Hel turned toward the final elf mother tree — the one that had once belonged to the Snow Elves.
She used the same method as before, commanding the mother tree to produce a batch of bloodline fruits.
When all the fruits had ripened, she gathered them up and stared at the massive tree with a bit of hesitation.
Anna wouldn't be able to digest them as quickly as Niv had. If Anna wanted to fuse with this mother tree, it would probably take quite some time.
But leaving the tree here unattended made Hel uneasy.
If the Goblin Empire caught wind of what had happened in the City of Life and sent a Saint-tier powerhouse over, things would get troublesome fast.
So her plan was simple — take everything valuable out of the city.
What remained behind would be nothing but her avatars and alchemical puppets to keep the city running on the surface.
"Hmm… why don't you try shrinking down?" Hel suggested.
Under her divine slave seal, she issued the command — and to her surprise, the colossal mother tree actually began to shrink.
But when its height reached about ten meters, it stopped; it couldn't get any smaller.
That was different from the Death Elf Mother Tree, which could shrink down to the size of a palm — Hel could literally keep that one in a flowerpot as décor.
"Fine then, stay that way. Retract all your roots."
Once the mother tree pulled its root system back into itself, Hel used elemental magic to raise it gently out of the ground.
"Niv, bring your big guys over and give me a hand."
"Yes, Master!"
By "big guys," Hel meant the city's last line of defense — its combat puppets.
They were the secret weapons that once allowed edwina to easily crush the two great elven races.
The Sixth-Tier Alchemical Puppet — the Doomsday Adjudicator.
Standing fifty meters tall, these hulking war machines embodied the goblins' ultimate aesthetic of mechanical violence.
The moment Niv saw them, her mechanical heart practically sparked with excitement.
That overwhelming size, that terrifying firepower — it spoke to her soul.
In an instant, she forgot all about the mech she had been building herself.
She even dispatched four of her avatars to study the Adjudicators up close, carefully recording every detail and data point.
Her goal: to design an even bigger, stronger mech — one that would exceed a hundred meters in height.
Niv, it seemed, was a professional when it came to forgetting her previous projects.
Meanwhile, her half-finished mech would just have to keep collecting dust in the workshop.
As the ground trembled with heavy footsteps, a massive golem approached Hel.
It bent down, easily lifting the shrunken mother tree into its hand. Then, under Niv's control, it carried the tree and stored it inside Hel's Undead Domain.
By the time Hel finished her work, Niv had already absorbed all of the bloodline fruits.
"Alright, Niv — let's see what kind of race you can create."
Hel leaned in curiously as Niv prepared to form her contract with the remaining mother tree.
The ritual was almost identical to Hel's, except Niv used the original goblin runes — and of course, skipped the final nonsense incantation Hel had ad-libbed.
When the blinding magical glow faded, a new mark appeared on Niv's lower abdomen — a tattoo in the shape of a life tree.
"Uuuh… bad tree," Niv muttered with a pout. "That was supposed to be the spot I saved for Master."
"Wait— hold on. What do you mean by that!?" Hel quickly cut her off before things could go any further off the rails.
But Niv ignored her protests, wrapping herself around Hel's arm and guiding her hand to her stomach.
"Niv wanted Master to carve Master's own mark here," she whispered softly. "Like the one on that little wolf girl.
Niv came first, but Master only gave the little wolf the title of Master's plush toy."
"Can you please not talk like that!?"
Hel's hands shot up, pinching Niv's soft, chubby cheeks until her face stretched into a ridiculous expression.
"Nikki's mark is a slave contract. She's my spoils of war — my slave.
You're different, Niv. You're family.
So behave. Stop trying to become my plush toy.
And for the love of the gods, stop learning weird stuff from that pervert Lily."
"Uwuuu… okay… Niv was wrong…"
Only after hearing her apology did Hel finally release her grip.
"Good. Now— back to business. Bring out your Life Mother Tree. Let's see what kind of elves you can create."
"Okay~"
Niv nodded, then waved her hand. A streak of light flashed, and the elf mother tree reappeared in the pit.
"The name changed to Mechanical Elf Mother Tree, huh?" Hel muttered as she looked up.
The sight was bizarre — half of the tree's surface gleamed with metal plating, gears, and glowing runes, while the other half remained wood and leaf.
The fusion of nature and machinery gave off a strangely futuristic aura — beautiful, yet uncanny.
"I wonder what kind of beings the 'Mechanical Elves' will be," Hel mused. "Niv, maybe you could have the hybrid goblins rebuilt as test subjects?"
"Master means… use them as nourishment for the tree?"
Niv blinked, then waved her hand to summon several alchemical golems to bring the hybrid goblins forward.
"No, not that," Hel clarified. "I mean — maybe we can recycle them. Let them return to the mother tree, and then be reborn.
I think I caught a glimpse of that process in one of the mother tree's memories.
It should be possible to let the elves reabsorb their essence into the mother tree while keeping their true souls intact — allowing them to reincarnate."
"I see… then Niv will try."
Niv extended her hand, and the mother tree lowered one long, rootlike tendril.
It wrapped itself around the nearest hybrid goblin — who let out a startled cry as more tendrils coiled around her body.
"Why does this look… so wrong?" Hel muttered, squinting at the scene.
She couldn't shake the feeling that Niv was doing something questionable, but sadly, she had no proof.
Meanwhile, the unfortunate hybrid goblin was soon completely enveloped by the mass of tendrils, forming a giant wooden cocoon.
Then, slowly, the cocoon sank back into the trunk of the mother tree.
"Niv can feel it," Niv said softly, eyes closed. "Her flesh, her magic, and her soul — all stored safely within the tree.
If Niv wishes, she can recreate her exactly as she was… or she can merge her essence with others, using her as nourishment to craft a new, more powerful elf entirely."