Volume 4: The End of the World Chapter 12: The Duke of the Sacred Tree
Seeing the man following behind him, Ebony finally breathed a sigh of relief.
When the other party came in, he was completely inconspicuous, just like an ordinary human who came here for pilgrimage, without any sense of oppression from a top strong man. Although Wu Mu had never doubted the revelation of the "Great Mother", he still felt a little suspicious when he saw such a person walking in.
But when he quoted his price to the other party according to the revelation of the "Great Mother", the huge magic power that unconsciously overflowed from the other party almost suffocated him - even under the suppression of various prohibitions of the Holy Tree Great Mother Temple, the other party was able to create magical phenomena of a considerable scale, which showed that the human in front of him was definitely not as simple as he seemed.
Ebony even felt that with the other party's strength, he might be able to compete with the bitch who took away his throne.
Thinking of the woman who took everything from him, Wu Mu suddenly became gloomy again. An emotion mixed with anger and shame continued to rise in his heart.
For hundreds of years, no, even thousands of years, the leader of the forest elves has always been the "Father of the Wilderness", without exception. Even after the Unification War, although in principle the supreme ruler of the forest elves must be recognized by the emperor of the empire, for the forest elves it is just an extra process, and in front of outsiders, they are replaced with the meaningless title of "Duke of the Holy Tree".
Because the Ravenwood Forest was not defeated and conquered by the Imperial Army on the front battlefield like other provinces of the Empire during the Unification War. In addition, the unique cultural traditions of the forest elves, and the fact that they are under the protection of the god-level existence "Great Mother", so even though Ravenwood and the surrounding areas were later incorporated into the Riel Empire as a whole province, the forest elves still enjoyed very loose autonomy.
Basically, as long as the Holy Tree City recognized the ruling status of the Platinum Throne and paid tithes on time, the Empire had no ability to intervene in major events within the Jade Province, even in the election of leaders.
But in Ravenwood, the supreme power cannot be inherited simply by birth and bloodline like in the human empire.
Maybe the forest elves are a peace-loving race as a whole , but their leaders must be cruel and powerful.
During the blood moon phenomenon that occurs every twenty years, all tribes must select their strongest warriors to enter the hunting grounds, and let them fight in the hunting grounds like wild beasts until the last one standing.
The winner will eat the flesh and blood of all the losers and absorb the power of their souls. Only then can he prove that he is a truly powerful person who can lead the entire forest elves to prosperity.
After that, the winner must return to the World Tree to cleanse himself and drink the sap of the sacred tree to regain his humanity. Finally, he can complete the marriage with the incarnation chosen by the "Great Mother", officially obtain the title and power of "Father of the Wilderness", and gain the authority to rule the forest elves and command all the great spirits of the wilderness.
Hobien Ebony was the last person to survive in the "Blood Moon Game".
Although the "Ebony" tribe he was born into was not prominent and the great spirit who signed the contract was not powerful, he still proved himself qualified to lead the entire Jade Province with his own strength and courage.
However, at the last step, when he needed to complete the final step of the divine marriage ceremony with the human incarnation chosen by the "Great Mother", the woman, now the Duke of Holy Tree, waved her hand and sent him flying out of the palace.
The scene seemed both ridiculous and outrageous.
"You shouldn't be the leader of Ravenwood."
In the moonlight, the woman looked at him as if he were an ant and spoke in an extremely indifferent tone.
Hearing this, Wumu, who had fought his way out of the sea of blood and corpses in the hunting ground, angrily summoned the Great Spirit engraved on his body. As the final winner of the Blood Moon Game, he could not stand such an insult. Even if the other party was the incarnation chosen by the "Great Mother" in the world, she would pay the due price for her words and deeds.
However, the result was... as the winner of the Blood Moon Game, even though he did not underestimate his enemy at all, he was easily knocked down by his opponent in the first encounter.
I didn't even see the opponent's moves clearly.
"Give up, you are not qualified."
At that time, the woman said this as she looked at herself who was still trying to struggle to get up.
"Then who is qualified?"
Ebony asked with difficulty while swallowing blood.
"Although I really want to say that no one but you has the qualifications, I believe you won't accept it..."
The other party still said in a calm tone:
"So... I, who defeated you, am the one who is truly qualified ."
"You? What qualifications do you, a woman, have to become the 'Father of the Wilderness', wear the antler crown and rule over the entire Ravenwood?"
Ebony asked with a smile on his face.
The other party replied indifferently:
"You can keep the crown if you like it. I don't need it. Also, I want to remind you that the current supreme ruler of Jade Province is the Duke of the Holy Tree appointed by the Empire, not the Father of the Wilderness. We cannot confuse the two just because their duties overlapped in the past. Do you understand?"
"Then how do you plan to convince others of your delusion? Do you think the tribes, the forest druids, the tree spirits, and all the forest elves will believe you and support you as king? "
Ebony asked back with blood in his mouth.
But the other party just said calmly:
"In addition to all the forest elves, I will go and talk to the people you just mentioned one by one. As long as I can reach an agreement with them, the people will naturally accept me taking office. Don't worry, since I said so, I will definitely do what I say."
What the other party meant by "negotiating a deal" was to use force to make them submit. Or to be more precise, she relied on her own force to fight against various forces in the entire Jade Province in turn, and finally made everyone submit to her will.
This sounded like a fantasy, but the woman accomplished it in less than a year.
…………
"She's the only one?"
On the way to the secret room where the reward was placed, William asked about the Duke of the Holy Tree - why a woman could be the ruler of Ravenwood, which should be completely impossible in the tradition of the forest elves.
After listening to Ebony's narration, William asked in surprise.
This doesn't sound like it's real.
He had a general idea of the current power level of the entire world - most people could only practice three types of spells, and the bottleneck of advancement was still blocked by the Star Council. The common-looking characters who could only play supporting roles in the Mage Guild back then could be considered powerful people today.
In contrast, the forest elves inherited a unique supernatural power system based on communicating with the beast spirits and tree spirits. The magic decay brought by the Star Law did not have a great impact on the Emerald Province. Although this power would be limited to the area of Ravenwood, as long as they were within this area, the strength they could exert was still very impressive.
If we ignore the fact that the forest elves have difficulty in mobilizing for war due to their own special culture, it would be extremely difficult and even likely to fail to send troops to control Ravenwood with the current strength of the empire.
This can be seen from the unification war eight hundred years ago - if Yeats and the first generation of Platinum Ring had not been so desperate that they wanted to set fire to the mountain, the Imperial Legion at that time would not have been able to defeat Ravenwood, which was willing to fight.
Therefore, according to William's estimation, even if this or that Duke of the Holy Tree had raised the three types of spells to the legendary level, he would not be able to defeat all the supernatural forces in the entire Emerald Province by himself.
Could it be that the opponent has already reached the divine level in all three types of magic? Or, has the opponent bypassed the restrictions of the Star Law? Or...
Some less optimistic possibilities flashed through William's mind.
"She was the only one. Although she later became involved with the imperial family because of Irene Riel, and gained a lot of support from the empire there, that was after she came to power. At least the process of her taking the position of the Duke of Holy Tree was completely achieved by her own efforts."
Ebony replied.
That being said, this might be a tricky idea...
William thought so, and then asked casually:
"By the way, after listening to you for so long, what is the name of the Duke of the Holy Tree?"
Hearing this question, Wu Mu replied with disgust:
"Her name is Floral, a forest elf name that couldn't be more common."
This name is probably similar to the name that William used to live in. In his past world, parents gave their daughters names like Xyang or Xli. It is a well-balanced name that seems suitable no matter how you look at it.
William nodded, but before he could say anything, Ebony continued:
"But she is a rare forest elf who was raised by humans, so her surname is inherited from her parents' human surnames."
"Her last name is Kane, Flora Kane. Come to think of it, it's the same last name as the Eighth Holy Spirit worshiped by the Empire."
