Future Knight

Chapter 41

Rather, she was busy destroying the Ents like a fish in water.

As the battle situation worsened, Arteon drew up all her mana to kill as many giant centipedes as possible.

A shadow fell over her head.

In the midst of many elven magicians, she flew alone with confidence. She was the leader of the Green Elves, Green.

“Finally, we meet.”

Arteon frowned at the sight of the green elf who had come to her.

Her worst fear had come true.

The leader of the Green Elves had personally intervened.

She had hoped that the Green Elf leader, who was confronting the Human and Orc alliance, would not appear here. But her earnest wish had been in vain.

“Are you the leader of the Green Elves, Green?”

“Yes, I am Green, Arteon. Or rather, should I call you Grandmother?”

“Gr-Grandmother?”

When Green suddenly called her Grandmother, Arteon asked back with a puzzled expression.

“Why am I your grandmother?”

“Because my name is Judrian Odh Lakasai, inherited from my mother.”

At Green’s words, Arteon’s iron mask, which hadn’t come off even in front of the Ancient Dragon, fell off.

“N-no way! You’re that child from back then!?”

Arteon shook her head in disbelief as Green nodded slowly.

“Th-this can’t be… How, how!”

As Arteon staggered, a magician hurriedly supported her.

“I’ve waited a very long time for this day, the day I’d meet my grandmother. And I wanted to ask you, why did you abandon my mother and me so heartlessly…?”

“It was because you and your mother couldn’t have survived otherwise.”

“Stop with the excuses! Aren’t you curious about what happened to us and how we lived after that?”

As Green’s sorrowful frenzy rose, flames began to ignite around her.

“Why, why… didn’t you ever come looking for us even once after that?”

Tears streamed down Green’s face continuously.

Arteon’s heart ached as she looked at her.

The sorrow from that time, when she had to ruthlessly abandon her beloved daughter and granddaughter to their fates, washed over her.

However, Green’s next words were cold enough to extinguish Arteon’s sorrow in an instant.

“Kukukuku… Today, I will take revenge for the pain we suffered and for my mother’s death.”

Her eerie appearance, laughing while crying in the flames, was chilling to behold.

And the next word that came out of her mouth was not just chilling, but sheer shock and horror.

“Come forth… Phoenix.”

Behind Green, a huge distortion in space occurred, and something enormous was felt crossing dimensions.

The elf spiritists, who controlled spirits, sat down on the ground, wetting themselves in terror.

Just as black magicians and their contractors would react in front of the Demon King of the Demon Realm, the spiritists could not resist the overwhelming presence of the Spirit King and lost their minds.

With hundreds of spiritists suddenly falling into a state of panic and helplessness, even Arteon trembled in fear.

Amari, who had contracted with Silvan, the high-level forest spirit, was trembling, confirming that the Green before her had indeed contracted with the Spirit King, as the rumors said.

If it was the Spirit King, it would be at least a 9th circle flame magic user, equal to Arteon herself.

In the worst case, it could be even more powerful.

Until now, only dragons had been able to contract with the Spirit King.

It was unbelievable to Arteon that a mere half-elf like Green could contract with the Spirit King.

But everything happening before her was reality, and the Spirit King’s form was slowly becoming visible.

Arteon was certain today would be her last day.

She recalled the distant past.

She could still vividly see the day her daughter, Matana, gave birth to the green-skinned child.

The image of her being banished from the village, holding the newborn Lakasai, without even being able to wash off the blood from childbirth.

Everyone thought that Matana and the child wouldn’t survive long.

It was because surviving in the monster-infested forest, outside the protection of the elves, with a newborn and a fatigued mother was an almost impossible task.

But mother and daughter survived.

And the cursed child, who had been a newborn, grew incredibly strong and appeared before her again.

Tears also flowed from Arteon’s eyes as she looked at her granddaughter.

‘If this could alleviate your resentment even a little, my daughter…’

She decided to accept her impending death calmly.

In the midst of the spatial distortion, with a sound that shook the heavens and the earth, the Phoenix spread its scorching wings and soared into the sky.

Then, the fireballs that fell from its wingbeats instantly set the surroundings ablaze, and the forest was soon engulfed in flames.

“Th-that is the Fire Spirit King, Phoenix, that we’ve only heard about in legends!”

Many elves, witnessing the true form of the Fire Spirit King Phoenix, were left speechless by its gigantic and beautiful appearance.

Phoenix, a massive bird adorned with blazing feathers, slowly flapped its enormous wings and approached Green.

A suffocating heatwave enveloped the elves.

“What is the reason you summoned me? Shall I turn this entire area into a desert?”

Phoenix, known for being the most ferocious among the Spirit Kings, asked Green in an aggressive tone.

“Please wait a moment, Phoenix.”

Green touched Phoenix’s beak, which looked as hot as molten lava, without flinching, indicating that the Spirit King did no harm to its contractor.

“Why are you crying? Are you sad because you’re about to die?”

Arteon did not respond to her question, only shedding tears.

“Why aren’t you doing anything? As a renowned 9th-circle Archmage, have you given up at the sight of Phoenix?”

Despite Green’s repeated questions, Arteon remained silent.

“Answer me! Do you think dying silently will ease the resentment my mother and I have held?”

Finally, Arteon spoke slowly.

“A weak mother who couldn’t protect her own child cannot now use magic to save herself against her granddaughter. I’m sorry, but this old woman has lived too long. Please, send me to Matana, Lakasai.”

At her words, Green screamed.

“Scream! Shut up! Do you think saying that now will make me let you go peacefully? I’ve lived for 500 years, driven by the sole desire to kill you! Don’t be ridiculous! Don’t mock me!”

Green flew at Arteon like an arrow, grabbing her unprotected throat.

“Fight! Fight me! You’re a 9th-circle mage, the continent’s greatest sorceress! You shouldn’t die so easily! You can’t!”

Small Green lifted Arteon easily with one hand.

No matter how light Arteon was, Green’s strength was astonishing.

As Arteon’s face turned red from lack of breath, the surrounding elves rushed to save her.

But Green, consumed by madness, looked at them, and those who rushed at her were torn apart in an instant, scattered everywhere.

In the midst of the bloodstorm, something wriggling like a snake was in her hand, a whip.

But it was no ordinary whip.

The whip was imbued with a blazing aura.

She was a whip master, the rarest in the entire continent.

Due to the formidable power of the Spirit King, she rarely had to use this fearsome whip that she had honed for centuries.

However, her whip strikes were destructive enough to subdue most knights in an instant, and their attack patterns were unpredictable.

In the past, when she wandered the continent alone for bloody vengeance, known as the Green Witch.

Knights who had faced her whip had even given it the infamous name “Blood Whip.”

“Fight! Fight me! If you don’t, I’ll kill everyone here! And if that’s not enough, I’ll burn all the elves in the forest and turn the forest into a desert!”

“Ra-Lakasai…”

* * *

“…?”

Feeling an unusual wave of mana that even shook the massive Red Mars, Kang Chan ascended to the upper deck of the Red Mars.

What he saw was unbelievable.

The elven village was burning under the night sky.

“No way? The enemies? No, Jaina!”

It wasn’t surprising that the enemy might attack first before the war, but the problem was that Jaina was there.

Worried about Jaina’s safety, Kang Chan ran frantically to the hangar.

He gathered all the combat equipment he hadn’t touched since coming to this world.

It was a small-caliber railgun capable of throwing grenades, his favorite weapon from before.

Wearing a combat suit and shouldering a rifle, he mounted an airbike and flew straight towards the village.

What unfolded before Kang Chan’s eyes upon arrival was hell itself.

Explosions that shook the earth were everywhere, and tens of thousands of elves were fighting the black elves in the forest.

In the village center, gigantic centipedes and moving trees were engaged in a fierce battle.

Countless green soldiers were massacring the elves.

The village was in utter chaos.

Kang Chan’s anxiety intensified.

Dodging arrows flying occasionally, Kang Chan landed in front of Jaina’s house.

The area around the house was already in ruins, with numerous elves dragged out and beheaded, their bodies strewn across the ground.

Kang Chan, holding his railgun at the ready, burst into Jaina’s house.

The interior was already ravaged and burning.

“Jaina! Jaina! Answer me, Jaina!”

An elf who seemed to be Jaina’s father was lying on the living room floor, brutally mutilated and burning.

A blood-stained rapier in his hand indicated that he had fiercely resisted the enemies before his death.