Queen Shana''s expression turned tense.
It had been peace in her kingdom, the forests were calm—and the mutated animals around were in harmony. She has been developing her defenses in anticipation of the unexpected, utilizing the moment of peace the Elven race tasted under Rex''s umbre.
Not even the annoying low-rank Supernaturals, loyal to the high-rank messed with them.
She had put in a lot of work.
Dozens of sentries across her territory back with unseen formations were built, the roads to connect the capital city with other cities were fixed, and rangers post-guards were ready to anticipate any problem and report back to her.
And now, with the appearance of a new threat, she was d that she had done those things.
Her people called this mutated animal ''Shadow''.
Unlike the dragon that soared through the sky or other powerful mutated animals that came out of their seclusion and announced their strengths, Shadow didn''t adopt the primal way. It was silent and attacked without any warning.
It bypassed the unseen formations that would trigger a warning to the Elven Kingdom.
Such an borate movement showed that Shadow is intelligent.
Albeit unclear, Queen Shana believed the mutated animals had developed further.
She wouldn''t be surprised if some of them could actually think and n.
"How many casualties so far?"
"Three small viges and one medium vige were raided—all were killed. Our troops sent to aid those viges were also ambushed and killed. I couldn''t say for certain but the casualties should be more than 10,000 already"
"It''s worse than I thought"
Queen Shana massaged her forehead, it had only been barely two days.
10,000 deaths were too much for that timeframe.
Hastios then continued, "Is it possible to ask for help from the Emperor?"
"I already sent a distress call and I''ve received an answer. The royal decree stated that Lord Flunra and Lady Giste would be sent to aid us. And blessed the Origin—it also stated that the Orcs volunteered toe too" Queen Shana replied, finding sce in this.
But even then, she wasn''t going to rely only on the reinforcements.
"Prepare the carriages, I''m going to Dewmist Vige as soon as possible"
"Your Highness, is it really a good idea for you toe?"
"I sought the Emperor''s aid, yet how could I face him if I cowered behind these walls?"
Upon hearing this, Hastios and the Elves beside him ced their fists on their chests.
All bowed in respect for the queen, "I shall get it done, Your Highness"
Momentster.
Near a teleportation formation, several high Elves and their toon stood patiently.
It didn''t take long before the formation glowed and materialized two figures.
Seeing this, the toons kneeled down while the high Elves bowed.
Surely, the figures manifesting in their reign are important people.
Flunra and Giste appeared draped in a silvery outfit, the same outfit they wore during the pack duel against the Dancing Stripe Pack. Both came to aid the Elves as instructed by Rex after a small diversion with Evelyn visiting them before departing.
"Lord Flunra, Lady Giste, please follow me—the queen is waiting for you"
Both of them nodded before the Elf brought them from the capital city to another vige.
It was supposed to be a three-hour trip.
However, with the carriages, pulled by the royal familiars, eighth-rank realm mutated deers—that were on the verge of breaking through to the ninth-rank realm because of the change in the energy level, the trip was cut to only half an hour.
Stepping out of the carriage, Giste and Flunra looked at the vige in front of them.
Unlike the capital city, there were no good roads here.
Additionally, the vige''syout spiraled around the towering trees here, their massive trunks serving—as the foundation for woven homes. Wooden bridges and vineden walkways that were connected to the structures, blending seamlessly with nature.
Young elves darted through the treetops, watching the iing carriage.
But despite the unique-looking vige, it doesn''t impress Giste and Flunra in the least.
Rex would''ve probably be appreciative but not them.
For them, the elves on the trees only brought along bad memories of the war in the past.
As opposed to going inside the vige—Giste went over to the tree on the side and knelt in front of it to inspect a group of flowers growing at its base. Her hand brimmed with energy as she reached for the petals.
Upon a touch, she could feel a surge of sensation coursing through her body.
Flunra waited for her behind.
"What do you think?"
"Hmm... It''s death energy. Its affinity is the death element. My heart is responding to it"
"Death is a high-rank element, the mutated animal must be very powerful"
Giste''s ck heart—a remnant of her past as an Undead that she retained pulsed in sync with the invading energy. It was a tell-tale sign that the energy overwhelming the Elves was none other than death energy.
"We need to determine whether it is a lesser or greater"
"We''ll know for sure until we meet the queen but at least the first requirement is fulfilled"
Earlier, Evelyn escorted by Linthia and Dindora came to visit them.
During that visit, Dindora told them about her battle against a simr mutated animal.
Just like them, the Human territory was also invaded by a simr Order Beast.
Rex already told them through telepathy from Dindora''s report but it would not be bad to hear it directly from Dindora, who experienced it first-hand. She exined that the Order Beast she fought is ssified as a lesser Order Beast.
Because of the Humans'' technology, they were able to identify the Order Beasts faster.
As of this moment, Order Beasts are differentiated into lesser and greater.
Lesser Order Beasts rtively liked to avoid a fight and didn''t have a dominion.
On the other hand, Greater Order Beasts have an overbearing persona and have a dominion.
It was easy to tell them apart because of that.
However, this was still early stage ssification, there might be other variables.
From the fact that the death energy still lingered in the air as opposed to the ground, Giste and Flunra could tell that it was probably, a Lesser Order Beast. Before entering to meet with the queen, Flunra cut the tip of his finger and drew an ancient rune with his blood.
His strokes were fluid and the ancient rune was done in a couple of seconds.
It hummed with runic energy before it dissipated.
"Lord Flunra...?"
"Don''t worry, it''s a protection rune. I merged it with the barrier protecting this vige to alert me if anything passed through. My rune should be stronger than the barrier"
"Ah, I see..."
Eventually, the two were escorted into the vige.
Many Elves who were the people of this vige watched them from the side.
Seeing Humans up close to them was quite terrifying.
But the tension alleviated a little bit when they saw the Silverstar marks on their skin.
A sign that they were of the royal pack.
Upon ascending to the tallest tree located at the very back—Flunra and Giste saw Queen Shana, on the back balcony, facing the endless sea of trees. She seemed to be casting a spell, the golden nature energy around her was shining across his body.
Hastios greeted the two and gestured for them toe inside.
Crack!
Just then, the ground trembled as a tall sunflower sprouted in the backyard.
It grew tall rapidly, taller than the tree they were on.
Soon, when it reached its peak height, the sunflower bloomed, opening its massive petals.
A radiant golden light glowed from its center, shining on the forest beyond.
Giste recognized this sunflower.
It was a product of the Golden Eye spell, able to sense malicious intent.
Nobody could hide their malicious intent from this sunflower.
"I praised the Emperor for heeding my call by sending you two here"
Queen Shana turned around after casting the spell, her gleaming golden eyes—gradually dimmed. She smiled beautifully, before approaching the two with light steps, there was little to no concern on her expression.
"Fill us in on the situation" Flunra demanded, wanting to cut to the chase.
Seeing his eagerness, the queen nodded and filled them in.
She told them that the Order Beast had two minions under it, and one of the minions, was in this forest somewhere after being wounded by the Elven forces. It was hiding somewhere— recuperating, and they were still in the process of locating it.
ording to the reports, the minions were raiding small and unprotected viges.
It massacred everyone, infecting them with death energy and turning them into ves.
And when confronted with armed forces, they fled.
Despite possessing the power of a ninth-rank ream, they fled without trying to fight.
On top of that, the Order Beast itself was governing the Verdantveil Forest.
It was changing the forest into its dominion.
Just from this alone, Flunra and Giste were certain this Order Beast was breaking through.
A Lesser Order Beast that was about to be a Greater Order Beast.
No matter what, they couldn''t allow the Order Beast to sessfully break through.
Letting that happen would mean jeopardizing the Elven Kingdom.
"Bring us to your forces, we''ll have a look around to see if we can locate it," Flunra said.
Although Rex said that they weren''t allowed to engage—if it''s only a minion, there should not be a problem. Hastios, brought them to the Elven forces gathered below, there were a couple of hundreds of them.
Since they were facing a powerful mutated animal, the forces consisted of rangers only.
It was to lessen the casualties from a confrontation.
Flunra and Giste swept his gaze across the crowd and frowned.
Unlike what they expected, these rangers have their morale at rock-bottom.
Most of them were pale, fear was palpable on their faces.
It was as if they had just experienced a trauma so bad that it made them fragile like this.
Even though they kept a straight posture at the sight of Hastios, it was clear that they were forcing themselves hard. Now that they saw this, Flunra also recalled—that the people here were the same.
All of them were drained and drowned in fear.
"What happened to them?"
"It''s the minions, they were... how should I put this?"
Just as Hastios stumbled to exin, a loudmotion came from outside.
A series of screams that reverberated through the night.
Flunra and Giste''s ears perked up when they heard this—and without wasting time, both bolted to the source of themotion. Reaching the source, they saw a crowd of Elves on the ground, some were screaming and some were crying.
Both reached the west side of the vige, near the wooden walls.
Coming from behind, Hastios gestured for the rangers to help the people and make way.
Only when the ce was cleared did Flunra and Giste realize what was happening.
Not too far from them was a sitting figure.
From the distance, it seemed to be someone sitting on the ground.
But as Funra and Giste got closer their eyes slightly widened when they realized the sitting figure was the remains of an Elf. He was a young Elf, still in his leather armor—and also a bow strapped on his back.
It was clear that his body was dposed—his skin was decayed.
No muscles, tendons, or organs were left, only bones with a few torn decayed skin.
ck steam was slightly sizzled from his body, it was death energy.
One might ask then how Giste and Flunra were able to tell that it was a young elf, and the answer to that was the fact that the young elf''s face, was intact. It wasn''t decayed, his face was still fresh as if he had died seconds ago.
Almost as if the perpetrator wanted everyone here to know who the corpse was.
Upon seeing this, Giste turned to look at the crying Elves on the side.
A middle-aged woman crying profusely with her husband holding her in his embrace.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Both of them wore morevish and intricate clothes than the others.
Hastios stood next to Giste, looking at the same scene.
"It''s the vige chief''s son—that was killed. It was the second time this had happened, first was their daughter—and now it''s their son. Despite already putting more guards across the vige, it was still able to kidnap one and bring back the remain here like this"
Listening to this, Flunra and Giste couldn''t help but frown.
A question crossed their minds at the same time.
''Why...?''