NOVEL NEXT Chapter 309: The World Tree (1)
Chapter 309: The World Tree (1)
***
“Are you going to leave your brother alone?”
Damien asked, turning his gaze to where the Lord of Eternal Flame lay dead.
He had been killed in the battle between Damien and the Four Great Demon Kings. It was like a shrimp lantern in a whale fight.
A shabby death, unworthy of a pillar of Pandemonium. Perhaps it was the dagger in his chest.
The dagger was imbued with the demon’s power. By plunging it into his chest, the Lord of Eternal Flame may have used its power to both himself and his brother.
With his knowledge as a dark Mage, Damien was quickly able to recognize the cause of death.
“A fitting end for him.”
Despite his words, the Imperial Supreme Sword looked at his brother with bitterness in his eyes.
“We can take care of his body later. Right now, we need to focus on the World Tree.”
The Imperial Supreme Sword rose to his feet. However, he stumbled, not able to stand up straight.
Damien picked him up onto his back and headed towards the royal palace.
* * *
Damien returned to Alfheim's royal palace with the Imperial Supreme Sword
“The World Tree is collapsing!”
“Ughh, what are we going to do about it?”
“Everyone's going to die! Argh!”
Inside the castle was chaos. The elves could do nothing but watch as the World Tree crumbled.
“......Go to the royal palace.”
The Imperial Supreme Sword urged Damien. Damien followed her into the palace.
“You've come.”
Milene greeted them. But she didn't look too well either.
Like the World Tree, her body was slowly turning to dust.
Like the World Tree, she was also dying.
“I watched you two fight through magic. It was so hard.”
Milene praised the two of them in a soft voice. On the other hand, the Imperial Supreme Sword asked in a concerned voice.
“Is there no way to save the World Tree?”
Milene only smiled bitterly. This behavior made the Imperial Supreme Sword sigh.
“It's impossible.”
It is impossible to bring back the dead. It was a truth that no one could change.
Many mages and dark mages had tried to overcome this truth, but all had failed.
“You are a good man, for you despise the elves and yet you genuinely wish for Alfheim to survive.”
“I am only following my mother's will.”
“That's goo,,.”
Milene suddenly paused, finding it hard to speak.
“You asked if there was a way to save the World Tree, and there is only one.”
“And what is that?”
“If Damien Haksen can help us.”
Milene looked back at Damien.
“Damien Haksen, I watched you with my magic. I saw you in the hole, using those authorities.”
Damien realized immediately what she was talking about.
“You knew how to reverse time, didn't you? You could use it to save the World Tree.”
“No, it's impossible.”
Damien shook his head.
“I'd have to use all my mana and stamina to reverse the hole that was dug.”
He couldn't even begin to imagine how much mana it would take to revive the World Tree.
“No, you can do it.”
Milene pointed to Damien's wrist.
“You have Erebos.”
“......You knew about Erebos?”
Damien was surprised.
The Erebos was an object about which there was no information left in the world.
Even the demons didn't really know what it was.
“Yes, I do, and I know who made it.”
“Who?”
“It was created by a man named Ruin.”
Ruin.
I'd heard the name before. It was the name Dorugo had shouted.
“Dorugo said the name, too. Who is this human named Ruin?”
Milene's eyes flickered for a moment. She hesitated, then turned to Damien.
“He's a real hero who drove demons and monsters from the continent.”
“You mean he's part of the Salvation Squad, but I've never heard that name before.”
“Of course you have because we killed them and erased his name from history.”
Milene told the shocking story nonchalantly.
“Most of the feats the Salvation Squad are said to have done were done by Ruin, we just passed them off as our own.”
Damien couldn't help but be shocked.
Damien had grown up hearing stories about the Salvation Squad from a young age.
People extolled the virtues and power of the Salvation Squad in fairy tales, plays, and songs.
But was it all a lie?
“Why did you guys do that?”
“Some did it for honor, some out of jealousy, and I did it for the future of the ...... race.”
“The future?”
“Because if a being like Ruin continues to be around humans, he will be a danger to the elves.”
At this point, Damien was curious about Ruin.
What kind of human could he be that he created Erebos, and yet Milene was so wary of him?
“What kind of human was Ruin, and how did he create Erebos?”
“Ruin was.......”
Milene's eyes suddenly widened. She bent over and coughed.
“Kolok, Kolok.”
She coughed the dust from her mouth. It meant her organs were crumbling.
“......Damien, I'd love to explain everything, but we really don't have time now.”
Milene clutched her chest and spoke with difficulty.
“Erebos was a weapon that could transform everything into a mysterious power and absorb it. Dorugo's plan was to use that mysterious power stored in Erebos to travel back in time.”
Damien looked puzzled. He'd been using Erebos for a long time, but he'd never felt the power stored within.
“After we killed Ruin, we all wanted to become the master of Erebos, but Erebos chose no one. It chose to destroy itself.”
As Milene made the hand gesture and opened a subspace. A large blade protruded from it.
“This is the piece I took with me then. Damien, I trust you with it.”
With those words, Milene's body turned to dust and collapsed.
***
Damien stared at the dust that Milene had left behind when she died for a long time.
So much information was flooding into his head that he felt very confused.
But he didn't have long to dwell on it. From the moment she died, the collapse of the World Tree began to accelerate.
The branches began to crumble, and even the trunk started to fall apart.
“Damien, I beg you.”
The Imperial Supreme Sword said in a pleading tone. Damien relented and pulled out the Erebos.
The piece that Milene had pulled out was very large.
In his previous life, Dorugo had found this shard and fused it with Erebos after the destruction of Alfheim.
'I was unable to complete Erebos then. But now.......'
This time, Damien even found a fragment that even Dorugo hadn't found and absorbed it into Erebos.
“Erebos, absorb.”
The shard turned to liquid and clung to Erebos.
Erebos's deficiencies began to fill in. The broken parts began to fill in.
Unfortunately, this time, Erebos was not complete. Erebos was still broken.
But there was a significant change.
“Longer than before.
Erebos's restoration rate exceeded the Erebos of his previous lifetime. And judging by the state of the sword, it was nearing completion.
Damien grabbed Erebos. He could feel the power building inside, perhaps because it had been restored more than in his previous life.
“Is this power......?
It was the power Damien had unleashed when he'd driven the Erebos into his body to kill himself.
'So it's not my body, but the power stored in Erebos.
Damien drew the power from Erebos and infused it into the authorities.
The six authorities began to glow. Damien placed his glowing hand on the World Tree.
“......Nothing's happening.”
Damian tried everything as Milene had instructed.
He used the authorities to channel energy into the World Tree, but no matter how much he infused, he couldn't reverse its time.
“What? What's wrong?”
Damien searched his memories and did everything the same.
The only difference was that there was a authority he hadn't yet awakened.
“But that authority wasn’t used back then, was it?”
Greed.
The seventh authority was the ability to detect over a wide range.
An authority Damien hadn’t needed to use in his previous life when the other authorities were activated.
“Is that necessary?”
Damien infused the seventh symbol with mysterious power, and the Authority of Greed was awakened.
Seven authorities became one. In an instant, the world before Damien's eyes turned dark.
“Where am I?”
Damien was floating in the darkness. He tried to move his limbs, but he couldn't move forward.
Then, something unfolded before his eyes.
A large seed had fallen into the ocean, where it sprouted and grew tall.
It was the life of a World Tree.
The life of the World Tree, from its first sprout to the present, was laid out like a map.
“These are coordinates.”
Damien realized instinctively that these were the coordinates to return to the past.
“The farther you go, the more power you need.”
The World Tree was several millenniums old.
Needless to say, it would take all of Erebos's power to travel back that much time.
“A day ago, ...... should be enough.
Damien set the coordinates and was about to launch.
Another map appeared in front of him. He couldn't help but be surprised.
“That's me?”
Damien's life unfolded before him.
It was Damian’s own life, from his days as a reckless young noble to his boyhood, and even his infancy.
But the map was split in two in the middle.
The moment he saw the other side, he felt goosebumps rise.
“Death Knight.”
Damien's life was split in two.
This life and his past life.
The person he was now and the person he was as Death Knight.
Staring at the map, Damien had an eerie thought.
“Could it be possible that...... can recreate my time as a Death Knight?
Just thinking about it made him feel sick. It made him feel nauseous.
But despite his feelings, Damien couldn't take his eyes off the map.
His time as a Death Knight was the ugliest time of his life.
But that didn't change the fact that he was the strongest he'd ever been.
'......No, but that's not going to happen.’
Damien cleared his mind and turned his attention back to the map.
“I rewind the World Tree to one day ago.
The power he had drawn from Erebos dissipated quickly.
And then a tremendous change occurred.
***
[Translator - Kie]
[Proofreader - Kawaii]