For as long as I can remember, we were quiet, peaceful and benevolent. We didn't have wars, death was minimal; and when it happened, it was justified. We Midnight elves, together with the dragons, represented order on Earth.
Dragons, together with dark elves were the order of those creatures who flew the skies, crawled on the ground and swam under the sea. Us Midnight Elves and Forest Elves, the order of those roots and organisms who climb up from the centre of the earth, plants and trees.
For as long as I can remember, we worshipped the sun and the earth for they allow us to live as we gazed upon the stars we wondered for the meaning of that endless darkness with sparkles of light; we protected the inner sun beneath our feet and the outer sun above our heads.
Until they arrived.
That dark firmament, the darkness personified and manifested around us in the form of a powerful being whose wisdom vastly outstripped ours, he was friendly at first, but with enough time, we realised his intentions.
I recall death, I recall corruption, I recall vengeance… but we elves and dragons fought together and sacrificed to fend off the enemy that by them had already rooted in this world's heart.
He made himself known as Avarice, a darkness that threatens to corrode everything, even the heart. His objective was to destroy this world, but not with brazen and flashlight methods... he desired a spectacle of grandeur in which this world corroded from the inside in malice.
We had to stop him, but it wasn't easy. He together with his legions attacked our cities, but they didn't just destroy our plunder our land; they got in the minds of the innocent humans, planting seeds of greed and pride in their hearts... twisting the story, twisting reality.
We midnight elves weren't a monarchy, and we weren't rulers… we were those who stabilised order, we were those who made sure life was equivalent and worth living for all of us as we thrived above the earth.
But they planted a seed of vengeance in humanity. Avarice taught them magic, spells… powers that gave humans the ability to challenge us.
I am Galadriel, the third seat of the midnight council, dwelling within the Azerlisia Plains. Together with my brothers and sisters, we formed the seven seats; we lived within the seven mountains of the continent from which we oversaw the world.
We were used to peace, but the forces of Avarice, which were adept in subversive means and violence, had a hard time fighting us and the dragons who had the support of the earth and the sun.
So he, with his vast powers, put a blanket over the sun, starting a fight against our race... a fight in which he was supported by a massive chunk of humanity. It was a war that ended up in mutual destruction, but Avarice's objective had been achieved, the seed of greed in humanity was our doom, and this seed spread even further into the other races.
Of all my siblings only I survived… of all the royal dragons, only an egg remained. With the resistance and vanguard of this world gone, the voids had a free reign. As humans became stronger and their greed greater, they began hunting us. In such a disadvantageous position, as the last one remaining, all I could was seal my weakened and injured vessel with the remains of avarice, hoping that in the future, the truth would be revealed. Hoping that the earth, our lady mother, would assist my quest and quench this malicious deity's life force.
I was naive.
I left my faith in that egg that never hatched. For thousands of years, avarice and I fought for dominance… but while my light dwindled, his darkness only became stronger... like that darkness in the firmament of the skies that the feeble spark of the stars can't hope to cover. He used all resources and means, he summoned champions into this world who became false gods that led humanity into even greater borders of despair and decadence.
They called themselves 'Purayers'.
I had hope in Mother Earth who gave birth to us, even with pain I fulfilled my role. But every day… the corruption was becoming stronger, the pain greater… my forces weaker. Every single day it was like needles prickling my eyes, forcing my eyes to close and stare at the darkness.
What previously was for me like an enormous unreachable firmament of stars surrounded in darkness, had now turned into a painful and toxic shower of nightmares that corroded my soul. Until finally... finally.
I felt… warmth.
It was like being closer to the sun than ever before, right at the moment when I most needed it, I felt it. The biggest and warmest sun I have ever seen in my long life as a midnight elf. And now, during this junction in which my life force could scatter at any moment, as I lay helpless on a filthy ground; that sun was now fighting that darkness that I once thought was undefeatable.
When I saw them collide I understood, that there was something higher than my feeble existence in this universe, rules beyond comprehension... and that those two were opposing forces.
*BOOOOOOMMMMMM!!*
Endless warmth, health and energy, getting sucked into a never-ending cold hell where nothing that ever comes in, ever returns. And even then, in front of such an enemy… his smile never decayed.
He is him, my saviour...
**
**
With that impact, with my fist colliding against his, spreading waves of destruction that shook not the mantle of space but the very layer of reality, I realised that this was the strongest foe I had ever fought.
Someone worth to be taken seriously. He sucked all the energy in my punch... I have never seen anything like that, but there is no time to lose.
"You're quite strong for an overgod–!" He mocked, but I didn't let him finish, I flickered in a haze of light, arriving in front of him. He punched forth using the same technique from before, but before my fist touched his, it scattered in embers.
!!!
My fist reformed from the embers, with the same momentum, the same force... the same Sun Burst.
*BAAANG!!*
*BOOOOOMMMMMM!!!*
That fist impacted his face square on the teeth before an explosion equivalent to a small supernova failed to decimate his body to members and instead sent Avarice blasting off towards the edge of the cave, impacting the barrier and shattering it, having his void body cave in.
I flickered like a light spark towards the elf's soul, there was no time to lose. I could feel her life fading away!
*GROWL!*
Those creatures of darkness that he created weren't weak by any means; they weren't about to allow me to help the elf, but before they could even do anything, two individuals blocked the way.
*CHA!*
A white spark of lightning and a cheeky smile, a swarm of beautiful flowers with a piercing glare. Anna Blair's eyes were bloodshot, like her whole body was screaming for her to act.
The moment the identity of a midnight elf was confirmed, she knew this was her life mission… this was what she was born for. She extended her hand forward and created a majestic spear that I had seen before, this time in the blink of an eye.
The biggest out of the creatures of darkness was a gigantic serpent with humanoid arms and slit purple eyes, a hideous monster.
<7th Tier–!>
The snake tried to cast a spell, but three demonic magic circles manifested underneath it, blocking all intentions and spreading a web of red lightning that cancelled the spells and shocked it to a halt, Akeno was the perfect support.
"Now, Anna-san!"
Gungnir fired with vengeance, decimating the existence of that snake and piercing another hole in the barrier, destroying a massive portion of the cave. Compared to the previous time she used that technique against me, this time I felt threatened even when that wasn't aimed at me.
Another one of the creatures was what resembled a gigantic darkness wasp, a pity.
*WHOOSH!*
A butterfly came flying and snatched that wasp away my the neck, both crashed heavily against the wall as Anna restrained her, all while devouring that neck like she was a mantis that just caught her prey. I don't think she needs help... she's already eating.
As for the last, a gigantic dark bull, it couldn't hold against Rias' destruction.
*BOOOMMMM!!*
The aura of destruction enveloped the bull that counterattacked by using a powerful high-tiered fire spell, however, it was too ignorant to notice Rias' power wasn't fire, but destruction. His fire got destroyed, just like his body.
I flickered and the next second my hands were holding that beautiful blue-skinned elf whose half of her face was pitch-black with a bleeding eye as the corruption moved forward, her head looked like at some point, it had horns, but those had been viciously snapped out of her head, she was so battered and yet she smiled for some reason, I couldn't understand.
"I h-had faith…" She said with a struggle, I felt so much energy coming from her... this woman has faith in me? I didn't understand it... we just met I don't know who she is, but that's how things panned out. Her hand extended weakly towards my face.
"M-Morther Earth... is fair, please... if you can restore those two cores, I may be able to assist you, my saviour. YOU CAN'T UNDERESTIMATE AVARICE!".
I held her hand against my face, that fellow didn't look like much.
"Don't worry, I'm here now".
She merely smiled, leaned on me and basked in the warmth my skin transmitted, but her countenance still held guard and fear when she looked at the place where I blew that bastard.
"Girls, we have to purify those two cores–"
"Do you think I'll let you?!" A hideous voice screamed, literally into my mind and not only mine.
*BOOOMMM!!*
An enormous explosion of darkness ensued in which the very energy of the world began to flutter and disappear. Akeno paled and fell on her knees first.
"Akeno!"
"I feel–" She began, but soon the words cut off, she was unable to talk or even breathe!
I waved my hand and she was swallowed into my moonlight mist, I immediately caught on what was going on. This maniac transformed into a ball of the void that sucked everything, oxygen included and even light, all types of energy, even sun energy. EVERYTHING!
*RUMBLE!!*
An aura of destruction formed, I noticed Rias struggling to breathe, but even then she readied an attack in the form of a gigantic ball of destruction... the last of her energies.
"Rias!"
I wanted to suck her into the moonlight mist as well, but Rias decided to deliver a vicious blow and she wasn't the only one.
Anna-chan too, although less affected, was cleaning her mouth of the residual void flesh after she devoured that wasp, she created two gigantic shards of icy darkness. Both of them saw the midnight elf, how she got treated and how important she was to Anna Blair... both of them were pissed off.
*WHOOSH!*
Rias' energy fired, not towards avarice, but towards Anna's shards.
The destruction imbued those energy shards that Anna then grinned and fired at the ball of void energy that Avarice had become, a shining bright light enveloped everything and as a result, I felt an immediate change in the cave's atmosphere. The energy was no longer being sucked.
I put all the girls except for the midnight elf's soul into the moonlight mist, when the light receded I saw the pitch-black void ball had been completely frozen in several layers of that dark ice.
"I-Impossible..." The midnight elf stuttered when she saw that.
"I don't think that will last long so I will restore both your cores right away".
Anna and Rias' attack was fantastic, it gave us the time that we needed, but there was yet another fight going on in this cave, one that ended quickly enough.
*CRUNCH!*
I saw the gigantic dragoness devouring the flesh out of that void creature, Ophis ended it quickly.
Everything seemed to be going well, but I couldn't help but feel... this is far from over.