The Power of Trust
Right after the quest notification window appeared—
KWA-AAAANG!
A massive shockwave rippled outward, shaking everything around us.
“……!”
From the center of the swamp, something vast began to coalesce. Murky, dark, and defiled demonic energy gathered from every direction in a tide that was unsettling just to watch.
Saaaaaaa.
Then, in moments, it took shape as a colossal tree.
Despite the dense woodland all around, this tree's black silhouette was unmistakably visible even to an ordinary person's eyes.
The Demon World Tree.
“Insane! It's the Magi!”
“Why here? This is just a swamp the hunters patrol!”
The hunters descended into panic.
“Wait—isn't that a Demon World Tree?”
“Everyone huddle up! Dump whatever corpses you're carrying and get over here, now!”
The hunters who grasped the situation began pulling as many people together as they could.
The Demon World Tree wasn't inherently powerful in itself. Something of that size could be handled alone by a decent mid-rank hero.
But that alone would never explain this kind of panic. The reason the Demon World Tree was so troublesome was that it generated a kind of domain around itself.
Saaaaa—.
The demonic energy thickened. The lizardmen's skin began turning black, and a sinister power seeped into the trees nearby.
“This is…….”
“It's the Demon World Tree's power. It generates a kind of domain centered on itself and corrupts the land.”
“……A domain? Isn't that something only Superior-ranks are supposed to have?”
Kim Ara's eyes went wide with alarm.
“Relax. It's not quite that.”
“Oh?”
“That thing is basically a tree-shaped monster fixated on creating its domain. The main body isn't all that strong. The real problem is the monsters inside its domain.”
“KREEEEAGH!”
A lizardman covered in jet-black scales shrieked and lunged at a hunter nearby.
“GYAAH! G-Get away from me!”
Bang bang bang!
Gunshots cracked through the air, sparks scattering off the lizardman's hide.
But its scales didn't show so much as a scratch.
“Good god—the bullets aren't even working on those things?!”
“All gunners fall back to the rear! Warriors, lock down the front!”
At someone's shout, the hunters began to move.
But hunters, by definition, were people who could never challenge the hero exams—people barely able to hunt down lower-grade monsters. Most of them were magic gunners.
They had a handful of warriors, but most lacked the firepower to actually kill a lizardman.
“Let's go, Ara.”
“Okay.”
I stepped forward with Kim Ara in tow. If we didn't move now, the casualties among these people would only spiral.
“You two, warriors? You look like students. Fall back, would you.”
As we advanced, a man carrying a shield as tall as an adult spoke up.
“We're fine. We're students at Korea Hero Academy.”
“R-Really? Then we're counting on you!”
When I flashed my Korea Hero Academy student ID, his face brightened and he cleared a path. Korea Hero Academy was where geniuses and prodigies from across the world gathered.
Some called it the School of Stars, there were simply that many extraordinary talents packed into one place.
Naturally, a single student from Korea Hero Academy far outclassed any hunter here.
“I'll support you. Ara, take the front.”
“Finally get to see the real thing, huh?”
Kim Ara said it with a slightly excited look on her face.
What I showed at school was my genuine ability, but some students clung to the belief that I was hiding my strength and secretly honing it through close combat.
Even I'll admit my early-days self was a bit on the weak side.
I gave a noncommittal nod and dropped back, raising Heukcheon.
What I would be using from here on was spellcraft. Heukcheon was a sword and a conduit for Yeokcheon all at once—capable of channeling power the way a mage's grimoire or staff would.
I wanted to conserve my strength, since I had no idea what might come crawling out next.
Yeongcheon.
“Yes, Master Seoha!”
Yeongcheon burst forth and planted herself in front of me.
Glowing talismans swirled around me as Yeongcheon wove her spellwork. My part was simple—pouring Yeokcheon into the weave.
PAHT!
The spell manifested, and a single talisman flowed into Kim Ara.
“This is…….”
“A spell that boosts acceleration and sensory perception. No need for a strength buff for you, after all.”
“…….”
Was it my imagination, or was she giving me a pointed stare?
“Telling a woman 'you don't need to be stronger' so roundaboutly is a bit cruel, don't you think?”
‘…….’
Kim Ara lifted the giant's blade.
It looked too crude to even call a sword. Its original size was two meters—and now, drinking in her Primordial Force, it began to grow.
“Hup.”
She took one long stride forward, and her entire aura shifted—taking on the shape of a presence that could cleave Mount Tai in two.
Strength to uproot mountains, spirit to overshadow the world.
“Krehk?”
“KREEEAGH!”
The lizardmen faltered. Paying them no mind, Kim Ara swung the greatsword—now swelled to fifteen meters.
KWAAAAAANG!
The lizardmen, who had shrugged off gunfire, could not withstand the giant's blade. As if crushed beneath something colossal, their bodies shattered into fragments, torn apart and scattered to the winds.
“W-Who is that? Who swings a ten-meter sword around like it weighs nothing?”
“What does it matter? She must be a new hero! The important thing is—right now, that woman's the only one here worth trusting!”
Hunters scattered across the swamp began converging on her.
“KUOOOOOOH!”
A roar steeped in ferocious demonic energy.
I shifted my gaze, and there it stood—a colossal lizardman. Roughly three meters tall, armed with sword and shield.
“The lizardman war-chief!”
“That thing's an upper-tier even among mid-ranks…….”
The hunters' morale crumbled.
Or rather, they looked to Kim Ara with something like hope in their eyes.
Shall we, then?
I quietly readied an offensive spell.
“Honestly, offensive spellcraft isn't the best choice for you, Master Seoha. Your dominion over Yeokcheon stands equal to—or above—the dominion the previous Heavenly Demon attained through transcendence.”
Zeeeeng.
The Yeokcheon I had poured in began to shrink. The moment it compressed into a sphere the size of a fingernail, a sharp pain lanced through my skull. I was taken aback.
It meant that I—who possessed dominion over Yeokcheon rivaling the previous Heavenly Demon—found handling spellcraft difficult enough to make my head throb.
“Which is why I devised something new.”
‘This is?’
“Yeokcheon compressed, and compressed, and compressed again. Truthfully, it barely deserves the name of spellcraft. In terms of cooking, it's simply the act of grilling good meat well.
“'Tis a technique that exists only thanks to my master's preposterous dominion over Yeokcheon. Compression raises power as honestly as anything in this world—yet most mages and spellcasters never learn this, and so never compress. Those who do manage it, two or three times at most. But by virtue of my master's dominion, this has been compressed more than ten times over.
“Truth be told, with dominion of this caliber, there are other means of attack entirely—but as Master Seoha is still mid-rank, this method transforms into a spellcraft of monstrous destructive power. A method possible for him and him alone.”
‘I see.’
I hurled it at the lizardman war-chief.
“Keh-heh.”
The war-chief sneered and batted it casually out of the air with his shield.
WUUUUUUUUM!
The sphere erupted, spewing out a violent shockwave.
KWAAAANG!
The blast radius was narrow. Only the war-chief had been caught in it.
But the power was anything but simple. The shockwave swallowed the war-chief whole without even leaving fragments of his body behind.
“……Oh.”
The force was more tastefully excessive than I'd expected, and I let out a quiet murmur of admiration before I could stop myself.
“You there! A-An incredible mage, aren't you!”
A hunter beside me came hurrying over.
“We may be useless at everything else, but holding the line is one thing we do well. Would it be all right if we guarded you from here on?”
“Yes, do that.”
Honestly, it would be faster and more efficient for me to move on my own than to rely on their protection. But with this hell-difficulty quest, I had no idea what might happen.
WUUM!
Once more, a huge ripple spread outward from the Demon World Tree.
“What the—?!”
“E-Everyone, get away from the trees!”
The hunters screamed in horror.
The dusky, blackened trees swelled grotesquely. Then, using their roots like legs, they began to move.
“Man-eating trees. Those are rather a nuisance.”
Because man-eating trees don't die easily unless you destroy their core. They're the plant kingdom's equivalent of zombies.
Yeongcheon.
“Yes!”
Yeongcheon wove a fresh spell. My task remained simple—infusing her work with Yeokcheon.
Dozens of black arrowheads took shape in the air.
Click.
I heard something switch on within my mental image, and the world began to shift. Through the Star God Eye, I observed the cores of the trees.
……What is that?
When I widened the Star God Eye's range, I saw something else. Something like a barrier, hovering near the Demon World Tree.
I stoked my eyes with Yeokcheon's energy, and the image sharpened further.
Men in black coats, wearing masks.
……Why are they here?
The Wings of Dark Flame. A villain organization—once active as an information network before the heroes smashed them to pieces and gutted their strength. Even in their weakened state, they were far beyond what I could handle right now. By rights, it should have been the Primordial Sacred Star's lot appearing here, but it seems the difficulty change had swapped them out.
Not good.
The Magongnyeo's words came back to me.
The Seven Evils had raised the bounty on my head, and others were now hunting me.
For now, I loosed the arrowheads, driving every one of them deep into the cores of the trees.
“I've marked them with spellcraft—everyone, aim your attacks at the marks!”
With that shouted behind me, I broke into a sprint.
“I can look after myself—worry about surviving on your own.”
Leaving that with the hunters, I rejoined Kim Ara.
“Ara. Let's end this fast.”
“Got it.”
Kim Ara didn't bother asking why. She simply took up her blade again in silence.
“Ignore the marks. Those were made for the hunters' sake, anyway.”
“Okay.”
“The plan is simple. We charge straight for the Demon World Tree, fast. Anything small that gets in the way, I'll block.”
I unfurled my recently acquired talent—the Shield of Spiritcraft. A translucent barrier materialized in front of Kim Ara.
“Just watch what's ahead of you, Ara. I'll cover you.”
“…….”
Somehow looking a little flushed, Kim Ara faced forward.
KREEEAK.
The trees loosed strange cries as they barred our path.
KWADUK!
Kim Ara obliterated every last one of them with her ten-meter greatsword. But several violet orbs rose in the wreckage, locking onto her.
Curses.
Every tree-shaped monster wielded curses to some degree—and curses steeped in darkness carried absurdly potent force.
“Ignore the curses!”
Swish.
I swung Heukcheon with focused intent and cleaved the curses apart.
Kim Ara shot me a brief, startled glance—then broke into a run.
KWADUK. KWADUK. KWADUK.
Like a bulldozer, we bulldozed everything in our path and ran in a straight line. Curses flying in from the sides were my problem to swat; everything else, Kim Ara shoved aside. A crude plan.
But if something can't be blocked, nothing is more effective than this.
“I've been thinking this since earlier—aren't we a really good match?”
“…….”
A flush crept up Kim Ara's cheeks as she nodded quietly.
I kicked aside a curse sailing in from beside me and shouted.
“One more push!”
“Okay.”
Kim Ara swung her greatsword in a great arc. Watching the trees shatter to splinters, I looked ahead. The Demon World Tree was radiating an ominous power.
And that power had, without question, grown stronger than before.
The Wings of Dark Flame must have pulled some scheme.
Then the Demon World Tree began raising a rampart. It dragged every man-eating tree in the vicinity toward itself, ring after ring—and the wall's thickness already soared past thirty meters.
“Good.”
“Hm?”
“Gathering itself up all nice like that, just so we can finish it in one blow.”
I turned to Kim Ara.
“Can you do it?”
Kim Ara stared at the Demon World Tree.
“You want me to cut it down?”
“Yep.”
That wall was thick. It would probably take one more of the spellcraft I'd just used to punch through.
Poor efficiency, though.
The drain on my mental stamina was worse than I'd like.
I looked at Kim Ara. She harbored some doubt about felling that thing.
She still didn't quite understand her own Primordial Force.
“I can do it. If I use Paraday, the Heaven-Sunder, then…….”
“Don't use Paraday. You can manage it with Primordial Force alone. Around thirty meters of blade length will be plenty.”
“……That's possible?”
“For you.”
Even Paewang couldn't do it, not at this point in time.
But Kim Ara's born bloodline was extraordinary in a very particular way. She was Paewang's daughter, and yet her blood ran thicker with that of his ancestor than with his own.
Primordial Force was something even Paewang couldn't properly wield.
Because he had blossomed the giant's bloodline without ever gaining the unique stat of Primordial Force.
With Starlight Mana, imagination was what mattered.
With her Primordial Force, it was belief.
Kim Ara closed her eyes quietly for a moment, then looked at me.
“There are too many enemies right now. So I need to conserve my strength too.”
And Paraday would be the ace to throw the enemy ranks into disarray.
“It might be hard to believe, but Ara—you're far more than you think you are…….”
Truthfully, even as I said it, I didn't believe she could manage it in one try. Primordial Force drew its power from belief in oneself. Which is another way of saying that without belief, drawing out great strength was difficult.
I didn't believe it would succeed on the first attempt. But it would plant the seed—the fuel for Kim Ara's growth in the days to come.
So the plan was to support her from the rear with Heukcheon, and…….
“I'll believe.”
Kim Ara said it as she gripped her sword hard.
“Seoha, you—”
Kim Ara seemed about to say something more, then shook her head.
“Because the you that I love, believes in me.”
“……Huh?”
Kim Ara drew a slow, quiet breath.
“I'll be right back.”
Leap.
KWAANG!!
The ground caved in as she launched herself forward. Then, in midair, she stamped down on a tree below with every ounce of strength she had.
KWAANG!!!
And one more leap. This time, Kim Ara cocked her greatsword back.
WUUM!
The giant's blade began to grow. A sword of barely a meter drank in Kim Ara's Primordial Force, swelling into a colossal greatsword stretching a full thirty meters.
Startled by that power, the figures within the barrier—mages, by the look of them—hastily raised defensive wards around the Demon World Tree.
Kim Ara,
paid them no mind.
She simply, purely, cut. Lee Seoha had believed in her. Foolishly enough, she thought, that alone was enough.
Pure, unclouded belief.
And her Primordial Force answered that belief.
Paraday Sin-gong — the Heaven-Shattering Divine Art.
Paraday Ilgeukcham — the Heaven-Sundering Ultimate Slash.
Swish—.
With the sound of something being torn apart, a colossal slash of force revealed itself—
and cleaved through everything fifty meters ahead.