Azellia (2)
I glanced back slightly, checking on Azellia.
She's following.
Confusion still lingered in her red eyes.
She was probably still torn between whether to fight or apologize.
Azellia.
She hadn't started out as a dark elf.
Once, Azellia had been a pure elf born under the World Tree's blessing.
A normal child with silver hair and emerald-clear eyes, who listened to the forest's songs, communed with spirits, and lived in harmony with nature.
But in her thirteenth spring, when her supernatural ability Spirit Predation revealed its true nature—
She unwittingly devoured her closest low-grade wind spirit, Sylphia.
The young Azellia didn't even realize what had happened. Clutching the World Tree's roots in terror at her friend's disappearance, she wailed.
"World Tree, please help me! I'm scared... Sylphia, my friend—she's gone. Where did she go? What... what did I do?"
But all that returned was cold silence.
And the severance of its blessing.
The moment her silver hair turned pitch-black and her emerald eyes bled red as blood, she was no longer an elf.
Even the desperate pleas of a little girl couldn't change that. The World Tree discarded her.
Like pruning a diseased branch, without a moment's hesitation.
From the World Tree's perspective, it had no choice.
A child born of its blessing, sustained by its life force, had become a devourer of the spirits it birthed.
No mother could embrace a child who ate her own offspring.
But even so...
It was far too cruel a punishment for a thirteen-year-old child to bear.
A human thirteen and an elven thirteen were worlds apart.
By elven standards, she was barely out of infancy, just learning to walk. Too young to grasp the world or even who she was.
That day marked the true start of Azellia's hell.
The world draws grand distinctions between elves and dark elves, cloaked in lofty excuses.
The elves cry out in unison.
"Dark elves are traitors to the World Tree."
"Sinners who chose the path of corruption."
"Foul souls who abandoned purity for darkness."
But the truth—
Is brutally simple.
Whether you receive the World Tree's blessing or not.
That's it. Nothing more.
Not a fate predetermined at birth, nor a fall chosen by her own hand.
Just the difference between being embraced or cast out.
For that single reason, one child's life shattered.
Silver hair that once shone like moonlight turned black overnight, and eyes pure as emeralds became a bloody stigma.
Neighbors who once greeted her warmly—"Our little Azellia, what did you play today?"—now raised fists against her.
"Mommy, why is that kid all alone?"
"I told you not to go near monsters like that! Come here now!"
The kindly grandmother who used to stroke her head and offer treats now spat at her shadow and hurled curses.
"Spirit-eating monster!"
"Foul blood that betrayed the World Tree!"
"Cursed thing! The forest dies wherever you go!"
"You should never have been born!"
Those were the words a freshly thirteen-year-old Azellia heard every day.
From beloved child to hated monster. All because the World Tree turned its back.
She had few choices as a child. She could only flee that place.
What came after—her adolescence—never appears in the game.
But one thing's certain: it was anything but smooth. And she desperately wants to bury those days.
That's all I knew.
That's why I acted like her—someone with a deep backstory, wounds to hide. To share her pain, lower her guard.
And to ensure, in this fight, she couldn't bring herself to truly kill me.
Lost in these thoughts, I'd reached deep into the forest.
"This place...?"
"I hate fighting in training grounds."
I cut off her question coldly.
"Training grounds are for training, not real combat. Fights bound by rules, limited to safe power... That's child's play."
"W-wait! Astra, I have something to—"
I didn't let her finish.
I unleashed every bit of presence I'd been holding back.
The captains and Balderic watched from afar—their auras too distant to absorb. But Azellia's, right in front of me? Perfectly mine.
And that was enough.
Rumble—!!!!
The ground began to shake violently.
Azellia's absorbed presence. My own power, honed through relentless training. The amplification of False Name Imprint.
These three fused perfectly, erupting in explosive synergy.
Massive forest trees shook to their roots. Small animals fled in primal terror.
Ascaros, ready?
Don't worry, Master. I'll support you flawlessly.
With my black magic enhanced, Ascaros's subordinated power had largely recovered.
And during training, I'd discovered something intriguing.
Magic channeled through my mana as intermediary fully benefited from False Name Imprint.
In other words, all of Ascaros's black magic appeared amplified and strengthened to onlookers.
"Wh-what is... this..."
Azellia's red eyes shook wildly.
She must have felt it.
My presence was anything but ordinary.
The air grew heavy.
Breathing alone felt burdensome.
Just like that suffocating pressure from Balderic when I'd first entered Tian Yi Hui.
Trees bowed their branches low, as if submitting. The wind itself stilled into silence.
Azellia rallied her own presence in defiance.
A dark crimson aura swirled around her.
Just before the two colossal presences clashed, tension crushed the entire forest.
"Let's begin."
"Whoa... incredible."
Baekseol's admiration slipped out, but the captains—and even Balderic—stared at Astra in silence.
"How is this possible?"
Baekseol asked again, but silence reigned.
Their bewilderment was simple.
They sensed nothing from Astra.
Their eyes had seen it: Astra did something. Azellia tensed. The ground and forest quaked. They felt the aftershocks from afar.
Yet no matter how they strained their senses, not a trace of aura came from Astra himself.
"Insane mana control..."
Balepor muttered, unable to hide his awe.
"Not sure exactly, but... he's concentrating his presence solely in that space, completely sealing it off outside. If we didn't know about this fight, we wouldn't suspect combat here even if the earth shook."
"We knew he was a monster... but this level?"
Kaiser shook his head with a wry smile.
He still remembered vividly.
That seemingly frail, ordinary human who emitted no presence at all.
Yet he'd taken Kaiser's strike bare-handed and sent him flying instead.
And those calm eyes, unmoved even before Haven's absolute ruler, Balderic's overwhelming pressure.
"Sis, can you sense it? Ellis is still too weak, huh~?"
Ellis chirped innocently at Balderic.
"I feel something insane from Azellia-sis, but Astra-oppa... he's just like a normal human. Nothing."
"I sense nothing either."
Balderic's flat words stunned every captain.
Who was he? A being who'd lived eons beyond measure, cloaked in human skin. Haven's absolute sovereign, a transcendent force no one here could match combined.
Even he couldn't detect Astra's presence.
What kind of insane control was this?
"This is an order as your lord."
Balderic's voice grew grave.
"If the moment comes when Astra tries to kill Azellia, all of you intervene immediately."
What they'd doubted in the meeting room, this mere release of presence confirmed: Astra was the victor.
And at last, Astra spoke.
"Let's begin."
The words fell—
BOOM!!!
Jet-black smoke erupted from Astra's body like an explosion, tearing into the sky.
It wasn't mere smoke. It was living darkness itself.
Black tendrils of black magic instantly engulfed hundreds of meters.
The sky blackened. Absolute darkness devoured even sunlight, dominating the world.
"This... black magic? No, something else..."
Sirka muttered in disbelief.
This was leagues beyond the black magic they knew.
The black mist didn't just obscure vision.
It devoured space itself, eroding reality.
Writhing like a starving beast expanding its territory, it stirred primal fear from the soul's depths.
"Can... a human truly wield evil like that?"
Ryujin recoiled, face pale with horror.
The massive dome of black magic loomed like a colossal abyss maw, threatening to swallow all.
Astra and Azellia vanished within.
Only intermittent flashes revealed Azellia's desperate resistance.