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Having created seven High Elves and a thousand Leaf Elves, and being revered by them as a god, the World Tree El-Prigion had once experienced a joyful miscalculation.

That miscalculation was his seventh creation, Araya.

The miracles that tiny child wrought were unbelievable.

El-Prigion had thought it would take at least a century for the Elves he had created to mature enough to fulfill their roles.

He had fashioned them by gathering exceptional elements not found in nature, making them individually more potent than any other creature in the world. But that also meant it would take time to nurture their immense potential.

It was like a great tree needing to develop deep roots over a long period.

If the mission of harmony and abundance was easy enough for newborn children to accomplish, he wouldn’t have even considered creating Elves in the first place.

If Araya hadn’t observed the principles governing the world shortly after her birth and used that knowledge to create and wield a small world within her body, El-Prigion’s expectations would have been met.

The Elves who began to use that power, which she named “martial arts,” stabilized the forest ten times faster than anticipated.

And with almost no sacrifices.

Having easily become the apex predators of the ecosystem, the Elves seemed to lack a certain sense of energy that creatures should naturally possess.

He was a little worried about the children lacking that sense of energy, as strength alone didn’t guarantee survival in nature. But seeing how wisely Demis and the others acted, he didn’t foresee any major problems.

But sometimes, El-Prigion wondered.

The Elves had quickly found stability because Araya was an exceptional being, but what if Araya hadn’t existed?

And who would have stood out the most if Araya hadn’t been there?

Would it have been Demis, who led the Elves so well?

Or Saraswati, who created useful devices with her clever mind?

Or perhaps Pallas, with his innate valor?

El-Prigion thought it would be none of them.

Their potential needed to be honed over a long period to be fully realized.

In an era lacking a foundation, it would have been difficult to showcase their talents.

But there was one child who could solve those shortcomings from the start.

A child who showed that even the most exceptional creature could not be complete alone.

Araya’s achievements in spreading martial arts overshadowed her, but she was a Spirit loved by all in the forest. Araya was certain that Anat would have been the one to stand out the most.

◈ ◈ ◈

“Bitch…! Bitch…! Bitch…! That’s it! I’ll just kill you!”

“You’re quite energetic, aren’t you?”

Anat said, resting her chin on her hand as she sat on a petal carved from stone, looking down at Arctic.

Whether it was that attitude that humiliated him, Arctic glared up at Anat with a murderous expression.

Arctic, who had been so confident when facing Lamiya, was now in disarray against Anat.

His leather armor, made of several layers of hide and far too thick for a person to wear, was riddled with holes. He seemed to have repaired his wounds with his natural regeneration, but the congealed blood made him look filthy.

“That would be a fatal wound that would leave most people unable to move.”

“Don’t compare me to those weaklings!”

“Come here, Aspiro.”

Seemingly unharmed by those wounds, Arctic leaped more than twice his height toward Anat.

As Anat softly moved her lips, Aspiro, a wind spirit resembling a weasel, transformed into wind and embraced Arctic.

Arctic’s feet stopped in mid-air, a single step away from the ground, and he froze helplessly.

The wind initially accepted Arctic gently, but soon turned into a storm.

Aspiro shook Arctic wildly in the air, like mischievous children shaking a jar full of bugs.

“Guh-! Ack-! Ugh-!”

Thud-!

Arctic’s senses were completely disoriented, unable to tell up from down, and he was thrown to the ground.

“Guh-! Huff-!”

Arctic gasped for breath and barely stood up, but his sense of balance hadn’t fully returned, and his massive body swayed.

Overwhelming humiliation.

Those who were watching the duel, friend and foe alike, paused their fighting and fell silent.

Especially the Orcs, who stared at Arctic with a look of shock.

It was usually Arctic who was in the victor’s position, toying with his enemies, not the other way around.

“Da…damn it.”

His eyes, as large as his body, were bloodshot with rage, making him look terrifying.

“Damn yooooou!”

As he roared, Arctic’s foot slammed into the ground.

Since he wasn’t wearing shoes, the ground he stepped on was scarred in the shape of his foot, providing him with propulsion.

Movement and speed unlike before.

Just as Anat was preparing for Arctic to leap, he didn’t jump.

Instead, he swung his sword at the thick, massive stem of the stone flower.

Slash-!

Surprisingly, the flower’s stem was severed with a single swing, and the top part of the calyx where Anat was began to tilt and fall.

“Uh-oh?”

Anat was taken aback by Arctic’s sudden change, breaking the support instead of attacking her, but she quickly regained her composure.

Aspiro, who had been a violent storm to Arctic, embraced Anat like a gentle cradle of wind.

As Arctic lunged at the falling Anat, a barrier of rock created by the earth spirit Grandol appeared, and he shouted as he slashed it with his sword.

“You bug-like bastards! What are you doing! Attack! Kill that bitch! Kill her!”

His savage voice echoed through the center of the battlefield.

“Ooooooh-!”

Hearing that voice, the eyes of the nearby Orcs turned as bloodshot as Arctic’s, and they charged towards Anat, who was landing on the ground, with bizarre screams like mindless beasts.

“Ara! Ck!”

“Looks like you had room to look away!”

Prigos shouted urgently as he watched, but at the same time, he barely dodged Muktuk’s sword and gritted his teeth.

Muktuk was pressing him with his soldiers and the Orcs.

It would have ended quickly in a one-on-one fight, but the difference in troop numbers was overwhelming.

Still, as the Elves, each on par with a Harmony Sword Master, joined the battle, a sense of unease began to creep onto Muktuk’s face.

“Don’t worry, human king. There’s no way Lady Anat would lose to something like that.”

One of the male Elves, punching an Orc approaching him, grinned.

“…Lady Anat, you say? Isn’t it dangerous?”

“Dangerous? Once Lady Anat shows her true power, numbers don’t matter anymore. What matters is quality. But the teeth of these pigs here won’t reach Lady Anat. Watch.”

Prigos kept his focus on Muktuk in front of him, but glanced sideways at Anat.

Anat looked at the frenzied Orcs charging towards her with sad eyes, as if making a decision, and raised the index finger of her right hand, drawing a line from right to left.

“Erase them, Heyman.”

At the same time, a wolf engulfed in flames quickly swept through the Orcs, and flames erupted on their bodies.

“Kaaaaaah!”

Even the mindless Orcs couldn’t ignore the pain of being burned alive.

Their skin burned, the oil beneath their skin boiled, and a disgusting smell spread across the battlefield.

Watching the countless Orcs rolling on the ground, desperately trying to put out the fire with their terrible screams, both enemies and allies alike wore expressions of disgust.

“Grahak-! Die, bitch!”

At the same time, Arctic charged forward, cutting through the several layers of barriers that Grandol had created.

His body, swollen with muscle, was much larger than before, and his veins were bulging.

“…Unlike in the forest, this is truly a meaningless death.”

Anat muttered, not even turning her head towards the charging Arctic, but looking at the Orcs who were painfully burning to death.

“You fool! How can you be caught up in such useless emotions on a battlefield of death and killing!”

Arctic swung his sword at the dazed Anat.

Crack!

But the sword couldn’t swing any further.

Earth suddenly rose up, binding Arctic.

And vines climbed up the earth, binding him like shackles, and the wind weasel and the fire wolf climbed onto Arctic’s shoulders.

Anat slowly walked towards Arctic, who was bound, looking at the Orcs turning to ashes.

“Killing to eat is one thing, but killing just to kill? Are you going to continue this meaningless act?”

“Kuh- Aren’t you concerned about such trivial things in a place like this?”

“Aren’t you one of the leaders of your race? How can someone who should be leading them irresponsibly drive them to their deaths?”

“Isn’t it the law of nature that the weak are used for the strong? Why should I sacrifice myself for those weaklings? It should be the other way around.”

“…Don’t you have any compassion for them?”

“Bullshit. Even my father gave birth to me to use me.”

Anat raised her hand and slowly stroked Arctic’s face, which was distorted with hideous excitement.

“You poor thing.”

What emotions of Arctic’s did Anat’s compassionate gaze touch?

Arctic’s eyes, which had turned black with rage, began to emit a ferocious aura, and his muscles began to swell once more.

“Don’t! Pity! Me!”

Crack! Crackle!

Even in a situation where he couldn’t exert proper force because his entire body was bound, Arctic’s monstrous strength shattered the restraints.

And the moment he swung his hand to crush the head of the impudent Elf in front of him, Arctic screamed in excruciating pain that covered his entire body.

The giant flames created by the wind weasel swallowing the wolf engulfed Arctic.

It was unclear how, but the flames didn’t seem to affect Anat, who was right in front of him, and only burned Arctic.

“Gaaaaah! Aaaah!”

Anat glanced down at Arctic, who was burning and rolling on the ground, with a compassionate expression, and turned away.

‘…I did my part for the first time, but it doesn’t feel good.’

Anat looked around.

To continue living, they took the flesh and blood of other lives.

Not the necessary killing to survive, but the meaningless act of killing just to kill was happening everywhere she looked.

Poheln, where she had been until recently, was truly a vibrant and warm place.

Thanks to that, she didn’t feel so bad about the outside of the forest, but after witnessing this series of meaningless killings today, she felt a little differently.

Just as she sighed, she thought she heard the Elves calling her name.

‘What is it?’

The moment that thought crossed her mind, something suddenly pushed her chest and she fell over.

Anat was a little flustered.

The fight had just ended and she was a little relaxed, but she hadn’t even sensed the presence approaching her.

But to defend herself a little, she hadn’t felt any hostility at all.

When she came to her senses and looked at the being who had pushed her, it was a familiar face.

Compared to the Elves, he had a slightly more free-spirited face, but for a human, he still had some balance.

Prigos was taking his hand off her chest with a slightly embarrassed expression.

“…? What’s this?”

“You were almost in danger. You must never let your guard down on the battlefield.”

Looking around at his words, he saw the burning sword embedded in the severed stump of a flower.

It was Arctic, his muscles already melted away from the flames, who had thrown the sword at him as a last resort.

“…Ah, thank you.”

“…I simply did what was natural. You were gracious enough to deal with the enemy commander yourself, and we couldn’t allow harm to come to our master’s kin because of our squabble.”

“…You’re a little hurt, aren’t you?”

Anat said, watching Prigos’s shoulder become damp with a fresh wound.

Judging by how quickly it was soaking through, it wasn’t a shallow injury.

“It’s just a scratch from a petty man who seized an opportunity. Nothing to worry about.”

“Still…”

Prigos helped Anat to her feet and then looked at Muktuk, who was keeping his distance with a hardened expression.

“Thanks to you, we’ve eliminated a major threat. Now, all that’s left is for us to do our part.”

“…Do you need my help any further?”

“I saw worry in your expression earlier. I can tell you’re not used to the battlefield.”

“I’m… I’m fine! I’m still going strong!”

“…? In that case, would you be willing to subdue the enemy without overexerting yourself?”

“Of course!”

Anat smiled happily at Prigos’s words.

◈             ◈               ◈

“…That bitch.”

“Huh? What was that, sis? Where are you going in the middle of a fight? Seriously!”

Aliya, who had been keeping an eye on Prigos’s condition even while fighting dozens of witches who seemed to have been taught secret arts by Algul along with her sisters, lost the light in her eyes. She stopped fighting and slowly began to walk in a certain direction, causing Lamiya to panic and shout.

“Kkyaaaak! Kkyaaaaak!”

The witches were screaming and falling, but they were exhausted too!

“Ugh! What is it!”

Lamiya, unable to stop Aliya from leaving her sisters and heading somewhere because of the persistent witches, let out an annoyed scream and swung her sword at them.