Chapter 986: Rooted
Chapter 986 – Rooted
Ely’s eyes widened slightly. "Oh..."
Lux’s gaze sharpened.
She touched the barrier again.
This time, she didn’t persuade.
She sang.
Softly at first.
Barely more than breath.
The melody left her lips uncertain, then found itself. The sound wove through the arch, silver-green and fragile, brushing the roots like fingers over old scars. The barrier flared once, then trembled.
Ely kept singing.
Her voice steadied.
The light changed.
Not gone.
Listening.
Gula whispered, "All about elf is melody and earth?"
Sira shot her a sidelong look. "Same as you, Gula. All about you is food."
Gula considered this. "Fair."
Sira continued, warming to the subject because insulting people through classification was apparently her hobby. "Lux is about money and s*x. Lullaby is about sleep and laziness. And me..."
She swept her hair back with flawless arrogance despite being covered in battle grime.
"Is about elegance and dignity."
Lullaby blinked. "You mean arrogance and narcissism?"
Gula laughed. "Sounds about right."
Sira clicked her tongue. "Tch."
Then, after a tiny pause, she added, "And yes, it is right, but the phrasing is ugly."
Lux muttered, "Self-awareness. A miracle beneath Hollow Mountain."
"I heard that."
"You were meant to."
Ely’s song rose.
The shrine responded.
The silver-green barrier thinned like mist under sunlight. The roots forming the arch slowly pulled away from one another. Not fully opening like the spring path had. More like bowing. Accepting.
The melody passed through the chamber.
The ward came down.
[Access Granted]
[First Song Shrine Boundary: Open]
[Authorized Bloodline Resonance: Ely Vireleth]
[Warning: Non-Elven Guests Under Conditional Tolerance]
Lux looked at the system. "Conditional tolerance is better than violent rejection."
Sira stepped beside him. "Try not to get thrown again."
"Try not to be jealous the shrine touched me first."
She stared at him.
Gula wheezed.
Yue closed her eyes briefly as if asking several ancient dragons for patience.
They went inside.
At first, the place looked empty.
Really empty.
The shrine chamber was circular, wider than expected, carved into the living heart of the mountain. Water channels wound across the floor in delicate patterns, but they carried only thin streams of silver light. Roots descended from above like curtains. The stone platform at the center stood bare.
No altar.
No coffin.
No chained ancestor.
No dramatic glowing prison.
Nothing.
Gula frowned. "There’s nothing here."
Yue’s gaze moved slowly across the shrine. "No... she should be here."
Lux looked around, eyes narrowing. "Is she underground? I mean, she came from roots and earth."
Sira scanned the walls. "If this becomes another hidden path puzzle, I am filing a complaint with the elven race."
Lullaby pointed sleepily toward a corner, then lowered her hand because Ely was already walking.
"No..." Ely’s voice sounded distant.
She moved past the central platform, past the water channels, toward the far side of the shrine where a single tree grew against the wall.
It looked normal.
At least compared to everything else.
Tall, pale-barked, silver leaves hanging motionless from its branches. Its trunk was smooth, old, and faintly luminous. Not burned. Not hollow. Not monstrous.
Just a tree.
Ely stopped before it. "There..."
Lux’s eyes sharpened.
Ely lifted a trembling hand. "She is there."
She pointed to the trunk.
For a moment, Lux saw nothing.
Then his Eye of Truth stirred on instinct, just enough for the surface of reality to tilt.
And he saw it.
Between the bark.
A shape.
Not carved.
Not hidden behind the tree.
Inside it.
A woman’s form pressed within the pale trunk, as if the tree had grown around her body for centuries. Her face was barely visible between layers of bark, eyes closed, expression calm to the point of cruelty. Hair-like roots spread upward from her head into the branches. Her arms vanished into the trunk. Her lower body dissolved into wood and root.
The first elf.
Not a hologram.
Her.
Ely covered her mouth.
Gula whispered, "Oh..."
Sira’s face hardened.
Lullaby’s sleepy expression faded into something sad.
Yue stepped closer, but not too close. "She rooted herself."
Lux’s jaw tightened.
Ely reached toward the bark.
The shrine flared.
Silver-green light exploded between her fingers and the tree, forcing her back.
Lux caught her before she fell.
The barrier around the tree awakened like a second skin, brighter and sharper than the entrance ward. This one was different. Less welcoming. More possessive.
Lux’s eyes darkened. "A containment barrier."
Yue’s spear angled forward. "Old."
Sira extended her claws. "Breakable?"
Lux studied the light. "Everything is breakable."
The barrier flared again as if offended.
[Barrier Detected]
[Type: Root-Oath Preservation Seal]
[Function: Stabilization / Containment ]
[Warning: Aggressive Interference May Damage Subject]
Lux’s expression went colder. "Annoying."
Ely pulled herself from his grip, face pale. "She’s inside the tree."
"We need to get her out."
Sira stepped forward, claws raised.
The barrier pulsed violently.
Lux caught her wrist. "No."
Sira looked at him. "It’s a prison."
"It’s also keeping her alive."
That stopped her.
Gula gripped her fork-spear tighter. "Can you absorb it?"
"I can try."
Yue shook her head slightly. "Not without understanding how it is tied to her."
Lux hated that she was right.
He stepped closer and lifted his hand, letting his Sovereign Absorb glow faintly in his palm. The barrier reacted immediately, silver-green light sharpening into blade-like patterns.
Then the springlight in the shrine flickered.
A familiar glow rose between them and the tree.
The first elf’s hologram appeared again.
This time, her face was not serene.
It was annoyed.
Actually annoyed.
Her eyes fixed on Ely first.
Then Lux.
Then the others.
"You..."
Her voice was quiet, but the shrine carried it with crisp disapproval.
"I told you I do not want to talk except for urgent matters."
Her gaze drifted over Sira with her claws, Gula with her fork-spear, Lullaby with her pillow-hammer, Yue with her ancient spear, Lux in torn clothes glowing with Greed, and Grivven Tollclaw standing behind them with five corpse soldiers like the world’s ugliest honor guard.
The first elf paused.
"Yet... you came with..."
Her expression shifted, just slightly.
"Weird members."