“Fort secured. Confirmation of shutdown!”
“Understood. Ensure thorough cleanup of stragglers; do not let anyone disrupt the ritual by any means.”
“Roger that!”
“The troops outside are extinguishing the fire. It’s unlikely that the flames will spread, but hurry.”
On the other side of the burning trees from the Blue Army’s position, a communication came through via call mark.
Alastair, who was commanding from the rear, issued orders.
The archers, a mix of Dark Elves, who had been shooting fire arrows from among the trees, now began shooting arrows imbued with water magic.
These were magic arrows with spells deployed around the impact points. They were supplies taken from the Elven village.
“Now, it’s the witch’s turn from here.”
Everis, who had been watching from the rear, appeared through the charred trees.
A black cat with red eyes clung to her shoulder.
The Blue Army’s camp was no longer a battlefield.
It was strewn with the remains of burnt buildings and tents, with most surviving soldiers already killed.
Ogres swung clubs, destroying the remnants of burnt-down walls to clear space.
Everis planted something like a staff, covered in densely written spells, into the scorched ground.
She searched for places akin to the pulses of the land veins, planting many of them.
Three handsome Dark Elven boys accompanied her, carrying equipment.
In the middle of the camp, a part of the wall, by the well, at the deepest part of the fort…
When the number of staffs planted reached eight, a change occurred.
The ground shook, cracks of light appeared, connecting the staffs like constellations.
The flames subsided, and the Blue Army’s camp, on the verge of sinking into the night, turned white.
It was not so much ‘radiant’ as it was ‘white’.
A scene as if white light had been solidified into form emerged.
It was the source of life, a world where all life in this forest would flow.
It was an idealized silhouette of the forest created by the elves, a form that human elves could not create.
It replaced the blackened ground with white, manifesting grass, trees, flowing water as white phantoms.
Within it stood figures of light.
Many of them.
Those with forms reminiscent of elves were looking this way from within the ideal forest.
“This is…!”
The Dark Elves were surprised and murmuring.
Even those who didn’t know what this was could guess.
It was where the deceased elves returned.
It was the manifestation of the ‘Sanctuary’ that overlapped with the Gaisenfall Great Forest.
Originally, the control of the land veins by the Gaisenfall Great Forest was centered around the consciousness that dwelt within the land veins… the collective consciousness of the souls of the deceased elves melted into the land veins.
Everis assessed that there was still some hidden nature to it. The ‘Sanctuary’ was their dream, an area woven by ritualized Soul-Source Magic, utilizing countless souls as a medium. It manifested on the surface as an aftermath of the grand event of reconnecting the lost land veins.
Many Dark Elves were frightened and confused.
Many had chosen to become Dark Elves as a compromise in the face of the mighty enemy, the Empire. They felt as if their ancestors had appeared to reprimand them. Becoming a Dark Elf didn’t easily erase their reverence for their ancestors.
Of course, it was a matter unrelated to René and Everis.
“Even though the land veins are reconnected to the forest now… when Mialanze tainted the land veins, this area was cut off from the forest. So, for now, it’s still in the territory of the Great Spirit.”
It’s your turn, guest.”
René, facing the ‘Projection’ of Elven ancestors, called out to their inner self.
Immediately after, the immaculate white world of the sanctuary was torn apart.
Wrathful lightning split the white trees of the sanctuary, and a lamenting wind scattered the flowers.
And then, something ominous descended.
Like the ancestral projections, she too appeared indistinct in detail as if formed by light, but her female form was discernible.
She wore a priestess robe resembling a cassock. Several croziers floated around her.
Surrounded by dark red curses of lightning and vines twisting around her body, her forehead adorned with a crown of vines sprouting from her own body.
“Really, isn’t this just topsy-turvy? As the client, I’m the one doing the work.”
Slightly incredulously murmured the former High Priestess, Salesaya.
In her current state, where she had made a contract with René and was now seized by her, she projected her image into the sanctuary.
Her existence was the reason René’s memories had been sealed while she was trapped in the sanctuary.
Salesaya, who was already a deceased soul, belonged more to this sanctuary. However, by making a contract with René, she avoided merging with the collective consciousness of the sanctuary.
In the state where most of her power was focused on capturing René… or in the current situation, where the land veins were tainted, weakening the sanctuary, Salesaya could interfere with the sanctuary, albeit in a limited way.
In a sense, she could become a backdoor for interference in the sanctuary.
If there was a way to deal with it, it was to make René forget that Salesaya could be summoned. By a ridiculous measure of strategy, they had sealed Salesaya, linked to René, as René’s terminal, so she wouldn’t come out unless René wanted her to.
“We use whatever is at our disposal. Besides, we’ll compensate for this effort separately, so it’s all good.”
“I’ll suppress the projections with our forces. Meanwhile, please render the land veins helpless.”
Polluted intruders entered the white light world of the sanctuary.
Monsters in the forms of birds and beasts attacked the projections, followed by a lizardman unit.
The light arrows emitted by the Projections pierced the monsters, but it wasn’t as dramatically effective as when facing undead.
Lizardmen kicked aside fallen birds and shouted, impaling the projections with spear-like spears to disperse them.
During this battle, Salesaya called out to the land veins in a kneeling, praying posture.
The silhouette of croziers floating around her was shrouded in dark red lightning.
“…The core of the forest’s land veins is already tainted. Through it, let this place also accept corruption.”
“Show yourself, you evil old man! I’ll shove something good into you!”
Everis poised with wedge-like structures resembling syringes between all her fingers and threw them up.
The thrown wedges flew like meteors, each hitting the staffs that Everis had fired beforehand.
With a heavy thud, the ground trembled.
The illusionary sanctuary, manifested in white, warped.
Blood red, darkness black, twisted scenery.
The remaining projections, already half-defeated, vanished without a sound, leaving only a silent scream vibrating in the air.
And then, the illusionary sanctuary gradually faded, and night returned.
The burnt Blue Army camp emitted a desolate smell, but it was no longer the territory of humans, nor the restored forest of elves, but something fundamentally different.
