Chapter 679 - v4c61p1 Elemental Activation (6) (1/2)

Life and death, ever cycling —

— Observations Across Centuries, Shallow Seas, Volume One

There was a wide field of wilderness in its long memory. All that it remembered of its youth was wandering and traveling. When it traveled across the borders of the ‘Shallow Seas’, the sight of the storm falling silent and the green hills in the background remained carved into its memories to this day. At the border between water and wind, the two worlds overlapped in a bizarre fas.h.i.+on in its view.

That was the deepest memory it had of its childhood.

But all those distant sights were gone. After long periods of traveling, traveling, and then traveling some more, it finally arrived at this world —

This was a strange new beginning. Clanspeople pa.s.sed memories down from generation to generation, as if by blood, and nurtured magic. They formed the holy forest. In the distant years of darkness, the gentle magic attracted creatures from the darkness such as Frost Demons, Weeping Demons, and the Undead. In order to protect the forest, it fought a constant battle against them.

Many years seemed to pa.s.s while it constantly battled like this.

Until one day, it saw that ball of light fly to him.

“h.e.l.lo, I’m Luoluo. It’s so pretty here. May I make my home here?”

“You cannot.” It answered seriously.

“Why?” The little ball of light stared wide-eyed, its blue eyes opened wide and filled with curiosity as if not allowing her to stay in the forest was a very strange thing.

“Because you’re like them and want to possess the holy magic.”

“No, no, no. I just think it’s cooler here.”

“Cooler?”

“Mmhmm. Besides, you can’t always be fighting against them by yourself. You need comrades, right? Let me help you.”

After that, it seemed like it had a companion. The word companion, spoke in the language of the elementals, was much longer than in the human tongue but also more meaningful.

“Malourcha, let’s build a lake. Then they wouldn’t be able to come over here.”

“Lake?”

“Mmhmm, lake. You haven’t seen one, right? It’s a scene like the shallow seas — of course, not as magnificent as my homeland, but still very beautiful.”

Thinking of its homeland, it nodded.

“Malourcha, is the lake very beautiful?”

“Not like the shallow seas.” It answered seriously after a long while of contemplation.

“Then let’s make it bigger. So big that it has no end.” She said excitedly. “Oh right, after I die, please bury me under the biggest Tree of Fog. Then I can go back home.”

“Die?”

It squinted its eyes slightly. In some distant part of its brain, there was some information hidden about this. It was about elemental creatures. A sentence that seemed burned into its soul flashed across its memory “Life and death, elementals ever cycling –”

“Mmhmm,” the little fairy answered with its eyes squinted. “Life and death, elementals ever cycling. Without death, there will not be new life.”

It stared at the black night sky. A shooting star streaked across the sky and disappeared. In the vibrant starry sky, this meant the civilized world outside, rife with conflict, just lost another of its heroes. The war between mortals started 137 years ago and would last a total of 300 years, ending 12 years after that according to the prophecy.

Lulu was buried in the ground in the middle of the forest. The next year it grew sprouts that lit up, and then it slowly bore fruit. From the fruit, two new lives arrived.

They were the continuation of Lulu’s life. Their names were Miya and Tisha.

Fairies were born with names, which was strange.

Then there were more and more fairies and the forest became more and more lively and prosperous. But every night thereafter, it would look at the vibrant night sky and think of that sentence:

“Malourcha, let’s build a lake. Then they wouldn’t be able to cross.”

On the sh.o.r.es of the silvery lake, the frost demons hidden in the dark really didn’t dare cross the lake —

The war in the human world finally ended 130 years ago. Malourcha looked up at the night sky as another falling star streaked across. Sanorso, the last hero of the civilized world, has just finished the last leg of her journey in the world.

The world suddenly became foreign.

……

Magical core was the life source of a demonized creature. But for creatures like Crystal Stag, which lived in harmony with magic, this was just a core of energy. After losing the magical core, a demonized creature should immediately turn to ashes but for Marloucha, it would probably just revert back to its youth.

Very quickly, Brendel saw the crystal prism. It was embedded along Malourcha’s spine and as soon as Brendel saw it, he couldn’t help but squint his eyes.

The healthy magical core of a Crystal Stag should be blue of an ocean, just like the Shallow Seas of their homeland. That was the most beautiful place in the world of water elementals. But what he saw was an ink-black crystal.

The magic had been tainted this badly.

Brendel held his breath involuntarily.

Warndt’s world was built upon the Sea of Magic, but what mortals could touch were mostly magic from the darkness. But Marsha had set down the rule of Tiamat and used the power of order to constrain the wild forces of darkness — so that they turned calm and docile.

This was the boon from a mother.

But there were those who didn’t accept such a boon.

Astrologers chased after the footsteps of the Divine Folk and could be said to be the mages that cut a path through thorns in the dark. Like the deity they wors.h.i.+pped, Elaine of the Abyss Lake, they turned the dark magic into a mirror and found the sacrifice of their sight a price worth paying for the ability to see through the fog into the future. Darkness ate away at their body and soul but they remained steady.

Female mages took things one step further than astrologers. The original twelve female mages swore that they would conquer the powers of darkness – though their descendants followed the oath, obsession, coldness, perverseness, and moodiness accompanied them through their lives — because of this and their ident.i.ty as followers of the Darkness Dragon, they were cast aside by everyone.

And those that walked in the shadows; the believers of evil, the wors.h.i.+ppers of devils, the insane and the murderers. They wors.h.i.+pped dark magic and didn’t bat an eye at pleasing those dark and evil beings through sacrifice. They walked the crooked path in the shadow of civilization, but n.o.body denied their existence.

Dark magic was like a shot of extreme poison. Its damage to anyone was irreversible. Bredel thought he knew the answer to the puzzle and, with that feeling in mind, he gently reached toward the magical core.

His entire body tingled, as if being electrocuted.