AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Ten minutes later, she finally saw the tower. But, sadly, only destruction waited around it. The torn-up tents confirmed the Council's suspicions. However, instead of approaching, Sania took a moment to do the standard checkings. The scanning didn’t find any targets, which made her relieved and concerned at the same time.

She wasn’t the warmest person in AK, but that didn’t mean she wanted her comrades to die. Even with the locator’s result, Sania approached the camp carefully, paying attention to everything in her surroundings. She hesitated for a moment after seeing five bodies scattered through the area. Their clothes proved they were AK soldiers, but she avoided trying to identify them for the time being.

The lack of enemy bodies painted a one-sided battle, but the number of fallen opened a possibility of survival. Sania searched through the camp one more time but didn’t find any clues aside from the communicator in the hands of a dead soldier. But then, a strange glow under the tower caught her attention. The small hill looked normal, but one of its bumps had a slight shine under the strangely loosened earth.

As soon she understood what it was, she dashed towards it and started to dig around. Soon, a familiar blue barrier entered her vision. It didn’t take long for her to clear a hole and reveal the scared faces behind the bubble barrier. Once they realized who was digging the bunker’s entrance, everyone started to breathe again. Some even cheered. When the entry looked safe enough, the trapped team finally decided to dispel the barrier.

The ground close to the entrance collapsed, but nobody got hurt. After confirming it was safe, the people inside worked out the courage and left the bunker. Unfortunately, Tael wasn’t among them. Sania waited for everyone to exit the hideout before asking what happened.

The soldiers explained that after they sent the message to CC, Tael sent an order to wake up everybody. They tried to get away from theM, but more flies started to appear from all sides. At this point, their leader ordered them to move into the unfinished hideout and erect a barrier. Unfortunately, Tael and other ten soldiers got surrounded by the flies. The others wanted to help them, but the archer gave the command to keep the barrier up and wait.

The ten soldiers quickly formed a circular formation around their leader and started to attack the flies. Once they hit a target, it would just glow brighter before disappearing, but there were too many. So, Tael decided to use the explosive arrows, but everything around them started to get dizzy. Even so, the archers managed to shot a few explosive arrows in random directions.

Meanwhile, the soldiers and workers inside the barrier attentively followed the struggle but didn’t dare to go against Tael’s orders. They saw the soldiers start to behave strangely, bouncing against their friends, and some even fell to friendly fire. The scene was highly traumatizing.

The pain and confusion were evident in their expressions. Many couldn’t stop crying while recounting the events. Seeing their comrades shooting each other while they hid inside the barrier was a painful experience, even for them, who were used to suffering under the Kingdom’s oppression.

In the end, the remaining stumbling soldiers fainted a few minutes before a strange shining being appeared. The survivors described the beings as small, delicate, and beautiful humanoids. According to the soldiers that dared to look at the other party, they counted at least a dozen figures.

When the Fairies noticed the barrier, they tried to breach it. The one who seemed to be the leader glowed brighter before launching an attack against the bubble. Fortunately, the redder ray of light wasn’t powerful enough to destroy the barrier. Even so, they continued to try breaking it until the morning, when they finally gave up.

Although they didn’t breach the bubble, the Fairies managed to bury the entrance, which prevented the survivors from leaving the place until Sania arrived. The good news was that Fairies took the rest of the soldiers instead of killing them. Of course, they could already be dead, but they would assume otherwise until they had proof. She took a minute to process the report but soon decided on a plan of action.

Unfortunately, Sania was too tired to pursue such a dangerous enemy. So, she decided to take a two-hour nap while the soldiers cleaned the place and contacted AP. Instead of forcing her tired brain to come up with a complex plan, she would leave it to the Minister while taking the needed rest.

She also directed the soldiers to use the tower’s arrays and the HQ energy crystal to locate the enemy. Although they had portable locators, the ones installed in the building could reach further. Actually, the only reason why the tower didn’t constantly operate like AP’s surveillance system was the lack of MQ wind crystals and operators to process the results.

Since they knew about the Fairies, besides looking for their comrades, they would also scan for traces of light crystals. After all, they had to track all possible enemies and threats before taking action.

The two hours passed faster than she planned but were enough to get her into the game again. Sania also took a vitality potion, which helped her recover the swollen joints and ease the headache. The sleepiness slowly left her as the soldier reported the situation. Fortunately, the Fairies only moved 15 kilometers east, and command had a plan ready for her.

After eating something, she gathered a team of ten soldiers and hastily left towards the enemy. The plan was to reach them before night and quickly launch a surprise attack to recover the captives. Although the enemy had a dozen of light users who could use illusions against them, they probably only had one member strong enough to use advanced light attacks. So, as long as they could neutralize the enemy’s leader and block the illusions, they would be fine.

Even though they didn’t have any specialized tools to block the illusions, Karl told them that Fairies could only use them actively if they got surrounded by the fireflies. Otherwise, they would only use the light energy passively to hide.

Soon, night came, and the rescue team finally got close enough to their targets.