Chapter 31: 29 : [Transmutation? Transmutation!? Transmutation!!]

Tsuki pushed the two strange cats down the stairs. She kept her hand on the inside wall to guide herself into the spiraling darkness until something metallic caught her attention. It was one of the many doors separating the darkness from strange rooms built for special usage. The girl opened the complex lock with ease and pushed once more the cats inside the curving room. As much as it should be easy to imagine a rectangular room, this one was far from being as such as it lacked any of the usual sharp angles created by two walls meeting one another. Instead, the room looked like the inside of a deflated balloon. The floor created complex waves before curving upward into a wall.

In the middle of it all was a single light attached to the ceiling and a trapdoor on the floor leading to an unknown darkness. The three being sat in such a strange room as the howling of something otherworldly seeped from the room they were just in. The girl could hear the unknown creature breaking things inside the room she held so many fond memories.

Something crashed like a pot being thrown on a wall: it was surely the flower pot Tsuki bought Alice for her twelfth birthday… Now it was something metallic rolling on the floor followed by water splashing. Then the wooden desk she used so often was lifted and slammed on the ground which caused dried cement to fall on the girl’s head. Her memories were broken in twain by something she knew she could only run from.

“What the hell was this thing!” Screamed El-Cato who grasped the girl’s shoulder violently.

Through the small light shining above them, the strange cat riding the plushy alligator suit saw the whiteness of the young girl’s face. Her tears and sweat dripped down her face as fear tantalized taking control of her mind. He could see how terrified she was, and a chill went down his spine when he realized the destruction above had stopped.

Tsuki knew what the creature above was. She never saw one but experienced nevertheless how terrifying those things could be and how much carnage one of them could bring. It didn’t follow any laws of physics people were forced to follow as those creatures used to live on another plane of existence.

People who first saw them called them the hounds of the plane they came from. But the shape linked with such a name in people’s minds only favored them to misunderstand what those creatures really were. The title of hound was only given to them for the way they hunted people. Like a hunter who shot a bird and sent his dogs to find where it landed or like how dogs can be used to hunt pests on a field. In any case, those hounds, may they be alone or many, are always followed by their master…

“We’re going to die. We’re going to die. We’re going to die. We’re going to die…” Whispered Tsuki endlessly as she crumbled into a ball on the ground.

The world dying was caused by those creatures suddenly appearing. The sky became filled with their vile miasma which caused the falling rain to turn acidic as if they were vomiting their disgusting presence over everyone. They were the main reason her life had been a living hell. As much as she hated Kanga for the things she forced people to do, Tsuki understood there was no other way to survive in this cursed world.

Tsuki was a slave forced to feed and take care of the worst abomination Kanga managed to capture. This woman wanted to make use of them as pawns against the invading force. It somewhat worked but the cost was insanely high. This sorceress did many cruel things, such as human experiments, reanimation of the dead, using the sick or old as batteries, and many more. Still, her way allowed the creation of a rare bastion of humanity.

So, why was this hound inside the walls? Why was it rampaging inside her room? Tsuki couldn’t understand. “It can’t be. It can’t be…” whispered Tsuki with a shaking voice. A simple hound should have instantly died while inside the protection of the walls. So, it was simply impossible for this thing to even exist. “It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real…”

“Catactive,” said El-Cato toward his archnemesis. He kept silent for some time as if he was about to do something against his nature. “We need to work together and escape.”

“And you want me to trust you to not backstab me when you get the chance to?” Responded the catactive.

“Do we have a choice? I’ve never been the one responsible for your wife’s and daughter’s disappearance! She was my sister for heaven’s sake! Let’s do it like the good old days. Me the brawl and you the brain…”

“…Right, like the good old days.”

“Yes. Now put that brain of yours to work.”

The two cats looked at one another for some time until Tsuki’s sobs became overbearing

“She’s our answer.” Said the small detective. “But for that, she needs to calm down.”

“How are we supposed to do this?”

“You’re the brawl, so dance I guess?”

❀

 

In the end, the large catore did try to dance but stumbled on the uneven floor. His wooly inside allowed him to not make a sound when crashing on the ground which made his tentative attempt to brighten the girl’s mood useless. The two cats did try all sorts of things, but none worked as the girl didn’t seem to even notice them.

It was Tsuki herself who managed to calm herself by rationalizing that everything she was seeing wasn’t real. In the first place, it all started after she entered a strange market with shining light in the middle of a forest. A cat acting like a detective isn’t something that was real. Neither should the giant plush alligator, the broken doll, the hound, the tower, or anything as a matter of fact. Everything surrounding her was fake. A figment of her imagination or the cruel play of something after her.

And what more had to be fake was the strange fireflies flying on the ceiling. She didn’t know when they appeared, and the two cats were too focused on doing silly things to see them.

“What do you want?” She hissed under her breath.

The two cats looked at her with confusion and a hint of hope as they thought they had finally managed to calm her. But Tsuki kept looking at the ceiling as if wanting to squash every single bug.

Those fireflies then moved in an orderly manner to write something simple that only worsened the girl’s mood. [Summon me.] They spelled with their luminous bodies.

Before Tsuki could say anything, something heavy smashed into the door as the hound tried to get inside. The girl responded by opening the trapdoor on the floor and jumping into the darkness inside. The two cats had no choice but to do the same thing and the hole was barely large enough to fit El-Cato’s large body.

The trio fell into the hole which transformed into a sort of emergency slide leading to a dark basement. There was only a door in front of them and the screams of the hound pushed them forward. Tsuki unlocked this door with trained hands which opened to a rainy sky close to the artificial tree.

“What now!” she screamed and ordered the fireflies to tell her how to summon whoever was requesting her to do so. But they hadn’t followed her in the escape slide. As such, she was now stranded outside as an otherworldly creature was hunting her.

The girl was pissed. She just wanted to get back to the carriage and not be stuck in a fake world. But now she believed she was tricked by some fake fireflies. They just popped out of nowhere and thus couldn’t be real. She alone was real, and she only needed to dispel everything coming her way.

As such, Tsuki pulled her long glaive and got ready to fight the hound and whatever else moved. But she waited and waited as nothing happened. Nay, it was more like nothing was moving. The rain was still falling but both cats were frozen in place.

“What now?” Her tone completely changed from what it was a moment ago and she realized her mistake.

A vile stench spread to the girl like a disgusting cocoon with sticky tendrils glued to her skin. She turned around and saw smoke manifesting by the closest wall foot. A gust of filthy air pushed toward the girl who covered her mouth as best as she could while keeping her glaive at a tilted angle toward the smoke. And then, she saw the hound come out. Its body looked like veiny branches which formed a horrifying shape of perfect geometry so thin that no organs could be identified. Surely it couldn’t live nor move with how disturbing it looked but still did so by having strange bursting pods which acted like pistons when exploding.

In truth, it looked more like a mass of rectangular rods filled with meat all moving by disgusting pistons that created smelly pus after exploding. This impossible monstrosity looked at her with a body lacking any eyes as multiple rods ground against one another to create a rumbling similar to a dog’s growling.

Tsuki tried to ready herself but found with horror that her body was frozen. The foul smell slowly entered her nose and she felt it spread around. It moved inside her nose and down into her mouth as it stung her tongue with the most appalling taste. She didn’t understand it, but she thought this gas was the cause of her frozen body. It didn’t make sense, but here she was unmoving.

Her surroundings started to shift as a sudden whirlwind ate away the large artificial tree and absorbed the horrid gas. It formed something like a black hole which even the hound was forced to back off from as it wasn’t something of its doing. Then, when the tree was completely consumed, a strange fairy made from bark and leaves appeared from the void.

“Pam-padapam-padapam-pam-pam. Here I am, mini-Yuu delivering one little spell…huh? What even is that ugly thing!?” Said Yuu who took the form of a small fairy made from the compacted tree mixed with the abnormal gas. “Wh-WHY? Did you really USE that thing to summon me!? Ghaaaa! Disgusting Disgusting Disgusting!”

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Tsuki and the hound looked at this new person with distrust. She appeared way too suddenly and acted in an overly happy way. Still, Yuu’s sudden manifestation managed to remove a lot of the gas in the air which allow Tsuki to start moving again. Even if her body was numb, it was responding at the very least.

“So,” asked Yuu who flew erratically in front of Tsuki’s face. “Why did you take that long to summon me?”

The way Yuu asked this question felt wrong to Tsuki who had done no such thing. She didn’t summon this girl as she didn’t even know how to do so. But the worst was that not even two minutes passed when the fireflies told her the [Summon me.]

“That thing!” screamed the catactive after managing to move. The two cats were more affected as they had a better sense of smell. “It’s manipulating time.” And so was his conjuncture after having his body frozen and seeing Tsuki move too fast before she was also frozen.

“Nah, impossible.” Responded Yuu who was moving around Tsuki’s glaive inspecting it. “Time can’t be manipulated. Nay, time as you know it doesn’t exist. Still, does that thing have a name Tsuki? It’s cute but a bit slow in the head.” The fairy/spirit/witch/whatever else she really was was now moving around the hound’s body which didn’t respond to the annoying fly buzzing all over him.

The otherworldly hound wasn’t moving at all. This kind of behavior was completely normal for it as it was trained as such. If it managed to isolate one prey, it could kill them itself, but if there were more than one, it was trained to wait for its master. Just like how some dogs are trained to point toward a direction, this hound was trained for some other means and was just listening to this forceful genetic training.

“Kill it!” Screamed Tsuki who knew what this hound was waiting for. It acted like a beacon between the two planes so that its master could step on this side and claim his prized hunt. “Yuu! Kill the hound!”

But the spirit’s answer froze the girl’s mind for a moment. “Nope. I can’t.” She flat out refused to listen to Tsuki’s order.

“Then, my spell! Can it kill it?!”

“…Hummmmmm…—”

“—What is it then?!”

“I call it [Transmutation? Transmutation!? Transmutation!!]” Said Yuu before taking a strange pose in the air.

“…”

Tsuki had hoped for something else completely. She couldn’t understand how transmuting something could ever help her.

In truth, as much as the name was silly, this spell would become Tsuki’s strongest asset in her life. Transmuting something was far from being a dangerous act and neither was it something forbidden as Tsuki wanted. But something forbidden didn’t really exist for Yuu who was often called the broken witch. She knew many dark arts and did some of the most despicable acts someone could do. So, the requirement for a forbidden spell, something that this wild spirit would consider forbidden…It was hard to find something that fit the criteria…But this spell was something Yuu considered forbidden.

Transmutation: the art of changing something. From lead is born gold; from death is born life; from damaged is born perfection; from distance is born closeness…

But most importantly, from impossibility is born possibility…As such, this art is tied to the breaking of all that is natural. A gift from the broken witch Yuu, a spirit who only abides by three laws and considers anything able to break them as forbidden: the three laws governing all of existence.

The law of time: the past and the future does not exist in the same way that the present does. The past is just a memory of existence while the future is its dream. As such, time itself cannot be manipulated as it only exists as a concept.

The law of burden: everything that exists has a burden of existence. It limits what an individual can do unless they can either lessen their burden or sustain it. The shape an individual takes is related to their burden. A god in name only will forever remain a name in a dusty book but if they can sustain their burden of existence, they will be able to manifest with their divine might.

The law of existence: something that has once existed will remain in existence forever. Nothing ceases to exist; they only change to a form that can sustain their burden of existence.

And the spell Yuu made had the ability to break some of those laws…But this was only if Tsuki could master it to an unprecedented level. Sadly, the requirement for this mastery was impressive knowledge and information about the world’s workings.

The spirit moved around Tsuki’s head with a wicked smile and touched the girl’s forehead. In that instant, a large amount of information about spell arrays and formulas entered the girl’s brain as the spell [Transmutation? Transmutation!? Transmutation!!] was branded in her mind.

The first step, [Transmutation?] where prima materia is used to change the form of something. [Transmutation?!] where something could be altered to its core. Transmuting leads to gold…or more useful, making unstable reactions such as a nuclear explosion. [Transmutation!!] where anything can be manipulated to one wish. Transmuting darkness into a shield is simple child play at this stage.

Yuu’s goal was more sinister as she wanted to use Tsuki’s wild imagination as fuel to create something that does not exist. But this is only something she could attempt in the future.

Tsuki crumbled to the ground in pain. “Get up girl!” said Yuu after landing on Tsuki’s chest. “You got your spell, now fight this thing so I can explain how it works.”

“It won’t work! Blades don’t work on them.”

“I said GET UP!” Tsuki was shaken by the sudden anger the fairy on her chest displayed. “Drop your spear and sword for those two weird cats. I trained you Tsuki and I believe in your strength. So, take your fancy glaive and fight. I’ll show you how to use it.”

“…”

“Are you fine with dying here? Don’t you have someone to save? So, get up and fight!”

“Nh!” Tsuki finally got up and threw her two useless weapons at the cats.

“Mecha-cat, take the sword. Clothed-cat, take the spear.” Yuu ordered the cats, the plushy one and the detective one respectively, to take arms.

They did so slowly and with distrust for this flying fairy. She moved around so much that a dark part of their soul just wanted to snatch her in the air. But they didn’t and instead listened to her orders without a word.

They needed to beat the hound quickly to leave this place. When the catactive said the hound manipulated time, he wasn’t too far from the truth. They were frozen in place for longer than they thought. In total, a full day went by in a moment, and it was only thanks to Yuu appearing that the gas freezing them was removed.

“Sword,” commended Yuu. “Move forward and annoy this bag of smelly sticks. Spear, you cover him. Your weapon is worthless against this thin monster so act as your friend’s shield. Glaive, move around, and deal damage.”

Yuu’s plan was far from perfect and put the plushy cat in great danger. But her real goal wasn’t to kill the hound as fast as possible but to train Tsuki.

She was expecting one of the cats to be gravely wounded in this fight…She hoped for Tsuki to be pushed to her limit…To see the death of a comrade and learn the importance of teamwork…It was a flawed plan born from a cruel reason.

But such a plan came to fruition way too fast. She had underestimated the reason Tsuki was scared of the hound. From the very beginning, something else was watching over them. A hunter leading his hound. And without Yuu knowing it, this hunter was aiming for them, and his arrow aimed true as it struck the catactive’s chest which split his body into three parts…The Hunter of Tindalos had finally shown his presence…It’s imperfect presence.

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