Humidity stifled the air, an unavoidable misfortune to the citizens of New Athens when their primary source of fresh water was scant a few miles outside of its borders.

The Rivan Estate was even worse off as Lake Atuche was at the edge of the city’s limits, close enough for the humidity to be considered unbearable to many.

Between the Lake and the Estate though lush emerald woodlands reclaimed the world, the many towns and smaller city’s of America now rusting away as nature made it hers once again.

Through the thick foliage on a higher branch, an elf blended into the tall oaks around her.

Or at least it should have been so if a certain cultivator hadn’t been sending cautious glances in her general direction while performing a bloody sideshow act with the insufferable human that had somehow summoned her.

The comedy that they called training had just ended and Alice was now watching Lucas trudge back the mansion, the limp in his step evident as he traversed the terrain.

As to how she and multiple others had been summoned by a stranger with less mana than even a stray wolf, she could not comprehend. It was tremendously expensive mana-wise to bridge the gap between the worlds, so much so that her people would only summon Eleven heroes from other worlds to either help against the Demon uprisings, or if the royal bloodline latent talent was growing thin. It wouldn't be a lie to say that all elven royalty were descended from powerful heroes.

While Alice was pleased to have found out her latent talent classified her as a Hero like her ancestors, the summoning came with an unfortunate side effect of dropping her personal strength tremendously.

Fallen from her Elder Level strength, she was a shadow of her former self. If that were all it wouldn't have been so bad, but she could barely understand the whispers of this new world, childish and intelligible like the mumbling of a baby learning its first few words.

She stared down at her aldorwood knife, unadorned and simplistic the long, slightly curved blade was the only physical weapon she currently had with her, bow and short sword absent from her person.

Her rage flared at what she could only assume was the reason for her ‘death’ as the personality matrix Winstone had told them.

A diplomatic trip to deal with humans.

As the 8th Princess of the Evergreen, she held no real political power besides receiving recognition for her heritage.

Though as the 75th Elder (despite her youth) she had commanded respect as a Mana Ocean class bearer, a rarity only ever seen thrice before in her worlds recorded history.

With a mana pool large enough to equal over twenty elders, she could hear the World Mother’s mutters clearer and gain her grace and acceptance faster than almost anyone else. While at the time she was not the most powerful as she still had much to learn. The Third Elder had even told her in private at her acceptance ceremony that with little more than a century and a half the Alice was likely to surpass all the Elders in power.

Now while still having the same amount of mana she was a prisoner to its immenseness as this new World Mother or Child as it was starting to feel spoke differently, and made her once calm pool a roiling tempest. At most she could maintain control over 10%, any more and the leakage would rend her flesh apart.

Still, she had three of the things that made her a great diplomatic envoy. She was royalty, her power was to always be considered, and she was utterly devoted to her family and race.

So she had been set to make some deals with the mighty Dwarven Dunstone Empire who had recently opened their borders to humans, which in turn allowed for the tragic kidnapping and enslavement of Elves who lived along the border.

Her people would not stand for this, so they sent Alice to deal with the Dwarven Officials by Ternground, a massive city built into the mountain by the short hairy men.

She was to force them to reject any human presence 50 miles of the Evergreen Kingdom, or her father would send waves to Ranger elves to wipe out any and all humans who so much as came within visible distance of the borders. That was likely to strike a blow with the dwarves dealings with the humans.

Alice remembered the trip perfectly, She had traveled with haste along with around a dozen guards to the Dwarven City.

From there, her memories gave way to darkness. She didn’t know exactly what had happened, but it seemed like she and her guards were all captured and killed, if not by the humans then by the dwarves themselves.

Though due to her personal strength, she could only presume that the accursed humans had sent one of their demi's to deal with her.

The minutes were ticking by and despite the weak cleanse spell Alice was constantly casting, the sour scent of her sweat kept creeping its ugly head and she realized she would have to somehow obtain more clothes or risk having her leather’s and garments gain a stench that even her spell couldn't get rid of.

It was as she was about to leave her tree when the World Child whispered into her ears like a young girl's mischievous ramblings it warned of a presence.

Immature as it might be it still whispered its guidance to Alice, which she was grateful for.

Though as to what could avoid an Elves naturally powerful hearing, she could not discern.

“So this is where the little elf sits. Did you enjoy the spectacle of my foolish disciple's convictions?”

The voice came from everywhere, making it impossible for Alice to pinpoint its exact location, but she wasn’t a greenhorn.

She listened in further for the whispers of the world, its youthful laughter informing her that she could not locate disembodied voice’s owner. Not that it mattered, she knew who had shown up.

“I am no little elf human, and unlike that idiot that punched the tree, no chains are preventing me from striking you down.” She might not be allowed to hurt Lucas, but who did this woman think she was to show up and treat her so.

“Ah, but that's where you're wrong little elf, the thing disallowing you from harming me is your inability to injure me.” A light chuckled echoed around, its reverberations untraceable even to her regular senses.

It was a good thing the trees also whispered to her.

“Astral, Bow!” With an incantation, usually something she would never have had to do before she conjured a weapon of pure mana, mana expensive to the point that she felt her available reserves drop an entire percent.

An arrow was knocked and immediately sent spiraling towards the north at an average looking oak, no different really from all the surrounding trees.

“Oh, that is impressive, for you to discover the location of my Illusion array so quickly. Though it is to be expected from the race which the Earth adores.” Chills ran down Alice's neck as she took the mana that formed her bow and turned it into a pair of long thin blades. Her temporary weapon striking out in a wide circle around her, cleaving through branches and foliage around her while giving her full view of her surroundings.

Then she saw her.

Xue stood there on a branch in which even a small squirrels weight might prove to be too much.

“Why do you lurk in the shadows, taunting me, if you wish to fight, then I will give you the pleasure of defeat.” She could not allow any further down talk about her race, or even herself. Her pride would not accept it.

“Where did the calm and collected woman from the first day go? Did my little disciple's wisdom truly set you on edge?”

“If it weren't for this Pact, I would have long sent him to his grave for his disrespectful attitude towards my people.” This was wholly true, evermore after realizing that her death which ripped her from her family and home was due to humans, her hatred had bloomed to the point where just looking at Lucas set her blood boiling.

Xue didn’t speak, her golden gaze tearing at Alice, a feeling that reminded her of her father's presence while at Elven Court.

“You do not lie….. So I will only warn you once, make a move on my disciple and I will eradicate you as the heavens did to your overly-proud race. Learn to respect even the weak, as you never know when one day you’ll be the one on the other side.” Xue turned her back to Alice, dismissing her like a Lord might a servant.

That was what finally set Alice off. Anger, disgrace, and lastly distress was let loose out into world, the thoughts that she had no real way to get back to her family digging deep in at heart.

Whispers turned into bellows as the World Child sensing her emotional outcry, decided to assist her.

The wind rose from beneath Alice sending her flying towards Xue, who noticed that the trees weren't exactly acting like typical trees anymore as the branches curved to block her escape routes.

“Essence, Attunement!” The shocked look on Xue's face brought delight to Alice, her blade extending towards Xue's neck, looking for a quick end to the conflict.

Xue proved that it wouldn't be so simple though as a hard sheen took her eyes, the danger she faced approaching, yet she made not a move.

The blades sharp tip approached, promising death to anything in its path.

Then Alice's senses lost their touch on reality, as she saw Xue disappear before her eyes.

Barely stopping her momentum she watched regretfully as she killed the 2 meters thick oak tree, as her blade, despite not having touched the tree, had sent a residual mana attack, shattering the wood.

The wind rose once again, but this time, it wasn’t due to Alice.

Xue stood floating in the air, a light trickle of sweet on her now sickly pale skin. In her hand, a Ice saber was brandished before she made her move.

With incredible speeds, the two young maidens struck each other, Elven Steel on Eternal Ice.

With her longer reach and evidently greater skill Xue had the advantage, but whatever she had done to avoid the surprise attack had taken a bit of mana out of her if the rate at which she was devouring the surrounding mana was any indication.

This is where Alice's absurd mana pool came in handy. In a battle of attrition she could flood the surroundings with her mana infused attacks, making absorbing it much more difficult.

Xue blade curved in the air, a snake following it's master's instructions, striking true and fast, while Alices own blade closer resembled a savage wolf, jaws searching for the belly or jugular of its enemy.

They disengaged only to quickly return to the fray, both crimson-faced and breathing heavily. Eventually, they broke free from the woodlands and found themselves in a clearing with a half-mile wide and long lake.

Cloths now cut revealing dangerous amounts of skin the two women still wildly struck at each other. Alice, in the middle of dodging one of Xue lunges felt a pain strike her. A floating ice dagger that Xue had been hiding the entire fight had finally struck.

Holding her side, Alice quickly examined the gash that Xue had just left on her hip. Her blood was flowing, but it felt cold like a winter stream.

“What did you do to me!” She could feel her blood begin to chill, her massive mana pool burning furiously to hold back the strange poison, yet it was as effective as a match trying to warm a man in a tundra.

Xue's ragged breathing slowly returned to normal as she watched Alice fall to her knees, holding her shoulders shivering uncontrollably.

“Killing you won’t do anything, so I thought of an alternative solution. I cast your yang out of your body, so be thankful Lucas needs you alive. We'll now see how your pride stands to being healed by the man you, so do hold in contempt.

Dread overwhelmed her as she felt even the world's worried whispers leave her, the blowing wind the last effort it could give as it lost its connection to Alice.

The cold came and took her consciousness, its cold tendrils spreading throughout her chest.

This defeat was shameful, and now her future was held in the hands of a human.