367 Traitor

The Royal Principle Advisor, who was just as perturbed as his boss, did not dare laugh alongside the Wise Mad King; he just remained calm and quiet, turning over their failed strategy in his head. He then asked, "Have we underestimated the powers of the three guardians? Or, did that traitor lie to us?"

These were the only explanations he could come up with for their unexpected failure.

In order to erase the traditionalist fairies, who the Wise Mad King considered royal pains in his behind, he had made preparations for months. He began by leading outsiders to flood the village and its surrounding woods, creating an opportunity for some of his people to infiltrate the woods, in order to lay traps for later. Whenever these traps got activated, they would form a huge barrier over the woods, which would serve to jam all forms of communication with those outside the barrier and prevent energy undulations from escaping the barrier. This way, the traditionalist fairies in Eom Village would be isolated, unable to seek help from other traditionalist fairies.

The plan also included striking Eom Village with a forbidden spell at a later date, and after that, they would invade whatever was left of the village with a large troop of elites. By then, Eom Village should still be recuperating from the first attack, thus making its survivors unable to handle the elite troop. Even if Eom Village were to somehow mitigate the forbidden spell, they would suffer a huge psychological blow, causing them to plunge to the pits of despair. In this state, they would be unable to do anything but surrender when the elite troops arrive.

Even if the residents of Eom Village still decided to fight, the Wise Mad King was confident that his elite troop, who were superior in number and amount of resources owned, would be able to clash with the villagers head-on. The Wise Mad King had only given a bit more thought to the presence of the three guardians.

However, those three were soon taken care of, for the traitor had provided intel on them. Thus, the Wise Mad King's elite troop, who now knew the strengths and weaknesses of the guardians, were able to prepare appropriate countermeasures, which would render the guardians as weak as possible, for as long as possible.

Hence, Eom Village was supposed to be in his hand already! However, the abrupt appearance of that f*cking Hope required him to tweak his plans. The new plans would ensure that Hope's attention got diverted from the village so that his elite troop could strike in his absence!

Everything was supposed to be taken care of! What had they missed? Why had their plan failed? There was only one reason he could up with for failed attack on the survivors of Eom Village: the guardians were not hindered by the countermeasures.

The Royal Principle Advisor shifted his gaze to the Wise Mad King. He did not get to read the report because the king had ripped it to shreds, hence the only way he could confirm his own conjecture was to wait for the Mad King to affirm his guess.

Surprisingly, the Mad King shook his head sideways after listening to his advisor's theory. "The countermeasures worked; those three aren't the reason why this invasion failed. The problem, this time, was Hope's students."

"Whaa—!!!" The Black Robe Advisor exclaimed in a high pitched voice. "B-b-but the intel we got from Isythre was that, out of his students, only that Church girl could do anything worthwhile; all she can do is use that long-lost defensive theurgical technique. As for the rest, they were supposed to be dolls only useful as decoration! Totally harmless and ineffective in fights! How did they become the dealbreakers?"

"Because whoever gathered the intel is an imbecile who couldn't even do the only job they bloody had!" The Wise Mad King roared. In his rage, he placed his fingers underneath his redwood table, intending to flip it over.

However, the table was heavier than he had thought. It refused to budge, despite how hard he tried. Out of breath, the Wise Mad King threw himself onto a chair and continued his rant, between pants. "We… underestimated his students' powers! I can't believe that our perfect plan was foiled by those brats!"

As a saying went, even Homer nods sometimes. Even Baiyi himself had no idea how his students had performed so well in battle, so what more could be said about outsiders?

When the Cleric Walker showed Baiyi what had occurred on the battlefield, from the plushie's point of view, Baiyi was in awe. It was a pleasant surprise to see his capable students mount attack after attack, turning the battle in their favor. Their victory had been more spectacular than his, even.

So, how did it all happen? The moment when the Cleric Walker was placed into the hammerhead shark plushie was a good place to start.

After watching Baiyi's vanish into the dark sky, Mia felt something push against her chest. She looked down and saw the hammerhead shark plushie rubbing itself hard against her chest.

"What's the matter, Sharkie?" Mia said, lifting the plushie up, with a look of concern. The plushie wriggled out of her grasp, however, and began to rub itself against her soft cheeks.

Then, like a mad dog without a leash, the plushie jumped from Mia and landed on Tisdale, after which it began to nudge itself against her bosom. From Tisdale, it jumped to Attie, then to Nota. Neither of the girls knew who was in the plushie, but they welcomed it warmly and rubbed their cheeks against it, instead of screaming and protecting themselves from the horny toy.

It was a miracle and a dream — one which the Cleric Walker never wanted to wake up from. Although the girls had been forced to ditch short skirts, which they wore almost all the time, for dowdy long pants, due to Baiyi's tyrannical order, it was a small tinge of regret in a large sea of satisfaction for the Cleric Walker.

When the Cleric Walker was about to bury himself in the paradise that was Vidomina's bosom, Laeticia, who the Voidwalker had skipped for some reason, yanked the plushie by the tail, pulling it away.

Keeping a firm hold on the plushie's tail, Laeticia turned to Mia. "Why is it acting so weird today?"

"I don't know, either," Mia replied. "Sharkie's now feels a lot more different to me."

"Really? I actually find it somewhat familiar," Laeticia mumbled curiously.

Suddenly, the Cleric Walker stopped squirming. Despite the tons of supple skin left to rub against — including many beautiful fairies donning really short mini skirts, exposing their supple thighs — seeing many fairies still weeping for the loss of their homes jolted him back to reality. 

Unknown to him, that was the last chance he would have to that.

"Something's not right! The enemies have returned! Everyone, battle stations!" Grandfather Tree, who has now taken over a bristlegrass, declared in alarm. Although the fairies could not see the great druid, they recognized his voice and quickly began to search for weapons.

Most of the fairies had had their weapons destroyed along with their houses. The only fairies who still had their bows ready were the ever-alert Gale Snipers.

Without their bows, the fairies were as useful in battle as a flock of geese! Their enemies, on the other hand, were armed to the teeth. This group numbered over a thousand, with heavy knights at the front and sorcerers supported by archers at the back. Furthermore, they were all protected by a huge defense barrier!

There were only 600 villagers in the entire Eom Village, including senior citizens and children. Among them, those who could fight were less than three hundred, and some of them had lost their weapons to the forbidden spell from earlier.

Hence, the three guardians were faced with the largest responsibilities.

However, before the three could make any moves, the Guardian Unicorn suddenly neighed frantically before dashing into the woods; it was as though it had sensed something terrible. Mr. Bear looked in the direction which the unicorn had fled, and its usually calm face suddenly contorted.

"You—you monsters! You actually targetted her children!"

Grandfather Tree, who was now controlling a towering tree, prepared to unleash his fury, but suddenly, he began to scream in pain. "Arrrgghh! Th-they are burning…!!! Stop!!!!"

Barely moments after he began to holler, sinister flashes of fiery light could be seen in the horizon, where the woods were. Blazing flames were over there, burning everything in its path.

Furthermore, the runes and alters which the enemies had planted all over the woods beforehand were activated, and a huge barrier appeared, covering a large part of the woods, from which all communication was now severed. The great druid felt as though his veins had been severed from his body, and his power level began to drop rapidly.

"These knaves! They used some despicable means to completely obscure the woods! I… I must go and stop them!" Grandfather Tree bellowed furiously.

Even people as academically accomplished as Baiyi found Grandfather Tree mysterious and too powerful to defeat. However, the Wise Mad King was able to exploit the great druid's weakness by utilizing information he had acquired from the traitor.

The great druid's body was the entire woods in which Eom Village was situated. It was also the source of its powers. If one wanted to defeat the Grandfather Tree, all they need do was destroy as much of the forest as they could.

This was quite the weak point for a great druid who was so renowned for the power he wielded!

Hence, two guardians had already been taken out before the battle even begun. The only guardian that was left the face the enemy army was Mr. Bear. It was now leading a few hundred fairies, who had armed themselves with branches and pebbles. The village elder fairy, on the other hand, was evacuating the young and old from the remains of Eom Village.

However, Mr. Bear did not know that an old acquaintance was currently standing on the opposite side of the battlefield, with the enemies.

It was a human-shaped creature formed entirely of hard boulders, boasting at least ten feet in height. Its rocky body was littered with moss. This being stared at Mr. Bear as a gigantic golem would. 

"O' Mountain Sage of the Mountainspring Village! I don't understand… why is it you?" Mr. Bear's face went pale when it spotted the stone creature. "Is this vendetta for the past?"

This rock creature was another great druid similar to Grandfather Tree, but unlike the latter, this creature chose to use the much studier rock elemental as its body, not plants.

As one of the most important members of the traditionalist fairy group, the Rock Druid knew other members very well, including their weaknesses. It was this knowledge that boosted the strength of the Wise Mad King's elite troop.

"With your heart as cold as stone, I should be the one surprised at how shocked you look right now," the Rock Druid replied coldly. "When I was in agony, you — my so-called friends — ignored my pleas. The only one who answered my desperate calls for help was His Majesty! Now is the time for me to repay his kindness, as well as to exact my revenge."

"So, the seed of hatred was sowed at that moment, huh..." Mr. Bear shook its head sideways slowly, pain filling its eyes. The bear sighed helplessly, but it did not try to refute the Rock Druid's words.

It was as though Mr. Bear had just admitted to committing a grave crime.Eep