It took a while for Yuki to realize it but the voice had been calling her little fox all this time. Feeling slightly nervous, Yuki asked: “Why do you keep calling me Little Fox?”

“Hehe…. Pass my trials and meet me my sliver of consciousness and I will tell you.” The voice replied. 

Yuki did not know what to say. But if she could gain power by passing these trials, then she had nothing to lose. After taking a deep breath and pushing her nervousness down about her identity, determination filled her eyes as Yuki said: “What trials do I need to pass?”

“I like your spirit. I can see your determination. Now survive.” As soon as the voice finished speaking, the room once more changed and became a massive tomb. 

Piles of skeletons filled Yuki’s vision. They were piled up like small mountains. She couldn’t even guess the exact number that was there, but she estimated at least a million or so skeletons were piled up here. She quickly went on guard because the last two words the voice spoke was telling her to survive. That could only mean one thing.

A clattering sound could be heard from one of the piles of bones. The pile itself slowly began to shake as the bones within the pile began to move around. Yuki held the hilt of her sword as she stared at the pile to see skeletons starting to rise up from the pile with old chipped, rusty swords in their hands. Some had armor some did not. But each one was giving off a strong killing intent as they began marching towards her.

Yuki took a deep breath and licked her lips. While the killing intent was quite heavy, she was not at all scared. In fact, she was kind of excited to actually enter her first trial for what could be an inheritance. She had read about these types of things before, so to actually experience it firsthand was indeed exciting for her. The whole thing about her identity being discovered no longer mattered at the moment. All that mattered was the fight in front of her. She was told to survive, and that was what she planned to do.

Since the skeletons were being too slow, Yuki charged forward, he eyes fully on the prize in front of her. Her sword slashed out, slicing multiple skeletons in half and turning them into a pile of bones as she stepped on air and pushed forward. She was remembering how she bounced back and forth when fighting the rank five demonic beast in the illusion. Her speed began to speed up to the point that it looked as if she was teleporting.

Skeleton after skeleton fell to the ground. The mass of what seemed like tens of thousands of skeletons that were coming off the single pile of bones were falling one after the other, all within seconds.

An hour passed, and Yuki was now sitting on top of a pile of bones. The aura around her turned a faint red. She had not realized that with each skeleton she killed, her body was taking in a bit of this red aura, and now, after killing thousands of skeletons, she was now giving off a bloody aura filled with killing intent.

She slowly caught her breath when she suddenly heard rattling once more, but this time it was not just a single small bone mountain but multiple. Skeletons began to climb up from the piles of bones with weapons in hand, marching towards her once more. Yuki gritted her teeth, knowing this was not going to be easy. 

“If I want power, I must live. In order to live, I must kill….” Yuki mumbled to herself as her eyes flashed with a redish black light. She gripped her sword and once more charged forward.

While this was going on, a few levels below Yuki, looking at a pool of black water that reflected the ongoings within the main hall, a figure cloaked in darkness watched the young girl fighting for her life. “She knows that she can not be defensive. She knows she must attack her enemies. The path to becoming an asura is the path of blood. She is the first to come to this place since I left it here all those years ago. And to think she is even from my own clan…. I guess fate has played its role. Little Fox, you must survive the trial. As long as you pass, I will allow you to inherit everything.”

“Ahh!” Yuki cried out in pain as a sword slashed her arm. She had gotten careless and planted her foot on a loose pile of bones, making her slip, causing her to be off balance and unable to dodge the attack. 

She held her bleeding arm and closed her eyes. The redish aura around her had grown by a lot. It was now flaked with black specs. As she opened them again, her eyes became even firmer than before. “I will not be defeated!”

As Yuki was battling with her life on the line, Nana had found a flag. “This sucks… Where is Yuki?” Stuffing the flag into her sleeve, she had walked across the ice field for hours and was still surrounded by nothing but ice. “If I were Yuki, what would I do?” 

Nana pursed her lips as she continued forward. She never realized just how much she would miss having Yuki at her side. It made her realize just how much she loved the fox girl. Just thinking about her made her smile. She wanted to kiss and touch the girl she loved. Sighing, she stopped in her tracks as the ground rumbled. The ice in front of her cracked, and a large white worm looking thing covered in ice shot up from the ground. Nana snorted and swung her sword sideways, bisecting the worm. “Don’t disturb me when I am thinking about Yuki!”