Fairy Tale Survival with Ability Copying

Levi recalled the fuller version of this fairy tale:

In a beautiful garden lived a Rose Fairy, invisible to the naked eye.

Tiny and adorable, with wings on his back, he spent his days frolicking among the rose petals.

One evening, after all the roses had closed their blossoms, the fairy found himself with nowhere to go and hid inside a honeysuckle pavilion at the far end of the garden.

There, he witnessed the sorrowful farewell of two lovers.

The young woman's brother disliked the young man and sent him away on business to a distant place.

Before they parted, the girl gave the young man a rose she had kissed. By chance, the fairy flew into that very flower.

As the young man carried the rose through the forest, the girl's vicious brother suddenly appeared, stabbed him to death with a knife, cut off his head, and buried both the head and body beneath a linden tree.

The fairy witnessed the horrifying scene. Hiding inside a dried leaf stuck to the murderer's hat, he followed him home.

That night, the fairy flew to the sleeping girl's ear and told her the truth about the murder, as well as the location of the body. He also left behind the dried leaf as evidence.

When the girl awoke, she was overcome with grief. In the middle of the night, she went alone into the forest and found her lover's severed head.

She carried it home, buried it in a flowerpot, and planted a jasmine branch above it.

From then on, she wept every day. Growing thinner and more haggard with each passing day, she eventually died from longing and heartbreak.

The cruel brother later moved the jasmine plant into his own bedroom.

The fairy followed it inside and discovered that many souls had appeared within the jasmine. He told the truth to those souls and to the Queen Bee.

The souls dwelling in the jasmine took up poisoned swords and, during the night, stabbed at the murderer's tongue, plunging him into terrible nightmares.

The next morning, the bees, acting on the Rose Fairy's request, came to avenge the lovers. However, the murderer was already dead. People believed he had been intoxicated to death by the fragrance of the jasmine flowers.

When someone later moved the flowerpot, a bee stung his hand. The pot fell and shattered, revealing the severed head hidden inside.

At last, the truth came to light.

That was the story.

However, the tale never explained what became of the souls that had grown inside the jasmine flower.

Levi's gaze settled on the area behind the Rose Fairy below. To ordinary eyes, nothing could be seen there, but Levi saw a group of murderous beings roughly the same size as the fairy.

Each of them carried a poisoned sword and was pursuing the Rose Fairy.

The Rose Fairy looked tense and kept urging the little bird to fly faster.

Suddenly, he let out a sigh of relief.

The next second, both he and the bird vanished.

It was obvious they had entered the Fairy Kingdom.

Since Levi was not currently transformed into a Nightingale, he could not see what was happening inside the Fairy Kingdom.

His attention, however, was fixed on those sword-wielding creatures.

There were forty-four of them.

Though they resembled Flower Fairies, they lacked wings.

They were Corrupted Spirits.

A type of special creature associated with Flower Fairies, born from flowers growing upon corpses through a combination of unresolved resentment, unfulfilled love, despair, and sheer chance.

After coming into existence, their first act was always to kill the person most hated by the corpse from which they originated.

Afterward, they expanded their targets to other living beings.

Once a creature was marked by them, they would pursue it until death.

There was no doubt about it.

These Corrupted Spirits were the special vengeful spirits born from the jasmine flower that had grown from the young lover's severed head in the fairy tale The Elf of the Rose.

Detection had already identified them for Levi.

What Levi had not expected was that after killing the murderous brother in the fairy tale, there had actually been more to the story.

They had set their sights on the Rose Fairy.

Rose Fairies and Corrupted Spirits were naturally opposed existences. Their very nature provoked mutual hostility.

So the Rose Fairy had become their target?!!

It was rather ironic.

The combat strength of Corrupted Spirits was not particularly impressive.

Of course, that assessment was from the perspective of Levi, a Third-Ring Wizard.

For a Rose Fairy, which possessed virtually no offensive power, they were an unstoppable threat.

That was why the little fellow could only run.

He had fled to the Fairy Kingdom.

Apparently, he was relying on the strength of his people—or more precisely, hoping that the Fairy Kingdom's barrier would keep the Corrupted Spirits out.

Unfortunately, it seemed the barrier could not stop them.

One after another, the Corrupted Spirits entered the Fairy Kingdom and disappeared from Levi's sight.

All except the last one.

That final Corrupted Spirit was seized by Levi, who descended from the sky and captured it with Wizard's Hand.

A Third-Ring level Wizard's Hand possessed a binding ability.

Capturing a tiny Corrupted Spirit was effortless.

The creature had no ability to resist and was immediately restrained.

When Levi touched it, the golden finger within him, Origin Energy, reacted once again.

Inside his Sea of Souls, a thirteenth spell crystal rapidly formed before his eyes.

Corrupted Spirit Polymorph!

Looking at the growing collection of Polymorph spells within his Sea of Souls, Levi couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Ordinary wizards and witches turning into cats, frogs, or owls was nothing unusual.

But the creatures Levi could transform into were becoming increasingly numerous—and increasingly bizarre.

His expression turned strange as he shifted his gaze back to the captured Corrupted Spirit before him. Blue light flickered within his eyes.

Levi had originally intended to have a proper conversation with it.

Unfortunately, the creature's mind contained nothing but a desire for destruction and slaughter. It was like those lovers who couldn't be together and wished the entire world would remain single out of spite.

Levi shook his head.

In reality, once you got married, you'd realize being single was better.

Too young.

This Corrupted Spirit was completely impossible to communicate with.

Left with no choice, Levi closed his Wizard's Hand.

The creature, born from the flower growing upon that pitiful and tragic corpse, was instantly crushed out of existence.

Stretching his body, Levi transformed into a Nightingale.

The world of the Fairy Kingdom unfolded before him once more, and he flew inside.

At this moment, the forty-three Corrupted Spirits had completely surrounded the Flower Fairies.

The Rose Fairy was among them.

Many Flower Fairies were injured, bleeding a fragrant liquid resembling floral sap.

These wounds had been inflicted by the poisoned swords carried by the Corrupted Spirits.

One had to know that the innate poisoned swords of Corrupted Spirits carried soul-damaging properties.

In the fairy tale The Elf of the Rose, the murderous older brother had been killed by just such a blade.

That alone showed how terrifying the poison was.

Thanks to his wedding with Thumbelina, the Flower Fairy King had received the blessing of the God of Love. Combined with the mysterious power-enhancing effects of Thumbelina, he had advanced to the level of a Second-Ring Flower Fairy and gained access to several offensive spells.

Even so, he remained at a disadvantage against the attacks of forty-three Corrupted Spirits.

The result was the encirclement before them.

At this rate, they were about to be slaughtered.

The Rose Fairy looked full of guilt as he said to the Flower Fairy King ahead of him, "I'm sorry. I didn't know... I dragged all of you into this!"

"It's alright. This isn't your fault!"

Even at a time like this, the Flower Fairy King was still comforting him.

"Little brother."

"Big brother!"

Tears shimmered in the Rose Fairy's eyes.

"The God of Love will protect us!" the Flower Fairy King declared firmly.

The moment he finished speaking, the Corrupted Spirits launched another attack.

Many Flower Fairies were severely wounded once again.

They lost the ability to fly and fell to the ground, barely clinging to life.

The Flower Fairy King himself was besieged by several Corrupted Spirits and was in equally miserable condition.

As for Queen Thumbelina, who possessed virtually no offensive abilities, her situation was even worse.

That was the scene Levi saw upon entering the Fairy Kingdom.

He transformed back into human form and appeared before both the Flower Fairies and the Corrupted Spirits.

Several Corrupted Spirits noticed him and immediately flew over, intending to kill him as well.

Instead, Levi casually crushed them in his hand.

The Corrupted Spirits burst apart like overripe fruit.

The Flower Fairy King's eyes lit up when he saw this.

"Please! Help us!"

At this moment, none of the pride he had displayed when rejecting Levi's employment offer remained.

Levi, however, remained completely unhurried.

"Your Majesty," he asked, "are you willing to bring your people to work for my territory?"

The Flower Fairy King's expression changed instantly.

At a moment like this, Levi was actually taking advantage of the situation.

It was outrageous.

More importantly, Levi's original offer had only been to hire a portion of their people.

Now he wanted the entire race.

The Flower Fairy King was so angry his mouth nearly twisted crooked.

He would rather die than accept such a condition.

"Ahhh!"

Thumbelina's scream suddenly rang out.

A Corrupted Spirit had stabbed her with its poisoned sword.

The Flower Fairy King's face turned deathly pale.

He immediately shouted at Levi,

"I agree!"

The moment those words left his mouth, every Corrupted Spirit froze in place.

They had all been restrained by Levi's Wizard's Hand.

The Flower Fairy King, the Rose Fairy, and the other Flower Fairies stared blankly at the scene.

Before they could understand what had happened, they saw all the Corrupted Spirits being dragged toward Levi and compressed into a single mass.

Levi clenched his hand in the air.

The Corrupted Spirits released shrill, miserable screams before being crushed apart and reduced to drifting ash.

Watching this, the Flower Fairy King's expression became incredibly complicated.

He had never imagined that Levi—the man who had always spoken to them so kindly—could be this terrifying.

His face turned somewhat pale.

His younger brother, the Rose Fairy, was far bolder.

Not only was he unafraid, but he was fascinated by Levi's power.

Flying up in front of him, he exclaimed in amazement, "You're so strong!"

That sounded a little strange.

Levi glanced at him and nodded calmly.

Fortunately, this little guy had brought disaster straight to his own doorstep.

Otherwise, convincing these Flower Fairies would have been far more difficult.

Still, once they arrived at his Floating Cloud Territory, he was definitely going to assign this fellow the hardest and most exhausting jobs.

Thinking this, Levi shifted his attention to the heavily injured Flower Fairies scattered across the ground.

These were his future workforce, after all.

Raising an eyebrow, Levi summoned a warm radiance into his hand.

A Third-Ring Healing spell was activated.

It transformed into a vast sea of white light that descended upon every Flower Fairy present.