The Giving Tree (1)
Like a deer's head mounted on the wall as a trophy.
The man, melted into the wall and consumed by the Ma Gi that filled it, stared only at Elpinire and repeated the same words over and over.
Clenching her fist tightly, Elpinire walked calmly toward him.
"Ten years ago. Do you remember?"
"Elpinireere."
"From the moment I first met you humans, I hated you."
She could hear the will of plants, and from that first encounter, she'd despised humans for harming plants and making them their staple food.
But even she had come to realize that they weren't so different from the elves—just a matter of differing cultures.
Staying in Elcid, she'd gradually been swayed by their vibrant energy and kind intentions.
"A sturdy empire at the heart of the continent, remote and insular kingdoms on the fringes... even massive religious orders worshiping primordial gods, and races other than elves."
Humans shared knowledge with Elpinire that was hard to come by in Elcid.
The young Elpinia had loved listening to their stories most of all.
She'd stayed up late laughing and chatting with them so often that her older siblings scolded her endlessly.
Excluding the final page stained black, those memories remained among the brightest in her life.
That's why, on the day they left, she'd wailed as if the world were ending.
Don't go.
Can't you stay just a little longer?
She'd clung to their pant legs, begging them to stay, but they shed tears and said,
We'll come back, so don't cry.
We don't like seeing you cry—forcing smiles, they hooked pinkies with her, as humans do when making promises.
"And this is what happens?"
"......"
"Why did it end up like this?"
Tears were streaming from Elpinire's eyes before she knew it.
Overwhelmed by surging emotions, she cried out at the man.
"Alec Euiphon. You led the party back as its leader, said you'd confess to Lenny, and this is what you do?"
Even as Elpinire called his name, Alec showed no reaction.
He was no longer the man she knew.
Just a mindless monster with only its shell remaining.
He couldn't react to her words.
To calm her boiling emotions, Elpinire took a deep breath.
The dank cave air filled her lungs.
Thanks to it, she steadied herself and smiled brightly at Alec.
"My siblings probably couldn't attack because it was their first time facing Ma Gi."
Ma Gi had always been a little-known power.
Far more people were ignorant of it than knew of it.
Especially among elves, there was virtually no information.
So the guardians couldn't respond to this unfamiliar force called Ma Gi.
They panicked at the humans' sudden transformation and held back from attacking.
Lack of information led to defeat, and defeat to death.
This was just a continuation of that.
Doing what they couldn't.
Putting the period at the end as the new forest guardian.
"I truly hated you. Despised you."
I liked you.
"Farewell, Alec Euiphon."
With a quiet murmur, Elpinire's fist pierced through Alec's chest.
Ma Gi evaporated from his body in an instant as his heart burst.
Leaving only the faintest trace, Alec breathed his last while pinned to the wall.
Elpinire gazed at him and let her head droop.
Only the water droplets falling to the floor spoke of her state.
I walked over quietly and patted her back.
"I know a dragon in the afterlife. He'll guide you well."
"......Yeah."
Her shoulders began to tremble finely.
Pretending not to notice, I turned my head and kept patting her back...
"......"
Thud.
My heart sank.
Elpinire turned to me, sensing something odd as my hand stopped.
She tilted her head at my frozen form, eyes red and glaring somewhere.
Then, the moment she looked where I was staring...
"......"
Her tears stopped, and she froze too.
I gripped my throat, forcing out words that wouldn't come.
"......Elpinire. You said there were five faces you met ten years ago, right?"
"......Yeah."
"You haven't seen any human bones on the way here, right?"
"......Yeah."
"That means......"
Swallowing the curses rising to my throat proved impossible; I gritted my teeth and spat them out.
In a position similar to where I'd escaped this place.
There was a massive hole.
A hole that definitely hadn't been there before descending the ravine.
My mind went blank.
Four people missing from this spot.
The remaining human tainted by Ma Gi.
They'd escaped through that hole.
And their destination was obvious.
"The World Tree......!"
World Tree.
The four humans who'd escaped from here were heading there.
Along with who-knew-how-many more mutants.
We had to move now.
The moment we tried to step forward...
Synchronization Rate 2.6%
Our bodies froze solid.
Oppressive pressure.
An intangible pressure crushed our bodies.
Guided by it, we slowly turned our heads.
Synchronization Rate 2.7%
What our eyes captured was Alec's limp corpse.
The body whose heart had burst and Ma Gi evaporated now brimmed with it again.
No, it wasn't just refilling.
It overflowed with a dense, potent true Ma Gi unlike anything we'd felt before.
Synchronization Rate 2.8%
Shh.
Alec's head lifted.
Bloody tears streamed from his tightly shut eyes.
Still closed-eyed, staring at us—his forehead twitched, then split wide left and right.
From it emerged an eye with a black sclera and purple pupil.
The ceaselessly rolling purple pupil fixed on me and Elpinire, then curved like a crescent moon.
And then.
"Human—!"
It exploded with massive Ma Gi.
Crackle, crackle.
Sparks from the roaring flames scattered faintly into the sky.
On one knee, Elses-to spat thick blood from his mouth and stared ahead.
"......I never imagined you'd end up like this."
Four humans shrouded head to toe in purple Ma Gi.
No clothes or faces visible, but as a high elf and chief of the elves, he recognized them instantly.
Those leading the mutants toward the World Tree—they were the humans from ten years ago.
"Lenny, Kallos, Yuto, Shrin. Where's Alec? You came without him?"
No.
Chuckling softly, he shook his head.
"Alec's with those kids."
Better that way.
Those kids would have beaten Alec.
With the World Tree's elixir, their chance of death was near zero.
Just don't let them return.
Then the kids could survive.
Wiping blood from his chin, Elses-to looked around.
Fortunately no deaths yet, but not a single elf around him was unscathed.
"Elumia. At this rate, you'll beat me to Mother's embrace."
"......Don't talk to me. Feels like I'll head out right now."
Elumia, with a massive hole in her abdomen, breathed raggedly in reply.
"Looking fine," Elses-to muttered softly, then closed his eyes calmly and whispered.
"Mother. Sorry for being such a failure of a son."
When Elpinire was born.
Elses-to and the elders had been away from Elcid.
It coincided with the new pope of the Arke order—worshippers of primordial gods—taking the throne for the first time in nearly a century.
They'd left to attend.
Of all times, the child was born while everyone was away.
So Elpinire grew up nameless in the guardians' care.
"We should have been here when Elpinire was born. That must be when my failures began."
When they returned, Elpinire preferred the guardians' arms to theirs.
Seeing how much she loved it, they left her with them, visiting once a day.
That was my first mistake.
Chuckling self-mockingly, Elses-to slowly opened his eyes.
"I'll block them even if it costs my life, but it won't be easy."
His body had rusted.
By tradition, when a golden fruit from the World Tree bore the next elder, the current one had to step down within twenty years.
The fruit itself signaled the elder's decline and impending death.
Struggling with a rusted body was just flailing.
With Elspier—the youngest and strongest high elf besides Elpinire—still unconscious, victory odds were zero.
"Even if Elspier were awake, it'd be about one percent."
Win or lose, the outcome would be the same.
Laughing weakly, he exhaled long and gazed at the sky.
The dark night passed; the sun began to rise.
Under the dawning sky, the elf burns his remaining life.
I'll protect the World Tree even if it means burning everything.
So.
"......Will you forgive us failures?"
The silent space echoed only with the advancing mutants' footsteps.
No wind blew, yet the World Tree's branch above Elses-to rustled gently.
A single leaf fluttered down from it; Elses-to chuckled.
"Mother. You need to scold us at times like this for us to learn."
Despite your long life, you're still a novice at parenting.
Shaking his head as if hopeless, he bellowed with resolute eyes.
"All elves, hear me!"
Thud!
Evergreen Formation mana spread widely around Elses-to, enveloping every elf.
Their tense faces relaxed, as if embraced in Mother's warm arms.
"Today, we die here!"
"......"
"Even in death, we protect Mother! The World Tree!"
Shh.
A somewhat burly male figure raised his right hand.
A small orb of Ma Gi rose from it.
The orb swelled, growing larger.
"That's our fate and destiny! If we protect Mother and survive, then we'll finally throw our first tantrum to her as elves!"
Grinning.
Discarding his tattered outer robe, Elses-to reached into the air with a smile.
A massive wooden greatsword flew into his grasp.
"Worried about leaving Elpinire alone, but with Mir there, she'll be fine."
Gripping the greatsword one-handed over his shoulder, he bent his knees and shouted.
"Charge—."
Boom!
A explosive roar shattered the fervent cheers—from somewhere far off.
Though distant, it rang clear to every elf in Elcid.
Elses-to's eyes trembled faintly at the sharp black line racing toward them from afar.
"H-Human! This is weird! My vision's spinning!"
"You think I ain't?!"
"Can we even land like this!?"
"How the hell should I know?!"
Something ragtag hurtled through the air.
It slammed into the man reaching overhead, plummeting toward Elcid.
"We hit someone! We just hit someone!"
"I know! Quit freakin' out!"
"Might be an elf! Tell 'em to stop!"
"I'd stop if I could!"
"Bleeech......"
Krunch!
Two people and a snake crash-landed, carving deep scars into the ground.
Underfoot lay the Ma Gi-consumed man, sprawled like a doormat.
Returning noisily to the world, we scratched the backs of our heads and said,
"Grandpa. We ain't late, right?"
"Chief. We're not late, are we?"
"Kkung!"