In the dark seabed, there was no other light source. Only the Tree of Life emitted a dim blue light.
This scene looked romantic and beautiful, but it brought infinite crisis to the sea elves.
The glowing Tree of Life was like a living target on the seabed, especially after losing the protection of the protective magic circle. It became the object that the sea beasts coveted.
They weren’t very intelligent but they clearly knew that the Tree of Life was the best tonic for them.
Now, the Tree of Life was declining.
Once it completely lost its defense, the sea beasts would swarm over and devour it whole.
Their malice and greed couldn’t be ignored even in the dim light.
Protected by the Tree of Life, the sea elves gathered under the tree’s canopy. Faced with the siege of the sea beasts, they could only survive in a state of constant fear.
Their limited strength meant they could barely go out to find food.
“Your Majesty, if this continues, we might all die here…”
This was a sea elf girl with a dark green fishtail. She looked at the woman beside her and spoke sadly.
The woman had blue hair and blue eyes. Her fishtail was also pure blue. She was Sea Song’s mother and the current queen of the elves, Heidi.
She looked at the branches of the Tree of Life. As a member of the royal family, she had a natural connection to the Tree of Life.
Thus, she could feel that the breath of the Tree of Life was rapidly draining.
“Cessia, tell me, what other options do we have now?” Queen Heidi asked quietly with sadness and despair in her voice.
Her lover had been killed by a sea monster, her only child was missing, and her clan people were killed one by one by the attack of sea monsters…
Now, even the Tree of Life, the only one who could protect them was about to leave them.
She had persisted for so long… and she was actually very tired.
One hundred years ago, a sudden disaster swept across all of Escher Star. The originally peaceful and stable sea was also affected, or rather, it was affected more deeply.
All types of sea beasts that had never been seen before inexplicably appeared in the sea.
They were huge in number and had incredible destructive power. The moment they appeared, they occupied almost the entire seabed and showed great aggressiveness towards the indigenous people.
They killed and ate the indigenous people of Escher Star.
The homeland of the sea elves was the first to be hit due to the existence of the Tree of Life. Even if they tried their best to resist, they couldn’t defeat such a large number of sea beasts.
Even if they wanted to escape, they couldn’t.
It was because once they lost the Tree of Life, the sea elves would be like rootless duckweed and would lose their strength. How could they safely escape from the siege of tens of thousands of sea beasts?
It was simply impossible.
Queen Heidi once organized a team to try and escape.
The sea elves paid a huge price to cover the escape of these clan members, but in the end, these thousands of merfolk lost their lives one after another.
They all died. No one survived.
The sea elf leading the team at that time was Queen Heidi’s lover.
From that time on, Queen Heidi never tried to escape again.
They were already turtles trapped in an urn. The sea, which once allowed the sea elves to roam free, now trapped them here.
If they didn’t run away, they might be able to survive for a while.
If they ran away, the fate of the thousands of clan members would be theirs.
She led the sea elves and persevered for decades.
For elves with a long lifespan, decades actually wasn’t a long time. But to Queen Heidi, it felt like tens of thousands of years had passed. Every day felt like a year.
Finally, ten years ago, the protective magic circle of the clan was completely broken and the sea water washed away the settlement of the sea elves.
Queen Heidi would never forget that day.
A group of sea beasts rushed into the clan’s territory and launched a unilateral massacre against the sea elves.
The sea elves tried to resist but the number of sea beasts was too large! Just as Queen Heidi was desperate and wanted to give up, the Tree of Life protected them again.
The sea beasts didn’t dare to attack as long as they were under the protection of the Tree of Life.
Another ten years passed like this.
Today, the Tree of Life could no longer hold on.
“At least Sea Song escaped…” Queen Heidi murmured.
Sea Song was the child of her and her lover. She sealed him for decades. It was only a few years ago that he was finally born into this world.
But she failed to protect him…
How could such a young child survive the pursuit and hunt of sea beasts? But in her senses, her child was indeed still alive.
Cessia looked at the queen’s complete loss of fighting spirit and only felt heartache and despair.
She looked up at the treetop above her head. Through the increasingly sparse branches and leaves, she suddenly remembered the young man with black hair and black eyes.
He was a strange sea elf.
No one had ever seen an elf with black hair and black eyes. In ancient times, this was the hair and eye color of the legendary demons.
However, at this time, every sea elf was precious. Everyone accepted him even though he looked strange.
This was even though no one had seen him before—he seemed to have suddenly appeared at the Tree of Life, but he didn’t look like a newly born sea elf.
The boy said his name was Grumpy Little Rabbit, which was also a strange name.
After the young boy appeared, several new merfolk appeared at the Tree of Life one after another.
Finally, Queen Heidi speculated that this might be a new life bred by the Tree of Life after she sensed the death of the sea elf population.
She found these new merfolk strange but Cessia admired and envied them because they were full of vitality and vigor that she didn’t have.
Even in the dark abyss of despair, they were so optimistic. It was as if nothing could defeat them.
Eventually, they decided to go to the land for help.
Cessia tried to stop them but it was no use.
Later, they really left.
After leaving, they never came back.
One by one, Queen Heidi sensed their disappearance except for the boy named Grumpy Little Rabbit.
Maybe he had some adventure?
Was he on land now?
If he really found land as planned, Cessia hoped…
He might not come back again.
Just live on land for them.
A crystal teardrop seeped out from the corner of the girl’s eye, like a round pearl. It floated upward, turned into nothingness and merged into the sea.
“Ah, Sister Cessia, why are you crying?”
The boy’s voice suddenly rang in her ears. Cessia, who was immersed in her own emotions, was stunned.
She turned her head blankly and saw a merman boy with black hair, black eyes and a blue tail. He appeared under the Tree of Life at some point and swam towards her.
“Why are you…”
Cessia couldn’t help rubbing her eyes while feeling that she was hallucinating.
Otherwise, why would Grumpy Little Rabbit appear here?
When did he come back?
How did he come back?
Cessia’s mind was in disarray but Grumpy Little Rabbit had already looked at Queen Heidi and said happily, “Queen, Queen, I found His Highness Sea Song!”
Queen Heidi also looked at him in a dumbfounded manner.
The other merfolk, who swam over after they saw the situation, also looked at the boy who appeared out of nowhere in shock.
All the sea elves were dumbfounded.
Grumpy Little Rabbit scratched his head.
Yes, these sea elves didn’t know that he could be resurrected yet.
His resurrection point was inside the Tree of Life. There was a passage underneath that could lead directly to the outside of the protection range of the Tree of Life. He wasn’t discovered by these NPCs when he chose this birth point to resurrect before.
But today, he came back with a mission!
The 11 person team observed from the air for a long time before finally coming to a conclusion after discussing it.
Since the location of the land of the sea elves had been almost determined, and the level of Grumpy Little Bunny was too low, it was better to let him die and return to the clan first, leaving the hiding equipment to the team.
They would find a way to get through the group of sea beasts and find this place through the positioning of the communicator.
Grumpy Little Rabbit returned first. He now had enough reputation to use the faction warehouse, so he could exchange some supplies first to give the sea elves a breather.
He could also use the team voice channel to provide them with some information.
If they could get help from the sea elf NPCs, at least they wouldn’t have to explore in the dark and could make some plans in advance. The most important thing was—they didn’t have to wait for Little Rabbit’s anti-addiction function!
“I have found land and met His Majesty, the emperor of the Roland Empire!”
The young man looked at Heidi and said, “Sea Song was rescued by him. He now lives in Roland’s palace and the emperor is very willing to help us.”
“I came back this time with the reinforcements sent by His Majesty Roland!”
As the boy spoke, he remembered something and took out a conch from his backpack. “This is what His Highness Sea Song asked me to give to you.”
Queen Heidi looked at him with suspicion and distrust in her eyes, but the voice of her son rang out from the conch.
“Queen Mother, these brothers and sisters will rescue you! They are so powerful!”
At the very end, the child murmured, “Queen Mother, I miss you so much. Can you hear me….?”
Queen Heidi couldn’t stop her tears from falling.
Proofreader: Purichan
Any support on Patreon will be appreciated and you will also get access to advance chapters.
https://www.patreon.com/rainbowturtle
If you just want to support or buy me a coffee, you can consider Ko-fi:
https://ko-fi.com/rainbowturtle
