Chapter 379

Chapter 379

Eat The World Tree.

Episode 379: Cornus Subjugation (End)

-Lee Shiheon!!!!!

A voice so loud it vibrated the hallway.

-Just one step, I said!!

Thwack!

Stretching out his bloodied hand, he smashed the automatic door and ran down the hallway.

-Keuh, kahak…!!

The ominous energy of San Hyukwon chasing from behind made his brain throb.

-A lowly human dares to interfere with destiny!!!

He spread his mana to its limit to find his opponent. Instead of the lab door, he pierced the wall with his arm, creating a narrow gap that an adult could barely pass through.

‘Time….’

Every second, every second was precious.

He kept his burning, dizzy head working and squeezed his body through the gap.

At that moment, San Hyukwon, who had chased him to this place, shouted at him.

“Stop….”

Not in his liberated form, but in his human form.

He was just as bloody as Shiheon was, covered in black spots.

Could he win if they clashed?

No, he didn’t even know his own condition right now.

He felt no sensation. Fighting in this state would clearly be suicide.

If he got caught, someone would die.

He saw a straight line of coordinates in his eyes.

Crash!

“Keuh….”

He spat out blood and fell to the floor.

Having missed his footing, he gave up on walking.

Instead, he worked out a spell.

With his concentration pushed to the limit, time flowed slowly. Running was slow. While the researchers stared at him with blank faces, he tapped the ground dully and recited the coordinates.

His brain was burning. It hurt so much he felt like his eyeballs would pop out.

A realm that no ordinary person could reach, his wide field of view narrowed to the place he was moving to.

As if a ray of light descended in a dark room, only that part brightened, and he forcibly entered the quickly read coordinates into the spell.

He factored in the artifact’s interference and directly substituted all possible cases for the parts he didn’t know.

Piercing through countless unknowns, he recalled and searched through the magic theories and forms he had stored in his head, finding a way to escape this situation.

His mind cleared.

‘…Calculated.’

Whoosh!

He folded space, and his body disappeared.

He reached the place that had felt so far away, covering Sansuyu’s body, just before surgery, with his own hands.

Blink. The pinnacle of spatial magic.

His body moved through the researchers and in front of Sansuyu, and he raised his mana before the researchers could even react.

No expression, no words.

Her eyes, dull and clouded.

Was it too late? He forcibly wrapped her torn abdomen with his hands to stop the bleeding.

A myriad of thoughts flashed through his mind.

If, by any chance, it had reached a point of no return, would he be able to escape this guilt?

Even in his worry, he raised the magic he had squeezed out once more.

“…Lee… Shi-”

Behind San Hyukwon’s shouting, the space changed.

Flash!

His and Sansuyu’s bodies fell heavily onto the bed, where the dusty scent was thick.

Thump!

The lights were off, and he couldn’t see, but he somehow raised Sansuyu’s body.

“……Hey.”

His throat hurt, and he couldn’t speak well.

“Sansuyu, hey!”

Hugging her cold skin and raising the healing authority that remained, he felt the life force of his entire body drain away, and Sansuyu’s external wounds were healed.

Still, there was no response.

Sansuyu’s powerless arms hung limply.

Like a lifeless jointed doll. As soon as he turned on the light, he checked her face.

Her dry lips, her eyes that didn’t reflect his face, her white hair, and her body that felt no warmth.

Sansuyu had tear marks on her cheeks, like the traces of a dried-up spring.

“…….”

In the end, there was no response.

His head went blank for a moment, but even in his dismay, he immediately moved his hands.

Her heart was beating.

She was breathing.

Her hand was trembling slightly.

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

Whether he was talking to himself or to her.

Hugging Sansuyu tightly, he stroked her back several times to calm her down.

His warmth seeped into her still cold body.

The sticky, humid air of summer couldn’t warm Sansuyu’s body. White fluid, soaked with drugs, flowed down like mucus.

Melted pieces of skin fell off.

As soon as his authority and mana returned, given Sansuyu’s characteristic of absorbing mana, mana would play a big role in constructing her body.

San Hyukwon had been like that.

‘…Potion.’

He had moved a high-quality potion, given to him by Lee Seyeong and Jin Dallae a long time ago, to this place.

He hugged Sansuyu, propped up her buttocks, and stood up slightly.

Sansuyu still had no reaction.

“You foolish bastard…. What’s so great about that damn family.”

Cursing and complaining, he hugged Sansuyu and took out all the potions from the cabinet and drank them.

He transferred all the mana that came out to Sansuyu and laid her on the bed.

“Haa… haa.”

He had no strength in his body.

Sweat from his body dripped onto Sansuyu’s collarbone.

Sansuyu, who showed no nerve response that a living being should have.

Whether it was right to consider this alive, someone would question, but it was okay.

Thump, thump, thump.

His heart was pounding.

Stress from the great agitation and the aftereffects of the fight caused blood to drip from his nose.

Drip, drip.

“……It’s okay.”

Blocking his nose with his hand, he sat next to the small, square refrigerator.

He didn’t even have the energy to unwind the rolled-up tissue right now.

Woooong!

Behind the cobweb-covered, cheap refrigerator, where hot air was coming from.

He lowered his head to the metal part.

Although no one was next to him, this hard part felt more comfortable than anyone’s shoulder right now.

“I did it.”

He did it.

He faithfully carried out his original purpose.

He was worried about Sansuyu’s health, and he still had the task of bringing Aori and Taeyang here, but the plan he had set up in the beginning barely worked.

His eyes kept closing, so he slapped his cheeks with his hand.

‘Just a little.’

As soon as he gathered a little mana, he would leave.

He looked at Sansuyu lying next to him with listless eyes.

Her skin was about to melt. When he touched her, he couldn’t feel any muscles.

The organs in the opened wound were twisted and entangled in an unimaginable way.

If he hadn’t teleported there.

Or if San Hyukwon had held him back for even a second.

If the potion hadn’t been here.

She probably wouldn’t have been able to stay in this world.

“……It’s okay.”

He mumbled as if to let her hear, rubbing his blurry eyes repeatedly.

He forcibly roused his sinking consciousness.

Letting the blood pooled in his hands flow to the floor, he slowly raised his body and staggered towards Sansuyu for the last time.

“Stay still.”

There was still work to be done.

Bare feet that soared from the floor pierced the opponent’s heart.

Crack!

Wiggling her toes, Aori scrunched her eyebrows at the unpleasant sensation.

‘I have to get praise from the King.’

Over twenty corpses formed a mountain, and those mountains gathered to form a mountain range.

As if showing off, Aori, who had the mountain on both sides of her while guarding the gate, took off her pants with an expression that said she couldn’t bear it any longer.

“It’s sticky.”

Holla-dang-

Wearing only pink underwear and a top, and taking off her shoes, her blood-stained thighs and feet were exposed.

Only then did Aori grin and sit down on the floor.

‘I wonder if the King is doing well.’

Lee Shiheon’s power was well known to both Taeyang and Aori.

The only problem was that San Hyukwon’s skills were not yet well known to the world.

He also didn’t know what the result of the experiment was.

‘If, by any chance, the King loses that person… he’ll be devastated.’

At that moment.

Bang!

A shockwave felt from far away made Aori’s hair stand on end.

‘The King is fighting?’

A chilling aura gave Aori goosebumps.

A clash of full power. That was exactly the feeling.

The identity of the sticky aura that evoked fear was clearly the demonic energy used by the King.

Aori forgot her promise and opened the gate, rushing away.

‘King!’

Corpses were scattered in the surrounding hallway.

A broken sword. Bent wings. Traces of magic. Neutralized poison.

And a hallway of blood that stretched out from them.

Splat, splat.

Even as her feet became covered in blood, she turned her head around and clenched her fists in both hands.

The place where demonic energy was felt. The place where her burl was calling out!

Aori’s feet stopped in front of a half-broken door.

‘It’s in here.’

She made a decision, but Aori couldn’t go inside.

Thud.

The sound of footsteps from behind her.

As soon as she turned her head, Aori’s face froze.

Thud.

A ripple arose from the footsteps.

The stream of blood trembled, making her instinctively step back in her desire for life.

An opponent whose difference in skill she wouldn’t have been able to feel in the first place.

Aori was flawless, and because she was flawless, she knew the difference.

-If you see this human, run away immediately.-

An old man that confirmed Taeyang’s words.

Mugung was walking through the corpses without a word.

Thump, thump.

Her heart, which was about to fall out, beat hard inside her chest. Aori looked around.

The King was over there. Close to this door.

At the crossroads of choice, Aori closed her eyes tightly and raised both hands.

“…Oh.”

Mugung, who faced Aori, narrowed his eyebrows.

“A beast has come in.”

“…….”

“Where did your master run off to?”

He was probably referring to Taeyang.

The existence of the Successor of the Tree Spirit King was known to the Order as well as the Association. Mugung also knew Aori, who was classified as a disaster level.

No, they had met several times already.

Every time, she had barely escaped death.

“…Here. You can’t go in.”

Aori, who was ready to charge with her legs spread, took a breath.

An old man holding a rusty sword at his waist held the sword warily.

“If you’re the opponent, there’s no need to hold back.”

“…….”

“The Three Disasters are crawling in, how surprising. The rotten-rooted family had a hidden card.”

Her record of destroying a city with her huge physique, or a being with that power.

Aori had been designated as such a disaster before.

If it was a being with that much power, it was possible to run away even from those who had reached the realm.

“Why.”

Mugung wondered.

“Why are you standing still?”

Sweat that formed on her forehead and fell awakened Aori’s spirit.

She had no intention of collapsing. Loyalty never changed.

“A vassal….”

Aori smiled with a trembling voice.

Her grip stretched out as if she were giving a salute.

“Believes in and serves the King.”

“Ho.”

“…Doesn’t die where the King can’t see.”

Her whole body began to swell greatly.

All kinds of trees burst out at once and began to surround Aori as if swallowing her body.

A fist made of trees, like two adult men stacked on top of each other.

Branches of trees on her legs, wrapped like tights.

Hundreds of tentacles extending from her back and pubic bone.

“…A vassal is!”

Aori raised her fist bravely, uttering the words she had learned from Taeyang.

“The sword and shield of the king!!”

“……King, you say.”

Torn tentacles rushed towards Mugung in an instant.

A tilted moon that soared from the floor cut off all the tentacles.

Flash!

Her body disappeared, and Aori reached Mugung’s nose.

Her blackened eyes tore grotesquely.

“───!”

From her mouth, a voice that could hardly be called a living being spewed out.