Chapter 617: Great Korlen Forest

Outside the borders of the human lands, in the eastern direction of the Suncrest Great Kingdom, there lay a vast forest stretching for countless distances.

Just this single forest was far larger in land area than all nine human lands combined.

And it was called the Great Korlen Forest...

This massive forest alone covered twenty to 30% of the total area of the Elven Empire, stretching through three distinct borders of the empire from the north to the west and down to the southern sections.

Due to the severe dangers and unpredictable terrain of this entire deadly woodland, it served as a naturally built fortress for the illustrious elven race.

Because of this immense territorial advantage, the Elven Empire was one of the few territories that were exceptionally difficult to invade.

Only its eastern borders were open to the Venus Empire, but the serpentine race posed no threat, as the two empires had maintained a deep, enduring alliance for a long time.

The two forces collectively opposed the barbaric alliance between the Mad Orc Tribe and the Titan Ogre Tribe for more than tens of thousands of years.

About twenty kilometres away from the border of the Suncrest Kingdom, deep within the Great Korlen Forest, a young male elf was picking rare herbs silently, just as he did on any other mundane day.

Though he was considered a young elf, he was quite tall and striking in contrast to any human. He possessed pointed elven ears and vibrant green hair, while his eyes gleamed a dull bronze.

That specific hair and eye colour was a defining trait of his tribe.

Suddenly, he heard a terrifying, catastrophic sound travel down from the skies, violently shaking the forest canopy and even making the solid ground tremble beneath his boots.

The young elf’s head immediately arched upward in sheer panic. He frowned deeply and hurriedly scrambled up the nearest thick tree trunk to get a better vantage point.

"Am I even awake? Why has the sky cracked open?" murmured the elf, his voice shaking.

Disbelief colored his entire face as a segment of the sky itself appeared to have cracked open like fragile glass, revealing an unknown dark expanse beyond... a place that the young elf did not even dare to contemplate.

And from that jagged, glowing crack, something fell, blazing intensely and catching fire like a meteor plunging from beyond the heavens.

"What? What the hell is that?" exclaimed the elf in a weary, trembling tone.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

With a resounding, earth-shattering explosion, the meteor crashed down into the earth not too far away, causing the elf to swallow the heavy lump in his throat nervously.

"Ah, damn it, I need to see what that was..."

Curiosity ultimately won over his heart as the boy leapt agilely through the branches, sprinting closer and closer toward the devastated segment of the forest carved out by the violent landing of the mysterious object.

As he drew nearer to the massive crater, his footsteps slowed down cautiously.

His heart began to beat in a frantic, nervous rhythm, but, driven by lingering trepidation, he continued to move closer, one step at a time, until the choking dust and debris from the crash slowly cleared.

The young elf could finally see...

He beheld a radiant, distorting figure, as though the air itself were twisting and turning violently around the entity. The elf muttered in deep apprehension, "A person?"

Even as he felt more unnerved by the second, he refused to retreat, standing his ground despite the potential unknown danger lurking before him.

Slowly, the blinding light oozing from the figure began to break away, resembling a delicate butterfly emerging from a cocoon woven entirely of concentrated light.

When the figure finally became fully visible to the young elf, he was confused for a moment, then spoke with a harsh, disappointed scowl, "A human..."

It was a young human male with pitch-black hair...

Much of the apprehension and fear the young elf had been feeling vanished in an instant because, in the eyes of the proud elf, humans were viewed as an obviously lesser race in stark contrast to themselves.

However, the elf still did not approach the figure, having noticed another deeply unsettling anomaly in the immediate environment.

There was not the slightest trace of injury on the human’s body, despite him crashing down from such an immense height in the upper skies.

Not only that, the human was floating as if suspended by a distorting force field surrounding his unconscious form, and that invisible force field was inadvertently burning away the very ground and even the air that came into contact with it.

’No, perhaps "burning away" is the wrong phrase to use here...’ thought the young elf, analysing the hazy force circling the man with greater precision.

His eyes widened in sudden horror as the elf realised that anything coming into contact with that strange, invisible force of the black-haired human was being slowly but surely destroyed... or perhaps decomposed, though he could not be entirely accurate in his assumptions.

Just as the boy was about to test things out by throwing a small branch toward the human, the elf felt the entire canopy of trees sway violently.

He cursed under his breath, "Argh, damn it, the tribesmen are already here... they are going to give me one hell of an earful if they catch me here."

Before the boy could even attempt to turn and flee, the scorched pit was already surrounded by more than thirty fourth-phase elves who dropped silently down from the surrounding branches.

Each of them was exceptionally striking in appearance, whether male or female.

Despite being powerful fourth-phase entities, these individuals’ innate energies did not erratically affect the surrounding environment; rather, all their overwhelming elven might was carefully contained within their slim yet tall frames, forming an impenetrable layer of natural protection.

They wore greenish-brown garments that appeared somewhat primitive at first glance. Still, only an expert eye could discern that those rudimentary clothes, crafted from beast skin and tree hide, were deeply enchanted with powerful sylvan magic.

The young elf cursed his terrible luck, muttering, "Fuck..."

The young elf’s uncle, one of the strongest fourth-phase seekers in the tribe, stepped forward and looked down at him coldly. "Balran, do you realise that what you were trying to do was beyond stupid..."

"But Uncle Raon, I..." the older man cut Balran off before he could finish his sentence with a wave of his hand. "Enough. Take him away..."

One of the female elves immediately dragged the protesting boy away despite his stubborn unwillingness to leave.

Only then did Raon redirect his focus back toward the unknown human, his brow furrowing deeply.

Unlike his first-phase nephew, he could sense and comprehend far more of the immense threat emanating from the hazy force field surrounding the unconscious body.

He whispered a single command, "Arrows..."

Instantly, bows and polished arrows materialised in the hands of every elven warrior present...

A swirling vortex of powerful nature mana wrapped tightly around the shafts, pulled against the strings of the elven bows...

And then, whoosh!

Nearly thirty powerful arrows, each possessing enough raw force to reduce a mountain to complete dust, pierced through the air at an inconceivable speed.

Every single one of them was aimed straight at the human’s body, ready to impale him without an ounce of mercy... or at least, that was what the elves fully expected to happen.

Except for the man in charge, Raon. And what happened next proved far worse than anything he had anticipated.

The moment the potent elven shafts touched the hazy force field surrounding the unconscious human, the objects began to disintegrate inch by inch.

In a fraction of a second, every single arrow fired at the young human was utterly reduced to cinders.

Yet that was merely the start of the escalating crisis.

The swirling, neutralising energy field around the black-haired human rippled violently after the initial attack, as though it possessed a malicious mind of its own, and then...

VROOOOOOM!

A ferocious outburst of that unknown element surged outward in all directions, obliterating anything and everything it came into contact with.

Even though he was a seasoned fourth-phase elf, Raon had prepared for the worst, shouting at the first sign of instability, "Fall back... now!"

Yet, despite his caution, he had unconsciously underestimated the severity of the situation simply because the unknown figure appeared to be a mere human.

The sheer destructive output of the corroding energy was far more catastrophic than Raon had calculated, and it quickly became apparent that neither he nor his tribesmen would be able to escape its terrifying range in time...

At that exact, critical instant, a massive, shimmering green barrier covered in intricate magical symbols materialised directly in front of the fleeing elves, shielding them at the very last possible second.

Raon heaved a massive sigh of relief, recognising that the erected barrier had been manifested by none other than his older brother, the fifth-phase tribe leader.

However, that brief relief vanished instantly, his face draining of all colour as he noticed that even the mighty barrier was beginning to fracture, jagged lines spreading rapidly across its surface.

Hovering high in the skies, the fifth-phase tribe leader wore a dark, grim expression.

He funnelled more of his world force into the barrier to prevent it from shattering completely, while simultaneously moving his hands through a complex, erratic pattern.

Green magical symbols materialised in the air around him, slowly coalescing into the shape of massive green vines... except these were constructed entirely of concentrated elven magic symbols.

Multiple glowing vines shot downward toward the unconscious young human, piercing directly through the destructive unknown power.

Within moments, the thick vines wrapped tightly around the limbs of the unconscious man, binding him securely.

Yet, the very instant the binding took hold, the eyes of the black-haired human snapped wide open.

His eyes flashed brilliantly, burning like an immolating furnace of pure light...

The intense illumination lasted for only a fraction of a second before fading, revealing his utterly emotionless, ruthless black eyes. And with a sickening crunch of shattered energy, the fifth-phase tribe leader’s powerful green magical vines crumbled instantly into absolute nothingness.