Chapter 44: Chapter 44 – Is it really a real fairy tale without any fairies?

Scarlett found herself walking up another staircase of water, surrounded by silver light, and a completely different kind of forest presented itself in front of her eyes when she reached the top of those stairs. The leaves on the trees here were a deep violet, fluttering in strange patterns along with some unseen wind. Fluorescent lines carved themselves into the trunks of the trees, continuing down into the ground, where dozens upon dozens of them met up into a complex weave of veins that seemed to encompass the entire forest floor.

That wasn't the only odd thing about this place. The sky was almost completely pitch black, with no stars at all visible in it. The only thing visible there was the full moon. Yet something about this one was off, even though she couldn't quite put her thumb on what. She knew it was a sort of replica of the moon she had just seen, which had also reached its full phase. The game had been relatively simplistic with its calendar after all, and the moon phase followed that by having a full moon at the end and start of every month. That was also part of the reason she had wanted to visit this dungeon first, although it most certainly wasn't the only reason.

She looked back. Behind her was a lake much like the one she had just descended into, surrounded by several strange flowers and plants. Yet, unlike the other lake, this one was situated right next to a cliff wall that stretched high into the air. Water cascaded down one part of the cliff in a waterfall that ended in the lake, but there was almost no sound coming from it. In fact, this entire place was eerily quiet.

Scarlett heard a light gasp from beside her and turned her head to see Allyssa looking around with a marveled expression.

"This is amazing," the young Shielder said with wide eyes.

Scarlett was inclined to agree. It had been a pretty impressive sight in the game as well, but it was completely different witnessing it directly like this. She almost wished she had a camera to catch the view with.

"It'd be nice to have a drawing of this place," Rosa commented, having come through right after Allyssa.

Scarlett looked at the woman. They were both thinking on the same track here, it seemed.

Rosa smiled at her. "If you're thinking I should do it, then I'll have to disappoint. I'm afraid this is a bit out of my wheelhouse." She curled one of her brown locks around her finger. "Tried out painting, once, but decided not to. Didn't want all the famous painters to feel threatened, you see."

"You certainly acted knowledgable enough on the subject yesterday," Scarlett said.

Rosa put her left foot back and her hand forward in a very exaggerated bow. "You're very generous. Thank you."

Scarlett skipped pointing out that it wasn't really a compliment, instead looking towards the others. Shin and Fynn both seemed busy examining their current surroundings, presumably for any threats. Fynn had a perplexed expression on his face for some reason, though.

"Is there something unusual?" Scarlett asked him.

He paused and shifted to look at her. "I don't know. This place feels weird. The smells aren't like they should be, and things sound weird."

Now that he mentioned it, there was something off about the sound here. Other than that things were just too quiet. There was almost a bit of an off-pitch echo to their words. Only barely noticeable, unless you focused on it. It reminded Scarlett of some of those modulation filters that you could play around with on some phone apps.

"I believe that is simply an inherent aspect of this place," she said after a while. "It might take time to accustom yourself to it, but I do not think it is something you have to be alarmed about."

He seemed to accept that, as he went back to observing their surroundings.

"Where are we even?" Allyssa asked, inspecting a tall flower that had a mix of red and green colored petals and almost reached her waist. She almost looked comical now that she leaned over it with her goggles down.

"We are still in Temisbrook Woods. To be precise, we are in an interstitial space between our world and the Wandering Realm, known as Temisbrook Glade," Scarlett explained.

In 'Chronicle of Realms', the game world wasn't confined to only one realm. The majority of the game took place in the Material Realm, where the Graenal Empire was. The Blazes—which was divided into six circles, each ruled by a Vile—was another example of a realm, and where the demons originated. And the Wandering Realm was where many of the fairies, spirits and other fey creatures made their home. From a description she'd read in the game, Scarlett knew that the name came from the fact that people sometimes found themselves transported there by mistake because many of the entrances could change positions. As such, it came to be that many believed that the realm itself wandered from place to place, though from what she understood that wasn't the case.

"What's an interstitial space?" Allyssa wondered.

"It's an area that connects two different realms, taking characteristics from both and acting as a corridor between them," Shin said. "At least that's what I've read. But this place doesn't look like any kind of corridor to me. It almost looks like its own realm."

Scarlett looked at him with slight surprise. Almost a walking compendium, that one.

"Though it is not incorrect to say that it connects different realms, describing it as a corridor is not always entirely accurate," she said. The majority of the examples she could think of from the game didn't really fit that description, in fact. While it was possible to move between realms through some of the interstitial spaces, their practical application in the game had often been more as their own dimensional spaces, mostly cut off from the outside world.

"Nor are they restricted to only connect two realms," she added.

Her words seemed to interest Shin. "They aren't? The only mentions I've seen of it said that that's how they occur."

Scarlett shook her head. "There are most definitely ones that connect more than one realm." The Broken Tower was the first example that came to her mind.

"While I'd hate to interrupt this conversation about realms and what-not, I think our little warning bell has found something." Rosa pointed toward Fynn, who was staring at one specific point in the forest ahead of them, a serious expression on his face.

Allyssa moved up beside him and peered into the enchanted forest. "Is there anything there?" she asked, squinting her eyes.

He was quiet for a moment, before speaking. "I don't know. It feels weird. Like something is staring at us." He furrowed his brows. "But I can't sense it."

Scarlett turned to where they looking as well, but she couldn't see anything. "The rosemary will no longer have an effect here," she said slowly. "I suggest you all prepare to demonstrate your abilities."

Shin immediately stepped closer to the forest to stand in front of the rest. Rosa clasped her hurdy-gurdy with both hands, while Allyssa pointed her crossbow forward. Fynn stayed where he was.

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Scarlett herself took a step back to give the others space. She was intending to let them take care of things themselves, both to let them get a grasp of things and to get an idea herself of what they were capable of.

That didn't stop her from touching at the belt on her waist to double-check that the [Wand of Fireball] was easily reachable if needed, though.

They stood like that for a while, breathing quietly as they waited. Then, something came flying from among the trees. It stopped at the edge of the clearing they were in, hovering in the air with small wings that fluttered behind it like that of a colibri. Its shape was vaguely humanoid but much smaller, with bent legs and a big rounded head that had black circular eyes whose size was proportionally far too large. In addition to that, its mouth was filled with rows of sharp teeth, with its feet and hands having several claws on them.

"What...is that?" Allyssa blurted out in surprise.

"A fairy," Scarlett answered.

"That's a fairy?!"

"That's one memorable fairy," Rosa mused. "The ones I've seen were a lot cuter."

"I heard the appearance of fairies varies a lot," Shin said from the front, still keeping his eyes on the small figure.

"Yes. This particular one is a Restless Blot-Sprite," Scarlett explained, watching the odd little creature. Its appearance was decidedly ferocious, even though all it was seemingly doing right now was observing them.

"Isn't it going to do anything?" Allyssa asked, and just as she did, it darted off deeper into the forest, quickly disappearing between the trees.

Scarlett's eyes stayed on the path it had flown off on. "I believe it has."

"You think our little pal is getting his friends?" Rosa asked.

Suddenly Fynn let out a low growl and took a step forward, bending forward with his hands in front of him like he was ready to slash something down with them.

No one had to ask the reason as a high, almost buzzing, noise emerged from the forest barely a moment later, the strength of the sound only amplified further by the odd after-effect of this place. Soon, a wave of the small grey creatures came flying towards them at high speed. The ones at the front showed their teeth as they let out small screeches that echoed out around their group.

"That's a lot of friends," Allyssa mumbled just as both Shin and Fynn jumped ahead to meet the oncoming mass of critters. Several crashed into Shin's shield or were caught in a wide slash from his long sword, but there were so many of them that it barely dented their numbers. Fynn caught a surprising number of the creatures when he slashed out with his hands, a strong wind trailing behind his limbs and knocking monsters to the ground, but still more flew past the two and towards the rest of the group.

Allyssa seemed to immediately make a judgement and put away her crossbow, taking out a knife strapped to her leg and holding it in her right hand while she pulled out an opaque bottle into her other. Deftly opening the bottle with her thumb, the Shielder threw out its contents in the air in front of her, which spread into a thick brown mist that many of the fairies flew through. Those that did were suddenly coated in it, the substance clinging to their skin and solidifying almost instantly. A large number fell to the ground like small statues, Allyssa slashing out with her dagger at those that didn't.

While this move felled much more than Fynn's and Shin's original attacks, there were still enough of the creatures that a few made it past. And instead of joining their fellows in responding to Allyssa's attack, they made for Rosa and Scarlett who stood further away.

Scarlett was ready to surround herself with a wall of fire if they were to reach her, but Rosa acted before she had to. The bard spun the crank on her instrument, rolling her shoulder with the soft movement, and a strong tune rang out from it. The fairies suddenly stopped right in their tracks, some of them looking around in a state of confusion. Yet another note resounded from Rosa's instrument, much smoother this time, and Scarlett felt a wellspring of energy rise up from inside her following it. It almost felt like she'd overdosed on caffeine.

Suddenly, virtually from nowhere, Fynn jumped in from the side almost quicker than Scarlett could see—she noticed that Shin seemed to have taken on the fairies at the front by himself now—and slashed out at the fairies that were dazed by Rosa's music. Clumped together as they were, and in their current state, it was enough to knock over half of them to the ground all at once. The remaining ones were struck down by him only a moment later, then he immediately proceeded to jump forward to strike at the ones that were swarming around Allyssa now.

Scarlett observed as the battle continued, but there wasn't much left to see. Rosa's attack had affected enough of the little creatures that it was almost child's play for the other three to deal with the remaining ones, and after barely a minute, dozens upon dozens of the fairies' bodies littered the grass around them. Perhaps it would have been considered a horrid image under normal circumstances, but oddly enough there was no blood coming from the creatures. To Scarlett, it almost looked just like a large gathering of dolls—albeit fierce-looking ones—had been tossed around on the ground.

Shin's head moved around a few times—scanning their surroundings for any more dangers, most likely—before he started moving towards Rosa and Scarlett, stepping over some of the dead creatures. Both Allyssa and Fynn also approached them, both having some small cuts across their faces, but nothing major. With her [Charms of Apperception] Scarlett could see their magical defenses—surrounding them like a faint sheen to her eyes—and they looked decent enough to her untrained eyes.

"You were right," Allyssa said to Rosa as she put away her knife in the sheath attached to her leg and closed the bottle she'd used in the fight. She then moved her arms back and forth, jumping up and down a couple of times as well. "This really is useful. I almost feel like I could outrun a cockatrice right now."

"First time I've heard that analogy," Rosa said with a smile. "But it's certainly something I'd like to see someday."

Fynn opened and closed his hands in front of him. "I didn't expect it to feel like this."

"Like what? Amazing?" Rosa cranked her instrument once more and a short, mellow tone echoed from it. Scarlett saw how the cuts on the others suddenly disappeared as a soft purple light enveloped them. "Amazing-ness is my middle name. Right after charming."

"You weren't exaggerating it, at least," Shin said when he reached them. He swung his sword up and down with what looked like relative ease. "This will be useful in fights."

Scarlett's eyes passed over all of them. It seemed like they'd already had some kind of discussion regarding their abilities sometime when she wasn't around. That was good. Although maybe something she herself should have double-checked that they do.

"Well, what now?" Rosa asked and turned to her. "We traipsing into the forest, singing songs as we go on our little adventure?"

Scarlett let out a little air through her nose at that. "In essence, yes." She nodded her head. "However, the singing will not be necessary." She looked down at the fairies on the ground. "You dealt with this in a satisfactory manner, so I do not predict any issues with the current plan. As such, I will lend you my aid in dealing with any further groups of these creatures."

That would help things move on a little faster. Her skill set was a particularly good counter against these monsters. She pointed towards the forest ahead of them. "Then, let us continue."

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