Ch.983The Forest of Crime and Punishment

After a desperate self-defense, Perne was barely able to receive absolution for her original sin.

No, rather than absolution, perhaps it was more like a labor rehabilitation sentence without a prison term?

The punishment I imposed on Perne was to actively serve Hestella for the remainder of her life.

Of course, not the kind of service where she had to give birth to as many as she had killed or anything like that, but service strictly as a combatant.

Basically, I told her to be stuck in the military for life. And naturally, no alcohol. Soldiers can only drink when they’re on leave.

At that verdict, Perne turned pale with shock and nodded with a face that looked like she might burst into tears. She looked almost like a resistance fighter who had lost her country.

Whether it was because of the hundreds of years of mandatory service, or the added prohibition on alcohol, I couldn’t tell.

Anyway, after learning the truth about lesser spirits, I decided not to discriminate between fairy lives.

They didn’t deserve to be treated differently. The pardons that might have been granted to them had already expired like worthless scraps of paper.

So…

“—You are all sinners.”

Below my feet was a city where classical marble buildings reminiscent of ancient Rome mingled with lush vegetation.

Massive glass panes wrapped like walls between columns, and the roofs were covered with reliefs depicting trees.

The capital of Alvheim, finally reached after a bloody path that trampled and burned everything in our way.

Standing on the half-melted walls from Kudsedra’s breath, I declared while looking down at the fairies running about in panic at the attack of dragons and humans.

Not to make them hear, but to engrave a firm resolution in my heart.

“You had time. Time incomparably longer than humans. All that time was your opportunity.”

The opportunity to recognize the sins their kind had committed against humans. The opportunity to oppose after knowing. The opportunity to atone and make amends because they knew.

But they had forsaken all those opportunities.

“At least eight hundred years. During that long time, you never even thought to recognize your sins, or you knew and looked away. You didn’t try to stop it or refuse it. Because it was comfortable. Because it was profitable!”

I kicked off the wall and leaped down toward the ground.

Toward the area where most fairies were concentrated. Right into the middle of the section where reserve forces and refugees were gathered for evacuation.

– Kuuung!

I landed right in their midst, crushing the fairy who served as my foothold along with the ground beneath.

“Ugh, uh, huuuerk!”

“Kyaaaah!”

“B-blood…!”

“Monster! A monster of the short-lived species!”

The fairies around me, splattered with the remains of their comrade who had burst into pieces, collapsed while letting out screams close to wails.

They seemed to be trying to distance themselves from me, but with so many moving at once, they ended up tripping over each other rather than escaping.

“So you are all sinners. Claiming ignorance is no excuse. Because you could have known with just a little interest.”

Shwaaaaa. A waterfall began pouring from the sky.

Water streamed down with such force it could hardly be called rain anymore, covering everything. My hair hung wet and limp, clothes clinging to my skin.

Must be the World Tree’s doing. Did it think I was going to burn them all? I spat out my extinguished cigarette and smirked.

Thinking that even gods can’t know everything in this world.

“Don’t say it’s unfair. Don’t claim you had nothing to do with it. It’s already too late for such excuses.”

I drove Durandal into the ground. Like a judge delivering a death sentence before prisoners. The power of murder karma still remaining in my body boiled up.

“Too much blood has been spilled for that. So much blood that all of you must take responsibility.”

Most of the fairies before me might have been unrelated to their sins. No, that was highly likely. Just as Perne, who had been a guardian of Alvheim, didn’t know about the human farms or the nature of spirits.

But too many people had died to let ignorance be an excuse. Fairies had been using lesser spirits as weapons for at least eight hundred years.

During that long time, how many humans had been raised like livestock, forced to breed, and slaughtered as materials for spirits and meat?

At the very least, their number would easily exceed the number of fairies still alive.

So all fairies had to share that responsibility.

“Resent me if you want, curse me all you like. It won’t stir any emotion in me anyway. This is your karma.”

With my hand on the sword hilt, I closed my eyes and summoned the incarnation of murder karma laughing in the back of my consciousness.

“Now, face your karma! The judgment that Abha Gisaka, the mage of a thousand killings, will bestow upon you! In the stomach of the blood-colored nebula!”

Hersella spread her arms wide and shouted. In utter joy and ecstasy. Laughing with her lips pulled up in a broad smile.

【Field of Mortality】

Red mist enveloped one-fifth of the capital.

—-

The capital of Alvheim had fallen.

No, it was annihilated. The moment we arrived.

With a single Field of Mortality, I massacred all fairies within one-fifth of the capital, and in the middle of the sea of exploded corpses, I quietly rested, replenishing the karma I had consumed.

Demian, emitting streams of light from his holy sword, shattered the defensive weapons of the guardians and fairies that rushed at him, while Ophelia created an army of homunculi using fairy corpses as materials and carried out a massacre.

“Kiek! Kieeek!”

“Kyaaaah! Stay away, stay away-!”

“Nooooo! Kuhek, kyaaaak!”

“This is a dream, just a dream…!”

“Demons! The short-lived species has summoned demons!”

Each homunculus was weak enough to be subdued by three or four fairies together, but in reality, there were five homunculi attacking each fairy.

They were swept away like animals caught in a tsunami, unable to put up proper resistance.

“Ahahahaha! Yes, die, all of you!”

Perne, wearing mechanical armor, fired her pistol while bursting into laughter. Like nobles hunting small animals like ducks for entertainment.

“Remember me? Or have you already forgotten? It’s Perneisia. Perneisia Mercellius Epiraxus! The one you betrayed, the one you abandoned who pursued the future, the living sacrifice you offered has returned!”

She must have accumulated quite a lot of resentment, as her ferocity and violence exceeded even Demian and Ophelia’s by several times.

She would burn fairies along with entire parks using a flamethrower, or shoot one of a pair of fairies holding hands while fleeing, then mock the survivor.

The way she tried to kill them in the most painful way possible, rather than just killing them, made her look so full of hatred and venom that anyone watching might think the fairies were the mortal enemies of her parents.

『KRAHAHAHAHA! Impressive, but it’s already too late!』

Kudsedra laughed madly while fighting the tree spirit. Despite having lost a wing and a leg on the way here, and being covered in wounds.

『You will never forget this name. The name Kudsedra. The existence of the fire dragon who brought calamity to your capital beyond the great forest-!』

It was only natural. Even if he fought to the death and perished with his enemies, he could be revived again. It would take some time, but still.

By the time half of the capital’s facilities were destroyed to the point where they could no longer function as a city, Kudsedra, having exhausted his strength, fell with his heart pierced by the tree spirit’s arm.

Even as he fell, he bit off the opponent’s head to take it with him. A truly glorious end. A glory that came from having something to believe in.

Ten minutes later.

After sufficient rest, I joined my companions and focused on destroying the city. Breaking buildings, killing fairies, burning forests, and evaporating rivers.

Why didn’t we head straight for the World Tree?

The reason was simple. I wasn’t confident that we could kill it even if we reached it in our current state.

The power of murder karma was recovering faster than expected, but the power of heroic karma was still largely depleted.

It would be ideal if we could burn and destroy the World Tree with our current power, but if we failed, we would ultimately have to retreat right in front of it.

So my plan was to completely destroy the capital and annihilate the elders and fairies, cutting off Alvheim’s head entirely, before attempting to destroy the World Tree.

Just destroying the Council of Elders and the mass guardian production facilities would drop the fairies’ war-fighting capability to rock bottom.

Then, even if we failed to destroy the World Tree, we would have already achieved sufficient strategic success, allowing us to retreat satisfied.

The plan was perfect.

If there was one problem I hadn’t anticipated…

“…What? Where did they all go?”

It was that the Council of Elders’ building we had stormed after destroying the city was completely empty.

“Did they escape? Through some underground passage?”

“…I’ll spread out the homunculi to check. They were gathered here until just recently, so even if they escaped, they must still be nearby.”

Demian clicked his tongue while speculating about their whereabouts. Ophelia, who had quickly surveyed the empty conference room, answered as she headed out.

I, Demian, and Perne also followed Ophelia out of the conference room.

– Seureuk.

It was right after that.

“…Huh? Wait. What is that…?”

In the middle of the capital ruins that had been teeming with homunculi, a giant flower bud suddenly appeared like an illusion.

A magenta flower bud resembling a lotus.

Though it was quite small compared to the tree spirit or photon cannons, for some reason we couldn’t take our eyes off that flower bud.

And then.

– Hwaaak!

The tightly closed flower bud bloomed wide open with a green flash, and from within, something resembling a fairy walked out toward the street.

With each step it took forward, small plants and flowers bloomed beneath its feet, coloring the street green.

“…Sin is boiling over.”

A fairy with ash-gray long hair and six tentacles on its back.

It looked around at the army of homunculi filling the surroundings, and frowned as if facing filth, lamenting.

Among the blooming flowers, it looked down at the ground and placed its outstretched left hand there.

Forest of Crucifixion

【crucifixio silvam】

The next moment,

– Kwajijijijk!

Thousands of wooden stakes vertically impaled the army of homunculi.

Every single one of them. All of them.