Return of the last survivor - Chapter 91

Merlin, who was consolidating his mana through the 2nd meditation method, of the elemental law set, did not move from his place for months on end, before he went to get a quick break to eat some food, and relieve himself. After which he resumed his training.

During this process, many living creatures arrived at the foot of the mountain. Both Demons and forest elves arrived, and began to build camps. Naturally, the hostility between the two races remained, making the two groups create camps at opposite sides of the enormous mountain.

Time passed slowly, and the young men and brave soldiers of each tribe retreated from the foot of the mountain, since they could not hold in their bloodlust to kill the opposing tribe just in reach.

The only ones remaining were women, children, and the elderly, along with a few young men who were either cowards, or had a lot of self-control.

When the elders and envoys had returned to their tribes, they each held a meeting with the other leaders of the tribe, and in the end decided to put up a notice, and decided the people who will move based on volunteers, and not forcing anyone. Although both elders wanted to move most of their tribe to this neutral zone, they had lived long enough not to make a mistake as stupid as shoving unwilling people into enemy territory.

The notice had caused stirs in both tribes for some time, but after a week or so, some people decide to move.

With the first few adventurers, more and more people decided to abandon their tribe and live in a safe location.

‘I am only going until my child grows up’

‘My old bones cannot handle more conflict’

‘I am going to protect those who are shifting, not betraying my tribe!’

Such were the thoughts of most of the people moving as they consoled their inner consciousness.

As time passed, the temporary camps became larger, while the tents became huts, and then houses for the elves, while the demons built caves into the mountain. The mountain was divided into 3 layers, the outer layer which was mostly compressed snow, the inner layer, which was incredibly hard rock, and the core layer, which was impossibly hard rock. The core layer was basically impossible to even scratch.

The demons used their inner heat to melt away parts of the snow, and then slowly heated up the inner layer, and slowly removed little by little of the rock.

Naturally, this took longer than the elves building their homes, and by the time the elves had built proper houses for all of the newly shifter residents, numbering around 250, the demons had only built 12 caves, where the total population of 300 lived.

Times passed, further and the 12 caves became 20, and then 50, until it turned the mountain side facing the seed of destruction into cheese. Naturally, this only applied to the first 100 meters from the base of the mountain. Any higher and the cold winds would freeze the demons to death.

This cold wind was not something that would freeze even a normal human, and it wouldn’t be able to freeze the demons either. However, the demons’ bodies required an incredible amount of heat to survive. In the seed of destruction, they could simply eat the lava for sustenance. However, out here, they needed to rely on their mana to supply them with food. The balance they kept in their bodies was to use 90% of their mana regeneration to replenishing their bodily heat.

Now cold winds would need even more mana to let them survive, and would drain them rather quickly, causing them to die of starvation.

On the other hand, the elves had built a magnificent city, matched with Tree of Life sapling, a subsidiary lifeform to the world tree. This tree had grown incredibly quickly here, and no one knew the reason. It had grown large enough to bear fruit, even on the barren land at the foot of the mountain. This single tree would be able to allow for nearly 500 people to survive, and it was still growing each day.

Years went by slowly while Merlin led his monotonous lifestyle, his very image fading into some myth among the newly established Saint Ferlin Elf tribe, and Saint Ferlin Demon tribe. Not many people had known about Merlin in the first place, with most of them remaining in their original tribes and continuing their blood-feud with the opposing tribe.

A young demon girl was running around the sandy dunes, her parents running behind her with joyful expressions of their faces. This was what the Tsundere planer will wanted. She wanted everyone to be happy just like this, and grow in population to allow her to recover from the damage Arcania did to her.

Her parents, along with a rather large group of demons, were on their usual route to the Saint Ferlin Elf tribe. This was the trading caravan sent out by the Saint Ferlin demon tribe every month.

The elves and demons around Saint Ferlin Mountain had come to a mutual understanding. The demons could dig up ores and minerals at an astonishing speed, while the elves had most other living necessities available.

The two sub-tribes had come to the decision to begin trades with this.

Every month, the elves, and the demons would each send one un-armed caravan to each tribe, and trade with them before returning to their peaceful lives in their sub-tribes.

Little did they know that the elves from the main tribe had prepared an ambush and would launch the attack as soon as they entered the forest side of the plane.

As soon as the last person entered the forest side, the nearly 50 elves rushed out of the trees, raining a volley of arrows onto the 14 or so unsuspecting demons.

However, the Earth suddenly shook, and a black substance shot out from behind the elves, and engulfed all the arrows completely, before falling to the ground in a pool of blackness, without a single demon harmed.

All the elves were slightly stunned, before realising what that pool of black substance was.

“Black Terror!”

One elf screamed out with all his might as he dropped his bow and turned around to flee. This name had been deeply ingrained into the minds of every single elf and demons from the main tribes. It was the name of the one who killed both demons and elves without mercy. It was terror incarnate, ‘Black Terror’.

The black substance quickly split off into 50 pieces which rushed towards each elf. In an instant, nothing was left of the elves, except for their weapons, which were collected by the individual black substances and brought together in a pile at the centre, where all the black masses joined together to form a single unit of blackness.

This ball slowly morphed into the figure of a valiant lady in pitch black armour, seated on a majestic looking black horse, also covered in pitch black armour.

“Lady Cortana!” one of the demons exclaimed with a thankful expression plastered no his face.

“It’s lady Cortana!”

“It’s the lady in Black!”

This black substance was none other than Mecha, who was sharing his body with Cortana to effectively create a temporary body for Cortana. She who was known as terror incarnate to the main tribes, was known as the guardian of mount Saint Ferlin, “The Lady in Black, Cortana”, as well as the “Black Knight of the Man on the mountain.” She was considered the strongest warrior anywhere near the mountain, being a Tier 2 being, Mecha could be considered only weaker to Merlin and the other two Tier 2s of the plane.

Mecha himself had grown to Tier 2 Lv 4. This was at a level where he could hold his ground against those peak tier 2s, even if they were in their prime. In their current state, Mecha could beat them up, even if they acted together. Mecha had also improved on his ability to split his body into many peices and allow them to grow separately from himself. He had split off a portion of himself a long time ago for Cortana, and now Cortana and her mount were at Tier 2 by themselves as well!

In total, Mecha had turned into 14 parts, with the 15th one being himself. The strongest of his parts was Cortana’s body, while the rest were all at peak Tier 1, or have already broken through Tier 2.

Merlin had assigned both Cortana, and the other parts of Mecha to patrol the region and maintain peace. Naturally, all the parts had taken the form of Cortana’s body, making it seem as though she was everywhere.

On the other hand, Merlin had become the mythical ‘Man on the mountain’, the lord of the all-powerful Lady in Black.