Chapter 219
Chapter 219: Your Daddy's Here
Vinia listened to Cocotte's words and was completely stunned where she stood.
Her lips parted slightly, her eyes wide, staring at Cocotte in disbelief.
She quickly turned her head to look at Leon, her voice trembling as she asked:
"Your surname—was actually given to you by a human?"
"Why, sister? Don't tell me you've also abandoned the Divine Tree?"
Vinia said this, but Leon turned back and looked at her with cold eyes, her indifferent voice slowly rising:
"It was the Divine Tree and all of you who abandoned me first."
Vinia was left completely bewildered, unable to process Leon's meaning for a moment.
But in that daze, she suddenly snapped her eyes wide open, one hand slowly rising, pointing at Leon, as though she wanted to reach out and touch Leon's cheek:
"You are... that Surnameless Elf?"
"How can this be?"
This was perhaps the most surreal day of Vinia's life.
The Elven Queen, who had vanished for years, had actually returned to the Elven Forest—bringing with her that Surnameless Elf.
And their return had stirred the Divine Tree Yadh into movement once again.
Vinia couldn't help but connect the current state of the Divine Tree Yadh to Cocotte.
Something else crossed her mind, and she snapped back to attention, turning to look at Cocotte:
"What did you just say?"
"The head of the Clavena Family is your employer?"
Cocotte gave a nod, looking entirely matter-of-fact about it.
Vinia's pupils trembled, and she found herself staring at Cocotte's face in a somewhat lost daze.
"Cocotte Yadh, do you know what you're saying?"
"You are the Queen. You are the most exalted existence among the Elven people!"
"And yet you... chose to follow a human."
Cocotte let out another sigh, speaking with calm composure.
"I never once said I wanted to be this Queen."
"If the Divine Tree Yadh is truly all-powerful, why can't it create Elves on its own—why does it absolutely need an Elven Queen?"
Cocotte's words, laced with questions, flooded into Vinia's mind.
She blinked in confusion and lifted her head, gazing up at the Divine Tree.
Why can't the Divine Tree create Elves on its own, when it absolutely needs an Elven Queen?
Why, after the Elven Queen had been gone for so long, had the Divine Tree never chosen another Elf and bestowed a surname upon her?
These questions suddenly flashed through her mind like blow after blow hammering against her chest.
Wrong, wrong!
Vinia pressed both hands over her head.
It was as though something had tampered with her thoughts, deliberately steering her toward thinking along these lines.
Vinia lifted her head to look at Cocotte, her expression now tinged with something close to alarm:
"What have you done to me?"
"I only wanted you to be a little quiet. You really do talk far too much."
Cocotte spread her hands and shrugged, then continued:
"Since you've already thought of all this—why not keep going?"
"What is it you're so blindly worshipping?"
Vinia gritted her teeth, pressing a hand over one eye, and shouted back in rebuttal:
"The Divine Tree is sacred! It is all-powerful!"
"Wrong."
Cocotte looked at Vinia seriously and flatly rejected that at once:
"It isn't all-powerful on its own. It's because of you, because of me, because of the existence of all the other Elves—"
"That it becomes all-powerful."
Vinia opened her mouth, unable to accept it:
"But... we were all created by the Divine Tree..."
"We are sheltered by the Divine Tree. We are free, we do as we please..."
"Are you truly so free to do as you please?"
Cocotte crossed her arms, her expression gradually growing serious, the earlier air of laziness sweeping away entirely.
Vinia stiffened, listening as Cocotte continued:
"Protect the Divine Tree, wielding the authority it has granted you—doing so generation after generation, on and on."
"Have you never once grown tired of this life that repeats day after day?"
Vinia still argued stubbornly:
"We have received the Divine Tree's shelter. It is only right that we serve it."
"What shelters you is yourself—is nature itself!"
Cocotte called out loudly, and an overwhelmingly dense surge of natural energy rolled up around her.
That energy left Vinia frozen in place, staring blankly at Cocotte—only to see Cocotte raise one hand.
Beneath Vinia's blank, dazed gaze, Cocotte spoke quietly:
"Do you see? We have never needed the Divine Tree's shelter."
"On the contrary—the Divine Tree has sheltered all of you far too well."
"It has made you forget that even without the Divine Tree, you can still rely on yourselves—just like me."
Power surged from her hand like a fountain, taking shape as one after another delicate, mysterious little sprite.
Watching the scene before her, Vinia's scepter slipped softly to the ground, as though she had begun to question everything she knew about life.
Just as Cocotte had said.
This was something the other Elves could not do.
Under the Divine Tree's shelter, the Elves had long since forgotten what crisis even meant.
They had no need for natural energy to protect themselves, because nature would protect them.
The Elves were capable of producing this energy, yet they could not control it.
Except for Cocotte.
She was like an Elf of a higher tier than all of them—able to command her own power freely, as she pleased.
Because she was the Elven Queen?
In that moment, Vinia's eyes went wide.
Like someone clutching at the last straw, desperate to find one sentence that could overturn Cocotte's reasoning:
"Because you are the Elven Queen... the Divine Tree bestowed a surname upon you... so that's why you..."
But by now, her confidence had crumbled, and her words were coming out halting and fractured.
Cocotte shook her head, delivering the final, crushing blow:
"If everything were as you say—then why does Leon have no surname?"
That single sentence brought Vinia to an abrupt halt.
The Divine Tree Yadh bestowed surnames upon all Elves, granted them authority, granted them ability.
Then, if it was truly capable of doing so—
Why would there still appear, among the Elven people, an Elf with no surname?
Vinia stared at Cocotte in disbelief:
"How did you discover... no, why would you think that?"
Cocotte rubbed her chin and closed her eyes:
"Hmm, well."
In that hazy moment, the words Viktor had once spoken echoed through her mind:
'Keep the Elves, make them happy—the natural energy they produce can be used as a power source.'
'Though, you don't need any of that.'
'The Divine Tree is, after all, something external to you.'
'Even without the Divine Tree, you are still a queen among Elves.'
The recollection ended. Cocotte opened her eyes again, rubbed the back of her head, and let out a laugh.
"How do I put it—even though someone gave me a nudge in the right direction, I naturally arrived at this conclusion through my own wisdom as well."
"In any case, the reason I've said all this to you isn't to make you understand me or anything like that."
Cocotte said this while glancing over at Vinia, who was standing there in complete disarray.
"I came back this time—partly because of her."
Cocotte said, turning to glance back at Leon.
"And the other part? I came back to resign."
As though she had been waiting precisely for this moment, Cocotte looked out at the Elves who had already gathered in full, and spoke lightly:
"I'm tired of sitting in the Elven Queen's seat. Whoever wants it can have it."
The instant those words fell, countless Elves stopped in their tracks.
They had gathered near the Divine Tree Yadh, a dense crowd of heads swaying like another surging ocean.
These Elves had all rushed here upon receiving word of the Elven Queen's return.
And at this very moment, they had just happened to hear Cocotte's words.
Every one of them lifted their heads, staring blankly at the Elven Queen they so deeply revered:
"What did Her Majesty the Queen just say?"
"She said... she doesn't want to be the Elven Queen anymore..."
"Why? Has she... betrayed the Divine Tree?"
In that moment, the Elves fell into vacant-eyed silence—just like Vinia had been moments before.
They couldn't accept it.
Vinia snapped back to herself, saw the gathered Elves, and felt her heart lurch.
Terrible! These fools... when on earth did they get here!?
Vinia understood perfectly—even she herself had struggled to accept Cocotte's logic.
These fools had nothing in their heads but the matter of being bestowed surnames by the Divine Tree.
How could they possibly accept a conjecture like Cocotte's?
Thinking this, Vinia hurriedly cried out, trying to salvage the situation:
"Cocotte Yadh! Do you know what you're saying?!"
"It was the Divine Tree that gave you life, the Divine Tree that gave you power! How could you possibly abandon this surname, abandon this identity?"
"The Divine Tree Yadh will never allow it!"
Vinia's salvage attempt succeeded. The Elves present all recovered a measure of clarity, their eyes clearing of the haze and returning to sharpness.
They began chattering among themselves:
"That's right—Her Majesty's surname was bestowed by the Divine Tree. She has no reason to abandon it."
"Her Majesty is also an Elf. She cannot refuse the Divine Tree. She cannot leave the Divine Tree!"
"Do not worry, sisters! Her Majesty will never abandon us!"
In just a few short words, Vinia had the Elves rallying again, their spirits restored.
She maintained an appearance of absolute calm—like a stern and impartial High Priestess.
Yet within her heart, she was already in complete turmoil, like a dam on the verge of collapse.
Cocotte's words had fully torn through every wall of her psychological defenses.
If she were to say a few more things in front of these fools...
These fools naturally wouldn't accept it.
When that moment came, it wouldn't just be simple doubt anymore—it could even develop into... a riot...
What would happen to the entire Elven Forest at that point, Vinia didn't dare imagine.
Yet Cocotte seemed to be deliberately provoking them.
"The Divine Tree granted us life? Ha—how laughable."
She stood with both hands on her hips, looking out at the gathered Elves below, her calm gaze carrying a faint trace of sorrow.
"Was it not I who granted you life? Was it not the Elven Queens who came before me?!"
The moment those words fell, an overwhelming surge of natural energy radiated outward, freezing every single Elf completely in place.
Vinia included.
Because she herself was an Elf created during the lifetime of the previous Elven Queen.
Cocotte, with her bold and unrestrained attitude, let out a light laugh:
"As for whether the Divine Tree Yadh will allow it?"
"I can only say—it absolutely will."
The Elves could no longer manage a single word. Only one question remained in their minds:
Why?
All of a sudden, a roar so terrifying it sent the earth into trembling erupted from deep within the Divine Tree Yadh—piercing through the heavens and flooding into every ear present.
The high-pitched, resonant sound made the ears of every Elf ache.
Accompanying that roar—
The golden sun in the sky blazed suddenly brighter, overwhelmingly scorching, wrapped in a ring of blazing crimson.
Searing heat and raging waves of flame spread out in every direction.
The enormous trunk of the Divine Tree seemed to be engulfed entirely in fire.
That feeling—so achingly familiar, so terrifying—sent every single Elf fighting the urge to drop to their knees.
Vinia raised her head in a daze, staring blankly at the Divine Tree Yadh, as though she were witnessing something utterly beyond belief.
A name murmured from her lips—one that filled her with bone-deep dread:
"The Calamity of Fire..."
"Gu... le... ton..."
***
Inside the Divine Tree Yadh, Viktor looked at the status panel floating before him.
Viktor Clavena—LV45
【HP: 23000/23000】
【MP: 1/9999999】
"Thank you, Weija."
"Your power wasn't wasted."
The Crow lay collapsed on his shoulder, its jet-black feathers drained to an ashen grey, as though completely wrung dry—too exhausted to manage even a single word.
Viktor raised his head, gazing forward.
A monstrous beast stood within that fire-devoured expanse.
Its entire body was a blazing crimson, twin eyes blazing with yellow light, its form coated in flame and molten lava.
Beneath a shattered crimson sky, black embers carrying sparks drifted and floated. Scorching heat and flame consumed everything around them entirely.
Wave after wave of heat surged up, and everything within that space seemed to warp and distort.
The scent of burning gradually reached Viktor's nose—yet it brought him no sense of suffocation.
On the contrary, he breathed in that air with complete ease.
The true Calamity had descended.
"You can summon a guardian of equal power?"
"I'll give you time."
In that moment, the beast's HP bar rose into view, stretching for a thousand meters.
LV60—
"Summon something stronger than it."
Viktor stood with both hands in his pockets, his coat whipping wildly in the waves of heat.
He looked straight ahead at that enormous, restlessly throbbing heart.
His confident words fell with perfect composure:
"If you can't—you may die."