Chapter 1058: Shadow of the Star (4)
The Central Front boundary zone of the Western Continent.
The Overmind convulsing with its eyes rolled back, and the pale-faced Corpse Ghost Spell Master perched on its head.
Lennok surveyed the battlefield, holding the World Tree’s Leaf beneath the Veil.
Even the grim expression of the deer-giant, Elder Druid Azelan, glaring this way.
In this chaotic battlefield where allies and enemies were inverted, it was clear which side held the upper hand.
Grrrrrr!!!
The monsters, their flesh torn, turned their bloodshot eyes toward the druids.
Vein-ridden tanks moved, rotating their turrets, and fighter jets soared through the blood-red clouds.
Monster-humans in military uniforms drooled as they loaded their weapons, advancing over the flesh-strewn battlefield.
[Kweeeek……!!]
[Kahahahaak!!]
The monster hordes that survived the War-Mage Tower’s sweep howled, craving the druids’ flesh.
“No, no……!!”
“Filthy creatures……!! Stay back!!”
The druids frantically chanted spells, transforming into bears and deer, and making trees grow, but it was useless.
Monster fighter jets flying low over the battlefield rained bombs down on the growing trees,
And monsters made of conjoined flesh clung to the transformed bear-druids, gnawing on their flesh.
Crunch!!
Pow-pow-pow!!!
The bear’s hide, covered in thick fur, was instantly drenched in blood.
The druids’ hair, made of plant stalks, was ripped out by the monsters’ claws.
A corrupted bullet lodged itself between the eyes of a ram-headed archer, who swayed as if dancing amidst the pouring gunfire.
“Ah, ahhh……!!”
The reason the druids sustained minimal damage while breaking through the front lines was that they had been focused on supporting Lennok from behind as he pierced the center.
But now that they had turned against Lennok, who had been leading the charge, they were as good as thrown into the heart of the monster hordes.
The moment one flank of the resisting druid lines collapsed, the crack instantly widened.
One by one, the excellent Nature Spellcraft users, druids with tenacious vitality, were dragged away by the monsters.
Soon, the sounds of flesh being chewed and bones being broken echoed in succession.
Crackle!!
Splat!!
Caught in the endless wave of monsters, the surviving druids were swept away, unable to resist the current.
It was the worst-case scenario, one they had tried to avoid during the operation: being trapped in a legion of mutated monsters and left to wither.
Lennok fiddled with the World Tree’s Leaf, looking down at the ravaged battlefield.
“They’re holding up better than I expected. I thought the outcome was decided the moment things turned out this way.”
“……”
“Even considering the spell amplification from the World Tree’s Leaf, the potential of Nature Spellcraft is certainly quite impressive.”
The reason a vast forest existed near the Western Front’s Veil was that the World Tree’s Leaf was hidden beneath the Veil.
As the forest was formed by the World Tree’s power, the druids also enjoyed the significant amplification effects of Nature Spellcraft.
That must have been why they could transport Lennok dozens of kilometers in an instant, right to the Veil’s edge.
Lennok thought so, glancing at the World Tree’s Leaf in his hand.
‘Just holding it provides this much vitality. It’s certainly no ordinary item.’
Simply holding it filled his body with vitality and vigor that easily surpassed any stimulant.
It felt even slightly stronger than when he received the Compassion of the Archangel, which Myeong had gifted him long ago.
He knew it held special value as an offering to the Central, but to have such an effect without even properly using it…
He could immediately understand why the druids were so obsessed with and intent on hiding this leaf.
‘For an item of this caliber, there must be a better processing method than simple consumption. It’d be difficult to turn it into an artifact right away, though…’
“N-now isn’t the t-time for such talk, it seems……”
While Lennok was absorbed in the extravagant fantasy of turning the World Tree’s Leaf into tobacco for smoking, the Corpse Ghost Spell Master, perched on the Overmind’s head, stammered.
“Th-the druids shouldn’t hold out long, r-right? Th-they betrayed us, so we should d-definitely r-retaliate……”
“Retaliate?”
Lennok chuckled.
“The moment things came to this, victory and defeat were decided. It was a battle I couldn’t lose the instant I summoned the War-Mage Tower.”
“Th-that’s…”
“That’s why the druids felt impatient and tried to kill me first.”
From the moment the druids concealed the World Tree’s Leaf, Lennok had suspected it was not a rightful possession of Larabelli.
And also, that the druids might try to silence him the moment their secret was exposed.
It wouldn’t have been impossible. Even Elder Druid Azelan wouldn’t have tried to kill Lennok without any backup plan.
Azelan had asked Lennok to single-handedly stop one monster legion on the battlefield.
They must have thought Lennok’s mana would be greatly depleted after such a mission.
Through that, they would prevent Lennok from approaching the Overmind, and they themselves would acquire the leaf relatively easily.
But their calculations went awry the moment Lennok single-handedly broke through the central legion and summoned the War-Mage Tower.
Once the War-Mage Tower opened the way, there would be no way to stop Lennok from reaching the Overmind.
With the Thorben War-Mage Tower momentarily distancing itself, this moment, while Lennok was focused on the leaf, must have seemed like their only chance.
He knew.
If the druids were to betray him, when it would be, what words would trigger them, and how they would attack.
Even while slaughtering monsters and breaking through the front lines. Even when the accompanying druids were paying more attention to Lennok’s movements than to the monsters.
Lennok had been continuously thinking about how to resolve this battle.
“How dare filthy monsters!!”
Elder Druid Azelan, the deer-giant who had greatly enlarged his body, roared and swung his green spear.
Thin, dry branches coiled around the spearhead, spinning and sweeping away the surrounding monsters.
Snap!!
[Kuee……!!]
The moment they were impaled by the branches, the monsters’ blood and bodily fluids were absorbed directly into the spearhead.
The impaled monsters shriveled up like mummies, drying out and dying.
“Shilon, rise!!”
Boom!!
Azelan, who had kicked and burst an attacking monster-human, raised a fallen druid and spoke.
“There’s still a way. If we can just get our hands on the World Tree’s Leaf, we can resolve this situation……!!”
“Azelan-nim……!!”
“Kill Adamant Thunder and retrieve the leaf. With that power, we can escape beyond the forest and out of the front lines!”
Even in this desperate situation, surrounded by hordes of monsters, Azelan’s voice showed no sign of wavering.
The commander’s unwavering conviction, which hadn’t faltered once except for the moment the leaf was stolen by Lennok.
Just as the wavering druids’ eyes began to regain focus.
Kwooowaaahahah!!!!
Monster-mutated fighter jets plunged from the blood-clouded sky at supersonic speeds.
They unleashed their payloads and then, in a final act of suicide, dropped and detonated the aircraft themselves.
Pow-pow-pow!!!
“Aaaahhh……!!”
[Kweeeek!!]
Crimson-black pillars of fire erupted in the middle of the battlefield, killing both druids and monsters indiscriminately.
Amidst the storm of fire pillars blazing on all sides, Azelan gripped his spear shaft until it seemed to splinter.
“Oooohhhhh!!!”
Thump!!
Stamping his hooves into the ground to anchor his body, Azelan’s shoulders rotated with incredible speed.
He began to parry the falling monster fighter jets, sketching the spear’s trajectory dozens of times toward the sky.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!!!!
He tore through and shattered the wings of falling fighter jets, pushing them away. He inhaled and exhaled the flames exploding before him.
Each time he swung his spear, drenched in blood, fierce green light gleamed in the deer-giant’s eyes.
Crrack!!
The fighter jet fragments and explosive flames circularly warped and pushed outward from around Azelan.
The deer-giant single-handedly took on dozens of falling bombs, stepping forward to protect the fallen druids.
“Hoo, hoo……!!”
“Excellent.”
Lennok, who had been watching the display of valor from afar, nodded.
“It would have been wonderful if you had shown such skill before trying to stab me in the back. Wouldn’t it?”
“No outsider who knows about the leaf can be left alive. It was an unchangeable fact from the beginning.”
Azelan, breathing heavily, raised his head, glaring at Lennok with bloodshot eyes, and re-gripped his spear.
“Now it’s your turn.”
“Is it?”
Lennok smiled and pointed to the sky.
“The other monsters don’t seem to think so yet.”
“……What?”
Woo-woo-woo!!!
At that moment, an aircraft carrier, floating in the blood-red clouds, revealed itself, descending toward the ground.
The colossal vessel, hundreds of meters in radius, activated its propulsion system at full power, maneuvering vertically.
It aimed its bow toward the ground and began to accelerate at subsonic speed.
Kwaaaahahahaha!!!
“This is……!!!”
“I showed you once before, when we first met.”
Lennok asked, folding his arms, as the astonished Azelan stared at the falling vessel.
“This time, it’s your turn.”
Azelan, staring at the falling vessel with a pale face, shouted at the surrounding druids.
At his words, the druids quickly chanted spells and began to prepare, but it was already too late.
The massive aircraft carrier crashed down on top of the druids, detonating its power core engines in a suicide attack.
It became a colossal pillar of fire, connecting the sky and ground, sweeping across the land.
Kwooowaaahahahahah!!!!
The trees summoned by Nature Spellcraft burned and crumbled.
The ground shook incessantly as if an earthquake had struck, cracking and creating waves.
The aftershock of the swirling flames was so fierce that even the Western Front’s Veil rippled and swayed.
“U-waaahhh……!!!”
The Corpse Ghost Spell Master, who had been holding on atop the Overmind’s head, lost balance from the impact and tumbled down.
As the Corpse Ghost Spell Master fell headfirst, dizzy and disoriented, Lennok watched the battlefield, now a sea of fire.
The endlessly burning flames gradually began to die down with the blowing wind.
[Kelek, kelek……]
[Heek, heek!!]
The surviving monsters gasped for breath and gathered at the epicenter of the ship’s crash.
They were corrupted monsters, reduced to pure instinct, drooling and searching for chunks of flesh.
“The druids of Larabelli. I suppose I have to acknowledge their tenacity for life.”
Lennok, following the monsters, smiled at the deer-giant sprawled amidst the burning wreckage of the ship.
“It seems they easily surpass most physical ability users in both recovery and durability, don’t they?”
“Hoo, hoo……!!!”
The beast-kin, half-deer and half-human, lay prostrate, panting heavily.
Its green hair and hide were scorched and shriveled, and the hand clutching the green spear was missing fingers.
Its limbs convulsed weakly, unable to stand, as if all its muscles had melted away.
Azelan, his face twisted by burns, painstakingly raised his head.
“To control monsters by manipulating the Overmind……”
“I borrowed the monster manipulation ability common to General-grade entities,” Lennok replied.
“Normally, it shouldn’t work on a higher-tier entity like the Overmind, but I thought it would be highly likely to work if I took away the leaf it used as sustenance.”
“……”
“Since the monsters’ intelligence was low and they lacked reason, I could only use simple commands.”
Lennok tapped the wreckage of the ship crushing Azelan and asked.
“Was this not enough to deal with traitors?”
“A human spellcaster cannot control unintelligent monsters for long……”
Azelan struggled to speak.
“The monsters will soon break free of your control…… You and your War-Mage Tower will suffer the same fate as us……”
Azelan’s gaze, fixed on Lennok from beneath the wreckage, gleamed chillingly.
If the Headro Warlords’ war machines continued to self-detonate with such disregard for their lives, they wouldn’t be able to endure.
“You chose to commit suicide with us on this battlefield……”
However, Lennok merely chuckled and shook his head at Azelan’s words.
“I didn’t order them to specifically kill only you druids. The targets I commanded to kill included—”
Click!!
At that moment, vein-ridden tanks aimed their muzzles at each other.
“—the very monsters themselves from the beginning.”
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-gang!!!!
Fighter jets collided in the sky, exploding like fireworks.
Tanks fired, destroying each other, and the flesh contained within their cockpits oozed out.
The surviving monster-humans rushed at the flesh spilling from the cockpits, greedily chewing and swallowing it.
[Graaaahhh!!!]
[Kweeeek!! Weeek!!]
The monsters surrounding Azelan simultaneously began to devour each other.
They screamed desperately, killing each other, rapidly reducing their numbers.
The monster hordes self-destructed, repeatedly killing and eating their own kind, as if carving off their own flesh.
Azelan, pinned beneath the wreckage, stared blankly at the gruesome spectacle.
“Even before commanding the Overmind, I intended to reduce the monster’s numbers by making them annihilate each other.”
Lennok looked down at Azelan with an indifferent gaze.
“I merely inserted you druids into that process.”
Everything, from the summoning of the War-Mage Tower to the Corpse Ghost Spell Master’s intrusion, had been planned from the start.
The process of dealing with and resolving the druids’ betrayal was simply an added step.
Making the mana consumption required to summon the War-Mage Tower zero using an elixir was also in preparation for the druids’ betrayal.
Thump!!
He cast gravity magic on the deck wreckage crushing Azelan, adding more weight.
“Time to choose, druid.”
“Grrgh!!”
“If you wish to cling to that tenacious life of yours for a little longer, you’d better answer my questions well from now on.”
Lennok looked down at the groaning deer-giant with cold eyes.
“The abilities of the World Tree’s Leaf and the reason you tried to retrieve it from Larabelli.”
“……”
“Considering Larabelli’s World Tree, there shouldn’t be a reason for the druids to be so obsessed with this leaf.”
Lennok raised the leaf, which emitted a brilliant glow, and fiddled with it as he spoke.
“Or, has something happened to the World Tree itself that makes this leaf so necessary?”
The reason why the druids of Larabelli, who possessed the World Tree itself, were so obsessed with its byproduct, the leaf.
It was a different kind of desperation than merely a resolve not to let Larabelli’s treasures leak outside.
If they had intended to take the leaf, which was an offering to Ars Nova, from the Overmind.
If the druids had not been able to touch the leaf until the Overmind used it as sustenance.
Then, at the very least, such circumstances must exist within Larabelli’s World Tree.
“……Our Mother Tree was born with a life force more potent than anything else on this star.”
At that moment, Azelan, who had been silent, spoke quietly.
“But that blessing, born from the Navel of the Star, is now transforming into a key that hastens its end.”
“What do you mean?”
“The World Tree is the very proof that this star was born in a righteous manner. Therefore—”
The deer-giant met Lennok’s gaze, a chilling expression on its face.
“—it is a being that shares its life force indiscriminately with everyone……!!”
Crash!!
The deck wreckage crushing Azelan split in half, and the deer-giant sprang to its feet.
Its scorched and shriveled skin had already regenerated halfway, and mana overflowed from its entire body.
The green spear in its hand spun violently, extending dry branches in all directions.
Azelan, instantly recovered from his injuries, had entered combat readiness.
Lennok immediately realized the cause, frowning.
“Just being near the leaf allows you to receive life force. Is that a characteristic of Nature Spellcasters?”
Did his body recover and regenerate simply by closing the distance to the World Tree’s Leaf?
The moment Lennok realized the reason for Azelan’s recovery, he gathered mana, intending to draw lightning.
“Didn’t I tell you?”
A young man with black letters like ink tattooed all over his body spoke from behind Azelan.
“You need to be careful with your words when working with druids.”
“……!!!”
Azelan, noticing the young man’s presence a step too late, gritted his teeth and turned his body with all his might.
“Human!!!”
“They’re overly sensitive friends, prone to overreacting to minor details.”
The green spear in Azelan’s hand split open, firing dry branches.
The Elder Druid, gathering his remaining strength, swung it, unleashing the spearhead like an exploding cannonball.
At that moment, the tattooed young man had already landed behind Azelan.
Thump.
The moment the young man lightly tapped Azelan’s back without even turning his head.
Slice!!
With a chilling cutting sound, Azelan’s head floated in the air.
Beyond Azelan’s headless corpse, the Harvester Spell Master peeked out, smiling.
“This, I helped you.”
“That’s far too late for the reward the Alliance Leader mentioned.”
Lennok eyed the Spell Master with an unamused expression.
“You said you’d guide me to Kundara, but you’re only just arriving at the Veil?”
“……”
“I’ve lost time, so it seems I should be receiving more compensation from you.”
The Harvester Spell Master scratched his head with an incredulous look.
“Don’t you get called ‘shameless’ a lot in your daily life?”