The Martial Unity

WHOOSH

Rui appeared back in West Genora in the blink of an eye. One moment, he was inside a cavity within Mother Maeria’s true body and, in the very next, he found himself having appeared before a much smaller Mother of Nature, in a different forest under the bright, blue sky of of the morning Sun.

Around him was a vast, endless forest with flora of a lighter shade of green, which was the tell-tale sign that he was back in West Genora. The flora of in East Genora was a much darker shade of green, something he had discovered in his attempts to escape East Genora.

The biggest difference however, was the fact that the nature around him wasn’t trying to kill him as it had been in East Genora.

It was, instead, pleasant, welcoming, and soothing.

’Welcome back, Prince Rui. I am Mother Moria of the dark elves in West Genora. You have returned to safety after three long months.’

The Mother of Nature addressed him with a tone of deep relief.

Rui smiled at her gratitude. “Thank you for teleporting me back. I have no idea how I would have managed to get back if not for you.”

’Not at all,’ her tone was gracious. ’It is our fault that you were whisked away by our former sisters. We bear responsibility for this event. We should have anticipated their malicious intentions and have taken measures to ensure that such a thing will never happen again. We have broken off ties with the light elves as civilizations. They are no longer our sisters.’

“No longer your sisters, hm?” Rui recalled Mother Maeria alluding to that.

It must have been something that the dark elves did to prove to their newest allies that they were serious about the alliance. It was also clear from Mother Moria’s tone that she hoped he didn’t resent the dark elves for their lapse in security, trying her best to take responsibility for the issue and provide concrete steps to ensure that it would never happen again.

“Looks like much has happened in the past three months,” Rui mused knowingly. “I also learned that the light elves were invaded by the giants in the time. Although…”

He smiled with amazement.

“I’m sure that’s over now.”

’Indeed, you are well-informed despite being cut-off. The light elves were invaded by the giants a little under three months ago and we have began receiving intelligence that the battle is now almost concluded as Mother Maeria herself participated in the battle, using her tremendous power to outright route the giants back to Samarkha,’ Mother Moria patiently explained. ’In those three months, we have done everything in power to locate you. We even actually tracked your general location to that of Mother Maeria’s true body, but because we didn’t have your exact coordinates, we weren’t able to teleport you back.’

“It’s fine,” Rui held a hand up. “I don’t blame the dark elves for what has happened nor do I bear any resentment for any lapses in security. I’m glad to see that you have taken measures to ensure that it won’t happen again and that you have spent the past few months searching for me aggressively. That’s enough. It is good to see that we have such a conscientious ally. I look forward to the alliance between human civilization and dark elven civilization from this day forth.”

He could clearly sense the relief in Mother Moria that his words had brought about. Even if their relationship with human civilization had managed to avoid being frayed by this event by some miracle on the side of the humans where they weren’t as angry as they could have been, it was still a relief to see that the prime victim himself didn’t bear any resentment to the dark elves.

With how much power Rui had within human civilization, it would have been easy for him to sway the sentiment that human civilization bore towards dark elven civilization. The fact that he was relatively calm about it was a pleasant surprise to Mother Moria.

“RUIIIII!!!”

A smile emerged on his face as he turned to find a gushing Amare rushing towards him at top speed. It was clear that she had begun running to his location the moment she had been informed that he had been brought back to West Genora.

Her amber eyes were teary while her bronze skin was flushed red, she rushed in, leaping at him as her arms reached out to him longingly.

THUD!

She crashed into him with heavy momentum, suffocating him with a grip of her hug. “You came back…! You finally came back!”

Rui smiled as his arms wrapped around her, feeling her warmth and her pounding heart through his chest.

“It’s good to be back.”

Tears leaked from her eyes as she buried her face into his chest silently, unable to even utter a word with how choked with emotion she was. She simply pulled him in tighter, straining his spine with her powerful physicality as she refused to let go.

In that moment, Rui couldn’t help but feel guilty for a moment as he thought about how much stress he had put her through in the past three months with his battle and his subsequent disappearance.

Especially when he knew he was going to be ambushed.

Of course, in his defense, he hadn’t expected that he would be teleported into East Genora by their Mothers of Nature. Had he foreseen that, he probably wouldn’t have gone for it due to how much risk there was with such a dangerous ambush. He had expected the light elves to make their way into West Genora to ambush him them, but in hindsight that would have been foolish and doomed to failure. They would have never even come close to killing him had they attempted that at all.

“I’m sorry.”

His tone was gentle and sincere.

“You better be…” she glared at him through her teary, bloodshot amber eyes, before returning to hug him tightly. “I’m not letting you go ever again.”

“Eh? Ever? That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”

“Never.”

“…Are you sur—”

“Never.”