Chapter 571: The Sword of Stagnant Tears.

  “If you cherish your time with me that much, then you should put more importance on them all! Respect your time with me, Tasianna, just as how I will respect our friendship by dragging you out of this bottomless pit of gloom! A happy fantasy to hide your sorrows, or a brutal reality from which hope can be found? You will not live in this false fairy tale as long as I live!” I shouted as a declaration of war against both the WWEE and Tasianna’s unconsciousness, brainwashed inside this 194-day simulation.

  “Wrong. Ejecting you from here is all I need,” Tasianna said as she swung her rapier, shooting out a wave of water that instantly froze everything it touched, while producing a white mist like a steam cloud, spreading the freezing cold to the rest of the fairy palace. “In this place where our Profiles cannot function and we are neither the masters of this world, a globe of ice will even lock the princess of flames away from this place I call home. Please, Princess Hestia, leave me and Princess Schuri alone.”

  “… Huh?” I grabbed Hikari’s hand and pulled her closer to me. “Like I said, your first mistake was choosing me as your mistress.”

  “And not accounting for the fact that you and Saori were the people who told us to act more selfishly,” Hikari said as she reminded me of the day I broke my vow not to cry, and how my two best friends rescued me from years of suppressed emotions. “So, yes. I will act selfishly here. I’ve no interest in saving a world where my friend’s suffering is trapped within an iceberg floating to nowhere. You’re coming back with us!”

  As if this motion were natural to us, Hikari’s body and mine suddenly started to melt together, reforming into one. With flame flaring from my breath as my soul had, presumably, fully assimilated with my dragon body, my form started to shift, growing and morphing until I returned to my draconic visage. With crimson scales covering my entire body, I roared, causing this dreamworld to shake like a snowglobe.

  Both the EEE and [Providence’s Will] floated around me as I looked down at my chest, noticing that my dream-self still had her core in perfect shape. As it started to glow, a small ball of solar energy emerged from it, flaring up in strength as it started to resemble a miniature sun, scorching the white mist exuded from Tasianna’s ice even from up here.

  As Tasianna said, neither of us had our Profiles within this soul realm, and that meant we couldn’t use any of our skills unless it was something naturally gained through our years of training. In fact, damage wasn’t even real unless we were targeting each other’s souls, like my battle with the Prince of Envy.

  Though just because Tasianna wouldn’t—at least I believed so—hurt me despite her mid-life crisis, that didn’t mean I could take this easy.

  [“Hear your friend’s words, and listen to them, Young Dragoness. This is her decision. Will you ignore them and force her into a torment against her will?”] I heard the WWEE whisper into my ears the moment Tasianna rejected my attempts to get her out of here. After asking the two elementals on my side, these whispers could only be heard by me, and I presumed Tasianna couldn’t hear them either. [“Like a slave chained to her master’s every word and action. Even if a tattoo doesn’t mark her as your property, you treat her as such. You indulged yourself with her service. You taught her freewill and to embrace a freethinking mind to rid herself of her hatred, but now that it inconveniences you, you yanked on the chains and made sure the lock held strong.”]

  [“Oh? We’re gaslighting again, huh? Is that all you can do?”] I replied in my mind. Hearing their words annoyed me, and a part of me believed what they said was mildly true.

  After all, maybe I was misunderstanding all of this. Maybe Tasianna’s midlife crisis was her choice, done without the influence of the elemental emperor. If that was the case, then I was being a control freak with her, but even if that was the truth, she should not decide this inside the body of an elemental ready to devour her. Even then, life was too precious to accept such a choice when she was merely 90 years old.

  She was immortal and spent the majority of it as a sheltered maid. Two to three years of adventuring, and she wanted to call it quits before even visiting Carmaniate, Caedhul, Folschreck, Bole’Taria, and even the saurian’s home of Aeolozonia?

  No, I wasn’t forcing her into my point of view at all. I was simply reminding her to stop thinking about things when her head was in the wrong place, like I did back on Earth.

  “Please, leave me!” Tasianna shouted as she swung her sword once again, causing the dripping ice blade to freeze the air, creating a wall of spiky icicles like a hoplite phalanx to appear around the entrance of the fairy palace. Her floating ice blades would shoot at the nearby branches and balconies, turning the entire area into an icicle wonderland, almost looking like a chestnut husk.

  [“Lord Earth, would you please help me out here?”] I asked.

  Surprised by my sudden formal speech, the EEE froze in place as if Tasianna had frozen them herself. [“Brat, you do know how to speak properly with your elders? Ha, in that case, you may borrow some of my might inside this world where our powers aren’t limited by a Profile or a lack of mana, but from our learned abilities!”]

  The EEE then melded with my body, creating a layer of themselves around me like an armor or [True Draconic Barrier]. Although I didn’t have mana here, it felt like the EEE was trying to siphon something from my body, going through the motions of how elementals used to help their faemancers cast spells.

  Regardless of how they did it, the fairy palace started to levitate into the air, ripping the “giant” tree off the ground with its roots sliced off. With the bits of earth accompanying us, the EEE molded them into hardened earth before launching them at Tasianna’s spiky shield like ballista shots. Before the icy mist could freeze the earth, the EEE remolded them into Earth before repeating the process until cracks started to form.

  I unleashed a fire breath on these spots, melting sections of the barrier, only for Tasianna to refreeze them within seconds. My dragon breath could still melt the reformed ice, but it took a bit longer without the EEE cracking them.

  The change in rules compared to the real world is messing with me. Though Tasianna also seems a bit more proficient with her mana control than usual. I guess she didn’t lie about being in here for 194 days. Over half of a year’s worth of time if she spent some of it on bettering herself. I reasoned. Vifi also had a moment of enlightenment with how her body relearned the finer details of the Yok Style fencing.

  Though all of this wasn’t really the issue here. The problem was that I had no idea how to convince Tasianna. Beating her up and dragging her out was one method, but was that even possible or even the correct answer to Tasianna’s problems?

  Vifi was ejected from the dream before she could tell Tasianna the truth about Schuri, so I thought telling her about the nymphs and fae would solve the problem, but Tasianna was adamant about staying here despite knowing the truth. Tasianna even mentioned how I could escape this place by myself, although I didn’t even know how myself. How did she know?

  The answer might have something to do with “Princess Schuri.”

  Vifi said that she felt something missing from her when her “Father” hurt her, which I presumed was either the WWEE damaging Vifi’s soul or stealing her demonic mana. What if Schuri was the elemental’s way to drain Tasianna’s mana by reducing her will to live, keeping her inside this “eternal dream” without actually killing her?

  In that case, wasn’t the answer to remove her past torments?

  [“[Providence’s Will], I need you to keep the voice of the WWEE out of my head,”] I ordered.

  [“Pardon? That’s all?”] the catalyst spoke back, prompting me to confirm it to their chagrin.

  Without adding anything else, I raised my body temperature, blasting through the air like a rocket as I spewed dragon fire onto the entire royal palace.

  Tasianna reacted well, dousing the flames with her water before preventing my flames from reaching the tree as she produced a wind twister with a flick of her ice blade. Her defense was as formidable as always, although she showed zero offense. As she said, she was pushing me further away as the ice barrier grew in size, encasing the entire royal palace in her ice.

  The more the ice grew, the more I had to distance myself as the icy mist stung my body just as much as true ice did to my real body. The further away I was, the more this dream started to distort, feeling eerily similar to how the WWEE would change the scene of a memory. They were actively trying to take back control.

  [“No, this won’t work any longer. We’re just being pushed back with that fairy fighting as fiercely as a damn dwarf!”] the EEE yelled. [“Break through!”]

  I clicked my tongue, frustrated by such a simple-minded suggestion. [“Break through with what? This place doesn’t work under the rules of the Divine System. This world is ruled by the WWEE and Tasianna’s mind, and currently, I’m an invader.”]

  [“The demonkin broke through without the ability to usurp anything! How’d she do it?”] they rebuked. [“You know this fairy lass better than both of us, and you are simply watching her push you away. You gave such a loud speech that it made me excited to see your solution to all of this, but this is all you can perform?”]

  [“Oh, did you figure out your own plan?”] I asked, causing the EEE to stumble on their words as they complained about my “unnecessary sass.” While true, they did prove my words that they hadn’t thought of a better plan, as they blindly followed my orders. [“Brute forcing things won’t help us here, sadly. I would love to grab Tasianna, but we need something else. There has to be a reason for all of this, and if we can find it, we can find a solution for Tasianna’s issues. After all, everything about Tasianna is linked to Schuri. Her purpose in life was given to her by her adoptive parents, and that intrinsically linked her with Schuri, similar to how my upbringing linked my ambitions and ideals to the concept of music.”]

  The WWEE’s usage of mana to link our souls together in this dreamland was similar to how [Original Sin: Yaldabaoth] used demonic mana to do the same. Maybe it was the usage of the demonic mana inside Grandfather Nordoramsul’s silver necklace that caused this, or maybe I should believe the WWEE that they knew how souls worked with their experience with the Dark Elemental Emperor.

  Regardless of the method, my previous solution of having Mom’s superior soul dragged into Yaldabaoth to brute force our way to victory couldn’t work here. Neither the EEE nor [Providence’s Will] showed much capability here outside of being able to protect my soul from intrusive thoughts or the “gaze of the Origin Gods.” Furthermore, as I said, this was a matter of dragging somebody out of the dreamland. Help a person break out of the shell they made for themselves in this plane of souls.

  The way forward wasn’t through a dragon breathing down fire, but by finding Tasianna’s Schuri, so to speak.

  [“The memory is breaking!”] I announced, drawing the elemental’s attention to the “glitching” border of this dream. [“Lord Earth, [Providence’s Will], I need both of you to shield me from whatever the WWEE is planning to show me! We’re reentering their control!”]

  [“What? You usurped your way—Bah, you Kargryxmor spawns are pure headaches!”] Earth surrendered as both elementals were now fully focused on defending my soul.

  As the ice shell Tasianna created for herself grew, Hikari and I clenched our claws as I flew us over to the border. Like a spatial rift, it opened wide as it welcomed us in, causing my vision to blacken as I felt a chill run through my soul. I felt something gazing at me. Like a gun held behind your head, that cold, steely touch caused my entire body to nearly freeze up in fear.

  [“Don’t look!”] Earth warned me. [“Water isn’t showing you the courtesy of revealing their past now; they are fully adamant in letting the information overload cripple your soul.”]

  [“No divine mana. The pure shock and fear of what Water and Wind felt that day is being shared with you,”] the catalyst explained. [“Merging of souls. Merging of memories.”]

  “Two people can play this game!” as the WWEE said. I usurped their control over this world, and now they were attempting all they could to fight back against a “virus” like me by confounding my soul. If they could steal others’ memories, what stopped them from merging memories together in our souls? After all, the soul was the repository of a person’s ego.

  True, two people can play this game. I can crush your soul, similar to how you’re trying to do it! Hear my voice!

  “Staring out the window while it rains ?

  No one here to talk, silence is all I have ?

  So I delved into my thoughts and wondered, “What if?”?

  The laughing kid stomping loudly upstairs ?

  The damn lovebirds flirting on the streets ?

  Those rich asses living in their golden bubbles?

  I just wish they would all just disappear ?”

  Tasianna, I want to hear your voice. Your story is just as important as everybody else’s, so speak! Speak from your soul! Please!

  “Those are my honest thoughts, something I wish to hide from them ?

  My life is stagnating, nothing I do brings me forth ?

  All I can do is sing, drowning my sorrows while it rains ?

  Every step I take just brings me back, to a rundown apartment room ?”

  The darkness felt so bleak and hopeless as this feeling of trepidation spread through my body. The void Vifi sent me into with that demonic trap or that lonely feeling in the middle of a dark ocean came flowing into my mind as I couldn’t help but compare my current situation to those memories. I felt like a speck in a wider world. As if my existence didn’t matter, and that I could be consumed by the darkness at any moment now. The fact that I didn’t know what lay beyond the darkness of my vision and mind frightened me.

  That was why songs always traveled with us. Fires created communities and helped people flock to each other during a cold night. Food warmed by those fires helped everybody survive, and then their voices would roar out in jubilation! Song! Music! The urge to let our artistic muse out to express our emotions was just human.

  Even a cry for help was “music.” For it was sound. The same sound that established humanity.

  “Turn away, close my eyes, lock these wishes far away ?

  Not again, not again…or I’ll cry until the end ?

  All of my darkest thoughts ?

  Will serve me as my muse ?

  So, I’ll sing, I’ll sing, I’ll sing, I’ll sing! ?

  As I fade from your thoughts ?”

  I know you can hear me, Tasianna! For I am the master of this dream now! As its usurper, you will hear my voice! Banish those demonic thoughts away and reveal to me—

  Light entered my eyes. I glanced forward as I kept singing. In a dream, even my dragon form could produce beautiful tunes.

  The chill coming from behind my head vanished as the warmth of the memory opening up invited me towards it like a flame flickering in the middle of the night. I surrounded it, wrapping it in my wings as if to keep the warmth alive. I peered inside, seeing Tasianna and Schuri.

  I saw the 194-day simulation, with Tasianna maneuvering through the first two weeks as if everything was normal. She served Schuri like her maid and would do so until the evening when she went to sleep, though it became clear to Tasianna that this was all this world could provide her. An eternal repeating cycle of her serving Schuri.

  She could not interact with anybody else in the village as if every single person, even the royal pair, were but cardboard cutouts placed in the scene to serve one purpose—to advance the day and to ensure Tasianna and Schuri were the protagonists of each day. This endless loop quickly made Tasianna understand she had been fooled. She was trapped in a world she had no control over.

  Yet, Tasianna didn’t do anything. She accepted her poor fate as she kept the truth from Schuri, simply walking through the days as if nothing had changed. The only difference was that after three months, she felt power surging from her body. Her maid dress turned into the same glacial wardress she obtained from the Event Dungeon. She felt a surge of power and went to train.

  At first, it was purely out of curiosity, like she always did as a member of Aurora. That wish to become stronger compelled her, but as the days kept moving with no way out, something seemed to snap in Tasianna.

  “What am I doing in this world?” The memory spoke as it fizzled out of existence.

  While it was true that Profiles could not empower the souls fighting against each other, that didn’t mean it couldn’t influence anything. As long as we were all within the reach of Peolynca, System Voice would reach us. [Mental World] was the primary example here.

  However, this restriction did include my spell song. The anti-demonic effects of [My Darkest Thoughts] couldn’t weaken all the demonic influences. I was purely hoping that, despite Tasianna’s harsh words, she would personally come to a solution to all of this. Just as the elemental emperor could influence Tasianna when that “snap” happened, I could do it now with my own actions.

  I ripped into the space where the memory just was, opening it up to reveal that it was inside Schuri’s room. There, I saw Tasianna’s shocked face.

  “Turn away, close my eyes, lock these wishes far away ?

  Not again, not again…or I’ll cry until the end ?

  All of my darkest thoughts ?

  Will serve me as my muse ?

  So, I’ll sing, I’ll sing, I’ll sing, I’ll sing! ?

  As I fade from your thoughts ?” I kept singing as I transformed back into my humanoid form, strutting forward as I maintained my pitch.

  Tasianna raised her ice blade, creating a small tornado that pushed me out of the room and back into that infinite darkness. “Arrrrghhhkk!” I cried out in pain as I felt like somebody had stabbed me in the back with a knife. That fucking gaze was back!

  “L-Lady Hestia!” Tasianna cried out as she reached out, only for the ripple to close, removing the light pouring out of Schuri’s room.

  [“Oi, Light! Keep your guard up!”] Earth shouted before I felt my body warming up, prompting me to turn back into a dragon.

  [“It worked!”] I yelled, grinning through the pain.

  [“Worked? What worked?”] Earth sounded befuddled. [“Your soul nearly received a whole injection of Marsven’s damn eyes! Arrrgrhk, that… pit of—Grkkk!”]

  [“I know, and I’m sorry! However, I need your help! From both of you. I only need my soul intact just long enough, okay?”] I said. [“Let Water enjoy some of my mana. The poison I injected into their body will do the rest. Have them munch on me. The fact that they haven’t ejected me means they are really enjoying a ‘Breakfast Hestia Special.’ Why wouldn’t they if they want Edjurian mana? I am the fucking holy grail of Edjurian influence that a mortal can obtain, after all!”]

  Gel’Glariri, Aurena, and Danterno had all blessed me, not to mention the fact that my soul consumed that [Shard of the Trickster God] when I defeated the Prince of Envy. It was now ingrained in [Split Soul Autonomy]. The WWEE’s greed for godhood was too overpowering, like ambrosia or a drug.

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  It didn’t matter how smart or intelligent you thought you were; the moment your body got addicted to things, chemicals, and other biological functions could brainwash you as much as a parasite or fungus.

  “Staring out the window while it rains ?

  No one here to talk, silence is all I have ?

  So I delved into my thoughts and wondered, “What if?”?

  And so, I kept singing. As I knew, something in Tasianna’s soul knew that all this was wrong. She yearned to calm down and face the truth, and if my voice could help her realize her recklessness, then I would gladly face the glaring eyes of the gods.

  “Princess Schuri!” I heard Tasianna scream from the depths of her mind, pointing me to the next memory flashback.

  I turned around, frowning as I saw Tasianna seeing her mistress’s deceased body. The revelation of her death after she awoke from her coma broke her. She rushed toward her bed, crying and begging for Schuri to wake up, only to realize that there was no body on the bed at all. It was all an imagination.

  Schuri had long since died. Like every other fae, her body disappeared like the wind. No memento was left behind aside from the clothes she wore. In truth, Tasianna was clutching onto Schuri’s spare clothes inside the once lively children’s room, now cursed with silence. My friend cried her eyes out on the cold wooden floor, while the fairy village just outside the palace celebrated their upteenth feast.

  The mourning for Schuri had long passed, while Tasianna remained in the past. Her coma had not allowed her to mourn like the rest of the fairies. She was never allowed to receive the catharsis to let go, and for that, she despised her own race. As she despaired, it felt like everybody had forgotten Schuri. Time flowed, and their wounds had already healed.

  “Tasianna, my daughter wouldn’t wish for you to root yourself in her room. You must—” the fairy queen, a beautiful young-looking woman, tried to soothe Tasianna, but the latter’s eyes remained dull and lifeless. Her ears distorted all words and sounds.

  As if her entire purpose in life had disappeared. She looked… like a corpse. She looked exactly like the pale Schuri Tasianna had thought she remembered.

  As the memory started to dissipate, I ripped open the void to reenter Schuri’s room, seeing Tasianna weeping as she clutched her head. Her ice blade fell onto the floor as she stared at me for a moment, only to snap around to Schuri. There, instead of the healthy-looking girl from before, only lay the body of somebody who had passed away.

  “PRINCESS SCHURI!” Tasianna cried. She ran towards the young girl, but every step she took caused a powerful gale to be produced. Without warning, I was blown outside before I cried out, repeating the same process from before, but unlike before, Tasianna did not react to my pain.

  Fuck!

  Yet, I still kept singing. Tasianna had to wake up!

  “Fly! Fly! Tasi! Fly with me!” I heard Schuri cry out in joy, prompting me to turn to another memory. I could see the young fairy fly around in a swarm with other young fae, while Tasianna was trying to keep her safe.

  The young girl wasn’t the best flier and kept bumping into others, prompting Tasianna to catch both victims with a wide grin. Schuri apologized to her worried personal maid, but immediately jumped back to tackle the challenge. This mere sight was enough for Tasianna to giggle as if there was no tomorrow, full of pride in Schuri as she never gave up.

  They would play so many different games, all already known by Tasianna as she witnessed these games every year. She was a master of flying, playing ball, nectar gathering, and so many more. A master like every fairy who spent their life lavishly in the carefree village. It was truly a peace that would seem impossible to obtain.

  Even if there was conflict, it was quickly resolved. No fairy held a strong animosity with any other. At worst, it was mere competitive distrust. Yet, even the “fiercest enemies” would dance and break bread when the daily feast and festivals happened. It almost seemed absurd from my point of view, but watching all of them made me understand how much Tasianna yearned for this peace.

  All the strife I was leading was anathema to what Tasianna truly wanted. She didn’t want all this responsibility as my faithful shield, leader of an expedition composed of important figures, or to lead the ice elementals through a tumultuous crowning of a new king. She wanted none of these. All she wanted was… serve her mistress tea and biscuits, play games during the afternoon, and dance and sing until her voice vanished into the night.

  It was hedonism, yes, but I couldn’t judge her for something this human.

  “What do I want to do when I grow up?” Schuri asked on a certain evening before she was tucked into bed, brushing her teeth as Tasianna folded her newly laundered clothes.

  “Yes, my father had asked me since he believes I’m not giving your education enough focus. He wants me to ask if there is anything you wish to do when you’ve grown up. As you know, you’re a princess, so there is much to do unlike the other fairies,” Tasianna asked in a serene voice. “I also got curious, so I decided it would be worth it.”

  “Huuuh? But there is always everything I want!” Schuri cheered like an innocent child. “With you, Tasi! I feel so happy when you play with me all day! Better than when I play with my siblings! Papi and Mami also don’t play as well as the others. Only you can play as well as I, Tasi!”

  “Such confidence ill befits your small stature, my lady. Hiehie.”

  “No! It’s true! I want to always be with you, Tasi! Always, always, always! I want to always, always, always play with and drink your tea! It’s even more delicious than Miss Papasha’s nectar of three rainbows!”

  Tasianna’s face beamed like a glowbulb. She kissed the young girl before helping her to bed, having already prepared a small story to help the girl fall asleep. “And I love being with you, my lady. May you always be happy and grow strong. However, do think about my question, all right? I want to hear your dream.”

  She gave the girl one last kiss before the bedroom suddenly changed to a cold, metal cage. Tasianna and Schuri were both lying inside them, pale and looking like corpses. A giant—human—man walked over to the cage, looking at the cage before he clicked his tongue.

  “Still looking dead? Oi, these useless fairies aren’t doing it. We should’ve caught more!” he shouted to the other snickering men crowding around a campfire, enjoying the warmth while leaving the two fairies behind in the dark.

  “Tasianna, I’m tired. I want to go home…” A weak plea for help escaped Princess Schuri’s lips, as she clutched Tasianna’s in-tattered clothes. Even her grip looked lacking in strength.

  Tasianna forced a smile. “Everything will be all right. Your mother and father will save us, and don’t forget the nice elven uncles. I heard they are powerful warriors, so I’m sure they will come.” Yet, her hands trembled in fear.

  “I don’t want to stay here any longer… I want to see the village again. I don’t want to stay outside anymore,” the girl pleaded, but her exhaustion quickly caught up to her. She fell asleep as Tasianna caressed her cheek.

  “Everything will be all right. We will be saved. We will be saved. We will be saved.” Tasianna begged for both of them. “Goddess Zephira, please! Guide us out of this with your winds. Please, I beg of you. Keep Princess Schuri safe!”

  I felt my chest tighten. I had heard these exact words from Tasianna when she told us her story, yet seeing everything unfold made me wish I could kill the people who captured her and Schuri with my own hands. I could feel Tasianna’s anger and sadness mixed into a wild tornado of despair.

  Without letting the memory end, I ripped the space open, only to see Princess Schuri’s room having turned into an ice cavern similar to Mom’s nest. Everything was frozen, including Schuri’s body, perfectly preserved in ice as if she could wake up at any time and resume her cheeriness.

  Tasianna kneeled below the ice rock as she continued crying like before. Her ice blade wept with her, flooding the ground with those icicle tears.

  “What is your dream?” I said, taking my chance before something pushed me out of the room, again. “You have grown up with us, Tasianna! You grew up with Saori, me, Ellaine, Grimnir, and Vifi. You grew up just as much as we did! You showed me how you can adapt with how you let go of this anger when you spared Reajaen!”

  “I cannot think of one,” Tasianna answered as her voice broke. “I just cannot think of one! I wish… I wish I could have taken Princess Schuri’s—”

  “No!” I shouted. “She said it herself! She wants to be with you!”

  “So I will stay here for her!” Tasianna rebuked immediately, grabbing her ice blade with an angered face. “I will stay here with her as I should have back then! Protected her until the very end, like how retainers should act!”

  “You don’t think I need you then? You keep saying how you can’t rip yourself away from being a maid and how you want to find a way to make yourself happy, but all you’re doing is freezing yourself in your past! Don’t you hear what you just said?” I shouted, causing Tasianna to clutch her head in pain. “You don’t protect anything by standing in front of a grave of memories! You don’t protect anything when all you do is cry. You need to take a step forward. If you feel unhappy, then take the step with me!”

  “Grrrrkk!” Tasianna groaned in pain, sniffling Schuri’s name.

  I reached my hand out in an attempt to grab her, but I suddenly felt a pain in my leg before I fell out of the portal. My eyes turned away from the portal and right—

  [“Close your eyes!”] [Providence’s Will] warned me as light burst from my body, blinding me before I felt something yoink me forward.

  As the light subsided, I noticed rock arms had grown from my shoulders, having pulled me back into Schuri’s room before the rippled vanished.

  [“Don’t delay it any further. The less you have to see those memories, the better!”] Earth chastised me as the rock arms disintegrated, prompting me to nod and thank the two elementals for helping out.

  I rushed over to Tasianna, ignoring the ice piercing my feet as I grabbed Tasianna’s shoulders. I kneeled down, letting my leg feel the sting of the cold even more as [Providence’s Will] attempted to soothe my pain with their light as my flames did the same.

  “You took up alchemy and also botany,” I said. “They were your choices just as much as it was your choice to forgive Reajaen! To give up your prejudices against humans.”

  “I did it for you and Miss Saori,” Tasianna argued, but I shook her shoulders in disagreement.

  “Neither of us forced you to do it! Saori never pushed you to become an alchemist and our botanist. You did it for yourself because you wanted to feel more useful than a simple maid. You chose to be more than a maid!” I argued. “To serve me or not, you chose to be more than a maid. You were the one to ask Cernust and Krymdar to teach you how to brew potions and create catalysts. You chose to bond with Rita to learn how to take care of our plants better. None of us urged you to do so; you did it for yourself. You did it to improve yourself. What does it matter what the motivation for it was when you took the first step?”

  “It’s for you. Everything I did was to protect you, as I failed to protect Princess Schuri,” Tasianna wailed, still rejecting my words. It was the same words she kept saying every time to justify her own actions. “It’s always for you. I always strive to perform my best for others. To please them as either a daughter, attendant, or simply to frolic around like another fae, unable to keep herself from falling back into juvenile wishes! What purpose is there in my life, when my nature itself wishes to take the easy route?”

  “What’s wrong about that?” I shouted, pushing her onto her butt. “You’re right about one thing, and that is that you are once again taking the easy route when you know for yourself that the hard, thorny path can be beautiful and satisfying as well! Staying here within this dream is the easy path! This illusion you created for yourself, to beat yourself down and throw away the precious confidence you built up with your hands, sweat, and tears, is the real issue here! Not you!”

  “M-my lady,” Tasianna’s voice shivered as her cheeks were covered in tears, glistening so much I could see my own reflection in them.

  “However, what is so wrong about trying to please others? We are only mortals, and seeking recognition is just part of being one. Do you think I double-guess my life every time I stand on stage, performing to the raucous cheers of my fans? No, I’m bloody grateful for all the attention because a part of me still regrets everything I’ve done back on Earth!” I yelled, but it felt like Hikari spoke through me for a moment. “That is what a relationship between two people is all about, Tasianna. We want the other to give some of their time to us! You seeking to improve yourself for my service is not something to be ashamed of. You should be ashamed that you’re unwilling to simply live on for the sake of that girl over there!”

  I pointed at Schuri, prompting Tasianna to turn away from me, staring at the frozen body of Schuri as she gasped. Was she finally seeing a glimmer of truth in all of this?

  “You froze her body in ice! Like some doll or trophy to be immortalized!” I let out a deep sigh before refilling my lungs. “And you know what? If you think you don’t know how to continue your life at this point, then it just means that you spoke the truth about us two princesses being your chains. Tasianna, from today onwards, I release you from my service.”

  “P-Princess Hestia?” my fairy friend shot up, trembling as she stared at me with eyes so wide they were almost as gaping as her mouth.

  “What? You told me so. You told me how you wanted to stay here. Do you think it would be any different if you died?” My voice cracked, unable to keep myself from tearing up as my words dragged every last bit of emotion and energy I still had out. “Are you more willing to die as [Hestia’s Imperial Guard] on your Profile, or what are you even thinking, Tasianna? If you’re shocked, then it only reinforces all I said. I am putting an expectation on your shoulders as my maid, and I’ve dragged you along all my dangerous adventures. You kept wishing to become stronger when I was in a coma for my sake, instead of yours. You’re proving everything you said with these points, so let me help you as your friend. I do not need you as my maid any longer, so instead of chaining yourself to the expectations of the Silverpond, Iggdrasil, and Nordor families, throw away that old maid outfit, and start dreaming like every—Waaah!”

  “Princess Hestia!” Tasianna shouted as something suddenly grabbed my leg, causing me to fall onto the ground, banging my hand against the ice.

  Looking back, I saw a blue arm, instead of something more eldritch-looking. It tucked on me, attempting to pull me out of the room, prompting the EEE to materialize four stone arms on my back to anchor me inside Schuri’s room. Sadly, the blue arm felt too strong, to the point it almost felt like I was about to be ripped in two, before the EEE lost their grip and I was pulled back into the abyss.

  Fortunately, just as my body was dragged out completely, Tasianna threw a rope made from her ice for me to grab, causing me to flinch as I could feel the cold penetrating to my soul. Tasianna, though, couldn’t keep a grip on it, almost falling into the abyss with me before digging her rapier into the ground, freezing herself in place.

  [“Do you not understand the hypocrisy in these words and actions?”] The WWEE’s words boomed in my head, causing me to groan. Not only me, but Tasianna nearly lost her grip on her ice blade as she tried to clutch her head. [“The girl wishes to free herself from what is expected of her, and you, once again, are telling her she needs to change. She needs to continue living for your own selfish reasons.”]

  “And so what!” I shouted into the void. “Ambitions and dreams are made to be selfish! You live and strive for goals because they are what you want! What fulfills you! Nothing about Tasianna staying in this hellhole makes sense for her own fulfillment! If she wants to break out of the control of everybody around her, then the first thing to do is to take the first step before everybody else! Crying and pitying yourself will lead to no freedom. It is a chain that drags you even further down into the darkness!”

  [“Sanctimonious rubbish! You’ve—”]

  “Sanctimonious rubbish! I can tell you that to you as well!” I yelled, noticing that the darkness started to glitch, causing light to seep in. “You’re saying those words to benefit yourself as well, so if you’re calling me a hypocrite, then you’re the fucking biggest one out there! Her death will benefit you! You are no god of the fae, and you will never become one, because you don’t understand what the fae really want at this point. You are nothing more than a disease who had taken over the former Water and Wind Elemental Emperor!”

  [“You’ve seen what I saw, and you acknowledged the injustice to all of this, and—”]

  “What gives you the right to kill my friend while using her as nothing more than a pawn piece in your power play to become a god? If you’re telling me that everybody is putting a chain on her, then you are doing it yourself now as well! You are just like those bastards who captured Tasianna and Schuri! You are a damn fae hunter, you bastard!” I shouted as I let go of the rope, as [Providence’s Will] shone a bright light around me, as the EEE cut the blue arm off my leg.

  I saw the opening to Schuri’s room close before I started singing [My Darkest Thoughts] again to reenter the room through another ripple. As I flew into the room, sliding into Tasianna’s view, I reached my hand out as a flashback started to play before both of us.

  Memories of Tasianna’s time with us played like a PowerPoint presentation, with slides full of images from our time together with Aurora filling our view. The happiness, the sadness, and the carefree jubilations dominated our days, with each one being imprinted in our minds as experiences. The blood we shed and the anger we unleashed allowed us to grow, banishing naive thoughts away to polish our edges.

  I could see Tasianna mulling over the reality of the world outside of her village, chastising the loudmouth fairies who wandered the world as adventurers, only to bring back exaggerated stories to hide the evil and bad in rose-tinted glasses. Their glorified roles in all of those “fairy tales” were nothing but lies, she believed. Those stories sheltered the carefree fairies from a world that only sought to take advantage of them, similar to what humans did during the War for the Faefolk.

  Tasianna agreed with the WWEE’s ideas that the fae had lost the respect they once had. The power balance shifted towards all the humanoid races due to the Divine System. Faemancers were no longer needed, as a novice could learn basic magic without needing to bond with an elemental in a few months. Without the worship, humans saw the fae just like they did monsters—animals to be taken advantage of.

  The elves, levianewts, and dragonewts held a modicum of respect due to their long lives and memories, which spread to the dwarves, but this wasn’t enough. The dragons of Kargryx have treated elementals as prey like any other monsters for centuries, and even with historic friendship between elementals and dragonkin before the Origin Gods’ descent, this hasn’t changed.

  To Tasianna, all of this felt unfair. This truth was what snapped Tasianna. She reflected on what she had done in her life, realizing she had done nothing more than to serve her role as a “maid of House Silverpond.” She had always been a cog, unlike Saori and me, who were “free to wander the world without any real burdens as otherworldly reincarnation.” Our choices were made with our free will. Whether we wanted to bind ourselves to others or not, it was our decision.

  A part of Tasianna felt envious of us, even if she knew this was unreasonable. Yet, instead of showing her frustrations outward, she kept reminding herself that she can’t let this “fairy tale” end once again. She admitted she was serving me to correct her past mistake. That was the original reason, at least. Had it changed?

  “If my lady wills it, then I shall perform it thusly!” Tasianna told herself every time as she was sent into a war between the humans and grimgarians when I sent her to support Yorshka and Artorias. She kept mumbling those words to keep herself focused.

  I am selfish, I know.

  “I apologize, Tasianna,” I said as the memories kept playing.

  The answer was—yes. It had. For that was why she became [Hestia’s Imperial Guard] when she returned to me after her battle in Port Annencia.

  “I have to repay her for all that she has done for me! If this is what she is dragged into, then I have to obtain a strength to keep her safe!” she told herself after the invasion fleet was forced to retreat due to Saori’s sabotage. She held her wounded ear, gritting her teeth as she reflected on the fact that she had almost lost her life during the battle.

  “I’m so sorry!” I pleaded.

  Her obsession to find redemption in herself turned into a slow, creeping fear of the future, and that it would one day end because she failed to protect me. It disguised itself as a willingness to become stronger to protect the people she cared for, similar to how I justified myself for my constant training.

  I never managed to see through the fact that although Tasianna was able to keep up with the stress of being part of Aurora, she always yearned for me to say, “Let us have a rest for a moment!” She wanted to perform more concerts with me, so we could then take a rest by running around at a fair or festival to stuff our bellies full of food and fruity drinks. Her fairy side yearned for her to return to her “fairy tale.” She wanted to become a fairy in name and in action, again.

  Yet, she couldn’t express this wish as I jumped into a new threat every other week. Acting as a leader for other people during the Event Quest told her that it would be impossible for Aurora to take a “break.” She couldn’t even properly rest when I was in a coma, as she kept telling herself to protect me.

  I really was a chain for her, and it didn’t help that nothing allowed Tasianna to act as the person she was born as.

  “And I can never return to that point again,” Tasianna finally said as the flashback ended.

  I grimaced as I couldn’t say otherwise. As a dragon princess and a blessed of Aurora, with the mark of an Edjurian god, the chance for me to live without major upheavals was pretty low, even if I wanted it myself. I wanted everything Tasianna wanted, although I had to admit that my gluttony for adventure was higher.

  “I want it all to end, so I can stop feeling like I have to catch up,” Tasianna stated. “What meaning does my life have, Lady Hestia? Why am I still alive?”

  “… I can’t tell you that.”

  “Then why do you want me to live?”

  “Because you are my friend. Because I am selfish and I don’t want to lose another person I cherish.”

  “I want to find peace and dance like there is no tomorrow.”

  “You can’t find such a future here.”

  “But it is better than constantly worrying about your life and your future, my lady. All I do is worry and be stressed. I keep a wide smile for everybody because I act in your name, while feeling anger that cannot lead to a catharsis. I told myself that anger would not give me the satisfaction I needed. Maybe it would have been better to have never changed, so I could kill Reajaen to feel a momentary respite.”

  No answer left my mouth. Though that didn’t mean I couldn’t counter where she was going with this.

  “And it will continue to happen if you take my hand, Tasianna. That is… how life is. There is always stress, exhaustion, and disappointment ready to overwhelm us at a moment’s notice, but nobody else can give us the meaning to go on. Even if I tell you to live for me, you can only do so if you wish to do so. Serving me has given you the chance to broaden your perspectives,” I said, pausing for a moment before I grabbed Tasianna’s hand. “So, let me reword my question now that I have released you from my service as your maid. As a member of Aurora, what is it that you wish to pursue while you adventure with us? In the muck of all of it, you deserve to benefit just as much as I do from being your friend.”

  “I am just a mere maid, my lady. What is there for me to wish for?”

  “Years upon years lay ahead for you, Tasianna! If you can’t make a choice now, then live long enough to make one. There is a dream that you will want to follow, because that is simply how life works. Just because you can’t find meaning in your life, right now, doesn’t mean you can simply lie down and accept the emptiness,” I said as I pulled Tasianna into an embrace. “Life is not like the fairy tales and fantasies we read about, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find that ‘magic’ somewhere. There is still meaning in trying to live an idealized life, no matter how fantastical or naive it sounds. If you ask me, to surrender your dream is the start of madness. Even when it’s grim, beauty can be found. Simply living with your relationships intact already gives so much meaning to life. Tasianna, you being my friend has given me the meaning that being a dragon, who has become numbed to taking lives and burning down forests, is good. That it is worth enduring that agony even if the only people who loved me were you and Saori.”

  Even if the world was infested with evil, to not attempt to change it, even if those actions were futile, sounded too nihilistic. Striving to make the world better for the sake of the small good still left in the world was just fine enough for me.

  “Then…” Tasianna’s voice quivered as she gripped my wings. “Then I want to return to my family in the fairy village. My father. My mother. My siblings. I want to see their faces again after so long. I want to visit Princess Schuri’s grave and tell her everything that has happened. I… I want to tell everybody that I’ve survived everything.”

  I gripped Tasianna’s wrist as I felt warmth return to Tasianna. Schuri’s room started to break apart as my fairy friend’s cries filled this empty world with a last memento. The WWEE’s voice had completely disappeared, and the black abyss was turned white as our vision blurred.

  “Ruaaaaaghhkkkkkk!” The elemental cried as their foot broke the remains of a giant dragon’s skeleton, having retrieved the condensed ice boulder hidden underneath its resting place. Raging like a feral beast painstakingly trying to ignore the agony tormenting their body, the beast attempted to swallow the ice boulder, but their purple-colored slime body, poisoned by Hestia’s corrosive obsidian, could hold themselves together no longer.

  Before they could do what they wanted, the beast puked out a majority of their body, ejecting the unconscious, drenched body of the crimson dragoness onto the ground, with the poison destroying its system. They started absorbing the ice boulder to regenerate their lost infested mana, but instead of feeling the power growing inside them, all the mana flowed somewhere else. In fact, the true ice mana they had absorbed and used up until now was leaving their body to return to the Ice Elemental King’s core. Within a moment of them nearly acquiring a perfect victory, they had lost all control over the Ice Elemental King core.

  They peered down, watching in horror as the core started to shrink. Their cries and pleas for it to stop agitated the nest of the Thalaxarus clan, causing the already destroyed mountain to crumble even further.

  Within the body of the fused Water and Wind Elemental Emperor, a fairy awoke.

  A demigod of ice has been born to answer the cries of the ice elementals.

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