Chapter 1227 - Betrayals (Part 1)

Instead of unleas.h.i.+ng a single powerful spell in a wide area, Friya's personal take on Gravity Magic allowed her to split it into several smaller spells that would affect only a specific target.

The coordinates set by the ch.o.r.e dimensional magic would constantly restrict Hard Fall without affecting Friya's focus who had already started chanting her personal tier five spell, Dimensional Ruler.

The downside of the technique was that Gravity Magic still required a lot of mana and time to be prepared. On top of that, even a tier two spell was actually the combination of six different elemental spells and needed a magic holding ring of two tiers higher to be stored.

Friya's ring had been crafted with Menadion's technique, allowing it to hold two spells at the same time so she only had one more left.

Now that the cage trapping them had crumbled, Morok shapes.h.i.+fted into his Tyrant form and activated air fusion. The elves had received the order to capture him alive, whereas he had no reason to hold back.

He took his twin one-handed battle hammers out of his dimensional amulet and bludgeoned his way out of the Fringe. Elves had powerful bodies for someone with their build but they were no match for an Emperor Beast.

Most of them dodged his attacks by reflex while those who didn't were sent flying like rag dolls. Both the elves and the Tyrant had bright blue mana cores and were capable of using Fusion Magic, but it only widened the gap in physical prowess between them.

Morok's eyes allowed him to see in every direction and he moved so fast that constructs couldn't keep up with him.

M'Rael cursed out loud when the Tyrant escaped through the silvery barrier that separated the Fringe from the rest of Mogar.

'The silver lining is that I didn't mention him to the Parliament and that the initial plan was to kill him. No one will blame me for the loss of his equipment and with one less person to capture, my soldiers can focus on the real prize.' He thought.

The people in the Fringe were no different from those in the outside world. The l.u.s.t for power had led the Dewans to betray the bonds they claimed to hold sacred while politics had led the elves to get involved in such matters.

The safety of their haven had allowed the Elven race to repopulate to the point that their numbers exceeded that they had before the war. On top of that, they had never stopped working to improve their magical and military skills.

Yet the elves had never found a way to achieve Awakening nor to obtain a violet core. They were well aware that, despite all their efforts, history might repeat itself. The fact that the prolonged isolation and the lack of worthy opponents had kept them from putting their new abilities to the test didn't help either.

Their governing organ, the Parliament of Leaves, after much debating had been split into three political currents, and each one of them had more or less the same number of supporters among the population.

The members of the first current had given up on both achieving Awakening and returning to the outside world. The safety of the Fringe had allowed the elves to do more than just repopulate their cities.

It had given them a place where there was no war and no struggle for survival. A place where they could freely focus on arts and literature, making whatever they wanted with their lives with no worry for the future.

The members of the second current, instead, considered the Fringe akin to the perfect fortress. They proposed to gradually invade the outside world and seize the resources they needed for the final phase of their plan: the rebuilding of the elven kingdom.

Their supporters craved vengeance for the injustice their ancestors had suffered at the hands of the humans. Also, the fact that worst case scenario they could always retreat inside the Fringe where no enemy could follow, gave them confidence.

Elves were trained from a young age to get in tune with Mogar and learned how to get in and out from the silvery barrier separating them from the outside world whereas none of their enemies would be able to cross the border.

Even if a few of them might be enlightened beings like Morok, alone they posed no threat against a well-trained army. The only problem with this plan was revealing the location of the Fringe and that even if it guaranteed their safety, it didn't change their odds of victory.

The third and last faction didn't like the idea of staying in the Fringe until Leegaain said otherwise, but they also found it idiotic to put everything they had at stake. A full-scale invasion couldn't be based on wishful thinking and what-ifs.

It was the reason why the third faction insisted that before taking any action, it was best to compare the magical progress of the elven society with those of the outside world.

Going to war against an enemy that would always outnumber them was one thing, going against an enemy that might both outnumber and outmatch them was quite another.

The members of the third faction insisted on sending small scout parties into the outside world to capture human mages. Only after comparing the fake mages' magical prowess and equipment with their own could the elves make sure that they stood a chance.

The arrival of Nalrond's group had been a blessing for them. The human women were the perfect means to determine if the Fringe had sharpened the elves' skills or if it had dulled them.

Nalrond, instead, would teach them Light Mastery the way Baba Yaga had devised it, making it accessible to anyone. Elves had learned it on their own, but between the fact that only a few of them managed to practice Light Mastery and how mana expensive its practice was, they had failed to truly master it.

M'Rael belonged to the third faction and he had accepted Kimo's request for help because elves had actually more to gain from the intruders than the Dewans.

Best case scenario, after making sure that human magic was inferior to their own, the elves would learn from the women how to disguise themselves and how to go unnoticed while scouting their marks before an attack.

Worst case scenario, the women would become their teachers as well, allowing their magic to improve by leaps and bounds. That together with Nalrond's Light Mastery would give the elves the upper hand even against Awakened.

M'Rael said.

Morok's escape had reminded the elf lord that taking the prisoners alive didn't require keeping them in one piece. Thanks to the elven master healers, as long as the humans drew breath, they could be saved.

The second wave of soldiers stepped forward while nocking their arrows and aiming above the enemy. Once they let go of the bowstrings, each projectile generated a trail of electricity that didn't disappear after their pa.s.sage.

Quylla's group was surrounded from four sides so that by crossing their flying paths, the arrows generated what looked like a fis.h.i.+ng net made of lightning that fell on them, leaving them no way out.