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Chapter 53
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As the world froze with the appearance of the choice options,
Sweet paused and surveyed his surroundings instead of immediately selecting an option.
Celestia observed the situation with an unreadable expression.
Fowler, the Elf Guardian, glared at the Dark Elves who had escaped their seal.
“He’s glaring at them?”
Fowler, who couldn’t bring himself to kill the Dark Elves, his own kin,
and had instead sealed them with the World Tree,
was now displaying clear hostility toward the freed Dark Elves?
It was undoubtedly strange, but there were other parts that raised questions.
The Dark Elf who introduced himself as an elder
showed the same reaction toward Celestia as Fowler did.
In other words, they were undeniably elves but, at the same time, not elves.
The more Sweet organized the situation, the more complicated it became.
In the midst of this confusion,
a scene from the showcase pierced through Sweet’s mind.
-Recently, something strange has happened to the World Tree,
a being akin to the mother of all elves.
The Empire’s intelligence network has concluded this to be the work of the Salvation Church.
Aurora had definitely mentioned the Salvation Church when introducing Elderheim during the showcase.
-Lately, the Salvation Church has been acting suspiciously.
Their last traces were found near Elderheim,
and around the same time, the Tower of Magic reported
that the World Tree’s magical patterns were becoming unstable.
It seems likely that the Salvation Church’s current target is the World Tree.
The Knight Captain of the Blackmane Knights, Jasper, said something similar.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the Salvation Church had already infiltrated Elderheim.
***
“Why did Fowler’s seal suddenly break?
Elves who are and are not elves…”
Sweet’s gaze shifted toward Raven.
An object of destruction and yet not an object of destruction.
The Salvation Church had destroyed a kingdom and summoned two objects of destruction.
One of them, the Witch of Sorrow, possessed Raven’s body.
The spirit of the Ancient Necromancer had inhabited the resurrected Elder Lich.
Ultimately, this proved that the Salvation Church had a method to take over physical bodies.
If the Dark Elves before him were actually the Salvation Church in disguise,
everything started to make sense.
Reaching a conclusion, Sweet immediately selected the third choice.
[ Moving to Main Story – Immediate Execution. ]
Crackle!
Chain Lightning, Double Casting.
Countless chains of lightning surged toward the Dark Elves.
At the same time, the frozen world resumed its flow.
The startled Dark Elves couldn’t resist and collapsed as the lightning chains pierced through them.
As Sweet expected, Fowler, the Elf Guardian, didn’t make any moves.
The fallen Dark Elves were engulfed in black smoke before revealing their true forms.
[ Salvation Church Combat Priest Lv. 65 ]
[ Salvation Church Evangelist Lv. 66 ]
[ Salvation Church Paladin Lv. 68 ]
“Raven!”
At Sweet’s call, Raven immediately sprang into action.
A witch, a race renowned for their magical prowess second only to dragons, the Lords of Magic.
Of course, Raven was still human, so she couldn’t fully wield a witch’s power.
But even so, it was more than enough.
“Sense Sharing. Sense Amplification.”
The hands of a puppeteer appeared above the Salvation Church members.
The control strings descended and bound them in place.
With a detached expression, Raven drew a dagger and lightly grazed her finger.
“““Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!”””
Raven felt a sting,
but the Salvation Church members, whose senses were linked, screamed as if their bodies were being shredded.
While they were rendered helpless, Sweet’s Aqua Ray struck them directly.
The impact scattered water everywhere,
and Sweet used Blink simultaneously.
A skill combo for mages taught by the Inquisitor, Fera.
“Freeze, Frostbite.”
Icicles erupted from the ground and skewered the Salvation Church members.
Perhaps because the water from the magic had spread everywhere?
For an unenhanced first awakening skill, the effect was remarkable.
“Raven. Show me your hand.”
“…It’s fine. It’s already healed.”
Raven confidently showed her hand.
Just as she said, the scratch had already vanished.
“Don’t use Sense Sharing like that anymore.”
“This method is the most efficient.”
“Hmph. No.”
Sweet spoke firmly, then smirked mischievously.
“Only use Sense Sharing like this when it’s with me…”
An embarrassed Raven quickly covered Sweet’s mouth.
Smack! Thud!
“You pervert. Degenerate.”
After scolding and lightly hitting him, Raven lowered her head.
“…Talk about things like that when we’re alone, idiot.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
When Sweet asked again about her mumbling,
Raven, pretending to sulk, turned away to avoid his gaze.
—
Investigate this thoroughly.
Ugh, damn it.
Celestia’s expression, lol.
Just rubbing salt in the wound.
Unbelievable.
—
Sweet glanced at the chatroom’s heated reactions and smiled victoriously.
[ Main Story – Elf Guardian ]
“Huh?”
At that moment, the main story transitioned to a new episode.
Sweet’s vision went dark.
***
Fowler, the Elf Guardian, had harboured one question for a long time.
Born in the embrace of the World Tree and living for the elves,
what would he choose if faced with a situation where he had to pick
between the Creator, the World Tree, and his kin, the elves?
This question loomed over Fowler’s life like a shadow.
Like a shadow that could never be removed, no matter how hard one tried,
the balance in Fowler’s heart hung between the World Tree and the elves.
Two entities at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of importance,
delicately maintaining a precarious equilibrium.
-“Fowler, I have one final request.”
This balance was broken with the distortion of the World Tree.
The elf who had lived the longest in Elderheim, Heidel,
left a request for the Elf Guardian.
-“Please, do not kill the World Tree.”
Heidel was an elf who had lived for over a thousand years.
Even a thousand years ago, when the Twisted World Tree came into being,
the previous Elf Guardian had existed.
Both Fowler and the previous Elf Guardian made the same decision:
to kill the World Tree for the sake of the elves.
Of course, all elves opposed this decision.
The World Tree was the origin of their species, the Creator of the elves.
It was their parent, who naturally deserved devotion and sacrifice.
Thus, as a guardian, Fowler questioned the elves.
“What kind of parent takes their children’s devotion and sacrifice for granted?”
No answer from the elves could satisfy Fowler.
It was inevitable. The values of the Elf Guardian and the elves were different.
He agonized, and agonized, and agonized again.
How could he stop the distortion of the World Tree, the source of all these problems?
They didn’t even know why the World Tree was distorting in the first place.
Even after investigating related texts, no answers emerged.
In history from a thousand years ago, only the fact
that the ‘Hero Aurora’ intervened and ended the situation was recorded.
Finding a solution was impossible.
Strengthening patrols and vigilance changed nothing.
Afterward, Fowler witnessed his kin’s corruption. He had no choice but to watch.
Even when suppressing his kin, who had fallen into Dark Elves,
and imprisoning them in underground prisons,
their violence grew stronger with the increasing distortion.
The Dark Elves’ rampages eventually caused the underground prisons to collapse.
There was no longer any space to imprison his kin, nor was it possible.
Was he to kill his kin as they were?
Such thoughts filled Fowler’s mind when,
-“It seems you need power, my friend.”
a voice echoed from the darkness.
-“If you make a contract with me, you can save the kin you so desperately want to protect.”
The words from a spirit of a form he had never seen beyond the darkness were far too tempting.
His promise with Heidel.
His identity as an elf, even before being a guardian.
All of it, which had long tormented Fowler,
was swallowed by thick darkness and dyed black.
Having gained power, Fowler immediately sealed his rampaging kin.
The long, long agony came to an end.
“For the liberation of the elves.”
Hehehehe—
Amid the laughter echoing in the darkness,
the Elf Guardian, who had made his decision, began to act.
***
Fowler’s recollection ended.
Returning to the original timeline, Sweet immediately prepared for battle.
When cutscenes like this appeared, it always meant something was about to happen.
“I knew they were enemies disguised as kin.”
His voice carried regret.
“But I could not deny the words that they had betrayed us.”
Fowler’s gaze turned toward the lifeless corpses of the Salvation Church followers.
“They will resent me. But there is no other way. This is something someone has to do.”
A shadowy figure emerged behind Fowler.
“Even if the intruders are the cause of the World Tree’s distortion…”
The shadowy figure, riddled with mouths and eyes, continued,
“As long as the World Tree exists, the elves’ nightmare will endlessly repeat.”
A corrupted spirit. A monster that thrived on corruption.
The creature grinned hideously at Sweet.
“The spirit I made a contract with told me so.”
Fowler’s sclera and irises inverted.
Inverse eyes. He was no longer an elf.
His ominous gaze turned to Raven.
“A fallen object of destruction turned human.”
Then, his eyes returned to Sweet.
“A foreigner walking the Hero’s Path.”
Finally, Fowler’s gaze shifted to the sealed World Tree.
“You’re heading to Elderheim.”
“With your power, you can kill the Twisted World Tree.”
Fowler stretched his arms toward them, his hand extended.
“You said you came to solve Elderheim’s problems.”
[BOSS Corrupted Spirit King’s Contractor Lv. 70]
“Cooperate with me.”
The monster information appeared above his head.
[ Main Story – Cooperation ]
[ Main Story – Resistance ]
The options appeared simultaneously with his proposal.
Sweet didn’t hesitate for a moment.
“Get lost, you monster.”
[ Moving to Main Story – Resistance. ]
[ Achievement Unlocked – Following the Hero’s Path. ]
The battle began as soon as a new achievement was unlocked.
—
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