Chapter 250: The End of the World!
In the brilliant palace of elves, a beautiful forest wrapped around the lovely walls made of marble and special stones. An elderly female rushed into the palace, trying to contact the emperor of the elves with a pale face covered in sweat.
"Your Highness! It's an oracle!"
"Speak, Rinus." The emperor's voice was cold.
Although the empress normally ruled the elves after Queen Sarina became sick, the concubine took her place and allowed the king to make the choices. Instead, the concubine who gave birth to a son and adopted Orina as her daughter to avoid issues between the two princesses and succession sat beside him.
'This foolish emperor, thinking that he is truly in power. I will take this kingdom and gift it to my son after he is no longer useful.' The first concubine thought to herself while sitting in the empress's seat with a fake smile of affection. "Please, Rinus, give us the report." Her voice was like a bouquet, filling the room with warmth and a pleasant aura.
The female elf with long grey hair and wrinkles stepped forward and knelt before the two. She was a member of the church who worshipped the elven goddess Aristella.
Aristella was a former elven sage who assisted the princess in defeating the demon lord in the forgotten past. After the humans came to the continent, old races stopped propagating their history, and it became quickly forgotten.
A sage with hair and eyes that would change colour depending on her emotions and which magic she used, sometimes blue or red, other times green or brown and yellow.
She was a gentle and caring woman who loved nature and sacrificed herself after becoming the Elven Hero to protect their forest after half became corrupt and remained corrupted and part of the demon territory to this day.
"Your Highness, I will give the oracle now!"
The elderly female elf suddenly became enchanted with a brilliant light, her hair now golden and eyes of silver radiance as if she became the personification of the sun and moon.
Once she opened her mouth, the words spoken were like a songstress from the heavens, the voice of Aristella enchanting and warm, even the cold emperor's eyes widening at the beauty of this serene moment of holiness.
[Oracle of Aristella]
By ash and flame, the woods shall fall,
The Demon King will scorch us all.
The winds of fate are twisted, torn,
Our world shall wither, never reborn.
From the shadow's depth, his power will rise,
Beneath the Goddess, silence dies.
Light, once bright, now fades to dust.
Lumina's fall betrays our trust.
Her radiant heart, now cold.
Blighted by his cruel will.
War shall come, blood will stain the dawn,
The true hero lost the path foregone.
[Oracle End]
"Haa.....Ha...Ha..."
The moment the oracle ended, the priestess Rinus collapsed to her knees, covered in a thick sweat, as she felt her chest tightening and her organs ache. Her eyes flooded with tears from the images she saw while her limbs trembled. She couldn't even look up to the emperor because of her fear.
"My dear priestess, thank you for your hard work." It was the first time the Emperor Runan spoke with such a kind and sincere voice. "May I ask what you interpret this to mean?"
Rinus felt a burst of warmth; from the moment she met the emperor, his queen was already bedridden, and the council and elders turned against him, calling him a tyrant whenever he sought changes.
Yet now he felt like a gentle tide of warm, refreshing water. Like a calm ocean waiting for the return of his moon, the queen.
"Your Highness, although parts were clear in my eyes... I will give you my humble opinion."
Rinus took a moment, her quivering body slowly rising to her feet as she created a board out of magic, then started to analyse each verse, causing the Emperor's lips to curl into a pleased smile because, for him, it was the first time in a while someone gave him the same respect his wife did.
"The first passage seems to relate to the princess Ar'Ciela and her spouse... it seems that should we scorn her, then this forest shall become pulled into a war we can never win."
"Hmmm, there was no mention of a princess, so please tell me how you came to that conclusion," Runan asked and watched. He was no tyrant like the council tried to dictate to the church and others; instead, he was a wise king who wanted to protect his ailing queen from the vile consort and concubines that tricked him.
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'My poor wife, how I let you down in the past because of my stupid immaturity.'
"Your Highness, I saw the princess... Her form had changed from her pure milky skin and green hair. She has become one of the ancient dark elves, the warriors who protected the world tree from the demons in the north. With silver hair and skin like the bark of the world tree, she stands beside the Demon King to fight against the monstrous Demon queen."
"BLASPHEMY, How dare a disgusting priest lie and tell us to side with a Demon King!" The concubine sitting beside the emperor called out with a sharp, poisonous voice.
"Your Highness... I can swear on a soul oath. This is what I have seen and interpreted. Even if I must die a thousand deaths, the man beside our princess is not our enemy. Should he become our enemy, then everything will end!"
"!!!"
"Enough, let the priestess finish, Gladia. This isn't the time for you to interrupt. Please, continue, Rinus."
Despite the concubine's irritated face, her sharp gaze was directed to the priestess and the many council members scoffing. The emperor still watched only the priest and the words written with a concerned face because he felt guilty towards his daughter Ar'Ciela.
"Excuse me, the second phrase is the answer to the first. The winds of fate are twisted, torn. This indicates that the Demon King was formerly one of the summoned heroes by the kingdom of Grigor, forced to turn into a demon to complete his task."
"Then the world shall wither, indicates the world tree and how it will never be reborn should we let the flames of war burn the forest!"
"Oh?!"
"It makes sense..."
Elves were a very artistic race, so poems and oracles always came down like this from Aristella. The meanings were not complicated, but to avoid others being able to steal their information and knowledge, minor details were hidden with only words they would understand.
After all, to the humans, hearing the word 'world' would never mean the world tree but their kingdoms.
Only human kingdoms, of course.
"Interesting... Continue!"
Rinus then stopped slowing down and entered a state of calm and peace, explaining the meaning of the oracle to the court.
"When it mentioned the shadows and his power rising, it doesn't refer to the Demon King, but another someone shrouded and hidden who is guiding this world, and this person had already killed a goddess—beneath the goddess, silence dies. A goddess has fallen, unbeknown to all."
Thanks to the images of each phrase being displayed in the priestess' mind, she could help the king understand better. The strange image of darkness during the light made her realise instantly, thanks to the two following verses.
"Now then, Your Highness, the next two verses are reversed in reality! It mentions that the light is fading and now becomes dust, while Lumina has betrayed our trust. However! If you read the next lines about her radiant heart becoming cold and blighted by 'his' cruel will. This is what caused her betrayal! The goddess Lumina fell in love with a mortal, and another god took advantage of this.
That is why she lost her light and betrayed our trust!"
"Foolish, how can this be?!" The concubine shouted out in rage.
"The goddess of light would never betray us!" An old noble added, but the Emperor's eyes shone with intellect.
"No, I believe it could be true... I remember being in Grigor over two decades ago, there was a man... who claimed the goddess would speak to him privately. His name... Vincenzo is a human hero summoned from the other world. A true hero!
He was the one who took the last Demon Queen back to his world!"
Back in the past, the Emperor was much like his daughter Ciela. To be honest, that was the reason he sent her to Grigor because that was where he and his wife met by chance after suffering from the concubine's plot and becoming distant after their two daughters were born.
Al'Runan and the empress had their third daughter thanks to this secret meeting. Ruben met the current queen by chance during those days, saying they would both take a holiday. It was thanks to that meeting the two repaired their marriage and learned the truth of what the traitors had been doing in their kingdom!
'It makes me remember when Runa was conceived... the empress was shocked to learn I loved her and called me a romantic fool. Thanks to that blonde idiot who made me jealous as he was so good at speaking with Sarina...'
The king thought that Ryuji's father was trying to seduce the queen. However, it turned out he was asking how to deal with the demon queen, who kept challenging him to duels and adding perverted conditions to them.
'That guy turned out to look so vicious but was so kind and shy, haha.'
"Silence!" The emperor listened to enough of their babbling—because of the court and their deep roots of rotten lineage, he needed time to build evidence to remove them all without leaving a single one behind.
"Sorry, priestess Rinus, they are a passionate lot." The concubine shuddered, knowing the emperor was truly angry, as she glared at the surroundings.
"Continue."
"Yes, Your Highness. The last verse only showed me a terrifying image... the world was dead, everything that lived vanished and only one existence remained... a male, tall with great horns and silver hair, his black wings shone like the night sky. Yet his blue pupils once clear like the ocean tide, because black and empty... as he devoured the world.
I believe that if he loses that which he adores closest to his heart... then he will destroy everything."
A terrifying image of a lonely Demon King alone in a corrupted world filled with rivers of blood and burning mountains of magma where souls suffer for eternity. The priestess saw ten beautiful coffins adorned with various gemstones, each coffin with a name engraved and gemstones to match their colour; however, the only clear ones were two.
Liana - Queen of Blood, in a coffin filled with rubies.
Velvet - Empress of Thunder in a coffin covered in violets and beautiful amethysts.
There was a coffin covered in beautiful golden gemstones, blue gemstones and all colours. It seemed like each one was for a different woman, while at the centre, there was one for the man himself, yet...
In his despair, he destroyed the sun, the gods and all living creatures as his tears of blood caused the land itself to perish. Nevertheless, despite his broken heart being impaled with his sword and a body of wounds, the demon king could not die.
Only he remained in that silent world.