Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Fall of the Mother Tree
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"Ah, O God."
The faithful bowed their heads in the descent of their god.
Even as monsters destroyed their civilization and their neighbors lay dying, they never ceased their worship of the divine. As if such trivial matters would be resolved by the god itself.
The countless branches clinging to the World Tree all pointed toward the sky at once, then slammed down toward the ground to seize the Treegalaon.
Due to their enormous bulk, the branches moved at a speed so slow it could almost induce yawns. But Treegalaon unluckily failed to escape that massive size and was crushed under the sheer mass, losing its life in an instant.
The specimen flying at high altitude was suddenly snagged by the World Tree's extending roots and soon smashed into the surface.
The Treegalaon that successfully evaded the attack clung to the World Tree and began gnawing away. But the vast difference in size meant it was little more than nibbling. Compared to the gigantic World Tree, the amount Treegalaon could consume posed no threat at all.
While tearing into the World Tree, if a branch came sweeping down, they couldn't even dodge and ended up squashed like mosquitoes.
"God is aiding us! Eradicate the monsters!"
"Waaaaah!!!"
We have to retreat. Treegalaon is far too disadvantaged against that World Tree.
I'd thought we'd easily conquer the planet after winning in space, but I never imagined they'd be raising such a monster down here.
The Remora and Hirak, which could be cheaply mass-produced, fought to buy time, while the Treegalaon accelerated to escape the planet.
Am I the fake monster here? It was utterly shocking to see the World Tree extend its branches all the way to the stratosphere to grab the retreating Treegalaon through the atmosphere and drag it back to the ground.
But since we'd severed the stalk connecting this planet to space, it wouldn't be able to emerge into orbit. For now, I'd leave it alone. As long as it couldn't reach space, it posed no immediate threat. I stationed a few surveillance units and resumed scouting the star system.
During that scouting, we encountered an enemy fleet—and pulverized it so effortlessly that it made me reflect on my momentary doubt in Treegalaon's power. It was almost not worth describing.
The other habitable planets were the same. World Trees of varying sizes had taken root, with long stalks serving as bridges linking the surface to space.
We severed the stalks while avoiding the World Trees themselves, preventing the knights from emerging into space.
The problem was the enemy capital. That's when we discovered Nualalkaima.
Nualalkaima, the mothership of the Bahilila Holy Knight Order, orbiting the F-type main-sequence star Alhamra.
There, we could confirm the main body of the World Tree.
The World Tree on Nualalkaima was a monster that extended its branches beyond the troposphere and stratosphere all the way into space—an existence defying explanation.
Could a planet even rotate properly with something like that hanging off it? Could the lifeforms living beneath it receive any light? Even with my rudimentary sci-fi knowledge, it raised countless questions.
No wonder its offspring were so sturdy. Mid-sized cruiser class? Of course they could produce something that size. At that scale, it wouldn't be strange if they built a Death Star on the planet and launched it into space.
This explained why the Bahilila race used such seemingly inefficient methods, connecting the surface to space with stalks to launch ships.
To them, this was commonplace. Planets naturally had plants capable of sending things from the surface to space.
I'd need heavy weaponry for the great World Tree. Treegalaon, a close-combat specialist, couldn't topple that thing. How could it even approach when massive branches lashed out the moment it got close?
This called for leveraging our control over the disaster zone. No matter how absurdly massive the World Tree, what could it do against a barrage of orbital bombardment from space?
I deployed Treegalaon to each planet to keep the World Trees pinned from emerging into space, gathered the accumulated organic matter, and returned to Lushaka.
As soon as I collected the organic materials, I began creating long-range monsters to strike enemy planets.
The legion's current monsters relied on the "children of the Mother" trees for their size.
If I had enough time for research, I could surely produce enlarged monsters without depending on trees. But at this early stage after absorbing these genes, I had no choice but to rely on them.
In other words, whatever form I made this time, it would inevitably resemble Treegalaon.
So why not just equip Treegalaon with ranged weapons?
I reduced Treegalaon's mobility and internal capacity somewhat and modified its oral structure. Since it wouldn't engage in close combat and would only fire from afar, there was no need for that massive maw—I removed it and mounted tree cannons instead.
The cannons utilized the knights' laser beams that gathered and fired Alhamra's light. They might not deal much damage to the World Tree main body, but long-range bombardment tech was limited, so this would have to do.
As secondary armament, I scaled up the acid used by Remora. It might not penetrate the small planetary World Trees, let alone the main body, but the lasers probably wouldn't either.
Once completed, the sleek, shark-like form was gone, replaced by something resembling an octopus head with cannons jutting out.
What should I call this? A slight tweak on the original—Treepalagon.
I sent the completed Treepalagon swarm, along with additional Treegalaon batches, to the planets with World Trees.
Let's conquer the weaker planets first, one by one.
The Treepalagon arriving in orbit of the first discovered World Tree planet began diligently bombarding it.
Sometimes the simplest, most brute-force method is the fastest, so I ordered nonstop bombardment until the World Tree died—no overthinking.
Missiles that ricocheted or missed turned the surface into a wasteland, but I didn't care. It wasn't my planet.
The bombardment continued day and night, relentlessly. When the planet rotated, they followed and poured it on.
After days of this, the surface lay in ruins, and the World Tree lost its vitality. Once I was certain it wouldn't resist, I sent down the troops to feast.
The massive World Tree, along with the ruined knight structures and giant plants used as buildings—all clustered near it—were easily devoured.
Once we consumed one World Tree, the rest became far easier.
We gained intel on World Tree structure, vast organic matter and genes from its enormous size. I equipped Treepalagon with even bigger cannons, mass-produced more, and unleashed barrages on the next World Tree.
Thus, planets fell one by one, until it was time for the capital. That's when the knights made diplomatic contact.
It was a long telepathic message conveying roughly that.
I pondered it deeply after receiving the envoy. If I were a typical imperial decision-maker, I'd have spared them 100%. No benefit in needless extermination.
Relations with neighboring states had to be considered, and remodeling planets from scratch for our race was costlier than exploiting cooperative natives.
No need to expend vast resources destroying that massive World Tree.
But the current hive had truths to hide.
The knights hadn't noticed yet, but they were a psionic species. They might sense the flow of our hive mind connecting all individuals.
Cooperation from natives wasn't needed either. I could just create and produce specimens suited to those planets. Rapid genetic modification and evolution made it a minor hurdle.
Besides, for the legion, eliminating World Trees wasn't consumption—it was production. Exaggerating slightly, a World Tree rivaling a small planet in size became pure organic matter. Even if it cost resources to destroy, the returns would be greater.
The only concern was the Deneb Federation, but once the war ended and I led the fleet there, they'd surely swallow any complaints. Their fleet strength was comparable to our legion before encountering the knights, but now the gap was embarrassingly wide.
Envoys aren't killed during war—but you killed ours first, didn't you?
I fired a laser at the envoy transmitting thoughts from the World Tree's branch.
At that moment, the fate of the Bahilila Holy Knight Order was sealed.
The World Tree was so resilient it refused to die, so while orbital bombarding, I restarted legion production.
With the increased organic matter, I created new gorillas and hippos for Earth, reactivated the logistics network, ramped up the labs, and resumed diplomacy with the Deneb Federation.
Finally, the World Tree fell, and Treegalaon descended to the planet, bringing back the head of the knight leader.