Without wasting a moment, you sprinted toward the trembling green one. On her chest, a deep, swirling energy of dark green was pouring outward uncontrollably, spilling like liquid shadow.
It was the manifestation of her power crumbling reality itself, and she had no understanding of how to stop it.
"Onee-sama, I'm sorry!" she sobbed uncontrollably, tears running down her face. "I was trying to be strong, and I made a mistake! I killed my siblings! I'm killing everyone!"
"Shhhh! Do not say such things!" You cupped her cheeks with both hands, forcing her panicked eyes to meet yours. "You just need to calm yourself and turn everything back the way it was. You can do it, can't you?"
"I... I'm trying!" the green one whimpered, her trembling fingers weaving uncertainly through the air as she tried to grasp the energy. But her voice broke when she felt its weight. "It's too much... It's too heavy now!"
"It's alright! It's completely fine, I'm right here with you," you said with steady calm, though your eyes flickered toward the unstable energy on her chest. "Allow me to lend you a hand."
Together, you placed your palms against hers. You gave her your strength, your endurance, and your composure, channeling your energy into her trembling form.
Slowly, the tide of destruction began to recede. The endless shaking started to ease, the sky's tearing lessened, and for a moment, it seemed as though all would be restored.
But then the green one coughed violently, blood spilling from her lips as one of her fingers snapped backward and broke clean off.
"Ah! I can't! I can't, I can't!" she screamed in agony. "Onee-sama, please let go!"
"Hold on just a little longer," you told her softly, trying to soothe her as your hands shook. "We are almost done, I promise."
"No! I'm dropping it now! I feel like I'm being torn apart! Onee—"
It was too late.
The unstable energy burst violently, sending a wave through both of you. You had taken a direct hit from her rampant power, and your form began to fade, your existence unraveling into particles of dust and light.
"O... Onee... ONEE-SAMA!!!" she screamed, her voice echoing across the collapsing world.
"Quiet..." you whispered, interrupting her wailing even as most of your body had already begun to drift away with the wind. Only a part of your face remained visible now, faint and transparent. "No one blames you for this, Green. Please... focus. You can still do it."
And then, with that final reassurance, you disappeared completely—erased from the plane of existence, removed from every record, every trace, and every memory that you had ever lived.
The green one was left utterly alone. She fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably, consumed by guilt and self-loathing as the destruction of the realm grew worse around her. Everything she could see, hear, and feel was vanishing.
That was when we, the Lords, found her.
I was the first to arrive, though not for long.
I had gone to report the situation to the Supreme Lord, but the Empress herself forbade me from doing so, and she gave no explanation for her order.
When I returned, I discovered that the realm was already on the verge of complete collapse. Ironically, that made locating the green one much easier.
I reached her at the same time the others did—Trigger, Shizuka, Hachiman, and the leader of the Phantom Fangs, Swanir. Every other sentient being in the Shadow Realm had already been wiped out.
We began working immediately, each of us trying our own methods to stabilize the realm and save the property of the Supreme Lord, but every attempt failed.
The green one was doing something strange with time, something even she did not understand. All she could do was cry and beg for forgiveness as we fought to contain the destruction.
"Damn it!" Hachiman roared, stretching his arm outward as black mist condensed into the shape of a katana in his right hand. His green eyes glowed fiercely as he turned his gaze toward the trembling green fox. "Let us end this now. We should kill her and finish it quickly."
"I refuse!" I swung my arm in protest, my voice ringing with defiance. "There is no guarantee that killing her will fix the problem!"
"But there is every guarantee that it will stop it!" he shouted back with fury. "She is actively destroying the Supreme Lord's world! Her punishment is already death!"
Trigger said nothing, his hand resting on his chin as he thought through every possible way to halt the destruction.
"Haha-ue! Just let him do it! I cannot control myself!" the green one begged, voice raw with grief.
But I still refused.
I had not even properly held her as a mother, not properly spoken to her as a parent, and yet I was expected to stand by and let her die before my very eyes?
It felt unbearably selfish to think that way, and yet I could not accept death as the only answer. There had to be another way.
"Lay a hand on my daughter, Hachiman," I warned, my voice carrying the edge of a promise. "And I swear I will make you pay."
"So be it!" Hachiman readied himself to strike the green fox, and I braced to intercept his attack.
We both stopped when Shizuka stepped forward. She moved with quiet intent, closing the distance to the trembling green.
She studied the green kitsune long enough to understand how she had come to do what she was doing. Then, without ceremony, she acted.
The destruction halted, frozen by a countervailing and far stronger pull of time. Shizuka had reached into the same current the green had grasped and pulled in the opposite direction.
It did not undo all that had been lost. That was beyond hope. Stopping the apocalypse itself required an enormous outpouring of strength, and Shizuka staggered under the weight of it.
Still, further unraveling was prevented. For the meantime, the world did not tear apart any further.
Calm returned like a hard-breathed pause. The green one, no longer forced to bear the crushing weight of frozen time, stopped quivering and began to remember.
The consequences rushed back to her with a cruel clarity: everyone in the realm... were dead. The silence that followed was absolute.
"Ahhhh! Kill me! Kill me, somebody!" she screamed, collapsing to the ground and shaking her head violently. "Please end me for my sin! I killed my sisters, I killed my brothers, I killed Chi-chan, I killed Fang-chan! I killed all the wolves! Please punish me!"
Her voice echoed across the quiet, cold, shattered remains of what had once been the Shadow Realm.
Even Hachiman dismissed his blade and closed his eyes. The fury in him dissolved into something hollow.
Shizuka knelt beside the crying green kitsune and wrapped her arms around her, holding her like a small, broken thing.
"It is... okay. Stop... crying," she murmured, stroking the fox's head as the green sobbed, coughed, and trembled with uncontrollable grief.
Shizuka's restraint held the frozen collapse in place for now.
If she let go, no one could predict the result; the accumulated strain might snap back and finish what had been started. We stared at one another, feeling the full weight of the dilemma…
Then a voice spoke, impossibly present and utterly distant at once.
{Weeping daughter of the Dark Fox spirit, heed my voice.}
The Empress's words rang from nowhere and everywhere, filling the shredded air with an authority.