is no need to fight any longer."