[Hex Components Harvested]
[Level Up Interface]Experience requirement met.
Congratulations! You've Leveled Up!
Attribute Points Earned: 15『Expand』
[Level Up Interface]Experience requirement met.
Congratulations! You've Leveled Up!
Attribute Points Earned: 14『Expand』
[Level Up Interface]
Experience requirement met.
Congratulations! You've Leveled Up!
Attribute Points Earned: 14『Expand』
[Level Up Interface]Experience requirement met.
Congratulations! You've Leveled Up!
Attribute Points Earned: 14『Expand』
[Level Up Interface]Experience requirement met.
Congratulations! You've Leveled Up!
Attribute Points Earned: 14『Expand』
[Notification]
Congratulations! You've Unlocked a New Ability.Ability Name: Death Manifest
Ability Type: Curse
Effect: Instead of gathering experience from fallen foes, you harvest the essence of their deaths. This stolen mortality can be shaped into a curse-forged weapon of your choosing, one that bypasses every known defense by directly reducing your target’s HP, SP, MP through pure damage.
Description [Identification Lvl. 10]:
A glance at the elven monarchs revealed their stiff expressions of confusion, they, too, recognized the undeniable truth. The Argyrian Patriarch, monarch of the Lunor Elves, wielder of the Lunith Ancestral Tree, was dead.
The death had been so sudden, so unexpected, that it took the arrival of Aquaflora and Goblin, perched atop one of the former’s bonded creatures and Aquaflora’s immediate reaction to Goblin’s urgent grip on her arm for the elven monarchs to finally come to their senses and react.
Ancestral Trees, the manifestations of elven monarch sigils, were unique in many ways. One such trait was their indestructibility. Unlike a human monarch’s sigil, which would vanish upon its wielder’s defeat, an elven monarch’s sigil remained. This meant that, as long as one met the proper requirements, they could lay claim to it.
Already wielding an ancestral tree of the same affinity as the Argyrian Patriarch, Aquaflora met those requirements. So at Goblin’s urging, she wasted no time shamelessly making her claim.
A silvery orb emerged from the white serpent that had devoured the Argyrian Patriarch. It flew straight to Aquaflora, who caught it without hesitation, claiming the lunith tree for herself.
At that sight, and with the white serpent initiating its retreat, the elven monarchs coming to their senses finally sprang into action. The Aurian Matriarch laid claim to the Nature Ancestral Tree the Argyrian Patriarch had wielded, while the Umbryan Patriarch, recognizing the white serpent, immediately pursued it. Without hesitation, I followed the latter.
The sigil, appearing as a glowing green orb, shot past the Umbryan Patriarch and toward the Aurian Matriarch. Or at least, that’s how it seemed. Just as it was about to get in the Aurian Matriarch’s hand, the orb changed course, flying straight toward its rightful wielder, the one who had surrendered it six months prior in a desperate attempt to destroy the Argyrian Patriarch. That gambit had failed, breaking the monarch’s mind instead of his body.
“Welcome home, my precious,” Goblin declared triumphantly, claiming the ancestral tree back. The Aurian Matriarch’s utter confusion was palpable, but before she could recover, battle erupted once more.
Bortz was the first to strike.
He came at the Aurian Matriarch like a comet, claws extended in his fully unleashed lycanthropic form, teeth bared in a guttural snarl. His first swipe cut through empty air as she twisted just in time, sending clawing shockwaves that carved deep scars into the earth below, scattering gravel across the scorched battlefield.
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Bortz snarled in annoyance but did not relent.
Twisting midair with wolfish grace, he launched himself again. This time, his claws connected, raking a shallow gash across her torso. She hissed through gritted teeth, pain flashing in her eyes. But she used his momentum against him, pivoting and driving a vicious kick into his side. Bortz’s massive frame hurtled downward, limbs flailing as he struggled to regain balance. But before he could even hit the ground, Honey struck.
A streak of radiant light sliced through the air. In the span of a heartbeat, Honey closed in on the Matriarch, sword raised high, aglow with destructive radiance. He aimed for her throat in a sweeping arc.
She was fast, but he was faster. Though she managed to twist away at the last moment, his blade still met flesh. Instead of her head, her right arm was severed in a clean, merciless cut.
A terrible shriek ripped through the air as her arm tumbled away. She clutched at the ragged stump, her face contorted in agony. Eyes narrowing, she hissed, “You—”
Her words never finished, for she didn’t see me coming.
While her focus had been on Honey, I struck from behind. My frost-forged sword hummed with lethal cold as my grip tightened around the hilt. The blade slid effortlessly between her shoulder blades, emerging visiously from the other side.
Her breath caught in her throat, shock evident in her wide eyes. Time seemed to slow to a creeping halt, thanks to my [Cryostasis], as she turned her head, locking eyes with me over her shoulder.
A flicker of recognition and disbelief crossed her features.
She managed a strangled whisper. I leaned in to listen, recognizing the same words the Umbryan Patriarch had spat at me in a similar situation. "What… what do you think you’re doing?!"
"The Argyrian Patriarch is dead," I whispered, my clone, who had been on standby protecting Veilleuse-19, mirroring my words, as she too impaled the Umbryan Patriarch. "It marks the end of our partnership."
At these words, and my following attempt to finish them off, the two elven monarchs I held at my blade’s edge had two distinct reactions.
Activating the frostburst effect of my strike, I watched as the Aurian Matriarch’s chest exploded into a mangled mess. In desperation, she used her last resort, manifesting her ancestral tree as a barrier that forcefully knocked me away and brought Honey and Bortz’s charge to a sudden halt.
The Umbryan Patriarch, upon suffering a similar fate, had his familiar lunge at me. However, before it could reach me, a figure stepped between us, her grip firm on Typha?ne, the staff shaped like a refined cane. With no room for such a thing as mercy, she spammed her multiple elemental magic.
In that moment as I was about to strike again at him, the Umbryan Patriarch, too, summoned his ancestral tree, making it clear that, just like the Matriarch, he had never truly gone all out in trying to shatter the Argyrian Patriarch’s barrier earlier. With his ethereal tree manifested, knocking me back, I made no attempt to fight it. Instead, I hurried myself and grabbed Blondie, and darted away from the barrier before the bastard could entrap her inside his domain. I could see him doing that because I could see myself doing that.
Once at a safe distance, not far, since he hadn’t manifested his barrier on a massive scale, I released her. Hovering in the air, we turned our gaze toward the three remaining elven monarchs, all now protected by their respective ancestral trees, except for the Ferron Patriarch.
"That’s cheating," I said flatly before “I,” my yin clone added, "You shouldn’t have the strength left to manifest your sigils. Did you distrust me so much that you believed you needed a backup plan to fall on? Or did you expect something like this to happen all along?"
"Having at least one ancestral tree as a last resort is the most basic precaution an elven monarch can take," the Ferron Patriarch responded, hovering near the Aurian Matriarch. As if to prove his point, he summoned his Cinnabar Tree.
Not even three seconds passed before his ancestral tree shattered like glass. The sudden shattering took the Umbryan Patriarch by surprise, but more than anyone, the Aurian Matriarch, who had just finished healing her exploded torso and regrowing her arm.
"Welp," the Ferron Patriarch winced. "I suppose when you’re that much stronger, that’s just a natural thing."
His ancestral tree hadn’t shattered for no reason. It had shattered because he had used it not as a barrier or a prison, but as an offensive tool, an attempt to break the Aurian Matriarch’s barrier, like the three of them earlier did the Argyrian Patriarch’s sigil.
The attempt failed, and in doing so, he exposed his true stance to the other elven monarchs.
"Farmi! You fucking traitor!" the Aurian Matriarch seethed murderously. "I’m going to kill you!"
"Me?" the Ferron Patriarch responded slowly, pointing toward the sky. "I don’t think so, dear."
At his command, something that had gone forgotten made its move. A beam fired from the western horizon. Having collapsed from the sky earlier, what remained of his flying fortress struck the already weakened ancestral tree of the Aurian Matriarch. Overwhelmed, the tree shattered like did the Ferron Patriarch's ancestral tree second before.
At the sight, the Ferron Patriarch rejoiced out loud, "Yeaaaaaaah, let’s go!!!! As expected of my glorious creation!"
The sight sent the Aurian Matriarch into a fury. As soon as her barrier broke, she charged at the one she blamed for it, only to realize she wouldn’t reach him.
The both of “me”, Honey, Goblin, a barely-restrained Bortz, and Blondie stood in her way.
What followed next was rapid execution, in the most gruesome sense of it.
Without their ancestral trees, elven monarchs were not much different from regular elves of the same level. The only advantage they retained was their skills and abilities, but that hardly mattered when faced with overwhelming force.
In an instant, through a barrage of attack physical and magic but mostly physical, another elven monarch fell.
[Hex Components Harvested]
With a wide grin, Goblin laid his claim to the Aurian Matriarch’s ancestral tree.
"How does it feel, weird friend?" the Ferron Patriarch asked Goblin.
"Liberating," Goblin replied, his eyes gleaming. "Feels like I grew wings."
"Welcome to greatness, my friend," the Ferron Patriarch responded, patting Goblin on the back. I gave him a subtle signal, the same one I sent to Blondie, Honey, and Bortz.
Without hesitation, they followed the command, dragging along a thoroughly confused Aquaflora as they withdrew at full speed. That left just me, my dear copy, and the Ferron Patriarch standing together. The Umbryan Patriarch remained as well, though not exactly by choice. And then there was someone else.
"So that's what you've become," the Umbryan Patriarch sneered from inside his barrier, addressing the Ferron Patriarch. "Her lackey. Do you have no pride at all as a monarch?"
"Mmh... lackey, huh?" The Ferron Patriarch mused, glancing at me. "That’s not really how I see our relationship. Madam Arianna and I are more like partners."
Nodding along my clone I confirmed, "yes. Partners."
"Partners... like she was to us," the Umbryan Patriarch muttered. "What did she promise you to make you do this?"
The Ferron Patriarch smiled knowingly at him before responding, "Don’t try that on me, Patriarch. It won’t work. But even if it did, does it really look like I could be “the” elf to help you in your current predicament?"
The Umbryan Patriarch's silence confirmed his point.
Chuckling self-deprecatingly at the Umbryan Patriarch’s lack of response, the Ferron Patriarch stretched and declared, "Well then, I believe what happens next is between yourselves. I’m exhausted, so I’m out of here." With these words, he promptly took his leave, leaving only me, me again and the Aurian Patriarch around.
No, that wasn’t right. There was someone else.
With everything that had happened, his existence had almost been forgotten. The Umbryan Patriarch only remembered him when he, creeping by, slowly adjusted his size, slithering around me to coil himself like Aquaflora’s little white Loong often did.
Missing that sensation, after six long months of separation, I whispered, "Immaculate timing. Well done today, and for everything you've done over the past half a year, White."
The blue-eyed, white-scaled serpent hissed in response. He spoke, but I do not speak the language he spoke but I knew his soul too well to misinterpret his meaning.
"Thank you," I replied, patting my fellow Dungeon Master.
At the sight of the creature that had quite literally been the herald of the stampede after the Argyrian patriarch, realization dawned on the Umbryan Patriarch. His breath hitched, and he muttered in disbelief, "You... It was all you..."