The forest’s space was still trembling under the pressure of Walterk’s presence.
His massive axe rested on his shoulder, and the army behind him stood waiting in a heavy silence, but before he could take another step, his gaze suddenly shifted away from Daniel.
And fixed on Elisira.
That look alone was enough to make the princess’s breath catch in her chest. The feeling was not like when she was facing Daniel.
Daniel was terrifying, but his calmness was more like a cold void. He never used his aura and presence alone to frighten someone.
And especially the indifference in the depths of Daniel’s eyes made her realize that as long as she didn’t do anything wrong, her life would be safe.
But Walterk...
He was like an ancient predator who had smelled blood and death thousands of times.
A raw, heavy, instinctive pressure radiated from his gaze; a pressure that even made the mana around Elisira unstable.
She felt like she might collapse at any moment. The terror that had consumed her at this moment could not be easily expressed with words alone.
When had she, the princess of the Holy Empire, ever experienced such a thing in her life? When had she ever been in such a horrific situation?
But then she remembered that in front of an Eternal Warrior, her status as princess of the Holy Empire meant nothing.
For a moment, several commanders behind Walterk suddenly noticed her presence, and their faces changed.
"Wait..."
"Isn’t that... Princess Elisira?" One of them stepped forward in disbelief.
Immediately, a murmur spread through the army. Gazes changed.
Doubt, astonishment, and even suspicion, because the presence of the Holy Empire’s princess next to a being now called the "heretic monster" by the entire continent carried dangerous implications.
Some soldiers unconsciously placed their hands on their weapons.
But Walterk didn’t even take his gaze off Elisira. He just looked at her for a few seconds.
"Princess of the Holy Empire... next to a being the whole continent wants to hunt." Then he said quietly.
He paused briefly, and his voice grew heavier.
"Interesting." He wasn’t judging, at least not yet.
His eyes were like a beast that first examines its prey, then decides whether to tear it apart or not.
Elisira tried to remain calm, but for the first time since coming to this forest, she was truly under pressure.
Not just because of Walterk, but because of all the gazes now locked onto her.
If she said the wrong thing, the empire could be in trouble. Right now, she was not just Elisira; since her identity was known, she stood before them as the princess of the empire.
The slightest wrong sentence could have a very heavy price for both her and the Holy Empire.
To the extent that the empire might have no choice but to execute her to calm the continent’s public anger.
After all, she was currently standing next to the public enemy of the entire continent, a man who had disobeyed the Divine Prophet’s order.
’Damn it! How can I even explain myself?’ She sighed at her misfortune.
Was her curiosity really going to be the death of her?
"I did not come here for conflict or enmity." But despite all that pressure, she said directly.
"But you are standing next to the enemy." Walterk answered almost without pause.
Silence grew heavy again, but before the pressure could increase further, Daniel’s quiet voice echoed through the space.
"She doesn’t matter."
All eyes turned back to him.
Daniel was still sitting under the tree, as if neither a massive army had surrounded him nor one of the top ten Eternal Warriors stood before him.
"If you want to fight... fight." His gaze briefly swept over the army.
This girl had brought him the book and could be of more help in the future. That’s why he couldn’t let something happen to her so easily.
"And if you’re scared, you can go back."
In an instant, the army’s space exploded. Mana pressure rose, and several commanders stepped forward.
Anger rippled across the warriors’ faces. Directly insulting an Eternal Warrior? In front of thousands of his followers?
If this wasn’t courting death, then what was? They were now certain that this monster was insane, because no one would dare do such a thing.
But Walterk only raised his hand slightly, and everything went silent.
Just a single gesture, and this showed why he was one of the top ten Eternal Warriors.
His authority needed no shouting.
Walterk looked at Daniel again, this time deeper, and understood something: Daniel was not pretending. He truly was not afraid of this army. And this... was dangerous.
"Either he’s insane..." The thought crossed Walterk’s mind.
"Or he’s truly confident."
"If you have this much power... why haven’t you moved from that area?" Then he suddenly asked a different question.
Elisira’s eyes widened slightly. That was right, and thinking about it, she realized she had never seen this man move away from this tree.
This was not a simple question. Walterk had noticed: Daniel had always stayed close to the tree.
He had never moved away. That meant either there was a limitation, or a very important reason for him to stay.
Could it be that this monster’s power and invincibility came from being next to the tree? Could he have been wrong, and this monster draws its power from the tree?
’Or perhaps the tree only amplifies his power, not that all his power belongs to the tree.’ This reasoning might be the most logical.
For the first time, Daniel did not answer immediately. He was silent for a few seconds, because in the truest sense, he didn’t know how to answer such a stupid question.
The only reason he didn’t get up was because he was too lazy to do so, and besides, there was no need... without getting up, he had defeated all his opponents so far.
So why should he get up?
And this silence made Walterk’s gaze deepen further.
"Anyway... it doesn’t matter." Then suddenly a small smile appeared on the Eternal Warrior’s scarred face.
He raised his massive axe, a simple, easy motion, as if he just wanted to chop a piece of wood.
But at that moment, the entire forest groaned. Mana was compressed madly, and space cracked.
And then the axe came down, and at the same time, it was as if the world exploded.
A terrible, raw, destructive power shot forward like a flood of annihilation.
The ground split along the attack’s path, trees vaporized, distant mountains were split in half.
Even space itself rippled for a moment, as if Walterk’s strike had pushed to the brink of spacetime collapse.
The sound of the explosion swallowed the entire forest. Dust, soil, and debris covered everything.
The shockwave forced the army behind Walterk to step back several paces.
And behind the tree, nothing remained. The entire forest had been flattened, the mountains destroyed.
The ground for kilometers had become a massive, scorched crater.
"Let’s see if you survived this." This attack was directed straight at killing Daniel and destroying the tree.
As for Elisira? Unfortunately, she had been standing next to Daniel, and he doubted anything remained of that girl either.
Only silence remained, the silence that comes after a disaster.
Then slowly, the dust cleared, and something was revealed that made even Walterk’s eyes truly change for the first time.
But Daniel was still sitting there, motionless and without a single wound.
And the tree behind him was completely unharmed.
But this was not what shocked Walterk.
Rather, what stood before them.
A wall. Not made of mana, not of any element or anything known, but of absolute darkness.
A black, deep space that seemed to have swallowed reality itself.
Its surface rippled slowly, devouring every particle of energy left from Walterk’s attack; as if the strike that could destroy cities had been merely food for that darkness.
And in the center of that darkness, Daniel’s eyes glowed quietly. For the first time, no small smile appeared on Walterk’s face.
Instead, he fell silent, because now he understood that the being sitting before him might truly be a monster beyond this world’s comprehension.