Thousand Year Fire

It was already too late to stop the ritual.

The Second Rank Sequence priest of the Children of the Forest began chanting a religious hymn.

A huge tree-shaped shadow appeared on the floor of the hall.

The Forest Child priestess grew taller and stronger by the second. Standing atop a pattern on the floor that resembled an altar, she transformed into a Little Giant.

She had originally been a little shorter than an average adult human male.

But now, she stood over five meters tall. Fortunately, the hall was high enough; otherwise, she would have smashed through the castle roof.

Faced with such a towering giant, Black Wolf and the Old Witch couldn't help retreating.

The priestess searched the hall and found a broom in a corner. In her hands, it was like a toothpick, and she snapped it with ease.

Then she gripped the broken broomstick. Its end burst into flame without a spark, sending up white smoke.

The priestess waved the Simple Ritual Tool she had made from the broom, filling the hall with white smoke. Eerie blue-green light glimmered in her eyes.

The white smoke mingled with the flames, dreamlike and fantastical.

It was as if a Heretic God had descended.

There was no denying that a priest's skills were shrouded in mystery, making them especially suited to creating an atmosphere.

The priestess muttered in the human tongue. "Great Ancient Ancient Soul, I offer you the flesh and blood of an enemy. Please take these humans' Hani."

She seized a terrified boy beside her with her left hand. He was powerless to resist as the Little Giant held him and crushed his chest.

Blood splashed across the floor.

The tree-shaped shadow on the ground began to writhe, as if a tree's branches were being whipped by a gale.

The shadow broke into a frenzied dance.

After receiving the sacrifice, the white smoke seemed to take on a strange power, leaving all the human knights and Knight Attendants in the hall dazed and woozy.

The Treant People, by contrast, were invigorated. After breathing in the smoke, they fought as if they'd been injected with stimulants, their strength surging.

The Treant People gradually began to turn the tide.

The knights had to fight the Treant People while also staying wary of the giant priestess who had suddenly appeared.

Yveta was unaffected by the white smoke. The Little Giant, the priestess transformed, looked down over the humans and Treant People fighting in the hall like a god surveying a temple.

Yveta decided to observe the situation first.

Besides, although he had magic power now, he had already used up the daily spell allotments of all his magical items.

He could only hope the Hearthstone Witch and the human troops here could suppress the Treant People.

Yveta looked at the Old Witch. "How did she get so tall? What is that white smoke?"

The Hearthstone Great Witch quickly read through the Forbidden Book, searching for an explanation of what was happening. "Your Grace, she just sacrificed her own blood and the flesh of an enemy to the Ancient Tree Soul. The Treant People believe that offering their own flesh and blood can appease the ancient tree's wrath and earn its favor. Before humans came to the Ambrose Plain, the Children of the Forest lived in the woods. Back then, they seemed unable to distinguish between gods and people."

"In those days, they worshipped all kinds of powerful magical beasts and strange creatures as gods."

"A mighty tree, an exceptionally powerful bear, even a strange natural phenomenon—they treated all of them as gods. The forest itself was the Heretic God worshipped by all the Children of the Forest."

"The Children of the Forest once called the ancient woods they lived in the Great Redwood Tree God."

Yveta thought that redwoods were indeed a very ancient kind of tree.

But among the sparse trees on the Ambrose Plain, redwoods were rarely seen.

So had the Ambrose Plain once been covered in a sea of redwoods? And when humans came to the plain, had not only the trees disappeared, but even the kinds of trees changed?

The Old Witch continued, "But the arrival of humans also brought belief in the True God. Humans lumped the false 'gods' of those savage, primitive religions together and called them Ancient Souls."

The Old Witch reached the account that followed and paused. "In the wars between the Children of the Forest and humans long ago, the Children of the Forest gradually accepted the human definition of a god."

"Influenced by humans, and having lost the cultural struggle against human civilization, they suffered some breaks in the transmission of their traditions. So, in time, they too began calling their gods 'Ancient Souls.'"

"But the Great Redwood Tree God is said to be different. The Children of the Forest insist that the Tree God is a real deity. This book says that a Fourth Rank High Witch once risked infiltrating a Tree God worship ceremony held by the Children of the Forest. She died not long after returning. Before she died, she told the humans of that time, 'There is no need to worry about the Great Redwood Tree God.'"

"In any case, the Great Redwood Tree God remains shrouded in mystery, even now."

"Why did a Fourth Rank High Witch suddenly die, only to tell everyone before her death that they didn't need to worry about the Great Redwood Tree God? No one at the time could explain it."

The Old Witch looked up at the Little Giant the priestess had become. The priestess was fighting a Formal Knight. "The Treant People's sacrifice must be directed at the ancient tree."

"The white mist she released should be a spell that drains people's vitality."

"The Treant People believe that humans have three souls. One of them is the soul of vitality, Hani. They think that the ancient soul's tree mist summoned by the priest can steal people's souls. But it's really just a spell that drains human vitality. There's nothing unusual about it."

The Old Witch said, "These Children of the Forest are far too superstitious."

Yveta frowned. He realized that the knights in the hall were actually at a disadvantage.

The Children of the Forest were naturally far stronger than ordinary humans.

Under the priestess's white mist, they had even managed to overpower the human knights.

Yveta said, "Hearthstone Witch, didn't you say knights were the strongest profession on the battlefield? Why are they being suppressed by enemies who don't even outnumber them?"

"Do you have any way to dispel the white mist?"

"Or deal with the priestess?"

The Hearthstone Witch shook her head. "There's no way to kill the priestess or dispel the white mist. It isn't real mist, but soul mist. I haven't studied the realm of souls yet. This book only describes the proper response to a Formal Priest who has sacrificed her own flesh and blood—and that is to retreat."

So, they were supposed to run?

Yveta raised an eyebrow. For the first time, he was rather dissatisfied with the author of the book—his human ancestors.

The book had promised to contain knowledge that would ensure humanity's victory forever.

Seeing Yveta's displeasure, the Old Witch said, "Your Grace, the priest's profession isn't a normal profession within the human system."

"These priests may seem to possess power far beyond their enemies, but in truth, they're only burning through their life force and inviting Ancient Souls into their souls."

"That's why the book says the best course is to retreat. There's no need to get entangled with someone whose path grows narrower with every step, even if the price of that power is a life force that makes them extraordinarily strong."

"There's another thing. The barren Holy Mountain effect on the Ambrose Plain doesn't suppress priests' power."

The Old Witch turned to look at the Little Giant, the priestess, who was overpowering three human knights and seven Knight Attendants and slaughtering them left and right. "In Ambrose, what suppresses the priests' power is the Thousand Year Fire."

"But this priestess's power doesn't seem to have diminished much at all."

"Is the Thousand Year Fire really close to going out?"