I had been away for 4 days, and I’m sure my team is worried, but the incident with the puppet master was bugging me. Something was off or missing. An important detail, a crucial puzzle piece.

  Staying there for longer might have been a bad idea but…another encounter with it would probably end the same and that’s what I can't accept. I can escape when I’m alone, but if it targets my whole party that might not work.

  Should I let the idea rest? But who is going to save us if the puppet master ambushes us?

  I had to sit down as the burden of leadership weighed heavy on me. My mother must have felt this everyday while being the empress. Maybe this is a family trait. We’re shitty leaders, but somehow keep getting the role pushed upon us.

  I always felt for my mother and was happy that I wasn’t the eldest kid as I wouldn’t have to take over if she decided to disappear, or it was time to hand over the torch.

  Maybe I have to take this ‘little brother’ thing seriously and push the leader role on Noelle. But I don’t hate her, so I don’t wish this upon her. I guess I just have to suck it up and find a solution.

  The Gittrian river wasn’t too far. I could take a plunge and use it to cool my tails, as they have a lot of work to do.

  Monsters had volunteered to donate their mana to me over the past days, so it wouldn’t take long before I could dump more mana into the circle.

  A village came in sight. Do I pay a visit or do I avoid people? People have mana though.

  Ugh, I sound like a monster now.

  The village reminded me of the swamp village, so I avoided it. I sat down on the riverbank and dipped my tails into it.

  The sound of the villagers could be heard in the distance. Birds were singing and the pleasant sound of the river filled my ears. The water calmed me down again.

  So strange, none of my races are related to water.

  Steam was coming from the surface as my tails were overheating again. A fish came too close and got boiled.

  Ooh! a snack!

  I chomped on my boiled snack and turned around as someone was approaching. I was face to face with a red head woman the size of a forearm with butterfly wings.

  My jaw dropped, as did my fish. Her jaw dropped too.

  Oh hell no!

  I got up to grab the winged redhead who screamed and flew away. I couldn’t catch her as my tails were still overheating and had to jump back into the river.

  Another menace has escaped. As far as I know…fairies live in groups.

  I tracked the fairies flight. It flew toward the village to my horror.

  Uh oh.

  The ambient sound started to fill with a familiar sound, a familiar ticking sound.

  Please no laserbears, no laserbears!

  I dodged a laser.

  Fuck!

  Giggling and ticking sounds approached as a swarm of winged women and laserbears came at me.

  What are my options? Flee? To where? I can’t lure them into any village or Gittrian. I can’t just randomly blast them, either. Are there any cities that I don’t like that I can take out with these abominations?

  The fairies were getting close, so I dove down and swam south. Maybe I’ll flee to the ocean again. I will have no restrictions over the ocean.

  If only I had brought Nilah…

  The lasers were giving me difficulties. [Frost Mirrors] dealt with them and the water helped out too but… the boats on the surface were getting hit in the crossfire. I will also have to bring them through a part of Gittrian if I want to lure them to the ocean.

  When did my life turn into such a mess? I’ll just lure them into an empty plain and blast them.

  The river provided comfort and protection, but the boats on the surface were getting pelted with lasers, so I hopped out the river, started [Accel Step] and [Tail Dynamo] and went for the nearest empty area.

  The swarm followed me without hesitation. The giggling and ticking was deafening and was slowly introducing nausea into my system. Or was that what was happening here?

  The filter opened to reveal the dimensional fabric, and it was torn. Some eyes were glaring at me from the other side.

  I had almost forgotten about this…another one of my roles…The problem was… those didn’t seem like fairy eyes, just one set of eyes. Is it time to introduce a new adversary? Don’t I already have enough?

  I chucked some foxfire at the tear and the eyes and closed the filters. It was sloppy but would do for now. The fairies were relentless, and one mistake would turn me into a beehive.

  To use this mana for the magic circle or to use it to expedite fairy extermination? It’s difficult to complete my magic circle if I’m dead…

  My mana…

  I went 9t mode and had the sky shift through day and night to make the blood moon appear. The fairies met my mana pressure, causing the winged beauties to turn into their laserbear forms. Time sped up on my tails and dense black lightning was swirling around me. It resembled tar and was cooking the obnoxious fairies.

  The black lightning got an eerie hue due to the red moonlight.

  The spin on my tails reversed, dropping the lightning color which then jumped to silver causing an elecromagical silver shockwave.

  I love the combination of silver and crimson!

  The intoxicating feeling started to seep into my body as I wiped out fairy after fairy.

  This is actually fun!

  Lasers shot through me but it had no effect. [Silver Torrent] is currently my only effective defense against lasers. My hand got raised to the sky and silver lightning gathered into the form of a spear.

  How about [Silver Halani’h]?!

  My targets exploded. What a beautiful color! I need more! Another [Silver Halani], and another and another!

  Hahaha! Suffer, like you made me suffer! How about a [Silver Tsunami]? And another [Silver Halani]! Hey come on fairies is that all you got?! How about a [Silver Drowning Pulse]?!

  The fairies were acting strange. They weren’t having fun. Didn’t they love getting wiped out? They always giggled.

  The fairies made things interesting and bunched up.

  Ooh a bigger target! Hahaha! Give me your best shot!

  An exhilarating rush came over me as I kept throwing [Silver Halani’h] and rushing into the swarm. The fairies made interesting sounds as they were getting cooked by the silver lightning. Like bugs getting zapped.

  Well isn’t that shiny. Come on shoot that laser!

  The big sandbag fairy did it’s shot which went straight through me.

  Hahaha! You missed! Here let me show you how to blow a hole through something!

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  The silver brought me higher and higher! To the beautiful bloodred moon! Maybe I should leave everything behind and go to the moon! Silver lightning was spiraling to push me higher, but everything has a limit.

  Ooh so high! Silly clouds you can't hide that fairy from me!

  A time lapse got put on my [Tail Dynamo] and I made my own silver spot. High up the sky ready to blow a hole into this fairy! Maybe even the planet or even the dimension if I was lucky!

  The blood moon was giving me power. Is this a mistake? I will have to leave this state if I blast a hole into the fairy. Let’s enjoy this a bit longer!

  I gathered more silver lightning.

  More! Give me more! Hahahaha! Yes! That’s more like it!

  There was silver as far as my eye could see. Silver isn’t my favorite color, but damn, it’s a nice color. It’s my color.

  Hey fairy! What the fuck dude! Don’t run! I guess I have no choice! Have a bloodmoon special! [Daivestes Halani]!

  My mana spiked and the silver lightning became more intense.

  Ohh silly me, I didn’t mispronounce this name! But that’s fine. Now die.

  I did the standard twirl above my head and chucked the [Daivestes Halani] at the running fairy. Playing tag with me, silly creature.

  All the silver lightning got sucked into the [Daivestes Halani] and annihilated the fairy. I floated down as I admired my masterpiece. It might cause some mana corruption, but that’s not my fault, right? Oh! I can harvest my own mana!

  [Eternal Winter] dealt with the lightning mana around the gaping hole that was left behind.

  I had to say goodbye to my 9t mode and the pretty moon. The great feeling disappeared with the departure of the moon.

  Realization slowly set in.

  Hoo boi, what a mess. Don’t tell me that I become a lunatic when I do that.

  The descent took quite a while, so I waited patiently until I hit the ground and inspected the hole I made.

  Well these plains are quite flat, it could use some verticality. Even if its…. Negative verticality.

  I kicked a rock down the hole and focused my ears, but I couldn’t hear it hitting the bottom.

  I wonder what the chances are of nobody seeing an enormous silver spire with a massive ball of silver lightning on top. Or a spear pulling silver lightning with it crashing down, causing an explosion. Anyone with eyes had probably seen it…

  What do I do…I’m the only one on the continent that can use silver lightning…

  Time for some self-reflection; I suck. Now that the self-reflection is done. How do I talk myself out of this?

  Let’s see. Giana would give me 5 seconds of telling me to be careful and then telling me to take her with me next time. Yv would be…hmmm depends on her aura. Raishin would also want to come next time. Greg and Noelle would chew me out.

  As for Daddy’s girl… oof. That’s gonna suck.

  Maybe this is why I love the feeling the blood moon gives. It makes me forget all my worries.

  I slapped my cheeks.

  Alright enough being a loser. It’s time to get back to Gittrian.

  A [Paradox Teleport] here, a normal teleport there, and I was in front of Daddy’s girl’s office. She told me that S-rank adventurers report to her directly. I know that’s bullshit, but there’s nothing I can do about it as Daddy’s girl is the vice president…

  I knocked on her door.

  Please don’t be here, please don’t be here, please don’t be here…

  “Come in!”

  Oh! She’s not here, maybe another time.

  I heard footsteps as I walked away, and the door flung open. Daddy’s girl grabbed the back of my hoodie and pulled me inside. “Gotcha! I’m curious what your report will be like!”

  She dragged me inside and requested a full report. She was especially interested in the silver spire and silver comet.

  Ehm I don’t want to waste your time so ill keep it short. My quest was a failure. I found the adventurers, but there was a unique problem.

  “A unique problem?”

  I encountered 2 rare races. A face stealer which referred to himself of being from the Bytga race, they only steal faces of those close to death. He looks creepy, but he’s harmless and tries to scare you away as he knows that his race won’t really be accepted. His race is nearing extinction. Here are some details.

  My tail started writing the details of Not-Spencer.

  The real issue was… a puppet master.

  “A puppet master?”

  An unknown race as my eyes couldn’t identify it. Well not unknown but I don’t know of it and I make it a habit to read mountains of literature as my illusions and eyes depend highly on the knowledge I possess. It also had a to me unknown magic type. This puppet master…had turned the missing adventurers into puppets. The outside looks organic, but the inside is mechanical.

  Daddy’s girl’s face contorted. “That’s terrible!”

  The puppet master remained hidden. No amount of mana tracing lead to the controller, it also had put up a barrier which seemed to boost its capability and prevented escape and probably other things.

  My tail finished writing the details of Not-Spencer and started the description of the puppets I remembered and the barrier.

  Vice President… have everyone stay away from that forest. The more adventurers disappear in that forest, the stronger the puppet master becomes. I had to destroy a lot of the puppets, it has only 10 left as far as I know but…this might be even above an S-rank or has to become a full-on subjugation.

  Daddy’s girl read the simplified report my tails wrote and made a serious face. “It gave you trouble?”

  Well fighting a puppet master with multiple A-rank puppets and unable to find the controller is… not smart.

  “I see…that makes sense. In the end, you’re also just a person, eh?”

  Yeah,

  My report was done, so I got up to leave.

  “Hold on! What about the silver spire?”

  Uhh that was an accident.

  “An accident half of the country could see?” Daddy’s girl said as she crossed her arms.

  Uh yeah, I lost control for a bit, don’t worry it won't happen again…I think, anyway, I have to go! Giana’s gaze is becoming oppressive!

  I hastily left and went to the lobby where Giana was stealing mana with Yv and Nilah.

  “Thank you fans. That will be enough for today.” The fans cleared out and continued with their life.

  Giana and Yv kept up their idol images and walked over to me. “We need to talk.”

  Shivers traveled through my spine, and we headed over to Raishin and Noelle’s room.

  Where is Greg? Doesn’t he want to chew me out too?

  He is in the library… I don’t think he even noticed the silver spire…

  Ah.

  It wasn’t the usual talk. They wanted to know what would get me to use something like that silver spire and a silver comet. I corrected them but told them that I encountered some fairies.