Chapter 156

Blood Debt

Inside the now relatively sealed room, the Dark Elves – who were still conscious, at least – were arguing among themselves in a flurry of hand signals and maddened stares.

Leyn was doing his best with transcribing their signals into words for Connie, who seemingly had told him to do so, his forehead sweating all the while. As for Illumca, she was standing still with arms folded. Her powerful gaze and her unexpected silence making the Dark Elves feel disconcerted.

How can this be her? The Illumca I knew were sick! But the one before us now has such pure Mana within her, more than our strongest Elder!

This is trickery!

When she saw what Leyn wrote, Illumca wanted to laugh. “Is it so strange? Life is full of ups and downs. Once, I was sick, and then I got better; Once, the Liban Clan was prosperous, and now it’s nothing more than servants to the Demons.”

Suddenly, a dagger was thrown from Illumca’s side and pierced through the arm of a Dark Elf. A hidden knife fell from his hand.

“You’d better not try anything stupid,” Illumca said with an icy tone. Kicking aside a fainted Dark Elf, she pulled up a chair and sat on it. “Sit on the floor. And put your hands where I can see them.”

Do as she say. Benua signed. These people are strong enough to kill Jala. Even if you try your best, you will just add to the number of men lying on the floor.

And so, they did as she bid. Illumca watched them. Now that their position was reversed from how she was forced to look up when put into the cage, she felt a strange sense of satisfaction.

Then she began to speak. “Do you know, that when I was little, I thought that the Clan was the best thing in the world,” she asked them, fingers steepled as she tapped her lips with them. “Of course, how could they not? For the Dark Elves were beautiful and wise. Such was what my mother taught me. And I believed her.”

“But now?” she let out a deprecating chuckle. “I’m no longer that ignorant little thing. For I have seen true beauty. I have seen true love. I have someone who would fight a whole kingdom…for me. For my sake. Not because of my lineage. Not because of my beauty. Because it was me,” she emphasized her words emotionally, hitting her chest repeatedly.

Connie watched the looks that the Dark Elves were giving her. Some were filled with guilt; some were of bewilderment; some were shameful; and some were hostile.

“Now that I see you all once again, I understood. That you are all victims. Victims of your own idiocy and cowardice! You are – each and every single one of you – fools without compare!”

With each word that she spoke, Illumca’s body emitted a heat that slowly but surely making the room hotter and hotter, making it harder to breathe.

“You are not satisfied with just abandoning a child because the Elders said she was cursed. You believed Merida and her daughter simply for the fact that they were pure of blood. And in turn you let corruption take root within your clan, which resulted in the death of your true leader, my father!” she stood up and kicked the chair she was sitting on. The Dark Elves winced at this. “And now look what that short mindedness of yours have brought you? Indentured servants with no say to your own fate! Where is your so-called pride now?! Where is your honor?!”

“Henoff!! Henoff…!” One of the Dark Elves shouted, followed by resigned sobs. It was a female with a missing eye. “Ghwe know. Ghwe medh a misdhake. Hand ghwe harr bhaying for idh.”

As soon as the woman cried, some of the others did too, especially the older ones.

But this only agitated Illumca further. “Tears? Now?! You regret! NOW?! When everything has gone to shit?! My father is dead, and my mother is in a place only Mother Tree knows where!!”

Illumca swooped over with speed and kicked the nearest Dark Elf, stepping on his chest with fire burning in her eyes.

“Illumgha, bhlease!” Arryn came forward to reach her, but Illumca brushed her off.

“Bhlease…habh mershy,” a woman came forward and pleaded.

“Why are you looking at me like that?! Stop that!!” Illumca shouted. Their faces. They are looking at me just like how I looked at Merida when I was forced into the cage. A monster? Is my desire for revenge making me a monster?

While her heart was in turmoil, she suddenly remembered Connie’s words.

Revenge…is a hollow thing. It will not return to you what you lost, nor will it ease the pain that you felt.

She wanted revenge. But should I take revenge on the whole clan? Even on the innocent ones? On the children? To the ones who only knew to follow their parents? She stepped on the Dark Elf harder. Even if she forgave them, she could never wholeheartedly do so.

But blood demands blood. In her confusion, she turned to Connie, her eyes seeking help.

Connie saw this and opened her mouth. “It is not my right to say what is right and what is wrong in the name of your vengeance. But if it was me, I prefer to weed out the root.”

The root…Illumca closed her eyes. The cause. The cause of my…suffering.

Finally, Illumca made up her mind and released the Dark Elf, whose chest seemed to have been broken because of her foot.

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“Mercy…” she mumbled. “Mercy…yes. I’ll…give you mercy.”

There was murmur of happiness between the Dark Elves.

“But first…take off all of your masks. Let me see each and every one of your faces.”

Confused but relieved, the Dark Elves did not complain much as they took off their masks.

Illumca took a long hard look at each and every one of them and then pointed at three elders whose eyes had faded in color and a male Dark Elves who looked at her fearfully. She made them stand before her and smiled.

“The four of you. Take your own lives.”

Illumca! What are you doing?! Arryn wrote.

“I gave them the mercy that they wished for. I will settle on not killing everyone…” she began. “All at the price of their lives.”

Why them?

“They were willing to sacrifice me for the sake of their clan, did they not? So let them do as they preached. Let them protect the clan through their sacrifice.”

Illumca clasped her hands together with a smile. “You see, I have never forgotten the faces of the Elders that consigned me to my years of suffering. And the ones who spat upon my bread,” Illumca spoke with a sarcastic smile. “Thankfully, we Dark Elves do not age as fast as the humans.”

Behind her, Connie nodded silently. Ah, karma.

The male Dark Elf she sentenced to death roared angrily and lunged at Illumca desperately. However, Nick took him down.

The Elders, however, did not react. In fact, there were resignations in their eyes; even relief.

One of them, an old woman with her hair tied to a bun, signed to Leyn, who interpreted it for Illumca.

If you can kill that wretched Demon then I will willingly give you, my life.

The second one, an old man with a scar on his cheek, signed with a resolute gaze.

As long as you can avenge my brothers, I am willing to take my own life. However, I beg you to spare the young ones.

The last one, who seemed to be the most respected among them signed.

Our hands have been dirtied. We are at fault for believing the forked tongue of a traitor. But we are powerless.

He then turned towards the Dark Elves still kneeling behind them.

All of you, it is our decision to take our lives. So do not blame her for our death. Instead, you all must live for our sake. Regain the honor that we have lost, and take revenge upon the traitors who sold our Clan to the Demons.

He then spoke to Arryn with a smile that spoke of familial fondness.

Arryn, please guide the young ones so that they do not make the same mistake as us old fools.

Trembling, Arryn put one hand on her chest in acknowledgement.

Akula did not say anything about the turn this had come onto. For her, who had lived on the edge in the Grasslands, blood debt was a part of life. It was not rare to see a man who had killed an innocent man at night to be found with his head on a spike the next morning. But for Nick, who was not used to such a barbaric way of life, it was still unpleasant to see.

With goodbyes done, the elder with the scar on his cheek took his own sword and slit his neck. He fell onto his knees and departed first.

The old woman took out a knife from her waist with a dignified poise.

Will our death calm your rage, young Illumca? she asked through Leyn.

“No. Not until Merida and Istia are dead.”

Then, I pray that you succeed. Blessings of the Mother Tree be with you.

The old woman held the knife with both hands and calmly took her own life. She slumped upon a table with a smile of relief upon her face even as blood flowed from the wound on her neck and her consciousness slowly vanished.

As for the last elder, he took out a short sword and signed to the younger Dark Elf who was still resisting his fate.

Let’s go Makul. We’ll see each other again in Sud-Ghazid.

“Nho! Nhooo!!!”

Makul flung Nick away in desperation and took out a vial of brilliant blue liquid from his breast pocket. The same one that the Mercenary Connie killed used to morph into a monstrous figure.

Connie burst forth and grasped the man’s hand holding the vial and crushed it with her strength before he managed to drink the liquid.

“Wanting to live so badly that you are willing to let go of your pride as a Dark Elf and become something less? I applaud your bravado.”

“But all the same. Bravado without conviction is as fragile as a castle build on sand.” Connie cut the man’s arm off with a single movement of her hand. She held the vial - arms and all - and withdrew while saying. “Do with him as you wish.”

The last elder looked at the man groveling on the floor with a disappointed face and plunged his sword into the young one’s chest. With an unwilling groan, the man departed after them. This action surprised everyone, as he had done the one unforgivable sin in the eyes of their Goddess.

He then placed the same sword he used to kill Makul across his neck and gazed at Illumca. She was perplexed by the mix of pride and regret in that gaze. But before she was able to sound her question, the last elder spoke with the tone of a grandfather speaking to a child.

“Illumgha, Hai leave the Ghlan dho hyou. Mhay dhe Modher Dhree bhless hyou hon hyour jhourney. Hand Hai’m sorry. Dho hyou hand hyour fadher.”

Illumca watched as the last elder took his own life. As she did so, a vague memory of her childhood resurfaced; an image of the dying elder playing with a child with wheat-colored hair under an old oak tree as he gave her honey biscuit to eat. But what was done, was done. She would not think about it anymore.

The silver-haired Dark Elf closed her eyes solemnly before looking at the Dark Elves, who were gazing at her with mixed expressions.

“Do you wish to avenge them?” she asked them with a level tone. “If so, take your arms.”

To her surprise, and somehow, to her slight relief, they did not take up their weapons. Instead, they bowed deeply to her.

“What are you doing?”

To her surprise, Arryn and Leyn had also bent their knees to her. “What is the meaning of this?!”

Elder Khula had assigned leadership of the Clan to you in his last words. Arryn wrote as she looked at the last elder to depart this life.

“Are you kidding me?!”

Although I act as the leader of the Clan here, the elders are still our spiritual leader. Their words weigh more than mine.

“You are going to obey someone who forced your own people to kill themselves?!”

Yes, because we are doing it to atone for our mistakes. And only through you can we do so.

While Illumca was reeling from the shock of the sudden turn of events, suddenly they heard shouts coming from outside.

Akula was the one who was first to react. She burst through the wooden door and saw Martell standing in front of cowering Dark Elves children. Two corpses of Demons with signs of grafting were slumped over each other. Behind them more Demons were crowding all over themselves trying to go through the narrow path.

“It seems like we cannot waste any more time here,” Connie said. “Make your choice, Illumca. What are you going to do?”

“Ugh. Ugh...!” Illumca gritted her teeth. “Fine! If you’re going to hand your lives to me, then I’m going to wring it out of you like you wanted! But I refuse to be called a member of your Clan!!" She growled in frustration. "Open the path for us!! Today, I will take Merida's life!!”

The Dark Elves got up from their knees and rushed forward with renewed vigor. Eyes filled with a determination that they did not know they had after so long being under the Demons.

As they pushed forth, Connie grabbed Nick’s shoulders.

“Nick, take the little ones to the jailroom. Leyn know the way," he glanced at Leyn, who nodded in understanding. "Caelin and the others are there. Once you are there, defend the place with your life.”

"But...!"

"I am trusting you with it."

“Y-yes, Milady!” Nick said quickly, understanding that she was doing it to spare him from fighting a fight between monsters. He too, knew his limits, despite his unwillingness.

“Good,” she then said to Arryn. “Now then, Arryn. Lead us to Bet-Zebek,” she stroked Crimson Serpentbane with expectation. “It’s time we erase his name out of existence.”