World Tree War (5): The World Tree's Shadow Falls
A tree was growing.
A shining tree. A tree that poured forth iridescent light.
“Is that even a tree?”
At first it had been small and fragile, yet simply by scattering its light the undead began to lose their strength and collapse.
Even Lahan staggered as he barely managed to face it.
“No way, this is it?”
The World Tree. Judging by appearances, a colossal tree brimming with life.
In other words, the undead’s natural enemy.
But something felt strange.
The tree was overflowing with life… yet the ground around it was withering.
The entire surrounding earth was turning into land soaked only in the power of death!
“It’s not death being added. There’s nothing left but death.”
The mere presence of all living things on the ground had vanished, leaving only the appearance of death.
Suddenly the words the Archbishop had shouted echoed in my mind.
World Tree, rise! Devour this planet—
This World Tree had not been born full of life. It had stolen it.
It had taken root here on this land to drain the planet’s vitality.
And so the surrounding earth lost all trace of life and was left with nothing but death.
It devoured every ounce of power in the world. A parasitic plant that stole every living creature the world had nurtured.
That was the World Tree.
“The ten gods were fighting for the land, weren’t they?”
Leader Dwarf Duke had said exactly that.
The god of the fairies, of the Endless Land, had used a parasitic method.
He summoned the parasitic creature called the World Tree to this Earth, drained every living thing until nothing remained…
and then swallowed the planet whole using the strengthened World Tree.
I hesitated for a moment, unsure what to do, when Yeomje’s voice rang out.
“Necromancer. I’ve evacuated all the dwarves… what is this?”
“The World Tree. Can you take it?”
“Take it? It feels like suicide if I get too close.”
That was true.
Lahan had barely survived by riding his Nightmare and fleeing, and the World Tree had grown even larger in the meantime, blazing brighter than ever.
“But that doesn’t mean there’s no way.”
“What? How? That power is poison to us!”
“No, death is naturally stronger than life. There’s no life that doesn’t end.”
Yeomje said it without a trace of hesitation.
Death is stronger than life.
He was right.
Every living thing dies. Death is the end and oblivion. Nothing remains; it is simply the end of one world.
It was not a sudden thought. I had thought it often during my hikikomori days.
—Death is the most terrifying thing there is.
“Undead are beings who have rejected death.”
Therefore it was not death itself.
At the very last moment I had pulled death close, the entity closest to death yet never truly death itself.
That was why it had fallen to the elves’ power.
If death was to overcome life… it had to become complete.
I shifted my vision to the eye of a single bird that had been soaring over the battlefield.
The undead who had rejected death were now finally dying and scattering across the ground.
“I think I get it.”
“I don’t understand.”
I ignored Yeomje’s puzzled expression and raised my hand.
I knew death. I had been resurrected, but if it had not been the tenth god’s choice I would have remained forever sealed inside a corpse capsule.
I closed my eyes and focused.
Skill Reignite the Soul.
The power of the soul, applicable to the undead connected to me.
I had known it already, but we were connected, undead and I.
So when an undead died, my death followed, and every undead I created added one death to my soul.
If I could use that power of death…
My soul… will soon become death.
More precisely, a soul filled with death so dense it could revive the dead.
In the past I had thought myself an existence with only a tiny fraction of death, but…
that was wrong. Or perhaps right at the time.
Now, carrying thousands upon thousands of deaths on my back, I was nothing but living death.
“……!”
The moment I realized it.
I had discovered I could tear off a part of my soul!
“What…?”
Yeomje fixed his helmet’s gaze on the death at my fingertips and asked.
“Death.”
A deep purple aura.
I stood and began walking toward the World Tree.
It took some time to reach the spot. I had been far enough away from the battlefield to avoid getting caught in it. Still, it was not so distant that it took long.
Shaaa…
The World Tree now looked even larger, gazing down at me.
It was not a metaphor. As I approached, the branches stretched toward me.
And they grew slowly, shooting threatening light straight at me.
“Useless.”
Yet I was still alive.
Even if the light struck me, I would not die.
But the moment it touched me the light vanished. My soul, made of ultra-dense death, withered.
With every step I took, the corpses of the fairies were crushed underfoot. The fairy race, gods of the gods, had become nothing under the World Tree the god had arranged.
Corpses that were little more than lifeless. Or less than that.
It was unpleasant.
I at least did not touch my own people. But why was the Endless Land sacrificing those who followed it?
Why did it try to rule the world?
“World Tree.”
I stood before the World Tree and spoke.
In response the tree sent out a small branch.
“I’m sorry, but shaking hands seems impossible.”
Leaving it unchecked would likely bring more damage to Seoul, and I would take the blame for it.
But I would only create unnecessary enemies.
I once again filled my hand with death and seized the branch that stretched toward me.
Grudududud—!
The World Tree began to twist.
The World Tree that had absorbed only life in order to flee was refusing the death flowing into it.
It moved its power to grow one branch quickly.
You cannot do that.
I poured in more death.
Thick flowed into thin, mixing like concentrated and dilute.
Because my death had been stronger than the newly born World Tree’s life, it could not reject it.
Finally, when death caught up.
The World Tree’s leaves, branches, and finally its trunk began to blacken and rot from the top.
The moment the enormous World Tree, which had leaped over nearby buildings, withered.
Endless Land in Fury.
📍 The World Tree has been slain.
🎁 Legendary skill acquired: Mare Mortis.
The pale ■ mocks the Endless Land and withdraws all blessings.
“Oh!”
As expected, killing a World Tree of that caliber granted a legendary skill.
Or rather, judging by the timing, it seemed the pale ■ had simply offered it as a reward.
I tried the skill lightly. I could now create it from thin air instead of just pouring it from my hand.
More precisely, it was close to tearing off a part of my soul and summoning it.
“Ugh, my head hurts…”
It was not even that tiring, yet my head spun and throbbed.
It was not the skill. The backlash from using my soul too much to kill the World Tree had finally arrived.
That’s no ordinary headache.
Sending out my soul was like ripping my own body apart.
Yet when I thought about it, the price seemed oddly light for how lightly it had ended.
Well, it does weaken my own power a bit.
This could not be naturally replenished.
Power I had stacked from outside by reviving corpses. It had become part of my soul, but there was no guarantee it would recover on its own over time.
I sat for a moment on a large, rotted root.
It had been a massive war. If not for the World Tree that had grown last, our casualties would have been far less. But the World Tree had also been a blessing.
We could now revive the fairies’ corpses immediately.
And among the undead, those who had suffered greatly from life-filled mana now had their connections severed, but thanks to the World Tree there was no life left in their corpses, so there would be no obstacles to revival.
The undead needed a little rest and then to be revived.
At that thought.
A being filled with life magic approached from the far side.
I knew the face. I knew the soul.
“Don’t be too cautious.”
“You… you’re the Cardinal?”
I asked while wrapping death around my hand.
The one approaching me was Bishop Aliac. But his tone and the shape of his soul were unmistakably that of the Cardinal.
Just like my Summon, he possessed the ability to inhabit a fairy body.
“Relax. I am not as perfect as you. I can only imitate the shape of the soul.”
“Why are you here? There’s nothing left.”
“I know only death and pain remain. Well, to me it’s nothing special.”
“…You’re fine with it?”
It was an absurd remark from the one who had attacked first, yet the Cardinal answered without surprise.
“To the fairies I am meaningless. I am not even a fairy.”
“…Then?”
“The Endless Land has not abandoned me yet. I could even say it has not abandoned just me.”
Ugh.
I did not fully understand what he meant.
“I know why you attacked first. You intended to strike before being struck.”
“You knew?”
I did not make enemies first. I simply did not want to fight tiredly.
But if I had to swing, I swung blood and violence without hesitation.
I had clearly become an enemy by accepting the dwarves, and if we ever weakened I would have been attacked anyway, so I had struck first.
I had no intention of claiming justice.
Right now the clear villain was me. I had invaded first.
“It doesn’t matter to me.”
“What?”
“You don’t think that the World Tree you broke was real, do you? It was just a small sapling. A grafted false World Tree.”
This is fake?
Ah, I see. Even so, it was strange that a World Tree could fall so easily to me.
“We only landed on this land to understand the nature of this world.”
“So that… was your goal?”
“Yes. A larger World Tree will come later. You’ll see then.”
The soul vanished from Aliac’s body and the corpse slumped.
And at that moment, at the edge of my vision, I saw Yeomje charging forward with his death-wrapped sword.
“I’ll handle it. Enemy—.”
“Hey! Stop! We’re safe now!”
Yeomje froze mid-step with his iron dripping sword, and behind him Lahan, Ttacttac-i, and Mari came running.
When I had gone toward the World Tree, they had been watching together. When they saw Aliac behave strangely and flee toward me, they had followed.
“It’s over now.”
The surroundings were filled with undead and dead fairies, and behind me lay the withered World Tree, black as ever.
We had won.
The war was over.