Endless Journey: Infinite Realms

Chapter 381 Fly like a Butterfly, Hide like a Fly!

If Queen Mother could see Asteria right now, she will surely smack the hell out of this dumb fairy.

After all, instead of doing her job, Asteria actually wasted her time on eating some food when she was supposed to be helping out Queen Mother. With the way that things are going right now, what Asteria just did was fully unacceptable!

But since there was a barrier around the Mountain of Enlightenment, Asteria’s deeds were unfortunately unnoticed by Queen Mother.

"But I do not have the power to explode a mountain... only Alex or Alina can do that. Oh, QM can do it too! Hm, speaking of QM, why the hell is she not doing anything now? Is she just wasting her time?" Queen Mother said as she started to grumble to herself. "I’m risking my life infiltrating this place, and she just stays outside leisurely? Unacceptable!"

[[Author’s Note: What did she just say?]]

Asteria then flew towards the nearby window as she wanted to see what Queen Mother is doing right now.

With the way that this window was placed, Asteria knew that she will be able to perfectly see everything around the mountain, including Queen Mother herself.

"If I see QM slacking outside right now, I will make sure to tell it to Alex later!" Asteria thought to herself as she expected to see an extremely laid-back situation. After all, she did not hear any sounds of battle. "Since there are no sounds of battle, that must mean that there’s no battle, right? Hehehe, come on QM, show me your lazy side!"

But instead of seeing this ’peaceful scenario’, what the dumb fairy saw was the direct opposite of that.

She saw a massive army of TimeMasters hacking down a translucent barrier that was covering the whole Mountain of Enlightenment. The sounds of their attacks were blocked the barrier, which made their attacks appear silent and soundless.

"..."

Above these attacking TImeMasters, Asteria saw a tumultuous amount of threads, all floating merrily in the sky.

All of them were connected to this weird-looking silver ball, that seemed to be interested on covering a nearby girl.

This girl in question appeared to be afraid of the silver ball as she tried to run away from it, although her body was being pulled slowly towards the ball itself.

Some of tendrils from the silver ball started to reach out to the girl, with the girl doing her best to swat them away.

The girl’s attempt to do this was of course futile, as the tendrils were able to wrap themselves around her limbs.

More and more tendrils then continued to wrap the girl as time passed by, making her look like a victim of a tentacle attack.

This sight was both absurd and funny to Asteria, who seemed be surprised with what she had just witnessed.

"...This all happened while I was eating?" Asteria exclaimed as she looked down on her honey-stained hands. They were glistening brightly right now, and Asteira could not help but lick them as she started to back away from the window.

"Emm.... I think QM is pissed at me right now..." Asteria muttered to herself as she continued backing away from the window. "Since this big event is happening already, QM must have been waiting for me to do my job. Ehehe, will she kill me if she knew that I just ate sandwich right now? No no no, she can’t do that, right?"

At this point, Asteria became low-key panicked as she realized that she had just messed up.

She had promised Queen Mother that she will do something awesome, but what she just achieved right now was the opposite of that.

There’s no way that knocking out a mortal cook and eating his honey-glazed peanut butter sandwich was an awesome act. Even if that was cool in Asteria’s opinion, she’s sure that Queen Mother will just be scoffing at it.

"Ugh I hate my stupid mouth. Why did I have to boast like that earlier? Now QM expects me to do something awesome... F**k this!" Asteria cursed inwardly to herself as she regretted listening to Queen Mother’s taunts earlier. "What can I even do against an army of TImeMasters and a ritual that seemed to be focused on World Souls? F**k... can I just leave this place?"

After she said these words, Asteria took a deep breath as she decided to just fly away from this mountain right now.

Asteria knows her limits, and the current situation in this mountain was one of those ’I have to get the hell out of here’ situations. For a Guide like Alina, these situations were something that only the Travelers themselves can solve.

"Fly like a butterfly, hide like a fly!" Asteria mumbled to herself as she accelerated her flight speed. "I might have faced a blockade right now, but I will surely be able to overcome this in the future! For now... I just have to do a tactical retreat. Yes, I am not running away! I am just doing a tactical retreat!"

At this point, Asteria was already close to the Main Hall, which was the place that she first appeared in earlier. Asteria knew that her chance of leaving will be high once she reaches the Main Hall, so she did her best to arrive at this place without any hiccups.

"Just a little more... and I will succeed on my retreat!"

But just like what Murphy’s Law says, what can go wrong will go wrong, and in Asteria’s case, something went wrong with her escape attempt.

"Grandpa look! It’s the dumb fairy that Alex is always teasing! She’s actually here! Let’s go and meet her!" An excited voice said, with the speaker pointing her finger at Asteria’s direction. "Come on grandpa, Asty is here! Maybe she is here to help us out!"

"F**k! Why is she here?" Asteria froze in the air after she heard this joyous voice. "Wasn’t she supposed to be with Alex and Alina? F**k... this messes everything up..."

The person who saw the escaping Asteria was Kiera, who was looking at Asteria with both joy and relief on her face.

This little girl seemed to be overjoyed by the sight of Asteria, that she had ignored the awkward grimace that appeared on the fairy’s face as Kiera started pinching her cheeks.

"Asty, are you here to help us out?" Kiera asked as she continued talking with excitement. "Did Big Brother Alex tell you about Annie’s situation? Please say yes!"

"..."

Instead of answering the little girl’s query, Asteria only stayed silent as she tried to make her face stay composed.

She did her best to not look angry, although her mind was certainly irritated right now.

"F**k! My decision to allow Kiera to see me has backfired on me today! F**k this! F**k!!" Asteria continuously cursed in her mind as her wings flapped in agitation. "In normal cases, only Travelers, Companions, and those with Divine Sensory Organs can detect me. For people other than that, they must obtain my consent to be detected first."

Asteria then winced at this point as she avoided Kiera’s innocent stared at her. "In Kiera’s case, I allowed her to detect me, since Alex has forced me to do so. At first I thought this would be ok, since Kiera was just a normal girl... But f**k! I have never been more wrong in that assumption!"

"Um Asty, are you ok?" Seeing that Asteria’s grimace made her look like she had eaten a sour lemon, the previously excited Kiera slowly became timid as she asked Asteria this question. "Are you feeling sick right now? Wait... did Big Brother Alex feed you something bad again? Hmph, Big Brother Alex is always mean to you! Why don’t we scold him later?’

"..."

As the barrage of Kiera’s words started to pour out of her mouth, Asteria was left with no choice but to speak up right now.

"Shut it, little girl. I don’t want to hear anymore of your yammering, ok?" Asteria said as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Do you know all the stress that I just got from today? You can never imagine it! So please don’t make it worse for me ok?"

"Um ok..."

"Oh, and who the hell is this Annie that you are talking about? Is she someone important? Or is she an enemy? Quick, tell it to me now!"

"Asty, you don’t know Annie?"

"Hell no! Should I know her?"

"Y-you should..." The excitement on Kiera had fully disappeared, as the irritation and ignorance that Asteria showed has directly wiped it away from her.

Her previously hopeful look was also gone, as only uncertainty and sadness could be seen on her face. She also started to look a little lost, as Asteria’s behavior seemed to have been unexpected to her.

"Oi-" At this point, Asteria started to notice that something weird was going on with Kiera, but before she could take note of it, the little girl let out a light sniffle that made the fairy freeze on her spot once more.

"Sniffle sniffle...’

After she made this sound, the little girl then hunched down on her place as tears began to pool on her eyes. Her whole body started to shiver as she began to let out small, sad sobs.

Kiera began to leak out a sad and desolate feeling, which left Asteria both flustered and panicked.

"Oi little girl, why the hell are you crying now? Was it because of what I said? I-I take it back! I am not angry at you anymore!"

After Asteria said these panicked words, the almost crying Kiera looked at the fairy for a second before she let out another sniffle.

"A-Asty, when Annie was taken by the bad guys earlier for the ritual, I felt hopeless and scared for Annie. I don’t have any way to help her right now, and all that I can do is wish for help. A-at first I thought my wish was just useless as I am just a normal girl... But then, you came here."

"..."

"Asty, when I saw you here, I felt so happy as I thought that you were here to save Annie... There’s no way that you are here to waste time, as you are Big Brother Alex’s sidekick! You did not just appear here to have a trip, right?"

"..."

"But I was wrong. You are still as useless as before Asty. You... you just made me feel false hope!" Kiera said as she did her best to dry her eyes. "Why did you even come here Asty? Are you here just to waste your time? If that’s your intention, then please leave now! I don’t want to see you loitering like this here!"

"..." Asteria tried to say something for her defense, but she was unable to, as she realized that she had no way to explain herself.

After all, Kiera had quickly seen through Asteria’s intentions already. Even if Asteria tries to make an excuse on why she had no knowledge about ’Annie’, there is no way that Kiera will just forgive her.

"F**k, think! If I let things go on like this, it will be really bad for me!" Asteria thought to herself as she ignored the continuous sniffling of Kiera. "What can I do to redeem myself right now? What should I say to make Kiera feel better again?"

Asteria’s brain, which she had rarely used on its full capacity, has now revved up beyond is maximum limits as Asteria desperately thought of a way to make her current situation salvageable.

She ignored everything around her as she only thought of one thing in her mind.

"I must find the best thing to say to Kiera!"

******************

Time passed by at this state, with Kiera crying silently in her place and Asteria still desperately ’thinking’.

These two seemed to be able to stay in their current state forever, and it appears as if only an external stimulus can stop them right now.

Kiera’s grandpa, who witnessed these things happening from the sidelines, started to let out a sigh as he realized that this must not go on anymore.

He then took a step forward as he decided to take Kiera away from this place already.

But before the old man could get near Kiera, Asteria’s head suddenly perked up as she flew towards the little girl.

There was a manic expression on Asteria’s face as she approached Kiera, which made the little girl slightly flinch.

Asteria seemed to take no note of this as she started speaking in a solemn tone.

"Kiera, what if I told you that you can save Annie with your power? Are you willing to abandon everything that you have right now in order to save Annie? If you are, then take my hand, and I will show you the truth!"