Chapter 149

〈 Episode 149 〉Guardian of the Elves

“It’s quiet…”

Asha, pushing through the forest, felt a strong sense of unease as even the slightest noise seemed to have vanished from the surroundings.

“Lucy, are there any Elves nearby?”

“Huh? No. It’s like they’ve disappeared completely from around us.”

“Something’s fishy. Those persistent ones wouldn’t just stop their surveillance.”

Anet frowned at the Elves’ uncharacteristic behavior. Asha also had an ominous premonition. Just then, Lucia suddenly turned around and shouted.

“Mom, attack! Over there!”

“Over there? Where…”

As Asha tried to gauge the direction of the attack, she felt a chilling Mana and her face turned pale. Lucia didn’t just warn of the attack; she immediately spread her wings and soared into the sky.

“Get back, Mom! This attack is… Haaaaaa!!”

Lucia, who had ascended to a high altitude in an instant, unleashed a fist forward with all her might, splitting the world in two centered around her. The aftermath of the attack caused a storm, and a metallic wind blew. Something was flying towards Lucia from far away.

The brilliantly shining Light sphere was not flying at a particularly fast speed, but it was approaching, obliterating everything in its path. Asha was dumbfounded by the attack that had started from a distance she couldn’t even see with her own eyes.

“Where the hell did that come from?”

Soon, Lucia’s attack collided with the white Light sphere. As an impact wave that humans couldn’t even perceive erupted, Asha quickly grabbed Anet and deployed a Barrier.

“Ugh…”

Anet realized that her life had been in danger from the impact wave alone and broke out in a cold sweat. Seeing the outrageous attack, she knew who had come for Asha.

“Your Majesty, it’s the Guardian!”

“Guardian?”

“The last bastion of the Elves. A monster who has lived for 700 years.”

As Anet spoke, the impact wave that had been sweeping through the area subsided.

“What the…”

Asha was bewildered as she realized that her surroundings had become a wasteland. Trees that had been uprooted and shattered were scattered everywhere, and only a huge pit remained where their attacks had collided, with nothing even retaining its shape.

“W-wait, hold on, again?!”

Asha, looking around with stunned eyes, was horrified as she felt the same attack again.

“Lucy!”

“Mom, it’s dangerous!”

Asha became desperate as even Lucia seemed unable to guarantee victory.

“Lucy, let’s retreat! We can’t fight back when we don’t even know where the attack is coming from!”

“But!”

Anet weighed the odds of Asha and Lucia, and the Guardian, winning. Unable to make a judgment with the knowledge she had, she said to Asha.

“We must retreat from here. Your Majesty’s safety is the top priority!”

“A-alright! Lucy, let’s run!”

“Okay!”

Lucia didn’t confront the white sphere that was flying towards them again and retreated with Asha. But as the three of them began to move away, the huge Light sphere began to change its appearance.

The smooth surface rippled, and the Mana construct, which had been like the sun, split into hundreds of thousands of arrows and flew towards Asha.

“Not so fast!”

Lucia crossed through space with Asha and Anet, but the Mana arrows relentlessly pursued Lucia.

“Lucy, I’ll help!”

Feeling that there was no solution if they only kept dodging, Asha immediately created a huge firestorm and unleashed it forward. Flames swirled and burned the arrows, but the arrows that covered the sky were so numerous that they became violence itself and struck Asha.

“Ugh!”

Asha’s face turned red from the terrible pressure. As she struggled, Lucia joined in. When Lucia flapped her wings, the Mana that spread out along with the flapping exponentially amplified and shattered all the arrows in its path. Countless explosions shook the area along with the sound of glass breaking.

“These things, they explode too?!”

Asha wore a perplexed expression at the unpredictable attacks. Unlike the Man who had fought Sejin, the attacks pouring down on Asha were clearly Magic, but Asha couldn’t cope with the continuous barrage of unheard-of attacks.

“Haa, haa…”

Even after hundreds of thousands of arrows had poured down, the attacks continued relentlessly. Suddenly, the ground cracked and Lava soared, and thousands of lightning bolts poured down from the sky, turning Asha’s surroundings into hell itself.

“Ugh…”

Asha staggered, feeling that the Mana she had thought was infinite was running out. It was difficult to maintain her balance on the fragmented ground. Anet quickly came to her and supported her as she was about to fall backward.

“They’re not giving us any room to escape.”

Asha, frustrated by Anet’s words, shouted.

“What the hell?! Where is all that Mana coming from that they can pour out such attacks endlessly?”

“Since this is my base, it can’t be helped.”

Asha was horrified and turned around when she heard the answer from an unexpected place. An Elf came into her view.

“You!”

“I’ve met you sooner than I expected. It seems there have been many changes in the meantime.”

Asha distorted her face as the person who had been attacking them matched her expectations. The Wind Witch, who had single-handedly destroyed the fortress and driven the kingdom to the brink of destruction, was in front of her. Asha seriously wanted to check her fortune after facing another enemy following the Man she had met with Sejin.

But from the moment they had invaded the Elves’ territory, the meeting between the two was as good as decided. Asha clenched her fists in tension as she faced the enemy in front of her.

“Aether!”

“You didn’t think you could survive after coming this far, did you? I don’t know how many of my fellow Elves have been troubled because of you.”

“Anet, the Guardian you mentioned is…”

“Yes, that woman is the one. She is the Guardian of the Elves.”

In fact, even though she had heard that the fortress had been destroyed and the kingdom had almost been destroyed, Asha didn’t know exactly how strong Aether was. But the power she faced was beyond imagination.

‘She’s too strong… I can’t let Lucy or Anet get hurt, even if it’s just me.’

Asha felt resentful of the reality that she couldn’t do anything even with Aether, who had killed her and Zack, in front of her. She slowly took a step back and looked back at Lucia. Judging from her daughter’s expression, it didn’t seem easy either.

“…”

Normally, the battle with Aether would have been a great opportunity for Lucia to relieve the stress she had accumulated because of the Elves who had been bothering her, but now that her mother’s life was at stake, it only added to her annoyance.

“Ugh!”

Even as she stood still, Lucia was constantly looking for opportunities to attack and eliminate Aether without Asha knowing, but she only failed repeatedly.

Aether smiled amusingly as she watched Lucia constantly looking for a chance to attack.

“Compared to having endless Mana, you have a hasty temperament. Without calmness and composure, it is useless even if you have such power.”

“Tch!”

Lucia, who had suffered hardships in the past, was upset by those words, but she calmed down again. The existence that Lucia had to protect was too important to recklessly rush at the person in front of her. Asha spoke, wanting to glean even a small piece of information.

“You can’t guarantee that you can win against us either, can you? Why did you come all the way here?”

“I was just sending a greeting earlier.”

“What if you die?”

Aether shook her head.

“If I die, it can’t be helped. I was looking forward to this meeting, so I got a little long-winded. I have many other things to do besides this.”

At Aether’s words, Asha and Lucia reflexively launched attacks. The two, who attacked simultaneously without a single error, did not fluster Aether in the slightest and blocked the attacks. Asha’s sword, wrapped in flames, seemed to have slipped and its trajectory was distorted, and Lucia was bounced back in the direction she had been shooting.

Asha gritted her teeth as Lucia disappeared behind her and an explosion was heard.

“Lucy! Aaaagh!”

As soon as Lucia was gone, Asha was instantly pushed into a defensive position and became covered in wounds. A chilling Thought waves began to spread from afar at Asha’s scream. Lucia, who had been bounced off by Aether and returned, was enraged when she saw Asha, who had become covered in blood.

“Youuu!! I’ll kill you!”

Lucia grabbed extremely compressed Mana in her hand and unleashed it towards Aether. A roar and heat spread out and burst around them, but Aether quietly put her hands together and let the attack pass through. Lucia’s attack, which passed through her as it was, went over to the back and caused a huge explosion far away.

“Ugh…”

Asha’s wounds were healing quickly, but her Mana was not recovering.

“Mom, are you okay?!”

“Y-yeah, I’m okay. But…”

Even though she looked like a defeated soldier, Aether was full of composure as if she had come out for a walk.

‘What should I do?’

Asha felt the desperate difference in capabilities. Beyond just the difference in Mana, the level of Magic that Aether wielded was overwhelming. Asha felt like her will to fight would fade at the renewed sense of helplessness.