111 Chapter 111 Discussions With The Elves (2/2)
”It would be terrible to be weakened out here, Joseph.”
”But the mana is normal out here, not like in your forest.”
”But I use my life force to cast spells.”
”Yes, I know you do in the forest, but you don't need to here. Just use mana.”
”I always use my life force to cast spells. I never trained to use mana. It would deplete the already scarce mana in the forest.”
Joseph paused this time, to think about that. Could they be serious?
”I normally use mana and would only use my life force to cast spells in emergencies.”
”a.s.sume we always, only use magic in emergencies.”
”That's awful!”
Joseph released his mana, like when he did area training. The stars and constellations linked up as they slowly rotated. All the elves stopped their horses, as he looked at Virion.
”Do you truly mean all elves have lost the ability to do this?”
Virion stared as the mana slowly spun in beautiful spirals and whirls. Some stars died out, and changed colors to red and green before they burst back into blue and gold again. Slowly, the universe contracted back until it was inside him again, but his eyes were still glowing. There was plenty of mana in the elves. What would have led them to this path?
”I am sure some elders still know how to do what you do,” said Virion, hesitantly.
”Would your King?”
”It is not my place to say, but I believe my king will be quite interested in meeting with you.”
Joseph turned to Stella, and said in one of the languages from the other world, ”This seems tragic.”
Stella nodded.
Joseph had been looking forward to meeting the elves, a lot. He had thought that surely the elves would have a magical city, or something. Now it seemed more like he was going on an aid trip to a devastated third world country. That only meant that someone, or something, very terrible must have happened for things to have ended this way.
”Alright, Stella. I will send the other me to a rune world and I am going to meditate. Can you guide my horse while I focus?”
”Of course, Master Joseph. Are you sure you don't wish to talk to them more?”
”They are kind of depressing honestly. I want to make progress on my magic while we travel. I have no intention of forcing you to watch me suck the life out of myself in order to have a topic of conversation.”
The elves seemed rather troubled that they knew a language they had obviously never heard of before. Elwin turned around from his horse, in the front, while Joseph handed Stella his reigns.
”Is everything all right?”
”Of course not! The elves can't practice magic! You are barely able to have children. A group that almost succeeded in killing everyone thousands of years ago, isn't done yet. Recently, the world was almost destroyed when they unsealed the avatar of a lesser G.o.d of destruction and ice. They are almost certainly involved in the wars in the central and eastern kingdom, and the coup in the western kingdom. Tens of thousands of people are going to die in the next few years from their activities, and I don't know if they have plans to put the souls of their victims to use, or if they just like people murdering each other.
”And I'm certainly not strong enough to stop them yet. I've almost been killed at least four times over the last year, depending on how close to death I have to be before you count it as almost. AND, I still have to convince your king, and likely his wife, who hates humans, to let me into your library for the information I need because my goal in life is to cure the world tree and heal the wasteland.
”That said, I'm going to practice now, so I don't regret being unprepared in the future.”
Closing his eyes, he put his trust in Stella.
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