Chapter 371

Chapter 371

Briel crouched beneath the carbonized tree trunk and looked at the sprout. Beside her sat a Dark Elf girl around her age.

The Dark Elf girl’s name was Josephine.

Josephine muttered with an entranced expression.

“It’s amazing! Have you ever seen anything like this, Briel?”

“No! This is my first time too.”

“Really? Even though you’ve experienced so much?”

“Experience has nothing to do with it. You can’t see sprouts like this anywhere else.”

“I see.”

“Your responsibility is heavy. You know that, right?”

“Of course. This is my tree, so I’ll take responsibility and raise it.”

It was a tree that had sprouted today.

Floa and the Dark Elves had entrusted this tree to Josephine.

The heavy responsibility of raising this tiny sprout into a splendid tree had been given to Josephine.

Not only Josephine, but every young Dark Elf had been assigned a tree.

If protecting the Black Forest was the adults’ role, then raising the trees was the role of the young Dark Elves.

Josephine looked at Briel.

“Aren’t you disappointed, Briel?”

“About what?”

“You didn’t get a sprout. Why don’t you stay here instead of leaving and raise a tree?”

“It’s disappointing, but it can’t be helped. My home isn’t here.”

“If another sprout appears, I’ll raise it beautifully. As Briel’s tree. So if you ever miss the forest, come visit anytime.”

“Thank you! Even if those are empty words......”

“They’re not empty words. I mean it!”

Josephine looked at Briel with an aggrieved expression.

At the sight of Josephine looking as if tears might fall at any moment, Briel smiled.

“I know you mean it. Then raise my tree well for me. I’ll visit often.”

“Don’t worry. Leave it to me! I’ll take responsibility and raise it big and pretty.”

“Good! I’ll count on you.”

“Mm!”

Josephine answered with a bright expression.

Perhaps because she had never rolled around at the bottom like Briel, she was especially bright and innocent.

Not only Josephine, but the other Dark Elf children were pure too.

Because of that, even though they were around Briel’s age, they felt much younger.

“My legs are numb. I should get up now.”

Briel stood up, pounding the area below her thighs with her fists.

“You’re leaving?”

“Mm! I should go see Zeon.”

“Got it! See you later.”

“Yeah!”

Briel headed toward the moat where Zeon was.

‘This is nice.’

As she walked through the Black Forest, the smile never left her lips.

The sprouts visible here and there, and the sight of the Dark Elves carefully caring for them, brought peace to her heart.

It was the first time her heart had ever felt this peaceful.

Only now did she think she understood why the adults in the High Elf village had missed the forests of Kurayan so much.

The High Elf village was no different from the village where the Dark Elves had lived.

On barren land where not even a blade of grass grew, they were merely barely continuing their lives day by day, without any hope.

Looking back on it, that was not truly living.

They simply could not bring themselves to die, so they had given up everything and were only breathing.

Humans and elves alike needed hope.

Just as the Dark Elves here had seen the sprouts and gained hope for the future.

She wanted to keep protecting this hope. To do that, they first had to protect the Black Forest.

Zeon was at the place in the center of the forest where Har had spun her cocoon.

Zeon was not the only one in front of the cocoon.

Go Du-won, Levin, Floa, and several Dark Elf warriors were watching the cocoon with serious expressions.

The cocoon before them was glowing.

For the past several days, the cocoon had been emitting pure white light, as if it held the sun within it.

The cocoon had already been white, but once it emitted light as well, it was so dazzling they could not look straight at it.

Floa and the Dark Elves could not hide their deeply moved expressions.

“It looks like the spirit will be born soon.”

“To think I’ll see a spirit with my own eyes.”

“I truly can’t believe I’m sharing this great moment.”

They had never once seen a spirit before, but they could instinctively feel it.

A spirit would soon be born.

Briel also stood before the cocoon.

When she received the pure white light emitted by the cocoon, vitality spread through her entire body.

The energy emitted by the spirit was affecting Briel, a High Elf, as well.

By contrast, Zeon and Levin, who were human, did not feel any great change. They merely felt a slightly refreshing sensation.

Briel and the Dark Elves closed their eyes and felt the energy pouring from the cocoon with their entire bodies.

The spirit had not yet been fully born, and yet their bodies were already reacting first.

It felt as if they had recovered a fragment of their souls they had lost.

The part of them that had always felt empty until now was being filled, making them whole.

Only now did she think she understood.

Why the older Dark Elves who had crossed over from Kurayan missed those days so much.

Elves were beings loved by spirits.

Every elf made a contract with a spirit, and could use their power without paying any price.

Elves with good affinity even contracted with several spirits alone.

Spirits were their friends and companions of the soul.

But after crossing over to Earth, their connection to the spirits had been completely severed.

The sense of loss felt when losing something one had taken for granted could not help being great. The elves who crossed over to Earth must have lived until now feeling as though a fragment of their souls had been lost.

Without knowing that, Briel felt ashamed that she had dismissed the older elves’ complaints as mere nostalgia polished by memory.

Briel asked Zeon,

“What will happen from now on?”

“To what?”

“When the spirit is born, what will happen to the elves, and to this world? Can it recover like before?”

“Who knows? It will be difficult right away, but if a long time passes and other spirits are born, won’t the possibility grow? Everything is hard at first. From the second time on, it becomes a little easier.”

“I guess that’s true.”

Briel clenched her small fist.

A resolve that had never been seen on her face before settled there.

Seeing Briel like that, Levin said,

“What? Are you planning to fight the whole world?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That’s what your eyes look like right now. Like you’re going to fight the entire world alone.”

“Tch! What are you talking about?”

Just as Briel pouted—

CRASH—!

An explosion burst from the entrance of the Black Forest.

“Monsters.”

“Everyone, gather!”

At the same time, the urgent voices of the Dark Elves guarding the entrance rang out.

Zeon and the others who had been watching the cocoon hurriedly ran toward the entrance of the Black Forest.

At the entrance of the Black Forest, monsters were swarming in like a black tide.

There was a diverse mix: packs of lower-ranked monsters like One-Horned Hyenas, mid-grade monsters like Crimson Bears with spikes covering their entire bodies, and large monsters like Cyclopes carrying huge clubs.

“Good God! What is all that?”

“That many came here? This is insane!”

“If you have time to chatter, prepare to fight first. We have to stop them from crossing the moat.”

The Awakened and Dark Elves prepared for battle with stiff expressions.

Thick beads of sweat were flowing down their faces from the tension.

The one fortunate thing was that they had prepared the moat in advance.

Thanks to the huge moat Zeon had made, the monsters could not rush in all at once.

The moat Zeon had made was wide and deep, so even large-class monsters could not easily cross it.

Once one fell into a moat made of sand, it was not easy to climb out. That was because the sand kept sliding down.

Because of that, the monsters drawn by the spirit had no choice but to gather at the narrow entrance made in the middle of the moat.

They had deliberately made the entrance narrow to lure the monsters there.

Among monsters, there were some beings intelligent enough to rival humans. Such beings would not fall for this crude trap. Fortunately, among the monsters swarming in now, there were no such beings.

Sniff, sniff!

Grrrr!

The monsters, drawn in by the scent of the spirit, had no reason left in them.

They were squeezing into the narrow entrance, each trying to be the first to devour the spirit.

Because of that, they tangled together in complete chaos.

“Everyone, attack!”

“Don’t let even one through!”

The human Awakened and Dark Elves attacked the monsters.

Cold weapons and Magic Skills slammed into the monsters’ bodies.

BOOM—!

Kieee!

Explosions and the roars of monsters mixed together, and the chaos at the entrance of the Black Forest reached its peak.

Dealing with lower-ranked monsters like One-Horned Hyenas or Flame Wolves was not particularly difficult.

The problem was monsters of medium class and above.

THUD! THUD!

They tried to enter the Black Forest while mercilessly trampling monsters smaller than themselves.

If medium-class monsters several times larger than humans rampaged inside the Black Forest, the sprouts would clearly be trampled flat.

Floa shouted,

“All warriors, prepare to attack. Do not let a single monster inside.”

“Yes!”

The Dark Elf warriors answered with resolute expressions.

Rooooaaar!

At that moment, a Crimson Bear covered head to toe in spikes roared and entered through the entrance.

It was a Crimson Bear more than five meters tall at the shoulder.

As if annoyed, it swatted away the monsters blocking its path with its paw. Each time, three or four lower-ranked monsters were reduced to bloody pulp and sent flying in every direction.

Its eyes were bloodshot red, and sticky saliva poured endlessly from its mouth.

As if smelling the scent of the spirit, the Crimson Bear kept sniffing and looking around.

At last, as if it had found the scent it wanted, its gaze turned precisely toward the place where the cocoon was.

The Crimson Bear tried to run straight toward the cocoon.

At that moment, Floa gave an order.

“Squad One, attack the Crimson Bear. Its armpits are its weak points, so focus there.”

“Yes!”

A dozen or so Dark Elf warriors rushed toward the Crimson Bear.

For convenience, Floa had divided the Dark Elf warriors into five squads.

It was so they could respond according to the situation and the monster.

The Dark Elf warriors of Squad One fought fiercely against the Crimson Bear.

Just as Floa had said, they concentrated their attacks on the Crimson Bear’s armpits.

At that moment, another medium-class monster appeared.

Floa immediately gave another order.

“Squad Two, move out.”

“Yes!”

Even after Squad Two moved out, monsters continued squeezing through the entrance.

Floa deployed the Dark Elf warriors according to the situation and blocked them.

The human Awakened did not simply stand by and watch either.

They skillfully supported the Dark Elves as though they had worked together their entire lives.

Thanks to that, they were able to block the medium-class monsters without much difficulty.

Roooaar!

The Crimson Bear, which had charged in with great momentum, collapsed with a scream. It had lost its life to the attacks of the Dark Elf warriors.

“This place is our home. We will never hand it over to mere monsters.”

“They won’t take a single step inside unless they kill all of us first.”

The Dark Elf warriors roared.

But they all knew.

The real battle had not yet begun.

The large-class monsters were still not moving.

The moment they moved, the true battle would begin. And that moment came quickly.

THUD! THUD!

The large-class monsters that had been watching from the rear finally began to move.

The first to open the battle were the Cyclopes.

They were trying to enter the Black Forest with huge clubs slung over their shoulders.

“You are mine.”

Floa shot forward like an arrow.

The Dark Elves who had been standing by followed behind her.

Zeon and Levin could not help them.

Their gazes were fixed on the distant sky.

Flying monsters were approaching, covering the sky in black.

“It’s our turn.”

“I’ll go first, hyung!”

Levin transformed into a ghost and flew up.