Chapter 69: Mistflower 15: Cursed Song

The fairy just stood there, singing. The whispering sounds of her presence softened and disappeared the moment she finished her song.

“This is the first-time meeting inhabitants of this dimension. It seems my greeting unnerved you. It wasn’t my intention.”

“Stop lying! You’re a fairy! I won’t end up as fairy food!” Mishell said as she pointed at the fairy.

The fairy ignored her and sat down.

I had difficulties assessing whether this fairy was friendly or tricking us.

“Wait! You’re the intelligent fairy, are you?” I asked, to which the fairy nodded.

“I wouldn’t say that I’m intelligent it’s just...my kin is stupid...” The fairy dropped her hands in her head.

Trick or not this seemed genuine.

“You have all reason to doubt me. All I want to ask is if you’ve seen my sister. I will leave afterward.”

“Which of those murderous abominations is your sister? Heh, maybe we’ve even killed her!”

“Mishelly, let’s just hear her out. She has disarmed her mana, which is difficult and relatively stupid...At least it lends credibility to her words.”

It was the first time I’ve noticed someone disarming her mana. It always has to be converted to elemental mana as the mana everyone draws in from the environment is relatively useless. Converting mana to a more useable form is an automatic and unconscious process and this fairy had turned it off.

She won’t be using mana as far as I can tell.

“My name is Muqu Maru and I’m looking for my sister Naqu Maru who should have come to this dimension...” She counted on her fingers.

“..about 4000 years ago. She looks near identical to me. Have you seen her?”

“How should we know?! Maybe she’s running around like those horrendous creatures!””

“Mishelly, let me handle this...I’m sorry I haven’t seen her but...if you’re looking for her why are you in this spire?”

“It’s the first building I saw when I got here months ago but... I can’t get out because of some hideous creature.”

“You mean your sister?!” Mishelly said proudly, thinking she had found Muqu Maru’s sister.

“Mishelly, please...What creature?”

Muqu Maru pointed at the large volcano in the distance. “I encountered it in the crater of that volcano but I couldn’t beat it so I had to flee. I have been practicing my song for a rematch.”

“How is singing going to help?” I took out my notebook and jotted down some bullet points.

“The creature has 5 heads and it’s songs turned my mana into fire...It wasn’t a pleasant battle.”

“So that’s why you learned how to disarm your mana?” I said while summarising my thoughts about this exchange.

“Yes, exactly! Finally, someone I can talk to!”

“So what’s this about your kin, why are you different?”

Muqu Maru paused and seemed to look for words. “There are...certain choices my race makes. Simplified, making the easy decision turns us into those obnoxious beings you know and making the difficult decision to uphold keeps us as we’re supposed to be, like me and my sister. I just hope she didn’t slip up and go for the easy route.”

I was curious about what this decision was but it didn’t seem as if she would want to tell us.

“Oh! I know what it is!” Mishelly exclaimed.

“Yes! It makes sense! You are here to look for someone! Those are here to destroy!” Another baseless statement and a confident pose from Mishelly.

“That...that’s not entirely incorrect actually. I am not here to destroy and devour, I just want to check up on my sister and leave.”

Mishelly had dropped her hostility but her aura also seemed different. “Heh, [Aura Shift] never fails! Even though I messed up...anyways I trust you! For now.”

Mishelly sat back down and continued drawing in the ash.

“What a strange race. But it seems that you haven’t seen my sister. Thank you for your time and be well.”

Muqu Maru got up and got ready to leave.

“Hold on a minute.” A deep voice said.

Benji appeared out of nowhere, walked up to Muqu Maru, and extended his hand.

“My name is Benji, as my granddaughter noticed, you don’t seem to have ill intent. How about we collaborate to defeat that creature you were struggling with.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Muqu Maru had a confused look as she looked at Benji’s hand.

“It seems you’re unaware of the customs here, that’s fine, sit down! Let me go through my memories as I might have spotted your sister in my long life.”

Muqu Maru nodded and both sat down.

Muqu Maru, or Muqu, came here with the other fairies. She had hitched a ride with them but in secret as according to her, her kin isn’t fond of those that made the right decision.

“So those fairies are just as dangerous to you as for us?” I said as I kept writing.

“Wel...they would probably prioritize tearing me to shreds and then go after you so not quite accurate.”

“About 4000 years ago eh? That’s quite close to when the Great Blank happened. The question is if it was can you give a more accurate number?”

Benji must have been asking that as ‘about’ 4000 years ago could mean 3900 years ago which is right after the Great Blank or 4000 years ago which was before.

“i’m sorry, I’m not great with how years work here. I just know that ‘about 4000 years ago’ is what it would be for the inhabitants here.”

“Hmm, besides resembling you, what traits could give her away. There are 4 more continents so it’s entirely possible that she’s not on this continent. There is a concept called ‘planets’ but I’m not well versed on that, Azu here might know more about that.”

Planets are not a new concept as Misha had been aware of them but most other races didn’t. Star reading and planet reading is one of the many courses Misha get and we are aware of them but their significance stops there. They’re just navigation tools, divination tools or help us determine time.

“Continents...slabs of land correct? I see. So am I on the wrong slab of land?”

Benji and I realised the difficulty of conversing with someone who knows the language but doesn’t necessarily means what most of the words mean.

“Hmm, that’s a possibility.” Benji said struck a pensive pose. “Azu, you might have noticed but Nesher has a lower ambient mana concentration, right?”

“Uhh, yeah. It caught me off guard but it wasn’t a big deal. I have more than enough mana stored in my hairpin.”

“I have been to Kaledon several times, at least those I remember and mana tends to attract beings that use mana and as far as I know, Kaledon has the highest concentration of ambient mana. I would recommend starting to look over there.”

I wrote that down too. I never thought about it but what Benji said made sense. Higher ambient mana concentration means that it’s easier to use mana. I stopped writing as a sudden realization set in.

“Wait, Benji, you said that the mana on Kaledon attracts those that use mana, does it mean that the fairy swarm is worse over there?”

Benji nodded.

I was unsure how to feel about that, I was glad that I didn’t have to deal with that but if it was this bad over here...

“Kaledon. Ok, thank you. How do I get there?”

Silence fell. I would like to know the answer to that too. I would hate to fly back to Kaledon after this blows over.

I gave Benji a hopeful look but it seemed that he was struggling to find an answer.

Benji looked at me and smiled. “You would have to ask Azu, she originates from Kaledon.”

My hope turned into despair and Muqu’s hope shifted to me.

“You...ehhh, fly there...You fly north...”

“Oh! That’s no problem. Thank you! How can I repay you?!”

Was it that simple? ‘Just fly back’? it is true but it sounded more like mockery. Although every fairy seems to be capable of flight, an intercontinental flight is different.

“It’s far you know... I wouldn’t recommend it which is why I hoped that there would be another method...” I said as I gave Benji another hopeful look.

“I’m sorry Azu, the only other method I know is teleportation but...the distance makes it impractical.”

I sighed. No free rides, eh?

“I thank thee, inhabitants of Isi!”

“What? ‘Isi’ is that the name of our dimension?” I inquired.

Mishelly and Benji looked at me as if I were crazy.

“Azu...it’s the name of this world we live on. Our planet, so to speak.”

“Huh? We’ve learned that it was called Yabia.”

I was confused and Benji, Mishelly, and Muqu were confused.

“Is...is there something I don’t know?”

I’m unaware if the countries keep in touch. It’s possible that every country calls it differently but...Benji has access to more knowledge than I have.

“As far as I know it has always been called Isi. I don’t know where the word ‘Yabia’ comes from, sorry. The elves I had visited 2572 years ago in the Kaledonian Eastern Elven forest called the planet ‘Isi’ too.”

So, is ‘Yabia’ something recent? That can’t be. I was stuck in Boshi town 2572 years ago and I learned of that name in my student years.

“Do...do the legendary and mythical beasts know this?”

Benji sat up straight and scratched his ear. “I can’t speak for all of them but as far as I know, they do.”

I wrote down more notes and noticed that it only had 4 empty pages left. So many questions and no answers. As far as I knew, everyone on Kaledon referred to our world as ‘Yabia’.

“I am sorry to ask for more after you've helped me but would you help me destroy the 5-headed singing creature?”

Mishelly got up and stretched. “Let’s go Azu, Gramps. I’ve had enough of this place. We can ask more questions after we get out of here.”

Benji nodded and stood up. “Sure thing, on the condition that we can ask more questions after we defeat it.

Muqu led us toward the volcano while singing. It caused the other fairies to stay away from her.

It seems useful but I‘m not a singer so I don’t know how long she can keep it up.

Mishelly complained about her feet hurting and Benji carried her on his back. How nice of him.

The lava lifeforms on the volcano avoided us which made climbing the volcano easier.

The mountain was rumbling and hoped tht it wouldn’t erupt with us on it.

A gruelling 3 hour climb but we made it to the top. We rested as we looked over the crater.

There was magma everywhere but a large raised stone platform stuck out, giving the crater more the appearance of a magma donut.

There was only 1 bridge to it which was directly below us. It was a bit too close to the magma below.

A sole creature was lying on a pile of black shimmering rocks and playing with an obsidian dagger. It looked like a man.

A man with a neck that split in 5. The necks were long like snakes and wriggled around like snakes.

He noticed us after 10 minutes , got up, and produced the most diabolical sounds I had ever heard. It wasn’t as obnoxious as the fairy screeches and giggles but it was extremely unsettling.

I was feeling hot as my mana slowly heated up and started turning into fire.

“It seems no rest for us. He has started his [Cursed Song]. I will sing to counter it but 10 minutes is all I can do.”

Muqu started singing and my mana turned to normal.

“Mishelly, hop on my back, you 2 come here. We have no time to lose, we need to get to that creature and defeat it before Muqu’s song ends!”

Mishelly hopped on Benji’s back. He lifted Muqu and me up with 1 arm and pushed off the ground.

The bridge sped at us. H ran over the long hot bridge. A strange smell and the heat assaulted us but Benji ran fast enough for it to be no great deal.

“I am sorry but I will have to throw you after we make it on the platform, Mishelly, you know what to do!”

“Yes!”

We reached the platform before I could protest and I got flung into the air.

Muqu sprouted bird wings which seemed made out of water and I pulled out my hairpin, unfolded my fan, and floated on it.

Benji went in with a flying kick and Mishelly had jumped off his back and went into Rabbit mode.

Let’s hope that singing is all this creature can do.