Chapter 233: ·A Spectacle

Kayan and Romina’s assessment of Forest Home’s current situation plunged everyone into silence. Not enough manpower. The regeneration speed was too fast. Every conclusion pointed toward the same hopeless dead end.

Newborn Formless Spawn continued crawling out from the corpses of the Wood Elves without pause. The heart-rending screams and the sickening sounds of flesh being devoured never stopped for even a moment.

Nolan’s brows knitted tightly together.

It was true. The situation was already far better than it had been in his previous life, yet Rosm’s planning had clearly extended several steps further ahead. He had even accounted for his own death as part of the scheme. Trying to solve the problem through the simplest and most direct method was no longer possible. They would have to uproot the source entirely.

The instant the thought formed, Nolan made his decision.

“Holy Hammer Division! Vivi! Rehanna! Everyone, abandon the destruction of the nodes!” His voice rang loudly across the battlefield. “Focus all efforts on killing those monsters! Save whoever you can and buy us as much time as possible!”

Once the orders were given, Nolan turned and caught the nearly collapsing Romina. As the Blood Refinement Altar continued operating, her complexion worsened by the second. She looked utterly exhausted, her lips dry and cracked.

“Romina, can you still move?”

“I can feel… my strength and life force… being continuously drained…” Romina gasped heavily, every breath trembling with pain.

A gentle radiance lit up Nolan’s palm. “I still have one chance left to heal you. Take me to the Foundation of Life. If the nodes can’t be destroyed easily, then we still have the Fountain of Potential. We’ll solve this problem at its source!”

As long as they severed the formation’s connection to the Foundation of Life, those endlessly regenerating nodes would naturally lose their ability to restore themselves.

Yet just before the warm light could touch her, Romina pushed Nolan’s hand away. “No…” She shook her head weakly. “Don’t waste it on me…”

Meeting Nolan’s questioning gaze, she gently held his hand as though reassuring him.

“Don’t worry about me. I can still endure. Listen to me, Nolan… go find Finley. He’s the heir of the Flourishing Leaves family. His family has guarded the Foundation of Life for generations. On the path leading to the core of the Foundation, there’s a powerful life barrier. Only the inherited cipher passed down through the guardian bloodline can open it… In our current situation, we simply don’t have time to break through it by force.”

Nolan immediately understood. Compared to Romina, Finley was far more important right now. This was no time for hesitation or empty sentimentality. He nodded heavily. “Understood. Vivi, Rehanna, protect Romina and Ailindel!”

After giving one final instruction, he turned and sprinted back toward the Hall of Tree Shepherds at full speed without another moment’s hesitation.

***

Meanwhile, as the Blood Refinement Altar’s corruption of the World Tree Gondos deepened, the isolated miniature subplane known as the Tree Realm began growing unstable.

The entirety of Forest Home shook irregularly. A colossal tree shadow beyond imagination slowly emerged above the primeval forest of the Borderlands. 

The World Tree Gondos stood over eight hundred meters tall, its canopy vast enough to blot out the sky itself. The moment its phantom manifested within the Prime Material Plane, the majestic and overwhelming sight instantly drew countless eyes.

In Demont Province, within a field outside Coldsteel City, a dark-skinned farmer straightened his back and leaned on his hoe after wiping sweat from his brow with the towel hanging around his neck. Then he froze, still holding the towel aloft as he stared blankly toward the distant horizon.

Another farmer walked past him and plopped down on the edge of the field, taking a huge gulp from his waterskin before laughing and smacking his companion on the shoulder.

“What’re you staring at? See some pretty girl? Your eyes are about to pop out.”

“Speaking of which, our lord sure is lucky. Those women around him, damn… every one prettier than the last…”

Knights and beauties had always been the favorite gossip of common folk working in the fields.

But this time, his companion failed to respond.

He merely pointed toward the western sky with a gaping expression. “Th-that… what is that…?”

“What’s gotten into you? You didn’t even react this hard when Lord Hank tested that giant golem the other day—”

The speaking farmer suddenly stopped.

Turning toward the direction being pointed at, the unfinished words lodged in his throat. The waterskin slipped from his hand and hit the ground with a dull thud, water soaking his trousers unnoticed.

Far beyond the horizon, above the vast primal forest they had always treated as forbidden land, stood the shadow of an incomprehensibly enormous tree that seemed to dominate heaven and earth itself. Its towering form pierced the clouds, while its branches spread so widely they resembled another sky. Compared to it, the gigantic trees of the forest that they normally considered towering giants looked no larger than weeds in a field.

Everyone living on the side of Demont Province closest to the Borderlands forest witnessed the breathtaking spectacle.

And they were not the only ones.

Far across the Borderlands forest, at a border outpost of the Holy Osu Empire, the same scene unfolded.

Unlike the farmers of Demont Province, the guards stationed here were proud High Elves.

Those assigned to the outpost belonged to the empire’s elite Falconer squads, master scouts tasked with monitoring potential human movements and the monsters lurking within the Borderlands forest.

Yet even these worldly High Elves reacted little better than the farmers. They stared blankly at the image displayed within the observation formation, utterly speechless.

“That is… the legendary World Tree?” One Falconer sentinel muttered absentmindedly. “The sacred tree of the Wood Elves… they’ve hidden it for thousands of years. How could it suddenly—”

Smack!

The outpost captain kicked the stunned subordinate squarely in the backside, his face grave. “What are you all standing around for?!” Pointing toward the massive tree shadow displayed within the formation, rare unease surfaced in his eyes. “I can feel it. That tree’s aura… it’s filled with malice and corruption! That is not power the Wood Elves should possess. Hurry! Activate the highest-level communication formation immediately and send word to the imperial capital! Report this: We have made our first confirmed observation of the Wood Elves’ sacred tree, but its condition is abnormal… Something catastrophic has happened in the Borderlands!”

The World Tree’s power level had reached the level of an Origin Power. It possessed no combat capability itself, while the Tree Realm was the manifestation of its Origin Power.

The defining trait of this miniature subplane was that, so long as it remained unrecognized by the outside world, it could stay hidden forever within the cracks of the Prime Material Plane. Even if someone physically occupied the same location, they would still be unable to see or touch it. This was the greatest reason the Wood Elves had managed to remain secluded for so long.

But once its existence had been perceived even once, it could never again hide itself from those who now knew of it. And now, under the dual erosion of the Mark of Silent Extinction and the Blood Refinement Altar, Gondos’ power was gradually spiraling out of control. As a result, the Tree Realm was slowly overlapping with the Prime Material Plane, exposing its existence to the outside world for the very first time.

However, such world-shaking consequences belonged to the future.

For Nolan, there was only one thing that mattered now: stopping the complete descent of the evil god’s incarnation.

BOOM! Nolan crashed back into the Hall of Tree Shepherds. He did not bother dodging obstacles along the way. Everything in his path was smashed apart as splinters flew everywhere.

He was in a hurry now. Surely the Wood Elves would not be petty enough to demand compensation afterward.

Inside the hall, chaos reigned. The controlled Wood Elves had collapsed unconscious across the floor after losing Rosm’s direct control.

Nolan abandoned all manners and immediately began searching frantically. 

All these male Wood Elves were handsome, sure, but why did they all look so damn similar?!

Time continued slipping away second by second. Just as frustration began rising in Nolan’s chest, his foot suddenly struck a figure lying in the shadows beside a pillar.

A partially torn formal robe. A greatbow.

Joy flashed across Nolan’s face as he hurriedly crouched down and turned the figure over.

Found him!

It was Finley. But his eyes were tightly shut, his complexion ashen, his chest barely rising at all. He was unconscious and perilously close to death.