Rewind ti just a little.
Unleashing his full power, Darius shattered the combined assault of the group, sending them flying in all directions with a single devastating blow.
Only Irus remained suspended in the sky.
“Saint——”
The tip of the pitch-black demonic spear pointed straight at her.
“It seems we’ve circled back to where we started.”
“......”
Irus said nothing, her face a mask of grim resolve.
She knew full well how dire the situation was.
Only one of her three Holy Tree Staffs remained intact. Her foe’s strength had grown terrifyingly formidable for so unknown reason. Ti was slipping away, and the World Tree’s fate hung by a thread.
If she had a choice,
Irus would never have chosen to face this battle.
But unfortunately......
She could not retreat.
Not then, not now.
Once, when she was still a young, inexperienced elf, she had been forced to step onto that battlefield.
A place where rcy was a foreign concept—only death and cruelty lingered around every corner.
How many tis had she faced enemies so powerful they defied all reason? How many tis had she been beaten within an inch of her life, watching helplessly as others sacrificed themselves by the dozens to bridge the gap in power?
Many called her a hero.
Even dread of becoming heroes themselves, clinging to naive fantasies about that war.
How ignorant. How childish.
They had never experienced it—the endless cycle of opening your eyes to the dead, and closing them to the dying. The crushing despair of it all.
In the end, even though she had survived by so miracle, almost everyone who had stood beside her when she first set foot on that battlefield was gone.
Back then, she had wondered.
Why was she even on that battlefield?
And......
“Why did you let survive?”
After the war, she had asked the World Tree that question.
“You have grown into your own strength. You no longer need to stay here. Go and do what you wish.”
The World Tree had answered with a non-answer.
“......”
And so, she left the ho she had lived in for two hundred years.
Hardly had she returned from that battlefield when she set out again.
A long journey began.
She traveled to every corner of the continent, eting countless people, seeing countless sights—even treading once more upon the land where so many lives had been lost.
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The question she had asked the World Tree faded from her mind long ago.
Or perhaps she had known the answer from the very beginning.
Asking it had rely been a way to vent her grief and confusion over that painful, lost part of her life......
“Duty.”
Irus spoke the word softly, her voice steady.
“Hm?”
Darius frowned, utterly perplexed.
“......This world may indeed be flawed. But like a great tree—no matter how beautifully it grows, it will always attract pests. Yet the tree does not exist for the sake of those pests. It grows, blooms, bears fruit. All these beautiful things—that is its true purpose for being.”
Darius’s scowl deepened.
“What are you rambling about? Your last words?”
“......”
Irus fixed him with a calm, unwavering gaze.
Then she released her grip on the broken Holy Tree Staff. As it plumted slowly toward the ground, she spoke her final words:
“No matter how many flaws this world has—it is still the world I swear to protect——”
WHOOSH!
Fla-like erald light burst forth from Irus’s body. Her Elven Demon Garb fluttered violently around her, as if stirred by an invisible wind.
The only intact Holy Tree Staff in her right hand blazed with brilliant, blinding light.
“Darius—let us settle this once and for all.”
BOOM——!!!
The battle erupted in an instant.
Black and green light collided violently in the sky, exploding in bursts of blinding energy!
“Foolish! Without the World Tree’s blessing, your reckless gamble is aningless!”
Darius roared amid the clash, slamming his spear forward with all his might.
BAM!
The overwhelming force sent Irus flying backward.
Her body crashed heavily into the trunk of the World Tree.
But in the very next mont,
she charged at Darius again, as if the impact had left her unscathed.
“aningless or not—it is my mission!”
Darius raised his spear to et her attack.
Ti and ti again, he repelled her. But ti and ti again, she surged back, undeterred.
Irus’s relentless tenacity sparked a flicker of annoyance in Darius’s heart.
Damn her.
Daring to speak to him of mission?
Then he would teach her just how futile that so-called mission truly was!
As he blocked her attack once more, Darius did not counter imdiately. Instead, he locked eyes with her, his voice cold and cutting.
“Does anything you stand for truly matter?”
Irus did not reply, her attacks growing only more ferocious.
“You have no idea, do you——”
“The World Tree is on its last legs. Is this really how you want things to end?”
Irus’s movents froze. Her eyes glazed over for a split second, a flicker of doubt crossing her face.
The World Tree......
Is it already too late?
If I cannot defeat this man......
“DIE——!”
Darius seized the mont her guard slipped.
He freed his left hand and struck suddenly, his fist wreathed in devastating power slamming into Irus’s abdon.
BAM——!
Irus’s body bent backward violently, sent hurtling through the air by the sheer force of the blow.
She crashed into the World Tree once again.
“UGH!”
A mouthful of blood sprayed from her lips.
“Heh. Look at you.”
Darius sneered, his voice dripping with contempt.
“How pathetic. Your resolve, your mission—none of it ans a thing in the face of absolute power!”
“......”
High up on the World Tree, Irus slowly lifted her head.
Her gaze locked onto the triumphant Darius.
Her lips moved faintly.
“So what......”
“Hm?”
“What does it matter?”
Darius froze, then flew into a rage.
“Stubborn fool!”
BOOM——!
He vanished in a blur of motion, reappearing right in front of Irus. The pitch-black demonic spear stabbed downward, aid straight at her heart.
SWISH!
But to his shock,
an arrow of light shot out from his blind spot.
It grazed his cheek, leaving a deep, bleeding gash in its wake.
“Defeating you...... is my mission.”
“......”
Darius froze completely.
He felt the warm trickle of blood sliding down his face. His eyes turned ice-cold, filled with unbridled fury.
“Mission......?”
Violent power surged forth from his body, fueled by his rage.
“Then take your precious mission——”
He raised the demonic spear high above his head.
“——AND DIE WITH IT!”
SLICE——!
The pitch-black demonic spear pierced straight through Irus’s chest.
And this horrific sight was witnessed by Hulim Heyerar at that very mont.
......
“......No! No! Irus! NOOOOOOOOO——!”
Hulim Heyerar’s desperate mutters erupted into a scream of utter despair.
BOOM——!
Mana surged forth from her body in a violent torrent.
A terrifying mana tempest began to form, swirling around her like a raging vortex.
Then......
CRACK!
She crossed a threshold.
The mana tempest halted abruptly—then began to contract at breakneck speed.
The soil, the air, every trace of mana in the surroundings was sucked dry, rushing toward her like a tidal wave.
In its place, a new, far greater power began to swell within her.
CRACK. CRACK......
Her bones, her muscles, her blood, her skin—her entire body underwent a profound, earth-shaking transformation.
Her very life force was evolving, leaping toward a higher level of existence.
CRACK——!
The mont the transformation was complete.
An aura belonging solely to S-Rank burst forth from her body, shaking the very heavens and earth.
......
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