Lena furrowed her brows, taking in the information. Her facial expression twitched confusedly. "A dozen? Like... twelve? I can’t imagine birthing that much at once... that’s like having an instant army!"
Lumi nodded and further explained. "Exactly. That said, pixies usually only actually bother reproducing with each other during a population crisis. When their numbers drop too low, survival instinct kicks in and they start having children in large batches. Otherwise, they much prefer to mate with other species."
Lena tilted her head. "Why?"
He gave her an understanding look. "Yeah, it’s weird. It’s for status, mostly. Having a child with another species is seen as more impressive than having children with another. It shows you were powerful enough or clever enough to make it happen. It’s also fun for them."
He paused, then added another detail. "Note that very few species would want this willingly. So almost every pixie who has done this has done it through coercion, deception, or force."
Lena’s expression darkened slightly. "That’s ssed up."
Lumi agreed. "It is. And crossbreeding with other species only produces a single pixie child, not a full batch. So it’s inefficient for population growth."
"But they do it anyway for the prestige?" Lena questioned, making sure.
Lumi gave a nod. "Exactly."
He gestured at the forest around them. "This cycle keeps the pixie population at a dium size. When the population gets small, it explodes upward as pixies start mass reproducing. If the population gets too big, it slowly dwindles as pixies go back to seeking status through crossbreeding instead."
"Huh." Lena processed that information. "That’s actually kind of clever. Horrible, but clever."
"Welco to pixie society."
Regardless of the biology lesson, they had sothing to do.
Lena reached into her inventory and pulled out the fairy wings she’d received from Headmaster Ney back in Teth.
She’d barely used them since getting them. The opportunity just hadn’t co up. They drained mana extrely quickly, and if they got damaged, they’d need to slowly regenerate by draining even more mana while she wore them.
But now was the perfect ti to test them out.
She equipped the wings, feeling them attach to her back. The sensation was strange, like suddenly having extra limbs that her brain needed to learn to control.
"Here goes nothing," Lena said.
She tried to activate them, channeling mana into the wings.
They began to flutter. She was lifted slightly off the ground, then began to rapidly fall. She imdiately fell and crashed face first into the wooden platform.
"Ow."
Lumi watched from the airship. "You okay?"
"Fine!" Lena pushed herself up, rubbing her nose. "Just need to get the hang of it."
She tried again.
"Hah!" She jumped up into the air, wings fluttering, and flew up into the sky. This ti she managed to stay airborne for a few seconds before listing sharply to the left and nearly flying into a tree trunk. She overcorrected, spinning in a complete circle before stabilizing.
Lena pouted. "Flying feels weird."
It wasn’t like riding the airship where she was just a passenger. This required active control, constant adjustnt, and ntal focus on movents that didn’t co naturally.
She drifted forward, wobbling like a drunk fairy. Her trajectory was erratic, rising and falling unpredictably as she struggled to maintain consistent altitude.
Lumi grinned as she watched her try to get a hang of flying. "You look ridiculous."
"Shut up!" Lena shouted back, nearly crashing again before catching herself.
She tried again. She stabilized herself mid-air, and she wasn’t going anywhere. She mastered the hover. Then she tried to move and promptly crashed. But she was getting better. Each attempt lasted longer than the last.
After about ten minutes of practice, she managed a relatively stable flight.
She grinned. "This can work!"
Sure, she didn’t look graceful. Sure, her flight pattern was chaotic at best. But the ancestral spirits wouldn’t be judging her on technique. They’d be judging whether she was a pixie.
And a pixie who flew poorly? That was just a normal pixie. They were chaotic by nature.
Lena gave Lumi a thumbs up. "I’ve got this!"
"You sure?" Lumi asked. "We haven’t even discussed your approach strategy."
"Strategy is for people who plan things!" Lena declared. "I’m going in!"
With that, she rushed toward the portal.
Lumi opened his mouth to stop her, but it was already too late.
Lena dove through the portal and disappeared.
Lumi was stunned.
He stared at the empty space where Lena had been a mont ago.
Huh?
She’s got this? How? What was her plan? Weren’t they going to discuss her cover story? Prepare what she’d say to the ancestral spirits? Work out signals in case she needed an ergency extraction?
Uh.
He waited for a mont, half expecting her to co flying back out screaming about angry spirits.
Nothing happened.
Well.
What’s done is done.
Lumi shook his head and took control of the airship, lifting off from the platform. There was no point waiting around. Either Lena would succeed and co out with treasure, or she’d fail and respawn in Elenora. He couldn’t help her either way.
He had other business to attend to.
First, he had a demon to talk to.
He flew the airship back through Elenora, then back up north. Eventually, he reached familiar territory. He flew all the way back to that clearing with the stump, the spot where the demon Currway was sealed.
Currway was still expecting him to bring human sacrifices. The demon had been very clear about that requirent during their last conversation. Bring souls, he will break out, and reward him with power.
Little did it know what was actually coming. Lumi was about to dump a ton of players directly into its realm.
Ehe~
He paused.
Wait.
What was that? Why was he being cutesy? When did he start making sounds like that?
He’d picked up so habits from Lena, apparently. Wonderful.
Lumi landed the airship in the clearing and walked over to the stump. He sat down cross-legged, placing his hands on the weathered wood, and opened a ntal connection to the sealed demon below.
"Currway," Lumi said into the void. "I have news."
The demon’s presence materialized in his mind almost imdiately, eager and hungry.
"Ahhhh, my young apprentice returns!" Currway’s voice oozed false warmth. "Do you bring good news? Have you secured the sacrifices?"
"I have," Lumi said. "My sacrifice is prepared. In two days, I will arrive with them."
"Excellent! How many?"
"I tricked a group of academy students," Lumi lied smoothly. "There should be a few dozen at minimum."
Currway’s presence surged with excitent. The demon’s joy was obvious even through the ntal connection.
"A few dozen!?" Currway practically shouted in his mind. "You’ve exceeded my expectations! I didn’t need so many sacrifices! You’ve gone above and beyond, my boy!"
The demon’s voice took on a conspiratorial tone. "When I break free from this prison, when I reclaim my full power, I’ll make you my right hand man! You’ve proven yourself worthy of standing at my side!"
Lumi suppressed the urge to laugh. The demon actually believed him. Honestly, he never considered himself a good actor. It was a testant to what so many years of isolation could do that Currway believed his performance.
"Thank you, master," Lumi said, putting as much false reverence in his voice as he could manage.
"Go!" Currway said excitedly. "Prepare everything! And don’t ss up the plan! Two days from now, I’ll be waiting!"
"Hehehe..." Lumi gave an evil laugh. "Of course, master. I won’t fail you."
He severed the ntal connection and stood up, walking back to the airship.
The point of the visit?
Simple misdirection.
Currway was about to have a bunch of unexpected visitors in his realm. When the raid started and dozens, potentially hundreds of players ca through the portal, Currway would sense their souls entering his domain.
If Lumi hadn’t prepared the demon for this, Currway might have suspected sothing was wrong. He might have questioned why so many people were arriving at once, and realized it wasn’t a simple sacrifice.
But now? Now Currway was expecting a large group. He’d been told to anticipate "a few dozen" people arriving. When the actual number turned out to be higher, he’d probably just assu Lumi had exceeded expectations again.
After all, the only way to enter Currway’s realm was through the key the demon had given Lumi. He could even destroy the key remotely if he suspected betrayal.
Lumi needed Currway to remain thoroughly tricked, completely complacent, right up until the raid was already underway and it was too late for the demon to do anything about it.
Perfect.
Lumi lifted off in the airship once more, steering away from the clearing.
Now he had sowhere else to go.
See, he was currently very deep in Elenora. So deep, in fact, that he was actually closer to the far edge of the forest than to the side he’d entered from.
If he just continued in his current direction, heading east and slightly south, he’d eventually reach the border where Elenora t the Macres region.
And just beyond that border, in the transitional zone between forest and plains, there would be so very, very special pigs waiting for him.
Lumi grinned as he flew toward his next destination.
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