Inside the Tunnels (3)

Long white hair, silver eyes, and goddess-like beauty.

She was Elwha Aerin, Princess of the elves.

And currently, she was looking at Bloed, Liu Ying, and Aya with a small smile in her lips.

"Oh? So it was the beastmen team. What are you doing here?" Elwha asked while moving his gaze between Bloed's group.

Bloed did now answer. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and looked around.

The place where they just arrived was a dome-like cave filled with mana ores glowing on the walls. Five tunnels were connected to the cave, including the tunnel from where Bloed's group came from.

The elven team was standing in the middle of the dome, with Elwha in front and the other five behind her ready to attack Bloed's group.

However, Bloed did not pay them much attention.

Instead, he looked at the thing behind the elves.

There, a giant worm-like monster was digging on a giant mana ore crystal tens of meters wide, trying to destroy it.

To be more accurate, it wanted to dig out the thing in the center of the giant crystal.

A head-sized purple crystal emitting incredible amounts of mana.

Each second, the worm used its jaw to bite out a part of the giant crystal, slowly approaching to the purple crystal in the middle.

That was the reason behind the vibrations Aya felt.

However, there was another thing that attracted Bloed's attention.

'… This is… Psychic energy!?'

Yes. The purple crystal was emitting not just mana, but also enormous amounts of psychic energy.

This level of psychic energy was greater than anything Bloed had seen before. Even Regina's psychic energy paled in comparison.

'… Is that what the elves and the God of Slaughter want?'

Bloed furrowed his brows. Judging by the situation, his guess was right.

After all, just a glance was enough to know that purple crystal was valuable.

But why?

Although certainly, it seemed like an extraordinary treasure, it did not seem valuable enough for the elves to use four demigods and a princess to fool the other races, neither it seemed like something the God of Slaughter needed to get even if it meant offending three countries and two churches.

… Unless this treasure had a special use.

Bloed fell deep into thought. His mind moved quickly, trying to find an answer using the knowledge in his mind.

Then, something clicked on him.

Looking at Elwha, he blurted it out.

"… You want to create another great tree?"

Bloed could see Elwha and the other elves' expressions stiffening briefly.

"So I was right, huh," Bloed muttered to himself.

"Another great tree!?" Liu Ying looked at the elves and at the purple crystal in surprise. For an instant, she did not know how to react.

The Great Trees were the core of the Elven Forests. In fact, each Elven Forest grew around a Great Tree.

It was not just due to the religious meaning the Great Trees had for the elves. That was just one of the reasons.

The main reason was due to the power the Great Trees held.

Each great tree increased the mana in the surroundings and made plants grow faster. Moreover, they had an even greater ability.

The great trees allowed the elves to create a mind network using all the trees on the forest, and through that network, the elves could communicate with each other at kilometers of distance.

That network made it much easier for Elves to defend against enemy attacks and repel invaders.

That was one of the reasons behind the elves' invincibility in forest battles.

However, great trees were very rare. Only a few existed in nature, each one of them being the core of an elven nation.

But, there was a certain rumor about the Great Trees.

The elves knew how to create new Great Trees.

The process, though, was apparently very complicated. In fact, the elves had created only one great tree in the last two hundred years.

Bloed, however, was sure when he saw the purple crystal.

To create the kind of mind network that the Great Trees built, the key was psychic energy.

Great amounts of psychic energy.

Just like the psychic energy of the purple crystal.

"You… How do you know about that!?" Elwha squinted and asked. At the same time, a slight killing intent started to leak from her body.

Not just her, the five elves behind her were also looking at Bloed's group full of killing intent.

Aya and Liu Ying's expressions turned grave. They took battle-ready stances and looked at the elves with wariness.

Bloed was the same. He knew the current situation was very dangerous.

Due to that, he was ready to activate [Overdrive] as soon as he noticed anything wrong.

On the surface, though, he remained calm.

"… Princess, do you truly want to kill us?"

Elwha said nothing. Instead, one of the elves behind her snorted.

"Now that you know about this, do you think you can survive? The birth of a great tree is of the utmost importance for the elves. Nobody can go wrong with it. Thus, we need to kill you in case the other countries learn of this information and try to stop our mission."

Bloed nodded and shook his head.

"Unfortunately, it's already too late. After all, the Church of Slaughter somehow managed to learn of your plans, so it's no longer a secret. And just now, I sent this information to one of the demigods that brought us here."

Elwha and the elves froze.

"You…!" The elf of just now gritted his teeth in rage. "Damn human! Princess, give me the order to kill him!"

Elwha, however, did not reply. Instead, she looked at Bloed deeply

"… Your name… I think it's Bloed, right? Why are you telling me this? Are you not afraid of me giving the order to kill the three of you?"

Bloed smiled. "As expected of the Princess of the Boerner Forest. You are smart. You are right, I'm not afraid. In fact, killing us is the stupidest thing you can do right now, that if you can even succeed."

"… And why is that?"

"If I'm not wrong, you have a way to communicate with the elven demigods, right? Thus, you already know about the Church of Slaughter's attack."

"… You are right. I do."

"Then, you probably already reached the conclusion that attack is just a distraction. If I'm not wrong, a team of the church of slaughter is currently rushing towards here to kill you and get the thing behind you. Do you truly want to waste your strength on us when you need to fight a much more dangerous battle soon?"

Elwha said nothing, but her expression turned much graver.

When Bloed saw that, he sighed in relief inwardly.

He truly did not want to fight right now.

Even if he was confident he could win if he used [Overdrive], he would be weakened after that. And if he met the Church of Slaughter in that state, his group would be in grave danger.

Thus, the best was to reach a deal with the elves and leave this place.

After thinking for several seconds, the princess sighed and opened her lips.

"Why should I trust you? Perhaps you will just wait for an opportunity to ambush us after the battle against the Church of Slaughter. After all, if we manage to produce a new Great Tree, the strength of the Boerner Forest will increase greatly. That is something neither the beastmen countries nor the Sun Kingdom wants to see. That is the reason we tried to keep this operation a secret."

"… You don't have many options right now, Princess. Of course, you can choose to fight us, but you already know the consequences. And I assure you that if I go all out I'm confident in killing at least half of you."

Elwha and the elves' expressions turned tense.

"Princess!" The elf of before spoke out again. "You are not planning to trust this human, right!? What if he has bad intentions towards us!?"

"Stop it, Ethan." Elwha closed her eyes and chastised the elf with a stern expression. She then sighed before looking at Bloed. "You are right, Mr. Bloed. We can't afford to fight you right now. But I have a proposal for you.

"Huh?"

"Help us to fight the Church of Slaughter."

Bloed furrowed his brows.

"And why should we?"

Elwha smiled looked straight into Bloed's eyes before at the entrance of a nearby tunnel.

"Because they are already here. And I'm sure they will not let you go wither."

Surprised, Bloed looked in the direction that the princess was looking.

There, a young man was coming out of a tunnel followed by around twenty dangerous-looking people.

Each one of the twenty was a powerful practitioner, the weakest being at the B-Rank. Moreover, they emitted a bloody aura filled with killing intent.

Bloed's expression immediately turned grave.

They were the people of the Church of Slaughter.

...

Still owe one chapter... Coming tomorrow, perhaps...