Chapter 341. Counterattack (1) (1/2)
A large pillar of light descended from the sky.
The moment the light enveloped the World Tree, the frozen battlefield turned even more silent.
The Federation, the humans, and the Parasites all turned their attention to the top of Tigol Fortress.
It couldn’t be helped. The imposing, magnificent scenery unfolding before them was not something anyone could ignore. Not to mention, there wasn’t a single being present who didn’t know the meaning of this phenomenon.
Guoooooo….
The pillar of light slowly subsided. At the same time, the shining tree began to grow at an exponential rate.
The weak, straw-like branches shot out like spiderwebs, the withered trunk thickened rapidly, and green leaves grew from the once emaciated branches.
Paat!
The diminishing light scattered in the sky and on the ground.
Now revived, the avatar of the World Tree revealed itself to the world once again.
It was no longer the pitiful wilted tree it was before. The giant World Tree stood proudly as it propped up the sky and overlooked the battlefield.
Rumbleeeee!
As the World Tree finally stretched out its limbs, a terrifying tremor erupted.
[Here comes the hero~]
Sensing the change that would soon come, Roselle smiled brightly.
Chak!
She clapped. The frost on the ground completely melted away into a liquid, seeping into the black land.
The dead earth underwent a change.
The reddish-black dirt softened to a pale brown color, seeds germinated and saplings sprouted up.
Plants and vegetation grew distinctively, dyeing the earth with a refreshing viridescent light.
Flowers bloomed on the battlefield filled with despair.
Wooooooooo!
The screams of Nests suddenly rang out on the silent battlefield.
The World Tree had revived at a time when the infestation was nearly finished. With it purifying the land as soon as it revived and applying pressure in return, the Nests were writhing in pain.
A stark contrast existed between the spectators of this sight.
The Army Commanders became lost for words.
“Impossible…”
Vulgar Chastity.
“The Seventh Army Commander…”
Exploding Patience.
“Lost…?”
And Abhorrent Charity, all reacted in the same way.
The World Tree blooming once more signified that the Fourth and Seventh Army Commanders had retreated from the Spirit Realm.
Setting Raging Temperance aside, Twisted Kindness, who was the strongest existence second only to the Parasite Queen, lost?
It was too difficult to believe.
And that made it all the more shocking.
However, they had no choice but to believe it, especially seeing the glowing lights gradually gather in front of the World Tree and form into twenty or so figures.
It was because the figures were all shaped like humans.
“Ah… Aaaaaah!”
A Sky Fairy screamed.
It was not a scream of despair, but an impassioned cry from an overflowing joy.
“So he did it in the end.”
Cinzia showed a rare, full smile.
“Huuuuuu!”
Gabriel breathed out a deep sigh and plopped down while the Dwarves cheered in excitement. But no matter how happy they were, could they be happier than this race?
“….”
Yuirel was kneeling on the ground, staring at the fluttering, glowing lights with a dazed face.
The banquet of lights illuminating the sky did not just invite the Sky Fairies, but also the Cave Fairies.
The lights falling down on the hands of the Cave Fairies, including herself, was clear, undeniable proof.
“Ah….”
She doubted her eyes at first, but soon she felt her strength leave her body and something new enter the empty body.
Yuirel grabbed the cloth covering her eyes with trembling hands. A grotesque pair of pitch-black eyes was revealed.
But even that only lasted a moment. Soon, the black color quickly faded away and was replaced by the eyes’ original, lovely amber color.
Only then did a streak of tears run down her face.
It wasn’t just Yuirel. Every Cave Fairy was crying with their head down and their eye-cover off.
“The Spirit Kings… have… forgiven us…!”
While everyone was crying silently, Yuirel raised her voice and shouted.
“Lord Ophinü Odor has withdrawn her sword! Our god… Lord Diffidem Odor is coming back!”
A deafening shout overflowing with emotion burst out.
Despite the resonance phenomenon affecting her greatly, she felt like she wouldn’t be able to tolerate not saying this out loud.
“…Hic.”
Teresa didn’t say anything. She simply stared at the figures forming in front of the World Tree with tearful eyes. Then, she sniffled once again.
“He really kept his promise…”
Seol Jihu had told her to buy just a little bit of time. That he would save the Spirit Realm and return after reviving the World Tree.
He had kept his promise wonderfully. While everyone tried to stop him, saying it was impossible, he had pulled through in the end.
However, Teresa soon snapped out of her daze. If it were up to her, she would have run up to him and poured him a thousand kisses. Unfortunately, the war was still going on.
The World Tree reviving meant that the Sky Fairies would regain their powers. As her lineage shared the bloodline of the Sky Fairies, she had some knowledge regarding the resonance phenomenon.
‘Spirit Resonance.’
Temporary exhaustion experienced by Fairies when they first connected to their Spirits.
It didn’t last long. Perhaps five, or ten minutes, at best.
But in a fierce battle, five minutes was not a short time.
Teresa gripped her longsword.
‘I have to buy time.’
With this, the stage for a counterattack was set. All she had to do was buy time for them to be able to step onto it.
No matter what.
*
“….”
Seol Jihu quietly studied his body as he felt his consciousness return. The body that had scattered away in the Spirit Realm was slowly being reconstructed in the Middle World.
Eventually, his eyes lit up as he looked forward. Due to standing at the summit of the fortress, the entire battlefield entered his view.
“Heeeh. It doesn’t look like we’re too late.”
Chohong simpered with the Thorn of Steel placed on her shoulder.
It was just as she said. Tigol Fortress had not fallen yet.
Seeing as how traces of the enemy could be seen in the central area, the fortress must have been pushed to the brink of collapse. However, they had managed to revive the World Tree before then.
—Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
A loud, thunderous cheer erupted.
As the heroes who revived the World Tree appeared, the pent-up emotions inside everyone had burst out.
The war wasn’t over yet. In fact, it was only starting now.
But everything they had achieved up to this point was not meaningless.
Soon, the results would show for themselves.
Seol Jihu closed his eyes within the deafening cheer.
Now there was only one thing left to do…
**
KWANG!
The Corrupted Throne broke.
The Parasite Queen shot up after slamming down on the armrest.
Despite having expected as much, her eyes were filled with fury as she stared at the battlefield.
[This…!]
The Parasite Queen barely managed to swallow her breath just as she was about to blurt something out.
[I expected as much…!]
Right, she had expected this. The appearance of humanity, the revival of the World Tree, and the Sky Fairies regaining their powers as a result.
Although she hoped it would not happen, she had predicted this situation as the worst-case scenario.
The only thing outside of her expectation was the appearance of the damned witch.
But she couldn’t back off now.
Retreating because she was afraid of a single witch was not something that could happen.
The Parasites also had hidden cards. Two— no, three!
[Abhorrent Charity! Release your divinity!]
[Don’t just stand there and do something!!]
As the Parasite Queen’s message echoed out, the Nests throbbed simultaneously and poured out countless parasites. They had given up on infesting the fortress and were choosing to focus on giving birth.
Abhorrent Charity flinched.
But seeing the Nests, he quickly understood the Queen’s intent and scanned the battlefield.
The Sky Fairies were debilitated from the resonance phenomenon. The best-case scenario would be to single out Sky Fairies and kill them, but that wasn’t realistically possible due to the revival of the World Tree.
Not only were the Sky Fairies inside the fortress, but there was also a powerful witch protecting it.
And so, Abhorrent Charity’s gaze fell outside Tigol Fortress at humanity’s cavalry unit.
“….”
Looking back, the appearance of these insects seemed to be the start of the complications.
The important thing was to not let this trend continue. Even if they had to retreat, they had to at least do as much damage as possible.
“…I’ll wipe all of you out completely.”
Kkdk! Gritting his teeth, Abhorrent Charity burst out with a brilliant light. His fluttering robe billowed out, and dozens of tentacles shot out from his sleeves along with a fierce evil energy.
Then, the biggest tentacle pointed toward a giant mountain of corpses in front of the fortress wall.
—Arise!
When that single word echoed out, the mountain of corpses shook.
The lifeless corpses began to crack open, and the skeletons inside them began to rise one by one. Eventually, over half of the corpses gave birth to moving undead that staggered up to their feet and awaited their master’s command.
—…Tsk.
Despite such an incredible display of necromancy, Abhorrent Charity clicked his tongue.
Normally, the mountain of corpses should have all risen from the dead. But because of the damned World Tree, a portion of the land had turned into a holy area, which cut down his evil energy greatly.
If he didn’t release his divinity, even the current result would not have been possible.
But that didn’t matter. There were more mountains of corpses to go through, and this was more than enough to wipe out a bunch of insects.
—Arise!
Another group of skeletons tore through a mountain of corpses.
—Go!
As Abhorrent Charity gave the command, the undying army of skeletons that were strengthened by his evil energy marched forward.
“They’re coming!”
Having regrouped in the meanwhile, Teresa wet her dry lips with her saliva.
Countless parasites were flooding from the front and the army of skeletons was rushing in from the back. The only solace in this situation was that the Parasites weren’t attacking the Sky Fairies that were inside Tigol Fortress, but that was hardly anything to celebrate, seeing as how humanity was about to be wiped out.