The village was in utter chaos. Everywhere you look, a fight is happening. While there are dryads that could certainly fend for themselves and even hunt monsters, that was just a handful of them compared to the number of the knights. Add that to the fact that the knights are just overall better equipped with full-plate armor and steel weapons whereas the only metallic weapon that the dryads have were their axes for wood chopping. They make their bows and clubs out of wood as they don’t have any source of metal and they don’t trade with the outside world. The only reason why the knights have not immediately taken over the village and struggled to fight the dryads was because a large portion of their forces were injured even before coming here, and those that were not injured were outside the village, corpses piled up on top of each other.

Reinhard immediately sprang up into combat as soon as he stepped into the village. He saw three dryads to his left, a woman and a child being protected by a dryad wielding a club against two injured knights.

He raised his staff and crushed the one that looked to be the less injured between the two, leaving the more injured one for the dryad. In response, the dryad nodded to him as a sign of gratitude for helping him.

Not further ahead are three knights, one appears to be dragging a female dryad by the hair. Reinhard looked at Fraenis.

“I’ll take care of him. Take down any of the other two.”

He said, Fraenis, in response, nodded to him and immediately shot her bow.

Reinhard raised the earth on the knight that was dragging the woman, his screams were loud and haunting, but amidst the noisy chaos of the entire village, it was pretty much unheard by anyone.

*Ping!*

[SYSTEM]

You have leveled up to level 16!

The last knight of the three, seeing his two other comrades lifeless on the ground, grabbed the woman and tried to threaten to kill her. Unfortunately, Fraenis’ hands were faster. She instantly shot the knight’s sword hand before he could even raise it to the woman, causing him to drop the sword and submitting himself to Fraenis’ rain of arrows.

Fraenis then hastily walked towards the scared woman.

“Are you okay? Did they do anything to you?”

She asked. The woman didn’t say anything. She was tremendously trembling and all she could muster as a reply was a nod that says “no”.

“I see. Then please hide inside your house. We’ll deal with them, trust us.”

After the woman entered her house, the two of them resumed their walk in what looks and feels like a middle of a warzone. Blood spilling everywhere, bodies falling to the ground with a thud, people screaming in pain. One could see that the scene was incredibly traumatizing for an average person.

It reminded Reinhard of those war films where the protagonist would get shell shocked while in the crossfire of bullets that flies past them with a wheezing sound.

Despite the chaos, the two of them continued to look for any dryad that might have been having a hard time and needs help. Many able-bodied dryad were successful in defending themselves against the already-injured knights, however the number pales in comparison to the amount of dryad that had already died, and continues to die where the two of them couldn’t help.

One might say that it is a futile, vain attempt and that in the end, their efforts in helping the others wouldn’t really amount to much in the long run, but they still decided to fight anyway. Fraenis shot her bow with deadly precision and blinding speed, while Reinhard casts with his staff, crushing anyone foolish enough to get near, and spraying venom on those who are still far enough from him to be a threat.

They fought there, in the middle of the battlefield, without knowing if what they’re doing is really changing things or not. Without knowing how much time has already past. Without knowing how many do they still need to kill to end this all off. They fought, until Fraenis finally runs out of arrows and Reinhard’s staves lost the glow of its orbs. Now, they were in the middle of the battlefield, with no way to defend themselves.

The knights have also seemed to notice. Five injured knights, who have probably been more injured now than they were earlier, began to circle Fraenis and Reinhard. Swords drawn and pointed towards them.

“Aye, where’s your fancy spells now boy?”

One of the knights retorted. Reinhard is unsure if he’s deliberately trying to intimidate him or if the knight’s reasoning and sanity has just been clouded by all the fighting. Either way, the fact remains. They’re now totally helpless.

Reinhard looked at his earth staff, the mana has now regenerated to 24/100 and is still increasing since it was completely depleted earlier. However, the orb is still lightless even though he should be able to cast again as every cast only uses 10 mana and the staff has more than 20.

The knight that had spoken earlier stepped forward, drawing his sword higher.

“How about we test it, aye?”

He said, looking at Reinhard straight in the eyes.

“Go ahead.”

Reinhard replied monotonously.

In a burst of movement, the knight sprinted towards Reinhard, sword’s tip pointing forwards. Reinhard held up his earth staff towards the sprinting knight and tried to bind him, yet nothing happened.

“What?”

Even though it now has more than 30 mana. Even though the target’s within the range of the spell. "Why isn’t it casting?"

He looked at the staff, trying to see what might be wrong with it, however nothing is out of the ordinary in its interface. All that’s different is that the orb isn’t alight.

“Are you telling me—“

“WATCH OUT!”

Suddenly, Fraenis’ shout snapped Reinhard back to reality, allowing him to narrowly avoid the charge of the knight. He dived unto the ground to dodge, but now he’s in a very vulnerable position.

The knight immediately regained his composure and looked at Reinhard, lying down on the ground at his back.

“Pfft. Ha ha ha ha ha!!”

He laughed.

Slowly, he began walking towards the proned Reinhard, swinging his sword in the air as to practice his chops when Fraenis blocked him in his tracks.

Before the knight could get close, Fraenis placed herself between Reinhard and the knight, hands held sideways.

“Run.”

She softly said to Reinhard.

“B-but…”

“Just go!”

She shouted.

“Aww. Isn’t that touching?”

One of the knights encircling them commented sarcastically.

“Well… it’s not my style killing defenseless people but… if that’s what you want, so be it.”

The knight currently in front of Fraenis said as he raises his sword, preparing to hack Fraenis with it.

“No! Don’t!”

Reinhard desperately shouts.

However, right before the blade successfully falls down to Fraenis, a strong gust of wind fell down from the sky.

Everyone was dumbfounded, unsure of what just happened. Then, the knight that was just about to strike Fraenis dropped his weapon. No, not just his weapon. His entire arm all the way to the shoulder dropped with it to the ground. Blood immediately gushed out of it.

“AAAAAAAGH!!?”

He screamed. He tried to block the gushing blood but the opening is just too big. His hands were barely doing anything to stop it.

“He, he, he. I haven’t done that in a long time!”

-“Yeah, very long time!”

-“That was nostalgic!”

Suddenly, a familiar, high-tuned voice could be heard coming from above. Reinhard looked at it. It took him a second for his eyes adjusts to the light of the sun, but after it does, he saw three orbs of light slowly descending towards them.

It was the sylphs.

Fraenis’ legs suddenly grew shaky and she suddenly collapsed into a kneeling position. It turns out that she wasn’t brave enough to accept death after all.

“W-what the hell is that?”

One of the knights shouted in confusion.

“What are you? Y-you’re a—“

He tried to add something to his dialogue, but was immediately silenced when a thin blast of wind suddenly sliced his head off, decapitating him.

“What are you still doing there?”

The sylph asked Reinhard, who was still prone on the ground.

“We’ll take it from here. Go ahead and find the elder.”

“Will you be okay?”

He asked the sylphs.

“Yeah, we are. We’ll take care of her too so you don’t need to worry about it.”

The sylph replied, pertaining to Fraenis who was now unmoving.

“U-uh, s-sure… Thanks.”

He stood up immediately and took one last glance on Fraenis before finally heading off.

As he walked along the village, it appeared that the numbers of the knights were diminishing.

Some knights can be seen tied up to trees and poles while the others are on the process of surrendering to the dryads.

Much of them though were dead bodies littered along the tree houses and corners.

Finally, Reinhard has reached the elder’s house. But something made him uncomfortable though. It was open.

He slowly walked in, trying to be as silent as he can. There doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary in the first room where the dining table and the chairs are.

However, when he got to the elder’s room, what he saw shocked him. The elder was sitting on the floor, leaned on his bed with blood pouring down from his guts.

To his right was a knight, wielding a sword freshly stained with blood that it’s still dripping down to the floor. The knight seemed to be searching for something on the elder’s bookshelf.

The elder sees him and shakes his head, signaling that he shouldn’t come.

Yet Reinhard ignored him however.

He looked at his earth staff and sees the orb finally lit up. The mana is now also at 100.

He pointed the staff towards the knight and released the spell.

The wooden floor beneath knight started rumbling, which made him drop whatever he was doing and be on alert. He turned towards the door and sees Reinhard standing there.

He raised his sword and immediately began to charge but only after a single step, the wooden floor beneath collapsed and a mound of rock and soil came out to grasp and crush the heavily armored knight. He struggled at first, futilely swinging his sword for naught, He spouted blood before his last breath finally escaped him. The flailings have stopped.

Reinhard withdrew the spell, causing it to return back to the ground. Surprisingly, the wooden floor that was also opened to allow the mound to rise returned back to normal as if nothing happened. However, this was the least of his worries. He approached the elder who was now smiling at him as if he’s not currently bleeding to death.

“I leave… everything up to *cough*… up to you…”

The elder said, struggling not to cough blood more than he already has.

“What? L-leave what?”

“T-the village… Please… Lead them…”

“Why me? I… I just came here a day ago! I’m not even a dryad!”

Reinhard, incredibly confused, asked.

“You have a great *cough*… potential… child. Chosen ones are… *gasps* destined for greatness…”

Reinhard was silent. He didn’t know what to say.

“You will do it… won’t you…?”

“B-but… I don’t think they will accept me…”

The elder laughed at what Reinhard said despite the pain of even just speaking.

“Ha, ha… They will, child. The World Tree itself accepted you…”

“…”

"Me? Lead?"

He thought for a while.

"The... *cough* The humans now know... where the Garden is... Continuing to hide is futile. Right now... What they need is... someone.... some... someone strong."

The elder slowly raised his left hand and touched Reinhard's shoulder with it.

"And... who would be best... other than the possessor?"

"..."

"I'm sorry... for leaving this much responsibility to you..."

“No, it's fine... I’ll do it. I promise. I will lead them, and bring them along with me to my greatness. And then… maybe… maybe I can erase the sins of the dryads.”

The elder looked at him with joyous eyes. Reinhard's slighty red-brown eyes began to shimmer with liquid.

“That will really make me happy. I long for the day when… children will be born without... without carrying the sins of their ancestors. Oh, and please… lay me… on earth…. *gasps* Thank… you…”

The elder says as his eyes slowly close until they no longer opened anymore.