Dark Elf (2)
I gathered every summoning circle into a single spot.
There were a ridiculous number of them. Those New World Group bastards really outdid themselves with the underhanded schemes.
Then I activated Habel's Hourglass.
I jammed all fifty summoning circles inside the Hourglass's space.
This time would be different. Until now I'd only used it for training, but today I intended to turn it into a prison.
Habel's Hourglass doesn't merely make time infinite within its range while the outside stands still. The reverse works just as well.
A little creativity and I could rebrand the whole thing as Olivia's Hourglass—time racing outside while the interior crawls or freezes completely.
I planned to lock these scum inside that Hourglass and finish by wrapping the perimeter in sealing chains.
"Done."
"Is that really the end of it?"
It was. The net was already cast. Leave the circles where they sat; we could go about our own business.
"Yeah, it's finished. Still, just in case, take your teddy bears and sweep the outer regions. The elves will handle themselves, but the fringes are another story."
"You really are fast. Not a scrap of tension."
Celia pouted and gave a dry little snort. Tension, huh. She wasn't wrong.
Without me the Elf King would have been in for a brutal fight. The elves were competent; they would have crushed the New World Group eventually, but the cost would have been ugly. And if the World Tree had been involved, its power might have plummeted.
Relations between us weren't exactly warm and fuzzy, yet if the World Tree fell, one of the Empire's neighbors could slide straight into the Demon Realm's grasp. Protecting it was simply good sense from the Empire's standpoint.
Besides, this little fiasco looked like it would net me quite a few useful concessions from a certain someone.
The New World Group really were idiots.
They should have at least checked who had shown up at the World Tree before cozying up to that snitch Piel.
I had no idea what was pulling their strings, but it almost felt deliberate—like someone had planted them here on purpose.
I wondered who actually led the New World Group.
Didn't feel like Clanis's style. Seto, maybe? That bastard might have scattered the bait himself.
Either way, because of the irregular named me, those fools' plan was doomed.
"Right. They should've sized up their opponent before getting cocky."
I grinned at the magic circles sealed inside Habel's Hourglass.
Those poor bastards had no idea why they were trapped here.
World Tree
It looked as though Olivia had wiped every summoning circle from the Great Forest clean, but the truth was a little different.
She had sealed the black-magic circles across the entire forest; the Dark Elf Piel, however, had already shifted a portion of the New World Group's arrays toward the World Tree itself.
Olivia had left the World Tree in the elves' hands, so she never noticed the ones nestled against its roots.
Elf King Isis, guided by spirits and his people, confirmed the sickly rifts crawling across the World Tree.
"Spirit King! Look over there!"
"What the hell is that? Those rifts?"
The rifts were steadily mutating the tree's color.
At a glance there still seemed to be time, yet the speed of the corruption was anything but ordinary.
Every section the rifts touched turned pitch black.
Shariel, candidate for World Tree Priestess, opened her communion with the tree.
And she saw it.
The World Tree was screaming in agony.
"This is bad. The World Tree is crying so hard it hurts."
"Damn it. Is there any way to stop that?"
They had to purge that cry before it steeped in magi and drowned in corruption, hatred, and pure malice.
"Purification will take time. And Piel is almost certainly nearby."
"What the hell has that stupid child done this time?!"
So it really was Piel who had brought them to this.
Of course it was. No other elf would ever commit something like this. Not a single one, no matter how hard he thought about it.
The elders had no complaints about the current state of elven affairs and never meddled with humans. They had even befriended the so-called great Hero and his party; the elves' future had looked peaceful and secure.
"Spirit King! It's not only rifts in the wood—there are summoning circles soaked in magi as well!"
Magi-soaked summoning circles? That meant monsters, not spirits. Or Mains. Or worse.
"What the hell does that mean? So Piel didn't do this alone? No… no. That's exactly why she did it."
Piel had been raised as a priestess candidate from childhood, only to be edged out by Shariel in the end.
She had withdrawn into seclusion, and the elves had left her alone.
She was soft-hearted; she simply needed time. Or so they thought. That very softness made her easy prey for the malice whispering around her.
The World Tree was a colossal mass of mana—no exaggeration. It brimmed with the mana of the great wilds, and in ages past it had been called the very center of the world.
If the New World Group succeeded in polluting it, the World Tree would become an enormous disaster of pure magi overnight.
Every nearby elf would be seduced into becoming a Dark Elf, and the Great Forest would turn into a land of death.
Exactly like the Ruined Land.
To a cult of black mages like the New World Group, it must have looked like the perfect feast. Success would let them offer a magnificent sacrifice to the world their god intended to create.
What if they had promised Piel the seat of the new World Tree Priestess in exchange for handing the tree over?
The thought was nauseating, yet every clue already pointed that way.
Idiotic. Being played by humans is pathetic enough. And by trash like that? Unbelievable.
Strange shapes had already begun to crawl out of the magi-soaked circles.
Thankfully the elven guard was stationed near the World Tree; they could meet whatever demons or horrors emerged head-on.
The enemy would never have concentrated everything on the tree alone. They had almost certainly scattered circles throughout the Great Forest to force the elves to divide their strength.
Olivia would handle that side of things just fine.
She wasn't an idiot, and with her skill she would have spotted the circles immediately. Stronger than him, she would have noticed the arrays in moments.
She might even have gathered them all into one place for a clean sweep.
Proof of that was right in front of him: even as figures who looked like New World Group members poured from the remaining circles, almost nothing interfered with the elves around the World Tree. They wouldn't be picked off one by one, and the enemy wouldn't arrive in tidy little groups either.
So their duty was clear—protect the World Tree at all costs.
"Shariel, purify the World Tree. I'll find Piel."
"Yes."
"The rest of you guard Shariel. Understood?"
"Yes!"
He wanted to hear whatever pathetic excuse this defective little creature would invent. He had to see it for himself.
Finding Piel proved surprisingly easy.
Halfway up the World Tree, on one of its broad branches, Piel stood waiting for him with open arrogance. Only a short time had passed, yet she had already become a Dark Elf.
Her skin had turned a rich brown.
"Hehehe. You found me so quickly."
She stood there with that sun-browned skin bared, smiling with pure conceit. Pitiful. Absolutely pitiful.
And now… what was he supposed to do with this child? Tears pricked at Isis's eyes.
"Enough of this stupidity."
"Stupidity? Who do you think made me this way?!"
Made her this way. She was dumping every scrap of blame onto the elves. Ridiculous. In human years she had lived half a century.
Humans that age usually managed a little maturity, a little self-reflection.
Piel hadn't managed either.
How could they still claim superiority over humans while looking at her?
"I won't pretend the elves are blameless. But are you completely innocent? You took the priestess seat for granted and looked down on Shariel, didn't you?"
"That…"
Piel had worked hard—true enough. From childhood she had communed with the World Tree and been chosen as candidate. Then Shariel appeared with even greater talent. What was anyone supposed to do about that? If she had wanted undisputed recognition, she should have trained harder than Shariel and forged an even deeper bond with the tree.
She hadn't.
"When effort falls short, you simply work harder. I gave you chance after chance. Every single time, you lost. Didn't you?"
"!!"
Piel had no retort. She could only glare at the Spirit King.
Because he was right. Completely, crushingly right. Yet the injustice still burned in her chest.
Shariel had barely tried. That was all—and still the World Tree chose her. What did potential even mean?
"You poor little thing. You only ever see what you want to see."
"Shut your mouth! Even if I can't match Shariel, I am a Dark Elf now, and I have powerful backers!"
Truly pitiable. She laughed with such bravado, yet that was all she had. She knew nothing of the real situation.
They weren't relying on rat-like New World Group trash; they had far more reliable allies.
"New World Group, was it?"
"How do you know that?"
"That is exactly why you will never make it. The Empire's envoy—the Taesa—arrived recently and personally warned us of the New World Group's danger."
"Even so, it's too late. The preparations are already—"
Pitiful. Isis sighed.
Pitiful beyond words. If that underhanded mage hadn't appeared in that form—no, if she hadn't appeared at all, no matter the form—they might have been pushed to the brink. But the existence of that incomprehensible, gloomy mage was now firmly on the elves' side. Piel's little schemes never stood a chance.
"Preparations? Right. The New World Group is just one organization, and the Empire's secret police already swept through and gutted them. There won't be many left."
He didn't especially like the Empire—they were the ones who lost to elves, after all—but they were not to be dismissed. Rumor said they had unleashed the secret police across the capital and cleaned house thoroughly. What more needed saying?
"Even so, you cannot stop the World Tree! Do not underestimate their strength. Even if their numbers are few, once they are summoned here—"
"To devour the World Tree with so few, they would have to split their forces for a diversion. Simultaneous terror attacks from every direction inside the Great Forest to scatter our attention, then take the tree."
Piel's eyes flickered for a heartbeat—proof he had hit the mark.
Becoming a Dark Elf had given her arrogance, yet underneath she was still the same Piel. That was precisely why Shariel had outclassed her so easily.
She tried to read Isis's intent, but his gaze never wavered.
How had it come to this…
"As expected of the King. But even so—"
"Sorry. That plan has already failed."
Isis gently shook his head.
Your plan is dead. Dead far too easily. Truly regrettable. That underhanded mage Noah—no, Olivia—was handling everything perfectly.
Foolish. Pitiable.
Things had reached this point; a Dark Elf named Piel could never again live a noble life inside the Great Forest.
He was growing tired of listening to her rant.
New World Group members were still emerging, but the elves met them head-on. Even if the invaders were fairly strong, concentrated elven magic tore through them without mercy.
He needed to finish Piel quickly—before the World Tree itself was lost.