Chapter 151: Dark Elf

Kael stared silently at his twin older brother.

"Isn’t that precious in its own right?"

"No," Kael turned away. "A fleeting, insignificant existence, nothing more."

That reply left Ian entirely devoid of words.

He had once assumed the Elves were a breathtaking, benevolent, and kindhearted race. He had fancied that every Elf was just like him, curious about the living beings dwelling outside the Elven Forest, eager to discover what lay beyond in the wider world.

To Ian, a brief lifespan didn’t strip a life of its preciousness. On the contrary, precisely because time was limited, every moment of joy seemed all the more brilliant. Kei had been permitted to step outside merely once, yet he had smiled throughout the entire journey to the lake. He had studied a beetle for ages, cherished the flowers Ian gifted him, and widened his eyes in wonder at sparkling silver scales.

Kei didn’t have much time.

Yet he had lived through every single one of those moments with all the eagerness in his heart.

Ian loved that about him. He wanted to live just like Kei, not because Kei’s life was an easy one, but because even while locked away inside a tiny cabin, even with a frail constitution, Kei could still find pure delight in the smallest things he laid eyes upon.

That was the kind of existence Ian aspired toward.

Yet as it turned out, he was the abnormal one.

Perhaps a true Elf was supposed to resemble Kael or Eleanor, arrogant, cold, and convinced that every other race was inherently inferior to their own. They could gaze down upon a child breathing his last without feeling a shred of empathy, could dismiss a leaf protecting Kei’s very life as a waste simply because it was fastened around a human’s neck.

Whereas Ian couldn’t do that.

He couldn’t view Kei as a meaningless, fleeting speck of life. He couldn’t pretend that the joyful days they’d shared were negligible just because Kei was fated to die. Least of all could he accept that simply because Kei was human, he was unworthy of being saved.

Kael turned on his heel and walked away.

Resting beside Ian’s bedside table was an hourglass, its fine grains of sand flowing steadily downward.

Ian stared after his younger brother’s receding back, then shifted his gaze back to Kei, who lay unresponsive upon the bed.

Those grains of sand cascaded downward as though Kei’s life was also slipping away from this world piece by piece.

"I won’t let you die."

Ian bent down, wrapping his fingers around Kei’s cold hand. He had no way of knowing whether Kei could hear him or not. Nor did he know what else he could possibly do. But at the very least, he refused to let his friend lie all alone inside this unfamiliar room.

For the very first time, Ian felt that the Elven blood bestowed upon him by the Tree of Life was utterly repulsive.

Genuinely revolting.

The moment that thought abruptly took root in Ian’s mind, the moon hanging high over the Elven Forest seemed to be swallowed by a veil of clouds. Its luminescence dimmed, yielding the sky to an encroaching tide of darkness.

Ian gripped Kei’s tiny hand tighter, a surge of violent rage and tyranny gnawing furiously at his heart.

And from nowhere, Ian’s eyes gradually shifted into a pitch-black hue resembling an abyssal void. The golden hair that had caught the dim moonlight slowly bled into a stark, ink-like black, spreading outward like a spiderweb across his locks.

"Kei... Elves really are a disgusting race, aren’t they?"

Ian chuckled hoarsely, clutching Kei’s icy hand. He felt an intense, agonizing torment coupled with blinding fury.

If he could tear open his own arteries and let this entire pool of revolting Elven blood drain completely from his body, Ian would have done it without a second thought. He simply couldn’t stomach the realization that the race he had always taken such fierce pride in could be so utterly cold-blooded.

Was the Sacred Spring of Life truly that precious?

Why on earth was human life treated as so utterly worthless?

"Why won’t you save Kei? Why must you subject me to such suffering?"

Ian’s gaze grew hazy, muttering aloud as though trapped under a hypnotic spell.

The hatred that had just sprouted was on the verge of consuming this young Elf whole. Plunging headfirst into utter despair and outright rejecting his own race, Ian crossed the threshold and transformed into a Dark Elf.

"So... so this is how an Elf turns into a Dark Elf?"

Ian stared at his own slightly tanned skin, letting out a flat, self-deprecating laugh.

Who would have guessed that casting aside the so-called nobility of an Elf could be this effortless, that becoming a fallen Elf could feel so strangely liberating?

Ian’s black eyes narrowed slightly before he leaned down to stroke Kei’s soft features. That simple action brought a calming stillness back to his heart, which had been rampaging with tyranny and madness.

Having thoroughly cast everything else aside, Ian could finally hear the true desires of his own heart.

He refused to let Kei die.

By any means necessary, this child could not die!

"The Sacred Spring of Life... no matter how precious it might be, how could it ever surpass the value of Kei’s life?"

Amidst the shadows, Ian smiled faintly.

Becoming a Dark Elf felt genuinely wonderful. Ian realized he no longer felt any disgust toward himself, simply because he was no longer an Elf.

In that case, the Sacred Spring of Life, the supreme treasure of the Elven race, held no ties to him whatsoever. He would simply go and take it.

Ian bent down, pressing a light kiss upon Kei’s forehead as he whispered soft instructions to the boy:

"Kei, you must be a good boy and sleep here. I’m going to bring the Sacred Spring of Life back to save you."

Kei’s life absolutely would not extinguish when the new dawn broke; Ian would never allow such a thing to happen.