“What is this?”

Kalia and Simon were startled as they looked at the forest filled with the smell of smoke.

Although it wasn’t completely burned, flames were rising here and there beyond the forest.

“Let’s quickly go to where the fire started.”

Simon, who was trying to move to put out the fire, stopped at the touch of Tierra’s hand, who grabbed his wrist.

The mole attached to her owner’s wrist pointed in the opposite direction.

As Tierra looked at Kalia, he suddenly realized that she too was looking at someone else.

“That person…”

Her gaze fell on an old fairy coming out of a distant hut.

The old man was walking calmly outside without even looking in the direction of the fire.

It was suspicious.

An indifferent fairy who didn’t even care about the fire in the fairy forest.

Smoke was even coming out of the small hut he had come out of.

The fire had started far away from here, so why was smoke coming out from the inside?

That was not the only suspicious thing.

Simon stopped short at the evil magic he felt coming from inside the hut.

‘Magic…?’

It was not the refined energy of magic, but a wicked force that was rough, fierce, and emitted an unpleasant smell.

“Simon, I will follow that old man. You check inside the cabin.”

Kalia followed the old man, as if led by her instincts.

“Kalia.”

Simon grabbed her wrist just before she moved away.

Just an hour ago, they were kissing each other, sharing warmth and making love on a comfortable bed.

As fate would have it, it seemed that the two of them were always on the wrong page.

He sighed and kissed her wrist, not forgetting to cast a protective magic on her body as if breathing.

“Be careful. If you get hurt even a little bit, I’ll tie you to the bed and never let you go for the rest of your life.”

Kalia’s eyes widened at Simon’s threat.

She laughed as if she found it amusing and then stroked his cheek with a rough hand.

“Well, I wonder if there’s a strong enough rope for this, Simon?”

Simon trembled as he watched her run away after kissing his cheek.

Even though he knew she was strong enough, his heart was still racing.

He couldn’t bear to see any more wounds on her already scarred body.

“Just try to hurt her in some way, no matter how small.”

He headed towards the smoke-filled hut with a cold glare.

‘Because I won’t let anyone go.’

As always, Simon will protect her back.

* * *

“It’s better to find them quickly. Otherwise, your brother and that human child will suffocate to death.”

Tokan, who was looking at the calmly speaking Kanal, raised the power of his eyes.

On a pitch-black night, Tokan’s eyes shone like a wild beast.

“Tell me where they are.”

Kanal laughed.

“Tokan, even I don’t know that. Why would I tell you if I didn’t know?”

“What do you mean?”

“It wasn’t me who started the fire.”

Tokan realized what he meant.

Kanal knew about his eye and had already prepared countermeasures against it.

He did the deed without even knowing it himself.

‘Fool.’

As he wondered what to do next, Kanal showed him a larger image.

It showed his brother, coughing up smoke and clinging to the wall.The flames were spreading rapidly.

The boy hiding behind him had already passed out.

“Ha-ha, if we leave it like this, it will explode soon. The air will soon become scarce. Would you like to watch them die in an explosion or suffocate to death here?”

He looked at his master in disbelief.

The master spoke calmly about the death of his brother.

The kind old man who had carried him on his shoulders and showed him the world was nowhere to be found.

Tokan turned and walked away, knowing that the urgent matter was to prevent death.

Judging from Kanal’s words, those two were trapped in a place where all directions were blocked.

Where could be a place where all directions were blocked in the forest?

Tokan’s footsteps were urgent as he thought and thought.

Kanal, who was watching Tokan running with a pale face, smiled faintly.

“Didn’t I teach you not to believe anything you haven’t seen it with your own eyes, Tokan?”

Unfortunately, the owner of that video was not the boy and his brother he was looking for.

This was just a fantasy created by Kanal.

Although he had to answer when he was questioned in the divine realm, he naturally didn’t know the location from the fantasy.

If Tokan had been a little more calm, he wouldn’t have been deceived.

He turned and entered a secret hut he had built a little away from his house.

There were several elders waiting for him inside.

“Elder.”

“Are you all ready?”

The young elders’ eyes lit up at Kanal’s question.

Having started to interact closely with the human world, they felt the need for change in this closed fairy forest.

“It’s time for this place to change.”

Kanal smiled satisfactorily at their answer.

“Then let’s go.”

It was just a little earlier than expected.

He first sent the fairies who followed him to the gate connected to the Akan palace.

And Kanal, who was left alone, lifted the carpet on the hut floor and opened the secret door.

His eyes were cold as he looked at the tightly closed underground door.

It was a time when fantasy became reality.

After contaminating the area around the hut with demon blood, he threw a torch towards the underground door where Ganini and the boy were trapped.

“I think even a death as elegant as not having your limbs torn off like your little sister is enough to mourn.”

That was all the mourning there was.

Kanal turned around and left the hut.

He didn’t even look at the burning forest.

‘This is the fate I have chosen.’

The spirits, intoxicated by magic, were setting fires throughout the forest.

Since he had already put his hand on the entrance to the spirit world, it would take some time for the water spirits to come out into the human world.

‘If the forest doesn’t choose me as king, I will become the king with my own hands.’

Since the forest had abandoned him, he had no regrets about abandoning the forest.

“Hey there.”

Tokan, who was walking towards the gate, stopped and turned around at the unfamiliar voice.

As he saw the woman standing and looking at him through the trees, Kanal unconsciously muttered in surprise.

“…Gaia?”

Gaia, the deceased youngest daughter of the king.

She was standing there looking at him.

* * *

Kalia glared at the man who was surprised to see her with narrowed eyes.

‘Gaia?’

He mistook her for Gaia.

He was a fairy who knew Gaia.“The forest is on fire. Where are you going?”

At her question, Kanal frowned and asked.

“…Who are you?”

She responded with a crooked smile.

At the somewhat rough expression of her, Kanal furrowed his brows.

He stared at her intently before ignoring her and turning away.

There was no time to waste on whatever her identity might be.

That was when it happened.

With the sound of the wind passing by, a creepy feeling brushed his cheek.

A sharp sword was thrown in the direction he was going.

“If you rush off like that, it’s too suspicious.”

“How annoying.”

Kanal wiped the blood from his cheek.

She didn’t seem to be a fairy, and he didn’t know why a human resembling Gaia was here, but there seemed to be more important matters to handle.

“…I didn’t want to bring this out.”

He cut a long wound in his palm.

Then a strange pattern appeared on his palm, and black blood flowed out.

Something began to form from the blood that flowed steadily.

It was a demonic chimera.

“So, you’re a traitor.”

She couldn’t let him run away, especially since there was a chance that the forest fire was caused by this fairy.

Kalia felt the cold power left on her forehead and pursed her lips.

“Noah.”

At her word, moisture gathered and formed into the shape of a sword, turning into an ice sword in an instant and resting on her hand.

Kanal’s eyes widened.

“Why do you have Noha’s sword…?”

“Well, I guess you’ll have to hear it from her.”

When Kalia lightly brushed off the sword, the ice fragments attached to it fell off.

As if snowflakes were falling, the ice fragments scattered.

She added her own sword skills to it.

The sword of Kalia, covered in ice, slashes through the air. She swings it lightly to counteract the movements of the Chimera and chases after Kanal, who was trying to escape.

“Kreur!”

A deformed creature with the appearance of a demon, yet emanating the power of an elemental spirit from its chest, runs towards her, hobbling on a severed leg.

Its long, sharp nails attacked Kalia’s neck like a whip, but she easily leaped away, dodging the attack. At the same time, she amplified the sword’s cutting power, causing it to swell as if it were alive. It was her ultimate technique.

A living sword.

She controlled the sword’s size and shape with almost infinite precision, and as it grew to a size comparable to her own, she slashed it through the air. A crack in the air opened up as if space itself was being cut.

The Living Sword immediately cut off one of the Chimera’s arms.Despite losing a leg and an arm, the Chimera kept running towards Kalia, as if it felt no pain.

Kalia lightly kicked it over, dodged the creature, and threw the Living Sword at Kanal, who was quickly fleeing. The sword, now an ice shard, flied precisely towards Kanal’s back. The moment it hit him, a spirit of the forest appears out of nowhere, taked the hit, and disappeared.

“What the!”

Surprised, Kalia hesitates while Kanal immediately called out for the help of forest spirits.

“Stop her.”

The dark spirits under his control crept out and approached Kalia.

Kalia jumped high, chilling as the spirits cling to her. She didn’t want to kill innocent spirits.

Dodging the clinging spirits, she followed Kanal as he entered a gate. With a small difference in distance, she jumped to the door where Kanal was escaping.

At that moment, Kalia concentrated all her strength and throwed another Living Sword. Ice shards flied through the air.

“Heuk!”

And it landed precisely on Kanal’s shoulder as he stumbled before the gate.

‘I got you.’

Kanal, in agony, stared at Kalia.

“…Do you think I’ll stop here?”

He crawled towards the gate, his face twisted into that of a demon. Kalia didn’t hesitate and thrusted ice into his knees.

“Aaaagh!”

A terrible scream echoed, Kanal yelled at the door with a face that had turned into a demon.

“Help me!”

Kalia flung herself quickly towards him, avoiding the spirits that rushed at her.

But there was one who moved faster than her.

A black hand reached out from the dark door and grabbed Kanal by the back of the neck.