Chapter 324
Chapter 324
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 324
Chapter Title: Cradle's Collapse (9)
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White mist mingled with the moonlight met the clouds, thickly dyeing the surroundings.
-Shwaaaa!
Raindrops fell.
A sky dominated by yellow stars.
Liquid droplets floating in the air methodically soaked Cradle's forest paths.
The leaves of the underbrush withered away.
-Crackle!
The dried, twisted bark began to split.
The bare trees bowed their heads one by one, exposing all of Cradle. The priests inside finally stirred belatedly.
Defoliant.
The scourge of the woodlands.
-Splash.
A camera drifting powerlessly through the sky fell into the muddy ground.
[Zzzing- Zziiing.] A faint, flickering lens light captured the surroundings from within the mud.
[KyaAAAAAHH!]
[H-Help... Save me!]
Melting subjects screamed.
Countless trees in the forest thrashed wildly.
Black shadows wriggling like tentacles. Torn branches and dissolving leaves.
The camera filming that scene slowly lost its light along with the trees.
-Step.
"Ha."
A woman with red hair stepped onto the dead land.
The desperate struggles of the trees reflected in her corneas.
Hongyeon opened her mouth but couldn't continue for a long time.
"......Ha, hahaha."
Disgust and contempt. Crimson eyes blazing red with condensed emotions.
Scarlet magic climbed through her entire body.
"Ah."
The world she'd witnessed after years was just as expected.
Life, nothing. In the ashes where nothing worth protecting remained.
This world had always been—
"......"
-Drip.
-ephemeral and hazy.
Rainwater trickled down Hongyeon's eyelids.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 'She's coming.'
-Crackle.
The walkie-talkie beside me vibrated violently.
I couldn't respond since I was in the middle of combat.
What was certain was that the invasion of Cradle had just begun.
-Wheeeee!
-Everyone, come out!!!
The siren installed inside the hotel blared, and the people I'd pre-ordered into action began to move simultaneously.
The voice, amplified by magic, was so loud it even made me cover my ears from quite a distance away.
'Should I move?'
Flower's target wasn't the hotel.
Their goal was to eliminate the eastern arboreal dormitories, the foundation, the holy sites, World Tree candidates, and numerous trees.
There were World Trees and trees living in the hotel basement too, but only a very small number.
What we had to do was safely evacuate the civilians living in the hotel up the mountain.
"Hey."
I raised my fist, and chunks of flesh splattered to the floor.
I left the headless woman's corpse and turned my head.
In the direction my gaze fell, a blood-soaked woman was glaring at this place.
"...Wood Spirit King."
"You know me?"
Mahogany. I knew her as someone from the Caribbean region.
"How the hell... did you get here..."
"You don't need to know."
I pulled out the broken blade stuck in my back.
The moment a liberated National Tree unleashed her full power, even I wouldn't easily seize the advantage.
So I'd rendered her combat-ineffective before she could use woodification.
"Why the hell are you siding with the World Trees?"
Mahogany, her limbs crushed, screamed.
"What."
"Why help those bastards? Why?!"
Right before death, she spat out her resentment.
-Step.
I stood and took a step forward.
My shoe print stamped perfectly in the pooled blood.
Fear briefly flashed across her once-confident face.
"...You clueless bastard. Fucking idiot. Can't even guess why a Wood Person like me is helping Flower?"
I slightly lifted my foot.
"Use your head if you've got one!"
"......"
"The world's rotten. You know that, don't you? Wood Spirit King!!"
She screamed to the end in a voice full of scorn.
Blood mixed with her cracked throat. Mahogany, raggedly breathing through her ruined mouth, shook her disheveled hair and squeezed her eyes shut.
"...Damn it. Shit."
I raised my foot a bit higher.
"Even now—"
-Crunch!
Thud.
I exited the room.
My body was covered in minor wounds.
Sansu-yu's healing had been interrupted midway, so the Healing Authority overflowed.
While healing Sansu-yu, the authority had grown too.
Even without me using it, it naturally repaired my body.
The spot where the sword had exposed bone quickly regrew flesh and became pristine.
I leaned against the door for a moment and spread my magic to scan the surroundings.
'Flower's magic is so conspicuous I could detect it easily.'
Central control room.
The place to control the hotel's entrances, servers, and security artifacts.
I sensed faint magic and entered immediately.
I thought it was covert ops, but Flower intends to see it through.
I opened all the doors first.
In this situation where friend-foe identification was impossible, half-assed tinkering wouldn't benefit us.
'They couldn't seize the system. High chance they'll come here.'
-Thud thud thud!
As expected.
[Siheon?]
"Yes, Sage."
[Ah, I can hear you.]
The voice in my head.
I calmly responded to the Sage's direct transmission without surprise.
[Thanks to good coordination, the disciples are entering right now.]
"Any engagements?"
[Two spots. Should I send coordinates?]
"Planning to monitor from the control room for now."
Normally, issuing orders for variables would be Marronier's role.
But unpredictable things happen.
[Bro, you hearing this?]
"Yeah."
[From the mountain base to the airport is fine. But lots of mages up top. Suyeon and Saku headed to the hotel entrance. Most should hold sufficiently.]
"National Trees?"
[Not yet. Seems like they're heading back to the foundation. You?]
"Two in the control room. One was a National Tree."
[OK. You gonna hold that spot?]
"Yeah."
Sun took the lead.
She's filling the gaps plenty.
The National Trees have trained extensively for situations like this. They're moving better than expected.
'Well, National Trees train for nearly every scenario. It'd be weirder if they panicked.'
Civilian lives are top priority.
It wasn't just empty talk hanging on their lips.
-Tap tap tap tap!
Footsteps echoing from the hallway.
Soon, robed figures swarmed in droves.
[Bro. So what about that one?]
Marronier.
-Tata tatak!
[Mess up, and your identity's blown.]
A cultist gripping a sword stepped forward skillfully.
The magic on the blade gleamed as if ready to decapitate me any second.
"Hup!"
With a kiai, he swung at me.
I stepped forward, scanning the space around me with magic.
Four approaching from the front.
Two casting magic from behind.
From the thick magic lines, rare support mages.
"I'll go."
I moved after casually acknowledging Sun's words.
Dodged the blade and smashed the opponent's abdomen.
Bones and organs crushed. I gutted him and swung the corpse.
-Crunch!
The second priest got crushed into the floor with the corpse by the force.
I charged forward.
No need for evasion.
Black magic cloaked my body as I met the incoming sword head-on.
-Clang!
The opponent's sword that pierced my shoulder split in half with a metallic ring.
"...Guh!"
"Kahak!"
No time to realize. I finished them and pressed on.
Sensing something ominous, the two mages lowered their staves.
Looking ready to flee.
I shaped the mistletoe on my wrist into a small dagger form, wrapped it in magic.
Then hurled it with all my strength.
-Slash!
A gruesome sound of flesh parting.
The thin barrier had no effect.
With the two collapsing, swords in neck and head, I recalled the mistletoe and wrapped it around my fist again.
The black liquid clinging to my right arm formed intact gauntlets.
I picked up the walkie-talkie and called Sun.
"Send Aori to the control room."
-Crackle.
[Got it.]
National Trees wouldn't stay absent.
If they planned to bomb the foundation, airport, or holy sites, Mahogany wouldn't have infiltrated here.
They aimed to seize the hotel.
Intending civilian casualties.
Those supposed to protect civilians plan to kill disciples.
-KABOOM!
A massive explosion roared from the hotel's first floor.
Simultaneously, Aori, who had ascended using magic, charged toward me heedless of the surrounding corpses.
Seemed fresh from battle; her body was drenched in blood.
"King, just hold here?"
"Yeah. Let non-Flower guys pass. You can tell the difference, right?"
Aori nodded.
Too many artifact types, and contents unknown to non-authorized personnel, so untouchable.
I got a brief update on the outside from Aori, then leaped toward the hotel exterior.
'Fortunately, the defoliant spraying stopped midway.'
The hotel wasn't exposed to defoliant.
We anticipated and prepared, but situations are variable as always.
The hotel's upper floors without guest rooms were filled with corpses of Flower members, guards, and hunters.
-Tadadak!
Echoing footsteps.
I pre-loaded magic.
Rotating wind arrows infused with black magic.
Fired wind lotus at the perfect timing.
-Boom!
A Flower member perished screaming, unaware of the attack.
The floor collapsed, dropping to the lower hallway.
'Entered via space magic, huh.'
They'd know the coordinates, obviously.
Plenty of ways to get artifacts.
I paused briefly and spoke to Lucy.
"Lucy."
[Yes, Master.]
"Location?"
[Sending now. But...]
Lucy's voice echoed troubled.
[......Seems like they're waiting for you, Master.]
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ [Tweet tweet!!!!] Tree Footrest flying through the air screamed at the top of her lungs.
[Everyone~! This way!!]
Restaurant chefs, bartenders. Numerous service workers hired for the disciples' leisure.
Beyond Forest Keeper Selection Tournament participants, many civilians resided here.
If half the island was 'Cradle's Foundation,' the other half held minimal living facilities.
Even excluding the hotel, plenty to rescue.
People began gathering toward one spot.
"KyaAAAAH!"
Yet chaos intensified.
Many in panic screamed.
Tearing hair, yelling impossibilities.
Some collapsed weeping, begging not to die.
It was natural.
Cradle offered no escape for 'humans.'
If priests or holy knights were visible, maybe, but only a few hunters heading upward were seen. They rarely aided civilian evacuations.
Most knew.
Humans and Wood People meant nothing to World Trees.
While many World Trees and trees evacuated via artifacts to other holy sites, civilians bore the brunt.
'Response too slow.'
Suyeon slammed her pure white sword into the ground and bit her lower lip.
'Even sudden... no way it'd be this delayed.'
Something happened.
A fatal error in Cradle's operating system.
-Grrrrr.
Berserk wolves and dungeon beasts charged one by one.
Cradle's terrain rich in magic meant abundant dungeons.
The first trial used those dungeons refined.
I.e., dungeon control now in Flower's hands.
The absence of ample holy knights and hunters meant retaking seized key locations, Suyeon thought.
'Still too late.'
National Trees joined belatedly after grasping the situation.
Civilians sufficiently secured.
Some righteous disciples joined, forming a line guarding civilians along the mountain path.
Unless direct subordinates of executives or traitorous National Trees appeared, no variables.
It should have been.
-KABOOOM!
An ear-numbingly massive explosion rang out.
A human figure plummeting from the sky hit the ground, then boom.
A dust storm erupted, blood droplets flying.
As the dirt cloud cleared, a staggering woman rose from within.
"......Saku?"
Magic tail emerging from her hips.
Ears perked up in her hair.
Claws sprouting on hands and feet.
Cherry blossoms swirled around her like a vortex.
Saku's body was a mess of blood.
Saku didn't even locate Suyeon, vigilantly eyeing a point in the sky. Soon, a fox-masked woman dropped there.
-Hummm!
Magic resonated.
The pressure on the ground signaled no ordinary foe.
Suyeon unleashed her own magic, preparing to move.
Saku faced the woman.
"What the...?"
Saku's eyes widened in disbelief at the situation.
Emptiness peeked in her gaze.
"Why? Why... are you here? Sis?"
Two cherry trees whirled their blossoms.
As if boasting hers shone brighter.
Suyeon frowned at the suddenly appeared fox-masked woman.
'That one.'
-Boom!
Another explosion.
Suyeon's body twisted unnaturally, blocking the rear attack.
One by one. Appearing.
A man with white hair swept back stared excitedly.
Hostility unmasked.
China's National Tree, Plum Blossom.
Suyeon felt chills down her spine.
An aura suppressing the air.
Pressure utterly different from the trials; she nearly knelt unconsciously.
Breath forgotten, the skill gap felt on skin.
Even fully liberated, could they win?
Even maximizing authority...
'...Get it together.'
She gripped her sword straight.
-Drip.
Sweat on her chin fell.
"Found you, you killable bitch."
Plum Blossom muttered dryly.
Suyeon gritted her teeth, meeting Plum Blossom's eyes.
Two white magics boiled in different directions.