Chapter 140
---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------
Chapter 140
Soon, a colossal tree erupted from beneath the Flower Field—the damned tree that had pierced through Diego's abdomen.
Crash—
As the tree surged upward, the sound of shattering glass pierced the air. There had been a Barrier.
It seemed the tree itself had created the Barrier. Now I understood why the three men hadn't heard my calls.
Belatedly catching the sound, the three men rushed toward me in panic.
"What is this?! Margaret!"
"Margaret, are you alright?!"
"Flone Young Lady! What on earth is that tree?!"
Kaiden, Enoch, and Rujeep shouted in chaos. I sat frozen in place, staring at the tree before me. Diego had vanished from sight, leaving only the massive tree looming in my vision.
"That thing took Diego. It said I was being coerced. It's trying to extort my magical power by using him as bait... What do I do? Diego isn't... he's not dead, is he?"
I grabbed Enoch's collar desperately. At my words, all three men snapped their gazes toward the tree.
Enoch wrapped an arm around my shoulders and lifted me to my feet, stroking my head soothingly to calm me.
"Diego will be fine. We'll save him."
"But wait, that tree wasn't here before."
I heard Kaiden's bewildered murmur.
Then, the flashlight containing the Silver Earthworm emitted an extraordinary burst of light. In an instant, the surroundings blazed as bright as midday.
Against the brilliantly illuminated backdrop, the colossal tree—suffused with a soft, ethereal glow—became far more distinct than before.
I stared at it in a daze for a moment, then gasped in shock as I noticed something densely embedded across the tree's surface.
'What... what is that?!'
Things resembling human faces were thickly embedded into the tree's trunk.
It was grotesque and horrifying. My entire body trembled as overwhelming dread washed over me.
Then, the bizarre faces clustered against the tree slowly rotated. I swallowed hard, my expression tense, and stared at them intently.
Dozens of faces, now turned, fixed their gaze directly upon me. An overwhelming tide of attention crashed down upon me.
"Gasp!"
Rujeep collapsed to the ground.
"Those... those are them! The ones that surrounded us the day Diego went missing!"
They were like a tree formed from tens of thousands of gathered spirits.
[Found—]
A massive, alien resonance thrummed through the Cave, reverberating with a sound like dozens of voices merged into one. It was utterly grotesque.
It was so repulsively horrifying that my skin crawled.
"Damn it, what is this?"
Kaiden drew his dagger. Enoch likewise unsheathed his longsword, standing guard.
The tree branch that had pierced Diego's abdomen seemed reluctant to approach us, as if repelled by the light the Silver Earthworm emitted.
I had thought the flashlight was merely a light source using the Silver Earthworm, but somehow it bore the inscription "Alea." It must have been modified for this specific purpose.
Since Jenath gave me this flashlight while instructing me to find the Mother of Monsters, had he foreseen all of this?
'Could that be the Mother of Monsters?'
Nothing else in this vicinity could display such overwhelming power. It had to be the Mother of Monsters.
[Magical power—]
That voice unmistakably came from the tree. And the "magical power" it kept uttering clearly referred to my own.
'Jenath said something about how Margaret smells delicious—different from other people.'
That's what Jenath had said.
The tree before my eyes certainly seemed to be the Mother of Monsters, but its appearance was so utterly different from what I'd imagined that I found myself profoundly bewildered.
I'd naturally assumed it would take the form of some final boss-like monstrosity.
"I have no idea what that thing is. By the aura it's giving off, it doesn't seem like a mere specter—more like a mass of vengeful spirits."
Enoch muttered quietly as he studied the creatures.
Enoch's words held the most weight. It was possible that the test subjects who had died unjustly on this Island had become vengeful spirits.
Just like those skulls in the Bunker.
I stared blankly at the tree, lost in thought.
Why had it taken Diego specifically? Rujeep had always been fortunate. But Rujeep was there too at the time—so why had it left him alone?
'Is Diego still alive?'
I had no idea where it had taken him. His abdomen had looked completely pierced through. I swallowed hard.
Please let him be alive.
"It seems like those worms are preventing us from getting closer, aren't they?"
Kaiden, who had been quietly assessing the situation, pointed at the flashlight in my hand as he spoke.
"That's true, but staying in this stalemate indefinitely won't help. I need to figure out what they want..."
Then the tree branches, which had been swaying like a dance, suddenly stopped.
[Bad ones-]
A strange resonant sound echoed through the Cave again.
'Bad ones? All of a sudden?'
In my moment of confusion, the tree's grotesque voice sounded once more.
[Must kill-]
A chilling sound reverberated through the space.
[Kill- kill- kill- kill-]
I covered my ears. The pain was as though my eardrums were tearing apart.
"Ahhh! Stop!"
At my scream-like cry, the sound ceased.
"Margaret, are you alright?"
"Are you okay?"
Enoch and Kaiden asked in quick succession. I nodded with difficulty and pushed myself to my feet. That's when something flickered between the tree branches, which glowed with a pure white light.
"Wait—isn't that Diego?"
All three men turned their heads toward where I was pointing.
Diego hung suspended in the air, his entire body bound tightly by the tree branches.
"Looks like it."
Enoch replied with a troubled tone, and I turned to Kaiden.
"Is Diego—is he dying?"
Kaiden furrowed his brow and answered.
"As long as he's still breathing, we can save him. As long as he's still breathing, we can. So hurry."
"Could that be the Mother of Monsters?"
Rujeep glanced back at the tree and opened his mouth. Enoch and Kaiden looked at me.
"That seems to be correct."
"Then shouldn't we burn it away?"
At Rujeep's words, everyone turned their gaze toward Silver Earthworm.
Silver Earthworm, who had been peering in front of the flashlight that had fallen to the ground, lifted his head. His innocent face tilted in confusion, as if he couldn't understand why he had suddenly become the center of attention.
We turned our attention back to the Tree.
Rujeep, staring at the Tree, shuddered as if seized by a chill. Following his lead, I gazed once more at Diego wedged between the Tree's branches.
"But wouldn't Diego get hurt in the process?"
Whether the Tree understood our conversation or not, it suddenly responded.
[Won't let go—]
"These things without substance...."
Kaiden cried out in exasperation.
Though it was called the Mother of Monsters, it seemed less like a true monster and more like the vengeful spirits of victims that had coalesced and evolved to this grotesque state.
How much resentment must they have harbored.
Of course, that didn't excuse their attack on Diego or their attempt to steal my magical power.
[Evil ones—]
The spirits composing the Tree convulsed. The sight was quite horrifying.
[Those who killed us—]
I covered my ears again. The shrill voice was like a blade tearing through my eardrums.
[Kill them all—]
Enoch raised both hands and covered my ears with me. It seemed their talk of killing wasn't directed at us.
"The way they say 'those ones' suggests they're some kind of organization. Could it be the organization Jenath belongs to?"
"We can accept that they want Margaret's magical power. But what connection do those people have with Diego that they won't release him?"
It was at that moment Kaiden voiced his doubt.
[This bloodline—! This filthy—!]
Suddenly the Tree shrieked. Then it shook Diego's body, which was bound tightly by its branches, in rage.
[Must kill— Power— Give it— Power—!]
Following that, the Tree's branches, still emitting a pure white light, lunged at me with violent intent.
The force was so fierce that the fireflies inside the flashlight burst out and scattered rapidly in escape.
Screech!
Kaiden and Enoch slashed at the Tree with their short sword and longsword respectively, while Silver Earthworm spewed flames wildly with an angry expression.
I left the fighting to them and huddled with Rujeep to devise a way to extract Diego.
"Would it calm down if I gave it my magical power?"
"Didn't you hear? Once the Young Lady's magical power is given, they seemed ready to kill Diego immediately."
That was true. They really did seem ready to send Diego to the other side. They appeared to harbor such deep resentment toward Diego.
I groaned and looked back at the Tree. Enoch, Kaiden, and Silver Earthworm were engaged in fierce combat against it.
I recalled what the Tree had said moments ago, pointing at Diego and calling him "filthy" and "this bloodline."
Perhaps it was related to Diego's family.
Just as Kaiden had been dragged here due to his connection to the Rohade Family, perhaps everyone had been selected as sacrifices for reasons beyond just their magical power.
"But why does the Mother of Monsters look exactly like it was formed from the vengeful spirits of humans?"
Rujeep raised a probing question that cut to the heart of the matter.
"That's right.... You said there were other test subjects on this Island. Those must be their vengeful spirits. There were similar ones in the Bunker too."
"In the Bunker as well?!"
"Yes. There were skeletons there, and they were all wearing combat uniforms from the Romalisan Battle."
"What?! Romalisan Battle uniforms.... Then they must have been Clergy and mages."
Rujeep's complexion turned ashen.
"It seems the vengeful spirits accumulated and accumulated until they became like that. And on top of that, they even possess the power to evolve the Monsters more powerfully...."
So the vengeful spirits of the test subjects were triggering the Monsters' evolution. It was a rather grotesque phenomenon.
Those who died as experimental subjects, harboring resentment—didn't they want to kill Jenath and destroy this Island?
If this tree of vengeful spirits was itself a massive accumulation of magical power, and if that's why it desires my power....
'Ah, Meg. Want to know the last way to survive on this Island? There's something on the Northern Island East that serves as the mother of the Monsters. If you destroy that, the Monsters will probably stop evolving.'
The question was whether I could trust Jenath's words at face value.
"The aura it's giving off is ominous. If they're souls of those who were used in experiments and harbor resentment, they'd definitely want to destroy the Island. I suspect that tree's evolution of the Monsters serves that very purpose."
"That makes sense."
"It seems they desire my power because they're seeking greater strength. What if destroying that mother causes a rift in the Island?"
"Then all the more reason we must eliminate it, but how do we destroy...."
Rujeep furrowed his brow and turned to observe the tree, his words trailing off.
After gazing at the tree in silence for a long while, Rujeep spoke to me in an unusually low and solemn voice.
"Young Lady, do you believe in God?"
"No. I don't."
Had I answered too firmly? Yet Rujeep continued undeterred.
"Vengeful spirits exist abundantly throughout the Empire. Wherever humans dwell, they can be found. The Papal See even has a separate department dedicated to managing them."
I immediately grasped what Rujeep was saying. In the place where I once lived, there were organizations and institutions that performed similar roles.
"A powerful spiritual force, a vessel imbued with sacred power, combined with weather like today's raging storm—such a combination could appease and contain that mass of vengeful spirits."
"What is a vessel imbued with sacred power?"
"The Clergy."
"...What?"
"I will become the vessel, containing all those vengeful spirits within my body."
---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------