474 Leon, the Savior

Supreme Elder Haldir shook his head and said, "No, not yet. We came as soon as we heard the outburst of cries."

"I see. Let us worry about that later then. We have a bigger problem to deal with now." Leon said as he gazed at the rat tide increasing in numbers by the moment.

"Agreed."

Supreme Elder Haldir nodded with a solemn look before he glancing at the crowd gathering by the vine staircases. 

"The tribesmen are evacuating too slowly." Supreme Elder Haldir stated with a frown before preparing to lend his assistance there. 

However, Leon stopped him and said, "Forget about the elves here and save the stragglers outside the fire ring. I'll handle this problem quickly." 

"Alright. I'll leave it to you then, young prince." Supreme Elder Haldir nodded and flapped his green wings of leaves, shooting into the distance.

Leon shortly used his divine sense to communicate with the Guardian Spirit. 

"Everyone, make room!" Leon shouted at a crowd of elves some distance away from the vine staircase that most elves were gathered towards.

"Quick, do as our savior says!"

Very shortly, the elves began shuffling away to create a large space between under Leon's orders despite it bringing them further away from the vine staircases that had already been built and closer to the rats.

Although they wanted to leave quickly due to the rat's threat, they have come to respect Leon greatly and trusted that he would do something to help them.

If the person wanted to harm them, why bother saving them in the first place—was what the elves thought.

Sometime later, the surface soil from a distant region shook fiercely as the Guardian Spirit moved its spare roots over and planted itself in the ground before the crowd of elves, creating a colossal bridge that could fit dozens of elves running side by side at once. 

"Go!" 

The elves immediately cheered before rushing onto the colossal bridge that would lead them back to the surface. 

At the same time, the commotion immediately drew the attention of the crowd gathered in waiting near the vine staircases.

"Hey, look! The Guardian Spirit created a huge bridge to the surface for us!"

"Taking the bridge is definitely faster than the vine staircase the Elders constructed! I'm not waiting here!"

The large crowd of elves immediately begun rushing over to the colossal bridge made from the Elder Tree's roots.

"Thank you, Guardian Spirit!" 

"All those prayers finally paid off!" 

The elves cheered. 

At this point, they had already forgotten they had fallen into their current situation due to the Elder Tree's rampage.

Life worked in strange ways. 

Nevertheless, some elves in front quickly pointed out, "Hey, you! You're mistaken! The Guardian Spirit didn't help us of its own volition! It is the savior that got it to help us!"

"Yeah! If you want to thank someone, thank our savior! He is the only one who can communicate with the Guardian Spirit and tell it what to do!" Another elf quickly chimed in.

The elves in the back of the group were immediately stunned. 

"Huh? He can command the Guardian Spirit? Doesn't that make him sound like THE savior from the prophecy?" An elf mentioned. 

"That's why we are calling him our savior! He IS the savior mentioned in the prophecy! The one can command the Guardian Spirit and bring us salvation in times of great chaos! Everything fits as recorded!"

The elves began to speak excitedly with reverence, almost to the point of worshipping and forgetting the dangers behind them. 

In the air some distance away with Aria and Faelyn hovering on the ice-lightning sword, Leon overheard everything with his sharp hearing. 

His expression quickly changed to confusion.

"What prophecy are the elves talking about?" Leon questioned the most knowledgeable person present before him for answers.

"What prophecy are you talking about? There is no such t—" Princess Faelyn frowned for a moment before quickly widening her eyes in exclamation, "No wait, there is one! There's a prophecy, but it comes from a widely popular and well-circulated story within Elvengarde!"

Her loud voice immediately caused the baby in her arms to cry. 

Shortly after Faelyn soothed the baby, she continued, "The story speaks of a time in which the Cataclysm would come again and cause great chaos throughout the lands. However, the elves shall not fear, for the one who can commute with the Guardian Spirit will rise and lead them to salvation."

"So, you're saying the elves are taking the prophecy inside of a story seriously?" Leon felt rather speechless by the coincidences.

Aria giggled. 

"What's funny?" Princess Faelyn furrowed her brows in question.

Aria quickly shook her head and said, "Nothing much. Just that they probably never thought that the savior in their stories turned out to be a human instead of an elf."

"Ah, you're right. I would never have anticipated this day." Princess Faelyn said. 

Leon shook his head wryly.

"Alright, enough of that. We have elves to save and a rat infestation to deal with. Take the baby to safety. I'm going." Leon stated before heading back to deal with the rat tide. 

After watching Leon leave, Aria asked Faelyn, "Can you head back on your own?" 

"Alright… Thank you for letting me ride with you, Miss Aria. Just let me off down there." Princess Faelyn said with embarrassment. She felt ashamed at her inability to fly and for holding Aria back.

"It's fine, Princess Faelyn."

Shortly after letting Princess Faelyn off, Aria quickly shot after Leon on her ice-lightning sword.

At the same time, Leon quickly arrived at the Supreme Elder's location and inquired, "What's the situation?"

"All the elves have been evacuated towards the center. Just these pesty rats left to deal with." Supreme Elder Haldir replied while dicing the rats into pieces with numerous vines that grew out from the ground.

"Does the young prince have any good solution?" 

Leon gazed into the distance for a moment before he said, "We can collapse all the passageways and end the influx of rats entering before cleaning up the rest of them in this space."