It was a sudden and strange occurrence.
The ground shook so clearly that it could be felt, and the sky swayed unnaturally.
The phenonon was sothing everyone in the Sky Garden could sense.
And it didn’t end there. From all directions, bone-only monsters started erging.
The scattered candidates, each separated due to the task, could not help but feel confused and alard.
"What... what is this?! Skeletons suddenly coming out of the ground?!"
"Hm? Is this part of the task? This is suspicious."
"Tch, I was almost there... Hey, kid. I don’t know what’s going on, but hide behind ."
There were those who were startled and terrified by this unexpected turn of events, those who tried to calmly assess the situation with their arms crossed, and others who were irritated by the sudden interruption while trying to please a fairy.
Still, perhaps due to the fact that only the top 1% of the 10,000 candidates remained, they handled the attacking skeletons in various ways and showed different reactions.
[ "Attention! What is happening in the Sky Garden right now is a real situation! All candidates should imdiately seek help from nearby event staff or gather with other candidates if possible! Repeat: what is happening in the Sky Garden right now..." ]
It was a small relief that, just a few minutes after the chaos began, a ssage was sent to all candidates through their watches.
The ssage stated that what was happening was not part of the task, but a real situation.
However, the candidates had already sensed that this was not a re show.
The cold, freezing air that seed to freeze the skin proved that danger was imminent.
At the sa ti, sowhere in the Sky Garden, a group consisting of one powerless human and two fairies quickly understood the situation.
"Tch! This is exactly why I refused to let humans into the Sky Garden in the first place! They kept saying it would be fine...!"
Murmur gritted his teeth, looking angrily at the skeletons rising from the ground.
He was so angry that a little blood leaked from his bitten lip.
This was a completely natural reaction.
Murmur had originally been opposed to the idea of holding the Fixer exam in the Sky Garden.
Despite the argunts from so fairies who didn't want to offend the Fixer Association and the relaxed offer to allow entry to the Sky Garden, he had reluctantly accepted.
But things had gone horribly wrong, just as he had feared.
Naturally, he was furious at the Fixer side for pushing the situation to this point.
‘Hmm... The Seed of the World Tree hidden here is probably the biggest cause of this...’
Murmur's mind raced, but Yuria, in her panic, was sweating profusely, unsure how to react.
The value of the Sky Garden was that it was a special island where fairies lived.
There was no real reason for soone to attack or sneak in here.
Let alone soone like Tempest, who had a sharp eye, and the place was under his protection—anyone trying to sneak in would have to be ntally deranged.
The only plausible motive for an intruder coming here was to take the powerful Seed of the World Tree.
If that was the case, then hiding it without informing the Fixer Association was certainly a mistake.
‘Well, Murmur didn’t even know it was the [N O V E L I G H T] Seed of the World Tree. He probably just thought it would be safer to hide it, considering human greed...’
Of course, it wasn’t ideal for humans to discover the Seed of the World Tree in the first place.
If the Seed were planted on Earth, the ecosystem would collapse instantly, and experints could lead to the destruction of the planet.
Eventually, this crisis would have happened one way or another.
It would be unfair to pin the bla on Murmur alone—the intruders were the ones who were wrong.
After sorting out her thoughts in the midst of the chaos, Yuria began to think seriously about how to proceed.
‘At this point, it would be best to dispose of the Seed of the World Tree without further thought...’
But no matter how much she thought about it, the best course of action for Yuria seed clear:
She needed to secure the Seed first and then crush it with her telekinetic abilities, ensuring that it couldn’t be used.
Even if an intruder made it into the Sky Garden, as long as Tempest was around, no one, except perhaps the Commander of the Liberation Army, could take it on alone.
The real danger was that the intruder would secure the Seed and escape.
Thus, the conclusion was simple: the final goal was to destroy the Seed. But...
‘Murmur has to trust enough to share the location, but how can I convey that ssage to him?’
The problem was that Yuria had no way of communicating effectively with others.
She could only express three basic emotions: yes, no, or I don’t know.
How could she possibly ask Murmur where the Seed of the World Tree was with just that?
In her frustration, Yuria could only close her eyes in despair.
Whether Murmur understood her predicant or not, he looked at her with a sharp, irritated expression and shouted.
"Hey, white human! Get lost! I don’t have ti to babysit you right now!"
"..."
"Murmur...!"
Up until now, Murmur had tolerated the idea of traveling together to find the cause of the explosion.
But given how things were escalating, he didn’t seem to want to keep a human around casually.
His fierce tone was so strong that even Chiriloo, who had been nestled in Yuria’s arms, widened her eyes in confusion.
It seed that Yuria would lose Murmur if things continued like this.
Just then, the ground suddenly shook, and a swarm of skeletons burst out and attacked them.
The grotesque skeletons, with their bodies severely dismbered, were far beyond the capabilities of a 30cm fairy to deal with.
"Where did these bones co from...! Get lost!"
Boom!
But with a simple wave of Murmur’s hand, the skeletons were effortlessly swept away by the force of pure magic.
It was a wave of magical energy, not even a spell chant, that easily cleared the monsters.
His exceptional skill, one of the top fairies in terms of magical power, was evident.
Yuria, who had been silently watching, saw the skeletons scattering and ca to a conclusion she had only suspected before.
‘...Those skeletons weren’t reanimated corpses. They were created by magic. There’s no way there would be that many dead bodies buried here in the Sky Garden. This must have been the work of a necromancer with exceptional skills...’
Creating corpses out of thin air was unimaginably difficult.
How difficult? Even the Drakel she had t earlier relied on the Tesseract.
If that was the case, then this was the work of a necromancer with extraordinary power...
She briefly thought about who could wield this kind of magic.
Could it be Mort from Saint Maria?
Does that an the Liberation Army is behind this?
‘Tempest, Vespera, and the Liberation Army... This scale is too big! What can I do here...?’
Yuria felt a headache coming on and absentmindedly grabbed the Tesseract at her chest.
The Tesseract, which had stored nearly ten days' worth of energy for the Fixer exam.
With it, she could wield significant power, just as she had done against Akashmir, if only for a short ti.
But she wasn’t confident that she could defeat the invaders with it.
Even if she beca a future version of herself and unleashed her power, it would only last a few minutes.
Besides, Tempest, who was nearby, was strong enough to handle things on his own.
Any effort to change the outco would only reduce so variables, but wouldn't significantly alter the situation.
‘Since it won’t make a big difference right now... I’ll save the Tesseract’s energy for the very last mont. Fortunately, Tempest is here. He’ll figure it out sohow.’
With that in mind, Yuria made her decision:
First, survive in this warzone. If the intruders tried to escape with the Seed, stop them at all costs!
She stood firm, carefully holding Chiriloo, who was trembling from the skeleton threat, and walked boldly toward Murmur.
"You're going to save the fairies now, right? Then I’ll help too."
That was the aning she hoped to convey with her actions.
"You! How many tis do I have to tell you you're a nuisance!?"
But as expected, to Murmur, Yuria was nothing but a bother.
He glared at her with annoyance, ready to explode in anger.
However, his actions were interrupted.
Suddenly, from the ground, a giant hand shot up without any warning.
"What...!?"
It was a grotesquely twisted, malford arm, huge enough for Yuria to barely wrap her arms around.
The arm shot up at incredible speed, like a fly swatting at them.
Coincidentally, the massive hand was aiming for Murmur, floating in mid-air.
Noticing the attack too late, Murmur tried to react in a panic.
"Damn it! I didn’t see it coming...!"
But his response was too slow, as the magic he had hastily prepared was completed just a mont too late.
The hand grasped him before his spell could take effect.
Fairies were powerful with magic, but they were naturally small and frail.
Murmur, in this case, was in grave danger, potentially suffering serious injuries or even death.
‘Don’t be ridiculous! If I fall here, who will protect the fairies!?’
Murmur had a duty to protect the fairies of the Sky Garden.
No one had forced him, but it was his dream to see all his kin live happily.
Even in the face of this deadly threat, Murmur kept his eyes wide open and continued to think.
All his efforts were aid at minimizing the damage and finding a way out of this situation.
‘There’s no way...! Damn it...!’
But no matter how much he thought, there was no breakthrough.
Magic had its preparation ti, and that limit couldn’t be surpassed.
Then, ti passed, and just as the monstrous hand was about to crush Murmur’s body—
Suddenly, his floating body was yanked sowhere, as if pulled by an invisible force.
It was a miraculous phenonon that was beyond magic or reason.
“Ugh...!”
Murmur, caught off guard by this unexpected pull, found his face buried in sothing warm and soft.
He was so startled that he bit his own tongue, though it didn't hurt.
When he regained his senses, he found himself being hugged by Yuria, which was incredibly embarrassing.
Then, just as Murmur unleashed a bolt of magic, striking the earth and tearing through whatever had been hiding underneath...
“What...!”
The creature hiding below the ground was a giant—perhaps a zombie giant, if it had a na.
However, thanks to Murmur's powerful magic, its body was torn to pieces, and it crumbled into dust.
It had been a monster that would have been difficult for most candidates to handle, but in the end, it turned to dust in a mont.
"What... what...?"
"...?"
Murmur, having eliminated the zombie giant, was too distracted by his feelings of embarrassnt to care about the monster.
For the first ti, he felt a deep, unmistakable sensation... and his normally calm deanor flew out the window.
Blushing, he quickly closed his eyes and shouted in embarrassnt.
“Don’t you dare bring sothing so disgusting near my face!”
"...?!"
Disgusting? What did I do?
Yuria widened her eyes in confusion.
It was a shocking statent that completely shattered the serious atmosphere.
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