I reincarnated as an elf .......and married the yandere villainess.-Chapter 37:Confusion

The power inside him surged again. This time it wasn’t pain anymore but something much worse.

The elements were fighting against each other instead of trying to integrate.

No matter how much Atheline tried to control them, it didn’t work.

He felt as though his body was drawing on this new power and he didn’t know how to proceed from here.

He could only scream his throat raw.

His core, or what remained of the shattered pieces struggled to hold everything together. The familiar cracks started to appear widening as more elements squeezed in looking for space.

"I can’t.." he gasped," I can’t hold onto this."

The illusion watched him go through the pain and torture. Atheline looked at her, his vision blurry from blood and heavy eyelids that threatened to close but the image in front of him prevented that.

The illusion knelt before him and touched his cheek , Atheline could feel the touch just like hers but deep down he knew it was nothing but a mere imagination coined by his psych still he couldn’t help but lean into the touch.

"It’s... " It’s breaking, " he stammered through clenched teeth as he tried to hold onto his barely surviving core.

He knew if things went out of control he might end up getting corrupted.

He didn’t want that.

The illusion smiled warmly at him, its expression softening a foreign sight to him.

"... then don’t hold it," it whispered," Break."

For a second everything stopped. So perfectly still in only that second that felt like an eternity had passed, then his core shuttered completely.

Atheline couldn’t even scream anymore the pain was just unimaginable. He lost consciousness for a second before the elements clashing in his body jolted him up.

The elements joined together, merging and colliding with each other as they forced themselves into something new.

Atheline let out silent screams, his voice lost, as his body integrated and remade itself inside out to fit the clashing elements.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before, the pain had reduced to manageable levels, and the elements were barely functioning together.

A new unstable core had been formed.

’Was I not corrupted?’

Atheline collapsed on the group beside him, his body unable to hold him up anymore.

His body trembled weakly and his breath came out shallow and forced.

"What .. did .. I..do...?" He whispered through laboured breaths.

There was no one to answer him. The illusion his only companion had also disappeared, and now he was left with his own consuming thoughts.

The forest was too quiet for him to even concentrate in it. Below him, the cracks on the ground started to suture until there was nothing left but normal ground.

The broken trees and the scorched ground were the only signs of destruction in the dull forest.

Slowly Atheline lifted his hand above him and summoned his wind instinctively.

It came a small gust rotating above his hand but something else accompanied it, integrated.

Sparks of lightning flashed through the power and he could feel an unnatural heat that he had rarely felt.

The back of his hand froze over but eventually melted from the heat. The ground beneath him shifted and he could hear the movements of small rodents underground.

Atheline stared at the impossibly his chest rising and falling unevenly.

"I didn’t just..lose it.., " he said, his voice hollow, " .. I lost myself."

Atheline wasn’t happy with the new powers. He had been content with the wind elements, something he had been born with and taken his time to train and understand but now he had this much power but it was clear to anyone that he couldn’t even control it.

The core inside his body was full of cracks, a ticking bomb waiting to explode if handled wrong. He had been pushed back to square one.

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On the other side.

Outside the forbidden forest, Caius stood behind the dark elf saintess looking at her in confusion. His robes were cut and smeared with mud from all the fighting he had done.

For some insane reason, beasts kept on finding him and he would end up fighting them with the saintess occasionally saving him while giving him instructions.

"You know this place is forbidden right?" He said.

The saintess, Yander nodded. Her gaze went to the dark line.

"We must enter the forbidden forest," she said evenly," the moon goddess has sent me a way."

Caius looked at her more confused than ever.

"What is it ?" He asked.

His body was truly against going into the forest. The light Aether inside of him moved around but he could feel both anticipation and hesitation inside of him.

"The moon goddess says you must collect all the elements," she said and lifted her hand.

Dark Aether coiled around it then sparks of dark lightning danced in her hand.

"That’s impossible," he rejected immediately.

"For everyone, yes but for you," she paused," you have been given a gift to help you in your integrations."

"The light element?" He asked skeptically.

She nodded. "It is a gift from your God to his chosen one."

Until now he couldn’t believe he had gotten the unique light element.

"Chosen."

She nodded.

"There will be a disaster, even the Gods themselves cannot see when or who but they have all chosen the destined."

"Is it that serious?" He asked.

She nodded with a distant look in her eyes." It’s extremely serious. It might just lead to the extinction of our race or even the world itself. "

Caius paled.

’I should tell this to Lord Atheline. He’ll know how to help’

Yander smiled and took his trembling hand. Caius was only fifteen after all.

"Do not worry, the..."

Before she could finish the ground trembled. They all stumbled but it didn’t last long. Five seconds later, they were back to normal.

Yander frowns.

On the other hand, Caius held his chest. His chest suddenly felt heavy then it went back to normal.

"Is something wrong," Yander asked him in confusion.

Caius rubbed his chest a little.

"It was just for a moment but I felt as though I had lost something.. I don’t know how to explain it.. It’s probably nothing."

Yander nodded.

"Shall we go in?"

Caius nodded and followed behind Yander as they stepped into the forbidden forest.

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Atheline lowered his hand slowly, his gaze distant. He sat up on his knees his body swaying from the constant pain and fatigue.

He sighed softly looking down at the empty ground.

"... some of it was..." he repeated under his breath.

But those words didn’t comfort him as they should have. He knew it was only his illusion born from desperation.

It felt stagnant in his mind, just there at the front like a hymn.