The Martial Unity

Chapter 3319: Deliberating Sisters

At one of the islands between East and West Genora, a group of elves had gathered at a designated location at dusk.

From the West came several dark elves, each a vessel containing a piece of the consciousness of some of the Mothers of Nature chosen as representatives of dark elven civilization by the Western Taraarnynm while light elven civilization had sent their own representatives, also comprising the vessels of the Mothers of Nature.

Given the gravity of the situation, a physical meeting was deemed appropriate at a neutral location between dark elven and light elven territory.

The gentle light of dusk illuminated the vast open meadows on the uninhabited island while the two groups of elves met with each other atop a hill, conjuring a table of living wood from within the ground, made of roots.

They sat beside each other, their eyes never once leaving each other’s side.

The air was tense.

The silence in the atmosphere hung deafeningly.

“Let us begin.” A light elf Mother commenced the talk with a curt tone. “We are here to negotiate terms and conditions for the complete halting of the dark elven cyberattack on our flora network, as well as potential aid in finding and killing the human demon. We hope that you, our sisters, will aid us in our hunt for the demon and kill him before he can do any more damage to any of us. We hope that you will see that the bond between dark and light elves is stronger than any other, certainly far stronger than those of the new ’bond’ between you dark elves and human civilization.”

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table, while steepling her fingers together.

Her attire was comprised of a rough, vine-laden one-piece fabric that loosely fit her entire body from top to bottom. Her pale, white skin contrasted sharply with her ruby-red eyes, while her long golden hair was tied in a thick bun.

She was Mother Molidia of East Genora, who often served as the bridge between dark elves and light elves, and focused her attention on non-combat or technological areas in light elven civilization.

Opposite her, the vessel of Mother Alicia, who led the dark elven delegation, couldn’t help but bristle at the demands that her light-skinned sisters had made to her.

“If you want us to stop our cyber attacks on the East Genoran Flora Network, then you will have to formally apologize for your actions of nabbing and attacking our guest and ally,” she began with a frosty tone of voice. “You will also have to return him safe and sound to us while also providing compensation to us for what you have done to us and to our ally. As for your desire for our aid in killing him…”

Mother Alicia’s sapphire eyes flared with anger.

“You can forget about it.”

Mother Molidia’s ruby eyes sharpened at those words. “You demand much. We may be willing to apologize for our infringement into dark elven civilization, but only if you apologize for bringing that demon to our continent and putting us all at risk, and as long as you promise to never compromise the sanctity of our territory and our continent to such an extent. As for finding him and returning him alive…”

She shook her head.

“He will die. There are no two ways about it. We invite you to join us in this exercise as a way of bonding between civilizations and mending the rift that the demon has caused.”

“He did not cause the current rift between light elves and dark elves,” Mother Alicia’s voice was one of cold fury. “You light elves, our sisters, were the ones who caused the current rift between us when you violated our trust and used it to mount an attack on our ally while he was on our soil.”

“Technically, he was on our territory when we attacked him,” Mother Molidia pointed out.

“Enough with this sophistry,” Mother Alicia glared at her counterpart. “He was on our soil and was there as a guest of elven civilization. You teleporting him away does not change that. You attacked him while he was under our protection, and you have undermined our trust in the eyes of the international community. And what was that about apologizing to us only if we apologize to you for bringing him aboard our continent? Since when did we have to gain the approval of the light elves regarding who we bring or don’t bring aboard our continent? We have the right to befriend and form an alliance with whoever we desire to, regardless of whether you approve or not.”

“There is a limit to how much we are willing to tolerate, Sister Alicia,” Mother Molidia retorted with a cold tone. “You may argue that whatever you do on your side of the continent has nothing to do with us, but we both know that that is not true in practice. In practice, our civilizations are too integrated and too interconnected for there to be zero impact on us as a result of your actions.”

Mother Alicia stared at Mother Molidia with a displeased expression, yet she wasn’t able to muster a retort to try to deny what she had said.

There was truth to her words.

Because the two civilizations were so connected, each civilization experienced an impact from the actions of the other civilization. The light elves had always been wary of outsiders entering the continent on the western side, where dark elves welcomed guests from abroad, but they had been especially spooked when the dark elves had brought a male monster that reeked of nothing but death.

On top of that, the power that Rui had displayed while he fought sparring battles in the Forest of War and how easily he adaptively evolved to elven power was another source of dread for the light elves.

Mother Alicia understood all of that, but just because she understood why the light elves acted the way they did didn’t mean that she could overlook the transgression.