Chapter 187: Elves…

White.

It was the only thing I could see the moment that huge green spell circle appeared and blotted out the sky.

And before I knew it, everything turned into just this…

Agh… Even though I didn’t know what had happened, I could still feel the pain. That thing… it probably completely annihilated the entire aircraft.

Wait…

Annihilated the aircraft!?

GASP!

I snapped out of unconsciousness and opened my eyes, black flames bursting around me as I sprang to my feet, fire surrounding everything while I scanned the area.

“Evelina!”

I looked around, but she was nowhere. In fact, everything around me was in ruins: dead soldiers, dead engineers, dead mages. Even the aircraft lay in pieces right where I had been lying a moment ago.

I stood in the middle of a forest clearing, surrounded by towering trees and dense flora, each one likely older than I was, judging by their sheer size.

I was deep in elven territory.

And, more importantly…

A group of elves surrounded me, their arrows all trained on my body, each one swirling with magic. One wrong move, and I was dead.

“Stand down, Kel’thas.”

[Photographic Memory]

Kel’thas.

An elven slur they used to call the other humanoid races. Were they really using it on me? They were sure as hell naive if they thought I was lesser than them, especially since it looked like they were the one and only culprits behind Evelina’s and the two other brats’ disappearance.

“Where the hell are the others who were with me?”

“You’re not in any position to know that information,” the elf who seemed to be the leader replied.

[Photographic Memory]

“Careful, Kelvhaen, or I’ll burn this entire forest to the ground.”

I answered with a slur of my own, spoken in the elven tongue. Any elf who heard a human use an elven word against them would surely be provoked.

“Kelvhaen? Like a human would know of our condition?”

[Black Sun]

A radiant blast of black flames exploded outward around me, cloaking the area in fire. I heard the snap of bowstrings, but the arrows burned to ash before they could even reach me.

And… that was enough time for me to grab that bastard by the neck!

FWOOSH!

A blast of wind tried to blow my black flames away, but all it did was stoke them and spread them farther across the forest clearing where I had crash-landed. As much as I would have loved to burn this entire place to the ground…

I still needed information on where the hell they had taken Evelina.

“Tell me—where did you take the girl I was with!?”

The flames immediately died down, and when they did, I once again found myself surrounded by elves, fresh arrows already nocked on their bows.

But this time…

I had their leader by the neck. If they shot me, I would kill him.

“Don’t listen to him! Release your arrows—”

“Not another word! Listen to him, and I’ll burn this forest down!”

Normally, that kind of threat wouldn’t work. But the fact that my fire wasn’t the usual orange was enough to make them hesitate. The way their wind magic had failed to extinguish my original flames was all the proof they needed that I wasn’t making petty threats.

The hesitation spread—not panic; elves didn’t panic—but doubt. Centuries of living made sure they were far more composed than any human army could muster. But doubt was enough for me right now.

The one in my grip struggled, fingers clawing at my wrist as wind mana gathered instinctively around him, trying to force me back.

It didn’t.

I tightened my grip.

“Urkhgh!”

“Try that again,” I muttered, black flames flickering faintly along my arm, “and I won’t just burn your forests—I’ll start with your spine.”

The surrounding elves stiffened, arrows still drawn, but no one released.

“…You’re making a mistake, Kel’thas,” one of them said, voice steady despite the situation. “You’ve already trespassed far enough. Release him, and we may still—”

“Shut up.”

My voice cut through his sentence cleanly as I tilted my head slightly, eyes narrowing while I scanned their formation.

Disciplined. Too disciplined for a simple scouting squad. This wasn’t just a patrol. If it were, we wouldn’t have been attacked in the first place.

This was clearly a deviation from the novel.

“…You were waiting for us,” I said quietly.

No one answered. But silence was enough to make me know that it was a resounding yes.

My grip tightened again, and the elf in my hand choked, his wind magic sputtering as his focus broke.

“Let me rephrase,” I continued, voice dropping. “You attacked a royal aircraft, deep in human territory, and then prepared a recovery team on the ground.”

A faint smile tugged at my lips.

“…So where is she?”

Silence.

Right. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy.

I sighed softly.

“Fine.”

The black flames flared again, this time thinner, sharper, coiling like living things around my arm before slowly creeping toward the elf’s face.

Maybe torture will work?

I just had to break their confidence. As long as they weren’t completely sure they could kill me with a single arrow, they wouldn’t dare risk letting strange black flames spread through their own forest.

He froze, not from pain, but from instinct. Every living thing understood what those flames meant.

Suffering. Even if they didn’t know exactly what kind of fire it was, they knew one thing for sure:

It was going to hurt more than anything they’d ever felt.

“You don’t seem to understand your position,” I said calmly. “So I’ll explain it for you.”

The flames inched closer.

[Photographic Memory]

Time to make them fear for their lives with a simple lie…

“Elfhaen.”

A pause. Then—

The elf’s composure cracked for a fraction of a second.

There it is.

Before he could recover, a pulse, subtle but wrong, rippled through the ground, and my eyes snapped to the side just as the earth beneath me shifted.

Roots burst from the soil in dozens, twisting and coiling like serpents, aiming straight for my legs and arms.

I jumped back, releasing the elf just as the roots tore through the space I’d occupied. He hit the ground hard, coughing as his comrades immediately dragged him back.

“Y-You… are you one of the patriarch’s humaens?”

I grinned. They believed it.

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