With the demise of the mastermind, the dark elves, demonic mages and their monstrous allies were defeated. The remaining Growling Griffons and Wind Wyverns were either routed or they stopped, confused by the sudden termination of their enslavement. Freed from the brands, they departed the battlefield in bewilderment, and the human-elf alliance did not pursue them.
There was no meaning to chasing down and hunting spirit beasts who were no longer the enemy. In a sense, they were as much a victim as the elves were, forcibly enslaved by the dark elves and sent as fodder to the frontlines, sacrificing their lives so that their evil masters could benefit. If there was one enemy, it was the dark elves and their demonic mage allies.
I watched Ardena stagger back toward her brethren, exhausted and not fully healed. A few elves rushed forward to catch her, and she shrugged them off before she raised her sword in triumph.
"We have defeated the dark elves!" She declared to the cheers of the elves and humans. "Lelith Maledictx lies dead, her corpse not far from here. Those who wish to can go and check for themselves. You can cremate her body or do whatever you want with it."
"Yeah!" The elves and humans whooped.
I sank to the ground, suddenly bereft of strength. I had been pushing myself past my limits the entire time. Above, Long Wang faced off against the Wind Dragon, but the latter had lost its intention to fight now that Lelith was dead. Battered and bruised after receiving water and dark type attacks from my dragon butler, the Wind Dragon turned to fly away, with a noticeable sluggishness to its flight. One of its wings were shredded, the membrane sporting a few holes courtesy of Long Wang's claws.
Long Wang himself returned to the ground and transformed back to his human form, his head bowed.
"My lord, it seems that the battle is over. may I have your permission to return to your dungeon?"
"Sure, go ahead. Make sure you rest well, Long Wang. Thank you for everything. You've been a great help."
"You're too kind, my lord. I was merely doing my duty."
A brief smile touched his lips, and the dragon butler was gone, having teleported back to my Deep Sea Palace. He might not look that hurt, but I could sense that his qi was drained. He would require a few days of rest before he would return to full fighting strength.
"How about you guys? Are you guys all right?"
I turned toward Myria, Morten, Sylvie and Silvia. They nodded. Morten was slumped against a tree, looking as if he was about to pass out any moment. Myria sat down beside me, her hands resting on her knees, and stared blankly into the horizon. She smiled tiredly and rested her head on the back of her hands.
"I can't believe we did it. We won."
"Yeah! That was a great victory!" Silvia cheered. "I never doubted that we would win, though! Evil will never prevail!"
"That's kind of naïve, Silvia," Sylvie chided her. She approached me and dropped to her knees, but for some reason she chose to sit in seiza opposite me. She grinned and offered me something in her cupped hands. "Look at what I found during the fierce fighting."
"That's…" My eyes widened when I recognized the nine blades of leaves all stemming from a single green plant that otherwise took on a very familiar shape. "The Nine Leaf Clover!"
"Correct." Sylvie beamed. The both of us could feel the rich spiritual mana emanating from it. Even though it was detached from the soil of Yggdrasil, it brimmed with potent natural energies, suffusing our surroundings with a verdant glow. "It was very easy to pick out, given the amount of mana it was giving off. I managed to pluck it while running over to your location."
"What?! Not fair, big sis! Why didn't you tell me? I didn't know you grabbed it!"
"That's your fault for not being observant enough."
I smiled as the fairy sisters bickered, accepting the Nine Leaf Clover from Sylvie and storing it in my device. When I teleported to my dungeon later, I intended to immediately feed it to the World Tree sprout that served as one of my two dungeon cores.
Better yet, that wasn't all. I saw a notification window from the system while I struggled to recover my breath.
-Mission accomplished. The following reward will be granted: Elemental Spirit Contract. –
"An Elemental Spirit Contract?"
-This will allow you to form a contract with the Sylphs. Please take note, the user will not be making a spirit contract with all the Sylphs, but only a few individuals. That said, because of the nature of Sylphs and the four great elemental spirits in general, if they deem it necessary, there is the possibility that you will eventually establish enough affinity with them to be on taking terms with their collective entity, the Sylph Queen. –
"So I can borrow her power?"
-This system advises the user not to get your hopes up on that. –
Yeah, well…if I could simply rely on the Sylphs to bail me out every time there was a crisis, then it might as well be a deus ex machina. Unfortunately, reality was never so convenient.
"Okay, thanks." I exhaled wearily and watched as a few of the Sylphs descended to hover around me. I could almost sense their intent, and I nodded. "If you guys are okay with me, then I'll be more than happy to welcome you to my family."
They responded happily, and the system acknowledged their consent before notifying me that the elemental spirit contract was now in place.
"That's right!" Sylvie could see them Sylphs as well. She held out a hand, and several of them floated over to touch her fingertips. She beamed. "You will love it here."
"Whoa, big bro! You're actually making a contract with Sylphs? That's incredible!" Silvia was astonished. "They are one of the four great elemental spirits!"
"Let me guess, the other three are the Undines, the Salamanders and the Gnomes?" I glanced at Xiao Huo Long, who roosted nearby. "But…I've met Salamanders, and they aren't exactly elemental spirits. Just fire type spirit beasts."
"To distinguish them, we call them Spirit Salamanders," Sylvie explained. She shrugged. "Human terminology is so confusing. I don't understand why they would name a species of lizards or fire type reptiles after an elemental spirit."
"That works. I wish I had seen them…" I trailed off and then realized something. Perhaps I had encountered Spirit Salamanders back in the Di Yu Mountain Range or Di Yu Valley, but I simply couldn't see them. After all, the only reason why I could see the Sylphs was because of my Eye of Odin.
Well, even if I returned there now and looked for them, I had just used up my Elemental Spirit Contract, so…it was pointless to think about it. Still, having a contract with the Sylphs was pretty impressive. I thanked the Sylphs before watching them fly around to introduce themselves to my resting spirit beasts. Whether it was the ten Round Owlets who had joined their former flock to fight against the Growling Griffons and Wind Wyverns, the Phantom Stumps, Ghost Pumpkins, Twig Turtles and Mud Fishes sprawled over the forest, or the Little Anglers, Lantern Fishes and Colossal Crabs bathing themselves in nearby rivers to cool off. Xiao Huo, Da Hai and Xiao Ke also greeted them when they soared past, waving their paws or tails or flippers.
Myria and the rest couldn't see them, though. She had her eyes closed mostly, but now she opened them, as if just waking up.
"What were you guys talking about?"
"Oh, the Sylphs. One of the four great elemental spirits. Speaking of which, have you seen the Undines before, Myria?"
"The Undines, huh?" Myria frowned before shaking her head. "I don't believe so."
"The Undines are usually found in lakes and rivers," Sylvie explained, as knowledgeable as ever. "I don't believe they live in the seas."
"I see." So the Undines preferred freshwater to saltwater. That sort of made sense, when I thought about it. Given how the elemental spirits clearly preferred purity, they wouldn't like water with a high salt content. If you force them to live in the ocean, then they would get all…uh, salty over it.
In any case, I felt like Kannagi Kazuma, now known as Yagami Kazuma. It was funny. When I first started out as a summoner, the first spirit beasts I made contracts with were Xiao Huo, and to a certain extent, Xiao Huo Long (though he was an egg for a very long time). I always thought I would have a closer affinity to the Spirit Salamanders, but now my first elemental contract was with the Sylphs. Strange when I thought about it. I thought I was more of a water person, so maybe Undine should have been the first, but…oh, well. In any event, I was now a contractor with wind spirits, and that made me a lot like Kazuma.
Damn, I must be really old if I was thinking about the old Kaze no Stigma series. It was a pity what happened to the author of the original light novel. But I wasn't going to be some overpowered wind user whose eyes turn blue when I go super Saiyan mode or something.
"Sorry, but could you guys move?"
I glanced up and saw Eliza approach us. With the exception of Sigmund, who was lying on the ground after passing out from sheer exhaustion and mana depletion, the rest of us were sitting in the dirt or on remnants of scorched trees, weary from the preceding battle. The elves looked just as tired as we were, but somehow, they still had the energy to move around. I supposed they were feeding off the dense natural mana that was saturating the canopy of Yggdrasil, now that the corruptive monolith had been destroyed.
Eliza appeared apologetic, knowing how much we had risked, and how much we had expended in the punishing war against the dark elves and the demonic mages, as well as their enslaved monsters.
"We know everyone needs rest, but we have a better place for you guys to rest in. The elves in the rearguard have already set up everything and fabricated temporary wooden houses for you to sleep in. If you would, please follow me."
"Sure." I forced myself to my feet, still swaying slightly. With a wave of my hand, I dismissed all of my summoned spirit beasts back to my dungeon, where they could rest better and recover faster. Eliza was surprised by their sudden disappearance, but by now, she should already know about my abilities.
Morten and I hurried to help Sigmund up, his weight a lot lighter now that his armor had been disintegrated in many places. While we supported him between us, pulling his arms around our shoulders, Myria turned to Eliza.
"Are you guys all right? I assume you'll need help to restore the World Tree."
"Oh, don't worry about that." Despite her exhaustion, the elf was smiling brightly and optimistically. "With the accursed artifact gone, Yggdrasil is repairing itself even as we speak. Look, the forest is restoring itself."
Across the barren wastelands where titanic battles had taken place – particularly the apocalyptic clash between Sigmund and Ricowen, or the decimated forests that Ardena had leveled when under the control of Lelith Maledictx – budding plants were sprouting. They hadn't turned into a carpet of grass or fully grown trees yet, but it was still a hopeful display of the tenacity of life. At the rate they were going, it would be weeks or even days before the forest atop the World Tree would be fully restored.
The elves were invigorated, basking in the sweet, precious mana and reviving. Even Ardena looked much stronger than she was before, her strides more confident and with purpose. She approached us, her head lowered humbly.
"Thank you all. Thank you so much."
"We didn't do much." I shook my head. Ardena snorted.
"You freed me from Lelith Maledictx's control and helped to save Yggdrasil from the cruel machinations of the dark elves and demonic mages. We owe you an enormous debt that we will never be able to repay. You didn't just do 'much,' you are pretty much the reason why we won. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that you saved the world."
"We all did." I gestured to all the adventurers, mages and warriors that had come to help the elves. Humans from across the world, whether it was Hua Xia, the Beautiful Nation, the Rising Sun Nation, Europe, the Land Down Under, the African continent, the Middle Eastern countries, the Asiatic Alliance, and more. There was a massive concentration of Scandinavian mages and warriors, many of whom were determined to protect their homes, fighting side by side with the elves who were formerly hostile to the humans they thought barbaric.
It was heartening to see everyone put aside their differences to fight for the fate of the world.
"Just follow me and take a good rest. You deserve it." Ardena smiled and bowed humbly. "After this, we should have a nice, long talk."