Chapter 115
Chapter 115
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 115
Chapter Title: Is This All?
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Black Gate. The dark elves emerging from that cursed door began stepping onto the land one by one.
Sizzle.
With each one that appeared, the earth protected by Yggdrasil's energy turned black, and foul demonic energy polluted the air.
"......"
The elves gripped their weapons tightly, tense and ready to charge into battle at any moment.
"Hold."
Yggdrasil stopped them.
"...But."
Sendro spoke to Yggdrasil with a face full of worry.
"If not now, it might be too dangerous."
His expression said they needed to strike fast and close the gate before even one more came through.
The elves and Yggdrasil had already been pushed to the brink.
Of the thousands of their kin, most had sacrificed themselves just to hold back the enemy even a little. Yggdrasil, their divine guardian, had given her body and very essence until only a scrap of land remained.
"World Tree......"
This could be the last stand.
Sendro pleaded with Yggdrasil like that.
"It's 'his' request."
Yggdrasil spoke, gazing at Go Yohan's back.
"......! Are you saying that lord desires our destruction?"
Sendro asked in disbelief.
The answer was.
"No."
Of course not.
Yggdrasil shook her head and quietly stepped back.
The World Tree's domain shrank even further.
"......!"
Only then did Sendro realize.
The dark elves' invasion wasn't sudden at all.
"......Wo-World Tree!"
By elven standards, it was mere seconds, but even with time left, Yggdrasil was opening her territory to them.
It was tantamount to suicide.
Tap, tap.
Meanwhile, the dark elves poured out of the Black Gate, forming ranks.
"Why......!"
Sendro couldn't understand.
Was Yggdrasil truly ready to give up everything?
"Sendro."
Yggdrasil called to him.
"Have you forgotten?"
Forgot what?
"Who we're with right now."
He knew. Mikael.
The World Tree's betrothed, now going by Go Yohan, once called the War God in Travania.
But even so, could he handle this many dark elves?
Crackle! Crackle-crackle!
Black lightning arced across the Black Gate.
Just crossing it clashed with the World Tree's power, unleashing forces that seemed to crush worlds.
Hummm.
And so, it emerged. No, they emerged.
Tap.
They landed slowly, opening eyes that had been closed.
"Th-that one is......!"
Yggdrasil's elven forces and the demon world's dark elves had warred for ages.
A conflict stretching back from Travania.
A familiar face. No, an unforgettable one.
"Romanite......!"
The archdemon with seven horns. Her noble bearing made her look like a demon king herself, and the dark elves in formation knelt before her.
She was the one who had hunted thousands of elves in Travania.
"N-no......"
And it didn't end there.
Crackle! Crackle-crackle!
Another surge of lightning.
The one ripping through the Black Gate like it was tearing flesh also bore seven horns.
"Vanessa......!"
Unseen in Travania, but the sole culprit who had ripped apart and corrupted a third of Yggdrasil's body.
Two dark elf lords, two archdemons, had appeared at once.
Crunch!
Sendro immediately nocked an arrow to his bow, made from the World Tree's branches.
No matter what Yggdrasil said, he planned to loose it.
'This is the only chance.'
The moment they emerged from the gate, before they could form up—the one gap.
He couldn't fathom why Yggdrasil was waiting for them or what Go Yohan's request entailed.
Bang!
Sendro fired first and thought later.
That was when.
Clang!
Sparks flew.
"No can do."
The one who deflected Sendro's full-powered arrow wasn't a dark elf—it was the one Go Yohan had brought.
Kim Sion.
"...Why?"
Sendro couldn't understand.
Why wait idly for encroaching death?
"Sendro, you've forgotten. Or perhaps you've never truly seen."
Yggdrasil approached, grasping Sendro's hand as if she understood.
"He asked."
"What the hell did he ask for?!"
"To open the gate and let them all in."
"......!"
Yggdrasil looked toward Go Yohan.
"So he could hunt the demons."
"Th-that's......"
If not for Yggdrasil, he would've cursed aloud.
But those solemn eyes, that holiness.
Grip.
That steadfast back silenced him.
Finally, as if everything had poured out, the gaping Black Gates vanished.
Was this the moment they'd waited for?
"Is this all of them?"
At last, Go Yohan spoke.
*
*
*
There were thousands, by the look of it.
Divided by the boundary, it resembled a clash of black and white—but white seemed to hold the advantage.
Ripple.
The dark elves had hidden in the corrupted forest.
It was as if only the two archdemons and nearly a hundred elves stood exposed.
But.
Crackle! Crackle-crackle!
At any moment, they felt ready to cross and devour the light.
"Is this all of them?"
Go Yohan asked.
"Phantom Knight. We knew you were here."
Romanite spoke. Once one of Travania's elven heroes, one of the World Tree's rare guardians born once every millennium.
"That's why I set aside my pride and came with Vanessa."
Two archdemons with seven horns.
"Still not enough?"
"I asked if this is all."
Romanite and even Vanessa's eyes narrowed at Go Yohan's words.
Phantom Knight, Mikael.
In the demon world, he was an object of fear, acknowledged as demons' mortal foe.
Two archdemons moving together wasn't simple—even in this isolated, heavily corrupted world, it required discarding pride.
"And yet that attitude."
"Phantom Knight, even you......"
As Vanessa began spewing jet-black killing intent.
Crunch.
Go Yohan's arm began turning black as steel.
And in the next instant.
Whoosh!
Black flames erupted from it.
"......!"
Vanessa, sensing something, hurriedly raised her bow.
Boom!
The moment Romanite drew her longsword and lunged.
"Then I guess it's hunting time."
Rrrumble!
Space itself tore with a deafening roar.
When he blinked, half of Romanite's body was mangled and ripped away.
But that alone couldn't kill her.
Spurt!
Vines surged, instantly regenerating her lost half.
Then.
Ripple!
Suddenly, her back burned hot.
Romanite instinctively looked behind her and saw.
Roooar!
A chunk of the forest where dark elves hid had been torn out entirely, black flames raging atop it.
As Romanite turned back to vent her rage.
All this had unfolded in a blink—mere instants even by human measure.
However.
Slash.
A sound like slicing space itself, and a red line appeared on Romanite's neck.
Go Yohan stood right in front of her.
A gleaming dagger in one hand.
Behind such Romanite.
Rooooar!
Everything was swept away by flames and slashes.
"Pity. Could only kill this many."
Ripple.
Eyes rippling with madness—Romanite's final end, having sold her god to become an archdemon.
*
*
*
Go Yohan had waited on purpose.
Hoping they'd exhaust their power to bring as many as possible here.
So that.
Roooar!
He could hunt even one more.
"...Hah."
Sendro exhaled blankly.
Now he knew for sure.
Go Yohan, the World Tree's betrothed, had used the elven god, the World Tree, as bait.
Rage surged.
And with it, futility.
"Now do you remember, Sendro?"
Yggdrasil said.
"What he is."
Nod.
The bad blood between the World Tree and Go Yohan.
It hadn't started with her proposal to him—it began because he held no respect or reverence for the World Tree whatsoever.
Go Yohan acknowledged those called gods, but he revered only the phantom goddess he believed in.
In an instant, half the dark elves seemed torn apart and slain.
Even an archdemon, so hard to face, crushed.
But.
Roooar!
What were those black flames, still pouring intense heat as if to burn the entire corrupted forest?
Pew-pew-pew-pew-pew!
Panicked dark elves—spikes burst from their shadows, piercing hearts.
A spell from the stunningly beautiful woman, Yun Seungha.
But it seemed to tax her; she staggered briefly, realizing her limit, and fell back.
Once more.
Shrieeeek!
Go Yohan's Great Sin swung.
Of the dark elves that had set foot here, only a tenth remained.
"Hah."
Hollow.
The scene made every battle thus far feel utterly pointless.
And then.
"Captain."
Kim Sion stepped forward.
"Can I kill that one?"
The boy with sparkling eyes and a cute face said that.
"I've been feeling stagnant lately."
"Go ahead."
He was impressive too.
That even with this many, they wouldn't act without Go Yohan's say-so.
Claaaang!
Sparks flew.
Shiver.
Sendro and the elves watching felt goosebumps ripple across their skin.
It was him.
Truly.
"......War God."
It finally sank in that the one who fought the world alone stood with them.