'Time remaining 10:03'

Asher slowly opened his eyes and his face instantly tightened as he was suddenly on land. Honestly, he didn't remember everything clearly at all because everything happened so quickly and briefly.

"Ugh, shit. Where are we now?"

"I have no idea where this is either, Chronos but at least we're safe from those horrible worms." Asher walked over to Persea who was still lying on the ground. "Persea, hey wake up."

"Uh, uh what, what exactly happened?" A curious look appeared on Persea's face. "Wait, what about our ship?"

"A large rock destroyed it." Chronos let out a long breath. "Now we have no chance of helping the fairy elders at all. We're finished. Thank you for your carelessness, Persea."

"Uh, I have to admit it was my fault. I ignored that boulder at all before. Maybe if I had paid attention, our ship wouldn't have been destroyed like it is now." Persea lowered her head with a limp. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry. I can't help at all."

"Never mind Chronos, don't keep cornering Persea, it won't change our situation. Now the most important thing is to find a way to get to Malana's village as soon as possible. We still have hope of saving the fairy elders."

"Uh, actually we've already entered Malana's forest territory. Our destination is close to here. C'mon, follow me."

"Wait, you're not joking right?" Chronos raised his eyebrows. "This is no time to joke, persea."

"No, it's not. I'm serious. Come with me."

During the walk through the Malana forest, Persea said that Malana fairies were quite unique because they did not like to interact with other fairies. They also had no settled place to live and were often nomads, so their whereabouts were also difficult to find. They were also less numerous than the Altaria fairies because most of them chose to live in other villages.

"And what's unique is that they never show their faces directly to strangers. They will reveal their faces if they already trust the person."

"Hmm, sounds quite strange. But how can they know if someone is good or not? It could be that someone is just pretending to be nice to gain the sympathy of the fairy Malana, right?" Chronos stroked his chin. "Nowadays, there are so many people who pretend to be good in front of others, but they're really bad people."

"I don't know, but they must have their methods to know it because they're not dumb fairies." Persea suddenly stopped. "Alright, we're here now."

"Persea, are you kidding? There's absolutely nothing here but a bunch of tall trees. "Chronos slowly whispered into Asher's ear. "Ash, it's probably Persea because a hard impact hit her head. We have to leave Persea. Her brain is already in error."

"Chronos, but we can't just leave Persea, it's possible that-"

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"Hey, hey I can hear what you're saying very clearly." Persea folded her arms followed by a furrowed brow. "You really can't see it because the village is above your head."

"Huh? Wait, what the ...."

Asher's mouth instantly opened slightly as he followed Persea's directions. He had not expected what Persea said to be true at all. It turned out that there was indeed a village above their heads and there was a collection of blue lights that kept twinkling like stars in the sky.

"Wait, wait how do you know about this, Persea?" Chronos furrowed his brow.

"My gut instinct tells me so." Persea smiled. "Never mind, it's not the time to discuss that, now I'm going to take you guys upstairs with my teleportation ability. Hurry up, all of you come closer to me."

"Oh shit, no, no. I don't want to feel the sensation of nausea and dizziness a second time." Chronos shook his head. "I've had enough of that. There's gotta be some other way to get to the top, right Ash? I know you must have other ideas."

"Sorry Chronos, unfortunately not." Asher patted Chronos on the shoulder repeatedly. "Come on, now we have to gather near Persea."

"Ash, but...but... Argh, alright."

'06:44 remaining'

The moment they opened the entrance to Malana village there was absolutely nothing at all, thus they decided to walk around Malana village, hoping that maybe they could find a fairy in this village, but strangely there was no one there and it felt like walking in a ghost town.

"Oh, no. Fairy elder hang on!"Persea immediately placed the fairy elder's increasingly blue body on the floor. "It's bad, it's bad. The effects of the curse are already getting worse. What to do? I don't know what to do at all." Persea's tears continued to flow endlessly. "I... I don't want to lose anyone else."

"Argh shit! Shit! We've reached Malana's village, but why is it like this?" Chronos grumbled. "Why is it like- Hey Ash, are you okay? Why is your face so pale?”

"I...I don't know, my head suddenly felt dizzy. I think this might be the effect of Persea's teleportation. "Asher smiled. "Calm down, I'll be fine in a while."

Not long after, a mysterious voice broke the silence. Asher immediately got goosebumps when he realized that the sound didn't sound like the sound of a wild animal or anything like that, but more like the sound of someone whistling, and strangely the whistling was getting more and more.

"Argh, fuck! Where is the source of that sound?"

"I have no idea either, Chronos, but we should be wary that it could be -"

"Oh my, Asher!"

Suddenly Asher's body fell to the ground by itself and within seconds he was stiff as a statue. He tried with all his might to move his body, but his body did not respond at all.

They quickly helped Asher, but the moment they took a step, all of a sudden a black net shot out of nowhere and caught the two of them, making them stuck in the net. Just a few seconds later, several mysterious creatures appeared and hit them both, knocking them unconscious.

"Damn it! What are you doing!" Asher growled. "What the ...." Asher's vision grew blurry and everything instantly went dark.

***

'You have completed the quest: Rescue for the Altaria's chief.'

'Gained 2500 Exp.

'You have obtained 600 gold coins, 2x elixir, 4x potions'

"Ugh, what...what exactly happened?" Asher opened his eyes and looked to the side. "Oh my, Chronos. Get up."

Asher tried to help Chronos, but his hands were bound with a chain. He then tried to touch Chronos' body with his feet, but the distance was not close enough to reach Chronos' body. Damn, it seemed that the figure who captured them had calculated everything to make it impossible for them to escape.

"I have to get out of here, there must be -"

Suddenly, the door in the room opened, revealing two creatures like Persea coming inside. However, Asher couldn't see their faces clearly because they were both wearing masks that looked like bird beaks.

"Hey, what are these silly prisoners doing, trying to escape?" said one of the fat fairies. "You must be the gang from the darkness who are trying to harm Queen Rufina, right?" said one of the fat fairies.

"Fools, there's no point in doing that." The skinny fairy burst out laughing. "The Queen has calculated everything, there's no way she could be wrong."

"Huh, Prisoner?"