The moment they saw the elf sitting on the cloud, every single elf froze in place.
Vinia was no exception. Her expression stiffened for several seconds, then she reacted as if she had seen something completely unbelievable, showing a startled look.
"Cocotte Yard?!"
The instant those words rang out, the elven guards felt as if the world had collapsed around them.
But that feeling immediately turned into excitement and joy.
Excited breaths and thrilled cheers completely mixed together at that moment.
"The Elf Queen? Her Majesty the Queen has returned?!"
"I… I'm not dreaming, am I?!"
"My goodness, the High Priestess really is amazing! She said the Queen would come back, and she actually did!"
"I'm going to tell all our people!"
The guards became completely frantic. They all abandoned their posts, intending to spread the good news of the Elf Queen's return to every elf in the Elven Forest.
"Hey, you..."
Vinia reached out, trying to stop them, but the elven guards had already lost all reason, wild with joy.
They completely ignored Vinia's outstretched hand and ran off in a flash.
Weapons were thrown all over the ground, and they even stripped off their wooden armor, finding it cumbersome.
Only one guard fell behind the group. Seeing Vinia's hand suspended in midair, she rushed up in two quick steps, grabbed it tightly, and said excitedly, "High Priestess! Thank you so much!"
"It was you who summoned Her Majesty the Queen back!"
As soon as she finished speaking, before Vinia's mind could even catch up, she had already run off.
Seeing her people's excitement, Cocotte sat on the cloud, hands on her hips, and laughed loudly with her head tilted back.
"Hahaha, looks like I'm still pretty well respected."
Vinia awkwardly withdrew her hand, gave an embarrassed smile, then turned her head and calmly looked at Cocotte.
"Cocotte Yard, didn't you say you would never come back?"
Cocotte helplessly spread her hands and shook her head.
"I didn't want to come back either, but well…"
She slightly turned her head and glanced behind her.
Vinia followed Cocotte's line of sight and looked behind her as well.
There stood a person wearing a hood, their face hidden behind a mask.
For a moment, the High Priestess couldn't see clearly. She narrowed her eyes, and her cold, questioning voice rang out, "You brought a human here?"
"Cocotte Yard, even if you are the Queen of the Elves, you should not bring a human into the Elven Forest."
Cocotte raised an eyebrow, her tone mocking as she laughed playfully.
"Who told you she's human?"
Vinia froze for a moment, but Cocotte suddenly said, "Leon."
As her words fell, the mysterious figure behind her seemed to receive a command.
She reached out, removed her hood, and also took off the mask covering her face.
Revealing long, pointed ears and a cold, exquisitely beautiful face.
Like ice itself, carrying an air that kept others at a distance.
Vinia looked at Leon and couldn't help blinking.
"So it's… an elf?"
She moved closer to Leon, slightly bending forward, carefully examining her.
"Mm… it feels very familiar, like I've seen you somewhere before."
Vinia assumed Leon was one of the elves who had left the Elven Forest to look for Cocotte.
And that she had successfully found Cocotte and brought her back.
Because Cocotte had returned to the Elven Forest, this was reality.
With a smile on her face, Vinia kindly asked Leon, "My kin, please tell me your surname."
She had already heard the name from Cocotte, although Vinia always felt that the name sounded a bit strange.
It didn't quite match the naming style of elves.
Even though Vinia was puzzled, she still wore a smile as she met Leon's indifferent gaze.
But the elven kin before her merely let out a soft, cold snort.
"Heh, kin."
Hearing that word again, Leon felt it was especially ironic.
That cold snort made Vinia freeze in place.
Leon slowly closed her eyes, recalling the words Viktor had said to her.
Then she gradually opened them, lifted her head, and her emerald-like eyes met Vinia's gaze.
"Clavenna."
"Remember my surname."
———
Inside the Yard Divine Tree, there was an extremely vast internal space.
Natural energy there was unbelievably dense, like a gigantic reservoir storing immense power.
Between each space were countless branching paths, like a maze, intertwined and complex.
Vega flapped its wings, flying back and forth through the space.
"This is incredible. So this is the Yard Divine Tree that nurtures the elves. I never imagined it looked like this inside."
"Alright, Viktor, hurry up and tell me your plan."
It landed on Viktor's shoulder, chattering away.
"I know you definitely came here with a purpose. Stop hiding it from me."
Viktor ignored Vega, simply choosing a path and walking deeper inside.
He didn't even hesitate over whether he might get lost in this maze-like place.
Vega found this unsurprising.
It seemed there was no place in this world that Viktor hadn't been.
He was always familiar with all kinds of terrain, even something as complex as the Elven Forest.
Just like now, inside the divine tree, Viktor moved as if it were second nature.
At every fork in the road, he didn't even need to think before choosing the most correct path.
As he traveled through the maze, a dense aura of calamity power radiated from his body.
The white runes on his trench coat flashed continuously. A faint breeze wrapped around him, the patterns gradually spreading across the entire coat, slowly lighting up.
"Do you know?"
"The Yard Divine Tree is a massive intelligent lifeform."
Viktor spoke calmly, then continued walking deeper inside.
"Its interior is like a human body, with all kinds of defensive measures."
"And outsiders entering the divine tree are like viruses to it."
As they walked, several extremely strange branches rose up ahead, blocking Viktor's path.
Those branches looked like pure manifestations of energy, soft and unstable, with highly twisted shapes.
They seemed to size Viktor up, then waved their branches toward the hem of his trench coat behind him, retreating to both sides to signal that he could continue forward.
Looking at the branches that moved aside, Viktor continued explaining to Vega, "Just like this, they automatically block and eliminate outsiders."
However, Viktor, infused with calamity power, was like calamity itself descending upon the world.
In the divine tree's eyes, he couldn't even be considered human.
In the game, the Yard Divine Tree was a late-stage high-level map.
It required large numbers of players forming teams and coordinating with each other to reach the depths of the map.
And what the players fought against were these guardian mechanisms inside the divine tree.
Vega listened quietly as Viktor explained.
As Viktor continued moving forward, he spoke again, "Do you know why the divine tree has always protected the elves and nurtured them?"
Vega flapped its wings, almost fully understanding Viktor's meaning.
"I knew it. There's no such thing as a free lunch in this world."
Very soon, after seeing what lay ahead, it understood why Viktor said that.
After Viktor passed through a narrow, dark passage, the scenery around them became completely different.
Within the vast space were all kinds of towering springs and waterfalls, jagged rocks of various shapes, like an entirely different world.
The sky above was completely entwined by countless branches, hiding something from view.
Dense natural energy was like a vast ocean, completely pouring into this land.
Following those branches, Vega saw a green, transparent heart, crystal clear, beating continuously in midair.
Every beat made the entire space tremble, and the heavy sound shook the eardrums of both man and crow.
"We're here."
"This is the Heart of the Yard Divine Tree."
Endless natural energy flowed along those slender branches toward the massive heart, supplying it with immense power.
Looking at the scene before him, Viktor put his hands in his pockets and spoke, "Everyone thinks the elves' talents and authority are all granted by the divine tree, including the surnames it bestows."
"The elves naively believe that once they receive a surname from the divine tree, they gain the power carried by that surname."
"Even the most ordinary elf, once given the name Yard, will leap from mediocrity straight to the peak."
"They're wrong."
The Yard Divine Tree creates elves with natural energy. The elves return natural energy to the Yard Divine Tree, which then continues creating elves, forming an endless cycle.
During this process, the Yard Divine Tree selects the most outstanding individual among the elves and grants her the surname of the Queen.
The Queen sacrifices her talent, using her own bloodline as a blueprint, allowing the divine tree to create even stronger elves.
When the Queen dies, the Yard Divine Tree chooses a new elf to become Queen.
Under this virtuous cycle, countless elves grow stronger and stronger, while the energy the tree gains becomes greater and purer.
So...
"It's not that an elf becomes the Elf Queen because she is granted the surname 'Yard' by the divine tree."
"But that before being granted the surname..."
"Only she could become the Queen."
Viktor calmly lifted his head, looking at the massive heart of the Yard Divine Tree as it thumped rhythmically.
Suddenly, the aura around him surged violently, terrifying power flooding his entire body.
"The Yard Divine Tree has been nurtured for far too long, so…"
Viktor kept his hands in his pockets.
The three-colored patterns on his trench coat slowly lit up, spreading toward his face.
Phantom shapes like three gigantic beasts gradually appeared behind him, their vein-like patterns clearly visible.
Thump! Thump!
The heart beat faster and faster, as if it sensed some approaching danger.
An extremely wide and long health bar rose above the divine tree's heart.
Stretching for hundreds of meters, with no end in sight.
[Yard]
[lv6]
A fierce wind surged, the trench coat whipping wildly.
A terrifying, oppressive aura burst forth.
Looking at the hundred-meter-long health bar, Viktor's calm voice rang out, cold and indifferent.
"That belongs to our family."
"It's time you returned it."