Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: The Water Disaster That Eats Nightmares (4)
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Tsutsutsutsutsutsu...
Blurred shadows emerged from within the purple mist, walking step by step.
With each step they took closer, their forms grew clearer and clearer.
[You bastard... Federback... You damned scum...]
An old man with a long white beard led the way.
His face, emerging through the purple mist, was quite familiar to Federback.
"Yuda, huh."
The identity of the specter that appeared before Federback was none other than the former administrator, Yuda.
The Water Disaster That Eats Nightmares had peered into Federback's mind while Zuba Popi was buying time, extracting the faces of all those who might harbor grudges against him.
[If it weren't for you... I wouldn't have died like that...]
Yuda approached, shedding bloody tears.
New faces continued to join behind him.
[Killing people... for just a few coins...?]
[I curse you, who killed even my family...]
[How many people must shed bloody tears because of you...?]
Corrupt officials executed in Lily Square and various criminals shuffled out one after another.
Federback shrugged his shoulders.
"It's always fascinating to see. How do you mimic them so perfectly?"
The Water Disaster That Eats Nightmares.
This scene perfectly explained how it earned such an unsettling name.
This forest rummages through the minds of those who enter, pulling out all their bad memories.
Then, it recreates the faces of the people from those bad memories exactly within the mist.
If the giant spider Zuba Popi manipulated corpses using spiderwebs, this forest gathered specters based on the resentments dwelling in those corpses, adding the nightmares of those who entered the forest to complete this bizarre phenomenon.
In this Water Disaster That Eats Nightmares, the forest's specters gained physical form based on the corpses Zuba Popi had collected.
Federback drew his sword.
"I don't particularly consider you nightmares, but it's a bit nice to meet again like this."
[I'll kill you, Federback... Even in hell, I'll return this hatred you'll never forget...]
Yuda couldn't finish his words.
Federback's sword had severed his neck.
A chilling cold extended outward, slicing the necks of the specters behind him one after another.
But.
Shururururururuk...
The specters returned to their original state as if their necks had never been cut.
[I curse you, curse you...]
[You're an unnecessary existence in this world...]
[Do you know how many people are waiting just for you to die...?]
All of them condemned Federback.
A normal person would have had their spirit broken in this horrific situation already.
But Federback paid no attention to their words whatsoever.
"Weaklings."
Death doesn't turn the weak into the strong.
There's no dramatic reversal where a weakling in life becomes powerful as a ghost after death.
To be strong in death, one had to be strong in life.
The idea that a weak person gains great power by dying with strong hatred is a delusion weaklings comfort each other with.
In reality, the weak remain weak even after death.
This holds true in both this world and the next, and Federback, who had fought countless battles against the Demon King's army, knew this fact all too well.
"Now, get out of my way."
Federback advanced, lightly knocking aside the necks of the specters blocking his path.
Then, the number of specters emerging from the mist increased even more.
[Cold... So cold...]
[You buried us alive in a place like this...]
[I pray your family meets the same fate...]
Prisoners from the abyss began clinging to him.
The dead prisoner Iwan appeared, baring his teeth at Federback.
[Not content with taking everything I had, you buried me alive in ice? My family became beggars, driven to the streets. How could you, wearing the skin of a human, commit such acts!]
The prisoners shed bloody tears and ground their teeth.
But Federback's expression didn't change in the slightest.
"Anyone hearing that would think you lived righteously and ended up like that. After doing all sorts of evil to countless people, what nonsense is this? Your families fattened themselves on dirty money stained with blood and flesh, so it's time they coughed it up."
Federback wasn't shaken at all by the appearance of the specters before him.
Because he had done nothing wrong from the start.
They had harmed countless people up until now.
They had simply paid the price for it, so there was no need to feel any guilt.
...But.
Tsutsutsutsutsutsu―
The face that appeared next made Federback's steps falter.
[Federback.]
Cardina.
The face of his blood-unrelated sister blocked Federback's advance.
"Hmm... That's quite clever."
Federback looked at Cardina before him.
Cardina's face was different from now.
One eye was blind, and half her face was covered in burns and cuts.
Her body was riddled with arrows, and her legs were mangled by countless traps.
[Federback.]
The Cardina speaking before him now was the one Federback had seen before regressing.
To be precise, it was the form of Cardina who had died caught in the Demon King's army's assault.
"......"
Federback narrowed his eyes.
Before regressing, Cardina had perished young in a surprise attack from the Demon King's army.
She fell in battle without even leaving a body behind, and her bereaved family found only a few fingers presumed to be hers.
Afterward, Federback awakened the blood of the fallen warrior, but that day's memory remained as deep trauma.
The Water Disaster That Eats Nightmares had touched upon it.
...But.
It happens sometimes.
A person who has something one shouldn't touch, and shouldn't be touched.
The Water Disaster That Eats Nightmares had failed to discern the difference between the intruders it had devoured so far and Federback.
For the first time since regressing, Federback felt the emotion called 'anger'.
"I was going to just flip things around moderately and leave... but you've crossed the line."
Cardina lunged at Federback as he strode forward.
Shiiiik―
Cardina's blade flew like a snake.
But Federback easily dodged it.
"It's all Meursault swordsmanship anyway. And the form Sister learned is only half-baked."
He could dodge this even with his eyes closed.
Federback thrust his sword, severing Cardina's neck.
"Don't mess around. To dare try to touch my guilt with this pathetic illusion."
Federback strode toward the depths of the forest.
Soon, a massive tree root came into view.
It was larger and thicker than any root in the area.
It was as if a giant serpent from myth slithered through the forest.
If a single root was this big, how enormous must the main body be?
Ordinary people would call it a divine tree.
Federback unhesitatingly thrust his sword toward that root.
Puk!
The Ice Dragon Adara's fang embedded into the divine tree's root.
Then.
Puhwaak!
Blood-red sap began gushing out.
Federback raised his sword with an expressionless face.
"I didn't plan to go this far, but you brought it on yourself."
The heart of the Water Disaster That Eats Nightmares.
The being standing there was this divine tree.
A single enormous tree, worthy of being called god-given, stretched thick roots throughout the area, and smaller trees grew around those roots—this was the true identity of the Water Disaster That Eats Nightmares.
Federback knew exactly the location of the divine tree and was well-versed in its bizarre power.
...Puk! ...Puk! ...Puk! ...Puk! ...Puk! ...Puk!
Federback repeatedly slashed down at the root with his sword.
Blood-red sap sprayed wildly, and the surrounding purple mist churned violently.
[Federback...]
[Stop...]
[You'll be cursed...]
Yuda, Iwan, Cardina, and the other specters swarmed around Federback.
However.
"If you want me to stop, come out yourself."
Federback dragged his leather sheath across the wound on the sap-bleeding divine tree.
Hududuk― hududuk― hududuk―
Zuba Popi's eyeballs tumbled out from inside the sheath.
The spider's eyes, filled with milky fat.
Federback opened a matchbox from his pocket.
Chiiik―
A single spark ignited, emitting black smoke.
Soon after, Federback held the matchstick to Zuba Popi's eyeballs.
Hwaruruk!
Crimson flames erupted in an instant.
They met the sap gushing from the divine tree's root and blazed fiercely.
Ku―ooooooo!
The flames swirled high.
The root, which had been bleeding, now writhed in the intense heat.
Pasasasasasasa...
The purple mist scattered.
The specters sent by the forest began twisting into grotesque shapes.
Federback said.
"Hey. Forest mage."
Words directed at no one in particular.
But Federback continued calmly.
"Don't make this bigger than it has to be. Once I get what I want, I'll leave this forest."
No reply came.
Federback let out a small sigh.
"Guess you think I can't."
Then, Federback's eyes glowed bright red.
"Then watch. See if I can or not."
With that, Federback picked up a burning branch.
And soon.
Jeobuk― jeobuk― jeobuk― jeobuk―
He began stepping deeper into the forest.
The flames spread following Federback.
Federback severed each of the divine tree's roots extending throughout the forest one by one, setting them ablaze.
Not only that, he spread the fire to surrounding trees and underbrush.
A forest fire.
It was a terrifying thing.
If a single human harbored ill intent, they could turn an entire mountain range into a sea of fire in just hours.
And right now, Federback harbored ill intent.
Tadak― tadak― hwarururuk!
Federback carried numerous branches in hand, spreading the fire.
Piles of fallen leaves, stands of dead trees, dense clusters of low shrubs.
He hurled torches into every such spot.
Whiiiiiing―
Moist wind blew from deeper in the forest, but it couldn't stop the flames from spreading.
The blaze raging from the forest's edge even reversed the wind's direction.
Federback walked slowly through the forest turning into a hellish inferno, as if taking a forest bath.
Soon.
Federback faced an astonishingly enormous single tree.
It was less a tree and more a colossal pillar.
So vast it seemed to hold up the sky, one tree alone could form an entire forest.
The moment Federback confronted the divine tree, the sea of purple mist enveloping the forest shuddered.
"I told you."
Federback spoke, sword in one hand, torch in the other.
"Don't make this big."
At the same time.
Pu―uk!
Federback's sword began digging into the divine tree's trunk.
The divine tree, bitten by the Ice Dragon's fang, began screaming.
Its ironclad bark peeled away, and the soft flesh inside split wide open.
Red sap poured down like a waterfall.
At the same time, the purple mist began churning madly.
But this wasn't the end.
Federback lifted the torch he had dragged along the ground from the forest's edge.
A straight line of flames scarred across the grass.
At its end stood Federback and the divine tree.
...Tok!
Federback tossed the torch into the divine tree's wound.
Hwaruk―
The flames caught onto the divine tree.
Hot, dry air pushed back the purple mist.
Buzizik! Buzizik! Buzizik! Buzizik!
The entire Water Disaster That Eats Nightmares screamed in agony.