Peoni, whose withered petal wings still retained a pale pink hue, let out a harsh laugh, filled with disdain, unable to believe that a creature like that had the audacity to speak to them that way.
She floated a little higher, trying to regain the air of superiority that the fairies of Petal Village used to flaunt in front of creatures they considered "inferior."
"Peoni can’t believe her own ears!" she exclaimed in a shrill voice that grated on Lohan’s nerves. "Pecan, are you seeing this? A Slime?
A little blue gelatin ball that should be digesting grass is trying to give orders to the noble fairies?! Pip has truly lost his mind. Pip has been bewitched by another filthy monster!"
Pecan, the male fairy with yellowish-brown wings, crossed his arms over his chest, looking at Lisa with the same contempt. "And the little fox... Pecan sees that Pip has chosen a pretty but useless mount. Pip has joined a circus of freaks while the village burns. Pip must stop playing soldier and fulfill Pip’s duty immediately!"
Lohan felt a wave of cold fury course through his gelatinous mass. To be honest, he was already tired of being underestimated because of his harmless appearance.
He noticed that Peoni and Pecan hadn’t even noticed Lisa’s two tails, the anomalous density of his own membrane, or the fact that he could communicate with them mentally.
To them, he was just a useless Level 1 Slime.
Lisa growled, a low sound that made the low-lying flowers around her vibrate. She was about to unleash her Spirit Fire, but Lohan sent a "wait" signal through the private link.
"Lisa, let me handle these two’s morale." Lohan told her, tired of being underestimated and just acting like a cute, harmless monster.
Slowly, Lohan stopped hiding his aura. He deactivated the energy contraction technique that Yrneha had taught him.
Suddenly, the air around the entrance to Astralis Requiem grew heavy.
An intense gravitational pressure, charged with the essence of Holy Light, which Lohan had evolved from a magical item he’d received from Elle, a fairy, and the dense mana from his Superior Magic Core, burst forth from the small blue sphere.
The ground beneath them cracked slightly, and the leaves of the nearby trees bent as if facing an invisible hurricane.Peoni and Pecan, who had previously been floating arrogantly, were hurled to the ground by the brute force of a Level 12’s aura with a Dual Mythic Base.
They fell to their knees, their wings trembling violently, unable to lift their heads under the weight of Lohan’s presence.
"Listen carefully." Lohan’s voice was now not just the calm, peaceful mental voice he always maintained, but a predatory authority that made the fairies’ magic cores waver.
"In Astralis Requiem, there are no ’little pests’ or ’pets.’ Every member here, including the fox you called useless, operates on a scale of power that your entire village couldn’t reach in a thousand years. Understand that you have entered the territory of an Elite Guild; if you want help, first learn your place in the food chain."
Peoni tried to speak, but her lungs felt compressed by blocks of lead. "P-Peoni... Peoni didn’t know... Peoni thought the Blue Lord was..."
"You were wrong." Pip interrupted, stepping forward.
Pip released his own aura, which now shone with the glassy, metallic color of the Beetle Queen that Lohan had helped him process. His wings produced a hissing sound of blades cutting through the wind, entirely different from the delicate wings of ordinary fairies, and his eyes shone with a determination the fairies had never seen in the "lazy Pip" of the past.
"Peoni and Pecan... you cast Pip out!" Pip shouted, his voice laden with a pain that was now turning into strength. "You called Pip a burden and left him to die in a silk cocoon! But here, Lord Halon and Lady Lisa risked their lives and saved Pip personally, gave Pip a home. Pip is now a member of Astralis, where Pip is respected and trained to be strong! If the village wants Pip’s strength, it won’t be because you ordered it. Pip is no longer your servant!"
The shock on the two fairies’ faces was absolute; they looked at Pip as if he had transformed into a god of war.
Under the combined pressure of Lohan’s aura and Pip’s righteous resentment, Peoni and Pecan were so stunned they could no longer find the words to refute him.
The pride that sustained them crumbled, replaced by a primal terror and the realization that their people’s only hope for survival depended on those three creatures they had just insulted.
BOOOM!
With the sound of a muffled explosion coming from afar, the last shred of pride vanished from within the two fairies, giving way only to despair, knowing that a massive explosion like that must have killed a few more of their brothers.
With every second they wasted here, more and more fairies were dying in Petal Village, something that had become unacceptable to them.
Shifting their gaze between the little fairy they considered useless, the blue Slime ball they also thought was useless, and the White Fox they thought was useless but who was withstanding that pressure with ease, also proving herself to be someone very powerful and far above their level, they could take it no longer.
"Pecan... Pecan apologizes!" the male fairy shouted, prostrating himself with his face pressed against the roots of the main tree. "Peoni and Pecan were fools! Peoni and Pecan beg the Great Lords for forgiveness! Please, save Petal Village!"
Lohan withdrew his aura, allowing the fairies to breathe again, but kept his bluish form in a dominant stance, his artificial red eyes glowing subtly, still eyeing the pair with suspicion.
Luckily for them, Lohan noticed the clear concern, despite the pain and anger that Pip and Elle, who was watching from a short distance away, still felt toward these fairies.
If not for that, Lohan might have shown them that the enemies they feared so much might not be so scary compared to the ones they had just offended.