I had expected that Sad should be able to discover the presence of the fox, because I had acquired it from killing Vrakth, a three-horned Narghul Sorcerer. I could vividly remember the large bat-like creature that had seen the fox on my shoulder before it was killed by its inattention to its surroundings as the Pale Matron broke out of the earth.
Mages may be powerful, but demons were otherworldly, and their senses were far different from ours. However, it seemed that the Soul Flayer could not perceive the Moon Fox well enough; perhaps it was because it was bound to the flesh of a Sovereign, or the demons I had encountered in Caelith Mourne were different. After all, the Hollow Avatar had called the Narghul Sorcerers, Demon Royalty, and that had to mean something.
As far as I could tell, the Narghul Sorcerer could grow stronger the more horns they acquired, reaching levels that the Hollow Avatar called Transcendental, the sort of power a Great Demon like the Pale Matron was, and the Soul Flayer could not even reach the level of Sovereign without parasitizing one, so it should be expected that its perception was not as good as Demonic Royalty.
"I am asking you a question, boy... what do you carry?"
The demon’s voice was no longer the smooth, mocking tone of the Soul Flayer. It was sharper, hungrier, and there was a note of something I had not heard before, was it uncertainty?
I felt the fox’s claws tighten on my shoulder. I could feel through the link that she was not afraid, but she was wary. Sad could not see her, but he knew something was there; he could feel her presence, the same way Sid had felt it, but unlike Sid, Sad was not trying to understand this mystery, but he seemed to be trying to hunt it down.
"Nothing," I replied to the demon. "Just a voice in my head." I smiled, "You wouldn’t understand."
The demon’s yellow eyes narrowed. Its tentacles writhed, tasting the air, and his body bent forward, until he was almost crouching on all fours, and the sight of it was hideous, and then it began to draw in long breaths as if he was smelling me.
"Oh, I know that flavour," it breathed. "A little bright thing. I have not tasted one of those in... mm. You have been hiding a treat from me, boy. All those months I supped on you and never found it, tucked away where the old fool’s darkness does not look." The yellow eyes gleamed. "But I am not the old fool. I do not look for what moves... I look for what has a soul."
The fox went stiff on my shoulder, and I sent it a wave of reassurance.
I shrugged, "In this place of the dead, I am the only soul here."
"You lie. I can feel a presence here. Something that does not belong in this place." It took a step closer, its elongated limbs scraping against the floor. "I have been inside your mind, boy. I know the shape of your thoughts. And that..." it pointed a claw at my shoulder, "... is not yours."
The fox bared her teeth; a soft growl began to emerge from her chest. "The thing that does not belong here is you."
I almost smiled. "He can’t see you, but he knows you’re there."
Sad’s face contorted, and faster than my eyes could follow, the tentacles around its mouth lashed out, striking the air where the fox sat, but they passed through her like she was made of smoke, causing the demon’s eyes to go wide in shock, and mine to widen in fury.
"What is that?! Something here does not belong in this Plane of Existence?"
I did not answer because I was already done with this game, trying to dig truth from this demon was a lesson in fallacy, and I had already prepared for my death.
"I can feel it, Elric..." the fox whispered.
"What?"
"This is my time!"
"No, don’t..."
I was about to attack when the fox leaped from my shoulder and landed on the demon’s chest. Her claws, wreathed in silver flame, dug into the anchor binding the Soul Flayer to Sid.
The demon screamed in shock; it had not expected the attack, and even though I was upset at her actions, I could not waste the chance placed in front of me.
I became Lightning Incarnate, and took a Stormstep to the demon’s flank, and my hand, wreathed in lightning, closed around the anchor beside the fox’s claws, and the blaze of Soul-Forge triplied.
In this moment, my senses, enhanced by my knowledge of Inscriptions at the Adepts level, pushed my mind into the vast world hidden in this small anchor.
I saw myself surrounded by silver flame inside a world made from strings of darkness that stretched into what felt like infinity, and I paused in awe as I beheld the vast architecture in front of me. This was no longer Inscription as I knew it, and had become something else.
The flames around my body were spreading across this web of darkness, causing a screaming fog to rise out of it, and a small part of me that had to be mad felt great pity for burning this web, as I wanted to spend an eternity here, trying to understand how it all came together.
A roar came from the heavens of this world, blasting my consciousness into pieces, and I awoke to hear the voice of the Soul Flayer filled with rage and pain inside my head
"GET OFF ME!" The demon’s claws swept through the air; it was headed towards my arm, but the fox leaped in front of me, and it caught her on the side. She flew across the chamber and hit the wall with a crack that made my heart stop, leaving a sizable dent in the metal wall.
"Moon Fox!"
She was up in an instant, her silver fur blazing, her blue eyes bright with fury.
"I’m fine! Keep going! We are taking down this freak!"
I did not know how, but laughter burst out of my mouth, and I pushed harder, pouring all my Anima into Soul Forge, and there was a lot of it, even though it may seem like nothing when I was before a Sovereign.
The Anchor began to dim; it was slight, but I could see this change with my eyes, and I knew that although the Inscriptions were not unraveling, they were losing a tremendous amount of the Darkness Essence that was powering it.
The demon screamed in pain.
"You cannot..."
"I can."
The demon’s yellow eyes flickered. For a moment, I saw grey. Then the yellow returned, brighter than before.
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT!"
The darkness closed around me in the same instant that the demon’s claw caught me across the chest, and I felt my ribs break as the darkness flooded into the wound, before expanding.
It was very painful, but thankfully, the pain passed as my body exploded.