The elves looked up.
Bathed in golden sunlight, Viktor stood atop Guliton's enormous body.
Even Vinia stared blankly at Viktor, the massive red figure reflected in her eyes.
"H-human?"
No, what Viktor gave her didn't feel like a human at all.
Vinia gazed at Viktor, as if she could feel an extremely scorching temperature emanating from his presence.
The human before her even possessed natural energy purer than that of a calamity.
Yes, purest natural energy.
Natural energy also has different levels.
Within the world, there are six natural elements.
And from any one of those elements, natural energy can be extracted.
Calamities originate from nature itself, they are the most purely embodied manifestations of the world's six elements.
Correspondingly, the energy contained within them has already reached a state of singular and absolute purity.
For example, a Fire Calamity possesses only the element of "fire," with no possibility of mixing in any other attributes.
The same applies to all other calamities.
The reason calamities are called calamities is precisely because of this absolutely pure manifestation of energy.
Such energy can no longer be used as normal power.
Once this terrifyingly pure force appears anywhere in the world, it will trigger uncontrollable and horrifying natural disasters.
Wherever it goes, life is reduced to ashes and all things wail.
No living being can survive under the dominance of a single, absolutely pure energy.
At this moment, the current Elven Forest could be said to be a perfect embodiment of the word "calamity."
Vinia looked past Guliton, staring at the violently burning Yard Divine Tree as it continuously erupted with terrifying waves of heat.
For hundreds of kilometers around, everything was completely covered by raging flames and merciless magma, which burst up from the earth from time to time.
Even the sky seemed to be ignited by the horrifying heat and fire, endless crimson hanging above the entire Elven Forest.
Looking at this dreadful scene before her, Vinia finally understood.
Why only they could be called "calamities."
"Clavenna…"
Vinia murmured softly.
She still remembered that Cocotte had mentioned this surname.
Now, the man who bore that name appeared before all the elves in an absolutely shocking attitude.
He stood high atop that calamity, his body wrapped in red patterns, his feet covered in flowing streams of molten lava, flames continuously burning from the hem of his clothes.
Like the lord of calamity itself.
Vinia turned her head and looked at her fellow elves.
They too raised their heads, staring at the massive Guliton, feeling the scorching heat stabbing their cheeks. Their eyes were utterly hollow, and their voices seemed to be scattered by the high temperature, becoming extremely weak, "The Divine Tree… is destroyed?"
"The Yard Divine Tree… it's dead?"
All the elves trembled as they spoke, their lips quivering, their faces filled with disbelief.
They could not accept it.
In their hearts, the Yard Divine Tree was like their mother.
In the eyes of the elves, they didn't really care whether they themselves were being exploited by the Divine Tree.
They had long since grown used to the presence of the Divine Tree.
No matter what, at the very least, the Divine Tree truly gave them long-lasting peace of mind.
Even if the Divine Tree, in reality, had never done anything at all.
And in the end, the Divine Tree died.
It died within something even purer, nature itself.
Just as Vinia had said.
They were a group of ignorant people.
And ignorant people only live within their own world.
The Divine Tree continued to crackle and burn under the scorching flames. Its wooden surface had completely collapsed, and its fragile core had long been torn apart by fire like a savage beast.
Large clouds of dust fell toward the ground. Branches that once turned into blazing fireworks were completely cast into the crimson heavens.
Withered ashes drifted through the air, mercilessly tearing open those wounds in the elves' hearts once again.
The elves sank into deep sorrow. Their hands clenched tightly together, brows twisted in agony, as if a noose had wrapped around their hearts, completely binding their reason.
Intense spiritual pain filled their entire bodies, and mournful cries gradually spread through the crowd.
Low, humming grief turned into rivers of blue crystal tears, quietly flowing between the flames.
A fine rain fell, as if representing the elves' sorrow, fiercely striking the surging fire.
Thick, heavy steam instantly burst upward, completely shrouding the canopy.
Vinia lowered her head as well, not daring to face Cocotte, "Please forgive their ignorance, Your Majesty."
They were a group of ignorant people, but their feelings were genuine.
Cocotte also looked at the elves, strange colors slowly flowing in her eyes.
"Viktor…"
Perhaps we could use a gentler way to let these elves accept reality.
Viktor put his hands in his pockets and walked down from Guliton's head.
The two streams of molten lava beneath his feet seemed to turn into steps, hanging in midair.
When his feet finally touched the ground, they turned into flames and gradually dissipated.
Viktor calmly looked at the crying elves.
"Actually, this isn't the ending I envisioned."
"But even if it happened again, I would still make the same decision."
The Divine Tree had already been completely burned away by the flames, its enormous body utterly shattered.
Only a huge, emerald-green heart spiraled upward into the sky.
The moment they saw that heart, the elves even forgot to cry.
Their gazes all followed the heart, turning toward the sky.
Viktor looked at the glowing green heart and said lightly, "Do you know, Cocotte?"
Cocotte turned her head in confusion.
"Even without me, you could have accomplished all of this."
"Huh?"
In the game's future storyline, Cocotte returned to the Elven Forest.
The first thing she did was liberate the elves' imprisoned minds.
She rescued them from the grasp of the Yard Divine Tree.
That's right, this was a rescue.
The Yard Divine Tree was never anything sacred.
What was laughable was that the elves believed they were born from the Divine Tree.
In reality, the Divine Tree was merely a tool responsible for reproduction.
What truly nurtured and raised them was natural energy.
This was also why, after the Elven Queen left the Divine Tree, it could no longer create elves.
Because the Divine Tree could not produce natural energy on its own to create elves.
Yet such a tool, after long exposure to natural energy, gradually developed its own consciousness.
It wanted to replace the spirit of nature.
Thus, it controlled nature's favored children, the elven race, for a full thousand years.
In the future, after understanding this, Cocotte released a quest that only players could accept.
Players who completed it would receive an achievement called 'Elf Liberator'.
So Viktor had merely advanced this process ahead of time.
And precisely because he knew what would happen after the Divine Tree's death, he destroyed it without restraint.
"Prepare yourselves to receive nature's gift."
"Feel what the elves have accumulated over thousands of years."
As his words fell, the heart floating in the air seemed to receive some command and burst open with several cracks.
White light spread out from within.
The heart struggled in midair, beat a few final times, and completely shattered.
In an instant, boundless natural energy, accompanied by brilliant and terrifying white light, broke through the clouds and pierced into the crimson sky, completely dispelling the flames and scorching heat.
The white light shot even deeper than the sky itself. Heavy clouds were pierced open with a massive hole, and sunlight poured straight down.
The sun, once covered by red rings, gradually revealed its original golden color.
The gentle rain passed through the white light and began to grow heavier.
Torrential rain crashed into the loose soil.
Lightning flashed wildly within the lowered clouds, and storms instantly mixed with the downpour.
The soil, drenched once more by the rain, accepted the baptism of light as tender green shoots slowly broke through the ground.
The entire land seemed to be completely overturned, fertile and dark soil exposed to the air, enjoying nature's cleansing shower.
Vibrant green spread across all the land, growing rapidly.
At this moment, all the elves watching this scene completely forgot to cry.
Every one of them raised their heads, feeling this pure, overwhelmingly rich natural energy being poured generously over the entire Elven Forest.
These natural energies instantly burst apart, transforming into streams of light like tens of thousands of meteors, merging into every elf's body.
This natural energy was what the elves had constantly offered to the Yard Divine Tree.
But now, with the Divine Tree destroyed, all this energy with nowhere to go was returned to the elves.
They watched as the white natural energy fully merged into their bodies. A full, warm power flooded their limbs.
Their muscles seemed firmer and stronger, their hearing sharper, and their perception of the world clearer and purer.
"This… this is?"
Cocotte also felt the return of this natural energy in shock, overwhelmed with awe.
A long-lost sense of comfort arose through her body and mind.
If it could last just a bit longer… She might…
Viktor spoke calmly, "This is the energy that you elves have offered to the Yard Divine Tree for thousands of years."
"After the Divine Tree died, it returned it all to you."
At the same time, it also returned it to those elves who had peacefully died upon this land, never to see the light of day again.
Those energies with nowhere to go became offerings to nature.
When the Divine Tree dies, all things are born.
The elves gradually forgot their sorrow, focusing on the warm power flowing into their bodies.
They could not understand it.
But they had seen it with their own eyes and experienced it themselves.
Why did things move in a better direction after the Divine Tree died?
At this moment, Cocotte turned back and looked at Viktor again.
"Viktor, there's still one problem that hasn't been resolved."
That was the final influence of the Yard Divine Tree.
Why did the elves revere the Yard Divine Tree?
Naturally, because in their eyes, only the Yard Divine Tree could create elves.
So for thousands of years, the elves naively believed that their reproduction depended on the Divine Tree.
This was also why they felt sorrow after the Divine Tree's death.
But the elves dared not rebel. They could only keep their grief to themselves.
Because the one who killed the Divine Tree, in a sense, was their biological father.
Viktor wasn't worried at all and simply said, "Do you remember that well of water belonging to your elven race?"
"The well?"
Cocotte thought about it in confusion, then suddenly realized which well Viktor was referring to.
'Could it be… The Moon Sacred Spring?'
Vinia, standing to the side, became somewhat angry upon hearing the name and said to Viktor, "That's not a well! It's a spring! A spring!"
Viktor didn't pay any attention to Vinia's correction and simply said calmly, "Let's go."
"Take me there."