The Innkeeper

Chapter 2379: Picking Sides - VI Fairies

There were many Hells in the universe. Some were big, some were small, and a very few occupied the entire realm in which they existed, with Garvitz being one such example. It just so happened that Garvitz was also a Major realm.

However, sometimes Hells occupied their entire realms, but the realms themselves remained immature, not yet fully grown to the status of a Major realm. One such Hell was called Cindersoul.

Across the universe, those who knew of Cindersoul were very few, which was odd considering it could support life up to the Celestial Immortal level. Those who inhabited the realm were extremely few, and those who knew of its history bordered on non-existent.

When Tinker, the Earth Immortal Fairy who was rescued by Jack during his trial within the Artica realm, escaped the Hell within which she was imprisoned, she ended up in Cindersoul. She experienced firsthand why this particular Hell was so scarcely populated, and why even those who knew about this Hell simply ignored it.

It was because as soon as one entered Cindersoul, their soul would begin to burn. It was not the kind of eternal, repeatable torture that Hells were famous for. No, this burning caused genuine soul damage that was hard to repair, provided the target left quick enough. If they did not, then their souls would burn until they died.

The soul burned at a fixed and unavoidable rate, regardless of whether one was mortal or Immortal. This meant that the only living beings within the whole realm were a few minor races that had adapted to repair their burning souls as fast as, or faster than they were burnt.

Tinker, naturally, could not do that as she was a fairy with the majority of her powers sealed or stripped by an ancient foe. Yet this had not alarmed her, for she had specifically made her way to Cindersoul knowing all this already for a very specific reason!

In the countless years she had spent imprisoned, she had learned more than just how to endure torture. She had learned a tremendous amount about Hells, and even some long-forgotten secrets about Cindersoul.

For example, she had learned that hidden within Cindersoul there existed a building that looked something like an ancient family home. The building was somehow fused into the laws of the realm, so it’s less a physical structure and more a physical manifestation of laws - something that should not happen and doesn’t make sense, but since the universe didn’t have a report bug option, no one could do anything about it.

More importantly, the laws within the home seemed contrary to the rest of the realm, and seemed to supersede the rest of the realm, actually. Thus, within the building, people could live safely without getting their souls burned. Still, living inside one building within a whole realm wasn’t really the most desirable option.

She didn’t care, though. It was the perfect hiding spot, not just for her, but for the Fairy Rebellion! Thus, over the past many years, she had found the house within Cindersoul.

The house was more of a mansion than a house, and it seemed to have a number of rules governing its own existence, so anyone or anything which tried to harm the house gets evicted. That meant that no local wild beast or hellion was present within the mansion, but that it was being used as a hideout by a number of refugees and outlaws.

However, almost everyone who was hiding out within Cindersoul was the type who had, more or less, given up on life. As long as they were not bothered, they would not bother anyone.

After asking among the residents of the building, she discovered that over 70% of those who used the building as a hideout eventually developed a heart demon, at which point the house would evict them itself. Or if any of them tried to fight each other, the house would evict them. Or basically, if anyone did anything to upset the house, they’d get evicted. Thus, they had to stay on their best behavior.

Tinker very easily turned a section of that house into the Fairy Stronghold, where she gathered fairies from across the universe to indoctrinate them about Jack the Hell Slayer, and the new path forward for fairies in the universe. What that path was, they had a vague idea, but they did not know how to walk it just yet. They were waiting for some kind of inspiration - or perhaps a sign.

She was doing fine, smuggling in fairies in multiple batches using a private channel between Hells she’d learned about, right up until pretty much everything got disconnected, leaving her and the band of fairies she gathered isolated within Cindersoul.

Without anything else to do, all Tinker could do was roam the mansion, explore its halls and read through its entirely outdated yet incredibly large library. That is where she learned that sometimes... old and forgotten, outdated knowledge wasn’t necessarily as outdated as it seemed.

She hugged the old diary she had been reading with all her might, as if the diary were her most beloved thing in the world. Oddly enough, the house seemed to respond to her warmly, as if it appreciated her appreciation.

Then, she carefully placed the diary back in its place before rushing out to the other fairies and gathered them into a group.

"My fellow brethren, I have found for us a path forward - a path outlined for us by the hero Jack the Hell Slayer, but one I did not understand until quite recently," Tinker said, her entire being trembling from the intensity of the passion that filled her tiny body in that moment.

"As unfortunate as it is, we need to accept that it is impossible to return to the days of old. The Fairy race of the past... was too powerful, yet our personalities did not match our power, and so the forces of the universe stripped it from us. As one of the founders of the Path of Order, we have now been relegated to a race so subjugated, we are beyond even enslaving. We are simply taken wherever we are by whoever desires to do so. Yet no more!

"Previously, we were aligned solely with the concept of joy, and we derived our power from it. Yet naught but a few years ago, I saw the hero Jack the Hell Slayer use merely his words to wreak devastation across a Hell, while taking in unbelievable joy from his behavior. It is the path we must now align to.

"I declare unto you now, fellow fairies, henceforth, we must abandon the path of joy and embrace the unholy path of... Pun-ishments!"

A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, and a deep roar of thunder roared across Cindersoul as if in response to her words. It seemed that her declaration was most ominous.

"But how do we do that?" asked another hopeless fairy. "How can we just change a fundamental part of our being? I fear... even if we manage that, we will still be cursed."

Tinker smirked and brought all the fairies alongside her as she went into the depths of the library, careful not to attract the attention of the others in the house. She entered the internal greenhouse of the house, which was distinct from the external gardens which existed within the mansion walls, and approached a seemingly simple, round ornament mirror with a handle that could be held easily and used to look at one’s own reflection.

The ornament was actually broken so that on one side, merely a small piece of the mirror was left, and on the back a moon that was now broken. She stood in front of the mirror, glancing at her own reflection, and kneeled, beginning the ceremony.