The roots of the World Tree rose, and part of Serendel Castle collapsed with a thunderous crash.
White marble fragments from the ruined castle tumbled down along with clouds of dust.
Erupting soil, crumbling debris, and massive roots writhing between them—
and in the midst of that hellish battlefield, two swordsmen crossed blades.
Alex and Bereborn.
Their bodies, falling under gravity’s pull, used the collapsing wreckage as footholds as they launched themselves at each other.
The two figures brushed past, and countless sword strikes carved themselves into the air at the collision point.
A massive block of marble caught in their clash shattered into tiny pieces, like food diced into cubes.
Even a nearby small root of the World Tree, wandering aimlessly, was sliced cleanly apart, scattering sap.
The crumbling world around them meant nothing.
If anything, the environment of their duel was sliced just as sharply as if a painting’s canvas had been cut with a blade.
Alex landed atop the peak of a half-shattered marble spire.
Glancing down, he noticed his artifact cloak had been sliced at an angle.
Meanwhile, Bereborn stood intact on the rooftop of a half-collapsed structure, staring back at him.
There was only the faintest sword mark on the hem of Bereborn’s clothing.
‘Tch.’
That side bore nothing more than a scratch, while his own artifact had been cut away.
Had it not been for the artifact, he would have bled.
Even after exchanging hundreds of blows across shifting terrain, their battle showed no end in sight.
‘So much for boasting to the Leader that I’d go ahead on my own.’
But there was no helping it.
In pure swordsmanship, Bereborn stood far above him.
‘Is this the difference of experience?’
Indeed, it was natural to be outmatched.
Bereborn, for all his appearance, was an elf who had lived for centuries.
At least five hundred years.
Moreover, as the one who led the Shadewardens and stood as Ventmin’s sword, his combat experience would be vast, and his training never neglected.
In truth, the fact that Alex, a man who had not lived even a tenth of that time, could fight on equal ground was already extraordinary.
It was only possible thanks to talent rare even among knights, and the numerous artifacts protecting his body.
‘I hate to admit it, but in pure skill he’s superior.’
Unlike the untouched Bereborn, Alex’s body bore countless small wounds.
Without the protection of his artifacts, many would have been fatal.
Yet in Alex’s eyes shone certainty.
At first he had been overwhelmed, but as the battle went on, the gap was shrinking at frightening speed.
And Bereborn was not so dull as to miss it.
“Human. You are dangerous.”
By level alone, Alex was beneath Bereborn.
He had tried to bridge that gap with artifacts, but those quickly depleted in a prolonged fight.
Even so, Bereborn could not foresee his victory.
With Alex’s power and artifacts consumed, Bereborn should have been gaining advantage, yet the fight only sank deeper into a mire.
And Bereborn understood the reason.
That human.
With every clash, he was growing at a staggering pace.
It was unbelievable, even as he saw it.
A mere human using the elves’ Forest Walk, even replicating Bereborn’s own twin-sword technique in mid-battle.
The last exchange had made it clear.
That brown-skinned human’s talent was alien.
Beyond alien—it was monstrous.
‘A true monster.’
Bereborn, who had prided himself that only Ambella Burke could rival him in the sword, now felt his pride shattered.
If this continued, Alex would soon reach his level.
No—would he even stop there?
Every time Alex grew, Bereborn felt a chill, like a beast’s jaws closing on his throat.
A near-prophetic instinct screamed—
if things went on, Alex would devour him.
And once Alex surpassed him, he would head next for Ventmin’s cradle.
That, above all, could not be allowed.
Bereborn’s aura shifted sharply, and Alex clicked his tongue.
‘As expected of a skilled fighter, his ability to adapt is frightening.’
Couldn’t he just keep looking down on him as a lowly human and slip up, so Alex could take his head?
That would’ve been nice—but life was never that easy.
“Ssshh. Haaa.”
Most of the artifacts Ludger had supplied him were already consumed.
Alex stripped off his now-tattered cloak and tossed it aside.
He could no longer rely on their protection.
From here on, it was his swordsmanship alone against the elf.
‘This is a bit tight.’
He had done his best to catch up, but it took time to analyze and absorb centuries of refined elven swordsmanship.
At his current level, his odds of victory were maybe forty percent.
A high number, perhaps, but among swordsmen of this caliber, even one percent meant everything.
Should he aim to endure instead?
‘But the situation up above doesn’t look good either.’
At some point, the World Tree had gone mad, its enormous branches spreading like a cage over even the outer walls.
Just moments ago, a red laser-like beam had swept across it.
If Bereborn felt instinctive danger, Alex felt it too.
If he didn’t finish this fight quickly and go, Ludger would be in peril.
Not only Ludger.
Hans, Sedina, even the elves fighting alongside them.
“Damn. I really hate this. Heavy responsibility doesn’t suit me at all.”
By nature, Alex was lighthearted and free.
To be burdened with responsibility was distasteful.
He had never desired such weight.
In the knight academy, he had once dreamed of rising to a high position, but that was only childish arrogance.
He knew well his own station.
What a pitiful thing it was to be a commoner in this world.
How unfair, unjust, and cruel the world was.
So he had turned his back on duty.
If the world deprived him of rights, he would bear no obligations.
And so—
he had lost the one he loved.
‘Or maybe... maybe I was the only one who thought that way.’
Why was it that Enya’s face came to mind now, in this moment of crisis?
Alex laughed.
The one person who had believed in him to the end, even as everyone mocked him for being exactly what they expected.
How despairing, how bitter it had been to drive her away so harshly.
So he had hated the world, and lived like a wastrel.
Hoping someone would beat him to death and end it.
But what came to him, as he waited endlessly, was a man who reached out his hand.
“Duty, responsibility, is it.”
And from that day, without realizing, he had come this far.
He had made good friends, found someone he wanted to follow, and regained the forgotten purpose of life.
Clang!
A flash of steel in front of him drew Alex’s eyes straight ahead.
Bereborn had stepped forward, swinging his sword, as if sensing a crisis.
How did he block it?
Alex realized belatedly that he had moved by instinct.
An attack that once he might have dodged at the cost of injury, he now deflected naturally.
And he understood why Bereborn had grown impatient.
Alex grinned.
“Hey. Don’t you know it’s bad manners not to wait for someone’s awakening?”
“......”
“Well, it was the right call. I wouldn’t wait either.”
He spoke flippantly, but he knew it—an opportunity that might have broken open his path had been denied.
Even so, Alex did not grow anxious.
His gift was such that even the faintest spark of inspiration could fling open the gates of talent wide.
And in this battlefield spiraling into catastrophe, inspiration was everywhere.
For instance—
Ssshhk!
That one-eyed elf slicing through the roots over there.
“...Ambella Burke?”
Bereborn muttered Ambella’s name under his breath.
To him, the most dangerous enemy before his eyes was not the human swordsman but without question Ambella Burke.
The strongest sword among the elves.
Even though Bereborn now held that title, he himself did not think so.
To sit in the place of one who had been unilaterally expelled was something his pride could never allow.
Only by formally breaking Ambella with the sword could that seat truly shine.
That opponent had at last come seeking him.
But her destination was not him—it was toward the cradle.
Bereborn hesitated slightly.
His enemy was not only Ambella Burke.
There was also Vierno Dentis, head of House Dentis, along with the elite troops under his command.
He had to stop them.
The moment he thought so, the flashing blade of his present opponent forced him back to reality.
“So now we’re even?”
With a mischievous smile, Alex provoked him, and Bereborn had no choice but to focus on the foe in front of him.
* * *
The living World Tree seized Sedina and pulled her toward itself.
When it had bound Hans, the World Tree had been terrifying beyond words, but when it seized Sedina it handled her as carefully as a mother cradling her newborn child.
Yet no one could feel relief at that sight.
Not even Sedina herself.
Two emotions were transmitted simultaneously from the rampaging World Tree.
Familiarity. And hatred.
The former was the sentiment of the World Tree itself, tied to her bloodline; the latter was the hatred of Ventmin who had merged with the tree.
And if the weight of the two were compared, the latter was overwhelmingly greater.
Much of Ventmin’s reason had perished and vanished, but the negative emotions she carried remained in the World Tree like heavy metal residue, spreading widely.
-Kill the Plante!
-If only you didn’t exist!
-Die for the glory of Lifret!
The lingering grudges were not only Ventmin’s.
All the grudges of the elves who had been consumed to access the World Tree were dissolved within it.
Confronted with that, Sedina’s body stiffened, frozen as if time itself had stopped.
“Sedina!”
Riding Steel Raven, Ludger rushed toward Sedina as she was dragged into the World Tree, but the tree did not permit intruders.
Countless scattered branches turned into sharp spears aimed at Ludger.
Ludger tried to blast them apart with artifacts, but however many he destroyed, the branches regenerated endlessly.
Break one, and two or three—no, more than ten—would sprout in its place.
He had to save Sedina immediately, but the situation gave him no opening.
And his opponent was not only the World Tree.
“Do not interfere, John Doe!”
From below, golden arrows surged upward, forcing Ludger to pull Steel Raven back.
Ventmin, her body completely transformed into wood, glared viciously at him.
Crrrack.
The center of the World Tree’s trunk split open, forming a huge hollow.
Inside could be seen a throne of wood.
The roots of the tree forced Sedina to sit upon it.
The sight was like inserting a key into an enormous keyhole—Sedina being the key.
“L-let me go!”
Sedina struggled to escape, but the tough vines bound her hands, feet, and body to the throne.
It did not stop there—the vines wrapped once around her head.
What rose sharply upward was a crown of wood.
“Ah.”
As the crown was forced upon her, Sedina’s eyes grew murky.
Deprived of reason, she slumped, closed her eyes, and sank into sleep.
“Ahahaha!”
Ventmin burst out laughing at the sight.
“Yes! So it was here after all! The last key to fully control the World Tree—the Central Dogma! It lay deep within that bloodline!”
The Central Dogma, the core key of the World Tree, was not a physical object.
It was engraved deep in the genes of Plante blood from birth.
Sensing danger from the dragon’s flame, the World Tree had instinctively detected it and seized Sedina.
A situation no one could have predicted or even imagined.
The World Tree, having found its true master, awakened from its slumber.
It had always been a sacred tree, but now it radiated a soft green light of its own.
“The World Tree... awakens!”
The sight was almost beautiful.
Merged with the tree, Ventmin felt the immense power welling within her and smiled with rapture.
This was it.
A force incomparably greater than when she had only skimmed the tree’s surface.
A sense of omnipotence—as if she truly could become a god.
“It’s all mine.”
With her voice overflowing with greed, the World Tree trembled.
As though resisting those words, but Ventmin sneered.
“What do you think I’ve been researching you for? I’ve waited for this moment.”
Though she had lost part of her reason through merging, she had not forgotten the purpose she had harbored for centuries.
If anything, with other memories stripped away, her goal remained all the more resolute.
“Five hundred years. I’ve sacrificed countless elves.”
The wood zombies that formed the cradle were proof enough.
They were victims, experiments, and °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° data for studying the World Tree.
A hill of death piled high with history, corpses, and blood.
And upon it stood Ventmin, who at last could meet the awakened World Tree eye to eye.
“Resistance is useless. Already within your body lies the arrangement I created.”
A malicious code, woven from life and death.
Through it, Ventmin swiftly absorbed the World Tree’s authority into her own.
As Ventmin reveled in the rising power, the World Tree let out a scream of agony.
Yet even that sounded to her like a soothing lullaby.
“Well then. Shall we give it a try?”
The World Tree’s power she had inherited had already risen to thirty percent.
Ventmin’s gaze shifted to one side.
There stood the army of the Tri-Ducal faction, frozen in place, caged, unable to move.
Worthless insects daring to oppose her.
Crrrack.
With a hand split and gnarled like an ancient tree, Ventmin pointed toward the elf army.
The fierce tremors of the World Tree ceased at once.
At the same time, darkness spread.
‘What?’
Hovering in the air, Ludger glanced around.
Though it was midday, suddenly brightness dimmed as if night had fallen.
Only one thing grew brighter—the World Tree itself.
‘It absorbed all surrounding light?’
Bwoooong.
The World Tree absorbed the sunlight pouring around it, transforming into a tree of light.
Then the light gathered at its front.
A colossal mass of energy, white and yellow roiling together.
Watching from atop Steel Raven, Ludger felt a chill race down his spine.
That was dangerous.
In that instant, Ventmin pronounced judgment upon the army.
“Die.”
Toward the soldiers of the Tri-Ducal faction, the World Tree’s wrath was unleashed.
