“Ah, it’s so hot.”
Dragging her frail shoulders and shuffling her feet like a zombie, Fia hoarsely complained.
If this wasn’t a sunlit deserted wasteland but a graveyard at night, Fia would definitely be mistaken for a zombie or some kind of ghostly creature.
But it was understandable for Fia to be so listless.
The extremely dry air and the blazing sun in the sky quickly made her drenched in sweat and parched.
Especially when gusts of wind occasionally blew, the dust rushing into her nose and mouth made her throat feel like it was being cut with a knife.
Fia was quite sure that even if there was a whole pool of water in front of her, she could drink it all in one go.
“Not paying attention to the direction while running was a real blunder.”
Wiping the sweat from under her black bangs, Fia complained while panting.
When escaping from the soldiers, she didn’t follow the road but randomly picked a direction that seemed deserted and ran wildly.
Until now, she didn’t know how long she had been running or how far she had gone, and it was even difficult to retrace her steps as there were no landmarks along the way.
The only thing she could use for orientation was the sun hanging in the sky.
Although Fia didn’t know if the sun in this other world still rose from the east, moving in one direction was better than going in circles.
Besides, it was fortunate that this world didn’t have nine suns.
Thinking of this, Fia touched the inside of her dress, where a pocket was hidden, containing snacks that looked like candy and something resembling a crystal.
Since they were only the size of a pinky fingernail, Fia hadn’t noticed them at first.
“Although the elf princess left some things that look like snacks, without water, I have no appetite at all.
Better save them for when I’m really hungry.”
If she couldn’t find a water source before nightfall, she would have to wait until dawn to collect dew.
Fortunately, this wasn’t a true desert but a wilderness covered with soil and low shrubs.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t even be able to drape her clothes over the shrubs to collect the morning dew.
Am I going to die of thirst like this? As soon as the negative thought popped into her mind, Fia quickly shook her head.
The more dire the situation, the more she needed to stay optimistic.
Dwelling on pessimistic thoughts would gradually erode her will, and once the confidence that she could walk out alive completely disappeared, she would meet her end.
Fia understood this well.
Better to distract herself with happy thoughts.
Like adapting to her new body and figuring out why she could use magic.
The memories left by the elf princess were quite limited.
Fia didn’t even know the names of the elf princess’s parents.
Of course, since she was called a princess, her parents were definitely the king and queen, but even the appearances of the elf king and queen weren’t described in the memories left by the elf princess.
The only information she had was a fleeting montage.
Therefore, Fia naturally couldn’t learn from the elf princess’s memories what kind of world this was.
She could only guess from the chainmail and longswords of the human soldiers she had confronted not long ago that the production level of this world wasn’t high, possibly not even reaching the threshold of the Renaissance, and still stuck at a medieval level.
“Who would have thought this world actually has something as incredible as magic? If it were on Earth, it would definitely be captured and studied as a special biological phenomenon.
Hmm, looking at it this way, I shouldn’t simply compare the history of the human alliance with this world.
With this new system of magic, many things that current technology can’t achieve might become possible.”
Muttering softly, Fia, dressed in a black dress with white edges, shook her hand.
From the moment she set off with mental preparation until now, an entire hour had passed.
A normal person would be exhausted after a long-distance run without stopping, but apart from feeling a bit of soreness in her legs, Fia didn’t feel any exhaustion.
Putting aside her thirst, she even felt quite energetic.
If it wasn’t because elves were a special species, then magic must be helping her.
“Speaking of which, how did that magic come out back then?”
Instinctively, Fia looked at her right hand.
When facing the knight commander, it was her right hand that spewed out a torrent of flames, allowing her to escape danger.
But she had never mastered this new thing called magic, and the memories left by the elf princess didn’t describe how to release flames.
“Could it be that the method of releasing magic was remembered by this body, so when encountering danger, the magic just came out on its own—huh? What’s this?” Before she could finish speaking, Fia noticed something unusual on her right arm.
Previously covered by her clothes and with her focus entirely on adapting to the environment, Fia hadn’t noticed the unusual feature on her arm.
A diamond-shaped, thin, and elongated red crystal was located very close to her wrist on the upper part of her right arm.
Under the sunlight, the light reflected by the red crystal wasn’t glaring but rather restrained, exuding a sense of nobility.
“A secret weapon hidden by the elf princess?” In stories, royalty always had the habit of hiding life-saving tools on their bodies, which they could use to turn the tables when facing life-threatening situations.
This crystal must be one of those.
Unlike the crystals hidden in her pocket, this one was firmly attached to her arm, indicating it was an extremely important and powerful tool.
Thinking this, Fia couldn’t help but be curious about the crystal on her arm.
She hadn’t noticed anything extra on her arm during her journey, as if it had always been there, a part of her body.
“Can this be removed?” Fia began trying to separate the red crystal from her arm, but no matter how hard she tried, the crystal remained stuck to her arm and couldn’t be removed.
In fact, if she used too much force, her body would feel as if it were being torn apart.
Moreover, when Fia touched the crystal, she felt a tingling sensation on her skin, as if someone was lightly brushing against her skin from a distance, making it impossible for her to continue rubbing the crystal.
“What a strange feeling.
Could it be that the crystal was originally on the elf princess and is part of the elf’s body? But aren’t elves supposed to just have pointy ears?” At this point, besides complaining about how strange this other world was, Fia had no other options.
The crystal had already become part of her, and any action on the crystal would ultimately affect her.
“Ah, speaking of which, when I used magic earlier, was the heat flow I felt in my arm coming from here?” If this were a comic, a light bulb would definitely light up above Fia’s little head.
Although releasing flames from her palm sounded incredible, this was a world with magic, and even if she sought answers, she would only be met with the response, “It’s magic.”
Furrowing her brows, Fia thought seriously.
“Could it be the protagonist’s special ability? Because I’m a transmigrator, there’s an extra red crystal on my arm, and the red crystal is my strongest magic or something.”
Typically, novels with otherworldly themes would be set up this way, either giving the protagonist unparalleled magic or placing them in a very convenient environment, allowing them to perfectly utilize their knowledge from another world.
At the very least, they would give the protagonist the ability to save and reload, allowing them to find the correct path through trial and error.
Although she might not be the protagonist of the story, she was still a transmigrator, and perhaps God, in sympathy, had given her a bit of convenient magic.
“Too bad there are no other elves nearby to compare with, otherwise I could find out if this crystal is something unique to me.”
Not dwelling on it for too long, Fia cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and solemnly extended her right hand.
“Might as well give it a try. I remember back then it was…” At that time, she only felt fear, and if there was anything noteworthy, it was just the thought of wanting the knight commander to stay away from her and the “ee-yah” sound she made out of fear.
Could “ee-yah” be the magic incantation? That would be too embarrassing.
Although she now had the appearance of a little girl, and even if she shouted it out, no one would point fingers at her, if she had to shout it out every time she used magic, she would be so embarrassed she’d want to find a hole to crawl into.
Better to try focusing her attention on her right hand and imagine the flames erupting in her mind.
To avoid accidentally injuring herself, Fia chose a target in the air five hundred meters away.
Since there was nothing but gravel and stones in this wilderness, she didn’t have to worry about causing a wildfire or anything like that.
Calming her mind, closing her eyes, Fia imagined focusing her attention like a rope, concentrating it on her right arm.
Just this action made her feel a warm sensation emanating from the diamond-shaped crystal on her arm, followed by a continuous, faint buzzing sound in her ears.
It was much like the sound of a triangle being struck heavily, with the triangle continuously vibrating.
“What’s this?” Fia quickly opened her eyes, and then she was stunned.
What is this? Centered on the spot Fia had chosen, a silver-white “disk” with a diameter of nearly a hundred meters was slowly rotating.
The surface of this “disk” resembled a nebula in the universe, composed of “dust” (or rather, light points) shining with silver light.
At the center of the disk was a dazzling white sphere emitting a blinding light, and the buzzing sound Fia heard was coming from there.
If it were nighttime, Fia would definitely marvel at this spectacle resembling a galaxy right before her eyes.
But it was daytime, and the buzzing sound that surrounded her ears was unmistakably dangerous, so Fia had no intention of admiring the “nebula.” She knew that the magic target she had set was five hundred meters away, and if she could hear the buzzing from this distance, the sound would be terrifyingly loud if it were right next to her.
“This… is different from before? And this dizzy feeling…” After releasing this nebula, Fia suddenly felt a sense of dizziness.
Although it was extremely mild, like the feeling of not having slept well, Fia could sense that this dizziness came from the nebula she had released.
However, Fia didn’t have time to think.
She noticed that the nebula, which was only a hundred meters in diameter, was now gradually growing larger and brighter.
Along with it, the buzzing sound became sharper.
To use an analogy, it was like the urgent sound effect of a countdown on a time bomb.
“Wait, wait!” In just the blink of an eye, the edge of the rotating nebula had doubled in size, and Fia instantly felt the surrounding temperature begin to rise, quickly becoming unbearably hot.
Even a simple breath felt like her airways were burning, and the edges of her dress were catching fire.
The ground directly beneath the nebula had turned red, showing signs of liquefying and flowing.
What is this!? After hesitating for a moment, Fia took off running.
Needless to say, Fia knew she had released something extremely dangerous.
Exploring the principles and such could wait for later; the most important thing now was to save her own life.
She didn’t want to become a roasted elf!
Running even faster than when she was escaping from the soldiers, Fia sprinted like someone being chased by a lion, desperately trying to get away from the rolling heat wave behind her.
With the stinging warning from the skin on her back, the scenery in front of Fia’s eyes flew by rapidly.
For a moment, Fia even felt like her running speed had lifted her off the ground.
Due to her incredible speed, the ground constantly echoed with the sound of sonic booms, and her already tattered dress, which could be considered a “crop top,” gradually caught fire due to the intense friction with the air.
Of course, Fia didn’t know that her escape speed had already surpassed the speed of sound, and the burning of her dress only made her think it was the result of the nebula’s high temperature.
Under such stimulation, her already incredibly fast speed accelerated even further, to the point where every place Fia passed left a deep trench behind.
Even a dragon’s breath wouldn’t have such power.
Fia only thought about stopping when she believed she had run far enough, with no more buzzing in her ears—actually, because of her supersonic speed, the sound couldn’t keep up with her.
She left two long, deep skid marks on the ground as she came to a halt.
“This… this distance must be dozens of kilometers, right?” Gasping for breath, Fia turned around, hands on her knees.
Her view was filled with dust kicked up by her supersonic run, and she could only see a tiny bright spot in the distance through the yellow sandstorm—that was the nebula she had created.
How long had she been running?—No, wait, did she really create that thing? Fia’s gaze shifted to the bright spot far away.
It could no longer be called a bright spot; calling it a second sun would be more appropriate.
A grand, warm sun that made one feel insignificant.
First, a flash of light turned everything into a dazzling white, then the light ball rapidly expanded, and a massive pillar of fire mixed with smoke slowly rose from the ground.
Finally, everything turned into a mushroom cloud soaring into the sky.
The sun, which was blinding just a moment ago, now became so dim under the sky-covering smoke that it was almost invisible.
A nuclear explosion? Is this still magic? “Ah…” As if recalling something terrifying, Fia’s mouth hung open, her cute face filled with shock, and then she turned and fled without looking back.
As for the reason for her escape—have you ever seen a happy little dog bouncing around to welcome its owner home? The ring-shaped shockwave spreading from the mushroom cloud was sweeping across the land, joyfully rolling towards its owner, Fia, like a little dog.
The ground rippled like liquid under the shockwave.
Clearly, nothing could stop its love for its master.
In any case, if you don’t want to start life over again, begin by escaping disaster.
