Chapter 16 Arc 2 The Ring of Andrea

Chapter 16

Arc 2

The Ring of Andrea

Sophie hovers in the air, mind racing. Should I fire at 50%? No—even that would shatter the planet. Twenty percent… yeah, that should be enough.

She releases the Fairy Shot. The rainbow-tipped arrow tears straight through the dark orb. It streaks toward Kahlani’s face.

“Momma…?”

Kahlani blinks into a pure white void. Her mother stands before her, gentle and whole. Kahlani collapses to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably. “MOTHER!!! AHHH—AAAAHHH!!”

She hyperventilates, rushing forward to cling to her mother’s legs. Her mother softly strokes her scalp.

In that fleeting instant of vision, the arrow connects.

Sophie carefully redirects the Fairy Shot skyward. Kahlani’s body rockets upward at impossible speed, vanishing into the distance. She crashes into a far-off moon in a blinding explosion of fairy light. The moon fractures, then shatters completely—along with several nearby stars and planets.

Sophie exhales, wings folding away. Her fairy form fades. She lands softly, reaches into her pocket, and slips the blue contacts back in. Her hair remains blonde for now. She scans the ruined forest.

“Now I just need to find where Koro and Kazuya went.”

BOOOOSHEEEECH!!!!!!

A cataclysmic explosion erupts. The entire forest—and miles beyond—vanishes in a blinding wave of spirit energy and raw magic. Sophie ducks instinctively as ash rains down.

Before we see what happened between Koro and Kazuya, here is the origin of the Fairy Bow.

The Fairy Bow of the Elven Kingdom—second of the ten legendary weapons—was forged alongside the Fairy Sword by the dark elves. Long ago, elves and dark elves lived as separate but peaceful nations on the western continent. When the dark elves discovered fairy magic, they crafted these two weapons of pure fairy essence.

Word of their power spread. The elves, envious and fearful, began “borrowing” the weapons. Over time, they refused to return them. Then they launched a genocidal war.

Dark elf towns burned. Monuments fell. Families were slaughtered, survivors enslaved. Propaganda spread: the elves had created the weapons, and the dark elves were envious monsters who needed to be subdued.

Kahlani was three when her family was killed in the war. She and her mother were enslaved. Sophie was born a year later, into an era where dark elves were second-class at best. Unlike her brother, Sophie never fully believed the propaganda—but she was taught to avoid them.

When Sophie turned eleven (her brother fifteen), she received the Fairy Bow; he received the Fairy Sword. Neither knew the true origin. They believed the elves had forged them and that dark elves were inherently evil.

Years later, at sixteen, Kahlani killed her master and fled. The elves hunted her relentlessly—until Kazuya appeared, cut down her pursuers, and recruited her to Soul Shock.

Now, back to the present.

Koro streaks downward at beyond-light speed, sword coated in water, lightning, and dark gray mana. “Dragon Point Slash!!!”

Kazuya channels every last drop of spirit energy into his blade. “4th Form: Divine Prominence!!!”

Both scream—“AHHHHHHHH HAAAA!!!”—as their swords collide.

The explosion is apocalyptic.

Shadow Frost Forest had always appeared small from the outside. Inside, the fog and spirits forced it to expand magically—becoming the size of two continents to contain the sheer volume of cursed vitality and souls.

Now it is gone.

Every tree, every inch of land—reduced to ash. The internal dome that sustained the forest’s impossible scale shatters. From the outside, it looks like a city destroyed. From within, it was multi-continental devastation.

Koro stands in the crater, vision blurred in one eye. He reaches up—his left eye is gone. His right hand is missing entirely. He stumbles, deaf in one ear. The gio sword is now just a broken hilt.

Blood drips from every wound. Most of his skin is charred black.

The voice returns, urgent: Dive into the lake.

Koro crawls, then staggers into the water. He floats, unconscious. Blood clouds the surface. His body begins to regenerate—fingers regrowing, eye reforming, burns fading. The entire lake drains into him, droughting the basin as he returns to full health.

Sophie searches the ruins, heart pounding. She spots the Ring of Andrea glinting on the ground. Nearby: a severed leg, a torn arm dangling from a tree, and Kazuya’s decapitated head.

“Holy shit… Koro really let everything out.”

She pockets the ring and keeps walking until she finds the empty lakebed. Koro stands there—uninjured, whole, fingers restored.

Sophie drops to her knees, tears streaming. She laughs through the sobs—relieved, overjoyed.

Koro walks over. “The Ring of Andrea—it’s in your pocket, right? I can sense it.”

Sophie nods, wiping her face. “Come on. Let’s return it to the capital. Maybe they’ll give us a huge reward.”

Koro nods. “You know the guild master’s going to be furious. We’ve been gone two days. He might suspend our adventurer cards for a while. You ready for that?”

Sophie stands. “Yeah… I think so. We’re definitely getting in huge trouble. But let’s not worry about that now. Let’s just go.”

Koro glances at the broken hilt of his gio sword, then leaves it behind. They walk together out of the devastation, toward the main road.

Book Two will be coming soon