NOVEL WEB Chapter 494
It was a magical moment.
Though my body couldn’t handle divinity or magic, no better expression came to mind.
The sky, cleared of clouds, turned into a field of stars, and the desert flowed with the earth’s stars.
Fireflies fluttered, one by one, over the clay wall.
The fireflies, flying from the dark beyond the vines, continued their blue-winged dance, as countless stars painted the sky and earth with a green glow.
In the softly fading starlight, a girl turned her head, her red hair flowing.
In a serene stillness.
Drawing a smile of eternity.
It was a magical moment.
—
Episode 17 – The Tree That Drinks Blood
Camila, lying languidly, hardly moved. She seemed utterly exhausted, sprawled out on the floor.
“Ugh… I’m so tired…”
Camila let out a hollow laugh, feeling devoid of strength, yet her mood was so good she didn’t know what to do with herself.
I carefully shook her.
“You’re alive, right?”
“I’m not dead…!”
“Well, that’s good.”
What a relief.
Stretching my limp arms backward, I lifted my head to gaze at the scene Camila had created.
A tree that drank the blood of dozens. The tree still burned, with pale flames, calm and peaceful.
“…It’s burning well.”
“Colonel.”
“Hmm?”
Francesca, who had climbed to the edge of the roof, called out to me in a gentle voice. After a brief exchange of glances, she gestured for me to come see.
Toward the grotesquely transformed humans and the massively grown plants.
“The attacks have ceased.”
The bizarre creatures, which had endlessly been filled with rage and hatred towards all living things, no longer existed.
They stood as if nailed to their spots, staring blankly at the pale, burning tree.
—
-……
-……
-……
As the burning flames blossomed into the air, blue fireflies dotted the sky. In the wave of starlight and firelight, nature and humanity slipped away.
The sun was setting. A halo of the moon appeared. Now all that remained was soulless bodies and wilting nature.
A lonely brilliance began to illuminate the departed and the plants trapped near the embers.
The whale guides the souls of the departed to the west, and amidst the dark, silent night sky, the stars twinkled.
Francesca withdrew her gaze from the slum where peace had returned and muttered as she looked upward.
“…It’s peaceful.”
I patted my chest pocket and pulled out a cigarette to offer her. Having borrowed a cigarette, she lent me a light.
Smoke rose. The soulless bodies laid on the ground, entering eternal slumber. The pale flames consumed the tree, and the dim ember ignited the cigarette.
Thus, we silently watched the stars flowing in the desert.
—
There are absolute truths in the world. The laws, also known as principles or logic.
If you borrowed money, you must pay it back, and if you’ve received a favor, you ought to express gratitude. Life is a series of choices occurring between birth and death, and thus one must take responsibility for their choices.
In that sense, we still had an unsettled account left.
—
-Splash!
While clearing the remains of wilted plants and the dead monsters in search of survivors, Lucia appeared out of nowhere and tossed something horrible in front of us.
It was a person.
“Uh, what the hell is this?”
“Wow… Who is this person?”
“This is the old man who attacked you.”
The old man’s condition was indescribably grotesque. Sure, he had tree bark covering his skin, but he definitely used to be human the last time we saw him.
The old man, whom we met again, had transformed into something beyond the realm of humanity.
For starters, his lower body had merged with the tree. He had the shape of a pelvis up to his upper thigh, but below the knee, he had taken on the appearance of a stump.
Perhaps he hadn’t fully transformed, or maybe it was because of his small stature, but it felt like looking at a strange version of a gnome. He even had roots.
Small leaves, broken branches, and other things. The old man appeared undeniably as a “tree person” before us. It was fortunate that we could still make out his face; had we not, we might have shot him thinking he was a monster.
Of course, his mental state was half-crazed.
Or perhaps he’d always been a lunatic?
I gazed blankly at the mad old man flailing beneath Lucia’s foot.
“A, ah…!”
He was weeping over the burning tree.
I’ve never grown plants, nor have I seen a human fused with a plant before, but he seemed healthy enough. He didn’t look like someone who was about to die immediately.
I turned my head toward Lucia.
“Why is this guy still alive?”
Lucia, who was pinning down the squirming old man with her foot, spoke up.
“He possesses considerable healing abilities. Despite my repeatedly severing his limbs with the mace and delivering a single blow to his head, he survived.”
“Without a head?”
“Yes, without a head.”
Huh. What in the world is going on here?
I’ve heard of headless monsters, but I’ve never come across one whose broken head grows back. Is this what they call a hydra or something?
“It’s Groot!”
Camila shouted at the flailing tree man after hearing Lucia’s explanation. It was something completely dismissible.
I squinted at the thing.
“Is it a Dullahan or what?”
“The Dullahan is a legendary monster. Unlike vampires or werewolves, it has never been confirmed to exist.”
“It might have undergone a certain mutation during the process of merging with the plant. Some organisms grant enormous healing abilities to hosts.”
“I think the citizens who turned into monsters that blocked our path were used to regenerate this way too… but I’m not sure.”
The group huddled together and exchanged opinions. Francesca proposed a hypothesis based on similar cases, and Camila backed it up with her own observations.
“But why didn’t you kill him?”
At that moment, I looked at Lucia with an intrigued expression.
“You could have killed him if you had struck him with divinity. You had the chance to kill him, so why leave him alive?”
When the old man appeared, Camila felt overwhelming nausea. Whether it was dark magic or a demon, something sinister was undeniably connected to him.
And the priest’s divine abilities could purify evil and impure energies. Regardless of religion, a priest could eliminate demons or dark magicians with a single error.
However, Lucia did not kill him.
She could have forced a purification by smashing his head even if he healed from the mace.
Why did she not do it?
When I asked her, she blinked her doe-like green eyes repeatedly.
“Why do I need to kill him?”
“Huh? You said you were going to kill him at first!”
“Did I?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t remember saying that.”
“…?”
In that moment, thinking I must have heard wrong, I glanced back at Camila and Francesca, who both looked just as incredulous.
“You said, ‘Shut up and die, I’ll smash your head with my mace’ or something like that.”
I repeated her words verbatim, but Lucia’s expression remained unchanged. She still looked as if she had no idea what I was talking about.
“How does that even translate to a threat to kill? I find that hard to comprehend.”
“No, then what on earth were you saying…?”
“It was just something I spat out in anger. I’m human too. Sometimes I feel indignant, and at times anger wells up, don’t you think? And just because I told this old man to go die, doesn’t mean he would actually do it.”
This was the excuse of someone who was ready to swing a mace and demand death.
The excuses didn’t stop there.
Lucia deliberately lowered her voice with a serious expression, like a moral teacher admonishing a deficient student.
“Additionally, would it make sense for a person to easily harm another? Even if they are a villain, ending a life should be a task of prudence.”
The words coming from a priest who had shattered limbs and smashed heads with a mace were disturbingly compelling.
If a judge had heard this, he would have probably sentenced her instantly.
“……”
“……”
“……”
It seemed everyone had the same thought. A chilling silence descended upon us. No one dared to speak.
Lucia looked at our faces with an innocent expression, as if puzzled by our demeanor.
“Why do you all look like that?”
“…No, it’s just.”
I thought how the sect had completely fallen apart.
But thankfully, everyone was safe and sound. Moreover, upon reflection, it turned out leaving the old man alive was advantageous to us.
We had to collect on what was due.
“Well, it’s all over now.”
“Thank goodness we stopped everything from becoming chaotic like it did in the North.”
Having handled the tree, all that remained was to settle the accounts.
If you messed with lives, then you had to prepare to die easily after stirring up trouble across the entire continent. We surrounded the old man like loan sharks about to reclaim a defaulter’s debt.
It was then.
“Hee-”
Suddenly, he began to laugh. Perhaps he was slow to comprehend the situation or had gone completely around the bend.
He was definitely losing it.
“You’re laughing? Are you really finding this funny right now?”
I said, slapping the senile old man’s cheek back and forth.
“Hey, old man. You need to get your act together, and fast. We still have repayment remaining, don’t we?”
From where the tree came from, what he had intended to do with it.
Why had he stolen Lucia’s blood, and what was the purpose of the cedar coffin?
We had a mountain of questions to extract from him. We needed to validate the suspicion he had connections to Al-Kair.
“Heehee, hehehe….”
The old man, who was crawling on the ground, lifted his gaze.
Despite being thoroughly beaten with the mace, the madness in his eyes was still present.
“Don’t think this is all over, infidels.”
The old man, whose eyes were darting back and forth, began to mutter in a voice tinged with madness. Typical ramblings of a lunatic about how he would fall into hellfire, and so on.
Crazy or not, since he was the one who had been turning the slums upside down, it was only natural to feel a bit intimidated.
But his crude condition made him so pathetically comical.
The old man’s deranged ravings seemed to go unheard by anyone.
“Let’s take the samples to the nearest Ivory Tower for now….”
“I’d love to access Al-Yabd’s documents if possible….”
Lucia, having subdued the old man, discussed the disposal matters with Francesca. Meanwhile, Camila stared at the old man beneath her feet with a concerned expression, quietly extending her index and middle fingers.
” ̶̶ ̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ Dragon Scale, Repulsion, A pair of….”
“What are you doing?”
“I was just trying to see if I could use this technique I saw on Netflix when flying.”
What even is that, you dork?
Ignoring Camila, who was trying out a bizarre and unworkable technique, I kicked the old man’s head.
With a thud! The crisp sound of impact reverberated, and his neck snapped.
As I inspected the old man’s face while Lucia and Francesca paused their conversation in shock.
“……”
Whether the bones remained intact while he transformed into a tree-man, a nose-like part was crooked.
I spat toward the now silent old man.
“Got it, so shut up already, old man. You’ve already exhausted all your chances.”
“…So you think you can be cocky just because you’ve taken out a single divine tree?”
“What?”
“Do you truly believe there’s only one divine tree existing in this world?”
The old man cackled. Even with his teeth or whatever resembling wood breaking and blood oozing out, he was still chuckling.
“Hehehe… You have no idea. You won’t ever know how long we’ve been waiting for this day, how ready we’ve been for salvation…!”
“Hey, what the hell—”
Just as I was about to strike him again, plop! Someone grabbed my wrist from behind.
It was Lucia. She held my wrist, silently meeting my gaze. She shook her head, and I lowered my hand.
“Ha-ha, ugh, heh…!”
Perhaps this was just too funny, the old man laughed even louder. He sounded like he’d made up his mind to laugh until he died. It was a laugh typical of someone who had completely wasted their life on liquor and cigarettes.
After taking a sip of water and spitting out the dust in my mouth, I rubbed my lips.
“Do you have more of those trees? Seems like you really enjoy the reforestation project. Care to share where you planted them? I’d like to go plant some myself.”
“Hahaha… You think I’ll tell you?”
“Everyone says that, but they eventually spill it later on.”
A grin split his face wide open. A choked voice echoed forth.
“You will never hear about it. You won’t receive any words from my lips, everyone mocks you.”
“……”
As I gazed into the distance, I crumpled the water bottle and rose. Suddenly, like someone burnt, Lucia also stepped down from atop the old man’s back.
“You were curious about the locations of the other divine trees, weren’t you? If you want to see it, then look for yourself.”
A chill ran down my spine.
It felt as if insects were crawling up my entire body.
The voice emerging from the old man was beyond belief, sounding like an insect whisper.
The old man stroked his belly and murmured.
“Well, here’s one left.”
—
The brown shell bursts, and the festivity of red flesh unfolds. Roots sprout forth along with the flowing entrails, and branches that have risen through the belly crush bones and slice flesh as they emerge.
Camila stifled her nausea, preparing her magic. However, Frederick stretched out his arm to stop her.
“Why!? ”
“Just stay put!”
He shoved his hands into his pockets.
The tree thrusting out from his abdomen grew rapidly with terrifying power. Like a giant beanstalk from a fairy tale, it soared upwards.
In an instant, the old man, whose belly had been swollen like a pregnant woman, was now hanging from the wood. He had been sucked into the tree up to his sternum, now truly one with the tree.
“Ah…!”
The ‘prophet’ sighed.
With a smile akin to a child nestled in a mother’s embrace, he glanced down at the ‘infidels’ below and murmured in a frail voice.
“How pitiful.”
“……”
“All that exists in the heavens and the earth praises Him. His judgment, filled with power and wisdom, is upon you, infidels—”
As he began to call for judgment…
Suddenly, a voice cut through, forcing the ‘prophet’ to halt.
“Judgment!”
A deep voice emerged from nowhere.
Not in my ears, but inside my head.
“You seem to enjoy it! Nothing brings more joy than watching a villain burn in hellfire!”
Although it was a man’s voice, as soon as I heard it, a sense of dread filled me. Even though the voice echoed right behind me, something felt off, making it feel like I shouldn’t turn around.
“Lower your voice, foolish one.”
The slender resonance followed. It was a woman. Moreover, one brimming with an extraordinary aura.
“What have you done to warrant such arrogance? You’re the one who made us late.”
The voice clearly exhibited displeasure, to which the deep voice sheepishly replied.
“My apologies for being late! There was quite the commotion on the way! I had these brigands adamantly pursuing my magnificent armor. They kept begging for help as if they understood the desert had some limits, even coming to the city!”
“They weren’t after your armor but were trying to kill us. And not just ordinary brigands, but ‘demon followers.’ After being sealed in the coffin for 800 years, has all the stupidity existent in this world seeped into your sin?”
“Regardless! I had to deal with them at the city’s entrance, and it took time, but now ‘Shamir’ Akande is handling the issue, so pay it no mind! But why is everyone gathered here? What happened to the demon?”
Under the shroud of darkness, the prophet raised his head. Blocking the bright halo was—
…a knight?
“Hmm? Why are there two trees… Ah, now I see!”
Clunk. The knight in platemail smacked his gauntlet against the other hand and pointed to the one who had blended into the tree.
“So you are the ‘false prophet’ of Al-Kair! The servant of ‘Greed’!”
“…What?”
“I’ve visited the saplings planted in the desert! Thanks to you, I got to witness the changes in the world after 800 years firsthand—”
Now, it was time for repayment.
—
Clunk-
As the gauntleted hand gripped the handle, a massive hammer appeared through the night sky.
As my eyelids closed and opened again, I found cold steel right before my face.
Zooming past the moon, heading directly for the tree.
Ramiel spoke softly to the false prophet of Al-Kair.
“I see you will receive judgment in abundance.”
Light dimmed. Before I could even blink, without a moment’s reaction.
The full moon created a crescent silhouette.
This night, the longing dream of the boy craving his mother’s embrace would come true.
—
[Title: Final Draft of On-Site Coverage Article Regarding the Mauritania Continent Civil War & Jamria Federation Disaster.]
Sender: Miss. Alice, Mauritania Continent XXX Republic – Hotel YYY Lobby, Common Line.
Receiver: Mr. Bob, Kingdom of Abas – Avvisi Editorial Department, 6th Floor.
—
(A photo taken in Nabukti’s eastern slum, where tragedy unfolded. A military and police barricade separates the slum city center. At every spot the memorials of mourners and families reach, bouquets, candles, and pictures are delicately placed. The smiling face of a young girl stands out in the photograph.)
—
About a month has passed since the tragic disaster occurred in the southern Nabukti province of the Jamria Federation.
On the day when Al-Yabd’s religious holiday ‘Aramad’ started, an unprecedented attack led to numerous fatalities and injuries.
—
(A procession of trucks heading somewhere. Soldiers from the government are seen on the bed of a decrepit truck. The black soldiers, wearing strange expressions, do not respond to the journalist filming them. Alongside the dirt road where technical vehicles and trucks are passing by, an old man is seen escaping with children who appear to be his grandchildren, each carrying luggage on their heads. There are no signs of any parents anywhere in the photo.)
—
In a situation where the pains of civil war had yet to fade, citizens of the Mauritania Continent fell into shock and sorrow.
The official announcement from the federal government recorded “5,477 deaths” and “8,000 injuries,” while the state government claimed “2,189 deaths” and “6,600 injuries.”
However, minority independence groups assert that a significant number of casualties have been downplayed or concealed as ‘missing.’
—
(A low-resolution photo. Something horrific remains, barely recognizable, that has been disposed of. It appears to be wood from the outline, but there is no clarity on why the branches are dyed red, where this photo was taken, or who the photographer was.)
—
Some argue that similar incidents to the Nabukti disaster have occurred all across the Mauritania Continent, suggesting that the number of actual victims suffering and the fatalities that have yet to be recognized are far higher.
However, in response to the reporter’s inquiry on “how many similar cases have occurred and when,” now both the Holy See and the International Al-Yabd Federation stated, “we cannot confirm such matters.”
The governments of the Jamria Federation and the Mauritania Continent uniformly denied the accusations, calling them “absurd rumors.”
Meanwhile, the ‘Priest’ issued a message through the Al-Yabd Federation saying “I express my condolences for this unfortunate news and hope for a swift recovery for the injured and that missing individuals will safely return to their families,” invoking the Earth God.
—
(4-part photo sequence. Each depicting crates of healing potions being unloaded at the dock/priests entering refuge camps/journalists huddled in shock while a gigantic fire blazes from the tree.)
—
The stories of heroes who saved others’ lives during this disaster also gained attention.
Camila Lowell, a warrior, drew acclaim for the ‘mysterious pale flames.’ When a foreign correspondent was broadcasting live from the eastern slum of Nabukti, the moment the flames erupted from the tree was transmitted in its entirety.
The footage reveals that as the anchor spoke, attempting to describe the situation at the scene, an immense whirlwind erupted, causing a massive explosion behind the journalist. In response, the Magic Tower Knowledge Preservation Minister stated, “It’s an unprecedented phenomenon and magic,” expressing his bewilderment.
Additionally, Francesca Ranieri, the representative of the Magic Tower, offered a donation of healing potions sufficient for 20,000 people, stating, “I empathize with the pain of the victims and their families and will support the ongoing treatment of the injured.”
Saint Lucia, having recovered from her injuries, also returned to the refuge camp, expressing her wish for the swift convalescence of the disaster victims. Currently, the saint is leading the healing of victims at 14 different refugee camps…
// (Middle Segment Omitted) //
(A very old Kien-style standard rifle. The image suggests the rifle is so decrepit it carries a musty smell. Next to it, a man in religious attire rides a horse, casting a spell into the air.)
—
While the exact cause and perpetrators behind the ‘Nabukti disaster’ remain unclarified, Imam Bashya Dalanaba emphasizes that the Mauritania Continent and the Jamria Federation continue to navigate an unstable situation, precariously balancing between two cliffs.
Decades of civil war and natural disasters have resulted in serious societal and economic crises for nations in the Mauritania Continent.
This has led to the warlordization of local military organizations, the activities of rising religious groups, and increased participation rates of magicians and shamans in crime.
—
(A CCTV video showing the aftermath of fighting between shamans and soldiers. Out of nowhere, the screen crackles, and an unidentifiable entity begins attacking both shamans and soldiers indiscriminately. As the screen brightens again, only a blood-soaked street is visible.)
—
(A photograph of a man claiming to be a messiah. His ludicrous appearance might make anyone laugh, but the moment you see the multitude of followers around him, your smile may vanish.)
—
With the ‘Nabukti disaster’ as a catalyst, numerous emerging religious groups advocating for eschatology and selective salvation have started to actively operate, leading to clashes in some regions.
In the Mauritania Continent, it happens almost inevitably that when issues arise in one region, they spread to neighboring areas. The opposite can also hold true. This is particularly the case in countries rife with coups and regions devastated by war, where weapons and combatants freely traverse borders.
—
(A chaotic depiction of the Mauritania Continent. If the names of the countries were obscured, one could easily mistake this for a map of Africa or the Middle East created by the British and French.)
—
The Jamria Federation lies next to a highly militarized, closed-off dictatorship, where ‘mercenary’ shamans are joining warlords.
The southern areas, including Nabukti province, have been designated as a special administrative region, obtaining many high-value resources from mines, oil fields, and agriculture, generating an economic gap between the south and other regions, indirectly influencing the prompt for a military conflict between regions.
Taking advantage of the disputes between Asen and Sanya, competing warlords are making advancements into the lucrative south.
As the governor and president clash over accountability concerning the ‘Nabukti disaster,’ signs of an imminent conflict among warlords begin to materialize even before the pain from the disaster fades.
—
(A photo taken in the Holy Land of the sect, Lateran. The cardinals and bishops are seen with perplexed expressions, while the tired, aging cardinals and bishops wipe the cold sweat from their brows.)
—
In this context, Lucia’s claim that “there’s a need to reflect and introspect on the cyclical history perpetrated in the name of the gospel” has sparked waves not only across the Holy See but throughout the world.
Meanwhile, diplomacy and security experts express concern that the ‘Nabukti disaster’ may ultimately lead the future of the Jamria Federation toward civil war, with some suggesting that what appears to be a relatively straightforward power struggle may metamorphose into “a more complex civil war.”
—
The End.
P.S. Be sure to tell Steve to check it out, senpai. It’s never a bad idea to double-check; you might catch something you missed.
—
// RE: 2. Confirmed.