Deep within the forest, where the trees were so close to each other that their canopies blocked out most of the sun, a demonic colony was being nurtured. Between the trunks, multiple giant coccoons were hanging, grayish-brown nests filled with buzzing sounds as young wasp demons scurried around and inside them. Compared to their other flying counterparts, already transformed into a human-like shape, they were small. As for the tallest, it was a woman, standing about a hundred and fifty centimeters tall. She had thin, insect-like legs, and behind her slim waist, a yellow-bck striped abdomen protruded backward with a sharp stinger at its end, while her upper body was coated with the same striking pattern. As for the hair-raising sound coming from her, four sharp-angled wings buzzing periodically behind her, issuing commands to her less intelligent sons, ordering them around. Her head was also human-shaped, but her eyes remained those of a wasp, and her jawline contained symmetrical incisions, allowing her to open it like mandibles, revealing a long tongue covered with sharp spikes. She grabbed a still squirming and living fairy up with it just then and threw the poor girl into one of the nests, which immediately went abuzz, tearing her apart in just seconds.

  “My Queen!” arrived another humanoid wasp, half her height.

  “What is it? I’m feeding the children. I don’t have time to babysit you all!”

  “The workers that we sent out to bring back food stopped returning. We miss more than twenty of them.”

  “Send out a commander." She snorted, "They may be too eager and eat up everything before coming back, those greedy children!”

  “I already went out." The man continued, "I found their corpses and also human remains... It seems like the food asked for help... The help of... humans.”

  “What?!” Their Queen fred up, and her voice immediately quieted all of the nests, as even the crunching of bones had stopped.

  “...”

  “Call the other commanders! Turning to humans?" She sneered, "Even food should know its pce! We chase and feast on humans then!”

  “But my Queen, their base is near… It’s….”

  “Silence!" She spped him with her tongue, "You are a soldier, born for war, not for questioning my decisions!”

  “Yes, My Queen!” he bowed his bleeding head, and soon the Queen’s buzzing wings stirred up the whole forest as hundreds of wasps and almost a dozen humanoid figures rose from the bushes and trees, following her out of the shades.

  …….…..

  “Master, we don’t see anything behind us but… I just... “ Poli came up from behind.

  “A bad feeling? I have the same premonition.” Ren nodded with a serious face.

  “Me too.” Leinor nodded back at her, confirming their senses.

  “If all of you have the same feeling, it must be right.” Feynor groaned, “I heard from my father that in the Harmony Realm, they have heightened senses and sharper instincts. It's probably because you all cultivate the new method and have a simir ability to tap into it... I really envy you all! I tried your method, but I have been in the 9th stage for almost a decade. Haaah... Using it, yes... It improved me greatly, and I could ascend to the next realm if I want only…. But...”

  “You want to open and strengthen your energy nodes like we did, yes?” Ren smiled, understanding the issue.

  “Yes. Especially after seeing you fight. Doing it now and not in the Harmony realm has to have some hidden benefit!”

  “I’ll help you out when everything is over,” she replied with a wide grin. “It’s not that hard if you have help showing you the way, where, and what to look for. I also have great experience with LeiLei here, and being his brother, it will be a breeze to guide you.”

  “Tsk, but it will be painful,” Isha added from the side.

  “Not that much. It was worse for you, as I had no experience with fire-based affinities... Same for Zern.” Ren looked back at the two. "Sorry."

  “Well, I was lucky!” Poli smiled proudly, only to receive a death stare from Isha, as true... Having the same affinity as Ren was why he was so ahead of everybody.

  “I could help my mother out, so after a quick session, you will be fine!” Ren ughed, but soon she turned serious. “But what should we do now?”

  “We move!” Feynor answered in a decisive tone, “Leave the carts behind. Only take what is necessary, everyone! We need to leave with haste!” he ordered his men, who looked at each other as they had worked for months to dig up the dozens of relics... And do it for nothing? “What are you hesitating for? These are just mementos from a long-gone era! Start moving if you don’t want to join them in rotting away!”

  His words finally made everyone pick up their pace as the fairies, most of them still injured and unable to fly correctly, were looking around, frightened, fearing that they would be left here as dead weight.

  “Don’t worry.” Leinor patted one of their heads. “We came to help you out. You will be fine!”

  “T-thank you…” murmured the small, dark red-skinned fairy with bright, fme-like hair and ruby-like eyes as she fluttered her now somewhat vitalized, reddish, half-transparent wings. “For everything. We didn’t know humans were this kind….”

  “Well…” Leinor wanted to say something, but held back, as the traumatized little butterflies did not need to hear anything more than just a few kind words, “You’re welcome.”

  .............

  As the group was cutting through the forest an hour ter, Poli rushed up again from behind.

  “They are coming, and there are a lot of them,” he reported with a nasty expression signaling the trouble headed their way.

  “How many?” Ren asked calmly.

  “Too many. I couldn’t count them all, but there were hundreds of bugs, and I saw humanoid ones leading them.”

  “Damn it…” Feynor cursed, hearing him speak.

  “We need to stall them,” Ren said, and her words made many soldiers gulp with fear.

  “I volunteer!” Zern said immediately.

  “No.” Feynor shot him down, shaking his head, “We will stay back while you escort the fairies. We will buy you enough time to retreat.”

  “Sorry to say, but you may be strong, Eldest Brother, but we are stronger." Leinor cut in, feeling confident, "Can you kill a Harmony expert?”

  “N-no… I could fight one, but to kill? No.” He muttered, watching his youngest sibling.

  “We already killed one.” Leinor grinned at him. "A scorpion."

  “Still, there is more than one, not to mention the horde of bugs!” The first prince retorted, but he was unsure what to do.

  “Then it’s good we are brothers!” Leinor ughed. "Trust us."

  “Haahh… you…” Feynor massaged his temple, shaking his head.

  “We will stay back, draw them away; you speed up and bring my father here." Ren joined, "If he hears I’m in trouble, he will hurry here faster than lightning!” She giggled, seeming to be in a cheerful mood.

  “You… sure?” Feynor asked again.

  “Sure, sure!”

  “Wha… come on… I knew I should have stayed home!” Isha moaned but still stood with the others, not leaving.

  For a long moment, Feynor just looked into Ren’s eyes, then steeled himself, patting her shoulder.

  “We will be quick!”

  “Better be, or there won’t be any trophies to collect as we wipe them all out~!” Leinor cpped, showing the same mood as his fiancée.

  “Move out, men! Triple your steps and grow two more legs if needed, or I castrate you all!” Feynor shouted as they rushed out, and soon only Ren and the others stayed behind.

  “When we get back, Ren, you owe me a LOT.” Isha flicked her forehead and began rolling her shoulders in preparation.

  “Oh, come on, it will be fine! Take it as hardcore training!” she rubbed the red spot, sticking her tongue out.

  “That we can die from.” Poli ughed wryly, but still stood there, without trembling.

  “Not if you are strong enough.” His master countered.

  “Still, I would prefer not to have training like this, Master!” Zern chimed in, a hopeless smile on his face.

  “Ahaha, the road to the top is filled with dangers, tributions, and whatnot; this is the normal course of things! We survive, we become stronger, we lose, and we die. Simple!” Ren crossed her arms with a wide grin. "Don't be a pussy!"

  “You know how to motivate us, Master!” Zern said, cracking his shoulders. "But I think, you still need to work on it..."

  “Hey!” Ren ughed as buzzing sounds started to resonate from a distance. "Oh... they are here."

  It didn’t take long before the first wasps appeared between the trees, whizzing around just so a lightning spear could strike out, going through the first one and the tree behind it, and nailing the second one before disappearing in the dark.

  “That's two!” Ren grinned and threw another one out. “Let everything go, guys, the one with the most kills gets to be the boss of the others for a week!”

  “Fuck, say that first, Master; now you got the advantage!” Poli cursed as he shot out, slicing with his sword, sending out a current that struck another wasp, cutting it in half, along with two more behind it.

  “Ohoho, watch out, boytoy, you will need to follow my every whim for a week!” Isha ughed as she rushed forward, and the fallen leaves below her feet were already smoking.

  “YOU need to watch out, or you will burn the forest down around us!” Leinor followed her, grumbling.

  “That's not a bad idea,” Zern commented, already crashing through a wasp like a bulldozer as the horde slowly arrived.

  …….

  “Who are these?” asked the wasp queen in a cold voice, floating in the sky, watching as a big part of the forest was being decimated around them.

  The battle between her children and Ren’s team was cutting down not just her soldiers but also most of the trees, while a raging fire burned around them. Thanks to Isha, whose every punch was followed by a fireball shooting out, sometimes exploding and sometimes burning three to four wasps at once. It was... not something the Queen had ever experienced.

  “Probably human reinforcement,” one of his generals said, also in human form, as eight more of them stood behind her.

  “They are strong. Are these the so-called Harmony experts of humans?” The Queen grunted.

  “It seems like my Queen. They use spells to attack, so they should be. But if we all attack at once, we can take them on.”

  “I could also do that, but we don’t know what tricks they may have up their sleeves.” She muttered, considering, “Send in the children, let their numbers drain their strength, and we will feast on them when they are exhausted!”

  “Yes, Your Majesty!”

  …….

  “Fucking hell, they won’t stop!” Ren groaned, throwing out one of her father’s coins, attracting a loud thunderbolt that came down like punishment from heaven, smiting six wasps around it and bsting a giant maple tree into splinters. “Nice, I’m at sixty-nine!”

  “Eighty!” Poli ughed, dodging a stinger, stabbing backward with one hand, and nailing a bug with his sword. He was not done because, with his free hand, he grabbed another wasp’s stinger, sending electricity through it and blowing it up like a balloon.

  “Bwahaha, amateurs! Ninety-one!” Isha ughed as she resembled a human torch, her clothes already burned to ash, only a few threads hanging around her waist and breasts, while she kept showering everything with a fiery rain.

  “Damn it. Only Fifty-four here...” Zern smacked his lips while Leinor just smiled as he focused on supporting them, sometimes rushing up, spping onto their backs, transferring energy to keep them in the fight; he was not killing many of the wasps.

  “Then I need to pick it up! I am your Master, aren't I?” Ren ughed as she began to channel her energies fully.

  “Oh?” Poli excimed, feeling the static charge rise, and everyone's hair began to lift towards the sky.

  “I’m only halfway there, but… this should be enough!” Ren murmured, "Let the storm begin~!” She grinned as she spped her hands together, and countless lightning bolts struck out from her body, traveling far and wide in every direction, her being the middle of it all. It struck dozens of wasps simultaneously, causing them to screech and release smoke from their bodies, while some even had the misfortune of exploding into bits. “Let’s just round it up to a hundred, yes?” she ughed when her spell disappeared, and corpses kept falling out from the sky. Even though it was effective, her steps were a bit flimsy now, and Leinor immediately appeared next to her, supporting her petite frame, transferring energy over.

  “Cheater!” Isha huffed, indignant from being robbed of first pce.

  “They are mighty….” With a trembling hand, the Queen murmured, not that far away, “But they should be exhausted by now… start moving. I want one of them alive and bring the lucky winner back to the nest. The children will grow strong, feasting on their flesh!”

  Her generals immediately moved into action, and Poli was the first to be struck. Luckily, he fended off the incoming bde-like hand with his weapon. Still, it wasn’t long before he was surrounded by another joining the fight, just like the others, as the humanoid wasps attacked in pairs. Clearly, they were cautious, trying to draw the battle out and further exhaust them.

  …A little earlier…

  “Move, move! Don’t sck off!” Feynor shouted while the little red fairy in his arms flew upwards.

  “I… I can fly fast! I… If you tell me where to go… I can go and ask for help!” she said with a trembling voice, but her eyes were shining in a new light, determined.

  Feynor only hesitated for a few seconds before nodding, telling the little fairy which way she should go, and when arriving, she must ask for General Xendar.

  “What is your name?”

  “Rem.” The fairy murmured.

  “Then fly as fast as you can, Rem! We are counting on you.”

  “Um!” she nodded as she shot out and soon disappeared faster than a messenger hawk.

  ……......

  Xendar was standing atop the wall of Cath's Door, looking towards the northern horizon, feeling uneasy.

  “Something is not right.” He murmured as soon as Anya came up, with the same expression as his, repeating the exact same words.

  “Something is approaching from the north!” came a warning through a voice projection crystal embedded in his gauntlet.

  Focusing his eyes, he immediately spotted the little flying figure that resembled a small woman and immediately recognized it as a Fairy from the First Prince’s descriptions. Realizing something had to go wrong, Xendar shot out, startling the panting and tired little butterfly, almost flying into his broad chest.

  “Kyah?!” Rem screamed as she screeched to a halt, knocking her head against his solid, pte armor chest piece.

  “What happened? Speak!” Xendar ordered her, realizing he was scaring the poor little creature.

  “D-don’t hurt me, please!” she cried out, hearing the thundering voice of his, almost soaking herself in fear, “They said to look for the… the General, saying they were in trouble, a horde came, and they stayed and-“

  “Where?” Xendar asked, holding back his voice this time as Anya arrived with a pale face, having heard her words.

  “T-that way!” Rem pointed her finger towards the distance, not that it helped much. But at least it was a direction...

  “We go, now!” Anya cried out, but Xendar grabbed Rem, who almost passed out from the aura coming from him.

  “Take care of her; you stay. We can’t leave the fortress without someone strong protecting it. I'm going.”

  “But-”

  “Dear.” Xendar looked back with a smile, “I’m faster.” Before she could say anything, he had already fshed away as everyone only saw a lightning bolt rushing through the sky, leaving behind a deafening thunder.