The Freed Slaves Are Obsessed

The group returned to the city.

Hilde, having completed her task, stormed back to the royal palace, singing profanities with delight. Naturally, she made sure to bring her collar along.

Lin, who had seen Karami out walking with Hilde, gazed longingly at Hilde's collar as if it were a prized treasure. Luckily, Karami didn’t seem to notice.

The city was in disarray. The sudden darkness had thrown the beastfolk into confusion.

Using the opportunity, they made their way through the chaos and headed to Cheonsangru.

"Sky Fox."

"Ah, you've arrived."

Yuha greeted them calmly, though she hid a layer of worry.

She’d given up her powers as the Sky Fox to invest in these two, and the bonds forged along the way were not insignificant. She’d feared the worst but was relieved to see them return safely, judging by the number of tails on Lin.

She had left with eight tails and returned with nine. Lin had become a true Gumiho.

And standing before Yuha was Lin, not the Gumiho she once knew.

"So, the Gumiho has departed?"

"Yes."

"Hmm...."

That greedy Gumiho, giving up her lifelong ambition to reach the heavens and finding peace—Yuha found it hard to believe.

She wondered what had changed in the Gumiho’s heart, and how Karami had managed to guide her there.

Yuha’s gaze met Heukbi, who respectfully lowered her head in greeting.

"Amho, Heukbi, at your service, Sky Fox."

"It’s been a while. Pity there’s no time for a leisurely chat."

Yuha rested her hand on the windowsill, looking up at the sky.

The city resembled a dark, stormy night.

Like animals sensing an impending natural disaster, the beastfolk's cries filled the streets with a foreboding clamor.

The darkness over the city wasn’t just a storm—this was no natural cloud cover.

Much like the Gumiho’s eclipse, it was a shroud cast by the heavens to conceal their own sins.

They intended to exploit the yokai’s natural affinity for darkness to strengthen them.

‘Quite the spectacle.’

Despite the gravity of the situation, Karami couldn’t resist taking it in with a sense of awe. Seeing it all unfold in person was awe-inspiring, much more than seeing it on a small screen.

Unlike others, he didn’t feel particularly worried. Lin, now with the combined powers of the Gumiho, the Sky Fox, and Amho, would not be easily defeated.

He could sit back and watch as if it were a movie in a theater.

‘We’ve truly reached the end.’

It hadn’t been easy, but they’d made it this far.

The end of Lin’s liberation story.

The title: Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.

Night Parade of a Hundred Demons. A hundred spirits march through the night streets.

Yokai, under the will of the heavens, gather to eliminate the Gumiho and all connected to her.

It was the greatest misfortune and worst calamity the Gumiho could bring.

Taking place in the capital of Bestia, the focus of this defense was to minimize the city's damage from the yokai onslaught.

Minimizing damage would show resilience against misfortune.

The clear goal for complete liberation was an 80% defense rate. If damage exceeded that, failure would follow, and there would be no retries.

Unlike in a game, there were no visible percentages here. And even with 80% defense, 20% of the city would still suffer considerable damage.

So, there was something he needed to ask of Lin.

"Lin, ensure there’s no damage at all. This is both a request and a command."

Aim for 100%. He would not permit any harm.

This was a performance. A show to turn Lin into a hero.

If she could avert disaster without harm, then people’s perceptions would inevitably shift.

She would transform from a fox that brought misfortune to one that brought them fortune.

"Think you can manage?"

"As long as Master believes in Lin, Lin can do anything."

"If you succeed, I’ll even let you eat my essence legally as a reward."

"I’ll go smash misfortune to pieces."

Time passed, but the sun did not rise over Bestia.

An endless darkness. Evil energy gathered, growing denser. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The calm before the storm.

Citizens barricaded themselves indoors. Guards stationed themselves across the city, bracing for anything. But mere mortals could hardly hope to fend off such a catastrophe.

Suddenly, flames flared in the dark sky.

Through the curtain of fire, the Twelve O-Wi Ghosts made their appearance.

And so it began.

Boom.

The ground shook. The air trembled. Hidden shamans throughout the city began chanting.

Rumble...

Four enormous demon gates emerged from the ground on all sides, towering at least ten meters high.

The frame of each gate bore the petrified faces of those screaming, plastered with talismans and bound with thick chains, as if warning all to keep it sealed.

But of course, the more something was forbidden, the more one wanted to open it. The shamans chanted, breaking the seals and shattering the chains.

Clang. Boom.

The massive chains fell to the ground.

With a grating sound that scraped at the eardrums, the enormous doors began to open slowly.

An eerie mist seeped out. Through the fog, shadows began to emerge, forming a line.

Boom.

Leading them was a muscular giant. Its body was as solid as lead, coal-black. Two horns sprouted from its forehead, and a blood-red club rested on its shoulder—the king of the ogres.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! Finally, the time has come!"

The mighty Duokshini laughed boisterously. The anticipation of a battle with the infamous Gumiho filled him with exhilaration.

A group of ogres with iron masks followed Duokshini.

"Hmm, so this is the city of humans. Quite different from the underworld—how intriguing."

Another gate opened. Out emerged the centipede yokai, Baekgak Shinsha, leading a swarm of centipede yokai.

Then came others, like the four-faced demon and winged yokai, descending from the sky.

Each yokai was enough to destroy an entire city on its own, and here they all were, gathered in one place—truly a calamity.

All these yokai had come for one purpose: to target the Gumiho. Absorbing her power would allow them to become supreme yokai, beyond anyone's reach.

It was time for a new yokai king to be born.

"Alright, everyone. It’s feeding time!"

Duokshini raised his club to the sky, shouting. To a yokai, humans weren’t just prey—they were a rare delicacy.

The yokai shrieked and rushed toward the dwellings.

"Argh?"

But as they broke down doors and began to intrude, the lesser yokai suddenly clutched their hearts and collapsed as if a chronic illness had struck them.

"Hm? What’s going on with all of you?"

The yokai dropped one after another. Duokshini, taken aback, hesitated.

Thunk!

Out of nowhere, a fiery spear struck Duokshini square in the chest. A searing pain, as if it were burning his insides, overwhelmed him.

"Arrgh! Damn it, what kind of flame is this? My body... keeps burning up!"

No matter how he struggled, the spear wouldn’t budge. His steel-hard body and yokai energy burned away helplessly, as if purged by divine fire.

The Twelve O-Wi Ghosts turned their heads to see Lin hovering in the sky.

From her high vantage, Lin looked out over the scene below.

The frightened townsfolk. Children’s cries echoed everywhere. The soldiers, tense and uneasy.

To be honest, Lin still didn’t like people. Except for Master, Seira, and Yuha, that was.

People still despised her and pointed fingers at her master.

Master said that if she saved the city, people would treat her as a hero, but Lin doubted that.

People were fickle. Even if they welcomed her now, they’d turn on her at the next problem.

Like the fox clan of Baegungok. Once this moment passed, they’d be the first to place blame.

The only one she trusted was Karami. He would always be on her side, regardless of the danger.

So this wasn’t for the people—it was for Karami.

Lin summoned a fox bead.

Once the size of a fist, the bead was now larger than her head. The pink orb, once only filled with fox power, now glistened with various colors.

The yokai teemed like insects on the ground below. They roamed in the dark as if it were their playground. Then, all she needed to do was erase the darkness.

Lin’s odd-eyes shone with sunlight and moonlight.

She pressed her palms together.

An eclipse using a precise balance of sun and moon power. If she increased the sun’s proportion, a new power would emerge.

“Dawn.”

Above, higher than the sky itself.

An artificial sun pierced through the darkness over the city. The first light of dawn, a symbol of hope, chased away the darkness as it rose with Lin.

"Eeek!"

The yokai, vulnerable to sunlight, tried to shield themselves, but they couldn’t block out the sky with their hands. Their outstretched arms burned away without resistance.

The higher-level yokai wrapped themselves in energy to minimize the damage, but they couldn’t advance any further against the sunlight.

"Y-you wretch!"

As the Twelve O-Wi Ghosts charged, Lin twisted her palms. The sun sank, and the moon rose.

The moment where the last light of day met the first shadow of night.

"Dusk."

A strange world emerged where the boundary between day and night faded. The purple twilight washed over everything, blurring the line between life and death, reality and illusion.

A playful fox's spectacle of illusion.

No one under this sky could escape. In this ambiguous world, all the living within its range drifted as if lost in a dream.

Now, all that remained was to play with them like fragile toys on the verge of breaking.