Chapter 246: Re: Spring Comes Upon A Withered Tree

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Chapter 246: Re: Spring Comes Upon A Withered Tree

Ivan watched the person he loved turn into a tree before his eyes. He had always known Keke was special, his natural aura purer than that of any other elf. But never, no matter how wildly he might have imagined, had he expected Keke to be the incarnation of the elves’ Mother Tree—the Sacred Tree itself.

Nourished by the Fountain of Life, the Sacred Tree that had vanished for centuries revived once more, returning to the world brimming with boundless vitality. Everyone rejoiced—everyone except Ivan, whose heart felt as though it were being carved apart. For one selfish moment, he wished Keke could still be only Keke: the elf he loved, belonging to him alone.

The Sacred Tree had revived. The Forge Wraiths had retreated. Humanity and the other races had finally gained an opportunity to defeat them. The Sacred Tree’s aura would become their most powerful weapon against the Forge Wraiths, as well as the hope of preserving the elven bloodline.

Ivan looked at the mixed-blood elves kneeling on the ground, then up at the Sacred Tree spreading beneath the sky like an enormous umbrella. Keke’s final request echoed through his mind: Help me take good care of the little elves.

All right, Keke. Specks of light shimmered in Ivan’s golden eyes. I’ll take good care of them. Then I’ll wait with them for you to come back.

Ivan became the Sacred Tree’s guardian. Having awakened his dragon bloodline, he possessed a physique and strength far beyond those of an ordinary human warrior, and the immense draconic pressure surrounding him inspired instinctive fear. Those who had once tried to kill him now avoided him whenever possible. The elves, meanwhile, resented the impure feelings he harbored toward the Sacred Tree. To them, the Mother Tree was sacred and inviolable; no one had the right to covet her.

People feared him and kept their distance, yet they had no choice but to rely on his strength in the fight against the Forge Wraiths.

Although the Sacred Tree had revived, the Forge Wraiths would inevitably do everything they could to seal it again. The Alliance’s most urgent task was to protect the Sacred Tree and Fountain of Life at all costs while gathering enough strength to counterattack, until the Forge Wraiths were either annihilated or driven completely from Anglorr.

Ivan remained apart from the Alliance’s forces, silently guarding the Sacred Tree. The elves, however, refused to let him approach it, much less touch it. His love for the Sacred Tree and any intimate gesture toward it were regarded by the mixed-blood elves as an insult.

With Ivan’s current strength, he could easily have ignored the mixed-blood elves’ objections and done as he pleased, but he did not. For him and Keke, now transformed into the Sacred Tree, physical distance meant nothing.

The Sacred Tree’s revival drew powers from across the continent to Faesier Forest, where they established defensive lines against the Forge Wraiths’ attacks.

After several inconclusive clashes, the Forge Wraiths temporarily withdrew and waited for another opportunity. The two sides entered a stalemate, neither daring to launch another war rashly. Until the Sacred Tree and Fountain of Life were destroyed, the Forge Wraiths could not be certain of victory. But at present, the Alliance likewise lacked weapons and power sufficient to defeat them.

Anglorr entered a relatively peaceful period of respite. Ivan never forgot Keke’s request. Once Faesier Forest’s defenses had gradually strengthened, he brought the little elves back from remote Wasier Forest to elven territory, hoping they would receive better protection and care there.

“Ivan, is Keke really in Faesier Forest?” asked Bubbles, the first of the little elves to be born.

Ivan nodded.

“Is Faesier Forest really that nice? So nice Keke doesn’t even want to come back and see us?” Gray-Eye, the second eldest, looked rather unhappy.

Ivan said nothing.

Bubbles puffed out his cheeks. “When we see Keke, none of us should talk to him unless he apologizes to us himself.”

The third eldest, Leilei, pinched the corner of her clothes and choked out, “I don’t need Keke to apologize. I just want to be with him.”

The other little elves chimed in one after another, discussing what they should do once they saw Keke. The only one who said nothing was the fifth-born elf, Michael. He was mute, and unlike the others’ excitement, anticipation, and indignation, his eyes held a faint trace of sorrow.

When Ivan appeared in Faesier Forest with the little elves, every mixed-blood elf was stunned. Ever since the Sacred Tree and Fountain of Life disappeared, pure-blooded elves had nearly vanished from the continent. No one had expected the Sacred Tree Elf not only to survive by his own strength and preserve a thread of hope for the elven race, but also to save twelve pure-blooded elves.

Compared with mixed-blood elves, whose powers were far less pure, pure-blooded elves blessed with natural gifts were the Forge Wraiths’ true nemeses.

Yet they soon discovered a cruel truth: every one of the twelve little elves had some kind of disability. Bubbles had a frail constitution; Gray-Eye was blind in his left eye; Leilei suffered from fire poison; Wuyin was deaf; Michael was mute; Sara could not feel pain; Shadi had lost his sense of smell; Kanyo’s memory faded quickly; Shear’s legs were weak; Aram’s skin had become bark-like; Miya feared sunlight; and Erika’s hair was dry and rigid.

The supposedly perfect pure-blooded elves were all disabled.

The discovery immediately dampened the mixed-blood elves’ initial excitement. Still, their innate reverence for pure-blooded elves remained, and they continued to shoulder the responsibility of protecting them.

The innocent little elves did not notice the strange looks directed at them. They hurried excitedly into the heart of Faesier Forest, only to find that the person they wanted to see was nowhere in sight.

Standing before the towering Sacred Tree, the little elves asked, “Ivan, where’s Keke?”

“Right here.”

The little elves stared at the enormous tree before them and felt the familiar aura radiating from it. It was so warm and intimate, yet for some reason tears began spilling from their eyes. They felt as though the Keke who had once stayed by their side was already gone.

In their young hearts, the flesh-and-blood Keke who could talk and laugh, who protected them and raised them, mattered more than even the Sacred Tree.

The Sacred Tree was tied to the survival of the entire elven race. It was sacred and overflowing with life—but it had no soul.

The little elves threw their arms around the Sacred Tree and sobbed their hearts out.

The mixed-blood elves could not understand them at all. “The revival of the Sacred Tree is a blessing for the elves and for the entire continent. As pure-blooded elves, shouldn’t you be happy?”

The little elves could not put their feelings into words. They only knew that a Sacred Tree without its soul was not a complete Sacred Tree at all.

After crying themselves out, the little elves eventually had no choice but to accept reality. Keke had become the Sacred Tree. He would never smile at them again, never speak to them again, never make clothes for them again…

Faced with an unfamiliar environment and unfamiliar people, the little elves did their best to adapt under Ivan’s protection.

But their disabilities still affected them deeply. At first, the mixed-blood elves cared for them with meticulous attention. As more and more of the little elves’ limitations became apparent, however, their patience gradually wore thin. Unlike pure-blooded elves, mixed-blood elves had minds much closer to complicated humans and inevitably possessed selfish desires, prejudices, and other negative emotions. When the perfect pure-blooded elves of their imagination turned out to be pitiful children with disabilities, reverence slowly gave way to irritation, contempt, and a strange sense of superiority.

They might not have meant any real harm, but their increasingly obvious indifference and disdain still wounded the sensitive little elves deeply.

The once cheerful little elves became quieter and more insecure by the day. The nature power that had steadily improved under Shang Ke’s patient guidance also began to stagnate.

Even with the nourishment of the Sacred Tree and Fountain of Life, they made no progress. Everyone had originally intended to cultivate them into the main fighting force against the Forge Wraiths, but when they proved so disappointing—less powerful even than ordinary mixed-blood elves—the others lost all hope in them and no longer wished to invest much effort in their development.

The little elves were kept isolated like rare specimens of pure-blooded elves. They were never mistreated and had plenty of servants attending them, yet they still felt as though they had been abandoned.

Ivan had brought the little elves back to elven territory because he wanted them to grow up in a better environment. But under these conditions, he feared they would never truly grow at all. The other races regarded the little elves only as weapons against the Forge Wraiths; pure-blooded elves who could not fight held no value to them. The mixed-blood elves, meanwhile, did nothing but complain about the children’s weakness and look down on their disabilities. With so many selfish desires of their own, they were simply incapable of raising and guiding the little elves properly.

Ivan wanted the little elves to live carefree lives. If they could not receive the care they deserved in Faesier Forest, then they might as well return to Wasier Forest.

And so, one day, Ivan quietly left Faesier Forest with the little elves. From then on, they vanished without a trace.

The little elves’ disappearance infuriated the mixed-blood elves, but they had no spare energy to search for them, because the Forge Wraiths had once again launched an offensive against the Alliance.

Over the next several years, the two sides fought dozens of battles, large and small, with victories and losses on both sides. But because the Alliance could not mass-produce powerful weapons capable of countering the Forge Wraiths and lacked any sufficiently strong force to stand against them, it remained at a disadvantage.

In the fifth year of the war, the Forge Wraiths joined forces with the puppet nations under their control and began encircling and slaughtering the various allied races. Most of the Alliance’s strength had been concentrated in Faesier Forest, leaving their homelands comparatively weak. Faced with the powerful Forge Wraiths, they had almost no ability to resist. The various races were forced to split their forces to mount rescue operations, scattering the strength they had painstakingly gathered. The situation on the battlefield immediately reversed.

Within a single year, Faesier Forest was the only force left in all of Anglorr that could barely hold its ground against the Forge Wraiths.

With victory seemingly in hand, the Forge Wraiths decided to launch an all-out assault on Faesier Forest and completely destroy the Sacred Tree and Fountain of Life.

The Forge Wraiths came out in full force with soaring morale, while the Alliance forces retreated again and again until they were surrounded in the heart of Faesier Forest. The Sacred Tree and Fountain of Life were their final hope. If the Forge Wraiths destroyed them, the continent would truly become hell. They had no choice but to fight to the death, even knowing it was a battle they were certain to lose.

At that critical moment, Ivan—missing for several years—reappeared. The Sacred Tree was where Keke’s existence rested and the hope of the elven race. How could he possibly stand by and watch the Forge Wraiths destroy everything here?

Ivan unleashed the innate power of his dragon bloodline. With his body as strong as steel, he stubbornly held back the Forge Wraiths’ assault. But even he could not defeat the enemy army alone—not until the little elves arrived.

Ivan had originally left them in Wasier Forest. After several years of peaceful life, their strength had not increased dramatically, but they had matured greatly. The sense of duty carried in their blood made them choose to join the battle without hesitation.

One little elf alone might have been weak, but when all twelve joined forces, they instantly unleashed astonishing power. Their pure nature power left the Forge Wraiths in agony.

Beneath the Sacred Tree, they burned away their own lives and released every last measure of their strength, forcibly driving the Forge Wraiths from their territory.

With the little elves supporting them, the allied forces launched a desperate counterattack and destroyed more than half of the Forge Wraiths’ main army in a single stroke. The battle dealt the Forge Wraiths a devastating blow; for the next two or three years, they would likely be unable to wage another large-scale war.

Yet when the warriors returned to Faesier Forest in triumph, what they saw was a scene none of them would ever forget.

The twelve little elves stood hand in hand, pale-green light radiating from their bodies. With solemn expressions, they gazed up at the Sacred Tree and chanted a mysterious incantation, as though carrying out some sacred and solemn ritual.

As their chanting continued, the devastated forest seemed to undergo a baptism, bursting back into life.

But the ritual was interrupted before it could be completed. Frail Bubbles was the first to stop breathing. Then Leilei’s fire poison erupted, followed by Shadi, Kanyo, Miya… One after another, they died, until only Sara, who could not feel pain, and the mute Michael remained.

Sara turned toward Ivan and managed a strained smile. “Ivan, I finally understand what ‘pain’ feels like.” He pressed a hand to his chest as tears streamed down his cheeks.

Ivan held him, his heart aching so fiercely he could barely endure it.

Strangely, there was no grief on Michael’s face. He looked toward the Sacred Tree before him and silently mouthed a sentence.

Lost in regret and pain, Ivan did not notice what Michael said: Death does not mean the end. Keke, we’ll wait for you to return to us again.

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