CHAPTER 219: 219. LOVESTORY

Leafsong village was nestled between the borders of the Moonlight Forest, Nuving and Gaephia provinces.

It was hidden through high-tier illusion magic arrays which even the top mages of Grimbow would’ve hard time breaking.

If one could see it, they would think that nothing wrong was going on here. The elves were merrily chatting in their homes, workers transported fruits and water through the treehouses. Guards were stationed at every branch and root.

However, the largest treehouse at the center wasn’t so peaceful. At the moment, cries of agitated elders rang in the halls.

"Your Highness, you mustn’t leave!"

"The outside is unsafe!"

The village elders pleaded. Behind them, several diviners gathered around a large, white crystal orb.

Several scenes of the battles that happened in Dungeon of Sins flashed in that orb. Although the images were blurry, one could clearly see elves being killed and later captured.

"I don’t care how dangerous it is!" Princess Valerie pulled her bowstring further, pointing at the guards who were blocking her way.

In this village, there were no archers who had a better aim than her. However, that aim meant nothing if she couldn’t shoot.

"Don’t force me."

"You may shoot us. But we shall not let you be hurt!" The guards were adamant.

"Move!" Valerie shouted. "I’m going to save Issac."

"Your Highness," One of the guards in the middle sighed. "We are following Lord Issac’s orders. He told us that no matter what happened to him, you can’t leave the village..."

Hearing that, the princess’s eyes became watery.

Back when her father was assassinated, she was just nine. Being the only descendant of the then Elven King, she was crowned as the de facto monarch of the different Elven Tribes who lived in the Darknight Forest.

However, there were many who vied for the position and power that she held. And her stepmother Lissandra was one of them.

She was a powerful witch at the height of the 4th Circle. By coercing the royal druids, Lissandra had managed to snatch away Valerie’s birthright and became the new Queen.

However, this position could be snatched away once the princess grew up. That’s why she placed a curse on Valerie, and used the Life Elixir to control and pressure the poor girl.

With the princess weakened, her support among the elves also dwindled. At the time, only one warrior stood up for her. He supported her and fended off many ploys created by the deceptive queen.

Issac. He never gave up on her.

When the queen tried to kill Valerie during her coming of age ceremony, it was Issac who stole the treasure which kept the princess alive and fled with her.

For the sheltered princess, that man was her saviour, her protector and her... love. How could she stay still knowing he was captured by the enemies?!

Valerie pulled the green arrow on her bow and suddenly aimed at one of the windows. The guards, who thought she was going to shoot them, were stunned.

Before they could make sense of her plan, the arrow latched itself on one of the trees nearby and the princess unexpectedly jumped from the window.

Valerie had fired a grapple arrow with a rope attached to it. Swinging from one tree to another, she quickly fled the halls.

"Your Highness!"

The elves behind her cried, stretching their hands from the window balcony.

...

After sending Perry back, Jake slowly entered the prison chamber alone.

"Aaaahh!"

"W-Who are you?!"

"What do you want?"

The captured elves cried one by one as he forcefully searched their memories of the battle.

This was very harmful to the minds of anyone below the 4th Circle, and would most likely cause permanent memory loss. However, Jake didn’t care.

Luckily for these elves, those that killed his girls had already died... except for one third circle archer.

Jake corrupted all the remaining prisoners at the third circle and released them.

"Kill her. Slowly."

Issac and the four squad captains still retained their conscience. When they saw the corrupted elves follow this unknown demon’s commands, a sense of dread arose within them.

The female elf’s cries sounded raw and painful as her own tribe members brutally killed her. The peaceful elves had neither seen nor faced such violence.

Powerless to do anything, they turned their heads away. But the cries for help still made their hearts palpitate.

Compared to the elves, the chained summoners maintained their stoic expressions. These weren’t mere summoners but dark mages who made pacts with various evil spirits.

Even in front of a high-ranking demon, they showed no fear.

"This will not end well." One of the cloaked summoners scoffed.

"Is that so?" Jake removed the hoodie of the person who spoke.

It was a bald female with weird tattoos on her forehead. Her eyes were green like that of a dangerous poison, and her nose piercing had a strange eye symbol on it which suddenly glowed purple.

’This-’ The moment it happened, Jake immediately kicked her.

At the same time, his mind buzzed. It felt as if a giant bell was inside his brain, ringing incessantly.

This was a mental attack and it didn’t seem to use conventional mana but something different. That’s why it wasn’t sealed by Yvonne’s draconic chains.

However, it seemed this attack had drained whatever energy was left in the accessory that woman used.

The moment Jake was disoriented, another cloaked summoner suddenly conjured an energy sword with which he tried to cut his chains.

The plan was almost perfect. However, they underestimated a dragon’s power. Even after 2-3 seconds, the binding chains still held strong against the sword.

Jake was out of the effect of that mental attack pretty quickly due to his high attributes. Immediately, he restricted every one of those summoners.

Using [Blood Manipulation], he further weakened them and only then lifted their cloaks, guarded against any further shenanigans.

It appeared these were all humans. Except two, the rest were all men. After some interrogation, he found out that the earlier bald woman, named Tiara, was their leader.

These summoners had come all the way from the southern Auximore Empire, which was famous for its magic.

This particular group of summoners were commissioned from a mysterious dark mage organization called the Soul Eye.

"Foreign powers, huh..." Jake murmured, grabbing the neck of another female summoner who still had her hair intact. Some blood dripped on the floor when he tightened his sharp claw.

She was the weakest link and spouted information fairly quickly. The others were tight-lipped and needed some torturing.

About an hour later, Jake finished learning everything he wanted from these summoners, including the info about that mental attack earlier.

It appeared that Tiara had used something called spirit mana, which mainly affected the spirit or soul of a living being.

This kind of mana had to be specifically cultivated using living spirits and couldn’t be found anywhere else. Their organization, Soul Eye, specialized in the use of spirit mana.

"Interesting."

That earlier attack seemed to use a miniscule amount of spirit mana, but it still affected him greatly. If he could get his hands on more of that, fighting 5th Circle beings wouldn’t be a problem.

Obviously, he couldn’t miss out on such a prospective trump card.