Book 6 - The Beauty Of Smoke And Fire Chapter 129

The New Era Of The Forest Elves

Old era? The other elders of the alliance didn't approve of the mutants' actions at all. The trees of life were the foundation of their race, and such profanity was unethical at best and unforgivable at worst. However, their discussion was interrupted as the black-robed man atop the shrine screeched and teleported over.

The Duskword Grand Elder bowed respectfully, but the other elders stood as they were and stared at the gloomy shrine. A beam of black light dropped down from the heavens to cover it entirely, the boundless energy flowing through leaving them all breathless. The elves walking out of the building changed once more, larger scales growing on their bodies with sharp bone spurs now popping out of their backs and other joints. Rancid saliva kept flowing from their mouths, sizzling with green smoke as it touched the earth and corroded it. Many of the elves could no longer even stand properly, having to hunch or even move on all fours like beasts.

Even the Grand Elder couldn't stomach this any longer, pointing at the mutated creatures and saying with agony, "This..."

"What?" the mysterious man sneered, "Have they not grown more powerful? Every single one has the strength of what you consider a high-ranked hunter."

The man wasn't wrong. Each one of these new mutated creatures, despite being made from the elderly and children, were around level 14. The Grand Elder smiled bitterly, "But they lack their own minds, do they not?"

"What use do they have for it? These things only need to know who to attack. As a price for my master's power, this is very mild." The black-robed man turned to look at the thousands of elves still being pushed into the back of the shrine. Seeing the new creatures, all of these commoners were horrified and started hesitating; even with orders from their elders, they couldn't bear turning into monsters. Many of the hunters were now glaring in this direction as well; they would clearly rebel if nothing was done to remedy the situation.

"This should be enough, right?" one of the elders spoke up, "Can we pause it for a while?"

The black-robed man sneered, "You want to defy the will of my master? It seems you are very confident in your battle abilities."

The elder who had spoken immediately shut up. The unending stream of mutated creatures had suddenly stopped and stared at their group with amber eyes, with some even returning from the forest. Those eyes were like spectral flames floating in the night, leaving all of the elders sweating. They were each powerful in their own rights, but not to the extent of fighting all of these creatures at once.

Even more mutated elves returned, encircling the shrine entirely. Threatened with death, all of the elves went silent. The man chuckled, "Your protests are pointless, let me show you my master's true might!"

The shrine was suddenly shrouded by black mist that covered the bodies of all the elves that hadn't yet been mutated, pulling them in like puppets on a string. Even the hunters who had shown some rebelliousness hadn't been spared, leaving behind only a thousand warriors who didn't understand just what had happened. Thousands of elves, young and old, weak and strong, had been dragged into the shrine in one go!

"Behold." The black-robed man didn't move, but the elders felt a chill running down their spines as his gaze swept past them. The shrine itself started trembling violently, compressing and expanding like a throbbing heart. The mist remained for a few minutes as unknown changes took place within, dispersing only when four figures walked out.

These four mutant elves were starkly different from the other beasts; consisting of two males and two females, each one was utterly gorgeous yet much larger than the ordinary elf. Their bodies were flawlessly smooth, black skin and crimson eyes almost shimmering with a mysterious charm of their own.

The biggest difference between these four elves and the rest was the existence of another eye on their foreheads, the pupil vertical and the same crimson colour. The shrine quieted down in an instant, the blazing flames atop it dying out as the black beam from the sky vanished as well.

The black-robed man was almost slobbering as he looked at the four new mutants, "These are my master's creation, the seeds of your new era! They are the origin of greatness, the primogenitors!"

By the time the man's voice grew to its crescendo, the painful whines of the Evernight tree of life had finally died down. The Duskword Grand Elder spoke up, "There are still a number of the evernight elves and outsiders who escaped."

"A group who couldn't even protect a tree of life; they aren't worth mentioning," the man haughtily waved it off as he looked towards the heavens, "I already sent three thousand to give chase, they will all be eaten up soon enough. Next, my master's army will trample the invaders and turn this plane into his herd. The new elves with godsblood will spread throughout the plane, becoming His sword as they pass through the gate and conquer the world beyond!"

This was a grand ambition, but the elders could not feel a shred of satisfaction from it. They didn't see their own positions in this new order at all.

......

Richard's troop was currently four hundred kilometres from Emerald City. It would only take a few hours to get within range of his tree of life, whereafter the will of the forest would not be able to suppress them any longer. While the Evernight tree of life was deep in the forest and closer to the world tree, his own portal was a significant distance away and couldn't be dominated in the same fashion. Within Emerald City itself were elite shadowspears and other troops; they would be able to pass on his commands right away and gather to meet the enemy.

The forest was very quiet save for rustling, but this silence was occasionally broken by Richard's cough. One such occasion attracted the attention of a mutated elf, which set its eyes on what it thought was the weakest open target of the group. Growling at the opportunity, it launched itself forward.

The rune knights immediately fell back towards him, raising their halberds to pierce it right away. However, Richard actually jumped ten metres towards it before crouching low, placing the pommel of his sword against the earth and aiming the tip at the creature's throat. The forward momentum of the creature was enough to impale it, but even as it crumpled to the ground it continued to struggle. Richard was forced to put it out of its misery with an extra slash.

He crouched down, closely examining the body of the thing before frowning. He called Alice over, "The elves have mutated, the situation is bad. Take the group and advance at full speed, don't stop until you're within 200 kilometres of Emerald City."

"What about you?" Alice asked.

"I'll— cough— I'll stall them."

"No way, you're still injured! I'm not..."

She was silenced by a wave of his arm, "The wounds aren't as bad now. Besides, I'm not staying alone; Waterflower is coming with."

"... Okay." Alice didn't believe him at all, but she could trust in Waterflower's strength. She looked towards Waterflower and nodded quietly, receiving a similar nod in return.