Chapter 248: Sacrifice

The new ruler has said his mind, "Accept your punishment and become my people".

All the six elders went to their knees and showed their respect when they heard Tristan's words. They have all agreed to accept the punishment.

To prove their compliance, one of the elders prepared a simple lottery. A leather pouch was taken out and six gold coins were placed inside, with one of them marked with a scratch.

Immediately after, the elders took turns to reach their hand inside the pouch and grabbed one coin. At this point, they all realized that their life and death would be decided by their luck and a single gold coin.

The elders opened their hands and looked at the coin lying quietly in their palm. Those who saw their coin unmarked quickly turned their heads around, to see who was the unlucky one among them.

A moment later, five pairs of eyes had locked onto someone's palm. They looked up and saw the one who got the marked coin was Riata, the pale-skinned slender female elder who fought with Tristan previously. The one was known as the priestess of the thorn.

Tristan expected the other party should be afraid, but when he saw her stand up and walk toward him, albeit slowly the female elf was prepared to accept the punishment.

"Are you not afraid of death?" Tristan asked Riata while looking at her intently. Although a stern expression was evident on her face, he could see her body trembling slightly.

Riata raised her face and said, "I am afraid, my lord. Very. Even so, I will still receive the punishment for the others."

At her reply, Tristan nodded his head and prepared the punishment. "Alright, Elder Riata. You have my respect."

As if it was a predator that had smelt another prey, the blood construct swiftly flew away from the previous elder's body and surrounded Riata, ready to decide the latter's end.

But when he was about to do the deed, Elroth once again stopped him and told how Riata was one of the well known elders, as she had been helping the previous king with all the experiments the Forlorn Kingdom did.

"Please, Lord, reconsider your decision. She is invaluable, not only to the people, but also to you and your cause. We will have much need for her in the future."

Tristan stood up from his throne and walked a few steps. If this was any other occasion and what Elroth said was true, he would definitely agree with his words and spare Riata's life. 

However, he couldn't easily retract his orders, much less now, as this was the first time he'd tried to enforce the rules he had made himself. 

Therefore, Tristan stopped in his tracks and looked at Riata while saying, "You will receive the punishment, as I have decided."

In the blink of an eye, the blood construct pierced her chest and she quickly fell to the ground, kneeling and bleeding all over. Everyone in the hall could only watch as Tristan lay the punishment.

But much to their surprise, before Riata succumbed to her death, Tristan created a new blood construct and directed it into the piercing wound on her chest. The blood construct filled her chest and healed it, making it as if nothing ever happened and everything was just an illusion.

Riata slowly got to her feet and quickly examined her body, checking the place where her chest was stabbed. Happiness showed on her face when she realized that he was still alive, which was then followed by bewilderment as her head turned to Tristan.

Faced with the confused looks coming from her and everyone else, Tristan smiled and said, "You have received the punishment, and also my mercy, for now you will be loyal to my cause."

Realization struck Riata's mind and she swiftly went to her knees. "Thank you for your generosity, Lord Monarch."

Tristan turned and sat on the throne once more, his gaze overlooking the others who were still comprehending what had just happened.

"Now that the matter here is over. My elders, I sincerely ask you to execute my order right away. Go." said Tristan calmly.

Elroth, Riata, as well as the elders quickly made their way out of the hall. When they had all left, Serene approached the throne where Tristan was sitting.

She was silent, making him wonder what she was trying to tell him.

"Tristan, I really am grateful for you to come and save me… and those elves! they deserve to be punished! they do.., but killing hundreds of them… I wasn't sure it was… " Serene approach even much closer and appear to see his face closely and said "Tristan I am… concerned… you feel... different… your face is also different"

Hearing that, Tristan walked towards one of the walls and saw his own reflection on the crystal wall. He finally understood what Serene was talking about.

After his reconstruction, his current appearance was that of a full-fledged elf. There was no longer any trace of human features remaining on him, His human eyes, part of his human face that was there were now gone. 

Serene words also made him realized half the thing he said just now was a little excessive.

He once more stared at his own eyes and see his reflection in the crystal. Tristan fell into deep thought, the way he had acted earlier, his physical appearance, and the memory of the blood elf; he wondered how much of him was still human.

---

On the very same day, Prince Elroth and the elders carried out Tristan's order as they gathered all the Forlorn elves; nobles, warriors, and civilians alike. Except for those who were below 15 years, all of them took a lottery of sorts.

In the end, a total of 712 elves were chosen to receive the punishment. When they found out what they had been selected for, chaos immediately ensued. Fortunately, the elders had expected this and managed to stop it before it spiraled out of control.

The mass execution of more than 700 Forlorn elves was an utter horror, something that would never be forgotten in the history of the kingdom. This event could be written as the foolish massacre or the great inception, depending on Tristan's success as the new ruler of the Forlorn Kingdom from this point on.

Tristan saw the pile of corpses, but his heart was cold. There was a little doubt, but it was quickly erased. It was as if deep in his mind he has experienced this many times before and this decision was right.

Either way, when all of the selected elves were executed, Tristan floated into the sky using blood synthesized platforms and walked until he reached the center above all the corpses.

"Elves of the Forlorn, I promise you that your sacrifice will not be in vain. Their life will empower me and help me to lead you, the Forlorn's, to a new era."

Tristan then raised his hands, and immediately, concentrated masses of blood mist diffused out of the corpses and flew toward him. 

This was certainly the largest amount of Blood Essence that he ever extracted and he couldn't wait to see the final number. It took him more than 5 minutes to finish the extraction process.

[Blood Extraction]

[140.000...]

[280.000...]

[220.000...]

The horrific sight of their new ruler, the Blood Monarch, absorbing the blood of their kin made the Forlorn elves both terrified and amazed at the same time. 

It was started by the elders, and quickly followed by the others; they all knelt on the ground and said, "All hail to the Blood Monarch."

[240.000…]

[A mix of 240.500 high-quality blood cells were found]

[Extracting and filtering the blood cells...]

[101.350 Blood Essence points gained]

As for Tristan, he finally had enough Blood Essence to unlock the secret hidden within his body.