Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Witch Aiko met up with the lady bird again. She wanted to ’test’ a few of her theories, since it could lead her to her goal of removing the Contract.

The butler stood guard once again as Witch Aiko dived right in.

This time her ’vision’ was a lot clearer and she could feel and even see the energy flowing. She wondered if she was so tired before that she didn’t notice this or if coming here a second time changed anything.

Witch Aiko shrugged and didn’t dwell on it too much.

Observing the tendrils again, she noticed the clear distinction between the bird lady’s Soul and the Contract’s connection. She had to cut it cleanly, but that was pretty much impossible, so she would just cut more than necessary to prevent any kind of backlash.

Witch Aiko kept observing. The whole Soul was like a swirling ocean. An uncountable amount of information was hidden behind the outer shell that protected the Soul.

It didn’t seem like this Contract allowed for exchange of information, which would help Witch Aiko during the severing.

Maybe that was also why nobody noticed she was messing with it, since there was no feedback function.

Witch Aiko was impressed by how bad this whole thing was...

Unfortunately, she was wrong in this. There was no need for a feedback function, since repairing those tendrils required energy. And while yes, most of that energy came from the bird lady, some of that energy came from the person that made this Contract.

As such that person was aware that the bird lady was doing something, but because they were occupied, they couldn’t come over immediately.

They also believed that nobody would be able to bypass the regenerative properties of the tendrils, so they were not in a hurry either...

...

Witch Aiko finished observing everything, but severing everything at once would prove difficult.

She gently patted her [Little #### Nightmares] before noticing something.

Their bodies were quite sharp, the strange irregular scales made them scarier, but Witch Aiko never expected them to be actually sharp since she never sliced herself with it.

However, what if those scales wouldn’t hurt her, but would slice everything else? Like they were teeth waiting for the opportunity to slice some meat...

Witch Aiko picked the tamest [Little #### Nightmares] and let him try and slice one of the tendrils.

As expected, it was very good at it and with a bit of tweaking and skill, it should be possible to sever the tendrils even when there are so many of them.

This would tire Witch Aiko greatly, but in this place her [Little #### Nightmares] didn’t really need to be restrained in length.

”Alright, listen up.” Witch Aiko clapped her hands.

”The current goal is to wrap your bodies in chosen locations around the tendrils and wait for everyone to do the same. Once everything is set up, it should be possible to sever everything at once!” Witch Aiko proclaimed.

”First one.” Witch Aiko already got to work, since she had limited time due to her limited Essence. This place was also not very kind to her mind, so she just wanted to deal with this as quickly as possible.

Witch Aiko gestured each time she picked a location and let her [Little #### Nightmares] coil around it without damaging it. The tendrils didn’t recover even during the night or even during eating Spiritual Food.

What that meant was that those tendrils really had only one way to recover, and that was to be damaged so severely it was near complete destruction.

”Hey I see that! Stop sleeping!” Witch Aiko felt like she was dealing with a bunch of rowdy children with how difficult it was to make them listen to her.

”No eating!” Witch Aiko immediately scolded another [Little #### Nightmares].

”I see that you are trying to slack off! Get back here.” They were quite relentless, so Witch Aiko had a bit of trouble reining them in.

One would haphazardly eat, another would fall asleep. It was so ridiculous that she couldn’t believe these were her little nightmares!

Shaking her head gently, she waited for those rascal to take the position, when suddenly she felt something coming straight at her back.

Witch Aiko immediately turned around and prepared to defend herself, but all she saw were two bundles of energies wrestling against each other.

Well... that was not quite right...?

Witch Aiko saw one energy holding the other under its arm and flexing it.

”Long time no see.” The foreign energy was very friendly with Aiko for some reason.

Witch Aiko was unable to make out any details. The only detail that she could figure out was the fact that it was completely black. No it was like the whole being was black, without any colour or anything ’normal’.

”Do I know you?” Witch Aiko was confused.

”En. You can call me Uncle for now.” The Uncle laughed happily. He was one of the few that were weak enough to visit their Princess, but also strong enough that nobody would be able to mess with him.

That also included the visitor that just tried to ambush his Princess.

Witch Aiko kept looking at the other energy, still being held down by those bulging muscles. She could even vaguely see the other energy furiously tapping Uncle’s arm, as if it was yielding and wanting to run away? Surely not. That was definitely just her imagination!

It was not her imagination. The Uncle that came over had no intention of leaving anyone who hurt their Princess alive and while he couldn’t outright kill this person, because they would revive, he could still inflict enough pain that they would think twice before antagonising their Princess!

”Uncle?” Witch Aiko tilted her head.

The Uncle laughed happily. ’Those old fogeys will lose their mind.’

Everyone knew that Princess hated calling others by anything but their nicknames. Yet the current Princess was unlike the past one.

’This is good.’ The Uncle massaged his stomach as he felt nice. Finally, their Princess knew more than just numbers and generic nicknames!

’He is a strange guy...’ Witch Aiko shook her head. It was strange that this person felt so close to her, but she would still be careful about him!

’Our Princess matured so quickly...’ The Uncle sobbed inside his mind, but he didn’t let it show on his face, since Princess was still not familiar enough with them that he could do that.

”I will be taking this guy for a talk, so take your time.” The Uncle hummed as he dragged the unwilling energy manifestation with it.

...

They took a few steps and they suddenly appeared in endless space.

”You can’t do this to me!” The person shouted at him.

Uncle merely sighed. ”Listen man, if you try anything funny against her, we will become very ’acquainted’ with each other, so keep that in mind.”

”You think I care about that! My plans are almost finished! I won’t let some nobody ruin it for me!” The energy ball yelled at him.

”I really don’t care about that. I’m here just to remind you that you will die if you try anything funny.” The Uncle was not really amused by him, since these kids were really bad when it came to talking and common sense.

If he were to compare it, their Princess had plenty of common sense compared to these brainless bastards! And that was saying a lot!

”Kekeke. My main body is already on its way, you think you can stop me?” The person laughed.

*Sigh*

The Uncle was very tired of this trope. When their Princess was still around, he pretty much ate one person per day since they all came to challenge the Princess over the thrones, yet those bastards didn’t have even the most basic traits that one who owns that Throne is supposed to have!

The Uncle flicked his finger and that energy dispersed. He was simply tired of this uncreative scum.

-----

Witch Aiko watched as they disappeared. She waited for a while before returning to her job, the job of cutting things!

”Alright! There are about 2,000 left, so let’s pick up the pace.” At this point almost 80% of the lady bird’s Soul was covered in a black ’tails’ that coiled around those tendrils, waiting for the signal.

The sheer scale of things was impressive, but that also meant it tired out Witch Aiko that much quickly...

’Ugh, I want this to be over already. To imagine I will have to do it more times too-’ Witch Aiko shuddered, deal was a deal, but in the future she wouldn’t accept anything like this!

This was simply too much work!

...

All the [Little #### Nightmares] were in their positions. The whole Soul was covered in the tails and even some tendrils were smushed during this process.

Of course that didn’t affect their function, but it was still very impressive how elaborate this whole thing was.

”I will start the countdown.” Witch Aiko counted down, while all [Little #### Nightmares] sharpened their senses.

They wanted to do well in front of this new Princess, since they were very happy how she looked right now.

The countdown ended and all [Little #### Nightmares] suddenly distorted. They flickered in and out as they sliced all those tendrils at the same time.

The sudden surge of violent energy kicked Witch Aiko out and even in the real world her body tilted backwards until she crashed onto the ground.

”Ugh...” Witch Aiko groaned since she didn’t expect that kind of impact. Of course, it didn’t deal any damage to her thanks to her Cauldron, but that didn’t mean it was not an unpleasant situation.

The bird lady in front of her was very pale, and the butler was already walking over with numerous Treasures.

”Wear this and this and this-” The butler pretty much decorated her whole body with Treasures. She kind of looked like an overly decorated tree!

Witch Aiko noticed her complexion improving in real time, so she asked softly.

”How are you feeling?” Witch Aiko wanted to do a good job, but since she couldn’t check it right now, she was worried a lot.

”Empty...” The bird lady replied in a weak voice.

Witch Aiko was concerned and depressed that she failed.

”I feel free...” The bird lady felt so much emptiness from the cancelled Contract that she just had to voice it, but her true feelings were pure elation that she was able to become free with such a simple price to pay.

She never dreamed of this, so she was exceptionally happy...!