Spellheart 10: Chapter 25 (Patreon)

Once confident that our enemies were digging in for the long haul, I stepped back from the walls to do the same.

The first order of business was to capitalize on our gains, and that didn’t just mean dealing with the new prisoners. Lots of people had major breakthroughs during the battle, and many others were on the verge of doing the same.

If ever there was a time to open up my coffers to my people, it was now. Mac had been keeping careful watch over the entire battle and had been assigning merit points accordingly. Now, those who’d fought long and hard could receive their just rewards.

New weapons, skill books, and cultivation supplies were being distributed by the wagon full. We even had a bit of a celebration in front of Castle Mac. With so many of the city’s residents in spatially compressed bunkers, the place felt a little like a ghost town. If things remained quiet, we’d have to start letting the lower-ranked cultivators out to run their shops and businesses again.

After that, I built a task force to collect wisps led by Nela. We couldn’t leave the city, but we found that the big tree I stole and planted in the center of the Hearthwood was something of a lure for them. Wisps flew toward it by the thousands.

“We can collect the wisps that fly within the city’s walls, but there are a lot more outside of it.” Nela shook her head. “I don’t dare send anyone outside the city to retrieve them. It’s a shame they’ll be left to wander. Odds are the Cult of the Unblinking Eye will recapture them, and they’ll be brainwashed again as soon as they manifest.”

I ran my fingers along my chin in thought. “Just leave those to me. I think I have the beginnings of an idea to deal with that. After all, we have a lot of fairy guests left over from my Sacred Grove experiments. It’s about time we put them to use again.”

Nela shrugged. “I shall leave it in your capable hands, then. I’ve noticed most of them are hanging around that enormous tree you brought back. A curious item, by the way. Like other landmarks you obtained during your conquests, this one seems to make cultivation a bit easier when near it, depending on the element of the landmark. I suspect the fairies are the same, so they are gathering there.”

“But the big tree is their favorite, huh? I’ll check things out there...”

Nela and I parted ways, and I recruited some additional help and supplies before putting my plan into action at the base of the big tree.

“Hey, fairies! Free cookies for anyone who brings me some of those glowing balls! And a whole cake for anyone who brings me some of the big super glowy ones.” I held up a tray of baked goods.

The cookies I had some of the maids from the Whitewood Clan whip up and the cake I’d found in an oven in the city. I’d pulled it out just in time to keep it from getting burned. The baker was probably in one of the bunkers somewhere and had abandoned her shop. I left a zeal crystal on the counter as payment before raiding the shop of confectionery supplies.

One thing I’d learned, thanks to my work with Sacred Groves, was that fairies loved sweets. It was a ploy involving a sweet that had even gotten the Immortal Ascendant-level Fairy of the Immortal Glade captured by the Satyr King, after all. So, something similar would surely lure these fairies to my side.

My prize attracted their attention and interest. Up in the branches and between waving leaves, I could see fairies turning to look and watch me. They had the cute faces of young women, each shaped much like an elf. I would have found them cute if not for the fact that they each had the attention span and memory of a goldfish.

Just because they weren’t too smart didn’t mean we couldn’t still be friends, though. I’d caught more than one citizen sneaking these fairies a cookie or two. And after I blew up their planet, these fairies were probably an endangered species. It was only right to give them a place to stay here.

It took a while for the wind to blow the scent of freshly baked cookies around the area, but eventually, it picked up, and a few of the fairies took off. I had to hold up a wisp to show them what it was a few times, and gradually, more and more zipped off. Eventually, the first of them returned when I was still walking around with the cookie tray.

“Balls, balls! I found two balls. Give cookie!” a fairy said, zipping out from between my legs. I jumped back in startled surprise, but she held two glowing wisps under either arm.

“Oh, yeah, those count.” I took two cookies from the tray and exchanged them for the wisps, which I tucked into my Dimensional Storage.

“Yay! Cookies! Thank you, handsome man.”

I laughed. “No, thank you. And there’ll be more cookies for anybody else who brings me magic glowing balls!”

“Cookies! Cookies! Must get cookies!” the fairy yelled as she hurtled off her tree branch and over the distant walls.

The wisps were good, though a bit small. They must have been True Mages weakened significantly sometime during the fight. Though they were the same aspect, the energy patterns felt almost identical. Perhaps a true mage had been split in half, and each half became its own wisp?

Perhaps the wisp would turn into twins. Such an injury would make purging Ethan and Louis’ mind control easier. I’d make a note to keep an eye on those two. If chopping wisps in half was an option, maybe it was one we should be thinking about.

More wisps came in, and more cookies went out. I even handed out the cake in exchange for a Sorcerer-level wisp.

I sent a few messages through Mac for more baked goods and more help handing out rewards and collecting wisps. As I gave out more rewards, word of my bargain spread from fairy to fairy. While the big tree housed most of them, many of the other fairies had taken to hanging around the other trees and landmarks of the city.

Fairy magic was a strange thing, and it looked like their presence had twisted the shape and structure of the ley lines running beneath the city. Before long, this place might become a Sacred Grove again, much like the one I’d made that had been destroyed. I would do something more with that if I had the opportunity. It might be a decent surprise to hit Louis and Ethan with if I could figure out a way to push a Sacred Grove to the Demigod level.

Eventually, my reinforcements came from Comela and several of my other children.

“You’re just in time. I’m almost out of cookies.” I handed an empty tray to Comela.

Comela looked at the empty tray of cookies. She was still wearing her armor from the battle. “I was told this was an important mission that concerned the future of the entire clan. We’re... handing out cookies?”

I ran a hand through her hair affectionately. “Sometimes the things the clan needs are hard. Sometimes, they’re easy. But they’re always important.”

“Yes, Father!” she threw me a salute and then started running to replenish the cookie supply.

I helped her and her siblings get the hang of things and was about to attend to other matters when I sensed a powerful Immortal Ascendant power hurtling toward us at high speed.

“Take cover!” I yelled.

How had an Immortal Ascendant snuck into the city? They were supposed to be under constant surveillance from the walls and by Mac. He was running scans for them every couple of seconds.

I glanced left and right. We kept Level Reducing Sentry Towers hidden here for this sort of thing. If I could lure her toward one, then I would have a chance.

The burst of powerful presence came to a sudden stop before me.

“Give cookie!” the Immortal Ascendant demanded. As the dust cleared, I realized why she’d gotten by our defenses. This wasn’t one of the Cult of the Unblinking Eye’s Immortal Ascendants at all. This was the Fairy of the Immortal Glade. The one I thought I’d left behind on a destroyed manor drifting in space with the explicit hope of avoiding future problems having such a powerful and scatterbrained entity would bring.

Naturally, when faced with the unbridled power of an Immortal Ascendant, all I could do was hand over the object of her desires. No matter how cute the hip-tall pouting fairy before me might be, she could probably cause even more destruction than the Immortal Ascendants outside. Being a natural Immortal Ascendant, she was probably stronger than either of them.

How had she even gotten here? And how had she caught a wisp? The Satyr King had clipped her wings, and even now, she only had a pair of tiny stubs coming out of her back. She didn’t look like she could fly. Then again, anybody who reached Immortal Ascension was bound to have lots of tricks. Even when that person was a scatterbrained fairy.

I counted myself lucky that she’d only grabbed a cookie rather than something valuable. And looking at her hand, she was holding out a large glowing wisp. That was a Sorcerer-level wisp.

“Here’s your reward.” I handed her a cookie, and she immediately let go of the Sorcerer-level wisp. It tried to fly away, but I snatched it before it could escape.

“Yum!” the Fairy of the Immortal Grove said. A moment ago, she’d been holding a cookie, but now all that was left of it was a chocolate smear across her face. The treat probably didn’t go as far for her as it did for the rest of her kin. Most fairies ranged from finger-length to arm-length, but this one was nearly as tall enough to be a short elf.

“You know, the reward for a Sorcerer-level wisp was actually a whole cake.” I waved her justly earned prize in front of her. Though she seemed satisfied with the cookie, I thought it best not to cheat an Immortal Ascendant.

“Cake!” the Fairy of the Immortal Grove dove for the cake. I let her gobble the whole thing. That one at least lasted multiple bites.

“Seems like you enjoyed it. I’ll have to tell the baker it went over well.” I smiled down at the Fairy of the Immortal Grove. She wouldn’t have seemed scary if not for the sheer quantity of power she was emanating.

“Yep!” she replied.

“Mind telling me how you found your way to the Hearthwood?” I asked curiously.

“Was looking for my tree. Here it is. Had to jump a lot to get to it,” the Fairy of the Immortal Glade mumbled around a mouthful of cake. It was the most words I’d gotten out of her.

I fan my fingers through my hair. Jump a lot? She couldn’t mean literally jumping.

“Do you mean you moved through ley lines?” I asked.

The big fairy nodded as she polished off the cake, then patted her bulging belly in satisfaction.

“Fascinating.” That meant she had an ability similar to Unearthly Movement, only her’s was far more powerful than the ability I’d come up with. It probably involved some sort of bizarre fairy concept that had helped her reach Immortal Ascension.

“Say... are you still hungry?” I asked curiously.

“In a bit,” she replied.

“Good. Good...” I rubbed my hands together. “You saw those people outside my walls? Well, they’re friends of the Satyr King. The man who put you in that jar. The one I rescued you from, remember?”

“Bad goat man.” She nodded emphatically.

“Right. The bad goat man. These guys are his friends, and they’re very mad at me for dealing with the bad goat man. Among other things. If they caught you, they’d probably want to put you in a jar too.”

I watched her eyes widen in terror. “No more snacks!”

“Absolutely right. They would keep you from getting any snacks. Not like me. I have lots of snacks for you, like the one I just gave you.”

She perked up. “More? Really?”

“Yes, but the bad men outside are causing a lot of trouble for me. I could use your help and that of your people to get them to leave. You see, each guy out there has a bunch of items that make them very hard to kill. If you bring them to me, I’ll give you lots more cookies.”

“Good cookies?” she asked suspiciously.

“Absolutely. The best cookies we can make.”

“Be right back!” said the Fairy of the Immortal Grove.

I felt a smile slowly spreading across my face. Ethan and Louis were about to have a very bad day.