The Elves' Resistance
The forest inhabited by elves scattered across the entire continent numbered a mere eight hundred thousand souls in total, yet within the Dark Empire—excluding the Elf Forest itself, where approximately one hundred and twenty thousand elves still lived along the border with the Sardinia Kingdom—the remaining elves in the empire’s forests numbered only around one hundred and eighty thousand.
Even though elves were dispersed in small numbers, one hundred and eighty thousand was still a substantial population when measured against the entire continent’s total. This was especially true considering that the elves had already suffered immense losses when the Demon King Laylana appeared, reducing the species to well below eight hundred thousand.
The elves residing in the forests of the Dark Empire’s territory were now locked in a desperate emergency meeting at the center of this woodland. Before the majestic World Tree, the heart of the forest and the elves’ sacred sanctuary, a raised platform had been prepared where the high elves sat in their individual chairs, surveying the vast sea of fellow elves gathered before them as the council began.
“The situation is the worst possible. Thousands of forces of darkness already encircle us from the outside, and no matter how many we slay, tens or hundreds of thousands—potentially millions—more could arrive at any moment.”
High elf Elemir, leader of the elves living in the northern forest besieged by the Balrog Lord Ungkor’s forces of darkness, was the first to speak, laying out the grim reality of their current circumstances.
Among the high elves present, she alone possessed the highest rank, renowned for her extraordinary beauty—emerald-green hair and eyes that commanded admiration even among the elves of the world. When the hero Kim Jae-hyun broadcasted the slaughter of the saint and his own betrayal ten years earlier across the Holy Kingdom of Astraea, the elves’ forest was no exception.
The elves had shaken their heads at the human war, yet they felt no particular interest. To them, it was merely a human affair.
The hero Kim Jae-hyun was an otherworldly human, not of this world, and even though he had saved countless elf lives in battle, he remained nothing more than a human in their eyes.
Thus, when he prophesied the Demon King’s arrival, no elf pledged him loyalty. They believed it was merely another human dispute and planned to form an alliance with the Demon King on their own terms, treating it as an external matter.
Yet the events that followed shattered even the dragons’ wildest expectations.
The Holy Kingdom of Astraea had become the Dark Empire, and over forty million humans had all been corrupted into the forces of darkness.
The forces of darkness now ruled the transformed Holy Kingdom of Astraea itself, trapping the one hundred and eighty thousand elves at the very heart of their domain.
The land saturated with demonic energy refused to permit the World Tree’s divine authority, and the spatial connection power inherent to the World Trees—born from the branches of Yggdrasil, the greatest of all World Trees and mother of every tree—failed to activate.
The one hundred and eighty thousand elves were now utterly sealed, with no escape in sight.
Fortunately, the one hundred and twenty thousand elves living along the Sardinia Kingdom border would survive, but the Holy Kingdom of Astraea—home to fully three hundred thousand elves, a third of the entire continental population—was now lost to the forces of darkness.
No one could have imagined that the holy land of the light armies would fall to the forces of darkness. The Demon King who had done so was truly beyond common sense.
A human-born Demon King.
An otherworldly Demon King.
A hero-born Demon King.
A Demon King who wielded both the holy sword and the demonic sword.
If the previous Demon King, Laylana, had been called the strongest, then the hero who defeated her had become an even more terrifying new Demon King.
Though Elemir deliberately omitted direct mention of the Demon King, in her heart a single Demon King was far more terrifying than millions or billions of forces of darkness.
As a high elf who had participated in the war ten years earlier as part of the elves’ army, and having fought alongside nearly every elf present in that same battle, she understood the scale of the threat.
Elves naturally excelled in spirit magic and archery, turning even the lowliest among them into formidable archers. Despite their small numbers, elves were a race of near-perfect warriors.
Yet even for them, the current situation was an absolute crisis.
Absolute Defense
Kwaaang!
“Ugh!”
The enormous explosion that erupted just outside the forest reached even here, shaking the elves with primal fear. High elf Elemir, though she had not spoken, her face had hardened into a mask of grim tension, and the other high elves beside her mirrored her expression exactly.
Once a peaceful sanctuary where animals and elves lived in harmony, the forest now trembled. Birds had fled their songs, rabbits and deer had fled their grazing grounds, and the beautiful elves who once sang praises to the forest’s beauty now stood frozen in terror.
Even the World Tree itself, guardian of the forest’s heart, quaked beneath the approaching darkness.
All living beings in the forest now writhed in wretched fear at the coming doom.
Is he planning to destroy this world?
Elemir thought back to the hero Kim Jae-hyun she had occasionally faced in the past, clutching the Holy Sword as she fought alongside Irene—the woman who possessed beauty that transcended even the elves’ ultimate standards—and who had always led the vanguard against the forces of darkness.
He had always been a modest, kind human youth. To the elves, he never forgot manners and treated them with utmost courtesy, greeting them properly whenever he met them. Although she had never wanted to converse with him, at least his demeanor had never been unpleasant.
Yet the betrayal he endured in every human nation, the fact that every human present—except Irene—had been blinded by greed and turned against him, and that even his beloved woman had been trampled upon, proving that human greed had birthed the Demon King he had become.
And now, surprisingly, despite two days of relative silence after his true identity as Demon King was revealed, the forest had finally fallen into complete encirclement.
Kwaaang!
Elemir, lost in memories of the past, tensed at the renewed explosion. Every elf gathered in the meeting hall—men and women alike, young and old—wore faces of utter dread, and the high elves were no exception.
Kraaaaa!
The massive roar that followed confirmed that the forces of darkness outside had finally begun to unleash their full power.
The World Tree, striving desperately to protect the forest, was nearing its limit. Sensing this, Elemir closed her eyes for a brief moment.
They should have fled, but escape was impossible. She had even wished to save the children, yet even that was out of reach.
“Everyone. We may all die right here.”
Opening her eyes, Elemir spoke to the gathered elves with a face already resigned to death.
“Those who fear battle may stay back. But these demonic beasts and their underlings will never spare us. Therefore, I will fight! Even if it means I fall and become nothing, I will at least drag as many enemies as possible into death to ensure the safety of this continent!”
Speaking in this way, she radiated overwhelming pressure that seized the elves’ gazes.
“I leave the decision to you! Will you fight alongside me, or will you hide and tremble in fear until you meet your end? I will face my last moment without shame before the children, and I will be remembered as a proud sister to all our kin forever!”
High elf Elemir declared her resolve to fight until the very end and asked the assembled elves to choose.
Although not every elf in the forest was present, her words would reach them all through the air spirits and the forest’s wind.
The air spirits were the most friendly to elves among all summoned spirits, and most of the forest’s elves had already formed contracts with them.
“Ah, that’s right!”
“Elemir-nim is correct!”
“No matter what, we will die anyway! Let us die gloriously in battle!”
The elves’ morale surged dramatically. They declared their determination to fight to the last man, and Elemir smiled at her fellow elves.
“It is an honor to stand with you, my proud siblings until the very end.”
““It is our honor as well, to stand with you, Elemir-nim, until the end!””
The elves answered her gratitude with deep gratitude of their own, their trust in her absolute.
It felt like a scene from a legendary tale.
Kwaaang!
And at that exact moment, another explosion rang out as the earth itself trembled.
“The barrier…”
“Has… broken.”
The World Tree’s protective barrier, which had guarded the forest, finally reached its limit and shattered.
***
The Balrogs led by Ungkor, who had broken the forest’s barrier, charged forward without hesitation, accompanied by human warriors and mages. The animals and birds had already fled far away upon sensing the demonic energy, leaving the invaders to advance unopposed through the trees.
Though trees were scattered everywhere, enough gaps existed for passage, and destroying trees only created extra obstacles of having to leap over fallen trunks. Thus, the Balrogs moved through the forest with surprising restraint.
Still, they showed no mercy for the forest.
The first to reach the nearest elf village were one hundred Balrogs, led by Ungkor himself.
“It’s the village!”
“Kill the elves!”
“Capture the women!”
“Obey the great Demon King’s command!”
Giant human figures—actually Balrogs in human form—thundered toward the elf village. The elves, who had rushed there upon hearing Elemir’s speech, screamed in terror.
“Demons!”
“Everyone, prepare for battle!”
“Hurry and evacuate the children!”
Fortunately, the elves had brought their bows and arrows with them, having been about to head to Elemir’s location. But against the Balrogs, who were all grand sword masters, arrows were useless.
The Balrogs charged forward, deflecting arrows bare-handed with terrifying ease. The sight of arrows bouncing off their bodies was enough to shatter the elves’ courage.
Kraaaaa!
Ungkor swung his whip first at the elf men, and five of them dropped instantly, their necks severed as cleanly as if by a sword.
“H-help me, Sif!”
“Undine!”
The elves countered with summoned spirits as well as arrows, but the spirits they could call here, without a single high elf present, were no stronger than mid-tier beings. These summoned spirits lasted no more than three seconds before being instantly banished by the Balrogs’ overwhelming power.
As the elves’ eyes filled with despair at the one-sided slaughter, they noticed something strange.
The Balrogs were not attacking the women at all. They merely knocked them unconscious with precise, non-lethal strikes.