Chapter 78: Reality Phantasm

Chapter 78: Reality PhantasmThe moment Francisca vanished, the battlefield blinked.

Then—

BOOM!

A shockwave split the ground as she reappeared mid-air, driving both heels straight into a construct’s face. Its jaw shattered. Its neck bent the wrong way. Before it could regenerate, she spun—tail-first—and lashed a streak of golden fire across its chest.

SSHHHRRAAAKK!

The flames didn’t just burn—it seared through dimensions, cutting deeper than physical. The monster screeched, limbs flailing, face bubbling like acid poured through it.

Francisca didn’t stop.

She hit the ground, spun low, and launched into a backflip. Her tails spiraled behind her—one fire, one wind, and now, the third—light.

Golden beams lanced out like needles, stabbing into the gaps of the construct’s body.

It tried to reform.

It couldn’t.



The light disrupted its core.

Mob saw it from across the battlefield. "She’s not just stronger. She’s purifying them."

"About damn time," Angel growled, elbowing a brute in the ribs as Ken tackled it from behind.

Francisca didn’t hear them.

Her eyes were locked forward. Her body moved like a flame in a storm—fluid, wild, impossible to follow. Every step, every swing of her tail, left trails of gold-fire that lingered in the air like ink in water.

Another construct lunged—one with four arms and no mouth, only teeth stitched into its torso.

Francisca’s eyes flared.

She raised her hand—

Snap.

The air ripped.

A wall of foxfire surged sideways, crashing into the monster like a wave. It howled—not from pain, but fear. Its core twisted, trying to escape the light.

Too late.

She stepped through the flame and drove her palm into its chest—

KA-KRACK!

Its body convulsed. Then shattered like stone under pressure.

Gone.

Ella blinked. "She’s wiping them. Like—completely."

Even the constructs that could regenerate started slowing down near her.

They hesitated.

"You seein’ this?" Ruka panted, fire dripping from his hands.

Mob nodded. "They feel it. She’s the first real threat to their code."

Temmy launched a chain toward another target. "Then let’s give her the space she needs."

They moved as a unit now.

Ruka took the left. His flames matched hers—chaotic, wild. He mirrored her strikes, launching bursts where she’d already scorched a path.

Ken and Angel crashed into the frontlines, tag-teaming a hulking construct with synchronized brutality. Claws, teeth, raw strength—it screamed as they pinned it down.

Mob zipped skyward, hurling javelins of light down from above, weakening the monsters Francisca wasn’t touching yet.

Ella ducked between shadows, redirecting blood bullets to cover Temmy as she summoned a binding circle beneath two targets.

The battlefield shifted.

This was no longer survival.

This was control.

Francisca was at the center of it—floating above the fight now, her three tails fanned out behind her like a royal crest. Her eyes burned. Her voice echoed.

"Kitsunebi no Owari."

From her chest, a golden orb began to form. It spun, gathering light from her flames, from the energy around her, from the battlefield itself. The constructs turned in unison—pulled by something they didn’t understand.

Then—

She slammed both hands forward.

SHHHHHHRRROOOOOMM!!!

A beam of pure foxfire, focused and massive, erupted from the orb and tore across the field like a living comet.

It didn’t just burn.

It erased.

One of the constructs tried to escape.

Didn’t make it.

The others staggered—damaged for the first time in real, permanent ways. Holes that didn’t close. Limbs that didn’t regrow.

Mob landed hard beside her, stunned. "That... wasn’t kitsune magic. Not just."

Francisca exhaled, her eyes dimming slightly.

"I didn’t ask what it was," she said. "I just remembered who I am."

She smiled—but it wasn’t cute.

It was dangerous.

From above, the constructs regrouped—dented, cracked, still alive. Barely.

They hissed. Cackled.

And charged again.

Mob rolled his neck. "Let’s see if they like round three."

Ken cracked his knuckles. "Let’s break something important this time."



Ruka laughed. "They’re still standing?"

Temmy snapped her fingers. "Not for long."

Francisca floated above them, a burning crown of light behind her.

And as the team stepped into formation again—

The tide had truly turned.

Remu narrowed her eyes, her grin twitching—just slightly.

Francisca’s third tail shimmered behind her, flickering gold and white.

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

She muttered, "Tch... annoying little fox."

Most people wouldn’t think much of it—just another tail, right? But anyone who knew kitsune bloodlines understood. That extra tail wasn’t just for show.

It was power.

Real power.

Each tail was a leap. Not a step. A full-on evolution.

And this third one?

It didn’t just make Francisca faster or stronger. It didn’t just boost her flames. It changed the very nature of her kitsune magic.

The battlefield didn’t just shift. The rules did.

Until now, Mob, Temmy, Ruka, and Ken had been throwing everything they had—but it wasn’t sticking. Sure, they landed hits. They hurt the constructs. But nothing stayed broken.

Because Remu didn’t fight fair.

Her constructs were tied directly to her will—fed constantly by the grimoire.

Every wound? Gone in seconds.

Every limb? Regrown.

Every core? Rebuilt.

She was healing them without even thinking. A passive effect of her twisted connection to the book.

But Francisca?

She wasn’t just burning them.

She was bypassing the healing altogether.

Why?

Illusion.

That third tail awakened her ancestral ability—Reality Phantasm.

Kitsune illusions at that level weren’t just tricks for the eye. They folded into existence. Francisca’s magic blurred the line between what was imagined and what was real.

So when she made the construct think it was being erased?

It was.

The moment they believed in the illusion—the body followed the lie.

That was the cost of fighting a three-tailed kitsune.

Francisca didn’t need to destroy you physically.

She just needed to convince you you were already dead.

And with every tail, that line between fiction and fact got thinner.

Remu scowled. She gripped the grimoire tighter. The pages rattled like teeth.

"She shouldn’t be able to override my link..."

She watched as one of her constructs stumbled again—fire clinging to its form, refusing to burn out. It reached for its own chest—confused—as if trying to stop a heart that wasn’t even there.

It crumbled to one knee.

Tried to regenerate—

Failed.

The illusion had sunk too deep.

Remu cursed under her breath. "She’s warping their anchor points... dammit."

Back on the field, Mob noticed it too.

"She’s hacking their reality," he said, breathing hard. "They think they’re broken... so they are."

Temmy blinked. "So they’re not healing because—"

"They believe they can’t," Francisca said, landing beside them, calm now.

Her three tails danced behind her in the breeze.

"I’m not attacking the body," she added, eyes glowing. "I’m talking to the soul."

The constructs turned again—some slower now, twitching, unstable.

Ella tilted her head. "That’s creepy. I like it."



Francisca gave a tiny smirk. "You’re welcome."

Remu hovered above, her smile finally gone.

She reached toward the grimoire—and this time, snapped it open with force.

If illusions were the new problem—

Then she’d burn the whole damn world down before letting it beat her.

"Fine," she muttered.

"Let’s see how real your lies stay... when I raise the dead."

The pages of the book flipped wildly—black fire spewing from its core.

The sky cracked.

Something else was coming.

But this time—Lucifer stepped forward.

And for the first time, Remu hesitated.