Eat The World Tree

Chapter 324: Collapse Of The Cradle (9)

White mist, mixed with moonlight, met the clouds and thickly filled the surroundings.

-Swooooosh!

Raindrops began to fall.

A sky dominated by yellow stars.

Liquid droplets floating in the air steadily soaked the paths of the cradle’s forest.

The leaves of the thicket began to wither.

-Crackle!

The dried and twisted bark started to split.

The bare trees bowed their heads one by one, and as the cradle was revealed, the priests within began to move belatedly.

The forest’s calamity.

-Squelch.

A camera that had been drifting powerlessly in the air fell and was buried in the muddy ground.

[Ziiing- Ziiing.]

The faint flicker of its lens captured the surroundings from the mud.

[Aaaahhhh!]

[Save, save me!]

Melting figures screamed.

Countless trees in the forest shook their bodies wildly.

Black shadows swayed like tentacles. Twisted branches and dissolving leaves.

The camera that recorded this scene slowly lost its light, along with the trees.

-Step, step.

“Ha.”

A red-haired woman stepped onto the dead ground.

The desperate writhing of trees reflected in her corneas.

Hongyeon opened her mouth but could not speak for a long time.

“……Ha, hahahaha.”

Disgust and contempt. Her crimson eyes burned red, compressing every emotion.

Scarlet magic surged through her entire body.

“Ah.”

The world she saw for the first time in years was as she expected.

Life, or anything else—nothing remained to be protected in the ashes.

Until she burned away, this world would—

“…….”

-Plop.

The fleeting, blurry world.

Raindrops traced down Hongyeon’s eyelids.

“They’re coming.”

-Bzzt, bzzzt.

The radio beside me vibrated violently.

Because I was in the middle of battle, I couldn’t respond.

What was clear was that the invasion of the Cradle had just begun.

-Wheeeeeeee!

“Everyone, come out!!!”

At the same time the siren installed inside the hotel blared, the individuals I had pre-ordered into position began to move.

A voice amplified with magic was so loud that even from far away, I had to cover my ears.

‘Should I move?’

Flower’s target was not the hotel.

Their goal was to destroy the Tree Residence to the east, along with the sanctum, the sacred ground, and candidates for the World Tree and its numerous saplings.

The underground of the hotel also housed some saplings and World Trees, but very few.

Our task was to get the civilians in the hotel safely up the mountain.

“Hey.”

As I raised my fist, fragments of flesh fell to the ground.

Leaving the headless body of a woman behind, I turned my head.

My gaze fell on a woman covered in blood, glaring at me.

“…Tree Spirit King.”

“You know me?”

Mahogany. I recognized her as someone from the Caribbean.

“How… did you get here…?”

“You don’t need to know that.”

I pulled the broken blade lodged in my back outwards.

If she were to unleash her power as a National Tree, even I wouldn’t easily gain the upper hand.

So before she could use Woodification, I rendered her combat incapable.

“Why… are you siding with the World Tree?”

Mahogany, her limbs mangled, screamed.

“What.”

“Why are you helping those bastards? Why on earth?!”

On the brink of death, she hurled her resentment at me.

-Step.

I stood up and took a step closer.

My footprints remained in the pool of blood.

A brief flash of fear crossed her once-proud face.

“…You know nothing, you fool. Do you even think about why someone like me—a tree-being—is helping Flower?”

I gently lifted my foot.

“Use your brain if you have a head!”

“…….”

“The world is rotten. You know that, don’t you? Tree Spirit King!!”

With a voice filled with contempt, she screamed until the end.

Blood mixed with her cracked voice as she wheezed, trembling, eyes tightly shut, hair disheveled.

“…Damn it. Damn you.”

I raised my foot a little higher.

“Even now—”

-Crack!

Thud.

I stepped out of the room.

My body was riddled with minor injuries.

The healing authority for Sansuyu had been interrupted midway, yet my authority overflowed.

Over the months of healing Sansuyu, my authority had grown stronger.

Even without using it, my body naturally recovered itself.

The areas where bone had been exposed quickly healed over with flesh.

Leaning against the door for a moment, I spread my magic to scan the surroundings.

‘Flower’s magic is so conspicuous, it wasn’t hard to locate.’

Main Control Room.

It was the hub that controlled the hotel’s entrances, servers, and security artifacts.

Sensing faint magic, I had entered immediately.

I thought it was just groundwork, but it seemed Flower intended to see this through to the end.

I had unlocked all the doors.

In this situation where identifying friend or foe was impossible, tampering would bring no benefit.

‘Since they haven’t taken over the system, the chances of them coming here are high.’

-Thump, thump, thump!

As expected.

[Shiheon?]

“Yes, Sage.”

[Ah, I can hear you now.]

The voice resonated directly in my head.

Unfazed by the direct communication, I answered calmly.

[Your response is excellent. The cadets are entering just now.]

“Has there been any engagement?”

[Two places. Should I give you the coordinates now?]

“I’ll monitor the situation from the control room first.”

Originally, issuing commands during unexpected situations was Maronnie’s role.

However, unforeseen events sometimes occurred.

[Hyung, are you listening?]

“Yeah.”

[From the area below the mountain to the airport, it’s fine. But there are quite a lot of mages up top. Suyeon and Saku have gone to the hotel entrance, and most of it should be handled.]

“What about the National Trees?”

[They haven’t shown up yet. It looks like they’re moving toward the foundation. What about you?]

“I dealt with two of them near the control room. One of them was a National Tree.”

[Okay. You’re going to hold that position, right?]

“Yeah.”

Taeyang had taken the lead.

He was more than enough to fill the gap.

The National Trees seemed well-trained for such a situation.

They moved far better than I had anticipated.

‘Well, the National Trees are trained to respond to nearly every situation. It’d be strange if they panicked.’

Protecting civilian lives was the top priority.

The constant talk of it wasn’t just a show.

-Tak, tak, tak, tak!

Footsteps echoed down the corridor.

Not long after, a group of figures in robes began flooding in.

[Hyung, so what about that person?]

Maronnie.

-Tatatatak!

[If we’re not careful, your identity might get exposed.]

A cultist wielding a sword approached swiftly, their steps fluid and refined.

The mana imbued in the blade shone as if it would slice my neck at any moment.

“Hup!”

With a cry, they swung the sword at me.

I stepped forward, scanning the surroundings with my mana.

Four attackers advancing ahead.

Two behind, casting magic.

Seeing the thickly connected lines of mana, I identified them as rare support mages.

“I’ll handle it.”

Replying briefly to Taeyang, I moved.

I dodged the blade and smashed the cultist’s abdomen.

Bone and organs shattered as I swung the corpse into the next target.

-Kwajik!

The second cultist, overwhelmed by force, was crushed along with the body.

I charged forward.

There was no need for evasive measures.

With black mana cloaking my entire body, I met the approaching sword head-on.

-Clang!

The blade, which had stabbed my shoulder, split in half with a metallic sound.

“…Ugh!”

“Gah!”

Without giving them time to realize, I finished them off and continued forward.

Sensing the ominous energy, the two mages quickly pulled back their staves.

They seemed ready to flee.

I formed the mistletoe around my wrist into a small dagger and imbued it with mana.

I threw it with all my strength.

-Slice!

The chilling sound of flesh being torn.

The thinly cast barrier had no effect.

The two mages, daggers embedded in their necks and heads, collapsed.

I recalled the mistletoe back, wrapping it around my fist.

The black liquid solidified into a gauntlet around my right arm.

I picked up the radio and called Taeyang.

“Send Aori up to the control room.”

-Bzzt.

[Understood.]

There was no way the National Trees wouldn’t appear.

If their goal were to destroy the foundation, the airport, or the sacred ground, Mahogany wouldn’t have been here.

Their intent was to take control of the hotel.

It was clear they aimed to harm civilians.

Those who were supposed to protect civilians were now trying to kill cadets.

-Kwaaang!

A massive explosion sounded from the first floor of the hotel.

At the same time, Aori burst in, using magic as she ran toward me, completely ignoring the corpses around her.

Blood was smeared all over her body, likely from a recent fight.

“King, should I just defend this place?”

“Yes. Step aside if it’s anyone other than Flower. You can at least tell the difference, right?”

Aori nodded.

There were too many types of artifacts, and their functions were known only to those involved. I couldn’t touch anything.

After receiving a brief update on the outside situation from Aori, I headed for the hotel’s exterior.

‘Fortunately, the defoliant stopped spreading midway.’

The hotel had not been exposed to the defoliant.

I had anticipated this and prepared accordingly, but situations were always unpredictable.

The upper levels of the hotel, where there were no guest rooms, were now filled with corpses—Flower members, guards, and hunters alike.

-Tatatatak!

Footsteps echoed again.

I prepared magic in advance.

Black mana swirled into spinning wind arrows.

Timing it perfectly, I released the Gale Shot.

-Kwaaang!

The Flower members fell without realizing they had been attacked, their screams abruptly cut short as the floor collapsed and they fell into the hallway below.

‘Did they use spatial magic to enter?’

They would surely know the coordinates.

After all, obtaining artifacts wasn’t that difficult.

Pausing briefly, I called out to Luci.

“Luci.”

<Yes, my lord.>

“The location?”

<I’ll send it right now. But…>

Luci’s voice echoed, sounding hesitant.

<…It seems they’re waiting for you, my lord.>

[Chirp, chirp!!!!]

The tree sparrows flying in the sky cried out at the top of their lungs.

[Everyone~! This way!!]

The chefs in the dining hall, bartenders, and numerous service workers hired for the cadets’ leisure.

Excluding the participants of the Forester Selection Competition, many civilians still lived here.

If half of the island belonged to the Cradle Foundation, the other half consisted of buildings for minimal living needs.

Even excluding the hotel, there were many people to rescue.

Large groups of people began converging toward one point.

“Kyaaaahhh!”

Yet the chaos intensified.

Many people fell into panic, screaming aloud.

Some clutched their heads, shouting in disbelief, while others collapsed to the ground, sobbing that they didn’t want to die.

It was natural.

The Cradle did not provide a way for humans to escape.

Unless priests or paladins were visible nearby—which they weren’t—only a few hunters heading toward the upper levels could be seen. They were doing little for civilian rescue.

Most of these people knew.

Humans and tree-beings were insignificant to the World Tree.

While many World Trees and saplings used artifacts to escape to other sanctums, the civilians were left completely exposed to harm.

‘The response is too slow.’

Suyeon bit her lower lip, her white sword resting on the ground.

‘Even if this was unexpected… it shouldn’t have been this delayed.’

Something had gone wrong.

There had to be a fatal error in the Cradle’s system.

-Grrrrrk.

Wolves that had lost their sanity and dungeon monsters began swarming in one after another.

Due to the Cradle’s magic-rich terrain, dungeons were abundant.

The first trial also used one of those dungeons.

This meant that the dungeon control had fallen into Flower’s hands.

The absence of enough paladins and hunters indicated they were reclaiming important seized locations.

‘Even so, this is far too slow.’

Belatedly, the National Trees joined in.

The civilians now had sufficient protection.

A few cadets, burning with a sense of justice, joined in as well, forming a defensive line along the mountain path to guard the civilians.

As long as direct subordinates of the higher-ups or a traitorous National Tree didn’t appear, there were no variables.

Or so it seemed.

-Kwaaaaang!

A deafening explosion shook the air.

The shape of a human plummeted from the sky and hit the ground—thud.

Dust clouds swirled, and droplets of blood splattered into the air.

When the dusty fog cleared, a woman staggered to her feet.

“……Saku?”

A tail formed of mana stretched out from her lower back.

Her ears stood pointed atop her head, hair fluttering.

Her hands and feet bore sharp claws, and cherry blossoms swirled around her like a vortex.

Saku’s body was a bloodied mess.

She didn’t seem to register Suyeon’s position. Instead, she kept her wary eyes on a single point in the sky. Moments later, a woman in a fox mask descended to the ground.

-Wooooong!

Mana rippled through the air.

The pressure pressing against the earth signaled that this opponent was no ordinary foe.

Suyeon drew on her own mana, preparing to act.

Saku stared at the woman.

“What the…?”

Her eyes widened in disbelief, unable to comprehend the situation.

There was a hint of despair in her gaze.

“Why? Why… are you here? Onee-sama?”

Two cherry trees scattered their blossoms, each proclaiming its brilliance as though competing with one another.

Suyeon frowned as she looked at the fox-masked woman who had suddenly appeared.

‘That person…’

-Boom!

Another explosion rang out.

Suyeon’s body twisted unnaturally as she blocked the attack coming from behind.

One by one, they were appearing.

A man with white hair slicked back stood there, excitement flashing across his face.

He made no attempt to hide his hostility.

It was Meihwa, China’s National Tree.

A chilling sensation ran down Suyeon’s spine.

The pressure in the air weighed heavily, as if crushing her.

It was nothing like the trial. The sheer oppressive energy almost brought her to her knees.

The difference in skill was so stark that she forgot to breathe.

Even if they both unleashed, could she win?

Even if she used her authority to its full extent…

‘…Stay focused.’

Suyeon steadied her sword.

-Drip.

A drop of sweat fell from her chin.

“I’ve finally found the woman I need to kill.”

Meihwa muttered in an indifferent tone.

Gritting her teeth, Suyeon locked eyes with him.

Two forces of white mana flared up, boiling in different directions.