Chapter 126: Cursed By The World Tree
"What’s going on here?" Andreas looked at Liara in shock.
Even worse was Ilaris. She too stared at her father and the pink-haired girl in confusion.
Wasn’t this girl friends with those three boys? Then why did she kill two of them? Why did she kill Daniel? Why did it feel like her father knew this girl?
While chaos clouded their thoughts, Liara’s body slowly began to change. It was like flames were burning her and forging something entirely new.
Her pink hair turned completely golden, her eyes became a deep blue, and her height increased slightly. Her face became even more elegant and beautiful than before.
Her normal ears stretched and grew longer, taking the exact shape of elf ears — they were the ears of an elf.
Her aura surged and rose to Rank B.
"How did you...? This... this isn’t possible!" Andreas couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He had known Liara for a long time.
They were basically like family. So how could this girl suddenly become an elf?
"That human girl died a long time ago, you fool," Liara — or whatever her name really was — looked at Andreas coldly and said.
"But how? When?"
"When you came to visit us elves... we killed her and I took her place. Anyway, that’s enough. I’m done with you."
The female elf gave Andreas one last look and kicked him hard.
Then she turned her attention to the leader of the Alarion and to Ilaris.
The only reason she had been playing the role of a human all this time was because of those two — and of course, the skeleton in the glass tomb.
"What’s going on?! Someone explain! How did you suddenly become an elf?!" Ilaris shouted, looking around in shock and a bit of fear.
"Heh, why don’t you ask your father?" the female elf said with a cold smirk.
Elarion remained quiet and expressionless. He glanced once more with affection at the skeleton in the glass tomb, and for a moment, countless memories sparked in his mind.
"I didn’t expect them to send such a weak elf. Seems like they’ve seriously underestimated me," he said, his eyes now focused on the female elf.
"There was no choice. If they’d sent a high-ranking elf, those powerful ones from the other world would’ve noticed. Besides, traitor general... you really think you’re still a Rank A?" she said with a sneer.
"Do you want to know what’s going on, my dear daughter?" Elarion ignored her and looked at his daughter.
Ilaris was so shocked she couldn’t even respond. She simply nodded, hoping her father would explain.
"You’ve heard the story — that I stole a branch of the World Tree. It’s not exactly wrong, but not entirely right either. That branch came with me of her own will. But elves... they’re more cruel and shallow than you can imagine. They can’t understand love..." the leader of the Dark Elves let out a sigh.
"Love? The World Tree branch? What do those even have to do with each other?!" Ilaris felt dizzy. Why couldn’t she understand what her father was saying?
"Stop telling her nonsense," the female elf growled.
"The truth is simple, dear girl. The branch of the World Tree is more special than you think. When separated from the tree, it can take the shape of anything and has many other abilities."
"In fact, the first being that branch saw after breaking off from the tree was this bastard traitor. I don’t know how or why, but apparently, the branch took on the shape of a female Dark Elf" the female elf explained.
"It took on the shape of a Dark Elf...? But why would it do that? What does that have to do with my father?" Ilaris asked with wide eyes.
"We don’t know either. Probably no one does, except that bastard you call father. But according to the stories, the branch fell in love with him. But that shouldn’t be possible. It’s the branch of the World Tree — it should’ve returned to the tree."
"When the high-ranking elves found out, they acted quickly. They captured the branch, which had taken the shape of a female Dark Elf, and returned it to the World Tree."
"Grafting it back wasn’t difficult. All they had to do was place it in its original spot and it would’ve healed automatically. But the branch refused to revert back ro its original shape. It or well she wanted to return to the man it loved."
"In the end, they had no choice but to imprison it. This man took advantage of the opportunity, raised a rebellion with his forces, and during the chaos, stole the branch and ran away."
"This is a joke, right? None of this makes any sense," Ilaris felt like she was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
"Unfortunately, these are the truths of the past. But this traitor Dark Elf wasn’t lucky. He lost the blessing he had from the World Tree. And even worse, the tree cursed both him and the branch," the elf explained and sighed.
Elarion’s betrayal was one of the most well-known stories among the elves. It hadn’t happened that long ago for them, but it had already become something like a legend.
An elf who dared betray the World Tree — and worse, one who was cursed by it.
"So... you came here to take the branch back?" Ilaris asked, looking at her.
She never imagined that this mountain hideout had such a story behind it.
"No. She came for you," Elarion, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke.
"What do you mean?"
"My beautiful wife... she no longer has any value to them. That World Tree — that demon pretending to be a god — drained all the life energy from her. Their target now is you, my daughter," Elarion said with a bitter smile.
"Don’t act like she still matters to you," the female elf growled.
"What do you mean?" Ilaris screamed, her eyes filled with anger as she looked at them. Why wouldn’t they give her a straight answer? Why were they saying all this nonsense?
The female elf hesitated for a moment. She wasn’t allowed to tell Ilaris anything about her situation. But she also didn’t want the girl to view the elves as evil — if that happened, they’d lose their best chance.
"Heh, what? Can’t bring yourself to tell her? In the end, you’re all just a bunch of hypocrites," Elarion laughed, and the entire tomb chamber shook with him.
"That’s enough. What needed to be said has been said. Now it’s time to punish the intruders." His voice was cold and emotionless now.
The female elf immediately entered a battle stance, raising her guard. Even though Elarion had been weakened, she didn’t dare underestimate him.
After all, Elarion had once been one of the top generals under the Elven Emperor, and had once stood at the peak of Rank A. If not for the World Tree’s curse, he never would’ve fallen this low.
Suddenly, the sound of clapping echoed.
"Huh?" The female elf and Elarion turned to look.
A white-haired human man was sitting cross-legged, clapping his hands?
"Haha... that was a really touching love story."