Believers

After the first thirty minutes of wandering through the enormous piles of undelivered gifts, Kisa was forced to take a break and fight back the panic attack that threatened to consume her. The darkness was absolute beyond the small range of her crystalline light, and it was during this moment of respite that she spotted a pallet stacked  with bicycles nearby.

She thought it was pretty fucked up that a bunch of kids somehow never got their bikes, but she found one roughly her size and dragged it clear . The tag fell free  of the handlebars, and she bent down to pick it up and read the name.

“Sorry, Thomas. Looks like a sweet ride.” The bike was blue with a gold lightning bolt on the frame. She dug through the pile and found a helmet. When she pressed it onto her head, she hissed in frustration as she   fought both her hair and her ears to get it on properly. By the time it was on, her ears had been folded against her scalp, muting the outside world.

Kisa   made it nearly  six feet on the bike before crashing. She didn’t know if she had never learned how to ride as a child or if it had simply been too long, but she climbed back to her feet and tried again.

Between her natural grace and dexterity, she was soon pedaling forward in the darkness  with the crystal tucked between her knuckles providing enough light to see.  She hoped that she was still headed in the right direction.  It had occurred to her more than once that being shuffled around may have pointed her somewhere else in the warehouse and she was moving away from the entrance.

The good news was that Christmas was finite. At some point,  she would reach a wall. When that happend, she would pedal her bike alongside until that damn elevator appeared. The building couldn’t be infinitely large on the inside…right?

Once she reached the cave wall, it was essentially a coin flip for which direction to go. She chose left and was finally able to pedal with  some speed , no longer dodging piles of gifts. When she reached the dais , hot tears of joy ran down her cheeks as she tucked the bike out of sight around a corner.

Kisa was tired, but refused to find somewhere to nap until she was out of the warehouse. The darkness felt like it would crush her at any moment, and she had no idea how long her crystal would continue glowing.

The trip up the elevator was uneventful .   W hen the doors slid open, she let out a sigh of relief  to see the lit caverns  empty. She moved along the tunnels and found herself back in Grýla’s lair. A very large cauldron had been set over a fire and a pair of elves were cleaning up a horrendous mess on the floor that looked suspiciously like it used to be another elf.

“Fuck this place,” Kisa muttered, moving back to the main tunnel. When she reached the pits where the elves had been stored, she crouched down upon seeing Leppalúði standing above one of the pits, a figure held between his hands.

“I cannot cook this!” he yelled at a smaller version of himself.

“ Krampus say children frozen!” The Yule lad gave Leppalúði’s shin a kick. “Stupid Christmas magic, only Santa can fix! After Krampus take pole, children become food!”

“What the hell?” Kisa moved to the edge of the pit and looked down to see that one of the elven prisons had been repurposed .  Instead of elves, it held children, all of them wrapped in blankets and sleeping on the floor. Her heart raced seeing all of the children  collected into a macabre sleepover in the giant’s den.

Leppalúði let out a roar, and Kisa looked over to see that he had tried to bite the child in half and cracked one of his teeth. He spat the tooth fragment on to the ground and hurled the child at his son.

“Put it back in the pen,” he snarled, rubbing at his mouth. “Your mother won’t be happy.”

The Yule lad squeaked in terror and ran off with his bundle. Leppalúði scratched   his jaw and turned toward his lair, his large nostrils flaring. He walked within a few feet of Kisa, then stopped and sniffed the air.

Shit!  Kisa crouched down, holding her breath. Leppalúði snorted, then picked his nose and wiped it on his shirt.

“ They smell so good, ” he muttered, wandering past Kisa and back into his cave. She could hear him smacking his lips for some time and fought the urge to gag in response. Her brain was busy processing the horror of all thosechildren ,  just ready to be eaten. When the time lock ended, they would all awaken in the middle of a nightmare

Kisa’s breath was coming quickly now. She reached into her coat and pulled out the adoption papers she had found addressed to her. Once upon a time, when she was a child, someone had wanted to make her part of his family . On Christmas morning, hundreds of families would wake to discover their children had gone missing. They would all disappear without a trace, just like Kisa had, only these children weren’t destined for a weird, albeit happy ending. They would end up as food for the giants, their final moments filled with terror.

“This is wrong.” She felt the hackles on the back of her neck rise as a surge of energy went through her body. No, this was more than wrong. It was evil, pure and simple.

A low growl came from her chest, and she bared her teeth as she moved against the wall and tucked  her paperwork away . Something was brewing inside her.   What little magic she had  was concentrating itself and working  its way through her body as if trying to figure out what came next. What would Mike do if he were here? Could he even do anything? What about Tink ,  or Yuki?

An elf wandered by Kisa, his eyes distant as he carried a stack of bloody towels. Kisa didn’t know why, but she was compelled to fall in line b ehind him, her eyes affixed on the back of his head. The elf didn’t acknowledge her existence in the slightest as he led her around the corner to a room full of garbage . It was a giant pile of busted furniture and appliances, most likely remnants of Leppalúði's new rich lifestyle.

The two of them were alone. The elf dumped his burden and spun on his heels, walking into Kisa.

“Wait.” Kisa stuck her hand out and the elf froze, his blank eyes skimming her face. Had their brains been wiped completely clean, like a hard drive erased by a magnet? How much of the original elf even remained?

The elf hissed and moved around her. Worried that it was about to tattle on her to Leppalúði, an  idea formed.

“I have new orders from  the Krampus .” It had occurred to her that the elves obeyed the Krampus first, and that the only reason they listened to Leppalúði at all was because they had been told to. She crossed her fingers as the elf stopped in place, then turned to face her.

Several tense seconds passed, but the elf seemed content to hear her out. She had seen the elves stand by  as their brethren were eaten, so it was unlikely she could say or do anything that would elicit any sort of response.

“Bring me five other elves from the cells below,” she demanded, then watched as the elf turned to leave. She moved against the wall and willed herself into the surroundings, hoping against hope that she was right.

Leppalúði was stupid. That much was true. There was no way he would notice a missing elf, or even several, which gave her room to improvise.

Soft footsteps echoed down the corridor and she was elated to see that the elf had obeyed. There were six of them in total, and they stood right where Kisa had been before, awaiting their next orders.

Smiling to herself, Kisa moved out of the shadows to greet her new minions. T he giant was big, and an all out assault was out of the question. As of now, the elves didn’t question her presence, and she certainly didn’t want that fact to change. She would use these six to take the giant out of the equation.

As for after? By herself, she couldn’t save more than a child or two. But with an army of brain dead elves ready to obey her every command? Anything was possible.

There was a pull in her core, and she felt Mike’s presence wash over her, now closer than ever. He had been oddly distant for a while, but she hadn’t worried too much about it. Satisfied that the elves would remain hers to command, she ordered them to move trash around and look busy while she snuck over to a dark corner of the cave and crouched down to make herself small.

It was time to check in with her man.

---

After Mike  stepped through the flames of the fireplace and into the Workshop, he moved to the side and frowned. With the time variance, he should have only been gone a few hours from the North Pole.

Somehow   the atmosphere here had shifted drastically. The abandoned Workshop had been mildly spooky before, but   now there was an aura of malignance that clung to everything. The shadows seemed darker than usual , with a few of them seeming  to dance around when he wasn’t looking.

The flames flickered again, and Lily came through, followed by Freyja, Yuki, then Holly. Before the flames died out, Christmas Present stepped through the fire, brushing soot off her robes.

“This isn’t good.” She frowned and moved forward into the Workshop lobby. “Do you all feel that?”

There was a thud on the exterior of the building, followed by a screech. Dust fell from the ceiling and landed on the frost that had accumulated over by the door.

“Well, so much for  first impressions.  This place looks awful.” Lily stepped away from the fireplace. “So what’s the plan?”

“ Hold up.” Mike raised a hand as a questing presence touched the back of his mind. He closed his eyes and concentrated, causing Kisa to come into focus in his mind’s eye.

“Thank god,” she muttered, then leaned back against a wall he couldn’t see . “I was afraid you might not be listening.”

“Sorry, some big shit is going down,” he replied. “We found out that Krampus has taken a bunch of kids.”

Kisa nodded. “I know. They’re being kept in that big bitch’s lair,. ”

“Are they okay?” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Are they…scared?”

“Nah, they’re all frozen in time or something. I don’t know all the details, but once the Krampus takes the pole, they’ll unlock and…” Kisa looked like she was going to be sick. “I have a plan to get them out of here, but it’s only temporary. Whatever you’ve got cooking, you better get on it fast.”

“Wait, hold up. How about you? Are you safe?”

“ I’m underground w ith a bunch of dickbag giants, elves with missing brains, a nd a stack of time frozen kids. I’m fine. ” Kisa rolled her eyes at him. “But I’m  okay for now. You have a plan to bail me  out of this shit storm?”

“You know me.” He winked.

“Fuck.” She dragged the word out. “You just came up with it, didn’t you?”

“Nah, I’ve been working on something for a couple of…hours.” It had been a long walk back to the ski resort and he had plenty of time to discuss strategies with Freyja and Yuki. The Krampus was just waiting for  the  chance to get his hands on the North Pole, so his first destination was Santa’s house. However, with Grýla on the loose and  a village   full of warped snowmen,  Yuki and Freyja had agreed to do a quick reconnaissance to see where things stood.

As for the Krampus himself, Mike believed he had a solution to that particular dilemma.

Kisa looked like she was going to say something, but tilted her head. “Shit, do you hear that? No, of course you don’t.”

“What is it?” he asked.

Kisa grinned. “I think I just heard the heat come on. Here, before I go.” She pulled her map from her pocket and unfolded it. “I went into a tunnel under this building,” she said, tapping one of the corners. “Grýla and her ugly potato children all live in a series of  caverns beneath it. If you get the chance, I could really use an assist down here.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” He gave Kisa a hug and then opened his eyes. The others were standing around, waiting for him. “Kisa knows where the children are. They’re  safe for now. She said they’re time locked,  so that’s one less thing for us to worry about.”

“They only unfreeze for their personal visit, remember? ” Christmas Present looked at Lily. “You’ve been doing this for months now, we know those kids weren’t lying awake in their beds the whole time. They only unfroze for us because we’re Santa’s helpers. Being abducted by Yule lads definitely doesn’t count, so they’re safe for now.”

Lily still  looked unhappy, but Mike couldn’t blame her. Though the news was  good, it didn’t make everything else better by comparison. “Okay, so we should—”

The building groaned as something large hit it, sending a cascade of snow sliding off of the roof and over the windows. A massive furry bulk moved just outside the window, and a large eyeball appeared in one of the windows.

“It’s the Yule cat!” Holly grabbed Mike by the hand. “They know where we are , we need to get to Santa’s house right away!”

“On it.” Mike looked at Yuki and Freyja. “Are you coming with us? ”

The building creaked when a paw appeared on one of the windows and pressed. The glass cracked, splintering out to the edges.

“Let’s move.” Yuki nodded at Holly. “Once we’re at Santa’s house, we can make our stand there.”

Holly threw a handful of powder into the fireplace just as the front door of the Workshop burst apart, revealing a misshapen figure with a distorted jaw.

“Food!” Grýla shouted, her arms twitching as she squeezed her bulk through the busted doorway. Mike didn’t remember her being this large before, and he couldn’t help but notice that the shadows seemed to bend toward her.

“You all go.” Freyja turned toward the giant. “This one has something of mine. I’ll catch up soon.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Lily bolted into the fireplace ahead of the others, her tail snaking back to hook Mike by the wrist and pull him through . Yuki and Holly came through next, followed by Christmas Present. Back in Santa’s house, Mike turned to look through the flames, but only felt a blast of cold before they snuffed out completely, plunging the home into darkness.

“What the hell?” He summoned a pair of glow spiders to illuminate the room. Yuki was already holding foxfire, and Lily’s eyes glowed in the darkness. Santa’s home, which once felt warm and cozy, now had the same ominous feeling as the Workshop.

“Mother!” Holly ran toward the stairs, and Christmas Present followed, the light from her body illuminating the way.

Yuki moved to the window and frowned. “I can’t see anything out there,” she said, then turned to Mike. “All the lights are out.”

“ Sounds like things are moving fast ,” he replied just as something large walked across the roof. “Looks like we’ve got company here, too.”

“ Not for long.” Yuki moved to the door and put her hands on it. “I’ll clear the perimeter. Lock it behind me,”  she told him, then winced and put her hand on her side. “I’ll take care of the popsicle patrol.”

“Hey, are you okay?” Mike asked.

“I will be.” Yuki looked over at Lily. “Take care of him, will you?”

Lily nodded, but said nothing. Mike found her silence more than a little disturbing.

Yuki let herself out.  The home filled with a burst of arctic cold that chilled Mike even through his jacket. He rubbed at the fur-lined  coat, then turned back to Lily.

“Welcome to the North Pole,” he told her, then walked to the door and  lock ed it. “It used to be a lot nicer.”

“Mmhmm.” Lily spotted a hat rack by the fireplace and moved  toward it. She casually reached for the furry rim of her hat and gave it a tug.

It didn’t budge.

“Fudging figures,” she muttered. “Thought it might work. So what happens next?”

“That depends on what Mrs. Claus might say. She was in bad shape this morning, so I don’t know what—” Footsteps on the stairs caught his attention, and he looked up to see Holly descending. She walked across the room and stopped right in front of Mike, her eyes on the ground.

“What happened?” he asked her. Her only response was to hold out a pair of silver glasses.

“We think she disappeared just as we got here.” Christmas Present hovered down from above, lines of worry on her face. “Mike, we have two problems now.”

“Just two?” He grimaced at the spirit.

“With Mrs. Claus gone, there is nothing to keep the Krampus out. He is coming, and will be here soon enough.”

“That was to be expected.” He sighed. “What’s the second problem?”

“I can’t help you. You have to understand, the spirits are an extension of Santa’s will, and just being in a room with him might be enough to turn me against you.”

“ Well, that sucks.” He bit his lip in frustration. “So where will you go?”

“You said that Kisa is with the children? I  will go to her, but I’ll   have to take the long way so Krampus can’t track me. Can you show me where she was on the map?”

“Yeah, sure.” Mike pulled the map out of its carrier, then pointed to the spot Kisa had shown him. “She said there are  tunnel s underneath.”

“Understood. Even if we fail here, the kids, they…” For a moment, the spirit looked like she was going to be sick.

“Go.” He nodded at the spirit. “Make sure those kids are taken care of.”

Christmas Present left, leaving Mike with Lily and Holly. The succubus was staring at where the fire had been, her cheeks burning bright red. Occasional flames crawled across her skin, and she turned fiery eyes in his direction.

“So it’s just the three of us?” she asked.

“Yuki’s right outside, and I’m sure Freyja will catch up. The Krampus will be on his way here to claim the North Pole.”

“You can’t claim it?” Lily cocked her head.

“Nope. Santa and Krampus are still the same person. He needs the North Pole for…something.” Mike paused. Did his house have a feature  like the North Pole? Was there something he could interact with to tap into the home’s inner power?

“Could you if we killed him?”

Mike looked over at Holly, who was staring quietly at Mrs. Claus’ glasses. Technically, he supposed he could. But then what? Did he even want the responsibility of the North Pole? Would he become l ike Santa? What about the elves? His time was already stretched thin amongst his own family.   The last thing he wanted was to be responsible for a whole holiday.

Lily scowled when he didn’t answer, but her features softened when she noticed Holly. She moved toward the elf and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Would you like to talk about it?” she asked , as she led  the elf to a nearby couch.

Mike didn’t hear Holly’s answer. He was distracted by flashing lights through the front windows, followed by a gust of wind that made the whole house creak. When he moved to the window and looked outside, he was greeted by the sight of a moose made of ice slamming its antlers into the house.

“Looks like the snowman house of horrors has arrived.” He moved away from the door and winced when the glass cracked. A second later, the fracture repaired itself, and he let out a sigh of relief. There was still a bit of magic left in the North Pole. Looking over at the couch, he saw that Holly was weeping with her head on Lily’s shoulder.

“Now that’s a different kind of magic,” he muttered to himself, then took up his post at the window. He could sense the changes in Lily, even from here, and when he took a peek at her soul (or whatever it was), he couldn’t help but notice that the whole structure looked like a nesting doll. Crimson arcs of energy were layered around obsidian gems that hovered around the succubus. At her center, a tiny silver flame flickered quietly, the crimson light folded around it protectively like a mother bird’s wings.

Interesting .

He looked back out the window and sighed. The only thing left was  for him to wait and see what happened next.

---

As Mike and the others ran through the fireplace, Grýla hurled herself forward with a speed Freyja had never seen. Sending out a blast of cold air, the goddess   extinguished the flames behind her and side stepped  the oncoming monster, summoning a two foot tall wall of ice for Grýla to trip over.

When the giantess stumbled over the small   wall, a casual twitch of Freyja’s fingers sent the wall smashing into her.

“This won’t take long,” Freyja muttered, the air around her swirling. Snow blew in through the front door of the Workshop, collecting into a massive spear made of ice that hovered over her shoulder. She could feel the weight of it in the back of her mind as bands of golden light wrapped around the back of the icicle.

Grýla laughed as she extricated herself from the hearth. She had cracked several bricks on the way in.

“Do you think I’m afraid of little Jack Frost?” The giantess shoved bricks away from her. “You are no longer queen of the north, for stone is stronger than ice.”

The golden bands of light tightened around the twelve foot long icicle, strengthening its structure to survive the sudden acceleration as Freyja launched it forward. Grýla’s eyes went wide as it penetrated her torso, pinning her to the back wall. The light faded from Grýla’s eyes and her whole body slumped in place.

Freyja held up a hand, palm facing Grýla. A thin stream of golden light fled the giant’s corpse and wrapped itself around Freyja’s fingers before vanishing into her body.

“What the heck?” Freyja examined her hand, then stared at Grýla. The amount of divinity she had pulled out of the giant was almost trivial, far less than what had been taken from her before.

Up above, the roof creaked and she heard a growl  as the Yule Cat pressed its face against the glass . It moved away and shattered the window with a massive paw.

Freyja leapt  to one side, the wind carrying her out of reach as the cat’s paw smacked around, trying to find her. She summoned an ice shield and raised it in time to block a claw that was nearly a foot long.

Up above, she saw one of the skylights was heavily fractured. She rode the wind upward, using the shield to smash through the glass safely and ride further into the sky.

Down below, the Yule cat turned its gaze up at her. Letting out a terrible hiss, it leapt up in an attempt to catch her, but she dodged away at the last moment. Spears of ice formed around her and she directed them to fall toward the Yule cat, driving the foul beast away as it ran for safety.

“Coward,” she muttered, then gazed out over the North Pole . Though it was the same village she had known for over a century, something had changed. Shadows now hung from buildings as if made from fabric, and colors had been bleached from the city. Down below,  creatures made of ice and snow lurked in packs, but they weren’t alone. On occasion, she would see a shadow briefly manifest a form and crawl, walk, or slither across the main street.

“Gods,” she whispered. She had seen such a phenomenon before, shortly before the fall of Asgard. The cracks in reality had become visible, allowing the void to leak through. Though the shadow creatures would be harmless for now, they would soon be able to manifest and interact with this realm without any issues.

Her senses buzzed, and she looked down in time to dodge a massive boulder that had been hurled in her direction. She used her shield to help deflect the attack, but the collision was enough to knock her out of the air current she had been riding.

Tumbling through the air, she showered the area where the attack had come from with hail the size of bowling balls. Dark shadows shifted below, revealing dozens of Yuletide lads  crawling across the ground like vermin.

“Which one of you threw that?” she demanded, landing in a crouch in the middle of the street. She didn’t think the Yule lads had the strength necessary for such a feat, but Grýla had been seriously lacking in divinity. It was entirely possible  she had shared it with her children.

In response, another boulder rocketed out of a nearby alley. Freyja dodged this one readily enough, but was caught by a massive rock   from a different direction. This one slammed her through a candy cane light pole that shattered, the air filling with the smell of peppermint. Groaning, she raised her shield in time to block the attack of a large figure who leapt off a nearby roof.

“Hello, food.” Grýla opened her mouth and tried to take a bite of Freyja’s face, but the goddess pushed the giant away.

“I killed you!” she cried, then braced her foot against Grýla’s fat gut and shoved. The giantess grunted, then sailed through the air and vanished into the shadows.

All around Freyja, the town erupted with laughter. It was Grýla’s voice, magnified dozens of times.  The shadows danced along in staccato fashion, moving closer to Freyja as if trying to touch her . The goddess scrambled to her feet and jumped, commanding the wind to take her into the sky once more.

A massive paw batted her out of the sky, slamming her into a snow drift so hard that it exploded. Freyja rolled across the cold cobblestone road, summoning a sphere of golden light to protect her from the next attack. The Yulecat smacked her again, sending her bouncing down the main street like a giant hamster ball.

Freyja held tight, trying to guide her journey as the giant cat chased after her. She summoned massive pillars of ice for her to bounce off of , hoping to get enough distance from the  cat so that  she could release the shield and either flee or counterattack. The Yulecat was fast, however, despite its giant size. It c ould turn into a ball of light to chase her, a fact that frustrated her to no end.

After getting smacked around the North Pole for several minutes, she managed to trip up the Yulecat by summoning a series of ice pillars that grew taller every few feet. She rolled harmlessly between them as the Yulecat got stuck and had to climb upward to escape.

Freyja released the magical shield and fled   into a nearby building. When she looked out the window, she saw the Yulecat fighting to get through the pillars, so Freyja summoned even more, pinning the feline in place.

In the sky above, a dark figure briefly blocked out the Northern Lights. It was the Krampus, cackling madly as his demented reindeer burst away from his makeshift sled like shooting stars and headed toward her. The Krampus leapt off of the falling sled and disappeared, his vehicle crashing into a nearby structure with a loud bang.

“Shit.” Freyja ran through the building, which was housing for the elves. Abandoned presents and toys were scattered everywhere, and she nearly tripped over a wooden horse. When she made it to the backdoor, she shoved it open so hard that the hinges creaked.

“You’re all alone, Jack.”  A Grýla  stood on a small hill overlooking the building. A pair of distorted  reindeer emerged from nearby, snorting wildly and raking their electric antlers through the air. Up above, the Yulecat leaned over the top of the building and leered down at Freyja.

Freyja stared at Grýla, her thoughts whirring. Somehow, the giantess was commanding her own army.

Well, two could play this game. Curling her fingers up, Freyja sent her mind into the aether, touching the faraway fields of Fólkvangr with her mind for the first time in over a century. She felt them there, the minds of thousands of men and women who had fallen in battle,  suddenly restless in their eternal slumber.

“I’m never alone,” she whispered, calling to the fallen dead. She wasn’t at full strength, not yet, but the shades of the fallen stepped from the darkness   around her, ready to defend their queen. There were maybe two dozen of them, weapons held ready.

“What an interesting trick.” Grýla laughed heartily and stuck her hand in the snow, then ripped free a massive rock. “Tell me, Jack. Can I eat them?”

“My name is Freyja,” she declared, summoning armor made of ice and snow. As a winged helmet settled across her brow, she drew a blade made of frost and pointed it at Grýla. Her soldiers all readied their weapons, their spectral forms flickering in the light. “And the only thing you’ll taste tonight is my blade.”

Freyja and her soldiers charged forward.

---

Yuki stepped out into the cold, pulling the door shut behind her. It didn’t take long before something leapt out of a nearby snowdrift, all teeth and fangs. She summoned a massive spike of ice from the ground beneath the snow tiger, spearing it in place . It snarled and tried to catch her with its claws, but was forced to tear itself apart to reach her.

She dodged to one side as an eight-foot tall bear jumped down from the roof,  then danced away  when the creature shattered an d reassembled itself, golden light holding the thing together like magic glue.

“Yeah, I know that feeling.” She summoned stone pillars this time, forcing the bear into an earthen prison. It growled  as i t squeezed between the bars , its body bursting and then reforming on the other side of its cage. Pain ripped through her stomach, and she groaned  as she leapt away from the bear.

 “Ugh, shit.” She gasped in agony, her hands briefly igniting with golden flames. It was divinity, and her body had absorbed so much of it from her sexual encounter with Mike and Freyja that her body was now breaking down. She hadn’t known for sure until just before passing through the fireplace   when the weird cramp in her stomach hadn’t gone away. There wasn’t going to be time for Mike to soul weave it in, or whatever the fuck he wanted to call it.

She wanted to be angry. So many years of pain had finally moved aside to allow her to pursue happiness, but it wasn’t to be. The pressure building up inside her body had spread through her entire abdomen, and golden lines of power radiated down her thighs.

“Fuck.” She slapped away another monster made of ice, then brought her claws down on its face. A snow python fell off a nearby roof and wrapped around her, but she shapeshifted  into a fox and popped free of its muscular embrace.

She wondered how much time she had left, but not for her own sake. The moment she fell, these creatures would descend on the house. She had known the moment the fire had gone out that Mrs. Claus was gone. The magic of the home had diminished to embers, turning their refuge into a trap.

With a growl, she summoned a ball of foxfire and blew a hole in the python’s head. It fell over, spasming so hard that it smacked its body into Santa’s home. More ice and snow slid free of the roof, and Yuki realized she needed to lure the frozen creatures away.

Running down the street, a monstrous snowman appeared from around a large gingerbread house. She slid beneath its clawed fingers and sent several spikes of ice and stone through its body, causing its head to fall free and shatter on the ground. For just a moment, she saw it—a swirling mass of golden light, like a tiny star.

“Fuck it,” she muttered, then moved to the light and inhaled it, pulling it into her body. There was pain as it heated her from within, but the snowman’s shifting form crumbled and went still. If it was going to kill her anyway, she needed to make her death matter, to ensure that her friends survived.

To ensure that Mike survived.

Yuki let out a howl of rage, bringing the creatures of the North to her. The bear from before found her outside of the bakery, and she tore a hole through it, seeking out the golden light within. A massive eagle tackled her from above, but her foxfire melted enough of its face off to  reveal the golden light tucked away  in its icy skull.  She inhaled this light, too, and the creature turned to fine powder.

Yuki summoned a storm around her, one that slowed the creatures down so that she could feed on the golden light inside of them. Her body felt like a massive pressure cooker as the divinity ran rampant through her , but she bore the pain in silence.

It was during her fight that a dark figure appeared between two buildings, lurching forward with distended limbs. Yuki turned to face the threat, her hands now blazing with golden light.

“Hello, food.” Grýla stepped forward from the darkness, her skin hanging loose from her face. “It hurts, doesn’t it?”

“What the hell?” Had Freyja lost? Or had Grýla run from her?

“I see you’ve learned the secret.” To illustrate her point, Grýla dodged an attack from a snow tiger and shoved her arms down its throat, then pulled out a ball of golden light. “If you eat it, you can make it yours.”

Yuki growled at the giantess. “Is that what you did to Freyja?”

“Who?” Grýla popped the light into her mouth and licked her lips, then groaned in agony. She leaned forward, pressing her hands into the snow. Golden light raced along her arms and into the ground. There was the sound of shifting rocks and soil, and another version of Grýla pulled herself free. This one, remarkably, was even uglier than the original, her skin hanging off of her like a loose sweater.

“Holy shit.” Yuki stared in terror as the new Grýla turned to face her.

“That’s right, food.” Uglier Grýla grinned. “My body couldn’t contain it, so I did what I’ve always done. I made a new body.”

“Only this one isn’t the brood of my idiot husband.” Slack-faced Grýla grinned, revealing broken teeth. “I may even eat that asshole when I’m done with you.”

“Whatever. I can take two of you. Three of you. All of you!” She summoned her magic and created a swirling mass of ice that circled her. “I hope you’re both hungry, because I’m about to feed you an ass whooping!”

The Grýlas charged toward her, their speed unexpected. Yuki dodged the first one and smashed an ice boulder into the face of the uglier one. The ice shattered, revealing that this one was unharmed other than a bloody nose.

A third Grýla emerged from the swirling snow and caught Yuki with a punch that crumpled her to the ground. She felt her magic surge through her whole body, the divinity threatening to break free and blow her apart.

“Not yet,” she cried, clenching her fists. “Please, last me just a little bit longer!” She no longer cared if she died. All she wanted was to stop these ugly bitches before they found their way to Mike.

Rising to her feet, the blow she landed on Grýla’s jaw cracked her knuckles, maybe even broke one, she didn’t care. Magic flared along her forearm and blasted into the giant’s face, sending her sprawling onto the ground. A long arm grabbed her from behind and she bit down on it hard enough to break Grýla’s gritty skin . The giant didn’t react, and Yuki was taken back t o the ground , long fingers pinning her forehead to the ice.

“Get the fuck off of me.” Divinity roared through her body now as she summoned massive chunks of ice that barreled into Grýla, smashing her attacker into a nearby building. She stumbled to her feet, her veins on fire as another Grýla showed up.

“How many of you bitches are there?” This new Grýla had short arms like a Tyrannosaurus  and a lazy eye that looked off to the side. When she lunged at Yuki, the kitsune summoned several stalagmites  beneath Grýla’s feet , but the giantess was unfazed. The stone shattered under her feet and she threw herself on Yuki, her tiny hands scrambling for purchase.

“I am a creature of stone, food!” Despite having  T-rex hands, this Gryla’s punches were brutal.  Another Grýla grabbed Yuki from behind and pulled her hands behind her back. The blows rained down from every direction, and Yuki cried out in pain as a pair of teeth pierced her leg.

The divinity burned through her pores, and she screamed, releasing a wave of golden light that blew Grýla’s doppelgangers off of her. The stunned giants tumbled away ,  crashing into the buildings.

Yuki gasped for air, fighting her way back to her feet.  Her skin was glowing from the inside, and her robes were stained with blood. Her body was breaking down, unable to contain the divinity any longer.

“And now you see why I did what I did.” One of the Grýlas  crawled from the ruins of   a nearby building with a large lump on her forehead . “That golden light made me feel so powerful, as if the earth beneath my feet was mine to command.”

“But it was too much.” Another Grýla forced her way through an opening in a broken wall. The bricks tumbled to the ground at her feet. “So I found a way around it.”

“I made myself a new body.” This Grýla ’s face was tilted to one side in her skull. “And when that wasn’t enough, I made another, then another.”

“ And t hen we hunted.” A Grýla on a nearby roof hopped down, landing on a pair of enormous feet. “We hunted the ice  creatures for their golden light. Why raise an army when we can be our own army?”

“It’s called survival of the fittest.” This Grýla had an oversized head that lolled to one side. “ Some of us are survivors, while the rest of you are food that hasn’t been chewed yet.”

Yuki grunted and took a step back. She stumbled, tripping over her own robes and falling on the ground. A couple of tarot cards fell from her sleeve, and her copy of Alice in Wonderland landed   in the snow  facedown , the pages open wide to reveal the cover.

“There can only be one queen of the North Pole.” This came from three Grýlas at once. The golden light coming from Yuki cast a radiant glow on her surroundings, properly illuminating the cover of her book.

She saw that she was surrounded. Golden cracks formed along the skin of her body with the fire burning deep into her bones. The icy winds of the Arctic swirled around her,   the eddies  so powerful  that they lifted brick and mortar from nearby buildings and cast them away. The Grýla s all hunkered down, unable to continue forward through the ice and snow.

So this is it, then. There wasn’t much else to think about as her world went white. The storm carried Alice in Wonderland  into her hands, but she could no longer feel its pages. There was a flash of light, and then…

“Hey, you.” A pair of fingers appeared over the top of the pages, pushing the book out of the way. It was Emily, holding a cup of tea. “I take it you’re enjoying the story?”

“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read before.” Yuki closed the book and held it to her chest. “Maybe it’s silly, but it feels so empowering. This little girl is confronted by a world that doesn’t make any sense, yet she makes it work.”

“It’s a little like you, in that regard.” Emily handed over the tea. “You’re in a new world yourself. I wouldn’t classify you as helpless, though.”

“Maybe not.” Yuki sipped at the tea, the taste of it long forgotten . This was a memory,  just one of millions flitting before her eyes in her final moments. It was an experience she had hoped to avoid for a very long time, but she was sure that was true for everyone

“What’s your favorite part so far?” Emily squeezed in next to Yuki and laid her head on the kitsune’s shoulder.

Yuki said nothing, willing the memory to pass. After all, with so many to choose from, why this one? Why not the last few days with Mike, or even something fun from her childhood? There were so many things she would rather go through than  to see her former lover one last time.

Had the experience been the same way for Velvet? What had her regrets been like? Or maybe her passing been peaceful instead . Perhaps the Universe only chose to be cruel on occasion.

At the thought of Velvet, she pictured Mike and he appeared before her, resting on the windowsill with his knees pulled to his chin. He had only known the Arachne for a few days , and her death had nearly broken him. Would Yuki’s own death do the same, pushing him over the edge into madness?

“You made me a promise.” Mike said. “If I ever lose control, you would be there to stop me.”

“Mike, I…” she looked at Emily, who took no notice of the man who would one day take her place in Yuki’s heart. “I don’t know if  I can. I’m dying. All of this, it’s just my brain going through the motions.”

He just stared at her for several seconds, his eyes glowing like fireflies. Emily was frozen in place, as if waiting for the proper response.

“So what is your favorite line?” he asked, breaking the silence. “I’m curious.”

Yuki contemplated   Mike for several moments, then allowed the memory to continue. “ My favorite is the  one about believing in the impossible. The six impossible things before breakfast quote,” she answered, her eyes turning toward Emily.

“And have you?”  Emily asked. “Believed six impossible things before breakfast?”

“W ell, if we aren’t counting this as breakfast,” she held up the tea. “Then perhaps. Let’s see. There’s a beautiful woman who loves me despite m y faults.”

“That’s one.” Emily grinned.

“We use magic trees to jump across the globe.” Yuki held up a second finger. “Oh, and I get to live in a magical house.”

“That’s three, but I don’t know  if any of these count.” Emily tousled Yuki’s hair, then rubbed at the soft spot between her ears. “You’re just stating facts, not beliefs.”

“Well here’s a fact for you. When I finish my tea, I’m going to—” The memory paused once more as Yuki’s attention wandered over to Mike.  Those firefly eyes of his flickered wildly.

“I think it’s a wonderful quote,” he said. “It’s hopeful.”

“Yes, but…hmm.” She squeezed herself away from Emily, who was now motionless. “I don’t know that I’ve ever truly believed in anything until I met you. Well, not right away, but…you grew on me.”

“That’s very kind of you to say,” he replied. The room was starting to dim now, Yuki’s mind falling apart. Emily had already faded from view.

“Wait,” she cried. “I have something to tell you before you go.”

Mike said nothing, his firefly eyes slowly becoming the sole illumination in the room.

“I believe that you can be forgiven, as long as you put in the work. And even if you can’t, then maybe it’s possible to forgive yourself.”

“That’s one.” He held up a finger.

“I also believe that it’s possible to love again. That one seems so impossible, but it’s true. Because I love you, Mike. I love everyone I live with, but I love you most of all.”

“Two.” He held up another finger. The room flickered, the furniture melting into the darkness.

“I believe in you. Maybe that sounds silly, but I know that you’ll be okay, once I’m…I’m…” She couldn’t bear  to say the words out loud, not while he sat there contemplating her. “You’re going to do great things, even without me.”

“Maybe.” He held up a third finger. “You’re halfway there. What else do you have for me?”

“I believe in…in…” She felt it now, deep in her chest. It was a rumbling sensation that made her entire body buzz. Was the divinity finally pulling her apart?

It was ironic that what would finally do her in was a substance that her body could have contained someday. In a few hundred years, she probably could have absorbed most of the golden light that Freyja had lost without blinking an eye.

Wait. There was something there to cling to…yes!

“I believe in me,” she told him, forcing that rumbling sensation into the ground at her feet. “I’m the same kitsune who once brought Death into the world using paint, paper, and a lot of magic over a little bit of time. I’ve come too far not to believe in who I am, and see what I’m capable of.”

Mike smiled and held up a fourth finger. Had the room gotten brighter?

“And I believe that I don’t have to die here, not if I don’t want to!” She held out her hands, the golden light coalescing in her fingertips. Instead of trying to contain it or cast it away, she dragged it through the air, smearing it across the corners of her mind like the paint she used for her cards. “Because though things may seem hopeless, this is what my body was made for! You yourself wove this power into me before, and it didn’t kill me then! The divinity killing me now is just magic I haven’t found a use for!”

He held up a fifth finger. “This is your last one,” he told her, his smile stretching wide like the Cheshire cat as the golden light radiating from her body made the rest of him fade from view. “Make it a good one.”

Yuki’s eyes snapped open, and she commanded the ice and snow beneath her feet to carry her tarot cards back into her hands. As they swirled toward her en masse, dextrous fingers snatched the pair she required from the air a nd held them pinched between her fingers as she rose, the storm suddenly going still. Grýla in all her forms quickly recovered, charging at her through the rubble.

“My name is Yuki Radley.” She poured the golden light into the card in her left hand, the Moon. In her right hand, an equal amount of divinity poured into the Wheel of Fortune. “And I’m about to take a page out of my boyfriend’s playbook and hope I get really lucky.”

Before Grýla could reach her, she cast the Moon into the sky and slammed the Wheel of Fortune i nto the ground. The snow and ice melted away from her as lines of radiant power formed at her feet, then shot into the sky where an illusory moon had appeared. All of the Grýlas were forced to shield their eyes as the divinity swirled around Yuki and connected with beams of light from the moon.

“I once thought I knew what it meant to believe in six impossible things before breakfast,” Yuki shouted, the fiery magic tearing through her veins as her remaining tarot cards were vaporized by moonlight. “But do you know what it takes to be a true believer? Faith! Faith in those we love, and in ourselves!”

“Food shouldn’t talk this much!” One of the Grýlas replied.

“And I once swore I would lay my life down for a man, a good man, possibly the best one I’ve ever met.  Do y ou know what? That is absolutely what I’m going to do!” She held her hands up to the moon, now so bright she couldn’t look directly at it.

Take my years from me,  she commanded. The moon obeyed.

All magic had a price, and the divinity burned away months, years, and then decades of her lifespan. It came with no experience, no new revelations about magic, but Yuki didn’t care. What she needed now was to survive, to return to the man she loved. The Moon was capable of driving that change, of bringing out her inner  fox.

The Wheel of Fortune was there to ensure she survived the process.

The golden light coalesced around her, swirling behind her body to form into a fourth tail. The fire raging inside her core was unquenchable, so she gritted her teeth and waited for the fifth tail to form as well.

The moon burst into a column of light, raining flecks of fragmented divinity onto the ground. Yuki ignored them, taking a deep breath into a body that had been altered. The fire in her veins was gone, replaced with the familiar sensation of her own magic.

“I already came up with five impossible things,” she said, holding up a hand with outstretched fingers. Frost hovered in the air around it, her mind connecting with the ice and snow in a manner that felt like an extension of her body. She no longer simply commanded the cold—it obeyed her because it wanted to. “But I need one more.”

The Grýla s howled, and they all charged at her. Yuki held up her other hand and extended her middle finger in defiance.

“I believe that you don’t have to be cold-hearted to become one with the ice. ” She took a deep breath and exhaled a wave of frost that obscured her from view,  then leapt away before she could be grabbed. Her features shifted, lines forming across her vision as power ripped through her body. She grew larger, transforming into a massive five-tailed fox demon roughly ten feet tall at the shoulder.

Yuki pounced, slamming one Grýla into the ground.

“Wha—” It was the cock-eyed Grýla, and her bad eye struggled to look straight up at Yuki as the fox demon snarled at her.

“ Looks like you’re the one that just haven’t been chewed yet ,” Yuki said telepathically , then  bit cock-eyed Grýla’s head off and spat it out. T hin streamers of golden light clung to her muzzle and she licked them away, power flooding her body as Grýla’s  body crumbled to stone. The others cried out in rage, but the kitsune no longer feared them. For though they were many, they weren’t able to believe in the impossible like she could.

The ice and snow rumbled in her presence as if excited to see her. She howled in excitement, then led her attackers away from Santa’s home, golden flames lingering in her heavy pawprints. They gave chase, howling insults and flinging stones  as she scaled   a nearby building and jumped across the rooftops. The storm clung to her like a second skin, hindering visibility for her pursuers.

The Grýlas followed her in a winding path through the North Pole, and the further she got from Santa’s house, the stranger the buildings looked. It was like they had been slightly stretched and distorted, the limited light reflecting incorrectly off of their surfaces. Up ahead, she felt a surge of magical energy. At first, she was going to head in a different direction, but the scent of magic was familiar.

Freyja!

Yuki ran toward the scent, vaulted over the top of a building, then barreled through a pair of Grýlas who turned to look at her in surprise. Dozens of Grýlas had cornered the goddess, who was hovering in the air and sending massive shards of ice out in every direction. Beneath Freyja, a group of spectral warriors were in the middle of fighting the Yulecat, who howled in fury as it stamped out a warrior from another age. Nearby buildings had been toppled, and the Grýlas were throwing chunks of stone the size of cars at the defenders.

Freyja glared  at Yuki , raising a hand and sending  a barrage of ice at the kitsune. With just a thought, Yuki redirected the attack, forcing the ice to spike outward into their attackers . Recognition and relief l it like a fire in Freyja’s eyes as Yuki turned her back just long enough for the goddess to grab hold of her fur.

“Run!” Freyja cried. “Before the reindeer come back !”

Puzzled, Yuki looked over her shoulder long enough to watch five fiery bundles of light  circle above the spirits. The twisted reindeer slammed down into the spirits, scattering them like bowling pins. They were like bottled lightning that had broken free, destroying spirit and Grýlas alike.

“The Krampus is here,” Freyja shouted over Yuki’s personal storm. “We have to get back to Mike!”

What about Grýla? asked Yuki.

“If the Krampus beats Mike, this is all over!” Freyja turned around on Yuki’s back and sent out rays of golden light. One of them vaporized a Grýla with extra long legs. Divinity shot through the air and coalesced around Freyja’s arms. “There are too many of them, but only one of him!”

Yuki slid to a stop, then bolted down a narrow alleyway. The shadows reached for her, fingers hooking in her fur just enough that she could feel them. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she turned back toward Santa’s home, hoping that she could get there in time. Her pursuers shrieked in fury as Yuki intensified the storm, blinding them with whirling snow.

Somehow, through the howling winds, she heard the ringing of silver bells from up above.

---

“Are you okay?” Lily asked.

Mike turned to look at the succubus, rubbing his chest. It was a sensation similar to heartburn, like someone had tried to pull his heart out through his sternum. He coughed a couple times, then let out a belch that tasted like copper.

“Yeah, I think so.” The pain subsided as quickly as it had come. His magic cycled across his body, as if trying to chase down whatever had ailed him. That had been weird. “How is Holly?”

The elf had curled up on the side of the couch, hugging a pillow to her chest. He wasn’t sure if she was asleep or just taking a moment.

Lily shrugged. “As good as can be expected. We talked for a bit, there’s a lot for her to figure out. So what’s going to happen once the Krampus gets here? You gonna hug it out with him?”

Mike smirked. “Not unless you do it first.”

“Oh, I’ll have something for him.” Lily stood and paced the room, her tail swishing behind her. She paused at the door to the basement where the North Pole was. “ But being real for a moment: don’t let him through here, correct ?”

“Yeah. If he gets down there, then all the bad stuff happens.” Mike didn’t like how exposed he felt, and he was more than a little worried that Yuki had vanished. And what was taking Freyja so long? “Once he’s here, I just need some time to examine his soul. I think I can fold the Krampus back inside, and let Santa come back out.”

A shrieking sound filled the air, much like a jet coming in for a landing. There was a loud thud from outside, followed by the sound of cackling. Holly looked up from her pillow, her features pale.

“Holly. Hide.” Mike watched as the elf made a run for it, disappearing into the house. Up above, the roof creaked as someone walked across it, occasionally stomping their feet.

“Yeah, yeah, you fucker. We hear you.” Mike moved closer to the basement door and summoned his magic. It swirled through his body, eager to obey his commands.

Snow and ice slid off the roof, and something heavy landed outside the front door. Mike half expected the Krampus to knock, but was unsurprised when a massive foot kicked the door off its hinges, sending it crashing across the floor.

The Krampus walked into the room, hunched over and cackling in glee. He rubbed his hands together, making Mike think of a massive fly contemplating the turd it was about to consume.  Krampus licked his chapped lips and looked up to make eye contact with Mike.

“ Daddy’s home! And he is—” The Krampus was interrupted by the heavy wooden table that crashed into his face, knocking him to the ground. The furniture had collided with him so hard that it exploded, the doorway now filled with splinters.

Stunned, Mike turned his attention to Lily , who had thrown the table. Her arms had turned black and red from the elbow down, as if her body was made of molten rock. The red highlights in her hair had turned into flames that crawled across her body, flickering along the top of her helper hat.

“Nobody likes a diva,” she said, then wrapped her tail around a nearby end table and flung it toward the Krampus. It smashed into him, but he raised an arm this time and took the impact with a chuckle.

“And who are you supposed to be?” he asked, his twisted features turning toward the succubus. “Because you’re definitely on the naughty list.”

Lily pointed to her hat. “I’m Santa’s Official Helper, here to put the ho in his ho ho ho. Did the local mall fire you for eating meth or was it for biting children?” S he splayed her hands wide and grinned. The humor in those lips did not extend to her eyes.

“You’re so charming.” The Krampus was ready for Lily’s attack, dodging to the side as she lashed out with fingers that had become razor blades. The two of them danced around the room, slashing at each other while Mike kept away from them .  He couldn’t intervene directly, but it gave him time to inspect the Krampus’ soul with his third eye or whatever he should call it.

It was a massive black fractal wrapped around golden gears of light. Just the sight of it shifting around made him nauseous, and an intense pain filled his sinuses. The Krampus turned to face him, his pulled features leering.

Gasping, Mike shut his eyes and looked away, the front of his face now wet from a sudden nosebleed.

“You dare to look into infinity?” The Krampus laughed. “Your simple mind can’t handle—erk!”

Mike opened his eyes to see that Lily had climbed onto the Krampus’ back and sunk her talons into his shoulders. The two of them wrestled like feral cats, breaking furniture in the process.

“Romeo, run!” Lily put the Krampus in a headlock, but the eldritch being warped in place, his whole body shifting until his arms were now around her shoulders. “I can’t hold him, he—”

Lily cried out in agony as the Krampus wrapped his massive hands around her horns and pushed his thumbs into her forehead as if trying to halve an apple. Lily’s tail whipped around, stabbing the Krampus numerous times to no avail.

His first instinct was to run to her, to attack the Krampus, to do anything to pull him off of her. But he knew that to do so would be suicide, as the Krampus was clearly stronger than Lily.

“So what’ll it be, Caretaker?” The Krampus howled with glee as he lifted Lily in the air, her legs kicking. “Once I crack this chestnut open, I’m going through that door. The question is, will you still be in my way?”

Mike took a deep breath, his magic revving up inside him. His plan to swap the Krampus for Santa had been grounded in logic, but just looking at their combined soul had made him sick. Trying again right now would be a terrible idea. He needed more time to think, or perhaps a way to distract the Krampus long enough that he could try again.

He had a flash of insight. The plan was terrible, disgusting, and absolutely unexpected. It was perfect.

“I think,” he began, a grin breaking across his face, “That you should have worn your white pants.” Mike held out his hands and willed his magic to emerge and do the one thing it was best at.

The Krampus lowered Lily, cocking his head to one side in   puzzlement. “What is that supposed to—”

Purple and blue electricity surged out of Mike’s hand, interspersed with golden beams of radiance, then crossed the room as a bolt of lightning. It connected with the Krampus, transferring sexual energy in quantities Mike himself feared. Using his newfound command of magic, he grabbed the stray streamers that peeled off of the Krampus and formed them into tight loops that connected back to Santa’s evil half. The magic that left the demon now cycled right back into him.

The Krampus groaned and dropped Lily, who rolled away. Clutching his abdomen, the demon made a gasping sound and came in his pants.

“What manner of—” the Krampus gasped , then fell to his knees as a second orgasm hit. The feedback loop intensified, the spirals tightening around his body. The floor beneath the Krampus was already wet and sticky, as if someone had spilled a gallon of paint.

“That’s right, asshole.” Mike could feel his strength waning as the magic left him. Without being part of the process, he wasn’t refueling his own reserves and he had other things to do. “You either die the villain, or live long enough to become a spooge fountain.”

Lily actually laughed so hard that she snorted.

“You fool, I, urgh…” The Krampus was crawling toward them now, gasping for air, then slipped in his own cum and fell face down on the floor. He landed with a splat, sticky strands hanging from his body. The whole room smelled like burnt marshmallow.

“Mrs. Claus wasn’t kidding about the mess,” Mike muttered. “Lily, this won’t last long.   Hold him down for me!”

The succubus obliged, her body now covered in a hazmat suit. Her tail wrapped around the Krampus’ throat as she pinned him from behind. He groaned again, his hips lifting briefly as he sprayed more fluid all over the floor. Lily rolled him onto   his back, a massive cock springing free of his waistband.

“Damn you, Caretak—blargh!” Lily had grabbed the Krampus by the shaft, pointing his dick at his face. The stimulation had been enough to trigger a spray of cum that hit him right in the mouth.

Doing his best to breathe through his mouth and avoid the smell, Mike once again took a look at the Krampus’ soul. That twisted, black fractal was now pulsing weakly as the light inside flitted about, pushing outward against its prison. Mike sent tendrils of light along its length, trying to pry open the gap. His forehead beaded with sweat as the minutes passed, the golden light getting closer to escaping.

A guttural growl came from the Krampus, and he tilted his face backward so far that his neck cracked, allowing him to look at Mike. “I regret the day I pulled you from the wreckage of your mother’s car, Caretaker!”

Mike’s attention wavered just enough that he almost lost track of what he was doing. It was the sort of revelation that should have stunned him into silence, or at least broken his concentration. A ripple went through the Krampus’ soul, one that Mike interpreted as impending triumph.

“I bet you do,” he replied nonchalantly, his eyes flicking back to the maelstrom around the Krampus. From the edge of his vision, he could see bafflement on the demon’s face.

“I mean it, Caretaker. I’m the one who saved you from death!”

“Oh, I know.”  Mike turned his attention to the whirling loops of sex magic. They were shrinking down, so he fed them a little more juice to keep them in motion. “I really appreciate it, thank you.”

“You fool, I…” The demon’s hips lifted and he squirted cum so hard that it hit some of the lower beams of Santa’s home.

“Just don’t do that in the tree,” Mike muttered. “ It doesn’t  like it.”

Between moans, the Krampus took a swing at Lily, then slipped when he tried to get up. The floor, the furniture, and some of the pillars were now slick with jizz. “You were never supposed to be Caretaker, did you know that? Someone else would be in your shoes right now if not—urgh!”

Lily managed to make the Krampus blow a load into his own face again, but the amount was considerably reduced. Thick white strands hung from his black beard, and he was frantically wiping one of his eyes.

“Uh, Romeo?” Lily looked up at him with dread. “He’s about out of the Christmas spirit, if you know what I mean.”

“Make him drink some eggnog or something.” Mike pulled even harder, trying to free that  ball of golden light. It shifted forward, the room filling   with the sound of Christmas music. Cracks of light formed along the Krampus’ skin, and the darkness burned away like ash.

The Krampus hissed, his limbs deforming beneath him until  he lifted free of the ground. He  moved toward Mike like an eerie crab, grunting and cackling all the way.

“Mike!” Lily stabbed her tail into the floor, anchoring the Krampus in place. “I can’t hold him much longer!”

“Almost…got it…” His vision was going dark around the edges, the shadows punctuated by flickers of gold. He tensed up his whole body and let out a scream, forcing the dark fractal apart until the light within was able to squeeze itself free.

There was a concussive blast of energy, the force shoving Mike backward into the door. He slid to the ground, clutching his head in agony. Squeezing his eyes shut, all he could hear was the slamming  of his heart in his chest.

When he opened his eyes, he expected to see Santa, or some version of him lying on the floor. Instead, it was a charred mass of flesh, smoldering in a pile of jizz.

“Wait, what?” He examined the creature’s soul once more, half-expecting  to see that a transformation was taking place. Instead, he saw  no soul at all. There was just a void where Santa and the Krampus had once been, the combined entity now gone.

“Oh, fuck.” He stared in shock. “I just fucking killed Santa.”

“What?” Lily stood, her hazmat suit disappearing. She stared at the charred body in disbelief, then raised a hand to her head and gave the hat a tug. Frowning, she released her hold on the fuzzy rim.

“Still stuck,” she told him. “So he isn’t dead.”

“ Then what are we looking at?” he asked, then  flinched when the Krampus’ body shifted, limbs cracking. One by one, the Krampus flexed his limbs, then he lifted himself up. His charred face twisted around, ash falling on the floor as his dark eyes contemplated Mike.

“Oh, shit.” Mike muttered, realizing that he still couldn’t see the Krampus’ soul. Instead, it was a literal void of information, a dark mass that his gaze couldn’t penetrate.

The mad cackle that came from the Krampus made every hair on Mike’s neck stand on end. His whole   body became numb as his danger sense kicked in.

“I. AM. FREE!”  The Krampus yelled as an extra pair of arms burst from his torso. He moved toward Mike, but Lily’s tail wrapped around one of his ankles to stop him. The Krampus whipped around and grabbed  Lily by the throat with one hand and captured her arms and one of her legs with the other three.

“Make a wish,” he hissed, then pulled. Lily let out a scream as she exploded into a cloud of sulfur and brimstone, her helper’s hat falling to the floor .  Mike, realizing that he had just royally fucked up, did the only thing he could think of.

He opened up the door to the basement and fled for his life.