Prime Originator

Great Forest Outskirts

At a particular location along the fiery line of burning trees surrounding the Great Forest, large groups of elven warriors showed significant signs of exhaustion.

Shortly after, a few elven warriors exhausted themselves and collapsed on the ground before a few other elven warriors quickly pulled them away from the fiery trees.

"We got another few collapsed over here, sir!" They reported.

"Understood." The elven captain in charge of the area nodded and said, "Quickly take them back to rest!"

"Yes, sir!"

After the group left with collapsed elven warriors, another elf approached the elven captain and stated, "Sir, the rest of the warriors will not be able to control the fire for much longer. We should pull back."

The elven captain observed the tired-worn expressions on the elven warriors' faces and nodded.

"Alright. Go inform the Third Princess and the other captains in the surrounding areas that we are pulling out warriors back."

"Yes, sir!"

The elven warrior quickly left.

…

Meanwhile, back at the vine wall where Princess Thessalia and her personal guards were located…

Boom!

An object was hurled into the rat tide before it exploded brilliantly, bursting into great flames that swallowed hundreds of Wingrats in an instance!

The fortunate Wingrats quickly squeaked away from the flames in horror while their unfortunate brethren burned to death.

"These exploding pills are amazing!" an elven warrior exclaimed with awe as it gazed at the red pill in his hand.

Another elven warrior nodded and said, "Tell me about it. Who would have expected such a small pill to contain so much power?!"

"Oi, oi. You all better careful with those exploding pills now. One careless mistake, and we will all burst into flames!" A higher-level elven warrior warned.

"Yes, captain! We understand!"

The elven warriors on the vine wall all nodded.

Princess Thessalia looked at the burning flames in the distance with fascination as the rats retreated in fear.

She never knew flames could be so beautiful.

However, shortly after, she shook her head, thinking that it was dangerous for an elf to be fascinated by fire.

Half an hour earlier, she had stopped the human prince from leaving before a solution to the rat tide problem was provided.

In the end, the answer given by the person were these exploding pills.

She could still remember the person shaking his head after pulling high-quality spirit herbs out of thin air and mixing them with rat blood to concoct hundreds of exploding pills on the spot.

"Haiz, Grandpa Don will probably like what I am doing around here if he knew…" The person had said shortly after completing his pill refinement and leaving.

Although Princess Thessalia did not know who Grandpa Don was, she assumed it was some respectable figure related to Prince Leon with great interest in explosions.

Seeing the elven warriors having fun hurling the explosive red pills, she barked, "We might have a few hundred of them, but they will be expended quickly if we don't use them sparingly when needed!"

"Ahem—Y-Yes, Your Highness!" The elven warriors answered seriously after being scolded by the Third Princess.

…

Elvengarde Outskirts

Princess Faelyn gazed at King Erendriel with disbelief and said, "How could you say something like that, father? You weren't like this in the past. You used to say that the people's interest always comes first before you own."

"My daughter, you are so naïve." King Erendriel smiled mockingly.

"That was just a gimmick I often used to align the people's hearts with my own interest. Who really cares about their interest if they don't benefit me in any way? Not that none that matters anymore. I'm tired of playing the good king."

Princess Faelyn felt weak and faint at heart. It was like the image of her father she built up her whole life had been nothing but a big lie.

"Where is mother? Why haven't I seen her?" She suddenly recalled.

Such a huge commotion should have been noticed by her mother long ago. However, her mother was nowhere in sight.

"Your mother? You can find her in the Heart of Spring Chamber, along with your eldest brother and second eldest sister—or at least is left of them anyway." King Erendriel grinned.

Princess Faelyn quickly paled.

"What did you do them?!"

"It's not what I did to them, but what they did to themselves." King Erendriel said with ridicule, but a rare trace of emotion was shown in his eyes.

It was sorrow.

Supreme Elder Haldir frowned and asked, "Does it have something to do with your ability to convert Wood Energy into physical strength?"

"I have nothing to say to you." King Erendriel responded to the Supreme Elder with a fierce glint.

However, seeing his daughter's questioning look, King Erendriel softened and said to Faelyn, "Go to the Heart of Sprint Chamber. Once you find the hidden room there, you will understand everything."

"Why can't you just tell me?"

Tears started welling up in Faelyn's eyes.

She was afraid—afraid of what she might see inside that place. She preferred her father to break the truth to her directly instead of keeping her suspense.

King Erendriel did not answer her question.

"In this dog eat dog world, the winner takes it all while the loser takes the fall. If you cannot become the strongest, you will die trying. The long reining peace will end, and chaos will engulf the world." King Erendriel rambled with a lost look.

Princess Faelyn and Supreme Elder Haldir were unable to follow the Elf King's words. However, before they could ask, there was a sudden outburst of heart-wrenching cries below.

Glancing down, the elves on the surface could also be seen with startled expressions before they tried peeking into the dark crevices below for answers.

The cries came from the underground.

The ground began to rumble with large movements as rocks and pebbles could be seen shaking, shortly followed by the endless squeaking of rats.

"Rats! The Wingrats have found passage to the tribe through the subterranean world!" Supreme Elder Haldir stated conclusively with a grave expression.

Recalling Leon had left to enter one of the dark crevices, Supreme Elder Haldir quickly realized that the young prince must have been aware of this potential problem and went to check earlier!