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“Now that the car’s gone, how do we get back?” Vur asked as he landed on the untouched ground. Behind him, a sea of rubble littered the land, covering the grass and roads. He dropped E onto the ground and deactivated his awakening.
“Whoa,” Sheryl said from the runes on his shoulder. “You were normal on the outside! I thought you were a really weird dragon at first.” The runes shimmered and wriggled, causing Vur to furrow his brow at them. “There’s so much mana here; I’ll be a volcano elemental in no time! I definitely made the right choice.” She paused. “But why did you contract with him, Diamant? Don’t tell me you’re expecting to evolve from a mountain elemental.”
“I was coerced,” Diamant said with a sigh. “I could either work under him or give up everything and restart as a pebble elemental in a hundred years. Now, I’m just hoping Vur brings my clan unprecedented wealth and prosperity.”
“The Gemstone Merchants are already the richest in the land,” Sheryl said, her voice raising in pitch, “and you want more? I knew Az was telling me the truth when he said all earth elementals are greedy and cutthroat when it comes to profit.”
“Yeah, seriously,” E said while summoning sets of armor. “This elemental can fart out diamonds at will, but he treats them as precious treasures and sells them to us at an outrageous price.” The armors crawled together, some parts of them melting while others bent until the rough frame of a carriage formed in front of him and Vur. The dwarf king glanced at his human companion. “I don’t have any tools to make an engine, so we’ll have to do this the plebian way. Diamant, turn into a horse or an ox and pull this for us.”
The brown runes on Vur’s arm flashed once. “You can manipulate the wheels of that shoddy carriage with your mana,” Diamant said, his voice icy. “My master is Vur, and you gave up your position as dwarf king; why should I listen to you?”
“Oh, just do it, Deedee,” Stella said, smacking the runes with her flower’s roots. “I want to hurry up and leave this place so we can kidnap a water elemental. A flower needs rain to grow.”
Diamant heaved a sigh as an earthen horse materialized in front of the carriage. The carriage’s metal straps—controlled by E—attached themselves to the horse while E and Vur climbed inside. Sheryl spoke up from Vur’s shoulder, “If Az could see Diamant now, I wonder what he’d say.”
***
Lindyss and Erin lay side by side in the center of a massive brown crater, their chests rising up and down as they panted. “Y-you, you’re a freak,” Erin said as she stared at the sky. Her hair was frizzled while her clothes were blackened and torn. “What the hell are you?”
“Shut up, you stupid fairy,” Lindyss said as she struggled to sit up. “I don’t want to hear that from you. How do you transform someone over 500 times? Do you know how disgusting it feels to turn into an octopus?”
“Want me to do it again?” Erin asked as she propped herself up with her hands. Her golden eyes flashed as she shouted, “Polymorph!”
Lindyss expression darkened as her body shrank and contorted. Her bones vanished, causing her flesh to jiggle as it squirmed and split, eight limbs forming. As she was transforming, a purple aura rose up around her body and a beam of light rained down from the sky.
Erin cursed as she tossed herself to the side, the heat from the beam causing blisters to form on her skin. A puddle of lava formed where she had just been. “Sky’s Judgement?” she asked as she dodged another falling pillar of light. “How do you have so many classes? Why do you know so many spells?”
The octopus on the ground shuddered as it contorted again, regaining Lindyss’ original shape. Every time she undid a polymorph, she’d lose an absurd amount of mana. If it weren’t for all the souls Grimmy had planted inside of her, she’d have lost to Erin long ago. “I really, really hate fighting fairies,” Lindyss said with a scowl.
“You picked the fight!” Erin shouted back and threw a pebble at Lindyss. It hit the elf’s forehead and bounced off without harming her. “I was just minding my own business, and you nearly drove a stake through my heart!”
“Excuse me, saviors?” a voice asked from outside the crater.
“You, shut up!” Erin and Lindyss shouted at the same time towards the side.
The group of dwarves, elves, humans, and fishmen flinched and lowered their heads. They were the ones trapped inside the dwarves’ dungeon, which had been destroyed during Lindyss and Erin’s battle. None of them knew what to do after being freed, so they had stayed and watched the fight. If they fled from the dungeon, the dwarves would put a bounty on their heads once they were discovered to be missing.
Erin eyed Lindyss and bit her lower lip. “Are we still going to fight?” she asked. “God, all I wanted to do was find one stupid person that I’ve been chasing after for weeks now, and she’s not even here.”
Lindyss exhaled and checked her mana reserves. “I’m willing to call it quits for now,” she said. “Armistice?”
Erin placed her hands on her hips. “You’re not going to repay me for ambushing me and starting a fight?” she asked. “You’re a terrible, terrible person, you know that? Whatever that fairy did to you back then, I believe, you completely deserved it. But fine, armistice.” She stuck her nose into the air and turned her head away when Lindyss offered a handshake. “I don’t trust you enough to shake your hand.”
Lindyss withdrew the mana in her palm and lowered her hand. “Your name was Erin Koller, right?” she asked. The fairy met her gaze. “I’ll remember it.”
“And what’s your name?” Erin asked, narrowing her eyes.
Lindyss snorted. “Like I’d tell you,” she said. “Why would I bring trouble unto myself?” She dusted off her clothes as she stood up. She thought it was a bit weird how they polymorphed with her, but she wasn’t complaining.
“Hey!” Erin said as she flapped her wings and flew up. “That’s not fair! How am I supposed to find you to enact revenge?”
“Life isn’t fair; deal with it,” Lindyss said, waving her hand dismissively as she turned around. She trudged up the crater and looked back at the prisoners before sighing. She had come all this way for nothing—Vur wasn’t even there. Clopping sounds brought her attention to the road. A strange-looking horse pulling a metal carriage rushed by her at an abnormal speed. Her mouth dropped open as the horse came to a stop, causing the carriage to bump into and destroy it.
“Auntie?” a voice asked as a familiar face popped out of the carriage’s window. “Is that you?”
“Ah!” Erin’s voice rang from behind her. “It’s the newly born fairy queen!”