◈ Episode 462 The cycle of life and death (1)
Bentmin’s pupils narrowed as he saw the blade protruding from his chest.
What is this? knife? suddenly where?
Bentmin’s head managed to turn to the side.
and was able to find
The appearance of a monster with a black shadow covering his entire body.
The man who seemed to have come out of his shadow stabbed him in the back with all his might.
Eventually, the plague doctor’s mask that covered the man’s face disappeared, revealing his face.
“zone… … help?”
Bentmin stuttered his lips in disbelief.
“Uh, how… … ?”
Are you sure you killed him?
It wasn’t just a misunderstanding.
Even if it was an attack from a distance, he definitely felt the feeling of crushing John Doe with the roots now that he was wielding the power of the World Tree.
Just looking at the panicking of the surrounding elves after John Doe was killed, it was the same.
The refusal of common sense and understanding made Bentmin dizzy.
“No way, from the beginning… … .”
“I already knew you would be watching me.”
Rudgar said in a low voice.
“I knew that he would keep an eye on me and launch an ambush at the crucial moment. So I bought my own insurance. They set up a fake as a stand-in.”
“lie. Could I have mistaken it for a fake… … .”
“What if it was a fake close to the real thing?”
“what?”
Bentmin asked what that meant and widened his eyes.
“Look.”
Bentmin, who was watching the war situation, noticed something strange about Ludger’s words.
Clearly, it was John Doe who squeezed it out of his roots.
I felt the touch properly, and looking at the reactions around me, I didn’t see anything wrong.
But now, he saw a completely different scene from what he had seen.
The root of the tree that held John Doe like a cocoon.
On top of it, someone was sitting with their hips crossed and waving in this direction.
An adventurer’s outfit with black and white hair and a fair bit of exposure.
And even a parasol held in one hand.
“hi!”
Bentmin had definitely heard that lively voice.
“Hey, Leah… … .”
After the death of First Order Esmeralda, the newly recruited First Order was created to replace the vacancy.
Helia, who had a conflict with her because he didn’t like the first impression, was getting in his way.
Bentmin’s head rolled quickly.
The John Dow he thought was real was obviously a fake created by Helia.
Judging from the fact that it had senses, it was probably a fake that felt similar to the real thing.
She was briefly overlooking her unique ability and potential recruited by the Zero Order.
I thought she was simply a woman who had gone crazy somewhere, but did she have the skills to take such a light action?
“Even so, how can I get to the cradle… … .”
“Didn’t you guide me yourself?”
It was only then that Bentmin remembered the uninvited guest he had brought separately.
Her eyes rolled, looking at Hans, Alex, and Bellaluna lying in the corner of the cradle.
One of the three, Alex, who had come to his senses, grinned at me.
In his hand, an artifact that appeared to be a communicator was clutched proudly.
‘From the beginning, you said you were captured to find out where we are?’
What would have happened if I had killed all the uninvited guests on the spot?
Such an assumption was meaningless.
It was his own choice to deliberately bring a hostage in order to laugh at his opponent’s struggling in an advantageous situation.
“All high-ranking elves are arrogant. If you feel like you have an advantage, then take your time.”
Ludgar had a clear insight into the mentality of elves like Bentmin.
Bentmin proudly brought his party to the cradle, and Ludger, who was waiting for the signal from the artifact the group was carrying, confirmed the coordinates and appeared and stabbed Bentmin.
All the performances Alex, Hans, and Bellaluna showed were nothing more than a cornerstone to create the opportunity of this moment.
‘Even so, it would have been difficult to set up a strategy like this without Helya’s help.’
I can’t believe that the outside helper that Ambella brought was Helya.
Ludger remembered the time he met Helya that night.
The first thing Ludger heard when facing Helya in an unexpected place was wariness.
However, Helya raised her hands and expressed that she had no hostility toward Ludger.
-Don’t do that too much. Is it too burdensome to stare at you with those hot eyes?
-… … .
– It’s not even a joke.
-What’s going on here?
-What’s going on? Still, I came here because I was asked for help by an elf I knew. Isn’t that too harsh?
-I guess you came here with the intention of helping out.
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At Ludger’s sharp point, Helya mischievously turned the parasol in her hand.
-that’s right. In fact, my personal selfishness is more full than the thought of helping.
– Selfish?
-I don’t like Bentmin Refre.
Helia smiled and said, but her eyes were quite frightening.
I laughed at him at the Order Synod that day, but deep down I was harboring ill feelings toward Bentmin.
-I was secretly looking into what Bentmin Refre was trying to do. Her plan is completely different from the values of my life.
-So you’re trying to help me? why should i trust you
– It’s strange. Aren’t we bad enough to fight each other?
Helya asked sincerely as if she didn’t know.
But Ludgar couldn’t trust the words of Helya, the devil.
Helya gave up persuasion.
-Just take it easy. The enemy of her enemy is an ally, I also don’t like her ventmin, do you have to stop her too, wouldn’t it be nice to hold her hand for this moment of her? With my abilities, she will be of sufficient help to you.
It was not a situation where he could simply reject Helya emotionally and do something about it.
Rudger warned Helya with a cold gaze.
-If you grab my ankle, I won’t let you go.
-Oh, I’m scared~. Do you think it’s your own way of encouraging yourself?
That’s how Ludgar formed a temporary alliance with Helya.
And now.
Ludger took advantage of Bentmin’s carelessness and succeeded in giving her a fatal blow.
“Eh, like this… … in vain… … .”
Bentmin’s head was lowered.
Ludger pulled out the blade of the sword stick from Bentmin’s body.
Bentmin, who collapsed helplessly, did not breathe.
It was confirmed that there was no pulse, so it was correct that he was dead.
“Sedina.”
“Stop, sir.”
The moment Sedina saw Ludger, the emotions she had endured so far surged up.
Tears flowed down my eyes like chicken droppings.
Despite trying hard to pretend to be nonchalant, Sedina was a student after all.
Rudger walked slowly toward Sedina.
“Sedina. Let’s go back.”
“With whom?”
a sudden voice.
It belonged to Bentmin, who must have died.
“leader! danger… … !”
Even before Alex shouted to be careful from behind, a huge wave of power hit Ludger from behind.
[Ather Nocturnus]
Ludgar hugged Sedina and at the same time gave orders to Ather Nocturnus.
The shadows covering the body expanded greatly and turned into a barrier.
A huge energy swept over them like a storm.
Ludgar, who had lifted the barrier, looked back at Bentmin with an incomprehensible gaze.
“how?”
It was clearly stabbed in the right place, and it was confirmed that he was dead.
But Bentmin Refre did not die.
With her wounded body, she slowly got up from her seat and gazed at us with deaf eyes.
“Did you think I would get hit by something like that?”
No blood flowed from Bentmin’s wounds.
The wound where Rudger stabbed had already healed, and had turned into tree bark.
The traces engraved on her white skin, which was like a symbol of purity, drew attention like a scar.
“Did you give up being an elf?”
Bentmin did not respond to Ludger’s point.
With a slightly bitter face, she carefully wiped her wound with her fingertips.
A hard, lumpy texture on soft, smooth skin.
It was cool because I couldn’t even feel my body temperature, and it gave me a feeling of emptiness as if something in my soul had been cut off.
Bentmin Refre is obviously dead.
She is biologically dead.
But thanks to that, Bentmin Leafre was able to escape the limits of an ordinary life form.
With the power of the World Tree, the endless vitality.
This was one of the arrangements she left behind in case of an unexpected situation.
“okay. I definitely expected this to happen someday.”
Bentmin looked down at his palm.
The tips of the smooth palms began to crack little by little, like the surface of a tree.
“Off topic, if you use the power of the World Tree excessively, you will pay the price.”
“… … .”
“I know that? The roots of this cradle tree. Actually, it is not an ordinary root.”
At Bentmin’s words, Ludger was finally able to properly see the roots that make up the cradle.
There were faint traces of what was believed to be someone’s face all over the roots.
The appearance of a face screaming in agony reminded me of a grotesque story.
“no way… … .”
“The words of a person who used that power without permission from the World Tree. After Plante disappeared, this is the final appearance of the Leafre family’s vassals.”
When the Plante family disappeared and Leafre took over the World Tree.
Leafre faced a major crisis.
No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t resonate with the World Tree like the Plante family.
The deeper they dug, the harder the World Tree pushed them back.
Rather, it was to the extent that those whose minds were broken due to the reaction one after another appeared one after another.
Even so, the Leafre family did not give up.
The family’s manpower continued to change, and the experiment to use the power of the World Tree continued.
In the end, Bentmin Leafre was only 1%, but he was able to handle some of the power of the World Tree.
Most of the roots that settled in this cradle were elves who assimilated the World Tree in the process.
At the end of that django’s sacrifice, the power to handle was only 1%.
Sensing that limit, Bentmin’s wish for Plante’s last key was a natural result.
“It was only after giving up being an elf that I could gain more power. Was it such a big greed?”
Bentmin muttered dejectedly.
He is no longer an elf. Now that she has been resurrected after dying, she has been assimilated with a part of the World Tree.
It was safe to say that it was a living tree.
If the power I could handle before was less than 1%, now I was convinced that I could pass more than 5%.
However, even after enjoying that omnipotence, what was filled was not satisfaction and ecstasy, but endless anger and hatred.
The arrow of hatred was directed at Ludger, who had killed himself, and at Sedina, who was next to him.
“It’s all about you Plante family.”
The murderousness in Bentmin’s voice spread throughout the cradle.
As if in response, the roots of the trees that make up the cradle wriggled and moved, and soon something in the shape of a person began to crawl out one by one.
Elves from the Leafre family coveted the World Tree.
Awakening as one with the tree, they were like the dead, neither alive nor dead.
Wood Zombie.
I had no choice but to call them that.
“Since we’ve come this far, we have no choice but to go all the way.”
Bentmin thought it was better.
okay. He did not give up on elves. rather transcendent.
He will now become one with the world tree and be reborn as an omnipotent being to achieve his longing.
It is to make this entire continent a paradise only for elves.
“John Doe. Drink the blood of you and the Plante child, and I will return this planet to its beginnings.”
“You’re very out of your mind. Who told you to do what you want?”
Bentmin shook his shoulders at those words and laughed.
“That is the right of the strong.”
The entire cradle began to vibrate at her gesture.
Wood zombies rose like an army, and the resonating branches and leaves of the World Tree swayed like they were blown by the wind.
“And here I am the Absolute.”
* * *
The troops of the three nobles, who had completely occupied the outer wall, were on the verge of attacking the inner castle.
The resistance of the inner wall was much stronger than that of the outer wall, but it was not enough to overcome the difference in troops.
Of course, from the moment they penetrated the castle gate, a war of attrition would take place in every complicated and narrow street corner of the castle, so they shouldn’t have predicted victory already.
Still, if this amount of troops were continuously put in, they would be able to push through no matter how much they went into sit-in.
Darish, the head of Radix, saw the cracked castle gates and called for his men.
“Everyone back down!”
“The head of household is stepping out!”
After confirming that the soldiers attacking the gate had retreated, Darish raised a large bow the size of himself.
Darish pulled the string with ease, which was difficult to pull even with several strong men clinging to it.
It was something so large that it could be called a javelin rather than an arrow.
Darish of the strong bow.
His nickname showed his presence again here.
The arrows fired collided with the solid castle gate and caused an explosion.
Its power was greater than that of dozens of elven soldiers working together.
The rags to the gate collapsed.
Wow!
The soldiers let out a shout of victory.
Darish was proud of himself and tried to give instructions.
“… … what.”
It would have been if the roots of countless trees hadn’t surged like a tidal wave from inside the collapsed castle.
