Punishment

— Did you want something, Kaisar?

"Yes, my Lord, I am worried about a question that only you can answer me.

If so, then ask.

"Oh, great Sovereign, I know that your wisdom is as incomprehensible as the universe itself, so I ask you to enlighten this fool who did not heed your orders and did not understand all the deep meaning that you put into them.

"Please, sir, explain why you sent these two for the first contact with intelligent consciousnesses, because you are well aware of their arrogance and intolerance. I'm sorry that your faithful servant is so stupid and does not understand this himself, but he wants to improve, so please explain.

The sovereign, listening to this monologue, did not change in his face not one iota, which, to be honest, frightened Kaisar, he barely had the courage not to give back.

— Kaisar, what do you think a father should do, what are his duties to his children? - the calm voice of the Lord somewhat reassured the king of the fallen, who was afraid of only one thing in the world.

Should he protect them?

They are strong and can take care of themselves.

He must take care of them.

-Care care is different. This is too broad a concept, which, without the context in which it is pronounced, does not have a clear meaning.

Kaisar thought for a while, after which, raising his head, he distinctly and clearly said:

"A father must teach his children.

- That's right, the main function of the father is teaching, transferring his knowledge. Knowledge is something that protects, preserves, gives strength and pleasure. A fool is always weak, a fool is always unhappy, no matter how much he is cared for or protected. If you don't transfer knowledge, don't teach you how to live and act correctly, the child will face the lot of a driven loser who will ruin his life in the abyss of ignorance. And, as you probably know, any training has two stages - theory and practice. Sena and Leiko are now undergoing a practical test, overseen by my faithful son, who commands at night. Let's see if they pass this test, whether they can complete the task, which is much more difficult than a simple purge or enslavement.

"My ignorance knows no bounds, lord, forgive me." The king of the fallen was very ashamed that he could not understand such a simple motive and even for a second, just for a moment, doubted the wisdom of his master.

- You are also well done, Kaisar, I praise you.

Not everyone can understand why the king of the fallen was praised, but it would be too boring to explain this.

* * *

Two ancient elves, a man and a woman, stood at the entrance to the council tower, surrounded by twenty-five forest dwellers, each of whom was a magician and was part of one or another council family.

In fact, the top of the very magical elite that ran the Secret Garden gathered here.

"Brother, I don't believe these fools really want to attack us. Their stupidity knows no bounds.

The smirk in Leiko's voice went past the ears of Sen, who was angry to the chapel, who was stopped from bloodshed and massacre only by a promise to the Lord.

He could not let his anger outgrow the respect and honor that every word of his master aroused in him.

"Be patient, be patient, Sen. These fools are not worth breaking a promise to the Great One. A little more and they will break themselves.

In fact, the delay was due to the fact that the forest inhabitants who came to the rescue of their relatives were dumbfounded by the appearance and terrible aura of the ancients who appeared to them.

They were especially frightened by the man who looked at them without blinking, as if they were pieces of meat that he would now fry.

- Why did you get up? Attack them, they don't even understand our speech.

"But, this is… How is this…?" one of the approached began to stutter and tremble. "Aren't these the high elves, the great ancestors of our people?

- There are no ancestors. They are impostors," an old man with a brown tea stain on his white robe began to shout. "They have come to ravage the Secret Garden, and have already killed many of us.

"Yes, they are murderers, the Lucas family is already dead, attack them.

Lucas was shocked by everything he heard, such a monstrous lie right in the eyes, he had never heard. They lied and did not blush, it is not surprising that even pretty doubting whether it is worth raising weapons against those who may be an ancestor, after such a daring lie, they decided to act.

- It is not true! They are lying! Lucas screamed.

He's under their control! Do not listen to him, attack these vile creatures that want to eat our children!

One of the group that surrounded the ancients formed a fireball in his hand, and several more began to cast wind spells.

They did it in vain...

Without wasting a second, Sen raised his fist to the sky and with a loud sound of impact, plunged it into the ground to the elbow:

- [Earth element. Fault.] - the earth, trembling, literally left from under the feet, forming a huge oval-shaped cavity.

Everyone present fell into it, except for two elves hovering in the air, Lucas, supported by the Leiko wind style, and an old man with a tea stain on his robe, screaming, calling for his mother, whom the same Leiko held by the hair over the crevice.

The old man, shouting with a good obscenity, did not understand what was happening at all, he only managed to realize how he began to fall somewhere down, after which a figure flashed in the air pulled him up by the braids.

— Oh, you must! Sen smiled broadly, "Half of the fallen managed to survive, the wind style helped, I suppose. Well, nothing, it's even for the better. Leiko use the old man, let the memory eater work with him.

Why do you think I saved him? Leiko said with a chuckle, dissatisfied with the fact that she was being pointed out to the obvious, that she was some kind of fool.

"I'll go downstairs and have some fun."

— Dare!

* * *

The forest dwellers who managed to survive after falling from almost three hundred meters were mainly windbenders who could stop the fall, and those who were lucky enough not to be hit by the rockfall caused by the opening of the crevasse.

All of them were terribly frightened and literally could hardly stand on their feet due to the shock they experienced. The few surviving members of the council, all in tears and snot, prayed to the sky that Asia and her grandfather and his wife would return quickly and protect them.

But all was in vain, the figure of the elf smoothly planned towards them, like death, slowly bringing a scythe. None of them could even think about fighting this monster that had created this crevice with a wave of his hand.

- Have mercy! Spare us! - the fallen creatures prayed that only recently, splashing saliva, they wished death to the innocent, ready to hang on them all mortal sins.

Sen, although he did not understand the words, easily guessed what these nonentities were asking for, but this only kindled the fire of hatred in him.

He hated nits with all his heart, capable of killing, robbing and raping, but having received change, they immediately fall to their knees and tearfully beg for mercy.

Such creatures, which are a hundred times worse than any monsters, he despised with all his being.

As he landed, he slammed his left hand hard on the ground.

- [Earth element. Swamp.] - a glare swept along the stone bottom of the crevice and everyone swarming there in the blink of an eye literally plunged into the fetid swamp slurry.

Someone got stuck knee-deep, someone already fell through to the waist, especially smart ones managed to take off using wind magic, but that was only the beginning of a nightmare for the fifteen barely surviving the overthrow of the crevice.

- [Summon style. Swamp devourer.] - as soon as the elf hovering in the center of the crevice sprayed his mana in a spell, something between a plant, a stone and an animal emerged from the swampy slurry with a deafening moaning and seething of sewage.

The head of the creature, the only one that appeared from the slurry, was one large mouth without eyes, ears or something like that, and instead of the body there were plant stems and a thick root going somewhere into the depths of the earth.

On the head, next to a huge mouth, the monster had numerous tentacles, each of which ended in a sucker.

Not only the sight of this monster was disgusting, but also the incredible stench of his breath, eloquently telling about hundreds of people still rotting in his exorbitant mouth.

The swamp devourer, having waited for the order in the form of a mental command, began his feast.

The forest inhabitants who tried to fly away, who did not have time to get bogged down in the swamp, fell the first victims.

Long stems of plant origin, coming from under the head of the monster from the root region, grabbed them by the legs and, like firewood into a firebox, threw them into the mouth of the monster, in which the repeatedly duplicated jaws with a crunch kneaded still living people, turning meat into minced meat, and bones into dust.

At the same time, the monster's tentacles reached out to the mages who were in the quagmire and unable to move.

Suckers, grabbing the forest dwellers by the heads, literally pulled them out of the bog, often breaking their necks, which was accompanied by either instant death or a series of screams that ended in the mouth of the swamp monster.