Chapter 317
It had been over a hundred years since Eli and Serian had been together.
Naturally, there were almost no secrets between the two elves.
But there was one exception.
The Punishers.
Unlike Serian, Eli did not know their faces or even their names.
That was because the Punishers concealed their identities completely.
They never revealed their true appearances, not even to Eli, the second-in-command of the North District.
The only person who knew their true identities was Serian alone.
That fact filled Eli with an inferiority complex.
She was supposedly the second ruler of the North District, yet she couldn’t command its strongest force.
The thought humiliated her deeply.
At one point, Eli had once demanded that Serian reveal the Punishers’ identities to her.
She argued that, as the second ruler of the North District, she should at least be able to command them in emergencies.
But Serian rejected her request.
“They only reveal themselves to someone they personally acknowledge, and they follow no one else.”
Serian had answered carefully so as not to hurt Eli’s feelings.
But instead, Eli felt utterly miserable.
Because to her ears, Serian’s words sounded as though the Punishers did not acknowledge Eli as queen.
Perhaps it was from that very moment—
That Eli truly began coveting the throne of the North District.
Eli bit her lip hard.
“So you even mobilized the Punishers? You really intend to see this through to the end, Serian!”
Burning with rage, she glared at the elf holding Nylia’s Bow.
At that moment, the elf who had shattered the barrier also lifted his head to look toward Eli.
His expression couldn’t be seen because of the mask covering his face, but she could sense that he was smiling.
“How insolent!”
At that instant, the masked elf fired an arrow straight at her.
Boom!
With a deafening explosion, the arrow detonated right in front of Eli’s face.
A transparent spiderweb-like net had spread before her.
One of her skills—
Spiderweb Shield.
It summoned transparent silver threads that formed a web-shaped shield to protect her.
The transparent silver threads possessed the property of absorbing and dispersing mana.
That was why ordinary attacks couldn’t even scratch it.
Yet the Spiderweb Shield vanished without leaving a trace.
The arrow had contained that much destructive power.
If she had taken the hit directly, even Eli herself couldn’t have guaranteed her survival.
“Oh? You’re still fine.”
The elf who fired the arrow clicked his tongue.
He had deliberately spoken loudly enough for Eli to hear.
Eli trembled with intense humiliation.
“How dare you! How dare mere Punishers look down on me!”
Blood vessels bulged in her eyes.
“Capture them immediately!”
At that moment, Borin led the Blue Fallen Leaves Special Operations Unit into Eli’s residence.
The barrier protecting the house had been completely destroyed by Nylia’s Bow, so nothing obstructed them anymore.
Normally, the Blue Fallen Leaves Special Operations Unit wouldn’t have possessed enough power to invade Eli’s residence so boldly—
But things were different now.
Thanks to the Punishers’ buff, their combat power had multiplied several times over.
‘This is insane!’
‘My body feels this light?’
The abilities of the Punisher buffing them far exceeded their imagination.
They had received many buffs before, but never one capable of multiplying their abilities severalfold in such a short time.
The Punisher providing the buff had warned them beforehand.
His buff was instantaneous, making it incredibly powerful—
But the backlash was severe.
The moment the buff ended, they would collapse into complete exhaustion and remain bedridden for over ten days.
Because the buff wasn’t granting power they didn’t possess.
It was forcibly igniting and squeezing out all the latent potential already inside them.
In other words, the Blue Fallen Leaves Special Operations Unit was compressing and burning through ten days’ worth of energy in a single moment.
Knowing that, Borin grew anxious.
‘We need to finish this before the buff ends.’
Fortunately, the forces inside Eli’s house weren’t all that numerous.
They were powerful, but they still couldn’t stand against the buffed Blue Fallen Leaves Special Operations Unit.
“Aaagh!”
“Urgh!”
The defenders of Eli’s house collapsed with screams.
Borin’s gaze rapidly swept through the interior.
‘We need to subdue Lady Eli quickly and calm this situation down.’
This wasn’t just a war against Eli.
It was a battle against time.
They had to end the conflict quickly and repair the division before it spread.
If the fighting dragged on, the North District would inevitably split apart.
“Find Lady Eli!”
“Yes, sir!”
At Borin’s command, the Blue Fallen Leaves Special Operations Unit scattered in every direction.
Just then, the Punishers approached Borin.
“Lady Eli isn’t here. I can’t sense her presence.”
“Then…?”
Instead of answering, the Punisher wearing the silver mask looked down at the floor.
Borin immediately understood the meaning behind his gaze.
“There’s a secret underground chamber.”
“Exactly.”
The masked Punisher aimed his arrow at the ground beneath them.
Boom!
The moment he released the string, the floor collapsed, revealing stairs leading underground.
The Punisher wearing a hooded robe spoke.
“The energy I sense below is ominous. Everyone should stay alert.”
“It really is vicious. She’s prepared something far from ordinary.”
“I honestly don’t know what Lady Eli was thinking, making things escalate this far.”
“Strong desire is more than enough to blind even an elf’s eyes and ears.”
“Tch.”
The Punishers continued conversing as they descended the underground stairs.
Borin and the Blue Fallen Leaves Special Operations Unit cautiously followed behind them.
Awe filled the faces of Borin and her unit as they looked at the Punishers’ backs.
The silver-masked Punisher wielded Nylia’s Bow with absurd ease—
A bow she herself couldn’t even draw properly.
The gap between them was overwhelming.
‘Just who are these people really?’
The Punishers had never shown even her their true faces.
And since they had appeared almost immediately after being contacted, it was obvious they lived somewhere within the North District.
Borin prided herself on knowing nearly every important figure in the North District—
Yet she had never once seen anyone remotely like them.
Then it happened.
“Be careful! The smell of blood and rot isn’t normal.”
The masked elf walking ahead issued a warning.
Snapping back to attention, Borin and the Blue Fallen Leaves Special Operations Unit immediately raised their weapons and guarded their surroundings.
Wooooong!
At that moment, a chilling sound echoed from the darkness ahead of the corridor.
The masked elf raised his bow and spoke.
“Shall we say hello first?”
Ping!
He immediately fired an arrow into the darkness ahead.
The arrow shot forward at terrifying speed before exploding deep within the shadows.
Boom!
The resulting shockwave surged all the way back to where Borin and the others stood.
Wooooong!
But the eerie noise echoing beyond the darkness didn’t lessen in the slightest.
It was as though the attack had done absolutely nothing.
“This doesn’t feel good.”
“We’d better be careful.”
Even the expressions of the Punishers turned grim.
Their instincts were warning them.
Something dangerous lurked beyond that darkness.
Borin spoke cautiously.
“There’s definitely Goinside.”
“The insect-type demonic beasts you mentioned earlier?”
“Yes.”
“To think the Spider Queen was raising those grotesque things in the North District… she’s clearly lost her mind.”
Fwoooosh!
Before their conversation could end, something came pouring out from deep within the corridor at terrifying speed.
The grotesque creatures, looking like a fusion of multiple insects, were unmistakably Gu.
“Let all impure things burn away.”
The Punisher in the robe shouted loudly as he spread both hands wide.
At once, a massive torrent of flames—like a dragon’s breath—filled the corridor and surged forward.
Papapapapang!
The Gu exploded one after another with sounds like gunfire.
The extreme heat caused them to detonate violently.
But for every Gu that exploded, several more survived.
“Nylia’s Bow won’t be very useful here.”
The masked elf slung Nylia’s Bow onto his back.
If he fired with greater force, he could certainly wipe out a large number of the Gu.
But if he increased the power any further, there was a high chance the underground tunnel itself would collapse.
Trying to kill the Gu only to end up buried alive wasn’t worth it.
Instead, he drew a sword from his waist.
It wasn’t the rapier commonly used by elves, but a straight-edged blade favored by humans.
The straight blade had been sharpened purely for killing.
Pabababang!
Spinning the sword like a windmill, he charged forward.
Crack! Crunch!
Every Gu caught by his blade was mercilessly sliced apart.
Thousands—tens of thousands—of Gu were cut down by the sword.
It was truly a spectacular sight.
The remaining Gu were completely incinerated by another Punisher’s flame magic.
Borin and the Blue Fallen Leaves Special Operations Unit stared in shock, unable to close their gaping mouths at the overwhelming might of the Punishers.
‘Insane!’
‘Is it even possible to cut down that many insects with a single sword?’
Borin and the Blue Fallen Leaves Special Operations Unit had already experienced the terror of the Gofirsthand.
They understood better than anyone how dangerous the Gowere.
Gu-type demonic beasts weren’t creatures that could be destroyed so easily.
Yet they were being slaughtered this effortlessly.
That alone proved just how monstrous the Punishers truly were.
At that moment, the Punishers tilted their heads.
“They seem weaker than we heard.”
“True. Looks like they exaggerated things.”
The Punishers smirked.
They had prepared themselves for a bloody battle, but at this rate, it felt like they could subdue Eli without much effort.
Finally, after carving through all the Goblocking their path, they arrived at the underground chamber—
And Eli was waiting there.
She glared at the Punishers with an expression of utter disbelief.
“You already eliminated all the Gu?”
“It was nothing, Lady Eli.”
“That’s impossible. Do you even know how vicious and terrifying Goare?”
Eli rejected the Punishers’ words outright.
The Goshe knew weren’t something that could be handled just because two Punishers had joined the battle.
According to her expectations, the moment they entered the tunnel, they should have been overwhelmed and torn apart by the Gu.
Yet not only were the Punishers unharmed—
Even Borin and the Blue Fallen Leaves Special Operations Unit were completely fine.
“Something’s wrong. Don’t tell me… that woman deceived me?”
“I don’t know what you think you were deceived about, but you’ll have to come with us, Lady Eli.”
The masked elf spoke politely, but murderous intent exploded from Eli’s eyes.
“Hmph! Don’t make me laugh. Even without the Gu, I’m strong. Do you really think the likes of you can do anything to me?”
“As expected, this won’t be easy. If that’s how you’re going to act, we’ll have no choice but to subdue you by force.”
“No matter how powerful the Punishers are, you cannot defeat me. I am Eli, the Spider Queen. This place is my domain.”
Shuooooosh!
Countless silver threads burst from her entire body, filling the underground chamber.
The entire area resembled a giant spider’s nest.
It had literally become Eli’s domain.
The real battle was only beginning now.
The Punishers charged toward Eli.
As Borin followed behind them, a thought crossed her mind.
‘But where is Lord Zeon?’
A woman carrying a massive wooden barrel on her back trudged heavily across the desert dunes.
When she glanced back for a moment, the enormous Neo Seoul could be seen in the distance.
“Hoho! I’ve already gotten everything I came for. There’s no reason left to stay in Neo Seoul any longer.”
The elf with blood-red hair was none other than Romina, Eli’s trusted subordinate.
With a relieved expression, she muttered,
“I’ve obtained the ultimate Gu. As long as I breed these creatures, I can restore the tribe to prosperity.”
“So you were a descendant of the Odok Tribe.”
At that moment, a voice she absolutely should not have heard rang out.
Startled, Romina quickly turned around.
A man was standing there.
“How are you here…?”
The man—Zeon—asked,
“I never expected a descendant of the Odok Tribe to be an elf. Are you perhaps a half-elf?”