The Druid Who Devoured the Great Nature

Buggy’s strength was his ignorance. His physical abilities were ignorantly strong. Without any particular magical assistance, he deflected the security officers’ bullets with the sheer strength of his body and led the battle to his advantage with beast-like instincts.

Even a guy like that couldn’t emerge unscathed from a catastrophe that overturned the very earth. Blood flowed from his cracked skull, soaking his face, and his tattered clothes revealed cuts and bruises underneath. The very fact that he had broken through that mound of dirt, as large as a small hill, was incredible.

A smile, even wider than before, appeared on his face. To be able to enjoy battle like that even after a near-death experience. It was a madness that sent shivers down my spine.

But as I said, I had no time. If he wanted to enjoy the fight, he could do it all by himself. I simply moved mechanically, wanting to end this fight even one second faster.

「Declaring Domain.」

Before the illusion of the giant World Tree that seemed to pierce the sky, he looked shabby. I could feel the abundant divinity of the World Tree filling the domain. It wasn’t just a sensation I felt; the air was actually dense, as if trapped in a high-density liquid.

Buggy, who had been leaping towards me, fell without even closing half the distance. In close quarters, there would be few in the world who could fight him on equal terms. I had no intention of allowing him to get close. I would end it from this distance.

All the vegetation in the domain converged into a single point before the illusion of the World Tree. The condensed mana in each plant blazed with a brilliant green, emitting light as if an artificial sun had risen.

It was then, as I was accumulating even more mass than usual considering Buggy’s physical strength.

A wave of mana erupted from Buggy’s entire body as if exploding. A deep blue aura stretched out like tentacles, overturning the ground and drawing bizarre shapes in the air. The earth vibrated and the air trembled under its overwhelming pressure. It was a brightness and amount of mana that was not inferior to the artificial sun formed by the domain’s vegetation.

Was he preparing to endure it with his body? I had expected a clash of spear and shield, but Buggy made no such boring choice.

The moment his fist shot out, the world was dyed a deep blue. Mana swirled and extended along the trajectory his fist had drawn. A gust of wind raged through the area, and the violently kicked-up dust filled the sky. Even in that blurred vision, the flash and impact caused by the clash of his mana and the vegetation were clear.

Buggy’s mana pierced through the vegetation, penetrated even the illusion of the World Tree, and vanished far away in the sky. The clouds were pushed back in a perfect circle, making it look as if a hole had been punched in the sky.

“…”

It was a power that left me speechless. Hazel’s long-range snipe was a one-hit-kill technique that unleashed all her power after a long preparation. But Buggy had executed a technique of that caliber with his bare body in a short time. It was the first time anyone had so perfectly dismantled the wrath of nature in a head-on confrontation, and I was at a loss for words.

“Cough! Cough! Kaak!”

Of course, that didn’t mean Buggy was unscathed. That much mana consumption with a bloodied body. His whole body would be limp, like cotton soaked in water.

Nevertheless, the reason he could grin and approach me step by step was probably because he didn’t value his own life. The mindset that if he died, he just had to come back to life. That’s why he could squeeze out all his possible capabilities. It was a strange madness born from his unique constitution, one that would make even a long-lived vampire shake their head.

“But you shouldn’t be relaxed enough to waste your strength like that.”

If his strength was his ignorance, his weakness was also his ignorance. Despite having seized the initiative, he repeated his mistake, having learned nothing from being beaten by me.

The form of the World Tree, though pierced by his mana, still stood tall at the center of the domain. He must have thought the World Tree was the center of my domain. But the form of the World Tree standing tall in the domain was merely an illusion.

The real World Tree was inside my body. The domain was not destroyed, and Buggy had just wasted an excessive amount of mana.

Even the consumption of vegetation was meaningless to me. The torrent of life. The abundant divinity once again filled the interior of the domain, which had become a wasteland, with vegetation.

And one by one, flower blossoms began to bloom on the waves of green vegetation. It took only a moment for the vivid red color to dye the entire land.

Buggy, who had been striding forward without a care, suddenly staggered. The momentarily bewildered man finally lost his smile and cursed amidst the sweet floral scent that was strong enough to numb the nose.

“You, you son of a bitch, again…!”

“It seems you didn’t quite understand why you lost to me before.”

Hypnos. It was a reenactment of when I had toyed with him at the previous auction. At that time, it was just Hypnos flowers blooming around him, but now, I had filled the vast space of the domain with Hypnos.

The focus in Buggy’s eyes, which had been glaring at me, began to blur. My move to target Buggy’s weakness, his mental resistance, had worked perfectly again. His physical abilities had become comparable to his prime, but was his mental resistance still at a standstill?

Compared to the force he had shown, the outcome of the battle was decided anticlimactically.

“Domain Declaration.”

…As expected, it seems he wouldn’t be taken down so easily by the same trick.

A bizarre sound came from Buggy’s body. It was a grinding sound, like a rusty spring being forcibly engaged by a great force.

“Huuuuhhh.”

His eyes turned completely black, with no boundary between the whites and the pupils. His bulging muscles pulsed on their own, as if a heart were beating. On his skin, in addition to the wounds I had made, new wounds appeared as if someone had torn them, and blood poured out.

His already messy body was now in a state just short of breathing its last. But strangely, he was now brimming with even more vitality than before. The pressure of divinity, the consumption of mana, the decline in stamina—all those burdens vanished, and he overflowed with energy.

‘Berserker.’

The incarnation of a berserker, who grows stronger the closer they are to death. That was the domain he had achieved.

He was a man who had been half-dead before. With the activation of his domain, his current capabilities were at their peak. Furthermore, his mind, driven mad by pain, had even repelled the hallucinations of Hypnos.

‘It’s not without its weaknesses.’

It was a type of ability, among the most unique of the varied domain effects, that intentionally worsened one’s own condition to increase power. In game terms, it was like maximizing one-shot damage in exchange for enduring status ailments and bleeding effects.

If the battle dragged on even a little, he would collapse on his own. If he took even a slight hit, he wouldn’t be able to endure it and would fall. The problem was that his physical abilities, pushed to the extreme, didn’t allow the battle to drag on.

The aura flowing through his entire body wrapped around him like armor, so sturdy that he could ignore most hits. In the end, his final pattern was to force a head-on clash, exchange lives, and then revive himself—an unreasonable demand.

It sounded like a hopeless ability at first glance, but there was a positive side.

‘For him, the domain is a last resort, a means to be used only when he’s going for the final blow.’

This was because even if he revived after using his domain, his body would not recover. In other words, if I defeated him after he activated his domain, the battle would be over.

‘It’s doable.’

It was an ability I already knew about. I had already formulated a countermeasure for it in my head.

The army of sentient plants, the Trents, formed a wall around him. These were the same Trents that couldn’t even gain an advantage against Mireille’s dolls. It was impossible for them to buy enough time for Buggy to collapse on his own.

In the first place, he could just smash through the Trents with his body and rush at me, just as he did when he appeared in the Centream building.

…Nevertheless, I was confident that he would rampage to destroy all the Trents.

“Uahahaha!”

‘Just as I expected.’

The reason he had broken free from the Hypnos hallucination was that he had filled his mind with an even greater madness. It was the madness of battle, a desire to die fighting. His ultimate target was me, but if an enemy appeared in his sight, he would rampage to destroy them all. It was an instinctive action that reason could not control.

Every time his fist shot out, all the Trents in a straight line turned to dust. Did it take about three breaths for all the Trents to fall? For the purpose of prolonging the battle, the loss was great.

But I was satisfied. Buying time was not part of the plan. I had to end the fight quickly and go back to deal with Bianca. I had only intended to distract him for a moment before preparing my next move.

‘Wooden Doll Transformation.’

The sensations in my body began to change. From the extremities of my flesh, it hardened, the excitement of battle faded, and a stillness filled my mind. My body, which had become close to a plant, eventually became one with the domain, but I didn’t stop there.

Accepting a great deal of divinity, I focused on the World Tree rooted within my body.

「Assimilating with the World Tree.」

Soon, my consciousness expanded beyond the horizon. It was different from the sensation of my consciousness assimilating with the World Tree when I first deployed the domain. There wasn’t the slightest bit of dissonance.

It was a complete union with the World Tree.

Simultaneously, the illusion of the World Tree, which had only been a background in the domain, took on a physical form. Buggy, who had by then finished off all the Trents, looked up at me, the last remaining enemy.

What was reflected in his eyes was the form of a giant with two clenched fists.

The Wooden Giant.

Previously, I had defeated him by exploiting his weakness. This time, I would shatter his strength head-on.

“Hehehe!”

Buggy was not intimidated by my overwhelming size. His face was full of fighting spirit and joy. He leaped forward, folding the ground as he came.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Wherever he stepped, the ground split, leaving deep pits. Despite the heaven-and-earth difference in size between the World Tree and him, his momentum was not inferior.

Stopping in front of me, he twisted his waist greatly and swung his fist. And my clasped fists came down on top of it, as if to cover it.

RUMBLE!

It was a roar as if the sky were collapsing. The atmosphere at the point of impact tore, sparks flew, and the skeletal remains of buildings crumbled.

The battle of strength against strength was, surprisingly, evenly matched. Buggy withstood the overwhelming difference in mass and the pouring divinity of the World Tree with his bare body.

But the balance did not last long. Buggy’s body was gradually pushed back. His body was buried in the deep furrow, and his straight arm began to bend little by little.

“Uaaaaaaaaah!”

Buggy, with grotesque veins popping out all over his body, let out a desperate roar, squeezing out every last bit of his strength.

CRACK!

Was it thanks to that? My descending fist bounced back and split like a piece of wood. Buggy had finally overcome even the Wooden Giant’s attack.

…But that was all.

Broken branches could just be remade. I clasped my regenerated hands together and raised them high into the sky again.

In contrast, Buggy’s one arm that had thrown the punch was twisted and broken, with bone and muscle protruding. In truth, my victory was decided the moment our attacks reached a stalemate.

He had gained superhuman strength through his domain, but in exchange, he was slowly dying. Did he even have the strength to lift a finger?

The man raised his other hand and managed to clench his fist, but he showed no further movement. From his body, which had frozen like a statue, only his lips twitched.

“Khuhu, damn, I’m, freaking, dying…”

His tongue didn’t seem to roll properly, as his words failed to form a sentence. His last words would probably just be a string of curses, as was his foul-mouthed habit. They were words not worth listening to.

I brought my arms down like a machine.

I felt no resistance from my two descending hands like I had just a moment ago.