Since they hadn’t acted together during the day, they had to make up for it before going to bed at night.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a church, but the territory of the Elves, and with so many companions watching nearby, Leah thought it over and still didn’t dare to go find Ella to sleep with.
She could only pull her aside after dinner to chat for a while.
Don’t even mention things like sleeping together—if you can’t see the night, it’s basically still daytime, so what’s wrong with staying up a bit late?
“Ella, you don’t know. Today, when we went to see Elder Cuiniya, she just randomly assigned us a task to get rid of us, and her expression was especially foul.”
Leah held the girl’s hand, recounting today’s events. The other girls weren’t in a hurry to sleep either, just sitting beside them watching.
Vina was sitting at first, but after noticing Celes stayed behind, she went back inside to sleep.
There was no other reason. Since they were all sitting there watching, they definitely wouldn’t dare do anything else, so there wasn’t much to see.
“She told us to go hand out flyers at a gathering spot, and all the Elves there were slackers. Even though they could live for hundreds more years, they’d already started muddling through life, waiting for death.”
Life is just a few decades, passing like a dream or an illusion.
Even hugging Ella to sleep every night adds up to only a few thousand nights, and Leah still found it not enough. She couldn’t understand what Elves with hundreds of years left to live were thinking.
“And then there was a male Elf who, it seems, over a hundred years ago, got his heart broken by an older woman. She said she only used him to have a child, and after that, he fell into depression and couldn’t recover for over a hundred years.”
Yes, being hurt in love is tough.
After all, not every girl is as good as Ella, thought the Saintess.
But to not get over it for a hundred years? Isn’t that a bit strange?
“Elves have their own cultural atmosphere. Don’t judge with our emotional mindset.”
Celes chimed in to help smooth things over.
After all, they were guests on someone else’s territory, so it was better not to say things too harshly.
Ella was actually a bit interested.
“Who? Stuck in heartbreak for that long?”
“A male Elf of eight or nine hundred years. Oh, and in the description, he called the other party ‘Elder Sister’, but he’s not young himself. How could that Elder Sister… still be called a sister?”
What she meant was hard to say, but by the math, the woman was probably over a thousand years old.
Ella tried to understand, and could only say that an Elf’s lifespan couldn’t be compared simply to a human’s.
A female Elf over a thousand years old could still bear children, which theoretically made her a grandmother, but physically, she was still going strong.
“Let’s not talk about it.”
Leah yawned.
“I need to go sleep.”
Although you couldn’t tell day from night in the Forest, her biological clock had taken over.
“Good night, Miss Leah. Good night, Zero. Good night, Celes.”
Ella said good night to all her companions and returned to the treehouse herself.
Tonight was a peaceful night, undisturbed.
Zzzz
The next day arrived.
The weather was clear, and sunlight pierced through the leaves.
“Yesterday, our tribe’s brave warriors charged into the enemy commander’s camp, coordinated with allies to severely wound the Demon Race’s main general, forcing them into retreat.
Now is the time to press our remaining strength, hunt down the enemy commander, and drive them out of the Forest!”
On the vast grassland, Elder Cuiniya stood atop a giant Mushroom, declaring to the countless Elves before her:
“I announce—the counterattack begins now!”
After several days of battle, the Elves, long unfamiliar with war, gradually shook off their rust. With a string of good news and the advantage of time, place, and unity, they finally displayed the power befitting an ancient, high race.
Thousands of cavalry charged north.
Nearly ten thousand Rangers divided into dozens of small units and flanked from all directions.
Over a hundred Dragonhawk Riders circled overhead, armed with various weapons.
Not only was there coordination between cavalry and infantry, but also between air and ground—and this still wasn’t the full force of the Elven army.
Ella did a quick count. She wasn’t sure about cavalry and infantry, but only about a fifth of the air force had been dispatched.
“Should we go too?”
Zero asked quietly from behind.
“No rush. Wait until they get farther… All right, now’s the time.”
Ella slapped the Dragon Hawk beneath her.
“Take off!”
The Elves surged with unstoppable momentum, while the Demon Race’s army’s morale withered.
After yesterday’s Bloodslaughter King incident, the soldiers, already on edge, gave up most of the northern Forest they’d occupied and fell back, too afraid to intercept.
Yesterday, dozens of cavalry had been a bluff.
Today, thousands of Dilu thundered across the field, their hoofbeats deafening—no illusion.
“They’re coming again,” muttered the Demon Race soldier at the outermost edge, trembling.
“Today it’s real!”
The lower one’s status, the weaker the bloodline, and the harder it was to ignite the fighting spirit among the Demon Race.
Faced with the overwhelming cavalry charge, the soldiers at the edge chose to give way.
Yesterday, letting in a few dozen cavalry might have been a trap to form a pocket. But today, with a massive army, once the front line parted, there was no way to close it again, and the advancing Rangers didn’t even give them a chance to flee.
Elven cavalry charged straight in.
The Demon Race army tried to react, but it was too late.
Dragon Hawks screamed overhead, and arrows rained down, scattering them further.
The defense line collapsed.
“Impressive. There’s even a barrage of covering fire.”
Ella commented as she followed behind.
“No wonder the Elves haven’t fought in over a hundred years—yet their air-ground coordination is still top-notch.”
Zero asked curiously behind her:
“Why are they shooting arrows from the air, instead of dropping something with more area damage?”
As a killer who valued lethality, she thought it would be more effective to bring a Magician or some Stored Explosion Magic Vials on a Dragon Hawk rather than just bows and arrows.
Before, Rolls had given her a Stored Water Magic Vial for preserving flowers, so naturally, there should also be Stored Explosion Magic Vials.
Ella thought for a moment.
“Maybe because this is their homeland. They see the Forest as part of their own people and don’t want to use those kinds of weapons.”
When she was still a Demon King, she’d heard it said that the Elves were one great ecosystem, with Elves just being a part of it.
Watching their wars, she’d seen Elven Magicians chant spells to make plants in the Forest grow and attack enemies.
Seeing the Demon Race army collapsing further and further, Ella couldn’t stay idle any longer.
She pulled the reins, steering her Dragon Hawk away from the formation, circling north.
“At this point, the Bloodslaughter King won’t just surrender.”
If it were any other time, the Bloodslaughter King would have charged into battle.
But after being attacked by Zero yesterday, with several serious wounds, there was no fighting spirit left—only the urge to run.
He had to escape quietly, or he’d definitely be caught.
With the Elves riding Dilu on land and Dragon Hawks in the air, how could he outrun them?
Zero took out the Silent Watcher and placed it in her palm.
The dagger spun a few times in her hand before the tip pointed to the northwest.
“He’s there.”