Chapter 129 Elf King Soniathrym

Aside from Derrick, the other members of the Tarot Club were dumbfounded by the translated material presented by Mr. Hermit.

It actually claimed that the Lord of Storms, one of the seven orthodox deities, was an evil god. What’s more, it stated that the divine throne of the Lord of Storms was seized through despicable means!

A divine throne could be stolen?

Just listening to such words made the other members feel as though they were committing blasphemy against the gods.

Especially Alger. He had always shown devout faith in the Lord of Storms, but he knew very well in his heart that he was only a shallow believer.

Upon hearing the contents translated by The Hermit, however, Alger’s immediate instinctive reaction was to refute it internally: ‘That bastard is lying! He dares think such things without fearing divine punishment from the Lord of Storms?’

Immediately after, a thought came to mind… the Church of Storms and the Elves were once mortal enemies. Now the Elves had disappeared from the public eye, but the Church of Storms still harbored a certain hostility toward human-elf half-bloods.

It was also because Alger himself possessed a fraction of elven blood that he had never been given important responsibilities.

Paradoxically, however, was that both mid- and high-ranking figures within the Church of Storms advocated for absorbing a portion of half-bloods who carried elven heritage…

Behind the gray fog, Klein was also somewhat surprised, but he quickly calmed down: ‘It isn’t entirely impossible. Gods can perish, just like the Creator worshipped by the City of Silver.’

Audrey quickly returned to her Spectator mode and asked, “Why would the person who wrote this defame the Lord of Storms?”

“It might not necessarily be defamation.” Odis replied, “I once saw some murals and text descriptions regarding the Elf King, and they were all related to ocean waves and lightning. To be frank, that is remarkably similar to the Lord of Storms’ Authority.”

‘So, is it true?’

The atmosphere inside the grand palace grew even more dubious. The others didn’t even dare to raise their heads, only daring to mull over these thoughts silently in their minds, because this was simply too shocking, and far too blasphemous…

Fors thought to herself: ‘Unbelievable, simply unbelievable. This… this is the most bizarre story I’ve ever heard! And what’s even more unbelievable is that it might not be a story at all.’

Klein also recalled that among the materials on Ancient Gods sacrificed by Little Sun, the Elf King was indeed associated with ocean waves.

Meanwhile, Alger recalled the Church’s descriptions of the Elves, which portrayed them as an ugly and crude race that enjoyed cooking and consuming human blood, among other things; yet those very records had likewise stated that the majority of elves were Beyonders of the Sailor Pathway.

Thinking up to this point, he took a deep breath and asked, “Mr. Hermit, do you have any intelligence regarding the Elves or the Elf King?”

He felt that if he could not resolve the doubts in his heart, rashly setting out to explore the treasure would be extraordinarily dangerous.

Even if he didn’t go after the treasure, these matters might still affect his mental state.

“I have some right now. It’s not much, and perhaps of little consequence,” Odis replied with a smile, “If you wish to know more, I can help gather it for you.”

“Very well.” Alger nodded, then asked, “May I ask what you require in return? How should we complete this transaction?”

Odis pondered for a moment before saying, “Let’s complete the first transaction today. I will tell you the intelligence I possess, and in exchange, you tell me where this document written in Ancient Elvish came from, and who its previous owner was. If there’s any follow-up, you can share the story of your treasure hunt with us. Next week, we can conclude a further transaction, and gold pounds will be accepted then, as I happen to be quite short on money lately.”

Hearing this, Audrey’s eyes immediately lit up. She planned to initiate a transaction with Mr. Hermit using gold pounds shortly, in order to learn more about mysticism.

The matter regarding occult symbols they had discussed earlier had not yet been fully explained. She had wanted to continue trading with him, but the other had refused to accept gold pounds before, leaving her without an opportunity to ask.

Across from Audrey, Alger nodded, “Agreed.” He then took a deep breath and began, “Allow me to speak first. A dozen or so days ago, I defeated a pirate crew and seized this document written in Ancient Elvish from them…”

“…At the time, the focus was on dividing the gold pounds and other valuables, so no one paid much attention to documents like these. It wasn’t until our voyage back that I browsed through these papers and discovered this record. Together with this document was a notebook, and the owner of that notebook was none other than the famous Deakin Dedir!”

The others all wore slightly bewildered expressions, as none of them had ever heard of this name.

“You might not know much about him,” Alger chuckled, “He was a great pirate from three hundred years ago. Back then, there were no safe routes across the Berserk Sea, nor was there any so-called Age of Sail. The ocean was far more mysterious and dangerous than it is now. But ships already sailed the waters because various nations had established some nearshore colonies, and transporting many goods by sea was far less costly…”

“…Back in those days, there were no Pirate Admirals or Kings, but Deakin was the uncrowned King of the seas in that era! Word has that he plundered mountains of treasure and built a massive pirate fleet that the four major powers of the Northern Continent were powerless to eliminate. In fact, as a last resort, both the Loen Kingdom and the Intis Kingdom of that era conferred nobility upon him, sending vast fortunes each year just to persuade Deakin to spare their nations’ ships.”

Audrey was deeply intrigued by such legends. So when she heard this, she asked, “Official Beyonders should have existed back then, right? Why didn’t they capture this great pirate?”

Alger chuckled and said, “You likely have never been to sea. It’s far too vast, with countless unknown regions and hiding spots. Even Angels would not dare claim they could locate a fleet on the open ocean.”

Fors then asked, “What happened next? How did this great pirate disappear?”

“It is said that during one summer, Deakin went to war with the Church of Storms,” Alger said solemnly, “A long time ago, when I first came across records regarding Dedir, I found it quite strange. Why would he ever challenge the Church of Storms? Had he remained the King of the sea, the Church of Storms wouldn’t have bothered to intervene. But actively provoking the Church was an entirely different matter… the true sovereign of the ocean is the Church of Storms!..”

“…Only today did I realize that this great pirate harbored such a deep hatred for the Church of Storms; a hatred powerful enough to make him overestimate his own strength so drastically.”

“Was he a descendant of the Elves?” Odis asked.

He was not particularly surprised by this. Beyonders of this Pathway were all hot-tempered brutes. They were mostly fight first, ask questions later, and if you lose, death was just the worst that could happen.

The Elves already bore a blood feud against the Church of Storms. For this great pirate to endure until he had built a massive pirate fleet before making his move was already quite a feat.

“Yes. Deakin had the title ‘Last Elf’…” Alger replied, “It is said that he possessed many of the Elves’ secrets.” He paused, then added, “Through his notes, I learned of his treasure, as well as the fact that he left clues written in Ancient Elvish…”

“…What Deakin likely never foresaw was that his challenge to the Church of Storms prompted the Church to launch a large-scale campaign to eradicate the Elves. Word is, a few Elven tribes were still scattered across various islands at the time. During that operation, the Elves vanished entirely from sight, and no elf alive still understood Ancient Elvish.”

“Reality truly is ironic.” Odis remarked with a sigh.

The others were taken aback for a moment, sharing the sentiment.

Odis organized his thoughts before speaking: “In some ancient records, I read that the Elf King was named Soniathrym.”

Klein and Alger instantly recognized that this was the name of one of the Ancient Gods. To their astonishment, The Hermit had casually uttered the name of an ancient god right off the bat!

Audrey and Fors, however, had no real concept of Ancient Gods yet. At that moment, they just assumed that ‘Elf King’ was simply a head of state, much like the present King of Loen.

Throughout this Tarot Club gathering, Little Sun had treated the entire conversation like a story, having little sense of connection to the affairs of the Northern and Southern Continents.

Odis paused briefly before asking, “Doesn’t the first half of that name sound familiar to you?”

“Sonia…” Audrey realized only after being reminded, “To the east of the Northern Continent lies Sonia Island, and to the east of the Berserk Sea lies the Sonia Sea.”

Sonia Island was currently the largest island on the seas, roughly the size of two counties in the Loen Kingdom. Rich in resources, it held a vital strategic position situated between Loen and Feysac.

“Correct.” Odis smiled faintly, “It is said that in the early Fourth Epoch, Sonia Island and the Sonia Sea were still the territory of the Elves. It was not until the end of the War of the Four Emperors, which brought an end to a millennium of strife across the Northern Continent, that the Feysac Empire and the Loen Kingdom on the continent’s eastern side began to contend for Sonia Island, not far offshore…”

“…While we were discussing the Elves just now, it occurred to me that the Loen Kingdom’s bid to seize the island must have been covertly backed by the Church of Storms. The Elves have always regarded the Church of Storms as their mortal enemy, and the Loen royal family largely worships the Lord of Storms. Bringing Sonia Island under the rule of the Loen Kingdom would deprive the Elves of their last stronghold…”

“…Though I haven’t seen historical records on this matter, looking at it through ordinary logic, it likely didn’t involve an all-out war between Loen and Feysac at the start. Yet in the eyes of the Feysacians, if Loen seized Sonia Island, they could use it as a base to attack Feysac, and vice versa. Thus, the two nations were locked in perpetual conflict over the island until finally, in 621 of the Fifth Epoch, the ‘Twenty Year War’ broke out. In the end, Loen was defeated, and Sonia Island fell into Feysac’s hands.”

Having reached this point, Odis grew solemn: “In this struggle, the greatest loser was not Loen, but the Elves. They were subjected to repeated assaults by both empires, and around the end of the Fourth Epoch or the beginning of the Fifth Epoch, they were forced to abandon their final sanctuary named after the Elf King and flee to remote islands in the Sonia Sea and the Berserk Sea to eke out an existence.”