by Virlyce
Grimmy snorted and growled. The passengers riding on his body screamed as he dove towards the ground. He crashed against it, shattering the earth like a black meteorite, causing plumes of dirt and grass to shoot into the air. Screams whistled out of the tunnels and into the air around them, the field sounding like a discombobulated church organ. Grimmy roared and stomped his claw against the ground, causing a cave-in underneath him. “I’ll wait right here,” he said as he shook his passengers off, “but I’m not your dog.”
“Ah.” Lindyss sighed as she fixed her ruffled hair. “It was just a joke. Dragons and their pride.” She clicked her tongue and glared at everyone else who was on the ground with their faces pale. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go on. We all have jobs to do.”
“Yes!”
They shouted and rushed down the closest tunnel entrance as Lindyss and Grimmy watched them from behind. Grimmy flicked her forehead. “I have to watch my appearance when we’re in public, you know?”
“I know,” Lindyss said and stuck her tongue out at him before entering the tunnel herself.
***
“Huh?” Bella muttered and rubbed her eyes. “Weren’t we just here?”
Charon peered through the layer of mist surrounding his body and traced his hands on the tunnel wall. He hummed and rubbed his chin after sniffing the residue on his fingers. “This looks exactly like the passage we were just in. Then again, everything looks the same down here.”
Bella sighed. “As long as we keep going downwards, we’ll have to find those prisoners.”
“You’re right,” Charon said and nodded. His hands flickered, and a silver light appeared underneath the duo. “I cast haste on us; we don’t want to be the last ones to finish, right?”
Bella flew through the tunnels, leading the way while maintaining her invisibility on herself and Charon. They traveled without stopping, passing bustling fairies, until they reached a fork in the cave that split off into two directions.
“That way,” they said at the same time. The two of them were pointing in opposite directions.
“Who’s the fairy here!?” Bella asked while pouting. “We’re going this way. My fairy instincts are telling me I’m right.”
Charon peered down the tunnel he wanted to enter before he sighed. “Alright. Your way it is then.” Nothing good would come from arguing with a fairy. He heard the rumors about their curses.
The two crossed through multiple forks with Bella guiding them each time. Charon held a notebook in his hand, scribbling in it while looking up every so often. “This is odd,” Charon said as he flipped back to the previous page in his book.
“What is?”
“We’ve been encountering fewer and fewer fairies as time’s gone on. It would make more sense to encounter more fairies because the prisoners were supposed to be close to the fairies’ living chambers.”
“Are you stupid?” Bella asked as she placed her hands on her hips and pointed her chin at him. “Did you forget Grimmoldesser crash-landed against the ground? Of course all the fairies would be rushing outside to see what’s going on.” The two approached a tunnel entrance that was twice as wide as all the others. Bella nodded and sped up. “See? We’re here.”
Charon scratched his head as he followed behind the blue-haired fairy. A bright-purple light greeted them when Bella pulled open a door at the end of the passage. Multiple translucent, purple spheres were floating in the room. Flowers grew towards the spheres, blanketing the ground, walls, and ceiling. The room extended as far as the eye could see.
Charon raised an eyebrow. “The fairies converted the prisoners into flowers? Very interesting. I had entertained the idea of transforming a creature from one kingdom to another, but I never succeeded.”
Bella ground her teeth together. “Okay,” she said and furrowed her brow. “Maybe I wasn’t right. But we’re clearly the first ones here, so it’s our duty to transport the birthflowers out.” Her hand shielded her eyes as she scanned the room. “And knowing Mom, there’s most likely some kind of guardian that will appear the moment we touch a flower. Ah. There it is; it looks like a giant spider. How do we do this?”
“That’s easy,” Charon said as he wiped his hands on his robe.
“You can kill that thing without hurting the flowers?” Bella asked with wide eyes. “I would never have guessed.”
“Of course not,” Charon scoffed. “I’ll just teleport the whole room to Konigreich. Then we let Lindyss deal with the guardian at her leisure.”
Bella stared at Charon with half-closed eyes and tilted her head. “Do you even see how large this room is? How are you going to teleport the whole thing?”
Charon chuckled. “Just watch,” he said as he placed his right hand inside his mouth. A cracking sound came from his jaw, and his face contorted. He pulled out a bloody blue tooth. A gale swirled around him, blowing outwards. He chanted in a low voice, causing a silver light to spread out from his feet, crawling along the insides of the room while coating the flowers in a soft glow. A torrent of blue light flew out of the tooth in Charon’s hand, pouring onto and entering his body. The silver glow crawled along until it encompassed the whole room.
The spider guardian twitched and sprang to its feet. It hissed at the duo at the entrance, but the glow vanished before the guardian could do anything, and the room disappeared, leaving a gaping void in front of Bella and Charon.
Charon fell to his knees and dragged his body towards the wall. “Ever since that day I had to borrow other people’s mana to teleport a dragon,” he said as he wiped his brow with his sleeve, “I decided to store mana inside one of my teeth over time. A thousand years, to be precise.” He leaned against the wall. “Give me a few minutes to recover.”
Bella alighted in front of him, landing on his knee. “Thank you,” she said and knelt, touching her head to his robe. “Really. Thank you.”
“Raise your head, little one,” Charon said. “Humility doesn’t suit you. A child should act like a child.”
Bella raised her head and pouted. “And a crazy old man shouldn’t be so reliable,” she said. “Who do you think you are?”
Charon laughed. “Come,” he said and patted the space beside him, “finish telling me about queens and birthflowers.”
***
Grimmy yawned as a cluster of five fairies approached him. A layer of obsidian separated his body from the ground as he lay prone. Thousands of fairy heads at the tunnel entrances peered at him, their bodies too afraid to exit.
“O mighty Grimmoldesser,” the fairy at the front of the cluster said. “May I ask what brings you here?” Her body trembled in the air as the dragon’s gaze pierced through her.
Grimmy’s wings flared outwards, and the fairies let out cries as their bodies were blown backwards. “Do I need a reason?” he asked. His reptilian red eyes locked onto the trembling fairies. They were larger than the fairies’ bodies.
“No! Of course not!” the fairy said and lowered her head to the ground. “Forgive my impudence.”
Grimmy snorted and closed his eyes before resting his head onto his front claws.
“W-we’ll be taking our leave now,” the fairy said as she inched backwards. “Forgive our disturbance.”
“Wait,” Grimmy said as one of his eyes opened.
“Y-yes?”
Grimmy smiled. “I want a snack. Get me something. All of you.” The surrounding fairies in the tunnels shuddered as a chill ran down their spines and gripped their hearts. “If I’m not full by the time I eat all your offerings, then I’ll make up the difference in fairies. No humans or demons. They’re too squishy and watered down.”
Murmurs rose up into the air. The fairies in the tunnels glanced at each other.
“What are you waiting for?” Grimmy growled. The obsidian underneath his claw shattered as he raised his head.
“Eep!”
Thousands of fairies streamed out of the tunnels into the air, spreading outwards into the surrounding areas.
***
“This way!” Rella pointed. The mist surrounding her body followed her arm.
“We just came from there,” Tafel said and frowned. “You’re lost. Admit it.”
Rella pouted. “It’s not my fault the witch rushed us all in here,” she said and landed on Tafel’s head. “Why don’t you do something instead of complaining then?”
“Watch me,” Tafel said as her horns glowed green. She closed her eyes, and a sphere of wind radiated outwards from her body. The wind howled through the tunnels, forcing the few fairies lingering around to lose their balance and tumble around. A minute passed.
Tafel opened her eyes as her horns dimmed. “This way,” she said and pointed. “I found the captives, but no signs of Charon or Bella. I couldn’t locate the birthflowers either.” She sprinted down the tunnels, weaving past the leftover fairies with Rella clutching her horns to prevent herself from falling off.
The two traveled passed numerous caves and passages until they reached a massive archway with three fairies playing cards in front of it. Tafel approached them, still cloaked by Rella’s invisibility spell, and drew her sword. She stabbed it between the fairies. A snake made of smoke sprang out of the sword and swallowed the trio before disappearing, leaving behind three sleeping fairies.
“It’s here,” Tafel said and sheathed her sword as she entered the archway. She walked through the dark passage with Rella flying next to her and rounded a bend. A soft, blue light greeted the two. In front of them was a steep cliff, leading to a pit that contained thousands of bodies. The walls were peppered with blue stones that faintly illuminated the captives. They looked sick underneath the dim glow. Tafel wrinkled her nose and held back the urge to vomit.
Rella pinched her nose as tears sprang to her eyes. “This smells so bad,” she said, her voice nasally. “Are they even alive?”
Tafel frowned. “I can’t teleport this many people,” she said and stepped towards the edge of the cliff. She drew her sword and held it in front of her chest. An orange flame blazed into life on its blade while the mist surrounding her and Rella dispersed. Whimpers rose from the bottom of the pit as the gazes of the captives were drawn to the flames like moths.
“Is there anyone who can be counted as a leader amongst you all?” Tafel asked. Her voice thundered in the ears of the captives. Some of them shook. “I may be able to free you all, but there needs to be order.”
Instantly, a cacophony of noise resounded from the pit: people shouted, begged, cried. Someone shouted, silencing the crowd. The captives’ heads turned towards the furthest region of the pit. A man staggered his way to the front, stepping over the living and stepping on the dead.
“My name is Opfern,” the man said. “I am the Baron of Blod. Who are you?”
“Tafel Besteck,” Tafel said. “The current demon lord.” More murmurs rose up, but they were silenced by a gesture from Opfern. The demons on the right half of the pit looked up in admiration and puzzlement. The humans on the left half trembled and muttered to each other.
“How do you plan on saving us?” Opfern asked as he gestured towards the people in the pit. “None of us can use magic. The fairies take them away first. Many people here haven’t lifted a weapon in their lives.”
“How long have you been here?” Tafel asked, ignoring Opfern’s question. Sweat rolled down her back as her gaze roamed over the crowd of people staring up at her like frightened kittens in a box.
“Five years,” Opfern replied. His stare drilled into Tafel. “How are you going to save us?”
Tafel frowned. “How do the fairies bring you out of this pit?”
“A group of them come and levitate us with magic,” Opfern said. “The ones they take never come back.”
“I understand,” Tafel said as the flames on her sword disappeared. “I need to consult with my allies before I can proceed.” She turned around and walked back towards the entrance, ignoring the screams and cries echoing through the cave behind her as she rounded the corner.
Rella shuddered. “Can you save them?” she asked as she raised a barrier of mist around their bodies.
Tafel bit her lip but didn’t reply. Rella opened her mouth to speak, but the sounds of fluttering wings cut her off. The two pressed their backs against the tunnel wall as a group of thirty fairies flew past them, all of them carrying baskets. “Why do we have to do all this work while those three slackers sleep on the job?”
“Hush. Don’t act as if you’ve never slept on the job either.”
“I don’t want to hear that from you of all people.”
“Huh, aren’t the fodder awfully noisy today?”
Tafel raised an eyebrow at Rella. ‘Food?’ she mouthed.
Rella shrugged in reply. Thuds sounded out as the baskets crashed into the crowd of people. The fairies flew back, passing Tafel and Rella before stopping to pick up the three sleeping fairies.
“Hurry, hurry. Don’t want to stay here for too long,” one of the fairies said as she looped one of the sleeping fairies’ arm over her shoulder. The group disappeared from Tafel and Rella’s view. Screams and shrieks echoed through the tunnels.
“Oh, it’s already starting. Why did the queen tell us to do this though? Can’t they get out through magic?” one of the fairies asked.
“Don’t question the queen. And those were the weakest worms—they can’t use magic.”
Tafel and Rella had dashed out of the mist barrier towards the edge of the cliff as soon as the screams started. Their eyes widened at the sight below. Hundreds of people were thrashing on the ground while others were running to the sides of the pit. The baskets lay scattered amongst the crowd with their lids off to the sides. A few worms slithered through the throngs of people, searching for those who weren’t already infected. Only a few men were stabbing bloody bones at the worms and twitching people.
“It was you!” Opfern roared as his gaze locked onto Tafel and Rella. He held a rib with a squirming worm impaled on the other end. “You killed us! The fairies never did this before. Not until you came.” He pinned the worm to the ground and stomped on it until it stopped moving.
“N-no,” Tafel said as she took a step back. “I didn’t. It wasn’t me.” She unsheathed her sword and took a deep breath as she approached the edge of the cliff.
“Stop!” Rella said and pulled on Tafel’s robe. “You can’t. There’s too many.”
“If not me, then who?” Tafel asked as she jerked her robe out of Rella’s grip. “I’ve fought thousands of worms and infected ones in Fuselage. I can do this.” Tafel’s sword glowed red as she leapt into the pit, plunging her sword into the chest of a man who was thrashing against the ground.
“I’m sorry,” Tafel said as the man stared into her eyes, terrified. White flames enveloped her sword and burnt the man to ashes. She climbed to her feet and whirled towards the next person, her sword cutting everything in its path.
Rella fell to her knees and bit her lip. She clasped her hands together. Please let her be alright. Her eyes closed as she chanted. A black mist rolled out from underneath her feet and formed a wall behind her, blocking out the sounds of slaughter. I won’t let anyone interfere. This is the most I can do.
The white flame danced along the bottom of the pit, casting grotesque shadows on the walls. It traveled in a spiral fashion, sometimes cutting towards the sides, sometimes bending towards the center. Tears streamed from Tafel’s eyes as her sword passed through humans, demons, and worms alike.
“Why?” she asked as her voice cracked. Her movements flowed like water as she slipped through the crowd, leaving a trail of ashes behind her. “Why are they spreading so fast?” Every time she thought it was over, more screams would echo from a different region in the pit and she’d charge over. The worms entered their hosts and left behind a fraction of themselves before exiting again, seeking the next victim. Others burrowed into the ground and reappeared, striking at the captives on the
other side of the pit from Tafel.
Time passed.
Rella opened her eyes and stopped chanting. The room was silent even without her magic. She stumbled as her stomach sank. She climbed to her feet and peered over the edge, flinching at the soft sobs trickling into her ears. Tafel was sitting in the center of the room with her face buried in her knees, arms hugging her legs. Her sword was beside her, resting on a layer of ash. A group of thirty survivors were sitting with their backs pressed against the walls of the pit, their mouths and eyes wide open, their gazes locked on the demon lord.
***
Lindyss stood in front of a fork leading to three different passages. A trail of unconscious fairies marked the path she traveled to get there. “Looks like the fairy’s map was a little off,” she mumbled to herself as she closed her eyes. A few moments later, she opened them and entered the leftmost passage. Her eyes narrowed. I should reach Stella if I follow the highest concentration of mana.
A quartet of fairies appeared in her line of sight as she rounded a bend. She flicked her wrist and a shadowy hand shot out of the ceiling towards the fairies. Their eyes widened as the shadow expanded and slammed them into the ground before they could move out of the way.
Lindyss stepped over their bodies and continued on her way. She passed through more and more tunnels as she proceeded deeper into the caves, encountering and forcing a few fairies into the ground without hesitation. Eventually, she came to a halt in front of a doorway with a black golem sitting in front of it. A purple orb was embedded in its rectangular chest, spreading a web of lights through its body.
The golem didn’t react as Lindyss raised her arm and conjured a spear of ice in front of herself. It rotated in the air, kicking up the dust on the ground before flying towards the golem. Moments before it hit its target, an explosion occurred behind the spear, speeding it up—a technique she stole from Tafel. The spear pierced the golem’s core as if it were butter, causing the golem to topple over. Lindyss frowned as a sword made of white light appeared in her hand. She approached the golem, and black tentacles sprang from her shadow to probe it.