Chapter 60
Chapter 60
9. Wandering and Settlement -2
Riiip──!!
A blue Gate opened, and⋯⋯ that ominous, inscrutable presence filled the space.
It was certainly chilling enough to be frightening, yet unpleasantly, it did not inspire terror. Even knowing that Gate could kill us all, it didn't. That instinctive gap in perception was what made it so unsettling.
Beasts do not feel terror at the sight of plants. Over the long history of the ecosystem, plants had always been passive, never directly causing harm.
So while a tiger's roar could make a human's knees buckle, while a caterpillar crawling across the skin could make them shriek in fright, humanity did not yet even possess the DNA to fear plants and things related to them.
Which meant I had to consciously fear that thing. If I wanted to survive.
Ssss, sssssss──
As the wind blew, a sound like leaves brushing against each other rang out, carrying a crisp phytoncide scent. I kept repeating it to myself, trying to make it feel sinister.
That gentle hiking trail I used to climb hand in hand with Eve as a child,
the one where sunlight shone after rainy days—it no longer existed in this world.
No one knows what lies inside a Gate. The rift is covered by a wall that emits intense color and permits no intrusion, only allowing passage when it spits monsters out from within.
Therefore, even peering inside is impossible. However.
We could see what was faintly reflected on the wall.
Ssss-
From beyond the Gate, shadows of various shapes stirred with a rustling sound. Like shadow puppets cast on a tent with a lantern lit inside, there were four figures shaped roughly like people.
Judging by their silhouettes, every one of them had pointed ears.
=■■, yo■, did you⋯⋯
=call u■■, s⋯⋯
The voices, sounding as though they came from very far away, seemed tossed by rough seas. But soon, with each echo, the crackling and muddled sounds became clear and distinct, as if they had found their destination.
Only then did their presence truly reveal itself. Like lightning preceding thunder.
If the Gate's appearance had brought bewilderment, those things beginning to show themselves within it radiated direct pressure.
My eyes stung, my limbs tingled. Strength went rigid through my whole body.
Joero had shouted "settled elves." Was that what those things were called?
Everyone was overwhelmed. Those shadows cast on the wall all seemed to have entered the realm of C-rank. In a situation like a tiger leaping into the middle of a wolf pack, only a handful managed to keep their wits about them.
And among those, only two could move immediately. Me and Muyeon.
I had resistance because I had witnessed the Glass Sword Lord through the Hidden Piece, and an existence of even higher caliber than him. Compared to that being who had sat upon a burning planet, those things were nothing but vermin.
As for Muyeon, he was a man who had deliberately given up the C-rank hunter realm he could have achieved and remained at D-rank, so it made sense.
I quietly prepared an attack. The strongest technique I could use⋯⋯ Synthesis, which temporarily bound different skills together into "one" to amplify their power.
'Hmm, pulling off such eccentric tricks at D-rank already. It's excessive and dangerous, so avoid using it if you can!'
From what the Glass Sword Lord had told me, it was a heretical path. Apparently a dangerous technique like lit dynamite, so I had suppressed its use until now—but not using it now was more dangerous. I had to use it.
Last time, when sweeping away the remnants of the Hunter Monarchy on Earth, I had combined 『Azure Wind Wanderer』 and 『Quick Flash』 and released them. That wouldn't be enough now. Not two—three⋯⋯ I'd need to synthesize at least three for it to work on a C-rank.
"Haaaaah⋯⋯"
I drew breath through my teeth. Focus. Focus.
Meanwhile, Muyeon shouted in a voice laden with weight.
"Those who stand with the Alliance—attack the Gate immediately! Right now!"
"Y-yes!"
At that cry, the Alliance members barely snapped back to their senses and frantically began attacking.
"Dammit! Shoot! Shoot!"
"『Scattershot Arrow』!"
"『Master Binder (主縛)』— 『Degradation (劣化): Straight Serpent Whip (直蛇箠)』!"
I understood Muyeon's judgment. What was urgent right now wasn't Joero's faction—it was the Gate. If we could just manage to close that thing, wasn't this a fight we'd win?
But it was meaningless.
Belatedly, ranged projectiles poured in, but no attack could pierce the Gate's membrane, and they had not the slightest effect on those shadows. As expected, that thing wasn't something that could be physically closed.
Among them, a few of the more cowardly ones frantically manipulated their Status Windows as if trying to escape this Stage.
"I-I can't move! It's blocked!"
"A System error⋯⋯?!"
As expected, the plant bastards and the System were incompatible. Normally the Gate opened in that impossibly high sky so we hadn't noticed, but with the Gate right in front of our noses, the System apparently couldn't function properly either.
Seeing that the attacks weren't working, Joero laughed, then spread his arms wide and shouted while looking up at the Gate.
"Settled elves! Crush these people! Sweep them all away and let me seize the Hunter Alliance! And promise me a paradise that will survive the flood!"
=⋯⋯⋯⋯
But unexpectedly, what came back was not an answer but silence.
Just as bewilderment flickered across Joero's face⋯⋯
=Ha■hahaha■hahaha!
=Heh, heheh■heheh!
=Tch⋯⋯ That's the stupidest thing I've heard lately.
They burst into laughter.
"Wh-what⋯⋯"
Joero was badly flustered. So was I, and so were the others. I had been fully prepared for a life-or-death fight, even resigned to possibly using the 'White Lightning' stored in 『Inventory -2』.
But the settled elves he had summoned, going so far as to open a Gate—they laughed for a long while, then spat mockery and scorn at Joero.
=For a wandering elf, you want a lot. Do you think we're your servants?
=The contract itself was wrong from the start, wasn't it? We helped you evade the System's gaze because you said you could plant seeds in the Hunter Alliance, but now you're throwing a tantrum demanding we do your work for you? How shameless! Haha!
=You couldn't even hide those measly ears and caused this mess! Now that you've been found out, you've already outlived your usefulness. Go out there and die.
=You have no idea what a precious opportunity you've squandered! Hohoho, to grab hold of such a fine connection and then just let it slip. This is why holding onto connections requires ability too.
"What⋯⋯"
The shadows of the various settled elves mingled with sneers, then at some point cleared, and on the surface of the Gate glowing blue, only a single hunchbacked shadow stretched long.
He spoke.
=I'll give you one last chance. If you kill every member of the Hunter Alliance there, we'll consider your mistake redeemed. Contact us when it's done.
That was the end.
Zzzzzzip──
With a thunderous sound like a zipper closing, the blue Gate that had opened inside the abandoned airport vanished, leaving only a faint reflected glow.
Joero had become like a kite with its string cut.
Muyeon immediately shouted.
"Don't just stand there! Attack! No need to capture them—wipe out the elf Joero and his minions with everything you have!"
"Dammit, dammit—!!"
A scream rang out.
Joero's ambition—to secure longer survival through betrayal—had collapsed so futilely. The Hunter Alliance hunters let out sighs of relief and drew their weapons, charging in to deal with Joero's faction.
Thunk—! Thwock!
Arrows and short spears flying in from the rear embedded themselves all over Joero's body. He staggered badly and raised his guard.
Good. It was a good thing, but.
According to Elijah's testimony, Joero had gained extremely powerful arm strength, had regenerated in an instant even after his arm was severed by wire, and had seemed unable to properly control his strength.
As if it wasn't power he originally possessed.
Right, there was no way the price of betrayal was simply future survival. The probability that Joero had received something by becoming an 『Elf』 was extremely high. Which meant.
"I wanted to live. My family, my world's friends, my subordinates⋯⋯ I wanted all of us to survive together! If you're going to interfere with that, I won't leave a single one of you alive! No matter the cost!"
What the hunchbacked elf had said—"if you kill every member of the Hunter Alliance, we'll consider your mistake redeemed"—perhaps that wasn't just mocking empty words⋯⋯
"I offer up all of my 『Skills』—!!"
Flaaash──!!
Crrrrrack—!!
At that moment, tree roots began tearing through the skin and growing out from Joero's chest. They were absolutely not ordinary plants. That thing was a monster.
"Gwaaaaah!!"
And offering them to a monster⋯⋯ then.
Shit.
『Monstera』 flashed through my mind. That forest boss-level plant bastard that had devoured two fragments of the world⋯⋯ two 『Skills』 and undergone super-evolution.
The monster Sergios had barely managed to kill with a finishing move combining four skills.
Absorbing just two skills could make something that strong. In that case, I didn't know what species that plant implanted near Joero's heart was or how elite it might be.
But if it devoured every skill a hunter voluntarily offered, I didn't want to imagine the result⋯⋯ No!
I wouldn't let it get that far.
I had been secretly gathering and gathering power all this time to land a single blow. The blade at the center was 『Quick-Flash Inner Core』, the wind coiling along the spiral was 『Azure Wind Wanderer』, and the radiance covering the surface was 『Glass Sword』.
Gather the small to forge the great. I forcibly coordinated and condensed three forces that wanted to collide and fly apart. And at the moment they briefly held together.
I aimed squarely at Joero's heart.
"Synthesis, 『Glass Clear-Wind Flash (琉璃淸風閃)』."
I fired.
Fwoosh──!!
The transparent wind spear, invisible as it scattered light, flew across a distance of about 100 meters and struck directly into the mutating Joero's heart.
Thwack.
With that sound, Joero's chest literally burst open. Blood poured from his eyes and mouth. It was unquestionably a fatal wound for a human. But⋯⋯
Crrrrack—
Plants have no heart.
Crunch, crunch.
A hole had been punched through his chest, but the bleeding was strangely minimal. If his heart had burst, there should have been a pool of blood by now, but it was barely enough to wet the soles of Joero's feet.
If anything, the blood he was shedding now seemed not a sign of approaching death but evidence of rebirth. As if expelling waste no longer needed by his body, Joero shook off the red blood.
His scorched scalp, hair, and ears regenerated.
Even during this transformation, the Hunter Alliance's attacks continued. Yet Joero was recovering even as he took every attack with his body. His recovery speed was faster than all those attacks combined.
Crack, crack. Branches sprouted from his forehead like a stag's antlers, and his pointed ears regenerated long and slender, completing the full form of an 『Elf』.
Half human, half plant. Half-man, half-tree.
The elf Joero raised his hand as if trying to adapt to his transformed body. But roots and leaves sprouted from the back of his hand, water flowed through his veins instead of blood, and the sight was utterly grotesque.
Above all, there was no scent of human skin at all. He stared at me with vacant eyes, as if intoxicated by something, and revealed the scientific name of his newly born self.
"I have inoculated the heart of bamboo and brought its traits to bloom⋯⋯ so I should rightly be called a Moso Bamboo Elf (Phyllostachys edulis elfs)."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
⋯⋯Had the roots invaded his brain and lowered his intelligence?
Identifying the characteristics of a plant mixed with a person would be difficult even for most specialists. So if he'd just kept his mouth shut, no one would have known—but how kind of him to tell us which plant species he'd fused with.
No, maybe there was some kind of constraint or effect at work. Just looking at those unfocused eyes, it was hard to call Joero's state normal. He looked like someone completely strung out on drugs, rambling in a daze.
For now⋯⋯ I obviously didn't know what Moso bamboo was. But I did know one thing: it was bamboo.
Let me sort this out.
Bamboo grows fast. The famous anecdote goes that a bamboo shoot seen at dawn has already grown too tough to eat by dusk. That trait had probably manifested as Joero's abnormal regeneration.
Also, no matter how much you cut down its green stalks, you can't say you've killed bamboo. As long as the rhizome—the underground stem—is intact, new shoots will keep growing as long as nutrients allow.
In other words.
"Let's try again⋯⋯ I'll skewer every last one of you, and then I'll go back to my hometown. My hometown⋯⋯ I have to go back⋯⋯"
"Dammit, you monster bastard! Die! Die!"
"We set it on fire, but it's growing faster than it burns⋯⋯?!"
Unless we pierced the rhizome wherever it was—that regeneration would continue until its nutrients ran out.
He wouldn't have stashed his weakness outside his body like a lich from a fantasy novel, and I'd never heard of plants growing via Bluetooth. The weakness had to be somewhere in Joero's body. Let's find it.
Numbers meant nothing against regeneration. In the end, the one who had to land a fatal blow on the elf Joero had to be a powerhouse⋯⋯ someone like me, Elijah, or elite members like Muyeon and Hori.
Alright. Let's try again.
I'll locate the weakness and kill you in one shot. Joero.