Ayemi was proud with Fenrir already embracing his new nature. Of course, for Fenrir, in his heart, he was still doing his best to be a hero, and he had just saved two women's lives, so how could he not logically be? Heroes didn't kill, or that was what the comics said, but monsters weren't people, so Fenrir was free to tear these monsters to shreds as they choked on their own blood.
Ayemi smirked at this logical, 'Nothing is more pure and terrifying than the ruthlessness and brutality of a child.'
+++
"YOMI!" Shouted a black furred kitsune's face in a mirror.
"Busy right now Hikari," said the white furred kitsune. The irony of their names to their fur had always been an amusing conversation piece.
"You have started a war Yomi! Surrender yourself and your life now, so you might regain honor and restore ours!"
Right now, the seven year olds now had little black noses, the fur continuing to spread. Whiskers forming on their faces as they slowly began to push into muzzles.
"I'm about to bring great honor to our pack!"
"You are insane! Stop this now! I adopted children who were betrayed by their parents, and doomed to die. I gave them those without a home, one with our pack. Like you have soldiers who were abandoned by theirs!"
"Heh. Is that why you took that job at that clinic?"
"... Yomi. We were brought into our family together. But you will no longer be considered part of our family, win or lose. And if your ashes somehow survive Lilith and Merlin's fury, they will not be entombed in the hall of our ancestors. They will be scattered to the wind, and no shrine to your memories will be erected in our house."
"I'm about to create a family more powerful than you and all your second-hand children put together Hikari. If I have to take my babies to another universe and destroy my world mirror behind me to keep any from following us, so be it."
"... Goodbye Yomi, we won't meet again in this world or the next. Know that I have always loved you little sister..." The image of the black kitsune faded.
"You will be perfect kits for mommy."
"We will be perfect kits for mommy," the three said obediently, and meaning every word.
+++
The other distraction at the same time was making its way to the opposite side mansion. Sun Tzu said, if your enemy reinforces their left, your enemy will weaken their right, and same for reinforcing their right, and if they reinforce everywhere, they will be weak everywhere. It was time to make the kitsune weak everywhere.
The two darkners and two lighteners approached the house, and saw the statues about. Very realistic statues. Most covering their faces or glancing behind them. All of looks of terror on their faces.
Katie immediately covered her eyes, but was stopped by Baba Yaga. The old witch pointed at the ground as Circe herself kneeled. She summoned a large rat that had been a wife beater, and let it leap across the field away from her... and a mechanical trap chomped up and sliced it in two.
"You think there's a medusa or a cockatrice about, so you're looking around you, instead of checking the ground for traps, very clever," Circe said. "All those magical wards you wouldn't be expecting mundane traps... But I know transmutation, and those statues are just statues."
Then the door was kicked open, and there was a fox beast, in combat armor made to his hulking size, carrying a gatling gun. Katie remembered how a muscle man carrying around a gatling by the hip was impossible for a human being and dangerous if it was... but these hulking fox men had strength greater than that of any man. Katie didn't have time to reflect on any of this however as bullets came spraying at them. Circe conjured a simple swirling barrier to block them... Baba Yaga pulled Circe down along with the two girls.
The bullets went right through the barrier.
"Each of those bullets is enchanted, I wonder what poor kitsune was made to slave away at that mindless task." Baba Yaga said.
"You saved me," Circe said.
"Don't act so surprised." Baba said.
Another fox beast in combat gear raised his hand to the skin, and a screaming purple flaming skull shot into the sky from his palm, and in an arc, landed to the side of the rescuers. It exploded in swirling purple flames as hot and consuming as white phosphorous.
Another fox beast, using binoculars said, "Adjust your aim by 15 degree to the left Bernie."
"Right Rodger!" Bernie fired off another screaming skull in an arch.
The other fox beast kept sweeping away with bullet above the rescuers heads.
Baba Yaga observed. "This isn't blind shooting, this is cover fire... and the way they are adjusting their 'mortar' spells, these aren't dumb brutes, these professional soldiers."
"And Mistress has done me better than the government did after the Viet-Con took my legs!" Snarled the fox-beast with gatling gun. "I will die for Mistress!"
"They must know they can't win with all the firepower we've brought with us," Katie said.
"They aren't trying to win," Baba Yaga said. "They are only interested in delaying us until the corruption done unto the children becomes irreversible."
Another flaming skull landed, closer this time.
"Three degree to the right this time Bernie."
"Got it Rodger!"
"We don't have time for this. With only three of them needed to keep us trapped here, this is barely helping," Circe said. "Dragon scales are bullet proof, and the fires of even a volcano mean nothing to them. Would you two care to volunteer?"
"How do we know you'd even change us back when the fight is over? And not brainwash us to be your minions in the meantime?" Katie asked.
"I give my word, you will not become slaves, servants, pets, or the like, and I shall return you to your human form after the fighting here is done ... I am a goddess. When I give my word, it is unbreakable."
Baba Yaga said, "I can vouch for this, also as a goddess she's also bound by the SPIRIT of the agreement, not the wording. She isn't a demon."