Chapter 2061: Reignited Hope |
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As Ignatius struggled, Yggdra fought the Treant Queen. She manifested a long sword and imitated Sylphy’s swordsmanship, slicing through wood and branches—only for the Treant Queen to sneer and regrow her body without pause.
"To think I would one day fight against a fellow Treant. You are a disgrace to our kind!"
"I am not of your Treant Race. I am Yggdra, a Divine Spirit Tree!"
Yggdra surged forward. Thousands of giant burning flowers bloomed around her body and unleashed countless divine fire beams, consuming the Treant Queen as her sword tore her apart.
Meanwhile, as Ignatius battled, another copy of him descended from above and slammed into the Divine Demonic Spirit Tree, smashing it to pieces. Yet the tree instantly regrew dark branches that pierced his skin and drained his blood.
"Nnngggh! Ignatius, don’t give up!"
"Furoh!"
"You’ve got the potential to do great things... friend... so please...! You have to win!"
Ignatius watched in horror as the Demonic Spirit Tree laughed through countless jaws, piercing Furoh’s body and filling him with endless branches. His form could hold no more. It exploded into pieces.
BOOOMMM!!!
"FUROOOOOOOHHH!!!"
Ignatius screamed, tears streaming from his eyes. His spiritual body warped violently as thousands of heads erupted around him, devouring the Demonic Spirit Tree, absorbing its cursed flames, and mutating into a miasmic fire dragon spirit.
"RAAAAHHHHH!"
Consumed by wrath and the madness of miasma, Ignatius smashed the Demonic Spirit Tree into the ground and rained down burning punches.
"Nnngghh?! Y-You damn...! Lowly beast! How dare you?!"
"I WILL AVENGE FUROH!!! YOU DAMN SON OF A BITCH!!!"
Ignatius roared. He manifested a titanic axe formed from his own hardened body and cleaved the entire tree apart.
CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!
"HEHEHE...! HAHAHAHAHA!"
Even as it was torn to pieces, the Demonic Spirit Tree scattered seeds across Lolth’s dimension, drawing on her divine power and regrowing—stronger than before. Once, twice, three times... No, four.
"W-WHAT?!"
Ignatius’ eyebrows twitched in disbelief. Yggdra faced the same horror: every time she killed the Treant Queen, the entity regrew even stronger.
"EACH DEATH MAKES ME STRONGER, FOOLISH CREATURES! WITH MY MASTER, I AM INVINCIBLE!"
Both the Treant Queen and the Demonic Spirit Tree spoke in perfect unison; their laughter filled with malice and destructive power far beyond their enemies’ imagination.
"Damn it! Was Furoh’s death for nothing?!" Ignatius clenched his teeth, then spotted twitching fragments of flesh on the ground. "F-Furoh?! Violet! Grab him!"
Violet, too weak to fight directly, had been supporting everyone with spells. She swiftly gathered Furoh’s living fragments and placed them inside her cauldron, using synthesis to reconstruct him.
"I suppose I have to fight as well. This is getting too much," Pyuku sighed. "We will show you the wrath of the slaves you humiliated! Sylphy’s death will not be in vain!"
"I will help everyone avenge her!!!" Naturia cried in pain yet held back her tears. She broke her wooden body apart, pushing herself to the limit to transform into pieces of armor for her allies. "LET’S FIGHT AS ONE!"
"RAAAAHHHHHH!"
Ignatius, Pyuku, and Yggdra roared as they charged, crashing against Lolth’s creations while she watched in silence with crossed arms.
"What pitiful beings. Your struggle is futile! If I were here in person, you would already be dead!"
As she spoke, her eyes widened. A sudden crimson armored hand rested on her shoulder.
"Wha...?!"
"Ah, nice to meet you, Lolth. It’s been quite some time. You’re as ugly as ever."
"...?!"
BOOOMMM!!!
Before she could react, an armored fist smashed into her face, hurling her into the floor of her own divine domain and shattering it like glass.
"W-What...?!"
Lolth’s vessel, the infernal dryad spirit tree queen, stared at the attacker: a giant ant-like burning spirit goddess radiating immense divinity.
"You were talking about years lived and all of that, hm? Well, how about you fight someone of your own caliber?"
"A-Armageddon?! You’re alive?!"
"As alive as I can be. And I won’t let what you did to my master slide! I WILL FUCKING TEAR YOU TO SHREDS! RIGHT NOW!!! KRIEEEEEEEHHHH!!!"
With an insectoid, furious hissing roar, Armageddon descended like a divine fiery meteor. She crashed into Lolth, punching and tearing at her vessel with massive fists.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"GAAAHHH!"
As Lolth screamed, her connection to her familiars severed. Pyuku, Yggdra, and Ignatius powered up and swiftly finished them off.
However—
"Enough!"
Within the Divine Domain, a colossal mass of divinity and darkness manifested. A monstrous insectoid dragon specter appeared—Lolth’s true avatar. Her presence alone forced everyone to their knees.
TRUUUM!
"Gaaha?!" Ignatius vomited blood as his spiritual body twisted in agony.
"I-Impossible! Her divinity surpasses mine...!" Yggdra groaned.
"Nnngghhh...!" Pyuku resisted with his malleable body and psychic powers, yet he could barely move.
"Heh..." Lolth smiled through her vessel. She exploded into countless black branches and flame-filled eyes that pierced Armageddon’s body, then kicked her into a massive crater.
BOOOMMM!!!
The vessel rose into the sky, gazing down with many red eyes.
"You should have never enraged us gods, foolish mortals. The power difference is simply too vast! You only defeated me before because of luck!"
Crack...
"But that will not happen again. Not without her, not without the rest of your little friends or the heroes who are nowhere to be seen!"
Crack, crack...
"Hahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!"
CRACK!
"Ugh, what is that annoying... sound?"
Lolth’s many red eyes widened as a giant crack spread across her Divine Domain.
From within, an immensely dark presence descended like a meteor striking a planet. The skies themselves exploded.
CRAAASH!
In that moment of destruction, a deep demonic darkness unlike anything Lolth had seen warped space itself, tearing through her divinity and overpowering it with something even more sinister.
"W-What is this?! An... Another Evil God?!"
To everyone’s shock, a massive black insectoid entity manifested amid the shattered dimension. Tall and slender, it possessed a dark purple exoskeleton covered in sharp spikes, eight long arms ending in claws, and a body embedded with powerful demonic spirit jewels of every color. A crown of intense demonic divinity glowed above its head, long antennae twitched, and big red fly-like eyes gleamed. The buzzing of giant bug-like wings filled the air.
Everyone who knew him recognized him instantly. Lolth trembled in fear before this new Evil God whose power was simply...
Superior.
His friend, barely alive and still regenerating, sensed his presence and burst from Violet’s cauldron, screaming his name.
"It’s really you... Beelzebub!!!"
.
.
.
Amidst the burning forest, everyone fought for Her.
To avenge Her. To save Her. To fight for what they believed in.
When all stood at the verge of death against impossible foes—after watching Her being dismembered—Her pieces, even in that ruined state, still twitched with life.
A finger. A fragment of her heart. A small bone.
Every piece slowly turned into wooden roots, piercing the dirt and moving toward the force that called them to become whole again.
Amidst impossible odds, the flame of hope has been reignited.
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