Chapter 696: Act 56 – The Element of Enlightenment I
The water element seemed to have lifted the entire surface of the lake into the air, crashing down towards Brendel and Nemeses on the shore. A transparent wall of water poured down from mid-air, forming a waterfall that shattered into white mist upon hitting the ground, shooting forth countless sharp arrows that swept towards them.
Brendel had already leaped onto the shore, turning to run with Nemeses. A torrent taller than a person closely chased behind them, sweeping through the cedar forest with a series of crackling sounds, uprooting the tall cold-resistant trees and pulling them into the whirlpool.
The white waves quickly surged forward carrying numerous floating logs, but always lagged just behind Brendel and Nemeses, instead dragging many frost fairies who had been unable to escape into the water. The wall of water continued to advance for over a hundred meters before gradually calming down and starting to retreat back into the soil.
Brendel and Nemeses reached a dirt mound and exhaled in relief as they looked back, seeing that the forest had completely changed. In the murky, retreating muddy water, countless fragments of ice floated, causing them to click their tongues; the frost fairies showed no mercy towards their own kin.
“How many frost fairies are there in that forest?” Nemeses gazed across the lake, which had already become a third shallower, now dominated by the posturing water elements.
Brendel found himself momentarily speechless. Summoning a water element was a Level 6 spell; each summoned water element was a 37-level peak silver elemental creature, almost on par with Nemeses in strength. Due to their nature as elemental beings, their combat power might even be stronger.
As mid-tier silver frost fairies, they were incapable of using such magic alone; they could only perform this spell through a circular sequence, requiring at least ten frost fairies’ power to summon a single water element. Coupled with the mirroring spell, there were likely hundreds, even thousands, of frost fairies in the Misty Frost Forest.
“Should we fight our way through?” Nemeses turned to look at him.
“No need.” While it was indeed possible to fight, it would come at a great cost. They were facing hundreds of frost fairies, and both he and Nemeses were lacking; one was a mere elemental manifestation, and the other had just entered the golden realm—crucially, they had no allies with spellcasting abilities.
Brendel found himself regretting not bringing Charles and Himelam along.
As he answered, he pulled out a small jar from the dimensional hole. “Honey?” Nemeses recognized the earthen jar at a glance; it was the honey Brendel had earlier had the innkeeper purchase.
“Fairies have a special fondness for pollen and honey, as documented in many texts,” Brendel explained as he uncorked the jar and placed it on the ground.
Nemeses stared at him skeptically: “You think this can solve the problem?”
“Of course, it can’t,” Brendel replied. “We’re still here; they aren’t that foolish.”
“Then why are you doing these pointless things…?”
“What I mean is, while we are here, it won’t work, but as long as we hide behind a tree, it will.” Brendel smiled at her.
Nemeses turned back, looking at him silently: “Mister Brendel, this is not the time for jokes.”
“Have you really forgotten everything?” Brendel stopped, surprised.
“What?”
“Follow me—” Brendel turned around and noticed a cedar tree not far behind them. He gestured to Nemeses and sidestepped to hide behind the cedar.
The Lady Knight looked at this scene in confusion but hesitated before following him in.
The two of them hid behind the pine tree, watching outside. Nemeses frowned, unable to believe that Brendel’s clumsy scheme would succeed—anyone with a bit of intelligence would know it was a trap. But not long after, a small light dot flew out from the lake, which looked somewhat like the light spirit she had seen at Toniger’s, but was smaller, with two pairs of fairy wings as thin as cicada wings.
It lazily flew over, landing beside the honey jar, resting its hands on the edge, lifting its head to sniff with its tiny nose, its face quickly filling with surprise.
Then Nemeses saw a light ball rising from its hands. The tiny fairy spread its palm forward and tossed the light ball into the jar. “What is she doing?” she asked, frowning.
“That’s a fairy spell; she’s testing for poison,” Brendel replied softly, glancing back at Nemeses. “You really have forgotten a lot.”
“…My dreams have always been fragmented; I can only remember the important outlines and can’t even distinguish the order of time; often, the details are lost before I wake up,” the Lady Knight answered quietly. “Sometimes I have to use my waking time to read some materials to complete the knowledge from my dreams—”
She paused, “But I don’t actually like you asking me such questions… because it’s not my original intent, and it makes me feel like a puppet controlled by an invisible hand, only knowing to live according to the things in my dreams.”
Brendel’s gaze lingered on her. The Lady Knight was somewhat conflicted, and he felt the same. On one hand, he hoped that in front of him was Bai Jia-sister, while on the other he understood that such recognition was indeed painful for Nemeses.
If she couldn’t accept Bai Jia’s existence in the dream, she would always feel haunted by another soul.
Suddenly, he thought of a question: “Do you really hate Madara?”
The question made Nemeses shiver slightly. She looked up, and Brendel distinctly saw her black-and-white eyes, with her pupils narrowing in fright; she looked at him fearfully, revealing her white teeth as if to bite off this topic:
“Don’t ask me this question!”
Brendel was slightly taken aback, for he even saw Nemeses’s hand trembling slightly.
What was happening?
He furrowed his brow. But a new situation interrupted his thoughts: after the little fairy tossed the light ball into the honey jar, the jar immediately emitted a golden light. The little fairy’s face instantly lit up with joy as she tiptoed, reached her hand into the jar to scoop out some sticky honey, then licked her tongue across it, finally putting her whole fingertip into her mouth and pulling it out with a long silver thread.
The little fairy smacked her lips, her eyes squinting with delight. Then she simply sat down against the jar, putting all five fingers into her mouth to s*ck on them.
Nemeses was stunned: “She… don’t they have any sense of caution?”
“Perhaps they do somewhat; otherwise, they wouldn’t have used magic to test for poison. But that’s about it; fairies are very greedy, playful, and have strong curiosity…” Brendel observed the scene, unable to help but laugh; fairies were notoriously cute in games, and he found them to be the same in this world.
“Lady Tanyia doesn’t behave like them.”
“That’s because Aunt Tanyia has received strict education and possesses much human knowledge, but she still can’t help her curiosity. Racial nature is only one aspect; moreover, there are many differences between various types of fairies.”
“Is Lady Tanyia a member of the fairy lineage?”
“She is a descendant of the Light Race, a close relative of the light spirits, light fairies. Light fairies served under the Wizard Bud before the Saints, but now their status is even higher than before.” Brendel added, “And the ice fairies are among the dumbest groups in this regard—”
“They’re coming.”
With Brendel’s words, countless large and small light balls rose up in the Frost Forest on the lake, at least hundreds of them. When Nemeses saw this scene, she could not help but marvel that this race had not been eradicated until now; it was truly a miracle.
But in fact, fairies had their own survival strategies, just like the previous fairy, who was sent as a scout. The benefit of being a scout was that they could eat honey first, but once they sensed no danger, these fairies would swarm out all at once.
“Let’s go; this will soon become a battlefield,” Brendel said.
“A battlefield?” The Lady Knight seemed puzzled.
But just as if to confirm Brendel’s words, hundreds of fairies quickly began to fight over the honey, but their battles resembled playful scuffles between children; the Lady Knight even saw one fairy grabbing a handful of mud from the ground and throwing it at a companion’s face.
This was utterly unbelievable.
However, with the fairies caught up in their own brawl, no one paid attention to Brendel and Nemeses hiding behind the tree. The two quickly circumvented these honey-seizing little creatures and moved towards the center of the lake. As the fairies had all swarmed out, the water elements on the lake surface had long dissipated, and the two waded across the entire lake without encountering any obstacles, quickly reaching the lakeshore where the Misty Frost Forest was located.
The entire process went so smoothly that Nemeses felt a bit incredulous.
As she stepped out of the water, Nemeses frowned as she twisted the water out of her pant legs, then looked up and asked, “Since you knew honey had such effects, why didn’t you use it earlier?”
“Honey is a rare food around here; if I can avoid using it, I can make honey candies instead. Traveling in the Misty Frost Forest is quite dull and oppressive; sweets can lift the ladies’ spirits, and Xi likes honey very much,” Brendel sighed.
She glanced at him: “I didn’t expect you to be so thoughtful.”
“I just have a bit more experience with adventures,” he replied.
Speaking of his past life’s experiences, Nemeses fell silent. After a moment, Brendel heard her calmly say, “I like honey too—”
He turned back, and the Lady Knight had already sheathed her sword and walked past him, entering the forest. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)
