"You ask me that?" Nial asked, his voice adapting a tone of mockery without even meaning to.
Valvian merely nodded his head in response, ignoring Nial's tone completely.
"I'm just one of the puny humans your race believes to be able to treat like their toys," Nial answered without trying to hide his disgust.
In the last three months, Nial had gotten a fair idea of the Elves' behavior, their talent, and their intentions.
However, only now did he actually dare to say something. The Ankh within his body was glowing faintly, and the Odyssey seed accumulated enough dark energy from the surrounding mana, which it absorbed.
Nial was oblivious to this, but he could clearly tell that he was feeling more courageous than usual. Offending the race he wanted to learn a lot from was definitely not something he should do.
But Nial couldn't care less right now.
"Treat humans like they're our toys?" Old Elf Crevian repeated his words without showing any emotions. His expression had stiffened when he noticed Nial's disgust.
It was as if Nial knew far more than he wanted to reveal. 'It's almost as if he knows about our past...' Old Elf Crevian thought despite knowing that this shouldn't be the case.
While Crevian had become much more careful, Valvian was livid after hearing Nial's accusation.
"What are you even saying, Nial? Can't you tell that we're trying to befriend you and your race, not to exploit your race, or to play with them?"
At this moment, Valvian felt as if his earlier perception of Nial was crumbling to pieces. It was almost like Nial was not the same person as he had been before.
'Did he change all of a sudden, or is that how he usually is? Did his mask crumble when he advanced?'
Valvian was confused but Nial could only sneer at the Midnight Elf's comment as Damian's memories resurfaced in Nial's mind. He had long since digested and accepted the memories which the Odyssey seed had shared with him.
Thus, he knew everything the Elves had done to the various human races, drugging them to turn them into addicted and obedient Warriors, who obeyed their 'masters' as long as they received a steady supply of the drugs that worked like steroids in a world full of magic and mana.
This was just one example, but Nial clearly remembered that humans and elves had attacked one of the many kingdoms he had ruled a long time ago. The God of Darkness hadn't even been at war with any human or elven race at that time, and it was merely because his race was deemed 'demonic', 'evil', and 'vile' that they had attacked them.
Everyone, whether they were weak, crippled, ill, young, elderly, pregnant, or ordinary citizens, who did not even have the capability to become stronger with the use of mana, had been killed, and mercilessly slaughtered.
Damian hadn't been present at that time. However, when he heard about the incident, he returned to a kingdom that had ceased to exist overnight.
He had been furious and took out his anger on the perpetrators, slaughtering them mercilessly.
Yet, funnily enough, the Elves had thrown their slaves, the humans at Damian, as if they were goods that could be disposed of. Without caring about their lives, the Elves commanded the humans to sacrifice themselves, just so that it would buy them some time to run away.
Nial desperately wished to forget about this and various other incidents because he was not the God of Darkness, and these incidents had happened eons ago. He was not even sure how long ago the God of Darkness had died.
However, even if it hadn't been that long, it was a fact that the memories of Damian had been quite old.
"He knows about our past before the Empress ascended the throne," Crevian said in the elven tongue. However, Crevian used a trick to ensure that Nial would not understand him.
He had noticed that Nial was able to understand the elven tongue nearly perfectly, after all. Thus, he used the old elven language. Sadly, his trick fell flat on its face.
"Don't think that I cannot understand you, just because you switched the usual words with others and changed the language you use a tiny bit." There were many similar consonants and words in the old elven language and the one that was commonly used by all the elven races to communicate.
Nonetheless, it astonished even Nial that he could understand Crevian perfectly, which was why he switched to the human language a moment later.
"Either way, it doesn't matter. Just know that I know about your past, that I know how you treated humans and other races. I hope that history won't repeat itself.
Silvian will definitely attack, and considering that he had already close to three months to prepare an attack, it won't take long before he will initiate his attack.
Will you ask us, humans, for help? We have destructive powers, which are much better against Dryx than your wind affinity, let alone nature's power. Nature will only wither and perish upon coming in contact with the Dryx's corrosive attacks, and their highly contagious and lethal disease."
Elves were far stronger than Dryx, but it was a matter of fact that a single Dryx was more than enough to destroy the Forest of Life. In an unforeseen event that a rather new and exotic disease would encroach upon the plants of the Forest of Life, everything might be destroyed, deprived of their life, and will.
Valvian and Master Crevian were astonished that Nial was able to switch topics so quickly because they had been talking about something important.
Nial's attitude toward the Elves was questionable right now, but his anger had calmed and it looked like he didn't want to lose their favor completely.
"I apologize for my sudden outburst and hostility." Nial suddenly mumbled. His words didn't seem 100% genuine but Valvian and Crevian didn't say anything about it as Nial continued,
"The memories I received from my Innate ability blurred my senses for a while. My breakthrough was a little bit too intense and my mind required a few seconds to understand that those weren't my memories." The Elves knew that Innate abilities existed. They also knew that certain types of Elves were able to store their memories in Innate abilities.
Thus, Nial's explanation was reasonable. They could understand him because they knew that often one was in a perilous condition both mentally and physically while breaking through.
"Alright, let's forget about that then. I guess you know that the portal is the manifested fragment of our Empresses' Divinity because of the same memories.
Then, what about Silvian? Is he the one I think he is?" Master Crevian asked while controlling his anger. however, his hands tightly clenched giving it away. Crackling noises could be heard from his hands, which caused some Prometheus Elves to swallow nervously.
He couldn't be sure that Nial knew who he was talking about but when Crevian perceived that the young man merely nodded his head, the old Elf could only sigh deeply.
His worry increased even further the moment he heard what Nial had to say.
"If you ask me whether or not he is the God of the same name, then yes, I'm pretty sure that is Silvian. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to control the Dryx, or am I wrong?" He asked provokingly.
Even if Nial wanted to suppress Damian's hidden emotions that had resurfaced when he completed his advance to the next rank, it was quite difficult to do so.
Only the Ankh's influence allowed him to keep his calm because it seemed to prevent the Odyssey seed from releasing it's dark energy, which would only intensify the God of Darkness' emotions.
Nial didn't reveal everything he knew. Silvian was not after his life, but that of the Elves.
He wanted to get his hands on the manifested Divinity Fragment and potentially also the Forest of Life.
Though, Nial was pretty sure that the Forest of Life would cease to exist if Silvian would attack them in full force.
"Shit." A single word escaped Master Crevian's mouth.
However, this seemingly simple, yet obscene word in the mouth of the man everyone respected was more than enough to cause every single Elves' ears to perk up.
Master Crevian never cursed, and he was known for being able to keep his calm in every situation.
He was considered the perfect Warrior.
Yet, this perfect Warrior began to curse. The meaning behind this was clear.
'We are fucked, aren't we?'
Quite a few Elves thought like that. Others may say that they exaggerated Crevian's one-word curse.
However, to the Elves, who knew Crevian since they were newborns, seeing him lose his temper was shocking enough.
"As I said, start business and trading activities with us humans, and everything will be fine. Well, I wouldn't promise anything, but I doubt that you guys can sacrifice the Forest of Life, and the Empresses' Divinity fragment just for the sake of your pride.
It should have taken the entire Elven race an enormous effort to be one of the first, if not the first race to descend on Jundra. Wasting that effort will weaken the Elven race, and the other races will be able to destroy your 'stronghold' on Jundra even before you guys can blink twice.
Let me be honest with you guys, I have no idea what makes Jundra so important, but what I can tell is that numerous Gods and Divine existences are willing to sacrifice a lot to incarnate here, to allow their dungeons to be created everywhere on this planet, and much more.
Even if the Elven race might not be in favor of an alliance of equal parties, we've survived on Jundra for several centuries, we are becoming stronger by the day, and we can adjust to the madness of the world, even if the Kerilan Abyss would open right in front of us!" Nial took a pause to catch his breath while his lifeless eyes were fixated on the Old Elf Crevian, whose eyes were bandaged.
He was not able to control his lifeless white and milky eyes, but they looked extremely eerie right now as Nial continued to speak once again.
"This decision is for you to make. Accept humans as an existence on equal footing with you, or we can just stop with all this unnecessary bullshit. I mean, I stayed in the Forest of Life for nearly three months but how far have we come with our 'gatherings'? They were all useless and the moment I leave, the situation will either get worse, or there won't be anyone who wants to talk to you.
Humans are greedy, and they want to get their hands on everything. They only fear the strong, which is why they don't dare to do anything to you.
But what would the human Originals think if the Dryx came and attacked the Forest of Life? Would they help you after basically getting ignored for three whole months? I doubt it. They would be overjoyed, and kill off everyone, who survives the battle between Sivlian's forces and the Elves." Nial's voice grew colder the more he spoke.
He had been nice enough in the last few weeks. Nial had even swallowed his pride to allow the Elves to talk down to them and mock humans at every possible chance. Only a few Originals had been somewhat accepted, including Nial himself, and Mathias, to a certain extent.
The way they treated Miranda was also fine, but she was also forced to clench her teeth in some situations because they were simply inconsiderate.
Now that Nial's mind was also influenced by Damian's intense memories and the knowledge about Silvian's potential attack, there was no reason for him to force himself to please the Elves.
They had to make their decision, and humans would either look at the Elves fighting for their life against the Dryx in the near future, or they would support them and fight by their side!
"It's on you guys, decide!"
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