15 Bad Hair Day

Jade Hargraves found herself in a dimly lit room. The walls were woven by branches and vines. A memory of being stabbed flashed through her mind. A painful memory.

Heaving in cold sweat, Jade wondered where she was. Had she died and transmigrated once again?

However, the pair of horns and wings on her spoke otherwise.

"Wasn't I…"

Jade's eyes widened as she checked her chest for a wound. But, not a scar could be seen as a flawless pale bosom was below her chin.

While trying to move around, Jade felt there was a bag next to her. Peeking at the contents, she gasped.

"Alexis!"

She trembled as a feeling of guilt overwhelmed her.

For her, the girl gave up her innocence.

For her, the girl offered her future.

And for her, the girl relinquished her life.

"I'm sorry."

She started as her nails elongated. Grim tattoos crawled across her body. With an expression filled with indignation, she hacked at the walls. Violet mana flowed out from her petite body as the wooden walls disintegrated.

"Don't worry, Alexis. I'll fix you up soon."

Carrying the bag over her shoulder, Jade stepped out of the room.

There were no tears in the demon girl's eyes for she vowed to never shed a tear until Alexis could cry again.

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"W-what's happening?"

As Ialantha was focusing on her week-long preparations for a magic spell, her residence began vibrating. Slipping off her chair, she rolled backward. A couple of branches caught her upside down. She crossed her pudgy arms and legs.

"An earthquake?"

The surrounding walls were cracking while the floors rattled as if waves were pounding on it.

"Hmph!" Waving her baby hands, tendrils enshrouded the broken parts of the room. However, they could not stop the damage from increasing exponentially.

"Guards!" She called out, yet nobody came.

A mist seeped through the holes and engulfed the room in a matter of seconds.

She gasped. "The fairy's magic!"

She hurriedly activated her magic eyes as they allow her to have greater resistance toward the illusion. However, considering the concentration of mist within her dwelling, her guards were probably trapped within an illusion.

Gathering mana, she connected with the plants, which surrounded her. Controlling the vines and roots as if they were her limbs, she stabilized the stump her residence was made in. By observing through her plants, she discovered that various animals and monsters were ramming into her abode. A group of girls was leading the horde.

"Those are the children who disappeared into the Illusionary Forest!" Ialantha gritted her teeth as she decided to forsake her home. She could always build a new one.

Tendrils drilled through the walls. A wooden golem, formed from trees, emerged from the ground. The golem gently lifted Ialantha away from the crumbling stump.

Now outside, Ialantha could face the perpetrators in person.

"Abominable children! How dare you launch an attack against ME!"

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While Melody and the others were still in the Illusionary Forest, Melody utilized her illusions to control the small group of animals and less intelligent monsters. It was a simple task to fool beings who relied on instinct and soon she assembled an army of critters.

As her body was still young, Melody did not have enough magic power to completely cover the village. So she resorted to using animals and concentrating her mist into Ialantha's tree stump residence. In an enclosed space, Melody did not need to create much mist.

While Melody commanded the animals to charge at the residence, Bridget and Wendy, who were both agile on their legs, would dash in and rescue the others. Meanwhile, Nora, Layla, and Natalie would protect Melody as she operated. Except, a skeleton, a slime, and a fish wouldn't provide much security at all.

Near the turmoil the children had induced, trees sprouted from the terrain and twisted together to generate an enormous humanoid figure. The figure thrust its hand into the massive tree stump and acquired a baby similar to a porcelain doll.

The baby's glass-like eyes moved its gaze around until it landed on Melody. An expression of extreme displeasure surfaced on her small face. However, a deep contralto voice, which contrasted from the infant's appearance, echoed.

"Abominable children! How dare you launch an attack against ME!"

Nora turned toward the voice and spoke, "So that's the Ianfala something Wendy was talking about. She really is a baby! A real lolibaba!"

"I-I think it was Ia-alantha Ph-Phernorla. Do we really h-have to fight a baby?" Natalie felt there was something unethical about beating up toddlers.

Melody retorted, "Who cares! Wendy said she was older than all of us combined!"

"So, we're be-beating up the e-elderly?" Natalie claimed, "Tha-that sounds even worse!"

Rolling her eyes, Melody ordered her minions to bombard the wood golem.

With every swipe of the golem's hand, several animals and monsters would be sent flying. As Melody's illusions could not envelop the entire village, many elven inhabitants exited their houses, wondering what all the commotion was about.

"It's raining monsters! Run!"

"My child is still in there!"

Witnessing carcasses about to plummet into their homes, the elves fled from the village. Not all elves could fight and those who were combatants focused on evacuating the young and weak instead of joining the fray. WIth their dexterity and the forest's protection, the elves were able to retreat without any casualties.

Sweat slid down Melody's face as she yelled, "Guys! I'm running out of magic power!"

Boom!

The golem struck down as Melody said that. Dirt and leaves were propelled into the children's direction.

Soon, Melody reached her limit as the zombie-like animals gradually regained their sanity. In a confusion, they fled from the golem and into the forest.

Ialantha smirked as she observed the children's looks of despair.

"Have you had enough? Now, you will pay for destroying my property!"

Boom!

The remains of the decaying tree stump crumbled into a pile of bark.

Violet aura glimmered from within the remains, and from there, emerged an angry bird. No, a girl with pointed wings. Her hair was a moss attacking her horns. Nails sharper than steel cut through the wooden obstacles that hindered her. A brown bag was slung over her shoulder.

Ialantha gaped at the scene. Narrowing her eyes, she lifted an arm as tendrils arose from the ground. Green whips sprung at Jade in hopes of incapacitating her. However, Jade simply caught all of the slithering offenders and uprooted the plants.

Ialantha wasn't hindered by the loss as she clapped her hands. The forest became soldiers made of wood. Pointing at Jade, Ialantha ordered, "Immobilize her!"

The army charged at the demoness with spears similarly produced from wood. However, once the spears contacted with the aura, they would decay quickly.

Ialantha channeled her mana into the broken pieces of the stump and recycled them into more soldiers. Eco-friendly minions blitzed at Jade. Unlike the other soldiers, these ones did not decay due to the violet aura.

As an unlimited amount of soldiers assaulted, Jade's movements began to falter. The bag dropped from her hand.

Seeing an opening, Ialantha directed the wooden golem to pulverize the demoness.

Just before the golem stomped on Jade, a red light shot out from the debris and tackled the foot. The golem tipped over and tumbled into the devastated forest.

Using this chance, Jade sprinted to the baby and grabbed her by the head.

Ialantha persisted on struggling within Jade's grip as she pulled on Jade's fingers.

However, every time she tried using magic, Jade would punch the infant in the gut.

The demoness turned her head to Melody and roared, "Would anyone explain what the f*** is going on?"

Melody cried out, "More importantly! What's wrong with your hair! It's godawful!"

The demoness continued to roar deafeningly.

-------

Jae watched the scene next to Iris several paces away from the battlefield. The piles of wood chips reminded him of a playground filled with bark, which was what his teachers termed the "barkbox", in his preschool. He winced as he reminisced about swallowing a mouthful of splinters with tiny wooden needles prickling his eyes when he tripped into one.

"I think I would have died if I had joined," he commented.

"At least your terrible luck didn't doom everyone," Iris smiled with her usual expression.

"Hey, I'm planning on changing that in one way or another."

A girl with angelic wings approached the duo. She seemed to have escaped from the collapsing stump only a little while ago.

"Why are you two lazing around here?" Clara raised an eyebrow. Considering how she had gone through the same things as Jae, she appeared hundreds of times cleaner.

"We got out of jail only to see a scene similar to a movie's. Not sure how to help without getting involved and dying from a stray piece of bark or something," Jae shrugged, "Plus, they seemed alright without us."

"Just join the others," Clara sighed as she turned around and left.

Iris tapped Jae's shoulder. "What?" He questioned while she pointed at a large chunk of bark impaling his back.

"Oh."

Nonchalantly removing the splinter, a geyser of blood was released. Except, the wound vanished after less than minute.

"Jae! Iris! You guys were alright!" Bridget and Wendy scrambled to Jae and Iris.

"What happened to you, Jae? You look awful," Bridget inquired at the disheveled boy.

"I rolled around in my sleep for the past week," he replied as next to him, a certain girl giggled like a dolphin.

Bridget tilted her head, perplexed. "Well, I see that Jade is hail and healthy. How about we move over there?"

Jae nodded as they trodded to Jade and Ialantha. On the way, they picked up a fallen Scarlett and added her to their inventory.

-------

"Let me go!"

The eleven children and one bag faced Ialantha who was clasped tightly by Jade. If they tied her with vines like their other victim, she would easily free herself.

"No way. First, you tried demanding for Iris. Next, you threatened that you would have killed us if not for Iris. You imprisoned half of us and sought to capture the rest. Then, you attacked Melody and Jade. You even hurt Scarlett somehow," Jae coldly stared at Ialantha.

"Wait! The last two were out of self-defense! They attacked first and ruined my village! The last one was her own fault for charging in like an idiot! Wah...st-top t-t-that!" Jade held the baby by the head and shook her.

Jade paused as Ialantha continued, "A-and you! You should be thanking me for healing your disgusting demon body instead of treating me like this."

She resumed swaying Ialantha by the head until Clara berated her, "What's wrong with you today? Is it that time of the month?"

The demoness remained silent.

Melody whispered into Clara's feather covered ear, "I think she's mad about her hair."

"Don't mention the hair!" Jade growled.

Melody murmured, "See?"

Clara replied, "It shouldn't only be because of the hair. She looks a bit different."

"For now~, why don't we wait for her to calm down~" Wendy chimed in.

Disregarding the side conversation, Jae interrogated Ialantha, "So, why do you need Iris?"

Ialantha looked away, however, Jade began ripping the old elf's scalp.

"Wait! Stop! I only needed the dryad's heart to revive the entire dryad race!" Tears streamed down as Ialantha's body was too young to control her tear ducts.

"Eh?"