Chapter 209 ·Black History (2)
Black History (2)
The Chaos Dragon was a monster that had faced the Great Devils since ancient times.
No matter how close the Great Devils came to being immortal, with their immense regenerative powers, their regeneration was dulled in the face of the Chaos Dragon's strength.
In truth, the very existence of the Chaos Dragon was akin to a weapon forged by this world to oppose the Great Devils invading from another realm.
As a being created solely to deal with the Great Devils, it served as the natural enemy of those fiends.
Thanks to that, even when the Great Devils transformed into souls, the Chaos Dragon could catch them.
In other words, regardless of what form they took, the Chaos Dragon could always touch them.
Thanks to this, Louis was able to bring Hartmon to an end with ease.
As a result, a scene unfolded where the land split in half, the effect reaching all the way to the mountains beyond the horizon.
'I didn't mean to do it on purpose.'
It wasn't the first or second time Louis had used the Chaos Dragon's power, but he had never unleashed such might before.
Even though he'd tried to control his strength, he'd shown more superhuman power than usual.
'Does this mean I'm becoming even closer to a monster?'
It was by no means a good thing.
The closer he became to a monster, the less likely he would be able to ever return to a human state.
He had to reclaim his human body as quickly as possible.
'That's exactly why I came here.'
Louis's purpose wasn't simply to rescue the soldiers, the Emperor, and the old man Paulo.
His main goals were to kill all the Great Devils and recover the blueprints.
"With this, we've gathered them all."
In Louis's hand, who had pulverized Hartmon, was a small piece of paper.
"The blueprint!"
She shouted as she looked at the paper perched atop Louis's head.
"There's one here as well."
The Emperor held out the blueprint he had reclaimed after subjugating Goramon.
"I kept it safe so that guy named Hartmon couldn't steal it."
"Thank you."
After receiving the final blueprint, Louis expressed her gratitude and looked towards a certain place.
"But what do we do with that guy?"
Orbel, who had been Hartmon's vessel until now, was lying collapsed on the ground.
Considering the guy had survived even after being dragged off by the 7th Legion, he was quite tenacious.
Or maybe he had only survived this long thanks to having his body taken over by Hartmon.
"Either way, if we leave him as he is, he'll just end up as food for the monsters here."
Currently, monsters were still rampaging all over the place.
Even though two Great Devils had been subjugated, that didn't mean things had calmed down.
With those who could control the monsters gone, the creatures seemed to be going even wilder.
"Hm...."
After a brief moment of thought, the Emperor made his decision.
"We should keep him alive."
"You personally crushed him with the 7th Legion before, but now you've changed your mind?"
"He's a guy who was possessed by Hartmon. There's got to be information we can get from him. Besides, considering who he really is, it's better to keep him alive for now."
"His real identity?"
"I'll explain that later."
Just then, the monsters started to swarm towards this place as well.
As expected of demon realm monsters, their numbers were overwhelming.
"This is going to take longer than I thought."
"Then I'll leave it to you."
While the Emperor led the soldiers to restrain Orbel, Louis charged at the monsters.
Thanks to the support from the special task force, their numbers dwindled in a flash.
The endless horde was soon reduced to just a handful.
'To think all these monsters, who even the full force of the Imperial Court couldn't halt, could be cleared out so fast.'
Currently, the count of monsters was shown through the magitech devices installed by mages from the Magic Tower for reporting on the state of battle.
Seeing the number of monsters on the status display drop to almost zero within just a few hours, the Emperor was both astonished and relieved.
'Naturally, with the power of the Chaos Dragon.'
Only lowly monsters remained, but even they instinctively realized they were at a disadvantage and quickly retreated.
With this, not only had the monster advance been halted, but all the Great Devils had been eradicated.
If the citizens of the Imperial Court knew, it would be a cause for celebration across the land—yet it was still too soon to relax.
The demon realm remained as it was, and there was one more cause for concern.
"Young master, just now I managed to contact Headmaster Ferus. As soon as the warp magitech device is installed, we're to warp to Seifert Village."
"That old man is still at Seifert Village?"
"Seems he's been waiting for you all this time."
Thinking of Ferus as an old man obsessed with research, Louis looked at the blueprint in Pram's hand.
According to Ferus, this blueprint was the only clue that could restore Louis to her original state.
"It took forever to collect these."
"You're probably the first person to ever gather them all, young master."
"Did you feel anything when you touched this?"
When Louis asked, Pram hesitated as if unsure.
"It's not that I didn't feel anything. But it's probably not the information you're hoping for, young master."
At the very least, it didn't seem to contain information about returning to her original body.
"Doesn't matter, just tell me."
"To put it bluntly... I'd say the Chaos Dragon and the World Tree were probably one and the same."
Even now, as Pram touched the blueprint, she continued to sense something.
Since she had become the World Tree that created the blueprint, she could understand that.
"This isn't simply a blueprint for making weapons. There's a hidden message no one else could decipher."
"A message?"
"Maybe because I became the World Tree, I was able to figure out what that message is. Basically... it tells you to find the half that was once a part of itself."
Since the paper was made by the World Tree, it could only mean the World Tree itself wrote it.
This meant that the World Tree had a missing half.
"That half is said to be a very dark side of itself. It's a beast that knows nothing but violence and destruction, yet it's a vitally important part responsible for its 'strength'."
"A beast that only knows destruction?"
"If it's you, young master, you'll have an idea of what it is."
Having just said the World Tree and the Chaos Dragon were once one made it clear.
"The Chaos Dragon."
"So, the Chaos Dragon was a duplicate of the World Tree?"
"Close, but not exactly. Back when the Chaos Dragon and the World Tree were one, they looked different."
The World Tree, in charge of wisdom, and the Chaos Dragon, in charge of strength, were separated beings.
Either one alone was powerful enough to sway the entire world, so Louis could vaguely guess what the original was.
"A god?"
"That's right. A god. And according to the message, to block the evil hordes invading from outside, it split its own power. One half to face those fiends directly, and the other half to stabilize the world shaken by their invasion."
There was no need to explain what those two halves were. Louis recalled the dream she'd had recently.
'So that was when I was facing the Great Devils invading from beyond.'
Fighting the Great Devils with strength, and maintaining the heart of the world with wisdom.
That was the role of the Chaos Dragon and the World Tree, originally one god divided into two.
"The Great Devils couldn't be driven out by strength alone. Because of their interference, there was a risk that the West Continent would become engulfed by the demon realm."
"So the World Tree became insurance and took root here."
The existence of the World Tree alone kept the demon realm at bay.
The only reason the continent wasn't completely consumed in an instant was because of the World Tree.
"But now the World Tree's become very weak, which is why the demon realm's growing more active."
"Ugh..."
Pram hung her head apologetically.
The previous World Tree had managed to hold off the demon realm even while dying, but Pram couldn't maintain that balance.
"Still, for the Holy Nation to overwork the World Tree until it became a dead tree, that's pretty outrageous."
"For sure."
"How much pain must it have been in, to abandon its dead tree body and take residence in you instead?"
This time, it wasn't Pram's fault that the demon realm started shifting.
Of course, Pram's lack of full ability as the World Tree played a part, but what forced her to become the new World Tree in the first place was the Holy Nation.
By turning the World Tree into a dead tree, they caused this.
"So... maybe if the World Tree and the Chaos Dragon become one again, the rampage will stop?"
"Maybe."
It wasn't wrong, so Louis agreed.
"So... if I become one with you, young master, everything will be solved?"
Suddenly, the conversation took a strange turn.
"It's not like I can stay by your side forever. If we completely become one, then it's solved."
Given that the World Tree and Chaos Dragon were originally one, there seemed to be at least a possibility. However...
"So, young master, you know what we have to do, right?"
Somehow, the method seemed strange. Pram now wore a seductive expression and rubbed her face against Louis in front of her.
"Pram, you'll seriously get yourself killed."
"Trying to hit me? If you try, you might lose control and blow up the whole encampment, you know?"
"...."
Did she really calculate that far ahead?
"So I think I'll just stick with this for a while. Hoohohohoho!"
Damn, this is so infuriating.
I want to whack her so badly.
But not being able to do so made my anger flare even more.
Just wait—when I get back to normal...
Pow!—
At that moment, someone appeared behind and smacked Pram on the back of the head.
"Ow! Who was that!"
When Pram irritatedly turned around, her expression turned to shock.
"It's me, you brat."
"S-Squad leader... big sis..."
"Don't fool around. Got it?"
"Um... fooling around?"
Suddenly, Pram looked genuinely puzzled as she stared at Silia.
"I don't think you're one to talk, big sis."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I only came to tell them to get ready, since the warp gate's about to open. Why is she acting like this?
"Then I'll just avoid you."
"What?"
Right then, Pram ducked behind Louis, clearly and deliberately avoiding Silia.
"What's up with Pram?"
No matter how I looked at it, her reaction—like she considered me dangerous—seemed strange.
"Is there something on my face?"
"Who knows? Maybe it's not your face, but something inside?"
"What are you talking about? Why are you acting like this? The others and even the soldiers too..."
After everything ended, as Silia made her rounds of the encampment, she felt something was wrong.
As special task force squad leader, she checked the area, noticing people giving her strange looks.
Not only the soldiers, but even Rio, Victor, Simon, Rozen, and even the Emperor shot Silia aghast glances.
"Maybe I hit my head in the fight?"
On the battlefield, people losing their sanity is common. Yet that was a far simpler explanation than the real reason.
"Hey, elder sister. Do you remember when time stopped during the fight with Hartmon earlier?"
"Yeah, why?"
"When that happened, Hartmon interfered with all our minds. You know that, right?"
"That's right. But this elder sister overcame it fabulously."
Silia spoke triumphantly, but the more she did, the more Louis broke into a cold sweat.
"But do you realize, elder sister? While time was stopped, all our mental worlds were shared."
"What do you mean?"
"Basically... we could see what kind of mental attack Hartmon was using."
Hartmon's time stop didn't merely freeze space and time.
It also gathered the minds of all affected into one place to focus his attack.
Since our minds were gathered, it meant everyone saw exactly what kind of trauma Hartmon used to attack Silia.
"W-wait... what are you talking about...?"
Silia instinctively sensed the problem, but trembled in denial.
"No way... it's not that, right?"
It couldn't be.
It couldn't possibly be what she was thinking.
Even as Silia's face turned pale, Louis sighed and spoke.
"So that's your type, elder sister?"
"...."
To think that a younger boy was her type.
After witnessing such obsessive aspects of Silia's inner world, Louis could not look at her straight.
"Ah... so that's how it is...."
Finally resigned, Silia wore a hollow expression and suddenly drew her Bloodline blades.
"Where are you going?"
"To silence witnesses."
She had really lost it.
Louis grabbed her with one hand and said,
"That's not allowed."
"Let me go!! I said let go!!!"
It was fortunate that she was weaker than Louis.
If not, it would have been a literal massacre.