19 Chapter 19: Secret

As Lucas's tears were wiped away by the back of his hand Lucas realized something. He had no clean clothes...

He could smell his current stench and man did he stink.

"Hey... Lina?" Lucas asked hesitantly.

Lina was bopping her head in place jamming along to some imaginary music but quickly focused back on reality at his sudden questioning.

"Yeah Lucey?"

Lucas took a deep breath before asking the following:

"You are a water fairy... right?"

Lina nodded.

"So... You have a way to make clean water? I could really use a bath and I bet the water system is filthy if it is even working at all." He asked hesitantly.

Lina quickly nodded before taking her wand out and doing a little dance with it, the streamers flying around as she did so.

"Tripple Bubble! Full of Suds! Nip The Dirty by its' Buds!" She sang/shouted out loud and as she did so a strange ripple appeared around her and moved out in about a 5-foot radius from the center point of the tip of the wand.

The ripple seemed to be something akin to what you would see in a fever dream with various toys that you would see in a bathtub floating around in it. Lucas was about to scream out in alarm as a gigantic rubber ducky was heading his way but when it hit him he felt no pain.

Instead of the titanic duck killing him or worse, he found himself feeling cleaned and refreshed.

Shortly after that Lucas got the chance to look at his surroundings and boy was it surprising.

He saw that the entire block that they had been standing on was completely clean, almost as if it was the cleanest place on earth. No grime or footsteps remained on the street and all the trash that was there previously had simply... disappeared.

"How the hell..." Lucas's voice trailed on before Lina stopped him with her favorite line in the world.

"Magic! You silly goose!~" She said with a smile before continuing to skip down the street.

---

They had been walking through the city for most of the day now and the sun was starting to set. Lucas observed their surroundings only to find that they were, once again, in an unfamiliar part of the city.

'Just how big is Ironwrought?' Lucas thought to himself as he realized he hadn't been in this big of a city since back in the old days...

The light began to dim as the sun began to set and with that action of setting Lucas decided that it was time to find shelter for him and Tina.

He looked around at his surroundings and determined that he was in what looked to be a slum. There were many decrepit-looking buildings that used to be homes, which the majority of had already been destroyed by the overgrowth that had been spreading through the city since 7 days ago.

Lucas scanned the buildings left and right before his eyes landed on one of them that seemed slightly out of place.

It wasn't that this kind of place didn't meet the standards to live in this area, it was just a little bit harder to find.

A laundry mat sat at the corner of the street, with its windows still intact. It looked to be in relatively decent shape, other than a few large tiles that had been pushed up by roots of nearby gigantic trees, but all in all, it was a place Lucas believed to be safe enough to call home.

"Lina. You mind giving me a light?" Lucas asked the middle schooler as he stopped at the door of the dark empty space inside.

Lina gave a little nod and brought out her wand however instead of the flashlight Lucas had found in their packs as they made their way through the city. (A/N: Some stuff they got supplied from the Hospital. The hospital expected them not to resist so they were gonna act relatively friendly until Lucas proved to be a threat.)

Lina finished removing her wand from her small backpack and waved it in the air slightly while sticking her tongue out lightly in concentration.

After about a minute of waiting a large bubble slowly formed in front of her from a single point in space.

It expanded outwards about 5 feet in radius on all sides and then started to divide itself into thousands of smaller bubbles that spread out into the laundry mat.

After seeing nothing but darkness for more than 5 minutes Lucas was about to say something to the concentrating Lina but stopped as he noticed something.

There was a light in the center of the room. It was a small roiling marble that seemed to spark alive with light. Then another appeared. And another, and another, and so on and so forth until the room was lit with sparkling orbs of light.

Lina finally released a long breath of air in exhaustion and nodded to herself with a sense of pride etched on her face.

They both walked in and Lucas remained in a stun silence as they proceeded to wordlessly cover the windows of the room to prevent the light from leaking out into the street.

"So... Lina... I really want to know how you do all that stuff." Lucas asked seriously. He turned to take a glance at the middle schooler and noticed something that always confused him when he looked at her.

<Lina(Water Fairy): Age: 10 / LV: Water Fairy: 1>

"Also... Why haven't you picked out your subclass yet?" He asked with his expression getting more and more confused by the second.

The only thing that met his ears was silence for a moment. That was until she finally spoke up. This wasn't the normal Lina he had known for the past few days of his life. Instead, it was someone who looked like they had seen hardened battles all throughout their lives.

"Lucas. I have a secret I want to tell you." She said quietly.

Silence filled the air for a moment before Lucas nodded hesitantly.

'What could be so serious?' Lucas thought to himself.

"You see Lucas... I'm not a human. I kind of told you from the beginning but was too scared to commit to it. I'm a water fairy. Just like my class says." She said before taking a deep breath.

"But... Fairy's are fake. They don't exist. And how the hell do you have all that kiddy stuff from all those cartoons?" Lucas began to ask a barrage of questions which seemed to stun Lina more and more with each second.

Lucas noticed her strange expression and stopped quickly.

'She needs time...'

She remained silent for a while and seemed to be thinking.

"It isn't rare you know." She said simply.

Lucas looked back at her with a puzzled expression before she continued.

"The portals open and all sorts of things come out. I'm just not like the other monsters." She said sadly.

"Your not a monster Lina," Lucas said in a firm voice. This kid didn't know what she was saying. She was speaking in gibberish.

"I am in a technical matter of speaking. I came from a place that was foreign from here and came here right before the system awakened. I'm not even a humanoid Lucas. I'm technically a Fey. That's why I don't have a system like everyone else and that's why I'm stuck at level 1." Her tone got quicker and quicker by the second as she spoke.

"Many strange creatures came from that portal. Some humanoid creatures like elves and dwarves... some fey creatures like me... and the monsters as well."

"I don't know why it happened. But we got sent here out of the blue. Our worlds were in a situation similar to yours Lucas. Monsters came and so did humans."

"But when we finally lost against the beasts... we got sent here. What remained at least, or I hope." She said with a sense of doubt to her words.

Lucas remained silent at the sudden revelation.

'So... is this just a game?' Lucas asked himself.

'Are we just pawns on a chessboard?'

"Who was the one who started this?"

Lina shook her head slightly before answering the simple-sounding question.

"It wasn't a single individual Lucas. It was all the Origin and up-and-coming gods. As well as the Primordial elementals like the Night Elemental you have met and became enemies with."

"So are we just here... to amuse those who have more power than us?" He asked angrily.

Lina let out a long sigh before shrugging.

"I don't know their reasoning behind what they do. I just know that it isn't with good intent. All of those in control of the champions are evil in a manner even if they spout good virtues."

"They all want to take over your world. That is final."

Lucas nodded.

"But why our world? Why not some other world?" He asked, getting more and more frustrated by the moment.

"Your world has finally met the requirements. There are three that I know of, there may be more, and those are pretty simple to understand."

"The first requirement is that the main race in the world has an average stat distribution of 10." She said simply.

"Secondly, the number of the main race of the world must have reached 10 Billion or higher."

"And finally, they must have a fighting chance."

With the last one, her eyes began to close as a strange light covered her body.

"Sorry, Lucas. I have used too much mana. I must rest now. Wake me in the morning, would you?" She asked faintly. And with that, Lucas was alone with his thoughts.