Like a drop of black ink falling onto a pure white canvas—
In a world dyed completely white, pitch-black darkness spread.
The darkness whirled like a vortex.
The World Tree’s beam of light collided with the darkness almost simultaneously.
The 6th-Circle dark-element spell [Dreamlike Darkness of Oblivion] had little power on its own.
Its sole effect was to absorb and extinguish the opponent’s magic by consuming it in reverse.
Like clapping hands—sound is only produced when both strike together.
In an empty environment, [Dreamlike Darkness of Oblivion] was utterly useless.
But the moment the opponent attacked—
And the stronger that force was—
The more the effect of Dreamlike Darkness of Oblivion increased in proportion.
The World Tree’s strike, powerful enough to wipe out an army, was sucked in as though water flowing down a drain.
For Ventmin, who had placed absolute faith in the World Tree’s power, it was a sight that shattered centuries of accumulated faith and common sense.
The world, which had blazed bright, slowly began to regain its original contrast of light and shadow.
It looked as if Ludger’s magic had completely blocked the World Tree’s attack.
But Ludger himself thought otherwise.
‘The power is too strong.’
He was desperately absorbing the light, converting it into energy, and redirecting it back into Dreamlike Darkness of Oblivion to maintain the spell’s output—
But the force pushing in was far greater than what he could redirect.
‘So, even with the strongest counter among 6th-Circle spells, all I can do is barely endure? As expected, this is the power of the World Tree.’
It was like opening every gate of a dam, yet the torrential flood was so severe the water was still rising.
At this rate, the dam would collapse entirely.
But Ludger had already anticipated that possibility.
As Dreamlike Darkness of Oblivion trembled precariously, Ludger measured his timing within a fraction of a second—as if splitting one second into hundreds.
If he slipped even slightly, he would vanish without leaving a speck of dust.
Not even an error of 0.1 seconds could be allowed.
“Ater Nocturnus!”
Ludger withdrew Dreamlike Darkness of Oblivion at the very brink of collapse.
The destructive energy, which had been held back, suddenly surged toward him again.
At that instant, Steel Raven spread its wings in front.
The shadow that cloaked its body stretched to its fullest extent, wrapping Ludger and Hans within its wings as if to protect them.
The rippling shadow transformed into a dome, and the destructive beam slammed into it.
The ray of light that seemed capable of piercing through everything suddenly twisted upward, shooting high into the sky.
The pure-white beam soared into the heavens and blasted a massive hole through part of the cage that loomed over the sky.
Regardless of the amount of force, the power of spatial distortion twisted its direction completely.
In some ways, it was like an advanced version of Lutus’s storm aura.
The reason he had not used it from the start but held it back was entirely to buy time.
‘If I had used this from the beginning, Ventmin would never have aimed her attack here.’
So he had waited—waited for the great strike.
Because in that moment, the World Tree would be defenseless.
Ventmin realized it too late.
She had been ensnared in Ludger’s psychological game.
“Stop them!”
Ventmin shrieked viciously.
Wood zombies rose from the ground, blocking the path of the three charging forward.
Vierno, who was about to blow them away with his wind spirit, frowned.
“These things! They’re different from before! They’ve grown stronger!”
Unlike before, when a mere punch shattered them like firewood—
This time, one actually raised its arms to block Vierno’s fist. Though it staggered back, its body did not break apart.
He might have been holding back, but the difference was undeniable.
Vierno’s warning quickly proved true.
Creak.
Wood zombies burst from the ground, their eyes glowing yellow.
If before they had only resembled crude human shapes, now they looked more like mannequins—their features clearer, and even clad in crude armor.
Some even held swords and spears made from the World Tree itself.
“That armor... the Royal Guard?”
Ambella muttered as she saw the wood zombies clad in armor.
The wood zombies moved.
Unlike before, when they merely charged blindly, now they formed ranks and launched coordinated assaults.
When Vierno struck with a fist full of wind, shield-bearers stepped forward and blocked the attack.
One alone couldn’t manage it, but more than ten wood zombies grouped together to absorb his blow.
As Vierno scowled at the recoil, long spears thrust through the gaps between shields in a barrage.
Ambella’s blade flashed like lightning, cutting down every spear and sweeping through the shield-bearers beyond.
But her expression was grim.
“Damn it. They’re far tougher than before.”
Lutus, who shattered incoming wood zombies into pieces with his storm aura, nodded.
“They get stronger as time passes, it seems?”
On top of the broken remains of the wood zombies, sprouts grew.
The sprouts quickly blossomed, and soon turned into trees as tall as men.
Then, their shapes twisted, transforming again into wood zombies.
No matter how many times they were killed, they rose again endlessly.
Worse still, they grew stronger with every resurrection.
“Uuugh!”
Just then, one of the elite soldiers who had followed Ambella was seized by a wood zombie.
Before anyone could save him, the wood zombies swarmed and bit into him savagely.
The elven soldier screamed, then his body began to shrivel like a mummy.
Moments later, his corpse crumbled into dust, and from that dust a tree sprouted upward.
“This... this can’t be.”
A comrade who had been fighting alongside them moments ago had risen again as a wood zombie.
And the ones rising one after another—many of their faces were familiar.
Some were soldiers who had died to the roots trying to breach the inner fortress, others from the houses of the Three Great Families.
“To think the World Tree possessed such authority.”
It was a rare opportunity Ludger had opened for them.
But at this rate, that chance would be wasted, swallowed whole.
Just as Vierno steeled himself, pale green arrows rained down on them.
Lutus deflected them lightly with storm mana, but irritation flickered in his eyes.
“So it doesn’t just produce soldiers, huh.”
Archers stood in the distance, and even forest druids wielding sorcery.
They could still push forward somehow—
But their speed slowed significantly, and eventually they had no choice but to halt.
Clang!
Lutus’s eyes sharpened at the wood zombie who had blocked his sword.
The swing he used contained the mystery of rotation—anyone trying to block would find their arm twisted apart.
Yet this wood zombie endured.
Ambella was just as shocked.
“You...!”
She clenched her teeth as she faced the elven warrior blocking her path.
It was a female elf, her form carved from wood, wielding a massive greatsword with a blank expression.
Ambella barely managed to block, but was flung backward.
If not for Vierno conjuring a cushion of air spirits to catch her, she would have fallen into the encirclement of wood zombies.
“Lady Ambella! Are you unharmed?”
“To be honest, not at all.”
“Who... who is that elf...?”
“My predecessor—the former head of House Burke.”
“What?!”
Vierno was aghast.
“T-then, that means...”
“Yes. She was my mother. Long ago, her life ended, and she was laid to rest in the World Tree.”
Elves born and raised in the forest, who ended their lives within it—
They died, yet their genetic essence was stored within the World Tree through the forest’s network.
And now they were being revived in the form of wood zombies.
“I never even managed to repay her properly in life... and now I face her like this.”
“Will you be all right?”
“All right? You should be worrying about yourself first.”
“...”
Vierno didn’t ask why.
Because before him appeared more familiar faces.
“Father. And Uncle, too.”
The figures of the late elders and heads of House Dentis—
Vierno’s expression sank heavily.
And it wasn’t just Dentis and Burke.
The data of generations of family heads was being reproduced through the World Tree as wood zombies.
Elven heroes of legend—
The wood zombies now manifesting were nothing less than a reenactment of elven history itself.
Lutus shook his head in disgust.
“To absorb armies and then create its own? What kind of nonsense is this?”
He realized he had involved himself in something he shouldn’t have.
But if they failed to stop this here, the Empire would be destroyed by the World Tree’s power.
Would it truly end with only the Exilion Empire?
No—this was a power that endangered the entire continent.
Human, beastkin, dwarf—it would spare no one.
“At this point, there’s no room to think about later. Even if we must bleed, we’ll have to break through by force.”
“That won’t be as simple as you make it sound.”
“What can’t be done? If we say we’ll do it, then we must. That’s the place we stand in now.”
Ambella nodded in agreement with Lutus’s words.
The other elves did as well.
From the moment they stepped into the heart of the rampaging World Tree, they had already resolved to sacrifice their lives.
They all knew it.
To hope to survive here was nothing but greed.
Someone would die.
It might be a comrade who had fought by their side, or it might be themselves.
But everyone present shared a single will.
They fought to protect everything.
To keep their beloved families, their friends, their comrades from dying.
They would fulfill that duty.
None here turned away from that ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) duty.
Even in such a hopeless situation—
Their will remained resolute.
Ambella laughed savagely.
“Come! Let’s go!”
Her gaze fixed on Sedina, seated upon the throne at the World Tree’s heart.
Ella’s daughter.
The child to whom she had given a name.
She resembled her.
Ambella thought such a foolish thing, even as she gripped her sword and charged forward.
Wood zombies blocked her path, and arrows rained down.
Not ordinary arrows, but ones fashioned from the World Tree itself.
Reinforced with the power of elven heroes, this was an attack that could not be endured by defense alone.
Knowing this, Ambella chose to advance instead.
“Rear support? We’re not outdone in that!”
At that instant, countless pillars of light flew over her shoulders, erasing the arrows the wood zombies had fired.
Then they struck straight into the rear ranks of the wood zombies, sweeping them away in one blow.
With the white explosion, fragments of shattered wood zombies scattered in all directions.
Beyond them, Ludger flew, his form surrounded by radiant brilliance.
6th-Circle, light-element grand magic.
[Boundless Supreme Heaven of Light]
Endless pillars of light poured down like a rainstorm.
Already drained of artifacts and spirit by deflecting the World Tree’s beam once, Ludger had spent immense reserves of willpower. But he could not stop now.
Ambella could feel that determination vividly.
“Go, My Lady!”
One of her retainers threw himself into the wood zombies, seizing them.
Knowing he could never match foes who had once been called heroes, he still gave his life so his lord could take just one more step.
“It has been an honor!”
Another retainer flung himself with all his might into their ranks.
The wood zombies swarmed him, biting his body to pieces.
Even as they tore him apart, he laughed and cut into their throats.
“...Foolish children.”
Ambella did not look back.
She shed no tears. She did not grieve.
But she carried their spirit forward, driving her legs to run harder.
The encirclement broke, and Ambella, Lutus, and Vierno broke through.
No other retainers escaped.
Neither those of Burke, nor those of Dentis.
The branches of the World Tree shook.
Between the glittering leaves, beams of light fell like lances of judgment.
Golden spears pierced down through Ludger’s Boundless Supreme Heaven of Light.
Lutus stepped forward, unleashing his aura.
Wind-element aura—Tempest.
The tangible storm aura spun into a colossal vortex.
The vortex clashed with the golden spears, scattering light in every direction.
“Go!”
Vierno and Ambella sprinted upward, their feet stepping against the World Tree’s trunk as though climbing.
The surface swelled, disgorging new wood zombies that fell toward them like debris.
Hastily created, they were not hero-class elves.
But their sheer numbers gave the illusion the world itself was collapsing.
Vierno merged with the wind spirit, soaring high.
Other spirits joined at his will.
With each punch and kick, dozens of wood zombies burst apart or were hurled away.
But more came to replace the broken than those destroyed.
Overwhelming numbers.
At this rate, they would be buried and dragged down.
Vierno made his decision.
He released his union with the wind spirit and passed that power directly to Ambella.
“You...?”
“Go!”
Shouted with all his strength, Vierno’s figure was swallowed by the swarm of wood zombies.
Ambella, infused with the spirit’s power, pressed onward with a grim face, racing vertically up the World Tree.
With everyone’s help, she at last reached the throne and gazed upon the deep hollow at its heart.
Within the prison of thorns sat Sedina, as if asleep.
That child—Ella Plante’s daughter.
The child she had once named.
Ambella raised her sword and swung it down.
Kang!
The hard thorn cage did not yield even to her blade.
But Ambella did not stop.
She recovered her sword and struck again with explosive force.
If once was not enough, then twice.
If twice was not enough, then thrice.
If still not enough, then a hundred, a thousand times.
Each strike hammered into the prison of thorns.
Her palms split, even the calluses of long years giving way under the recoil.
Yet Ambella laughed as if in joy.
Because cracks were spreading, little by little.
“Stop her!”
Ventmin Lifret commanded the World Tree.
Just as Ambella swung again, the thorns stretched out and stabbed toward her.
It happened too suddenly to dodge.
Her arm was skewered and severed beneath the shoulder.
Blood spurted with pain.
“Kh...!”
But the light in Ambella’s eyes did not die.
With her remaining hand, she gripped her greatsword and set her stance.
“You stubborn fool! You’d still swing in that state?!”
Ventmin moved to strike her down with the thorns once more—
Then her body jerked.
Her gaze shifted slowly toward one side of the cradle.
There, with both hands pressed against it, glaring at her—stood Bellaruna.
“Do not forget me.”
At the same instant as Ventmin’s cry, Ambella’s sword came down.
Kwagagagak!
The prison of thorns that had withstood so many assaults shattered apart.
Seeing the barrier gone from her path, Ambella smirked faintly.
“...After all this, and still I’m not the protagonist.”
Her body tilted sideways—
And someone caught her.
Rising from her shadow was Ludger.
“Well done.”
“Enough... see to the child first...”
“I know.”
Gently laying Ambella down, Ludger stepped toward Sedina.
She sat upon the throne like a princess in a fairy tale slumber.
“Awaken, Sedina.”
Ludger spoke as he grasped with both hands the crown of thorns encircling her head.