Reaper of the Martial World

Book 11: Chapter 16: To Be (1)

The elders looked on silently toward Dyon’s question.

In fact, they were quite impressed with this young man. He could remain as calm as Calen did in their presence. This alone proved his worth.

One shouldn’t look toward Calen’s lowered head as weakness. He was simply showing respect to his elders. His countenance was just as calm as Dyon’s despite his still lowered gaze.

As for Dyon, since he was representing another Clan of people, it was inappropriate for him to lower his head. Though, even if Dyon wasn’t, he wouldn’t bother to lower his head regardless.

“If it’s just cooperation for the first phase, this may be possible. However, cooperation for the second phase will be difficult.”

In a stark contradiction, the fact that Dyon downplayed the strength of his backing so severely actually made the dwarves more comfortable.

The current Dyon actually monopolized about 20-30% of the Mortal Plane. He had the tower quadrants, former sprite alliance territory, and the devil quadrants under his control.

Under normal circumstances, having such a powerful ally might be a good thing. But, it was actually the opposite for the dwarves for some reason.

“It may not be that my elders chose not to explain this to me, but rather that they have forgotten the matters of the past.” Dyon explained. “If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t send me here.”

The elders nodded, agreeing with Dyon. They wouldn’t casually play with the life of such a genius if they were aware of those matters.

A particular elder who stood off to Dyon front right sighed. He had greying green hair and deep-set wrinkles beneath his eyes. He looked quite like a cute old man, one that one might help cross the street. But his limbs still vibrated with power.

“Our Era was known as the Golden Era for a reason, but we were simply too ambitious. Soul research was only in its infancy so we didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into. It was only thanks to the World Tree that we didn’t destroy ourselves sooner.

“The dwarves and elves were fundamentally one race of humans in the past, but our ancestors received two sets of blessings from the World Tree.”

Dyon’s brows furrowed. “The World Tree, just what level of existence is it?”

Not even for a moment had Dyon thought the World Tree was actually such a powerful existence, capable of giving birth to the pinnacle races of an Era. He had never thought much of it from the very beginning.

It wasn’t that he didn’t know it was powerful, but just that he believed that if it was so strong, then how did the elves and dwarves fall? It didn’t make much sense.

“Ah… You’ve forgotten even this… It seems the situation is much worse than we thought…” The elder’s sigh deepened.

“This is a secret only our two races know, but the World Tree isn’t from our plane of existence.”

“You mean it’s from the Immortal Plane?” Dyon asked.

“No. I mean it isn’t from our fabric of reality at all.”

For the first time in a long time, Dyon’s heart trembled.

Not from our fabric of reality? What exactly did this mean?

[Author’s Note: No, it really isn’t what you’re all thinking, lmao. RMW is ending in 3-4 more volumes. Saying this now to save me from the onslaught of ‘how could you?!?!?!’ comments. Maybe I’ll explore that world a few years later].

“When your cultivation reaches a deep enough level, you can begin delving into the Mysteries of Beginning. Of course, us mere mortals have no ability to do such a thing. Only those mighty existences on the Immortal Plane are capable of doing so.

“However, we were lucky. Due to the World Tree, unlike other races, we were capable of keeping in close contact with our Ancestors on the Immortal Plane. Through the World Tree, we could even speak with our ascended Ancestors face to face. It was only after we lost contact with the World Tree due to an Elven Queen not appearing for several generations that we lost this ability.

“Without the World Tree, our flaws slowly became more and more apparent. Eventually, the cultures of our two races became too opposing.

“We dwarves needed precious ores to maintain our strength, but elves were against that sort of mass mining as it ruined the balance of nature. In a way, it was almost inevitable that we would come to a head. I still do not understand why the World Tree decided to give us two such abilities, but it was our reality.

“Without us working in tandem, we first tore each other apart before our enemies further destroyed what we had built.”

One had to remember that though the Golden Era was the shortest of the four, it still reigned for trillions of years. It wasn’t surprising then that the green-haired elder could speak of matters that took countless generations to unfold.

Elves were beast tamers, they had a vested interest in protecting wildlife and sustaining the balance of ecosystems. But, dwarves were miners and forgers. They couldn’t build their strength without destroying these very ecosystems the elves sought to protect.

How could they not clash with such opposing ideologies?

“So to say that it is impossible for the dwarves and elves without an Elven Queen? Do you not feel it unfair that the one that binds you only comes from your rival’s race?”