episode_0113

While listening to truths and lies, I fully grasped what the Hero’s party was hiding.

The fact that Marianne joined until all the heroines gathered—that’s a secret.

Once everyone is assembled, we’ll reveal it then.

On the Demon King’s side, Gold Sun and Muscle Jock went.

Muscle Jock is trying to take down the Demon King.

Gold Sun went to handle the female-type demon that Muscle Jock can’t deal with.

‘I don’t know if other Possessors have joined yet, but…’

Anyway.

I’ve figured out how things are unfolding.

‘This is a better situation than I expected.’

So.

There’s only one thing left for me to do.

Safely complete the main story.

Finish the Elf Forest arc, then join up with our Elf Spirit Master.

Complete the final arc, then join up with our Beastkin Assassin.

With the fully assembled Hero’s party, we storm the Demon King’s castle, wreak havoc, and it’s straight to the ending.

‘Simple enough.’

But.

I don’t plan to just wreck things and call it a day.

The Demon King.

The demons.

All of them are perpetrators who tormented Marianne.

‘Just killing them would be a waste.’

I won’t let them die easily.

I’ll show them hell—so much so that they’ll think death is a mercy.

‘Because that’s what Marianne wants too.’

However.

I don’t plan to show hell to every single demon.

Capturing and torturing all of them would be too much work,

and I’ve already compiled a list of the perpetrators.

‘I’ve identified who tormented Marianne the most. I’ll focus on crushing them.’

I even took notes so I wouldn’t forget.

‘Hah… This should be enough.’

I’ve obtained all the information I wanted.

So.

It’s about time to wrap up the truth-and-lie pattern.

“Lia.”

“Hm?”

“There’s a magic stone about 2.5 km in that direction. Can you destroy it with a spell?”

“Sure!”

Lia immediately conjured an arrow of light and fired it.

Whoosh!

The arrow flew at an imperceptible speed.

BOOM!!!

A distant sound of something shattering echoed.

Fade…

The ghosts that spoke truths or lies vanished.

Hiss…

Even the zombie goblin-like figures dissipated into smoke.

“Hah… Now we can look at each other.”

“We can?”

“The distortion magic’s been dispelled.”

“Wow… You really went back to normal! You’re the handsome Cain I know again!”

“Lady Serena’s appearance has also returned to normal!”

“But why did it suddenly lift?”

“Because we destroyed the corrupted magic stone that was causing the distortion magic.”

“Corrupted magic stone?”

I gave them a brief explanation.

Magic stones.

Basically, they’re like magical batteries.

In the Elf Forest, they were used to generate and sustain distortion magic.

Set up a magic circle,

connect the magic stone to activate the spell.

It’s like installing a battery in a machine to make it work.

But a problem arose.

The magic stones were corrupted by demons.

The magic became tainted, twisting into a grotesque, otherworldly distortion magic—nothing like what the elves’ magic should be.

That’s why our appearances warped into those zombie goblin abominations.

“So the original distortion magic was different?”

“Of course it was different.”

The elves’ distortion magic was meant to block access to the Elf Forest.

It distorted direction to push intruders out,

and warped space to banish trespassers to another area.

So.

There was no need to distort perception and alter the appearances of allies and enemies.

Because no one should’ve been able to enter in the first place.

There was no reason to distort the perception of those already inside the Elf Forest.

“What about the ghosts spouting nonsense?”

“That was also a result of the magic being corrupted. Originally, that didn’t exist.”

“Aha! So if things were normal, I wouldn’t have heard Cain say he jerked off while looking at me in my school uniform?”

“!!!!!!”

“I was told I drew a doujinshi about a voluptuous saintess corrupted by lust. Is that true?”

“!!!!!!”

“I heard about the doujinshi too! They said it was a ‘father-daughter beamb’ genre!”

“!!!!!!”

“Master~ I heard you did a lot of lewd things with my body during the Prophecy RPG~ Is that true?”

“!!!!!!”

“I… I was… um…”

Kamang blushed and shut her mouth mid-sentence.

Anyway.

That wasn’t the issue.

The real problem was that the others had found out—

that I’d jerked off to Prophecy RPG characters, drawn doujinshi, and done lewd things.

“……”

Of course.

If I were a better liar, I could’ve smoothly brushed it off as the ghosts’ nonsense.

“……Th-That never happened?”

“So it’s true?”

“Giggle. So my husband felt the same way I did?”

“Cain, you’re a man after all?”

“Master!”

I was caught immediately.

It wasn’t just Marianne I liked—

I had feelings for the entire Hero’s party, lust included.

The result?

The Hero’s party swallowed their saliva and closed in on me.

They looked like wild beasts.

Predators who’d found their prey.

Beasts ready to pounce and devour their catch.

So I spoke up quickly.

“That’s not the issue right now! The Elf Forest is in chaos!”

“Chaos?”

“The perception-distorting magic that warps appearances based on love isn’t just affecting us.”

“?”

“The elves are all under it too.”

“The elves too?”

“Yeah.”

The distortion magic was originally the elves’ own.

Naturally, they had safeguards to prevent themselves from being affected.

But.

This time, the magic was corrupted.

The tainted magic stone altered the spell, so it worked on the elves too.

So?

What happens then?

“The elves slaughter each other, thinking they’re goblins?”

“No. Something even worse.”

“Worse?”

“Because the more you love someone, the more horrifying they appear under this magic.”

“They kill the ones they love most with their own hands?”

“That’s what’ll happen.”

So?

Who do the elves love most?

Family?

Friends?

Lovers?

No.

The one thing the elves love above all else is—

“The World Tree.”

Their guardian deity.

While other gods abandoned humanity and ascended to the heavens,

the World Tree loved the elves so much that it remained on earth to watch over them.

…Or so the legends say, painting it as a great mother who adored the elves.

That’s the World Tree.

‘Though in reality, it’s not that it didn’t leave—it couldn’t.’

Because it’s a tree.

A tree rooted in the earth, unable to go anywhere.

A sad tree that couldn’t ascend to the heavens even if it wanted to.

But.

Telling the elves that would only weaken their faith.

So they spun it as love.

…That’s what I think.

But.

The truth is unknowable.

By the time the Hero’s party arrived at the Elf Forest, it was already too late.

‘The elves killed the World Tree.’

To protect the Elf Forest.

To protect their great mother, the World Tree.

They killed the monster.

Because they all loved the World Tree.

Because they all saw it as a monster.

So they killed it.

Burned it to the roots, ensuring it could never revive.

…That’s what I explained.

“Th-That can’t be…”

Yes.

The elves killed the very god they worshipped—with their own hands.

“Was there no way to stop it?”

“None.”

One of the most common challenges veteran Prophecy RPG players attempted was saving the World Tree.

But.

Not a single person succeeded.

Because it was fundamentally impossible.

If you could enter the Elf Forest right at the start of the game, you might’ve had a chance.

But you couldn’t.

Because of the fog imbued with distortion magic.

Even if you knew, there was no way to help.

If only the fog hadn’t been there.

If the elves had even a single means of communicating with other races.

The World Tree’s fate might’ve been different.

But.

The elves were far too insular.

A race that distrusted not just monsters,

but humans, dwarves, beastkin—everyone.

So they cut off all contact.

And this is the result.

The death of the World Tree.

“……”

“……”

“……”

…That said,

there is a way to change the World Tree’s death ending.

“There’s a way?”

“There is.”

“What is it?”

“Remember that experiment I did where I grew a tree from a single leaf?”

“That thing… where you put a leaf fragment in jelly to make… callus, was it?… That experiment?”

“Right.”

One of the experiments biology majors do in lab classes.

Growing a tree from a single leaf.

Not from a seed,

but cultivating a plant from a leaf.

This works because every cell in a plant is a stem cell capable of differentiating into any other cell.

But explaining in detail would be pointless since no one here would understand.

The short version is this:

If even a single leaf of the World Tree remains,

we can revive it.

“That’s possible?!”

“It is.”

The problem is, this only works if the elf bastards willingly hand over a leaf.

But…

We’ll manage somehow.

…With that thought, we headed to the elves’ refugee camp.

The elves’ refugee camp.

Not their original village,

but a temporary settlement built far from it.

Why are they here?

Because of the World Tree.

‘To be precise, a dark mage demon turned the World Tree’s corpse into a zombie and drove the elves out. That’s why they’re here.’

The demon who corrupted the magic stones.

Though not particularly strong in combat,

its ability to corrupt things and manipulate corpses is top-tier.

That thing turned the World Tree’s corpse into a zombie.

The result?

An absurdly powerful demon.

The World Tree Zombie is so strong that even the Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings would struggle against it.

Effectively, Demon King-tier.

…That said,

it’s actually one of the weakest bosses.

Because it’s a tree.

A tree that can’t move.

Just spam long-range fire magic from outside its attack range, and it’s an easy win.

So.

The World Tree itself isn’t a problem.

But.

This place is a bit of a headache.

“Intruders! Kill them!!!”

The elves rained arrows and spells on us the moment they saw us.

Well…

That’s to be expected.

They’ve always despised intruders,

and we showed up right after they were forced to kill the World Tree because of demon invaders.

Of course they’d be hostile.

So.

I gave Lia an order.

“Lia.”

“Yeah?”

“Can you maintain a barrier until they collapse from exhaustion?”

“Of course I can!”

Lia confidently erected a barrier.

Good.

This’ll keep us safe no matter what the elves do.

Now then.

Might as well cook something while we wait for them to tire themselves out.