Chapter 82: The Aether Sea, and the Ultimatum

"My lord, is our course of action correct...?"

"At least for us right now, it is entirely correct."

Ge'erke Hailing looked at the burning sea and said in a low voice. It was as if he were convincing himself, or perhaps convincing the resentful compatriots around him.

Ever since they were interfered with by Human mages and forced away from Kalimdor to the Old World, everything had been terrible. At the very beginning, they were a great warband possessing over a hundred sea behemoths, thousands of Sea Elves, and the ability to even create a tsunami.

But after a battle on the seabed against Vampire Pirates who had been lurking for unknown reasons, they lost a third of their numbers and behemoths, and could only flee in panic toward Albion Island. And after the war on Albion Island, they lost many more compatriots and behemoths. Whether heading east or west, powerful forces were blocking their path.

What other choice did they have? Aside from going north to find the inferior souls of the barbarians, the Sea Elves had no other options left.

But even so, fate played the cruelest joke on them.

The most elite guard and his father, the chieftain, had been killed outright by the psionic tidal wave created by that psionic primitive. Even now, they were still drifting on the ocean, flipping the middle finger, expressing their anger and hatred toward the Sea Elves.

They could not defeat the primitives, so they could only choose the most cruel and vicious plan. To divert the disaster, making two powerful entities fight each other, so they could scavenge a few scraps from the aftermath. Incidentally, the ones executing this plan were also the elites among the Sea Elves, hoping that with exquisite acting, they could trick the Dark Elves.

And now, the final conclusion was that although the Dark Elves were tricked, the tactics the Sea Elves took such pride in were easily broken.

Thirty-one sea beasts and the lives of two hundred and seventy-four clansmen—the final result was merely causing one Doom Ark to successfully change its original course. That floating mountain of a ship began to advance toward the Broken Lands, but its goal was to capture the Sea Elves and torture them to extract the beast-taming techniques they had brought from Kalimdor.

It was completely different from what they had imagined.

In their conception, it should have been their elite troops advancing along the fog in the Aether Sea—the unique technology the Sea Elves relied on for survival—throwing the Dark Elves into disarray, and guiding them toward the Broken Lands while they were in chaos.

But the Dark Elves' reaction was far superior to theirs; these well-trained Dark Elf soldiers quickly realized the essence of the Aether Sea within this special phenomenon.

The so-called Aether Sea is the substitution of elements.

The white fog in the air is essentially a substitution for the ocean; even sea beasts and marine life can freely exert their greatest strength within the fog. And it was precisely by utilizing this ability—which both increases their own side's strength and causes land-dwelling creatures to suffocate and drown, weakening their large-scale combat power—that the Sea Elves had swept across all directions.

However, the choice the Dark Elves made was to collectively put on masks. Every single Dark Elf possessed wealth beyond what the Sea Elves could imagine. Each of them had magic Purification masks to filter out the Aether Sea elements from the outside.

While those sea beasts and Sea Elves were galloping through the Aether Sea, trying to seize the opportunity to attack the Doom Ark, these Dark Elves lined up in unison with shield walls and hand crossbows.

Rain-like anti-magic arrows pinned them to the plaza of the Doom Ark, and the offensive the Sea Elves took such pride in shattered in the blink of an eye.

They could only retreat along the original route.

But from a distant observation, Ge'erke Hailing could clearly see the unhurried manner of those Dark Elves. It was true that they were going to participate in the Ulthuan war, but there was still a long time before the Ulthuan war began; they could hunt Sea Elves for fun, or even get a few more slaves to torture.

After all, on this vast ocean, if you aren't interested in fish, slaves are actually quite hard to find. Even the slave quota of the Doom Ark itself had to be used carefully. And for the Dark Elves, having them delivered to their doorstep like this was a delight. Completely different from the graceful departure they had imagined, the Sea Elves fled in a sorry state, truly escaping toward the direction of the Broken Lands.

And Ge'erke Hailing, who was watching all of this through a magic crystal, was met with cold mockery and sarcasm from those around him.

"You are truly worthy of being our greatest commander, Prince."

A figure wearing heavy armor, who clearly held an important position among the Sea Elves, watched all of this, pulled a strange smile, and mocked in a low voice:

"You called us all here just to watch how detestable your clown performance is? Ge'erke Hailing? Your father squandered our Royal Guard, even the Royal Guards gifted by the Naga died in the sea tide in the blink of an eye, and you? You squandered our remaining hope. What do we do now?"

"Our entire clan is down to only a third of what it was when we first arrived here! And almost everyone is wounded, the sea beasts are all exhausted, we are in desperate need of Soul replenishment, what do we do now?"

"If we go deep into the interior of the Norsca Peninsula, we can still raid the Kislevites, why not do that?"

"... Do not lecture me in that tone, Daimonte!"

Amidst the exclamations of the crowd, Ge'erke Hailing walked down with bloodshot eyes and grabbed the heavy-armored Elf's armor.

"If you were in my position, you would have done the same! This is the only way we can break the deadlock! This is the Old World, not Kalimdor! They don't buy our methods here! They won't negotiate at all, nor will they negotiate with us! What else can we do besides this! You tell me!"

"I—"

Just as Ge'erke Hailing looked at the Elf before him and angrily drew his longsword, intending to kill him, a dazzling light suddenly brought all their arguing to a standstill.

'Eh? Where did that light come from?'

'What is going on?'

'What happened?'

All the Sea Elves looked at each other in confusion, unable to figure out where the light was coming from.

This was the seabed hundreds of meters deep; where on earth could light come from?

Just as they were bewildered, a voice suppressing anger, which everyone instinctively understood the meaning of, rang out from within the hearts of the Sea Elves, conveying someone's final bit of reason and goodwill.

'Sea Elves, I now command you in the name of the Lord of the Tartarus Lighthouse and King of the Star-Bearers: lay down all your weapons and surrender control of your behemoths. I can guarantee that I will not harm you. If you continue to choose to resist, there is only death!'

The automatic update has been reset! I am truly sorry! (End of chapter)