Chapter 583: Beasts are Born from the World Tree
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 583: Beasts are Born from the World Tree
They say every grave has a story, and the Great Witch's was certainly a tragic one. A moment of kindness returned as poison, leading her to burn down the World Tree. It was enough to break anyone.
“So that’s what happened.”
‘A druid burning the World Tree… I never had the chance to consider the Great Witch's circumstances…’
The Regressor nodded as well, mulling over the Great Witch’s words.
“Everyone has their own background, their own story.”
“…I know. But that doesn’t mean I can accept what the Great Witch is doing, not like you. If her only goal was to burn the World Tree, she could just let it die on its own.”
“You’d be fine with the World Tree collapsing?”
“Why not? The death of the World Tree is better than the end of the world. We can live without one tree.”
To say it was fine for the World Tree to die… I wasn’t sure whether to call that simple or radical.
“But the Great Witch won’t stop there. She’ll definitely do something worse. We have to stop her from trying to bring down the World Tree.”
“How? When you’re helplessly captured like this.”
“Ugh…”
Realizing her own predicament, the Regressor tried to move her arms. They remained still, and the mere attempt sent a wave of terrible pain through her.
“It’s difficult for me to do anything… but this might be our chance. This is the Tree of Corruption. The king of dead trees that bears the Fruit of Sin. The clue must be here.”
“What clue?”
“The Rider of Pestilence and the Green Death. The Great Witch must have created them here.”
“What are those? Talk about something I actually know.”
The Rider of Pestilence? The Green Death? I’d never heard of either. How could you be the only one who knows about them if they were historical events?
“A terrible plague swept through the Empire. It was a disease that caused people’s skin to rot black, oozing pus and a foul stench as they died. It had a 20% survival rate, and even those who recovered suffered severe aftereffects. It spread so fast that it was named the Rider of Pestilence.”
Huh? She’s telling me this? And a plague? Surprised, I asked.
“Was that the plague the Great Witch created?”
“No.”
“What?”
“The Great Witch didn’t create that plague. Well, she did spread it in a few villages and incited fear, so she was the cause of the disaster, but… that plague was just particularly frightening and horrible. The Rider of Pestilence was a common plague.”
Calling it a common plague sounded strange, but it was true that all sorts of plagues circulated in the jungles of Manguo. It just wasn't noticeable because the population density was so low. If a Manguo flu were to spread through the heart of the Empire, that would be a plague.
“The Great Witch created the other one.”
“The Green Death?”
“Yes. A disease that kills not people, but plants and insects. The moment they’re infected, they begin to rot from the inside out. It’s the end for all plant life, a death that is absolute and inevitable.”
A disease to kill the World Tree. Her objective was clear. No one else would have a grudge against trees, so the Great Witch had to be the one to create a disease that killed plants.
“When people finally realized that insects were spreading the plague, they overused the Green Death to exterminate them, not knowing it was a poison itself.”
There was no point in Walpurgis or the Great Witch keeping their secrets. Their plan had already come to fruition, only to become a non-existent future through the Regressor's regression.
“Is that… your foresight, Shei-ssi?”
“Let’s just say it is. I’m tired of making excuses.”
“I guess you really have to strip people down to see what’s underneath.”
“Wh-what do you mean, strip down?”
“Your mask, I mean. Your mask.”
I was glad the Regressor said it first. I had a rough idea after reading Walpurgis’s thoughts, but it’s really hard to pretend you don’t know.
“Even if it’s pretty much confirmed that you’re the Saintess, Shei-ssi, what if someone hears you talking like this?”
“This isn’t the room we were in before, and the Great Witch just left. This is the only time we won’t be watched. If they’re still monitoring us even now… then there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“Not bad. Well done.”
“I don’t feel happy at all getting praised by you, you know.”
“You’re finally starting to use your head a little. You’ve improved a lot. Keep up the good work.”
“That wasn’t an invitation to insult me!”
What does she want from me? She’s impossible. I sighed and summarized what the Regressor had said.
“So, to sum it up, there’s a clue somewhere in this tree about the things you mentioned.”
The Regressor spoke with grim determination.
“Yes. We have to find it.”
“…”
“What?”
What do you mean, what? You can’t even move on your own, which means I have to do everything for you.
“Sigh. Fine. I’ll play along. Where do you want to go?”
“Let’s start by looking over the entire tree. We don’t know where anything is.”
“The entire tree? Are you serious?”
“Yes. I’m serious. Is there a problem?”
“…No. Let’s go.”
She’d find out what the problem was soon enough.
The World Tree. The largest tree in the world, standing 870 meters tall, not including its roots. Its base, needed to support its immense size, was less like a trunk and more like a small mountain, and its deep, sprawling roots held a 10-kilometer radius firmly in their grasp. It drank from a pair of flowing rivers and covered the world with its leaves.
In the domain of the World Tree, there were no earthquakes, no floods, no forest fires. It held the crumbling earth together, drank the overflowing waters, and extinguished most flames with a single breath.
“…How do we get down?”
Which was why the Regressor’s statement was the height of arrogance. Having lost Chun-aeng and Jizan, and with both arms useless, the Regressor would die if she slipped even a little. Flying through the sky on the wind was a thing of the past.
“Going down is easier than going up, so let’s start from the top and slowly work our way down.”
“What about when we need to go back up?”
“Nevida will probably lift us up. If not, we’ll just walk out.”
“…Right. Nothing wrong with that. Let’s go.”
The Tree of Genesis had small mushroom platforms growing along its trunk for people to traverse. The Regressor swung her immobile arms and stood up from the wheelchair.
“You’re going to walk when you can’t even move your arms?”
“Why? You think I’ll fall off the tree just because my arms don’t work?”
“Yes.”
Just then, a gust of wind swept past. The Regressor’s body tilted and slid past the edge of the mushroom platform. Just as I expected. I caught her before she could fall.
“Whoa, ah!”
“See? It’s not going to work.”
As the saying goes, a tall tree catches the wind. The Tree of Genesis, a successor to the World Tree, was practically wreathed in a storm. We were nearly a kilometer above the ground. The torrent of wind that broke and swirled past the lone, jutting branches was not something a person with two paralyzed arms could withstand.
“Ugh, wait a second. I can use the Earth Kata to keep my balance.”
“The Tree of Genesis has inherited the World Tree’s nature. Its trunk and leaves are filled with vital essence. Even you at your peak would have trouble extending your Qi through the World Tree’s essence.”
“What about you?”
“Well, I can use the power of the Divine.”
I subtly lifted my foot. At my feet, clinging burrs had sprouted, gripping my shoes to keep them from slipping. The Tree of Genesis was the Divine itself. It was very cooperative with the Divine power I wielded.
The Regressor’s face lit up.
“Oh? Then do that for my feet, too.”
“What? You want me to read every one of your unconscious steps and grow grass to match your stride? All while paying attention to my own footing?”
“But there’s no other way, is there? It’s not like we can fly.”
“Sigh.”
“Huh?”
Letting out a short sigh, I lifted the Regressor straight up. I couldn’t give her a piggyback ride since her arms were bound in front of her to keep them from moving. I couldn’t risk her newly attached arms being crushed or dislocated, so I had no choice but to lift her with both hands like a sack of luggage.
I couldn’t push the wheelchair, and I couldn’t let her fall. This was the only way. The Regressor seemed to accept the logic of it and didn’t say anything.
“Uh, um, oh.”
“Ugh, she’s heavy. It would’ve been easier if her arms were still detached.”
“…What are you talking about! I’m plenty light as it is!”
The Regressor shot me a sullen glare. Still, since she couldn’t move her arms, she stayed still, which made her a bit easier to carry. Leaning against the trunk of the World Tree, I started walking down the mushroom steps.
“The Tree of Genesis has a structure of countless side branches extending from the main trunk that leads to the Human Regime’s floor. Even if we had all the time in the world, it would take over a year to visit every single one of those branches.”
“We won’t need to. For now, let’s just get a rough idea of what’s where from a distance, then head to the places that look important. I’ll use my Seven Colored Eyes.”
The Regressor’s eyes turned violet. One of the Seven Colored Eyes, the violet eyes of farsight. She scanned the countless branches stretching into the distance. Turning only her head, she stared at a fruit on a faraway branch.
“There are meat fruits hanging from the nearest branch.”
“Meat fruits? Can you see what kind of meat?”
“It’s hard to see… Turn me a little.”
“You can see from this position.”
“My field of vision narrows when I’m looking far away. Hurry up.”
“She’s ordering me around just because she’s not the one moving.”
Grumbling, I adjusted my direction. After staring at the branch for about ten seconds, the Regressor spotted the shadow of a beast inside the fruit.
“It’s a monkey. From the closest branch to the farthest. The details are different, but they all have the form of a monkey.”
“Are they all meat fruits?”
“Yes. It seems everything that grows from that branch is a meat fruit. This branch seems to grow monkeys.”
“Then what about that one over there?”
I tilted the Regressor toward a branch visible slightly below the one with the monkeys. She complained about the sudden shift in her view.
“Don’t turn so fast. It makes me dizzy when my vision shifts quickly with the violet eyes active.”
“Are you going to open and close your eyes every time? Just close them for a second when I turn.”
“You could at least warn me before you turn!”
After another grumble, the Regressor looked at a branch where relatively small fruits were clustered like grapes and spoke.
“Rats and rabbits. There are a huge number of them. And just as many different types of rats. They’re hanging between the leaves.”
“None of them are moving, right?”
“No. But it wouldn’t be strange if they woke up right now. It looks like the forms in the Tree of Genesis are already complete.”
“Rats and rabbits… I guess they’re not for eating.”
“You never know. She might have found a delicious rabbit.”
And that was just the closest branch. Below it, on the far more numerous, splintered branches, hung fruits of every imaginable size. Some were so small they were hard to see even with the violet eyes, while others were large enough to make the World Tree’s branches sag.
Even after walking down for a long time, all we saw were countless branches laden with meat fruits.
“It seems like all of them are beasts, right?”
“I think so. They’re all beasts. The ones I see now are cows.”
“Since we’ve made it to the cows, should we take a short break?”
“We haven’t come down that far.”
“I’ve been carrying you all the way down here. My arms are going to fall off at this rate.”
“Ah, right.”
The Regressor immediately agreed when I mentioned I was carrying her. She was much more agreeable now. Maybe because she was weakened?
I readjusted my grip on her and said.
“Hold on tight. I’m going to jump straight to where the cow fruits are.”
“Jump? How?”
“Like this.”
I briefly supported the Regressor with one hand and drew a card with the other. The Nine of Spades, the Tree of Genesis. The Tree of Genesis, the culmination of Nevida’s power and knowledge, reacted to my Divine power. When I slapped the trunk of the World Tree with my card-holding palm, a long, tough vine shot out from under the bark.
A skilled magician can tie a rope with one hand. After securely tying the vine around myself and the Regressor, I nodded with confidence.
“Alright. It’s sturdy.”
“…What’s so alright about this? We could fall any second.”
‘Well, even if we fall, Hughes should be able to handle it.’
Huh? No, having that much faith in me is a little stressful. I can handle myself, but I can’t handle a fall while also saving someone with paralyzed arms.
Feeling a little anxious, I wrapped the vine around the Regressor’s body one more time and leaped off the mushroom platform.
I was confident in this kind of technique, and the Regressor, despite her current physical limitations, had been through plenty of dangerous situations. We drew a smooth parabola through the air, heading straight for the branch where the cow fruits grew. I landed, running along the relatively flat branch, and set the Regressor down with a deep exhale.
“Gah! My arms, my arms feel like they're going to fall off.”
“What? I wasn’t that heavy.”
“A beast's forelimbs aren't designed to carry heavy things. Why don't you try it?”
“I will, once my arms are healed.”
“Ugh, my muscles are aching. I don’t even have the strength to massage my own arms.”
“I’ll massage them for you, too, once my arms are healed.”
“Thanks a bunch… Oh, they’re all better now.”
The power of the Divine. So convenient.
Since we were taking a break, I used the Tree of Genesis to summon some furniture made of plants. A bamboo pipe spouting clear water rose up, and a wooden chair and table appeared. The Regressor naturally sat down in the chair.
“I’m a little hungry, so I’ll go get a cow. No, I guess ‘pick’ would be the right word here.”
I headed toward a large cow fruit nearby. Unlike before, the fruit containing a whole cow was so large and heavy that it rested heavily in a large, nest-like petal. I approached it, ready to use a card to pick the cow fruit.
Just then, inside the fruit, a human silhouette stirred alongside the cow.