15

The Witcher: The last King of the elves

Chapter 15 - The King of the Dead

At night, all kinds of demons and monsters came out of their lairs.

In the ruins shrouded in darkness, ghostly green lights could be seen everywhere, and countless monster roars could be heard, enough to terrify even the bravest knight.

In this situation, could Thranduil ever calmly cross the forest to marry the Elven Princess of destiny? With luck, he might now pass through the dark forest, but most paths lead to death.

Fortunately, Thranduil was able to obtain a series of aids granted to him by the World Tree. That is why, as long as he develops steadily and expands his territory, he will have the chance to marry the Elven Queen in the future.

“I should get moving too.” Thranduil, who was sitting on his wooden throne, waved his hand, and some elves brought him his armor.

The inner structure of the lake had been restored, where the Tree of Life had shown its powerful figure at the center of the inner city's plaza.

Vitality had returned to these lands, and with the help of two very powerful ancient trees, green grass and flowers had grown within a radius of hundreds of meters.

Living conditions are getting better and better. It’s worth mentioning that in the center of the plaza there was a stone figure that stood out above everything else.

The statue had withstood the test of thousands of years. And the exquisite and beautiful face is clearly visible.

The World Tree once mentioned that it was a statue of the Elven Goddess. The Elven Goddess is the mother goddess of the elves, and she once gained the faith of the intelligent races belonging to the territory of the elves, such as unicorns, sentient trees, phoenix guards, elven dragons, fairies, etc.

But last night, that statue of the Elven Goddess was torn down by the elves under his command. The tiles and slabs ripped from the ground were thrown into the nearby ruins.

The elves under his command no longer believe in the Elven Goddess.

This goddess had abandoned them. By the time the elves had lost the war, many of them felt that the goddess they so adored had forgotten them.

Now, for the elves, only their king, Thranduil, was worthy of their loyalty.

…

Late at night.

The castle in the inner city, located northeast of the ruins, was covered by a dark aura.

This enormous place, originally the residence of the city lord, had collapsed long ago and become ruins. But now, another structure made of bones had appeared among the ruins.

The entire Hall of Bones was made up of various piles of bones and looked even more disturbing and terrifying under the light of countless ghostly green flames.

Dozens of figures gathered within the Hall of Bones. Without exception, all were high-level undead.

There were many kinds, including skeletons, corpses, gargoyles, ghosts, etc. They had different forms—some were human, some were monstrous, some were merely a ball of black smoke, or some were deformed monsters made up of countless pieces of rotten flesh.

There was a bone throne at the top of the Bone Temple. The throne was extremely large—just the width alone was over five meters.

The figure sitting on the throne was also gigantic. He was almost ten meters tall while seated. It is estimated that his full height was at least fifteen meters.

He had a humanoid shape, with heavy, pitch-black metallic armor covering his entire body. Even his hands were encased in metal gauntlets, leaving only his head exposed.

His exposed head looked like a skeleton, but in reality, it was covered by a layer of dry, hard keratin. Since the flesh and blood had disappeared, it resembled a skull. Beneath the sockets of his eyes, which looked like black holes, a green soul flame also burned.

He was an undead creature from an ancient clan.

This type of undead had clear strengths and weaknesses. Their defense was extremely strong, but at the same time, their movements were very slow—or at least very stiff.

This weakness could only be effectively improved after being promoted to the extraordinary realm or even to the holy level.

"How many undead creatures have we gathered so far?" the King of the Dead asked, his spiritual consciousness trembling.

After a moment, an undead knight stood up and replied, “Your Majesty, we’ve gathered more than 100,000 undead. If it weren’t for the elves in the city center slaughtering the undead at night, we would’ve gathered even more!”

"Missionary!" The green soul fire in the eyes of the King of the Dead flickered violently. His hollow gaze focused on a horrific being as he asked, "Have you investigated where those elves came from?"

The ancient trees of the elven clan had not been able to give the blessing of reproduction to the elves, which is why they are now considered an almost extinct race. Otherwise, a King of Death like him would not have been able to exist in these lands for hundreds of years.

All could have ruled these lands were it not for the Elven King, who sacrificed his magic to temporarily expel the evil growing in the Elven Realm.

That’s why, until now, those forming his ranks were merely common undead.

Only when that life energy fades can high-level undead be summoned.

As for the group of elves in the city center, they seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, which aroused the curiosity of the King of the Undead.

“It’s under investigation.”

The Undead Knight pondered for a moment, shook his head, and said, “Your Majesty, the speed of advancement and growth of that group of elves is very abnormal. Last night, we saw patrols of dozens of elves, but now we can sense great presences accompanying those squads.”

Among the elves under Thranduil’s command, some had become mages and were powerful beings.

And there were quite a few—more than a dozen—many of whom were exceptional beings. These were basically the first group of elves summoned by the Tree of Life.

"Your Majesty!" At that moment, a cloud of gray smoke floated out from the hall and manifested in front of the King of Death.

It was a ghost.

It too shook its spiritual consciousness and said, "These elves are still very weak for now, but we cannot allow them to grow—otherwise, they will definitely become a threat!"

Upon hearing this, the green soul fire in the King of Death’s eyes leapt continuously.

“I fully agree with this.
Elves are an exceptional race of very intelligent people, with strong blood and great combat power. The ruins beneath their feet also constitute the ancient capital of the Elven Empire.”

“If the elves grow stronger, they will definitely cleanse the ruins of the entire ancient city. What the elves hate most are dark and evil creatures—and the undead are one of them. After all, we are enemies, so we must eliminate them first.”

The king before them asked, “How many elves are in that area, and how strong are they?"

The Undead Knight replied, “Roughly, there are between two to five thousand elves there—most of them are well-trained soldiers.”

“Their strength is moderate.” The King of the Dead gave this assessment.

An undead soul echoed, “With such small power, we can easily destroy them! Since our creation, we haven’t tasted any living human, let alone an elf, who is full of life.”

“As an intelligent race, elves must taste even better!”

“Your Majesty, give the order.”

“I can’t wait.” A group of undead souls spoke one after another.

The King of Death did not hesitate and said, “Relay my order. Gather the army and march to the central plaza. Make sure to kill all the elves there.”

“As you command, Your Majesty!” the dead souls obeyed respectfully.

The ghost in front of his king said, “Don’t worry, Your Majesty. Those elves won’t stand a chance of surviving!”

There were only a few thousand elves in ruins they no longer controlled—how much power could they really have?

Soon, the undead army began to move. Under the moonlight, it was like a black wave advancing toward the territory the elves had slowly reclaimed.

The greatest power of the Undead is not their individual combat strength—it is the tactic of the human wave.

Once they attacked together, it was an enormous crowd of monstrous beings with a strength that was hard to stop.

Especially when an undead mage appears who masters the art of resurrection, the undead army’s wave tactics become even more terrifying.

If any living human stood before this formation of death, none would survive.