Kaelan’s Twisted Victory

What is the difference between elves and humans?

“Those long-lived beings with magical talent and pointed ears.”

Is that truly the only distinction between elves and humans?

Kaelan remembered her mother once saying that a true elf was pious and pure, a member of a collective, sharing roots and a common destiny, upholding a unified faith and way of life passed down through millennia.

This held true for the conservative, gentle forest elves, the sea elves who delighted in riding the waves, and even the taciturn, eccentric dark elves who often mingled among other races.

In stark contrast, humans, as a nascent race, seemed more like a horde of thieving cuckoos, sly, cruel, and corrupt, wantonly plundering the lands and riches of other peoples…

Indeed, when driven by ruthlessness, they spared not even their own kind, making their brutal atrocities hardly surprising.

Half of Kaelan’s bloodline belonged to that foul race. Her birth was not the result of passionate love between an elven man and woman, but a collective atrocity committed by invaders against an elven woman. Afterward, she was forced into this world, clinging to her mother in shared suffering.

Her very existence was a mistake, a desecration of noble elven purity.

But her mother did not see it that way.

Her mother told her that humans were not inherently evil; there were good people among them. Humans were clever and agile, adept at learning from and imitating the strengths of others. In Kaelan, the virtues of humanity blended with elven sanctity and beauty, making her uniquely exceptional, capable of surpassing everyone.

Little Kaelan, then, innocently believed her mother’s words.

Later, during her long, solitary exile, she gradually realized how naive her mother had been, and how utterly self-deceiving her words truly were.

She, Kaelan Novfloss, this half-blood mongrel, had inherited only twisted, depraved desires from humanity—and these were all that remained of her life.

She was a s*ave to desire, constantly yearning to fill her hollow shell, finding an outlet, indulging in it, then growing bored, only to seek new thrills. She repeated this cycle endlessly, hurtling desperately down a path towards self-destruction.

Such a fate, so pitiable and tragic, had been sealed from the moment of her birth.

“Little Aya…”

No one could offer her salvation, not even Saranya. Yet, this particular sword maiden was special: an inexhaustible toy she adored.

“Little Aya… my s*ave… my… treasure…”

No one would ever take her Saranya. Should anyone dare to try…

She swore that death would merely be a parting gift, a final release.

****

“Miss Novfloss, I anticipated your arrival.”

Within the grid, Lenix straightened her slender waist and slowly approached Kaelan, her steps graceful and steady.

“Dryads and elves have never been enemies, have they? Why must we fight to the death?”

“What, Lenix, are you begging for mercy now?”

“It’s a negotiation. You use her as an instrument of pleasure, while I am intrigued by the results of your transformation. As for Lucius, he requires a lady like Saranya to secure the proper claim, extending the Weinshield family’s reach beyond Vero. The three of us can perfectly well share Saranya, each taking what we need, can’t we?”

Kaelan suddenly let out a delicate, cackling laugh, a viscous trill emanating from her throat. Her lips twitched, stretching towards her ears, and her crimson eyes, like abysses, fixed themselves directly upon the dryad.

“No, you’re not.”

Lenix’s gaze sharpened, but she continued her plea: “Rest assured, I will handle the Assembly of Truth. Or perhaps… you desire power? I can have Lucius grant you power, provided your appetite isn’t too vast—!”

The dryad’s words abruptly halted as she swiftly raised her arm, and a volley of dense wooden thorns shot from her sleeve, whistling as they assailed Kaelan!

Kaelan quickly stepped and bent at the waist, leaping high with a resounding ‘boom,’ reaching Lenix’s immediate vicinity in an instant.

“Fighting a dryad like me, do you still believe you have a chance?! You foul, short-lived half-elf!”

Lenix whipped out a vine whip, but Kaelan, without hesitation, simply raised her left arm, enduring the lash directly as she pressed closer to Lenix’s body.

In such a confined space, neither dared to fight without restraint, resulting in an oddly intimate close-quarters battle.

In close combat, Lenix’s magic might not be effective. Moreover, the dryad had no time to draw ambient magic, forced to rely on pre-summoned weapons. Kaelan, however, possessed innate corrupt magic, and with her enhanced physique, held an absolute advantage at close range.

Had Lenix understood Kaelan better, she would never have engaged. Once this battle began, the dryad’s defeat was sealed.

“Mere longevity is useless, Granny Ancient Tree.”

“Wh—?!”

The young witch spun her body sideways against Lenix’s chest, her right arm circling the dryad’s torso. Her fingertips lightly brushed Lenix’s wrist, and the dryad’s wrist snapped with a crunch, as if crushed by a carriage wheel.

Lenix’s wrist dangled uselessly. Immediately after, her other arm twisted 180 degrees in the opposite direction, and her knee cracked with a sharp snap, causing her entire body to fall stiffly to her knees.

“You only outsmarted me once with a trick, nothing more.”

Kaelan raised her leg, pressing it against the dryad’s shoulder, gently treading her to the ground.

“This time, I win.”

“Hmph, do you…?”

Despite multiple bone fractures, Lenix remained silent, her expression unchanged, as if her body felt no pain.

“Kaelan, you truly are adorably foolish. You destroyed one of my bodies, and you call such a trivial matter a victory?”

It wasn’t surprising that Lenix scoffed. For an ancient dryad, a body was not crucial. They often crafted multiple spare bodies from magical materials, prioritizing these ‘stand-ins’ for everyday use, much like avatars. Losing one would not affect the true self.

However, Kaelan declaring her victory implied she truly had a way to subdue Lenix.

She retrieved her amethyst necklace from within her clothes and gently placed it around her neck. Then, she leaned down, pressing herself against Lenix on the ground.

Though it was a stand-in body, the soul within it belonged to the true self! Whether called a soul or consciousness, there was only one unique essence. There was no such thing as ‘split minds’ or ‘split souls’ in this world.

“Don’t struggle, you can’t escape…”

Seeing Kaelan’s posture, Lenix knew something was wrong. She instantly panicked, struggling to rise: “Mph, mph mph mph—”

Kaelan covered Lenix’s mouth with one hand and fiercely gripped her neck with the other, her expression growing increasingly excited as she felt the dryad’s frantic struggles.

“Don’t mph… don’t mph mph mph… please mph mph ugh… cough… How can you have this mph mph mph—!!”

The amethyst necklace trembled faintly, a shimmering, hazy glow flowing across its surface. Simultaneously, Lenix’s eyes dimmed, her pupils began to dilate, and the force of her struggles gradually weakened until she became completely rigid and unresponsive.

“This is… Granny Ancient Tree’s last gift to me, specially made to protect my dryad sisters, you see~”

The dryad’s husk lay motionless on the ground, and for a long time, it was not teleported into the graveyard.

The surrounding enemies instantly erupted into chaos.

“Oh, Lenix just fainted?”

Kaelan’s tone was deliberately innocent as she turned to Lucius in the adjacent grid. She raised a finger to her lips, a captivating smile curving her mouth.

“Lucius, you’re next…”