In the mountain you could see the valleys stretching to infinity and at sunset you could still see the distant reflection of the sea

On the other side, we could see the volcano "Doom" but its old forgotten name was the volcano St Helens near Vancouver and its island.

The climate there was pleasant and relatively warm, fairy-like.

Precisely, the fairies...

They were quite tall compared to the gnomes but half the size of a human. They looked like 7-8 years old children, except that they were winged.

They lived in villages and even had a kingdom. There were several kingdoms that all lived in peace and harmony with nature.

Among the fairies, several species.

I didn't know them but here, in the north, they had blue wings. Further south, they were red.

I decided to explore the mountain range that separated the old United States and the old Canada.

It was now the kingdom of Phileus, the hobgoblin king, with his people of giant elves, that is to say the size of a small human being. A little taller than the dwarves but slender. They were all winged like ants or wasps.

They still had castles and fortifications but they were against the invasion of large insects and especially ancient bison and cattle that grazed the grass but preferred the vegetable gardens.

Ditto the horses, but some had been adopted and trained as mounts.

A real fairy tale...

I had an old bronze sextan that I cherished and I counted the degrees to the sun and the time.

Out of thought I said to Cabal "FIRE!"

And a repetitive salvo of successive shots were fired by the automatic mortar.

A clamor was carried to me by the wind, followed by a scream of horror and pain along with the flash and sound of repetitive thunder.

A long column of smoke went to join the sky yellowed by my volcano then, silence.

I put my optical instrument in my magical inventory, a sort of dimensional pocket that most mages could use.

Since I had mana to spare and an archmage level, I had no doubt about the enormous capacity of my inventory.

The wind blew toward me and I spread my wings and with my powerful hind legs, I soared into the air comfortably on the side of the mountain. I could use magic to fly, but I spared it, trusting only in science and physics. And I knew that one day, this training and Spartan lifestyle would pay off.

But not for now... not yet...

Letting myself be carried lazily by the wind, the tens of kilometers separating me from the gnome village were crossed in a few minutes. The time to appreciate the silence and my work accomplished.

From the top, it looked like an anthill with some purple paint on it...

A beautiful still life.

Little red and blue diamonds were spread here and there, in a kind of mass, not a natural gnome pie.

A bit like a Bruegel pie with the apple pieces sticking out of each other in a circle of juice and cream.

But here, it was the gnomes killed and riddled with sharp ice holes. It had cooled them down and frozen their fruity blood.

I landed in the kind of amphitheater in which they gathered to worship some atrocious god of the earth, well not of my world that I know of.

I opened my mouth and started to swallow a big portion and soon I was full of "juice" of "fruits" of the "earth".

Plastered like when you eat seafood, like mussels that you have to shell.

I took off the stinking clothes as one cleans the shrimps and I made a feast.

But...against all odds, I saw a terrified goblin who was crying and had pooped himself.

"Ah...a survivor!"

I approached and he saw my huge teeth, several times his size.

"MMMMhh from the front or the back???" I said out loud to swallow it.

He had pulled his hat off and was crying, holding it on his stomach and kneeling.

He was pleading with me....

"MMMMhhhhh yes.... it takes a survivor.... TO TELL!"

GRRRRRRR!

"IF YOU WANT TO LIVE! I WANT 10 GOBLINS A DAY. IN A PIE OR A SANDWICH EASY TO TAKE AWAY..."

The poor creature didn't know what a pie was or a sandwich either.

"CARNAGE ...my name is CARNAGE" and my territory stretches from sea to shining sea...

You might as well say the entire United States."

But I knew these creatures wouldn't realize the danger.

The creature ran away, but when it reached the top of the hill, to go to the next village, out of breath... A hissing sound alerted me and I had just time to see a purple cloud...

Cabal had fired again. I had not given the order to stop... I had forgotten...

"Professor Carnage... I have succeeded on a moving target. The defense cannons are operational. This will allow us to secure the area..."

"Excellent, Cabal... good work..."

"STAR... I'm counting on you to do patrols around the volcano. keep an eye out for anything that flies. "

"Professor Carnage... should we use the lasers? and the anti-aircraft guns?"

"No... we stick to golems and magic weapons... All technology must be kept secret. Always!"

Crystal towers a few meters high lined the valley that separated the Volcano from the Vancouver Plain, of which there was nothing left. not even a brick standing.

These towers were armed with runic cannons that could launch magical missiles, like small daggers of compressed energy.

One hit did minor damage, but repeated hits, or bursts, were lethal. At least for magical creatures except those insensitive to magic.

I decided to go further east and observe the population network of fairies and elves.

About a hundred kilometers from the... a village of semi-wild fairies.

Waspi, was one of these fairies...

She had long, curly brown hair, a pair of bee's wings, and her skin streaked like a wasp.

She was, according to human beauty standards, a real beauty. With a beautiful face but by fairy standards, she was almost an outcast.

She was mocked and called a wasp.

Wasps had survived and evolved into insects using photosynthesis and feeding on flowers and nectar. Nothing to do with the old aggressive and carnivorous ones.