Harem Sync: Divine Edition-Chapter 19: The City of Cages

I was in an open field, snow covering everything, mountains in the distance. And in front of me... Bodies. Dozens, hundreds, soldiers, wizards, monsters, all dead, frozen, burned, torn apart. Blood staining the white snow.

Nine tails floated in the air, white and shining. Each emanating a different element. Fire. Ice. Lightning. Wind. Earth. Light. Darkness. Water. Ether.

"...Celestial Fox... Yukihime. You failed."

He looked up.

A huge figure, made of golden light, with an overwhelming presence.

"Aether. God of Order."

"You hesitated... You disobeyed."

She felt something tighten in her chest. Fear. Guilt.

"I... I couldn’t kill her..."

"YOU WERE NOT CREATED TO FEEL. YOU WERE CREATED TO OBEY."

And then immense pain. As if every cell in her body was being torn apart.

She screamed... The nine tails began to shatter. One by one, turning into fragments of light.

"YOU WILL BE SEALED. AND FORGOTTEN."

She fell to her knees with tears streaming down her face.

"I... I just wanted..."

Everything went white.

Haru opened his eyes.

He was lying on the floor of the carriage, sweating cold with a sore body and heavy head.

Isabela was sitting on the other side, with the unconscious child in her lap. She looked at him.

"Are you okay? You were groaning... unconscious."

Haru sat up slowly, running his hand over his face.

"How long... was I unconscious?"

"All night," Isabela replied, worried.

Haru blinked.

"All night?"

He remembered. Last night, he had been holding the child, she had fainted, and then he had too...

"The touch..."

A notification flashed before his eyes.

[Touch of the Goddess: Processing Complete]

[Target: ??? (Divine Fragment - Yukihime)]

◊ No available skill slots

◊ Current equipped skills: 4/4

◊◊ Skill stored

Haru read it. He processed it.

"Skill absorbed... but I don’t have a slot..."

He looked at the child in Isabela’s lap.

White hair, little fox ears, eyes closed, breathing slowly.

Yukihime.

"The Celestial Fox is called Yukihime..." he thought, still looking at her.

"...And I found her."

He paused mentally.

"Better... she found me."

He took a deep breath.

"I must be really messed up."

"Nightmare?" asked Isabela, still looking at him.

Haru hesitated. "...I don’t know."

Someone knocked on the carriage window, it was one of the guards.

"Sir Haru. Miss Isabela... We have arrived in Ashvale."

The carriage entered Ashvale.

The town was small. Low walls of cracked stone. Reinforced but old wooden gates, puddles here and there. Wooden houses crammed together. Smoke rising from chimneys. It smelled of sewage, burnt coal, and roasting meat.

People everywhere. Merchants shouting prices, children running barefoot, guards patrolling with bored expressions.

And in the center of town, visible from afar...

Cages.

Dozens of them. Hanging from rusty iron structures. Some on the ground, others suspended.

Haru looked out the window. He frowned.

Isabela held Yukihime in her lap, covering her with a blanket. She didn’t want anyone to see her.

"What a place..." Isabela murmured.

Haru didn’t answer, just kept looking.

The carriage stopped in front of an inn.

"The Sleeping Fox." An old wooden sign swaying in the wind with a poorly drawn picture of a lying fox.

Ironic.

One of the guards, the oldest one with a gray beard, got out and went to the door. He talked to the owner. He paid. He came back.

"Everything’s fine. Two rooms. One for Miss Isabela and Sir Haru. Another for the guards."

Isabela’s eyes widened.

"ONE ROOM?! ME AND HIM?!"

The guard blinked, confused.

"...Yes? I thought you... well, you... especially since he’s your personal bodyguard, so he can’t be far away... not to mention that there were only two rooms left... so... well... I’ve been here before and this is the best inn, so... I thought—"

"IT’S NOT THE SAME THING!" Isabela said, blushing.

Haru sighed.

"Isabela. The child needs a safe place and you will take care of her. I’ll sleep on the floor. Problem solved."

Isabela was about to argue, but looked at Yukihime in her arms. Still unconscious. Breathing weakly.

"...Okay." she murmured, defeated.

They entered the inn... The lobby was small. Wooden floor, smell of beer, a few scattered tables, few customers.

The owner, a fat man with a dirty apron, looked at them.

"Room 3, second floor, don’t make noise after midnight."

Haru nodded and they went up the stairs. Creaking with each step. They arrived at the room.

Small. Double bed (somewhat old, thin blanket). Broken table in a corner. Window overlooking the street. Bathroom.

Isabela laid Yukihime on the bed. Carefully.

"I’m going to give her a bath." she said, looking at Haru. "Go away."

Haru left without complaining.

Half an hour later, Haru returned.

Yukihime was clean. Her white hair was still damp, combed. She wore new clothes (the large shirt Isabela had given her, which she wore as a dress). She lay on the bed, covered up to her neck.

Still unconscious.

Isabela sat beside her, running her hand through her hair.

"She’s so thin..." Isabela murmured. "You can count her ribs."

Haru stood in the doorway.

"You did a good job."

Isabela looked at him. She smiled weakly.

"Thank you."

She stood up.

"I’m going downstairs to get food; when she wakes up, she’ll need to eat."

She left.

Haru was alone in the room, went to the window, and looked outside.

A busy street. People passing by. Carts. Guards. And in the distance, the square with the cages.

He tried to organize his thoughts.

"Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox... Yukihime."

In the game, she was a secret boss. One of the brutal Hidden Endgames.

In the live streams Haru watched, no one ever managed to defeat her. On the forum, they only asked for a nerf, but he remembered the conditions to unlock the fight: Level 100+... Complete the questline, which he didn’t quite remember, but it was long; Collect the 7 Divine Seals, scattered in impossible dungeons; Defeat the 5 Minor Guardians (mini-bosses); Access the Forgotten Celestial Sanctuary, a secret area in the far north.

Haru regretted every day not having played while he was alive, not to mention that he didn’t know her story. The game never explained it directly. It only gave clues. Hidden texts. Sparse lore.

"I saw myself as her..." he thought, shaking his head.

"I saw through her eyes. I felt her pain."

He looked at Yukihime in bed.

"And now she’s here. Like a child. Unconscious. Defenseless."

He sighed. He opened the system.

He went to the Skills tab.

┌─ [EQUIPPED SKILLS] ────

[1] Touch of the Goddess (Passive)

[2] Ignition (Active)

[3] Shadow Step (Active)

[4] Mind Whisper (Active)

[5] — ! —

└─────────────────

┌─ [-UNEQUIPPED] ───

◊ Mana Core

└─ [No description available]

└─ [Purchase skill slot to equip]

└─ [Cost: 5,000 XP

└─────────────

Haru looked.

"Mana Core..." he murmured.

He clicked on it. He tried to see the description.

[Requires analysis unlock]

[Cost: 5,000 XP]

"5,000 XP..." Haru sighed. "I have... how much?"

He checked.

[Current XP: 303 / 4,000]

"Shit."

He closed the system and looked at the window again.

Haru opened the window to let in some air and involuntarily overheard a conversation downstairs.

"Did you hear? Vandris’s mansion exploded!"

"Exploded?! How?!"

"They say it was a child... a little white fox."

"A child? What kind of child does that?"

"I don’t know. But Vandris is offering 2,000 coins for it. Yay."

"2,000?! Damn!"

"And he’s going to auction it off tomorrow. They say there are other rarities too."

Haru stopped listening.

He closed the window.

He looked at Yukihime on the bed.

"2,000 coins..."