Chapter 861 FairyLand
A bright light, so sudden and pure, suddenly enveloped everything.
Sparkles shot off, almost like snowflakes made of pure energy, and glittering dust danced around the area. As all of these happened, as if they were drizzles of rain and billows of smoke permeating the area, Ater was left confused.
The last thing he heard was "[FairyLand]," which was without a doubt the activation of one of Fae's Skills—something that was akin to a last resort for her, considering her extreme injuries.
He had expected her to grow increasingly desperate to be healed, thus reducing the possibility of her fighting back yet again.
He was wrong.
'I underestimated her tenacity, and perhaps her overall abilities.' Even with the current bizarre scenario he was confronted with, Ater never ceased his smile.
He remained perfectly calm.
"You fool…" The voice of the wounded Fairy echoed out, except this time… she didn't sound injured in the slightest.
Her tone rang with energy, and she possessed confidence similar to what she displayed at the very start of their fight—no, perhaps even more.
Then, emerging from within the clouds of odorless smoke, she manifested.
'Ahh…' Ater's eyes slightly widened as he rested his gaze on her. 'She looks perfectly fine.'
He tried to quickly understand the phenomena he was experiencing. Was this an illusion showed to him, or was this really the person who had been on the brink of death mere moments ago?
'No… this isn't an illusion.'
Ater, more than anyone, would have been able to tell the difference.
"You pushed me this far, so I hope you are ready for your punishment!" As Fae said this, the fog around Ater began to clear up, and the glittering whitish pink dust faded away from his environs, revealing something completely different from the world he knew.
—Something… magical.
This world had an overall tint of pinkish hue, appearing colorful—saturated with light and bright colors. It seemed utterly different from reality, and yet everything in it felt perfectly real.
Ater lifted his eyes to the clouds and saw both the sun and several moons orbiting each other. He even witnessed stats dancing in the sky.
Yes… dancing.
'The hell…?' Ater felt out of place in this strangely bright and optimistic world. Everything around him felt vibrant, pulsating with so much light and positivity that it was sickening to his senses.
Then, while he was still recoiling from these attacks on his senses, he felt a dark shadow cast on him. He heard loud flaps of wings in the clouds, almost like a horde of dragons were directly above him, but once he lifted his gaze even higher, there were no such things there.
Instead, humongous butterflies were floating in the air—moving like dragons in the terribly vast landscape.
"...."
Now that he looked around again, he could see flowers the size of trees, and blades of grass that made up a forest. These were clearly unreal proportions attributed to miniature entities.
Or… perhaps he was the one who became little.
'No. My constitution can't be affected in that way. If it was, I'd be able to tell…'
In essence, he wasn't forcefully shrunken, but everything around him had grown in size. After taking the world in for a few more seconds, Ater could safely make his assessment.
'This is an alternate reality she made. I can see why it's called [FairyLand]...'
In this world, designed by none other than Fae, several aspects of reality had been distorted. Ater could not count how many differences there were between this world and H'Trae, so he simply decided to stop and focus his attention elsewhere.
"Why did you bring me here? I don't reckon you think I'll be impressed by all this." Ater muttered out loud, hoping to get a response from the Fairy who held him prisoner.
For a moment, there was no response.
"Come on, you're just going to ignore me? That's a little col—"
"Your bravado isn't fooling anyone." Her voice suddenly emerged, booming as though she was an essence of the world itself.
It felt like a whisper of the wind, but amplified by the disgust that the Fairy felt towards him.
"You brought this upon yourself. You're now in my world, and you will abide by my rules. I will make sure to execute you in the worst way imaginable, and you will be powerless to stop any of it."
"Really, now?" As Ater smirked in response, he suddenly felt a change in the ground that he stood on.
'Huh?'
What used to be a sturdy surface had suddenly become quicksand—and it was sucking him into its depths at a slow pace.
'I see. So she controls every aspect of this world, and she can use that control in ways like this.'
Ater had to admit… this would be bothersome.
He swiftly activated the energy within him, aiming to boost himself away from the ground so he could fly. However—
~BZZZZUU~
Rather than energy, nothing but dust and air flowed out of his body.
"PFFFT!" A loud cackle instantly resonated from Fae as she watched him from wherever she was. "Did you really think your powers would work here? I can control whatever manifests here too! As long as this place is under my watch, you won't be pulling any tricks or using any of your abilities to escape!"
Ater felt a slight pound in his heart as he heard this.
"My [FairyLand] makes this place my domain, and my [FairyTale] ensures anything I will in this reality becomes real. That includes Healing Magic, which I applied to myself."
'Ah… no wonder she became perfectly fine.' Ater told himself as he looked around for her.
"Still trying to find me, huh? Well… since you're about to experience pure despair, I might as well reveal myself to you.
All of a sudden, he felt himself being lifted.
No… not him, but the entire surface he stood on, and the marvelous sights around him—all of them were being shifted at an absurd pace.
Then—
"Do you understand now?"
—Ater could see Fae much clearer than before. She hadn't been hiding herself from him, and neither was she out of his range of sight.
All along, she had been staring at him, and he had been staring at her.
He simply needed perspective.
Fae's hair was the very sky where the sun, moons, and stars danced in, and her eyes were the vast space he had been staring at in the distance. In essence, all along, this whole world—with all its absurdity—was all a part of Fae.
Ater was currently in the palm of her hand, and as she moved him further away from her face, he could clearly see the outline of her whole body.
He watched her glow and glimmer, and anything beyond her was just colorful smoke and bright dust. She was the world that he had been experiencing, and now that he was sinking into her body, he was quite literally going to be under her control.
'I severely underestimated her power.' Ater told himself as he closed his eyes and gave up any thoughts of resisting.
He knew it already, and there was no longer any use denying the facts.
'I've lost this match.'
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