Chapter 498: The Hero's Journey

Aria continued to hover in the sky on her ice-lightning sword and watched everything proceed according to plan, which was, in truth, quite simple.

It required the airship to act as a vanguard and trailblaze ahead, clearing out the rats from the center while two teams would then attract the rat tide to kill each other and form two walls of rat carcasses on either side as seen before Aria.

These two walls will extend all the way to the Great Wall, forming a safe passage for the tribesmen, who were preparing for their departure back in Elvengarde.

"Everything seems to be proceeding smoothly," Aria muttered softly to herself.

Sometime later, another elven warrior army exited the Great Forest behind Aria before she heard one of them barked, "The advance team already went ahead! Proceed with the plan!"

"Yes, sir!"

After the elven warriors answered, they covered the lower half of their faces with wet cloths like surgical masks before advancing to clean up all the carcasses left behind in between the two walls.

Night arrived and plunged the world into darkness, but the situation was visible as the remnant fires of exploding pills and burning rat carcasses lit the road ahead.

Their job was to clear the road and patch up any openings in the two walls of rat carcasses. Evidently, the pungent stench of blood in the area was too intense for the elves to breathe normally.

"Although the advance team has cleared the road ahead, we don't know if any stragglers were left behind! Keep your eyes peeled for any sudden movements, understand?"

"Yes, sir!"

The elven warriors brought branches with them from the Great Forest and lit them on fire like torches to increase their visibility in the region before carrying out their work.

Aria observed them for some time before flying off into the distance.

Boom! Boom!

Exploding pills were thrown out of the airship from time to time as they continued to cruise through the sea of leaping rats and mow down all the vermin in their way.

"We'll continue on this course all the way to the Great Wall," Supreme Elder Haldir stated before summoning his pair of wings and vine armor from a handful of seeds.

"Yes, Supreme Elder!" The elven warriors onboard answered before one of them asked with slight anxiety, "Are you leaving us here, Supreme Elder?"

"Yes, the Great Wall's garrison needs to be alerted of arrival and make preparations to receive our 500-thousand tribesmen." Supreme Elder Haldir stated while gazing into the distant night.

He also needed to check the situation of the Great Wall.

…

Elvengarde

Shortly after the bathhouse's chaos settled down, Leon left the building with Silver and Faelyn before she suddenly tugged on his sleeve.

"Hm? What is it, Faelyn?"

"I want to retrieve my father's body."

"Alright. I'll come with you." Leon shortly agreed to accompany Faelyn to retrieving her father's body from the southern area.

A great person like King Erendriel should be properly buried instead of being left in the open to rot. That being said, the person's body was transformed to that of a plant and would not rot.

When they arrived at the tribe's southern area, most of the tribesmen had already moved to the eastern parts of Elvengarde.

However, a few elvish children could still be seen playing around with their parents nearby. They were throwing stones and pebbles at King Erendriel's transmogrified body for fun.

Leon saw the sadness and grief in Faelyn's eyes as her eyelashes trembled. After sighing softly, he made his way over to the group of elvish children.

"Ahh! It's the Savior!"

"The Savior is here!"

The group of children quickly exclaimed excitedly as they flocked over to Leon's side and gathered around him with keen interest.

"What are you doing here, Savior?"

"Did you also come to punish the evil king, Savior?"

Children were most easily influenced, especially when it came to fairytale stories that are catered to them.

As such, they all showed preferential reverence and respect for Leon, who was supposedly the hero and savior of their favorite fairytale story.

Leon bent his knees and lowered himself to their height before he asked with a smile, "I've come to take the evil king away. Is that okay?"

"Yeah!" An elven boy of roughly 9 years of age answered.

"Thank you." Leon smiled and reached out to rub the boy's head before curiously asking, "What are you all still doing here when the rest of the tribe have already gathered towards the eastern area? Are you all not afraid of getting left behind?"

"Not afraid~!"

"We have the Savior here!"

Leon smiled wryly at their cute answers before a little girl gave him a proper response, "Our parents are still busy packing up some things in our home, Savior."

"I see. Thank you for answering my question." Leon quickly understood before giving the little girl a head rub.

While many elven homes were destroyed in the area, there were still some that managed to survive the disaster.

"Me too!"

"Oh, oh, me too!"

The kids were strangely excited to be patted by him.

After giving them all a head rub, his gaze shortly fell back onto the book the little girl's arms and asked, "Is this the book about the Saviour?"

The little 7-year old girl nodded.

"Can I take a look at it?" Leon asked with a gentle smile.

The little 7-year old girl hesitated for a moment before she finally decided to pass the book to Leon with a cute nod.

He was quite interested after hearing about the prophecy.

After accepting the book, he quickly skimmed through the fairytale story called 'The Hero's Journey' before recording everything into the Archive for reading later.

Maya would also be interested.

"Thank you," Leon said after passing the book back to the little girl.

Shortly after, he looks at the surrounding kids. He was afraid they might run off and get lost after taking their source of entertainment.

"Try not running around and wait here patiently for your parents to pick you, okay?" He instructed.

"Okay~!" The children agreed obediently.

"That's good." Leon nodded.

After picking up King Erendriel's transmogrified body, Leon returned to Faelyn and gently whispered, "They're just children that don't know anything. Don't blame them, kay?"

"I wouldn't. I know better than that." Faelyn softly shook her head before saying, "...and thank you for accompanying me."

She knew that Leon had something to do, but he was taking his time to accompany her. The small act was enough to make her feel warm inside.

"Don't worry about it. It's nothing." Leon quickly shook his head with a smile before asking, "Where do you want to bury your father?"

"I want to take my father back to Heart of Spring Chamber and place him together father with my mother, brother, and sister," Faelyn answered.

"Oh?" Leon's eyes flickered with interest before suggesting, "How about we also go there together? We can store their bodies in my interspatial storage and take them with us. That way, you can still visit their grave once the tribe is moved to the Human Domain."

"That would great... Thank you, Leon." Faelyn said with her head lowered while feeling gratified inside for Leon's consideration.

However, it was just a passing thought he came up with. His real interest lies in the sealed subterranean entrance in the Heart of Spring Chamber. 

He intended to enter from the place he previously sealed in the subterranean space, but entering from the Heart of Spring Chamber was also fine.

More secrets might be hidden there.