Chapter 27. Wood Revenge VIII
Episode 27.
Wood Revenge VIII
It felt like all the strength was draining out of my body.
A strange lethargy, a floating sensation—and the pain in my arm seemed to be slipping away somewhere too.
My head, which had refused to work properly as if electrodes were jammed into it, finally regained its function.
'Am I imagining this?'
No, it didn't seem like it.
The pain really was disappearing.
At the same time, I realized that some kind of change was taking place in my body.
Sssss—
I looked at both arms.
The armor and underclothes had long since burned away, leaving my bare arms exposed. The skin, which had been on the verge of searing from the flames, restored itself to its original state in an instant.
The problem was.......
"......."
The world had changed.
Everything in my vision was dyed ash-gray, and only the moon hanging in the sky stood out clearly.
"Ash Moon......."
The moment I spoke the word that suddenly surfaced—
[You have received the recognition of <Ash Moon>.]
[From now on, the <Blessing of the Ash Moon> will always accompany your journey.]
Blessing of the Ash Moon Lv.1
Type: Buff
Cooldown: 1 day Target: Self
Cast Time: Instant Duration: 60 seconds
Restores 50% of HP. For a set duration, all stats increase and critical hit chance rises dramatically.
Recognition, and blessing.
I stared quietly at the Ember Lizard.
Its size was unchanged, but the color of its scales had become far more vivid.
Its back was rising and falling now, as though it could finally breathe.
'I did tame it, but.'
Is it not in any condition to fight?
Earlier, I'd thought our eyes had briefly met, but I'd been so out of it that I wasn't even sure I'd seen it properly.
"Aaaah!"
At that moment, a harrowing scream erupted from below.
Seigrena was struck by something and sent flying, and I saw her body slam into the Black Tree.
Boom!
The tree shuddered, and Seigrena fell unconscious on the spot.
'Shit.'
Seigrena was the first one down.
Now only the weasel was left, and that one wouldn't hold out long either.
There was no time to hesitate.
I didn't know what had happened, but my physical condition wasn't bad. It wasn't exactly a surge of power, but emotionally I was strangely calm.
As if.......
As if I were the moon reflected on a lakeshore.
[Activating skill, <Wild Force>.]
I used a skill that allowed me to borrow the stats and skills of a designated Magical Beast.
Of course, the Magical Beast I was designating now was not Weaselly.
[Designating 'Ember Lizard'.]
My physical abilities rose to a degree I could actually feel.
Come to think of it, the Ember Lizard's level was a whopping 40.
Just from the stat boost I got from this thing, I was probably two or three times stronger than I normally was.
'But that's not the key point.'
What kind of skills did this lizard actually have?
[At the current Trust level with the Magical Beast, you can borrow one skill.]
Well, that figured. Its Trust was lower than Weaselly's.
[Borrowing skill <Last Ember>.]
Last Ember Lv. 1
Type: Buff
Cast Time: Instant Range: Self
Duration: 60 seconds Cooldown: 1 day
For a set duration, the attribute of all attacks you perform changes to <Ember>. <Ember>-attribute attacks deal bonus damage, and the effect is maximized against certain enemies.
A buff skill? The duration was short and the cooldown absurdly long, but it was a skill worth that much.
The <certain enemies> mentioned in the description...... I knew what that referred to.
'Woodman.'
I leaped down onto the battlefield spread out beneath the tree.
* * *
Even after jumping from dozens of meters up, I landed steadily.
My body really was light.
So much so that even the pain and fatigue I'd felt just moments before seemed like a dream.
With a strange sense of liberation, I reached the battlefield in an instant.
"Switch."
Weaselly understood what I meant and instantly retreated behind me.
Godrak's reaction was just as fast. The thing spun backward and swung its wooden sword at the same time.
Clang!
This time, I properly blocked it with the scythe.
Just facing it made my spine crawl, and the impact transmitted through my grip was still heavy, but—
'I can hold out.'
It was far better than the first exchange.
I pressured Godrak while maintaining an advantageous distance.
Under the influence of the skill <Last Ember>, a faint ash-gray flame flickered at the tip of the scythe.
After a few exchanges, I realized that Godrak was extremely wary of letting this flame touch its body.
'How clumsy.'
It's way too obvious that you're fucked if I land even one hit.
At some point, Godrak stopped attacking entirely and focused on defense, as if it had no intention of hiding its weakness.
It looked like it was deliberately stalling for time.
'Does this bastard know that <Last Ember> has a duration?'
The duration was only 60 seconds.
I was the one who needed to force a short, decisive fight. Of course, if I got impatient, I'd just trip over my own feet.
Godrak's strategy was simple.
Focus on defense, then bare its fangs at the critical moment. But maybe because it was so simple, there wasn't really any countermeasure I could come up with either.
'In that case.......'
I put strength into the hand gripping the scythe.
What I was aiming for was not Godrak.
'Focus.'
The weapon that thing treasured so much—
I would cut through the wooden sword that was both its core offensive and defensive tool.
Slice!
The scythe was a cutting weapon, after all.
The moment the wooden sword was sliced clean through on a diagonal, Godrak's movements stopped dead.
I kicked the frozen Godrak in the chest, then swung the scythe again and brought it down on its shoulder.
Whoosh!
Flames erupted from the point where the scythe touched. It was as if something that had been pressed down all this time exploded outward.
The exposed ash-gray flames swallowed Godrak's entire body in an instant.
—Screeeech—!
The wooden armor blazed, and what lay beneath was revealed.
It was a human form, as if molded from rotted old wood. A shape far closer to human than the Avenger.
'No.......'
Is this thing actually a person?
The moment that thought crossed my mind, Godrak lunged.
I tried to dodge the attack that completely disregarded defense, but Godrak closed the distance in an instant and slashed at me with its claws from point-blank range.
Slash!
My chest split open and blood sprayed out.
'Shit......!'
The horrific pain snapped me back to full alertness. Come to think of it, the Ash Moon and the Frost Sun were natural enemies. That meant this thing's attacks were also fatal to me.
In the moment I staggered, what flashed through my mind was the memory from the train.
'Back then.'
The one who suddenly attacked me from behind, the one-eyed Derek....... The moment I flinched from that foul stench, his claws raked my side.
'Back then......!'
At a moment like that, at a life-or-death moment, I swore I would never again show such a pathetic display of flinching or hesitating, didn't I?
Crunch.
I gritted my teeth. Defense was meaningless now. I was certain that if I curled up even once, I'd never straighten back up again.
I threw my body into the pouring rain of blows.
Crack!
[<Mantis Scythe> is destroyed.]
The scythe shattered to pieces under Godrak's punch.
This time, I wasn't surprised.
'It held out well.'
I tossed the broken scythe aside without regret.
[<Last Ember>]
[Remaining duration: 20 seconds]
......The <Ember> attribute applies to all attacks anyway. That means it imbues my fists even without a weapon.
And indeed, the moment I clenched both fists, I felt the ash-gray flames coil around them.
Bam!
My fist slammed into Godrak's jaw. Then its chest, solar plexus, shoulder. A flurry of wild punches hammered its body.
Thwack!
Of course, my own head snapped to the side in the process.
'Fuck.'
This bastard knew it too—the end wasn't far off.
Now Godrak, having abandoned defense entirely, let out something like a roar.
'Fine by me.'
Let's do this.
A brawl that wouldn't end until one of us was dead.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thwack!
Every time I threw a punch, blood sprayed, wooden armor crumbled, and flesh flew.
Every time I took a hit, my mind seemed to check out for a moment, then snap back the instant I threw another punch. It was a bizarre sensation.
[Warning. HP is extremely low.]
[Chance of being afflicted by various debuffs increases.]
[You fall into a <Madness> state.]
[You fall into a <Recklessness> state.]
[<Stress> level increases.]
Shut up.
Debuffs or whatever, none of it meant anything at this moment.
[<Low-Grade Protection Ring> uses decrease by 1.]
......Now that one actually meant something.
The uses on the rare-grade ring I'd gone to the trouble of picking up were being chipped away fast. Well, if not now, when would I ever use it?
[<Low-Grade Protection Ring> uses decrease by 1.]
So I'd nearly died twice already.
That made sense. I could feel the strength gradually draining from my punches.
Of course, I wasn't the only one.
[<Last Ember>]
[Remaining duration: 10 seconds]
Only 10 seconds left now.
A laugh escaped me for a second, and the price for my broken focus was a punch to the eyeball. My right-side vision went dark in an instant.
'Blinded?'
That's bad.
I kept swinging even as my vision spun, but Godrak dodged without difficulty and kicked my body.
Boom!
Is this what getting hit by a dump truck feels like?
I flew backward and rolled across the ground.
I staggered and scrambled to my feet.
"He was human......!"
A desperate shout rang out.
"That man, he was human when he was alive, and they said he was a swordsman......!"
It was Kria.
Where had she heard that? I didn't have time to ask. Instinctively, I pulled out the Tentacle Whip fastened at my waist. If this thing really was human...... there was something I wanted to test.
Graaaaaaaah—!
The moment I saw Godrak charging with a shriek, I swung the whip and struck its wooden helmet.
Guh......?!
The helmet, half-burned and already loose, spun around to the other side.
It looked like it was wearing the helmet backward.
Godrak floundered like a person whose vision had been blocked in an instant. If I, blinded in one eye, was half-crippled, then this thing was now a complete cripple.
'So it's true.'
This bastard wasn't expanding its sensory range through touch like other Woodmen.
[<Last Ember>]
[Remaining duration: 5 seconds]
Five seconds left.
I kicked off the ground and closed the distance.
Four seconds.
Even without being able to see, Godrak managed to thrust out its right hand.
Three seconds.
The moment the palm opened, five fingers grew into wooden stalks and came at me.
Two seconds.
I bent my knees and lowered my body. As if sliding, I narrowly dodged the stalks while still sprinting, and slipped in right under Godrak's chin.
Finally, one second.
A clenched fist. I gathered strength with the thought of concentrating all the 'Ember' scattered across both hands into the tip of my right fist alone.
Whoosh!
<Ember> answered my will.
As if my blood flow suddenly surged, I felt condensed energy along with heat in my clenched fist.
I swung at Godrak's head.
Crack......!
With the sound of something snapping, Godrak's head flew off, helmet and all.
"......."
Godrak's movements stopped. So did the explosively growing wooden stalks.
But the ominous silence did not last long.
Aaaaaaaaah—!
A massive scream swallowed the surroundings.
It wasn't Godrak.
'The Black Tree?'
Shapes like human faces emerged on the tree's surface, and they all screamed at once.
Ooooooooh—!
A fierce wind whipped up. The wind was so strong it could lift a person, and I could barely keep my eyes open. I had no choice but to crouch in place and hold on.
Ugh, ugh.......
The screaming gradually died down. So did the gale that had raged as if trying to tear the tree's roots from the ground.
I opened my eyes narrowly and looked ahead. The Black Tree, gaunt to the point of being brittle and dry, came into view.
Psssh.
As if even that form was the last of it, the Black Tree slowly crumbled into ash and scattered.
"Ah......."
Kria let out a gasp. She'd come out of the hole at some point and was watching the drifting ash.
'Wasn't she looking at the ash?'
Those eyes, which somehow seemed to be staring into empty space, trembled, and a moment later turned toward me.
"......They say thank you."
"......."
I understood what she meant a beat later.
There was a setting that if a corpse was left in <Eternal Forest>, its soul would be bound to the forest forever.
[You have died.]
[Your soul is bound to <Eternal Forest>, and you will suffer for eternity.......]
[Start a new game?]
This could also be confirmed through the message that appeared when a Player died.
In other words, the souls of those who had been in the <Corpse Den> beneath the roots must have suffered for decades at the very least.
In that dark, dim place.
"......."
I looked at where the Black Tree had stood.
The tree hadn't exactly been swallowed by flames, and the flickering fires around it had all gone out now, but.......
Somehow, it felt like the cremation had only now finished, and a proper funeral had finally concluded.
[You have defeated <Black Tree>.]
[The ecology of <Woodman Habitat> changes permanently.]
[You have made a tremendous contribution to the change of this field.]
[New life born in this land will no longer be hostile to you.]
⁝
[You have liberated countless souls bound to the forest.]
⁝
[You have achieved a dazzling accomplishment.]
[Achievements, 「One Who Changes the Ecosystem」 and 「Requiem for the Dead」, have been achieved.]
[30,000 Achievement Points are awarded.]
I closed my eyes for a moment. In the strangely surreal scene unfolding before me, a realistic question arose alongside a feeling of mourning.
'......Where do you all go now?'
Where was the final destination of souls freed from the forest?
Did this world even have a heaven?
Or would they end up like scraps of data tossed into a recycle bin?
Amid the unknowable question, the wind blew again and carried away even the faintly remaining ashes.
The wind took my unanswered question with it.
I kept my eyes closed and felt the lingering traces.
⁝
[The Beast God, '▓▓▓', is pleased.]
⁝
I opened my eyes. A chill ran down the back of my neck, and I turned to look behind me.
[Lv.9 'Clown Owl']
An owl perched on the tallest tree in the sprawling forest.