I've Turned Into A Fox Girl?

With what little time remained until the crack repaired itself, I quickly prepared to hit the barrier with Kotetsu. I coated it in layers of both my stardust and starfire, all the while concentrating my mana on the tip. My mother and Father gave a look of surprise at my sudden display of wielding 2 unique elements simultaneously. They quickly recovered though, their approval clear on their faces.

I kept building up more energy, which only became harder and harder to control, straining my mind. Of course, with so much energy concentrated on one point it was only obvious that it would become unstable. I didn't know how much more I needed to put into this attack, but I figured by now it should be enough.

Thrusting forward with Kotetsu, I lodged the tip right into the crack and a burst of energy spewed out. Both my flames and stardust blew back as I continued to push deeper, causing the cracks to deepen. Everyone around me had to move further back to avoid being hit, especially my parents since they couldn't use mana to protect themselves.

They stood behind Elyisa, who put up a fiery barrier to protect from the bouts of stray energy.

I felt my arms shake as I tried my best to keep Kotetsu in position and push through. Besides the initial hit doubling the size of the crack, I couldn't see much more progress being made. I realised I wouldn't be able to hold on much longer and worried all the effort of getting this far would be for nought.

"AHHHHHH!" Pushing myself to the utmost limit, I tried pouring the rest of my mana into one final push. I was giving it my all when suddenly, a pair of swords came from the other side of the crack. Flickering with lightning, they hit the crack with force, enlarging it at a rapid pace.

The cracks started branching off, covering more and more of the barrier until it could no longer hold its form. Shattering into golden dust, time finally resumed around us, the palace now free from its temporal prison.

My mana completely exhausted, I felt my vision blurring as my consciousness started slipping. The last thing I saw was Clara appearing from the other side of the barrier, trying to catch me as I fell to the floor.

**

<Genral POV>

"Shaman!?" Clara was covered in sweat and burn marks from Shaman's attack. Yet none of that mattered to her once she saw Shaman collapse. It certainly wasn't the first thing she expected to see after finally getting the barrier broken. She grabbed Shaman just moments before hitting the ground and began checking to see if she was hurt.

"Don't worry, she just used all her mana." Elysia ran up to her, informing Clara of what Shaman had just done. Clara instantly felt at ease, but then she spotted the 2 people behind Elysia, who looked eerily similar to Shaman.

"Well, you must Clara~. I'm Shamana's mother, Cecilia." Cecilia had a very warm smile, leaving Clara stun-locked, unsure of how she should respond.

"I'm her father Makoto and I'd love to chat, but with the barrier destroyed, I need to quickly inform everyone who was frozen in place about the situation. Cecil, stay here and make sure Shaman is okay." With the stasis gone, no doubt a commotion was about to begin, so Makato quickly rushed into the palace before things got out of hand.

As Makoto ran off, the rest of Shaman's party made their arrival. Silver ran forward to see what happened once he noticed Shaman on the ground, worry filling his mind. Elanor followed suit, as she too was worried that something bad had happened.

"She is fine, don't worry." Clara quickly assured Silver, knowing he was going to inquire about Shaman either way. Luna also approached and, from a glance, she could already see that it was due to mana exhaustion, which is something that can't be healed through magic.

"Would you look at that? You're alive." Himeko was in no rush, walking up from behind everyone and locking eyes with Cecilia.

"Neither a time stasis nor some forbidden ritual would kill me that easily." Cecilia flicked her hair, acting proud that she was perfectly fine even after being frozen for years.

"Too bad that personality of yours is still around." Himeko chuckled while opening her arms up for a hug. Despite the bickering, they were very close friends who were making up for lost time by teasing each other.

"Oh, if you can deal with my daughter, you can deal with me." Cecilia let out a deep breath of relief.

"No one can be worse than you." Himeko broke away from the hug, while Cecilia rolled her eyes at the comment.

"Anyway, I'm surprised to hear the little demon you adopted ended up as my daughter's girlfriend." Hearing her name instantly made Clara extremely nervous. She hadn't made the mental preparations needed to talk to Shaman's parents whatsoever.

Silver, although not part of the conversation, hid behind Elanor, as he also wasn't quite ready to meet them. However, Silver was almost double the size of Elanor making it quite a pathetic attempt to hide, which was rather amusing.

"I know, right? It was a little rocky beforehand because of a certain someone, but now they are all quite happy together." Himeko stared at Elysia, the resident troublemaker, who only looked away poutingly.

"Oh I see. Well, as long as they're happy." There was a sinister undertone in Cecilia's smile as she stared at Clara and Elysia. There was no telling what she was planning, but she had the look of a cat that found a new toy, ready to play with her new daughter-in-laws.

"Good luck you two." Himeko shook her head, seemingly knowing what Cecilia had in store for them.

"Shouldn't we get Shaman inside?" Elanor, who had just been listening, figured we shouldn't be hanging out in front of the palace.

"Good point, miss elf princess and her shy little wolf. Makoto is probably going to need some help soon." With tensions dying down and Shaman out of commission, Cecilia herself had plenty to do herself. Of course, she was dying to talk to Silver, but priorities come first.

Elanor blushed slightly and Silver jumped at being addressed, only to then feel even more embarrassed that he was acting like this.

"Himeko, you know the palace well enough. Take Shaman to her room, assuming it is still intact." Cecilia quickly ran off to go check up on Makoto, leaving the party to themselves.

"Phew, I felt like my chest was going to explode." Clara felt like she could finally breathe again.

"Haha, she isn't that scary." Elysia giggled at Clara for overreacting for no reason.

"Surely you were nervous as well! This is Shaman's parents after all." Clara couldn't imagine being in Elysia's shoes, as the pressure would be immense.

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"Nothing to be ashamed of. I just threw myself around Shaman and proclaimed my love, hmph!" Elysia stood proud, reminding Clara that Elysia was just insane with no sense of shame.

"Gosh, you're insane." Clara shook her head while lifting Shaman off the ground.

"Alright, come on girls, let's get your bride to her room. This is a great opportunity for you if it's still untouched." Himeko smirked, reminding the girls they had free reign to explore till Shaman woke up. Both Clara and Elysia looked at each other, getting the message immediately.

"Quickly! Take us there!" They both urgently ordered, wanting Himeko to lead the way.

**

<Throne room>

"Sire, what's going on?" With most of the troops now gathered at the palace throne room, an atmosphere of confusion took root. One moment they were rushing around following orders, the next the king and queen were suddenly gone.

"Calm down, there is no immediate danger, but the situation has become complicated." Makoto knew that telling them right away that they had been frozen for years would cause a big shock. Luckily, it wasn't uncommon for them to be absent from their homes for long periods, but no doubt by now rumours have spread.

'Hmm, this doesn't make sense. How come there hasn't been a commotion in Fyxe, the closest major city?' Makato expected there to be more unrest within the nation, yet it feels like this entire incident has been isolated. He still needed to go there himself, as the palace was a fair distance away, but it didn't sit right with him that there were no citizens in sight monitoring the situation.

"What shall we do then?" Everyone looked at Makoto, awaiting their orders.

"Firstly, Inform everyone that the threat has passed and clean up the palace of any rubble that may be lying around. Once you have finished you can all return to your families. One last thing though, we have been put in a time stasis for a couple of years, which has only just been broken. So please bear that in mind when returning."

There was no telling the consequences of the entire royal family missing for this long, but keeping his men busy would give Makoto some time to investigate.

"U-understood Sire!" The guard in charge saluted and led everyone else out of the room. The maids also got the memo to begin cleaning right away.

"Need a hand, honey?" Cecilia walked into the throne room, immediately noticing that Makoto was troubled.

"I'm assuming Shaman is okay?"

"Yes, Himeko is with her so don't worry."

"Good, I need you to come with me to Fyxe and announce our return as well as investigate something." Makoto wasn't wasting any time and planned to leave right away.

"Hold on! Before we go shouldn't we wait for Shaman to wake up, or at least ask her companions for some more information?" Cecilia knew there was probably a lot they still didn't know, so with Shaman's party here, they might as well get some of the answers that he is looking for.

"Hmm, that will be a start, but we need to take action soon, we have been gone for far too long."