Rick watched as the drawings on the walls, which represented the Vikings, slaughtered so many elves in their sleep. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Watching this happen in front of him almost made him feel like he was witnessing the chaos directly as it unfolded on that very day.

In fact, a part of him could almost hear the echoes of cries and screams of so many male and female elves begging to be spared.

But they weren’t, because Rick watched as the drawings of the Vikings continued their mass slaughter of the Sun Clan throughout that night.

But the Sun Clan wasn’t the only one to suffer this cruel brutality, because the Moon elves were murdered the same night as well, causing the entire settlements of the Sun and Moon elves to be filled with blood and dead bodies.

A few Moon elves managed to escape but those who remained were mainly forced into slavery.

The same happened to the elves of the Sun Clan as well.

However, the Vikings weren’t satisfied with the damage they had caused, so they raided the mountains of the Dark Elf Clan the following morning.

The mountains weren’t really that far from the settlements of the Sun and Moon Clans, so the Vikings wanted to claim victory over all three clan settlements, but luckily for the dark elves, the Wise Spirit protected them.

She sent wild beasts and monsters to battle against the Vikings, but the Viking forces weren’t weak against the monsters of the Wise Spirit.

They slaughtered every single one of them and charged into the Dark Elf Clan mountains to claim their settlement as well, but Mother Dryad didn’t stop either.

She sent more dangerous creatures and monsters against the Vikings and the two sides fought tirelessly for days and nights.

This allowed the dark elves to have more than enough time to escape from the clan and relocate even further into the woods, where they began to live with the Wood Clan.

But as for the Wise Spirit of the forest, protecting the dark elves and battling against the Vikings took a toll on her, especially since she had grown very old already.

In the end, the Vikings failed to capture and slaughter many dark elves due to the Wise Spirit’s intervention.

A few dark elves were captured while others were slaughtered, but it wasn’t a number the Vikings were pleased with, meaning that a lot of dark elves managed to survive and relocate to the Wood Clan.

Hearing of this, a lot of dark elves and elves in general became grateful to the Wise Spirit for offering her powers to protect the Dark Elf Clan, but what most elves didn’t know was that Mother Dryad had sacrificed a huge amount of her last remaining mana to protect the elves and to battle against the Vikings, resulting in the death of the Old Wise Spirit.

"What? She died?" Rick questioned as he watched the painting of the female-humanoid tree withering and dying.

"Yes, she did." Ophelia replied with a deeply sad and regretful look on her face. "But when the Wise Spirit died, the other spirits in the forest and everywhere else weren’t happy about this."

Ophelia continued. "They blamed us for the death of Mother Dryad and decided to distance themselves from us."

Since the elves had initially refused to listen to the Wise Spirit’s warnings, the lesser spirits blamed the elves for causing the death of their wise leader, because they believed that if the elves had listened to what they had been told to do, the Vikings would have been sent away immediately and would never have been welcomed into the elven land.

This meant that the death and suffering of so many elves would have been prevented as well, but since the elves did otherwise, the lesser spirits felt betrayed and hurt, and so they distanced themselves from the elves.

However, this distance came with a lot of negative impact on the elves.

Not only did it affect the amount of mana in the air within each elf settlement, it affected the chances of the elves surviving as well.

Now if the elves wanted to hunt in the woods, animals wouldn’t close their eyes to accept their death.

Instead, they would either flee or fight back, with most beasts doing the latter due to the hatred most spirits now had towards the elves.

Even leaving the settlement had become a dangerous thing to do, because there had been moments when elves got lost during hunting.

Not only would it be difficult for them to find anything to eat, but most hunters rarely returned home from hunting.

The trees and pathways hunters had passed through earlier in the day would magically disappear during their return, only for them to find a new pathway leading them straight into the den of some dangerous beast.

This was the main reason why the Chieftess had warned the elves never to leave the settlement alone.

It was the same reason why Ophelia didn’t want Gwen to leave on her own as well.

So, this was how the elves had been living their lives for the past two decades, which happened to be when the Wise Spirit had died.

Now, the elves were currently being punished by the spirits, leading to them having little to no food and water.

If the clan found a stream today, there was a huge chance that stream would vanish within the next three to four days, and this, along with the scarcity of food the elves were currently facing, was the sole reason why most elves in the clan looked slim and hungry.

If it weren’t for a few powerful elves like Ophelia, Gwen and the Chieftess hunting for everyone to survive, the whole clan would probably have been wiped out a decade ago.

"And that’s why there’s not much food in the clan right now." Ophelia explained as she pointed to a particular painting of elf hunters getting lost and being killed by magical beasts sent by angry spirits.

Watching all of this on the wall, Rick slowly knitted his brow in confusion and Ophelia noticed this immediately.

"What’s wrong?"

"You said it’s rare and difficult to find food in the forest, right?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"So, doesn’t that mean other clans are suffering the same way ours is?"

"Yes, they are."

"Then why are the Night Clan battling against us when we could just work together to feed each other?"