Chapter 583: The Dark Elves
While Nightmare gave the sick a healing potion, Michael woke up Eve.
"I am awake…" Eve spoke in a weak tone. After slowly opening her eyes, she looked at Michael and Gaya. The recent memories flooded her mind. Since Michael had given her the healing potion, she slowly regained her strength. However, the plague effect prevented her from using Arch energy. As a result, her cultivation dropped from the Core Strengthening stage to the Body Refining stage.
She quickly looked down to see how her sister was doing. Unfortunately, even Michael's ninety percent pure healing potion couldn't wake her up. Eve combed Jennifer's hair and bowed down, gently placing a kiss on her forehead.
"We should go now to reach the Esya by nightfall," Eve slowly stood up, holding the wall for support.
"Whoa, cool your roll Eve. You're not coming,"
"What?" Eve creased her brows immediately after hearing Michael,
"No offense, but in your current condition, you'll be more of a burden than help,"
Surprisingly, Eve dropped the hammer and let out a heavy breath.
"You're right. But I can't sit here and do nothing. How can I? My people are dying. I need to do something. Otherwise, I'd lose my mind,"
Both Michael and Gaya understood her feelings. Thus, they looked at each other for a moment before Michael turned his gaze back to Eve,
"I get you. What about this? You can fly atop Nightmare and be our lookout. That way, you wouldn't have to wait here wondering what we are up to,"
"I can do that," Eve quickly bobbed her head up and down,
"It's settled then," Gaya nodded, waving her hand as her silver robes turned completely black. She also covered her face with a cloak and a dark mask.
Seeing Gaya adjusting her mask, Michael said,
"Don't fret. The plague isn't airborne. As far as I studied the samples, it's spreading in water and food,"
"Really?" Gaya sighed in relief.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"So you had any galas recently?" Nightmare asked Eve. Almost all the Voldigards were infected by the plague. So if the plague wasn't airborne and spreading via water and food, Nightmare concluded that the Voldigards hosted a gala or a feast. Otherwise, they wouldn't have succumbed to the plague at the same time.
"We hosted a gala celebrating Jennifer's birthday. All the Voldigards were there, including our ancestor,"
"The Half Immortal one?" asked Michael to see Eve nodding her head.
"Was he sick?" Gaya wondered whether the plague could affect the Immortal or not. To be honest, she didn't believe it could because the Half Immortals and Immortals wouldn't die by normal means such as illness.
"No, that I know of. When father met him before transporting our treasury to the council's vault, he wasn't sick. At Least my father didn't think so,"
"Hmm. So it's not affecting anyone above Fusion Stage," Michael pondered but soon, he willed the system, changing his robes. Since Michael was always adorned in completely black, the changes weren't much noticeable. He just put on the mage robes he bought from the system and covered himself. Additionally, he also wore a cat mask underneath the cloak to hide his face completely.
But after covering the face with the cat mask, Michael willed the system and transformed his face completely just to be safe.
"Nightmare, take Eve with you and stay in cover behind the darkness and the clouds,"
"You should wear something else to cover yourself. We don't want those fuckers to make any connection," Gaya said to Eve. She sounded more annoyed and furious than usual when she mentioned the dark elves. To Michael, It was evident Gaya has some kind of history with the dark elves.
Eve nodded and closed her eyes for a moment. Gradually, her white robes turned dark, and a cloak appeared around her head, covering her face with darkness. Just like Michael, she also took out a bear mask and put it on her face. Finally, she looked at her hammer, and with a heavy heart, she flicked her wrist as the hammer slowly faded into thin air.
"Follow us at a safe distance," Gaya turned around.
"Do you know where the village is?" But Gaya halted her steps when she heard Eve,
"I happen to come across the village once. Let's go Ghost,"
Gaya didn't linger around for Eve to ask more questions. Instead, leading Michael, Gaya soared towards the sky to the point they went above the dark clouds.
"What's the story? You messed with the dark elves, didn't you?" Michael asked, flying beside her.
"Why do you assume that? Do you think I always mess with others? I am not a racist,"
"You are," Michael chuckled.
"You hate the other races. That's the definition of a racist,"
"I don't hate you,"
"You used to. Remember, you tried to kill me with a candle holder,"
"You know what? Fuck you. I am not a racist. If you think I am a racist, just wait till you meet the dark elves," she just snickered and sped up.
Considering Michael studied with the elves in Mazeroth, he could understand the meaning behind Gaya's words. However, he didn't have the pleasure of meeting any dark elves in Mazeroth. Now that Michael thought about it, he had never met a single dark one since he came to this world. By the time they reached the outskirts of the village, night had fallen upon them, erasing any light from existence. Lightning flashed across the dark sky, brightening the sky out of its darkness for only a single moment. The rain drizzled, creating a piece of rhythmic music.
The journey towards Esya village was peaceful as Gaya didn't say a word until Michael saw a distant forest. He shouldn't have seen the forest from above the clouds. Each tree in the forest stood at least 300meter tall and fifty meters wide. For a few moments, Michael stopped flying and stared at the forest with giant trees. He had never seen such a forest made with trees that seemed to be touching the clouds.
"What is this place?" Michael asked Gaya in utter shock. To his surprise, the trees were glowing like a city. When he looked closer, he could see man-made structures in the forest. The dark elves built houses inside and outside the tree above the ground. He could at least see hundreds of elegant tree houses that looked extremely cozy. Instead of runes or lamps, the houses were lit with luminescent mushrooms. These colorful mushrooms lit the three-layered houses. The first layer glistened in blue, brightening the crowded little homes. The houses built above the first layer were more grandiloquent than the first layered houses and lit with emerald green mushrooms. Finally, the third layer on top had fewer but grand houses.
All these higher-level houses were lit with radiant golden mushrooms. All these three layered combined looked awe-inspiring.
Before resuming their travel, Michael waited for the dark clouds to spark lightning flashes. Then, he counted the time between each lightning flash. After calculating their approximate gap, Michael prepared to cast the lightning dash.
Michael slowly hovered towards Gaya and held her hand,
"One, two," Michael began to count in his mind and cast the lightning dash spell as soon as he counted up to three.
Just as he cast the spell, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, masking the golden trail left by Michael.
In a few blinks of an eye, Michael reached the other end of the forest, where Michael saw a lush green field with several wooden headstones. The headstones were accompanied by saplings of different ages. Some saplings had grown almost four feet, while some just had foot-tall saplings growing out of the grass field.
Luckily for Michael and Gaya, the graveyard had no dark elves guarding it.
"Drined Esrat, that's the name of the dark elf who died first," Gaya, who learned the name from Eve, told Michael.
"Let's split up and search for the headstone," Michael instructed Gaya and descended towards the graveyard. When Michael landed in the graveyard, he saw a wooden headstone named 'Dremzol Rinzudia'. Although he was in a dark elves' graveyard, he didn't desecrate the place. Instead, he floated a few inches away from the cemetery, leaving no footprints.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHe respected the dead no matter their race. He floated above the headstones, checking the names one by one.
Gaya also checked on the headstones, but unlike Michael, she left a few footsteps until she saw Michael floating above the ground.
"Ghost, we are in position," Michael heard Nightmare's voice in his head. He quickly looked up, activating the thermal vision to see a tiny ball of heat signature behind the clouds.
"Keep an eye out for us. We'll get out of here as soon as we find the right grave," Michael informed Nightmare and continued to look for the grave that belonged to one Drined Esrat.
Michael's luck finally turned up as he found the headstone named Drined Esrat.
"Hey found the grave," Michael quickly talked to Gaya through the earpiece as she dashed towards him.
Without wasting time, Michael took out a shovel from the system storage and began digging the grave. Michael dug the grave as fast as he could and hit the casket made of red hickory in a few minutes.
Tap!
Tap!
Tap!
Gaya heard the shovel hitting the casket and felt excited. However, Nightmare's words halted her excitement.
"Look out!"
But before Gaya and Michael could react, an arrow flew past Gaya's face, butting through the cloak and a strand of her hair.
"Shit shit shit!" Gaya quickly turned around, realizing they had been found out by the dark elves.
"Watch my back," Michael didn't lose his calm but increased his digging speed.
He wasn't going to turn back without getting what he needed.
While Michael was breaking open the casket, Gaya raised her arm towards the sky, creating a thin shield around them.
"Fuck, they are here," Gaya cursed, looking at the numerous dark elves flying toward them.
"So much for being stealthy," Gaya snickered as the arrows hit the shield but couldn't penetrate through. However, the more arrows hit the shield, the weaker the shield became.
"Hurry up!"