Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: The Burning Sacred Tree
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The Black Dog vanished in an explosion, and the curse's mist that had blanketed Arborness dissipated along with it.
The elves, whose escape routes had been blocked, could now flee once more—but the problem was the flames.
Though the Black Dog and the mist were gone, the fire that had leaped onto the sacred tree showed no signs of dying down. Instead, it spread even more fiercely.
With no time to check the loot messages from defeating the monster, I had to shield the elves from the burning branches crashing down and guide them to safety.
"Ravi! Elfin! Lenis! We need to get out of here! Can you move?"
"Haa... haa... Yes!"
"Ugh... Somehow... I can manage."
"Kehuk... Damn it... M-my... body... won't move..."
Ravi and Elfin could manage somehow, but Lenis—who had poured too much mana into healing countless elves and had cast protective spells on Elfin's plants right up to the last moment—had clearly reached her limit.
When her legs gave out as she tried to stand and she collapsed, I rushed over and hoisted her onto my back.
"This should do it, right?"
"W-what are you doing?! You, Alvis, touching my body right now... Ugh...!"
"Stop bluffing when your legs are too weak to even stand! Right now, focus only on escaping!"
"Ugh... O-okay."
Crunch... Boom!
A massive branch from the burning sacred tree couldn't bear its own weight and plummeted to the ground, sending vibrations through the earth strong enough to shake it.
As the leaves burned, ashes scattered everywhere, and embers latched onto more leaves and branches, the flames completely devoured the sacred tree—the elves' lifelong home.
Tears streamed down the elves' faces as they gazed at the blazing tree.
"O-our home... Arborness..."
"This can't be happening..."
"Water! D-does anyone know torrent magic?! Or even buckets..."
"How are you supposed to put out a fire that high up with buckets?!"
"Everyone, get away! Stay here and you'll burn to death or be crushed!"
Crunch!
As the fire truly took hold, the entire sacred tree became engulfed in flames.
I had Ravi quickly grab the items that had appeared where the Black Dog vanished.
Ravi clutched the gear, I carried Lenis on my back, and Elfin led the surviving elves as we escaped the collapsing sacred tree.
Roar! Crack—!
The spreading flames accelerated, growing larger until they fully consumed the sacred tree. Wigdrasil, which had been the elves' home for tens of thousands of years, vanished amid the inferno.
Every time a burning branch crashed to the ground with a thunderous roar, the elves wailed in grief, and Elfin urged her kin onward, evacuating everyone beyond the sacred tree.
"Those carrying the unconscious should escape first! Mages, erect barriers!"
"Lady Elfin! A branch is blocking the path!"
"Warriors, forward! Archers, focus your firing point on one spot, infuse your mana, and punch a hole through in one strike! Warriors advance after the archers fire!"
"Yes!"
The elves responded to Elfin's immediate, optimal commands, clearing a path.
Archers loosed mana-infused arrows in unison at the massive branch blocking their retreat, denting it deeply. The weakened spot shattered under the elves' warriors' attacks, opening the way.
"Mages! Barriers to keep the flames from the sides from reaching the path!"
"Yes!"
Crunch!
As another branch fell toward the elves slipping through the split, Elfin summoned every last ounce of strength to raise plants from the earth and brace it.
"Run! Everyone, get out of here! Until you're somewhere the flames can't reach!"
The thousands of surviving elves sprinted toward the grassy field outside the sacred tree, tears flying, collapsing only after reaching a safe distance from the blaze. There they stared at the roaring Wigdrasil.
"Hic... Haaangh..."
"The sacred tree... It lived for tens of thousands of years, our home..."
"Our race's pride... How could this happen..."
The elves sobbed uncontrollably, unable to compose themselves. Even Elfin trembled, lips bitten tight, eyes brimming with tears.
Yet she held back her own cries, tending to the unconscious wounded. When she found her grandfather, the elf elder, safe, she finally collapsed and burst into tears.
"Hic... Hwaaaangh... Grandfather... Grandfather... I-I couldn't save the sacred tree... Our home... Our livelihood... Everything our race had... It's all burning away... What am I supposed to do now..."
The elves' unending lamentations filled the air.
Only despair and helplessness spread among the survivors.
Before that negativity could fully consume them, I shouted loud enough for all to hear.
"Are you all just going to sit there crying? We need to find shelter right now—instead of wailing forever. The cities of various nations aren't too far; there are paths leading there. Don't we need to start figuring out how to survive there as soon as possible?"
The elves shot back sharply.
"You want us to go live in human cities and blend in?"
"How could we do that?! We're a race blessed by the sacred tree..."
"Our home has always been only under the sacred tree's shade! And now it's burned?!"
"You're an outsider human, so that comes easy to you!"
I raised my voice higher.
"It's already happened! Even after coming this far, are you saying you'll cling to racial pride and refuse to mix with the human world, living in your closed-off bubble like always?! Is that the path forward for you!?"
I pointed at the burning, collapsing sacred tree and approached the elves, yelling.
"If you hated mixing with the human world so much even now, you should've just died with that tree! When I saved you from the curse's mist, instead of thanking me, you should've jumped back in to die!"
"Alvis!"
Elfin gasped at my words telling them to go die, but I didn't stop.
"You wanted to live, didn't you? That's why you thanked me when I helped you while your bodies rotted and bled in the mist! That's why you fled with the sacred tree crumbling behind you! With your living family, friends, and lovers beside you—people with so much life ahead—is it right to just pine for the ruined tree and live on the streets here!?"
"B-but... We've never lived outside the sacred tree. We elves can't survive without its blessings—"
"Try saying that nonsense in front of Elfin here!"
I grabbed Elfin's shoulders and placed her before the surviving elves.
"Look at Elfin, the elder's granddaughter you all follow! She lived three years at the international academy, far from Arborness, without once complaining about weakening without the sacred tree's grace or showing any sign of it! You're not a race that can only live with the sacred tree's blessings—you've just grown so comfortable in its coziness that you've never felt the need to venture out!"
"...Alvis."
"What's holding you back? Short lifespans? No abilities to blend into human society? Humans discriminating against you? Look at the Bunnyfolk! They're not lacking anything compared to humans—physically superior even—and yet they struggle under discrimination, fighting to prove 'we can do it too'!"
Ravi gazed at me with an awestruck expression.
"But you elves? Humans revere you first! Even if not at Elfin's level, you can make plants sprout from the earth, you're swordsmen, archers, mages! Some brew potions, others weave cloth! Long lives, keen hearing! With the will, you can thrive in human society—humans will welcome you with open arms! Are you just going to wail here over the burned tree? What would your kin who died inside think of you?!"
Even long-lived elves aren't detached from death.
They grieve separations by death and fear it just like anyone.
That's why, when I mentioned their kin who perished to the curse inside, the elves' eyes finally changed.
Then, from among the wounded elves, an old man's voice rang out.
"Cough, cough... Young man, what was your name again?"
I turned to see an elderly elf with flowing white hair and beard struggling to rise.
All the elves who spotted him rushed over in shock.
"Grandfather!"
"Elder!"
"Elder, you're safe! Are you alright? Shouldn't you be lying down?"
"I'm fine. But that human youth—what's your name again?"
"It's Alvis."
Elfin's grandfather, the elf elder Elois, coughed repeatedly after hearing my name but pressed on.
"Right, Alvis. Everyone, listen well. There's not a single wrong word in what Alvis said. We've grown too complacent in the sacred tree's comfort. To avert the prophecy of ruin passed down through generations, we built walls against the outside and isolated ourselves. Like dozens of generations before me, we did the same—and now we're paying the price for that inertia."
"But Elder...! Then what are we supposed to do now?!"
"The prophecy of ruin has come true anyway! Doesn't that mean our race is finished?!"
Elder Elois stroked his chin beard thoughtfully.
"'When all things burn and collapse, the supreme race will be blinded and, clinging to a single ray of light, fall to the ground.'"
The elves flinched and huddled at the prophecy's final verse.
"The prophecy of ruin... But does this truly mean ruin? Nowhere in the prophecy does it say our race will perish. It only speaks of our eyes growing blind and falling to the ground."
Then he turned to me.
"A single ray of light we can rely on... Before I fainted earlier, I clearly saw such a thing. In this outsider human, Alvis, right here. Isn't that so?"
"If you're referring to the light, yes."
I drew my Light Saber, and the elves gasped in awe, sensing something from it.
Elois looked around quietly at everyone.
"We've been blinded. In this pitch-black darkness, we don't know where to go or what to do. But this youth bearing that ray of light saved us and showed us the path ahead. We're not falling to ruin—we may finally be able to stand eye-to-eye with other races. We've certainly fallen, and the sacred tree that protected us for tens of thousands of years is gone... but that doesn't mean our race's end."
He turned toward the roaring sacred tree and gently closed his eyes.
"So now, let's bid farewell to the great tree that sheltered us. Though we weren't prepared for this day, all things in the world come suddenly. Let's keep struggling to live on. Never forget the dead; carry them always in our hearts. Think of this not as falling to the ground, but as preparing to stand as equals. Only..."
Tears streamed down his wrinkled eyes.
"Today... let's all grieve together as the sacred tree that embraced us vanishes."
At the elder's words, thousands of elves wailed toward the burning sacred tree, and Elfin threw herself to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.