Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

125. Perilous Fate of the Elves

Night fell on the city, but inactivity did not. Refugees were pouring in. Many of them wore smiles, it wasn't that they weren't sad about losing their homes and loved ones, but being welcomed inside the infamous City of Perils was a luxury they hadn't thought possible only hours earlier.

There weren't many humans, the refugees seemed to all come from the forests of the Nefelhiem found on the west end of the southern continent. That's where many other elves lived. It was much safer than the dangerous forests Calphian was expanding through so the population of the southern elves were much more numerous than their northern cousins. Until recently that is.

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The Demon army had cut through and around the Human kingdoms at the southwest corner of the continent and were only slowed by the men of Yore when expanding East and the Dwarven Fortresses when expanding North. Some human from Yore who had survived the first assault of the Demons was commissioned to warn the dwarves and elves. Thanks to him the Dwarven nations that heeded his warning fortified their defenses and evacuated their non-combatants. Those that didn't fell swiftly. That created enough gaps in the mountains for the remaining fortresses to be surrounded. None of them fell easily but the Demon army predicted all of their countermeasures and crushed each in turn with minimal casualties on the demon side.

By the time the human and refugees reached the Nefelhiem forest they were already receiving reports of the impenetrable fortresses of the dwarven kingdoms becoming mausoleums of corpses. The elves of Nefelhiem banded together at an emergency council, they were under no impression they could win against the might of an army that could Defeat an impenetrable mountain range of seasoned warriors.

They knew of only one place they could go. A move of desperation that would as likely end in their deaths as be their salvation. Only one fortress in all the world was rumored to be even more invincible than the Dwarven Fortresses. Only one fortress had ever stood against the sieging waves of the infamous Great Ones. In the dangerous forests around the Death filled dark woods only one place thrives.

The City of Perils.

It was their hope and their nightmare. The Queen was a warrior-princess plucked from the heathen elven race of God-slayers and Dragon eaters that reigned in the Dark Forest. Their walls were protected by the immortal Valkyries, their buildings were filled with armored specters, man-eating sirens lurked in every pond and stream that flowed through the city, their skies were lit day and night by burning fire birds, their alleyways were littered with voracious slimes, their streets were filled to the brim with the dangerous creatures of the forest who came and went as they saw fit, if that wasn't enough there were even tales of Vanishing foxes with multiple tails. Those powerful monsters that could defeat a full grown warrior in their infancy.

The stories didn't end there, those were just the tales of the creatures in the city. The elves that resided in that city of death were just as fearsome. With a navy hardened by years of combat with the pirates and ghosts of the Cursed Segaro sea, Mad warriors who fought alongside the Valkyries and their undead hordes, and lowest of Mages who were each the equal to the Archwizard of Nefelhiem. Their Army remained from the age of raids, veteran soldiers who stared down Great Ones. Greater still were their renowned Elites comprised of only the most promising. And if that was overlooked, it was rumored that every citizen, even the women and children, were as mighty as ten Nefelhiem soldiers, while every beast and tree was watched over by the largest concentration of Archdruids in the world.

A city that monstrous could only look to the strongest to guide them. The Sylvan Knights. Six pillars of Invulnerable power holding up the God-Slayer Princess who ruled the entire City with undisputed authority.