Chapter 216

Chapter 216
## Chapter 216

Lycanthropes (1)

Harris, who had unexpectedly found himself at the helm of the scouting squad, managed to thoroughly integrate his passion for slacking off into the mission.

He had completely devolved the burden of travel to the Wind Spirit Pascal, choosing instead to dangle listlessly in midair.

Because of the mental link forged with the entity, directing its trajectory via basic thoughts required almost no exertion.

‘Besides, it serves as decent training for Spirit Summoning.’

The Wind Spirit Pascal remained locked at the Advanced stage.

Since his only entity to reach the Highest-tier was the Lightning Spirit Watt, this presented a perfect training window.

Granted, such a display might seem utterly unbefitting of a High Elf, but comfort reigned supreme, so who cared?

Furthermore, he possessed a perfectly valid justification.

By entering this state and pursuing assimilation with nature, he was actively attempting to tune into the consciousness of the World Tree once more.

After all, that exact pursuit was the official justification for his participation in this reconnaissance effort, was it not?

‘Even if the endeavor has yielded zero fruits so far.’

Ever since that initial occurrence, he had perceived absolutely nothing, to the point where he wondered if the memory was merely a vivid hallucination.

No subsequent revelations had been granted by the World Tree either.

Yet just moments ago, while dedicated to his regiment of intense indolence—or rather, his “Assimilation with Nature”—while suspended above the ground,

He caught the distinct ripple of a minor irregularity tracing the periphery of the vast environmental aura he monitored.

The anomaly was so incredibly minute that had he not been maintaining a state of extreme, hyper-focused immersion, it would have bypassed him entirely.

With the remaining Elves currently dispersed to execute their independent search patterns, he opted to investigate the disturbance solo…

Which ultimately led him straight to the hidden gathering of thirteen Lycanthropes.

The group had congregated around a crudely assembled ritual structure, each bearing a bizarre crimson mark stamped across their chests, their attention locked onto a fracturing void of the abyss tearing open above it.

-Heinz the Second: So those are the Lycanthropes. Rumors suggested their presence within the Ion Continent had plummeted over the past few years. It appears they executed a covert relocation to Enamel.

-Hugo: Hold on, is that actually the abyss? The danger level here is absurd… Isn’t Enamel supposed to be entirely protected because of the World Tree’s influence?

-Harris:… Heavens, this is turning into a massive chore…

During his foundational education as a High Elf, Harris had studied the historical origin of the Enamel Continent.

It was an ancient legend tracing back across millennia.

In the ancient era, every non-human race coexisted alongside humanity within the Ion Continent, until an unspecified crisis forced them to seek a separate sanctuary isolated from mankind.

A compassionate deity, moved by the plight of these displaced populations, sent a divine manifestation down to the mortal realm.

That gift was the original sprout of the World Tree.

That singular, tiny sprout proceeded to expand the modest Enamel Island into a colossal landmass, scaled perfectly to house every single non-human faction.

In due time, distinct civilizations materialized, anchored securely by the Elven Kingdom, which established itself as the guardian of the central World Tree.

‘Which explains why the Elven Kingdom occupies the core territory, and why Elves command such deference from neighboring species.’

Naturally, given that these events transpired thousands of years prior, surviving documentation was sparse. Furthermore, for reasons unknown, even the historical accounts of the High Elves possessed glaring gaps, leaving the absolute historical accuracy open to debate…

Yet the reality of the World Tree and the tangible protection it offered remained undeniable, plain for anyone to observe firsthand.

It was precisely due to the World Tree acting as both the anchor and foundation of the Enamel Continent that the population had managed to survive the catastrophic devastation of the prior two Immortal King incursions.

-Hannibal Strauss: Fascinating. So that is the mechanism they are employing to degrade the planar barrier separating them from the abyss. This is an entirely novel methodology to me. Quite inventive.

Right at that moment, the ultimate authority on such matters,

The Immortal King himself, offered his analysis as he monitored the ceremony directly through Harris’s sensory link.

-Hannibal Strauss: They aren’t forging a direct gateway. Rather, they are exploiting the lingering residual trauma that remains embedded throughout the Ion Continent. It appears they are utilizing severed components of the World Tree, such as foliage and limbs, to serve as the sacrificial catalysts… Additionally, the symbols engraved upon their flesh warrant closer study.

Generating a functional, stable gateway directly into the abyss would be an impossible feat using merely that handful of personnel and such basic resources.

Nor would they have managed to orchestrate such an operation without triggering immediate alarms.

‘The real issue, however, is their motivation. What drives them to initiate this within Enamel, directly inside the sovereign borders of the Elven Kingdom?’

Remaining hidden and thoroughly merged with the ambient environment, Harris released a quiet, weary breath.

Their underlying motives were indisputably hostile.

This was a crisis that demanded immediate escalation to the highest echelons of state leadership.

An investigation was required to determine how they managed to neutralize the systemic suppression of the World Tree, alongside a sweep to confirm if identical operations were being conducted elsewhere.

‘I’ve gathered a sufficient amount of intelligence. There is absolutely no reason for me to handle this encounter single-handedly…!’

Right as that conclusion formed,

Sniff? Sniff—

A member of the thirteen Lycanthropes—the massive individual positioned directly in front of the ritual structure—began twitching his nose, sampling the air currents.

His head snapped around, his glowing amber eyes locking instantly onto the exact point where Harris was concealed.

“Ah, marvelous.”

Before Harris could even register the thought…

Boom—!

Accompanied by a deafening shockwave, a savage, clawed hand bridged the gap in an instant, tearing straight toward his position.

—

While Lycanthropes were frequently compared to vampires, their intrinsic biology was entirely distinct, leading to radically different societal trajectories.

Vampires possessed a high degree of intellect and self-control outside of their periodic bouts of bloodlust, allowing them to integrate seamlessly into the underbelly of human civilizations and systematically increase their power dynamics.

Conversely, the werewolves were plagued almost universally by catastrophic volatility, perpetually operating on the brink of mindless rage, which rendered peaceful integration utterly impossible.

Consequently, the vast majority were systematically isolated to the absolute fringes of civilization, surviving primarily as brutal muscle for underworld syndicates or selling their blades as frontline mercenaries in territorial conflicts…

Their global population had plummeted to a fraction of the vampire demographic.

In fact, the collective sum of all Lycanthropes failed to match the sheer numbers of the Ufersh Clan, which stood as the preeminent vampire faction.

“Kihihihik, well, look at that~ Plans rarely survive contact with reality, do they? That self-proclaimed Revolutionary fellow talked a magnificent game about remaining completely undetected, but the man is entirely hollow. Truly pathetic.”

Positioned far above the canopy.

A figure perched casually upon a branch near the crown of a tree let out a crazed chuckle, training his eyes on a specific sector of the wilderness below.

The distance was immense enough to render the location invisible to a normal gaze, yet his vision tracked his subordinate’s actions without the slightest impediment.

“The timing is slightly premature… but since our presence has been compromised, we no longer have luxury of delay!”

He violently ran a hand through his hair before dropping off the branch, sliding rapidly down the bark before launching himself out into the open air.

Crash!

Following a brief moment of unobstructed descent, he made a perfectly controlled landing on the forest floor.

His anatomy was no longer remotely human.

He had shifted into a titanic werewolf, scaling well over three meters in height.

Awooo——

Expanding his chest, he released a piercing roar toward the heavens.

The anomalous frequency, completely undecipherable to any entity outside their bloodline, rippled through the dense woodland, prompting dark silhouettes to materialize from the foliage one after another.

“Are we finally greenlit? I have been burning for this moment, King! Orders to advance!”

“Grrr— Are we truly launching the assault right now? The timeline dictated significantly more prep time. Striking this early ensures a massive portion of our forces will be caught unawares.”

“If the King has issued the command, the rationale is absolute. Grrr!”

One of the three massive werewolves who filled the roles of his primary commanders offered a brief, low growl of dissatisfaction, but he rapidly adapted to the strategic shift and bowed his head in compliance.

Once anonymity was forfeited, operational momentum became the single deciding factor.

Sensing the collective alignment of his pack, the King surveyed the forces arrayed before him and gave a slow, deliberate nod of confirmation.

Three of his elite eight commanders, five ranked knights, and roughly twelve front-line combatants.

The moment the opening salvo commenced, the remaining cells distributed across the geography would immediately fall into line.

…And above all else, his own personal combat efficacy stood as their ultimate asset.

“Numerical disadvantages mean nothing to us! We have remained suppressed in the dark for far too long! Khahak! Move out! We shall reduce the World Tree to absolute ash!”

Uoooo——

Awooo——

He ruled as the absolute commander of this final ‘wolf pack’ and stood as the reigning sovereign of the nearly extinct Lycanthrope race.

He was the Lycanthrope King, the individual who had willingly stepped into the role of the sacrificial pawn within the Oath of Heaven’s Defiance.

—

Lycanthropes were routinely evaluated alongside vampires, and their internal hierarchy shared distinct structural parallels.

The vampire civilization organized itself across the tiers of Sacred Blood, True Blood, Pureblood, Fledglings, alongside the peripheral castes of Servants and Slaves.

In comparison, the Lycanthrope hierarchy was cataloged as King, General, Knight, Warrior, and Soldier.

As their structural titles implied, their social standing was dictated exclusively by raw, unadulterated lethality.

They lacked the auxiliary traits or sophisticated methodologies found in vampire lineages, such as blood sorcery; their entire evolutionary path was hyper-focused on physical optimization.

Yet, there were scenarios where absolute simplicity translated into peak lethality.

Their raw muscle output, kinetic velocity, structural density, arcane deflection, and cellular regeneration outclassed any equivalent-ranked vampire in a direct, uninhibited brawl.

…And Harris was gaining firsthand, highly practical experience regarding that exact reality at this precise instant.

Entirely against his personal preferences.

Rumble—!

An electric sapphire flash, carrying the intensity of an atmospheric strike, split the air,

“Grrr!”

And a dark, monstrous form burst through the blast radius, launching itself directly toward Harris as he drifted in midair.

The creature even executed a mid-air redirect by kicking off the atmosphere itself, maintaining a relentless pursuit as Harris attempted to maneuver away using the Wind Spirit.

‘Good grief, this is incredibly tedious!’

The Lycanthrope driving the assault was unmistakably a general… an individual safely operating at the Master-tier.

While his threat index didn’t quite match Staub, the Imperial Guard commander who had pushed Hesperon to his absolute limits, he still represented a highly problematic adversary for Harris, who had only recently transitioned into a High Elf.

Crackle—!

“Grrr! You slippery coward! If you possess an ounce of pride, face me in an open clash!”

Naturally, the opponent was far from unbeatable.

‘What absolute garbage.’

The creature had been swinging at empty air for better than half an hour, so its mounting exasperation was entirely logical.

However, this encounter was unfolding inside a forest, within the sovereign borders of the Elven Kingdom, in direct proximity to the World Tree.

Furthermore, Harris possessed a suite of traits including “Chosen of the World Tree”, “Assimilation with Nature”, “Stargazer”, and “Call of Nature”… capabilities entirely engineered to maximize environmental synchronization, with chronic lethargy serving as their primary behavioral byproduct.

He systematically neutralized the werewolf’s acute auditory perception, along with the kinetic tremors picked up via its skin, utilizing the Sound Spirit Decibel.

He deployed the Wind Spirit Pascal paired with the Fire Spirit Callie to thoroughly disrupt the beast’s olfactory tracking and thermal awareness.

Simultaneously, using the collective output of his spirits, he churned up brilliant flashes and dense particulate clouds to completely blind its optical senses.

The werewolf, entirely incapable of pinpointing Harris while the Elf remained perfectly integrated with the surrounding ecosystem, found itself perpetually lagging behind.

‘And when operating at our specific tier, a single delayed step is an absolute death sentence.’

As yet another frantic sequence of strikes ran out of momentum,

Navigating the decelerated reality provided by his “Hypersensitivity”, Harris raised his signature longbow, Themis, shaped directly from a limb of the World Tree.

“Phew—”

Had Hesperon attempted to operate at this specific velocity, his muscular structure would have suffered catastrophic tearing, but for an established High Elf, it required no extraordinary physical tax.

Crackle! Whoosh—!

Whirr! Wooong—

Environmental mana converged violently around his position, drawn inward by the passive pull of “Call of Nature”, while his spirits systematically infused the gathering mass with their elemental properties.

First breath.

The Lycanthrope threw itself into another frantic countermeasure, but the effort was entirely futile.

Harris pinned him in place with a sudden discharge of lightning.

Second breath.

He concentrated an even greater volume of environmental energy, compressing the density down to reinforce the active projectile.

“Grrr! You miserable insect!”

The werewolf attempted to break the lock once more, yet it changed nothing.

He executed the straightforward cycle several times in rapid succession.

Crackle!

The arrow had transformed completely, taking on the visual properties of a localized lightning bolt.

Whoosh—

Highly concentrated thermal energy coated the tip of the projectile.

Whirr! Wooong—

While atmospheric currents and micro-vibrations spiraled tightly around the shaft.

“~~♪”

Utilizing the twin enhancements of “Harmony of Melody” and “Fairy Archery”, the projectile cleared the housing—.

———!

It tore through the space without a sound, flashing forward like a concentrated beam of pure radiance.

The payload was more than sufficient to utterly erase the remaining vitality of the already battered werewolf.

—

Given that the Guardians, mobilized via the Sound Spirit Decibel right at the opening phase of the engagement, had already established a secure perimeter around the combat zone, neutralizing the surviving Lycanthropes proved elementary.

The opposition was formidable, counting two knights and five front-line warriors among their remnants, but the Guardians operated as the absolute peak vanguard force of the Elven Kingdom, meaning they remained entirely unfazed.

As the final pockets of resistance were systematically resolved, Harris, acting directly on the tactical counsel provided by Hans, shattered the fractured ritual array…

《The World Tree observes its descendant.》

The precise moment the abyssal rift collapsed back in on itself, a highly familiar notification manifested within his interface.

‘Oh?’

Concurrently, the exact same soothing, revitalizing essence he had experienced previously flooded through his pathway once more.

‘…That is an exceptionally handsome payout.’

He had been granted an identical baptism during his initial encounter with Hans, which triggered his evolution into a High Elf.

While the systemic shift this time wasn’t quite as explosive as the foundational awakening, he had absolutely zero grounds for complaint.

Whoosh—!

Driven by the sudden influx, the Wind Spirit Pascal successfully broke through its bottleneck, emerging as his second confirmed Highest-tier entity alongside Watt.

Harris closed his eyelids, projecting his sensory awareness outward to its absolute limit.

The operational boundaries of his perception had widened dramatically, moving in perfect lockstep with his elevated pool of environmental mana and natural attunement.

Naturally, the corresponding urge to absolutely do nothing grew exponentially more powerful alongside it…

‘Hold on… Did I just stumble into a double experience window?’

Suddenly, a highly specific realization flashed through his mind.