In the Nameless Forest, along the path leading to the desolate village.
Samael and Freya chatted as they walked, the mood between them warm and cheerful. Even the scenery the little fairy had seen countless times before seemed brighter and more vivid to her now.
But just as they neared the village, Freya suddenly spotted a thick column of smoke rising into the sky and cried out in alarm.
"Oh no! The village is on fire! Everyone's in danger!"
Samael immediately realized something was wrong. He scooped up the anxious, bewildered Freya and surged forward, the air around him exploding with successive booms as streams of Ether light sliced through it.
As they approached the village entrance, the Ancient Serpent reined in his momentum and set Freya down, walking beside her as they searched for the site of the fire.
Lower-tier fairies stood along the roadside or poked their heads out from the crooked wooden houses scattered around the village. Most wore faint smiles as they watched the anxious pair with interest, a strange emotion flickering in their eyes.
Samael knew that emotion very well.
Amusement...
Freya was equally sensitive to the gazes around her. Her small face turned pale as a terrible premonition rose in her heart, and she hurried forward at a run.
A short while later, Freya reached the barren edge of the village and stopped dead before the charred remains of a wooden house. Her amber eyes went dull and lifeless, filling with glistening tears.
This... this was too cruel...
"Was this... your home?"
The Ancient Serpent crouched beside her and carefully placed a hand on Freya's trembling shoulder.
The little girl nodded stiffly.
The grievances bottled up inside her finally became too much to bear. The poor little thing threw herself into Samael's arms and burst into tears.
"Samael, my home is gone..."
Before Samael could comfort her, Freya clutched his arm tightly. The amber eyes that had only just regained their brightness were once again swallowed by a heavy, lifeless gloom.
"My home is gone, so I can't invite my friend over anymore. You're going to leave too, aren't you? I'm so stupid, I..."
Smack!
Just as the little girl began sinking into self-blame again, an all-too-familiar flick struck her forehead, making Freya clutch her head and hiss in pain.
"What are you thinking? Who said I was leaving? If the house is gone, I'll help you build another one! It can be as big as you want!"
Samael mercilessly cut off both her self-deprecation and the grief she was working herself into.
"Really? You'll still come play with me?!"
"Of course. We're friends. We made a pinky promise."
The moment she received that reassurance, the sorrow and resentment building inside her vanished. Overjoyed, Freya hugged her "good friend's" arm as though she had found the most precious treasure in the world.
Although he had managed to calm Freya before her emotions completely spiraled out of control, Samael swept his gaze across their surroundings. Feeling the many looks of malicious amusement directed their way, his hanging hand slowly clenched into a fist.
"Who did it?"
The Ancient Serpent turned around, his voice low, slow, and perfectly clear.
By now, quite a few fairies had gathered around them. They grinned as they watched the spectacle, yet not a single one answered, like an audience enjoying a performance and treating someone else's suffering as entertainment.
Mocking gazes converged on Freya, carrying unmistakable malice and delight at her misfortune.
Freya's face paled. She instinctively tightened her grip on Samael's arm and shook her head worriedly.
"Don't worry. Leave it to me..."
Samael patted Freya gently on the head and gave her a reassuring look. Then he turned back to the crowd, a bright and pleasant smile spreading across his face.
"I'll count to three. Whoever did it can step forward and admit it. I promise I won't pursue the matter any further. Otherwise, you'll bear the consequences yourselves..."
"We didn't see anything!"
"Right, we didn't see a thing!"
Several fairies in the crowd answered with mischievous grins, clearly enjoying the chance to mock him.
"One..."
Samael merely smiled and slowly raised one finger.
Seeing the victim apparently helpless to do anything, the surrounding fairies immediately broke into jeers and laughter.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The instant his voice faded, dark-gold patterns of light plunged from the sky.
The earth shook violently. With Freya's cottage as the center, every house within thirty paces collapsed at once and erupted into roaring flames.
"My house! My house!"
"It's burning! Hurry, put out the fire!"
"No! My things! My honey nectar is still inside!"
The fairies who had been enjoying the spectacle were stunned to discover that the flames had reached their own homes. The crowd immediately erupted into chaos as they frantically beat their wings, trying to put out the fires and salvage the shelters they had worked so hard to build.
"Did I tell you to move?"
A quiet murmur drifted through the air.
The fairies who had just taken flight were instantly slammed to the ground as though crushed beneath a weight ten thousand times greater than normal, leaving them unable to move an inch.
"You bastard! We won't let you get away with this!"
"We didn't do anything! Why are you destroying our houses?"
The fairies erupted into noisy complaints, some furious, others aggrieved.
"No particular reason. I felt like it, and I have the strength to do it. Isn't that enough?"
Samael answered with a pleasant smile.
At the same time, golden light filled his serpentine vertical pupils. Wherever his gaze fell, the fairies felt like ants standing before a Great Dragon. Primitive terror rose from the depths of their instincts, silencing them at once and leaving them trembling uncontrollably.
That single instant was enough for them to understand how terrifying this monster truly was.
He stood at a height they could never reach.
Even if they spent their entire lives exhausting every ounce of strength they possessed, they would never be qualified to seek revenge against him.
"Two..."
Before the fairies could recover from their terror, the demon-like murmur came again, as though rising from the deepest depths of Hell.
"It was the fire elemental Ifrit!"
"A Black Dog! There's a Black Dog roaming around here!"
"Nonsense! It was obviously a Great Dragon passing by!"
The fairies shuddered and began blurting out answers one after another. Their stories were wildly inconsistent, and a trace of stubborn resentment remained in their eyes.
BOOM!
The next instant, hundreds of divine runes rained down around the demon like falling meteors.
Amid the thunderous explosions, not a single house within a hundred paces escaped destruction.
Even the few fairies who had still been inside their homes were blasted out first by the violent force, then pinned down among the rest of the spectators.
"If none of you are willing to talk, I'll assume all of you were involved. So, are you still going to cover for them?"
A cold smile appeared on Samael's lips as he slowly surveyed the crowd, his gaze pausing briefly on a certain spot.
"I gave you a chance, and you were too useless to take it. Three!"
"Pixie!"
"It was Pixie!"
"I saw the three of them sneaking over here and throwing torches!"
At last, unable to withstand the pressure any longer, the fairies scrambled over one another to expose the three culprits.
That should be enough now, right?
After selling out the culprits hiding among them, the fairies had become utterly terrified of the monster before them. All they wanted now was to satisfy this unpredictable madman and make him leave as soon as possible.
"I see. That should be right..."
Samael nodded with a smile.
Just as the fairies finally began to relax, his right foot slammed down.
BOOM!
A raging torrent of Ether instantly swept outward.
The earth split apart into terrifying spiderweb-like fissures, and every surviving house in the village toppled one after another like dominoes.
Not a single one was spared.