"My guests, are you looking for me?" Seeing that Heidi and Katrina were coming to her, Nodanielle pointed at herself in confusion.
Heidi said with a friendly smile, "Nodanielle, your speech on the balance of nature just now was truly marvelous and interesting!"
She sensed that Nodanielle was relatively cheerful, so she greeted her as if they were old friends instead of addressing her as a lady.
Hearing Heidi's sincere and straightforward compliment, Nodanielle was immediately shy. She waved her hands uneasily and said, "I'm merely sorting out the ideas that the elders usually expound."
"My name is Heidi, and this is my companion, Katrina. I'm glad to meet you as soon as I can in the forest." Heidi was even more enthusiastic.
She was not as introverted as Annick at all. She introduced them to Nodanielle generously.
Nodanielle's slight nervousness was soon gone when she was with such a talkative and unstressful guest, and the conversation became more natural.
After chatting for a while, Heidi asked frankly, "Well, we are here to investigate the demonization of a few elves at the request of Her Majesty. We have some questions about Cuisi."
After a brief silence, Nodanielle said gloomily, "Heidi, Katrina, feel free to ask me any questions you have. I hope that you can find the source of the corruption and help Cuisi and the rest of them recover. Even if they can't be recovered, they should not be tortured like that anymore."
"Did Cuisi have any anomalies before his corruption?" Katrina asked according to the standard questions that Jurisian, Felipe and the rest of them had discussed.
Nodanielle was a sun elf with fair skin and brilliant blond hair. She looked rather noble under the sunlight, but there was not the slightest smile on her face. She recalled and said, "At least for me, nothing too weird happened in my life before that. My companions hunted, picked fruits, and looked for the places where the balance in the forest might be broken. Then, we perceived nature, grasped theurgy, choreographed dances, sang songs, and read the classics after the Age of Mythology …"
Everything was so peaceful and leisurely, as if such a beautiful life would never be disrupted. However, "The other morning, I suddenly noticed that the magic stripes on Cuisi's skin changed. They were full of hatred and killing … Everything was fine yesterday. We danced the special dance that he just learned and said good night to each other."
"A special dance?" Heidi recorded Nodanielle's answer on her magic notebook, paying subconsciously attention to the dance that was described as "special".
Nodanielle nodded slightly. "She said that Ms. Martha taught her. Shall I show you?"
Heidi and Katrina answered at the same time, half-curious and half-inquisitive, "Okay!"
NoDaniel stepped back and danced very rhythmically without musical accompaniment.
Many of the movements in this dance were quite strange and almost violated normal physiological conditions. It was only because the elves' bodies were soft and flexible that they could barely do it.
"Although the movements are strange and difficult, I have to say that this dance is really beautiful …" Heidi moved her left hand and legs, and she had the urge to join in the dance. However, she quickly patted her face in annoyance. She was considering if she should concoct a bottle of potion to stimulate her bloodline when she got back. Otherwise, it would be impossible for her to learn this dance.
Patting Nodanielle's rhythm, Katrina secretly said in the telepathic bond, "This dance belongs to the ritual category. It gives me a weird feeling. Pay attention to it when you summarize the intelligence tonight."
During the dance, Nodanielle seemed to recall her friends and gradually emitted a sense of sorrow. It was not until a long time later that she was back to herself. She asked in a low voice, "Is this dance alright?"
"There are no magic waves, no scent of divine power, and no eavesdropping, but it doesn't mean that it is alright. You'd better not dance again until the matter is investigated." Heidi liked her new elven friend very much and specially reminded her.
After Nodanielle nodded in agreement, Katrina continued asking, "Did Cuisi's mood change a few days before his fall? Or did his ideas change?"
Nodanielle thought carefully and said, "She was somewhat frustrated because the growth of her magic patterns was slow and she did not have any substantial breakthroughs. So, she said to me very seriously that she wanted to become a druid and learn nature's divine power so that she could play a greater role in maintaining the balance of nature."
Play a greater role in maintaining the balance of nature … Frowning, Heidi remembered what Nodanielle said and asked casually, "Are you a druid?"
"Yes. I've just become a Nature's Guardian, or a middle-rank druid in your eyes." Nodanielle was rather proud of her identity as a 'Nature's Guardian'. The gloominess on her face was mostly gone.
Unlike human beings, the elves did not divide their ranks into low, middle, high, one, two, three, and so on. However, their ranks were similar. "Nature's Guard" was a druid apprentice, "Nature's Friend" was a junior druid, "Nature's Guardian" was an intermediate druid, and "Staff Bearer" was an advanced druid (including level nine).
Heidi was quite interested in the class of druids, so she learned more about it.
"… Every elf can sense the grace of nature, so we can become Nature's Guardian without any hindrance. Then, we need to sublimate our understanding of nature into our own beliefs and implement them in our daily actions. As our beliefs are melted with nature, we will form 'Nature's Heart' that is similar to your cognitive world. It is named after the core of the elvish tree and the foundation to perform the official divine power …" Nodanielle did not keep it a secret.
The three of them chatted for a long time before they separated.
In the evening, Heidi and Katrina returned to the treehouse with their notebooks that were full of their findings. They summarized their intelligence with Jurisian, Felipe, Annick, Sprint, and the rest of them.
"Special dance … Lady Martha …" Jurisian mumbled the two terms. "More than seventy percent of the fallen are related to the special dance. Thirty percent learned it from Lady Martha. There's no telling where the rest learned it from …"
Felipe said in a low voice, "It's probably a custom of the elves. They love dancing very much."
"In any case, let's meet that Lady Martha tomorrow," said Jurisian.
At this moment, Annick said in embarrassment and solemnness, "Is it possible that it's a dance similar to 'Viken's Special Summoning Ritual'? There's nothing strange on the surface, but the ideas or feelings that are inculcated and formed during the learning process?"
Having just cracked such a case, Heidi was very sensitive about it. She nodded solemnly. "It's possible. Nature's Abhorrence. I remember that one of the primeval devils is named 'Abhorrence'!"
"The problem is that eighty percent of the corrupted elves are Nature's Balance, and some of the remaining twenty percent are still wavering between the two parties. Few elves of the real Nature's Abhorrence are corrupted. Otherwise, the Elven Court would've sensed something wrong a long time ago …" Looking at the data before him, Jurisian rubbed his forehead.
… …
After Lucien, Natasha, and Atlant examined Nature's Heart, they went to the prison under the lead of Malfurion and Lankshear, trying to find clues from the fallen elves.
The "prison" of the elves was still a hut made of tree trunks, but this part of the tree trunks was iron-gray and as hard as steel. This was because the tree itself was special, and also because it was enchanted with nature spells.
Lankshear asked the two elves who guarded the prison to open the gate. Miserable and terrifying howls immediately came out of the prison, like the howls of the beasts in the forest at night.
The two elves, however, put on a sorrowful expression. It was their companions inside, not beasts!
Lucien, Natasha, and Atlant stood outside of a prison cell and looked at the fallen elf inside through the gaps of the trees.
It was a beautiful elven girl, but her magic stripes had spread from her neck and arms to her entire body. Her face and her hands seemed to have been painted with creepy abstract paintings. Also, unlike the green of the common elves' magic stripes, hers was dark green with hints of blood, making it extremely hideous.
"They look like the patterns on the back of the human-faced spider …" Natasha said in the telepathic bond.
It was true that the elves' magic stripes and skin showed signs of spider transformation!
"I'm going to kill you!"
"For a green and peaceful world!"
"All intelligent lives must die!"
The fallen elven girl lunged to the gap of the tree trunk and stared at Lucien and the rest of them with bulging eyes. Her pupils were no longer lively but filled with the deep sense of brutality and destruction, with a cluster of frozen redness at the center. In the meantime, she opened her mouth and bit the tree trunk with her teeth, as if she could only attack in such a primitive way when she could not use any spells or talent abilities.
The two rows of teeth that were originally neat and white now resembled eerie white bones.
"She's from the Balance of Nature …" Malfurion introduced the elven girl to Lucien and the rest of them.
Lucien and Atlant had seen too many horrifying scenes to count. Unaffected by such a scene, they each examined the elven girl's condition with magic.
As time went by, Lucien suppressed the elven girl's corruption and said, "I'm pretty sure that it has something to do with the elven tree's corruption, but I don't know if it's the cause or the result. Also, the prophecy only tells me that all the fallen elves have something in common under the surface. That's the key."
"I'll ask Iristine and the rest of them to cooperate with the sorcerers' investigation. Would you like to go to the abyssal gap with me and take a look first?" Lankshear proposed.
Lucien nodded without any objection.
At this moment, because her corruption was suppressed by Lucien, the elven girl's eyes suddenly became clearer. She held her head in pain and cried, "Why is it like this?"
"Why is it like this?"
Green light spread out of her body, and a vague sense of tranquility flowed out.
Lucien changed his expression and was about to stop her, but Malfurion heaved a sigh. "She's in so much pain. Just let her be free. There are other fallen elves we can investigate …"
The elven girl hummed a beautiful melody.
"Every elf is a tree. We come from nature and return to nature …
"We are born from love and union. We return in peace and serenity. We sing for the forest. We rejoice in life …"
As the hollow song spread out, the green light on her body became more and more intense. Then, Malfurion opened the door of the prison cell.
The elven girl stepped out as if she were dancing. She bowed deeply to Lucien, Natasha and Atlant.
"Every elf is a tree. We take root in the earth and breathe the sky …
"We guard nature and maintain the balance …"
She struggled to fly out. Enshrouded in the green light, she slowly landed on the ground. At this moment, the two guards' eyes were already red.
"Every elf is a tree …"
The song was lower and lower, but it echoed in the forest. The green light was gone, and a tall and beautiful tree appeared in the forest.
Every elf would turn into a tree after they died. That was why they loved green so much.
Seeing that, Natasha clenched her right fist and said to herself, "We must find out the cause of the corruption!"
Lucien closed his eyes and said to Lankshear, "Let's go to the abyssal gap and take a look."
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