Chapter 223
Chapter 223: Won't Dare Again
The Elves looked up.
Viktor, bathed in golden sunlight, stood atop Gulton's massive body.
Even Vinia stared blankly at Viktor, the enormous red silhouette reflected in the depths of her eyes.
"A...a human?"
No—the feeling Viktor gave her was nothing like a human being at all.
Vinia fixed her gaze on Viktor, and seemed to feel an intensely scorching heat radiating from his very presence.
The human standing before her possessed natural energy even purer than that of a Calamity.
That was right—the most pure natural energy imaginable.
Natural energy, too, had degrees of distinction.
In this world, there existed 6 natural elements.
And from any single element, natural energy could be extracted.
The Calamities were born of nature—they were the most pure, concrete embodiments of each of the world's 6 elements.
In direct correspondence, the energy contained within their bodies had reached an absolute, singular purity.
The Calamity of Fire, for instance, possessed only the single element of 'fire'—it was impossible for any other attribute to be mixed in.
The same was true of every other Calamity.
The reason Calamities could be called Calamities was precisely because of this absolutely pure manifestation of energy.
Energy that had already surpassed the point where it could be used as ordinary power.
This extraordinarily terrifying and pure force—the moment it appeared anywhere in the world—would trigger uncontrollable and catastrophic Natural Disasters.
Everywhere it passed, all living things were devastated and every creature wailed in anguish.
No living being could survive beneath the absolute purity of a single element.
At this moment, the current state of the Elven Forest could be said to embody the word "Calamity" to its fullest extent.
Vinia looked past Gulton, her eyes fixed on the Divine Tree Yadh—burning and exploding—as terrifying waves of heat erupted from it continuously.
The surrounding hundreds of miles had been completely blanketed in ferocious flames and merciless lava, erupting and surging up from the earth at intervals.
The sky itself appeared to have been set alight by the scorching heatwaves and fire, an endless crimson hanging over the entire Elven Forest.
Staring at the terrifying scene before her, Vinia finally understood at last.
Why only they could be called "Calamities."
"Clavena..."
Vinia murmured the name.
She still remembered—Cocotte had spoken that surname.
And now, the person who carried that surname had appeared before every single Elf in a manner of absolute, breathtaking force.
He stood high atop the Calamity's head, his whole body wrapped in red patterns, his feet covered in flowing, bubbling lava, flames burning ceaselessly at the hem of his coat.
Like a lord of Calamity itself.
Vinia turned her head to look at her Elf kin around her.
They, too, were looking upward—gazing at the colossal Gulton, feeling the scorching heat sting their cheeks, their eyes utterly hollow.
Even their voices seemed to be scattered by the heat, rendered desperately faint:
"The Divine Tree...has been destroyed?"
"The Divine Tree Yadh...is it dead?"
Every single Elf's lips trembled, each and every one of them wearing an expression of complete disbelief.
They could not accept it.
In their hearts, the Divine Tree Yadh was like their mother.
In the eyes of these Elves, they did not even care whether they were being drained by the Divine Tree Yadh or not.
They had long since grown accustomed to the existence of the Divine Tree.
Whatever the case, the Divine Tree had at least given them a lasting sense of security.
Even if, in truth, the Divine Tree had never actually done anything for them.
And in the end—the Divine Tree was dead.
It had died within something even purer than itself—nature.
Just as Vinia had said.
They were a group of fools.
And fools could only ever live within the world they had built for themselves.
The Divine Tree still crackled and burned beneath the fire's punishment, its wooden surface having completely collapsed, its fragile core long since torn apart entirely by the flames—ferocious as a wild beast.
Vast sheets of ash rained down toward the earth, and branches turned to showers of sparks that were flung entirely into the crimson heavens.
Withered cinders drifted through the air, mercilessly tearing open those wounds in the Elves' hearts all over again.
The Elves sank into prolonged grief. They clasped their hands tightly together, brows furrowed in anguish, a sensation like a noose around their hearts binding their senses completely.
An overwhelming spiritual anguish spread through every part of their bodies, and the sound of sorrowful weeping gradually spread through the crowd.
Soft, mournful grief became a river of blue crystal tears, flowing quietly between the flames.
A light rain began to fall, as though representing the Elves' sorrow, striking fiercely upon the churning fire.
A haze of deep, billowing steam burst upward at once, completely shrouding the crown of the tree.
Vinia, too, lowered her head, unable to bring herself to meet Cocotte's eyes:
"Please forgive their ignorance, Your Majesty."
They were a group of fools—but their feelings were genuine.
Cocotte also looked upon these Elves, a peculiar light shifting slowly in the depths of her eyes.
"Viktor..."
Perhaps there is a gentler way for these Elves to come to terms with reality.
Viktor, hands tucked into his pockets, stepped down from atop Gulton's head.
The 2 flows of lava beneath his feet seemed to transform into steps, holding still in the air.
Until his feet touched the ground—and they became flame, gradually fading away.
Viktor looked at the weeping Elves with a calm, unhurried gaze:
"This wasn't actually the ending I had envisioned."
"But if I had to do it again, I would still make the same choice."
The Divine Tree had been burned to nothing by the flames, its enormous body crumbled entirely.
Only a single enormous, jade-green heart remained, spiraling upward into the sky.
The moment they saw the heart, the Elves forgot even to weep.
Every one of their gazes followed the heart, rising toward the sky.
Viktor looked at the glowing green heart and said, his tone even:
"Did you know, Cocotte?"
Cocotte turned her head toward him, puzzled.
"Even without me, you could have done all of this yourself."
"Huh?"
In the game's future storyline, Cocotte returned to the Elven Forest.
The very first thing she did was to liberate the Elves' long-imprisoned minds.
To rescue them from the grasp of the Divine Tree Yadh.
That was right—it was a rescue.
The Divine Tree Yadh had never been anything sacred.
Laughably, the Elves had believed they were born from within the Divine Tree.
But in truth, the Divine Tree was merely a tool responsible for reproduction.
What truly gave birth to and nurtured them was natural energy.
This was also why, once the Elven Queen left the Divine Tree, it could no longer create new Elves.
Because the Divine Tree could not produce natural energy on its own to create Elves.
And yet—such a tool, through its prolonged contact with natural energy over vast stretches of time, had gradually developed a will of its own.
It wanted to usurp the Nature Spirit's place.
And so it had exerted control over the nature-beloved children—the Elf race—for a thousand years.
In the future, Cocotte came to understand this, and issued a quest that only Players could accept.
Players who completed it would receive the achievement【Elven Liberator】.
And so all Viktor had done was advance that process.
And precisely because he knew what would happen after the Divine Tree died, he had destroyed it without any hesitation or restraint.
"Get ready—feel this gift of nature."
"Feel it—the fruits of what your Elven people have accumulated across a thousand years."
The moment his words fell, the heart floating in the sky, as though receiving some command, burst open with several cracks.
White light began to spread outward from within.
The heart struggled in the air, gave a final few beats, and then shattered completely into pieces.
In an instant, boundless natural energy, accompanied by brilliant and terrifying white light, broke through the cloud layer and pierced into the crimson sky, sweeping away the flames and the heat entirely.
The white light drove straight into a place deeper than the sky itself, boring an enormous hole clean through the heavy, oppressive dark clouds, and heavenly light poured straight down through it.
The sun, which had been covered by that crimson halo, gradually revealed its original golden form.
The light drizzle was pierced through by the white light and began to grow far more intense.
A torrential downpour hammered into the loose earth.
Lightning flashed wildly within the lowered clouds, and the storm mixed instantaneously with the heavy rain.
The earth, soaked anew by the rain, received the light's blessing—and tiny green shoots slowly broke through the soil.
The entire expanse of land seemed to be completely overturned, fertile black earth exposed to the open air, bathed in the natural bounty pouring down from above.
Lush green spread across every patch of soil, growing rapidly.
In that moment, every single Elf watching the scene before them had completely forgotten their tears.
They all raised their heads, feeling this pure and overwhelmingly dense natural energy pouring without reservation down upon the entire Elven Forest.
This natural energy erupted all at once, transforming into streams of light—like tens of thousands of shooting stars—and merged into the bodies of every Elf.
This natural energy was the energy that their Elven people had offered ceaselessly to the Divine Tree Yadh through the ages.
But now the Divine Tree was gone, and all this energy with nowhere left to go was returned entirely to the Elves.
They watched as the white natural energy fully merged into their own bodies, a full, warm energy flooding through all their limbs.
Their muscles seemed to grow denser and more powerful, their hearing sharpened, their perception of the world seemed to grow clearer and purer than ever before.
"This...what is this?"
Cocotte, too, was astonished as she felt the return of this natural energy, struck by overwhelming awe.
A long-unfamiliar sense of ease arose through her body and soul.
If it could only continue for just a little while longer...
She might just...
Viktor said, his tone unhurried:
"This is the energy your Elven people offered to the Divine Tree Yadh across a thousand years."
"When the Divine Tree died, it returned all of it to you."
And in the same way, it was also returned to those Elves who had died peacefully on this homeland and could never again see the light of day.
That energy with nowhere left to go had become an offering to nature itself.
The Divine Tree dies—and all living things flourish.
The Elves gradually forgot their grief, absorbed in the warm power flowing into their bodies.
They could not understand it.
But they had witnessed it with their own eyes, experienced it with their own bodies.
Why had the death of the Divine Tree sent things moving in a better direction?
At this moment, Cocotte turned back around and looked at Viktor again:
"Viktor, there's still one problem left unresolved."
That being—the Divine Tree Yadh's final lingering influence.
Why did the Elves revere the Divine Tree Yadh?
Naturally, it was because in their eyes, only the Divine Tree Yadh could create Elves.
And so for a thousand years, the Elves had naively believed that their reproduction depended on the Divine Tree.
This was also why, after the Divine Tree's death, grief had risen in their hearts.
But the Elves did not dare resist—they could only hold onto their sorrow.
Because the one who had killed the Divine Tree was, in a certain sense.
Their parent.
Viktor was not concerned. He simply said, his tone even:
"Do you remember—that well of your Elven people?"
"A well?"
Cocotte thought about it, a little puzzled, then suddenly realized which well Viktor was referring to.
Could it possibly be....
The Moon Sacred Spring?
Vinia, standing nearby, bristled slightly at the word and said to Viktor:
"That's not a well! It's a spring! A spring!"
Viktor paid no attention to Vinia's correction, and said with perfect composure:
"Let's go."
"Take me there."