Chapter 72: Mistflower 18: Make it Double

“Uhh, you’re aware of the existence of subdimensions I hope.”

“Yes, I know of at least 1.”

I only know that Hourai is one but I’m not sure how common sub dimensions are. Although my dimensional pocket is a form of a subdimension. It doesn’t store objects in a place anyone can reach by looking hard enough.

“Well, there is space between them. Just like ehm I think you call them rivers and oceans. That space has currents and things live there. I’ve encountered some when I came here and every dimension I visited had them, even though that number is only 3.”

“I see, I never knew that. So do they come here in this subdimension?”

“Well as far as I can tell this is the biggest subdimension so I think they do but I’m not sure as I have only recently arrived here.”

I wrote everything down but an important question needed to be answered. I know how she knows this but I don’t know what a fairy is, besides our own conjectures and speculations.

“Muqu, can I ask what a fairy is?”

Muqu seemed uncomfortable and adjusted her posture.

“We call ourselves Kahru which means ehh...” Muqu zoned out for a moment and came back to her senses. “It means ‘Devourer’,”

“Uhh, that’s not a cool name and what did you do just now?”

Muqu tapped her head. “Our nature makes us able to attune to any dimension we enter. Language and important knowledge flow in so we can...more effectively devour...”

“Is this why they all transform in what we call fairies?”

“We don’t know why we’re called that but if that’s the expectation of our appearance, then we take it. And other fairies feed of that expectation which is why most look the same after transforming.”

I noted everything down. So the rabbits were right. They’re parasites. But why do they need t invade dimensions just to eat its inhabitants? Most species eat meat but they don’t invade other dimensions.

“So what do you devour?”

“We devour the breath of the planet.”

I dropped my pen. What does that mean? The lanet breathes? And breath of the planet and not of the dimension?

“You seem confused. Let me tell you a bit about me and my sister. The reason we don’t look like the others is because we don’t partake in this practice. What is your favorite food?”

“Cake!”

“Imagine a grand buffet of different types of cakes, every type is there but there are also crackers. We ignore the cake and go for the crackers because eating the cake would distort our appearance, make us wicked, like those things.”

I was grateful to have been born a Misha, I would never be able to go for crackers when there was cake everywhere.

Muqu continued. “Most creatures have an inside and outside appearance. Some are beautiful from the inside and ugly from the outside. The vice versa happens of course as well as both being ugly and beautiful. Getting tempted by our desires makes us take on the form of our inner self.”

I picked up my pen and tapped with it. “But I don’t strike your...personality, is it? I don’t strike it as ugly.”

“Most of us aren’t initially like that, it affects our personality as you call it, first and then our appearance follows.”

That is...brutal. So, if I was a fairy and I ate cake, I would first become a shitty person and then ugly? I hate it!

At least it explains why every fairy is a psycho.

“So, what is the breath of the planet and why of the planet and not of the dimension?”

“It’s what keeps the planet alive. I don’t know how you call it here. I can’t find the word even while attuning.”

So it’s not mana as Muqu doesn’t believe that its needed for live. How about nature energy? Its not mana but acts like it. But there are many places devoid of nature energy.

“So you eat energy? I’ve only seen your kin eat living beings.”

“ We don’t eat energy we eat uhhm, those transparent beings.”

I wrote down what she said but left a blank instead of writing ‘transparent being’ . “We don’t have a word for it? Air? Wind? Breath?”

“No, it’s alive! There was a race that was one and our kin has evolved to fight it as it was our natural enemy and now we’ve adapted we’ve become its natural enemy.”

I’m drawing blanks. So there is a race that fights fairies but now they ended up as their cake...ehh food.

“They use beautiful fire and have 9 tails!”

“Eh? Nine tailed spirit foxes? They sure can’t catch a break, can they?”

“Oh yes spirit! That’s the word!”

I wrote down ‘spirit’ in the blank. Another topic I know nothing about. I’m so far away from my expertise that it isn’t even funny.

So spirits are the breath of the planet? How does that work? Wait a second...

“So... the planet dies when all spirits are gone?”

Muqu nodded.

“So, this invasion can literally kill the planet?”

Muqu nodded again.

I grabbed my head and rolled around on the bed.

This invasion just got worse than I thought. But... the invasion had happened nearly a year ago... how does time fly.

We’re still here though. So the spirits are safe?

There are too many questions and each question would bring me off track even more. What was my original question? Creatures in interstitial space.

I wrote it down so I would forget.

“Ok, one more question before I would get back to the creatures in the interstitial space. So...why invade other dimensions to eat spirits, can’t you uhh breed them like we do animals and keep them?”

“Azu...the amount of spirits stays constant, once they’re gone, they’re gone forever. They don’t get born and generally don’t die. They go to their own world and pop back up in other subdimension.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“That...”

“The only spirits that do get born are those foxes.”

I rubbed my head. “But they’re going extinct...”

“Oh, that’s not good.”

The mythical races are going extinct and it sets forth a cascade of problems, bigger than anyone could imagine. This invasion is only expediting this and nobody seems to be talking about this. Why don’t the Misha teach this? Don’t we prize our wide knowledge?

I wrote my thoughts in my notebook. And filled 5 pages.

“Thank you Muqu, I feel that the more I ask about this topic, the more despair will set in. So about these interstitial creatures...”

Muqu zoned out, probably retrieving information about them.

I started to become envious about that ability. It’s something I would die for to possess.

“It doesn’t seem your dimension or at least this planet has information on them.”

I dropped my pen again.

What is our planet doing?! This must be important right?

“Aargh! Why are we so stupid?!”

My ignorance and the ignorance of the planet pissed me off. Everyone is living in their own bubble. Is this why everything is going downhill?

I calmed down as I had an idea. “Wait, if I got this right, the foxes were responsible for dimensional stuff. They should know right?”

“They do but I can’t access that for some reason.”

“They... they're not all dead, are they? What about other races with similar roles?”

“I don’t know, sorry.”

So id an interstitial creature appears, we’re screwed. Thats good to know...

“So you must know something about them right? What should we do when one appears?”

“Well as far as I know only spatiotemporal magic works on them and they’re still strong despite that so... I’d say we run.”

“Ah...” I reached down to grab my pen but couldn’t help and think that that sounded familiar.

A scorpion creature had appeared in Boshi town near the end. It was enormous and had thousands of smaller copies.

I fought them off with the young Agnis but only spatiotemporal magic worked on them. It had some things in common with fairies but it felt different.

In the end they got defeated by a spatiotemporal mana infused [Azure Mist] combo but it needed a scale that large to kill them. Not something that could be done in this burrow.

Spatiotemporal magic on itself is problematic as it’s not ally friendly and dangerous in small and enclosed spaces.

[Dimensional Sword] is the only skill that would be viable. Could apply it to my fan but it might still cut more than I want to.

The whole burrow rumbled and a cry came out of the depths.

“It seems they found their culprit.” I said with a wry smile.

The whole burrow rumbled for over 20 minutes before it died down.

Whatever that was it must be dead, I hope.

Muqu asked me questions about my race when a bloodied Benji ran in half an hour later.

“Azu, we need your help. We’re dealing with something from beyond!”

“Ehh, I don’t know what that means but I can guess. Do you need my spatiotemporal magic? Also are you ok? Your arm is gone...”

“Oh this? It will regenerate in an hour. Come! And bring Muqu.”

I could never get used to these rabbits running around with missing limbs. Not because they regenerate means they should care so less about it...

It always bugged me on my shifts but talking to them about it was pointless.

Muqu and I followed Benji through the burrow to go down to the 73rd floor.

Benji seemed in a hurry so he had urged me to climb on his back and he was carrying Muqu with his other arm like a parcel.

I couldn’t follow anything in my surroundings. He hopped around too fast and it even made me dizzy.

One of the longest 30 minutes of my life. I had to sit down and recover after Benji stopped and told us we had arrived.

Muqu and I sat with our backs to the wall to recover from the wild ride.

“We had found the culprits but they’re problematic. They hop into our space, attack and hide back behind the dimensional fabric and we can’t interact with them when they do.”

I pulled out my hairpin. “They? There’s more of them?”

Benji nodded and glanced at his arm who was just missing its hand and wrist currently. “Yeh, there are 2 of them. I thought that we might stand a chance but it seems that’s not the case.”

“Do...do you know what they are?” I asked as my notebook appeared again.

“Of course, every mythical beast that has visited Hourai knows what they are.”

Muqu and I looked at each other.

“Excuse me Benji, Azu and I had a talk about this earlier and my race can access information possessed by this dimension’s inhabitants but I couldn’t find any info on them.”

Benji stroked his beard. “That’s strange. Edea Hourai used to fight these things all the time. I had been lucky to experience several of them and many others have too as we help each other out from time to time. It gives us also a more complete view on how the world works. She had aided us in tending to the jungle several times but...her fire was an ill match for the jungle...”

Soft rumbling came from behind a collapsed corridor in the distance.

“They will be fine. We will help them once my hand is back.”

More questions and no answers. But we will be fighting this thing... what is it even?

“What exactly are we fighting Benji?”

“A strange scorpion thing with a million eyes and 3 tails.”

I dropped my pen again.

It was the same creature I fought in Boshi town. Is it back for revenge? No that can’t be we defeated it. His cousin? Uncle? Brother?

I smacked my cheeks. No time to be silly. The tails need to go first.

“Any corruption?” I asked.

“Our nature energy counters it. Have you fought something like this before?”

“I nodded and picked up my pen. “I can beat them but...this floor and others might collapse.”

“That’s fine we have evacuated this floor and 9 floors above it. Spatiotemporal magic is....”

“I know, I will do my best to keep the attacks compact.”

Spatiotemporal mana flowed through my folded fan. It’s not quite a sword but it would work with [Dimensional Sword]. One wrong swing and everything behind my target will get cut. Defeating it will be no problem, the real problem is; can I defeat it without bringing down the burrow or cutting my allies?

I focused on my fan and tuned my mana.

“Azu are you ready?” Benji showed off his regenerated hand.

“Yes! Let’s go Muqu!”

Benji kicked the rocks aside, clearing out the collapsed corridor and we entered the meeting hall of this floor.

Wren and 4 rabbits were fighting 2 scorpions the size of a large boulder. They had countless eyes on their face and 3 tails.

Corruption was spreading around their legs which got counteracted by the nature energy the rabbits were pulsing.

They had a dark purple sheen and they snapped at the rabbits with their pincers and shot their tails with blinding speed.

“Muqu, a question, how are those not fairies?”

“They don’t want to devour, they just want to take over it seems.”

“So an invasion but they just want to live here?”

Muqu nodded.

Why can’t the species of this dimension just get along....

“Azu, can you get rid of their tails? They’re a thorn in our side. I will give the signal as spatiotemporal magic is...”

“Dangerous, I know, just don’t get hit by it.”

A heartbreaking scene played off in a corner as a rabbit was holding a corpse that was missing it’s head. The neck had a similar corruption as the scorpions were spreading.

Something tells me that that corruption stops regeneration.

Wren had gotten stung in her arm and she cut off a part above the sting with a [Wind Blade].

“Muqu, can you hold those scorpions in place? All we need is 4seconds. Rabbits! Spatiotemporal magic alert!”

Benji hopped in and distracted the scorpion, giving Wren breathing room.

The rabbits reacted instantly and attempted to bind the scorpions with vines.

Muqu sang and water surrounded thtips of the tails and froze them together.

“Spatiotemporal magic Alert!” Benji yelled as he jumped away.

I assume this was my cue.

I exhaled and swing my fan.

The 3 tails fell off the first scorpion, it only put a cut in the other scorpion.

The slash kept going and made a gash in the wall. How far it went, I don’t know but at least the burrow was still standing.

The tailless scorpion screeched causing the burrow to rumble and scuttled over to me and I swung again.

The sudden approach of the scorpion had startled me and aa slash as wide as my body had appeared.

The scorpion was no more but the burrow suffered.

Parts of the ceiling collapsed and I dodged falling rocks.

“Sorry!”

“Don’t worry about it! Just one scorpion left!”

The rabbits focused on countering the corruption that spread wherever the other scorpion walked. I couldn’t take another swing as the rabbits moved around too much to evade falling rocks.

I couldn’t see the tails lash out at all.

The rabbits were narrowly dodging them but I was certain I wouldn’t be able to.

Muqu flew over on her wings made out of water and rained down icicles in an attempt to box it in.

The rabbits kicked rocks and boulders to aid her.

“Go for it Azu, Spatiotemporal magic alert!”

The rabbits cleared out at Benji’s warning and I took another swing.

The scorpion turned transparent and disappeared. I couldn’t stop the swing and another cut came out that compromised the structure of the floor.

“He ran...”

The rabbits sighed and tended to their injured.

The place was rumbling but it wasn’t a scorpion this time. The floor was on the verge of collapsing but all I could think about was how this creature could just get away with this.

I couldn’t accept it.

“Muqu, come here! Azu great job. We need to run.”

Wren lifted me on her back with 1 arm and another rabbit put me on her back.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t kill the other one.”

“It’s not your fault now stop talking, you might bite your tongue.”

A rabbit hopped into the corridor leading up with Muqu on his back and Wren followed him.

Another dizzying experience. The rumble didn’t stop but it became softer and softer.

I closed my eyes to mitigate the dizziness of Wren hopping around and ignoring the fact that people prefer to have their heads face upwards.