The thick fog still blanketed Arboneth, and now that I had left my lightsaber behind, visibility was even worse.
However, I still possessed the eyes that could pierce through the truth.
As I activated my sight, I could see where and how many elves had moved, where the dead lay scattered, and where the living were headed.
Their traces were clear.
Countless elves had perished, but the surviving ones were all moving toward a single destination.
Even beyond tree stumps, trunks, and walls, their tracks were vividly visible.
Not far from here, thousands of elves had gathered in one place.
In a particularly dense, overgrown area of the city, they huddled together, groaning in pain, slowly dying.
I rushed toward that location immediately.
Through the thick fog, I heard a voice calling out loudly, rallying the others.
“Don’t give up! We’ve survived this attack too! The herbs keep growing—there’s still hope! Grandfather, you’re still alive, right?!”
“Cough, cough… Stop it, child. At this rate, you’ll collapse and die yourself. Leave us behind and go. If it’s just you, you can still survive…”
“No! How can you tell me to abandon my kin and save myself? If we hold on long enough, we’ll find a way! There must be a way to clear this fog…”
“Kh-hck… Hah…! Ah, the fog… it’s moving again!”
As one of the elves had warned, the fog rising from the countless dead twisted and distorted grotesquely before taking shape—becoming pitch-black spirits or beasts.
These tangible fog creatures charged toward the fallen elves, swarming the areas of the forest and vegetation where the survivors lay.
“Damn it…! Shit…!!!”
The elven girl cursed as if ready to bite down in fury.
Raising one hand high, I activated my second technique—Judgment.
KWA-KWAAAANG!!!
It felt as if a massive surge of mana was being torn from my body.
The sky brightened in an instant, and radiant spears of light rained down like an artillery barrage.
I weakened the power but expanded the range as much as possible—an enormous crossfire engulfed a radius of nearly 100 meters.
Without my lightsaber, the attack was far weaker than when I had slain the fusion creature in Aldebaran.
However, the fog creatures seemed to have an extreme weakness to this light, as they vanished into nothingness without resistance.
‘As expected, they’re no different from the dark spirits that disintegrated instantly back at the goblin camp.’
Within the range of Judgment, the fog completely dissipated, revealing the pristine landscape of the sacred tree as it originally was.
Beyond the area of effect, the remaining fog seemed unable to penetrate further, as if an invisible wall had been erected.
The elves, now freed from the curse, gradually regained their natural skin tones and their breath steadied.
If it’s like this, then I might just be able to do something.
Realizing that Judgment had the same effect as the lightsaber, I immediately approached the elves to check on them.
“Is everyone safe? Elfin, are you okay?”
Elfin had been using the power of the boots I had given her to continuously create lush greenery around her.
She had been holding out, using the strength of the plants to block the encroaching fog as much as possible.
With the sacred tree, Yggdral, rendered powerless, the elves had lost their primary means of resistance.
The boots Elfin possessed were their only remaining sliver of hope.
By using the herbs that grew from them, she had desperately treated the wounded, prolonged lives, and managed to save at least this many people.
Elfin, barely able to stay upright, panted heavily, staring at me in disbelief.
“A… Alvis…? Huff… How did you… Huff…“
“Need help? No, wait—I’ve already helped, so that’s a pointless question, isn’t it?”
“Huff… Don’t tell me… you brought Ravi and Lenis too?”
“Yeah.”
“You idiot, why did you come here?! I told you I’m not coming back! You should’ve just left me out of it and finished what you were doing!”
“You’re the idiot here, dumbass.”
Elfin, exhausted, couldn’t even get up properly and just glared up at me.
“You think I don’t know you? You always want to help when others struggle, but when it comes to your own hardships, you act like, ‘We’re different from you, we can handle this alone,’ pretending everything’s fine. You sent that letter not because you wanted to quit traveling, but because the situation was too serious to explain. That damn elf pride of yours—is it more important than the lives of your entire people?”
“N-no… I really thought I could… I could handle this…”
“Is that so? Then maybe I really should just leave you behind this time. There was a brown-haired elf at the outer fields—a border guard—who begged me to help the people inside before he died. So what you’re saying is, his last wish was meaningless, huh?”
At those words, the remaining elves gasped in despair.
“J-Jeremy…?”
“Ugh… He was so young…”
“……”
Hearing that one of their own had died pleading for help cast a deep shadow over Elfin’s face.
“There are still hundreds alive in the library. But if they don’t need help, I guess we’ll just leave. Once we’re gone, the fog we cleared will seep back in, and everyone there will die. But if that’s what you want, Elfin—”
“W-wait!”
Elfin finally abandoned her pride, falling to her knees before me.
Lowering her head, she spoke in a trembling voice, struggling to get the words out.
“I’m… sorry… I lied… I just didn’t want Ravi and Lenis to worry. The moment I realized how bad things were, I sent that letter. But… I can’t solve this… So… p-please, help me…”
“Finally let go of some of that pride, huh?”
It was a little annoying that I wasn’t included in the list of people she didn’t want to worry, but I’d give her a proper lesson on that later.
Right now, solving this crisis took priority.
Besides, leaving wasn’t an option.
I didn’t know the exact number, but if I let too many elves die, I’d suffer a fifth-degree backlash.
Even a second-degree backlash was agonizing to the point of losing consciousness—if it hit the fifth degree, I could actually die.
Thanks to the widespread bombardment of Judgment, I had cleared a large portion of the fog.
With the elves’ help, I drank mana potions as I continued unleashing Judgment on the remaining fog-covered areas.
“Have the fog monsters appeared often?”
“I don’t know the exact timing, but they’ve shown up multiple times, unpredictably. They have physical forms, so I managed to fend them off with the plants summoned by my boots, but… honestly, I was at my limit.”
“So we don’t know when they’ll reappear. First, we need to rescue the survivors. From now on, I’m going to burn through a lot of mana. Do you have any mana potions left?”
The elves exchanged uneasy glances before hesitantly answering with apologetic expressions.
“We used up almost all of it supporting Elfin. Now, only two are left…”
“Give one to a human woman named Lenis in the library. She’s probably running low on mana after using it to treat the elves there. And the other one…”
I raised my hand once again and cast Judgment on the path leading to the library.
My mana was nearly depleted as radiant spears of light rained down like a storm, sweeping away the mist covering the path.
“Huff… huff… Now, give me the last one.”
“This is impossible…! No matter what we did, the mist never disappeared, and yet it just vanished so easily…!”
“T-That light just now! It must be Lady Runia’s divine power!”
“She had ignored our prayers for so long… Has she finally heard our voices?”
Just like Vector before, these elves were saying the same thing.
It seemed my power was truly something special.
That shouldn’t be possible since Bryden had already become the Holy Knight.
A goddess couldn’t grant her power to two people, could she?
As I drank the mana potion given by the elves, I sent them toward the library area.
But Elfin remained beside me, not evacuating.
“Do you have something to say?”
“Uh…”
Elfin hesitated before shaking her head.
“N-No… I’ll tell you after we resolve this situation first.”
“Do whatever you want.”
With the rare mana potion containing the sacred tree Yggdrasil’s essence—a potion so valuable it was impossible to find on the market—I restored my energy and quickly expanded Judgment’s range twice more to cover as many elves as possible before my Eyes of Truth effect wore off.
My newly restored mana dropped below 20% again, but thanks to that, I managed to save a significant number of elves.
Elfin hurriedly woke up the dazed survivors and sent them toward the library.
Even with Lenis drawing out the full power of her staff, I doubted she could handle this many people alone. I’d have to remind these elves to properly thank her later.
Just as we finished evacuating the elves from the second Judgment strike zone and my Eyes of Truth had less than a minute left—
The mist, writhing violently as if it had a will of its own, suddenly surged.
Then, an earthquake shook the area around the sacred tree.
“W-What?! Why is there an earthquake now? And what’s going on with this mist?!”
“…I have a bad feeling about this…”
At that moment, feeling the tremors, Ravi and Lenis rushed out from the library.
“Why is there suddenly an earthquake… Elfin!”
“Elfin, you’re alive! You suddenly went missing without a word—do you even know how worried we were?!”
“I-I’m sorry.”
“I’ll scold you later. Alvis, what exactly is happening right now?”
The mist, gathering like a sinister force, began absorbing the blood from the dead elves, slowly taking on a physical form.
Massive clawed feet, an elongated snout, grotesquely jagged fangs, three heads barking in different directions, and a jet-black body engulfed in crimson flames.
â–¶ Level 83, Blood-Drinking Creation of Dantalion – The Legendary Black Hound: Curses, blood, life, souls, grief, and resentment—these wicked elements have fused through dark sorcery, granting it a corporeal form in this world. This horrific being will not stop until it has reduced its birthplace to ashes… â—€
Before I could finish reading, my Eyes of Truth wore off, preventing me from obtaining further details.
“W-What in the world…?”
“…Ravi. It looks like the same thing that happened at the goblin camp is about to repeat here.”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.