Chapter 1083, What Audacity

Translator: Silavin

 

*Ziii* The moment that icy beam of light was about to pierce Avril’s body, a surge of brilliant green light erupted outward, and the cold light, capable of cleaving an ordinary Saint clean in two, ground to a halt in mid-air.

 

“Ah!” In that instant, Avril’s eyes snapped open. She stared at the cold light suspended mere feet from her chest, and a sharp, piercing cry tore itself from her throat.

 

“Oh? It seems like this girl has quite the decent potential. She actually managed to block one of my strikes.” The young man of the Incubus Race watched his attack neutralised by those swirling green rays. There was a slow intrigued curl forming at the corner of his lips. He murmured softly, “The Blood Beastmen Race was after this girl not long ago. No wonder…”

 

“*Ha!* We simply wished to save ourselves some effort.” The Blood Beastman let out a dry laugh upon hearing this, brushing off the comment.

 

Even the savage Blood Beastmen Race held no small amount of wariness towards the Incubus Race. They had never intended to draw the Incubus Race into this affair, but beneath the seductive pull of profit, they had ultimately bent to the arrangement.

 

“You, who are you people? Why have you come here?” Avril stumbled back several paces, staring at the young man and the Blood Beastman, her voice laced with alarm.

 

“Who we are doesn’t matter. But, if you cooperate and assist us with a small matter, I might just give you the privilege of remaining by my side.” The bewitching young man laughed lightly, tilting his head as he addressed Avril in an almost casual tone.

 

Those words sent a tremor through Avril’s slender frame, and terror flickered across her eyes.

 

“That is… the Life Scepter!? How did you get it!?” Without warning, Avril’s gaze fell upon the green gate of light suspended between the two figures. Her pupils contracted sharply.

 

*Hmmm…*

 

Due to Avril’s startled outburst, the Life Scepter began to quiver. The gate, which had moments ago been trending towards stability, wavered as though it might dissolve into the surrounding air at any moment.

 

“There is no time to waste. Young Heir, we cannot afford to waste words with her!” Witnessing this development, the Blood Beastman’s brow furrowed tight, and he warned.

 

“En” The bewitching young man gave a single nod. The roguish expression at his mouth drew back slowly, and a thread of cold light surfaced in his eyes.

 

Though he possessed secret techniques of the Elf Race, enough to forcibly operate the Life Scepter, he was not an Elf. The Life Scepter was an item with spiritual awareness, and its reaction upon sensing the blood of the Elf Royal Family had far exceeded his expectations.

 

It was fortunate that Felletin had used the Blood Devouring Poison earlier to tie down the Elf Queen, leaving her too busy to intervene. Without that, even with the combined strength of the Incubus Race and the Blood Beastmen Race, they would never have reached this point.

 

And now, the most critical step lay before them. They required the blood of the Elf Royal Family to guide the way inside, so they might enter the Tree of Life. This step could not suffer even a single mistake.

 

“Go!”

 

The bewitching young man called out in a sharp, low command, extending one finger towards the distant Avril. A streak of dark crimson light shrieked forward like a drawn blade.

 

*Whoosh!* Before that dark crimson light, the green light that had repelled the earlier cold beam shredded apart like paper, torn open in an instant.

 

“Ah!” Sensing a wave of mortal danger, Avril cried out and spun her body away, dodging in a panic.

 

But her speed was no match for that dark crimson light. Within two breaths, it had already ripped through the air and appeared directly at her back.

 

Watching Avril’s futile scramble to escape, the bewitching young man’s lips curved into a savage grin. Things were proceeding even more smoothly than he had anticipated.

 

*Hmph!* And yet, at the precise moment that dark crimson light was about to slam into Avril’s back, a cold, dismissive snort abruptly rang out.

 

With that single sound, both the bewitching young man and the Blood Beastman froze.

 

An instant later, a slender thread of green light screamed through the air and obliterated the surging dark crimson light without ceremony.

 

“Who!?”

 

His full powered strike had been neutralised with such effortless contempt. The young man of the Incubus Race felt his expression harden.

 

“The Incubus Race, the Blood Beastmen Race… what audacity. To think you would set your sights on our Ancestral Tree!” A voice, bright and clear yet edged with displeasure, rang out through the surrounding space. Almost simultaneously, a graceful silhouette materialised before Avril.

 

With the appearance of that figure, the energy roiling restlessly through the area seemed to settle, quieting as though commanded.

 

*Hmmm…* The Life Scepter, still lodged within the Tree of Life, gave a sudden violent shudder, and wrenched itself free of the Incubus Race young man’s hold, shooting towards that silhouette like a homing arrow.

 

“Irene!?”

 

“The Elf Queen!”

 

The moment that silhouette came into view, the complexions of both the Incubus Race youth and the Blood Beastman instantly turned ugly.

 

Neither of them could comprehend how Irene could have appeared here at this moment.

 

Had she not been held back at the banquet, with those poisoned? How had she slipped away to arrive here? Did she no longer care whether her people lived or died?

 

At the sight of the Elf Queen’s arrival, alarm also surged across the face of Felletin in the distance. By this point, he understood with cold clarity that the Blood Beastmen Race had never held any genuine intention of cooperating with him.

 

To the Blood Beastmen Race, he was nothing more than a pawn to be sacrificed.

 

Yet, his regret was meaningless now. The damage was done. It was irreversible. He had administered poison in secret, nearly killing the entire upper echelon of the Elf Race.

 

And the most damning truth of all was this: he had no antidote for the Blood Devouring Poison. The antidote actually remained in the hands of the Blood Beastmen Race.

 

“Surrender!” The Elf Queen’s glass-clear eyes burned with restrained fury as she regarded the three figures before her who stirred nothing but revulsion. Her voice, warm yet regal, held the quiet sound of a sentence being passed.

 

“Surrender!? Ha! Dream on!” The Blood Beastman burst into loud laughter the moment those words left the Elf Queen’s lips.

 

Under ordinary circumstances, encountering the Elf Queen would have drained every last instinct for resistance from his body. He would have degraded himself, traded every scrap of dignity, for so much as a chance to walk away alive.

 

But now, with the knowledge that nearly the entire upper echelon of the Elf Race lay gripped by the Blood Beastmen Race’s Blood Devouring Poison, a new and emboldened confidence took root in his chest.

 

“Yield or die!” The Elf Queen’s gaze carried the faint chill of resolve as it swept across the three figures. Her voice, detached and unhurried, rang out like the toll of a final verdict.

 

“Elf Queen, if you dare harm us, do not blame me for dragging the entire Elf Race down with us!”