bacchusnovels Chapter 129 - 165 - Was that pill made of shit?!
Chapter 129 - 165 - Was that pill made of shit?!
"Liamian, it is time for you to retire for eternity."
’!?’
Liamian narrowed his eyes upon seeing Adriannel Riantain in front of him; naturally, his presence here was unexpected.
Seeing the determined look on his face, Liamian understood that things would not go in the right direction if he tried to lie out of this situation.
"You will never be able to stop us, Adriannel," he spoke without hesitation. It had already been many years since the establishment of Valeria Academy, while several elves were forced to teach students.
Why not retaliate?
The keys to the door of Chrintain Valley are in Adriannel’s hands.
He wanted to make humans much stronger to stand against foreign enemies by using the knowledge of elves and other powerhouses.
But to control the elves, who had pride in themselves, he used the Key of the Valley as a bargaining chip.
Naturally, some beings could always come out of the valley by opening portals with their own sheer strength, but it was limited.
None of them could bring a whole army or more than two individuals at a time, and even bringing themselves costed half of the mana reservoir of the strongest elves or dragons.
And with half of their mana depleted, no one wanted to go against an Archmage who could kill you and even seal the gates of the place forever.
But one question remained in every elf’s mind: why hadn’t Adriannel Riantain completely sealed off the gates?
Unaware that the whole Valley was just an unending mana core which Adriannel Riantain had prepared to fend off enemies from the Hidden Realm.
SWISH
Suddenly, the plant in Liamian’s hand became huge, its veins shooting towards Adriannel, whose crimson gaze was fixed beside the elf in front of him, looking at the fourth portal from where he could feel a malicious presence.
’I leave their safety in your hands, kid,’ Turning his gaze from the fourth portal, Adriannel’s crimson eyes fixed on the approaching vein, whose speed was much faster than his blink, yet still seemed static in his eyes.
CRACKLE
BOOOM!
With a soft gesture of his hands, a crimson magic circle formed, colliding with the sharp, metal-thorn-like vein, sending a shockwave across the land.
CRACK
Instantly, the ground turned into small particles, expanding within a mile in an instant.
The ground was flattened by the mere shockwave of this collision, let alone the trees; even the ground beneath seemed to be turned into a pit, dug into one inch with cracks all over.
"So, you ate the World Tree’s fruit," a glint passed through Adriannel’s eyes as he felt such enormous force just from the collision of a plant, leading him to the conclusion that Liamian had consumed the World Tree’s fruit, significantly boosting his control over the element of nature.
Naturally, elves had a very high affinity towards nature, coupled with their pure mana, which even compared with the divine energy of saints, made them a noble race. But what happens to the body when an elf dies?
It is a well-known fact that an elf’s body never rots or decays, leaving the vessel intact even after their death.
That’s where the need for the World Tree arises. Elves worship it, and to maintain purity and connection with it, the crucial element for its growth, besides water, land, and sunlight, is themselves.
Every elf, after their death, is buried near the shades of the World Tree, whose roots then absorb them to grow even more, making it what one calls the World Tree—a hidden and dark truth.
Adriannel knew all this due to his vast knowledge accumulated within the expanse of all his lifetimes’ reincarnation.
And the fruit which grows on that tree holds the life essence of an elf, greatly boosting one’s natural affinity.
However, all elves found it akin to consuming their own kin, making it a forbidden act. Moreover, all fruits on the tree get absorbed by the World Tree after some time, making this process a cycle that shouldn’t be disrupted.
BANG!
SWISH
"It will be your student’s turn after your death, Adriannel!" Liamian’s single gesture caused the surrounding land, now collapsed to the ground, to release several thick black veins, directly moving towards Adriannel, who stood calmly. The elf had just established the criteria for Zeph’s death to be Adriannel’s own demise, a sharp glint passing through his eyes as the image slowly blurred.
SWISH
With that, Adriannel’s figure turned into a streak of light, shooting directly towards Liamian while dodging all the veins.
Closing the distance instantly, Liamian’s eyes reflected the image of a man, his hair shimmering silver and his eyes shining crimson in the sunlight. With a hand stretched towards his face, a sound reached his ears before his vision blurred.
"You shouldn’t have thought to harm him."
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Zeph, you bastard! Did you mix shit in that medicine?" Jia shouted, noticing how none of the animals were coming near her, or more specifically, avoiding her.
Whhhiiisssstle~
Ignoring Jia’s words, Zeph kept moving with both hands on his head, whistling, not giving her any attention, while Laila held Jia’s wrist, preventing her from attacking Zeph.
"Stop it, Jia. Let me try again," Laila attempted to soothe the situation once more, calming down the angry girl who was ready to pounce on the carefree young man.
"Fine, call that rabbit here!" Jia relented, loosening herself before calmly standing and pointing towards a black rabbit with a green horn, moving inside the black bush.
The place they were in was filled with shadows, which seemed to become solid enough to resemble trees. The darkness of the place was crossed by a fog present far away from their location.
All green things appeared completely black—trees, grass, and everything—adding to the ominous aura, which was only sensed by two people: Estelle and Zeph himself.
"Okay, let me do it," Laila, seeing Jia calming down, moved towards the rabbit and tried to communicate with it.
"Dear Rabbit, can you please shake hands with my friend?"
BOING BOING
It seemed as if her words were magical, as the rabbit nodded before hopping towards Jia, whose face formed a smile.
"Hehe, hello, Mr. Rabbit," Jia said, slowly leaning with her palm opened for the little creature to place its paw on it, feeling somewhat happy to see an animal finally approaching her.
Snf snf
The rabbit sniffed Jia’s palm before tilting its soft head, eyes meeting with Jia who had somewhat expectations.
thud
It died.
Literally, the rabbit smelled her and died.
"....."
"Zeph, you bastard! Did you really feed me some poison?" Jia pounced on Zeph, but Laila swiftly wrapped her hand around her waist, not letting her attack Zeph, who had a smirk on his face to provoke Jia even more.
"Calm down, Jia. That rabbit was a demon. It could have eaten you if it wasn’t for your smell killing it," Estelle stated with a stoic face, her gaze fixed on the young man moving in front, understanding that he intentionally fed Jia that medicine but unable to comprehend what it was or how it worked.
Even though her mind knew that Zeph had future memories too, it seemed he knew more than her.
"W-what, did he really..." Jia stopped struggling and lifted her gaze to look at the young man’s firm back, now halted in his path, looking at the figure in front of him.
’Why would he save me, though?’ Jia couldn’t understand. If Zeph really wanted to help them, he could have just said so instead of making her go through that humiliation at the hands of Thalia Crimwell.
’Should I throw Jia in it?’ Zeph, observing the thick black fig in front of him, thought of a way to somehow repel it, which could easily corrode one’s skin on touch due to its poisonous nature.
Among all of them, he chose Jia because of her belonging to Demi-humans.
Normally, Demi-humans had much thicker pheromones than normal humans, which they released to express their feelings under certain conditions.
By using that pill which he made from a plant that corrupts the pheromones of one’s body, making them look even more dominant and kill smaller demons which smell it.
Even previously, Chrono had eaten the plant only because of this property, which provides it the ability to stay away from smaller bugs and creatures, more like pest repellent but not harmful for the person who consumes it.
Humans don’t have much of their own body smell except sweat or natural fragrance, but Demi-humans like Jia would emit a huge amount of pheromones in tense situations, like this time.
Her anger was causing the smaller monsters to stay away from them, but to repel this fog, which was also caused by smaller monsters called Mistweavers.
With their bug-like size, they remained hidden underground while emitting deadly smoke, causing other smaller monsters to die, fall on the ground, and then they eat it, similar to a plant called fly trap from his old world.
’It should do the trick.’ To kill those small insect-like monsters hidden inside the ground, he decided to give a stimulus to Jia, which should make her emit too many pheromones and help him reach the place he wants to go.
Time for him to utilise his Alive insect repellent.
"Hey, Jia, I am sorry. I should have told you this before." Ruffling his hair, Zeph’s golden eyes softened, looking at Jia genuinely, slowly approaching her while her short height, added with short hair, with those eyes reflecting his figure.
"It’s fine, I forgive you." Seeing him acting like this, Jia accepted the apology, and since they all were in a team, now stuck in this place.
"Friends." Zeph offered his hand, making Jia widen her eyes before relaxing.
Even Estelle was not left alone, finding something suspicious in Zeph’s behavior, and it came out true when Jia held his hand for a handshake.
SWISH
’Huh?’
An increasing force fell on Jia’s face, making her confused. Her eyes slowly seeing the world turning upside down before her eyes widened, understanding that she was lifted in the air.
More specifically, thrown inside that dense fog.
"WhoooooOOOAAAAAHHHH!"