Chapter 823 |
“Everything around us is blocked off. By something like a hemispherical barrier.”
– It’s a sphere!
The ground heaved, and the black dragon’s head popped up from beneath it.
– It’s blocked underneath, too.
The moment Liette finished speaking, there came a clear metallic rattle. Then—boom! A golden chain wrapped in electric current slammed hard into empty air. Stopped by an invisible wall, the chain spat bursts of light, crackling and snapping.
“Roughly.”
At Seong Hyunjae’s word, the current spread out in thin threads. It scattered in every direction, tracing a round shape.
“So it is something like that.”
“It’s pretty big.”
“Chief Song, could you move a little to the side?”
Chief Song walked a few meters sideways. The swarm of butterflies moved after him.
“…It seems they are trying to stop me. Or rather, the power of the lunar eclipse.”
“Because you’d be able to nullify the barrier, Chief Song. Well, I did expect they wouldn’t hand him back easily.”
Hello there, I’m here to pick up my little brother~ No, of course they were not going to say, Sure, go right ahead~ and hand him over. I climbed down from Peace’s back, approached the barrier, and reached out. My palm met something smooth and solid.
“There’s a limit to how much power the Gardener can wield here, so it shouldn’t be impossible to break. Besides, Yuhyun isn’t the Gardener’s only objective.”
“A barrier is too passive a response. Rather than trying to hold out like this, it must be buying time.”
“Yes. Whatever that bastard is after, it’ll be better for us to break through as fast as possible. Liette, Severance or poison didn’t work?”
– Nope. Even with Noah’s buff, I don’t think it’ll be enough. There’s no repulsion or anything. It’s just plain hard.
“Plain things are always more annoying. Seong Hyunjae, don’t you have a useful skill? Pull one out for us.”
“I feel as though I have become Han Yujin’s Candybox.”
“That box was made by borrowing my memories, wasn’t it? Which means at least fifty percent of it belongs to me.”
It was a joint project, wasn’t it? If anything, he had originally stolen it, and I had magnanimously overlooked that and changed it into an interest-free loan.
“Don’t overdo it, though, just in case. It’d be a problem if you blew up, too. Oh, right. You have Plunder as well, don’t you, Seong Hyunjae?”
“I’m using most of it to hold my memories in place. And compared to the original, it’s only a tiny fraction.”
“Should we call Soyeong?”
Moon Hyunah said.
“If Soyeong uses Dragon Rider to buff Liette and I add my mount skill, I think that should do it. Or, Sesung Guild Leader, do you have any similar skills or buffs?”
“I do have one that weakens barriers.”
“Okay.”
Moon Hyunah sat down right where she was and closed her eyes. For a moment, her body seemed to sway. Then her eyes opened again.
“Hello!”
Kang Soyeong appeared. Judging by how quickly she had arrived, she must have happened to be nearby.
“Soyeong! The kids are all right, aren’t they?”
“Yes! We’re taking turns watching them. Oh, and Yun Yun told me a horrible joke about there being another Guild Leader. She said it wasn’t even something like a doppelgänger. Ahahaha~.”
Soyeong looked at us with an expression that begged, Please tell me that was a joke. Hmm. Well.
“That’s true, but he’s nice. He’s different from Seong Hyunjae.”
“That’s right, Soyeong. Only his face is the same.”
Seong Hyunjae gave me a wounded look, but I ignored it.
“Uuuugh, but Gyeol has the same face, too. Then is this one a dragon, maybe? Director Han, did you get a fourth kid?”
“He isn’t a dragon, but he is a little similar…”
Sigma was the Puppeteer’s kid, and the Puppeteer was my replica doll grown into a Transcendent, so it was not as though there was no connection at all.
“Oh, and I heard there are two Haeyeon Guild Leaders, too? So at Haeyeon Guild–”
“Unnie, unnie!”
Yerim hurriedly teleported over and clamped a hand over Kang Soyeong’s mouth. Right, there were two of them. Had Seok Gimyeong been pleased, or troubled? Having another S-rank would be welcome news, but still.
We did not have time for a lengthy explanation, so we put Kang Soyeong straight onto Liette. Soyeong looked at Noah and tilted her head.
“You seem a little different. Not just your hairstyle. That hair suits you, too!”
Noah smiled instead of answering. Moon Hyunah also climbed up in front of the black dragon’s horns. Her great spear appeared, and Noah used his buff skill. I also used my teacher skill. If Hwang Rim were here, I could have passed on double attack skills, too. Where the hell had that guy gone?
Then Seong Hyunjae used his weakening skill on part of the barrier. Silver speckles appeared across the transparent wall, and Liette lowered her head, strength gathering in all four legs.
– Here I go.
A low growl rumbled in her throat. Immediately after—
Boom!
The dragon’s legs shattered the ground. Amid a quake-like tremor, Moon Hyunah thrust her spear in a perfect motion at the exact spot.
Kraaaaack–!
I felt the mana forming the barrier twist violently. The blow had definitely landed.
“One more time!”
I shouted. The black dragon sprang back, widening the distance, then prepared for another running start. I looked at the butterflies flying wildly around, and at the black crystal beyond them.
Just wait a little longer.
Thud!
The ground roared again. The spearpoint flashed as it struck the barrier.
Crack–!
This time, a clear fissure appeared. Along the transparent wall, space warped like a broken mirror. Now, soon—
[Hu▒ny!]
At that moment, an urgent message appeared.
[It’s a buuug!]
…
A bug?
A bug, she said?
A long breath escaped between Young Chaos’s lips. His blurred vision remained the same no matter how many times he blinked. Inside his loose sleeve, he lightly shook away the blood running down his arm. Though he had received help from the tree, he had cut off several points of interference directly because there had been no time to spare. As a result, part of the curse binding his body layer upon layer bared its savage fangs.
‘…Still, for now.’
Had it quieted down? His red eyes looked out over the vast darkness. Within it, the Transcendents hung like stars, silent. Drifting soundlessly through the dark was stunned disbelief. The corner of Young Chaos’s mouth lifted faintly.
They had watched.
They had watched the weak ones who had not even escaped their world.
They had watched two Transcendents vanish at those weaklings’ hands.
‘And that damned bastard wasn’t even the one at the center of it.’
If the pseudo-Origin had taken the lead and cut down the two World Trees, they would not have been quite so shocked. The power Seong Hyunjae carried was vast enough that even the Transcendents acknowledged it. Though he could not control himself, a pseudo-Origin was still a pseudo-Origin.
But the one standing at the center had been none other than an ordinary F-rank. Even those born S-rank looked weak and young in the eyes of Transcendents. And an F-rank? Under normal circumstances, he would have been no more than one common speck of dust, not even worth noticing.
In the silence of confusion, Young Chaos’s smile deepened.
‘That’s what they are, you bastards.’
People.
Seeds no one could know how or into what they would grow.
And those outside the world, those already grown into Transcendents, had neither the qualification nor the right to wield the young ones. Young Chaos twirled his sword upright. Then he tapped the point lightly against his shoulder.
“There really aren’t any proper adults around.”
As one who had walked ahead, he could pave the road and set up signposts. Because he had thought as much, Chaos had also participated in creating the system. But anything beyond that was nothing but adult tyranny. All the more so if they were beings from outside, who did not even belong to that world. Was it anything more than grabbing someone else’s child and shouting, I am a fine and successful adult, so do as I say?
“And thanks to that, things have already ended up like this.”
He had to take an appropriate amount of responsibility. If Han Yujin had not become deeply involved with Transcendents, Young Chaos would not have interfered beyond handing him the sword. But the kid had been dragged into all this, after all, and the more Young Chaos learned of the situation, the more he could not help feeling at least some responsibility.
The system’s intentions had not been bad. But if the system had not existed, Han Yujin would never have had to suffer, either. Crescent Moon’s interference in the world would have become difficult in and of itself, so Seong Hyunjae, too, would either have met his end in his original world or grown into a Transcendent in the ordinary way.
His hazy red eyes held a faraway place. Even so, the young ones were living with all their might. Han Yujin, of course, and even Seong Hyunjae. As one who had walked ahead of them, there was no way he could fail to find that sight lovable. Those children who followed behind him, in whatever form that took.
“Things with minds stiffened past all hope don’t know how to treat children like children.”
Clicking his tongue, he descended onto a massive branch that split the sky. Rookie appeared beside him.
“Chaos-nim! Are you all right?”
“All my limbs are still attached, so I’d say I’m fine enough. I’m more worried about First. It looks like he’s holding out somehow because he has to save Second.”
In one corner of his vision, the dream world Rookie was showing him reflected. Han Yujin, after sending off the twenty-six-year-old Han Yuhyun. Even a Transcendent could not know the intimate conversation Han Yujin and the Han Yuhyun who had left had shared. That was why Han Yujin’s condition bothered him. Rookie’s face crumpled as if he might cry.
“Honey really, really cherishes Honey’s little brother… I can’t even imagine it. I would be terribly sad if something happened to Honey, too, but for him, it must be so much worse.”
– Still, he survived.
The tree spoke as it withdrew its long-stretched branches.
– If the subordinates had all gone down without us interfering, he probably wouldn’t have made it. Even if they somehow managed to repel them all, the number of magic stones would have been much greater, so it wouldn’t have ended with only two World Tree-species Transcendents.
“You’re right. Thank you for helping, Senior Tree.”
– But why World Tree species?
The tree continued, puzzled.
– World Tree species don’t just lack an aptitude for combat. Most of them are dull.
“…Senior Tree, you’re a World Tree species, too.”
– It’s a species trait. More precisely, it’s the environment. People say high-ranking dragonkin, especially physically sturdy combat types, are stupid, don’t they? They say it’s because they can solve problems with their bodies without needing to use their heads. It’s the same for non-dragonkin under similar conditions. But World Trees are even worse.
“Because they’re sturdy? And have high regenerative ability?”
– That, too. But more than that, most World Trees are loved by their worlds. To begin with, there are hardly any species that dislike trees. Trees become the foundation of the ecosystem.
World Trees bestowed abundance simply by existing. Overflowing honey and fruit. Clear air. Pure water sources. At times, the World Tree itself became a home for life. Forests flourished around World Trees, and all kinds of living creatures naturally prospered there.
– There are cases where wars break out over World Trees, but no one hates the World Tree itself. Transcendents also rarely touch World Tree species unless they have a very good reason. Their mere existence is helpful. So compared to small species that have to struggle to survive from birth, they can’t help being veeeery dull.
Living comfortably was not a bad thing, but compared to those who had survived fiercely, it was natural for them to fall behind in certain areas. On the other hand, they also had strengths of their own, such as composure.
– In any case, they aren’t suited for battle. And yet the Gardener deliberately sent only two World Tree-species Transcendents.
“Because they’re weak in combat? Even if they were weak, they were still probably stronger than Honey’s group, and it’d be easy to take the pseudo-Origin from them later.”
– Maybe. Still, that Gardener child is unsettling. I don’t think this will end here.
“And it’s not only the Gardener. Crescent Moon is still left as well. Even if she is quiet right now.”
At Chaos’s words, Rookie nodded.
“For now, I’m trying to restore the pillars of the dream world. Honey’s group should be able to return to their original world somehow, as long as we send them back, but…”
“Am I the one who has to take charge of that bastard?”
Young Chaos closed his eyes deeply once, then opened them.
“Now that his identity as a pseudo-Origin has been revealed, he cannot stay anywhere. To be honest, it troubles me, too. If I take him away under the pretext of protecting him, the worlds of the First Source might be attacked.”
“…Chain is the one thing I really can’t see a solution for, no matter how much I think about it. Wherever he goes, whoever’s hands he falls into, war will break out. The moment he leaves that world, every Transcendent will rush at him.”
As long as he was a being that could replace the Source, the Transcendents would keep watching him until the very, very end. Rookie hesitated, then spoke quietly.
“Disappearing together with the lunar eclipse… might perhaps be the best method for everyone.”
“…He’s a troublesome bastard.”
A short silence passed. Then Chaos turned his head. Rookie looked in the same direction. From there, black-and-white twin dragons appeared. The two dragonkin bowed respectfully to Young Chaos.
“It is an honor to meet you for the first time.”
“You’re the dragonkin who helped the children, aren’t you?”
“Yes. We understand that Young Chaos has also been looking after them.”
The white dragon approached Chaos.
“Therefore, may we be of help to you?”
“You, to me?”
“He is our distant descendant.”
“He seems to have cast aside his qualification as Valsesis’s successor.”
“Even so, he is a child of the Mad Dragon species. A descendant we will someday meet again in another form. As his ancestors, we have a duty to reach out, if only because he touched us for even a short time.”
The white dragon wore a gentle smile.
“If possible, I hope he returns safely to his own world and grows. I would also like him to lay about ten eggs.”
“There probably aren’t many dragonkin in that neighborhood.”
“Dragonkin are dominant, after all. They would be terribly cute.”
“…Well, do as you like.”
The white dragon’s mana glimmered faintly as it enveloped Young Chaos. His blurred red eyes cleared. The curse that had been viciously sinking its teeth into him also settled down. The white dragon withdrew her mana, narrowing her brow.
“I cannot lift it. Even if I were to become a Transcendent as ancient as Chaos-nim, I think we would need at least ten more Transcendents with similar abilities.”
“That’s about right.”
Young Chaos answered as if it were nothing. Completely undoing the curse wrapped around him was close to impossible.
“I feel much lighter. Thank you.”
After bowing her head, the white dragon returned to the black dragon’s side, and they disappeared together. Chaos’s gaze turned back toward the darkness. The Transcendents were still quiet. Now, unless they shaved away pieces of themselves and leaped directly into that world, there was nothing they could do.
“Honey is on his way to retrieve Honey’s little brother. The mana in the dream world has calmed down a lot as well, and once the pillars wake up, I think we’ll be able to send Honey’s group back to their original world…”
“I’m not sure First will be willing to leave those two bastards behind.”
“He can return through dreams for now, so first–”
Rookie’s words cut off.
At the same time—
Aaaaaaaaaaah—
The World Tree shook.
The tree shook.
And it was not the only one.
Every World Tree species began to scream in agony at once.
–TL Notes–
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