I reincarnated as an elf .......and married the yandere villainess.

Chapter 274: 274:Core.

The argument over who had technically killed it lasted another ten minutes. Prince Lucifer insisted his hammer strikes had done most of the work, and Atheline insisted that removing a creature’s brain generally counted as the killing blow.

Simion attempted to act as referee. That had been his first mistake, both immediately turned on him and demanded judgment.

His second mistake was trying to be fair. Eventually, he declared it a shared kill and neither accepted the verdict. The argument continued while they harvested materials from the beast.

By the time they finally moved on, the sun had already begun descending toward the western mountains far into the horizon.

The forest darkened considerably as shadows lengthened around them. The cold intensified, yet none of them felt inclined to return.

Strong beasts still lurked deeper inside since the beast swarm had not fully dispersed.

Prince Lucifer rested his hammer across one shoulder, Simion walked slightly behind and Atheline remained ahead. Occasionally firing arrows at unfortunate beasts that appeared from the trees.

A corrupted wolf leapt from a rocky ledge. An arrow pierced its eye before its paws touched the ground, its body rolled through the snow.

Prince Lucifer glanced at it.

"What number is that?"

Atheline shrugged. "I lost a few hours ago."

Prince Lucifer chuckled to himself. "This is proving to be better than I thought it would."

Atheline nodded. " You’re not so bad yourself... with your mouth shut, that is."

The forest gradually became quieter, the heavy kind. The further they traveled, the fewer ordinary beasts appeared. They hadn’t seen another beast in over an hour.

Simion eventually frowned.

"We’ve crossed most of the restricted boundary."

Prince Lucifer shrugged.

"So?"

Simion looked horrified.

"So?"

Prince Lucifer nodded.

"Yes."

Simion pointed at the forest.

"There is a reason why this is called the forbidden forest, your highness."

Prince Lucifer looked around but nothing immediately tried to kill them.

"So far it’s disappointing."

Simion considered abandoning both of them and returning to civilization. Unfortunately, curiosity kept winning.

Atheline smiled.

"I’ve been deeper... but it does seem to have lost its infamous edge. Do you think something must have happened to cause this?"

Simion shook his head, his eyes sweeping around them.

"That is true, people have started to enter it although it still holds the record with the most deaths on the continent. It feels as though something was removed from the forest and it lost its edge," he explained.

Atheline nodded along. He had taken something from the forest and Caius had also taken a sword from the forest.

"I didn’t know that."

Simion nodded. "It’s expected, the news is only travelling between villages. I just hope it’s not another brewing problem, we already have enough of those."

Atheline couldn’t help but laugh. But he also couldn’t stop thinking about his connection to the forest and the increasingly uncomfortable feeling that he still didn’t understand the true nature of his power.

His fingers unconsciously brushed against his chest, against the place where his core rested. The multi-elemental core, something that should not exist had completely changed his life.

The thought always lingered, refusing to leave. Even now, it had become more prominent.

Eventually, Atheline slowed and then stopped. Prince Lucifer immediately noticed and Simion did as well.

"What is it?"

Atheline looked ahead, past the trees and snow, toward a direction only he seemed interested in.

He smiled at the two, a pleasant and polite smile.

"You two keep hunting."

Prince Lucifer narrowed his eyes.

"Why?"

Atheline shrugged and responded nonchalantly.

"I want to check something."

Both Simion and Prince Lucifer looked suspicious. Atheline instantly realized how that sounded but the truth sounded even worse.

"I know exactly where I’m going, I won’t kill myself."

Silence filled the air between them. Prince Lucifer folded his arms.

"Alone?"

Atheline nodded. Simion immediately panicked.

"No your majesty, what if you meet the forest lord? What if you get hurt while in the forest? This is too reckless..."

Atheline interrupted him before he blew things out of proportion.

"I’ll be back in an hour."

Prince Lucifer looked unconvinced. Atheline sighed.

"Two hours maximum. "

The prince nodded. That was a more acceptable time frame. Atheline disappeared into the forest, leaving the other two behind.

Simion watched him vanish between ancient trees, heart in his throat, then looked toward the prince.

"Your highness, should we stop him?"

Prince lucifer thought about it then shook his head.

"He’ll either survive... Or he won’t."

.

.

.

Atheline moved alone through the forest. Snow crunched beneath his boots with each step forward and the sound of beasts gradually stopped completely. The deeper he traveled, the quieter everything became.

The atmosphere had subtly changed and he recognized it immediately. His memory and instincts guided him as he moved through the dark and fog-filled forest.

He had once wandered through this same wilderness, lost, desperate and weak. Back then he had been nothing special, just an elf out of his teenage musing finally stepping into adulthood and responsibility. The contrast felt strange.

Eventually, he crossed an invisible boundary between the dark elven territory and the high elven territory. The forest changed again, the trees grew larger and their roots spread across the earth like living rivers. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

The Aether density in the air increased noticeably. Atheline stopped, then smiled. He felt as though he was being welcomed home, technically.

The border wasn’t marked, nature itself marked it. The World Tree’s influence extended here, even after all this time. The air even felt different, he couldn’t exactly describe it fully.

Atheline continued walking and eventually, he found it. The small clearing caused by his power. This was the place where his life had changed.

He stood silently at the edge, observing the surroundings. Snow covered most of it now and the area itself seemed to have started to recover.

Unless one looked carefully, they would find nothing that showed signs of a fight. Lilith had pretty much easily contained him at that time.

Atheline slowly walked forward. His eyes scanned the area then he laughed quietly. A few steps away, a shallow carving remained upon a nearby stone. It was old, weathered, and barely visible.

He remembered making it, a crude mark. When he noticed he was completely lost in the forest without a sense of direction.

Right now it was simply proof that he had survived and that the entire experience hadn’t been a dream. Atheline crouched beside it. His hand brushed away snow from the mark.

For several minutes he remained silent, just thinking and remembering. Then something caught his attention. It was a small but weak fluctuation that could have easily been ignored.

Atheline frowned. His senses expanded. Residual elemental Aether moved beneath the ground, like an echo. The remains of something long gone.

Atheline closed his eyes and followed it. The sensation led him toward the center of the clearing, to the place where the core had once existed underneath.

He stopped then slowly knelt. His fingers touched the snow. Everything around him seemed to have awakened, Aether flowed and the earth responded. A small fixture expanded just like the first time but gently this time.

A small fragment emerged. It was no larger than a coin. Atheline partially recognized it. It looked like a recording crystal but cracked and nearly destroyed.

Atheline picked it up. The moment he touched it, a foreign memory flashed, something older. He could hear a distant voice, broken and incomplete.

"...Su... Sovereign..."

Atheline froze. The crystal immediately crumbled, turning into dust before the words could be fully formed.

Atheline remained motionless, far longer than he could remember. His heart began beating faster.

Sovereign.

The word echoed inside his mind, again and again. How could he not when he had read about those beings and had dreamt of being one of them? Lilith already had a clear pathway but he himself didn’t have one. He couldn’t choose which element would dominate the others.

Atheline slowly looked down at his hands then inward, toward his core. A dangerous but ridiculous possibility formed, yet increasingly difficult to dismiss.

The multi-elemental core, its absurd growth, limitless compatibility, and impossible nature.

What if it wasn’t simply a special core?

What if it were something much rarer?

Something that should not exist anymore?

The thought lingered. Before his excitement could dominate, Atheline immediately found problems with it, several even.

A Sovereign Core should possess a singular nature; a domain and an authority. Every reference described one fundamental concept. A sovereign could only understand one element, nothing more.

Atheline frowned, perhaps he was wrong. Yet the possibility refused to disappear, especially after hearing that fragment. The word remained, hanging over him, unanswered.

Eventually, he stood, there was no point staying. The answers were gone and only questions remained, which seemed to be a recurring theme lately.

Atheline looked toward the already dark sky then began walking back. The snow continued falling, covering old footprints and burying old memories. Yet one thought remained with him unanswered.

If a sovereign core was truly what rested inside him, then what kind? And why did it possess so many elements?

The questions followed him through the forest, even as the sound of a roaring beast filtered into his ears. Prince Lucifer had found a beast to torment.