I've Turned Into A Fox Girl?

Exploring the palace, navigating based on my old memories, we found some maids who seemed to have been rushing through the hallway. They had been frozen in place, their bodies preserved thanks to the stasis.

"There is no telling what side-effects they would undergo if the barrier is broken. Dare I say they might already be dead mentally?" Elysia, contemplating the worst-case scenario, jumped to a worrying assumption. We don't know the nuances of the barrier yet, so for all we know, they could be beyond saving. .net

"That may be true, but they are going to be released regardless. I would rather give my parents a proper burial than keep them like this." Overthinking the consequences won't get us anywhere, so I made my resolve to see things through.

Besides, the pope had some kind of plan for his ritual and destroying this barrier will put another wrench in his plan.

"Can't argue that."

We didn't know enough and for now, we just needed to figure out how to destroy this barrier. I was also looking for my parents to see if they were okay and if this blue gem could free them. Elysia and I were able to interact with the environment freely, as if nothing was permanently stuck in place.

Even just slightly touching the maid's arm allowed me to move it, but it remained in the new position. Moving on from the maids, we made it to the throne room, which is where I assumed my parents would have been just before the barrier took effect.

"Alright here goes nothing." I didn't have high hopes, but I was praying to find my parents behind these doors once I opened up the chamber. Lining my body up, I pushed myself into the door, but it didn't budge. I kept trying, but to no results. Meanwhile, I could hear Elysia barely containing a laugh.

"P–p-pff. N-need a hand?" She took a deep breath before coming up to my side to help, but we both faced the same problem.

"See? I'm not that weak!" Either something was blocking our way, or not everything could be moved inside the stasis field.

"Do we want to use brute force?" Elysia took out her spear, but I quickly grabbed her wrists before she sliced it open.

"We have no idea whether there's anyone on the other side!"

"Oop, true." With my intervention, Elysia put away her spear, preventing any accidental murder.

"There should be some windows leading inside, so we just need to go around. The place is already a mess so we can break a window if we have to." I recalled there being different entrances as well as windows that we could easily enter through.

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"Lead the way, you know this place better than I do."

Walking to one of the side rooms nearby, we found a window leading to the outside. Breaking it with Kotetsu, I ran into a really weird interaction. The glass had shattered, but still remained in place as only the pieces I directly touched fell down.

At first I thought I didn't shatter it, but upon hitting it again, a few more pieces were sent flying.

'Wait, time is frozen! Of course it won't fall to pieces.' Remembering that we are in a stasis field, it was no wonder physics was misbehaving. With a bit of wind, I pushed all the pieces at once, opening the way out and hopefully towards the throne.

Elysia spread her wings and picked me up before flying outside.

"You know I can fly on my own?" I had complete control over my elements so I could easily use wind to propel me up.

"You're just embarrassed to be carried by me." Elysia smiled, knowing that she was right.

Not wanting to play into Elysia's teasing, I remained silent as we approached a massive window. Elysia let me levitate on my own once we were up against the window as we took a peek inside. It was a little hard to tell at first because of the mono-chromatic vision we had, but their unique clothes instantly told me who was in the room.

"Mum! Dad!" I saw my mother and father frozen in the middle of the room, ordering a bunch of fox knights. Just as I expected, there were people right behind the door blocking the way. Perhaps we simply couldn't push objects indirectly because of the stasis, making the door immovable.

Breaking in, I quickly floated down to my parents, feeling a sea of emotions welling up inside me. Unlike before when the me from a different world didn't even know her, the complete me of now felt extremely emotional.

"You really do look like your mother. Though your father looks nothing like you." Elysia came down with me and took a good look at my parents. My mother was in a kimono like mine, but instead of it being a short-like dress, it flowed down onto the floor. It also had a much more royal feel, while mine was more suited for combat flexibility.

My father had short black hair and glasses that looked straight from my old world. He wore the clothes of an admiral and looked a lot nicer compared to how I remembered him. Thinking back, I barely ever got to see him and I had this perception that he was rather intimidating, though now he looks kind of like a nerd.

"I believe magic is involved to ensure that the royal traits are passed down, so who knows, I could have had black hair like you." I was already diving into a lot of memories that I wasn't quite familiar with just yet, but it all came flooding back to me, whether I wanted it to or not.

"Wait really?" Elysia was oddly excited by this fact. Then again, she probably wanted to rid herself of her family genes. This revelation meant that future kids wouldn't bear the stigma that she carries.

"I think so? But we can talk more later. First, we need to test if we can unfreeze my parents." Grabbing the blue gem out of my inventory, I took a moment to admire it.

"A-ahem, Of course." Elysia looked at the gem as well and realised something.

"By the way, that gem is the same colour as your eyes. Reckon that means anything special?" I didn't have a mirror, but I didn't doubt Elysia's judgement. She probably would know the exact hex code of the colour if she knew what that was.

"Possibly, I can't inspect anything because of the barrier so we'll just have to wait to find out what this gem is." Now that Elysia mentioned it, I was really curious about what this gem is.

After enough stalling, I grabbed my mother's hand while pouring mana into the gem causing another bright light to flash.

**

<Clara's POV>

I had no idea where the light had come from, but all that mattered was figuring out where the hell did Elysia and Shaman go.

"What the hell happened?" Himeko yelled out, unsure what had just occurred on her back, as she suddenly felt lighter.

"Shaman and Elysia just disappeared out of thin air!" Panic began to wash over me as there was no warning whatsoever. I instantly opened the system to try to get in contact, but there was nothing. A part of me already knew there might not be a response right away, which worried me all the more that something bad might have happened.

"Clara, can you use the lover's call? If you can teleport to them, message me so I know they're okay." Silver was quick to think of a solution, which was a relief as I was fully panicking about what to do.

"O-okay, good idea." My hands were shaking as I tried to activate the skill. However, I didn't teleport like I thought I would, instead being met with an error. I felt my heart drop, concluding that this was bad news.

Silver's face turned pale upon realising what had happened, most likely thinking the worst.

"What does it say?" Elanor spoke up, probably being the calmest of us. A part of me didn't want to read the message, but I needed to.

[Due to their location or external interference, you are unable to teleport to their current location.]

I felt relief wash over me as I read out the message, as this meant they are not dead. At least, I hope that is the case, but I assume there would be a different message if the worst had occurred.

"What happened just before they teleported?" Luna had been deep in thought while the chaos was ensuing, which made me annoyed at how unworried she was, but I'd be wasting my time getting mad at Luna.

"She was opening a black box that she received from her mother before being teleported, I think? She should have gotten it right before they were sealed in the barrier." The details were foggy, as Shaman hadn't talked much about the box. After all, she wasn't meant to open it until she met certain conditions.

"Hang on, I might know what it could have been. If it was small, then it might be the royal family jewel." Himeko interjected, as she probably had the most knowledge about Shaman's family. At least from the sounds of it, things may not be that bad.