Tale of Discovery

Chapter 213: Farewell ; (Spoiler) ; Gate (FC)

Currently, I'm near the great tree at the center of Iaron with the girls who are going to accompany me back to the Rift.

Our group consists of all the Codes, the angels, Ddraig, Tiffania, and Saturnus.

Irene claimed that she is unable to get near a Core, so she discarded her body.

Tiamat and Aurora are both in the Familiar Space, as usual.

Naturally, our group has garnered a lot of attention from the inhabitants of this place.

Numerous elves have already attempted to contact Gabriel and me, but they were quickly stopped in their tracks by a glare from Aruru.

Quite some time ago, I bid farewell to everyone in this Platform.

Henrietta asked me several questions regarding where I was going, but I decided against revealing the existence of the Rift and Platforms to her.

Not only would that be pointless, but it could cause me trouble.

In the end, I shared a departing kiss with Henrietta, Kirche, and Louise.

As expected, the latter immediately entered a state of shock as she didn't expect me to kiss her.

As for Charlotte, I settled with just giving her a warm hug. After all, we're not all that close yet.

"Victor," Yuno's voice interrupts my thoughts.

Turning around, I look her in the eyes with a questioning gaze.

"What do you plan to do after returning?"

Hearing her question, the rest of the girls curiously wait for my response.

"Settle unfinished business before heading over to the next Platform," I reply.

"Do you know where you'll be heading next?" she continues.

"No," I casually respond.

"Well then," I say before she can ask me any further questions, "Tiffania, do your thing."

As Tiffania walks forward to 'activate' the tree, I deliberate on why we're doing this.

In reality, since I've been to the Lost Continent before, I could teleport there anytime I want to. However, I won't be doing that this time around.

The reason for that is because I want to observe what the elves think of us and see if manipulating them would be an easy feat in the future.

So far, they seem to be pretty accepting of us, despite us not resembling elves. Well, apart from Tiffania and Gaia.

Soon, the gateway inside the tree opens, amazing Aruru, who wasn't here the last time this happened.

"Let's go," I say before passing through the gateway.

--

"You girls stay here for now," I say once we're near Gaia's statue.

They all voice their confirmations before I fly over to the statue that's missing its upper half.

{Father, I'm sensing energy waves similar to that of Codes.}

From the way you phrased it, you're saying that it's not a Code, but something similar?

{Affirmative.}

Intriguing. So, the Cores are related to Code's, huh? Now that I think about it, there was something about Codes being able to access their cores or something along those lines.

{According to the waves I'm detecting, Platform Cores and Code Cores are entirely distinct.}

Well, I expected as much.

Shortly, I find myself floating atop the broken statue. Utilizing my Clairvoyance, I carefully examine it from the bottom to the collapsed section.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to find anything out of place. As such, the Core must be inside the statue then.

Taking a deep breath, I encompass my body in Destruction before disabling flight.

As I fall toward the statue, I use Vector Manipulation to multiply my speed several folds.

A few seconds later, I directly punch the statue with everything I've got while spreading Destruction through the cracks that form after I do so.

Through my senses, I detect something in the statue's right thigh, so I avoid damaging it to the best of my capability.

Shortly after this, the statue crumbles as a green palm-sized orb enters my sight.

I immediately dissipate the energy around me and utilize Godspeed to grab the orb while blocking all the debris around me by Vector Manipulation.

Once I'm a few meters away from the still-crumbling statute, I inspect the orb in my hands with intrigue.

Surprisingly, inside the orb, there is a tiny winged-girl with pointy ears who's holding a little necklace.

Due to the orb's color, I'm unable to tell the color of her attire. From what I can tell, she is wearing a vertically striped one-piece dress that covers her legs up to her chest and a flower on her head.

Additionally, the tiny girl has two bracelets around her right wrist and another two around her left wrist. For some reason, I feel that my body weakens when I gaze at the bracelets.

Anyway, is this fairy-like girl the Core?

{Negative. The Core is the gem attached to the necklace.}

Oh. Then, all I have to do is shatter the orb.

And so, I begin to transmit Destruction into the orb. However, to my surprise, the green sphere absorbs the energy.

Not willing to give up, I continue to transfer energy, albeit at a much faster rate than before.

Fortunately, the orb seems to be unable to absorb any longer as it directly shatters into unperceivable particles along with one of the bracelets on the tiny girl's left wrist.

I gently grab the fairy-like girl and inspect her attire once more. Now, I can see that the one-piece dress is light mint green, similar to her hair.

All of a sudden, the girl's body twitches as she slowly opens her eyes, revealing emerald green irises.

The moment the girl sets her sight on me, her body flinches as a terrified expression appears on her face.

She tries to escape my grasp but is unable to budge my fingers, despite my clasp on her not being tight in any way.

What's with this girl? Irene, do you have anything to share about her?

{Negative. The entity in Father's hand is most likely native to the Platform: Sorcerers' Lair.}

Huh? Are there more of these little girls out there?

Whatever, for now, I should make it clear that I don't pose any threat to her.

Raising my left arm, I slowly bring my finger closer to the fairy-like girl while ignoring her heightened struggle.

Realizing that she won't be able to escape, the girl shuts her eyes, as if resolving herself to a horrible fate.

Seeing this, I issue a light chuckle before tapping her head as gently as possible while saying, "Greetings, little one."

My actions startle the fairy as she opens her eyes before curiously observing my face.

Beaming her a smile, I tenderly rub the tip of my finger against her cheek and say, "I'm not going to hurt you."

Despite seeming to not understand my words, a smile forms on her tiny lips as she presses her head against my finger.

It seems like she trusts me now. Well then, here goes nothing.

I loosen my grasp on her body and shift the position of my hand so that she is standing atop my palm.

"What's your name?" I ask.

The fairy's expression remains the same as she silently observes me with the same smile on her lips.

I cough once before pointing at myself and saying, "Victor."

Then, I point at her chest and say, "You?"

Fortunately, she seems to be quite intelligent as she raises her small arm and points at herself before saying, "Eri!"

To my pleasant surprise, her voice is extremely soothing and has a 'ringing' effect to it. All in all, it makes her seem much more adorable.

I once more rub my finger against her cheek, which causes her leaf-like translucent wings to flutter a little.

"Come, I will take you to meet my companions," I say, despite knowing she wouldn't understand a word of mine.

I lightly grasp Eri's body before flying toward where the rest are waiting while covering Eri's exposed head by my palm to protect her from wind currents.

Soon, I find myself back where the girls are.

"Father!" Aruru cheerfully exclaims, while the rest smile in relief.

"Hey, did you have to destroy that statue?" Krul questions with a tired expression.

"Why? Is there something wrong?" I ask, confused.

"It was worrying, you know? Seeing a giant statue get obliterated so easily is troubling," she responds.

"Come on, now," I say while grinning, "You know better than most about my capabilities."

"Still," she rebukes, "why did you have to do that?"

"To save her," I say while raising my hand, revealing Eri who is sitting on my palm with a curious expression on her face.

Everyone present reacts differently to her appearance. Gaia's reaction was unique as she frowned while inspecting Eri.

"Gaia?" I say.

"This child is a fairy," Gaia says, "A race that's supposed to be extinct."

"What?" a shocked voice escapes my lips.

Oi! Is she serious? Eri is the last of her kind? That's disturbing in more ways than one.

"Are you sure about that?" I question while squinting my eyes.

"Yes," Gaia responds with certainty.

Damn it. What happened to the rest of the fairies? If it has something to do with humans, I'm going to commence a crusade without any hesitation.

Hold on, why am I overreacting like this? This matter shouldn't be something worth my concern. Unless...

"Gaia," I say as the atmosphere tenses, "Can you tell how old is this fairy?"

"Three days," comes an immediate response from the mature woman.

Three days? I see. Hopefully, they went extinct due to some circumstances related to other races. Otherwise...

"Gaia," I say, intending to ask her about the reason they went extinct, but before I can do so, Eri flaps her wings and glides off my hand.

"Eri?" I question while probing her.

She doesn't seem to hear me as Eri gradually ascends to the sky in the direction of the statue's head.

Shortly, I notice the gem attached to the necklace glow in a green that seems to grow in intensity as she gets closer to the statue's head.

A few seconds later, Eri reaches the statue's head. She stays in that position for a short while before grasping the necklace and placing it against the statue's temples.

The next moment, the ground trembles as numerous lines appear all over the statue's body.

After a few minutes, a giant green portal appears in front of the statue. The portal is swirling, seemingly inviting us inside.

{Core accessed. Establishing a connection with the Rift...}

{Success.}

{Database updated.}

Hearing the series of reports from AI, a small smile forms on my face as I mutter, "I'm home."

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Complete Title:- Farewell ; Eri ; Gate