Chapter 95: The Blessing of the Fallen Mother

Neo pushed deeper into the burning settlement, and with every step, the reality of what had happened settled over him like a crushing weight.

Bodies littered the ground on both sides of the main street, far too many of them to count properly, elven men and women cut down where they’d stood, some still clutching whatever weapons they’d grabbed in those final, desperate moments. He saw an elderly couple collapsed together near a doorway, their hands still intertwined. He saw a young mother sprawled across the threshold of her home, one arm stretched out protectively toward a small, motionless body of a child.

Children. There were children among the dead, too.

Neo’s stomach twisted violently, and his legs nearly gave way as the full scale of the slaughter finally sank in.

’Damn it. I should have come sooner. I was too focused on the gate. I should’ve realized something else was happening.’

Dark elves still moved through the wreckage ahead, their dark eyes scanning for anyone left alive, their blades already dripping with blood of the fallen elves.

Neo’s throat tightened painfully as his eyes caught on a familiar figure slumped against a broken section of wall a short distance away.

"Mira!"

He was moving before he even fully registered the decision, sprinting the remaining distance and dropping to his knees beside her. Her face was streaked with blood and soot, a deep, wound torn open across her stomach where something sharp and heavy had clearly been driven through her.

"No, no, no, come on, stay with me—"

He pressed his hands carefully against the wound, mana flooding instinctively into the injury despite his limited knowledge of actual healing magic, he still tried hard to stop the bleeding.

Her chest rose and fell weakly, she breath slowly, feeling like all of the energy drain from her body, her vitality begins to plummate.

"Mira, hey, can you hear me? Open your eyes."

Her eyelids fluttered weakly, and after a long, agonizing moment, they finally open just enough to find his face hovering above her, her gray eyes hazy and unfocused as she take a look at him, barely able to recognise him.

"...Neo?"

"Yeah. It’s me. I’m here. Just hold on, okay?"

A faint, smile tugged weakly at the corner of her mouth. "Knew... you’d come back eventually..."

"Don’t talk. Save your strength."

Neo’s hands trembled slightly as he kept pressure against the wound, his mind racing through every possibility, every option, desperately searching for some way to actually save her beyond simply buying a few more minutes.

’This isn’t enough. I don’t know proper healing magic. I can’t save them.’

The guilt hit him all at once, it felt almost suffocating, until he could barely draw a breath.

’I failed them. Every single one of them. I was so busy dealing with the gate that I didn’t even realize what was happening here. If I’d come sooner, maybe... maybe some of them would still be alive.’

Neo shut his eyes, trying to hold himself together, but the guilt was too much. Just then, a familiar chime rang in his mind.

[Ding! You have failed to protect the people of Veldra!]

[Ding! This failure has caused a massive amount of casualties!]

[Ding! Failure Compensation Activated!]

[Calculating the value of the failure...]

[Compensating with a suitable reward...]

[Ding!]

[Ascending the people of Veldra to higher ranks!]

As he heard the familiar voice of the system, Neo’s eyes snapped open.

A brilliant tear of emerald light burst open directly above the settlement from the sky, cascading downward like falling starlight, spreading outward across every corner of Veldra in an instant. Villagers mid-flight, soldiers mid-battle, even the wounded crawling desperately for cover, all of them froze simultaneously as the light touched them, their bodies beginning to glow with the same soft, radiant emerald energy pouring down from above.

Elves who had struggled to maintain Adept rank suddenly felt their power surge beyond its previous limits, breaking through into the Expert rank. Their movements became sharper, their footing steadier, and their muscles filled with strength they had never possessed before.

Those who had already reached Expert rank experienced an even more astonishing change. Their power continued to climb, pushing them closer to the Master rank with every passing moment.

One by one, their eyes widened as they realized what was happening. The power they had spent generations losing was finally returning.

The despair that had gripped the village just moments ago began to fade, replaced by a fierce determination. One by one, the surviving villagers lifted their heads, a newfound strength rising within them as the emerald light spread across the settlement.

The dark elves hadn’t expected this. They stumbled backward as the light washed over them, their dark eyes widening in alarm. Unlike the villagers, they found no comfort in its glow. The emerald radiance burned against their skin like acid, forcing them to retreat several steps as they hissed and snarled in pain.

Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the light faded, settling quietly back into the earth, leaving the entire settlement bathed in sudden, stunned silence.

For one brief moment, nobody moved at all.

Then the screaming started again, but this time, it wasn’t screams of terror.

Villagers who had been fleeing just seconds earlier turned sharply on their heels, snatching up whatever weapons lay scattered nearby, their movements suddenly swift, precise, and confident in a way that hadn’t existed moments before. Archers scattered across the rooftops drew their bows in perfect unison, their arrows now glowing faintly with spirit energy as they released volley after volley directly into the stunned dark elves still suffering from the earlier pain.

Neo stared at what was happening around him, the grief in his chest is still there. Yet, for the first time since arriving, he felt a faint glimmer of hope that things might not be over just yet. Beside him, Mira stirred.

Her eyes, which had been hazy and unfocused only moments earlier, sharpened suddenly, the same soft emerald glow lingering faintly across her skin. The wound across her stomach, the one Neo had been desperately trying to keep from killing her, had long vanished, leaving nothing behind except smooth, unmarked skin.

Mira sat up slowly, staring down at herself in open astonishment, before her gaze lifted toward Neo, studying him carefully, as though piecing something together.

’Does she think this happened because of me?’ Neo thought uneasily, watching her expression shift.

She reached forward and placed a firm hand against his shoulder, pushing herself fully upright with surprising strength for someone who’d been bleeding out just moments earlier.

"Don’t just sit there, we haven’t even won this fight yet."

Neo stared at her for a long moment, something caught painfully between grief and overwhelming relief tangling together in his chest. Finally, he forced a small, tired smile and nodded, pushing himself back to his feet.

He turned toward the dark elves still scattered throughout the burning settlement, their earlier confidence now visibly shaken, their numbers already thinning under the newly empowered counterattack surging around them.

His eyes darkened with cold, focused gaze.

Neo vanished from where he stood, gravity and starlight surging together beneath his foot, as he threw himself directly into the heart of the remaining dark elf forces, determined to end this slaughter once and for all, in exchange of whatever it ultimately cost him.