Carol, happened to be one of them.
"According to what’s been said, Her Majesty back then had several friends whom she was very close to, having a relationship with Merica and Genom that was almost inseparable. They literally lived their lives together."
"Those people were actually the confidants designated for Queen Sophie by her predecessor, the most talented new generation among the Elf Clan, and were receiving the former Queen’s tutelage together with Queen Sophie, studying magic."
"Commander Leiya and Commander Nia were also members of that group, irreplaceable childhood playmates and companions who grew up alongside Queen Sophie."
"But on the day of the life-and-death battle between the Elf Clan and the Demon Spirit Clan, aside from Queen Sophie, Commander Leiya, and Commander Nia, the rest of that group were all killed."
Carol’s voice grew somber.
"The killer was a Demon Spirit that had only been born not long before."
"This Demon Spirit possessed a Unique Skill that allowed perfect transformation into any appearance. It’s said to have taken an interest in Queen Sophie, so it used Spirit Magic to hypnotize an elf, opened the barrier to the Elf Country, and stealthily infiltrated it."
"It found Queen Sophie and secretly killed one of the Queen’s young companions, took her appearance, and lived alongside the Queen for a full hundred years."
"Then, after Queen Sophie came to regard her as an irreplaceable important friend, on the day of the battle between the two races, she finally made her move, killing several of the Queen’s companions and severely injuring the Queen and the two Garrison Commanders."
Carol’s solemn voice caused many of the elves present to draw in a sharp breath.
They had not expected that such a tragedy had occurred to the Elf Queen.
That a Demon Spirit had secretly crept up to her side, disguised herself as a friend, and lived with her for a full hundred years before betraying her just when their relationship had grown closest, committing such incomprehensibly cruel acts?
They could already imagine how shocked, disbelieving, and utterly despairing and pained Queen Sophie must have been at the time.
"Had the great war between the Elf Clan and Demon Spirit Clan not suddenly erupted, that Demon Spirit would probably have killed Her Majesty and both Garrison Commanders, wouldn’t she?"
"Furthermore, with the previous Queen, who was Queen Sophie’s Master, falling in battle, one could say Her Majesty was in excruciating pain."
"But for the sake of the Elf Clan, which needed to recuperate and be guided after the war, the Queen chose to stand up, and together with all members of the Elf Corps, purified the Land of Despair that allowed Demon Spirits to be born."
Carol spoke of the reasons behind these events.
"You must have guessed, that Demon Spirit is none other than this woman named Magie."
Upon hearing this, the eyes of the elves looking at Magie became angry and hateful.
"Truly an evil race by nature!"
"To commit such a cruel act!"
"Such beings should be completely wiped out!"
The elves vehemently voiced their indignant protests.
Carol’s gaze at Magie, too, was icy cold.
Actually, there was one more thing she hadn’t mentioned.
And that was, for the purification of the Land of Despair, Sophie had paid a tremendous price.
Because Sophie had used herself as a mediator to seal all the curses and Evil Energy from the Land of Despair inside her own body.
Now, those curses and Evil Energy had entwined themselves throughout Sophie’s entire body, turning into an extremely potent Poison, affecting her in various ways.
Usually, Sophie used her own Magic Power to suppress the curse within her, preventing it from erupting.
Still, even so, every once in a while, Sophie had to endure indescribable intense pain and suffer unimaginable agony.
Besides that, the curse had permeated Sophie’s spirit, resulting in two side effects for her.
One was that she could no longer use her Unique Skill.
The other was that she could no longer receive the effects of any Blessings she had been granted.
Thanks to this, even Sophie’s Blessings could not be replaced.
Because once Sophie’s blessing was touched, the curse would instantly run rampant, causing Sophie to die violently, Sophie could only forever bear this ineffective blessing, guarding her clan in the Elf Country.
For this matter, the Nature Goddess Nadura had also descended.
She indicated that with the power of the Fate Goddess Lidas, which was nearly omnipotent, removing this curse was not impossible.
However, since the curse was thoroughly entangled with Sophie’s entire body, even penetrating her soul, if they opted to remove this curse, Sophie might revert to her pre-reincarnation fairy period.
It meant Sophie would lose everything gained after becoming an elf, starting over from the fairy stage, slowly accumulating magic power, slowly growing, slowly reincarnating, until the day she would once again become an elf.
The Goddess had also stated,
"There are only two ways to remove this curse without any side effects,"
"One is to ask Supreme God Ominis to act, to have the truly omnipotent Goddess eliminate this curse."
"The other is to ask a Hero to act, to use the Holy Power of the Holy Sword to completely purify the curse’s power."
Neither of these methods ultimately came to fruition.
Who was Supreme God Ominis? How could it be possible for such a being to act on behalf of a mere member of the Elf Royal Family?
As for Heroes, the Elf Clan had requested the help of several, but a Hero’s strength can vary, as can the power of a Hero’s Holy Sword, and the power of those Heroes’ Holy Swords was not enough to completely purify the power of the curse, to free Sophie.
Even a thousand years ago, Hero Mithra, after performing a purification for Sophie, could not fully purify that curse power, but only weakened it, making the pain Sophie had to endure greatly reduced.
Yet the curse still existed within Sophie, affecting her to this day, preventing her from using her innate Unique Skill or replacing her blessing and using the power of the blessing.
If not for this, perhaps Sophie would not have lost to Aridia.
Being a member of the Elf Royal Family, and one who had lived for thousands of years, Sophie’s natural talents surely could not be inferior to Aridia’s.
If she could use her Unique Skill, could Aridia have possibly won against her?
At the very least, if the blessings on Sophie were still effective, they would have brought her some advantages.
Alas, all these were no more.
And in the end, all this was actually because of Magie.
If it weren’t for the existence of a Demon Spirit like Magie, who had endured such agony, Sophie would not have initially decided to purify the Land of Despair and absorb all the intense curse that spread throughout that entire region into her body.
It was the power of a curse that could even give birth to a race like the Demon Spirit Clan, existing in the Land of Despair for who knows how many years, completely cutting off magic power and life.
One can imagine how terrifying, how astonishing that curse was.
It is said that before the emergence of life on the surface, that dead zone already existed, and the curse inside it could very likely be remnants of a small portion of power leftover on Earth from the countless struggles between the Demon King and Supreme God.
For this reason, the Demon Spirits born from it were classified as part of the Demon Clan, not the Human Race.
Probably, for this reason, that curse was so fearsome that even an almost omnipotent existence like the Fate Goddess could not guarantee that Sophie would not be affected by its removal.
Only the Supreme God and a Hero could deal with this power that could be traced back to the Demon King.
Of course, fortunately, it was only remnants of a small portion of the Demon King’s power, otherwise, perhaps even the Supreme God would have been unable to do anything.
After all, everyone knew that the Supreme God’s power was ineffective against the Demon King.
Only the Hero’s Holy Sword might possibly completely eliminate it.
But a half-baked Holy Sword, its power could not fully purify this curse either.
Since even Hero Mithra couldn’t do it, it would have to be a Hero possessing a Holy Sword even more powerful than Mithra’s to accomplish this task.
"There are no longer Heroes in this world."
Carol sighed out loud.