Translator: Silavin
The sky was a vast canopy of blue, the earth a deep green, and the Tree of Life stood between them, immeasurable in scale, stretching to the very limits of sight, a pillar holding up Heaven itself.
Upon the central trunk of the Tree of Life, a single point of luminous green light pulsed and flickered without cease, as though drawing upon the very essence of the tree, drinking deep of its primordial vitality.
The ing-of-age ceremony of a Royal Elf marked the turning point at which they would fully awaken the singular abilities unique to their lineage.
To successfully pass the ing-of-age ceremony was to gain mastery over the Power of Life, to bee the undisputed sovereign of the Elf Race. This, too, was the reason why the Royal Elves held a position within the Elf Race that no other could replace.
As a general rule, the greater the energy drawn from the Tree of Life during a Royal Elf’s ing-of-age ceremony, the greater the benefits bestowed upon them.
Avril, that Elf born of the Tree of Life’s singular favour, received a baptism during her ing-of-age ceremony that far exceeded anything a mon Royal Elf could hope to achieve.
That rich, luminous green, saturated to the very brim with vitality, drifted endlessly from the Tree of Life, converging upon the graceful silhouette seated cross-legged upon the branches above.
Several kilometres below where Avril sat, upon the trunk of the great tree, three figures stood in cold, posed stillness. Their gazes were fixed upon that cluster of green light, each pair of eyes carrying a thin, vicious gleam.
“Elder, are we not moving yet?”
Sensing that Power of Life, so thick it had reached an extreme, the figure standing to the left of Felletin could not quite contain himself, and asked with barely-veiled impatience.
“Fellian, from now on you should address him as Your Majesty!” The figure on the right cut in, sharply reprimanding.
“Yes… Your Majesty!” Fellian’s entire body gave a start at that, and he hastily corrected himself with a respectful bow of his head.
“There is no need to rush. If we wait until she reaches the critical moment of the baptism, we will save ourselves no small amount of effort.” Felletin did not reproach anyone for that exchange. His deeply-set eyes locked onto the place where Avril sat, and a dry, rasping voice emerged from his throat.
“Your Majesty… just a moment ago, I saw someone acting suspiciously, making their way towards the banquet. He must have gone to pass along a warning.” Fellian paused, then spoke with a measure of worry.
“It is of no consequence. The woman handed me the Life Scepter precisely because she had anticipated this.” Felletin shook his head, the corners of his mouth curved in a calm, confident smile.
He had mentioned the Life Scepter in his very first breath, and the Elf Queen naturally understood what he desired. Yet even so, after weighing her options, she had surrendered the Life Scepter to him. Clearly, she valued the safety of her people above all else.
So long as Felletin had not administered the cure for the Blood Devouring Poison afflicting them, the Elf Queen would not dare make any reckless moves.
One had to understand, losing those who formed the backbone of the Elf Race would plunge the entire Race into an abyss from which there could be no return.
And once Felletin obtained that thing, even if the Elf Queen and the others refused to acknowledge his identity as the Elf King, he was confident he could bring the entire Elf Race under his control.
Of course, this would perhaps require borrowing the strength of some Foreign Races.
Yet Felletin held no regret over this. Born as a Dark Elf, the deepest recesses of his heart harboured something that could only be described as hatred towards those so-called High Rank Elves and Royal Elves.
A Dark Elf entered the world at the very bottom of the Elf Race’s hierarchy. Even after a lifetime of ceaseless effort, after securing the position of Elder, it had only temporarily eased those strange and unweling stares. In truth, behind closed doors, the High Rank Elves had never once looked upon him as an equal.
Now, Felletin’s twilight years pressed upon him, and once he finally laid down and breathed his last, it was not difficult to imagine that the Dark Elves would once again sink into that state of being driven about at Will, with no Elder left to shelter and acmodate them.
This act of his was not merely to extend his own years and preserve his own life. What it was for, even more so, was for the standing of his own Dark Elf Clan.
For that purpose, even if it plunged the entire Elf Race into a catastrophe of tremendous scale, he would not flinch.
“Your Majesty… once you obtain that thing, you shall live as long as Heaven itself!”
“Indeed, and when that day es, those blind fools of other Races will surely regret not agreeing to your offer when they had the chance!”
Fellian and the other brown-haired Elf exchanged a glance, their eyes alight with excitement.
“Alas, I can only hope our people will not blame us for this.” At this, Felletin’s face also carried a full smile, though when he considered the moment this would all be made public to everyone, a faint thread of worry still remained.
“They will not. Our people will surely support you!”
“That is right. Though we are all called Elves, our standing as Dark Elves here is barely distinguishable from slaves!”
Fellian and the other spoke with indignation, both voices carrying the same resentment.
Not for a moment did either of them notice that their once pure hearts had, without their awareness, been thoroughly shaped by Felletin, a man whose inner world had long since been twisted past its breaking point.
“Yes, yes.” Felletin drew a slow breath, then spoke with quiet deliberateness.
“It is time to let this girl lend us a hand.” With that, Felletin’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he murmured under his breath.
At this moment, the area within ten kilometres of where Avril sat was saturated entirely in a luminous green light. Those radiant sparks danced like tiny sprites, leaping into her body one after another without cease.
As those green rays of light, brimming with the breath of life, poured into her, Avril’s form was undergoing a profound transformation. First, upon the surface of her skin, mysterious and arcane markings began to emerge, flickering in and out of sight.
As those markings appeared, the Power of Life saturating the air seemed to ripple and stir faintly with each breath she drew.
At the same time, the very air Avril carried about herself was shifting in ways that overturned everything. That soft and yielding quality slowly retreated before the green radiance, and in its place rose something else entirely, a manding, sovereign presence, a regal authority that was innate and absolute, laid bare without the slightest concealment.
This scene, as it fell upon the eyes of Felletin and the others, drew from them an involuntary look of profound shock.
Though they all understood that Royal Elves underwent tremendous change after their ing-of-age ceremony, none of them had anticipated that this transformation would be so vast in scope.
Even more unsettling was the fact that beneath this presence, something within their own hearts stirred, a pull towards submission.
In this single moment, they were made to understand with painful clarity the distance that separated them from a Royal Elf.
It was a gulf that could never, in any lifetime, be crossed.
Felletin’s grip on the Life Scepter tightened without his willing it. Within those clouded, murky eyes, an array of shifting expressions rose and fell, and what finally surfaced was a cold, murderous gleam.
The presence Avril was displaying at this moment unsettled him deeply.
Should Avril be allowed to grow and e into her full power, her achievement would surely be no less than the current Elf Queen’s, and very possibly, it would surpass her entirely.
As a true Elder, Felletin had in truth witnessed the Queen at the time she had just undergone her own ing-of-age ceremony. At that time, the Queen had not undergone a transformation nearly as dramatic as what Avril was showing now.
“Your Majesty…?” Fellian stepped forward, a killing intent surfacing in his eyes. He was clearly considering taking this opportunity to deal with Avril then and there.
“Not yet.” Felletin stopped him.
It was not that his heart had gone soft. Rather, to enter the Tree of Life, a Royal Elf’s guidance was an absolute necessity.
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