Chapter 145
Chapter 145
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 145
Chapter Title: Phase 2
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[ "Persia of the Funeral March" temporarily acquires the trait 【Physical Nullification】. ]
"Wow."
I was so dumbfounded that no words came out.
All I could manage was a simple "wow."
For a moment, I wondered if I'd seen something wrong.
But even after rubbing my eyes and looking again... the message was the same.
"...What fragment?"
Fragment of Greed.
A piece of it... had dwelled in Persia, a mere field boss.
"Ha...."
Persia's phase 2 was straightforward.
It recovered all damage taken so far, spawned sapling beasts like mad, and overwhelmed with sheer numbers.
A notoriously tricky and time-consuming pattern.
But...
"Okay."
The Persia in my sight right now wasn't spawning any sapling beasts. Instead, the Fragment of Greed slumbering within had reacted.
As a result of copying Klaus's unique trait 【Adaptive Protagonist】...
It had acquired the utterly broken trait 【Physical Nullification】.
"Let's run."
I reached the conclusion in an instant.
Not just physical resistance or halving—it was nullification.
Even 【Void Dragon】 couldn't pierce it.
Fight back with magic?
Don't make me laugh.
Mana-based magic would be the first thing dismantled by the elf Persia.
"Adel—"
"Yeah."
Klaus, flung far away, dragged his legs toward me.
Blood dripped from his body, but he never let go of his sword.
"What do we do?"
What do we do?
He must have thought we'd hold a strategy meeting in a situation like this...
"We run."
"...Huh?"
It was obvious, but Klaus looked like he didn't get it.
He must have really planned to fight until he passed out.
So I felt the need for proof faster than words.
"Watch."
I picked up a pebble rolling on the ground.
Drew my arm back... and hurled it at Persia with all my might.
Whoosh!
The pebble veered toward Persia's shoulder, passing through like wind.
No resistance at all.
"Oh...."
Only then did reality dawn on Klaus's face.
Klaus sheathed his sword and said,
"Let's run."
He could have thought to hold out till the end, but right now, he was thinking exactly like me.
There was no answer to that thing.
No... it wasn't something you could even find an answer for in the first place.
─────!!
As if the strategy meeting was over.
Persia, who had been standing still, began to move.
Thud.
Klaus's hand landed on my shoulder.
I turned my head slightly...
"See you alive."
Klaus gave a thumbs-up with one hand and vanished.
...Even his protagonist-style escape was incredibly fast.
"......"
I moved right away too.
Activating 【Silent Strider】, silencing sound, erasing all traces, I began backing away.
Silently.
Just as I was about to melt into the forest completely.
────!!
Persia's body twisted.
Her neck turned at an unnatural angle, red eyes scanning the air...
About a second later.
The moment that maniac realized I was gone, it started twisting surrounding trees and vines, smashing everything.
As if it would destroy everything in sight if it couldn't see me.
"...Crazy."
I ultimately released 【Silent Strider】.
No choice but to dodge raw, direct attacks aimed solely at me with my whole body while fleeing, instead of area-wide destruction.
"Shit."
Curses spilled out naturally.
The crazy thing ignored Klaus and targeted me obsessively.
With my low stamina, getting caught was only a matter of time.
...And the most horrifying part was something else.
【Adaptive Protagonist】.
The more I fought Persia with that trait, the more it would adapt to my attack patterns and keep growing.
Fighting was suicide.
"Ah."
Suddenly, I realized the roaring sounds from behind had stopped, and I halted my struggling legs.
Looking back... Persia was gone.
Had the aggro dropped?
Finally, a moment to catch my breath.
- Kyak!
"...?"
A sapling beast appeared from somewhere, leaping straight at me.
I drew 【Void Dragon】 and pierced its tough hide.
Thud.
The sapling beast lost strength, collapsed to the ground, and crumbled into ash pathetically.
And...
I felt a sense of wrongness.
"...Wait."
Persia's aggro had dropped...
So why were the saplings still charging at me?
And before that thought even finished—
──────?
"......!!"
A shadow rose behind my back.
Whoosh!
I immediately wrapped myself in mana threads and flew backward.
But...
Thwack──!!
A vine surging with Persia slammed into my body.
Thanks to that, I crashed into a distant tree and vomited blood.
"......"
Drip.
Warm blood trickled through the gaps in my mask.
I wiped my chin and muttered.
"Am I an idiot......"
It was to myself.
Why was I denying reality so hard?
This wasn't a game.
No save to reload after death.
Reality had no such nonsense as aggro, patterns, or boss fights to begin with.
I'd been substituting my life so far with game rules, steadily diluting the reality before my eyes.
"......"
My vision spun.
Must have hit my head hard when I slammed into the tree.
────?
Death.
Had that word ever pierced my heart as realistically as now?
"Haa......"
My mind cooled coldly.
But reason kept demanding I get up.
Stab.
I barely jammed my dagger into the tree, using it as leverage to lift my trembling legs.
But...
Thud.
My body wouldn't obey.
- Kreek?!
Persia drawing ever closer.
And behind her, the sapling beasts shadowing like darkness.
My vision darkened.
[ ! ]
Consciousness faded gradually.
My will was being dragged into the distant darkness.
[ … … … ]
[ Accept. ]
The system popped up in the corner of my vision, and with that incomprehensible phrase—
I... finally let go of the thread of consciousness.
***
Whoosh—
A harsh wind blew.
—"That's... a demonic beast?"
A small breath from somewhere in the Great Forest seeped into Caden's ears.
—"That thing..."
Even at this moment, someone somewhere in the vast forest was building their own tale.
─"...It's an elf."
—"No."
─"......"
─"It's a demonic beast."
The wind faded, and the world fell silent for a moment.
And atop a thick branch of the World Tree.
In that spot untouched by even a breeze, Caden dangled his legs, gazing down at the Great Forest.
Then—
"Hey."
Flutter.
Veronica landed beside Caden.
"What's up, Veronica."
─"...It's an elf."
Veronica had gone to check the crimson demonic beast.
But what she saw wasn't a beast... but the remnant of one who once lived in this forest, beloved by it... a ghost turned monster.
An elf.
"Veronica."
And...
Caden gazed toward the forest nonchalantly and spoke.
"......"
─"It's a wind that's already passed."
"I can't understand it."
Veronica could never understand.
Not a shred of empathy stirred.
She couldn't read this guy's inner thoughts at all.
"Veronica."
"......"
─"It's a disaster precisely because it can't be understood."
The world always labels what it can't comprehend with the same name.
'Disaster.'
Inscrutable. Immeasurable. Near-immortal monsters.
It calls them that out of fear, because it can't understand.
"Do you know why life is beautiful?"
─"...No."
─"They say it's because it has a beginning and an end."
Contradiction.
All contradictions.
Veronica furrowed her brow.
"A guy like that... revives his own kin? In the form of a monster?"
"I don't understand it."
"......"
─"How can you call it beautiful when it's inscribed with the word 'death'?"
Caden gazed at the Great Forest for a moment, then turned to meet Veronica's eyes.
Veronica didn't avoid those eyes either.
Eyes holding the silent forest.
An impenetrable green.
Veronica stared into them steadily.
"It's fine, Veronica. They won't get hurt."
Veronica's face was shrouded in shadow.
No emotions readable.
─"...You."
"Oh, Veronica... are you worrying about me right now?"
"......"
Veronica said nothing.
Neither denial nor affirmation.
Caden raised the corner of his mouth and looked down at the Great Forest.
"As long as the World Tree watches them, they... he— will never die."
Whoosh—
Veronica spread her wings once more and vanished with the wind.
"......"
Left alone, Caden let out a short breath atop the World Tree's thick branch.
Placing his palm on the rough bark of the World Tree.
"World Tree."
Hundreds of years.
No, even longer, to a being that had never once answered, Caden posed his question again.
"What in the world do you see?"
Caden knew.
That no answer would come.
But... even so, he asked.
Believing that someday an answer would return.
"Why exactly..."
The day darkness fell upon the Great Forest.
The day all life was swallowed by shadows.
The moment that calamity tore through the forest.
"Why... did you spare only me?"
Why did the World Tree.
Out of countless lives, leave only Caden alive?
"......"
The World Tree remained silent.
As always.
As if the silence itself were the answer.
─────!!
But the next moment—
A torrent of air, as if cleaving the world, erupted from the World Tree.
A raging wind.
An overwhelming force that could erase existence on contact.
The winds of the entire Great Forest... surged in one direction—
Toward a single person.
"......"
Caden quietly closed his eyes, then slowly opened them again.
Gazing where the wind pointed, appreciating the score the World Tree played... he smiled faintly.
"...I'll wait."
Until the day the World Tree answers.
Until that day comes.
Caden... would read the story the world writes.
***
[ Attempting synchronization with the will 「■■ ■ ■■■■」 dwelling in the World Tree. ]
Twitch—
Adel's fallen finger moved ever so slightly.
And...
"Ha... I knew it would be like this."
Stab.
Veronica landed before Adel, stepping on the rough soil of the Great Forest.
She crouched in front of him, tapping the mask.
"Hello?"
Tap tap.
She poked his forehead with her finger.
Naturally, no response came.
"Dead?"
The dead don't speak... and he wasn't even dead.
Veronica spoke as if conversing with a corpse anyway.
─────?
Creak.
Persia's head, twisted at a broken angle like a snapped tree, turned toward Veronica.
And—
"......"
[ Synchronization with the will 「■■ ■ ■■■■」 dwelling in the World Tree successful. ]
Adel's limp body...
Slowly rose.
"What, you're ali—"
In that instant, a chill ran up Veronica's spine.
The one before her was definitely Adel.
But... not the Adel she knew.
─"...Hey."
Whoosh.
Adel... the 'will' dwelling in Adel reached out a hand.
Crackle──!!
The air tore open, a rift forming to somewhere far from the Great Forest.
"Who the hel—"
Veronica couldn't finish her words.
The will in Adel flicked her forehead with a single finger.
Whoosh.
A sensation of being sucked into the cosmos.
And so Veronica...
Vanished into the distance without uttering a proper word.
"......"
[ The will 「■■ ■ ■■■■」 dwelling in the World Tree requests解除 of 【Mask of Silence】. ]
[ 'System' rejects the request. ]
[ The will 「■■ ■ ■■■■」 dwelling in the World Tree requests解除 of 【Mask of Silence】 once more. ]
[ ……'System' accepts the request. ]
Click.
Adel's hand grasped the edge of the mask and pulled.
The moment 【Mask of Silence】 was removed—
─────?
The Great Forest fell into silence.
Persia's grotesquely bent neck froze completely.
The sapling beasts halted their charge, rigid.
No trace of the earlier madness or hostility.
"Ah."
[ 【Mana Suppression】 from mask removal disappears. ]
Crackle—
The moment dormant mana awoke in Adel's body.
His flesh couldn't contain the power, cracks forming.
Skin split, purple light leaking from the gaps.
─────!
For the first time since birth, Persia and the sapling beasts felt fear.
An emotion incomprehensible to beings born of malice.
"Phase 2."
An emotionless voice.
Adel... exhaled softly and uttered his final word.
"Begin."