384 Internal Strife
Selma Payne’s POV:
Master Hayley immediately shut up and turned her attention to the draft book she had never left her side. For a scholar, hypocritical and complicated politics were not more important than knowledge.
The following day, Eve came back with her team.
From the moment we entered the territory of the western city-states, I sent Eve to lead a team to investigate the clues in the west area. She didn’t let me down and brought back good news.
“We found a werewolf’s corpse on the western border. The corpse still has an evil aura. It likely belongs to Azazel’s party. Eve said, “The body is highly decomposed. All flesh and blood are rotten, and even the skeleton is broken. From the traces, it doesn’t look like artificial damage but like it decomposed naturally.”
She gave us a few well-sealed evidence bags with pieces of broken bones inside.
“This is very unusual. Under normal circumstances, the bone insect can’t disintegrate so severely in such a short period unless there is external help. We didn’t find any corrosive chemical substances on the bones, and there was a residual evil aura, so…”
She didn’t finish her sentence, but I understood her meaning. “So this unlucky guy was killed by an evil force and became like this. And the murderer could very well be his companion.”
Master Hayley and Dorothy examined the remaining evil aura on the bones. To their surprise, they did not belong to Azazel but were closer to another demon – Leviathan.
“Leviathan? How did she get involved in this?”
On second thought, there were some clues to this. Locke, who Azazel’s party had rescued, was a Leviathan fanatic. Back then, we wondered why another evil god’s believer rescued him. Now the two sides might have joined forces.
Thinking back, Dorothy and I went to the Rocky Mountains because of Leviathan’s curse and instructions. As a Leviathan believer, Locke was still on the team of the priest. A few hundred years back, the ‘god’s blood’ of Madeline, who had given birth to Dorothy, was given to Mullwica by Leviathan.
From the looks of it, Leviathan had a hand in everything, but we were used to facing the enemy, Azazel, and ignored her!
Could it be that Leviathan was also involved in the elves’ affairs? If that were the case, it would be bad. It was already very troublesome to fight against an evil cult, and adding a bunch of lunatics would not be as simple as multiplying the trouble by two.
Kaya, who had been watching from the side, finally spoke. She asked in confusion, “Leviathan? Aren’t the cultists we’re tracking now believers of Azazel? What does this have to do with Leviathan?”
There were too many secrets in the Rocky Mountains, and I couldn’t tell anyone, so I told Kaya about Locke’s identity and the terrible things he had once led the Leviathan followers to do.
Since Kaya’s memory of our first meeting had been erased, I said, “You should have heard that we came to the outer edge of the Elf Forest a long time ago, right? Back then, we were chasing after the wanderers who were running away. Unfortunately, they managed to escape.”
How Locke and the others treated the orphans made Kaya and the elves beside her look unhappy. “Will they do the same to the children of the elves?”
“I wasn’t sure before, but I can’t say for sure now.” Looking at the bones in the evidence bag, my expression became more serious. If they can even lay their hands on their own partners, they’re either at the end of their rope, or there’s an irreconcilable conflict between the two factions. No matter which one it is, it can’t be considered good news for us. The cultists’ power came from the demons, and any exchange with the demons had a price to pay…”
Children were extremely important to anyone. However, for the elves, whose population growth rate fluctuated around 0 all year round, children were particularly very significant. The difficulty of elves reproducing was well known to all supernatural races.
Kaya’s face turned even paler. She subconsciously ran in the direction of the palace.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
𝙛𝘳𝘦𝐞𝑤ℯ𝗯n𝗼ѵe𝑙. c૦𝑚
“Going to inform the Council of Elders about this!” she said impatiently, “There may still be a chance of survival if you are contaminated by evil forces, but if you are sacrificed to the demon, you will die! How can I watch my fellow countrymen become sacrificial lambs for the heretic cult believers to offer to their master!”
“You’re right. The Council of Elders should know about this.” I said, “Go. Compared to me, you, as an elf, are more suitable to be the one to tell them this bad news. However, you must be the first to report this to the Council of Elders. Without their permission, you can not tell anyone else, alright?”
“Why?” Kaya asked, puzzled.
