Night fell and we were safe and dry in our lair. Rain was pouring down outside but nothing had dared to use this as their hiding spot.
I had set up torches around the lair as the nights are extremely dark.
“Hey Muqu, I have some more questions.”
“Sure, ask away.”
“About this dimension. Why did you, your sister and the other fairies choose this one? There must be many more right?”
Muqu stopped cleaning feathers and tilted her head. “You truly don’t know? Maybe it’s not normal to know about this dimension. The choice to visit this dimension is easy. It has way more mana than others and is 6 times as large. The problem however is the numbers belonging to this dimension...”
What? What language did she speak just now? It was old Kaledonian but I didn’t understand any of that.
“Wait, let me get my notebook. I... didn't understand what that meant.”
I tied my hair, got out my notebook and got ready. Muqu is an outside observer which might be
“Uhh fairies avoid dimensions with certain numbers and this dimension has 3 of which 2 are unlucky numbers for us but it’s size and mana makes up for it.”
“Numbers? Do you know what they mean?”
“Oh, yes! I assume this is unknown to anyone who never left their dimension! As far as I know there are 12 numbers. 8,9 and 12 are the unlucky ones because they contain mytical creatures that give us a hard time. This one has the number 5, 8 and 9.”
“9... tailed beasts? They appear in other dimensions?”
“Well my kin tends to destroy dimensions so something needs to protect them from us. The dimension with the number 8 has something with legs. I don’t know about the other numbers. It seems that dimensions with the number 12 wipe our kin out like it’s nothing.”
“Wait... I don’t get it.”
Muqu made 12 spheres out of water. “I can only talk about my own experience.”
The 8th and 9th sphere floated above the rest.
“Dimensions with the number 8 have completely different mythical beasts than those with the number 9. Look different, work differently, probably more, basically the mythical beasts are only the same if the number of the dimension is the same.”
I scraped some theories I had written down and adjusted it with this new information.
“So there are no tailed beasts in the dimensions that don’t have the number 9?”
“Correct, 8 has 8 legged beasts, 9 has 9 tailed beasts and dimension with 12 has 12 something beasts. I don’t know what they have but the 12th one of them is our worst enemy but we avoid it by not invading dimensions with the number 12.”
Numbers again. The more I stick around with mythical beasts, the more numbers pop up.
So if I get this right, there are 12 different sets of mythical beasts each belonging to their own dimensions.
“Wait. You said this dimension has 3 numbers? So besides tailed beasts it should have 8 legged beasts and 5, whatever number 5 has?”
“Yes. Why do you seem so surprised? They should be rare but not unknown. Or am I wrong?”
I’m not sure if she’s wrong but only the existence of 9 tailed beasts is known. I never heard about tailed beasts or another group related to the number 5. What is going on with this dimension? Why does it have 3 numbers? Why is it 6 times as big as others?
“Muqu, I don’t understand. I’ve never heard of mythical beasts that belong to the 5 or 8 series and I think most of this dimension is the same.”
Muqu did her thing again and attuned to the dimension. Her eyes widened as the 12 water spheres dropped.
“Oh, you’re right...there is no information on the numbers 5 and 8. I also couldn’t find why this dimension has 3 numbers. I’ve never seen this before nor heard about it.”
All I wanted to do was beat up Cockroach and instead I get many questions about the state of our world and no answers. I get reminded of my ignorance at every step I make.
“Very strange. Well, this is how we fairies see it. It’s not that the numbers are real or anything but we base it off the characteristics of the mythical beat that has the highest something. For 9 its tails, for 8 its legs. I don’t have any perspective other than my own race sorry.”
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Tails are fluffy. But having multiple legs, isn’t that creepy? What if those with the number 12 have up to 12 heads, ewww!
“Wait! That 5 headed thing we fought, was that a mythical beast?”
Muqu shook her head. “That thing was...weak.”
I didn’t necessarily agree but in context she’s right. The 12-year-old mythical beasts I had met in Boshi town could create way more carnage than that silly 5 headed creature.
So Muqu is as confused as I am on why nothing is known about the other mythical groups and why this dimension is so big. It’s unlikely that we might get an answer unfortunately.
“So the mythical beasts protect dimensions from fairies besides the other tasks they do? Hardly sounds fair. I always found that Misha act more important than they really are. I wish we could help out...”
“But aren’t you helping out? The rabbits were grateful to you.”
“I mean their role. They never bring me on missions to do their role because I can’t talk to plants or ‘maintain the jungle’ as they do. I want to help them where it matters.”
“I see. I can’t help you on this matter. I am not qualified and I just came to check on my sister.”
“You were afraid that she would eat spirits or something right?”
Muqu nodded. “I’m borrowing the terms used here but mythical and legendary beings have some sort of role in maintaining the dimension. I couldn’t find any mention about spirits belonging to these but the truth is that this planet will die without them. Not sure if that’s the difference as the dimension might be fine although...”
Muqu looked through the lair entrance toward the night sky.
“Despite being so large, this dimension had only 1 planet rich on mana. Not sure what that’s about. Maybe my kin has wiped out the other planets.”
And there she said something casually which was quite brutal.
Do I ask more questions? The answer will be depressing, won’t it?
I never believed in ‘ignorance is bliss’ but I sure wish now that i never asked all these questions.
“Uhm, ok. Hey Muqu how about we try to sleep for a bit? We had a rough day.”
I chugged more energy drinks and fluffed up the feather bed.
“Oh sorry, I didn’t notice you were this tired. Sure!”
I killed the mana feeding the flames on the torches and darkness fell over the lair.
This is not ok. I already knew this dimension was screwed and the more I learn about it the worse it seems.
The rabbits were quite casual about it, suggesting it might not be as bad. Then the fairies invaded and it became worse but they still had some casual tone about it.
It doesn’t feel as if we have several centuries or millennia left now. The fairies are still here executing their nefarious fairy plans.
Spirits are like ghosts. Only a spirit or spirit mage can interact with them. I’ve heard that elves could too but that’s about it. The spirits could disappear and nobody would ever notice...
Should I assume they’re eating a spirit when it looks like they’re eating air? I’ve only seen that happen on rare occasions...
I toiled around in my feather bed and calmed down.
Either way the legendary and mythical beings do a great job at concealing the fact that we’re doomed. They don’t complain or ask for help. They do their job or die trying.
The problem is that after all died trying, the rest will get screwed over. Would it be fair to request them to be more vocal and ask for help?
But what could we do? I can’t help the rabbits in their role and I’m a Misha, the most magically competent race besides the legendary and mythical.
If the Misha can’t help the other races stand no chance... and what about the gods? What’s their role in this? The only thing I know about them is that they’re assholes. They even kill off the legendary and mythical off for fun. They’re exacerbating the problem instead of helping out...
Hours crawled by and my mind couldn’t rest. Impending doom was on my mind but the unfairness of the situation was what bugged me the most.
It’s a failing system. Nature tends to correct itself so I wondered; is this natural? Are gods the disturbing factor? Would the system self correct if the gods were gone? What about the fairies?
There is a system to fight the fairies but they’re getting overwhelmed as they have a thousand tasks.
What is the choke point? What is the problem that contributes the most to this downward spiral? Or are there multiple?
I couldn’t work it out. Not enough information. And what could I do even if I knew? I can’t magically wipe out all the fairies or gods. Or magically increase the population of the mythical or legendary. Or magically fix all the other issues I’m probably unaware of.
Maybe I shouldn’t have stuck my head where it didn’t belong. I don’t have the information nor does my race have the ability to do anything about it. It’s regrettable but i will focus on the problems in front of me and those I can solve.
Which brings me to the revival of Cockroach and these stupid fairies.
[Search: Imposter] activated and it indicated that I had time. Some BS clones got picked up in the vicinity but their numbers were steadily decreasing throughout the night.
I kept track of them; 5 had disappeared in the 3 hours I monitored the area with [Search: Imposter]. They must have been defeated by fairies or Tlaca’s. Maybe even by other rabbits.
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The light of dawn drew my attention. Had I been up for this long? It doesn’t matter as I had used Benji’s map as a reference, copied it to my notebook and marked the approximate locations of the BS clones. They were disappearing at a steady rate and I might have to give the fairies credit for that but there were still more than enough to become a nuisance.
It had been a shocking revelation on how many there were still left. Most were gathered around the nearest spire.
I got up and peeked out of the lair.
There, in the distance stood a blurry indigo spire. If I had to color code elements, that would be the color I would assign to spatiotemporal magic.
I couldn’t see it very well from here but something akin to small distortions popped up regularly nearby.
Whatever that spire holds, would be worse than the flaming spire Benji, Mishelly, Muqu and I escaped from and I don’t want anything to do with it. I will wipe out the BS clones in the area and leave those near that spire for last.
Months passed and Muqu and I spent them wiping out fairies and hunting down BS clones. She put her search for her sister on hold to help me out. We both have the goal to return to Kaledon one day so we might as well work together.
The idea of having to be near the spatiotemporal spire in the near future weighed heavy on our minds, however.