Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"Likewise, you insane king, likewise." I smiled back at him, although mine was obviously tenser than his.

"... I see you've made a mess of my castle." He spoke softly as he maintained his smile while slowly descending. This guy's mana control sure was amazing to be able to float so flawlessly like that.

"My castle now." I grinned condescendingly upon him.

"I didn't expect you to be so bold." He landed with a soft thump just a few meters in front of us.

I instantly held my breath as my back tensed up upon seeing him up close. He didn't do anything yet, but his presence alone instigated fear inside me.

"Your fault for thinking I'm a soft tofu." I talked back.

"Soft-- Puhahaha!" General Zhang broke out in laughter, making me flinch in shock.

"You-- Don't joke around in this situation!" I poked his shoulder in annoyance. This man seriously feared nothing, huh?

"But you started the joke! Soft--soft tofu... Ahahahha!" He continued laughing while I just facepalmed.

Well, although I said that, his laughter actually made me ease up a bit...

"I trust you have a business with me?" The calm elf king smiled at me, attracting my attention once again, "isn't that why you put up this big show?"

I gulped and took a deep breath to calm my nerves again before speaking. He was right. I came here for one specific thing. I should focus, especially if I wanted to finish this in just five minutes.

"I want to offer you a proposal," I started speaking, "I know you have a lot of ancient scrolls stashed in your treasury. I want you to trade that with the lives of your people."

"Hmm? The lives of my people?" He raised an eyebrow, "are you that confident that you hold the lives of my people in your hand?" He asked, still with a smile. But this time, for some reason, I felt chills down my spine.

"Yes. Will you accept?" I frowned and tightened my fist, trying to not take a step back. Chae, don't you dare be intimidated by this clown.

"No one is allowed to hold my people in their hand, except for me, their rightful King." He opened his eyes as I saw a malicious glint inside his beautiful jade green eyes.

... He said 'King' instead of himself. It sure was scary, how strong his ideal was.

"You are mistaken if you think I'd fall for your threat," he chuckled slowly, "but you caught my attention with the scrolls."

I stayed silent and waited for him to continue what he was saying while I watched his body language started to change. Good, although it may sound bad, if he willingly raised his guard against us, that meant he was starting to take us seriously.

"I know some stuff," I took a step forward, earning myself an amused smirk from the blonde elf king, "you wanna know who told me about that stuff?" I grinned.

"Hmm~" I felt his mana rose slowly, as if he was trying to slowly mess with my brain.

"Your dead baby brother told me. Isn't that wonderful news to you?" I scoffed, "finally, the little brother that's always been better than you in terms of gaining support and love from your 'subjects' is dead."

"... So you saw," he paused for a bit before continuing, "I wonder just how far did you see?" He leaned in closer to me, "how much of me did the crest show you, and how much of me did he treasure inside his heart?"

"Enough for me to know that you will never pick those meaningless ancient scrolls over the lives of your subjects." I stood still without backing away.

He was a bit off the mark, since I knew about the ancient scroll during my time in the weird white room, not from the flashbacks. And I also knew that the elves hadn't been able to figure out what those scrolls were for, so they kinda just kept it there, without knowing that they contain some pretty sweet stuff.

"You seem confident. What more do you have in store?" He questioned further.

Finally, the question I was waiting for.

"Aside from this castle," I smirked, "your wells are mine now, too."

"You--!?" He flinched for the first time since we had met, and for a second there, I felt like his mana flicked a little.

Good, good. Be alert. Be doubtful. Be scared.

I couldn't help but grin at the thought of him losing his composure, "you can tell your subordinates--sorry, I mean your subjects, since you look at them that way, to check all three of your wells."

"... So you can freeze from a long distance." He frowned.

"I guess." I shrugged him off and tilted my head while grinning.

Actually, I couldn't exactly 'freeze' something from a long distance. Especially not something that wasn't even in my vision. But the practical thing I noticed this morning when I was training at dawn while the others were asleep, was that my ice could be extended.

It was similar to how Firiell could summon a branch on top of a branch, I guess? Anyway, that was the exact same technique I used when I extended my ice from the castle gate's wall all the way to the whole castle.

The reason I dropped a small ice shard into the well was that usually, ice shards have less density than water, hence why it would float on top. And according to the orc, they only scooped up water at midnight, like when we first caught that fingerless orc, which was still a few hours from now. So, my shard should still be floating nicely on top of the water inside those wells.

With just a little bit of effort, I expanded the shard until the whole top layer of the well was frozen still.

"Now that I've frozen your entire water supply, surely you will agree to my request?" I continued pushing.

"Wh-what!? So that was why we went to visit all those wells..." Firiell exclaimed in surprise.

"I... I didn't even think of that." Jeanne muttered in disbelief.

Well, of course she wouldn't. This was basically a foul play, endangering the lives of innocent elf villagers. Oh well, extreme situations called for extreme measures.

The elf king raised his eyebrows as he noticed their shock, and frowned a bit, as if thinking about something.

Nice, their responses looked genuine, this was the importance of not telling my friends about this plan. Because, their shock would make it appear as if I had really frozen the entire well, when I actually only froze the top layer.

"Hmm, interesting plan you have there, human," he chuckled, "but we still have--"

"We've poisoned your lake with lead, so don't even start." I cut him off and gave general Zhang a little grin, which he returned with a cheeky wink.

The elf king's eyebrow twitched slightly as he brought his hand to his chin, supporting it, "now that's some predicament we're in, huh?"

"Sure is. Just give up, this kingdom is located in the middle of nowhere, you won't get water supply from anywhere else before your people start dying." I smirked and tried my best to sound confident, even though my heart was beating like crazy right now. C'mon, just accept!

"... But why shouldn't I just kill all of you right now?" An evil smirk appeared on his face, as he stared at us with his icy cold glare.

"Pfft-- Hahaha! So you really don't know!" This time, I was the one who laughed instead of general Zhang.

"What are you talking about?" Erenduill questioned. I could sense his wariness from the tone of his voice. Great.

"You," I pointed at him, "you've never absorbed a crest before, haven't you?"

"... It does not concern you." He frowned.

"Oh, Erenduill, that's what happens when you only study from past experiments, but never actually get some hands-on experience." I explained, referring to the experiments they did on themselves and on humans during their research about crests.

"Are you claiming that you know more than I do?" He was now looking visibly upset.

"Considering that I'm a human, which you didn't study thoroughly, and the fact that I did absorb a crest," I took a step forward and poked his chest, "yes. There's something that I know, which you don't."

Suddenly, he went quiet, which actually surprised me. For once, this cheeky king was at a loss for words. But even though nothing came out of his mouth, I was sure that countless things were racing in his mind right now. Various scenarios, possibilities, theories, plans, you name it.

He was the type who would proceed after thinking about it thoroughly, with careful planning, instead of acting first and think later, which suited his late brother more.

"Entertain me with your knowledge." He ever so politely gave me a smile without backing off.

"Well," I smirked, "you know that a crest is equivalent to a heart, and I've absorbed one."

He nodded in approval, following my story so far.

"So now, inside me there are two mana cores instead of one. My fire and my ice."

"I fail to see how that bothers me." He smiled sweetly at me, which just irked me more and more.

"Well, you see, normally, when someone dies, their magic just kinda disappears," I huffed, "but in my case, I have two. And I've linked both of them so that when one vanishes, the other will explode. Only one of them will vanish alongside me, and that's not the crest."

Hearing my explanation, he chuckled and said, "that's wonderf-- Wait..."

I grinned with satisfaction when I saw his eyes widened, and horror was painted all over his face.

"Yes. Kill me. Eradicate me as you see your castle explode into a pile of rubble and corpses," I laughed, "or watch your subjects die of dehydration because you can't find a water supply."

"Kkh--!" He frowned with anger, and his mana suddenly rose sharply.

"The moment my heart stops beating, so will your people's," I grabbed his hand, and placed it on my chest, "kill me, alongside with your subjects."