King of Mean

*Tremble* *Tremble*

The walls and the ceiling of a cave shake as the last stones that kept Elwin's clan in the dark abyss for ten years fall.

Some rays of light enter through the cracks opening in the ceiling and illuminate the dust falling on top of approximately a thousand people inside the cave.

It is easy to see that those thousand people are of the same race. They are tall with thin body anatomy, white hair, and gray skin, also with long, thin, and pointed ears.

None of them seems to be over fifty or under twenty, and the characteristics that really change between them, in addition to facial features, are the eyes. Most of them have blue eyes, but some have eyes that vary from white to bluish-gray and similar.

But one of them, the one behind the group, has frightening red eyes like a demon.

Elwin had the best ten years of his life in the darkness of that abyss, and he never missed the light like everyone else around him; after all, he did not like the light even before he was trapped in that cave.

But he has no choice but to leave the comfort of the darkness now, whether it is to seek revenge or because of the pair of crystal blue eyes of the girl who holds his hand beside him.

"We are finally free from this torment!" Ilyana, Elwin's beautiful younger sister, comments in an enthusiastic tone as she watches the falling rocks and holds his hand.

"I guess so..." Elwin responds in a pessimistic tone.

"What's bother you, little brother?" A woman in front of Elwin asks him. She is his step-sister, Fara.

Elwin has no easy way of explaining that the mysterious voices in his head continue to whisper to him that something is wrong, but he still tries.

"This prison was made with one of the strongest enchantments of all time to last for hundreds of years, so, strangely, this is falling apart after just ten years." He explains.

Allynna, the mother of Elwin and Ilyana, makes a thoughtful expression while holding her daughter's other hand. "So, do you think something bad has happened to our people?"

Dark sparkles run on Elwin's bloody-red eyes while he speaks coldly. "The Elves are no longer our people. They have confined us here and now... we are something different."

Fara makes a confused expression. "But the question remains, why is the enchantment failing so soon? Perhaps the elves' enemies have beaten them?"

"Or maybe they think it's no longer worth it to keep us alive and want to kill us." Elwin thinks out loud.

Galarel, Fara's mother, makes an expression of concern while holding her daughter's hand. "Maybe someone came to rescue us... we are still the Winter Elves' royal family."

"No, we are not," Elwin speaks again in a cold tone. "We were betrayed and banned because of other people's ambition and fear. Can't you understand that in ten fucking years?"

Allynna quickly pulls Elwin's ear and scolds him. "Don't talk like that to Galarel. Internal conflicts in our family won't do us any good."

Elwin could easily dodge his mother's 'attack,' but he respects her and loves her very much to avoid the scolding. He makes a false expression of pain and apologizes.

Galarel looks into Elwin's scary eyes. "Don't worry, Tasar and your elder brother will protect us if there is any danger outside."

"Yes... I hope so." Elwin responds again in a pessimistic tone.

Tasar, the father of Elwin, Ilyana, Fara, and their group's leader, stands in front of the others and beside his eldest son, Rennyn.

*Tremble* *Booom*

A big rock falls, opening a passage enough for some people to pass at once, making many of those people happily smile.

"I'll go ahead to see if the area is clean." Rennyn, a man who looks to be in his thirties but is actually a little over two hundred years old, speaks as he crosses quickly through the passage.

Tasar, a man over five hundred years old who appears to be forty-five, smiles, proud of the courage of his eldest son. Even though they have suffered such a betrayal, he is still grateful that the emperor has spared his greatest source of satisfaction: Rennyn, one of the most talented young Elves of all time.

The sunlight hurts Rennyn's eyes as he uses his hand to cover his face and leaves the cave.

"Ahhh... how nice it is to breathe fresh air." He exclaims as his eyes get used to the light again. Ten years in the darkness of that abyss almost drove him crazy.

Looking around, he feels anger and sadness as he notices that where once it was the Frozen Wood, home of the Winter Elves, is now a horrible desert, full of lifeless mountains.

Using his senses fifty times more powerful than the senses of a normal person, he tries to see or hear any source of danger and finds nothing but wind and dust in a two-mile radius around his position.

"Did you find anything?" Tasar asks as he carefully leaves the cave. He is not ashamed to trust in his son to defend them because that is the future of every father, to be overcome by his children. Good fathers, at least.

"It looks like everything is fine; call the others," Rennyn responds while continuing to analyze the area.

"OK." Tasar returns to the cave and begins to guide his people out. Quickly, those people who no longer want to stay a second inside the dark cave come out to be sad at the sight of the vast and lifeless desert.

Almost all of those thousand people leave the cave, but Elwin does not move towards the passage, leaving his mother and sisters concerned.

How could he move while he is almost going crazy with so many voices whispering and screaming inside his head?

His eyes go completely black as he tries to understand what the voices want to say. [NO!! Don't go outside... you shouldn't go... this is a trap... go back to where it's safe... IN THE DARK... yes, in the darkness is safe...]

Elwin tries to speak in his mind with the whispering voices. [What do you want me to do? I have to go! I have to get revenge on them... I have to kill everyone!!]

The voices quickly respond. [YEA!! KILL... you must kill everyone... NOT FAST!! You must make them suffer... take everything they love... see their soul burn in the cold flames...]

Elwin's perfect face remains cold and indifferent as he questions the voices. [What about the trap? Any advice?]

[The trap... yes... pain... suffering... loss... YOU WILL BLEED!! But... there is a chance... just one...] The voices pause as if they are thinking.

[What is it?] Elwin asks calmly. He already knows from his own experience that yell and get stressed with those mysterious whispering voices leads to nothing.

And the voices respond. [A path... yes, the path of the conqueror... you must trust the blu haired woman... she needs your help... make a deal...]

Elwin doesn't understand much of what the voices say. They use very different tones and accents, sometimes speaking at the same time, which is very confusing. But he is only alive because he has trusted the advice of those voices at other times and believes them.

When the voices get silent, or rather, just whispering alone words, which does not disturb him to think and act, he perceives his sister pulling him by the arm while talking to him.

"Brother! Brother!! We have to go!!" Ilyana speaks with a worried expression, as are Fara and Allynna.

"Fara, come on now!!" Galarel shouts in an authoritarian tone while next to Tasar in the passage of the cave.

The walls and ceiling of the cave start to shake violently, and Tasar is worried that everything falls in the head of his family. "Speak softly, woman, or you will kill us."

"We need to get out of here, son, or we will be stuck forever," Allynna speaks while she is also prepared to stay in the cave with Elwin if he wants to.

But he starts walking towards the passage as he prepares to feel the absurd pain that the light causes his eyes. "Alright."

However, as soon as he takes a few steps, a voice alone whispers in his mind something that shocks him. [Don't trust your brother... he envies you...]

Simultaneously, the whole floor begins to shake even more, and Elwin hears a commotion outside the cave.

Outside the cave, Rennyn starts cursing all the gods in his mind while watching an army come out from behind a mountain riding red-brown horses.

"You said there was no danger!!" A middle-aged man points to the army while blaming Rennyn.

Rennyn thinks out loud while he doesn't understand where he went wrong. "I expanded my senses to the maximum... how did I not noticed them?!?!"

The people who have just left the cave panic, not because an unknown army approaches them, but because they recognize those people.

With approximately two thousand people, the golden and red army surrounds the gray-skinned people. The people in that army are similar to the people of Elwin in terms of also having tall, thin bodies and pointed ears.

However, they have beautiful tanned skin, red hair, and eyes with colors varying from red to yellow. Also, they don't look as thin as Elwin's group as they are healthy and have not spent ten years eating Kobolds and rats in that cold cave.

The leader of that army is a beautiful woman with long red hair and golden yellow eyes. All her features are perfect, just like her stunning curvy body.

Mounted on a red and black unicorn with flames coming out of Its paws, eyes, and mane, she looks at Rennyn with an expression of disgust.

"It's been a while, Rennyn, son of the blizzard." The woman speaks in an authoritarian and proud tone.

"After all we've been through... do you still want to kill us, Valyra, princess of the sun?" Rennyn asks as the air seems to start to freeze around him.

"Hahaha..." Valyra starts to laugh sarcastically. "Do you really think your shitty life means anything to me?!"

Those words pierce Rennyn's heart like blazing blades. He wants to hate Valyra, but even after everything she has done to his people, he still loves her. [How not to love the most beautiful and talented woman in existence?]

Rennyn tries to contain his feelings and focuses on getting his people out of that situation alive. "Valyra, if you don't want our death, what the hell do you want from us?!? Can you really deny that you were not afraid of my talent and that my family would become more powerful than all the others?"

Valyra starts to laugh again as her soldiers stand with neutral expressions. "Oh, Rennyn... did your ego eat your fucking brain? I always made it very clear what I wanted from the beginning. I was the first person to suggest a deal that would unite our people. I would even give you the damn crown just to get what I wanted."

"No... no, that was a lie... a dirty plan!!" Rennyn starts to shake his head with a confused expression. "You weren't serious about that deal... how could you want to marry him?!?!"

Valyra stops smiling and is furious at Rennyn's words. "Why wouldn't I want to marry him??!?!"

"Because my brother is a sick person!!" Rennyn cries out as his heart aches with jealousy and anger. "Damn, he even fears the light!! How could you, the first heir to the Summer Elves' court, a devotee of the Sun God, would marry a sick and weak boy who fears the light?!?!

She spits on the ground. "You don't know what you're talking about. You're blind, as everyone is. Tell me, Rennyn, have you ever fought your brother? Have you seen him playing chess? Have you seen him kill?"

Before he can answer, Valyra continues. "I saw him kill three fourth-cycle people twenty years ago. I saw him win chess games against the best ancient masters in the Emerald Citadel; I saw him kill my father and brother to protect his mother. Your brother is really sick, and he doesn't like the light, but that doesn't stop him from being the most handsome, sexy, intelligent, strong, and brutal man I know."

Rennyn feels like his heart is being shattered by Vaylra's words. He should be concerned for the safety of himself and his people, but all he can feel now is jealousy of his brother.

Although Elwin is the son of a concubine and has always been in a bad situation due to his illness, while Rennyn is the eldest son of his father's main wife, as well as the pride of the clan as one of the most talented people of all time, Rennyn was still jealous of his little brother.

Rennyn was jealous of Elwin at first for being very handsome, then for having a lot of affection from his sisters and having a kind and loving mother who always took care of him. But now, Rennyn is furious at his brother for stealing the heart of the only woman he ever loved.

Valyra likes to see the suffering in Rennyn's expression and tries to torment him more because of his cruel words about Elwin. "I have been watching and following him since I was ten years old. I always knew there would never be a man more perfect for me than him. And now I came here to take him as my husband, and together we will lead all the elves against the damn cultivators."

Rennyn ignores the fact that he doesn't understand what cultivators are because he can't think of anything but beating his brother to death.

Seeing that he doesn't seem to be wanting to cooperate, Valyra signals to an old elf in a red robe beside her, and he immediately nods.

The elf quickly becomes a fireball and flies towards Rennyn. The other people step back in fear as the fireball hits Rennyn's chest, knocking him to the ground.

Rennyn tries to get up, but the middle-aged elf quickly grabs his shoulder, and he feels a lot of pain immobilizing his body.

The elf doesn't try to hurt him and just restrain him. "Don't be stupid like before, Rennyn. You and your people can get out of here alive and choose the next hole to hide in. Just give us the boy, or do you want to see me kill your mother and sister before everyone else?"

Rennyn tries to stay calm and organize his mind. If he tries to kill Elwin now, he and all his people will die to injure some of Valyra's soldiers, but if he gives Elwin to her, there will still be a future for everyone. A future where he can become stronger in order to kill Elwin and force Valyra to belong to him.

"Alright, I'll give him to you!!" Rennyn shouts at Valyra.

Valyra nods. "Great! I also want his sisters and mother; the rest of you can go your way."

"No!!!" Rennyn's fist freeze, and he punches the middle-aged elf's chest. That elf's blood splashes, but he quickly holds Rennyn again and presses his face against the ground.

"They are my sisters!! They are MINE, and I will not give them to you!!!" Rennyn screams while he can't get rid of the grip of that middle-aged elf. He may be incredibly powerful and talented, but that elf is the oldest living ancestor of the Summer Elves clan and one of the strongest elves today.

Avourel, the middle-aged elf, pushes Rennyn's head further against the ground, making crack sounds. "You have no choice. Give them to us now, or everything will be done for you."

Rennyn starts to cry tears of anger, but without any choice, he gives up. "Alright!! You can have them!!!"

"Tsk..." As soon as Rennyn speaks those words, everyone hears a loud mocking sound. Then Elwin comes out of his people, trying to use his hands to protect his face from sunlight, which hurts his skin and seems to burn his eyes. He looks at his brother with an expression of disgust.

"I could forgive you for giving up about me, I was actually about to do this, but I wanted to wait and see if you would sacrifice someone else from our people... how could you do this to our sisters? And my mother?!?!?!" Elwin stops a few meters from Rennyn and Avourel.

While everyone can feel the coldness and anger at the same time in the tone of Elwin, dark clouds start to appear from nowhere to block the sun, an event that never occurred in that place after it becomes a desert.

"Hahahaha... I missed you so much!!" Valyra starts to laugh genuinely as her heart beats faster just by seeing and hearing her lover.

Elwin smiles sinisterly at Valyra. "I can solve this... I will heal your longing for me while I disembowel you and drink your dirty blood."

"..." The people of Elwin, as well as the soldiers of Valyra, are silent, shocked by his bold words. Rennyn is extremely angry at his brother for treating the woman he loves so badly.

But Valyra laughs even more. "Hahaha... hell yeah, I missed this shitty personality of yours too. I should kill you for those words, but it can't be helped. You're the only man who can get me that wet."

On the top of a mountain half a mile away, a group of people observes the conflict from afar. Their leader, a beautiful young woman with blue hair, carefully analyzes Elwin's body.

"I can't blame her; he also makes me wet..." The blue-haired woman thinks out loud.

"Elder sister Miu!!!" A young girl exclaims out in surprise as she tries to ignore the fact that she also finds Elwin so fucking attractive.