Trying to Save my Favorite Character from His Tragic Fate

Imogen's curiosity gives Kyrie suspicion. Why is she so interested in Phanes? Is it because of Erebus? If she has connected the dots, she might have arrived at the same conclusion as Kyrie. Since the other gods are so interested in Phanes, they remained active in an incomplete world. Then, Phanes's story would solve the main mystery.

The fairy queen looks away from Imogen and takes up the teacup for another sip.

"You should just ask your parents. They should know more about Phanes. I have only met her for a couple of years. I am not even close to the amount of time they have spent with Phanes."

"I won't receive an answer, fairy. They have hidden her existence from me for as long as I lived. I only knew of her existence by accident before I left the god realm," replies Imogen while grinding her teeth.

[Left the god realm? Right… She was on Earth before she got summoned to this world, according to the novel. That would explain why a demigod was on Earth.]

"Cockroach, aren't you curious?"

Curious? Of course, Kyrie is curious. His migraines have gotten worse because he was trying to piece things together and make everything make sense. However, there was a more persistent question in his mind.

"Why now? You didn't seem to be so interested in her, but why are you suddenly interested? Instead of entering the sixth gate, you choose to follow me."

Imogen gets surprised by the question and turns quiet. There is some reluctance breaking through her stiff expression. Her eyes narrow as if she is controlling the ripples of emotions from Kyrie's words.

The fairy queen sighs profoundly, "I guess she can also join. What I am going to tell you is more my story than Phanes. I will tell you from the beginning to the end so that you can take as much information about her as you can. The involvement of gods in this world has made everything so complicated. I bet Phanes never wanted that… She only wanted a simple life."

"Wait… You know why the gods are interested in this world?" 

The queen nods slightly while looking at Imogen, "It is a bit obvious from my perspective. They have entered this world for Phanes. 

When I met Phanes, she had already wandered around the world for years. Around that time, there was a disgusting trend going on where some humans hunted fairies and turned them into slaves. 

Luckily, Phanes encountered the wagon transporting my people and freed them by sneaking behind those slave traders' backs at night. 

But she was discovered releasing the fairies and ended up clashing swords with the slave traders. My fairies panicked and looked for me, and that was how I first met Phanes. That night, the moon was high, so I saw her appearance before she hid behind a big hooded cape when I arrived. 

Her long chestnut half-tied hair waves down on her back, and her emerald eyes shone like rare mana stones. She easily tied all those disgusting humans up, but her kindness didn't let her kill them.

She smiled kindly when my people thanked her but declined all our intentions to repay her. I still remember to this day what she said.

'You should not water down kind intentions. I take pride in taking all that credit for helping someone in need.'

I never met someone like her. All those who helped the fairies expected something in return. They either did it for herbs or our potions. When I offered, they never declined. 

To be honest, I thought she was silly. She looked like a wanderer, so she only had a small bag and clothes on her back.

I was worried and felt guilty of the sudden grace placed on my shoulders, so I promised her that my kingdom would receive her in open arms if she needed something.

She turned back as the wind blew, and her hood fell back. The wind picked up her hair and danced. Her beautiful smile shone as bright as the moonlight.

'I will remember that,' she replied to me.

More years passed by, and my memories of her were fading. The rumors that the heavens were upset reached my ears. Heavenly soldiers came down by the hundreds, and we, mortals, were scared to the bone. 

Being close to a heavenly soldier already took all a common living being's air out, so imagine what it's like to confront them. However, one day, Phanes came into my forest and fainted. My people remembered her, so she picked her up and hid her in our kingdom. 

As you know, the fairies only worshiped one god because we knew the original creator of this world. Fairies also lived fairly long, so those who met him were able to know him better. 

He saw that all the fairies except the queen were smaller and physically weaker than the other creations, so he gave us a place to hide."

"What happened to him?" Kyrie asks since the god who was in charge of creating this world never completed his work. 

Since the worlds he was making are not complete, it has turned into a war between two worlds for supremacy and survival. The gates became a zone of overflowing blood and unnecessary sacrifice.

The fairy queen shakes her head, "I don't know. One day, our god just never came back. We only received some explanations when Phanes was with us. She said that it was forbidden to leave worlds unfinished, so he must have passed away."

"Still and all," Imogen injects, "Incomplete worlds are meant to perish."

"Perish? Then why is this world not gone?" Kyrie asks.

Imogen looks at Kyrie with an expression that tells Kyrie that he already knows the answer.

[Phanes.]

"What happened later?"

"Once she recovered and regained her consciousness, Phanes told us that the heavenly soldiers were looking for her. Those soldiers are taking her back to a place she didn't want to be. She told us the truth about her deity status because she knew that we might get ourselves into trouble we cannot handle. 

However, we didn't want to let our benefactor walk out of our kingdom to face something that terrifying. At least, I didn't. 

Although Phanes never told us what would happen to her if they captured her, it wasn't anything good based on her expressions. There was only one reason to see that scale of persecution: Phanes had something that those gods wanted. 

We weren't afraid to keep her because our hiding place protected us. No one knew where the Fae Kingdom was aside from some high-ranked fairies, the queen, and our god. We are also self-sustainable in such a way that we don't need to leave our kingdom. The gods couldn't involve that much with the mortal world, so the number of heavenly soldiers entering our world diminished in time due to constant failures to locate Phanes."

[... Why would it be hard for gods to locate the Fae Kingdom?]

The queen smiles as she remembers those days and stares into space as she contemplates.

"Once she came into the Fae Kingdom, she stayed for five years. She became a very close friend that I shared everything with. Although she didn't say much about the god realm, we were happy, and I found love by unforeseen circumstances. I met a human from the outside, and… we were so happy….

We… We…"

The queen slowly releases her smile and frowns. Her pupils shake from the emotions flowing inside her.

"I had a lot of complications with my pregnancy, so we needed help from the outside. Our soil couldn't grow the Midnight Queen for some unknown reason, and my body grew weaker by the day at the middle of my second trimester.

My husband… Eurig… He went out in search of the Midnight Queen, but he never came back. We waited for months…."

The queen's voice breaks as she holds her tears, "But… he wasn't coming back…."

She placed her hands over her face as she remained quiet to get herself back together. After a couple of minutes, she dried her tears, feeling slightly embarrassed to cry in front of youngsters.

"Phanes and some fairies formed two groups to look for him. I wished I didn't let her go. When I was alone in my palace, crazy thoughts came into my mind as I waited day in and day out. I was sick many times, and I couldn't help but blame my baby. 

I often felt trapped in my body. I often asked the if-only questions.

'If only I weren't so weak….'

'If only I didn't get pregnant….'

The more time I passed by myself, the darker my thoughts became. Fear crippled me to the point I convinced myself Phanes, and the fairies died.

One night, I couldn't stand the pain of my body and my tormenting thoughts. I hadn't slept for days due to pain, and I wasn't thinking clearly. I went out by myself in search of Phanes and my husband. I turned foolish from fear and delusions. I knew that Eurig headed to the human kingdoms in search of the flowers.

Around that time, I think Phanes had already returned to the kingdom and became aware that I went missing. 

While on my journey, the sun was sizzling my skin, and the roads were hard. I fainted in the middle of nowhere. I remembered gazing up at the sun while vultures circled the sun high in the air. Before I fainted, someone's figure provided some shade over my burnt body.

When I woke up, I was in the cabin of a lonely woman. I think she was a witch who lived around that area. At first, I was slightly awed to see a witch helping someone back to health without asking anything in return, but I was wrong to assume she was like Phanes. She did it because she was ordered to. I accidentally heard her conversation with someone, but at that time, I couldn't find who the person was.

I asked many times about sending a message back to my kingdom, but she never spoke to me. Her eyes were void of life, and I was scared of her. My condition was not good enough to fight against her, so I was very cautious.

When I was healthy enough, I got to know who was ordering her. He came to me as a deity - bronze skin, grey eyes, and long black hair. He had a sword scar across his right eye all the way down his lips."

Imogen widens her eyes as she states, "Eginhart….A fallen god."

When Imogen pronounces his name and who he is, the queen's complexion falls. Nothing good has come from dealing with a fallen god. 

There are no exceptions.