rose nursery rhyme

There was silence in the clearing.

Crossel's expression was hard to describe in words.

Standing in the open space in front of him were all his clansmen with faces he was familiar with, but they were bound by his own mother tree.

Although I still don't know what happened, but just by looking at it, I can tell that what is waiting for these elves must not be a good thing.

Crossel couldn't think of anything, and the elf's already clear white complexion became even paler. He ignored the two guests brought by him, kicked his legs, and rushed forward. The motionless elf passed through the middle and rushed to the bottom of the tree of life.

The air around the tree of life seemed to freeze.

There should have been a constant wind in the forest, blowing the leaves and making rustling noises, but the closer Crossel was to the tree, the more he could notice the solidification and stagnation of the surrounding elements.

Trembling, he put his palms and forehead on the rough bark, and began to try to communicate with the tree of life.

He prayed devoutly, hoping that the mother tree could hear his voice.

Xidi didn't care so much, the boy lowered his head and kicked the root of the elf's ankle, but found that he couldn't kick it. After thinking about it, he turned his head and asked Bryce: "Do you have a knife?"

Bryce got into a commotion a while ago, and conveniently smashed Xidi's second scythe into a scrap of iron. The child hadn't held a handy tool for a long time, and now he wanted to use it, so he had to go back and follow him temporarily. People beg.

Bryce knew what he wanted to do at a glance, and he took out a black dagger out of nowhere, held the tip of the dagger himself, and handed it to Sidi.

The dagger is very light, the blade is as thin as a sheet of paper, the whole knife is pure black, it is obviously metal, but there is no luster on it.

Even the sunlight seems to be absorbed directly by it.

Xi Di liked it: "Send me?"

Brace: "If you like it, it's yours."

Xidi rubbed the handle of the knife with his fingertips, without saying anything, he pressed the tip of his tongue against the tiger's teeth, and slashed down the dagger vigorously.

The tip of the knife fell on the root of the tree of life, and immediately cut a deep hole in the root.

Xi Di gave a small 'tsk' sound, and lightly bit the tip of her tongue.

He originally wanted to cut off the root of the tree directly, but unfortunately, it looked like an ordinary plant, but it was so hard that it was so hard. With his great strength, he couldn't break it off.

Black sap dripped from wounds in the roots.

The juice was thick, sticky, and had no smell, but when it dripped on the ground, all the grass and leaves it touched instantly withered and turned yellow.

ominous stuff.

Xi Di tried to touch it, but before his fingertips touched the pool of black liquid, his wrist was grabbed, making it difficult to reach out.

Brice took the child's arm and lifted him up directly.

Xidi twisted a few times unhappily: "I'll just touch it..."

Just a touch, what can I do?

Bryce took Sidi's other hand that was dangling with the dagger again: "Look."

He pointed to the ground.

Sidi looked in the direction he pointed.

The root that was cut off by him was slowly wriggling.

Like a living creature with thoughts, the tree roots that entangled the elf rolled painfully after being injured, not only did not shrink into the soil, but emerged a little more, and plunged itself deeply into the elf's legs.

A small bag bulged on the flesh of the elf's calf, and the tree roots that got in were slowly wriggling under it, like some kind of worm from the ground.

More and more black sap flowed out of that wound, they surged and covered the gap in the tree root, and it didn't take long to completely restore it to its previous appearance.

Only the elf who was entangled by the roots, her face became more and more gray. She trembled unconsciously, but she still couldn't open her eyes.

Sidi: "What is it doing?"

Bryce: "She's sucking the life out of these elves."

He was referring to the tree of life.

The two looked at the tree of life that had caused all the turmoil.

Although standing together, it looks magnificent, but the elves standing in the clearing are not all.

There are also spirits sitting on the branches of the tree of life.

The number of elves on the tree is much less than that standing, but their hair color is light-this is the characteristic of elves, the lighter the hair color, the higher the natural affinity, and the stronger their power.

The elves sitting on the mother tree are, without exception, the most powerful elves among the elves.

They also closed their eyes, lowered their heads, faced the direction of the three of them, and sat motionless on the branches.

Xidi raised her head and stared at it for a second, then suddenly asked, "Did you see it?"

Bruce: "What do you mean?"

Sheedy: "They're merging."

The child has good eyesight, and can tell at a glance that the elves are not just sitting motionless on the tree, and occasionally some slender shapes will appear in the gap behind them, but they just pass by and cannot be seen clearly.

That's the same thing that entangles the elves on the ground.

On the back that few people can see, the backs of the elves are covered with such roots.

Not only that, starting from the bottom, the legs of some elves have been gradually covered with a transparent shell, like amber that seals people inside.

The picture is weird, but beautiful and breathtaking.

Both Xidi and Bryce came to the Forest of Elves for the first time, but they had all heard the legends of the elves.

They all know how elves are born. When an elf returns to the mother tree and turns into a leaf, another elf will be born. The mother tree is responsible for all these operations and will bear transparent fetal fruit.

The current appearance of those elves is exactly the same as the legendary fetal fruit.

The tree of life... what do you want to turn these elves into?

Crossel was still praying desperately. He closed his eyes to feel the voice coming from the tree trunk, used his fingers to guide the elements to draw runes on the bark, and softly called the name of the mother tree over and over again.

——what happened?What happened here?Why did elves become like this?

Dear mother tree Anthea, what exactly do you want?

The tree of life never responded.

Bryce stood by Crossel's side and waited for a while.

The voice of the elf priest gradually became mournful. He had tried all the spells that might be able to awaken the Mother Tree, and prayed for her coming, but nothing, nothing happened.

All he could hear was the thick and slow flow of liquid in the middle of the tree trunk.

After a while, Bryce finally interrupted him: "Your Excellency Crossel."

Crossel didn't move, his forehead was pressed against the tree trunk, and he slowly opened his eyes to look at him without saying anything.

This is no longer something that one or two outsiders can solve.

The elf priest is more familiar with the tree of life than anyone else. Xidi and Bryce analyzed the matter for a long time, and he saw it at first sight.

It's not that something happened to the elf itself, it's not that outsiders invaded, it's the mother tree... it's the mother tree itself, which is depriving the elves of their consciousness.

It was originally given by her, and it is not difficult to take it back now.

...has the mother tree abandoned them?

The person he brought back may really be a great magician. He may be able to cast earth-shattering magic, and he may bring rotten bones back to life, but no matter what his abilities are, if even the priest cannot get the memory of the mother tree, then Certainly not the magician.

Who can save the elves?It's impossible for anyone.

The elf's divination can't go wrong, and the elf's dream is a silent omen, but divination and dreaming didn't improve the situation, on the contrary, it kept him away from his helpless clansmen, and now he doesn't even know what happened.

Perhaps leaving the elves was a mistake from the beginning.

Brice called him again: "Your Excellency Crossel?"

Crossel: "... let's go."

He straightened up slowly, his eyes lowered: "I'll open the door."

There are runes in the forest of life, and the portal can be opened at will. The elf draws a bow and sets an arrow, without looking at it, just wants to open a door in the open space next to it.

Brace held his bow politely: "Please wait a moment."

Crossel didn't have the slightest look in his eyes, and looked at him silently.

As an elf, outsiders couldn't understand the importance of the tree of life to them. Now he was single-mindedly convinced that he had been abandoned by the mother tree, and his heart was full of despair.

The boundless sense of suffocation overwhelmed him, making him ignore some other details.

For example, why do the leaves of the mother tree wither, and where does the black trunk on that side come from.

Brace: "Don't you want to know what's going on here?"

Crossel didn't want to, but he didn't believe that Bryce and Xidi knew what was going on.

Xidi understood it a long time ago, and the boy pretended not to see Crossel's collapse, and wandered around to the other side of the tree of life.

The root part of the tree over there was pitch black, the bark was dry and cracked, and fell to the ground, revealing the trunk inside, which was also black.

Sidi picked up a bit of flaking black bark, held it up and asked Brace, "Is this a shadow?"

It has the same scent as the shadow-infested vine.

Bryce: "Yes, plants are living creatures that are full of vitality on the mainland but have no resistance. They are most suitable for being attacked by shadows."

If the shadow wants to absorb the vitality of people or animals, it must find ways to weaken them—for example, triggering a great plague—but if the target is a plant, it can just invade directly, without trouble at all.

It's just that the energy that a single plant can supply is too scarce, and large-scale invasion will not yield much. The gain outweighs the loss, so plants are generally affected by shadows incidentally.

The elves are in a special situation. Everyone's life comes from the same mother tree. Controlling the tree of life is equivalent to controlling the entire elves.

They also know this, so they have kept their hometown well hidden for so many years.

If it is true that the shadow somehow entered the forest of life...

Then its first goal must be the tree of life.

Crossel blinked slowly, gradually understanding the meaning of what Bryce and Xidi said.

"Do you know what's going on?" He looked at Bryce suddenly, and raised his voice without grace at all, "You just said shadow? What is shadow?"

"Please relax a little bit." The elf priest looked as if he was going to eat Bryce's whole body, Bryce raised his hands and took a step back, "If I'm not wrong, then your clansmen should temporarily There is not much danger—you calm down first, and we will explain to you slowly."

Crossel let out a long breath: "...Okay, tell me."

The author says:

……

In other words, the abyss, the thorny rose, the shadow, etc. are actually the background. Although it is done, it may not be fully explained until the end.

You can freely make up your mind, whatever you think, you can be (.