“But it’ll kill you like it killed those others! I didn’t mean you should fight the Kitsune! You should go to Otara and bring the guard! Don’t be craz...”
He choked on his words as I turned my intention to the Persona of Ironside. White-enamelled steel slammed into place around my chest and shoulders, and my one-handed axes appeared in my hands.
“Heaven help us!” cried the little man, stumbling backward.
“You don’t need heaven,” I said. “You have us.”
I felt my body lifted up and transformed by the power of the Persona. I was taller, broader, stronger, and every fibre of my being quivered with martial skill. The Helm of Ironside snapped into place around my head and around my face, leaving only my eyes uncovered. I hefted my axes, feeling like a giant of blade and steel.
“You should stay out of the way,” Cara advised the little guy. We turned and advanced toward the shrine.
Chapter Five
The thing inside the little building became aware of me as soon as I put my steel-booted foot on the bottom step. I felt it push against my senses with a sudden rush, and I felt the powerful impression of its questioning enquiry. “Food?” it seemed to ask, and then when it realized my intent, it lashed away from me like a struck snake.
Cara was behind me, her bow at the ready. She let me lead, and I was glad enough of that. She was well-armed and highly skilled, but I was clad in the power of the Persona of Ironside; there was no question that I would be the one to take point in a fight.
The Festering sent a wave of terror and horror blasting through the doorway. It had given up all attempt to shield itself, and I saw the blast as a dense brown substance that came rushing from the open entrance. Despite my resistance to the terror it could inflict, I felt that blast is a physical impact. It was as if a solid wall of water had crashed into me.
I turned my shoulder into it and heard myself grunt with effort as I felt it break over me. Cara cried out in surprise behind me at the impact. The old priest screamed. I lifted my foot and gained the second step.
Fury thrummed like discordant music from inside the corrupted shrine. I felt like I was pushing against a thick, springy wall as I took a third step, then a fourth. I was on the platform, just outside the door. Then the Festering changed its tactic. It ceased to resist my advance. A wall of black tentacles suddenly rushed from the doorway, wrapped me in a wet embrace and dragged me in.
I spun to the right, slashing outward with both hand-axes. The tentacles had tried to unbalance me, but my leap foiled that attempt. I kept my footing, swinging left and and right at the black tentacles that clutched at me. They had seemed solid enough when they were dragging me through the entrance, but as soon as my axe connected with them, they dispersed into thin mist again, only to reform as soon as my blade had passed through them.
Glancing around the small space, I saw a glimpse of pale gray at the far back wall of the shrine. Something was there, a low, dog-like form, wreathed in mist. It was the Kitsune, the fox-spirit of the shrine, bound and corrupted by the Festering.
It hid behind the legs of the three people who still hung suspended against the back wall. The tentacles emanated from the cloud that enveloped it. From the middle of the cloud, two livid red eyes were peering around the legs of the man in yellow. The tentacles retreated from me, and in the moment of silence there was a snarling noise.
I glanced at the doorway to see what had become of Cara. The black mist solidified in the entranceway, forming an effective block against anyone wishing to enter. The only light was the faint daylight leaking in through the gaps between the top of the walls and the sloping roof. It looked as if I would have to deal with the creature on my own.
“Come on then,” I taunted it, “come out and fight me. I’ll destroy you, come on.”
“This is mine,” hissed a voice in return. “This place is mine, Kitsune is mine, and these, these are mine.” The three suspended people suddenly flopped about, as if a great hand were shaking them at me. “All this is mine, and if you stay here you will be mine too.”
I took a step toward the mist-shrouded spirit, intending to push past the suspended humans, but the Kitsune flung them at me. With a horrible, jerking motion, the two men and the woman suddenly moved toward me. Their hands raised toward me, and their eyes stared blankly forward. They were like marionettes being controlled from inside by some malevolent force.
This was unexpected. In the small space, the three made an effective wall between me and the Kitsune. I backed away, reluctant to just chop my way through them; they still looked very much alive, and I was certain that if I could defeat the Festering-corrupted Kitsune, these innocent victims could be saved. Behind me, the black wall in the entranceway remained solidly in place. From its place beyond them, the hissing voice laughed cruelly.
The older man suddenly raced three shambling steps forward. His mouth was momentarily wreathed in black mist, then it opened impossibly wide. A mass of writhing black tentacles burst from his gaping mouth and rushed toward me.
The shield. With a twist of my will, I summoned the shield upgrade I had purchased after the fight back in Saxe. The axe in my left hand was instantly transformed into a round shield of dark iron. I had a moment to notice that the shield was not of the same metal as the rest
