It’s been a whole month since Marcel was kidnapped and how has his life in Tharrelan been so far? Well, pretty good except not counting the fact that King Revalor’s children hunt him day and night and are unwilling to stop trying to grab his attention. On the other hand, he’s gotten a lot closer to King Revalor’s youngest daughter Shalia and he’s having a lot of fun while he’s there thanks to her giving him a bit of her knowledge with each meeting as well as chasing away the unbearable wolves.  

“I swear, I’m never coming here after this ever again!” is the most thought of sentence that’s been on Marcel’s mind since his first morning waking up in the Sunfire Palace without anything weird been done to his body. He spends most of his time finding new ways to slip away from the wolves while the rest of the time, he talks and listens to Shalia and just like that, three weeks passed without him even noticing. 

What’s did he do with the rest of his time? Sightseeing, of course! It all started about a week ago with a certain young princess suddenly proposing that she wants to sightsee because she hadn’t in a while and before he knew it, Marcel was also included in the list of people to join them on their journey. Now there was the king, two of his five wives, all of his 18 kids, some of their consorts, a few guards, including royal guards and battle servants, and the Moonshadow assassins. Sure, this amount of entourage was a bit unnecessary but considering the unspoken rules of the new world that Marcel found himself in, this much was necessary, even if the Elven King Revalor himself, was coming along on this journey. Marcel could be kidnapped by anyone at any time if he isn’t around. The things that people will do to get a hero are unthinkable. With their powers to warp the world to suit their needs which even some rulers can’t do, their charisma and good looks; they’re worth every effort that the races use to attain them. 

Over the past week, the Ulvaris family has been showing Marcel the entirety of Tharrelan. In royal carriages pulled by woodbeasts, beasts created by the Elven King of Luscious Forests who can travel any terrain, even Flurie, the Wispy Frost King’s domain, and the Sunfire King’s fire portal, they stopped at several places like the Water Marshes of the Water elves, the Great Garth forest of the forest elves, the Night Domain of the Moonshadow elves, Fallen Star Hills of Starry Night elves and eventually, Hjärtatlv, the sacred tree of the elves and their final destination before heading back home. 

Well, what is Hjärtatlv exactly aside from looking like a miniature version of Yggdrasil albeit scaled to a very fathomable degree? It’s the tree that nurtures the world of Tharrelan and it’s not the only one of its kind. Half of the dimensions out there have trees similar to Hjärtatlv which serves as the heart of the world’s power, be it physically like Hjärtatlv or spiritually. They also serve as a link to Yggdrasil in its dimension close to the center of all the dimensions and helps hold together the world alongside the Spirit of the World. 

Hjärtatlv, particularly rich in natural and spirit elements is also another source of power to the elves. With its blessings, it aids the Elven Kings to further protect their world from harmful forces that might try to bring ruin to them. Spirits live in harmony with the tree and the elements it produces help distribute power all around Tharrelan and hold it together. Now the king opened the last fire portal before arriving near the sacred tree of the elves and its roots that stretch all the way to the core of the planet pulsed in excitement like a heartbeat as if excited to meet its guests. The tree spread its immense mana all around and the king return mana signals, thus beginning a resonance that would continue until the carriage arrived in front of the tree, and in a daze, he leaped out of the carriage heading towards the tree. Everyone except Marcel was surprised. 

“Is King Revalor okay?!” He asked worriedly. 

“He’s fine! He’s just speaking to the tree. You shouldn’t worry, child!”, one of Revalor’s wives and sister as well as the mother to four of Revalor’s children, spoke to Marcel. He looked so worried that his cuteness intensified and she couldn’t help ruffling his hair. The other wife, Eliyen, mother to three of Revalor’s kids, and Shalia laughed at him for his unkempt hair. He got out from the carriage as they were laughing too much to a sight that he didn’t imagine. The king was being eaten by the tree or at least, so he thought. 

The king’s arms were bound by the tree’s branches that had suddenly come to life and so was his face. It looked like the tree of eating him alive but after further explanation from the three others who climbed out of the carriage, he learned that this wasn’t the case. Revalor was merging with the tree, temporarily becoming a part of it and as a result, feels everything the tree feels as if he was the tree. The tree slowly dragged Revalor’s body towards it and once again, the others told him not to worry and it did nothing to stop him from doing so. He had no choice but to watch Revalor get dragged into the tree, merge with it, and come back a few minutes later, looking completely fine.  

Meanwhile, while Revalor was in the middle of a conversation with his race’s sentient core tree, the energy around the parameter spiked in murderous intent, caution, and fear aura towards whatever might be with Hjärtatlv, in this case, Revalor whose aura terrified them. As usual, Marcel didn’t feel any. No surprise at all.  

Revalor’s wives and a fair number of his kids who sensed the auras, however, didn’t show the signs of fear towards their guests. They were as tranquil as Marcel who was slightly worried about Revalor even though he had been told not to and some even recognized the auras; these being Revalor’s wives and elder children who regularly visit the tree with their father. 

As they stood waited for whoever lurked in the forest to come out, Revalor soon came to and was separated from the tree, and only after their leader sensed the tree to have finally calmed down did their guests reveal themselves. 

Carrying bows and arrows on their backs and some a few swords and magic staffs, they appeared with serious and threatening expressions to try and scare whatever was in front of the sacred tree. Some shook slightly at the sight of Revalor who’d modified his appearance and aura for the journey across Tharrelan. Apparently, when you’re an existence as powerful as he is, then that much is a necessity when going outside. With trembling knees, elven men, about 15, with the appearance of forest elves with their leafy green and brown clothes and equipment meant to camouflage their presence in the forest came forth, wondering if they had to fight Revalor and his companions but one of them quickly recognized him for what he truly was. 

“Calm down, guys! It’s only the Sunfire Elven King. You can relax now!” A man in the back said. The others made way for him to come forward and his companions looked so relieved. Their tense faces softened up and they looked much friendlier after his words. They calmed down after hearing that the one visiting them was a Ruler. 

The man who spoke was a middle-aged-looking forest elf with a bulky body who looked ready for a fight with the sleeveless shirt and the magic staff in his hand. 

“Seriously! I always tell you not to modify your aura so drastically like that. If not for the fact that I was made specifically to recognize the kings no matter which forms they took, then imagine how scared I would be as well if you approached the sacred tree without me sensing anything. My father would kill me if he found out!” The man who came forward from behind the line spoke. He had an incredibly deep voice that reminded Marcel of Winter when they once spoke but this man’s tone oozed familiarity like the Demon Lord’s. He wondered how one person could sound so mixed. 

“Hahaha! I find it amusing how your men’s reactions never change no matter how many unexpected visits I make here. You’d think that they’d at least not be so surprised and scared every time but they always are.” Revalor laughed at the man’s companions who looked ashamed as Revalor was right. They always tried their best to not act like they do but he scares them more than they’d like him to. 

“Enough! Don’t scare my children anymore! They can’t help it because they feel too much. We can blame Hjärtatlv for making them too sensitive to slight changes in energy around the tree. Anyway, what brings you here?” The man looked at Revalor and his companions to see Marcel. 

“Um, who’s this?” He looked so curious as he looked at Marcel. 

“Oh, sorry! I forgot to introduce you right away. This is M—Dave...” The Sunfire almost spilled Marcel’s true name without realizing it. He almost broke the one condition the Demon Lord gave him if he was to have Marcel visit Tharrelan. Even now, nobody in Tharrelan knew Marcel’s real name except for his siblings and himself. Sure, he could tell the person in front of him but not in front of his wives and kids.  

“A second!” The king said as he pushed the man to the side and they spoke secretly. He nodded to his words and a few moments later, they came back and he introduced himself, 

“I’m Hunthor Fenhart, guardian of this forest along with my children as protectors of the Sacred Tree. Nice to meet you!” He smiled at Marcel who nodded in return, unsure of what to say to him. He had a feeling that the moment he opened his mouth, the entire situation would turn out like every ruler and guardian he’s met so far. He wouldn’t be able to keep his identity as Marcel a secret as he wants to keep his life as the hero Dave outside the Demon Lord’s castle. 

Hunthor smiled back to Marcel as he stared at him with an expression of curiosity that reminded Marcel of when he visited Thorngalt. As expected, both father and son are equally curious about the thing on his left arm, the vine insignia. He felt slightly uncomfortable but the insignia told him to be at ease, so he did. 

“Now what are we doing outside here?! Let’s go in! My other children will be very worried if I'm not back there soon. You know what happens when that happens, right?” Hunthor had a grave expression on his face that swiftly changed Revalor’s mood as well. They both looked like something absolutely horrendous would happen if they didn’t go back soon and Marcel’s curiosity couldn’t keep him from asking Revalor’s wife Pyrrha who answered his question. 

“They’ll die; Hunthor kid’s I mean. They heavily depend on their father’s existence to keep functioning normally. When they get overly worried, they change forms into murder machines and kill any creature within a 50 km radius from the sacred tree. It’s one of the ways they protect the sacred tree and, in that form, they become more like rabid beasts of slaughter until their father either arrives or they’re killed. As a result, we call Hunthor’s children who digress into this form, ‘Extermination Elves’.” 

“Ok, I see! Then we’d better hurry back to them. We wouldn’t want them to attack us.” Marcel looked worried. 

“Don’t worry! I am more than enough to deal with all of them should they ever transform into Extermination Elves. I am a Sunfire Guardian after all.” Pyrrha said a slightly threatening smile that made Revalor’s children’s faces turn sour. They looked so scared of her. Marcel wondered what the woman might have done to them. 

Anyway, as they walked, Marcel recognized something familiar; the 100-feet-tall trees he saw a while back when he was on his way to the Demon Lord’s castle in the forest where he met the forest elves who changed his view on the Demon Lord to some extent before what he knew from the human realm. He looked very eager to enter the forest of tall trees, waiting for a surprise that he thought he wouldn’t be able to see until he visited the forest elves back near the place the rift to the human world brought him, only to be shocked at the sheer scale of it. 

As they walked deeper and deeper into the forest of tall-trees, Marcel saw it; a forest of wood and vines, one united with the forest around it. It looked wondrous. It was nothing like the village atop the trees that he’d saw in the past. They seemed more like imitations of the scenery he was currently seeing; one that took the tenacious and adaptive nature of plants and combined it with glorious architecture to birth something marvelous. 

“Welcoming to the Hanging Village of my kids and me!” He said to the group... “You can fly up to see all of it if you like, little hero!” He smiled at Marcel who almost instantaneously flew up with a wind-spell without a shred of restraint to observe the entire scenery from above. He enjoyed himself as since the moment he arrived, he flew across the entire forest until it was almost sunset before coming back. During that time, he learned a lot about the magic beasts that reside in the forest alongside normal beasts and the fact that this forest was heavily more populated by dryads than the forest where he met Aspen. The entire forest was much larger, almost five times as big and the air and energy all around felt so pure and untainted that he enjoyed flying through the skies above it for a long time. 

After he returned, he spent the rest of the day doing the same thing he didn’t want to do and got overly friendly with Hunthor, and before he knew it, the Alverona-incident was happening all over again and he was telling Hunthor everything he wanted to know. Overall, he felt comfortable with Hunthor since, unlike Revalor’s children, his were in no way interested in him. Even in the Hanging Village, they continue to fawn over him and if not for Vitalis constantly suppressing his ever-growing charms as he slowly grows, then a riot would have already happened between the siblings.  

Anyway, after arriving in Hunthor’s territory, they spent three days there; with Marcel using that time to observe the creatures of the forest who, as expected, loved him just like when he met some in the forest elves’ territory on Nephavion. He began playing games with the dryads in the forest and guess what? He somehow knew their location without relying on his vine insignia to help him. Is this one of the powers he gained from absorbing the nature of the elves? Well, he isn’t sure but it certainly has something to do with it. He spent the rest of his time watching the illusive dryads who were now fond of him and discovered something fascinating about himself. 

Apparently, according to the dryads, the spirit realm blesses him with all of its powers and watches over him, meaning that every creature with some connection to the spirit realm can’t help but want to help him. It’s something that he was apparently born with but Marcel can’t believe it as he imagines that it has more to do with the vine tattoo than the spirits. 

As he watched the dryads move through trees to evade detection as if they shared life with their entire surroundings, which they actually did, Marcel got inspired to create some earth magic. He began trying to invent earth magic that might allow him to move through the earth when suddenly, someone enters and breaks his concentration, and guess who? It was Shalia. 

“Sorry, did I interrupt something? I seem to have caught you in an incredibly awkward situation.” She looked at Marcel who, because of breaking focus as a result of suddenly entering his perception range, was stuck halfway inside the ground as a result of almost melding with the earth to hide. She covered her laugh with her hand and asked him if he needed any help. 

“Yes, please! I’m stuck right now.” He answered. After his response, she soon helped him out of the ground and moderately laughed at him for getting distracted in the middle of magic practice. She looked so bright as she laughed. 

After Marcel fully recovered from getting laughed at by Shalia, she asked him if he’d like to go for an afternoon stroll and he agreed. 

Having followed the route that they took to get to the Hanging Village, they both leisurely walked towards Hjärtatlv and as they get near Hjärtatlv, uh-oh, a hole suddenly opened up beneath them and plunged them into the depths, making them disappear. Just what is it this time!?