Under Lin En’s absolute intimidation, the deadly explosive collars became invisible shackles, choking the fate of all the Dark Elves.
The last trace of pride and struggle faded from High Priestess Elena’s face, replaced by an unfathomable exhaustion and sorrow.
She gripped her staff tightly, as if the cold, withered wood was her only support.
She looked at Lin En, her gaze complex.
Finally, she spoke slowly, her voice low and distant, as if recalling an era long buried by time.
“Before we were branded with the name ‘Dark Elves’ as an insult, we and those kin who lived under the sunlight shared the same roots.”
Elena’s story opened the curtain on a thousand-year-old tragedy.
“But from the very beginning, our beliefs were divided. Our Elder Philosophers revered the law of independent will, worshipped the Lord of Boundaries, and believed that true strength and purity came from clear self-awareness and an unbreakable spiritual barrier. We called it — purity born of isolation.”
“And our kin, the later Golden Elves,”
A faint trace of pity crept into her words.
“They worshipped the Goddess of Life and cherished the philosophy of unity and the intermingling of all living things. They believed individuals should merge completely with nature, feeling harmony within the vast Network of Life Power. To them, that was the highest form of existence.”
“Because of this philosophical dispute, our ancestors were deemed heretics who betrayed the grace of life—cold, selfish, and merciless. In the end, we were rejected and expelled by the entire elven society. From that moment on, we became the so-called Dark Elves.”
Elaine and Fiona listened in silence, their hearts conflicted.
So the so-called ‘Dark Elves’ were not the inherently evil beings as rumored, but exiles born from an ancient philosophical rift.
Elena took a deep breath.
Her next words trembled, filled with suppressed fear and hatred.
“Yet ironically, this exile… allowed us to survive.”
“About a thousand years ago, a great calamity descended without warning. At that time, the Queen of the Golden Elves, the most devout follower of the Goddess of Life, was said to have received a supreme blessing and authority from the deity.”
“But it was no blessing…”
Elena’s voice quickly turned to a whisper of terror.
“It was a curse. A most venomous curse wrapped in the radiance of divine grace!”
“We did not know exactly what happened, nor why a merciful goddess would bring such disaster. All we knew was that from the moment the Queen accepted that authority, everything changed!”
“The divine power of the Goddess of Life—meant to unite all things—was twisted. It was no longer harmonious coexistence, but a mad, devouring assimilation! For those Golden Elves who opened their souls fully and were deeply linked to the Network of Life Power, it became an unstoppable catastrophe.”
She closed her eyes, as if unable to recall the horrifying sight.
“We hid in the shadows, peering at our homeland through secret rites… We saw holy songs turn into screams of agony, then into eerie, ecstatic sighs. Our kin, their bodies melted and twisted, merging together like wax…”
“Their souls erased, their flesh remade into mindless, devouring, multiplying abominations.”
“Their faith became their greatest weakness. But we, the despised Dark Elves who cherished independence, survived by the strength of our spiritual barriers.”
Elena opened her eyes.
Her obsidian pupils were veined with blood.
“So, you ask where the Hall of Life is?”
She gave a bitter laugh and raised her hand, pointing deeper into the ruins—toward a region shrouded in thick mist, where even light seemed to be swallowed.
“There, there is no longer any temple. Our homeland, all our kin, have fused into a single… A single gigantic, twisted, ever-pulsing, all-devouring… Flesh Broodmother!”
“Flesh Broodmother?”
Elaine muttered in horror, the word sending chills across his skin.
As the Royal Alchemist of the Kingdom, he instantly understood the terrifying meaning—a life form utterly out of control, corrupted beyond all order!
“Yes.”
Elena confirmed his fear, hatred burning in her tone.
“It is the embodiment of extreme life force—a living hell!
It instinctively devours any life that approaches, turning it into its own nourishment, then multiplies and expands madly.
That is why we stop you at all costs.
To it, any powerful lifeform is a feast, accelerating its growth and even driving it to mutate in more dreadful ways!”
“No…”
Elaine let out a broken moan.
His face drained of all color, turning as pale as paper.
“Hall of Life… How could it…”
The Crown Prince of the Kingdom was still lying ill in the Royal Capital, clinging to life by the most expensive Alchemical Potions, waiting for him to return from the Hall of Life with a miracle of salvation!
All the hopes, all the prayers, and the meaning of this entire expedition paid for by the Kingdom’s last resources, pointed to a living hell of filth and terror?
An icy despair swallowed him whole.
His legs gave way and he staggered back, unable to control his body.
Fiona caught him quickly, preventing him from collapsing to the ground.
Elena’s body trembled as she recalled the nightmare.
Her gaze pierced through Lin En and Elaine, staring into the forbidden, mist-covered land.
Her voice was full of exhaustion and dread.
“For a thousand years, we have guarded it. Every stone, every handful of earth beneath your feet listens to its heartbeat, feeling its insatiable hunger.”
She lowered her voice, as if afraid to wake the sleeping monster.
“It has no thought, no reason, only the most primitive and horrifying instincts: to devour and multiply. Anything alive—worms in the earth, lost beasts, branches of plants—if touched by its fleshy tendrils, is instantly absorbed and assimilated, becoming part of its crazed expansion.”
“We have seen it ourselves—a fully armed reconnaissance team, silenced in an instant, swallowed by the earth before they could even scream, leaving a new, throbbing mass of flesh rising from the ground…”
At this point, she turned her gaze back to Lin En and Elaine.
Her eyes were sharp as blades, warning without doubt.
“That is why we stop you at any cost!
Because you cannot comprehend what you are facing!”
“If it ever breaks free from our bonds and spreads out…
All of the surface world—forests, cities, Kingdoms, all life—would become its nourishment.
The entire world would be its breeding ground of infinite proliferation!
That would be an endless nightmare for all living beings!”
Lin En’s face was terrifyingly pale, his body unmoving, like an ancient ice sculpture.
But if anyone could glimpse into his heart, they would see a storm raging fierce enough to tear the world apart.
To cure his mother’s Wither Fever.
His only purpose, the sole reason for his journey.
The Hall of Life was gone.
Hope, extinguished.
In that instant, rage and a desire for destruction nearly broke free of his rational restraint.
His breath paused for a second, then turned into a long, deep exhale, driving the boiling fury and despair out with it.
Anger could not solve the problem.
Destruction would not save his mother.
Elena was oblivious to the momentary lethal crisis.
Still lost in the thousand-year tragedy, she went on:
“This survivor’s guilt, and the agony of guarding the monster born from our kin, has tormented us for a thousand years. To find a solution, our Moonshadow Clan… fractured.”
“Some left to live beyond the forest, while those who stayed also split. I represent the Purification Faction,”
She looked at Lin En, and for the first time, her eyes held a faint, almost pleading hope.
“We believe aberration is not without cure. Ancient texts record that somewhere in the world, there may yet exist the purest, uncontaminated divine essence—we call it the Source of Purity. We hope to find it and research a solution, even if it means only granting twisted souls final peace.”
“And the other faction within the clan,”
Her voice turned cold.
“Led by war chief Magis—the Enders. They are more realistic and radical, seeing purification as a weak illusion. They believe the only way is to amass power and utterly burn the homeland and the Broodmother to ashes!”
“The previous beast tides and the assassination were mostly driven by the Enders. To them, any outsider is either a threat or a tool to be used and discarded.”
The story ended.
A deathly silence enveloped the ruins, broken only by the faint heartbeat echoing from the mist.
Lin En digested it all expressionlessly.
He looked at the High Priestess before him, bearing the tragedy of her race, seeking hope in despair.
He glanced at the Dark Elves, deadly fire rings around their necks, their eyes lost and filled with pain.
The Hall of Life had become the Flesh Broodmother…
“What now? The Hall of Life is gone. What now?”
New fragments of information quickly rearranged in his calm mind, forming a more complex and dangerous path before him.