Chapter 220

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Translator: Ryuma

Chapter: 220

Chapter Title: The Red Moon's Trap

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The Demon Tree sensed the threat and sprouted new branches aimed at Leon, but his attack struck one step faster.

Leon's eyes flashed with a chilling glint, and in that instant, a massive scythe swung through the air, spreading death across the entire area.

Crackkkk! Craaaack!!

A sound like space itself freezing over echoed out as the tree began to blacken and wither in the blink of an eye.

The tree had withstood flames, but it couldn't ignore the power of Thanatos.

As its flesh rapidly dried up, the massive creature twisted its entire body, crying out in agony.

At the same time, the surrounding landscape began to shift randomly every single second.

A frozen tundra where flesh seemed to freeze solid. A barren wasteland devoid of anything. The crushing depths of the ocean where nothing was visible in horrifying darkness.

Extremes of environment so harsh that even enduring them was a challenge kept unfolding one after another.

What was astonishing was that these weren't illusions.

The space warped madly, but none of it had yet reached a level that could harm Leon.

No, it couldn't.

The Demon Tree couldn't create an environment harsher than what it itself could survive.

It couldn't manifest power on a scale that left it completely unaffected.

Moreover, a significant number of the tentacles connected to the Demon Tree had been severed and vanished.

It seemed to realize this belatedly, its grotesque face twisting even more hideously.

Of course, the Demon Tree hadn't just taken the hits without fighting back.

It sprouted branches blooming with iridescent flowers, beginning to unleash some unknown power.

And when a blue flower finally bloomed on one of its branches...

An ultra-low temperature ice barrier had already enveloped Leon's surroundings.

Boooom!!!! Craaaackkk!!

The landscape reverted to a lava field only to freeze solid in an instant, producing massive clouds of steam.

The enormous pressure and volume of steam slowly dissipated.

What lay before Leon's eyes was a sea of completely cooled lava.

This had happened the moment the blue flower bloomed.

As the ice barrier around Leon gradually faded, the Demon Tree let out a monstrous screech and indiscriminately bloomed its remaining flowers.

Red. Yellow. Sky blue. Pink.

Like solving a pattern puzzle, the changes began in sequence.

Each flower forcibly triggered some phenomenon upon blooming.

Each one condensed tremendous power, so a delayed response would be fatal...

But in the end, none of the creature's deadly attacks landed significant damage on Leon.

-Keee... Kiiiieek...

Blooming the flowers unleashed immense power, but it placed a heavy burden on the Demon Tree itself.

Unfortunately for it, unlike Leon—who could use various abilities to fully neutralize them—the Demon Tree couldn't escape unscathed.

"I'm not sure if you're the same individual, but I always regretted not finishing one off completely before."

The Demon Tree was slowly recovering but needed more time, so it couldn't fully block Leon's approach.

"Why?"

The faces sprouting from the Demon Tree all flushed with bewilderment at Leon's icy smile.

It hastily sprouted branches, but ice spears blooming around Leon froze them solid in an instant.

"Getting frozen right when you're vulnerable to cold? That's no joke."

-Kii... Kaaaaak!!!

"You guys always have that habit."

Not mere ice, but cold amplified by the Word of Freezing pierced mercilessly into it.

Urgency flickered across the Demon Tree's hollow black faces, but it was already too late.

A massive black figure of the Grim Reaper materialized behind Leon, swinging its scythe to cleave the creature's form in two.

At the same time, pitch-black currents laced with cold dyed its flesh with death.

The authority of death, Thanatos, was something I'd never properly used in Labyrinthos before.

I'd only ever employed this phenomenon I named Thanatos to forcibly grow my circles.

It could serve as a bargaining chip, but that was it. I'd never pushed it further.

So I was a bit surprised that even the Demon Tree succumbed to Thanatos's authority.

If I'd known I had such a powerful ability, my time struggling in Labyrinthos would've been shorter.

It desperately resisted death, but as I silently gazed down at the slowly dying Demon Tree, the grotesque faces on its surface vanished and reappeared repeatedly, unleashing tormented screams.

Splitting its body in half wouldn't kill it.

To truly fell a Demon Tree, you had to smash the core hidden in one of the roots it drove into the ground.

But Thanatos's authority burrowed through its body into the roots, gnawing at the origin itself.

Soon, even the power sustaining this space would fade, reverting it to its original form.

At least, that's the optimistic view. But some eerie sensation held me back.

"Too easy? This can't be right."

The World Tree was locked in a power struggle with the Demon Tree, which couldn't even block the eyeball slime monster's ray breath. So yeah, this thing was similarly handicapped, unable to unleash its full strength.

But...

Even so, it was too easy.

No, from the start...

"Not all the connections are severed yet."

Purple tentacles still lingered, linked to its flesh.

Those purple tentacles resisted Thanatos's authority as if it were only natural.

This thing dead? Better believe what you see.

As if confirming my suspicions, the completely dead Demon Tree began to twitch.

At the same moment, the Scribe's letters floated up before my eyes, gleaming in a sinister hue chaotically.

This voice. This wretched eeriness.

I've heard it before, haven't I?

ZZZzt... Zzzt!!!

Like it was being corrupted, the Scribe's letters flickered repeatedly between their normal form and something grotesque.

I couldn't make sense of it, but one thing was clear. Like before, the Red Moon wielded some colossal power capable of suppressing even the Scribe.

Thinking about it, maybe it was obvious.

Labyrinthos was a wasteland, and the sky always hung with that red moon.

The red moon there was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eerie, but lacked this vivid intensity.

Perhaps...

Labyrinthos wasn't a place to cultivate power against that entity.

The distorted letters kept spawning like tangled, glitching computer code.

And then, dripping blood-red liquid, it began to emerge.

"Now you're even corrupting the Scribe?"

The letters wouldn't scatter no matter how I waved them away.

But I plunged my hand straight into the wreckage of the destroyed Demon Tree.

"That's not for you to decide, you fucking bastard."

Krunch!!!

The Life Force Vessel that made killing Demon Trees so excruciatingly difficult.

I distinctly felt the repulsive power overflowing around us weaken as its core shattered.

But it didn't vanish.

The power that had been strong enough to corrupt the Scribe had merely weakened. Outside the branch cage imprisoning me, tentacle masses that seemed to belong to it pulsed like heartbeats.

House Romila's family head had severed many tentacles since I'd entered to fight the Demon Tree, but their numbers were vast and their resistance fierce—his body was covered in wounds.

I couldn't be certain, but one thing was clear.

It wasn't over yet. Its scheme was only just beginning.

I slashed fiercely at the tree branches encasing the area.

But an intangible barrier didn't even scratch.

Look at this. Infused with Mind Master-level power, and it doesn't even dent?

Doesn't it feel just like a prison?

The thought made me shudder.

This situation was the World Tree being corrupted from the start.

But was that truly just the goal of a single Demon Tree?

No way.

"It's a trap."

This space was made to trap me from the beginning.

To the Red Moon, the Demon Tree was just a disposable pawn.

"Avatar?"

Undead signals were pouring in nonstop from outside the cave—the direction of the elves' city.

Signs of something utterly massive, completely different from before.

For now, the undead could hold them off, but this was a true time attack now.

I still didn't know much about that Red Moon.

But a few things were certain.

It was connected to me, and for some reason, it acted like it knew all about me.

And...

Right now, its goal—like the Demon Tree's—was to fully devour the World Tree.

It could've just corrupted the World Tree without trapping me, but it chose this method...

Which means it judged that I could interfere enough to threaten its plans.

By trying to hide its weakness, it ended up exposing it instead.

"Young man! Did you take care of that monster?!"

"The Demon Tree is dealt with, for now."

"Then... what about the World Tree...?"

"No. After dealing with the Demon Tree, something even bigger was hiding underneath."

"What?! What the hell is it?!"

"No idea. But the World Tree is still in danger, that's clear."

"Then hurry back and..."

I shook my head, cutting off his words.

"Can't get out right now. This thing's locked tighter than I thought. Looks like its goal was to trap me here from the start."

Space transition didn't work inside this branch prison.

And trying to smash it directly? That grotesque power from the Red Moon pushed back like it was arm-wrestling me.

"Why..."

His eyes trembled.

"Who knows. Probably couldn't guarantee victory with me around while it carried out its plans."