Novel Full After everything fell silent again, the darkness had vanished, as had the light.
Irina was standing behind the Spring of Life, but she retreated a few meters, and her face was slightly pale. There was a trace of blood trickling down the corner of her lips, and her hand was trembling slightly as she held onto her staff while struggling to remain on her feet.
The green light around her had already vanished, and the Tree of Life had withdrawn all of its branches.
In contrast, Borg was still standing on the same spot, and he stepped forward as he looked at Irina, and said, “You’re very powerful, but unfortunately, you made the wrong choice.”
Irina had been defeated!
All of the elves looked on with different expressions on their faces.
Borg wasn’t saying this to add insult to injury; at just 30 years of age, Irina was indeed extremely powerful. Among all of the other elves present, no one could defeat her aside from perhaps Helena.
Even though Borg had won, he had most likely still sustained some rather severe injuries.
“I made all of the choices that I believe to be correct.” Irina stood up straight as she narrowed her eyes, and asked, “What is that lurking inside your body?”
Borg’s pupils contracted slightly upon hearing this question, and he pointed his wand at Irina again as he yelled, “In that case, you can take your choices to your grave!”
“Princess, run!”
Right at this moment, an armored guard suddenly drew his sword before charging toward Borg. He raised his sword high above his head with both hands before bringing it down in a vicious strike.
Borg was slightly startled by this development, and he turned his wand away from Irina, directing it toward the oncoming guard instead. A burst of black light shot forth from the tip of his wand, instantly shattering the guard’s black metal visor.
A deep puncture wound was then blasted into the guard’s glabella, and his body jerked back violently before tumbling to the ground.
Blood flowed from his glabella, slowly staining the slave brand on his face. He turned to Irina with difficulty, and with his final dying breath, he urged, “Princess… run…”
As soon as his voice fell, his soul left his body, yet his eyes remained wide open even in death.
All of the elves looked on in silence.
If the slaves were to revolt…
A hint of horror welled up from the bottoms of their hearts at this harrowing notion.
“You bastard!” Irina screamed as she looked at the guard who was lying in a puddle of his own blood. Her lips were trembling slightly, and faint golden light began to shimmer from her staff.
“What an abhorrent slave.” Borg flexed his neck from side to side as he cast a disdainful glance at the dead guard, and then raised his wand toward Irina again as he chuckled coldly. “I’m going to kill all of these filthy rebellious slaves, and then we’ll see who’s going to save you!”
A hint of fear crept into the eyes of all of the elves as they looked at Borg.
Elliot and Vincent exchanged a glance, and both of them could see their own concern mirrored in each other’s eyes. They then turned to Helena, only to find that her expression remained completely calm and placid as if the scenes unfolding right now had nothing to do with her.
If Irina were to die, the entire elven race was going to be tipped on its head.
Helena was the only one present who was capable of stopping Borg, but she showed no intention of doing so.
As such, Irina’s fate was sealed.
A sinister smile appeared on Borg’s face as he raised his wand before him, and black light began to shimmer from the tip of the wand.
Irina’s staff was also shimmering with faint golden light, but it wasn’t able to muster up any power.
Right at this moment, a thunderous voice suddenly rang out up above. “Let me see who would dare to kill her on my watch!”
A purple-striped griffin came swooping down at an alarming speed, sweeping up fierce winds with its powerful wings that buffeted all of the nearby trees to the side. Blades of wind sent countless splinters flying through the air, and the massive griffin hurtled directly toward Borg.
“Alex!”
Borg’s heart jolted with shock as he directed his wand toward the griffin while attempting to evade.
The expressions on the faces of the nearby elves changed drastically as they dispersed in a blind panic.
Borg had reacted quite quickly, but the griffin was far too fast in the end. It snuffed out the faint glimmer of black light that had formed on the tip of Borg’s wand with its powerful wings, and then lashed out with its sharp talons, which were gleaming with a metallic light.
The talons tore through a dozen or so layers of magic shields in an instant, and then punctured Borg’s shoulder before swatting him away like an oversized fly. Borg’s burly frame was sent hurtling through the air before being embedded deep in a mountain face.
A few elves hurriedly scrambled to position themselves in front of Borg before looking up at the griffin and its fearsome rider with horror in their eyes.
All of the elves were feeling extremely panicked, and no one dared to do anything that could be potentially reckless in this situation.
The griffin circled around in mid-air before landing by Irina’s side. A man holding a claymore jumped down from the griffin’s back before encircling an arm around Irina’s waist. He wore a set of black robes, as well as a black and white mask on his face, and he said in a charismatic voice, “I’m here.”
“He’s… so cool!”
A certain young female elf in the crowd was completely captivated by Mag’s grand entrance, and her shimmering eyes reflected the emotions of countless other young elven women present.
Irina stared at the man beside her with a slightly blank expression on her face, wondering how and why he had suddenly appeared here. He clearly hadn’t recovered to anywhere near the height of his powers, but he had swooped down without a second thought to stand by her side in her time of need. This was the second time that he had saved her from a dire situation, and tears were beginning to well up in her eyes.
Mag wore a sympathetic expression as he looked at Irina’s pale face and the faint trace of trickling down from the corner of her lips. In a gentle voice, he said, “I’ll get you out of here.”
Irina returned to her senses and looked into the pair of gentle eyes that were peeking through the mask as she shook her head, and said, “I can’t go.”
Mag’s brows furrowed with befuddlement as he asked, “Why not?”
Irina looked back at Mag with a determined look in her eyes, and replied, “The Tree of Life needs me, as do all of the oppressed elves in the Wind Forest. She still has you, but they only have me!”
Right at this moment, dazzling green light suddenly erupted from the Tree of Life inside the cave. The green light illuminated the entire cave, but there seemed to be a wisp of black light that was struggling and shimmering within it.
“Your Highness!”
Firis rushed out of the cave and stumbled toward Irina with a panicked expression on her face.
Irina turned toward Firis before giving Mag a gentle hug as she whispered into his ear, “Take Firis away from here; I’ll be fine.”
“Alright.”
Mag nodded before grabbing onto Firis’s wrist, and then looked on as Irina made her way toward the cave that the Tree of Life was situated in.
“Princess! Let go of me… I have to be with Princess Irina! Princess…” Firis had tears streaming uncontrollably down her face struggled with all her might to rush toward Irina, but her wrist was caught in a vice-like grip by Mag.
Irina strode into the cave, and a green light barrier appeared to seal up the cave’s opening.
Mag withdrew his gaze before turning to appraise all of the wary elves with a cold look in his eyes. His gaze lingered on Helena for a moment before he wound an arm around the struggling Firis and leaped onto the griffin’s back with her.
“If something happens to her, I’ll slaughter the entire elven race!” Mag vowed in a thunderous voice.
All of the elves averted their eyes involuntarily, and Borg, who had just been pulled out of the mountain face, took a couple of steps backward with a look of shock and horror on his face. He hurriedly hid himself behind another terrified elf, but Mag didn’t even take a single glance at him before the griffin spread its wings and quickly disappeared into the distant sky.