Just as Totorot and the Black Knight widened their eyes, bracing themselves for imminent death, an unexpected event occurred.
"Whoosh!"
A sound none of the fairies present had ever heard before echoed across the forest battlefield. The body of the fairy about to deliver a lethal backstab suddenly shuddered and fell straight to the ground—his head had vanished, and blood streamed steadily from the wound at his neck, soaking the earth.
"How do you like it, Mr. Fairy? This is a Ruger SP101 revolver, custom-enchanted with Micro-Meteor spell," a young woman's voice suddenly called out from another direction on the battlefield. In her hand was a silver revolver with a short barrel and a wooden grip, its body densely engraved with unknown characters—a weapon clearly customized in secret.
Aoko paused mischievously, ignoring the stunned looks from the other fairies, and strode over to the corpse of the Fang Clan fairy, giving it a couple of kicks.
"Not much user feedback, so it seems this fairy rather liked it," Aoko said with contempt. "Well then, I suppose it's your turn next…"
"Are you alright?!" Totorot immediately rushed over, checking Toneriko from head to toe. Only after making sure she was unharmed did she breathe a sigh of relief. But upon seeing Aoko's wild red hair and the strange revolver in her hand, wariness returned—they couldn't tell if this newcomer was friend or foe.
"I'm fine, Totorot," Tonriko said, patting Totorot on the shoulder. "This lady… she shouldn't be our enemy, right?"
Aoko ignored them, instead turning her sharp gaze to the remaining dozen or so fairies. Her eyes swept over each of their faces, sending a chill down their spines—they had no idea who this sudden intruder was or how she had killed that Fang Clan fairy so easily.
"Ara, ara, since this is the first time I'm showing off this little creation today, I was hoping everyone could properly appreciate it," Aoko said with mock sincerity, spreading her hands and shaking her head. "So please, everyone be my guest and experience firsthand what it's like to be hit by it…"
Without any warning, she suddenly raised her revolver. With another "whoosh," the upper body of an Earth Clan fairy was instantly blasted apart and vanished, blood splattering onto a few nearby Wind fairies, making them scream in terror.
"No screaming!" Aoko's voice, now laced with powerful magic, swept over all the fairies involved in the pursuit like a raging storm.
The immense pressure weighed down on their bodies and souls, making it impossible for them to utter a sound or even attempt to flee.
The Black Knight, seizing this chance, ran back to his companion's side. Although this frightening magical force wasn't aimed at them, the newcomer's allegiance was unknown—which meant he had to stay on guard against this powerful stranger. Besides...
The Black Knight glanced into the forest, where a strangely dressed man and a mature woman with golden hair and clad in armor were emerging from the shadows. Strangely, the golden-haired woman looked oddly familiar to him for some reason...
Aoko kept increasing her magical pressure, making the fairies collapse to their knees one after another. Onlookers stared at her in shock—just how powerful did a fairy's magic have to be to suppress these battle-hardened fairies with nothing but sheer magical force?
To anyone well-versed in magecraft, Aoko before them was like a humanoid sun, mercilessly unleashing her power upon the land, burning the fairies in agony. Was she one of the returned Ainsel? They wondered. She looked somewhat like a Mirror Clan fairy, but her wings were nowhere to be seen...
Indeed, at this moment, none of them thought Aoko was human. In their minds, no human could possibly reach her level. Despite her strange weapon and clothes, it wasn't unheard of for items from the human world to drift into Fairy Britain, and many fairies collected such objects, so it wasn't all that unusual.
"I'll give you a count of ten," Aoko said with malicious glee. "During these ten counts, you're free to run. If you manage to escape, I'll let you go."
As she finished speaking, Aoko slightly relaxed her magical pressure, allowing the trembling fairies a bit of movement. After witnessing Aoko's cruelty and overwhelming power, terror filled their hearts, and they immediately began to think about fleeing.
But since Aoko hadn't fully lifted her magical suppression, their attempts were awkward and clumsy. Some even stumbled and fell after just a few steps, making Aoko chuckle.
"Ten… nine… eight… five, four…" Aoko counted slowly, and the fairies pushed themselves to their limits trying to run. Their fairy markings shone with a desperate, life-burning light, but they still couldn't shake Aoko's influence. "...Time's almost up, isn't it?"
"Are you kidding? I don't want to die here!"
Hearing Aoko's words, the fairies ran with even more desperation. Some of the Wing Clan fairies went so far as to tear off their own wings to lighten themselves and run faster.
"…One!" As Aoko spoke the final number, a gunshot rang out. The petite fairy who had ripped off her wings was the first to be blasted into pieces, followed by four more shots in quick succession—four more fairies fell dead, leaving not a whole body among them.
After witnessing Aoko's ruthless violence and the brutality inflicted on their companions, the remaining fairies dared not linger. They scrambled and crawled, desperate to escape the terrifying red-haired demon.
For some reason, even knowing that Aoko and her companions had saved them, after seeing the massacre and the empty click of Aoko's revolver, a sense of relief still washed over Toneriko.
But the naive and kind-hearted one was too quick to relax. Once the enchanted micro-meteor rounds in the revolver were spent, Aoko stored the weapon back into her imaginary pocket and pulled out the Scarlet Staff.
Raising the staff, Aoko pointed it at the sky above the fleeing fairies, drawing a small circle and chanting a star-summoning incantation under her breath. Countless blue-violet lights surged from the staff's miniature cosmos, forming a shimmering nebula in the sky.
They all stared, dumbfounded, at the brilliant magic being cast. For a moment, they were awed by its beauty, before realizing it was a deadly, gorgeous rain.
For the first time in this otherworldly land, a rain of countless gem-like meteors poured down from the sky, annihilating the fairies and the forest trees alike—leaving not a trace of life in that area.