Tzu

## [source]

**Tzu** is the grand elder of the Evernight Tribe in the Forest Plane. She was the best friend of Elena from the Evernight Forest, whom adventured with her during their contact with Gaton disguised as humans.

## Description

A teenage girl amongst the group yawned loudly as she looked around with lively eyes, saying with boredom, “It’s so quiet… Why aren’t there any bandits? Have they gotten smarter?” She was fitted up in an extravagant yet light suit of armour, her beautiful hazel hair pulled up into a ponytail. She had a look of childlike innocence to her, one that was marred by the two swords hanging at the side of her horse.(prologue)

### **100 years later**

She appeared to be a female elf sitting on a gorgeous high-backed chair. She was dressed in typical elven robes, but her hood was up and there was a metal mask on her face. Even her hands were wrapped up in woven silk gloves, leaving none of her skin exposed. There was almost no way to measure her age.

She was nearing two hundred years of age, but as a high elf she was equivalent to a human in her mid-twenties, at the prime of her life.

### **Curse**

As Tzu took off her mask, Richard was stunned silent. In place of the dreamy features of a normal elf was a skeletal face lacking all colour and fat. The skin clung to the very bones like a thin sheet of linen, her ghastly visage a stark contrast from her youthful voice. Every breath released a tuft of grey smoke.

### **Final**

Tzu was already beginning to change into her armour. Shaking off her shroud to reveal her skeletal body, she took a deep breath and radiated pure energy from within. Her muscles squirmed visible as they began filling out, majestic strength returning her to peak form. Her body wasn’t slender and weak like ordinary elves, instead revealing perfect lines of explosive strength.

Silvermoon elves had long lifespans, and a genius like Tzu who had broken through to the legendary realm at a young age would easily live a thousand years. She was currently in the prime of her life, the point where she was the most stunning to behold. Stood in front of a mirror, she silently watched herself as if to carve this beauty into her heart. A short while later, she took out a chest and retrieved a suit of elven battle armour.

The armour was superior-grade equipment, but that was nothing for a legendary being. From its enchantments to its materials to its style, there seemed to be nothing special about it at all. It was the armour of an ordinary high elf warrior. The armour Tzu was holding really was ordinary, but it was the one she had worn when she travelled and trained with Elena.

## Plot

The grand elder of the Evernight Tribe lived in a wooden house atop the tree of life, the entire building only a few hundred square metres in size. The living room was less than fifty square metres, not at all befitting of the identity of any elder, let alone the chief of the tribe. Even the smaller tribe he had taken over so long ago had residences for every one of its elders that were bigger than this.6;97

### **Meeting Richard**

Tzu continued relating the events of the past, and Richard listened with all his heart. He learnt about the young warrior who cleaned dishes and washed horses just so he could pay for the wine his love and her companions drank. He learnt of how that love had sacrificed herself to save her sister, about how he had sacrificed a heart to save her. He finally learnt the story of love and hate that had led to his birth.

Once she parted from Gaton, Elena had returned to Evernight Forest and reconvened with Tzu. She had fallen for the young man, but as the future Shaman of the Moon and the heiress to the Silvermoon Kingdom she had to maintain the purest of body, mind, and soul. She had sealed her love deep within her heart, only ever mentioning it once when in the depths of despair. Neither of them had thought they would see that youth ever again. Being completely distracted, her progress in mooncraft had been extremely slow.

While the Kingdom still ruled in name, Evernight Forest had already devolved into a number of feuding factions that were ripe for the taking. There were only ten thousand elves remaining in Norland proper, but many of them wanted to retake their lands from the human empires. Fed up with all the chaos, Tzu had left Evernight Forest to explore the myriad planes.

And then, Gaton had come back into their lives just as unexpectedly as the first time— by launching an attack on the Evernight Forest. Elena had seen Gaton once more, and this time it was in the most unpleasant of circumstances.

### **Forest Plane**

Tzu had returned to a scene of utter despair— the throne captured and the world tree sacrificed to the Church of the Eternal Dragon. A few tribes banded together and crossed the Sacred Tree Empire to make their way to Lithgalen, the Ashgreen continent. Gaton himself had pulled out after realising what he had done, but with Elena nowhere to be found the survivors were fighting amongst themselves for the throne.

If only the tribes had united to fight Gaton’s troops, he might have been held back. They refused to aid each other properly just to see their rivals destroyed, and he had happily played along to decimate the entire race. Having had enough of the infighting and losing faith in the current elders, she rounded up those willing to follow her and led them to a plane that her ancestors had once explored.

However, the journey was a terrible one. Unlike the powerhouses of the ancient elven empire, her ragtag group was made of those with all levels of power. Only a hundred managed to survive the journey, reaching the Forest Plane.

As the most powerful warrior of them all, Tzu had been made the grand elder. She ruled that there would be no mention of Norland or Lithgalen in the future, ensuring that future generations would be brought up like they were natives. Twenty years in Norland amounted to more than a century here, and the young sapling tree of life she planted had grown tall and strong. It hadn’t completely adapted to this plane, but it still had the potential to become a world tree. Tzu herself had matured into a legendary warrior.

### **Isakra**

She had been cursed by the demon god Iskara of the Annihilation Plane after facing off with his conscient in the void. The demon god had designs aimed at the Forest Plane. Iskara is a master of lies, deception, and curses, and he does not just target random planes. A local must have summoned him, or it might be the world tree itself. Iskara needs a great amount of energy to maintain this curse. The longer I can hold on, the more time he will need to recover. By the time I lose, he should have lost a century of time.

The demon god’s power had burrowed into the depths of her soul, and if he won she would be left a husk of existence. He would then take over her body, wandering the Forest Plane in the search of more prey. As he amassed a puppet army, this entire plane would eventually be left with a single hive mind.

Tzu had explained that any attempt to heal her would be latched onto by the demon god, giving him a target for his next possession.

### **Last Moments**

6;110

Richard stood quietly and watched as she burnt herself out for the last time. His mind was still empty; he was still empty. When he’d already lost track of the battle, Tzu’s voice rang out in his ear, “It’s time for you to go back.”

“What about you?” he asked subconsciously.

“Me? I’m going to see that bastard father of yours.” A sharp cry tore apart the grey world, the Skylance flying from the horizon at an unthinkable speed to land right past Richard’s head. An enormous hole was torn in the void, shattering the laws of the world and opening a path back to the Forest Plane.

Looking at the rift, Richard knew it was time to return. He had already accompanied his aunt as far as he could and seen Iskara with his own eyes, knowing the target of his future vengeance. The forest elves had brought this upon her, and that would be met with freezing rage, but this was the one he would have to kill so he could make peace with her demise.

He walked towards the spatial rift, but right before passing through it he turned back to see Tzu’s final moments. To him, this was still a silent world; Iskara seemed to be shouting something in the distance as hundreds of eyes shot out rays of energy towards the portal, but she just chuckled recklessly as she spread out her arms and held off the energy with her own. The golden-green light looked extremely fragile, but it held strong. It even stopped the tens of thousands of mages in Iskara’s army from jumping through space to follow.

In that instant, Tzu had stopped Iskara and the entire army with her own strength! Endless light surged out of her now-translucent body, but that ponytail continued to wag up and down in the sky. Her back turned to Richard, she merely waved an arm in farewell.

## Abilities

She was no ordinary legend, for she was only a small ways off from the strength of Emperor Philip.

### **Golden World Tree**

Elena and Tzu shared the same level of bloodline, but Elena's tree was even taller and more radiant. They were different from the other silvermoon elves.

Pure nature energy surged out of her body, gathering above her head to form an image of a single tree. However, this tree was enormous! It was many times taller than his own, radiating a dignity and poise that far eclipsed even his astral affinity. From what he knew, the images formed by such testing spells were completely to scale; this difference existed in the real world as well. What left Richard truly shocked was the tree’s colour. The entire world tree emanated a pale gold lustre, looking almost metallic instead of natural. This world tree was fundamentally different from his own, and made him realise why she had called his affinities trees of life instead of world trees.

## Items

### **Skylance**

Tzu’s spear, the Skylance, it was meant for an elven lord.

Affixed to the wall behind her was a spear rack with a four-metre-long spear upon it, the shaft a bluish green colour with golden patterns. The weapon was gorgeous beyond compare, the patterns alone taking up an entire third of its length. The tip had four edges, but instead of being straight they spiralled together to meet at a single point. It was definitely the craft of a master.

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Book 6, Chapter 99