Spirit (3)
Spirit (3)
A wave of dark green surged forward.
The land where the poison mire flowed melted away.
The sky, thick with poison mist, stained a dull, murky green.
Even the flying-type monsters that shot into the air in horror plunged down the moment they touched the fog, eyes rolling back as they splashed into the poison mire.
Like a sea flowing in reverse, a vast volume of poison mire spread outward.
"Bweeeeh..."
The plain that had been lush green only hours before had transformed into a hellscape on earth.
On that hellscape, not a single undead remained—not even a corpse.
Even if they avoided the mire, mere exposure to the poison mist sent them crumpling, eyes rolling back.
The sprawling undead were swallowed by the mire and dissolved without a trace.
4th-Rank Monsters were no exception. The poison mire brought indiscriminate annihilation to nature and life alike.
That was only natural, for this was the poison of the Twin-headed Poison Dragon.
Its physical capabilities placed it at the 3rd-Rank Alpha level, but its unique ability possessed lethality that rivaled even that of 2nd-Rank entities.
Spraying poison of that caliber in such volume could hardly be ineffective.
'Which is also why its use requires special caution.'
The aftermath was as enormous as the lethality.
The area swept by poison mire and saturated with venom expanded explosively.
A single misstep and it could slip beyond control, inflicting unintended destruction.
'Homogenization, Gale.'
That was the reason he had stirred the blood sea beforehand.
He'd stirred it in advance to occupy the ground where the poison would pour, mixing the venom into the blood sea so he could control it more easily.
In addition, he channeled Gale to steer the poison mire and poison mist.
The roaring Gale rose up, blocking the poison mire from spilling northward.
"Hmph..."
Lee Ji-yeon, who had been monitoring the situation from the fairy tree's barrier, pressed her lips together.
A viscous wave of poison smothered the ground. The sky, heavy with poison mist, was stained a murky green.
It was around last year's vacation. The memory of the ordeal she'd suffered from that poison was painfully vivid.
Not so much that she would freeze up over it, of course...
But the sight of Lee Ha-yul, of all people, spewing that exact poison all over the Taesan Territory left her with a rather complicated feeling.
"Uh, uhh..."
Kariade, standing beside Lee Ji-yeon, gaped.
She knew it was undignified, but the shock was simply overwhelming.
The king of fairies, who nurtures and protects nature, was killing nature itself by pouring out poison like a waterfall...
Even to Kariade, a fairy herself, it was a scene that stirred many thoughts.
- For now, I think that'll buy us some time.
Lee Ha-yul returned after unleashing the appropriate amount of poison mire. Having doused himself with purification magic on the way, he pointed at the hellscape.
Lee Ji-yeon gave a grim nod.
"...That definitely buys time."
- ...Once this is all over, I'll join the restoration efforts myself. Since it's poison I released, I can purify it more easily.
Sensing Lee Ji-yeon's expression, Lee Ha-yul sent her a sound transmission with an awkward look and stepped inside the barrier.
Around the colossal fairy tree, fairies still clustered together.
The immediate panic had been calmed by Kariade's orders moments ago, but the anxiety and worry lingering on their faces hadn't faded.
'Hoo.'
Replacing those expressions with relief was his job.
Nodding to himself, Lee Ha-yul approached the massive fairy tree.
Soon, a vine descended from the sky and coiled snugly around his waist. Lee Ha-yul wrapped his arms around it tightly in return.
- From now on, I'll use the fairy tree as a medium to link a gate.
The plan had been explained beforehand.
By crossing the isolated space, they would connect a gate to the fairy tree located at Siyoram.
The gist was to receive outside support that way.
It wasn't as easy as it sounded. The spatial isolation forced by the Tower was powerful, and wielding Authority fully was difficult.
But it wasn't impossible.
'And I have to.'
Lee Ha-yul couldn't even summon spirits right now.
If he were in proper condition, he could have bypassed the isolation and summoned them directly, but with his spirit and body separated, the contracts had grown faint, making direct summoning nearly impossible.
'That bastard Tower Master of the Dead. To attack right now, of all times...'
Probably not a coincidence. More likely, they had aimed precisely for this moment.
'A prolonged war with the Tower of the Dead is not ideal.'
Especially a clash of armies—avoiding that was the correct move.
The obvious strategy was a short, decisive battle. Break through the army and neutralize the Tower Master.
Of course, even calling it a strategy was generous, since the original story had never pulled it off.
The 11th Iteration had come closest, but even that had ultimately failed.
'If I were in good shape, I'd fly south right now and ram right into them...'
But in this sorry state, that was difficult.
So he had to urgently link a gate to the outside world and awaken the fairy's innate talent.
- I'll finish this as fast as possible.
Embracing the branch, Lee Ha-yul closed his eyes. He synchronized his consciousness with the fairy tree.
Since the fairy tree was being adopted as a gate medium, he needed to connect with it deeply.
At the same time, this would help foster the fairy's innate talent faster.
- ......Wooong...
Lee Ha-yul and the fairy tree resonated together. Whooosh! His three folded pairs of wings unfurled, pouring out bright light.
Seeing this, Lee Ji-yeon nodded and turned around.
"I'll head out and start whittling down the undead."
"My queen."
Kariade's expression was full of concern. Lee Ji-yeon shook her head, pointing north.
"No matter how much of the Twin-headed Poison Dragon's venom we've spread, there will still be those slipping north. We have to ease the pressure at the front as much as possible."
"...Then I shall accompany you. Though I am no match for my queen, I am still fully capable of aiding you."
"Lady Kariade, please stay by his side. Even inside the barrier, we don't know what might happen."
"However..."
"You saw me fighting earlier, right? Don't worry—I'm not about to be beaten by random riffraff undead. Besides, I'll be fighting near the barrier, so if things get dangerous, I'll retreat on my own."
Lee Ji-yeon grinned, thumping her shoulder with her fist.
The words painted her as willingly stepping into danger, but her steadfast presence made it clear her confidence was no idle boast.
* * *
Outside the barrier.
The land stretching south remained a poison-saturated hellscape.
It wasn't a pleasant sight for Lee Ji-yeon, but the undead truly could neither properly approach nor even manifest there.
'Hmph...'
Still, it wasn't enough to block all of them.
While it was drastically reducing their numbers and defending the forest, plenty of undead still slipped through, targeting spots the poison hadn't reached.
- Kwaaang!
- Kreeeeek...!
Lee Ji-yeon cut down the waists of the forces attempting to pass through the forest and head north.
Her earlier reassurance wasn't empty words.
While the undead included many 4th-Rank entities, the current Lee Ji-yeon was more than capable of overcoming them.
It was still a bit taxing, though.
Because even a Manifestor of Taesan still accumulated fatigue.
- Swiiish!
But she never found herself wounded.
The attacks lacked the power to pierce Golden Mountain Iron Wall, her Taesan Expansion Ability, to begin with.
And whenever they got close, magic rising from the ground blocked them.
Lee Ha-yul's magic protected her so thoroughly that not even her armor was scratched.
'Honestly, you don't need to block attacks like that.'
Lee Ji-yeon let out a short laugh as she watched an undead mid-swing with a blunt weapon get instantly bound by mana chains, then threw a punch.
The immobilized target burst apart gruesomely.
Like that, high-rank monsters were far easier to handle thanks to Lee Ha-yul's timely magical support.
As for the miscellaneous low-rank undead, she could sweep them away easily.
- Kuung!
A heavy presence shook the earth.
Lee Ji-yeon, who had just upheaved the ground to bury dozens of undead, let out a deep sigh.
When she turned her head, an undead with a massive frame that was palpable even at this distance came into view.
Not just its size—the presence sensed through her qi sense was overwhelming.
Lee Ji-yeon clicked her tongue.
'A 3rd-Rank Monster... undead? 3rd-Rank isn't the name of someone's pet dog...'
She'd been encountering 3rd-Rank Monsters far too often lately.
What was even more surprising was that facing a 3rd-Rank didn't really stir up fear.
'Take it out here and head back? Or use the barrier as cover for now...'
- Wooong...
"Ah."
Deep in thought, Lee Ji-yeon's eyes flew open.
Attribute powers hammered madly against her qi sense, which had been sharpened by the fierce combat.
When she turned to look behind her, five-attribute mana was streaming from the mist-shrouded forest.
Not merely attribute powers. Purer... the presence of spirits.
'It's connected.'
Color rose to Lee Ji-yeon's face.
He'd said he couldn't summon spirits because of spirit-body separation—a reason so absurd it wasn't even funny. Apparently, linking the gate had somehow enabled the summoning.
Meaning, outside support could arrive.
Just knowing that lifted a huge burden from her shoulders.
Also, whenever the jumbled transmissions occasionally connected, urgent reports had been coming in.
Thankfully, each corps and unit was responding well.
Thus, after a rough reorganization inside the chaotic territory, they had settled on a policy of slowly moving forces down to establish a front line overlapping with the Fairy District.
'Then shall I head back to the forest and regroup for now?'
Lee Ji-yeon flexed her wrist and pulled back. First, join up with those entering from outside, then methodically prepare the framework of the front line...
- Woooooong...!
'Huh?'
Lee Ji-yeon, who had been laying out plans, froze mid-step.
Behind her. A storm of attribute power pouring from the forest hammered against her qi sense.
Thick, highly pure mana.
It was well known that a spirit's attribute power was highly pure.
She also knew well from experience that Lee Ha-yul's spirits were particularly strong and pure.
But now was a little different.
- Woooooong...!
The attribute power surged with ferocious momentum. Incomprehensibly vast attribute power dyed the world.
A rainbow of colors filled the darkened world.
The undead, which had been surging like a tidal wave, halted abruptly to avoid the colors. Lee Ji-yeon, eyes wavering, slowly looked over her shoulder.
Fwoosh! One side of the fog enveloping the forest burst apart, and a hand wreathed in flames thrust out.
A condensed line of flame shot from those fingertips.
Blazing heat so intense it made even Lee Ji-yeon flinch for a moment struck a distant 4th-Rank Undead head-on.
- Kwaaaaaaang...!
A violent explosion erupted at the point of impact. Unable to withstand the shock, the undead went flying through the air. Lee Ji-yeon's hair whipped in the scorching gust.
- Kreeeeek...!
The badly scorched 4th-Rank Monster tumbled across the ground. Whoomph! The clinging flames tore at its wounds. A single blow had left it near death.
Blinking, Lee Ji-yeon turned her head.
"...Upper Spirit?"
It wasn't merely wreathed in flames.
From the toes floating in the air to the head. A sensual body was composed of pure flame.
An Upper Spirit that had taken human form. Following it, spirits poured through the mist in droves.
One, two, eight, thirty-two...
"Uh, uhh...?"
Lee Ji-yeon's mouth gradually fell open.
Fire Spirits, Water Spirits, Wind Spirits, Lightning Spirits, Earth Spirits...
Nearly every spirit within her sight had assumed human form.
An illusion.
That possibility was the first thing Lee Ji-yeon thought of.
And no wonder—Upper Spirits were classified separately, yet they were considered roughly comparable to 4th-Rank Monsters.
How could there possibly be that many rare Upper Spirits?
But that doubt was cut short by the attribute power radiating from the spirits.
[That one!]
Then it happened.
The Upper Fire Spirit that had charged out ahead of the rest furrowed its brow.
Its sharp features twisted, and it thrust a raised finger toward the 3rd-Rank Undead.
[Mess it up!]
[Crush it!]
[Die, undead!]
With those words as the starting signal, nearly a thousand Upper Spirits surged forward in a swarm.