“Oh, king! Oh, king of ice! ♫”
“Gather around, gather around. Feel the might of the coldest crown! ♫”
“We sing and dance, in your honor and life. King, oh, king of ice, will you not take the step for heavenly sight? ♫”
… Ehhhh, the nostalgia feels bad.
Whether in the cold wasteland of Frozen Nest, or the warm woods of Saelariel, the fae were the sa. They were cheery, easily excitable, and had a rather unhealthy desire to continuously maintain this elation.
In my village, the fairies were always rry, or at least they weren’t drowning themselves in sorrow or fear, like most humanoid would do if they felt anxious. We fairies would just ignore the bad and replace it with celebration, drinking, singing, dancing, and so many more activities in honor of Goddess Zephira and Goddess Aniuqa. We embellish stories to promote that, telling white lies to cover up the sadness or to make a particular fairy adventurer seem more heroic.
When you were outside, flying around or playing with others, the truth didn’t matter. It was a fairytale. If you wanted knowledge and information, you would visit the elves or go to the royal library, personally managed by our royal family to the standards of the elves. The full, unembellished recounting of the entire War for the Faefolk could be gleaned from those books.
I didn’t drift away from the fairytale due to my curiosity, but it sure did help realize the tragedy of everything. We fairies, even when our youngest princess died right in front of our gardens, would simply not fully mourn her like the humans or elves would. It was better to celebrate in her na to forget the sad—forgive and forget.
Ha, I couldn’t forgive them for doing that. I couldn’t forgive myself. I couldn’t forgive the humans for everything they’ve done to my race.
Yet, I did. I buried the hatchet, as Lady Hestia would say. I forgave all of them and started to act like how I should act as a fairy. Sure, I couldn’t go back to the Tasianna I was five years ago. It was impossible. Princess Schuri’s death was still in my mind, and I had already committed to the fact that I wouldn’t let the sa happen to Lady Hestia. Or even my family in Aurora.
That was what made different from other fae. Fairies, lesser fae, elentals; well, maybe not so elentals. Walking as an elf, you wouldn’t be able to tell if I was a fairy or an elf, unless you checked my Profile and realized I was made entirely of mana.
… Yet, my nature was still the sa. I still enjoyed celebrations and rrymaking a lot.
Seeing the three nymphs dancing around while a mole-like elental brought Vifi and to a cave entirely filled with elentals after three days of travel, almost similar to that one cave we found Lord Rhekkraxus in as he was being assaulted by a group of gleeful elentals, felt surreal. I enjoyed seeing the elentals before celebrate my welco party, but I disliked the fact that I was enjoying it.
After all, these beings were technically our enemies about a week ago, and they were only being welcoming due to the fact that the ice elental king chose as its heir. So of these elentals could have been involved in attacking Lady Hestia or working with the mandril, and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. It was impossible, since elentals could change their forms more freely than [Elvenize]-like skills.
Though… those elentals who insulted Lady Hestia when we saved Lord Rhekkraxus were a different case. I recognized the nymphs due to their voices. I would recognize those who insulted Lady Hestia.
“This feels weird,” Vifi said, her voice barely audible inside this cave as the sound of the elentals’ voices made it hard to focus. “These things are dancing around in complete silence. I only hear the damn cracking of ice.”
“You have it good,” I replied, smiling as the nymphs continued singing into my ear.
The cacophony of sounds was impossible to drown out with my own thoughts, but I was trying to, at least. It made it hard to concentrate, but I had to since we were in unknown territory. I didn’t know what the elentals exactly wanted, even if I knew most of them wouldn’t be able to think further than their closest pleasure, acting like they couldn’t act abnormal would be foolish. After all, I still had to seek a worthy heir to the title of ice elental king if I wanted to remain with Lady Hestia.
On the back of the mole elental, it brought us into a wide chamber, large enough to be a nest for a rank A dragon. Elentals of various forms, with many assuming the appearance of drakes, dragons, and wyverns, roared, cheered, and made sounds with their cracking ice bodies to welco . Similar to the ice elental emperor, you could see they were fake due to the fact that their entire body looked crystalline.
Now, the greater elentals could hide this better with their more elaborate bodies. Their dragon forms had more pronounced scales, looking jagged and dangerous, and without a clear core, like golems and the ice elental king, they could possibly pass as dragonkin with low visibility. If they were more capable with their transformations, I could imagine them passing as proper ones, albeit, without the pheromones a true true dragonkin should possess. Even then, we needed a dragonkin around to even detect it.
Okay, now it feels even weirder, I thought as the mole elental stopped in the middle of the room, in the center of this “dancing hall.” So elentals kept an eye on us, but the majority were simply dancing and singing away, acting like this was entirely normal and worthy of celebration. Were none of them even curious how I got the king’s core?
“Fill your body with the eternal ice’s man. Beco the one to beco our god. ♫”
“Rise to the top, oh, cousin of ours! Fairies, fae, elentals; may the reign of the true return to us! ♫”
“Return, oh true gods, Return to them, oh, king! King of ice, reach the peaks for the fate of our race. ♫”
All this singing… Is it even good at this point?
What was I supposed to do in this situation? They kept on singing, and I wasn’t sure if my voice could break through all of this. They were so loud, it felt like I was inside Princess Hestia’s obsidian orchestra, filled to the brim with a cheering audience. Yet, unlike that energetic harmony they could create, I felt weirdly out of place here. The nostalgia was slowly lting away.
“Oh, king, oh, king of ice! May you reach the heights of the primarchs of elents! Bring order back, with your grace and might!” the nymphs kept serenading around my face. It was starting to feel quite annoying with all the sounds causing an information overload in my brain.
“Rule us! Rule us all! Bring us the joy of the past re—”
“QUIET!”
Yaargk! I jerked back when Vifi unleashed her thunderous voice, causing my ears to shake as she jumped into the air, forming red lightning warhamr. Shouting “Voltaic Red: Rumbling Crash,” Vifi slamd her hamr into the ground, causing a massive shock wave that shook the entire room with a deafening roar.
The mole and any other elental close to the impact area were blown away, forcing the greater elentals to react and protect their weaker brethren with their ice. I did the sa for the mole and the nymphs, barely able to protect them in ti with [Frost Shield]. It still splintered after everything, but nobody was majorly hurt. As long as we faefolk survive and we could absorb mana from around us, we could survive most injuries.
Most. Sotis, even mana wouldn’t be enough…
“Villain! Monster!” The room exploded into another cacophony of sounds, but this ti, it was out of anger. Ice cracked like a splintering ice lake, the howls of the cold wind made my soul freeze, and the emotional outburst from these elentals made breathing feel harder as their mana turned into a field of oppressive aura.
Stretching her neck, Vifi looked unperturbed with the room turning on her. She shook her chanical arm, moving it around with a frown, probably noticing so faults with it. It seed Jadhund didn’t manage to fix all the issues, but since we were able to resupply ourselves with the subspace, we did get a second set of tools for the arm’s maintenance.
“Finally got your attention, huh?” Vifi taunted in the middle of this sound explosion, although for her, everything was probably “silent.” She might not be able to hear their voices, but with the ice-related sounds, she must know the elentals were furious with her.
The greater elentals roared as they readied themselves to attack Vifi. Their icy bodies sharpened in response, forming sharp ice blades. The draconic elentals hissed as their mouths released an icy cloud, readying their breath attack.
[“You may now speak, ‘your highness,’”] Vifi stated as they turned around to walk to , not even lifting a finger as the elentals roared in anger from being ignored.
You—!
Bringing out my catalyst, I activated the [Aerokinesis] effect the Wind Mother had blessed it with, increasing the volu of my voice similar to how Princess Hestia would do it. Seeing Vifi close her ears, I shouted, “Silence!”
With that single word, all the elentals in the room stopped what they were doing. Hostility died down as if it had never happened, flipping the atmosphere around where I was the one feeling baffled at the authority my voice had summoned. It felt… as if I was Empress lloxtressa to these elentals.
I continued, “The demonkin is my friend and companion. You will not harm her in any way!”
“She hurt us!” the lesser elentals shouted in a squeaky voice, sounding like a school of children. “Dangerous! Dangerous! King!”
“Invader of another world. Foreigner, birth of the spoiled seed. Wicked mana, anathema to Peolynca!” the normal elentals added, prowling around as if in anticipation to fight. “Despoiler of the world of the primarchs. Ruin soldiers of the great usurpers. Her presence is not needed next to you, oh, king of ice.”
The speech pattern is quite similar to the Elental King.
The lesser and normal elentals kept speaking, slinging insults at Vifi, while the nymphs and greater elentals kept watching. Well, mostly the latter, as the nymphs did dance around, giggling slightly as they found this situation amusing like a bunch of young girls. At this point, I honestly wished I hadn’t beco a faemancer, just so I could tune out the noise.
Then again, seeing the greater elentals so quiet, showing a clear sign of analytical intelligence with the way their eyes gazed down on , might be more terrifying. Unable to hear these fae’s thoughts made feel more nervous. At least, the childlike lesser and nymphs, and the more emotional, simple normal elentals made them more predictable to a degree.
This novel's true ho is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Taking a deep breath, I cald myself down and envisioned myself in Princess Hestia’s shoes. I assud the attitude she would take whenever she had to speak to an enraged crowd. “Once again, SILENCE!”
My voice, emboldened by Vifi standing next to , shocked the elentals once again into silence. They stared at in bafflent, proving to that the fact they called their “king” ant sothing. It was more than just a title the ice elental king had imposed on . Sohow, I had gained an inkling of authority over these elentals due to the transfer of power.
I placed my hand on the elental core the ice elental king left , causing to feel the surging ice mana inside to stream into my body. I was naturally absorbing it, like a dry sponge unable to stop water from entering it. True ice mana, far stronger than my own, but weaker than Empress lloxtressa, flowed through my entire body as I rapidly lost body heat.
As the ice elental king explained to , absorbing the mana while at the peaks of the glaciers was the “trigger” to ascend to the title of “ice elental king.” Absorbing it now wouldn’t do anything outside of replenishing my mana and training my body to better adapt to true ice.
As Empress lloxtressa had stated, exposing one’s mana to a pure form of an elent would one day cause my mana to turn into that elent. This was exactly what she suggested to to beco stronger, but this thod was… far more efficient than absorbing the mana in the air. Far better than training inside our mountain’s subterranean level.
Yet, this core wouldn’t lend its mana to anyone by the one chosen by the last ice elental king. I had asked Vifi and the nymphs to test it, but neither was able to absorb any of the mana. It felt like a mana contract, in a way, with how only I could use this core. Subsequently, it also ant whoever I deed worthy to be the king would gain this power over , leaving unable to absorb its mana if I handed it over.
Strangely, it’s not pure… I thought, rembering the testing I did after three days of traveling on this mole elental. Inside this core wasn’t just true ice mana, but also water and wind. Almost as pure as the true ice, the torrent and storm entering my body felt like it was rejecting . It was like a papercut, slicing at for a mont of pain, before it disappeared and returned to the core. From what I learned about the glaciers, I concluded it made sense for the ice elental king to have absorbed so pure wind and water mana over its long life, as the ice elent was the composite elent of wind and water.
Yet, although I understood this made sense, I felt a bit weirded out by it since I’ve never read of a multi-elent elental before. They were elentals because they were the manifestation of a single elent. The ones wielding the purest forms of that elent were the ice elental king and emperors.
However, those thoughts had to rest. For now, I had to establish so authority before these elentals.
[“My na is Tasianna. From what I can see, you were notified of before I arrived. I suspect the nymphs here had inford you prior?”] I stated, using [Telepathy] now to also translate for Vifi.
[“Yes. Oh, future king of ice. Heir of us ice elentals and the ruler of the frozen glaciers, we welco you to our domain, oh, king!”] The greater elentals replied in a myriad of voices, both male- and female-toned, prompting the younger elentals to cheer for .
[“I have traveled here for three days, brought here by these nymphs and this elental. My companion, Vifi, and I are exhausted after days of moving through the cold, hiding from the dragon, Yothmla—”]
“Monster! Betrayer! Deceiver of our king! Fiend of our friendship!” the lesser and normal elentals exploded, while the bodies’ of the greater started to crack, almost to show their anger at that na.
[“… Let’s be careful with that,”] Vifi stated and I nodded.
I continued, [“We are tired. Neither of us expected to be welcod as such, and you certainly didn’t allow us a mont as you kept on celebrating.”]
[“I apologize for that,”] Vifi added, bowing slightly as a gesture of respect. Her diplomatic side really had improved while around the dragonewt, and this show was enough—
“Apology accepted!”
… Instantaneously, the mood of all the fae outside of the greaters changed, switching back to jolly as they cheered and sang, dancing with childish desire, although we had complained about this very fact. The hatred from before couldn’t be seen at all, and all hostility was washed away in their minds.
They gathered around us, crowding around the mole elental as they began to praise Vifi for her power, expressing the raw power of her lightning mana. This didn’t last for too long as they quickly turned to , expressing how my ability to absorb the true ice mana was impressive even though I wasn’t an elental. I might be more aligned to ice, unlike most fairies who had neutral mana like most living beings, but to them, seeing a non-elental fae so adapted was, honestly, a one-ti wonder. They were even comparing to dragons.
… Sotis I really forget that I am an anomaly amongst my own.
Unfortunately for us, this cheering continued without an ending, prompting Vifi to almost blow up again, but instead of that, the greater elentals suddenly moved. Over half of those who were here began to dance and cheer like their younger brethren, slyly leading them away. Slowly but surely, the chamber was emptied of all celebration, leaving only a few greater elentals behind with our group… And by group, I ant only Vifi and . The mole elental and the nymphs were swept away by all the fun like kids.
I eyed them with suspicion. [“All of you seem quite wise, or at least, you seem to act differently compared to the younger elentals.”]
[“Different how?”] One of them replied, leaving no idea who amongst them was actually talking to . [“We elentals who are all worthy of rising above in pursuit of divine governance are here. We are the greater ice elentals. Beings in pursuit of only one thing—divinity. To achieve apotheosis and to correct the failure of our previous primarchs.”]
[“That is our pleasure and ambition, young fairy. How are we different from our more joyful days, displayed by the other elentals,”] another continued. [“If you consider us wise, then it is because we are gazing before our new ice elental king. We are ‘wise’ to slow down and witness the heir chosen by our ice elental king, but you saw what our kin just did to accommodate you, oh, king. As you wished, we silenced the noise for you to rest.”]
You’re only making this more weirder for . You are definitely not like the other elentals!
[“In our opinion, you are the outlier, fairy,”] yet again, another elental spoke. The telepathic ssages gave no clue which of the six greater elentals still here was speaking. [“You saw our inquisitiveness, didn’t you? You and the demonkin are using diplomacy like the ones with flesh and blood. You do not act like us fae. Your behavior is… subdued. Lacking in joy and feelings, instead, you used ‘authority’ and intimidation to gain our respect.”]
[“Did you not see what happened when a single apology was dropped?”] Another asked, prompting us to nod as we couldn’t forget how the elentals flipped their attitude towards Vifi. [“Young fairy—Tasianna. Once again, we welco you to our world, oh, future king of ice. From here on, you may accept our aid. Our journey to the peak may start as soon as you have recovered.”]
I looked at Vifi as she shrugged, telling to continue speaking with them. To gain more information.
[“Then, tell , if you seek divinity, then why has none of you seed interested in this core?”] I touched the core once again, letting the mana flow into before releasing myself from it. [“The source of becoming king is here before you, yet none of you had spoken about it. You simply accepted as your ‘king.’ Will you not ask where I found your previous king? How he was so close to you, but not close enough?”]
[“It is not in our interest.”] A new voice once again appeared. [“The king, in their last order to us before it vanquished the betrayer, Yothmlak, was that we should not find them. The rise of a new ice elental king shall happen when they deem they have found a worthy heir. When that day ca, we should welco the heir to their rightful ho. So they may assu the title of ice elental king.”]
[“Instead, we deed another action more appropriate!”] The second elental during this discussion spoke again. [“Eliminate the betrayer! Yothmlak and his kin! The dragonkin who live inside our ho, destroying our king and beasts with wanton destruction! We were warned that this day would co, but we did not act! Oh, king, your words rang hollow when it mattered the most! We, who only sought divinity, dood the one to rule us!”]
Warned? Did the ice elental king know about Yothmlak? Hold on, what is with this whole betraying thing, anyway?
[“The king spoke about a betrayal by a friend. Naming both Yothmlak and Thalaxurus. They didn’t elaborate on it, so would it be possible for you to tell ?”] I asked.
The elentals turned to each other. Their various forms made to look like a dragon, a drake, an ice worm, an elk, an amalgamation of a non distinct artwork made from ice, and, lastly, a giant bear, looked at each other with this lack of emotion on their faces that it made it hard to anticipate anything. Why were they holding a personal telepathic discussion from us?
[“We shall reveal this on the road. It is a long way, young fairy. Our ruler you will be, but not tomorrow, nor the day after. You are right. We must avoid the wrath and greed of Yothmlak under all circumstances, lest he snap at us and take away that core. He seeks to obtain power beyond his rank, and even if he cannot beco a being similar to the elental emperors, he can still achieve great power,”] a new voice once again spoke, finally totalling six voices for the six greater elental here.
[“… I see,”] I frowned. [“Then so be. I shall leave it as such. Although, I have to ask, what is your na?”]
[“Na?”] The elental gave a quizzical look. [“How simple. Yet, it cannot be helped, correct, young fairy? No, we elentals do not bear any nas, nor do we need to address each other as such. We sense one’s individuality by their mana. After all, every living being experiences life differently, absorbing mana with different elental purity, making them unique to all those who are truly in tune with mana.”]
[“It is to be expected,”] another replied. [“The fairies are beings created after the advent of the elves. The world began with beasts and the lesser fae, where nas were not needed. One understood each other’s uniqueness through their mana; the purest form of acknowledgent. Then we, elentals, ca into existence as Peolynca required beings to manage our world’s elents, where the birth of the primarchs happened. The strongest elentals of fire, water, wind, earth, light, and dark erged and allowed our world to progress as such.”]
[“And that was when the elves were born,”] a third continued. [“With beasts gaining intelligence, and the elentals gaining leaders to lead them forward, another creation of our world rose to prominence. The humanoids who are the most attuned to mana—the elves. The jealousy of us faefolk as we saw the beauty these beings possessed, led to the birth of the fairies. That is why you are so out of tune, young fairy. To your own kind and what mana can truly achieve! You need not call us by na, rely, rember our mana.”]
[“You will have enough ti, young fairy—Tasianna Marina Silverpond,”] a fourth said before the elentals slowly started to leave the room. The only one who didn’t was the dragon, and the one who just talked to us. [“Demonkin. If you must remain with us, then make sure you do not accidentally unleash your mana like that once again. That demonic mana of yours is unwelco to those who lost their god to the Origin Gods. The invaders of our world.”]
Telling us to find a spot inside the cave to rest at, the greater elentals left us quite quickly, although that also ant the rest of the elentals finally had the chance to enter the chamber to et us. Like before, they danced and sang around us, bringing nothing really of value. They were just enjoying our presence, at this point.
Therefore, Vifi and I retreated to our telepathic link. Not surprisingly, both of us seed to have shared the sa thought.
[“They are hiding sothing.”]
Both of us knew this. After all, these greater elentals certainly felt smarter than what the ice elental king tried to sell on us, to the point it didn’t feel weird to simply grant one of these elentals the core. Yet, at the sa ti, I had a bad feeling about it.
[“At the very least, we can infer that they attacked the dragons willingly. Although, they didn’t ntion anything about the mandril, and what or who exactly warned them of Yothmlak,”] Vifi said.
[“I thought they were talking about the king,”] I responded, to Vifi disapproving look.
[“Maybe. You did translate everything for , so it really depends on how you did it, but in my opinion, so things aren’t really coming together. I an, didn’t you hear it for yourself? They said that the king didn’t want anybody to find them, and that they should wait for their announcent, but what happened? A pack of ice worms appeared directly where we were with Yothmlak, in such a manner to disguise our escape.”]
[“Couldn’t it have been a coincidence? I an, yes, the king did ntion that the ice burrowers were commanded by the elentals, but maybe that was a stroke of luck?”]
[“… Timing is the important part, Tasianna. I don’t like it when things seem to flow pretty ‘well.’ Honestly, we should be careful here, otherwise, the king might have intentionally dragged us into so plan they had. I an, co on, don’t you think it weird that he announces you heir for ‘randomly’ appearing before them? No matter how special you are compared to other fairies, why exactly must you be the heir?”]
I squinted, noticing the flaw. [“… When these greater elentals disprove the king’s opinion on his race. Maybe sothing else happened.”]
[“Maybe is the kindest word here, honestly. Marsven’s shadow, we are still in enemy territory. Don’t forget, they did admit that they might have the elentals around who attacked Rhekkraxus, and that ant the ones who insulted Donut,”] Vifi stated with an unnerving stare. She looked so on guard, it was starting to affect . [“Regardless of what the truth is, let’s not expose the subspace and anything of such to them, all right? Like with Yothmlak, keep our secrets. We got most of our tools, again, though…”]
[“Our fur coats,”] I said, feeling bad about the pelts that were still in the making inside our subspace, or even finished. We wouldn’t be able to acquire them anyti soon.
Nevertheless, our adventure had to continue. To the peaks we go, although now, with new… “allies.”
User Comments
0 comments from readers