Chapter 1076, Strife Within

Translator: Silavin

 

On one side stood the Life Scepter, the symbol of the Elf Queen’s very identity. On the other, the core of the Elf Race’s highest leadership.

 

It was an impossible choice. It was in fact cruel to force one to make such a choice.

 

To hand Felletin the Life Scepter was to risk him using it to bring ruin upon the Tree of Life, a catastrophe that would be nothing short of annihilation for the Elf Race.

 

But to refuse him was to condemn nearly every Deacon and Elder within that hall, and even the already scarce members of the Elf Royal Family, to death by Blood Devouring Poison.

 

And should the Elf Race lose all of those high-ranking figures at once, its power to deter others would be diminished to a devastating level. The moment that news reached the many Races that had long cast hungry eyes upon the Elf Race, the consequences would be no less catastrophic.

 

“Your Majesty…” Felletin looked to the Elf Queen and pressed her with quiet urgency.

 

“The Life Scepter can be given to you.” At last, beneath the weight of every gaze in that hall, the Elf Queen exhaled a quiet sigh and made her choice.

 

At those words, Felletin’s hunched frame shuddered violently. Even though he had already half-expected the Elf Queen to yield, his heart surged with an excitement he could not fully restrain.

 

With the Life Scepter in his hands, he could enter the Tree of Life. From that point, prolonging his life, even attaining Immortality itself, was no longer beyond the realm of possibility.

 

“Your Majesty, you must not!”

 

“Our Queen cannot possibly capitulate to such a contemptible traitor!”

 

Throughout the hall, Elder after Elder and Royal Family member after Royal Family member were on their feet, faces blazing with righteous fury, voices rising to stop her.

 

Even if it meant death, they refused to serve as the leverage used to coerce their Queen.

 

“Stop.”

 

Yet the Elf Queen’s expression remained unmoved before the flood of pleas from all those Elders. Her sleeve faintly moved, and a subtle light of pale green began to emanate outward in a soft, spreading glow.

 

In that instant, the entire hall was filled with the Power of Life.

 

Yet in that same instant, the faces of the many Elders shifted sharply. They felt, to their horror, that beneath this surge of energy, the poison within their bodies was not being suppressed. It was growing more agitated.

 

The Blood Devouring Poison had been refined from the concentrated Blood Essence drawn from the very beings who were the Elf Race’s mortal enemies, the Blood Beastmen Race.

 

For other Races, there might yet exist methods to delay its progress, to buy time. But for the Elf Race, it was as though the poison had been born to specifically counter them.

 

The very Power of Life within their bodies served only to agitate the Blood Devouring Poison further, accelerating its consumption of their Blood Essence and rendering it more potent with every moment.

 

“Take it, then.”

 

The Elf Queen’s composed voice rang through the hall, and from within her sleeve, a stream of green radiance shot outward like a comet aimed directly at Felletin.

 

A sharp crack filled the air.

 

Felletin snatched the hurtling green light out of the air with one hand, and in that instant, the Death Energy wreathing his body seemed to recede by some measure, and he seemed to regain a flicker of vitality.

 

He had braced himself for failure. But as he felt that miraculous effect take hold, a broad and unrestrained smile slowly spread across his aged face.

 

“I have given you the Life Scepter. Now cure them of the Blood Devouring Poison.” The Elf Queen descended from the crystal throne with unhurried steps, her beautiful eyes fixed upon Felletin, stripped of all colour and warmth.

 

“Ha!” Felletin could not suppress a burst of laughter. The ease with which everything had fallen into place was beyond even his most hopeful expectations.

 

The Life Scepter, the thing he had yearned for through every waking moment, had come into his hands as though it were nothing more than a pleasant dream made real.

 

With the Life Scepter in his grasp, one word from him would earn him the recognition of countless Elves.

 

Among those Elves here were the High Rank Elves who had always looked down upon the Dark Elves with contempt. Even those of the exalted Elf Royal Family would be compelled, when facing him, to bow that proud and lofty head.

 

“I will naturally cure the poison inside of them, but everyone please wait for a moment. I will come to help you out soon enough.” After securing the Life Scepter, Felletin swept his sleeve and turned his figure directly towards the royal corridor at the rear of the hall, showing not the faintest inclination to begin curing anyone.

 

It was clear enough that he still harboured reservations. Were he to cure them of their poison now, the enraged Elders might very well disregard the Life Scepter and tear him to pieces.

 

His haste in leaving was equally telling. He wanted to reach the Tree of Life as quickly as possible and claim what he had come for.

 

The Elf Queen had surrendered the Life Scepter, it was true, but if she chose to use her power to force him to yield, Felletin at this moment had no margin to resist her.

 

Only once he had obtained that which awaited him within the Tree of Life would he have any real foothold. At that point, even if he were to help this assembly of infuriating Elves rid themselves of the Blood Devouring Poison, he would now firmly hold the Elf Race within his grasp.

 

The two brown-haired Elders who had entered alongside Felletin exchanged a glance, their figures flickering as they departed swiftly from the hall, which atmosphere had become stifling beyond endurance.

 

They too did not have the strength to resist the other Elders. One moment of inattention, and those enraged Elders might tear them to shreds without a second thought.

 

It took only a short while, and with the surrender of the Life Scepter, the hall sank once more into an atmosphere of suppressed and suffocating tension.

 

“That shameless bastard. He is nearly at death’s door and still brazen enough to pull off something like this!”

 

“Colluding with a Foreign Race, even if he succeeds, he will be remembered with nothing but contempt throughout the history of our Elf Race!”

 

With their departure, a torrent of denunciations filled the hall, voice after voice pouring out without pause.

 

After a long while, the light began to dim in the eyes of the Elders one by one, as though every last measure of their strength had been siphoned away.

 

They could not even resolve the Blood Devouring Poison within their own bodies. What use was their rage?

 

“That wretched Felletin! This must have been planned long in advance!”

 

A Royal Family member declared in a voice shaking with rage.

 

“Your Majesty, Felletin must have collaborators!”

 

“Your Majesty, while we still have the capacity to fight, let us use everything we have to purge Felletin and all who stand with him!”

 

“Indeed, even if it means our deaths, we cannot allow that traitor to bring ruin upon the Elf Race!”

 

Voice after voice rang out with fierce indignation, echoing through the great hall in waves of anger.

 

And amid that fury, no small number of Elders turned their gazes, laden with naked suspicion, towards Fiery and his companions.

 

“Wait, why are you unaffected!?”

 

Suddenly, an Elder’s eyes narrowed sharply, and he directed a furious roar at Fiery.

 

To prove his innocence before everyone, Fiery had drunk from the Jade Spirit Brew laced with Blood Devouring Poison. Yet now, a full quarter of an hour had elapsed, and Fiery was still kneeling there in apparent good health, without the faintest sign of having been poisoned at all.

 

“Fiery!? How is he resisting the Blood Devouring Poison?”

 

“He must be a collaborator!”

 

“No wonder, no wonder Felletin was able to succeed so easily. It turns out that even in the shadows, he had gathered this many accomplices!”

 

Elder after Elder fixed Fiery with a gaze that seemed to grind with barely restrained savagery, as though they wished nothing more than to strip the skin from his bones.