When I lifted my head toward Luna with the absolute last shred of strength left in my body and looked into her eyes with my broken heart, I couldn’t see a single trace of us or our past days there.
Spitting the bitter fluid rising from my chest onto the ground, I opened my mouth to say, “Even you…” straight to her face; but before the words could spill from my lips, darkness consumed me, and I blacked out right then and there.
When I opened my eyes again, I realized I was tightly secured onto a hard, cold platform.
Seeing that I had awakened and regained consciousness, the 1st Demon Lord turned toward me.
A mocking smirk played on his face.
“You’re early, human,” he said with amusement.
“We had planned for you to sleep soundly for at least a few more weeks.”
My arms and legs were tightly bound by thick, runic chains; they completely blocked my immense inner power and mana production.
For a playmaker like me, these chains weren’t actually that big of a deal.
But the real problem was that even if I somehow detonated these runes and broke free from the chains, I doubted I could escape all by myself from the midst of this massive army surrounding me.
Turning to him, I was just about to open my mouth and ask about my situation when, as if reading my mind, he laughed and cut me off: “Don’t even ask, I’ll tell you myself; right now, we are marching straight toward the south of the Dragon Capital.
Our goal is to completely prevent that massive dragon legion in the south from reinforcing the capital, and to cut off their path with an ambush.”
However, before he could finish his sentence, the 2nd Demon Lord coming up behind him brought a heavy fist down on his head, silencing him.
“The more information you give, the more danger you create, you moron!” he roared.
Despite the punch he took, the 1st Lord didn’t lose his composure and secretly winked at me.
“Well, you see how it is, human…
Nothing to be done.”
After marching for a while longer, we set up camp in a sheltered area near a riverbed and began to wait silently in ambush.
At one point, the 1st Lord slipped back over to my side.
Looking at me with curious eyes, he asked, “What exactly was the relationship between you and that silver-haired elf girl?”
I furrowed my brows and shot him a harsh glare.
“None of your business.”
He responded to my words with only a loud laugh.
Taking advantage of the situation, I looked straight into his eyes.
“If I’m such a massive threat, why don’t you just kill me?”
Upon hearing this question, his brows furrowed in sudden seriousness.
“What made you think we were going to kill you in the first place?
We have no issue with you, human.
But that senile old Elf King, Oberon, claims that your rare blood will add incredible power to their legendary spears.
That’s why he personally requested that we deliver you to him alive, and protect you at all costs.”
Just as I was about to speak on this blood business, I spotted the vanguard units of the dragon forces advancing through the distant valley.
These were battle-hardened, elite soldiers guarding the borders of the Sun City.
Every single one of them was incredibly powerful, yet equally arrogant.
And most importantly, they possessed a fatal carelessness brought on by centuries of being the “absolute power.”
Fortunately, their leader suddenly roared and stopped the formation, as if sensing that dense, suffocating demonic energy at the last second: “Take defensive formation!”
While the Lord was busy boasting to the other lords about his own power and glory, I took advantage of the opportunity, pushed my mental strength to the limit, and established a direct, secret telepathic link with the commander of that dragon legion.
I whispered directly into his mind: “Tialofkax…
If you get any closer, you will fall straight into a deadly ambush.
Change your route right now and take another path!”
This was an ancient encrypted code used among the highest-ranking secret spies of the dragons, something impossible for any outsider to know.
The moment the commander heard this code in his mind, he froze in a brief moment of shock and gave his army a sudden order, completely changing their direction.
Seeing them move away without entering the ambush zone, the 1st Lord turned to me in astonishment.
After barking orders at the other lords to fix the army’s positioning, he rushed over to my side.
“A human…” he said, his eyes widening in horror.
“How can a human possibly know that secret military code, known only to those of ancient and purest bloodlines?” This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
I only looked at him with a mocking smile.
“Seriously, you possess a mysterious power far beyond the norm, human,” he added, spreading his hands wide.
“Haha, of course I do!”
Right then, the tent curtain at the entrance of the camp parted, and Luna walked over to us with cold steps.
Turning directly to the 1st Lord, she spoke in a voice as cold as ice: “My Lord…
By the absolute decree of Oberon and Tiamat, I have come to take custody of this human from you.”
The Lord shot me a highly suggestive, suspicious glare.
“Understood…
Wait ahead at the border line.
I must speak one last thing with this human before you leave,” he said.
Luna objected, reaching her hand toward the runic chains on my back: “But milord, we must hurry.
Our time is running short.”
The Lord suddenly fixed his eyes on Luna with a crimson rage and roared: “Do not make me repeat myself, elf girl!”
Bowing slightly under this immense pressure, Luna obeyed the order and left the tent.
Once she was gone, the 1st Lord leaned down toward me and spoke in a whisper tone that only the two of us could hear: “There is something very wrong with this business, human…
If you manage to make it out of this war alive, I will definitely remember your name.”
The moment Luna stepped outside, she shouted at those elite guards waiting behind her, clad in heavy armor that represented their ranks: “Lock this human down tight!
We are going straight to Oberon’s main headquarters!”
Just as the soldiers began to carry me along with the platform, my ears started ringing with a horrific noise.
Faking a slight cough so the enemies wouldn’t get suspicious, I used all my strength to connect that hidden communication channel trying to link with my mind to my main core.
Within seconds, Enwoybi managed to infiltrate my mind.
“What’s the word, bro?
What’s your status?” he said hastily.
When I mentally relayed the situation to him—that I had been captured and that the elves had betrayed us—he let out a deep sigh.
“I see…
Hang in there a bit longer, I’ll reach the city very soon.
Scatroj must have already entered the Sun City with his army.
Don’t worry about the city at all, you just focus on surviving by any means necessary, my friend!” he said.
I didn’t send him a reply so it wouldn’t be noticed from the outside; it remained a completely one-sided, hidden communication, and the channel closed.
When we approached the elf camp area, the sight I saw was not pleasant at all.
The vast majority of the elves who were allied with Enwoybi had betrayed him, uniting under the banners of the traitor King Oberon for the supposed hope of “independence.” A massive elf army filled the camp.
The moment we entered, a high-ranking elf officer wearing shimmering white battle armor approached and bowed respectfully before Luna.
“Your Highness…
Our army is fully prepared, awaiting only your orders,” he said.
Without taking her eyes off me, Luna said coldly, “I will be there shortly.”
Then, blowing a powerful wind magic over me, she lifted me into the air along with the platform beneath me and began dragging me toward Oberon’s giant main tent.
Right at that moment, I saw the arrogant leader of the Fire Elves standing by the side of the path.
As I passed by him, I couldn’t hold back and shouted at him loud enough for the whole camp to hear:
“How’s your son Kazex doing, old man?!”
Back when it was just a game, we used to hunt that brat Kazex quite a bit; in this world, Ermo and I must have already settled his score long ago.
The name sent a literal shockwave through the man.
His eyes filled with bloodlust as he began marching toward me in a rage.
However, the heavily armored guards behind Luna instantly blocked his path by raising their spears.
The Fire Elf leader slammed his fists together behind me, screaming maniacally: “I will demand Oberon hand your corpse over to us, you wretched human! This chapter was taken from NovelPing without permission.
I will burn you with my own hands!”
I turned to him and was just about to flip him a proper middle finger and swear at him when Luna suddenly grabbed my jaw with a sharp, forceful move and silenced me.
Looking into her eyes, I murmured mockingly, “A bit tense, are we, my lady?”
Luna didn’t break her expressionless mask at my words, but she secretly used magic to open an extremely deep and painful gash on my leg.
This move completely cut off the flow of mana in my legs, making it impossible for me to walk.
She also instantly deactivated the levitation magic on me, throwing me harshly onto the dusty ground.
When I crawled into the tent, almost all the chiefs of the major elf clans were lined up around the table.
At the head of the table, the traitor King Oberon and Queen Titania, standing right beside him with her spear, were waiting for us.
Luna threw me down right at Oberon’s feet and dropped to her knees, bowing.
“Before the grand clan leaders, it is my great pleasure to present this mysterious human to you.”
The arrogant head of the Moon Elves smirked under his breath.
“Well done…
After all, those cowardly Ice Elves have always done exactly what they were told throughout history.”
Oberon stepped down from his throne with heavy strides.
Gripping my hair tightly, he yanked my head back and drove a hard punch right into the middle of my face.
As I spat the blood coming from my mouth onto the ground, the tent curtain burst open in a panic at that exact moment, and a messenger rushed in.
“Sire!
There is an extreme emergency!” he said, completely out of breath.
“Scatroj, the absolute ruler of the west, has entered the Sun City with his massive army, tearing through the demon lines on the border!
The 2nd Demon Lord on the front is furious, applying incredible pressure on our army, saying, ‘Those damn elves better be useful now!'”
Despite this news, Oberon didn’t panic and began to laugh loudly instead.
He fixed his eyes on me.
“Then we must hurry.
We will enter that city only after we bleed this human’s pure blood onto our spears!” He raised his hand, and every clan chief in the tent stood up as one.
“In one week…
the final, absolute spear will be fully forged.
And we will wipe that arrogant dragon city off the map!”
The chief of the Sun Elves interjected with concern: “But by then, Prince Ermo and his main legions will certainly have reached the city, my King.”
Titania let out a sinister laugh, striking her spear against the ground.
“All the better…
False hope always brings great complacency along with it.
Let them come.”
When the meeting ended, everyone left the tent.
They threw me into a dark dungeon carved into the stone at the very bottom level of the camp.
There were no physical guards watching over me; but I could clearly see that the blue magic barrier surrounding the cell was being monitored from the outside every single second, tracking my mana flow.
As for me, I was just staring at the cold wall amidst the chains.
While I was humming songs left over from my old world out of sheer boredom, the cell door opened.
An elf servant holding a bowl of food walked in.
“This wretched creature has gone completely mad…” she said with a disgusted expression, throwing the food down in front of me.
The bowl tipped over, spilling most of the food onto the muddy ground.
As the servant closed the door and left, I looked at the spilled food and let out a deep sigh.
Scanning the barriers in the cell, I began to think, “Now, how do I get out of here in the slickest way possible?” Because things were getting serious, and if I didn’t come up with an emergency plan soon, I was going to be well and truly screwed.