CHAPTER 33: ELVEN PROPHECIES

After Galdorf gave them a warning not to show Exgrandal and Exelion to anyone, as it would make them targets, Ard and Eva excused themselves to leave the Headmaster’s office. But when the two stood in front of the door, they heard noises on the other side. Eva stepped back, and Ard opened the door.

"Whoaaah,"

Alicia, Milia, Beatrice, Rosalin, Patricia, Geoffrey, Ainsley, and Irwin immediately tumbled into the Headmaster’s office in a heap, causing Galdorf to stand up and look toward the door.

"Why are you guys here?" Ard asked.

"Sorry, bro, hehe," Geoffrey replied.

"Ugh... get up quickly, you’re heavy," Beatrice yelled.

"Don’t move around, Princess," Rosalind countered.

"Geoffrey, stand up fast, you’re crushing me," Ainsley groaned.

"Um... your hand, Ainsley," Patricia said with a red face.

Ainsley looked down and realized his hand had landed on Patricia’s chest. "Whoaaah," Ainsley immediately lifted his hand and scrambled backward.

"Hey... don’t move like that," Milia shouted, having been bumped by Ainsley.

"S-Sorry," Ainsley replied.

"Aargh, get up already, this is heavy," Irwin yelled.

"Ouch... what’s going on, come on," Alicia added.

They finally became a noisy mess themselves. "Pfft," everyone immediately turned and stared, stunned to see Eva stifling her laughter until her eyes were watering. They were all surprised because this was the first time they had ever seen Eva, who was usually so aloof, laughing in front of them.

"Um... Eva can laugh, apparently," Alicia said.

"Yeah... I can’t tell if that’s terrifying or good," Milia added.

"Grr... don’t talk nonsense. Get up and leave quickly," Eva said with a beaming face.

Finally, they all stood up and bid farewell to Galdorf, who merely smiled and raised his hand. After that, they all walked down the hallway. Ard walked at the very back, watching Eva, who had started chatting with Alicia, Milia, Patricia, Rosalind, and even Beatrice. They were also talking with Geoffrey, a noticeably nervous Ainsley, and a relaxed Irwin. Ard kept watching Eva and smiling.

"That means... the nine-life problem is over, huh? I won’t die again at 31. Eva isn’t the cold, cruel Ice Queen anymore," Ard muttered in his heart.

Ard casually walked, following his friends from behind. Suddenly, they all turned back to look at Ard, including Eva.

"Hey, hurry up!" everyone yelled, smiling.

"Haha... okay," Ard replied, immediately running to join his friends.

***

"Shh... shh... shh."

The sound of ocean waves crashing could be heard. A small boat approached the shore and docked.

"We’ve arrived, Evelina," Azroth said, his body covered in wounds, one horn broken, one eye blind, and his face filled with sadness.

He got off the boat and bent down to carry Evelina’s body, which had been stabbed in the chest. Azroth carried Evelina’s limp, lifeless body with Exelion stuck in her chest, pressing his cheek against her head. He stepped into a cave in the cliff with the sound of waves washing behind him and a stream of seawater forming a river inside the cave. Azroth continued walking deep into the cave, which looked vast and full of stalactites above him, going deeper and deeper without stopping.

Finally, he found the source of the seawater flow, which formed a very deep lake inside the cave. Azroth continued walking into the lake and stopped in the middle. He looked at Evelina’s closed eyes and sad face. Slowly, Azroth bent down and placed Evelina’s body on the calm water surface. Suddenly, Evelina’s entire body was encased in a crystal and stood upright. Her palms were open, and the stab wound in her chest healed, with Exelion stuck in her chest. The crystal floated to the middle of the lake and remained there. The cave, which had been dark, became bright because of the crystal’s light.

Azroth stood back up and walked further into the lake until he was right in front of the crystal. His hand touched the crystal where Evelina’s body was preserved inside.

"Esmeralda... sleep here. I will come back here when everything is finished. Wait for me, Esmeralda, we will be together again," Azroth said, looking up at Evelina’s face.

Azroth, severely wounded, turned and walked out of the lake. Then he walked out of the large cave chamber where the crystal containing Evelina’s body was stored. Meanwhile, inside the crystal, tears flowed from Evelina’s closed eyes, as if bidding farewell to Azroth. "Grrrrk," the cave entrance leading to the sea closed, and the river flow to the lake stopped. Then, everything became pitch black, lit only by the light of the crystal encasing Evelina’s body.

***

"Huh,"

Ard woke up and immediately sat up in his bed, but this time he wasn’t gasping for breath. He glanced at the window and saw it was still night.

"Wait a minute... I was the one who placed Evelina in the underground cave... so... where did I go? That means the person who placed Evelina’s body and my body beneath this academy... clearly wasn’t a resident of the academy... it must have been me, and somehow I feel like I returned there again," Ard muttered in his heart.

Ard again recalled what Galdorf had said about the prophecy written on his and Evelina’s bodies.

"Don’t tell me... I was the one who wrote it, huh... I don’t know... I feel like it, but after I put Evelina in that cave... where did I go? Besides, the location of the cave makes sense. The academy town is close to a port city, and I remember walking for a very long time from the sea inside the cave, which seemed endless... it seems there is still a story I don’t know, and it probably connects to the dark cult now," Ard muttered.

"Thud,"

Ard turned to the window because he heard something hit the window glass. Ard immediately got out of bed slowly so as not to wake Geoffrey, then walked toward the window and peeked through the curtain to look down. He saw an elf, along with her familiar beside her, waving her hand up at him.

"Huh... Pyria, what does she want?" Ard wondered in his heart.

Ard immediately left the room and went downstairs to meet Pyria, or Patricia. After facing Pyria,

"Hi, sorry to bother you," Pyria said.

"Why are you here so late at night?" Ard asked.

"I need to talk. There’s something I have to tell you," Pyria replied.

"Okay, let’s talk in the garden," Ard responded.

They walked to the garden and went into the same pavilion where Ard had spoken privately with Eva.

"Okay, what do you want to talk about?" Ard asked.

"Um... I heard everything you guys talked about inside the Headmaster’s office... these elf ears aren’t just for decoration, you know," Pyria replied, touching her own ears.

Ard observed Pyria, who looked cheerful, touching her own ears, and tilting her head to look at him with a smile.

"Okay, what all did you hear?" Ard replied.

Pyria immediately told him everything she had heard. Aside from the dream or past memories that came out, she heard everything about the suspicious movement, about who Ard and Eva were, about the swords Exgrandal and Exelion, and also about the prophecy.

"After hearing everything and being sure you are Azroth, then I have to say this: the prophecy in the Fredonia Kingdom and the Orthus Empire is wrong. We elves know the real prophecy because Azroth himself told us," Pyria stated.

"Really? I told the elf tribe?" Ard asked, shocked.

"Yes. Azroth came to the secret elf village severely wounded and nearly dead. He stayed there for one year and told us everything," Pyria answered seriously.

"What did I tell the elf tribe?" Ard asked.

"If a baby boy with black hair is born into the Fredonia royal family and a baby girl with silver hair is born into the Orthus imperial family, save both of them from the hands of humans or demons, because that means the heroes named Ashton and Esmeralda, who were very close to the elf tribe, have been reborn, and when they are adults, they will destroy the Demon God, Malekh," Pyria said.

"Huh... do you mean... the Demon God is already..."

"Yes, he has been freed for 1,000 years, ever since Azroth turned back into a human with horns and red eyes. After that, he resided inside the gate we call the Gate of Hell. The entire Empire and Kingdom are already in his grasp, and no one is aware of it at all," Pyria cut off Ard’s sentence, staring at Ard with a serious expression.

"So the prophecies in the Orthus Empire and the Fredonia Kingdom?" Ard asked.

"That’s all the doing of Malekh’s followers who founded the religion and belief in the goddess Ophelia, which started in Orthus... nothing in this academy can be trusted, Ard," Pyria said seriously.

"Oh... no wonder I said I would return... after everything was finished, in that snippet of my memory just now," Ard muttered in his heart.