Level 1 Fallen

I stared up at the flying warship, my throat suddenly dry. How had such tiny pixies managed to create something that big? Just its sheer mass would be enough to level smaller cities. And this was their flagship? The flagship of the seventy-eighth in line to the throne of Feycross?

That thought made me turn my head, addressing the pixie that had been speaking with us all this time. “I hope you don’t mind me asking… you said that the king of G’Riol--”

“Pixie King Gerfectenalt Riolegese the Third!” the pixie corrected with a firm tone.

“I don’t think my mouth can make those noises, so I will just agree with you on that name,” I said with a bitter smile. “You said that he is the seventy-eighth in line to the throne. Does each king of Feycross have a position in the hierarchy?”

“Of course!” the pixie nodded, patting its chest proudly. “Only the eighty kings of Feycross have the right to compete for the throne of Feycross, though they must enhance their national power to do so, yup. And Great Pixie King Gerfectenalt Riolegese the Third has managed to elevate the nation of G’Riol to seventy-eighth place!”

Aside from the pixie, the rest of us in the car froze at that, as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown over us. In other words, that battleship belonged to the third weakest nation in this entire realm? And people actually thought that they could come and bully these creatures?! Overpowered freedom with runes or not, You wouldn’t catch me dead trying to harass them.

Unless, maybe the battleship wasn’t as strong as it appeared? Maybe this was another pixie trick, making the warship look impressive as a way to scare off attackers. Then again, given what we had learned of the pixies so far, and their mischievous natures, that was certainly a possibility.

With that thin strand of reason as my anchor, I decided that I might as well carry out the request. At the very least, I had nothing to lose by doing so. If the battleship wasn’t able to scare away the monsters, then I could simply teleport away. If they could, then I was potentially earning a powerful weapon that could be used to defend Fallcry.

I looked at the pixie as I turned the car back in the same direction that we had driven earlier. “You should hold onto something,” I advised. Recalling the acceleration from before, the pixie’s face went pale, and it dove onto the back seat between Ella and Diane.

Like that, the car sped off into the distance. Because I was having to lead the giant airship overhead, I couldn’t put the car into stealth this time. Thus, the monsters in their hidden base would naturally see us coming. Furthermore, they would even see the giant battleship approaching.

From the back seat, the little pixie stared attentively at the dungeon radar, clearly recognizing it as the item that had let us identify the monster’s location. It might not have known how the device worked, but it knew that it started beeping right before we found them.

Bella’s eyes scanned the horizon as we flew along, watching for any hidden traps. Meanwhile, I looked back at the pixie curiously. “I’ve got to ask… how come we haven’t seen any of these eighty pixie kingdoms? If you’re flying around battleships like that, then you’d think that these places should be obvious.”

“Hmm? Oh, that’s easy, yeah!” the pixie proclaimed proudly. “Beyond the realm where mortals roam, beyond the gloomy haze. Within the endless spirit’s home, that’s where pixies stay!”

Diane glanced over at the pixie curiously. “You mean that pixies can naturally travel between the living world and the spirit realm?” she asked in surprise. “I thought that was a grandmaster level skill?”

“I don’t know what that term means, but yup yup! Pixies flutter to and fro, but many don’t like to remain on the other side. Too bleak and grey, you see? But this side is so full of color everywhere! It’s so much more fun to fly around here!”

In other words, I could use Beyond the Veil to visit the pixie kingdom, but I couldn’t bring the others with me. My Wraith Zone did not have the same effect to fully cross over. In order to let the others step into the pixie kingdom, I’d need to enchant an item, or get something specifically designed for that purpose from the pixies themselves.

Also, that meant that I probably could have maintained stealth, since their airship used the same style of transfer between realms, so it could probably track my stealth without issue.

“Then, does that mean that all of those pixies up around the flagship…” Ella let her words trail off, glancing back towards the behemoth of the ship behind and above us.

“Those are the soldiers of G’Riol! We may be small alone, but do not underestimate a pixie soldier!”

Bella lifted her hand, signalling for us to stop. “It’s around here. I remember the landscape.”

“You do?” I asked, looking around. “It all looks the same to--” My words were cut off by the beeping of the dungeon radar. As soon as that noise echoed in the car, the pixie’s eyes lit up.

“It’s the sneaky finder! We’re there!” the pixie exclaimed, flying out of its seat and into the air. It placed a hand on the side of its head, communicating with the Pixie King. “Pixie King Gerfectenalt Riolegese the Third! We have found the Sneaky Place! Requesting orders, yep!”

After a few seconds had passed, the pixie turned to point at us. “One of you needs to mark the location for--oh, nevermind, they made it easy! Pixie King Gerfectenalt Riolegese the Third, it’s there!” it said, suddenly turning around and pointing at the empty patch of land, from which three great dragons had flown out. Behind them was a giant, red-skinned demon wielding an axe.

“Spatial Cruiser Gelrioc, preparing bombardment! Three forward-facing runic cannons, fire! Flagship destruction blaster, enter charging stage!” the pixie shouted. It was hard to tell if it was issuing the orders to the flagship, or just repeating them for our sake. However, the pixie soon turned to face me. “Oh, you’ll probably want to move your vehicle. You’re in the way.”

This made me distinctly aware that the car was positioned directly between the battleship and the monsters’ invisible base. “Everyone, grab on!” I shouted, not wanting to take any chances. There was a flurry of motion inside the car as everyone grabbed onto me, the pixie once again latching onto my cheek. I saw a bright light starting to glow behind us before I teleported the entire car ten kilometers back, putting it directly below the flagship.

As soon as I did, I saw three thick beams of silver light blasting out of the front of the airship, causing a shockwave to ripple through the otherwise peaceful grasslands. The wind briefly flattened the colorful flowers, and two of the dragons simply… disappeared. I noticed that a large number of pixies around the airship had disappeared at the same time, which made me hesitate. Were the pixies themselves the fuel for those cannons, or something?

“”Two targets successfully evaded the runic cannon barrage!” the pixie hugging my cheek said before peeling itself off and looking at the scene before us again. “Flagship destruction blaster is now at sixty percent charge. Second barrage of runic cannons, fire!”

As its words fell, a second set of lights flew out from the airship. This time, both the remaining dragon and the demon were struck directly. Their bodies weren’t destroyed, so much as they simply vanished. “...Don’t tell me that those cannons only teleport the enemy away?” I asked, looking directly at the pixie.

“Hmm? Don’t be ridiculous!” the pixie retorted. “The runic cannons send the enemy straight to the afterlife! That’s where we kill them!”

My enthusiasm for these cannons instantly evaporated as I realized what the pixie meant. So, the cannons were a forced transfer to the spirit realm, and the pixie soldiers disappeared in order to go fight them there. Granted, most people would have no reliable way of returning from there, so it was a good tactic to cut the enemy off from reinforcements. Still, it was hardly the destructive weapon I had briefly imagined.

As I thought about that, the pixie’s voice sounded again. “Flagship destruction blaster is at one hundred percent charge! Firing sequence engaged! Activating all forward-facing shields!”

Unlike the silver beams of light caused by the runic cannons, this one was blood red, gathering like an orb in front of the flagship. Just to be on the safe side, I layered ten projected barriers in front of the car and braced myself.

“Flagship destruction blaster, fire!” the pixie announced, and the menacing red ball just… disappeared. It took me a few seconds to realize that the ball of energy had moved too fast for me to perceive, the air buckling along its path.

From within the hidden base, a pillar of red light rose up to the sky, scattering the pastel clouds to the distant horizons. The pillar expanded, growing more and more. Even kilometers away in the air, I could feel the turbulence caused by this blast, the shields in front of the car trembling.

Soon, the pillar was a full one thousand meters across, at which point it simply vanished. In its place as a black pit with perfectly smooth edges, a stark contrast to the colorful meadow surrounding it. “Confirming the destruction of the sneaky place! Loyal green-skinned steward, investigate with the Sneaky Finder!”

I let out a grunt at the pixie’s command, flying the car forward with trepidation as we approached the pit. I couldn’t see the bottom. I wasn’t sure that there was a bottom. Two minutes later, I had arrived above the center of the pit, with no reaction from the dungeon radar.

The pixie, relieved by this, reported back. “The Sneaky Finder has reported a lack of sneaky, sir! Yes, yes! Arrange for the colorful restoration squad!”

A gate opened along the bottom of the airship, and twenty pixies emerged. Unlike the others that released pale glows, each of these pixies were flashing with neon colors, flying towards the pit beneath us.

Our little pixie turned to face us again, planting its hands on its hips. “The restoration squad will put this place back to normal, they will! No signs of any sneaky place!”

I gulped thickly, looking at the pixie. “By any chance, does that blaster shot just send the whole location over to the spirit world to force the enemy into your home terrain?”

The pixie looked at me as if I had asked something foolish. “What? Of course not! It wouldn’t have the word ‘destruction’ in its name if it did something like that, no no! The flagship destruction blaster erases a target location from the map! It only works up and down, though, so we need the right coordinates to fire. And once we’ve shot it, we have to restore the map afterwards, otherwise we won’t have a map anymore!”

Given how large the beam was, and how deep the pit seemed to be, I had no doubt that ‘erasing something from the map’ was a very literal term here. Any thoughts that the flagship was just an empty shell disappeared as soon as I recalled that pit. The runic cannons might not be very destructive weapons, but that final blaster more than made up for it.

No, it isn’t that simple, I thought to myself, forcing myself to rationalize the power of the airship and bring it into terms that I could understand. The runic cannons could be fired at will, separating an enemy’s forces. However, the blaster had a much longer charge-up period, and then had a further firing sequence, during which its target was locked.

That meant that it was excellent for targeting fortifications or targets unable to flee. However, for mobile targets, it was completely useless. Not only that, but it was actually a disadvantage to fire the blaster if it wasn’t a sure hit, since it was a requirement to restore the terrain after a strike.

Still, for anyone that wasn’t aware of these restrictions, this was a weapon of true horror.

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