Chapter 88
Chapter 88
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 88
Chapter Title: Chapter 26: Time Attack
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The dryad smiled faintly, as if she had read my thoughts.
“The Lord was suffering from an illness of the heart.”
“Dejar, you mean?”
“Indeed. I could not stand idly by while he tried to kill you, the elves’ benefactor. That was why I revoked my blessing and bound him.”
“That tree root was you? Even so... That incredibly powerful guy couldn’t move an inch.”
If Dejar and the tree spirit went one-on-one, Dejar would win overwhelmingly. I knew better than anyone just how meager the dryad’s combat prowess was.
“He had received my blessing for thousands of years. Stronger than any other elf. The moment I revoked it, he became temporarily defenseless.”
“What exactly is that blessing?”
“I am the guardian deity of the Eternal Forest and the elves. Enhancing the abilities of elves within the forest is my destiny. That is the blessing.”
Really? I’d never heard a thing about that from either the elves or the dryads through all nine of my previous regressions.
The dryad gazed sadly toward the Lord’s castle and continued.
“An illness of the heart... Living too long brings that on. The Lord received a stronger blessing than other elves, allowing him to live far longer. In the end, it became a curse.”
“He definitely wasn’t normal. Killed all his own people without batting an eye. Ah, speaking of eyes...”
I pointed to my still-burning right eye.
“Do you know what this is? It popped out of Dejar’s eye and got absorbed into me.”
“That is the ‘Lord’s Eye’.”
The dryad peered into my eye with her deep brown gaze, as if piercing right through it.
“It is an ability that manifests in an elf lord after thousands of years of life. It allows one to see the essence of things. A forced inheritance, however... that’s something even I have never witnessed.”
“Forced inheritance?”
“The one who slays the Lord inherits the Lord’s Eye. That is forced inheritance.”
Aha.
So it was like the Appraisal Eye I’d gained after killing the lich lord before.
Of course, I hadn’t even known something like this existed until now. The real problem was that my mind had gone completely haywire because of it...
The essence of things.
Even just the dryad’s essence right in front of me was too much to handle.
The dryad I remembered was a curvaceous ancient tree over ten meters tall, shaped like a human woman.
But now, on top of that, I could see the tremendous flows of energy coursing through the interior of that ancient tree, in microscopic detail, like through a magnifying glass!
Ugh, dizzy.
The tree spirit spoke so softly and gently, yet she was hiding this immense passion deep inside.
In contrast, the elf prostrated nearby... parts of her flows appeared completely sluggish and stagnant.
The speeds of the flows were totally different, completely out of harmony, running wild on their own—pure imbalance. It was enough to make even that elegantly upturned, beautiful face look grotesque.
Perhaps when Dejar had looked in the mirror, he’d seen the same thing? Was that why he’d been frowning like that?
“What’s all this? Essence? Why is there so much, and why is it so complicated?”
“What Claude-nim is seeing right now is the flow of consciousness and nerves, as well as the flow of life and mana.”
“......What?”
“That is essence. It’s still difficult for you, isn’t it? You’ll come to understand it yourself soon enough without any explanation from me, so there’s no need to worry.”
“No, could you explain it anyway? It’s being forced on me, and my mind’s a total mess...”
“You’ll grow accustomed to that soon as well. As the elves’ benefactor, you will surely reach the realm of activating it freely in no time.”
“If that’s the case, then good...”
The sheer volume of information flooding into my head had exploded—I could barely keep a grip on it. At this rate, I wouldn’t even dream of casting high-grade spells for the foreseeable future.
“More importantly, you keep calling me the elves’ benefactor, but why? Bluntly put, over ten thousand elves died because of me.”
“I... witnessed that battle.”
The dryad neatly clasped her branch-like hands together.
“I did not wish to see it, but I had no choice. Those things pouring out from the darkness—horrific demons born of a dimension unlike this one. Had they been left alone, not only my elves but everything in this world would have been driven to ruin.”
Of course that would’ve happened. If I hadn’t stopped them.
“Thus, you are the benefactor of all the past elves who survived, the benefactor of the elves remaining here in the present, and finally, the benefactor of all the elves yet to come in the future.”
“The future?”
“They will surely cross into this land once more. In numbers greater than now, with even greater power.”
Spot on. That was the one future that would never change.
No, it was supposed to be...
The timing had shifted!
It should’ve been nine years from now, but it had shrunk to just one year!
“That is why you alone are our hope. Even if you had personally strangled every last corrupted elf back there, I would still say the following to you from this place.”
“What?”
“Please form a contract with me, Claude-nim.”
The dryad lowered her massive body deeply, bowing her head.
“I know you have already contracted with beings far greater than the likes of me. But I believe that you will ensure even this feeble power is never wasted. Thus, I beg you—please contract with me.”
Well now.
I’d sought out and contracted with countless spirits up until now, but this was the first time one had come to me asking for a contract.
“No test or anything before the contract?”
“How could I dare test the hope of the elves? Under normal circumstances, I would have given you missions such as expanding the forest’s domain or bringing elves from other regions to exchange with those of the Eternal Forest, but there is no need for that.”
That was a relief. Clearing those missions would’ve taken at least half a month to a full month.
“Alright. Let’s do the contract.”
“Thank you, Claude-nim. From this moment, I permit you to summon me here in the form of spirit magic, at your will.”
Shk!
In that instant, a translucent splinter of wood flew over and pierced the center of my forehead.
By the time I flinched and opened my eyes, the dryad before me had already reverted to an ordinary ancient tree.
“Whew...”
A sigh escaped me on its own. In any case, thanks to this, I’d cleared this race’s route.
The danger of the ‘Anti-Empire War’ that would’ve erupted down the line was now completely averted. I’d contracted with the elves’ guardian deity, after all.
That said, it wasn’t a situation I could simply rejoice over. I took a bite of the pink fruit clutched in my hand, closing my eyes as the peach scent spread through my mouth.
“......One year.”
What could I accomplish in the remaining year?
Could I truly stop the otherworld’s real wave with that?
* * *
“Demon spawn. Good riddance.”
One elf boy spat on the Lord’s corpse. Another elf who had been cleaning the Lord’s chamber with him cried out in shock.
“Lanir! What do you think you’re doing!”
“What do you think? Spitting on the corpse.”
“Even so, that’s the Lord!”
“It was that Lord who nearly brought doom upon us all. Isn’t that right? Ptui!”
The boy elf spat once more before starting to clean up the gouged-out floor. The other elf clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“You’re such a weirdo... You’re not even a guard—you’re just a guard hopeful. You’re not supposed to be in here by the rules. We’ve cleaned up enough—let’s get out.”
“I don’t plan on sticking around a dump like this for long either. So what about the Lord’s corpse?”
“Leave it be. The elders will come later to take care of it and cremate it.”
“I’d feel so much better if I burned it myself.”
“Look, stop blurting out your real feelings like that! Ugh, whatever. It’s cleaned up well enough—let’s go. What’re you waiting for, Lanir! Hurry up and get out!”
“Understood.”
The boy shot the Lord’s corpse a glare filled with the hatred one might reserve for their parents’ murderer, then turned away.
How much time passed after the cleaning crew had all left?
A shadow in one corner of the room rippled open, and a man wrapped head to toe in bandages revealed himself.
“......No!”
The man spotted Dejar’s corpse and immediately clung to it, shouting.
“This can’t be! Damn it! This was never supposed to happen!”
His identity was the newly appointed Sponsor No. 2, who had inherited the position. No. 2 seized Dejar’s head in both hands and bellowed.
“Why? Why are you dead? You could’ve won that fight—why! Aaaargh! That filthy Claude prince! This goddamn... I was too late! Just one step too late!”
Hatred, rage, emptiness.
Psykers wrapped in bandages were not easily swayed by such primal emotions.
But the current No. 2 could not suppress the emotions boiling up from within.
The sole supreme being atop Psyk—the Overseer.
He had botched the vital mission entrusted to him by that Overseer right from the outset.
“Claude...... You...... No, you bastard......”
It was a failure too catastrophic for words.
Had the preparation phase dragged on too long?
No, not really. He had merely delayed a few hours while taking over No. 1’s duties.
And yet, in precisely those few hours, Claude had flown straight here and severed Dejar’s lifeline.
“That...... Makes no sense. Right after such an intense battle? Without any rest or recovery?”
It was action beyond imagination.
That puny little body had resolved to duel an elf lord in that grueling moment? A mere human?
And how?
How on earth had he discerned that Dejar was backed by a sponsor?
According to the intel he had inherited, Dejar had lived in complete physical isolation from the outside world.
The only exposed information was that the elves had left the forest to invade imperial territory.
From just that, in that fleeting instant, he had grasped both Dejar’s and the sponsor’s existence?
What’s more, Claude had only just received the warning from No. 1.
One year from now, an invasion from the Psyk dimension on a scale incomparable to this one.
Anyone would despair, no?
Deny reality, succumb to agony, pray to their gods for salvation as if it were all a dream—wouldn’t that be the natural response?
And yet, in that very situation, without even a single second of rest, he had flown here to eliminate the hidden threat by taking out Dejar?
“Impossible. That can’t happen...... Beings with flesh and blood...... can’t manifest such...... indomitable...... indomitable will......”
If anything, No. 2 himself was the one desperate to deny reality. He jolted in sudden alarm and glanced at the dimensional potential gauge he had brought with him.
Just an hour ago, it had read 14 percent.
But now, the potential manifestation value had risen to 16 percent.
“No way.”
A full 2 percent increase.
This matched the dimensional potential drop that No. 1’s sponsor had triggered right after recruiting the elf lord in the past.
“And yet that potential has manifested again! Damn it all!”
No. 2 slammed his fist into the floor, unleashing his pent-up fury.
—I pray that the potential manifested before the invasion shrinks back to single digits.
The Overseer’s voice still rang fresh in his ears.
Forget single digits—it had risen even higher instead.
“A mistake. This is my mistake. Goddamn it...... Aaaargh!”
What made this failure all the more agonizing was that Dejar had been the most powerful entity in the Ald dimension capable of interference.
Thus, the prime ‘pawn’ for eliminating Claude was now gone.