Ch.190Chapter 190 – World Tree Defense Battle (3)

The moon darkened.

While I was bewildered by something that shouldn’t have happened, I heard Baphomet laughing.

“Keke, heh, keh.”

“Why are you laughing?”

“Why do you think?”

Baphomet spoke with a somewhat relieved expression.

“That guy can finally use his true power.”

“That guy? True power?”

Baphomet didn’t answer my question and just kept laughing.

Then she collapsed weakly backward.

“Ha, kugh, damn it. I could have won if I hadn’t overdone it.”

Baphomet spoke weakly, sprawled on the ground unable to move.

As I looked down at her, I suddenly heard something massive moving behind me.

-Kuung! Kuung!

“Mr. Kay!”

“Sera?”

Sera, who should have been waiting behind me, was approaching on top of a golem.

“Sera, why are you here?”

“Eve suddenly told me to come check on you because the fight would be over.”

“Eve did?”

Eve did have special abilities, so she could probably tell whether my fight was over or not.

Of course, her ability had limitations and wasn’t something she could use freely, but…

“Before that, hup!”

Sera pulled out a strangely gleaming rope from her chest and tied up Baphomet.

“…Hmph, you think you can restrain me with something like this?”

“I only need a moment. Just a moment.”

A normal rope would be meaningless against someone like her.

But judging by Sera’s confident expression, that rope must be some special alchemical creation.

“I originally made it to tie up Mr. Kay, after all.”

“Wait.”

I think I just heard something I can’t let slide.

“Sera, could you repeat what you just—”

“Dicky, please.”

Sera ignored me completely and spoke to the golem standing behind her.

Despite the questionable name that would make anyone protest, the golem raised its arm with flashing eyes.

-Taaak!

The golem made a sound somewhere in its body, seemingly responding to Sera’s command.

Then it approached Baphomet and began pressing down on her with its thick arms.

It seemed to be only restraining her, not cutting off her breath.

Since Baphomet had already reached her limit fighting me, she didn’t look like she had the energy to escape, so we should be safe for now.

“By the way, Sera, what was that rope meant for…?”

“Oh right, when I left, Chris and Eve said they were going to support Beatrice.”

She’s not listening.

She clearly had no intention of telling me.

“Did some signal come from Beatrice’s side?”

“No. Eve took Chris and headed toward Beatrice after sending me here.”

They went without any request for support?

Then there’s only one answer.

‘What did she see in the future?’

I had a bad feeling about this, so I turned to head toward Beatrice’s location.

“Stay here.”

“No, if those two went for support, I should also—”

“Calm down. We need to check your body first.”

Sera was examining my body, saying I must have pushed myself too hard.

“Sera, I’m fine—”

“Please stay still for a moment.”

Sera said this as she began applying medicine to my face.

Then she took the bag I had strapped to my waist and briefly checked its contents.

“Good thing we don’t need to use the medicines in your pouch… for now, I’ll use what I have.”

After saying that, Sera had the golem hold my bag and continued treating me by applying more medicine.

After watching her for a moment, I looked at the giant that had suddenly appeared.

“What the hell is that thing?”

It had massive horns on its head, and I could see it raising what looked like a snake’s tail in a show of power.

I was wary of its appearance, clearly different from ordinary giant-type monsters.

As I observed it, Baphomet slowly spoke.

“Legion Commander, Gigas.”

The collapsed Baphomet said with a smile.

“Take a good look, human. That little one is one of our demon realm’s guardian deities.”

“Little one?”

While I was confused by Baphomet’s words, the giant swung its fist.

+

The situation for the elves changed due to the suddenly appearing giant.

“Damn it, where did it—”

“Fall back! Retreat to the second line—no, the third line for now!”

The elves quickly ran backward in response to the commander’s voice.

They had abandoned the current defense line due to the giant’s sudden attack.

Even if they went to the next defense line, they had no way to counter the giant’s attacks.

That’s why they were retreating to the third line where siege weapons were prepared.

Watching the retreating elves, Pine quickly mounted her griffon.

“Seriously, why is that kid suddenly so huge?”

She had been holding her own against the boy called Legion Commander when suddenly he stomped his foot once, saying it was time, and transformed into that.

At first, she was about to shoot an arrow wondering what trick he was up to, when a massive arm appeared to block the arrow, then rapidly expanded to a terrifying size.

Pine had no particular strategy prepared to deal with a suddenly appearing giant.

Frustrating as it was, she had no choice but to retreat temporarily.

“No joke, we’d need to measure its height against the World Tree…”

Of course, the World Tree itself was a bit taller.

But that was a meaningless comparison for them, who were like ants compared to the giant.

After all, they’d be finished if they got stepped on.

Slightly overwhelmed by the size that vastly surpassed any giant-type monster she had seen before, Pine shot an arrow.

-Tiing!!

“As expected, normal arrows don’t even scratch it.”

Pine nodded quietly as she watched her arrow simply bounce off the giant’s massive body, which was covered in a mix of snake scales and pale skin.

‘I’ll need to prepare something bigger.’

Pine calmly steadied herself, deciding to prepare the maximum force she could muster.

‘In hunting, the one who doesn’t get impatient wins.’

This was a time to stay calm.

“World Tree, my great mother. Please grant me strength.”

Pine offered a small prayer as she rode her griffon.

Meanwhile, the Lich also had to pause his fight with the Demon Lord.

[Damn it, I’ll see you next time!]

“…Cursed bastard.”

The Demon Lord was floating in the air, cursing at the Lich.

After hesitating for a moment, the giant approached him.

“What is it, Gigas?”

[…Are you injured?]

“As you can see.”

Cursing about how disgustingly strong the Lich was, the Demon Lord looked at Gigas and said:

“Gigas, you follow that damned dark elf’s plan. I’ll have to retreat, it seems.”

[…You fight too. For the Demon King.]

“You want me to fight with these injuries?”

The Demon Lord showed his scorched body.

‘That’s barely a scratch.’

For an ordinary demon, that level of injury would heal with just a bit of saliva.

‘He just doesn’t want to fight.’

Gigas considered bringing his fist down on him.

Though they were both Legion Commanders, he didn’t particularly like the other.

He was even tempted to casually include him in his attack range.

[…The Demon King would be sad.]

It would be truly stupid to fight over personal dislike and ruin the operation to summon the Demon King, especially when time was of the essence.

Deciding it wasn’t worth fighting unnecessarily, Gigas turned away from the Demon Lord and began advancing again.

Looking down, he saw elves moving like ants.

[…Sorry, but I need to vent a little.]

-Kuung!

As he stomped his massive foot once, the ground shook and elves began to fall.

Gigas headed toward the defense line without bothering to step on the fallen elves.

After just a few steps, he could see the defense line the elves had reconstructed.

“Fire!”

-Puung!!

He felt the elves’ ballistas and cannons hitting his body.

After briefly blocking them, Gigas quietly said:

[For the Demon King.]

After quietly saying this, Gigas raised his arm and began smashing the elves’ siege weapons.

+

While the war intensified, several elves were causing a commotion in a corner prison.

“How long are you going to keep us locked up?!”

A red-haired elf was shouting while banging on the prison door.

Beside him, his sister and other supporters were voicing their complaints.

“Why are we locked up here?!”

“Where are the guards! Where are they?!”

“Damn it, why are there explosions outside… what are those other races doing?”

The prison briefly fell silent as another explosion echoed, as if answering the last question.

Then the elf named Lium started shouting again.

“Damn it, where are the guards! Where are they! Do you intend to further humiliate the Red Oleander clan? Let us out now!”

Despite his words, his face had turned slightly pale.

He had dismissed the talk of possible war and defensive battles he’d heard since morning with a sneer.

Now he somewhat regretted planning to use the temporary security gap to spread awareness of their activities.

Because of that, he was now helplessly trapped in prison, trembling at the distant explosions.

“Damn it, guard!!”

Not just him, but prisoners in other cells were shouting too, but there was no response.

The rangers assigned as guards had been minimally staffed and deployed elsewhere.

They couldn’t leave the prison completely empty, so they had barely covered the gap by efficiently positioning minimal personnel at the prison entrance and releasing spirits.

The low probability of demons targeting this place was another reason for the minimal ranger presence.

It was estimated that demons would try to advance toward the World Tree as quickly as possible rather than attempting occupation, which was the first reason. The second reason was that there was no point in wasting time on a prison.

In reality, the prison was a safe place since demons had no time to care about such facilities.

“Damn iiiit!”

Of course, Lium, unaware of these circumstances, kept shouting.

His only regret was that he hadn’t escaped during the day if a real battle was going to break out.

“Damn it, anyone will do. Just get me out of here…!”

Just as he shouted, as if someone had heard his prayer, the dimension in front of him distorted.

With wide eyes, he quickly shouted at the person who emerged from the distorted space:

“W-whoever you are, get us out now! Right now!”

“Please let us out, hurry!”

His sister also clung to the bars, screaming to be let out.

Seeing a considerable number of people emerging from within, hope of survival spread across Lium’s face.

At least until he heard what one of them said as he suddenly grabbed his sister’s face.

“Hmm, her face is decent enough, so I suppose she passes as a collection piece?”

A chill suddenly ran through his entire body.

Involuntarily, Lium shouted:

“W-who are you people! You…!”

“Is it common courtesy to answer when asked who you are?”

Along with the voice of a fairly large man, he lowered his hood.

Seeing the human that appeared, Lium shouted:

“A human? How did a human get here?”

“Well, the old man told us using this place tonight would be the most convenient way to achieve our goal.”

The man casually pointed to another man leaning against the prison door.

Then he spoke to the woman who had grabbed Lium’s sister:

“Hey, Phobia. Put that down for now. You can hunt separately later, can’t you?”

“No. This one’s mine.”

The woman called Phobia seemed to like the red-haired elf woman and had no intention of letting go.

“Wouldn’t it be better for Hakan to go hunting outside?”

“Are you stupid? I don’t want to cause unnecessary trouble.”

After saying that, Hakan looked at the man leaning against the wall and said:

“So, we just need to clean out everything in this prison, right, Somnus?”

“Yes. The regent only wants elves, so he probably doesn’t intend to play with them. He’s old, after all.”

Somnus added that there was no need to go out hunting laboriously.

“Anyway, I don’t care what the regent does. But you do, don’t you, Hakan?”

“You know well. Still, as thanks for your help, I’ll pray to the gods that your plan goes well today.”

“Yes, please do.”

Somnus narrowed his eyes slightly and then said with a warm smile:

“And I need to eliminate those who would interfere with the plan.”

“Who?”

The question came not from Hakan but from Phobia.

Somnus answered regardless:

“The Demon King.”