Chapter 46 : The Awakening of Malice

There is a space that seems cut off from the world.

Where the sky and earth should be adorned with color, a pure white space has taken its place, and there are no beings that could be considered alive around.

In the middle of such a space stands a woman who seems to have been crafted from snowflakes fallen from the sky.

She had a body that would make all living things fall in love, covered by a dress woven from fertile soil, and hair that resembled autumn leaves, finely ground and draped.

Mother of elves, pillar of the world, the first tree, guardian of all life.

All were words referring to her. At the same time, they were words referring to her sisters.

And that great her, that beautiful her, was now contorting her face.

“Wh-what… is that…!”

She collapsed in pain, groaning as she looked down.

The hands supporting her body trembled.

She was connected to all trees. Unlike her sisters, who symbolized fruits, flowers, leaves, and branches, she governed the roots, so she could perceive the emotions emanating from all the trees on the continent.

And the emotion she was feeling now was pain.

“How, such… ugh…”

All trees, and furthermore, all plants, feel emotions. And those emotions cannot always be positive.

Therefore, she was also familiar with the pain and sorrow that plants emitted.

However, however…

The emotions expressed by the forests and mountains in the east of the Artera continent, which were slowly preparing for winter, were not so simple.

Even the feeling of death, which sometimes pricked her emotions like a needle, was incomparable to this.

Fear, astonishment, anguish, praise, madness, emptiness, faith, confusion, weakness, persecution, hardship, misfortune, inferiority, mercy, grief…

Different plants showed common emotions.

And those were emotions that plants should never have.

The infinite emotions of rational beings, defined by words over thousands and tens of thousands of years by young humans who live short lives.

But plants, which had only the desire for survival and prosperity, were feeling those emotions.

Even emotions like faith, mercy, and praise existed. And those emotions were not directed at her, who had been taking care of them until now.

“Please… I don’t know anything like that. Please, someone help me.”

She was the eldest of the three sisters, wisely leading the elves who lived for thousands of years.

Such a being was crying like a child, repeating words. However, there were no sisters or elves to help her.

“Tailyn, Rilyn, where are you? Help me. That thing… cough…”

Instantly, the emotions of the eastern trees compressed into one.

Death.

Blood flowed from her mouth, and her body tilted. The eastern land that had protected the trees was now harboring malice.

The first of the three sisters who govern the World Tree, Widrin, trembled at the feeling of fear that oppressed her.

She instinctively sought her forgotten protector.

“Solia-nim, Lunasha-nim, please save me. Please, I’ve never seen or heard of such a thing.”

But those who had warmly cared for her had already buried their bodies in the midst of eons of time.

The only beings she could call family were her two younger sisters, who appeared much later.

In the end, there was no one to save her.

Just because a part of the east was frantically conveying emotions didn’t mean that she, a god, would die.

What she feared was the abnormality of the plants and what would happen to the continent in the future.

It was crouching deep underground, and now it was trying to break through the ground and destroy everything.

She, who had a close relationship with the earth due to the plants, received its malice head-on.

Widrin realized that this was only the beginning.

The roots of the World Tree sensed it. This was not the first time.

The fragile woman instinctively felt it. The two people who raised her were related to this.

And ‘it,’ now emerging from the ground, was connected to something.

Widrin’s eyes, which felt that malice spreading from the sky, gradually closed.

‘That thing… I have to stop it…’

Her power had already not reached the east. As if a fence had been erected, the forest of the area was out of control.

She had to send elves, she had to inform her sisters. Or even the dragons…

But in the end, her thoughts did not lead to action, and she lost consciousness.

The pure white space was more desolate than ever.

Boom.

The world was angry and trembled. No, it trembled in fear. Arnus Count and the investigation team thought so.

The ancient city, which had drawn the admiration of the investigation team, turned into powder with a single stir of ‘it.’

“Count, nim…!”

Failer mumbled, unable to move his mouth, and searched for the Count. Arnus Count wanted to respond, but his body wouldn’t move.

He had to get out of here right away, but he couldn’t. The mysterious city was tainted with malice.

‘Am I going to die here?’

Arnus Count thought of death.

‘Did I wake up such a thing?’

And he thought about the object that would kill him.

‘Why did I wake that up?’

And he questioned it.

‘Why… did I listen to the words of God?’

And he recalled the reason he came here.

‘Did God… know this?’

And he thought about the being who made him take this action.

‘Did God know and deliberately…’

“Count…!”

And when he was about to ask God for ‘sin’ for the last time, a voice was heard from above.

Jonan was standing with difficulty, trembling in his legs.

“Jonan…?”

“You have to… get out…”

Then, Jonan carried the Count on his back. Failer, witnessing the scene, shouted with wide eyes.

“Jonan, how did you!”

“Groundwater… touched my body.”

Turning his head, as Jonan said, there was water filling the place where he had fallen.

Failer realized that it was an extension of the ability Jonan had shown before entering the temple.

“If you move away from that thing, you’ll be able to move…”

Saying that, Jonan, who was carrying the Count, approached Failer. Then, he wrapped his arm around Failer’s arm.

“Forgive my rudeness, Sir Failer. This is the best way now.”

“Jonan! …I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s!”

Jonan, with a bloody mouth, took a deep breath and dragged Failer with that force. Jonan moved his body not in the direction they had come, but in the direction where the cave was closest.

Meanwhile, ‘it’ was getting more and more out of the city below. ‘It’ greedily ate the stone that the Count had broken, heading for the top of the temple.

And when it judged that it had come out to some extent, ‘it’ closed its three mouths and contracted its body toward the ceiling.

Boom!

“Wh-what is that!”

“…That monster is breaking through the ceiling.”

However, the ceiling of the underground city seemed to have something special, and it couldn’t penetrate it instantly.

Jonan took advantage of that time to quickly lead the two to a nearby cave.

“Gasp, gasp!”

Of course, Jonan’s stamina, who had not learned Aura, quickly ran out, and Arnus Count and Failer were concentrating on raising Aura every moment for such a Jonan.

Bang!

“Jonan, this is enough!”

A little later, as soon as Aura bloomed from the Count’s hand, the Count and Failer quickly escaped from Jonan.

And they could feel that the feeling of lethargy was reduced differently from a little while ago by taking a step back inside, with their whole bodies wrapped in Aura.

“Let’s get out of here first. We’ll take care of the rest of the knights.”

Arnus Count said so and tried to send Jonan away, but Jonan refused.

“It’s okay. I’ll go with you.”

“What are you talking about!”

“There must be more than one person to get everyone out quickly. If we go to the place where the Dragon God’s power protects us, it will be okay!”

In the end, Arnus Count, who could not dissuade Jonan, went back inside with him.

So, after two round trips, the three who brought all the knights entered the cave.

Boom…

“The ceiling is collapsing!”

The ceiling of the city, which had been hit several times by the huge being’s charge, eventually could not withstand the shock and began to collapse.

The investigation team quickly moved and tried to escape the cave before it was also buried.

“The cave is collapsing!”

“Ugh!!”

The Count carried Jonan, who was slow, on his side and broke through the dirt piles pouring in from the front with Aura, heading for the ground.

Fortunately, unlike when they came, the cave was connected in only one direction.

Soon, the investigation team was able to face the rising sun and the setting moon.

“Ah…”

And they could face it, which had opened its mouth toward the west right in front of them.

Like a flower basking in the sun, it opened its mouth wide and did not move.

And dark red energy was escaping from that mouth.

“Count! Over there!”

At Jonan’s cry, Arnus Count’s gaze turned to the west. The appearance of the moon disappearing below the horizon was strange.

…It was gradually turning red.

“We have to stop it!”

Arnus Count instinctively knew that he had to. But he couldn’t do anything about it.

How will he stop that, that being?

“I’ll somehow…!”

Jonan, who escaped from Arnus Count, took out Haeilgum and pointed it at it.

The two streams of water looked very poor compared to the being in front.

Still, Jonan recited a prayer and shot out two streams of water.

Naturally, it couldn’t elicit any reaction from it.

The investigation team, who were looking at ‘it,’ also had a vague heart. But the next moment, someone looked at the sky.

And muttered.

“…Storm?”

The clear sky had turned dark. The rising sun, the setting moon disappeared from view.

At this, ‘it’ also reacted.

Then, it shouted as if it were angry at the approaching storm.

[…Solia!!]

At that cry, Jonan moved his gaze to the center of the storm that ‘it’ was looking at. ‘He’ was there.

“…Dragon God!”

[Dirty being.]

A being with blue scales like the Milky Way, holding a storm, appeared in the sky.

[Die and stabilize the earth with your bones and flesh.]

Then he spoke to ‘it,’ who was angry at him.