Thea and Asuren found two fairies at the depths of Barren Forest. One of the two was slowly turning into a flesh eater while devouring the other that was already dead.
"Starving…" the cursed fairy whispered while eating. "Still… starving…" she lifted her head and sniffed in the air. "Need… more food…"
The cursed fairy stopped chewing and glanced at Thea and Asuren. "Food…" Her eyes changed from blue to red and glared more hungrily at them.
"MORE FOOD!!!" She abandoned the bloody corpse, bolted upright, and dashed towards Thea and Asuren, "GIVE ME MORE FOOD!!!" As she bellowed those words, her form had completely turned into a flesh eater.
Thea quickly trapped the cursed fairy with powerful wind gusts while Asuren sliced at her throat with wind blades.
As the cursed fairy dropped dead on the ground, the boar seal emerged from the shadows and said, "Poor fairies, aren't they? I can't believe that this place is more pitiful than Nightfall Realm."
"Why did you curse them?" Thea clenched her fist.
"They are greedy," the boar seal simply answered. "I gave them food and what did they do? They ate more than their stomach could take. They devoured their friends."
"You gave them food?" Thea was confused.
"Who do you think can make this forest thrive again?" the boar seal spread his arms and wickedly smiled. In his right palm was a glowing mark of a boar head. "This realm needs more food. I will revive every withered vegetation. If you want to stop me, defeat my warriors," he flicked his fingers before vanishing into the shadows.
Thea and Asuren spread their wings to follow the boar seal but two fairies had emerged from the shadows of the trees and blocked their way.
Both were tall and plump. They were wearing dark pink overcoat and wielding an axe with dark pink blade. Their attacks were slow yet powerful. Whenever their axe hit the ground, the earth would tremble.
Asuren moved incredibly fast and his slashes never missed. Big targets were easy to hit but they also had an exceedingly thick skin.
Thea did her best to assist Asuren yet her blades had only grazed their opponents. She stopped attacking and focused on trapping both enemies with her wind gusts but their enormous foe were too strong to be constrained. They had easily shattered the wind gusts and smashed the ground with their axe. Everything around Thea had trembled but it was the shockwave that had hurled her a few feet away.
Asuren quickly caught her and prevented her from hitting the trees.
"Can you trap them for a bit longer?" Asuren whispered.
"I'll try," Thea was ashamed. If only she had cultivated instead of sleeping for one hundred years, she would have been more reliable.
"A few seconds will be enough," Asuren was not taking his deadly gaze away from their opponents.
"Okay," Thea composed herself. "Let's do it."
She summoned bigger wind gusts and trapped the enormous fairies. They struggled harder than the first time they were constrained. Thea released more power to keep the wind gusts intact around their opponents.
Asuren raised his daggers and knelt on the ground. His dark green eyes glowed brighter. His majestic wings had spread and was covered with emerald green glow. He flapped his wings and soared fast towards the face of one of their opponents. His blades emitted a darker green glow and his eyes glinted with coldness as he turned into a whirlwind and slashed continuously at the thick neck of the fairy.
He successfully vanquished one. As it faded into sparkling red dusts, Thea focused on their remaining opponent and told Asuren, "We need this one alive and question him about the boar seal."
"He will not talk," Asuren zoomed closer to their last foe and performed a few whirlwind slashes that incapacitated its arms and legs. It collapsed on the ground, unable to move.
Thea did not loosen her grip against their weakened opponent. She floated above him and tried to negotiate, "If you answer all our questions, my friend will patch you up. You will be as good as new."
"Just kill me…" the bleeding fairy closed his eyes.
"Why are you willing to die for someone who had cursed you?" Thea was confused and angry. "Do you want to turn into a flesh eater?"
"Master did not curse us. He will never turn us into those hideous monsters," the fairy replied with confidence. "The ones that became monsters deserved that fate. You heard Master. They were greedy."
"Your master took advantage of their weakness. This forest is dying. They were hungry and your master cursed them with these cursed vegetations!" Thea tightened the wind gusts around their frustrating enemy.
He bled more but still refused to tell them anything.
"He will not give you a proper answer," Asuren performed a powerful whirlwind slash that ended the life of their already dying enemy.
"Greyleaf…" Thea was terrified. "He also ate fruits from this cursed forest."
They hurried back to the village and witnessed another chaotic situation. A flesh eater was wreaking havoc in the area, devouring fairies along its way. Though moving slowly, its hands could stretch and reach fairies a few meters away from its enormous body.
Sel and Calix were already there, assisting as many fairies as they could outside the village.
Thea immediately called Riz and Gia, but received no reply.
Asuren summoned wind blades but before he could get close to the flesh eater, ice chains had wrapped around his weapons.
"We need to evacuate as many fairies as we can," Sel blocked Asuren. Her eyes were filled with fear and desperation. "Please… help us…"
Thea could only conclude one thing from the face of her friend. "That flesh eater…" she lowered her wind blades. "Is he… Greyleaf?"
"How…" Sel was shocked and then she nodded and cried, "This is my fault. We cannot kill him, Thea. Gia told me she would be here soon. She is looking for ways to undo this curse. She could save Greyleaf. Please… Thea… let's wait for Gia…"
"We will not kill him," Thea agreed. She also wanted to save Greyleaf. "But we need to stop him from advancing."
"I will protect Thea," Asuren summoned wind blades but did not attack the cursed fairy.
"Calix and I will help after we evacuate the rest of the villagers," Sel seemed a bit relieved and carried as many fairies as she could out of the village.
Thea quickly trapped Greyleaf with her wind gusts. Asuren stood quietly behind Thea. He was closely observing the cursed fairy.
"Is this normal?" Thea asked Asuren. "A few hours ago, he was just a small fairy. Now he is bigger than the previous flesh eaters we encountered. His arms are twice as long as his entire body. I can only contain half of its length."
Greyleaf moved his arms to catch Thea but Asuren blocked them with his wind blades.
"Don't worry about his arms. Focus on restraining his body," Asuren summoned blunt wind blades to avoid harming the cursed fairy while making sure that Thea remained unharmed.
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