Chromie slowly sat up while holding his head with his hand, his vision completely black as his glass eye had already been removed at some point without his knowledge.
Meaning, he was completely blind right now.
"You've awakened" a voice called out, causing Chromie to feel cautious.
"You walked into the region of the White Blaze Flowers; their smell is enough to knock any living creature unconscious" the owner of the voice didn't seem to be concerned with Chromie's caution, instead seemed to be continuously moving something around as a consistent knocking sound could be heard.
"Elven language?" Chromie listed to these familiar, yet foreign words, then stiffly replied: "Was it you who saved me?"
"You should thank the elven bloodline in your body, otherwise, I wouldn't be so crazy as to save a weed" the voice lightly replied.
"Elven bloodline…" although he had already expected this, Chromie still found this news a bit tough to accept. If his assumption was correct, the elven bloodline should be the so-called 'blood of evil'.
"Regardless, thank you" Chromie thanked whoever this was with his half-baked elven language, sensing the person who was most likely an elf approaching him.
"Drink, your body is incredibly drained" the elf's tone was rough, giving Chromie the impression that they would immediately become enemies if he didn't drink it.
Coupled with the fact that his body was so weakened that he felt powerless, he struggled a bit to receive the round bowl, then slowly placed it on his mouth and drank it all without hesitation.
He was extremely frail right now, after falling unconscious without knowing why earlier, his glass eye was taken off, and during his short search right after he woke up, he found that the Tome of Sacrifice was nowhere to be found. Without that book, he couldn't activate any Sacrificial Magic.
It could be said that he was basically at the other party's mercy right now, he would be powerless to resist them even if they meant him harm, so he might as well stay obedient and follow their arrangement, because that would be more beneficial.
As the scalding medicinal water flowed down his throat, he could taste the bitterness of the medicine, followed by a faint taste of blood, but after swallowing it, he instead found that it left a relatively pleasant taste in his mouth.
The feeling of being alive once again flowed through Chromie's body.
"Very well, now let's talk a bit, what's the situation like outside?" the other elf's voice sounded extremely drained.
Whether it was his imagination or not, Chromie felt that this elf's perception of him had gotten better after drinking that medicine. At least, they didn't seem to feel quite as hostile as before.
Chromie selectively explained the situation of the outside world while hiding the fact that he was working for the Sun Shadow church. After all, the elf race had expressed nothing but hatred towards humans, especially towards the churches of the seven Gods.
"So, the outside has already become the world of those weeds, huh?" the elf clenched their teeth as they muttered to themselves.
From what Chromie could infer, they seemed to both hate and look down on humans, calling them 'weeds', comparing humans to the wild grass on the roadside.
"Weren't the elves massacred to near extinction by those so-called 'weed' humans in the past?" naturally, this was something Chromie only dared to think in his head.
"You can call me Pernod" the elf told Chromie his name, then began to introduce the situation of the elven ruins.
Thousands of years ago, when this elven city was sunken underground, the Elven Mother Tree soon withered, which caused the elves to fall into complete panic. This was because the Elven Mother Tree was the true nucleus of the elven race.
The Elven Mother Tree was a branch of the Moon Tree, which projected a web of mana around itself. As long as they stayed within the web of mana, every elf was able to use mana to perform feats of magic, including the creation of food from thin air. Frankly speaking, as long as the Mother Tree didn't wither, the elves could continuously breed and live on.
The withering of the Mother Tree caused the entire elven city to collapse. Several elves started to display signs of mana addiction, as their bodies relied heavily on mana to sustain itself.
This was one of the means of control that the Moon Tree world's consciousness had created to control the elven race. The will of the world and the beings living within lived by relying on one another, yet also stay mutually cautious.
Some life forms weren't satisfied with being under the will of the world's control, and the will of the world was also worried that some especially powerful lifeforms might escape its control, taking away a large amount of the world's resources at the same time.
For this reason, the majority of the elven race relied heavily on the Moon Tree to supply them mana. Normally, when there was an abundance of mana, there would be no issues, but if they betrayed the Moon Tree, they would suffer the afflictions of mana addiction.
However, none of them thought that when the branch of the Moon Tree, the Mother Tree, withered away, it indirectly brought the ultimate despair upon the elven cities.
They no longer dared to use the mana that remained within their bodies, only remaining underground to prolong their last breaths, and then an even more despairing event occurred: their crops also began to wither from the underground environment, causing a food shortage.
None of them dared to exit the city and return to the surface, as that period was the most intense part of the war. Every man and woman of the seven churches were madly searching for the traces of any elves, and if even one of them was discovered, everyone in the city would be massacred.
The sages of the city then proposed a research to create plants that could adapt themselves to this underground environment; but this research required the use of mana, so a portion of the elven death row criminals were taken to be used as mana sources.
This great crop research did not progress quickly, as matters slowly but surely slipped into the abyss.
Under the lure of mana and hunger, some elves began to use death row criminal elves as food, but the issue was that there weren't too many of these criminals. Eventually, every single kind of criminal, including those who were only supposed to be imprisoned, were treated as energy sources for experiments and food. The standard for being judged as a criminal was growing increasingly lower; at one point, even making a little bit of noise at night that disturbed someone's sleep was considered an unforgivable sin.
Ultimately, the city's order completely collapsed. The elves had already gotten used to eating their own kind, forgoing using criminal offenses as an excuse, they simply hunted one another for food. Order and civilization no longer existed, as every living elf stooped so low that they were no different from beasts.
Later on, even when the underground plants research was completed, none of the other elves cared any longer. Having lived too long in this gloomy underground, their rationality was completely lost. The monsters outside were the eventual descendants of those past elves, which Pernod dubbed the 'Gluttonous Demon Ghosts'.
"Then, Pernod" Chromie paused briefly, then asked: "Who are you?"
"I am a sinner" Pernod stayed silent for a long while before replying in a hoarse voice: "All those years ago, it was me who first suggested using death row criminals as mana sources, it was me who opened the gate into the abyss, bringing sin into our world"
Chromie's lips twitched. If Pernod wasn't lying, then he would have already lived for thousands of years. Compared to the hundred-year life span of humans, elves were truly a long-lived race.
Of course, it was possible that Pernod might have some sort of ability or object to prolong his life span. After all, since Pernod was the one who suggested that initiative, Pernod must have already been someone of influence in the past; in other words, Pernod would have already been of considerable age at the time, coupled with the thousands of years that followed, even the elven lifespan seemed to be a bit of a stretch.
"Also, that medicine you drank earlier will support the awakening of your bloodline, although it won't turn you into a complete elf, it will still be enough to turn you into a half elf. Don't worry, I've mixed a few things with it that will render the curse in your bloodline no longer effective" Pernod's sudden declaration caused Chromie to freeze.
Even though he had assumed that this old elf had something planned for him, he didn't expect for it to be something like this.
