Chapter 498: The Heros Journey (1/2)
Aria continued to hover in the sky on her ice-lightning sword and watched everything proceed according to plan, which was, in truth, quite simple.
It required the airship to act as a vanguard and trailblaze ahead, clearing out the rats from the center while two teams would then attract the rat tide to kill each other and form two walls of rat carcasses on either side as seen before Aria.
These two walls will extend all the way to the Great Wall, forming a safe passage for the tribesmen, who were preparing for their departure back in Elvengarde.
”Everything seems to be proceeding smoothly,” Aria muttered softly to herself.
Sometime later, another elven warrior army exited the Great Forest behind Aria before she heard one of them barked, ”The advance team already went ahead! Proceed with the plan!”
”Yes, sir!”
After the elven warriors answered, they covered the lower half of their faces with wet cloths like surgical masks before advancing to clean up all the carcasses left behind in between the two walls.
Night arrived and plunged the world into darkness, but the situation was visible as the remnant fires of exploding pills and burning rat carcasses lit the road ahead.
Their job was to clear the road and patch up any openings in the two walls of rat carcasses. Evidently, the pungent stench of blood in the area was too intense for the elves to breathe normally.
”Although the advance team has cleared the road ahead, we don't know if any stragglers were left behind! Keep your eyes peeled for any sudden movements, understand?”
”Yes, sir!”
The elven warriors brought branches with them from the Great Forest and lit them on fire like torches to increase their visibility in the region before carrying out their work.
Aria observed them for some time before flying off into the distance.
Boom! Boom!
Exploding pills were thrown out of the airship from time to time as they continued to cruise through the sea of leaping rats and mow down all the vermin in their way.
”We'll continue on this course all the way to the Great Wall,” Supreme Elder Haldir stated before summoning his pair of wings and vine armor from a handful of seeds.
”Yes, Supreme Elder!” The elven warriors onboard answered before one of them asked with slight anxiety, ”Are you leaving us here, Supreme Elder?”
”Yes, the Great Wall's garrison needs to be alerted of arrival and make preparations to receive our 500-thousand tribesmen.” Supreme Elder Haldir stated while gazing into the distant night.
He also needed to check the situation of the Great Wall.
…
Elvengarde
Shortly after the bathhouse's chaos settled down, Leon left the building with Silver and Faelyn before she suddenly tugged on his sleeve.
”Hm? What is it, Faelyn?”
”I want to retrieve my father's body.”
”Alright. I'll come with you.” Leon shortly agreed to accompany Faelyn to retrieving her father's body from the southern area.
A great person like King Erendriel should be properly buried instead of being left in the open to rot. That being said, the person's body was transformed to that of a plant and would not rot.
When they arrived at the tribe's southern area, most of the tribesmen had already moved to the eastern parts of Elvengarde.
However, a few elvish children could still be seen playing around with their parents nearby. They were throwing stones and pebbles at King Erendriel's transmogrified body for fun.
Leon saw the sadness and grief in Faelyn's eyes as her eyelashes trembled. After sighing softly, he made his way over to the group of elvish children.
”Ahh! It's the Savior!”
”The Savior is here!”
The group of children quickly exclaimed excitedly as they flocked over to Leon's side and gathered around him with keen interest.
”What are you doing here, Savior?”
”Did you also come to punish the evil king, Savior?”
Children were most easily influenced, especially when it came to fairytale stories that are catered to them.