Volume 4: The End of the World Chapter 4: Holy Communion
In William's time, he had never heard of the "Wild Hunt". In the past, the military force of Ravenwood Forest came from tribal warriors from various tribes.
For example, tribes with surnames like "Wolf Words", "Eagle Feathers" and "Viper" worship the "wild spirit" in the forest as the patron saint of their tribe, tattoo the souls of wild beasts on their bodies, and use their own blood to arouse the wild power.
Because that power is violent and powerful and difficult to control, generally speaking, those tribal warriors will only engrave a tattoo of a great spirit, and will not be like these "Wild Hunters" in front of them, who have tattoos all over their bodies like body painting.
Just a tattoo of "Wild Spirit" would put a person's spirit at risk of being lost in the beast. And with so many different kinds of tattoos all over their bodies, William felt that it was a miracle that they could still speak logically at this moment.
As for that sickly thin body...
This is the same as in the past, and is a product of the unique cultural customs of the forest elves.
A very curious custom.
William's previous answer made the "Wild Hunt" in front of him, who was as turbid as a beast, jump. It can be seen that this person probably did not expect that the human in front of him would dare to refuse a request from a Wild Hunt.
Then the man said in a low voice:
"So you mean to refuse to cooperate with our investigation, right?"
There was a threat in his voice.
William nodded.
The man squinted his eyes and looked at William and said:
"So how are you going to refuse?"
"Refuse in the same way you want me to obey."
William replied.
In fact, William refused for no other reason, but he simply wanted to know what the consequences would be if he refused to cooperate? Would the other party try to use lethal force?
If these guys with the title of "Wild Hunt" could attack a person who had never committed any crime in public, William would really have to think carefully about whether the Jade Province, with such a "simple" law enforcement order, was a potential ally worthy of negotiation.
Or would he support a local force himself, as he did in Blackwater Province before?
William's eyes swept around, and after William's voice fell, there were already five or six "Wild Hunts" surrounding him. And the wild hunter standing in front of William, the python tattoo on his arm began to slightly reveal the soul form, struggling to take shape.
Well, it looked as if the other party was really going to use violence.
William sighed lightly, then raised his right hand slightly.
To deal with such a small character, he didn't even need to use a spell medium. Just some simple instant cast or single-semester spells were enough to make all these guys lose their combat effectiveness.
Fine runes appeared on William's wrist invisibly. With his superb magic control skills, several instantaneous spells were prepared without even being noticed by the other party .
Seeing that a small-scale encounter was about to break out, but before William could preemptively release those spells, suddenly, a emerald green light lit up on the crown of a giant tree in the distance, and all the "Wild Hunts" present stopped what they were doing at the same time and turned to look in the direction of the green light.
"The tree spirit is seeking support..."
The "Wild Hunt" in front of William said.
Then, like puppets that were suddenly picked up, they turned around in unison and rushed towards the distant tree.
All this happened so suddenly that William didn't even have time to ask anything. He just watched as the dozens of wild hunters either grew translucent wings behind them or swung between the trees like monkeys, running quickly towards the direction of the light.
After looking around for a while, William turned his head and looked at the guard who had reminded him not to make a sound.
"Does something like this happen often?"
William asked.
The guard also looked at the distance with a look of surprise and said:
"What do you mean? The light, or the Wild Hunt?"
Then, without waiting for William's answer, he continued:
"The Wild Hunt only obeys the Duke's orders. It is difficult to see them at ordinary times. As for the green light... that is a phenomenon that only appears when the Treetop Temple holds a festival. But today is not a festival day. Could it be that the spirit of the sapling tree has appeared because of something?"
After further questioning, William finally learned from the guard what the "Wild Hunt" was.
The unit named "Wild Hunt" was a guard unit established by the Emperor of the Empire to facilitate control of the entire Emerald Province after .
The Star Council collected almost all the mystical materials that could be found on the entire continent, which naturally included the magic system of the "Great Spirit Tattoo" unique to the forest elves. In order to make the "Duke of the Holy Tree" appointed by the empire win the support of the people, the Star Council at that time merged the wilderness spirits of many powerful tribes and created a hunting dog named "Wild Hunt" that would only obey the "Duke of the Holy Tree".
In other words, the presence of the Wild Hunt here represents the will of the Duke of the Holy Tree.
According to what the Wild Hunt had said before, they were sent out to capture an anti-Imperial element who had fled here. At least from this sentence, William could get a glimpse of the position held by the "Duke of the Holy Tree".
The Empire's faction?
And who is the so-called "anti-imperialist element"?
Although William himself could indeed be considered an "anti-imperialist" and could even be qualified as the "biggest" by the way, he never felt that the other party was out to find him.
What a joke, he was being targeted as soon as he arrived at Holy Tree City? The empire's intelligence agency must have already infiltrated his forces like a sieve.
But the place where the green light was radiating just now seemed to be the place where I asked Nezemar to wait for me earlier...
William turned his head and looked in the direction where the "Wild Hunt" disappeared. A trace of uneasiness flashed through his mind, but it quickly dissipated.
After all, he had repeatedly asked Nezemar to wait for him there quietly. Moreover, he had equipped her with a lot of powerful equipment, plus the Holy Spirit Icon she was wearing, and the magic-sealing rune that William gave her, which could be used as a teleportation beacon. William believed that there was little in this city that could harm this experienced former member of the cult.
Even if there is, she can still get someone else.
Because William had no intention of changing his previous plan.
"Can I go up by myself now? I want to visit the temple of the Holy Tree Mother."
William continued the conversation with the guard that had been interrupted earlier.
The guard looked William up and down and said:
"Yes, sir, but please fill in your name on this registration form."
"Are you okay? I almost came into a fight with the Duke of Holy Tree's left and right hands just now."
William took the pen and asked one more question with some concern.
"No problem. You are going to the Holy Temple of the Great Mother. Even the Duke has no reason or power to stop any pilgrim who wishes to worship the Great Mother."
The man said so.
"Really? Although the title has changed, the Duke of the Holy Tree is still the 'Father of the Wilderness' who wants to have a divine marriage with the 'Great Mother'. Whether in terms of faith or legal principles, he has the power to do so."
While signing his pseudonym in the register, William asked a few more questions.
This time, it was the guard's turn to be surprised.
"What do you mean by 'Father of the Wilderness'? The Duke of Sacred Tree is a woman."
"What?"
…………
Let’s go back a few minutes.
Nezemar followed the two suspicious guys along the main road and came to the door of the Treetop Temple.
After hesitating for a moment at the door, she followed him in.
The Treetop Temple is an altar on the top of every sapling that is more than 500 years old. It is not only the place where the sapling spirits live, but also the place where the forest elves perform a very important daily ritual.
The forest elves were a branch of high elves who left Ava during the Great Migration. According to the human calendar, they came to Ravenwood around the Silver Age. Here, they helped the World Tree dispel the curse of the Hungry Lady and drove away the Moon Realm Worship Church that took root here, but at the same time, they also exhausted the blessing of the Phoenix Holy Fire.
In return, the will of the World Tree, a being called "Great Mother", signed a contract with the high elves. She blessed the elves' bodies and souls again and allowed them to use the power of this sacred forest.
It was also after that that the forest elves were born.
The forest elves also gained eternal life by signing a contract with the "Big Mother", but they spend most of this "eternity" living as trees. As they grow older, the forest elves will gradually "become trees", such as having leaves grow on their hair, roots grow under their feet, their skin turn into bark, and their movements become slower.
When they reach a certain level of tree transformation, they will actually become a tree and live forever. Currently, about one-third of the forest in Ravenwood is transformed from forest elves.
Since one out of every three trees in Ravenwood may be a fellow creature living in another way, it is not surprising that the forest elves have strict protection for the forest in their cultural customs.
In Ravenwood, no crafts or tools made of wood are allowed, and anyone who possesses wooden products will be tried for murder. At the same time, residents here are not allowed to use fire, whether it is fire brought by fire or fire ignited by magic, as long as fire is used, it is a felony.
Based on these customs, the forest elves developed very special craftsmanship. For example, the hunting bows and arrows used by the forest elves are all made of animal bones. The houses they live in are tree hole houses that grow from the "Big Mother" through prayer. And the furniture, in addition to those that grow naturally, are mostly made of stone or expensive metal products imported from the outside world.
As for food, apart from the fruits and grains that matured and fell automatically, many residents here relied on hunting for their livelihood. And because the use of fire was not allowed, the meat of the prey they hunted was mostly eaten raw with juice or tree sap. Of course, in order to store food for the winter, the forest elves also developed a very rich drying and pickling technology, but in essence, it was still eaten raw.
Because of this, forest elves always give other races an impression of being primitive and barbaric.
In addition, the most important item in the contract between the forest elves and the "Big Mother" is to prevent the return of the Moon Realm's Void King, Lady Camilla, the Hungry and Corrupted.
The Great Mother represents the origin of life, and some even say that she is the first life to appear in the world.
Since it is life, it needs a cycle of survival and reproduction.
The starving lady Camilla symbolizes the wear and tear of this cycle.
No matter how perfect the cycle is, there is always energy that escapes and is wasted . This waste manifests itself in the form of life, which is corruption, or it can be called the entropy of life.
For this reason, another contract between the forest elves and the "Big Mother" is that the forest elves must eliminate all corruption they can see in this forest.
In this place full of vitality, only by eating all the dead things and turning them into new life fuel, leaving no space for flies, maggots and rotten fungi to breed, can Camilla's power be weakened to the greatest extent.
After entering the Treetop Temple and seeing what was going on in the center of the temple, Nazemar recalled what Lord William had explained to him on the way here, regarding the customs of the forest elves.
"Those who died were eaten while the breath of life still lingered in their bodies and before corruption took hold - this was their cultural custom."
"And since the forest elves can't use fire...then when they deal with the bodies of friends and family members who died in accidents and were not completely transformed into trees, they can only choose to eat them alive."
What did the presiding judge say at that time?
At this moment, in the center of the temple, a forest elf man was crying with two children, while biting and chewing the still warm body of a young forest elf woman.
That looked to be his wife, their mother.
