Chapter 197: Elf
Chapter 197: Elf
"Is everything more or less settled?"
Kerax, the Dark Elf Elder, turned his gaze away from the persistently resisting Mari and surveyed the surroundings. Aside from Ifrit, Sylph, and the Three-Eyed girl, who were displaying extraordinary strength, the battlefield was littered with the fallen.
Even in this situation, Titania remained silent, refusing to step forward. While it was good that she wasn't offering futile resistance, she clearly had something up her sleeve.
"This should be enough to satisfy Lord Oberon. Khahaha."
The Gnome Elder, who had been locked in a stalemate with Nia, expressed his irritation at failing to take her down, but his mood seemed to lift as he tasted the fruits of victory.
"It’s not over yet...! I... I can still fight!"
"Give it a rest. I’ve taken a liking to you, even if you are one of those stuffy white knife-eared elves, so I’ll let you keep your life."
Mari forced her blood-stained body upright with a shout of determination. However, reality was harsh. Her joints creaked, and the bleeding from her wounds showed no signs of stopping.
She knew that continuing the fight meant death, but the fire in her eyes did not waver.
"I see. If you choose to die as a warrior, that is your prerogative. I shall end this myself."
Kerax didn't particularly enjoy the thought of killing an Elf warrior he respected, but he didn't let personal feelings interfere with his duty.
He raised his sword vertically and brought it down in a clean, swift motion. Mari managed to deflect the sharp slash with a fist imbued with fighting spirit, but she had no way to block the subsequent diagonal strike.
Death. In the moment its shadow loomed over her, her parents' faces flashed before her eyes like a revolving lantern.
Mari squeezed her eyes shut, but instead of the sickening sound of flesh being carved, she heard a sharp clang of metal.
"If it's just to buy time, I can certainly manage that."
A dagger that had flown from afar and embedded itself in the ground was instantly retrieved by an invisible thread, returning to its owner.
The black-haired woman who caught the dagger was Wollyeon, who had remained at Selene's Spring as a contact.
She pulled shuriken from her robes and swiftly hurled them at Kerax. He swatted them away easily with his sword, only for a dagger to fly straight at his face.
The Dark Elf swordsman parried that as well, spinning his body to intercept all the shuriken that were being reeled back toward him.
In that brief interval, the Snow Noble woman moved the battered Half-Elf to the rear. Swapping places with her, a martial artist lunged forward with a flying kick.
"Playing petty tricks, are we?"
The attack, packed with considerable fighting spirit, forced Kerax back, but that was the extent of it.
It was an exchange that served no purpose other than stalling for time. Sheryl felt the enhancement effects on her body beginning to fade, and she knew that would soon lead to her defeat.
The darkness began to lift from the east as dawn approached. Feeling the transition from late night to morning, Sheryl stamped her foot firmly to prepare for one last clash.
"Silence."
Just then, a low, solemn voice rang out. The two combatants, poised to charge, looked toward the source of the sound.
There stood Oberon, the Fairy King, walking toward them with his attendants, looking bored as if he had just woken up.
At the sight of his majestic figure, Titania's followers felt despair, while Oberon's side broke into cheers. The appearance of the absolute ruler to end the dawn rebellion sharply divided the atmosphere between the two factions.
"Oh, my beloved Titania. You are truly beautiful this morning. However, it seems this little prank of yours went a bit too far. Haha."
Despite the outskirts of the city being scorched by fire and ravaged by earth, he paid no mind to the destruction, focusing only on the outcome before his eyes.
The nuisances he had left alone had eventually become the fuse that moved Titania to act, but that was all. Not a single thing had changed in the end.
Even without deploying the kingdom's guards or the border scouts, this pathetic failure would surely instill a sense of despair in her, proving she could do nothing as she pleased in this kingdom.
Oberon, standing triumphantly with a sickening smirk, peered closely at his beloved wife Titania's face. He wanted to savor the sight of her falling into despair.
"Pfft... Puhahaha! As expected of Oberon. You truly move exactly as I predicted. You haven't understood a single thing about why I threw myself into a losing battle."
Oberon's expectations were shattered. Instead of being in despair, the Queen burst into laughter as if the situation were incredibly hilarious.
The King's expression contorted, feeling as though he had suffered some unknown insult, but he assumed the Queen's attitude was mere bravado.
"Haha, your jests are excessive. We both know full well you have no more cards left to play."
"Well, we won't know until we try, will we? Just watch. Let's see how long you can keep that look on your face. Hehe."
Oberon felt a sense of foreboding, but his pride wouldn't allow him to stop her now. There was no need to bother when the victory was already his.
Titania looked at the idling Oberon, thinking I knew you'd react that way, and called out to two people.
"Jaejin, Miss Sheryl, please come over here."
When Jaejin emerged from Antilla's shadow, Oberon's mood soured. He suspected this might be a performance intended solely to mock him.
Sheryl, realizing further confrontation was pointless, also followed the Queen's call and stood beside Jaejin. It was the exact moment she felt the enhancement effects expire, rendering her unable to continue fighting.
"Miss Sheryl, could you show me the hand with the bracelet? Yes, I thought so."
"Does the Queen know what this is?"
"Yes, this is a magic artifact made by a friend of mine. I'm so glad to see it after all this time."
Sheryl was puzzled by the Queen's answer. How could Lena Unnie have made and given her something that was crafted by the Queen's friend?
"Jaejin, you break it yourself. I'm sure she would prefer it if you were the one calling her."
"M-Me? There won't be any problems, right...?"
Sinclair nodded and wrapped her hand over Jaejin's. She comforted him as he looked pained by his injured comrades, and soon, the trump card was held between Jaejin's index fingers.
Watching this, Oberon realized too late what it was. Why on earth was that in their hands?
"Stop them, Kerax!! Don't let him break it!"
Faster than any magic incantation, the Dark Elf swordsman's blade glowed as it traced a beautiful arc. However, the flying slash was neutralized by a single burst of Mari's squeezed-out fighting spirit, scattering the blue light like dust.
"I won't let you get in Papa's way...!"
Mari blocked the path, winking at Jaejin behind her. Jaejin nodded at her and easily snapped the bracelet with a twist.
As soon as the bracelet broke, it began to lose its form from the ends, completely vanishing into the air and leaving only a trace of mana behind.
Is that it? Just as he was about to turn to Titania in doubt, she smiled and said, "That is enough." And Oberon, the absolute ruler of the Fairy Kingdom, collapsed in his tracks, terrified by that tiny trace of mana.
Then, lightning struck. It came from a clear, dawn-tinted sky without a single cloud. Boom, boom, kaboom. Lightning continued to strike the empty space between the opposing forces.
Everyone fell silent at the overwhelming display, watching the anomalous phenomenon unfold before them.
Soon, thick smoke rose from where the lightning had struck, and a silhouette appeared. It was a body with feminine curves, standing tall at over 170 centimeters.
Long platinum blonde hair peeked out from under a veil, along with long, pointed ears. She wore a nun's habit that would have scandalized any cleric—her armpits, hips, and chest were daringly exposed.
Jaejin knew exactly who she was. She was the woman he had met the first day he left the capital, the first Elf he had ever seen, and the first person he had encountered through the Demon God Cult.
And she was the dear person who was the first to be pregnant with his child, someone he had kept in touch with through occasional letters.
"M-Mom!? Mom, what are you doing here?"
Before their nostalgic reunion could begin, Mari clumsily interjected, but Nia, standing beside her, grabbed her and began chanting healing magic.
The platinum-blonde, blue-eyed Elf walked slowly toward Jaejin. Due to her busy schedule, the constraints of pregnancy, and the fact that they were in a crowded metropolis, they hadn't been able to meet, but she faced Jaejin now with her beauty unchanged.
"Hehe, it seems our Papa is still healthy. And it looks like you've made many reliable comrades too. ♡"
"Sinclair... Is it really you, Sinclair? How did you get here?"
Jaejin rubbed his eyes, unable to believe Sinclair's appearance, and stared at her. She laughed at his reaction and lightly pulled his small body into an embrace.
Her embrace, so familiar and so missed, was no different from before. It was warm, cozy, and brought a sense of peace to his heart and mind.
Reading Jaejin's thoughts, she answered his question in advance.
"This is a clone. My main body is still recuperating. ♡ And the bracelet you just broke contained my magical power, so no matter how far away you are, I can come find you. ♡"
Those listening to their conversation knew just how absurd those words were.
The ability to sense one's own mana from hundreds of kilometers away, the difficulty of creating a clone through magic, and the sheer madness of teleporting accurately across such a distance in an instant—none of these were possible for anyone else present.
"That's because Mom is an Archmage."
Mari answered the question she had read with her Observation Eye. Among the Archmages they knew, there was only one Elf who wore a nun's habit. But why would she, who was supposed to be at Lakeside, come to a place like this?
"The Elves agreed not to interfere here!! Have you forgotten, Sinclair!!"
Oberon, whose fury had reached its peak while listening to their conversation, argued that her intervention was unjust. But Sinclair simply shook her head and placed a hand on Jaejin's shoulder.
"Your thinking is as narrow as ever, Oberon. No, Zephyrus. When I heard Flora was marrying you, I regretted so much that I didn't stop it somehow."
Everyone focused their attention on her, waiting for her next words, struck by her bold attitude in addressing the Fairy King and Queen by their real names.
"This man is my husband. Since you people kidnapped and used him as you pleased, I have more than enough reason to intervene. Don't you agree?"
From Titania, Melia, and Nia to the enemy camp, every fairy and spirit—except for Sheryl and Mari, who already knew the situation—murmured in shock.
They wondered who this boy could possibly be to have a connection with that fastidious Elf, and an Archmage at that, whom most could never even hope to meet.
And only one person, Fairy King Oberon, didn't wonder; instead, his face turned beet red as he trembled with an unerasable sense of inferiority and humiliation.