132. Deep-growing roots
“Ugh…! “Why is this unpleasant crow suddenly pecking my head!”
“No, wait a minute, could that crow-“
Clen suddenly got angry when a crow pecked at his head and tried to chase it away.
I tried not only to chase it away, but to catch it and stab it, but the crow miraculously avoided all of Clen’s stings by moving as if it were possessed by a god.
Although he was upset, even Clen was secretly impressed.
“Oh, sorry. “Sometimes, if you transform incorrectly, your intelligence becomes that of a crow.”
Sure enough, that crow was Alfred.
Alfred was frantically pecking Clen’s head, then came to his senses and returned to his normal self.
“I guess it was successful anyway? Seeing that both of them are safe like this, it must have been a pretty annoying monster, but I guess it was thanks to my hard work that I got rid of it. “Wow, it wasn’t that hard to separate the remnants of the Demon King from that magic stone.”
“This damned Satan…”
“Yes, it’s thanks to you. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have been able to get through it.”
Clen gritted his teeth as he glared at Alfred, but Arcel smiled and relaxed his body.
Because it was good no matter what happened now.
Successful in stopping the queen’s plot and defeating the nightmare reminiscent of the demon lord of the past.
The situation almost took a turn for the worst, but it passed safely.
“How dare you show up in my bedroom out of nowhere and throw me a letter that is nothing short of a threat? “I will definitely pull out your tongue and chain your mouth!”
“I didn’t do that.”
Alfred naturally approached Arcel while avoiding the angry Clen’s attacks.
“Good job, warrior. As expected, it’s amazing. “You do things that are difficult to succeed without giving up until the end.”
“It’s all thanks to the help of others.”
“No matter how much help there is, there are very few people who can do it like you, and even less so who achieve the best results by successfully solving a problem.”
Alfred chuckles at Arcel’s answer.
There are degrees of humility.
“Is that so? I never thought of myself as being that great. Because I didn’t walk the path I went alone. There was someone I always walked with. “There were people who showed me the direction I needed to go and gave me light.”
“Is that it?”
“When I could no longer stand up in the rain, when it seemed like I could no longer move forward, there was someone who reached out to me.”
Arsel said, looking at Alfred.
I remember those who were with me to get here.
Those who always believed in themselves and moved forward, he said, without them, he probably wouldn’t have come this far.
“Okay, as long as you know it well, that’s all. “Because that is the most important part of the legend of the warrior.”
Alfred sat down next to Arcel and stretched.
It seems like warm sunlight is shining.
The morning that comes after dawn has a warmth reminiscent of her mother’s embrace.
I felt like I would definitely have a good dream if I fell asleep like this.
“You guys over there. Are you forgetting something? “My work isn’t done yet, but if you’re going to end up creating Hermod’s kingdom like this, wouldn’t it have been better to just let me destroy it myself from the beginning?”
Of course, Clen didn’t seem to be in a very good mood.
It wasn’t enough that he was called out as a semi-threat in a situation where he didn’t know the exact context, and he didn’t even pay attention because his business was over.
“You’ve gone too far in ruining a good mood, Grandma Clen. “Why don’t you learn how to wear it when you have to wear it?”
“…I guess the word conscience doesn’t exist in your mind.”
Honestly, I was wondering why I came here.
“Moral consciousness that judges good and evil, leads the good, and defeats the evil. Something one does as if one were to say that one has no remorse or shame on one’s conscience. In particular, are you talking about criticizing bad behavior?”
“That’s correct, so I’ll cut your tongue into exactly 13 pieces and throw it to the monster as food.”
“Wow, Grandma Clen must be very upset. “Look at those wrinkles on my forehead.”
Alfred hid behind Arcel’s back and stuck out his tongue at Clen.
Clen’s eyelids trembled when he saw that.
Afterwards, Clen launched all kinds of attacks to catch Alfred and beat her, but there was no way she could be caught.
‘I’m glad it ended safely somehow.’
It was very noisy, but Arcel seemed more reassured by the usual appearance.
“…Grandma?”
Until silence suddenly fell upon the world.
†††
“Alfred? Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”
Like Arcel’s question, Alfred ignored Clen’s attack and looked towards where Hermod’s castle was located.
Clen seemed to be taken aback by the sight of him stopping so suddenly.
“I don’t know, but suddenly her grandmother’s magic power has decreased drastically. Could it be that she got exhausted from maintaining the seal? No, but since she takes her nutritional supplements regularly, that’s unlikely…”
The reason Alfred did that was because Sion’s magic power had become too weak.
Currently, Shion continues to use her magic to maintain the seal of her remnants, so even here she must be able to fully feel and sense her magic.
But now, isn’t it becoming weaker than that, at a barely perceptible level?
“I can’t do that. She’ll go over to her grandmother for a moment. “Rather than waiting here for you and Grandma Clen, it would be better for her to just go with us.”
“Why do you want me to accompany you?”
“Grandma Clen has some business to do with my grandmother, so don’t be so harsh and catch her as a demon.”
After hearing it, Clen said it made sense and she moved along.
“What could happen to your maternal grandmother?”
Arsel couldn’t understand that something had happened to Sion.
First of all, if you look at the level of magic that Sion is a high elf, he is a powerful wizard who is on par with Alfred.
Of course, her body was somewhat fragile due to the combination of elf characteristics and many years, but her magic was transcendent enough to make up for it.
“Suppressing the remnants of the Demon King requires a very high level of concentration and a lot of magical power. “At least she can suppress it because she’s as old as my grandmother. There’s probably no wizard in modern times who can do it other than me or her grandmother.”
In short, Zion was almost defenseless while suppressing the remnants of the Demon King.
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But she didn’t mind being defenseless.
The queen was dead anyway, and Morian was also destroyed by the power of her holy sword, so there was no longer any threat left.
“…Is this smell blood?”
Then, as he got closer to where her basement was, Clen frowned at the smell of her blood.
“As expected, Grandma Gaeko Clen, can you feel something underground?”
“Alfred, I can feel the feeling of wanting to rip off your skin and use it as a dog leash, and the strong smell of elf blood. “This looks like quite a bit of bleeding…”
“I can’t do that. I’ll go first. The two of you follow carefully. “You know where it is, right?”
Alfred, perhaps worried about Zion, returned to the basement at full speed.
Alfred transformed into a crow and flew away, disappearing from sight in an instant.
It is a crow with black feathers, but it moves like light.
‘I can’t believe Alfred is in such a hurry.’
I’m surprised, but at the same time, I’m worried.
This is the first time I have seen Alfred in such a hurry.
Alfred, who was always relaxed and playful about everything, showed a very serious side this time.
What really happened to Zion?
If that’s the case, who did what?
Even if the queen is alive, she has already destroyed all of her vehicles, the Morrigan and her clones.
Of course, if the remnants remain, they could do something dangerous, but that is different from the ‘peace’ that the Queen hoped for.
Although her methods and ideas were extremely distorted, surprisingly, the queen truly hoped for a world of peace.
But the only thing that can be done with the remaining remains is destruction.
At this point when everything seems to be over, what on earth is about to happen?
†††
Leaves dyed red.
A stem that spreads out roots, absorbs life, and sprouts.
Alfred, who arrived first underground, had such a scene reflected in his field of vision.
“I really trusted you, but this is what happened.”
Scratching her head, Alfred scolded her as she leaned against the wall.
“…Ah, are you Alfred?”
When a voice was heard, Zion opened her closed eyes.
“Yeah, honestly… This doesn’t make sense… I guess I let my guard down a little… No, honestly, even if I hadn’t let my guard down, in that situation- Ugh! Ugh… I didn’t really have a way to respond… but this isn’t really right…”
Currently, Zion’s body was wrapped around the roots of a tree.
On the outside, it looks like it was imprisoned, but on the contrary, the roots were also the last means to protect Zion and maintain life.
A tree that grows by sucking blood protects the owner of the blood and restores it so that it does not die.
It is a kind of dangerous parasitic tree that grows in the elven forest, but it seems to be used to keep the host from dying.
“So, what happened?”
Of course, it is still a fatal wound.
It would not be surprising if he died at any time. He was stabbed through the chest with a sword, so it is actually a miracle that he is alive.
It seems that he is forcibly holding on to a heart that was split by magic.
“We were ambushed… It was a neat and concise move…”
It wasn’t that Zion couldn’t react at all.
Just before being stabbed by the sword, Sion somehow used whatever remaining magical energy he had to aim for the enemy’s head.
However, suppressing the remnants contained in the magic stone did not have much effect as other magic could not be used properly, and it seems that in the end, he had no choice but to suffer.
The last attack only managed to slightly break the mask.
Immediately afterwards, I was pierced through the chest with a sword.
Shion collapsed on the floor, vomiting blood, and disappeared with the magic stone and holy sword containing the remains of the Demon King.
“…And the sword that stabbed me was the holy sword.”
Shion struggled to turn his gaze to the floor.
There were fragments of the broken mask falling there.
“I see, I forgot. The counterfeit wasn’t the only thing that made it possible to use the holy sword. “I thought they were all exterminated in the land of demons, but it seems that wasn’t the case.”
“At that time, the only ones left in the elf land were you and the child in question… The rest, ugh… They seemed to have escaped right away…”
Morian did not enter the elf land alone, but when Alfred and Arcel found her, she was hiding alone and seriously injured.
It was presumed that it was not just Morrían who came alone, but that only Morrían was let in and the rest retreated.
In other words, was it planned to leave Morian alone from the beginning?
“This is pretty fun, right? “This is the first time in my life that I have been treated like this by such an insignificant person.”
Alfred laughed as if he was having fun.
But everyone could see that it was not a laugh that came from genuine joy.
The face was clearly smiling, but the eyes were not.
Alfred’s eyes became deep and dark.
“Grandma is resting. She is already very old, so there is no good in overdoing it, right? “It would have been better to create a separate clone of that magic stone and keep it.”
“Why didn’t I think of that too… hehehe… Ugh…”
“Don’t worry, when you die, we will give you a proper cremation. Or should I do it right now? “I always carry a burning stake for her grandmother.”
“I haven’t even seen my great-grandchildren yet, and I have no intention of dying… I have seen all my great-grandchildren, even if they are not my age, so can I die being satisfied with just one grandchild?”
Shion tries to smile.
He must be in a lot of pain every time he says a word, but he never loses his smile until the end.
“Then, since her grandmother’s condition looks bad, I’ll ask you this one last time, you bastard. Do you know where she went?”
“If I remember correctly, from here we would have gone to the old temple to the north… The temple built on the site of the first holy sword… Because there is nothing else in the north other than that…”
Zion traced his memories and pointed north.
There was an ancient temple that was built in the distant past and has remained until today, thousands of years later.
The Masked Knight headed there with the remains of the Demon King.
“Okay, I’ll go ahead and make a hole in your chest in the same way. Since there is a warrior, you can just stab him with the holy sword. Her grandmother is sleeping here. “The weather is chilly, so blankets are a courtesy.”
“I am relieved to hear that you are like that. Please pay me back…”
Shion smiled and closed his eyes, as if he was relieved.
Luckily, it doesn’t seem like he closed his eyes forever.
Alfred had a smiling face all the way down in the basement, but when he left the basement and turned around, his smiling expression changed.
“…Okay, let’s give this a try, right?”
That was a very angry expression.