Chapter 75: Inside The Den
After a short moment, Xiotal took the lead again, and after a while, they arrived at her den.
*Ta-da!*
Xiotal pointed at a nondescript tree in the middle of the forest. The rough bark and leaves high up made it no different from any other tree nearby.
Xiotal was once again disappointed by Ritzy's lack of reaction since she had half-expected him to see through the illusion. But it didn't seem like he had.
"She says we're here, Moggy."
Ritzy gave Mognog a heads-up as he waited for Xiotal to do something useful.
*Tch.*
Xiotal couldn't help but be a little displeased at how Ritzy ignored her. She tried not to let it get to her so she could focus on getting the help she needed.
With a twirl of her hand, Xiotal sent a shimmering stream of mana toward the tree. She didn't show it, but she kept an eye on Ritzy to see his reaction.
The tree cracked down the middle like split by an axe. However, starting from the bottom, the tree separated from itself and created two trunks that slid apart, gradually growing into the shape of an arch that was more than large enough to fit Ritzy and Unholy Avatar.
Xiotal really didn't want Unholy Avatar to enter her den. But Ritzy refused to enter without his bodyguard, which Xiotal had to admit was reasonable, so she allowed it with through gritted teeth.
Once again, Xiotal took the lead into her den through the shimmering film spanning between the two trunks. It looked like someone had stretched old and uneven glass in the arch since Ritzy and the others could see the other side of the forest through it.
However, they didn't arrive at the other side of the tree by passing through the slightly vertigo-inducing Pixie Portal.
Ritzy looked around as he stabilized himself.
"Is your den a dungeon, Xiotal?"
Passing through the entrance to Xiotal's den had felt almost exactly like when they had entered the Red Toe Goblin Village dungeon. Ritzy had even suspected that it was something similar, which was why he had used his mana on himself as he pushed through the film.
Xiotal looked at Ritzy with a hint of approval as he passed through the portal to her den and didn't seem visibly disturbed by the vertigo-inducing magic despite being as weak as he was.
*Nonsense. I made this on my own! It's nothing like a dungeon!*
Xiotal stood in the middle of the air with her hands proudly placed on her hips as she boasted.
"It sure felt like a dungeon, and it sure looks like one."
Ritzy looked at what appeared to be a village, albeit a small one. A couple of houses were made of stone, others were made of timber, and some had been shaped and grown from live trees. All of the houses were of different shapes and designs.
The tiny village with almost a dozen houses was in the middle of a lush, seemingly impenetrable wall of greenery, trees, flowers, and vines. The forest also grew to cover the village, encapsulating it like a large dome.
Ritzy looked at the ground.
It was more like an egg or sphere around the village since even the ground was made of flora.
*It's not!*
Ritzy held up his hands like he wasn't going to bother arguing, which made Xiotal stomp her foot. But she had finally gotten Ritzy into her den, so it wouldn't be long until she had recovered from her current deathly state.
Xiotal also didn't bother to get hung up on the fact that her den was similar to a dungeon, so she flew forward to one of the houses shaped from a growing tree. It looked like a large bulb in the center of an otherwise ordinary trunk, and it had a circular door as an entrance.
The most surprising thing, however, about all of Xiotal's houses was the fact that they were all human-sized.
Ritzy was about to comment on it since it was suspicious. But before he could, Xiotal's body gradually began shimmering and transforming. She slowly grew to a size that was only slightly shorter than Ritzy. Now, she just looked like a bewinged human instead of a pixie.
"Huh."
*Amazed?*
Xiotal smirked as she turned around, ready to see Ritzy's jaw drop in awe.
"You have dandelions here?"
However, Ritzy was looking at a yellow flower on the ground. He even bent down to pick it up. Xiotal's face drooped.
*Stop fooling around! In you go!*
Xiotal flew around Ritzy and pushed him into the orb-like house. Thankfully, the floor was flat since Ritzy couldn't fight back against Xiotal's strength. He could only get pushed inside as the door opened on its own.
With Ritzy and Mognog inside, Xiotal hurriedly closed the door, trapping Unholy Avatar outside. Xiotal nodded in satisfaction before walking through the house until she had led Ritzy and Mognog to her bedroom. It was a little embarrassing, but she didn't have a choice. After all, she couldn't interact with anything without using magic, and moving the egg on her purple bed was impossible with magic since it was her pixie egg.
*Here. Get to work.*
Ritzy stared at Xiotal, dumbfounded.
"I'm not a hen."
Xiotal glared at Ritzy.
*I know that. That is my egg. I went to sleep in there, and when I woke up, I was like this.*
Xiotal gestured at her slightly translucent body.
"I see."
Ritzy nodded in understanding and approached the bed.
"You became a chicken."
*No!*
The bed was just wide enough so that Ritzy had to put a knee on it to get so close he could touch the egg.
*Be gentle!*
Xiotal hovered around Ritzy as he approached the egg.
Ritzy stroked and knocked on the egg a couple of times before turning to Xiotal.
"Is it alright if I break it?"
*No! Absolutely not! That would be nothing less than killing me!*
Ritzy raised an eyebrow as he gave her a skeptical glance.
"Aren't you already dead?"
*Urk!*
Xiotal couldn't find an answer to Ritzy's question, and she collapsed on the bed while nursing her imaginary wound.
*You don't have to be so blunt! Besides, weren't you going to cure me of that?*
"Cure you of death? Lady, I'm a necromancer. I do the opposite."
Xiotal looked at Ritzy with teary eyes.
*Is there nothing you can do?*
"Oh, there's tons of stuff I can do. I doubt I can bring you back to life, though. But I should be able to give you your body back. At the moment, it looks like you've become a ghost after having your body and soul separated."
Ritzy shrugged.
"Who knows, maybe putting you back into you…"
Ritzy pointed at Xiotal and then at the egg as he spoke.
"...Will be enough to, I dunno, restart your life or something."
He ended it with another shrug to further stress the uncertainty.
"But to be honest. I have no idea what I'm doing or how pixies work. Anyway. I've done my part. Gimme treasure now."
Ritzy stretched out a hand and asked for his payment.
*Tch.*
Xiotal got up from the bed and, with stomping steps, walked to another room in the house, which was bigger on the inside than its outward appearance could lead one to believe.
After a little while and a concerning amount of crashing sounds, Xiotal came back to the bedroom. She handed over a necklace with a silvery gold feather attached to a delicate chain.
*Here. If you wear this, you won't fall to your death. Or something.*
Ritzy took the necklace and put it on himself. He admired himself in a mirror on the nearby cupboard, twisting and turning the finger-length feather and striking different poses.
He turned to Mognog.
"What do you think?"
Mognog had been in a constant state of wariness and surprise ever since Xiotal first opened up the portal to her den. But he had noticed the crashing sounds and the floating necklace.
"It's nice. That's the promised treasure, right? Is it just valuable, or does it do something?"
"She said I will fall to my death if I wear it or something."
*I did not!*
"That doesn't sound very useful, kiddo…"
Ritzy shrugged.
"I know. I'm just hoping that 'something' is decent. Besides, it fits me, doesn't it."
Mognog didn't know what to answer since he wasn't sure what made Ritzy think the jewelry fit him. It would have been slightly better if it had been pure silver in color instead of the gold nuance. But it just clashed against Ritzy pale skin, white hair, and overall frail appearance.
"As long as you like it."
Mognog settled for that and hurried to divert the topic.
"So, how's it going with saving, Xiotal, was it?"
*Yeah, how is it going, Ritzy?!*
"Ah, I'm waiting for her to say what she thinks about my idea."
*Oh…*
Xiotal embarrassedly stopped pointing at Ritzy as she cleared her throat.
*It was that thing about breaking my egg to get my body out of there, right?*
"Yeah."
*Can you do it without breaking my egg?*
"Nope. This thing…"
Ritzy tapped the egg with his knuckles.
"Blocks all magic."
Xiotal sighed in resignation.
*Okay…*
But she then nodded in determination.
*Do it.*
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone