The earthquake, which lasted only a few minutes, had the mountain range so messed up that a map of the area had to be redrawn.
“… Nonsense.”
Han Soo-young, who looked down at the scene, muttered in a low voice as if in disbelief.
The ground was deeply dented and cracked like a canyon in the desert, and what appeared to be the root of a tree on the cross section was revealed in various places.
By shaking its roots underground, causing an earthquake, and causing extensive damage, this was the best thing he could do.
In fact, now he was just silent, without even showing his face.
He was wasting time to recover the enormous power he had just consumed.
“Wait a minute.”
As soon as he came down to the ground, Han Soo-young brought both hands to the ground.
Moments later, in awe, she pointed a finger somewhere.
“Ji, Jihyuk! There, Yesul!”
As soon as I heard those words, I immediately started poking around where she was pointing.
After a while, we were able to rescue Jin Ye-seul, who was lying unconscious under a large tree.
“eww… .”
Jin Ye-seul immediately woke up and coughed a little while looking at us.
“I was a little distracted… I didn’t know that the tree would suddenly pop up.”
The state of her body, muttering as if excused, was tainted with dirt and dust, but there seemed to be no visible trauma.
“Pathetic.”
Jin Ye-seul cursed herself and clicked her tongue slightly.
As I approached to support her, Jin Ye-seul, who stretched out her arms like a child, tilted her head.
“Jihyuk, why are your eyes like that?”
“I’m just like you.”
“… … .”
Jin Ye-seul didn’t say anything.
She made a rare, weak sound as she gently lifted her up by grabbing her arm, which was about to slowly withdraw her hand.
“Ouch.”
“What, where are you hurting?”
“Hey, the ankles are a bit… .”
“Look at me.”
She carefully removed her shoes, revealing her feet, which were surprisingly small for her height.
When she touched her seemingly swollen ankle, Jin Ye-seul twitched her eyes.
“Can I have a look?”
Han Soo-young, who was kneeling beside her, carefully placed her hand on Jin Ye-seul’s ankle.
It’s broken,” she muttered softly, and light began to leak from her hand.
Meanwhile, I was looking for a piece of wood that could be used as a splint.
“Sorry, both of you. I have no face.”
“What is shameless?”
I answered Jin Ye-seul with a splint on her ankle.
For some reason, when I turned my back to her, who was more depressed than necessary, I felt a slight bewildered look.
But after a while, Jin Ye-seul crawled up to me.
“Excuse me… .”
With those words, she carried on me was lighter than I thought.
As I lifted her up lightly, I heard an excited breathing sound from behind.
“Let’s find others quickly.”
“… okay.”
Han Soo-young, who looked at this for a moment as if dissatisfied, immediately brought both hands to the ground.
But then she shook her head and said to me.
“no. The surroundings are so messed up, and things like those roots make it difficult to detect, so I think it will be difficult to find more.”
“Others will probably be fine.”
Jin Ye-seul, who was carried on me, answered Han Soo-young’s words.
“All of a sudden, roots popped out of the middle and everyone was scattered. Unlike me, everyone still has people around, so they must be alive somehow.”
“Then I’m glad… .”
While the two of them were talking, I sensed my surroundings as if fumbling through the world trees scattered everywhere.
As Han Soo-young said, perhaps because of the roots of Sbangali, his energy was so thin that it was impossible to even see who was around.
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Only one.
Except for Yeeun Lee.
“Come this way.”
We headed straight to the place where we could feel her energy.
After a while, we found Yeeun Lee, guarded by a golem made of mud and rocks.
“Ji-hyuk?! I’m glad you’re safe!”
When she found me, she cried out and tried to get up from her seat, but then she sat down.
She, too, seemed to have had a cut on her leg.
“it’s okay?”
“Ugh, I’m fine… .”
Yeeun Lee nodded and looked at Jin Ye-seul and Han Soo-young, who were on my back, alternately.
She carefully bowed her head, as if she could quickly grasp the situation from their clothes and appearance.
“… No facets. How dare you make such a fuss over having me as a precious guest. As the World Tree clan and its next head, I deeply apologize.”
Han Soo-young looked puzzled for a moment as she could not have thought that she would apologize so politely.
Then, as if it was okay, he waved his hand and approached her.
“Oh, well. Don’t do that. Who would have predicted that such a huge thing would happen? Are you hurting your leg now? Wait… .”
Han Soo-young said so and placed her hand on Lee Ye-eun’s injured leg.
Rather, as far as I know, Han Soo-young was far from the original healing-type magic, but for some reason it seemed to be able to be used quite skillfully.
As evidence of that, Yeeun Lee touched her leg with a surprised look to see if her condition improved quickly.
“thank you.”
Lee Ye-eun, who expressed her gratitude to Han Soo-young, immediately looked at me.
“So, what are you going to do?”
She turned her head and looked at the huge old tree.
“You have to do that somehow. If the same thing as before continues over and over again… .”
She shut her mouth as if she didn’t want to think.
At the same time, Han Soo-young also looked at the old tree who was Sbangali with a dark expression.
“I have an idea.”
Having said that, I carefully lowered Jin Ye-seul to the floor.
And instead of explaining to Han Soo-young and Lee Ye-eun, who looked at this as if it was real, he took out a branch of the world tree and changed it into a bow.
Surprised, Ye-eun Lee immediately looked at the two of them, but the two they already knew were calm.
“I can’t be sure, but I think it’s well worth a try at least once.”
* * *
“… All right, then shall we begin?”
With those words, Yeeun Lee, putting her hands on my back, began to memorize a prayer in a small voice.
Jin Ye-seul sat in front of me and politely placed her hands on her chest, or to be more precise, her heart.
“But isn’t there something strange about this picture?”
“Shh.”
At Jin Ye-seul’s grinning words, I shook my head as if not to do it.
And when she pointed to Ye-eun, who was concentrating with a slight chin, she immediately shut her mouth as if she understood.
The spirit’s energy begins to flow again.
The arrow, made by weaving the world tree of Yeeun Lee and I together, endured the explosive energy without difficulty.
“Ugh… .”
And Jin Ye-seul, who was providing the magical power to maintain it, swallowed a small breath.
Although she had no talent for magic, she was originally the son of a famous wizard family.
The mana stored inside it was never a small amount.
“I’m ready… !”
After waiting, Han Soo-young finally broke out in a cold sweat and shouted that.
She was the one who took on the important and difficult role of finding the spirit’s energy, which had become weak as a dust, and guiding arrows there.
But for some reason I had no idea that she was going to fail.
“Shoot!”
At her words, I immediately placed the protest.
Whoo woo woo!
The force of the arrow was so strong that the finger that held the string was torn and blood was splattered in the air.
It was to the point of being pushed back by the momentum for a moment and stalling.
However, Ye-eun Lee, who quickly noticed it, almost stuck to me and supported me with her own body.
“Ugh!”
Jin Ye-seul also grabbed me by the collar and grabbed me so I wouldn’t fall.
When the three of us were staggering just by the force of the arrow that was fired, Han Soo-young guided him towards the gap in Sbangali without going against the force of the arrow.
“done… .”
After muttering like that, she collapsed on the spot with a look of exhaustion.
After a while, something seemed to flash and shine in the middle of the giant tree in Sbangali.
Immediately afterward, an arrow was fired and a blast storm hit us with an unbelievably loud blast.
The giant tree swayed so loudly that it could be seen from a distance and fell.
It was cracking and smashing and crumbling with a roar.
Finally, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief as I watched the new tree grow as if parasitic in the middle of the giant tree.
It was a success.
“thank god… .”
Han Soo-young muttered like that.
She wasn’t the only one who poured out all of her power.
Ye-eun Lee and Ye-seul Jin also seemed to have relaxed only after seeing the scene, and sat down on the spot.
I wanted to too, but there was still work to be done.
“I’ll go first.”
“What? Uh, where?”
Surprised by my words, Han Soo-young suddenly struggled and held out her hand.
It was as if he was trying to grab me to keep me from going.
“Surely there are other people out there who are trying to bring him down. I have to go and get some help.”
“eww… .”
After hearing my words, Han Soo-young looked down at the floor with a disliked expression for some reason.
And she opened her mouth as if to say something, and immediately closed her mouth with a sigh.
“… okay.”
please be careful
Han Soo-young said so and nodded her head helplessly.
I immediately sprinted towards Sbangali with full force.
“… … .”
The current situation was too urgent to notice that Han Soo-young and Jin Ye-seul were staring at my back.
* * *
Sbangali’s attack was possible only with the power of the World Tree.
He was assimilated with the branches of the world tree that had grown on his body and became a giant tree.
He was unaware of the fact that he was able to acquire the strength of the world tree, as well as a hard outer skin, a massive body, but at the same time also acquired a great weakness.
The world tree is thoroughly subordinated to the purer world tree.
It may be more relatable to think that it has the same system as upper and lower clothes.
The reason why I was always able to gain the upper hand over the members of the Thorn Cross, who had the power of the World Tree by means of baptism, was an extension of that.
And now, of course, the one with the purest power of the World Tree was Yeeun Lee.
There must be a gap that can’t be filled with her, but I must have also possessed a considerable amount of purity, who shared traits and strength with each other.
The arrows of the World Tree made by pouring out all the power of those two people, plus the protection of the spirits, were engraved into his body.
There was no way the guy could get away with it.
In fact, as it got closer, its body began to disintegrate more and more, and on the contrary, the branches of the world tree that grew up next to it became more and more lively.
In addition, the pure white sword that I had seen before, or the sound of a fist hitting with all my might, could also be heard from afar.
It seems that other people, including Nam Hyeon-hwa and Ahn Joo-hyuk, have begun to help.
“Hey.”
“… … ?”
He tapped and tapped without stopping, and Mandragora pushed his face out.
“May I know where it is?”
“… … .”
Hearing my words, he pointed his roots towards one side without showing much thought.
Not long after heading towards where he was pointing, he noticed something crawling on the ground in the corner of his field of vision.
“Uh, uh… It can’t end like this… .”
It was none other than Sbengali in the form of a bird.
The guy looked completely different from the first time I saw him, and it looked like it was going to be shattered at any moment.
He turned his head to see if the guy who had barely crawled on the ground using his half-cut wings like a hand noticed this.
“ah. this, hey… !!!”
“I told you, you’re really going to kill me.”
With those words, Nidhogg’s fangs were pulled out.
Finally, squeeze out all the remaining mana and weave it with the branches of the World Tree.
And I put it on the protest and aimed it at him.
Sbangali was just staring at him on the spot, knowing that there was no point in escaping.
“… … .”
Mandragora was hard to see, so he went into my pocket and disappeared.
I could understand his heart.
“Is there anything you want to leave behind?”
“Can there be such a thing? Now, no matter what I say, it would seem like a loser’s effort.”
Unlike Margo, Sbangali had a rather calm appearance.
He groaned and vomited something thick, a mixture of green and gray.
“Even though I know that, I want to say something.”
He said so and shook his body.
“You know that? We’re not much different. No, you and I are the same. We really are a lot alike… .”
I didn’t have to listen anymore.
I let go of the chord and the arrow pierced deep into the middle of his forehead.
* * *
Sbengali could hear the wings of a worm cutting through the still air.
No, it wasn’t the sound of a bug, it was the sound of an arrow flying towards his head.
The moment the arrow pierced the middle of his forehead, he could ironically feel the aura of Margot, whom he hated the most.
I did it anyway, but it was.
He wondered if Ariman would help, but he knew better than anyone that it would never happen.
He could see and feel many things.
It was a strange feeling of floating, and at the same time, it was the sensation of his body being thrown to the ground.
What the hell is going on?
Everything was really unreal, he thought, a sensation he couldn’t feel during hundreds of summers and winters.
Before it all got dark, he could see the giant tree he had just been blown away in the wind as if it had been burned to the ground.
What kind of creature would eat and grow the plant that grew up eating that ashes?
But one thing was certain: he would never see it again.
And, strangely, with the thought that it was the most painful, Svengali also became ashes.
It was the second death of the Seven Devils after Margo.