Ch.982The Truth About Spirits

Haschal

Descending at high speed, I literally ground a tree spirit to dust, then dashed in a straight line toward the capital of Alvheim with my companions.

Riding on the dragon’s back, we continuously repelled and shattered the attacks of water spirits and tree spirits that kept coming at us.

Like the aftermath of carpet bombing that burns forests in its wake, we drew a long line of flames across the great forest for dozens of minutes.

“Haa… Haa…”

“This is trickier than I thought… Are we really making progress?”

We were growing increasingly exhausted. The closer we got to the World Tree, the stronger the threats we faced became.

“…Of course it’s difficult. If the great forest could be easily conquered by forces of this level, wouldn’t it have fallen eight hundred years ago?”

“Haa… that’s true. How did I end up following you here? My life really is absurdly complicated.”

“If you have time to chat, focus on fighting!”

I swung my Sword of Severance at the tree spirit before me while scolding Ophelia, who was sighing next to Demian.

*Crack!*

The tree spirit’s leg was sliced through space itself.

Its body, protected by the World Tree’s power, boasted hardness surpassing black iron, but that wasn’t enough to withstand the spatial ability of severance.

“Grwooooo…!”

The tree spirit lost its balance and fell forward with a thunderous groan. The ground shook slightly with a thud.

In the cloud of dust that rose, the tree spirit’s head lay embedded in the ground before me as I stepped back.

I thrust both hands into it and tore it in half with all my strength.

“Kyaaaah!”

*Crack!*

Broken shell fragments flew up like bone shards, and sap flowed from the split head.

These creatures had awkwardly imitated animals and ended up with the same weaknesses. The tree spirit, now with a twin head, twitched slightly before going limp.

“Wow, just crushing it with raw strength…”

“Really, I can never tell which side is the monster when I see this.”

Demian and Ophelia, who had been fighting another tree spirit together, glanced at me and muttered in admiration.

“Well done! Keep it up! Crush all of them! These damn tree creatures!”

『Kraaah! This is still far from enough! Do you think creatures with mere legs can stand against me?!』

Perneisia cheered with strangely elevated tension, while Kudsedra engaged in legendary combat with another tree spirit.

Perhaps because we were getting closer to the World Tree? Unlike the previous tree spirits that lacked lower bodies, these new ones had massive legs.

That meant they were twice as large. Their movements had become more agile too.

Of course, gaining this advantage came with the disadvantage of being vulnerable to leg attacks, just like humans…

“Ophelia, those legs! Try to bind them somehow!”

“You think that’s easy? …Well, it is for me!”

We could exploit such weaknesses, but if we were merely knights at the Master level, we wouldn’t even be able to resist before being kicked or trampled to death like insects.

“Grwooooo!”

『KRAAAAAH!』

A giant wooden kick struck the dragon’s flank, and in retaliation, the dragon’s tail wrapped around the creature’s leg and toppled it.

Kudsedra climbed onto the fallen tree spirit and slashed at it with its front claws, while the tree spirit’s fist swung back and struck the dragon’s lower jaw.

『Keuhaak…!』

Despite its head jerking upward from the impact, Kudsedra still held the tree spirit firmly.

“Good, keep holding it!”

I launched myself toward them, thrust Frosting into the tree spirit’s brow, and activated the Hagalaz rune to shatter its insides to pieces.

Right after, Demian and Ophelia cleanly blasted away the upper body of the last remaining tree spirit with pure white bombardment.

That made three. Three more tree giants had met their end. Though many more remained ahead.

—-

We continued fighting the World Tree’s minions as we raced through the heart of the great forest.

Breaking straight through small towns and villages that lay on the path to the capital.

“It’s the short-lived race! The short-lived ones have invaded on a dragon!”

“Kyaaaah! Run, we must run…!”

“Where are the Guardians and Patrollers?!”

“World Tree, please save us…”

Perhaps because they had deployed all their Guardians, Patrollers, and even apprentices to the frontlines? Only civilians without combat ability remained in the towns and villages.

Far from resisting, these fairy townspeople fell into panic and desperately fled at the sight of us. The usual me would have ignored them and moved on.

Though I might seem like someone who kills indiscriminately, I actually maintained certain principles in these matters.

Unless they resisted, massacring non-combatants violated my values. There was no need for unnecessary bloodshed.

“Kudsedra, kill and crush everything blocking our path! Everything!”

…However, this time I had to make an exception.

I ordered Kudsedra to trample everything in our way and advance, and the fire dragon faithfully obeyed.

It crushed a fairy woman running with her dress fluttering, smashed an old fairy trying to escape to a nearby building with its tail like a bursting tomato, and chewed up a fairy family whose legs had given out, grinding them into the ground.

And finally, it breathed flames upon the fairies crowding the main street, reducing them all to ashes on molten lava.

The fairies squealed like pigs, wailed as if the sky had fallen, and died calling out the names of family members and loved ones who had already been reduced to bloody pulp.

A massacre unprecedented in Alvheim’s history.

Sitting on the dragon’s back, I looked behind us to watch for pursuing tree spirits while pulling out a cigarette to quell the subtle discomfort rising within me.

Honestly, the scene reminded me of what I experienced during my possession. Even though, unlike then, these fairies were merely reaping what they had sown.

—-

We had spared the first village.

Though Demian and Perneisia clearly wanted to “deal with” them, I saw no need for it.

We were caught by two tree spirits because we detoured around the village, but I thought that was better than massacring those who had neither the ability to fight nor needed to be killed.

That was what I thought until then.

And that thought vanished the moment we reached the second village.

Because the second village we encountered wasn’t a fairy residence, but a space used for an entirely different purpose.

“This is…”

“…I expected it, but seeing it in person is worse than I imagined.”

Ophelia frowned with disgust. I felt similarly.

The second village we arrived at—surrounded by palisades more like prison walls than fortifications—was none other than Alvheim’s “human breeding farm.”

No, there were no humans there.

There were only livestock in the farm. Livestock stripped of dignity, intelligence, and freedom, crying out in fear at the earthquake and thunderous noise.

The only facilities inside were pens full of restraining devices for females, beast-like dens for males, and a community center storing feed for them.

And the fairies’ monitoring facility, located far from the pens.

Eight hundred years ago, hadn’t fairies kept humans as slaves?

Eight hundred years later, humans in Alvheim were being bred not as slaves, but as livestock.

There we realized why the fairies deserved extinction.

More precisely, Ophelia made us realize it.

By reminding us all that with so many humans being bred for such purposes, certain people who should naturally exist were conspicuously absent.

“…There are no children. So it was true.”

There were no children here. While women were used for breeding, men for labor, and even the elderly for food, only children were missing.

There weren’t even facilities meant for gathering children.

What could that mean?

“I had my suspicions… Hah, so it really was true. Lacy was right. The fairies deserve to die.”

Ophelia explained to all of us the secret of the weapon that fairies had been consuming like arrows.

The material for lesser spirits.

“What the fuck?”

“My God…”

I spat out a curse while Demian’s expression hardened.

It was a story worthy of such reactions.

What Ophelia told us was that fairies had been extracting souls from human newborns, processing them into what they called “spirits,” and consuming them.

[Hmm… I thought the witch was the most wicked enemy you had faced… But there are depths below the bottom. Astonishing.]

Even Hersella, who would have killed anyone regardless of age or gender just to cultivate Karma of Murder, was somewhat shocked. Of course, I was utterly horrified.

I knew that what they called “spirits” were actually similar to undead beings, but that was the extent of my knowledge.

Fuck, so that’s what it was? These insane pointy-eared bastards.

Breeding humans like livestock to mass-produce newborns, then extracting their souls to use as ammunition? Even terrorist organizations from my previous life weren’t that depraved.

Even those who strapped bomb vests on children to use them as human bombs weren’t this evil.

“Wait, then Senior Perneisia…”

“Even though she knew…”

Suddenly realizing, Demian stared at Perneisia with shocked eyes. Ophelia’s face showed contempt.

Me? I don’t know.

I don’t know what expression I was making.

“I-I didn’t know! I wouldn’t have used them if I knew! Really! Believe me!”

Perneisia, her complexion as pale as a corpse, desperately waved her hands and pleaded her innocence. Her face was more desperate than a condemned prisoner with a noose around their neck.