Chapter 180 - XVII Evolution of the Fairies

"What?" Everyone in the crowd was looking at the young man like he was an idiot. How could anyone exchange such expensive artifacts with a mere spaceship? From the looks of it he also seemed like he knew what he was doing. 

"Okay then. Anyone wants to bid other than this man here? No? Then I suppose this spaceship is yours now." Revealing a mass of shiny black metal, the ship shrunk until it reaches the size of a grain of rice before it floated to Elijah who faked a calm expression to disguise his excitement. He when took hold of it, his figure vanished once again and the auction continued.

"Arg!" Ichor fell from his mouth, nose and ears as he struggled to keep his balance. Looking at himself, he sighed. "I've wasted too much power, I should never force activation of a origin skill again. At least I know how to manifestate my spirit in this sort of way and heal most injures in my soul. I guess it must be similar to what Claire did to speak with me." With no one paying attention to the youth who took the spaceship and vanished, other items appeared on the platform.

"Immortal Armament: Arcane Nexus. Initial Price: 30 Orange-grade Prime Crystals."

"30!"Said Moess, the sage. An old celestial wearing grey clothes while holding a wood stick in one hand.

"35! Moess, this is not the place for you. I have set my eyes on this first." A female who appears to be around her thirties raised her hand. Different from other female celestial beings, she was shorter than average and certainly larger than any ordinary beauty, but this unusual way of hers was certainly the most impressive. Her name was Finas, a Great Immortal Lady of Magic.

Seeing Finas, flames lit in the eyes of a figure in black robes covering his face and chains tied on his body. He was Thanatos, God of Death. Seeing he was also raising his hand, everyone knew what was going to happen.

Many hours later, all the items had be taken and only one item was left. Qedai walked to the front of the platform with a small box in hand and he was about to open it, a loud bang ressounded in Elijah's ears as his mind returned to reality.

...

Opening his eyes, Elijah saw himself before the huge golden gate. His body was mostly recovered by now while his soul was deeply wasted by what he did. In his hand, he was still holding the small miniature ship. 

"Wait, where is the fairies?" After a moment, Elijah realized the four fairies who were in deep sleep vanished and he rushed to the passage that leaded to the forest to see if they were there. Suddenly he heard sounds of wingbeats reached his ears from above and as he raised his eyes, four normal-sized humanoid winged-figures flew around the lake. Recognizing them, Elijah quickly noticed the changes they had. Other than having normal-sized bodies, they all evolved in different ways. With feathered-wings of four different colors, Elijah could see who was who.

The fairies also grown to become more feminine compared to their previous childish faces. It was also then when they noticed him and rushed over.

"Master!" The four fairies approached him with faces full of emotion and it was when Elijah noticed something he didn't knew. Flying while wearing short dress was not a good idea, especially when none of the fairies used underwears, letting Elijah have a full view, which was not possible as he noticed none of them had intimate parts. Something easy to guess as their bodies were made of energy but still disturbing.

After they were quiet, Elijah had a long talk with them. In the middle of conversation, Elijah thought it was not good to think of them as fairies anymore, they were more closer to angels now. When Elijah prepared to leave, Aura, his angel of Energy asked to follow him as she wished to exploring things now she was free after a long sleep while the others asked for the same thing. In the end, Elijah leaved the hall together with four winged-females. He explained everything that happened and the content of what they needed to do in this Muddy Swamp.

"We have finally come out..." Elijah sighed as he looked at the vast swamp around him. After having stayed in that dream for a long period of time, he had forgotten the feeling of having wind blow against his body.

"Let's go!" The four angels did not noticed the little action of Elijah and urged him to continue. Expanding his senses, he determined Yawen's position, and waved at the the four of them while a pair of starry wings spread out. Misty, Aura, Destiny and Storm followed his actions and spread their feathered wings.

One human followed by four angels turned into rays of light that flew across the sky. Flying at this high speed should have brought at least a faint wind pressure against them, but Elijah's starry wings formed a thin layer of energy that ignored the pressure. Suddenly, Elijah paused in mid-air, the four angels were taken by surprise and crashed into each other.

"Ouch..." Misty and Aura rubbed their heads while grumbling while their other two had teary eyes.

"There is something wrong..." Elijah said before narrowing his eyes. His golden eyes swept over the entire region which was were the Sword tribe was supposed to be located and as he did so. He could not even hear a single sound or presence of human or beast. Destiny also felt something was amiss and spread her senses into spatial waves that washed over surroundings before she spoke.

"Yes, there is none living being in the area. The city ahead also is devoid or any being. Moreover..." She twitched a few times while sniffing with her nose. "There is a strange smell in the air. It remembers me of..."

Elijah was startled when he heard this. His expression changed as he covered her nose and spoke in a solemn manner: "Poison! You must not inhale this air until we are sure it is not hurtful to any of us."

But it was too late when he realized. Purple veins spread in a very slow manner on Destiny's skin and the same was happening with him and the others.