Elementalists
Chapter 24 - The Guardian of the Sacred Tree

Ever since Arya left the Castle she had always watched the little glass box Diana had given her carefully, she wanted to know how it worked. Because previously he managed to decipher the hidden message from Diana's words, Diana, if the message he got was correct and in accordance with what he thought then it means that this small box he held was the key to finding the Hellig Tree in the interior of this mysterious forest.

Arya was very happy with this because by giving this box does not mean Diana had given her permission to take the branch of the tree, which is not the case, although his head was full of questions about the past stories of his grandparents he still could not help but smile on his face. In the end it's all the past, but the obvious. If he had the chance to meet his grandfather once he knew what he had to do right then and there.

"Fuck the old man if I could meet him I would.." - The grunts were slow all the way back to Eridan's house.

After knowing what happened, Arya can only understand the meaning of Diana's words about the debt to be paid, and, if only his stupid grandfather had not done strange things maybe Arya would not have been caught up in such a complicated situation. Then he had the thought to tell Rena and Eridan about what happened but in the end he did not tell it because he thought this was not the right time.

Arya also wanted to ascertain for herself whether this glass box would actually take them towards the Hellig Tree. Instead of her doubting Diana or what, this was just an act of anticipation. He couldn't have dragged Rena and Eridan into such an uncertain affair like this, it could have ended up worse than he had imagined. So he decided to go alone to check the thing tomorrow morning.

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As planned the next morning he woke up early in the morning, for the sake of doing this last night Arya deliberately went to bed early, which made the appearance of questioning gazes from Rena and Eridan. But in the end they did not ask why Arya did this, she immediately put up her gear and put on her hooded robe coat so that she would not steal the show with her troublesome white hair. He slipped slowly out of the window of his room.

Eridan's house is almost the same as all the other Elf houses in that place, a building made to blend with giant trees. Eridan's house has two floors and Arya's room happens to be on the second floor so she easily gets out of the window and jumps into the surrounding trees. Arya quickly moves away from the house without a sound, fearing she could wake Eridan or Rena.

Outside it was still dark, the sun had not shown his face. Arya is basically deliberately decided to leave before sunrise so that the chance to meet or meet other people is getting smaller, and sure enough as he expected he only found a few Elves who were busy preparing the items they wanted to sell in the market. He had seen a pink fruit that he thought was Pink Peaches, a fruit that Azalea told him its solids.

Because of this experience, Arya finally realized that the Elves use three types of lighting at night, their first lighting comes from something that looks like an insect that gives off light like a firefly, but these insects have a variety of light colors so Arya is sure that the insect is not a firefly as she is familiar with.

Then they also use fire as lighting, the Elves provide torches and candles to be their source of illumination when night falls. The difference between their torches and candles gives off the scent of plants that Arya has never smelled before, it seems like they make it with branches and sap plants that grow specially in the Fairy Forest.

And the last lighting the Elves used was magic, they took out a ball of light the size of a palm and placed it in a translucent glass container. These balls will float in the air and will die when the magic power given by their owners has been exhausted. After being sure he was finally far enough from the settlement Aryan residents finally took out a glass box from the pocket of his cloak coat.

He glanced at the surroundings once more to make sure no one was following him then softly whispered "Monstranto Viamo".

As the small glass box emitted a dazzling golden light, the light continued to grow brighter to the point that Arya's sight became slightly disturbed. Then finally the glass box shook violently and spewed out the golden light, the light floated around Arya several times and finally stopped before Arya. Arya narrowed her eyes to look at the light carefully.

After the bright light began to diminish Arya could see a little girl with blond hair with taper ears as well as transparent wings that emitted a colorful light on her back, the little girl Arya meant here is not a child. Small here means really small, the girl's body size is only the size of a grain of wheat.

He floated up and down in the air with his eyes closed, then stretched his body while continuing to wipe his sleepy eyes. After he was satisfied he finally bowed respectfully while saying "It is nice to serve you Your Majesty".

Then the girl immediately raised her face and saw the person who had called her, immediately her expression changed after realizing that the person who called her was not the Queen. He looked at Arya with a confused expression and then flew around Arya's head once again.

"Aren't you Queen Diana's Majesty?" tanyanya while tilting her head.

"Hi, as you can see I'm not the Queen. Introduce my name Arya"

Aryapun began to explain what happened to the little girl about how he could call her and how he could get the glass box used to call her, then from this conversation Arya finally found out the name of the object was Summoner Cube.

"His Majesty Queen Diana gave you the Summoner Cube? You must be a very lucky person" he said, nodding softly.

"Do you think?" ask Arya.

"Huum, I can also smell the scent of Madame Azalea from your body so I think this matter must be fine, but honestly your scent is strange. You smell like an Elf in general but"

"Hahaha maybe it's because I haven't bathed" Arya replied quickly and originally.

Then the little girl shrugged her shoulders then smiled and asked calmly "We should just forget about it, so. What can I do for Mr Arya?"

"Oh yeah I almost forgot, can you show me the way to the Hellig Tree?"

"Of course, with pleasure" he replied as he bowed in salute.

"And neither do you need to be concerned with me, you do not need to call me Sir. Just call me Arya" Arya said with a smile.

"Alright, from now on I will call you Arya" he responded with sparkling eyes, it seems like he would indeed prefer to call Arya without a formal call.

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The girl became the guide for Arya, she flew away cheerfully while looking around her enthusiastically. The distance of the two of them was only a few meters, Arya walked behind her carefully afraid of tripping over something because the atmosphere was still quite dark. The illumination that Arya could expect was only the light from the girl's wings, they began to slowly enter the forest. At first they still followed the path, but in the end the girl brought Arya into the lush trees.

"Mmm can I ask you something?" arya asked finally after being silent for quite a long time.

The girl immediately turned her head while continuing to fly in front of Arya and said casually "Sure, I will answer as I can"

"May I know what your name is?"

The girl gasped and suddenly hit the tree branch in front of her with a bang, making her grimace in pain and causing her to just hover on the spot while rubbing her forehead.

"Aww.hahaha forgive my impoliteness. Introduce my name Iscrivy, you can call me Ivy"

"Greetings to Ivy, Ivy you are............Pixie right?" ask Arya again while brushing the branches of the tree in front of her.

"Well, I didn't expect a young Elf like you to know it, I'm a Pixie Fairy" replied Ivy while continuing to guide the way for Arya again.

"Actually I come from outside the forest" Arya said slowly.

"That explains why you smell different"

Arya had honestly read about Fairy Pixie in a book in the Library of Research Center, but she did not expect that Pixies actually existed even she met one of them here. He had thought that Pixie Fairy was another call for the Elf race, of course, basically the body size of Elves and Pixie was greatly inversely proportional. It is also included in the book he read.

"Does everyone know of your whereabouts?"

"Of course not, even just a handful of people know of our existence. Most Elves think they are the only residents of Fairy Forest, but from the name alone they should already know, not just those who live here" said Ivy while giggling.

"How many are you?"

"Mmm. We don't need too many places" said Ivy while smiling ignorantly.

After walking for a long time Arya guessed the sun seemed to have risen but because of the lush trees no light managed to penetrate the surface of the forest land, he could also feel the path they went uphill.

"But I'm surprised you weren't surprised to see me, this is the first time you've seen Pixie instead of Arya?" ivy asked finally after some time flying in silence.

"That's because I've read a little bit about you guys, so after I see you in person it seems like I can make sure that what I'm reading is true"

"Oh, that's it, but it looks like you'll be even more surprised later. Because it's basically not just Pixies who live around the Hellig Tree, there are also Druids and all of them" he explained enthusiastically as he stretched out his hands.

Hearing that Arya's eyes widened, she had also read about the Druid forest fairy in the same book where she read about Pixie. If they really were in this place. Then this will be a very pleasant experience, then he began to ask enthusiastically "Druid? Are they here too? You all live around the Hellig Tree? And what do you mean by all of them?"

Hearing the deep interest in Arya's voice made Ivy unable to resist laughing, then she calmly replied "I mean that they are those around you".

"Application?" arya asked confusedly while paying attention to the surroundings.

"Right, the trees in the Fairy Forest were not ordinary Aryan trees. They were all connected to the Hellig Tree, because it was this Sacred Tree that made these Elves, Pixies, Druids, and Tree of life live around"

"Then why don't you ever show yourself?" arya was confused.

Then Ivy turned around while continuing to fly, she held her chin while looking hard thinking. Arya is a little worried about seeing how to fly because she could have hit a tree in front of her.

"Actually we Pixies, along with the Druids and the Tree of life were not too fond of war and Aryan violence. That's why we always make agreements with the previous Elf King and Queen, they will serve as our protectors. And we will act as protectors of the preservation of this forest" he replied seriously.

"So that's why Queen Diana had the Summoner Cube?"

"True, the Summoner Cube is proof of our Pixie agreement with the Queen. With this thing the Queen can call one of us to help her when she needs help, ahh looks like we have arrived. Come on quick" said Ivy enthusiastically then started flying faster.

Arya immediately came running so as not to be left behind, she could see at the end of the road they were going through there was a light that managed to break into the forest. Which meant that there was their exit, when he finally arrived at the exit, Arya could not hide her admiration.

In front of him lies a very beautiful valley, surrounded by hills like the ones Arya and Ivy to get there. In the middle of the valley there is a very large tree, from which Arya saw at a glance it looks like the tree has a diameter of about 10 meters and a height of about 20 meters. The branches of the tree are very lush with green leaves that can refresh the eyes of those who see it.

The roots of the large tree are visible on the ground, and around the tree there is a lake that looks like the water flows from the roots of the tree. Then there are many tributaries that flow in all directions, where the water source comes from the lake itself, these rivers that spread water throughout the Fairy Forest.

"What do you think?" ivy asked finally after letting Arya see the scene until satisfied.

"Wow.." That's all Arya can say.

"I see your point" replied Ivy while laughing amusedly.

As Arya was still engrossed in looking at the surroundings she suddenly felt a sharp glare towards her, she immediately reached for her sword and turned her head towards the direction the gaze was coming from. On a tree branch near Arya and Ivy was a brown owl with blue eyes staring at them intently and interested. The bird immediately flew closer to them, stopping right in front of Arya.

"Ah hello Mr. Eudard" said Ivy as soon as he realized the arrival of the bird.

The bird looked at Ivy with a sharp gaze that made Ivy a little misbehaved, Arya immediately stood in front of Ivy. The bird looked back at him, his gaze very sharp. It was as if he could pierce through whatever was in front of him.

Then without warning the owl screeched and flew towards the Giant Tree in the middle of the valley. After Arya noticed it turned out that the bird had three very long tail feathers.

"What kind of creature is that?" arya said in the end.

"It was the Three-Tailed Owl, one of the magical fauna of the Fairy Forest" Ivy replied.

"Who is Mr Eudart?" ask Arya again.

"The Guardian of the Tree" said Ivy then began to fly towards the tree.

"Huh? Tree keepers? That bird?" arya said confused while immediately following Ivy.

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They finally arrived under the giant tree, Arya continued to look up to see the tree so that over time his neck felt sore. He could feel the enormous aura of life from the tree.

"We have arrived" Ivy announced with pleasure.

"Occame-------"

Arya immediately fell silent, she felt a very strong pressure against her. This pressure came from someone standing right behind him, whereas before he was very sure that he had made sure there was no one else around the place some time ago. Without waiting for a long time Arya immediately floated an upper kick towards the person's head with her right leg.

That person held back Arya's hard kick with just one hand as if it was just a mosquito passing in front of her, arya immediately made her right leg held as a pedestal and pulled her body into the air then used her free left leg to throw a second kick at the person.

The kick caused both of them to bounce, Arya immediately kept her distance from the person and swiftly pulled out her sword. He saw the person before him for the first time, he was a Male Elf with blonde hair along his waist.

The man's hair color had begun to fade, telling him that he was no longer young, he was wearing a robe to cover his combat gear. Arya could also see the sword hanging on her waist, the man had a calm facial expression but was filled with strength. And by just looking at this Arya knew, that she was no match for him.

Arya was sure that this man before her could kill her whenever she wanted, the man still closed his eyes. Even with his eyes closed his alertness did not decrease, then he cleared his throat long while saying.

"Ivy!? What does this mean?"

Ivy who had been silent since he was shocked by what the two people before him had done was late in responding and only absentmindedly said

"I-I don't understand the problem? What's the matter exactly?"

"Huh....I told you to be careful, I am very familiar with the sound of these footsteps because I know one more person who has the same step voice. Why would an Elementalist be in this place?" the whisper was slow but very firm to the point of making the air around it vibrate.

"The eyelentalist?! B-but Mr. Eudart, obviously this Arya is an Elf" Ivy said in a tone of disbelief.

"Mr Eudart?" reset Arya.

Right after Arya said that the blue-eyed Three-Tailed Owl that Arya and Ivy had met earlier flew over to the man and gently alighted and perched on his shoulders. Then the bird shrieked loudly while looking at Arya sharply.

"You........The Guardian of the Holy Tree?!"