Chapter 12 – Time Rivers and Fox-Shaped Trouble

Chapter 12 – Time Rivers and Fox-Shaped Trouble

The Rivera estate was quiet again.

Too quiet.

Stella lay sprawled on her bed, hair fanned out like starlight against her pillow, one leg draped lazily over the armrest of a couch she had teleported beside the bed for "aesthetic comfort." Her fingers absentmindedly traced patterns in the air, folding space into tiny, meaningless shapes.

That’s when she noticed it.

A letter on the edge of her bed.

Smooth, black, written in ink that shimmered with shifting colors — colors that hurt to look at if you focused too long.

Stella blinked once.

Then twice.

Then groaned and buried her face into a cushion.

“Oh no.”

---

The letter smelled faintly of void-dust and fox fur. That alone should have been enough warning.

But the signature at the bottom was unmistakable.

> To my dear sister,

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

I’m coming.

- Nyxthara

(Pet me when I arrive.)

Nyxthara.

Also known, with love and terror, as Nyx.

In some dimensions, she was called Nyxthara the Cruel One. An eldritch being shaped like a fox, with ten tails made of whispering void and a face no mortal mind could comprehend — unless it wanted to melt.

She had reduced gods to bone dust for stepping on her fur.

And now she’s coming here. Great.

Stella sighed and rolled over, gazing at the ceiling. She could already sense the dimensional vibration in the air. Nyx was getting closer.

Her thoughts wandered briefly — back to her aeon-spanning journey across realities.

---

Back then, she had noticed it.

Time flowed differently in every dimension.

The ones with more Higher-Tier beings — Eldritch Horrors, True Gods, Dimension Breakers — had faster time. It sped up to match their growth. It was almost like the very flow of time bowed to them, adjusting itself so evolution, power, and civilizations could race ahead.

Meanwhile, her original dimension...

It had none of them.

No great horrors. No sleeping titans. No divine wars. No threats to reality.

It was stable.

Peaceful.

Stagnant.

While she lived through countless millennia beyond the veil, only a single week had passed here. Like a dream.

But ever since her return, time here had started to ripple — ever so slightly. Faster. Looser. As if her very presence was tugging the River of Time forward.

Now with Nyx coming...

She sighed again and picked up her pen.

The letter was no ordinary paper. It was a reverse-folding slip — if you wrote on it again, it would return to the sender through dimensional threads.

> Dear Fluffy Disaster,

Please use your HUMANOID FORM.

And stay inside your Aura-Suppression Shell.

Also, do NOT melt the house staff with your tails. They’re squishy.

—Stella

(P.S. You may be petted. One (1) pat per tail. No more.)

She tossed the letter into the air, and it vanished in a puff of dark glitter.

Then she teleported downstairs.

---

The Duke and Duchess were sipping wine in the lounge when she popped in like a bored ghost.

“Mother, Father,” she said lazily, floating an inch off the floor. “Heads up. One of my friends is visiting soon. Might arrive in a few days.”

Duchess Rivera perked up immediately.

“Oh? One of your friends?”

The Duke leaned forward, intrigued. “Will this be someone from one of those... realms you mentioned? Are they royalty? A warrior?”

Stella scratched her cheek.

“Sort of. She’s... an eldritch horror.”

Silence.

They don't understand what Eldritch means.

Stella added, “Also a ten-tailed fox. Sort of cute. Sort of terrifying. Don’t look directly at her true form or you’ll forget how breathing works.”

“…Ah,” said the Duke, unsure how to process that.

“Is she hostile?” the Duchess asked, worried.

“No, no,” Stella waved it off. “She’s... violent, but reasonable. Like a war goddess with a strong moral compass and no volume control. She only destroys things when she’s mad. Or bored. Or hungry.”

The Duke made a polite choking sound.

Stella smiled helpfully. “If a fox-eared girl shows up, let me know. Don’t try to touch her tails.”

“And if she doesn’t come in a humanoid form?” her mother asked.

Stella’s smile faded a little.

“Then we all hide in the wine cellar for a decade.”