I've Turned Into A Fox Girl?

"Arghhh, this doesn't make any sense. You are saying that you are me from the future and that this place is some kind of dungeon? I am also most likely some creation of some kind of god forever stuck in a time loop? And you're telling me there is a whole other world outside of this space which is where Elysia comes from?" Alice held her head, trying to make sense of everything that she was told. 

It was quite the information dump so I don't blame her if she doesn't believe everything. 

"Yes, everything you said was correct. Right now, Elysia was about to kill me to inherit my powers for the sake of helping the people outside. There is no way to free me, so if I give my powers without dying, then I will be rewarded by eternal suffering courtesy of these chains." Trapped Alice twisted the story a tiny bit, but nothing she said was a lie, as her powers would be used to help defeat the Pope. 

"I-I see, so what is this about getting me to leave this 'dungeon'?"

I cannot imagine the thoughts Dungeon Alice is having after being told her entire life is a lie. However, what I found interesting was that she was quite receptive to the explanations and didn't jump to any conclusions. 

Honestly I half expected her to freak out and start a fight, unable to come to terms with her new reality. 

"Once Elysia takes on my powers, I want you to enter into a blood contract with her. This way, hopefully, you will be able to leave this place and explore the world beyond the towers." Dungeon Alice knew the significance of a blood contract, just by looking at her shocked face, I could guess it was the equivalent of signing your life away. 

"Hmm… Will I be happier being with Elysia than in here?" Dungeon Alice thought deeply for a moment before she finally asked the question. It was a good sign that she was actually contemplating leaving this place.

"Yes. By staying in this place, your future will never come." Sealed Alice gave me a quick smirk as if she had closed the deal already. 

"Arrg, there goes my hopes that we're not actually the same person. That's pretty low of you to use my parent's last words against me. Damn it, what is this twisted situation? I don't even know if I can rightly trust you, but now you want me to trust her as well? And with my life at that!" I could clearly see Dungeon Alice was starting to believe us, but it seemed she still needed one more push to take my hand. 

'This is herself, so no doubt Alice knew exactly what words to say to get across to her other self. Now we just need to give her the courage to take that final step.' Seeing how quickly dungeon Alice got convinced by our story, it made me wonder if I would have been able to persuade her at all. 

"Haha, I understand your doubts, but please, I want you to have a better life than I did. There is so much for you to see on the outside, so many things you will never get to experience if you just hide here alone for the rest of time. So, will you enter into a contract with Elysia? I promise she is a sweet girl and someone you can be best friends with." 

'This woman.' I shook my head at her flagrant exaggerations. I wouldn't say no to being friends, but it was a big leap to jump straight to best friends. 

'Looks like I got my work cut out for me.' It was going to be tough with my kind of attitude, but I owed Alice this much, so maybe I should treat this as an opportunity to fix my narrow mindset. My obsession with Shaman was never going to go away, but that doesn't mean I should still treat everyone I come across as a threat. So why not start by befriending this Alice? I can just take things one step at a time. 

"Fine, if my future self says so, then it must be true. I have always wanted to be free of Alucard's rule, so if being bound to Elysia for eternity is the price, I will pay it." Dungeon Alice eventually succumbed and began to express her true feelings. 

"Great! I assure you that life will only get better." Sealed Alice's smile widened, pleased that she was willing to follow through on the contract. 

"It better be." Dungen Alice pouted, demonstrating that she fully maintained her future self's tsundere side.

'Teasing her is going to be fun.' Now that Alice is about to be under my command, I can repay all of the teasing I have received over the last few days. 

"Alright, with that sorted, I need Elysia to finish the ritual so take a few steps back." It was finally time to pick up where I had left off. Dungeon Alice moved backwards a short distance before sitting on a rock. 

"Thank you for listening, Alice. Once we leave this place, there is something I still have to do, which may take me a year or so. However, once everything is done, I'll make sure to introduce you to my party." There was still my grandfather to deal with, so I did not want to raise any unrealistic expectations that everything would be amazing once we left. 

"Okay, I understand." Dungeon Alice nodded her head. She must still have a lot of questions, but that could wait. 

"Looks like my time has come. I'm ready whenever you are Elysia." Sealed Alice braced herself for the arrow and started to mubble. I assumed it would be the spell granting me the ability to inherit her abilities. 

"I appreciate the time we spent together. I will make sure your younger self gets to live a better life." I loaded a fire arrow onto my bow and drew back the string, shooting straight for Alice's heart. 

"Haaa, this is really happening. finally... I can rest." I watched as Alice let go of herself and accepted her impending death. 

"Goodbye Alice." 

"Farwell, the daughter I wished I had."

'I was not supposed to get attached to you, bitch.' My heart ached as I heard her final words. We were nowhere near having that kind of relationship, but knowing she saw me that way helped to fill the void left by the death of my own parents, even if only for a brief moment. 

Nonetheless, I let go of the string, allowing the arrow to fly free through the air, straight into Alice's heart. As soon as it pierced through her heart, there was a sudden burst of blood-red energy that shot through the cavern roof. 

Alice made no noise, showing no signs of pain despite being shot through the heart. She simply smiled and made eye contact with me. It was a little disturbing to see, but I kept eye contact so as not to accidentally ruin the inheritance ritual. 

As the energy rushed through the roof, Alice's body slowly turned into a bloody red mist. 

Once her body vanished, the magical circle that had entrapped her began to deactivate. Its bright red glow faded as there was no longer a body to sap mana from. 

When Alice's entire body turned to mist, all that energy that was just spewed out was suddenly redirected towards me. I stood strong, ready to take whatever comes my way. As soon as it made contact, a surge of pain coursed through my body. 

"ARGHHH!" The sharpest pain was in my fangs. It felt like they were being yanked out of my skull, which was a kind of pain I never expected to feel. 

My body did its best to absorb the energy, but due to the dramatic changes taking place inside me I could barely hold on to my consciousness. 

I could not tell what was going on with my body, but my best guess was that I was becoming a true vampire. Since I was still a regular Kitsune before absorbing Alice's power, I would likely be forced to transition, otherwise who knows whether my body would even survive this infusion. 

'This better be worth it.' 

*

<10 minutes later> 

I had finally finished absorbing everything. I was, however, completely exhausted. Of course that was but to be expected considering I had been in pure agony for ten whole minutes. 

"Are you okay Elysia?" Alice, who had been observing everything from a distance, knelt down next to me. 

"Yes, just give me a moment to catch my breath." Unexpectedly, my body bounced back very quickly. I was not using my vampiric flames or any sort of recovery magic, which makes me believe that I inherited an incredibly potent passive skill. 

'I need to go through the system later. For now, I should get this contract sealed and leave this place before I'm caught.' With Alice's protection no longer present, it was only a matter of time before I was uncovered. 

I am now a vampire, so it might buy me some time, but I did not want to take any chances. If Alucard caught wind of that sudden surge of energy, he may be on his way here right now. 

"Let us get this contract over-with while it is still quiet." I wasted no time in attempting to activate the blood contract. 

"O-okay." Alice was still concerned about my health, but she understood that they could not spend much time down here. 

Just as I had predicted, a system pop-up asked if I wanted to offer Alice a contract. After pressing yes, there was a nicely laid out screen of conditions that I could change. 

Quickly skimming through the contract, I concluded that most of the conditions were useless and only applied if Alice betrayed me. 

'Let's turn off the death condition, the range limiter annnd allow her to have free will.' Some of these requirements almost made it a slave contract, which was not what I wanted at all. After reading it one last time, I approved all the changes to the many conditions, so that it essentially only tied Alice's life to me.

"Mhm." Alice nodded, but her expression revealed that she was extremely nervous. 

A screen appeared in front of Alice out of nowhere, frightening her because it was something she had never seen before. However, she quickly realised it was the contract. 

"W-wait isn't this way too lenient? I assumed these contracts were similar to slave contracts." Alice immediately noticed that the conditions were extremely lax. 

"You were never meant to be my slave. Just because we are bound for eternity does not mean you cannot have freedom." Sitting up from the ground, I met Alice eye to eye and gave her a smile. 

This way, by providing her with a reasonable contract, I would earn her trust. She may have trusted her future self, but I had to earn it now. 

"T-thank you… I guess she was right to put her faith in you." Gaining Alice's trust - Mission success! Still, this was only the beginning. I had to keep it up to make sure she did not regret accompanying me. 

"I accept." After reading the entire contract, she verbally accepted it, and the window closed. 

A small cut then appeared on both of our wrists, and a string of blood flowed from each of them. The blood streams became entwined with one another, forming a ball of some sort. It then glowed red until it became a ruby, severing the blood connection between our wrists. 

Alice was unfazed by this, so I assume it was part of the procedure. Picking up the ruby and inspecting it quickly, I discovered that it was a proof of contract, and that destroying it would terminate the contract while also killing Alice. 

'Well, this goes straight to inventory, where it will never be seen again.' As I tossed it into the system inventory, I noticed Alice's body changing right in front of my eyes.

"Ummm Elysia? What's going on?" Alice looked around, puzzled as her body shrank. She continued to shrink for a few more seconds, reaching a height of 140 cm.

"I don't know? Is it the contract?" I quickly opened the system to look at it, and there was nothing that suggested she would shrink. However, I received a separate notification explaining everything. 

[Due to Alice entering a contract, all appearance-altering magic has been removed.] 

"EHHHH?!"