Kyrie presses his lips together once he sees the fairy's darkened expression. The orange hair fairy has not taken Kyrie's request in a good light.
[Has Phanes done something bad to the fairies?]
Kyrie groans as his muscles tighten every time he dances against his will. His body hurts as if all the cells of his body are getting squeezed out of oxygen.
The orange hair fairy chuckles sinisterly as she sees Kyrie struggling to control his body. She circles Kyrie again as if she needs to confirm something.
"Hmmm… You are a bit weird, but you are clearly a human. Too bad you came to ask about that goddess, so I don't like you anymore!" says the fairy, "How do you know about that goddess? I thought humans have forgotten about her."
[So she barely knows that the temples have anything related to Phanes.]
Kyrie tries to stop a couple of times from dancing, but ultimately he is dragged back to the circle by an invisible force. After doing it a few consecutive times, he feels lightheaded.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk… You are going to die earlier if you continue to struggle. Well… I don't think that would matter. You are going to die from exhaustion anyway."
Since there is no point for the orange-haired fairy to talk to a dying human, she flies back where the other fairies are, leaving Kyrie dancing in the circle.
Kyrie tries to use mana, but as soon as he circulates his mana, it evaporates off his body. Thus, using mana would only drain his energy faster than remaining obediently dancing. However, staying still is not going to save him either. As he dances, his energy is also getting drained, even if it is slower.
He looks around to see that some of his guildmates are starting to look pale. Others have lost consciousness, but their limp bodies continue to dance in the circle.
Since it is impossible to negotiate with the fairies after revealing his intentions, Kyrie has to find a way to break the ring enchantment before it becomes dangerous for the weaker guild members.
[The enchantment must come from the ring.]
When Kyrie forces his head to turn to the circle, he sees that the circle is not really a traditional enchantment. Rather, it shines because of the glow coming from the fairies. The fairies are so tiny that the circle seems to be only made out of mana from afar. When Kyrie focuses, he discovers the circle is made out of a single row of dancing fairies. As they turn and jump in their dance, glittering particles float out of their bodies. Then, the wall of light sends them up and scatters them in the air.
[So that is the light particles that were raining down earlier… They must be the reason why we are getting controlled.]
As Kyrie analyzes the situation, he feels a gaze wanting to drill a hole in his head. He moves his eyes back up to find Imogen staring. Unlike those around her, the ring enchantment does not seem to affect her since she is calmly walking around the circle. Then, he notices that Imogen is moving her mouth as she looks at him.
[Is she trying to say something? 'I. Will. Give. You. Five. Minutes.' Five minutes to solve the situation? Five minutes to what?]
Naturally, Kyrie searches for Laurel, and once he sees her, he understands the reason. Laurel is at her limit. Her face is pale, dripping in a cold sweat. Yet, with all her might, Laurel tries to stay conscious, fighting against the urge to close her eyes.
[The fairies are going to die if Imogen had responded like she usually does. Unlike her, I need information from the fairies. However, she seems awfully quiet and calm in this loop, making me nervous every time I think about it. What is she scheming? Why is she staying put?]
Kyrie's heart palpitates once he recognizes that the problem is not the fairies anymore. If Imogen kills all the fairies present, that will prevent him from ever getting information about Phanes, and he will go back to square one.
[Five minutes… Maybe the five minutes is the amount of time before Laurel reaches her limits.]
Anxiety crawls inside Kyrie, and fear is freezing him from the inside. His head throbs in pain again, and his stomach becomes upset. Suddenly, his vision blurs, and his body jitters.
"Kyrie… How much longer are you going to ignore me?" Ian wraps his arm over Kyrie's abdomen to prevent him from falling to the ground.
His body picks up a gentle warmth flowing through his body, and slowly, he recovers back the energy that has been draining away. Kyrie turns his shoulders to look at Ian to see that he is not under a spell. His body also feels lighter, so he looks at the dark transparent shield wrapping his body. The light particles hit the shield but do not get absorbed by his skin.
"You were able to null the enchantment! How did you channel mana without it escaping from your body?"
Ian gives a slight smile while pinching his eyebrows together, "Just a moment ago. I channeled enough mana to my shadow bit by bit."
[He must have used quite a bit of mana then since most of his mana would get absorbed by the ring.]
Kyrie smiles warmly at Ian, "Thank you."
Ian widens his eyes from Kyrie's smile but narrows them with some dissatisfaction after.
Kyrie breaks away from Ian in hopes of liberating the rest of his guildmates. He steps into the ground, and suddenly, the floor seems to move like waves. Ian pulls Kyrie back to his chest. Despite Kyrie pushing against Ian, Ian stubbornly holds onto Kyrie.
"Leave this to me," says Ian with a displeased tone.
"But…"
"You don't need me anymore?"
[huh?]
Kyrie looks up at Ian and finds Ian pouting. His right cheek slightly bulges in discontent.
When he looks away from Kyrie, he lifts his arm to guide his shadows. The shadows under Ian's feet shoot out and swim through the floor towards the guild members. When a piece of the shadow meets with someone's feet, it rapidly climbs up the person and covers the person. Those who are unconscious fall to the ground, while the others that are still conscious start to engage in a fight against the fairies. Imogen quickly breaks the circle where the fairies were dancing and captures most of the fairies by binding them in threads made out of light magic.
In the midst of the fight, the orange-haired fairy and her group see the disadvantage and escape.
"Headmaster, what should we do? Do we follow?" Sulfrid asks.
Kyrie shakes his head, "No, we should not follow when our guide is down. They could purposely misguide us and separate us. But, we still have hostages with us so that they will come back."
Sulfrid turns to look at Lemuel, who is in Federline's arms. Lemuel looks awfully pale and sickly. Celine kneels to check on his condition.
Ian walks Kyrie closer to them since Kyrie looks worried about Lemuel. Then, after checking Lemuel's condition thoroughly, Celine stands back up.
"He is okay. He is just too spent. But…."
Federline urges, "But what?"
"I am not very familiar with his condition right now… I am sensing a weird pulse from Lemuel, but he is not in danger or anything."
[A weird pulse?]
"Celine, I will leave Lemuel to you. If his condition is not better and the fairies remain hostile, we will leave the forest," says Kyrie.
"Yes, headmaster," responds Celine while turning around to follow Federline, carrying Lemuel.
Kyrie looks over their camp, and the equipment is scattered messily throughout. Luckily, the fairies are wise enough to extinguish the fire, or else the entire forest might turn into a living hell.
The members divide themselves into two groups - one to take care of the unconscious and the other to organize their things.
Kyrie turns to the fairies hanging on the thread of light from Imogen's hand.
"We are not going to tell you anything!" yells one of the fairies whose hair is green.
"It's fine that you don't want to tell me anything," Kyrie responds.
The fairies look at each other in confusion.
"I thought you wanted to go to see our queen."
"I do."
"Then, why don't you try to pry information from us."
"I mean… It is not really my intention to do anything against you guys. Quite the opposite, I am here just to make acquaintances and exchange some information."
"Uh! Like we will believe humans! You humans always lie!"
"Then, do you believe in the goddess?"
"You mean that foreign goddess called Vita? No! Not at all! We despise those deities! Whenever they come, they always leave a mess! Our true god is dead! That is why there is no need to worship anyone!"
One fairy kicks the green-haired fairy.
"Why are you telling the human so many things!"
"Sister! That is not even a secret!"
"Stop telling that human information! That human is weird!"
The green-haired fairy looks at Kyrie up and down and stops talking because her fairy sister is right.
"How am I weird? I am just a regular human."
All the fairies look at each other and smirk.
"You are also a lying human. You are not normal. We are sensing something different from you… Plus, this woman who is holding us has a similar feeling."
Kyrie looks at Imogen in confusion, and Imogen only shrugs her shoulders. Although Imogen shows that she does not know, Kyrie cannot fully believe her. Imogen always keeps the most important information until she thinks it is right to tell.
[Total regressor syndrome….]
"Wait… that man too smells different," the green-haired fairy points at Ian, "He smells something bad… You are a peculiar group of humans! Two of you smell like deities, and one smells like something terrible…. It reminds me of our queen…."
"Hey!" The sister fairy kicks the green-haired fairy again, "I told you to stop talking!"
"Alright! Alright!"
Imogen lifts them, and with a piercing gaze, she asks, "What do you mean?"
The fairies turn into statues when looking at Imogen's frightening gaze. All of their cells are screaming, telling the fairies that the woman is hazardous.
The green-haired fairy yells while tearing up, "W-w-we are n-n-not going to t-t-tell you!!!"
Imogen frowns deeper, and the fairies start to sob. They hug each other to at least feel some warmth before dying in cold blood.
Suddenly, Kyrie catches a movement deep from the forest, rushing toward them. At an astonishing speed, a being with a giant build runs toward Imogen and attacks her. Ian jumps away with Kyrie in his arm to avoid the impact while Imogen evades, but the creature has gotten some of the fairies from Imogen.
Kyrie frowns from the rotting smell coming from this being. The body of this creature looks exactly like a mount of dark grey mud. The mud is oozing out like its body is decaying. Kyrie and Ian prepare to fight, but the creature, at least five heads taller than them, only focuses on Imogen and the fairies in her hands.
The creature attacks once again. Although its speed is astonishing from its size, against Imogen, it couldn't land an attack. The more it attacks, the more infuriated it gets. It fumes from pores on its head, and the mud splatters everywhere when smoke comes out.
It opens its large mouth, and energy starts to gather into a sphere. Kyrie recognizes the energy immediately. It is the same type of energy that the supreme witch Saskia used when creating destructive orbs.
[Why does that creature use chaos energy?]
"Imo-"
Before Kyrie can warn Imogen, a large explosion happens. He closes his eyes to prevent the earth lifted by the wind of the explosion from entering his eyes. Once the explosion subsides, from the dispersing cloud of dust appears Imogen punching into the mud-like body. The ground below their feet is indented down.
"QUEEN!!!!" The fairies yell in shock and agony.
[Queen?]
Kyrie is shocked when the fairies call that mud monster their queen.
[What is going on?]
Imogen tries to take off her hand, but her hand is stuck. She frowns and starts channeling her mana. Then, she pulls her hand again. Slowly her hand is coming off that large mud body, but soon, another hand holding hers comes out of the blob of mud.
Imogen starts to whisper an enchantment, and a chill runs through Kyrie's mind.
"Wait, Imogen! That is the queen!"
"She should have left this life long ago," says Imogen as a golden aura wraps her body, "She dared to make a pact with a fallen god!"
As Imogen draws her sword, sizzling with light mana to cut through the queen, Kyrie arrives in front of her at speed faster than Imogen's estimations. Imogen's body jerks from hesitation, and her attack stops for a few seconds. However, her sword does not stop her from wanting to rip through flesh and bones. Just when the sword is about to slice through Kyrie, Imogen strikes a strong surface to propel her sword off her hand. Kyrie starts to shine, and the light suddenly erupts. In the blink of an eye, the entire forest gets covered in a blinding light.