It's raining heavily, and to make matters worse, we're in trouble as we search for temporary refuge.
A Meadow Feral called Frogapol, a beast resembling a bullfrog, has transformed into a more feverish version of itself and grown ten times its size after obtaining a diamond fragment.
It's blocking our path and wants to acquire the Diamond Oyster fragments in my possession.
Floette, with her flesh-cutting claws and hair-whipping adeptness, didn't make a bruise against Frogapol. Whenever she attempted a close combat, she'd be blocked by the monster's spiraling air, and her hair would be dragged by the windstorm, leaving her smacked on the ground.
"Why are you causing this much commotion?" Floette began to tease him. "Is it because no woman would ever kiss you? How desperate."
"I wouldn't kiss a Ghoul like you either – you lack feminine qualities!"
"Coming from a man-child, how insulting! I'm not just an ordinary woman; I'm exceptional."
Rosenth, with her bone-made spear and shield, would look like a synthetic toy if it hit Frogapol's ironplated skin. Though she displays exceptional fighting maneuvers, the whirlwind just slows her down.
Due to the wind shielding Frogapol, I had a hard time aiming the diamond fragment buried in his bellyband.
We're counting on Kooki, as his cloud-summoning conjurations are a match for Frogapol's wind powers. He may look cushiony and pillowy, but this little sofa-ornamental creature would go full devil mode when positioned in the frontline.
"Leave this to me," Kooki said, assuring us that his abilities would not go to waste.
"No matter how strong an enemy is, it still has a weak spot, yet this one's ingeniously concealed his." Rosenth had just refrained from catapulting another attack and put the rest in the hands of Kooki. She even gave him a smile as if giving Kooki a pat on his shoulder, and so did I.
Kooki then raised his hands and mumbled an unfathomable language.
A cirrus cloud then appeared above Frogapol's head and hit him with feathery bullets.
A cumulus cloud could pour out crates of dynamite.
A stratus cloud could throw out piles of flaming boulders.
A stratocumulus cloud could give out a numbing miasma.
A nimbus cloud could rain a fistful of water beams.
Kooki did these tricks simultaneously, and due to his restless summoning, his body started to deflate. And when a cumulonimbus cloud appeared, a large roaring thunderbolt hit Frogapol, pulverizing him and leaving a diamond fragment.
Kooki drained out, and we immediately came to his aid. We were dumbfounded when Kooki's monochrome color faded and changed into opalescent. His aura became angelic, and he looked even more squishy!
"Poor little guy," Rosenth said sincerely as she peeked at Kooki, who's unconscious in my arms, and gently patted his head. "He poured his life out so he could beat Frogapol."
"That's what he gets when he plays the main character." Floette, with her condescending tone, showed off her best empathy.
"Frogapol's just waiting for you to give in to him, Floette. How can you not see that?" I tried to tease her. "If only you'd kiss him, Kooki won't end up like this. Frogapol might turn into a handsome prince charming, and he could be your greatest love."
"I may be a glacial, vainglorious, megalomaniac Ghoul, but I do have my own taste in men!"
As we hiked, Kooki was worn out, and we arrived at a posh village. A vassal approached us, asking if we were travelers who exterminate roaming evil entities.
Floette asked the vassal what his business was if we were truly exorcists. The vassal replied that if we could send away the entity that kept disturbing the palace, we would be granted a stay and a grand feast.
Floette immediately accepted the offer, leaving me pressured.
She'd introduced me as an exorcist, plus my uniform, which was peculiar clothing for this era, made the vassal convinced that I was a pro-level exorcist.
This was my only choice if we wanted a nice, comfy place, since Kooki needed to rest properly – I had to play pretend.
Luckily, Floette guided me on what to do, and more luckily, the entity we discovered is just weak and a prankster. To cut to the chase, Floette and the entity made an agreement. We had a place to stay, and our stomachs were full!
Everybody is asleep, and as the insomniac I am, I'm just staring at the ceiling. Each of us has our own room, so I don't know what's going on with the rest of the gang, except that they're asleep. But I hear someone tiptoeing outside the guest room.
Based on the shadow's silhouette, a lady is going to the room where Kooki is lying – the princess!
I have a bad feeling that something's going on, so I walked out of the room and followed Princess Peonymph.
I peeked at the open door and saw the princess sitting beside the sleeping Kooki.
She put a wooden plate with small bottles on it, containing assorted colored liquids. She then grabbed a small bottle, opened its cork lid, and I stopped her before she poisoned Kooki.
"Stop it right there!"
She was shaken by my unexpected entrance.
"It's not what you think. I was just giving him some medicine," she explained nervously.
She seemed to be telling the truth, but there was something suspicious about her.
She heaved a deep sigh before turning to face me, and when she closed her eyes, she glowed candescently, blinding my vision.
When the light vanished, a colorful, round, fluffy creature with big, expressive eyes floated in front of me and showered me with glittery confetti to make a good first impression.
It flew towards me and showered me with confetti, making me sneeze. It was so playful that you found it hard to catch, and the most surprising thing was, it looked like Kooki, except that it was full of colors.
The palace king and the guards emerged to know the cause of the commotion, but when they saw the princess who had transformed into a Pixiepop, they calmed down their behavior.
Floette and Rosenth, who were awakened by the light, rushed their way to Kooki's room.
"We are Pixiepops who disguise ourselves as humans," said Princess Peonymph as she returned to her human form. "A voodooist named Mezoid demolished our sanctuary and captured us to be part of his cult. Many of our fellowmen were turned into apathetical green-skinned monsters called Grimsbies, and to avoid being hunted, we created a spell that would make us camouflage with the humans."
According to her, before Mezoid's demolition happened, Kooki was living with them in the sanctuary. However, many Pixiepops viewed Kooki as indifferent to them since he had his own principles.
They were playful and mischievous, while he was curious and serious-minded.
They were into extroversion, while he was distant.
They made Kooki the laughing stock in the sanctuary, which drove him to run away.
They were very sorry, but I felt a bit outraged, and a part of me told me that they deserved what happened to the sanctuary.
''Kooki might have taught himself a casting spell that would change his color because seeing his vibrant fur reminds him of the Pixiepops that outcast him,'' the princess added.
We heard scurrying footsteps coming towards the room. A platoon of palace guards emerged from the door frantically.
"The Three-stringer Hunter has uncovered our location. He's inside the enclosure, causing an obstruction!" informed one of the guards, which jarred the king.
"Impossible!" The king exclaimed.
"Few of our men are confronting him at this point, while the others have been captured already," spoke the other guard.
The guards needed backup, so we hurried outside the palace.
My hunch was right when the man in the elephant-like helmet, Kawari, grimaced at me as if he was greeting a longtime friend.
With him were the pesky Grimsbies, and it came to my attention that there was a new breed of Grimsby.
This one was muscular, like one of those gym rats.
"How did you find out about us?" the King asked Kawari, shakily. Kawari just let out a vainglorious sneer.
"Ask that kid beside you. I put a tracker in him - a parasite that would help us locate your hiding place," Kawari revealed, and that made the Pixiepops grow frenzied, as if they were going to gang up on me.
"Stop it!" Floette chimed in. "It didn't occur to Kintsugi that he was being used as bait to trap you."
Rosenth also came to my defense, and as the mad Pixiepops drew near us, it was the right time for Kawari and the Grimsbies to attack us.
We were blown away and thrown by the blue flashing beams perpetually emitted from Kawari's ax, adding to their blitzkrieg the ground-crushing skillset of the gym rat Grimsby.
When we were left crawling for our lives, the Grimsbies then threw an orb, one by one, to each of the knocked-out palace guards in their Pixiepop form. The orbs absorbed them, holding them captive.
The king, who's been impaled, wants to show his might to Kawari and prove that he would do everything to protect his kind.
"I won't let you get away with this!"
"You wish. You may look like an imperious ruler, but beneath the surface lies a fluffy exterior. A Pixiepop like you is what our master is searching for. You could be an indestructible Grimsby in the making."
The king yelled out a battle cry and summoned all the bamboozling magic spells he could think of against Kawari; however, the latter was impervious to any of his attacks, and in the end, the king faced the same fate as his people – he was caged in the orb.
Kooki, who was now awake and in the process of convalescence, was aided by Princess Peonymph, and based on their closeness, they had already reconciled.
Unfortunately, the news of them being the only remaining Pixiepops left them stupefied.
"Let's make things easier said than done," Kawari said in a self-asserting tone, confident that he'd succeed in his mission.
"You two came with me, and I'll let your human friends and that Ghoul off from our harming hands."
"Kooki, don't listen to him!" I shrilled.
"What can you do to help them when you're indeed despondent in your situation? Throw a pity party?" Kawari just shoved me underground with his response.
Princess Peonymph could no longer suppress the bedevilment and faced Kawari with all her dauntlessness. Kawari, on the other hand, just yawned.
"Don't hurt them!"
"Was that a threat, Princess?" Kawari then pulled the signal for the Grimsbies to capture her and Kooki, but Princess Peonymph suspended their attack when she conjured an ellipse of bright light that could blind your vision.
She then faced Kooki and gave him an ambivalent smile, as if she was giving her last goodbye.
The light glowed even more lustrously.
When the light disappeared, we were no longer in the castle.
Kooki, bewildered by the Princess's actions, was left kneeling on the ground, and all I could see from him was that he had an itch for retribution.