Chapter 606: A Wildfire Starts from a Tiny Spark - 4
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 606: A Wildfire Starts from a Tiny Spark - 4
Priests they may have been, but they were still barbarians who drew power from an unsystematic and primitive faith. They were no match for the Witch of the Night, who had once plunged the jungle into terror. The invading priests were defeated by the illusions she created and fell into an eternal slumber.
All they had managed to steal from Walpurgis was a mere ten-odd minutes.
“I've wasted time at the busiest possible moment. Though I suppose that's precisely why they chose to attack now.”
There was no more time to waste. Even the 'cleanup' of getting rid of them was a waste. Walpurgis summoned a familiar. She intended to call another witch to clean up the bodies and resume monitoring the situation above.
Walpurgis tried to call upon her bats to check on the situation above.
“Hm?”
There was no response.
She had definitely left her bat familiars behind. Yet all of them had gone silent at once, as if by agreement. While Walpurgis was focused on the battle, her familiars had been neutralized.
Had they been killed, Walpurgis would have noticed. But whoever attacked them had stopped at simply neutralizing them.
“Was this a diversion? But these people aren't the type to take orders from anyone...”
With a look of dismay, Walpurgis hurried to move.
*
A beast sprinted through the dense jungle foliage. A predator hiding in the undergrowth leaped out with a roar. Nenyaphh dodged the sharp claws aimed at her head and swung her Holy Sword in return.
A flash of light erupted. A sacred pillar of light shot up like a reverse bolt of lightning. The afterglow bleached the green leaves white for a moment. A short while later, where the brilliant light had faded, a leopard stood as if its soul had fled its body, before turning tail and running away.
“Birth is a blessing that a couple gifts to the future. It is also the power they possess. With more people, more can be accomplished, and thus the birth of a single child is a joyous occasion for the entire tribe. Because one life is precious, the couple and the family must be protected all the more.”
Behind Nenyaphh, two giant snakes bared their sharp fangs. But without even a glance, Nenyaphh brandished her Holy Sword. Thousands of strands of light exploded, and the snakes recoiled.
“The power of birth is an equitable force, shared among all humans. Because of this power, rulers came to cherish every individual. For the sake of the nation, each person must be valued. Only then can more people—and thus, greater power—be gained.”
Light raged like a storm. Nenyaphh's Holy Sword was a blessing to the trees, but a disaster for the beasts. Creatures that used light for sensation rather than sustenance could not accept the overwhelming blessing bestowed by the Sky God.
Nenyaphh faced the Great Witch, who was watching from beyond the jungle, and spoke.
“But Muhu sought to monopolize that power of birth. She planned to drive out all humans and fill this land with the beastkin she so favored. To become the king of beastkin, managing birth and death. No, she sought to become a god.”
She knew. What Nenyaphh was saying was a train of thought the Great Witch herself had followed long ago.
“Such a nation could not prosper, nor should it be allowed to. For if it did, all humans in this land would henceforth be born from trees. They would be born from violating the spiritual fetuses trapped inside Meat Fruit, their bodies mature but their minds unborn... They would become children of sin!”
The Great Witch screamed breathlessly.
“I know! I know!”
As the creator of the Meat Fruit, the Great Witch had felt a sense of responsibility upon realizing her mother's brilliant and demonic idea. That was why she had sought help from both inside and out. She hadn't planned on a coup, but she had anticipated that it might come to that.
“So what are you trying to say?! That you had no choice? That I should just understand and let it go? That because you're right, I should swallow my pride and cooperate with you?!”
“That is correct.”
“What?”
To the Great Witch, Nenyaphh was her mother's killer and a traitor. And now she had the gall to shamelessly demand cooperation.
But Nenyaphh spoke with a brazen calm.
“The reason the Great Druid planted the Tree of Corruption and raised it as if it were the World Tree was to study humans at its peak. Up there, she is creating Human Fruit and devising a way to instill consciousness within them.”
Nevida was testing the witches' potions on humans made from Meat Fruit, searching for a way to awaken the King of Humans. The Human Fruit that had burned Manguo to the ground still remained in the Tree of Genesis. Nenyaphh pointed this out.
“If the Tree of Corruption grows to the point where it can even bloom the King of Humans, that world will come to pass.”
“That world?”
“A world where perfect humans are born from a tree.”
Even the Great Witch, blinded by hatred, flinched. She had realized what Nenyaphh was saying.
The crops that grow from the Tree of Corruption have no souls. They see nothing and hear nothing, growing as meat and dying as meat. It is the same for both plants and animals.
Even Muhu Agartha had to impregnate the humans inside the Meat Fruit to mass-produce beastkin. But what if that limitation were to disappear?
“The King of Humans has touched the realm of the Divine. If he is resurrected with his full power, the Tree of Corruption will render humanity meaningless... It will become an attack on the human species itself.”
The Great Witch pictured the scene in her mind. A world where no one is born from a mother's womb. A world where they are born from a tree, fully grown, and step onto this land.
It wasn't an impossible scenario. Tyrkanzyaka had just awakened as the Divine of Blood. If the King of Humans could also wield the power of the Divine, it would be possible for him to create humans like a Creator.
“So that's why you came to me this time.”
Nenyaphh nodded. The Great Witch let out a hollow laugh.
“You don't consider people's feelings at all. All you think about is what's right and what's wrong.”
“Right and wrong are what matter most.”
The Great Witch had once thought so, too. That was why she had reported her mother's plan to the respected druids. It was the childish act of a girl who believed she was doing the right thing.
The result was a kingdom reduced to ashes. It was a consequence too heavy for a child to bear, and so the Great Witch blamed the druids and hated them for it.
The Great Witch clenched her fists until they threatened to shatter.
“If it's such an important issue, then why didn't the King of Humans go with you? Why did he return to the Tree of Genesis of his own free will?”
“That is because the King of Humans is still a beast, and thus barbaric...”
“No. He knew. He knew that Nevida has no interest in any of that.”
The Great Witch knew what was right and wrong. Her sharp mind understood their argument.
But she would never follow their lead. She would rather follow anyone else.
“Nevida doesn't care about what you're saying. Her only interest is in one thing: recovering the king she lost long ago. She's willing to use the Meat Fruit to achieve that, isn't she?”
Whether that was right or wrong didn't really matter. Nevida was the Great Witch's teacher, and her desire to see her dead king again was a reason she could fully sympathize with.
Because of her past trauma related to the Meat Fruit, she couldn't help with the research, but she had no intention of interfering either. The Great Witch simply cheered Nevida on from a distance.
…Unlike the atrocities Muhu had committed, this was something she could support.
“But I suppose that doesn't matter much to you either. After all, you burned down the World Tree and killed my mother. That was something I never, ever wanted.”
“...Muhu was not one to yield to external pressure. She would have pushed forward with her plan, even if it meant bewitching the druids who came to her. The only way to stop her was to strike before we could be enthralled.”
Nenyaphh's words were sincere. The Great Witch, too, knew how insolent and arrogant her mother had been. For Agartha, who had inherited the mask and was loved by all, compromise was an incredibly difficult act.
But the knot of resentment in her heart twisted painfully. Her mother had been taken too soon, making it impossible to deny the what-ifs. The Great Witch spat out the words.
“We'll never know if that's true or not. You killed her before we could find out, didn't you?”
Shaking off the slight hesitation in her heart, the Great Witch bit all ten of her fingers at once. Blood energy surged from her fingertips. Pulsating branches of blood wrapped around the nearby trees, crushing them as they grew into a giant, crimson tree.
An ominous red tree, with blood flowing through it instead of sap. Large fruits formed on its branches, which pulsed as if alive. They were luscious fruits, like ripe pomegranates, looking as if they would fall at any moment and scatter their red pulp.
“Life in exchange for blood, blood as a sacrifice for life. I shall forge a ring of blood and tie the knot of beasts.”
But when the pulp split open and the flesh was revealed, what emerged were beasts with every blood vessel exposed. Born without fur or skin, covered in blood, the beasts howled in agony.
The Great Witch commanded beasts. Having received blood from the Progenitor, she could sacrifice her overflowing blood energy to bear countless Meat Fruit. In just thirty seconds, hundreds of newborn familiars were born and began to roam the land.
Watching the bloody beasts fill the area, Nenyaphh gripped her Holy Sword even tighter.
“...You have made your decision.”
“You're the ones who made a decision. I was just dragged into it.”
The Great Witch extended a hand, her eyes cold and sunken, and hundreds of frenzied familiars charged at Nenyaphh all at once.
*
And at that moment, in the opening created while the Great Witch, Blanca, and Walpurgis were away for their own reasons.
The druids had infiltrated the highest floor of the Tree of Genesis.
Walpurgis was watching the xylem, while Blanca and the House of Baskerville guarded the trunk. The Great Witch had been lured far away in her pursuit of Nenyaphh.
While everyone's attention was drawn below, the method the druids chose was to 'fall'.
The scattering leaves obscured everyone's vision, hiding the druids as they fell from the sky. Having flown high into the air on tamed owls, the druids succeeded in infiltrating the Floor of the Regime while all eyes were diverted.
Spreading feathered wings to land, the druids ran down the corridors of the Floor of the Regime. Witches, drawn by the clamor of footsteps, spotted them and shouted.
“Intruders!”
“Caw! Caw! Caw! Sound the alarm!”
A druid urgently looked at his comrade.
“Brother. Can you move the Tree of Corruption?”
“Impossible. This tree is the Great Druid's power itself. Our strength is not nearly enough.”
“Hngh. We're helpless, then.”
“Do not worry. We cannot control the tree itself, but the countless grasses and trees that have grown from it are still our friends!”
A druid shouted and fired a small seed from a slingshot. The seeds, embedded in various parts of the tree, absorbed the essence of the World Tree and grew rapidly into massive thickets. The witches, buried in the bushes, screamed.
“Above the violet, to the right of the chrysanthemum, below the mistletoe! There are familiars hiding there!”
“Deal with the familiars first. Do not kill them! If they sense something is wrong, all the witches will come!”
“I'll throw paralyzing powder!”
The druids, gathered under a common mission, worked in perfect sync. With precise coordination, they defeated the witches and neutralized the familiars, then advanced toward the King of Humans at full speed. They didn't know the path or the layout, but it didn't matter.
“A strange feeling. This is surely our first time reaching this place...”
“It is as if someone is lighting the path before us.”
“The remnants of the blessed Maidenhair Tree must be protecting us.”
Even at forks in the path, they chose the correct way without a moment's hesitation. Swept up in a strange sense of elation, the druids arrived at the room where the King of Humans slept.
“This is it...!”
Just as the druids, instinctively realizing this was their destination, were about to rush in.
“Oh. Have you come to see the King of Humans as well? If you've made it this far, I suppose you're qualified.”
A strange man blocked their path.
No, to say he blocked them was slightly incorrect. For the strange man, like the druids, was also approaching the King of Humans.
“Wait a moment. I am first. I have waited over twenty years for the day I would have a private audience with the King of Humans. And I arrived here before anyone else. I expect you to respect the queue.”
The strange man was nonchalant, even in the face of intruders. Even the relentless druids hesitated for a moment before him.
A sleek coat and a fine monocle, things rarely seen in the jungle. On the large cloak covering his entire body, tens of thousands of tiny gears meshed and turned. From within his clothes, the repetitive sound of something interlocking could be heard.
If there was one person who was most out of place in this jungle, it would be this strange man before them. It would be Maximilien.
“Who is this man?”
One druid recalled the information they had shared beforehand.
“Isn't he that strange man she mentioned? The sorcerer from beyond the plains. They say he manipulates gears.”
“He's an enemy. Let's take care of him!”
The druids instantly formed a formation. As the lead druid covered his skin in old bark and charged, dozens of seeds were scattered toward Maximilien from behind. The seeds, aimed more at his surroundings, exploded into growth the moment they touched the walls and floor.
Even as he was being engulfed in green, Maximilien remained composed.
“I am not particularly fond of grass and trees. They are functional, but they lack compatibility.”
Click. A sharp saw blade shot out from his chest. The furiously spinning blade instantly turned the thickets into sawdust.
Amidst the scattering leaves, Maximilien muttered to himself.
“The individual is complete as an individual. But its synergy with other individuals is, hmm, regrettably, not quite up to par. It is difficult for 1+1 to fully realize the value of 2. The more there are, the worse it gets.”
“Hup!”
The druid who had charged forward transformed both his arms into giant logs. It was a combat modification of the power of arborification; he rooted his feet to the ground to steady his body and shot out his log-like arms like a siege ram.
“But what of gears? The principle of the gear shines brighter the more they are gathered.”
Craaash. The logs struck Maximilien's body. The massive impact shook him, and the cloak he wore was thrown off.
And the body his cloak had been hiding was revealed. Centered around a large gear embedded in his torso were countless other gears, swarming over his entire body like a colony of ants.
“Th-that's...?”
“Is that truly a human body?!”
Facing the horrified druids, Maximilien continued to speak as if he had felt no impact at all.
“Even the Great Druid, who has reached the seat of the Divine, receives my help when making simple tools. Things like precise clocks or mechanisms that dispense a set amount. Furthermore, if you combine the two, they evolve into a device that dispenses a set amount at a set time. The Great Druid found it quite useful. Said it was a good tool for administering medicine to the King of Humans.”
The rolling gears interlocked with one another, forming a single structure. They transformed into a device that could fire a long stake in an instant, with furiously spinning gears suspended around a central channel.
A true siege ram. Having finished everything from design to assembly in less than three seconds, Maximilien demonstrated his newly created device.
“If my gears are established as the standard unit of measurement and fill the world, it will become a world where anyone can create any device they desire.”
KWWAAAAANG. An impact incomparable to the last one swept over the druids.