Barbarian in a Failed Game

『The identity of the entity known as the Tree of Memories is held by that host.』

Natrix’s voice echoed like a divine revelation.

『Therefore, we must eliminate that host.』

Easier said than done.

Ron smiled bitterly. The First Branch engulfed by the tree looked like a mere dot in the distance. Moreover, the branches growing from that position were several times more numerous than those that had attacked them thus far.

If those branches, reaching up to the sky, struck from all directions, it seemed unlikely that Ron could find a way through, no matter how skilled he was.

WHOOSH!

At that moment, the large, black-scaled figure of Drake Tilly emerged through the gap and reached the sky above.

『You…』

Natrix squinted as if seeing something alien while looking at the Drake, who was nearly half its size. But the urgency of the situation prevented any verbal commentary, and she quietly invoked her dragon’s power.

『Among the branches of that parasite, there’s one that extends the farthest. That will be the quickest path. Go now, for a brief moment, this dragon’s power will protect your breath.』

As the dragon’s power took effect, the dwarves, who were the first to show signs of dizziness, quickly regained their energy.

“Divine blessings are upon us.”

Elena once again cast a blessing, invigorating them further.

And as she added, the presence of the heavens, though faint, could be felt here.

Khan, who bore the marks of the Divine Seal, also felt the presence of the Goddess of Justice, and Elena, a potential apostle, seemed to experience numerous divine gazes all at once.

‘Instead of just watching, why don’t you bestow more blessings.’

Although his personal goal was the trace of the mage, failing to stop the Tree of Memories here would spell an unparalleled disaster for the continent.

Whether that disaster would be the horrifying parasitic tree or the giant’s hand thrashing below like a fish taken to water, only the outcome would reveal.

“Either way, the continent will be in chaos.”

“Khan…?”

Elena reacted wide-eyed at Khan’s seemingly out-of-place statement, talking to someone. But Khan merely scoffed and declared to the sky.

“We’re breaking our backs doing what you can’t. If you don’t want us all to die, grant us a blazing blessing.”

Whether those words reached the heavens or not—

‘When did I ever expect anything from the gods?’, Khan chuckled, drawing Draupnir.

『To think that abomination could possess a sense of self. It seems living a long time has its surprises.』

At the neutral voice he hadn’t heard in ages, Khan fell silent, as if urging it to elaborate.

『It’s nothing special. That once gigantic tree became a pillar supporting the world’s ceiling with the advent of the elves. Essentially, it was born thanks to the elves. Look at it now. It consumes its own mother to sustain itself.』

A truly ridiculous sight. The familiar, icy voice of Spirit of Resentment whispered in Khan’s mind as usual.

‘That’s not immediately useful information.’

Khan tucked the ambiguous information somewhere in the back of his mind. Regardless of what Spirit of Resentment was, the immediate priority was to take it down.

“Tilly.”

At Khan’s call, Tilly silently increased her speed. Their target was the thickest and longest branch extending from the trunk of the Tree of Memories.

『You think I’ll just let you—?!』

At the moment Tilly’s flight reached its peak speed, a beautiful yet twisted mental entity, half-human and half-tree, appeared in the air. With a face contorted like a demon, it lifted its hand and then brought it down.

“Above!”

Someone’s warning rang out true. The mental entity’s actions translated directly into reality; branches pierced through the sky like rain, targeting both Natrix and Tilly. Branches connected to the trunk shot at them from the front, barring Tilly’s path.

『Run!』

Natrix exerted some form of power with a powerful flap of her wings. While the party couldn’t discern the specifics, Khan noticed that Natrix’s consciousness was invading the domain of the Tree of Memories. It was as though she was tinting the surrounding space with her own essence.

『This is… the power of an ancient dragon…?!』

『Go! All the way!』

This was not the kind of power that a drained Natrix should have been able to muster. Clearly, external forces were at play. The impact was so immense that blue flames began to spread across the entire battlefield above the clouds.

The breath prohibited the branches from advancing. The moment the branches touched these flames, they were incinerated to nothingness, as if the very concept of “burning” was being maximized.

『──────!』

Simultaneously, the giant’s arm, which had been locked in combat with the Tree of Memories down below, struck the massive trunk with tremendous force.

The mental entity coughed up blood. This was proof that it had taken effective damage and evidence that it now lacked the energy to contend with both the giant and Natrix, who had borrowed the ancient dragon’s power.

“Everyone dismount!”

Suddenly, the party found themselves on the largest and oldest branch, rushing forward. Normally, a branch wouldn’t have space to support even a single footing, or it would be narrow enough that balancing on one foot would be difficult, making a full sprint impossible.

However, the branch that the Tree of Memories first extended towards the world was so wide it outstripped the Empire’s widest roads. Additionally, it’s only natural that branches bear leaves and fruits.

“Spirits…!”

The first to notice the anomaly was the half-elf, Neria. New spirits began to emerge from various points on the branch the group had landed on. Unlike most spirits that took on the forms of animals or fairies, these spirits resembled melted slime.

“They’re the same spirits we saw in Gigantus!”

Their numbers initially reached into the hundreds, then quickly multiplied to an uncountable legion. The same terrifying entities that had melted Gigantus’s buildings were now thousands strong.

Being spirits, the others in the party found them nearly impossible to deal with.

“Essence!”

Without even turning around, Khan yelled out to Neria. She understood his intent immediately, hesitated for a moment, and then raised her dagger forward.

“Freeze them all…!”

The secondary circuit she had inscribed on her dagger began to draw mana from her essence. Before the battle with the elves had begun, when Neria had joined the group, Khan had given her the “Essence of the Five-Colored Bird”.

As someone who, unlike Khan, could see spirits, she was the natural choice. That choice had now come full circle to shine brightly. The ultimate secret of modern spells, known only to the Five Tower Lords, unfolded in the sky.

『Kaleios’s Spear』

It pierced through the mixed spirits, freezing them all in place. But it didn’t stop there. Over the permafrost-covered ground, ice spears, infused with the power to freeze, rose up.

Neria wielded her dagger like a conductor’s baton, scattering the ice spears in all directions. Their targets were the fruits still in the process of conceiving new spirits, and from these frozen fruits, new ice spears emerged.

“Let’s go!”

“Alright, I’ll hold this half. Go…!”

Despite being drenched in cold sweat from the strain of controlling the spell, Neria’s ice spears continued to tear through the air, skewering the spirits. Nodding in approval at the ever-increasing number of ice spears, Khan sprinted ahead.

“If I die here, I’ll come back as an undead, cursed to chase after elves for eternity.”

With a determined glint in his eyes, dwarf William, staying by Neria’s side, gripped his hammer tightly.

***

Of course, just because the spirits were neutralized, it didn’t mean that the Tree of Memories would passively stand by.

SLASH—!

Who could have imagined the sight of leaves, nearly the size of a person, being scattered?

“Damn it! It’s not like we’re in the land of giants…! Everything here is dozens of times bigger!”

The Dwarf King, effortlessly batting away the massive leaves with his flail, grumbled. Unlike the previous situation where he had been beaten down by William, now he was holding his own.

It appeared that he indeed had the capability to usurp the Dwarf King’s throne by revolt. He was more than earning his keep, having received all manner of blessings and healing from Elena, and even the flail imbued with holy power.

He effectively took over the role of protecting Elena, the priestess, in place of William and Elena.

“Halfway there…!”

Despite having run non-stop and exhaustedly overusing her holy spells, Elena shouted in a hoarse voice. Although it sounded hopeful, the distance to the host trapped in the trunk still felt like a thousand miles away.

‘At this rate…!’

Elena bit her lip anxiously. Even though her physical strength was steadily restored by her holy spells, it was clear that she would soon reach her limit.

Natrix, who was shouldering the brunt of the attacks, and Neria, who borrowed the power of the essence to wield the Tower Master’s spells, would also inevitably reach their limits.

‘This can’t go on!’

It was time to make a decision.

“Khan! Go ahead!”

As others had done before, someone needed to make a sacrifice. This time, it was her turn. She gathered the remaining divine power to its very last drop and directed it all at Khan.

To an ordinary person, it might only provide a slight health boost, but Khan, who bore the goddess’s mark, was different.

As the Mark of Courage absorbed the divine power, Khan heard a hallucination. It was the sound of a tilting scale shifting even further. His agility and stamina, already enhanced by previous buffs, surged even more.

Without fully realizing the increased effect, Khan launched himself forward with all his might.

BOOM—!

Such a powerful leap at this altitude was extremely dangerous. But with the reaction speed necessary to control that velocity, he could make it work!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!!

Khan’s relentless leaps made it seem he was traversing space itself. In the blink of an eye, he covered hundreds of steps, closing the distance so that he could see the face of the host engulfed in the tree.

And then, a new obstacle appeared before him.

“Don’t interfere with him—!”

The Fifth Branch of Paradise, a hulking, muscular figure unlike a typical elf, who had been preparing the ritual on the ground, manifested in spirit form to block his path.

But Khan made no attempt to engage, instead continuing his powerful stride forward. Emerging from below the branch to intercept the Fifth Branch was a Drake covered in black scales.

“This is a crucial moment, so would you kindly not interfere?”

Tilly’s voice, laced with a hint of a smile, grew distant.

BOOM—!

Facing off against an ancient resurrected giant, suppressing Natrix who had borrowed the breath of an ancient dragon, blocking the path with mixed spirits, scattering human-sized leaves, deploying the Elders of Paradise— the Tree of Memories had mobilized everything it could, and all these attempts were thwarted by the group’s tenacity.

Thus, Khan’s figure reached the end of the branch. He touched the trunk that had ensnared the First Branch of Paradise.

SWISH—!

Without a moment’s hesitation, Khan swung Draupnir, severing the trunk that had imprisoned the host. The freed body of the host fell into Khan’s arms. Shortly, her eyes trembled violently.

Having endured countless eons, the First Branch, finally free from being a host, spoke with great effort.

“Es…cape…!”

There was no time to respond. The groove revealed as the First Branch was extracted suddenly opened its maw wide and swallowed Khan whole.

***

The moment it lost its host, the defeat of the Tree of Memories was sealed. To maintain its colossal ego, the Tree of Memories required at least a transcendent-level entity as its host.

Yet, swallowing Khan was a desperate flailing, a grasp at survival. It could not afford to die and thus grabbed at whatever it could.

And then, the Tree of Memories realized that this desperate move was its best choice.

『Haha…! Two divine marks, and to top it off, both divine power and demonic abilities?! The treasure walked right into my maw—!』

With this, it lacked nothing to make Khan its new host. Moreover, dealing with a mortal’s spirit would be a task no more difficult than snapping a goblin’s arm.

『I will devour it all, and use it as nourishment…! The dragon, the giant, everything…!』

The Tree of Memories, resolved for revenge, plunged its mental entity into Khan’s mindscape. Typically, a mortal’s mind cannot withstand the Tree of Memories. Just permitting its entry would cause the mortal’s ego to crumble under the weight of the transcendent’s essence.

It thought it would be a simple matter to take over the empty shell.

“How dare a lowly thing invade my new nest.”

Until a chilling voice caressed its ears.

『You—why are you here…?!』

Recognizing the presence curled within the mortal’s mental world, the Tree of Memories couldn’t hide its shock.

『You were surely stripped of your body and soul for betraying the dragons…!』

“Betrayal? The betrayal wasn’t mine but those wretched beasts’.”

The owner of the chilling voice rose with a heavy presence.

TL’s Corner:

The spirit of resentment for the win!!!

Also, I translated it as Vengeful Spirit before. But it feels wrong. I will fix the previous chapters for that.