“The defensive line... is collapsing.”
“They are pouring in from the north and the east. We have no troops left. Most of our legions have been wiped out, and the First Legion is still trapped on that island and can't get out!”
In the center of the Great Forest, the Central Council meeting held in the elven city was currently shrouded in an unprecedentedly somber atmosphere.
For the longest time, they had desperately denied the truth—or rather, transcended denial entirely, clinging to the false hope that they could win. Now, that delusion was finally shattering.
The Great Devourer was surging toward the Great Forest, and the vast territories of the Empire were almost completely out of control.
Now that the elves had exposed their limits, the foreign race units that once submitted to them had no choice but to break away, one after another.
Why? Where on earth did we go wrong?
Sarel sat silently in his chair amidst the chaos, not uttering a single word.
No matter how much he pondered, no matter how hard he searched for a reason, he could not find a clear, definitive answer.
Clearly, the elves, including Sarel himself, had done their absolute best.
They had swiftly seized control of the interior of the Great Forest and established a firm grip on their people.
In the process, they had suppressed and crushed all dissenting voices, perfectly cementing the authority of the Central Council.
At the same time, they had expanded outward, spreading the greatness of the elven race.
They had conquered all the humans, foreign races, and factions that had invaded the Great Forest to kidnap and sell elves into slavery, turning the tables to rule over them instead.
With the immense power accumulated through this and their rapidly advancing technology, they had finally taken their first steps into the wider world.
They could have trampled this continent—even the entire world—under their feet.
...If only Lin Miao's Great Devourer had not stood before them, endlessly evolving and devouring everything in its path.
“What on earth is the true identity of those demons? We grew stronger as we fought them, but...”
The governor's sigh voiced the root of their despair.
Prism Cannons, Guardians, and more—the elves had given their all to avoid being overwhelmed by the Great Devourer.
In fact, the elves had once held the upper hand.
Had things gone smoothly, they could have cleared out all the nests and completely erased the Great Devourer from this land.
But in the end, the scales of this brutal struggle for survival tipped toward the Great Devourer.
The Great Devourer ultimately withstood their offensive and prepared to launch another counterattack.
In contrast, the Elven Empire could no longer hold out and was spiraling toward collapse.
They had neither troops nor weapons left to mobilize.
Hearing this, Sarel bit his lip.
Lisette!
Fate, in the end, was tangled like a ball of yarn.
Although he cried out in anguish that the Great Devourer's constantly escalating capabilities were simply absurd, the current situation was not solely due to those abilities.
If Sarel had killed his beloved Lisette instead of saving her, he could have at least prevented her from being forcibly used.
If the Great Devourer had not taken advantage of the exploited Lisette to breach the elven defense lines...
Ultimately, none of this was impossible. It would not even be surprising to call this disaster a self-inflicted consequence.
An elf beside him spoke up, “Speaker, what do you plan to do?”
“Do we have any other choice at this point? We will fulfill our final duty.”
Sarel looked up at the sky for a brief moment. Hearing the faint, harsh buzzing of wings in the wind, he stood up.
It was a strange, spine-chilling buzzing, as if a common fly had grown wings large enough to whip up a gale and was vigorously flapping them.
The tiger hornet ant aerial units, known as the “Wailing Wings,” appeared in the sky simultaneously, launching a massive assault.
This was a preemptive strike launched before the ground forces arrived, aimed at weakening the elven forces and conducting detailed reconnaissance.
“Are we just going to hand our home and our ancestors' legacy over to the demons? Hold the line!”
Sarel glanced at the World Tree towering majestically in the center of the main city. Grabbing his bow and arrows, he scaled the World Tree and began firing at the swarming Great Devourer.
For the elves, abandoning their homeland, the Great Forest, to seek refuge elsewhere and start anew made no sense.
For thousands of years, they had been rooted in the Great Forest solely to protect the World Tree, which was their foundation and their everything.
This had not changed even now. The core of "Spirit-Tech," the civilization bestowed upon them by their god, was the power of the World Tree.
Therefore, the elves could never abandon this place. To fully comprehend them, one ultimately had to understand the World Tree.
【Elise senses the power contained within the colossal tree】
Having entered the interior of the Great Forest for the first time and confirmed the true nature of the World Tree, the Great Devourer realized this as well.
Deep within the original nest, Elise, who sat watching everything unfold, had a gleam in her eyes.
The Great Devourer's detection abilities sensed a massive flow of energy spreading throughout the entire Great Forest, centered around the World Tree.
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