Game Transmigration: Saving the World Again 1000 Years Later

247 Holy Communion (2)

The Wild Hunts were on the hunt, sent out to capture a notorious anti-imperialist who had fled to Holy Tree City. This gave William a peek into the Holy Tree Duke’s stance on this situation.

A faction of the empire…

But who was this so-called “anti-imperialist?”

William himself could be considered one, and even with the prefix “greatest,” he didn’t believe that the other party was after him.

It was a joke to think that he’d be targeted the moment he arrived in Holy Tree City. It could only mean that the empire’s spies had infiltrated his faction.

But then he remembered the place where the green light had emitted—it was the same spot where he had left Nizemar to wait for him.

William turned his head, watching as the Wild Hunts disappeared into the distance. A flicker of unease crossed his mind, but it quickly dissipated.

He had instructed Nizemar to wait there quietly for his return, equipping her with powerful equipment and a Holy Spirit figurine for protection. And with the Demon Sealing Runes he had given her, she could use them as a teleportation beacon. William believed that few things in this city could harm his experienced former parishioner.

And if something did, she could always call for his help.

William had no intention of deviating from his original plan.

“Can I proceed now? I want to visit the temple of the Holy Tree Matriarch.”

William and the guard continued their conversation.

The guard sized up William and said, “Yes, sir, but please fill out your name on this registration form.”

“Is there a problem? I almost got into a fight with the Holy Tree Duke’s left and right-hand men,” William said, taking the pen and looking worried.

“No problem at all. You’re going to the Matriarch’s temple. Even the Duke has no right or authority to stop any pilgrim who wishes to pay their respects to the Matriarch,” the guard explained.

“Really? Even though the title has changed, isn’t the Holy Tree Duke still the Father of the Wilderness, in a divine union with the Matriarch? Surely he has the authority, right?” William asked as he signed an alias on the register.

The guard was taken aback.

“What Father of the Wild? The Holy Tree Duke is a woman.”

“What?”

…

Just minutes ago, Nizemar had been trailing the two shady characters down the main path, leading her to the Canopy Temple’s door.

She hesitated for a moment before following them inside.

The Canopy Temple was a sacred altar at the top of every subtree over 500 years old. It was not only the resting place for the tree spirit of the subtree, but also where the Forest Elves performed their most important daily ritual.

These Forest Elves were a branch of High Elves who had left Ava State during the Great Migration Era. According to human calendars, they arrived in Ravenwood during the Silver Age. They had helped the World Tree dispel the curse of the Lady of Starvation and chase away the Moon Realm worship church that had taken root there. However, in the process, they exhausted the blessings of their Phoenix Holy Fire.

In return, the will of the World Tree, known as the Matriarch, struck a deal with the High Elves. She blessed their bodies and souls once again and granted them the power of this holy forest.

And thus, the Forest Elves were born.

The Matriarch’s contract promised eternal life to the Forest Elves, but not in the normal sense of the word. As they aged, they would slowly “treeify”—their hair sprouted leaves, roots grew beneath their feet, and their skin hardened into bark, slowing their movements.

Eventually, they would become trees permanently. In Ravenwood, a third of the forest was made up of these tree-like elves.

Since one in three trees in Ravenwood might be a fellow kin living in another way, it wasn’t surprising that the Forest Elves took the protection of their forest seriously.

In Ravenwood, using wood for crafting or tools was strictly prohibited, viewed with the same severity as murder. And the use of fire, whether from a match or magic, was a felony.

This led to unique and inventive methods of crafting among the Forest Elves. Hunting bows and arrows were made from animal bones, homes were carved from tree trunks grown by the Matriarch’s power, and furniture was crafted from stone or imported metal.

Other than using only the fruits and meats that fell naturally from the trees, survival meant hunting for food. But with fire banned, they had to rely on raw meat, eaten with fruit juice or tree sap. And while they had mastered the art of drying and curing meats for the winter, the food they ate was essentially raw.

It’s no surprise that the Forest Elves were often perceived as primitive and savage by other races.

Their most crucial duty, as part of their contract with the Matriarch, was to keep the Moon Realm Void Sovereign, Lady of Starvation Camilla, at bay.

The Matriarch, revered as the beginning of life in Currere, was said to be the first being to exist in this world.

And as the embodiment of life, it needed to survive and reproduce.

Camilla, the Lady of Starvation, symbolized the erosion of the cycle of life.

No matter how perfect the cycle may seem, there was always energy wasted in the form of corruption—life’s entropy.

To combat this, the Forest Elves have made a pact with the Matriarch to eliminate all decomposition in the forest.

The only way to minimize Camilla’s strength was by consuming all dead things and turning them into new life force in this place where life force pulsed through the air, without giving agents of rot any chance to breed.

After walking into the Canopy Temple and seeing what was being done in the middle of the temple, Nizemar recalled what Lord William had explained to her on the way here about the Forest Elf’s customs.

“Those who die must be consumed while their vitality remains—it’s their cultural tradition.”

“Since the Forest Elves can’t use fire… they are left with no choice but to feast on the corpses of their friends and family who had died in accidents.”

This was what the Presiding Judge had told her.

And now, as she stood in the middle of the temple, Nizemar watched a male Forest Elf weep as he ate the warm corpse of a young female Forest Elf.

His wife, the mother of his children.