Fairies and the Arms Race

West Coast of the Garratt Duchy, Star Shattering Sea Coastal Area.

The terrain here was rugged and uneven, and its ecosystem was more complex than elsewhere. There were lush woodlands, wildernesses where competition for survival was fierce, and dry deserts poorly suited to habitation.

It was a summer night.

Even the seemingly barren desert was far from peaceful.

Nocturnal creatures beneath the sand took advantage of the scorching ground beginning to cool, scurrying out of their hiding places. Then they played out nature's eternal cruel theme: eating and being eaten.

A three-meter-tall succulent shrub in this desert also gradually began to move beneath the cover of night.

A purple bud at its very top trembled faintly.

The floral tube slowly lifted, its purple outer layer gradually unfurled, and then a snow-white flower made up of more than twenty petals slowly bloomed like a Princess beneath the night sky.

A refreshing floral fragrance drifted outward with it.

For such beauty to bloom in a place so desolate was not merely pleasing to the eye—it was utterly breathtaking.

Unfortunately, this epiphyllum would never have anyone to admire it. Its bloom lasted only three short hours, and it was about to wither.

Sure enough, as that Time Node drew nearer, the tiniest tips of its petals had already begun to curl slightly, while its corolla slowly closed.

This sacred yet fleeting life of the epiphyllum was about to become a thing of the past.

Just then.

The Cloud Clusters in the sky suddenly dispersed, and bright moonlight dyed the whole world silver-white.

As the moonlight continuously flowed, it seemed as though countless glittering specks were scattered down, drifting and fluttering toward hundreds of directions across an area spanning more than a hundred kilometers.

One speck the size of a grain of rice happened