As the storm raged, and Myra put up barriers to protect her home, having see three of her statues become transient flesh and blood creatures terrified her. Her creations, her children, were in many places in this city, if they became vulnerable flesh in this storm... she could get killed.
Then a far more horrifying realization hit her. But.. it would be impossible right? But the impossible had been happening all day, even by her standards!
She ran to her bedroom... and her worst nightmares were realized.
She saw IT, growing in size, becoming humanoid, eyes glowing red, fur bristling, a beast naked and free... But what she DIDN'T sense terrified her. It was like looking at a zombie! The thing before her, shaped like a five tail kitsune on two legs, black fur, snarling... It didn't have a soul.
But it still recognized Myra, and her moment of hesitatiion to attack this thing gave it time to smash through a window, brute forcing through Myra's wards thanks to the chaos of the storm, and escaping into the unforgiving rain... and lacking a soul, not being truly alive... Myra would have better luck trying to sense a rock...
Myra shuddered. Hell itself had just been freed. Shaking, she was barely able to call Master's phone number, every ring was like a death keel to anyone caught by that thing.
Finally he picked. "Master Curtie! ... It's me! Myra Winters! Master there's no time for games! My creations began to revert to flesh, I figured it was impossible, but I checked anyway, it was alive! The figurine! It was just a corpse! But it's alive now! ... My daughter Master, she's been dead for centuries, I kept her stone corpse as a reminder of my failure! She turned mortals into stone figures without thought, without LIFE, she killed them and feed on their life to fuel her depraved magic! ... The storm, it somehow brought her body back to life! No, not her. IT HAD NO SOUL! Which means there's nothing holding it back now! It'll have no sense of empathy, no super-ego, no ability to recognize the people around it AS PEOPLE! All it'll have to direct it is instinct and her most base desires... "
Master Curtie and several other voices on the other end were screaming frantically.
With a sigh, Myra answered sadly, "She won't be hard to find... just follow the statue-corpses."
+++
As more people were transformed, the warnings on the station for everyone to flee the storm area in spite of no government order being given just became more listened to and more frantic.
A young man named Mack, in a black pants and jacket ran, his hat lost, desperately trying to use a newspaper as an umbrella to no effect. He knew he'd likely missed the bus, but there was bound to be another one soon... He didn't care as his clothes vanished, or as his feet became hooves, his body was covered in wool, or he took on an alluring shape... but what Mindy did worry that Master Curt was alright.
But Mindy stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a black outline of a five tail kitsune looming before her.
"Head Maid Skyla? Is that you?" The figure said nothing as red eyes glowed, and red flames bloomed into existence floating around her, not bothered by the rain at all, in fact, the rain drops seemed to avoid them, as if the rain itself was revolted by its presence.
The red flames swirled hypnotically in front of Mindy... her eyes drawn deeper and deeper into them. She felt her body stop moving... But she didn't care, only the swirls mattered... Mindy wool ceased to soaked, she felt her body begin to go numb... her hearing and sight faded, only the red flames all Mindy could sense...
She? It was a statue, it didn't have a sex.
Mind-... Min... Mi... What was its name?
Of course. It was being silly, statues had no name... it didn't have a name... It didn't have to be scared. In fact, statues didn't have feelings... it had no feelings... So it wasn't scared, or anything, it thought. In fact, statues... didn't... think... it didn't thi-
The still stone statue of a wool anthro woman stood dead still... And the fleeting life force within was pulled into the hungry black kitsune's essence.
The black kitsune finished its murderous meal by licking its lips.
The black kitsune looked at its backside, it let it an angry grunt, still only five tails. It would need many more lives to fuel becoming a six tail.
The black kitesune paid no more mind to what was for all intents and purposes a dead body. Driven only by the desire to consume, it simply followed it senses to the nearest and strongest collection of life-force to devour.
On the way, it found a light snack, a little voice, having lost their mother and crying out for them... A minute later, was a grinning baked and glazed clay statue of a little cat girl in a dress holding a ball, as thoughtless and lifeless as the lamp post next to it, one more meal to the black kitsune. And as impossible to restore as the hamburger meat of a cow was after it was eaten.
+++
In front of the bath house, was a polished gray statue of a naked cat girl. Her breasts were torpedo like, her stone hair done up in a ponytail, naked as a jaybird, her belly had a ruby placed, she sat crosslegged with her hands on her knees, sitting on a flat cone shape that was a part of her, her cheerful stone smile had greeted all who entered her for decades. She was sad to see the customers all flee because of the terrible storm, but she wasn't scared, she'd endure, she was stronger than any mundane stone. And if any looked closely, they'd see raindrops and lightning bolts all subtly steered away from the bathhouse. This creation of Myra's, she didn't just attract paying customers, she also was a guardian totem, and she couldn't be happier with her responsibility. Thieves and perverts had even had seconds thoughts when walking past her, subtly influencing their actions.
But she did feel fear when lightning struck, and she saw the five tailed, THING outlined with glowing red eyes. Blood red flames danced around it. It was shaped like a kitsune, proudly standing on two feet, but it's motions were feral, yet jerking like a puppet. The cat girl statue looked more alive then the black kitsune thing did.
The black kitesune sensed the power of life force from the statue, and leapt at it, trying to snuff out the thoughts, feelings, sense of self, leaving tethered life force to feed off of... but it was knocked back, unable to touch them the way a vampire couldn't touch a cross or the star of David. It hissed in frustration... it understood, mother, Myra had left nothing to chance of any ever recreated or rediscovered her life-drain magic... Her living works of art were immune to her magic trying to snuff out their thoughts and emotions, to turn them into lifeless clay, stone, etc. The black kitesune let out another frustrated snarl, and bounded off to find better prey.
+++
"Every person who dies today is my fault!" Myra said to herself horrified. "I couldn't free her of her hunger for more power! I couldn't cure her of her impatience! I didn't realize what she was doing when her tails began to come in early! I have to destroy that thing! Before it kills anyone else!"
She found the lifeless sheep statue... solid stone, no thought, no life. And... Myra felt sick to her stomach at the clay statue she found next.
Myra blinked away tears. "I'm sorry, this is my fault... I'll do my hardest to make sure no one else suffers like you have." Myra said a prayer to a higher rank deity than herself to look after the soul of this innocent victim of her failures, and hurried after the vile abomination.