"Oh my? To think I'd see a weed right after arriving. I must be lucky!"
Looking at the Elf before her, Jibril flashed a smile of pure joy. The smile on her face was so simple it was adorable.
But in Synk Nirvalen's eyes, the girl before her was more terrifying than a demon from hell.
Both the geometric halo above her head and the white wings at her lower back clearly pointed to her identity.
A Flügel. A claw of the War God, capable of easily annihilating the armed forces of an entire Elven nation.
To most races, the existence of a Flügel was no different from a reaper.
Even though Synk Nirvalen was a rare genius among the Elves, the one and only Octa-Caster in history who could use eight techniques simultaneously, she was still completely unqualified to face the Flügel before her.
Forget Heaven's Strike; even a normal Flügel was an unstoppable enemy for her. Not to mention, there were two of them. Encountering them was equivalent to death itself.
And if the two Flügel merely terrified her, the black-haired, black-eyed youth behind them was enough to send her into a state of utter shock.
Though she had never seen him before, nor sensed the aura of an Old Deus, for a being to be revered as a master by a Flügel, there was likely only one in the world.
"The War God… Artosh?"
Synk's face turned pale, her body trembling. This was no longer just a matter of her personal safety, but the potential extinction of the entire Elven race.
The War God's recent movements had been transmitted across the world, and the Elves had naturally observed his actions.
Though they didn't know what he had been doing, the very fact that he had started to move after ten thousand years of silence was enough to draw the attention of the entire world.
The Forest God Kainas was worried that the War God might make a move against other Old Deus, which was why he had specifically convened a meeting to have them develop a technique to predict the War God's movements.
The elders had taken on this task with great fanfare, only to dump it all on Synk.
She had just been cursing those old fossils for passing the buck, but she never expected to run into the main subject before she had even begun developing the technique.
"Wh-wh-what can I do for you?"
She dropped to her knees on the spot, without a hint of hesitation.
Whether they were an enemy or not, one should always show the utmost respect to an Old Deus who transcended common sense.
This wasn't to display the might of the Old Deus, but purely to save her own life.
Synk lowered her head as far as it could go, but her eyes, hidden in the shadows, glinted sharply, clearly trying to rapidly deduce the purpose of their visit.
Faced with this pragmatic move, Jibril let out a soft laugh.
"My Master is not Lord Artosh, you know! If you get his name wrong next time… I'll kill you!"
A killing intent as gentle as a breeze made Synk's back break out in a cold sweat.
She couldn't understand what Jibril meant. Wasn't Artosh the Master God of the Flügel? She also couldn't understand Jibril's logic. Even if he wasn't the War God, shouldn't you at least tell me his name? Otherwise, how could she possibly get it right?
However, she understood one thing deeply: the strong did not need to reason with the weak.
So…
"Yes! I understand!" she clenched her fists and chose to swallow her pride.
"Very good. It seems even weeds can have a working brain sometimes. I have a question for you. If you can answer truthfully, I might consider letting you go." Jibril nodded in satisfaction and spoke.
"Yes." Synk immediately nodded, though her expression was slightly puzzled.
The Flügel usually had no interest in the Elves. Even killing them was just a casual act, like poking an anthill, not something they would meticulously plan. So what question could be so important that they would specifically ask her?
The answer was soon revealed.
"Where is the Elven temple?" Jibril asked immediately.
"…" Hearing this, Synk's eyes widened, her face changing abruptly.
The Elven temple was built together with the royal capital. For them to ask this meant they wanted to know the location of the Elven headquarters. It seemed her worst fears were not wrong; they were really here to destroy the Elven race!
With the Flügel's strength, they could easily annihilate their main base. If that happened, the entire Elven race would lose over seventy percent of its power and fall into complete decline.
If she told them the correct information here, the accumulation of tens of thousands of years of Elven history would be destroyed in an instant.
If she lied to them here… well, it seemed she couldn't lie anyway. The Elven capital wasn't far from here. The Flügel could find it in half a minute of searching, and an Old Deus could probably see it without even searching. She just didn't know why he hadn't spoken up.
Thinking carefully, she wasn't particularly loyal to the Forest God or particularly fond of the Elven race.
In fact, the elders had mostly left her with a negative impression. She wasn't the type to value others over herself.
So, what was there to hesitate about?
Just as she made up her mind but was still hesitating to speak, Su Mo spoke.
"Tell the truth."
The words of a god carried an extremely strong binding force. The will of a human magician could not resist it, and neither could an Elf.
Under this compulsory command, all of Synk's previous struggles were in vain. Her body involuntarily spoke.
"The Elven temple is a hundred kilometers behind me, in our capital city."
"So close? It seems we came to the right place!" Jibril's smile immediately turned excited. "Then, Lord Su Mo, let's go!"
The two Flügel girls and the suspected god-like being quickly disappeared from the spot. For them, who could freely manipulate space, a hundred kilometers was no different from being right next door.
Watching the three of them leave, Synk's face was pale.
Exposed so suddenly to the sight of two Flügel and one Old Deus, the future of the Elves was almost certainly destruction, with no other choice.
Although she had no feelings for the Elves and even less for the Forest God Kainas, seeing everything she had known about to be reduced to ashes, she finally broke free from the halo of a genius and once again recognized this cold, realistic world.
"Lord Su Mo, is it…"
She committed the name to memory, then turned and headed back the way she came. If the Elves were to be destroyed, she should witness it with her own eyes!
Using multiple techniques to accelerate herself, her speed easily broke several times the speed of sound. In just a few minutes, Synk returned to the Elven nation.
However, to her great surprise, what appeared before her was not a field of ruins, nor a sea of Elven corpses. On the contrary, the capital city was just as peaceful and prosperous as when she had left.
Seeing the bustling Elves, Synk was a little dazed.
"What's going on?"
With the Flügel's ability to teleport, shouldn't they have arrived here long ago? Why did this city look like nothing had happened?
Not only had it not been attacked, but there was not even a hint of panic or alert, as if they were completely unaware of an enemy invasion.
"Synk Nirvalen, can you explain why you used your emergency authority to summon us here?" a stern and aged voice sounded.
The elders, summoned by Synk's emergency communication device, all looked at this overly arrogant new-generation Elf with unfriendly eyes.
"If you don't have a suitable reason, even if you are the Flower Crown Lord praised by Lord Kainas, you must still be punished according to the rules. In the worst case, you will lose the right to issue emergency communications directly to the elders."
The culture of seniority was extremely serious among the Elves. Even though Synk was a unique genius who had made many unimaginable contributions, she could only remain under the thumb of the council of elders, constantly being constrained.
Looking at these old men who reeked of decay, Synk's gaze was cold. The right to issue emergency communications? Ha! As if it were something so great.
It was they who had wanted to seize the success of the techniques she developed that had given her the right to contact them in the first place, and now they were making it seem like she was begging them.
She was already used to their annoying attitudes, so she had no intention of getting angry now.
"Are you sure that nothing unusual happened just now, that you didn't detect any signs of an invasion?" she questioned forcefully.
"Synk Nirvalen, watch your tone when you speak to the elders!"
"Insolence!"
"We received no signal. What are you trying to say?"
The elders' attitudes varied. Some thought she was being alarmist, while others were dissatisfied with her arrogant attitude.
Synk completely ignored the attitudes of these old fossils.
"Tsk, that shouldn't be right!"
Logically, any large-scale Elemental reaction should not have escaped the detection range of the technique she had personally compiled.
If those two Flügel had come, the technique should have given a warning. Since it hadn't reacted, it meant they hadn't come.
What's going on? Did they get lost? Impossible… wait!
Recalling the question Jibril had asked earlier, Synk's eyes widened.
They had asked for the location of the Elven temple, not the capital. It was only because the two places were together that she had misunderstood.
If the enemy's target wasn't the Elven capital, then what was their target? What being was worthy of a suspected Old Deus-level being making a move?
Realizing this, her face turned pale. She slammed her hand on the table and glared at the other elders.
"Where is Kainas? Where is Lord Kainas? He might be in danger!"
The moment she said it, the elders were shocked.
"What did you say?!"
"How is that possible? How could Lord Kainas be in danger? Our Master God is invincible!"
"Flower Crown Lord, can you be responsible for your concerns?"
They had wanted to question Synk's attitude, but no matter the attitude, when it came to the safety of their lord god, it seemed insignificant.
The War God Artosh hadn't made a move in over ten thousand years. In the hearts of some elders, the Forest God had already replaced him as the strongest in the world, so they didn't believe Synk's words.
But in this world, there were ultimately more people who understood the situation, especially when their own lives were at stake. If the Forest God was truly the strongest, they wouldn't be suppressed by the Flügel. So, hearing Synk's words, they panicked.
However, according to Elven rules, disturbing the Master God rashly was also a crime. No matter how worried they were, someone had to take the blame before they dared to go and inquire about the god's condition.
And the person to take this blame, besides Synk who had raised the concern, was naturally no one else.
Looking at the elders' gloomy gazes, Synk knew what they were thinking. Normally, she might have made a sarcastic remark, but she didn't have the time now.
"The responsibility is all mine. We will go and seek an audience with the Forest God now!" she said decisively.
Unlike the War God Artosh or the Forge God Ocan, the Forest God Kainas rarely appeared before the Elves. Even the elders needed to gather all their members to seek an audience with him. Sometimes Synk felt that the Elves' pretentious habits were likely inherited from Kainas.
With someone to take the blame, their efficiency immediately picked up. Before long, they arrived at the Elven temple.
To Synk's relief, the temple was not damaged. Could it be that I was really overthinking it, that the enemy never came?
However, without final confirmation, she was still uneasy. At her insistence, the elders still picked up their respective symbolic scepters and initiated the ritual to contact their god.
Soon, a blurry light and shadow appeared above the temple. The specific contents of the light and shadow could not be seen clearly.
Just then, a faint voice sounded. The tone was somewhat unfamiliar to the elders, but strangely familiar to Synk.
"Who's there?"