Silva paused and looked at the two of them. He thought of a way to get out of them following, but anything would just lead to a fight, so he had to let it be.
“Alright, you guys can come with me, but under no occasion should any of you do or say anything without my permission.
We will be closer to the demon kings than we have ever been, and that in itself could spell certain troubles for us.
But since you both will be there, I’d like you to watch something. I want you to watch closely for powerful beings,” Silva said and walked past them.
“You should follow. We are leaving immediately unless you want me to simply leave,” Silva said.
They arrived at the main hall. Amber had set up a formation for long-distance teleportation. She would need high amounts of mana to teleport, and she planned for Silva to do that.
But since Lily was here, she would be the one to do it.
They all got into the formation, and Lily started activating it. The formation lit up brightly, and they were immediately teleported from the place, and the light died down.
—
The teleportation took them right to the gates of the Elvish Empire. But it was no simple gate. The empire was gated all around by trees so massive that even a dragon would find it difficult to fly over.
“The gates are the only way to get into the empire. The empire is through the gates. The forest is the greatest defense that stands around the empire,” Amber said, pointing to the cluster of trees.
“Uhm, I can’t see any gate,” Silva pointed out. Your next read is at empire
“Well, it looks like there is nothing, but allow me to explain. Of all races, the Elvish Empire has the most advanced technology and the world tree.
And this makes us want to protect them and make sure that no one would be able to steal them or a part of them.
So they channeled the power of the world tree and created this massive forest around the empire. But the forest fence is not the only issue, as this forest serves as a home for monsters,” Amber said.
“Monsters? So they are keeping other races in this forest?” Lily asked.
“No, not other races, real monsters, beings created from pure darkness and chaos. The world tree creates and destroys; it birthed the forest, but it also created the monsters to go with it.
Powerful beings that even the strongest elves would not want to cross paths with. But they aren’t something to be worried about.
The world tree made those monsters stay inside the forest, and they won’t be able to leave. But all that is beside the point; the tree still created a way for people to get into the empire.
And that is what we call the gate, and the gate can only be opened from inside and outside at the same time.”
Amber walked close to the forest and placed her hand on the ground, and a magical circle lit up.
“They have accepted my request. The gates will open now, and we have to move quickly. The gates close as they open,” Amber said.
The trees started parting, and Amber walked in, followed by everyone. As soon as they got past any tree, the trees shifted back into place and blocked their way out while the way forward opened up.
As they walked through, Silva kept looking into the forest at his sides, and he could sense powerful life forms inside.
The aura they gave off was something that he would only sense from the strong, like Drake and Lily. That meant there were beings worth fighting inside this forest, and Silva had the temptation to just jump in and fight.
But he didn’t want to risk being trapped in the forest for years because that would definitely suck. So he kept walking.
After over thirty minutes of walking, they arrived at the last segment, and the trees parted ways to reveal a small army of elves on white horses with gold armor.
The elves had gold and green armor on their bodies, with bows and swords on their backs. They stood in formation, and when they saw Amber, they all came forward and bowed to her.
“Welcome back, Lady Amber. Preparations have been made for you and your guests to get into the capital in two days’ time,” the lead elf said.
Currently, the place they arrived at seemed like a port city. It was a beautiful place with lots of normal houses.
Though Silva had half expected to see lots of tree houses, this looked like a normal city to him, with elves carrying out business.
“Uhm, why does it have to take two days?” Silva asked.
“The capital is quite the journey from here, and even in the Elvish Empire, we have bandits and thieves, with our own monsters and abominations.
You are my guests, and the empire would love to keep you safe, so we will be using the safest and longest path to the capital,” Amber said.
“Yes, as Lady Amber has said, we will be starting from the portal center that has been prepared here, and it would take us to the wilderness to the north. We will move on horseback from there to the next city, where we will spend the day while waiting for the best portal to be prepared,” the leader of the elves said.
“Hmm, makes sense. I can already guess that the Elvish Empire is extremely massive, so traveling across would take time.
Though I expected that Amber would be allowed to teleport straight to the capital,” Silva said.
“Well, alone I can, but with guests, I have to follow the procedure,” Amber said.
Some elves immediately brought some horses to them. As Silva collected his horse, his hand touched the hand of the elf that brought it.
The elf immediately had a disgusted expression on his face after touching Silva, who looked at this and smiled.
“This is about to be a fun journey,” Silva thought.