CHAPTER 86

086 - Me or Him

Unlike common Elves who settled in forests, the Dark Elves were a nomadic people.
As a minority with a relatively small population, they did not settle in a specific forest for hundreds of years but lived a wandering life, moving their homes at regular intervals.
Even so, they too were Elves who craved the grace of the forest. Because of this, they had long been at the center of discord and conflict.
The High Elves, who defended a single forest for hundreds, even thousands of years, and the Dark Elves, who entered the forest as wanderers and took its blessings as they pleased.
Their positions were bound to clash.
From the perspective of the High Elves, who proclaimed themselves guardians of the forest, the Dark Elves were nothing more than a band of thieves.
Conversely, from the perspective of the freely wandering Dark Elves, the High Elves were merely occupiers who had arbitrarily seized a forest meant for all.
Their ways of life, their cultivated cultures, their ways of loving the forest. Even the color of their skin was different. The two clans had failed to assimilate to this day and continued their conflict.
“Have I come to a place I shouldn’t have, Knight Garcia? Are we not allies, joined for the sake of healing Mother World Tree?”
“Hmph.”
At the words of the man called the Black King, Rona was at a loss for words.
Rona was well aware of the alliance. She herself had even undertaken missions into the Gates with Dark Elves.
To find a way to heal the slowly withering Mother World Tree, the two kings had joined hands, and the alliance had not been broken to this day.
But for that very reason, Rona couldn't help but flare up.
“You speak so easily of an alliance. Have you forgotten the attack on Velen Village?”
“Velen Village? You mean the one at the edge of this forest? It seems it was attacked by some pack of beasts?”
“Don’t feign ignorance! As their king, there’s no way you don’t know about the Dark Elves plundering the forest!”
The man shrugged. Judging by his expression, he truly seemed to have no idea. His acting skills were remarkable.
Though Rona knew it was an act, she couldn't press him further. Even if she knew it was a lie, she had no proof. She couldn't accuse the king of a clan without evidence.
But there was one more thing to confront him about.
“Those ogres, you brought them here, didn't you? Call them off. Now.”
Rona said, pointing her sword straight at the man. Vwoom. A low hum resonated from the sword as it became wreathed in a beautiful, sparkling mana.
What looked like pretty stardust at a glance was, in fact, sword energy, each particle containing a sharp edge.
“My, why so frightening? For a knight of the 5th Floor to point her sword at a weak pilgrim like myself…”
The man joked, raising both hands. It was a posture of surrender, but he was smirking. It was not the attitude of someone surrendering.
At the same time, it wasn't the same evasive attitude as before. In the matter of the ogres, he was essentially confessing.
A few words wouldn't serve as proof, but it made Rona’s grip on her sword tighten.
“Call them off now, or I will cut you down. You will have nothing to say, as you were the one to break the alliance first.”
Unlike the man, who showed no will to fight, Rona did not let her guard down.
Even with her enemy defenseless, she did not relax her vigilance for a moment, nor did she lower the tip of her sword.
As if her will was naturally imbued into it, the air around the sword energy she projected grew increasingly sharp.
It was a powder keg situation, ready to explode at any moment.
Unexpectedly, it was the still man who moved first.
“Mother. Your son is being threatened by a ruffian.”
Even then, he didn't actually move his body. His lips moved, offering a quiet prayer, and in response to that prayer, the black root began to move.
The hidden black root unfurled and took control of the surroundings. Rona, who had reflexively tried to cut it, froze in place.
“This is…”
Her body went rigid. From shock, or perhaps from fear.
It was a root she had never seen before, but she was not one to fail to recognize its existence. It was Mother World Tree, worshipped by her and all Elves.
Only, it was stained black by the aura of Erosion.
“You… no, you bastard! What is this?! What have you done to Mother World Tree!”
“That is not for a mere knight like you to know.”
Rona seemed both angry and overwhelmed with bewilderment. It was surely both. She could never have imagined the World Tree being subjected to Erosion.

She could not swing her sword at the World Tree. It was no different, even if it carried the black aura of Erosion. It was still her god.
Not only that, but she found she could no longer stand properly.
The black root of the World Tree was causing a small tremor in her soul. Since the soul is connected to the mind and body, that small tremor created a massive wave through her mind and body.
“Knight Garcia. Even if you are a knight of the 5th Floor and can duel a dragon, it is futile. Before their Mother, all children must bow their heads.”
Just as he said, Rona could no longer even remain standing.
She barely managed to support herself by stabbing her sword into the ground, but it was all she could do not to collapse completely.
Seeing Rona like this, the man took a dagger from his robes.
The ornately decorated object seemed to serve more as a ritual tool or ornament than a weapon.
Even so, its blade was properly sharpened, capable of easily piercing a heart or two.
“You bastard…!”
Rona was enraged. How many defenseless Elves had he killed like this until now?
Before the alliance, the Black King had been the most wanted man in the kingdom, with the largest bounty on his head. So many knights and soldiers had been sent to find and subjugate him.
But none had returned.
Rona finally understood how they had died, why they had been killed instead of being able to kill a single Dark Elf.
“Do not worry. Your soul will be taken in by our Mother.”
The man took a step closer. One step, holding the dagger that glinted as it reflected the light.
Then, the man’s eyes shifted to a spot behind Rona.
“And you are?”
He had been aware of his presence from the start. But with a knight of the 5th Floor before him, he couldn't afford to be distracted, and the man's presence had been faint, so he was only now facing him.
The man, who had only been smiling, narrowed his eyes slightly. The Mother’s influence had already spread throughout the area. Rona on her knees was proof of that.
And yet, this man was still standing straight, neither fallen nor collapsed.
It was one of two things. Either he wasn't an Elf, or he was unconscious on his feet.
“Me? Hmm… Let’s just say I’m Rona’s disciple.”
“Disciple?”
“I learned a thing or two about the sword.”
Jinwoo drew the white jewel sword he had received from Rona. Seeing it, the Black King’s eyes narrowed.
He wasn't unconscious, so the opponent was not an Elf. But that sword was strikingly similar in style to those passed down in High Elf families.
‘I’ve never heard of Rona Garcia taking a human disciple…’
Rona’s name was quite well-known. A knight of the 5th Floor was a rare existence, even to them.
If such a knight had taken a disciple, and that disciple was a human and not an Elf, it was impossible for it not to be known.
“...So you’re a human, not an Elf. Well, it doesn’t matter.”
The man, who had spoken formally to the Elf, did not do so with Jinwoo.
Forget respect, it was questionable if he even saw Jinwoo as a fellow living being. He saw Jinwoo as nothing more than a soul to be collected.
“Mother. There is one here who has escaped your shadow.”
Several strands of the black root slithered closer. They looked like snakes, or perhaps the tentacles of something else.
Despite the scene, which was like something out of a horror movie, Jinwoo did not move.
Instead, he knelt on one knee and held out his hand.
‘To not even recognize a great being. He has no discerning eye, as expected of a human.’
The King of the Dark Elves scoffed, mocking Jinwoo’s actions.
Even with such a poor eye, did he feel nothing after seeing the one he called his master collapse so helplessly?
As he leisurely waited, anticipating the sight of him being easily captured and having his soul drained, he found himself frozen stiff the next moment.
The black root, which had seemed ready to strangle the human at any moment, moved in a completely different way.
It coiled around the human’s outstretched arm, but far from strangling him, it was rubbing against his fingertips and acting affectionately.

‘I thought it might attack.’
Jinwoo gently stroked the black root wrapped around his arm.
He had anticipated the worst-case scenario of being attacked, but that didn't happen. On the contrary, the black root was expressing its emotions with its whole body, as if it couldn't be happier.
The Moonlight Forest’s glass bead, nestled in Jinwoo’s chest, began to emit a faint light, making its presence known. It resonated with the black root, proving that this was truly a root of the World Tree.

‘Can you hear me?’
He tried speaking to it. But no answer came back.
Still, the connection wasn't completely severed like it was on Earth. The fact that the glass bead was glowing was proof of that.
‘If you can hear me, release Rona first.’
At that, the root wrapped around his arm nodded as if bowing its head. Simultaneously, the unseen energy that had been shaking Rona’s soul vanished without a trace.
“Jinwoo?”
Having regained her senses, Rona was speechless at the sight of him with the World Tree’s root wrapped around him.
Jinwoo, Mother World Tree, and the thick aura of Erosion enveloping them did not look unnatural at all.
She wasn't the only one who was surprised. The King of the Dark Elves was ten, twenty times more shocked than Rona.
“Mother! How could you…!”
What is happening? Why are you clinging to a mere human, not even an Elf, instead of me, your child?
As someone who had wielded the power of the black root until now, he felt it all the more keenly. The power vacuum. The fact that Mother World Tree had already left him.
The experience of a power he had been with for hundreds of years vanishing in an instant was a sensation that could not be described with words. Could there be anything more hollow in the world? And that power belonged to his god, his mother, the progenitor of the Elf race.
“How… how could this…”
The man reached out a hand. That faintly trembling hand could grasp nothing.
Though nothing had changed, Jinwoo felt strangely as if the man’s hand had lost its vitality and become dry and withered.
It wasn't that he had suddenly aged. It was that his mind had suffered a severe blow, and the damage had traced back to his body and soul.
The black root looked at him once, then turned its head to look at Jinwoo as if asking a question. Jinwoo hammered in the final nail.
“Me or him.”
“Mother…!”
His cry, from a cracked throat, was utterly desperate, but the answer was already decided.
The soul tremor that had incapacitated Rona now occurred in the King of the Dark Elves.