Corrupt Creations

Arwen gave some more instructions to Elyra and then went to meet Seth. She secretly told her to not allow anyone join with the group of people that was already here, because of what she had witnessed together with Seth.

Elyra acknowledged her orders and assured the Elf Queen that she would follow them strictly.

"Seth, there is something you must do while I go to the secret garden. There is a way to control the formation around the dungeon from inside the castle. There is a spare key for controlling the formation, but I made sure to keep it a secret from everyone. It is located inside my room and I will pass you the formula to open up the formation and get it."

"Alright. That's better than I thought. However, I never imagined that you would tryst me that much..."

"Sigh... I just discovered that the person I treated as my only friend turned out to be a hidden snake and it's now trying to bring destruction to our race. I'm sure that I can't lose more than I have already lost... So, why not risk it, huh?"

Seth stared at her and said: "Don't worry, I will not disappoint you."

She didn't say anything, but somehow felt a bit better after hearing his words.

"Are you ready?" Arwen threw one of the blue talismans back for him.

Seth took it on his hand and instantly ripped it.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go." A blue light enveloped his body and he disappeared some seconds later.

The Elf Queen did the same and vanished from the dungeon.

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Elyon was protecting the entrance of the castle together with the other seven Mana Control members of the Secret Security Unit.

"Master Elyon, we already cleaned the surroundings and there seems to be no one near the castle now."

"Very good... We will keep guarding this place until Allannia comes back from the Secret Garden."

He was giving some instructions for them when they suddenly felt a huge tremor and a loud sound.

Rumble!

Crack!

The floor started to split apart and the formation protecting the Secret Garden entrance released some cracking noises, leaking out a very oppressive aura.

Elyon's eyes shone with a maniac light, since he felt it was Allannia's aura mixed with many other energies. Sonn he would be the second most important and powerful figure in the whole Elven Kingdom and no one would dare to stop him.

Some minutes before those events occurred, Allannia was observing the changes that were happening in the World Tree Replica. What was once a green and vivid holy tree, was reduced to a withered dead piece of wood. But somehow, it was still living.

The Corruption was finally able to defeat all those protective energies and mechanisms the World Tree Replica had and was now preparing to infect and transform it.

Where once a green light circulated with force, there was now a red light taking that position. The withered leaves and branches started to reawaken with a very eerie energy pulsing within them.

The entire tree started to exude a fierce and oppressive might, that wanted to destroy and corrupt anything nearby, however, it couldn't since it was only a carrier, a giver. It had absolutely zero offensive power and that was why Allannia stood nearby it without bothering to even use her aura to defend against any possible attack.

Although it couldn't attack anyone, it could bless people with its Evergreen Essence, awakening their genes and giving them power. But only those pure at heart would be able to survive through the awakening ceremony. However, that was for when it was the original World Tree Replica. Now, the tree was something else, something more sinister.

A bright red light started to pulsate, making the entire trunk draw energy from the corrupted roots. At a very fast speed, the roots started to drain the soil from all its nutrients, making it wither and die quickly. The once one-meter-tall tree, had grown to three meters in height now.

All the plants in the entire garden started to die, being sucked dry from their nutrients and vitality. On top of the World Tree, a crimson fruit formed after sucking all that energy. It was a really small fruit, but it was exuding a strong aura of corruption.

Allannia felt that aura and instantly realized that it was for her. The Corrupted World Tree was blessing her finally. It has finally acknowledged her worth, but it was an unholy blessing in the form of a fruit.

"AHAHAHA!!!" She laughed out loud and plucked the fruit, feeling the fierce energy it contained.

She didn't fear the dangers it could bring her. She just put it on her mouth, eating the whole fruit, afraid that someone could steal it from her hands.

Boom!

Her aura expanded and crashed with the barrier protecting the garden. The barrier shook and the cracks it had, expanded, shattering the entire barrier right after.

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Seth and Arwen had left the dungeon, appearing in the middle of the Central Stadium.

"Let's hurry."

Arwen used her superior Mana to bring Seth towards the castle faster. While passing through the city, they noticed that the concentration of elves drastically dropped as they approached the Royal Castle.

Suddenly...

Boom!

They felt the fluctuations coming from whatever was happening behind the castle.

The Elf Queen furrowed her eyebrows after realizing that the energy coming from there, was already reaching the Mana Sovereign Realm.

"I'll drop you here and go to the Secret Garden. You must find the controller as soon as possible and open up the dungeon formation."

Arwen was about to leave, when suddenly she felt Seth holding her arm. He glared at her and said: "You must take care. I felt "that" energy mixed with that aura..."

She lightly smiled and nodded, leaving right after.

"Sigh..." Seth landed on the floor and looked towards the huge castle in front of him. He was not naïve enough to rush forward without scouting, since it was very strange for a castle to be unprotected like this. There wasn't even a single guard at the entrance.

As he released his Soul Sense, he was able to notice eight strong presences waiting for him at the entrance. They were hiding using their auras to mask their presence, something that was useless on Seth's eyes.

Seth would not be able to escape from their perception and chose to walk slowly towards the entrance.

Pah! Pah! Pah!

Seth heard sounds of claps as a man opened the door to welcome him.

"Congratulations for coming until here. I must say it is impressive that you were able to leave the dungeon. I'm really curious about how you were able to do it..."

Seth raised his head to look at the figure of Elyon approaching.

"Heh... Why don't you ask that to your failure of a son?"

Elyon creased his eyebrows.

"You mean that he helped you out?"

"Hm? You aren't actually that smart, are you? What I mean, is that I used a certain blue talisman that I accidently "borrowed" from him, to leave that place."

Bang!

Elyon's aura caused a blast to sudden occur. The pressure of a profound Mana initial-stage cultivator descended on Seth, trying to grind his bones to dust. However, that pressure was not able to immobilize Seth, since his Soul Cultivation strengthened his endurance and resistance to aura pressures.

Elyon understood what Seth was trying to imply. Something must have happened to his son, at the very least, he must have been captured by them, but he couldn't understand how that would happen, since he told his son what to do and when to do.

"You must be asking how It had happened right?" The corners of Seth's mouth were raised in a mocking smile.

"He really must be your son... I got to say you and him are very alike. Both of you tends to do dumb decisions when chasing after a woman. Look at you... Couldn't even catch lady Elyra's eyes, even though you're the family head of a prestigious family. Laughable."

Lexi was hearing his words and couldn't help but comment inside his mind: "Aren't you just the same?"

Seth chose to ignore her.

Elyon felt enraged after hearing his mocking words. He was the Master of one of the "Nature Roots" and no one has ever dared to disrespect him like that.

"What are you waiting for? Rip him apart for me!" He yelled loudly and suddenly, two rapid figures moved out from their hideouts and charged towards Seth.

Two of those Mana Control initial-stage cultivators appeared in a flash, trying to take Seth by surprise. Elyon felt disdain from acting against a Mana Control middle-stage Realm cultivator like Seth and chose to send the members of the Secret Security Unit to deal with him.

Those people were not from his family, so they were not archers and had other type of skills. One of them was already holding a sword that seemed to be exuding a weak blue light, since the low-grade spirit within it, was being stimulated by his master energy.

The other elf, had an axe on each of his hands, but they didn't contain any spirit. However, they were enhanced by Mana and weighed at least five hundred kilograms each.

Both of them came towards Seth at the same time, trying to catch him by surprise with their superior speed, but what they didn't know, was that Seth already knew of their existence from the very beginning.