I stayed hidden in the camp as I watched the elven reinforcements split into the three groups — the smallest escorting Seldanna and the biggest going toward the border — fascinated by just how quickly things could change in a few seconds. It wasn’t a lesson I was learning for the first time, but it didn’t make it any less fascinating.
Once again highlighting that, personal power was more important than any kind of fortified establishment.
My first aim, I followed Seldanna, communicating with her through our connection. “Go with them and act obedient. I promise I’ll save you. Also, ask the elves to establish a camp downstream and stay put for a few days. Promise them a solution, I’ll handle it,” I said.
I didn’t want random elves to ruin my observation.
Seldanna just nodded, not daring to use magic while surrounded by others. The arrival of the elves from the central tribes was actually not that problematic. It was annoying in the short term, sure. I didn’t want my defensive bastion that could be used to farm Divine Spark ruined, that was true…
But I wasn’t unaware of the advantages either. I wanted to learn more about the central elves, and trying to do was rather dangerous. And, even if they sent some reinforcements, they would have been reserved as a part of a larger group,, making it harder for me to detect anything.
Yet, they were kind enough to split into three groups, one to escort prisoners, one to defend a set location, and one to explore the camp where every inch of it was filled with defensive wards.
A perfect way for me to observe what was going on.
My first focus was following Seldanna. The wards allowed me to observe the camp from a distance, and the larger group could be temporarily dismissed. Undead might attack them, but defending them was not my responsibility.
I was glad for the recent improvement of Speed, allowing me to dash behind the group rapidly to make sure things weren’t problematic. I could try to use Seldanna as a beacon for an emergency, but it was not something I wanted to risk.
Still, chasing after a flying beast wasn’t exactly simple, especially since I was on unfamiliar ground, challenging me to the limit while forcing me to use a great number of spells to avoid occasional tribes.
Deeper into the territory, there wasn’t much undead presence. However, that didn’t mean none. An hour into our little adventure, just as they were flying over a mountain, a motion burst from the ground, followed by a familiar necrotic blast.
It hit the wing of the roc, forcing the beast into a freefall.
Elves reacted, but even with their rapid response, before they could shoot their arrows, another necrotic blast rose, along with some bone arrows. Just one lich, and a group of skeletons. Not a weak lich, as its aura suggested, but not a strong one either.
I watched as the Roc landed. One elf stayed with Seldanna, watching her carefully, while the rest attacked, making quick work of the skeletons and the lich. The lich tried to retreat, but the mage of the elves was strong enough to prevent that, showing that the lich was there to handle weaker targets of opportunity.
Altogether, it would have been a boring combat event, but I noticed that before the lich reached its unfortunate end, one of the warriors rushed forward, pulled some kind of large acorn, and pressed against the bones of the lich.
Absorbing the Divine Spark.
I frowned. I was too far away to get a true sense of what was going on, but from what I could have seen, it had been suspiciously familiar. There was no visual connection with what I saw, but that wasn’t enough to write off my suspicions.
Luckily, I had a chance to observe. While the elves were distracted by the combat, I circled their combat and approached from the other side, targeting the roc with a twisted healing spell, one that forced the beast into a coma while healing it at the same time.
I could have killed the beast directly, but keeping the beast unconscious had the potential to keep them there even longer.
Success, I thought as I watched them argue for a while before their caster started working on the roc — not a dedicated healer, I noted as I felt the clumsy nature of his spells, not to mention nature mana was not purely conducive to healing as my Proto-HP — and twenty minutes later, the rest started to set up a camp.
Excellent, I thought as I set up a teleportation beacon. Since the camp had been set up, I wanted to check the other hot spot.
I teleported toward the border. The largest group of elves had already arrived there, and a small forest had grown around it, though, unlike mine, their trees were more ordinary kind, filled just with mana rather than divine spark.
They were not just using the environmental mana, but some kind of liquidized version, pouring them for the trees which grew them rapidly.
The mages were busy with that, but the warriors patrolled the perimeter, dealing with the occasional undead attack. The undead incursions were weak, but clearly, they were meant to be, They were just using probing attacks, while the others were actually using the attacks of opportunity for the situation.
I watched the battle for a long while, which gave me a better sense of their combat capabilities — enough that I wouldn’t have wanted to tangle with them in my situation unless necessary — and the undead response — gathering at the horizon, but promising to be spectacular.
Yet, before I could make a move, a notification appeared in my vision.
{-5 Nature Spark, God Forest}
It was enough of a reason for me to teleport immediately back to the main camp, expecting an undead attack. I neither wanted to lose the tribes Seldanna collected, nor did I want to lose my own defensive beacon.
Even as I did, however, I was frowning. I had enough detection wards there to make sure such a slip was impossible, and the fact that the undead somehow managed to arrive there was not good news. Not in the slightest.
Yet, when I appeared in my underground chamber and used the detection spells, I felt no undead presence. There was only one ward around the main tree, established by the elves and containing them, but with no undead presence.
Something was seriously wrong, and I didn’t have a lot of time to detect what exactly was that wrongness.
{-5 Nature Spark, God Forest}
Something was still stealing my Divine Spark, something I had no intention of allowing, so I went above the ground.
Only to see all but one of the elves dead, and the mage currently using the same kind of acorn to drain the tree. Treason, how interesting.
Not all of them were dead, I realized a moment later when one of the warriors gasped. “W-why?” he whispered in his dying breath.
“Why? You dare to ask why. This world is doomed, brother, and I have no intention of letting that succeed. I want to escape this forest fire, and to do that, I need some leverage.”
As he said that, he kept the acorn connected. I ignored the emotional aspects of their little play, and instead focused on the acorn that he was using to steal Divine Spark, one that had functioned very similarly to the crystal that the undead used.
A mana sliver of mine was all I needed to follow the flow, and I started examining the internal structure. Despite the similarities in function, the outer layer of the two pieces of equipment couldn’t be any more different. The acorn was a living thing, while the crystals were inorganic.
Maybe, if I was a less suspicious man, I would have made a conclusion. Yet, the differences at the outer layers were too much to be coincidental, so I started examining.
A good decision, I realized quickly as I deciphered the outer layer, and found out that most of the outer layer was actually a very elaborate self-destruction mechanism, primed to go off at an intervention.
Luckily, my mana was pure enough to mix with Divine Spark and follow the source, and my stats were significant enough to allow me to keep a tight leash.
And then, I got a glimpse of what was inside, and a big frown appeared on my face. A crystal, not just similar but identical. Worse, as I examined that, I realized it wasn’t just the working principles that were the same. No, I could see several signs of habits that would belong to craftsmen that had been trained by the same master, working together, using the same equipment.
Elves and undead were using the same crystals to capture Divine Spark. More importantly, someone had gone through a significant amount of trouble to actually hide that fact. I only realized it, because I was a mage, an expert on Divine Spark, and a crafter at the same time…
Maybe I was being paranoid, but I smelled a conspiracy…
{Strength: 16 Charisma: 16
Precision: 16 Perception: 16
Agility: 16 Manipulation: 16
Speed: 16 Intelligence: 16
Endurance: 16 Wisdom: 16}
{Purified Divine Spark: 2392}
{Pseudo-HP: 2869 Mana: 4140}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Light - Chosen 7.4
Nature - Chosen 10}
{MINIONS
Guardian God Forest - 1799}
Elven Priestess - 70}
[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]
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