Chapter 453: It’s Not What You Think It Is
They didn’t stop once they started moving. Behind Queen Sylvia, a dozen of her attendant guards fell into step as an escort, keeping pace with their Queen.
As for Laz, he was ignored by all of them, something he didn’t mind.
Out of the back of the palace, down some stairs, across several open courtyards and along miles of roads they walked until they finally came upon a massive archway of a gate, formed out of roots of the massive mother tree.
There were more attendants waiting for them, dressed in their almost transparent attire with veils covering their faces. But there were also more of the white dressed, bare legged ones with white masks upon with a silver tree rested.
Seeing this, Laz couldn’t help but think that there was more faction play going on than he originally thought. Not that it mattered to him as it was clear he had already thrown his lot in with the queen. Still, Laz had the pressing feeling that he needed to keep up his guard in situations like this.
Besides the two sides, there was also a group of old elves gathered around as well, both men and women. Looking over at them, Laz wondered at just who they were, but thought better about asking that question. After all, he was only here as a visitor and due to that, his job was to wait until he was called for.
"Considering your duty is to see to the needs of the mother tree, I fail to see how this is lacking of your own faults?" Laz heard Sylvia say in a rather accusing tone.
"We are able to take care of the needs of the mother and prevent any danger that might come upon her. However when outsiders are invited into this scared home with maliciousness in their hearts, we can not always predict and therefore stop their nefarious schemes. It would have been most prudent of you to have eliminated them the moment they set foot onto our territory as opposed to just inviting them in to question them," Ivana shot back without delay, almost as though she was expecting this outburst from the queen. Her tone was light and didn’t contain a hint of placing blame, instead she made it sound like she was advising someone who didn’t know any better.
Sylvia, despite her long years of dealing with these types of politics, felt her fist clench as she tried her hardest to not hit this woman standing before her.
"Come now. We all want what is best for our people and for the mother tree. While there can be discussion afterwards about right and wrong, for the moment we should focus on the task at hand," one of the elders spoke up.
Laz had heard all of this and while her words seemed to be neutral, there was a hint of malice in them as well.
While Laz watched on, several of the older male elves nodded their head in agreement with the statement made, showing Laz a clear sign of how many of these elders had already been bought and paid for.
Laz could understand just why Sylvia had a hard time keeping her cool considering if he had seen it, she must of as well.
"Then so be it. I shall call over the leader of the humans and see just what he has to say about this. You there. Come here!" Sylvia ordered, although Laz noticed a slight pang of guilt in her eyes as she did so. She had to maintain the front since the parties before them were obviously enemies.
Laz approached and looked at each of the gathered ones in turn. At first the audacity of his actions angered them and several of the old elves almost said something. But once Laz’s eyes met theirs, they closed their mouths and swallow their thoughts.
Laz gaze wasn’t something a normal person could take and although they had lived a long time, it had been many years of unending piece. Perhaps they had been sharp blades in their youth, but time had dulled that edge and they were paying it now.
In the end, the only one who could withstand his glare was Ivana and her kin, showing that there was far more to them than the show they put on in front of the archway.
"An animal is simply an animal in the end," Ivana said, seeing Laz glare at everyone and thinking he was stupid or something.
"And I would bet your mask hides one hell of an ugly face to match your personality," Laz commented back while smoothing out his suit.
"YOU LITTLE WORM..." Ivana had never been talked to like this before in her life and for it to be directed at her from some lowly human made her doubly mad. The only reason she didn’t attack was because of the plan and getting into a scuffle would adversely effect that.
Even Laz had to admit she held her temper well so far.
"He speaks our language?" One of the other elders commented after hearing Laz insult Ivana.
"I do. Something I have picked up since being here," Laz replied back even though he wasn’t being spoken to.
"ENOUGH. Come and tell me what you think of this," Sylvia said, beckoning Laz before he got himself in any more trouble. It was clear to her that Laz wasn’t just going to let them say whatever they wanted.
:Just keep yourself in check, please? It would make things difficult if for some reason they decide to lock you up somewhere,: Sylvia said via her spiritual sense to Laz.
While Laz didn’t respond back, he nodded his head just enough so that she knew he understood her.
On the roots at the base of the arch, there were black patches growing at an alarming rate. Even with Laz’s naked eye, he could see the black specks swirling around, splitting into two and then combining together again in an endless dance.
Behind him, while Laz observed the happenings of this rot, the elders and Ivana had started arguing about how ’he will probably fail since this was his whole plan to begin with.’
Laz didn’t pay them any mind and instead, blinked his eyes a few times until they shown with a brilliant golden light.
Looking at those moving black spots was enough for him to understand just what this wasn’t.
"Well?" The Queen asked, obviously getting annoyed by this constant back and forth.
"Well... this isn’t what you think it is," Laz said, still hunched over a root. While there were many places around the arch that had these black patches, this one just happened to be the closest to him.
"And what do you mean by that?" Ivana asked with annoyance in her voice.
"This isn’t rot. Nor is there anything wrong with the tree itself," Laz said, still studying the patches.
He wasn’t sure what he was looking at even with Heaven’s Gaze, so Laz was trying his hardest to push his energy into his eyes without going all out. He didn’t want his energy to leak out and cause trouble with the gathered group.
"Then what is it boy?" Asked the female elder, the one who tried to separate Ivana and Sylvia earlier.
"Please step back a moment. I need to put more energy into this," Laz said and without waiting for them to answer or to see if they actually took a step back, Laz’s blood boiled as he entered his full Asura mode. With his body in this form, he could use Heaven’s Gaze much easier as it was designed to work with this body more fully.
Now that Laz had done this, he was able to get a close look at the black, moving spots on the tree and discovered that they were, in fact, microscopic beetles.
"That’s... wow...."
Laz then turned around to address those who had gathered, only to find that Ivana and Sylvia were no longer close to him and instead, he was staring down the business ends of swords, knives and spears, all aimed directly at him.
Once he had taken on this form, everyone else besides Sylvia had felt threatened and as such her attendants and Ivana’s people had suddenly rushed forward to confront him.
Had his back not been to them as he leaned over the massive wooden root, they wouldn’t have held back in the slightest.
Now seeing these weapons pointed at him, Laz could only chuckle to himself in amusement.
’And to think I was actually trying to be on guard,’ Laz though, mentally slapping himself from getting so engrossed in the tiny creatures.
"To think you would dare raise a weapon at"
"Do you want to know what it is or do you want to keep with this little act you seem to be putting on by yourself?" Laz said, interrupting Ivana.
Ivana’s twitching hand told Laz that he had hit the nail on the head.
"Please tell us what you found," said one of the other, actually neutral elders.
"Although I don’t know anything about them the black patches are actually beetles. Little, tiny, almost smaller than the eye can see insects. In fact, in just this palm sized bit right here," Laz said, pointing to the cluster he had been observing,
"There are several hundreds of thousands of them," Laz finished his statement.
"Beetles? You are sure they are insects?" Sylvia asked, her mind racing.,
"Yes. Although I don’t know what you would call them, that’s what they look like. As for what they are doing? Well.." Laz was about to say, but trailed off.
"What boy! Spit it out," Ivana said, just this side of losing it.
"Well... they are actually eating the tree. With their rate of reproduction that I have seen combined with the massive area of your mother tree... I would give it about two to three years before they eat the whole thing. Of course, that just if they continue to grow... and expand..."
Laz noticed every single eye on the clump of beetles he had just pointed out as no one listened to him. Their faces were pale and their breathes sounded short and ragged, as though someone else was forcing air into them.
"What?" Laz said, turning to the queen with his question.
Sylvia didn’t answer. Instead, she muttered two words.
"The Prophecy."
