The Creatures that We Are

The Red Fallen Fox materialized beside the white phoenix, its shimmering tails maintaining their grip while reconnecting to their source.

Howl. The fox's jaw split unnaturally wide, revealing crimson gums and blood-slicked fangs. It lunged for the phoenix's head, seeking to devour both the skull and the cocoon-eye within—and with them, the man controlling the monster.

The white phoenix twisted its neck, forcing the fox's fangs to catch the wing-bone instead. Crimson energy exploded across the night sky.

The phoenix's shriek pierced the heavens. Desperation fueled its surge of power as it struggled against the fox's hold, willing to sacrifice its wing for freedom.

Two titanic beings wrestled through the clouds, rising and plummeting, yet the phoenix couldn't break free. The fox's shimmering tails bound it tight, fangs locked in its wing. Blood dried on the fox's horn as crimson sigils manifested across the phoenix's feathers.

This blood carried Spring's curse, returning to its "mother." The transfer would kill them both—Spring for losing his curse, the life monster for bearing it.

Qilin, one with the monster, felt Spring's resolve for mutual destruction.

Unacceptable.

The Red Fallen Fox suddenly convulsed, its jaws releasing the wing as curse-energy reversed its flow.

The phoenix's countless crimson tails had woven themselves into a rust-colored spear, now thrust through the fox's chest. Black spots dotted the weapon—Patient's viruses, already seeping into the fox's flesh.

The Red Fallen Fox relinquished its hold.

Before the spear could pierce its heart, the fox recalled its binding tails for defense.

Boom! Golden energy punched through the fox's back. It was Azure Dragon's Serious Punch, channeled through the life monster's tails. Qilin had essentially pressed a crimson barrel to the fox's chest before firing a golden bullet.

The blast drained the fox's strength. It plummeted, its tails dissolving into countless crimson meteors that rained across the sky.

From below, it appeared as a massive white star falling toward Qingyang Bridge, trailing a thousand red comets. Fire bloomed in a three-kilometer radius, a sea of destruction.

Boom!

The Red Fallen Fox's body crashed last, splitting the Li River like it was a small creek. Water exploded skyward.

As the fox struggled to rise, the white phoenix dove in pursuit.

Wings tucked tight, body rigid, the phoenix transformed into a golden spear, Azure Dragon's energy wreathing it in light.

Two seconds later, the living weapon impaled the fox's heart, pinning it to the riverbed.

Catastrophic energy rippled outward like sulfuric acid, scouring river and land alike, leaving only devastation in its wake.

Howl. The Red Fallen Fox, pinned to the riverbed, released its final cry. It collapsed without struggle as river water reclaimed it, washing over its anguished face. Those red crescents of eyes dimmed slowly into darkness.

The river turned crimson.

The white phoenix retracted its spear-like tails and spread its wings for flight, when gravity—heavy as ancient mountains—crashed down, forcing it to bow.

The bloodstained river began to boil. Red droplets rose toward the sky like rainfall in reverse. The scattered red tails, seemingly strewn randomly across the ground, blazed to life, their energy piercing the earth like crimson blades.

A vast insidious altar materialized, etched with the pattern of a red fox.

Qilin, lodged in the life monster’s eye, started.

Realization struck him. Spring had done it on purpose. He was trying to bring mutual destruction—not then, but now!

The bite was merely meant to put a mark of his curse on the life monster. Spring would get what he wanted. He would take his mother to hell with him.

Boom! Within the altar, the earth cracked with magma-like red energy rushing out, turning into a giant pillar that resembled a volcanic eruption.

The white phoenix, caught in this inferno, dissolved in three seconds. What remained was a translucent white bird—that was the lingering life monster energy, or its spirit, if one would.

This ghostly phoenix struggled in torment, trying to escape the hellfire. But the translucent form of the Red Fallen Fox materialized, its jaws locked onto the same wing it had marked in life.

Whoosh. Again and again the phoenix fought for freedom, but each time the fox dragged it deeper into the inferno.

Soon, the white phoenix’s spirit met its end, too. It turned into a soft, fragile, and elegant two-dimensional image like a giant white paper cutout. It lightly landed on the ground.

Similarly, the Red Fallen Fox’s spirit turned into a giant red cutout, too, and covered it.

Both dissolved into dancing motes of light before fading into the altar's depths. The pillar of hellfire subsided. The altar grew quiet. Only wasteland remained.

The white phoenix and Red Fallen Fox had destroyed each other utterly.

Their bodies and souls, their love and hate, blood and tears, all entwined by the lock of fate, vanished in the cold mortal realm, making their way to the tumultuous hell.

“Whoa! Honey, the little guy is kicking me!”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It moves as soon as I sing. It must be feeling impatient.”

“Just wait a little longer, little one. You’ll meet Mom and Dad next spring.”

“Haha, I wonder if he’ll like this world.”

“Of course he will. Spring is beautiful.”

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