Axia tried to tell Hirune what she did while she was in her body, but Hirune just shrugged it off, "It's simple. You took over my body and wreaked havoc while trying to beat Glykos. I don't need to know anything else."
Axia sighed giving up on explaining, "So uh... Do you want to wield me?"
Hirune raised her lip with her dumb and furrowed her eyebrows, "It's not that I don't want to, but I really don't know anything about Living Shift Weapon Artifacts. And I'm also assuming most of the time I won't be able to use you as..." Hirune paused, "You used to belong to Namulenza so your strength greatly surpasses mine. Not just that but I feel I'm obligated to own you in order to free the people of this island."
Axia sighed and laid down on a nearby stone, "That's fair."
She took a paper slip out of the fur on her collar and gave it to Hirune, "Here, it has the address of an island resident that has spent his life researching living shift weapon artifacts. He's even made some. I'm guessing he's trying to make one with a specific ability because he's never satisfied with the results.
"Also, wait here a second. I've got something to show you; you'll like it I promise," she hurried into the dark veil of the cave and came back out with a beautiful piece of coral.
Hirune looked at it with a glimmer in her eyes, "It's so pretty! But how did you manage to keep it alive in this cave?"
Axia slightly tilted her head, "Hm? This type of coral doesn't need water or anything to live. It's artificial naturally multiplying coral that Namulenza made; it was meant to get rid of invasive species and protect native species. It greatly succeeded in this task but, it also caused the native species rapidly evolve due to the devourer's essence within the coral."
Hirune slightly sprung up, "Is that why certain oceans are so dangerous?"
"Bingo!" Axia winked with a cheeky smile, "I'll allow you to wield me once you can make one of these corals. But with one difference. Can you guess what it is?"
Hirune sat down and rested her chin on her hand. She thought long and hard about this before answering, "The issue was that the fish evolved rapidly due to how much of the devourers essence was in the coral. Yet this coral doesn't seem to have that much of the essence in it."
"It doesn't?" Axia's lips curled up, her eyes smiled with a certain hint of pride in them.
"No, I can sense it. It's got the same amount of the devourer's essence as my pinky if I were to wrap it in its essence. Meaning that it was the corals rapid multiplication. It spread out so quickly that the essence grew too large for the fish to handle without evolving."
Axia walked over and put the coral on Hirune's lap, "Meaning that the solution is..."
"A coral that can both spread and decay. The coral simply increasing and decreasing in size wouldn't work because then the increased devourers essence would just compress. The coral would need to be able to kill itself in order for the essence to disappear."
"Don't get overconfident now though. It's way easier said than done--"
"Done," Hirune made a coral in her hand and put it on the floor. The coral increased in size and then died, the only piece that was left alive in the coral being the center.
Axia's eyes widened, "You serious?"
Hirune let out a hearty laugh, "Nah I faked it. I only made the essence go back to the core but leave the previous vessel behind."
Axia let out a long sigh, "And here I thought you made a revolutionary piece of coral in seconds."
"Yeah, yeah, well I'll see you tomorrow. I'm going to go to the address in the morning and tell you what he told me in the afternoon. After all I still need to get used to this island, so I'll use the rest of today and a bit of the night for that," Hirune said as she left the maw of the cave.
Axia sighed and picked up the coral, "For this being a fake it's pretty damn close to the real thing."
***
By the time Hirune had left the cave a surprising amount of time had already passed, and the moon was high in the sky. There was also a creeping sense of hunger in her stomach that was growing rapidly.
She walked around aimlessly trying to find a fruit that seemed both appetizing and safe to eat. Eventually she came across a nice-looking young farmer.
She cautiously approached them, the closer she got the more she lost her senses, "hello?" She asked with a slight shake in her voice.
The farmer turned to her, "Hey there young missy. What brings ya' around these parts so late at night?"
Her vision blurred more and her stomach growled, she was slowly going astray in her head as she spoke, "Could I have any spare food? I'm starving, I haven't eaten in quite a while."
"Well, I'm pretty sure I have some spare carrots in the back. I ain't very fond o' carrots so just wait re' a sec," the kind appetizing rabbit-- farmer responded, not rabbit.
Without even realizing Hirune slowly followed the farmer with very weak wobbly steps. She was completely caught up in her head thinking of Triste and its quiescence, "So appetizing."
The farmer turned around and looked at her, "What? You scared or something that you're following me? I guess it is pretty dark out here. Hah, you never truly know what's lurking around these er' woods do ya'?"
"You truly don't..." Hirune said still moving towards the rabbit.
The rabbit took a step back, "Young missy, er, how do I put this. Why're you lookin' at me like that while droolin'?"
She suddenly leapt onto the rabbit and pinned it to the ground, "Thank you for the meal~!"
The rabbit's eyes widened and it started trembling. "What are you doing?!" It asked its voice shaky.
Hirune didn't answer and just started bitting and ripping chunks out of the rabbit. Well, farmer but, that's what she thought she was eating. Not really though, she didn't even think she was eating. In her head she was having a nice reunion with Tundra and Kala.
By the time she finally zone back in, all that was left of the farmer was their legs. She stared at her hands and legs covered in blood. She took a small chunk of flesh off of her cheek and pulled out a small bit of muscle out from between her teeth.
"I wonder what happened to the skeleton," she said glossing over the fact that she'd eaten this person.
She heard footsteps behind her and turned around.
Behind her a girl with bright orange hair, a pair of big fluffy wolf ears sticking out of said hair. A pair of dark crimson eyes peered at her, "Did they taste good? Big Wolfie's been trying to get a bite at Young Mc Donalds there for a while, but I never let him."
"And who are you?"
"I'm Little Red Riding Hood," she pulled a large axe with the head of a wolf instead of a bit out from behind her. "And this here is the Big Bad Wolf."