Chapter 45: Eat It
In the distant past, when aberrant insects ran rampant through the deep forests of the Far South, when the elves scattered across the continent had yet to unify, and when the Nature Mentor was still Eydriel Galannod, she once traveled the continent, exploring, discovering, adventuring, and fighting—doing exactly the same things as any other adventurer.
In that era, now long past, Galannod had slain evil dragons that plagued the land, restored deserts created by battles between powerful beings, clashed with human kingdoms, earned the enmity of orcs, and joined hands with many races to seal away the lands of Chaos.
But whether it was fighting, adventuring, exploring, or sealing Chaos, Galannod rarely formed parties or acted with companions. The vast majority of the time, she walked alone, accomplishing one great deed after another worthy of legend.
This unique way of acting had been a topic of lively discussion among the people of that age. They speculated on the reasons for the Nature Mentor's solitude, analyzing her pride, her self-respect, and the ancient customs of the elves, using these as reasons to praise her. But in truth, the reason Galannod acted this way was simple.
Too many people took up too much space; she couldn't fully spread out.
As one of the most powerful druids in the history of the Era of Falling Stars, the Nature Mentor was not particularly skilled in the art of 'Transformation' in her early days. What she excelled at was manipulating vast quantities of plants, creating all sorts of specialized biological components to suppress her enemies. And by 'vast quantities of plants,' she typically meant an entire forest.
When the Nature Mentor went all out, the entire forest would surge and boil with life like a single unified creature. Both friend and foe within that range would be suppressed by the dense force of Nature. Add to that the shockwaves from Galannod's battles, which made it impossible for anyone to intervene—they could only stay far away—and over time, she became synonymous with the lone wanderer.
Now, at the edge of the World Star River, within the Sealed World.
Watching the Chaos shockwave spreading at an explosive speed, about to engulf the entire world, the Nature Mentor couldn't help but recall memories of the past, her heart filled with complex emotions.
"Several hundred years, and now it's my turn to be caught in someone else's shockwave."
But since she was acting together with that guy, it wasn't surprising.
Facing the oncoming Chaos fluctuation, the Nature Mentor coiled her tendrils into a sphere, wrapping the Aklafa Hub within. Then, deep green waves of Nature's Force flickered in the grooves of the massive roots, forming a perfect defensive array. Like a reef in the ocean, it withstood the relentless assault.
"Little ones, I'm going to help Lord Radcliffe now. I don't have the energy to protect you."
A clump of deep green flame could be seen slowly seeping out from the main body of the roots. It floated in the void, and the surrounding Chaos fluctuations were even ignited by it. This flame condensed into the form of a long-haired elven woman. The flame burned, making her features unclear, but the Nature Mentor's voice came from within: "Stay inside the array. Don't go out. As long as it's not a direct attack from the Evil God, the erosion from its shockwaves won't break through my defenses."
The Decay fluctuation caused the surface of the root array to constantly weaken. The biomass, which had been hardened by energy to withstand stellar flames, became brittle and decayed into ash. But the root array continuously regenerated and renewed itself, discarding the weakened parts that had been affected, absorbing the parts that had by chance resisted and remained untouched by Chaos, constantly evolving into forms better suited to withstand the Chaos erosion.
This was the power of Nature.
Inside the Aklafa Hub, the five members of the Elite Squad and the elven girl Su Er stared blankly at the observation window, watching the tree branches and roots that kept breaking and reforming, and the rapidly departing flame-formed figure.
"...What exactly are Legendary beings..."
The Spellcaster murmured as he watched this scene: "I can imagine the power of Gold High-rank, of the Ultimate level—those are futures I can aspire to... But Legendary... this kind of power is beyond imagination."
In the control room, silence reigned. Although they had narrowly escaped death, a shadow hung over their post-calamity joy.
Whether it was the Black Mist or the other powerful beings from different worlds, they all left the Elite Squad helpless. But their power was different. For example, the Lord Squid they had encountered earlier—if just one person in the squad had advanced to the Ultimate level, they could have beaten it and turned it into squid balls. The Black Mist was stronger, but still within the realm of power they could understand. It could even inspire them to train harder, hoping that one day they could personally take revenge.
But today, what they witnessed—the battle between an Evil God and a Legendary—surpassed that boundary.
Even an Evil God that had just awakened after being sealed for thousands of years possessed such terrifying power. What if it were fully intact? What if a stronger Evil God came? What if multiple, even stronger Evil Gods invaded their homeland? How much better would the fate of the Mycroft World be than that of the Sealed World?
"Is there enough energy?"
Priest spoke, breaking the others' drifting thoughts. He communicated with the Hub through his authority and immediately got the data: "Enough... Ah, when Teacher took us away, he even recharged the Hub on the way!"
Seeing the small line in the Hub's log—'Received Friendly Legendary Energy Infusion -47'—Priest's heavy mood lightened considerably: "With the Hub and the defensive array left by the Mentor, a double defense, at least our safety is guaranteed."
Hearing this, the others nodded and let out a sigh. Hovering between life and death, constantly enduring such terror, even the Elite Squad—who had undergone numerous extreme training and weren't particularly afraid of death—felt their legs go weak. The despair of utter powerlessness still echoed in their hearts.
As for Su Er, who hadn't undergone the North's special hellish extreme training, how could she endure this terror without fainting? The only explanation was that the elven girl truly wasn't afraid of death.
After all, having been deeply eroded by Chaos before, she had already accepted her fate of certain death.
"Su Er, what's wrong?"
Noticing the elven girl staring blankly at the Aklafa's observation window, Priest couldn't help but ask: "What are you looking at?"
"Ah, um..." Hearing Priest's question, Su Er looked startled, but quickly calmed down. The elven girl bit her lower lip, looking confusedly at the void filled with black Chaos mist, and whispered: "It's just... we're so far away now, I wanted to see where the Mother Tree is..."
For forest elves, the Mother Tree meant home. Even though Su Er didn't rely on the Mother Tree to connect her spirit with other elves, she still instinctively looked for the direction of the Mother Tree when she felt worried or lonely.
But now, the world was pitch black and chaotic. Nothing could be seen. Nothing could be discerned.
Faced with this question, Priest's expression became very complex.
Your home... it's hard to say what its condition is now.
Priest had some understanding of his teacher's destructive power. It was a being that, if it wished, could destroy a continent with a wave of its hand, feeding on the planet's crust. And this time, it seemed he had been fighting someone while crashing into this world, slamming into the planet.
Let alone the Mother Tree, Priest doubted whether there was any recognizable feature left on the planet's surface. Or even whether there was still a surface at all. Of course, before that, the rampaging Chaos had already swallowed everything. Su Er's homeland had been destroyed long before.
"Good thing we forcefully relocated the 'Watcher Tribe' earlier... Otherwise, they would have been completely wiped out."
Thinking of this, Priest let out a breath, feeling quite relieved: "At least we did something, saved some people... Although there might be other elven tribes in the world, we're not gods. We can't save everyone."
Just being able to help the people in front of them, to do what they could—merely achieving that required all their effort.
"Sed, go check on those elves." The Alchemist said from the side. He was still sitting on the ground, his legs apparently still weak: "We put them neatly in the hanging baskets earlier. They probably weren't too badly jostled, but even so, injuries are inevitable. Don't let them die from bumps and bruises after surviving the Evil God."
Hearing this, the Clergy stood up and said: "Alright, I'll go check on them."
Priest quickly grabbed the hand of the dazed Su Er, pulling the somewhat confused girl along as he followed: "We'll go too."
"Priest, what do you think our future will be like?"
Walking in the corridor, Su Er suddenly asked this question. The Clergy walking ahead turned his head so fast it seemed he might snap his neck. But soon, his curious expression and Priest's shocked one made them realize that her 'meaning' was a different 'meaning.'
"As for the future, you'll probably be settled in the Far South. That's the homeland of the elves, with the Elven Court and the strongest Mother Tree groves. Don't worry, elves are a very united race. As long as you're willing to enter their lineage, they'll treat you as one of their own."
Priest thought for a moment about the current situation in the Mycroft World, then said softly: "The powerful Legendary who protected us earlier is a Legendary powerhouse of the Elven Court, the Nature Mentor. She's the most powerful druid in the Mycroft World. She'll definitely find a way to deal with the spiritual connection between your father and the Mother Tree."
"Mm, that's really good news!" Hearing Priest's confident reply, Su Er's tone became excited, regaining some of her former vitality. After a moment of silence, as if unable to suppress her rekindled curiosity, she asked in a small voice: "Um, Priest, what exactly is the Mycroft World like?"
Priest naturally began a detailed explanation, occasionally eliciting exclamations of "Amazing!" and "So cool!" from Su Er. Meanwhile, the Clergy, walking alone ahead, fell into deep thought.
Why did I have to walk with these two?
Soon, the three arrived at the hall where all the members of the Watcher Tribe were housed. Su Er and Priest stopped their conversation and began assisting the Clergy in careful observation and treatment.
It had to be said, the Alchemist's poison... the quality of the special sleeping medicine was excellent. None of the elves showed any signs of waking up. The earlier jostling, thanks to the fixed hanging baskets, hadn't caused too many accidents. At most, a few elves had bumped their heads and bled a little. Apart from looking a bit miserable, no one had died from the accidents.
"I've never seen Father like this."
Su Er stood before the unconscious antlered elf. Naturally, the antler crown had been removed. What could be seen now was a haggard, aged middle-aged elf with furrowed brows and a worried expression. The elven girl said softly: "Before, even when he was angry, happy, or confused, he never showed it too clearly on his face. Because everyone's emotions were shared. No matter how great the anger or conflict, sharing it with a thousand people made it as light as early spring rain... He's never shown such obvious anxiety before."
"Intense, pure emotions are also one of the driving forces for life's progress... If love, hate, joy, and disgust aren't clear, how can one progress?"
Priest, however, was deeply moved by this. Even insects, beasts, or even hive-mind lifeforms at least had pure desires for reproduction and feeding. Even seemingly emotionless monsters, or even artificial intelligence lifeforms like the Black Mist, had extremely intense and extreme desires at their core, like a blazing flame.
"I hope that in the future, everyone can smile..."
Su Er was about to say something more, but then a feeling of palpitation flashed through Priest and the others. A faint vibration came from every part of the Aklafa Hub. All the elves in the hall suddenly began to struggle violently and painfully.
"Waaaaaah!!"
"Ugh..."
"It hurts! Ah, what is this?!"
In the hall, the elves who had been knocked unconscious by the Alchemist's potion suddenly woke up for no reason, startling the Clergy who was treating one of them. The Holy Light used to heal wounds went awry, causing an abnormal mutation in the body of an otherwise unharmed elf. But that elf felt nothing. He sat up abruptly and frantically scratched at his own body. The elf's originally frail frame suddenly burst with immense strength, instantly tearing bloody scratches into his skin.
"It's inside! Inside! Take it out!"
He roared in pain, his voice filled with extreme terror: "Don't! Don't come near me!"
But soon, just as the Clergy and Priest were about to urgently notify their other three teammates and call on the Aklafa Hub to suppress this inexplicable riot, all the elves immediately stopped their commotion and abruptly lay back down.
"What's going on?"
The Clergy quickly knelt down to check on the elf who had been scratching himself. Holy Light swept over him, and he frowned: "No abnormalities... They're all still alive. Their spirits are calm, as if they're asleep."
But this normalcy was the greatest abnormality! Suddenly waking from the effects of the Alchemist's potion, going berserk for a while, then collapsing again with their spirits restored to calm—how could such a thing happen?
"Wait, Su Er?"
Priest checked two elves and came to the same conclusion as the Clergy: normalcy itself was the greatest anomaly. But soon, while pondering why, Priest remembered the elven girl who had suddenly fallen silent. His heart skipped a beat, and he quickly ran to Su Er's side.
Just then, Su Er, who had been standing motionless from the start, suddenly swayed and began to fall to the ground.
"Su Er, what's wrong?!"
Priest quickly caught her. Looking into her eyes, which were already becoming dazed, he asked in a panic: "What happened? How did you all..."
"There's... something... it's..."
Perhaps because she hadn't been in a deep sleep but had remained conscious, Su Er's resistance was better than that of her other kin. Facing Priest's question, the elven girl, who could no longer stand, forced herself to stay alert and replied softly: "Back... it hurts... spirit... flowing away... a vortex... a vortex of the soul..."
Her replies became increasingly fragmented, and her eyes grew more and more hazy. No matter how much Battle Qi Priest channeled into her, or how much Holy Light the Clergy used to heal her, there was no effect.
Soon, Priest could sense that the spiritual fluctuations of the elven girl in his arms were becoming increasingly calm, and the light in her eyes was growing dimmer... Soon, like the other elves, the light in Su Er's eyes completely vanished.
She had fallen into a deep sleep.
At the same time, the flame-formed figure of the Nature Mentor had arrived at the location where Joshua had been.
And then, she saw an unbelievable sight.
In the dead, silent, dark vacuum floated a massive spherical metal framework, large enough to encompass a planet's core. Endless Chaos fluctuations were spreading from this spherical metal framework, surging toward the surrounding world.
This was the world-sealing array left over from the Era of Radiance, used to imprison the Evil God of Decay. With this metal framework as its core, nine Legendary beings had created a planet to seal it. Now, after a great battle, the planet had shattered, leaving only the decayed, crumbling foundation of the seal.
But what shocked the Nature Mentor, what she found unbelievable, was not this.
Inside the metal framework, a black vortex emitting a filthy light was spinning rapidly. This vortex was like a star river, flickering with countless bright soul lights—the soul lights of all beings that had lived in the world for thousands of years. It was like a bizarre black star river, burning itself as fuel, releasing endless Chaos fluctuations to erode everything in the surrounding world.
If this black star river succeeded, if it eroded the surrounding world by releasing massive Chaos fluctuations, then even if its main body was still imprisoned by the seal, it could fully awaken directly. Because after that, the sealing array would become a structure protecting its core, not a cage imprisoning it.
Its idea was good, and its actions were successful. Through that Chaos explosion, the surrounding world had indeed been covered in Chaos aura. Even the Nature Mentor felt somewhat uncomfortable, as if she had delved into one of the sealed lands in the Mycroft World.
But there were still some surprises that were not within the Evil God's control.
Silver light could be seen spreading along the metal sealing framework. The brilliant radiance of Steel Force, like a barrier that Chaos could not pass through, a membrane covering a star, was rapidly spreading across the sealing framework, blocking the communication between the dark star river and the outside world!
The silver radiance had already covered seventy percent of the sphere's surface. The Chaos power was frantically impacting the barrier formed by Steel Force, but the silver light showed no sign of giving up. It continued, slowly but irresistibly, to envelop the entire dark star river.
The Nature Mentor could see at a glance that the silver barrier of Steel Force was undoubtedly the planetary body incarnation of Joshua von Radcliffe. She stared at this scene in shock and couldn't help but ask: "Lord Radcliffe, what are you..."
"Wrapping it up. Isolating it."
A blurry voice could be heard from the distant silver barrier: "I will use my own body, using 'World' as a seal, to completely cut off the Evil God of Decay from any information or material exchange with the outside world, to stop its final frenzy."
"And then."
"Eat it."