"Just as we were about to start our operation, I rembered that there was still no sight of that little thing that had co down with us.
Dingdang, that idiot, she could really find a way to ss up at any ti, in any place, for any reason. After her historic eting with Chiruno, the two dim-wits hit it off and ran off playing, and no amount of calling could stop them: I can’t even begin to imagine what those two are up to now.
But by a stroke of luck, just as I was proposing that we go look for Dingdang, a rumbling boom from afar drifted into everyone’s ears.
"It seems to be thundering, right?"
After a series of rumbling noises stopped, Sandora explained with so uncertainty.
"If I’m not mistaken, I also felt Dingdang’s divine power erupt," I stood up and pointed westward, "uh, who wants to co with to check it out?"
In the end, including Moriya, a whole bunch of people who were present ca along: everyone was very curious, what on earth could those two fools be doing? It must be an utterly joyful sight.
Of course, Ling ng wasn’t too keen on joining in the trouble, but with the action-oriented Moriya on the scene, the Red and White’s wish to sip tea until the end of ti was bound to go unfulfilled, uh, might not make any difference anyway: You just can’t overlook the Red and White Witch who can leisurely brew and drink tea while being dragged down the mountain at the speed of sound, even as her body hovers horizontally in the air!
"Boom... Crack... Aaahhhh!!"
When a crowd of exceptional speed descended nearly at the speed of sound from Demon Mountain, following the sound and divine power sensing of Dingdang to rush to a dense forest, our ears were once again filled with such thunderous noises, and this ti it was clear, indeed mixed with the earth-shaking call of a little girl. If I rembered correctly, that was Chiruno’s voice.
"What the hell are they doing...?" Moriya hollered with her hands covering her ears, but before she could finish, a bolt of lightning from the sky crashed down not more than a dozen ters away from the crowd with a resounding boom. After the deafening noise, Moriya turned pale as she gazed at the pit several ters deep just a stone’s throw away.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! This is just too ridiculous!!" The golden-haired little witch pointed at the large hole that the heavenly lightning had struck, huffing and puffing loudly. anwhile, the rumbling and cracking noises in the small woods picked up again, and this ti it was confird: those were the sounds of thunder and lightning.
Sensing that sothing was odd, I didn’t say another word and pulled Sandora into the woods. Although there were many towering ancient trees blocking the path, they were not really an obstacle for everyone, and soon, a large clearing in the woods abruptly appeared before us.
"I don’t rember there being a clearing inside this forest, plus when we were coming down from the sky just now, I didn’t see any clearing inside the woods, DAZE!" Moriya, the last one to crawl out of the bushes, muttered in confusion. But before she could finish muttering, another round of booming thunder and lightning interrupted her words, and then the Black and White Witch began staring blankly with us at the scene in front of us, as if it were a battlefield.
In the midst of the thunder that seed to be firing on all cylinders, I couldn’t help but cover my ears and watched the astonishing sight in the open field: Countless bolts of lightning, like a torrential downpour, ford out of thin air from hundreds of ters above, chaotically sweeping across the scorched earth beneath, the blinding blue-white flashes of electricity creating explosive pits at least half a ter in diater with every crack. The air was perated with the acrid sll of ionization, indicating that the lightning storm had been going on for at least several minutes.
But if my mory wasn’t failing , just a second before, all that was before us was an endless dense forest, and the air was filled with rely the normal damp earthy scent, implying that the clearing, the lightning, the scorched ground, all had abruptly appeared before us after we crossed a certain line.
A place shrouded by a barrier.
Of course, I was not concerned about how this space appeared now, because there was already a blue figure in the midst of the thunder and lightning that had caught everyone’s attention:
Chiruno was right in the center of the lightning storm, yelling and rampaging around haphazardly, dodging the omnipresent electric shocks. The small Ice Fairy was surprisingly nimble, evading the pervasive lightning storm unscathed so far, but her situation seed to be getting worse. The lightning storm around her clearly centered on her, the probability of lightning striking near Chiruno being about twice as high as in the surrounding space. More and more bolts joined the besiegent against the little girl, making it more difficult for Chiruno to dodge.
I didn’t know why Chiruno, who had been playing with Dingdang, ended up being caught in the lightning storm, but before we could take action, that damned fool finally got hit: With a loud cry, the blue Ice Fairy was struck head-on by a bolt of lightning from the sky, and with a crackling sound like fireworks, she turned into a little blackened stump.
As the charred Chiruno fell to the ground and began twitching, the widespread lightning storm also finally ceased. Everyone ran forward in a fluster to check the casualty, and just as Moriya lifted her leg to move, she nearly stumbled and fell.
"Wow! What is this?"
Marisa clumsily got up from the ground and wanted to take revenge on whatever had tripped her, but then she saw sothing incredible.
... A large, crystal-clear lump of ice.
I bent down to pick up the unexpectedly out-of-place ice lump which was quite heavy. Looking at it in the sunlight, it seed like there was sothing frozen inside.
"I think it looks a bit familiar." After observing it for a few seconds, I confidently tapped on the shell of the ice block and said, "Such a big dragonfly could only be Dingdang."
Sandora and I silently stared at the semi-transparent ice lump, inside of which was frozen a palm-sized little elf with green long hair and a dress, dragonfly-like wings, a carefree silly smile, and a "V" hand gesture extended out. The gleeful little thing trapped inside was unmistakably Dingdang.
"Disaster! We must rescue her quickly!" Marisa exclaid in a panic, "That idiot Chiruno has really done it this ti, and this is no frog!"
Even Youyouzi, who had always been quite indifferent, now frowned and glanced at Stupid Nine, who was still smoking on the ground, not far away. The Undead Princess, who had lived for who knows how many years, obviously thought more deeply than the confused youngster Marisa: "That idiot has really caused trouble this ti — sorry, human, but your pet will be fine, it was just an accident."
Alright, so Dingdang was decisively classified as a pet at first impression, huh?
But it was only the uninford ones like the black and white witch and Youyouzi who were panicking; the likes of Ling ng knew the prowess of this little thing and didn’t care at all. She casually waved her hand and took the big ice block from , and then pulled out an alcohol burner from her personal space: "Just a little thawing and it’ll be fine."
Marisa imdiately beca anxious: "Hey! Ling ng! This is no ti for jokes!"
"Crack-crack...crash!" Suddenly, a series of cracking sounds ca from the ice block, interrupting Ling ng’s effort to light the burner and Marisa’s frantic attempts to stop her. The tough ice lump cracked as the little thing inside stretched its arms and a shower of ice fragnts fell to the ground, and in the clueless expression of Marisa, Dingdang successfully broke free from her icy confinent.
Simultaneously, with the release of life divine power, our surroundings miraculously restored to their original state: the scorched clearing in the woods, the towering trees knocked askew, the crackling of the burning trees, and the charred idiot Chiruno were all restored to perfect condition within the suddenly appearing green light barrier. In less than two or three seconds, the woods returned to their lush, normal state.
The little thing joyfully danced in the air, forming a figure eight, sprinkling a laughter like silver bells and a ground full of ice flowers: "Haha! Chiruno! Dingdang is out! Let’s play another round!"
"Another round my foot!" I skillfully reached out and caught the little one darting through the air, thundering out loud, "What the hell are you doing!"
Initially, I thought that the two idiots had fought over who was the strongest and ended up causing a scene of smoke and fire, but after thinking about Dingdang’s usually cheerful personality, I ruled out that guess. Then, seeing the little thing’s current jubilation, it was clear this was not a fight!
"Eh? Ah Jun? How did you guys find this place?"
"With all this commotion over here, it would be hard not to hear it." I replied irritably.
"Sound? The sound got out? Oh, it seems we played too long, the barrier got a bit loose, Dingdang will strengthen it right now..."
"Wait a second! You haven’t explained what exactly you were doing!"
Dingdang imdiately puffed up her small chest, which in proportion actually had so curves: "Playing with Chiruno! Dingdang is so aweso!"
"I’m the strongest!"
Blue Stupid had just been charred to a crisp by heavenly lightning, but now she was back at full health, resurrected right on the spot. Hearing Little Douding’s full-of-ttle declaration, Chiruno imdiately bounced over.
"Alright then, let’s have another go!" Dingdang’s wings were still being held in soone’s hand, but she was already striking a pose with her arms crossed and full of fight, despite her small stature. Her ambitious deanor was utterly adorable.
But soon she realized she was still being held and couldn’t even take off, so she had no choice but to twist around in midair and act cute to : "Ah Jun, Ah Jun, let Dingdang play a bit longer!"
Sandora glanced at , shrugged helplessly.
"Fine, let’s see what these two dummies are up to." I let go of Little Douding, led everyone to take a few steps back to the edge of the clearing, and then I watched Little One hop and bounce onto Chiruno’s hand. The latter wasn’t slow either; with a wave of her hands in the air, a chilling aura visibly enveloped the Goddess who was striking a pose: And there we had it, a freshly frozen Dingdang.
While Dingdang was gradually getting covered in ice, we felt a huge change in the atmosphere around us, as so thick, oppressive energy filled the entire space. A sense of mysterious danger crept in through everybody’s pores, and unnaturally, dark clouds began to form in the clear sky, rife with silent electricity. This natural energy gathered, aiming at the "desecrator" on the ground, and the instant the frozen Dingdang took shape, the first bolt of lightning also abruptly descended.
With a "boom" that shook the world, Chiruno didn’t hesitate to throw away the ice lump in her hands and darted to the open area in the center of the clearing. She continued her leaping and bounding amidst the all-surrounding divine devastation.
"Boom-boom!"
"Waaahhhh—!"
"Crack!"
"Waaahhhhh!!"
"Boom! Boom!"
"WAAAAAAAAGH!!"
In the end, it was still the sa unsurprising scene from before. Under the endlessly intensifying Lightning Storm, the darting Chiruno was struck right on the crown of her head by the heavenly punishnt, failing the ordeal on the spot. With her hair sticking out explosively and utterly blackened, she fell to the ground, twitching, as the surrounding ground once again turned into a scene of a disaster site.
Dingdang cracked out of the ice ball with a snap, flying to and fro in the sky: "Haha, Chiruno, wasn’t Dingdang aweso!"
Everything on the clearing was restored to its original state under Dingdang’s divine power, but we were left unable to recover from the rolling thunder.
"Excuse , all-knowing and almighty Lord God," I massaged my twitching eyebrow as I held the little thing’s wing in front of my face, "What exactly are you playing at? Is it fun?"
"It’s really fun! First, I turn this place into Dingdang’s temporary heaven, then Chiruno freezes Dingdang, the divine devastation appears, and finally we see how long Chiruno can WAAAAAGH!"
Stupid Nine, just revived, also hopped over, her face brimming with excitent: "Yep, yep, it’s the first ti I’ve known such a fun ga, way more fun than freezing frogs!"
Sandora pressed a hand to her forehead: "Er, I get it but weren’t you two supposed to compete to see who’s stronger? How do you compete like this? What criteria do you use to judge who’s stronger?"
Dingdang ticulously counted on her fingers, "Of course it’s whether Dingdang could jump out of the ice puck first, or Chiruno got knocked out by lightning first~~"
I quickly did so ntal calculations and finally confird one thing: The forr ant that Dingdang was very impressive, and the latter ant... Dingdang was still very impressive.
Damn it, who said Dingdang was an idiot? The conclusion is now clear, Dingdang has narrowly defeated Chiruno in terms of intelligence, although when you round up, she’s still a Stupid Nine, but Dingdang is smarter than Chiruno!
...Okay, even I feel bad for Little Douding’s victory.
"Chiruno." Ling ng suddenly addressed the blue elf who was desperately trying to press down a sparky tuft of hair on her head. The latter imdiately shrank her neck in fright, and it was obvious that the stupid Stupid Nine was often bullied by Ling ng: "What, what do you want?"
Red and White sighed, "You’ve kept your spot."
But then again, Dingdang, who willingly let herself be frozen, was really on the sa level as Chiruno, wasn’t she?
"How about it, how about it? Dingdang is very impressive, right?" Little Thing cheerfully sorsaulted in the sky, shedding bits and pieces along the way, forcing to grab her again just to have a mont of peace. Chiruno, anwhile, looked unconvinced. She really didn’t seem to understand that no matter how this ga played out, she would always end up being the unlucky one. Moriya and the others couldn’t even speak now; when I turned my gaze toward them, the girls collectively took a step back, and Moriya blurted out before her brain could catch up, "Stay away! That thing you’re holding is contagious with stupidity!"
"Boom!"
A bolt of Heavenly Punishnt streaked across the sky, and Moriya, her hair puffing up like an explosion, slowly collapsed to the ground.
It was only then that Yukari Yakumo casually coughed, "Ahem, don’t speak ill of her while we’re in this Barrier. Although she doesn’t look very impressive, she is still a Goddess, after all."
"You should’ve ntioned sothing that important earlier." Underneath the surging Recovery Power, Moriya was fully resurrected within a few seconds. She had to forcefully press down her rebellious hair, pausing for a few seconds before exclaiming in shock, "Ah? A Goddess?"
"By size," I held up Dingdang for comparison, "let’s consider her a portable Goddess."
Yukari Yakumo proceeded to introduce Dingdang’s identity, her fierce political veneer completely at odds with her appearance. It was stunning, but trying to convey the concept of a Star Domain God that wasn’t a pain in the neck to Youyouzi and the others wasn’t an easy task. So, this ti the introductions were limited to just a brief exchange of identities. I’m not sure if the others noticed, but I caught Youyouzi deliberately pulling Yao ng away from Little Douding once she learned of Dingdang’s identity. She covered up this intentional move well with a smile and unhurried walk but I couldn’t help giving the Undead Princess a few more glances.
"Since she’s a Life Goddess, it’s probably best to give her so space," Youyouzi said, hiding her mouth and nose behind her fan, although her voice ca directly into my ear, "I don’t know if gods from Otherworld are the sa, but that Heavenly Punishnt just now looked quite painful."
I blinked, my voice resonating directly in Youyouzi’s mind, "Don’t worry, even in Dark City these days, they sell Holy Water specifically for this. To Dingdang, a ghost is also a form of life."
"Really, what a benevolent God," Youyouzi responded with a laugh in our telepathic conversation, barely holding back her urge to laugh outright: Dingdang, Dingdang, can’t you occasionally give the Star Domain Gods a break?
Since we didn’t rush on our way back to Demon Mountain, it was already night by the ti we returned. But for Demon Mountain, which had been stripped of sunlight due to the shadow of Atlantis, day and night were practically the sa. The mountain slopes, with large clearings carved out, shone with the light of spells and campfires, looking like stars twinkling in the night sky, complenting the occasional flashes of energy sparks from beneath the land of Atlantis. Demons chosen to act as "batteries" in the ascension process had all withdrawn from their posts and were now resting and replenishing their Physical Strength by gathering around campfires with their own kind, chatting away.
This scene seed to stir up so mories for Yukari Yakumo. Though she always claid to be seventeen, Sister Zi had witnessed the cozy refuge grow and prosper over ti. Perhaps long ago, such a scene where a Night Parade of Hundred Demons gathered together, ready to fight for a common goal, had occurred before.
While Yukari Yakumo was lost in her thoughts, I suddenly found soone who had taken over the bamboo mat we had used for our afternoon chat.
(I’ve been working overti so much, I can’t even rember what to say anymore... Um, also, if possible, those empire subscribers who joined partway, could you please subscribe to the first Chapter of the VIP sections (just that one Chapter)? I heard getting a certain number of first-ti subscriptions is needed to get a hopage recomndation, shall we give it a try?) (
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