Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme

Despite her grand level of 54, all she amounted to was this. A pile of EXP.

[Level Up! 48 -> 49]

Lumi felt the surge of power he levelled up. Combined with earlier levels he gained today, he was at 49 now. The queen had been strong, and the experience reward for her defeat was massive.

Lena leveled up as well, though only twice.

[Level Up! 36 -> 37]

She died just like that. There wasn’t a grand fight. There was no incredible back and forth. It was not a tale worth telling. And yet, this outcome wasn’t particularly crazy when you thought about it.

The queen had been strong, certainly stronger than all of the pixies they’d fought. But she wasn’t strong enough to endure an onslaught from Seyen, her two lieutenants, and the two humans all attacking simultaneously.

Not to mention, there were dozens of weaker pixies harassing her from the side.

She’d fought well, but the outcome had been inevitable once she was cornered.

As for her followers, they had either died during the battle or abandoned her when it became clear she would lose.

Pixies had no concept of loyalty to a losing cause. When defeat became certain, they scattered like leaves in the wind.

Therefore, there was absolutely no tension regarding the queens fate. Yet she died, the pixies on Seyen’s side immediately began celebrating hard, as if the impossible had happened.

Their voices rose, overlapping and echoing through the forest. Some were dancing midair, spinning and twirling. Others were casting spells into the air to celebrate.

It was little wonder they celebrated so intensely, though.

Who wouldn’t celebrate after winning a war? Especially a war that many had assumed was unwinnable just days ago?

Seyen, however, had an entirely different reaction.

She was relieved, of course. The war was over. She’d won. She was the new queen now, with all the power and status that came with it.

But there was a problem.

Lumi.

He was significantly stronger than she’d given him credit for.

She’d known he was powerful. She’d seen him fight. But seeing the results of the final battle, seeing how much he’d contributed, seeing the efficiency with which he and his companion operated...

It was concerning.

And she knew he wanted her dead.

Not immediately, perhaps. Not right this second. But eventually, when it suited his purposes, he would kill her just as easily as he’d helped her kill Queen Nalare.

Seyen floated in the air, surrounded by celebrating pixies, her mind racing.

What should she do?

She had him surrounded right now. Her forces outnumbered his tiny two person party by hundreds. If she gave the order, they could overwhelm him through sheer numbers.

Should she order his death?

She considered it seriously for several long seconds.

Then...

Naw.

The vibes were off.

See, the thing was, she thought she could kill him right now. Her forces were celebrating, but they’d follow her command. They were loyal to her, at least for the moment.

And that was exactly why she didn’t do it.

If she thought she could kill him, then Lumi must also know this. He wasn’t stupid. He could count. He could see the hundreds of pixies around him.

Yet he was still here, calm and unbothered, which meant he was prepared for exactly this scenario.

Therefore, because she thought she could kill him, she probably couldn’t.

He had some trick, some backup plan, some way to escape or retaliate that she wasn’t seeing. Or at least, she assumed so. She didn’t know what his contingency was, but she was certain it existed.

And if she tried to kill him and failed, she’d fully make him her enemy.

Well, she was already his enemy. Probably. He’d supported a traitor faction to overthrow the previous queen, after all. That was entirely for the sake of killing pixies.

But the vibes. She’d ruin the vibes completely.

Right now, there was an understanding between them. An unspoken agreement that they’d worked together to achieve a mutual goal. If she betrayed that now, immediately after victory, she’d cement herself as someone who couldn’t be trusted or worked with.

So she could let him go and hope he was satisfied.

How much pixie killing could one man do, anyways? He’d gotten his fill from the war. Maybe that was enough. Maybe he’d move on to other things and leave her alone.

Then a thought struck her.

Wait a second.

If he could support a traitor group to overthrow the queen, he could do the same to her. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

She was the queen now. Which meant she was in the exact same position Queen Nalare had been in. She was vulnerable to exactly the same strategy.

If Lumi wanted her dead, he didn’t need to kill her himself. He could just find some ambitious pixie, offer them support, and let them do the work.

Then she needed to give him a reason not to do that.

Seyen made her decision and flew over to where Lumi stood.

"Human." she called out.

Lumi looked up at her, and gave her a small smile. "Queen Seyen."

She landed in front of him, her two lieutenants flanking her. Juik and Koim looked tense, ready to attack if ordered, but Seyen kept her posture relaxed.

"I have a proposal." she said.

Lumi nodded. He thought he had an idea about what this might be. "I’m listening."

Seyen explained herself. "Don’t try to overthrow me, or kill me, please. In exchange..." She paused, choosing her words carefully. "You know how pixies like to hunt, torture, or otherwise are hostile to humans?"

Lumi nodded.

Seyen finished her explanation. "I’ll tone it down under my rule. Significantly. No more raids on human villages. No more capturing humans for entertainment. We’ll keep to ourselves. Or, at least as much as I can control my people."

And though she could be entirely lying, making a promise she had no intention to keep, she wasn’t.

She meant it completely.

Humans were the biggest and most powerful group on the planet. Elenora alone had more humans than there were pixies that she knew existed. And beyond Elenora, there were other human cities, other kingdoms, other concentrations of power.

She wanted power. She couldn’t gain power if she died.

And she would absolutely die if she made humans her enemy. Maybe not today, maybe not this year, but eventually some human force would decide pixies were too much of a problem and wipe them out.

Better to avoid that outcome entirely.

In fact...

A thought occurred to her.

If she became human, wouldn’t that be an upgrade?

She’d be part of the biggest and most powerful group on the planet. She’d have access to human society, human resources, and human magic.

Pixies were strong individually, but limited. Humans had infrastructure, organization, and entire civilizations. These were things pixies were fundamentally incapable of making in a large scale.

Hm.

She now had a new goal. Find a way to become human.

Of course, everything beyond the deal was staying in her head. She wouldn’t tell him about her ambitions or her reasoning.

She just waited for his response.

Lumi didn’t even have to consider the deal. He simply nodded. "Deal."

Although his main goal was experience from the war, it was true that a non-aggressive pixie group is better for humans than an aggressive one. He had no reason to refuse.

Seyen felt a wave of relief wash over her. "Good. Then we have an understanding."

Lumi nodded. "We do."

Anyway, he didn’t have time to continue a war against pixies in a venture that would get him less and less experience if he kept going.

The raid was coming up soon. That took priority over everything else.

And there was a vault to raid before that. The pixie ancestral vault that Lena might be able to infiltrate. He wasn’t entirely sure if Lena could actually pull it off, in fact, he didn’t think she could.

The ancestral spirits would probably see through any disguise or deception. They’d recognize immediately that she wasn’t a pixie.

But why not try?

Seriously, why not?

The worst case scenario was that she got killed and they’d wasted a few hours searching for the vault’s location. The best case scenario was that she somehow succeeded and walked out with ancient pixie treasures.

The risk-reward ratio was heavily skewed toward trying.

For this infiltration attempt, he wouldn’t go with her into the vault itself.

He’d search for it with her, help her locate it, and drop her off at the entrance, but him being there during the actual attempt would be pointless at best and detrimental at worst.

If the ancestral spirits detected a human nearby, they might become hostile immediately. Better for Lena to approach alone, giving her the best possible chance of success.

Besides, he had another job to handle while she was attempting the vault.

Lumi turned to Lena. "Ready to go treasure hunting?"

"Always." Lena said with a grin.

They climbed back into the airship and took off, leaving the celebrating pixies behind.