The Beast did not answer despite my question. The left head was busy burning a hill that had already burned.
The Demon Lord Envoy Raum fed on fear. Her modus operandi began with staring a person down until they felt small, and then she ate what came out of them. If this one works the same way, its meal is paranoia. Every Fey who believes the fire will never stop is keeping its table full.
That was only a guess. I had no proof.
I manifested my armor again and walked to the riverbank.
The river was still boiling, and that bothered me more than anything else. It didn't explain the properties of water. My water had touched a burning oak and nothing happened. No hiss. No steam. So why did this water boil?
I followed the bank downstream, under the smoke.
Then I saw them.
Elves, satyrs, and dryads. Dozens of Fey were lying in the river up to their necks. They had run to the one place that should have been safe from fire. But flames danced on their hair and their shoulders. Under the surface, orange light crawled over their arms and legs. Around every one of them, the water bubbled white.
That is the answer.
The Fey had jumped in while still believing the fire would follow them. So it followed them. The river was never supposed to be boiling. But they were boiling it, and they would keep boiling it for as long as they stayed alive.
I stood on the bank and watched them steam.
Something more needed to be done than me slapping people awake one at a time. It needed every mind in this forest to go quiet at once, to be calm and assess the situation without paranoia. I only knew one person who could do that.
My senses picked up that Black had stopped moving. Blastar's mana channels, which I had manifested, had finally reached her.
***
At the eastern boundary, the fire was slowly creeping back. Oberon's Push was gone, and somehow the flames were slowly moving closer once more.
"It's coming back!"
The Fey pressed themselves against the wall that could not be seen. A pixie mother pulled her children under her wings. The elven soldier raised his spear at the flames, as if a spear could do anything.
Momoka stood up. Her legs felt heavy.
Her rain had fallen on those trees, and not a single flame had gone out. Why?
Then a figure of shadow ran towards her.
"M-Monster!" the soldier shouted.
"It's all right! He belongs to my Master!"
Black knelt and laid an elf at her feet. Then he stayed there, kneeling, as if he was waiting for something. The elf was asleep, and there was a bump on his head. Both of his feet were wrapped in fire, and the skin was burned black up to his ankles.
What weirded Momoka out was that the burns stopped there. The flames were still crawling up his legs, and his legs were untouched. He was breathing slowly, like someone taking a nap.
Momoka looked at the sleeping elf. Then she looked at the Fey, screaming at a fire that was still twenty steps away. An elven woman at the front was slapping at her own sleeve. There was no flame on it.
Without any more clues, Momoka understood what her Master was trying to say. This was not some physical fire, but some kind of mental attack that relied on mass hysteria and paranoia.
Momoka knelt and placed her hand on the elf's forehead. She let her mana flow in a thin, soft stream, the same way she used to press her palms to her Master's forehead back when his thoughts ran too fast. The elf's brow slowly loosened.
Then she swept her hand across his feet, like brushing off dust.
The flames came off. "Eh?"
FSSH!
The fire was on her palm now. Pain bit into her skin, and it began to turn red. For one second she had thought, it's fire, so it will burn me.
Momoka took a deep breath.
"There is no fire here." She closed her fingers with bravery, and the flame broke apart into particles of magical energy and was gone. She opened her hand, revealing only a red mark.
"...Miss Momoka," Oberon said slowly. "What did you just do?"
Before she could answer, a voice spoke inside her head.
Ring~ "Momoka. Did you figure it out yet?"
Her ears stood straight up. It was a telepathic link.
"Yes, Master. The fire isn't real. It only burns the ones who believe it will."
"Close enough. The Beast's fire breath is real. When it hits you, it burns you like any other fire. The lie is that it never stops. After that first burn, the victim's own magical energy keeps the fire going, because the victim is sure it can't be put out. That goes for the Fey. It goes for the great oaks too. Most of those trees can think."
Momoka looked up at the burning oaks. She had never thought of a tree as something that could be afraid.
"That's why my rain did nothing."
"And why my water did nothing. The great oak still believed it was on fire. The river is the same. It's boiling because Fey jumped into it, and their fire followed them in. It will boil for as long as they're alive."
"Master, then those people are...!"
"Nothing I do for them from here will last. Don't think about them. Think about the answer."
Momoka bit her lip and thought.
"If I put everyone to sleep..."
"They will wake up, look around, and start burning again. That only solves the next few minutes. They have to see reason. Every mind here has to be calm enough to accept that the fire can end. That takes a calming spell on a large scale. I can't do that."
Then the answer would be...
"Rain of Blessings," Momoka said. "But not for the sake of healing injuries. This time, to treat fear and stress. I've done it to you more times than I can count. I can do it."
"Correct."
"But I need quite a lot of mana. I used my own for the first one."
Her Master suddenly chuckled. She had not heard that sound in a long time.
"W-What's funny?"
"Nothing. I'm happy you're giving it your all, and at how smart my student is. Look at Black's back."
Black turned around. Between the shoulder plates of his armor ran a thin line of blue light.
"That's my mana channel, through Blastar's armor. Touch it and take what you need."
Momoka reached out and touched the light.
Magical energy rushed into her. It filled her reserves in a few seconds, and it kept coming. The rest poured out of her into the air and hung around her like blue mist, waiting to be used. The Fey nearby stared at her with their mouths open.
"Master, this is too much!"
"Then use too much. I will make sure the Beast doesn't attack your way."
The link went quiet.
"King Oberon." Momoka turned to him. "The fire is an illusion. It only keeps burning because everyone believes it will. I'm going to cast my spell again as a means to calm them all down. The Fey, and the great oaks too," she continued.
Oberon looked up at the trees.
"The oaks..." His one good eye narrowed. "That makes sense. They too are sentient and are therefore susceptible to paranoia."
"I need ten more minutes."
Oberon was still breathing heavily. He had almost nothing left, and both of them knew it. He let out a weak laugh. "You ask a great deal of a king." He stepped in front of her anyway and raised his right hand. "Do your thing, Miss Momoka. The King of Fey will guarantee your safety for ten minutes."
"Push." The pulse was weaker than before. The flames moved back only a few steps. A line of blood ran down from Oberon's nose, and he did not lower his hand. His body was on the verge of starting necrosis due to overuse of magical energy.
Momoka sat down among the Fey, crossed her legs, and closed her eyes.
Black stood behind her like a wall.
***
Ten minutes passed.
The flames were three steps away from Oberon. The King of Fey was down on one knee, and his hand was still raised.
"Flow... mana of the living..."
Momoka opened her eyes and stood up.
She began to dance once more. This time, the mana was not hers. Her Master's blue mist of magical energy followed her hands like ribbons.
"Wash the fear from those who suffer..."
Her fox tail began to glow.
"From here on out..."
"Instead of storm, become clear skies."
Blue flaming orbs appeared around her. They circled her and floated upward and merged into one. It was paler than before. It was like the color of the sky in the early morning.
Momoka stopped her dance and clapped her hands together once.
"Rain of Blessings: Clear Skies!"
SPLASH!
The orb burst, and it began to rain.
It rained over the eastern boundary. It rained on the Fey, and on the great oaks standing closest to them, and no further than her voice could reach.
The drops were soft and warm.
Wherever they fell, the screaming stopped.
Nothing was healed, because there was nothing to heal. But the worried shoulders dropped. The breathing rhythm slowed. The soldier lowered his spear. The pixie mother and child stopped shaking.
The fire was still burning. Everyone was looking, yet they were looking at it quietly. "Trust me, everyone," Momoka said. "The fire isn't real. There is no everlasting fire." She gathered magical energy in her palm until a ball of water floated above it. It was no bigger than her head.
She threw it at the nearest burning oak.
SPLASH!
HISSSSS...
White steam rose from the trunk.
The flames went out. They broke apart into particles of magical energy, drifted upward like fireflies, and disappeared.
Nobody moved.
Then a low creak ran through the oak, from its roots to its highest branch. It sounded like a sigh.
"It went out..."
"The water worked. Did you see that? The water worked!"
Oberon stood up. He walked to a root of one of the great oaks where a flame was still crawling, and he stepped on it. He lifted his foot. The flame was gone.
"My people," he said. His voice was weak, but everyone heard it. "You heard her. It can be put out." He placed his hand on the burned bark. "And you, old ones. You heard her too."
The rain kept falling.
One after another, the flames in the trees went out. Nobody had to throw anything. The villages woven into the branches stopped burning. Some of the elves began to conjure their own water, laughing and crying at the same time. The pixie child flew up and caught the rain in both hands.
A part of the forest went dark. No more fire lit the area. Momoka looked past the edge of her rain. The other areas were still burning. What they had done here wasn't at all enough. But it was enough for something else.
Above the forest, the Beast stopped. Its right head closed its mouth in the middle of a breath. Its tail hung in the air. One by one, the three heads turned toward the dark patch in its sea of fire. For the first time, it was looking at something.
"GRUAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The middle head pulled back. Fire gathered in its throat, and it was aimed at the eastern boundary.
Momoka pulled the pixie child against her chest.
.
BAM!!!
A kick landed on the side of the middle head. Its neck snapped sideways, and the river of fire sprayed into the empty sky.
"Oi. Eyes over here." Upon hitting the head with his leg, Thalamik had already discharged his blade. "Darkside: Blade." Blue waves with black sparks tore through the Beast's body, one after another.
KLANG! KLANG!
Long cuts opened across the black armor.
CRANG! CRANG! CRANG!
Black rings shattered, and the cuts closed again.
Thalamik did not care how many rings were left. Since he had figured out the weakness of this creature, only the easy thing was left. It was to kill it just as it was. All three heads turned to him. The mechanisms on its chest began to spin.
TUNG~ TUNG~ TUNG~ TUNG~ TUNG~
Ten black rings shot out in his direction.
They passed through one afterimage, then a second, then a third. One of them closed around a cloud of smoke. Not a single ring touched him.
"So slow!" By the time the last one missed, Thalamik was above the right head. He grabbed it by the edge of its armor. He turned his body around as he slammed the head down onto a nearby burning hill. The ground shook all the way to the eastern boundary.
BOOOOOM!!!
Dust and smoke rose into the air.
The Beast slowly lifted its heads.
Thalamik was standing in front of it with his coat fluttering in the heat. The flames around his boots were doing nothing to him. He held out his right hand with the palm up, and he curled his fingers twice. Come at me.
"GRUAAAA!!!!!!!!!"
A smirk was evident on Thalamik's face.
***
A long time ago, there was a girl nobody was looking for.
She lived in a house with many children. Then came the year the sky broke and the strange people arrived. On that night, some men carried her to a white room. That room was very cold. There was a table, and a light that hurt her eyes. Oh, there was also a man who washed his hands for a very long time.
"This one is healthy," someone said, pushing a needle into the girl's arm. "Start with the kidneys. Then the rest." The girl did not know what kidneys were. She only knew that nobody in that room was looking at her face. Rather, they focused on the monitors.
Then the door opened.
The men shouted.
Then they stopped shouting.
It became very quiet.
Something warm was dripping from the edge of the table, and it was not hers.
A man knelt down in front of her. He had long ears and a gentle voice. He was the first person that night to look at her face.
"There, there. You are safe now, little one."
He wiped her cheek with his sleeve.
"My name is Lysander. From today, I will take care of you."
He held out his hand.
The girl took it.
It was the kindest thing anyone had ever done for her.