Chapter 13: The Whole Armada Empire is in Flames! {Johan/Abellion's Flashback} (11)
Far to the north, separated from the territories of men by vast mountain ranges and ancient magic, lay the Ymiria Kingdom. It was a realm of eternal spring, where the buildings were sung from living crystal and the air always smelled of blooming star-flowers. At the center of it all stood Yggdrasil, the World Tree, its canopy so vast it seemed to hold up the sky itself.
But today, the eternal spring felt cold. A heavy, suffocating dread hung over the crystal spires of the Royal Palace.
King Eberin De La Ymiria sat on his throne, his head buried in his hands. He was a High Elf of immense power and age, usually possessing a calm that could soothe raging beasts, but now he looked like a man on the brink of collapse.
"Why the hell Emperor Augustus is declaring an order to eradicate us?!"
His voice echoed through the grand hall, trembling with a mixture of confusion and terrifying rage. The scroll bearing the Imperial Seal lay crumpled on the floor at his feet—a declaration of genocide delivered by a magical messenger bird only hours ago.
"I don't know your Highness, i feel the same as you. This is just too sudden."
Duran, Eberin's most trusted Royal Advisor and the General of the Elven Armies, paced back and forth. His armor clinked softly in the silence. He was a strategist who had studied human politics for centuries, yet this move baffled him.
"There's no reason for them to do this, and the elves even didn't even do anything nor declaring a war because they are too far away for the empire and the humans to reach of."
It was madness. Logistically, a war between the Armada Empire and the Ymiria Kingdom was a nightmare for humans. They would have to cross the Monster Mountains or sail through the Kraken Seas. To declare total eradication without provocation wasn't just aggressive; it was suicidal stupidity. Unless the Emperor knew something they didn't.
Then Duran look to King Eberin and said "Is there a possibility the Prophetess saw a prophecy Your Highness?"
The room went silent. The Imperial Prophetess was the only variable that defied logic. If the humans believed the Elves were destined to destroy them, they would act irrationally to prevent it.
Eberin touching his temples because there's a possibility she saw a prophecy that involves on them.
He massaged the throbbing veins in his forehead. "There might a possibility Duran, let's ask the Tree maybe the tree has answers."
The World Tree was not just a plant; it was the physical vessel of their creator, the Goddess Ymir. If anyone knew the threads of fate, it was Her.
Duran nod and replied "Understood your highness, i will summon all the elders and-"
-SMASH!
The heavy double doors of the throne room, carved from petrified ironwood and warded with defensive spells, were blasted open. They slammed against the stone walls with a deafening crack that shook the chandeliers.
King Eberin and General Duran drew their weapons instantly, mana flaring around them. They expected an assassin, a human strike team, or perhaps a monster.
Instead, a ragged figure stood in the doorway. Her clothes were tattered travel leathers, her pink hair was wild and tangled, and she looked exhausted. But her green eyes burned with a familiar, fierce light.
"Father!"
The sword dropped from King Eberin's hand, clattering loudly on the floor. He stumbled down the steps of the dais, his legs weak with shock.
"Olivia?! I-I thought you were dead?" King Eberin the hurrily run and hug Olivia.
He crushed her to his chest, weeping openly. For over a year, the kingdom had mourned. They had found traces of her caravan destroyed, her guards killed by monsters or bandits. He had assumed his beloved daughter was gone forever.
"My dear daughter, i-i thought you are now killed or worse torture by the humans."
Olivia hugged him back, flinching slightly as the embrace pressed against her bruised ribs—a parting gift from her frantic journey home. She pulled back, confused by his words.
"Humans? What do you mean father, i mean i was poisoned by a human and that cause me in hiding for like a year but." She paused, sensing the thick tension in the room. The guards weren't rejoicing; they were terrified. Her father wasn't just crying from relief; he was crying from despair.
Olivia then look both to Duran and her father.
"Can you tell me what's happening?!"
Duran sheathed his sword and bowed low, his face grave. Duran then replied "Let's sit first your highness Princess Olivia."
They moved to a smaller council table. Servants rushed to bring water and nectar, but no one drank. The atmosphere was too heavy.
Duran then told to Olivia everything, including their preparation to ask the Tree.
He explained the scroll. The Imperial Edict. The mobilization of the Human armies. The support of the Holy Church. The bounty placed on every Elven ear.
"What?!" Olivia just look on both of them in shock, she can't process on what she heard of.
She had just survived a year in a monster forest. She had survived poison. She had survived… him. She came home expecting safety, only to find that her entire home was marked for death.
"So let me get this straight, you telling me the Emperor of Armada is declaring a war on us and order his army to eradicate our race?"
Duran just nod, he want to reply but he knew the information he gave the princess were more than enough.
Olivia stood up, slamming her hand on the table. "Is he damn insane?! Like what did we do?!"
"I don't know my dear daughter, but i'm sure this involves on what prophecy that the Prophetess saw."
"And they just believe it instantly, rather than double checking?!"
Olivia paced around the room. She knew humans were fickle, but this was beyond simple racism. This was orchestrated madness.
Duran then finally speak, and then he replied "We know how useless the Emperor is, and i wouldn't be surprised if the Holy Church agreed to this. I know how corrupt is the current pope right now."
The Pope. The Emperor. The Prophetess. It was a trinity of enemies. But Olivia thought of another trinity—the Hero, the Saintess, and the Protagonist.
"We need help!" Olivia look to her father.
She grabbed his arm, her eyes desperate. "How about convince Uncle Abrellios and Aunty Lutiana to stop the Emperor or whatever madness he is doing right now?"
The Hero of the Empire and the Saintess were honorary friends of the Elves. They had fought side-by-side in the Great War. Surely, the strongest couple in the world could stop a fat, useless Emperor?
King Eberin looked away, unable to meet his daughter's hopeful gaze.
"I wanted to my daughter, i wanted to call them for help but."
"But?!"
"Don't tell me they can't because they fear of becoming the enemy of the empire?!" Olivia said it in disbelief.
The silence was the answer.
A cold, bitter laugh escaped her lips. She knew if they choose to not help her race, it just proves that she rather care themselves first than helping their friends.
The betrayal stung worse than the poison. She remembered how much the Elves had sacrificed for the humans.
"They owe us a lot father, if it weren't for us the whole damn empire will be erased in history because of the Demon King."
"Are you talking to Personia De Fallenia, the late Demon King princess?" Duran ask.
"Yes, and if it weren't for us Uncle Abrellios wouldn't get that damn legendary sword to struck Personia's heart and finally killing her."
The Elves had forged Aethelred. The Elves had enchanted the Saintess's staff. And now, when the Elves needed them, the Hero and Saintess were silent, protecting their reputation over their friends' lives.
"I agree princess," Duran sighed.
King Eberin stood up, his face hardening. He couldn't rely on humans. He had to rely on their creator.
"I'll try to contact them and ask for help, but first we should go to the tree and ask why is this happening to us."
Both Olivia and Duran agreed and they are preparing themselves to go the Tree of Yggdrasil where the Goddess Ymir resides.
---
The sanctuary of Yggdrasil was a place of breathtaking majesty. The tree was a mountain of bark and leaf, its roots drinking from the mana streams of the planet, its branches brushing the stars. The air here vibrated with raw power.
The scene shifted where all the elders of elves, King Eberin together with her wife and his other children and Duran, and lastly Olivia.
Thousands of elves gathered at the base of the tree. They wore white ceremonial robes, their faces pale with fear. They knelt on the mossy roots, looking up into the golden canopy.
"Ohh Goddess Ymir, tell us why this disaster is happening to us?" One Elder Elf spoke and all the elves repeated to ask.
Their voices chanted in unison, a harmonious plea for salvation. They asked for protection. They asked for answers. They asked why the world wanted them dead.
Then after repeating the same question 12 times, the Tree finally answered.
The ground trembled. The leaves rustled with the sound of a thousand whispering voices. A green golden light shone to the whole Kingdom of Ymiria. It was warm, comforting light, but the message it carried was cold as ice.
From the trunk of the tree, a massive spirit manifested. She was beautiful beyond comprehension, composed of pure light and vines, towering over them.
"It's because the prophecy was fake my dear children." The Goddess of Elves Ymir finally arrived infront of them.
Her voice was not spoken; it was felt in the marrow of their bones.
Confusion rippled through the crowd. A fake prophecy? If it was fake, then surely it could be disproven? Surely the Goddess could stop it?
But Ymir continued, her face filled with an infinite, ancient sorrow.
"That fake prophecy will be the reason of the eradication of elves and the bridge of the true prophecy which will not be prevented anymore because of the eradication of our race."
The silence that followed was absolute. The Goddess had not come to save them. She had come to read their eulogy. She was saying that their death was a necessary step, a bridge to a "True Prophecy."
"Then, that prophecy will not be change and it's really our doomed fate is that what you saying your Holiness?" The King ask, he wanted to clarify he want to convince himself there's a way to prevent or change their fate but.
He looked up at his creator with pleading eyes, begging for a weapon, a shield, a miracle.
The Goddess nod her head on what he ask of.
The confirmation shattered the spirit of the Elven race.
The King drop his his body and knelt in shock, he can't believe their own God just abandon them because she can't stop their impending doom.
He collapsed, his crown rolling off his head into the dirt. The symbol of his authority meant nothing against the decree of fate.
"Your Highness!"
"Father!"
"Eberin!" The queen of elves Damselenia said. She rushed to hold him, but she too was weeping.
The elders are stood their in shock and the citizens of the kingdom are now crying "This can't be?!" and "We're dreaming right?!", all of them are terrified on the Goddess confirmation.
The despair was palpable. It was a physical weight crushing them. They were going to die. Their culture, their history, their magic—it was all going to be wiped out because of a lie they couldn't fight.
But amidst the weeping and the surrender, one person stood up.
Olivia then call the Goddess "Goddess Ymir!"
Her voice cracked with fury. She stepped forward, past the kneeling elders, past her broken father.
"Your Highness, Princess Olivia!" Duran warned, terrified of divine retribution.
Olivia heed no mind and continue "Are you abandoning us?! After what we have done to you, we give all of our faith to you and you just abandon us?"
She pointed a trembling finger at the avatar of the Goddess. The sheer audacity shocked the weeping crowd into silence.
"Goddesss!!!!!" Olivia didn't stop.
The trauma of the last year—the poison, the monsters, the assault on her dignity, and the strange boy in the forest—boiled over. She had survived all of that only to be told she was destined to die? No.
"If i survive on this eradication, i will surely comeback here and burn the tree and burn the whole damn empire!"
Olivia couldn't careless anymore she need to say it, she has no way to convince a goddess who already accept to her mind that her creation will be eradicate just because it's their looming fate.
She stood alone against the divine, a small mortal raging against the heavens.
Ymir just look on Olivia not in anger because of the disrespect but in sorrow.
The Goddess saw the fire in the girl's heart. She saw the potential for destruction. And deep down, in a place where mortals could not see, the Goddess smiled. Not a smile of joy, but a smile of a chess player moving a pawn.
'This is the only way for me to hold that promise,' Ymir thought, her internal voice echoing in dimensions the Elves could not perceive.
She was not abandoning them because she was weak. She was sacrificing them because she was playing a game that spanned eons.
'I knew the Evil God, Thanatos is in euphoria on what he seeing right now. Seeing what's happening to my race and celebrating because he can finally to devour more souls but.'
Thanatos, the patron of the Emperor and the manipulator of the Prophetess, thought he had won. He thought destroying the Elves would feed his power. But he was blind.
'What he doesn't really knew that will be the end of his. The Dark Lord of End and Ancalagon will be the reason of his death and the Dark Lord will devour all of his power, and.'
Ymir looked down at Olivia, the girl who would become the Avenger. She looked at the King who would die defending his home. Their pain was the fuel for the ultimate weapon. The eradication of the Elves would break the seals on Ancalagon. It would pave the way for the Dark Lord—Abellion—to rise. And that Dark Lord was the weapon Ymir needed to kill the other Gods.
Ymir look to the Yggdrasil and continue to speak on her thoughts 'The Goddess of Light will pay of the betrayal, of what she had done 125,000 years ago.'
The weeping of her children was loud, but the memory of the ancient betrayal was louder. Ymir faded back into the tree, leaving her people to their doom, her heart hardened by a vengeance that would consume the world.