CHAPTER 29

For a moment I want to cry, the despair is too much, the time is advancing and I must return to my beloved, the protections I put on will not resist for long, I have traveled mile after mile, searching for each of the wonders the high elves left behind, so far where they have led me have been disappointments.

 First the coast, where the famous inventions were nothing more than trinkets with no military purpose, the Storm Hammer is strong only because of the humans who triumphed where the elves unleashed their wrath, hence the famous dark forests, described with poetic beauty, only to find that they only have that beauty in their poetry, There are no magical inhabitants by will, they are full of all the mutated crap they produced, it is likely there were more beings, but the poor bastards were not so stable and simply could not regenerate, or at worst were not genetically compatible with any other species and died in loneliness. Hence the Alcazar, which if it is beautiful in elven knowledge... if only they were less useless, they contain etiquette manuals, rumors among them, cultural conquest procedures, only the building was saved from my wrath by its magical barriers, there I could leave my beloved for a moment, the structure recognizes her and will protect her along with the prison I built for her.

 Saving this poor civilization of beings oppressed by their masters, as well as everything I did later, is not for luxury, nor for vanity, I could not bear to see them suffer ... no one should be forced to serve anyone, also trying to restore the forest they lost, I managed to find new clues about places where they indicated there were masterpieces of the reigning culture, the mana collector is a very good idea, it would perhaps be the salvation of many people if only they knew of its existence, but no one knew, for the simple reason that it was used to harm others. Humans were victims of an infernal device, a piece of crap designed to cause suffering, were they so bored that they needed such amusements? The rescued people needed a treatment that only the mushroom forest could provide, either that or let them kill people in the process of sinking deeper into their filth, despite being a very good invention it wasn't the best discovery, a woman with so much power is impressive, I'm sure that several secret books of the Alcazar are only opened to those of the female gender with magic in their veins, hopefully among them is the cure for her and her kind.

The lazy imbeciles that inhabit the forests near the village may be powerful for individuals or small groups of attackers but they are useless against real dangers, however they believe in protecting their people and against this desire I can do nothing, I am sure that not all those misnamed druids will follow their boss when they see the power that the dark forest has, so some will travel to know it even if only to see if there is some interesting product that will help them in their concentration, Although I am annoyed by their logic they will need them there, among the beasts that have found refuge there are some of a magical nature, intelligent to the highest degree, so I suspect they are the product of minor mutations, they come and go delivering interesting messages, the mercenary troops are large, more than 300 without counting the elves and alchemists that surely roam around there, but the greatest danger comes from the villages I have just visited.

 A contingent of paladins and healers left before I arrived with the antidote to the madness of the succubi and incubi transformed into the elven machine "sin detector", the only useful thing of that abomination were the collectors, besides that they were just a device that searched for criminals who were rarely responsible for their actions, we lost a few days so we will not reach them, But Lilith (the most powerful mage I have ever known, even more than my beloved) said she sensed a magical being in agony, so I asked one of the wolf lords to take her there while I go after one of the last constructions where I can have some fun and not destroy such an ancient civilization that is nevertheless just emerging in the open.

 One of the last things I managed to translate in the Alcazar was a dwarven shelter that was abandoned when the elves attacked and wiped out all the inhabitants, while I'm walking I can't stop thinking about how many massacres this once dominant race made, thousands of species became extinct, decimated races, new subspecies by mutations, destruction of habitat wherever they were, but a twist of fate put them in a precarious situation and now through my beloved they try to return to the power of yesteryear... It is no longer their time or their moment! They have not cared for their own, and if I succeed in killing him, they will all be relegated to the eternal elders, obsessed with the greatness of the past.

The cave where the last book was mentioned in their texts as being of value (the others included authors and how valuable they were for the community, this one only came as "battle tactics, eliminating risks in its birth" as it is of recent date and without signature could be something useful, my walks take me behind the forest about four or five kilometers, at the beginning of the mountain ranges that once belonged to the dwarves, today I do not know what things live there, but they must be pretty hard not to see expeditions trying to enter their secrets, as I get closer I see many mutations of snakes, folklore calls them nagas, they do not seem to fear me or attack me, one of them (the strongest judging by its size, They are all watching me, there are about thirty nagas but there could be a hundred or more hidden in the caves, I try to remember how their reproductive system worked, it seems to me that they used the caves to have litters of their offspring until they were strong and could survive, I suspect that this shelter is so important to them that they offer me their children in exchange for not going to the dwarves' shelter, the bad thing is that I have no more time, the enemies are coming and I have to help them to survive, they were not in my plans but I will not let them suffer, what to do?