What happened at the front of the gate to the Elven settlement could be called a massacre. Blood spilled over the soil of the Elves as the Transcendent Group overwhelmed the Elite Elven Team from the settlement behind them.
Fury and grief mixed in between the slaughter as both sides had casualties. But in the end, superior foundation and technique prevailed in the battle between the transcendent. The Elves who died in the battle were turned into the undead servants whose purpose was to serve the one who created them.
“Move them in the direction of the Sacred Tree. I want to see the reaction of the tree that the renowned elf used as their origin.” Hecates said the order and the transcendents who created the undead servants willed it to the undead.
And so, the undead march happened despite some of the skeletons being damaged by the reaction from the different energies.
The destruction of the surroundings near the settlement became proof of the fierce battle that had occurred there. But Hecates knew that there were more important things to do.
Long Wu looked down and saw the corpse strewn around him, making a pool of blood more apparent. Then he looked up and saw the magnificent Sacred Tree of the Elves. Its vibrant leaves covered the canopy while its branches swayed along with the wind that came from another place, making it more suitable for Ether to produce in a massive number.
‘The race that can produce Ether is definitely something that we need to get our hands on.’ Long Wu knew that this transcendent energy was vital for the rest of the civilization and could possibly change how things went in the future.
However, the biggest challenge for the Transcendent Group was the Sacred Tree itself. They did not know the full capabilities of the tree, but they were certain that it could pack a significant punch.
That was why the jet aircraft used to scout the area increased their altitude when approaching the Sacred Tree, thereby minimizing their range as much as possible.
It was them who should test the capability of the Sacred Tree, whether they liked it or not. This would also affect the next plan in dealing with the Glings as they were still connected.
“Look out for any movement!” Hecate's warning came as the undead servants who had entered the settlement began to engage in a fight with the defense. But the morale of the defender was squashed along with the Elite Elven Team.
‘It should be any moment now.’ Long Wu looked at the situation as well as the Sacred Tree, waiting for its response. The transcendents also looked out for any sign of movement.
Then a tremor ran through the ground where the settlement stood. The transcendents felt it, the defender felt it too.
“The Sacred Tree decided to lend us a hand. Is the situation that bad?” An elf defender knew that the moment the Sacred Tree decided to move, it would be best not to be in the surrounding area of the tree.
That was why he was running and avoiding the transcendents waiting for him outside and went into another exit where it was still available. The able-bodied elves also followed suit while leaving the young and the old.
“They are leaving! Should we give chase?” one transcendent asked while preparing for any order.
“Leave them be. Our priority is to deal with the Sacred Tree one way or another.” Hecates replied while steadying his ground.
Long Wu could see that the Sacred Tree started moving its roots, as it was the very foundation whereupon which it stood. Then the trunk was also affected and also moving along with the branches and the leaves.
The Ether in the surroundings was responding to the call of the Sacred Tree, giving it the necessary start to crush any opponent that it faced.
The roots then started to go into the surface of the ground, trying to attack the transcendents. The situation turned for the worse as they had to scatter to avoid being implicated by the roots’ attack.
The ground cracked because the roots that were usually underground started to come to the surface, causing new cracks to form. Now, they had to somehow neutralize the threat that the Sacred Tree showed.
“Do you see the trunk of the tree?” Long Wu pointed to the Sacred Tree which had the green-colored light surrounding it but the Ether in the surroundings was pulled toward the trunk of the tree.
“Yes. What is it?” Hecates, who was nearby, also noticed but he could not see far and deep.
“It gathers the Ether at a certain place in its trunk. Do you think if we can locate and eliminate the source, the Sacred Tree will fall?” Long Wu asked something important.
“But that place will be filled with something to guard it. Furthermore, the area is now full of Ether and the smallest reaction would be deadly even for us.” Hecates warned, his tone became more somber.
“It means that for now, only I can get there safely.” Long Wu sighed helplessly. Another burden was on his shoulder and he knew that he needed to go to assess the Sacred Tree’s capability.
“Damn it! Everyone, form up into formation!” Hecates gave the order as soon as he accepted Long Wu’s words.
“Divide into three smaller groups. Two for handling the roots of the Sacred Tree, while the last group will be escorting Long Wu to the Sacred Tree!”
The transcendents obeyed as they formed into three smaller groups. Long Wu walked slowly to the front and the third group would help him through the attack while the two groups would keep the roots busy.
“Let’s go!” Long Wu moved past the roots as the roots were like a whip, moving to deal with the transcendents like they were annoying insects.
“You go first, we will slowly catch up.” One group then stopped the roots from aiming at the third group. Long Wu and the third group kept moving while the first group started to get busy dealing with the roots of the Sacred Tree.
The second group followed behind Long Wu and the third group as they were like a spearhead that penetrated the area under the Sacred Tree. Entering the Elven settlement meant that they had entered the area within the Sacred Tree.
The first group then saw the roots attacking them recede and they moved closer to the Sacred Tree, also entering the settlement.
With that, they could help the second group while the second group moved closer to the Sacred Tree. Due to the movements from the Sacred Tree, the terrain and the settlement’s buildings changed slightly. The shift was minimal so the only thing they felt was the tremor from the ground.
“Help the third group by getting closer to the Sacred Tree!”
The third group was slicing deeper into the Sacred Tree. Long Wu felt that he was getting closer to the source that gave the Sacred Tree its immense power. He could not do this alone and felt grateful for the support he had.
He, along with the third group, dealt with the incoming roots that tried to entangle them from three sides: the front and the two sides.
The roots that were attacked turned black as they withered and rotted. Then the Ether flowed into them and eliminated the undead element from the roots. That was the case but the third group did not care since their objective was to escort Long Wu to the source of the Sacred Tree.
Things got complicated when the reinforcement from the Elves came through the transportation channel that only they could use. Since each Sacred Tree was connected to each other, the elf could feel what was going on.
The Elf King decided to send reinforcements since the threat came to them and they were defending their home and their place of birth. Soon, the reinforcements appeared near the roots that came to the surface and it made them surprised that the Sacred Tree was directly attacked while the settlement was breached.
“Damn them all! They dared to attack the last vestige of our past glories!” One elf felt indignant but also helpless.
The two transcendent groups then realized that the reinforcement came faster than expected. But they were still dealing with the roots of the Sacred Tree so the battle became harder for them. As if on tacit understanding, the two groups decided to give up helping the third group because the reinforcements from the Elves had arrived and they had better deal with them first.
“Fortunately, I am here.” Hecates muttered before he ordered the two groups to get away from the range of the Sacred Tree’s roots.
The reinforcements also followed the two groups. After leaving the range of the Sacred Tree’s roots, they fight right away without care. Another large explosion of different energies occurred.
The battle raged on while the third group had to go deeper and finally arrived at the trunk of the Sacred Tree. Long Wu attacked the trunk even using the opening of the gate to do that. A hole appeared after the splinters of the bark spread around.
Then he used the spreading Ether and tried to use it as nutrients for the undead element to thrive before absorbing it into his body. That was why, despite the expended energy increasing, Long Wu still had his reserves filled.
The other transcendents from the third group followed suit but the efficiency was not high so they only used it to sustain themselves.
But that was enough since Long Wu had to go into the Sacred Tree and deal a lethal blow that could eliminate it if possible.
After creating the hole, the third group followed Long Wu, afraid that the Sacred Tree had some sort of healing capability that could regenerate the hole Long Wu had created.
“Turns out that the source of the Sacred Tree’s Ether-producing capability lies deep in its body.” Long Wu muttered while looking at the Ether in the air that congregated toward the very source that he wanted to destroy.
Destroying the source would mean crippling the capability of the Sacred Tree but it was just a speculation. He was leaning toward the possibility that the Sacred Tree could act within a certain time without the source. Meaning that the Sacred Tree could still recover from even that kind of damage.
‘Fortunately, the Sacred Tree has been using the Ether all this time to move its body. Meaning that the production is slower than the expenditure. But from what I can perceive, the energy reading is huge enough that it makes it not possible to exhaust it. Destroying the source is the quickest way to deal with it.’ Long Wu thought as he evaded the part of the Sacred Tree that turned into the form of a humanoid wood with barely a face to see.
“Looks like this is the guardian that the Sacred Tree creates to protect itself.” Long Wu lunged into the humanoid creatures, slashing with his usual power imbued in the dagger. The creature felt that its woody structure rotted as it was hit by the quick attack.
The third group had to deal with the other wooden humanoid to proceed forward as Long Wu managed to take one down.
The interior of the Sacred Tree was huge, just like its outer form suggested. It created a tunnel where there were some rooms other than its usual life support system and energy transport pathway.
Currently, the third group was inside one of the energy pathways leading from the roots to the trunk.
They had to battle after a few walks and they also had to keep up with Long Wu, who was ahead of them.
The more they moved closer to the source, the more the creatures appeared. There was a point where the group was surrounded by the wooden creatures and had to stop to maintain their formation.
“You fight here. I am going to the source alone since it is already near.” Long Wu said to the group before he moved separately.
The group’s task was to escort him as much as possible so that he would not direct his power to something trivial, like the wooden humanoid creatures that probably came from the Sacred Tree’s creation.
Long Wu could feel that his pulse was in synchronization with the flow of the Ether around him. The concentration of the Ether became denser the closer he got to the source of Ether production. After walking through a corridor made from the trunk of the Sacred Tree, he finally arrived at the circular chamber.
“That is…” Long Wu noticed the very thing that was floating in the middle of the chamber. It was something with holes but it was absorbing something and letting out Ether. The Ether in the chamber was so overwhelmingly dense that it formed a jade-colored mist, a sign of an abundance of a transcendent energy source.
The item was made from the wood of the Sacred Tree, likely from its own body. The pulse of the Ether caused the Ether to flow to the rest of the Sacred Tree, allowing the tree to have many properties and utilities it had.
With it, the Sacred Tree reached its potential as a place for the Elves to be born.
Long Wu then looked up at the ceiling of the chamber and realized that it was filled with something like a wooden cocoon. Long Wu could feel a life force coming from it. It was numerous as dozens of them were hanging from the ceiling.
“The intelligence said that the Sacred Tree is the place of birth for the Elves. Are those things in the ceiling the nascent form of the Elves?”
The best place to nurture the Elves was actually the chamber which he was currently in. He could see it directly now that he was in the chamber. The temperature of the chamber was slightly lower than the temperature outside, making Long Wu think about the sterile room of the hospital he had visited in the Heavensend Continent and the Comberth continent.
“This is more like an Incubation Chamber rather than the Ether Production Chamber.” Long Wu commented but he walked slowly to the center of the chamber where the item that could produce Ether was located.
He felt that it was a pity to just destroy it but it was better to do that in terms of the capability that the Sacred Tree had shown.
That was why Long Wu attacked the thing without hesitation. He unleashed his usual strength while attacking, using the dagger as the weapon and created a crescent blade projectile that launched at the item.
It reacted with the Ether around and caused an energy storm which increased the destructive effect of his attack.
The attack landed with a resounding tone, just like a blade that sliced through wooden furniture. But the damage was minimal as Long Wu had witnessed. He frowned as he did not expect that the attack which utilized the two opposite transcendent energies, would barely work.
‘The thing is tough and resilient. Should I use that?’ Long Wu even considered opening the gate to increase his strength and destroy the thing in front of him.
But just as he wanted to attack for a second time, there was a fluctuation from behind Long Wu and he decided to be careful and sensed something coming for him. He used the blade of the dagger to deflect the attack.
A spark appeared as the attack came from an elf that suddenly appeared in the chamber.
“Hmm?” Long Wu felt the attack was light despite the blow that could have overwhelmed the previous him.
‘Is my strength gradually increasing due to withstanding the berserk energy inside my body?’ Long Wu thought about it and it kind of made sense. But now he had to defeat a new opponent that had suddenly appeared.
If his sense was not wrong, the place where the elf appeared was near the circulation system of the Sacred Tree.
‘Is this some kind of transmigration method that only the Elves could use?’ Long Wu pondered before he looked carefully at his opponent.
The elf had an angry expression on his face. His light green hair was long enough to reach the waist and he also wielded a wooden sword filled with Ether. In this chamber, the elf felt like an almighty being because the Ether was abundant and could be used to refill him in the case of using Ether in a fight.
‘I am once again at a disadvantage.’ Long Wu frowned before he straightened his expression and turned cold.
The elf who had appeared was also enraged upon seeing the intruder so deep into the Sacred Tree. He just wanted to make sure that the Sacred Tree would be optimal in its operation and did not expect that the intruder had reached this far.
“I don’t care who you are but you are finished!” with the home advantage as well as abundant Ether to supply his every move, he made the first move.
His wooden sword was made from the wood produced by the Sacred Tree so it was an item that could go even against some metal weapons. The wooden sword traced an arc as it met with the blade of the dagger that was made from mostly Orichalcum and part Adamant.
Furthermore, the clash between two transcendent energies caused the pulse to slowly destroy everything in the chamber. It started small but with each successive clash, the pulse became bigger and more destructive.
Long Wu assessed his opponent and knew that this was one formidable opponent since the elf could hold against him which was already strengthened.
“He should be among the Elite of the Elves. His fighting style should be worth learning.” Long Wu muttered as he slashed at the elf who turned into a defensive posture.