123
123 ― Hatched
"If you wait, won't the Master surely set you free?"
The maid tied to the tree suddenly said that. Jin-woo, who had been earnestly searching for a way out, paused his exploration for a moment and looked at her.
"Just wait?"
"The Master must have some idea in mind. That idea will certainly not be in a direction that would harm you."
It wasn't something he couldn't believe, but it was still hard to believe. The Belkarim he had met wasn't such a considerate person who would take care of others so thoughtfully.
Considering that her purpose was to make Erosion settle within him... He probably wouldn't think of killing or annihilating him. However, the possibility that she might want to confine him and manipulate him as she pleased wasn't zero either.
"If there had been goodwill mixed in her purpose, she would have explained it beforehand."
"Couldn't it be that something so urgent happened that she didn't have time to explain?"
"Conveying a single word through you doesn't seem like something that would require a long time. Do you have any words you've heard?"
"......No."
The maid seemed at a loss for words and turned her head away. In her own way, she must have earnestly thought for her master's sake and tried to speak up.
But no matter how much she wrapped it up, the fact that he was imprisoned didn't change. Whatever the reason might be, he should first get out and then think about it.
At that moment, the presence increased. Someone who hadn't existed in this space appeared.
"Someone has entered."
"Pardon?"
Rather than being suspicious, the aura he felt was too familiar. Soon the other party also noticed this side and flew over in an instant. The World Tree, blooming green alone amidst the completely black-covered earth, was a conspicuous existence no matter how you looked at it.
"Jin-woo!"
"Kalesian."
Kalesian had come looking for him. Behind him was also a man gasping as he followed, and he too had a familiar face. The black mage Johan.
"You've managed to find this place well. Didn't you say that neither the castle nor the garden were visible?"
"Quite a big incident broke out, you see. The outside is in complete chaos right now."
It was information about the outside that he had been most thirsty for. Kalesian told him about how dozens of dragon swarms had attacked the snowy mountains, how they were destroying all of Belkarim's territory and even bringing down the castle that was being built.
How the barrier that repelled intruders was also broken due to that aftermath, allowing the castle and garden to become visible to him as well. How he became convinced that Jin-woo was trapped here after seeing the suspicious Erosion covering the garden, and so on.
"Magic doesn't work here, so proper detection wouldn't have been possible either......"
"Rather, that's exactly why I was convinced. Your existence wasn't detected in any other location, and only inside this Erosion was the one place I couldn't search."
The snowy mountains are now a battlefield, so no magical defenses that would block magic are in place. To be precise, all the prepared defenses had been destroyed by the invading dragons.
As a result, Kalesian was able to spread detection magic throughout the entire snowy mountain region, and he couldn't find Jin-woo in any area except this place.
That's why he was convinced he was here.
"Thank you for coming to rescue me. Companions are indeed necessary."
"Of course. Why else would Hunters enter gates with Feathers of Fate?"
Kalesian laughed heartily. During the Silvern incident, he hadn't been much help. It wasn't that he had done nothing, but Jin-woo had resolved most of it.
So this time, he seemed to be in a good mood to finally be able to play an active role. Even if he couldn't shed his skin, he was still a dragon, so he couldn't leave everything to a human.
"Alright, let's get out first and then see."
With still cheerful tone, Kalesian raised his head. And toward the Erosion covering the sky, he opened his mouth—
Kwaaaaaaaa!
He shot his breath. A spear of light made of vast magical power soared toward the sky. A mighty aura that seemed like it would shatter all the ceilings pressing down on them and reach even the heavens.
But no matter how powerful the force, it's meaningless if it doesn't reach.
"Huh?"
The soaring breath stopped there. The long beam of light was gradually halted from the front, and in the end became a small cluster of light shining at a single point. The single point shining within the black Erosion looked almost like a star.
"Th-this can't be......"
Kalesian turned his head in disbelief and shot out breaths several times. They too merely remained in Belkarim's night sky, becoming new stars. The mighty power wasn't released and couldn't shatter the sky, just concentrated there as is.
Jin-woo asked with a 'surely not' feeling.
"Didn't you set up a separate plan before entering?"
"I thought we could just break it from the inside......"
Jin-woo covered his face with his hand. The maid tied to the tree seemed to have difficulty holding back laughter as she turned her head and trembled. Johan, who had followed behind, cried out that he hadn't heard such a story.
"I seem to be trapped too."
Kalesian spoke in a flustered tone.
***
After that, Kalesian shot breaths here and there. At first glance, it might seem like he was trying to push through with brute force, but that wasn't the case. He was shooting at various places while checking how the Erosion reacted, analyzing it.
Jin-woo was similar. However, he didn't touch all sorts of places like Kalesian, but mainly examined the black earth extending from the World Tree.
The World Tree was the only tree within this black earth that hadn't lost its greenness. If he could understand how that was possible, he thought he might also learn how to break through this barrier.
"Johan? What are you doing over there?"
"Ah, ahaha. What am I doing? I'm investigating. Ah! That side also looks a bit suspicious, so I'll go check it out!"
When he happened to ask Johan, whom he encountered, he was startled and fled from his spot.
Johan kept saying he was investigating each time, while sneakily lurking around in places where he couldn't be seen before returning. Since there was nothing he could do, it seemed he was just being unnecessarily conscious.
Just because he's not visible doesn't mean his presence can be erased. There wasn't a single being in this place who wouldn't notice Johan's presence.
'Well, I never expected anything anyway.'
He had never once thought that he could do anything. He didn't even know why he had followed Kalesian all the way here in the first place.
It was fortunate enough that he was being considerate on his own without getting in the way.
After sighing softly, Jin-woo continued examining the World Tree and its surroundings.
'......It's swallowing the increasing Erosion from this side.'
Even though the exterior looked the same, the interior was different. The World Tree was absorbing the energy of Erosion through its roots and accepting it into itself. Just like the roots he had seen in Belen Village.
'It's a temporary stopgap measure for now...... But it's not a fundamental solution.'
This might be able to hold it off for a while. But in the end, it didn't eliminate the Erosion. The target of Erosion had just moved from the ground to the tree.
And that was similar to what Belkarim wanted from him.
'Belkarim also wanted me to accept all the Erosion like this.'
While simultaneously telling him to regain his past self. Had his past life been like this? Like the current World Tree, accepting all sorts of worldly Erosion and harboring it in his body?
......There was no point in having doubts now. That was the truth. He just wanted to know what came after.
Why had such a self died, why had he lost his memories, and how had he been reincarnated again.
What the World Tree was doing was similar to his past self. Indeed, if he met the World Tree, he might obtain clues to regain his past life's memories.
But first, he had to escape from this place.
"Is your work going well?"
The maid was still well tied to the World Tree. At first, she seemed to have resisted trying to be untied, but knowing it was useless, she was now docile.
"Well."
It wasn't going well. But it wasn't that there were no methods he wanted to try.
The World Tree was still growing. That tree, which originally grew by feeding on souls, was now growing into an ominous tree by absorbing the energy of Erosion within this space.
The feeling wasn't very good, but growth was still growth. However, there was a limit to the Erosion energy it could absorb from the surroundings.
'Since it's only absorbing little by little the energy remaining after constituting the barrier.'
The roots of the World Tree couldn't dig into the core structure of the barrier. Probably because it was a young individual that had grown from a branch, not the main body.
Since Belkarim herself had deployed this barrier, it was natural that a young tree that wasn't the main body couldn't make a dent in that barrier.
Then what if he made it grow more? The growth of the World Tree required more souls, and there was a limit to the souls that could be procured in this place.
Johan's was nothing special, and the maid's was impossible. Her soul was a black soul subordinate to Belkarim.
Kalesian's soul was that of a dragon, so it was impressive, but it probably wouldn't make the tree grow enough to break this barrier.
And what remained was.
'Will the amount be sufficient with what I've absorbed so far.'
Jin-woo's soul was Jin-woo's, but it wasn't formed entirely by his power alone. He had been cutting down numerous things up until now. And he had made what he cut his own, harboring it in this body.
At some point, he began to feel severe hunger for the souls he absorbed like that. Once, he felt satisfaction each time he cut down flames, but at some point only emptiness came to dwell.
Now there was a limit to just absorbing. That's what he thought.
"Wait......! What are you doing!"
"I'm only doing what you see."
Black water drips from Jin-woo's palm. The energy of Erosion he had been absorbing all this time. Fortunately, for Jin-woo, that energy was overflowing.
There was what he had absorbed from Belkarim in this garden, and there was also what he had obtained from several divine artifacts he got in the 3rd floor. There was also the sword he received from Rondar, and upon reaching the God of Sky, he had even cut and completely absorbed a part that had descended to earth.
A portion of those numerous things, he made seep into the World Tree again as nourishment. When he did so, the tree grew noticeably.
"Please stop! The Master put so much effort to push it into you......!"
That was the exact opposite of what Belkarim had done. She had forced all Erosion to seep into him. He didn't know what kind of being she hoped he would become at the end of that, but what she had been doing was that anyway.
Therefore, he released it once. Acting contrary to her intentions in order to break the barrier she had deployed was quite a plausible principle of action.
The World Tree grows. Just like the endless emptiness Jin-woo felt, that tree too endlessly absorbed nourishment, raising its branches higher.
Eventually, when the highest branch touched the ceiling, the growth momentum paused for a moment. This barrier had slower time flow the closer it got to the boundary surface. So to break through there, much more energy was needed.
There were the sword energies Jin-woo had scattered earlier. There were also stars formed by the breaths Kalesian had shot while trying to see reactions. The branches of the World Tree penetrated into the shining, splitting, flowing galaxy.
"Ooh—"
Perhaps noticing what Jin-woo was up to, Kalesian approached. He looked at the sky and spoke.
"Quite a beautiful sight."
Absorbing the light of the sky and accepting the darkness of the earth. Embracing everything, the World Tree broke the barrier and hatched.