Slumbering Protector II

Note From Author: Following the release of this chapter, there will be a break for 1-2 months before uploads continue again.

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The ground split open and a colossal tree, nothing like any of the elves, Kies, nor the demons had seen before, sprouted from the crevice. The ground shook and everything around was falling apart. Everyone turned and fled as fast as they could from the epicenter. Trees were uprooted and fell over. Hills were broken apart and new ones were created.

The demons took to the skies to avoid the colossal tree and were safe up there. However, the same couldn't be said for the elves who didn't have wings like the demons did. The ground swallowed up some of the Sylvs who weren't able to get away in time. Kies tried to blast away as much debris in the elves' way as he could but it was too much.

This wasn't working. A change of plans was needed. Kies stopped what he was doing and launched himself into the cracks in the earth and grabbed all the elves who were falling with the winds. He lifted them out of there and bolted as fast as he could to a safe spot before dropping them down.

"You saved us..." one of the elves said over his heavy breaths. Nyana and Idril were the last to make it to the safe zone as they had been in the front initially and didn't need to get saved by Kies.

"Headcount!" Nyana ordered. The elves counted her members and saw that one person was missing.

"Selphie! Where's my disciple!?" Idril shouted, panicked.

"Help!" Everyone turned in the direction of where the voice called out and saw the massing member of their team, just barely holding onto a ledge, dangling over a bottomless dark pit. The elves all started to run to her to help her but they were too slow. Kies also moved towards her but the distance was too great. Selphie lost her grip and fell into the hole.

"Selphie, no!" Idril cried out. She was nowhere close to her disciple and couldn't do anything but watch her fall into the abyss.

Kies slid to a stop and channeled his magic. He was still far from the crack but his control over the winds should be powerful enough at this distance that he could bring her back up. He raised both his arms and commanded the winds to grab everything inside the ravine and lift it up.

Almost like an explosion, the winds grabbed all the boulders, trees, and rubble and shot them hundreds of meters into the air. Kies spotted Selphie near the top, freefalling amongst the debris. He took a second to plan out his path and trajectory before shooting himself into the debris and launching himself up to her using them as a staircase.

Kies grabbed ahold of Selphie with his winds and propelled himself and her back to the elves, using the falling debris he was on like a launchpad. The winds cushioned his fall and he released the wind sphere holding Selphie and put her gently back on the ground.

"Looks like I owe you this," Idril thanked Kies.

"Thank you for saving me-" Selphie didn't get a chance to finish saying her thank you as Nyana cut her off with something more urgent to say.

"Save that for later. We have a problem at hand, and it's pretty big," Nyana informed everyone.

A great tree towered before them. it was tall enough to block the sun and bigger than the tree holding the elven capital. It was unbelievable just how big the tree was. How could something that big fit underground?

"Is this the nature spirit that you were talking about?" Nyana asked Idril, her voice almost a whisper in the presence of the towering giant.

"Yes, and we better get out of here before that spirit deems us as a threat," Idril warned the group.

"What about the demons!?"

"Forget them. We're going to die if we stay here any longer!" As if on cue, massive green tentacle-like objects sprouted from the tree and started to spin around, ripping through the surrounding trees and terrain in its radius. The range expanded outwards with each spin.

A number of the demons in the sky were swatted by it and killed. The other demons realized that it was too dangerous to continue on with the mission here and fled. After witnessing this, Nyana also realized its danger and ordered everyone to, "Go!"

Fortunately for Kies and the elves, none of them fell prey to the tree as they managed to get out of its range and quickly fled the scene before they could be spotted.

Everyone regrouped back at Selphie's house on the outskirts of the village to gather their breaths and thoughts on the matter. Selphie didn't stay for too long as she wanted to head to the village first to tell everyone what had happened. The rest stayed behind to rethink their plans now that things had gotten so out of hand.

"We don't have to worry about the demons getting their hands on that water for the time being," Idril started on a positive note. "That tree will kill them if they get close."

Nyana stood up and walked up to Idril. She had quite an angry look on her face. "What is that thing!? How is it that you know about the location of the lake and that giant tree!?"

"I can tell you everything, but we'd be here for a while, and I don't think we have that time. But if you must know, in the past, this place had ties to the Bloodtide War era."

Nyana didn't look like she was going to back off but a massive explosion shook the house as everyone turned to face the village where it went off in. Smoke was rising and clotting the already darkened skies.

"...You better tell me everything later." Nyana backed off and decided to focus on the more important matter at the moment. "Everyone, we need to move!"

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