Ch#206
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His vision was dyed blood-red.
An unidentified voice screamed repeatedly in his mind.
[Kill them! Kill them all!]
Lucarion lifted his head, gasping for breath.
Above the crimson sky.
Demonic energy was surging from his own body.
[You must sever their filthy breaths! Purify the ugly vermin with death!]
A groan escaped his lips.
Even covering his ears, the voice only grew louder.
[Show them blood! Rip out their entrails and tear them apart!]
The next moment, one hand moved against his will.
As it did, the monsters collapsed on the ground rose.
The bone-exposed, rotting monsters were already half-corpse.
Yet at Lucarion's command, they straightened their twisted joints.
"......Capture them."
Lucarion said.
Immediately, dark blue light flashed in the monsters' eyes.
The hallucination in his head cried out in delight.
[Well done, servant of death! Minion of the Absolute...... Necromancer King!]
Pain stabbed through his head at the name 'Necromancer King'.
Clutching his forehead, Lucarion gasped.
The blood-red scene before him came into sharp focus.
"Humans......"
Yes, humans.
The humans who had unwittingly stepped into the canyon he called home.
The place was already drenched in their blood.
Some still thrashed desperately to survive, but there was no hope.
"Kill."
At the short command, the Underworld monsters lunged.
They differed from ordinary monsters.
Spear through the heart.
Cleave the body in half.
Even behead them, and they still moved.
"It's a monster!"
"Run! Run if you want to live!"
For they were undying beings.
Revived by Lucarion, who wielded the power to raise the dead, through the gate to the Underworld.
"Arghhh!"
Blood scattered once more.
Fatigue settled on Lucarion's face.
At the same time, an unbearable thirst welled in his chest.
[Not enough. You must kill more! Kill even more!]
It was a damned rampage.
A rampage that would ultimately stain his hands with filthy blood.
Black scales slowly emerged over his childlike skin.
At the same time, a distant, nostalgic voice echoed in his ear.
[You are my most precious and beautiful leaf, child.]
The Mother Tree.
The spirits, including Lucarion, called the World Tree that.
[I know. One day, you will grow and create the greatest shade for the things above ground to rely on.]
The World Tree was benevolent.
True to her role governing all life in the world, nothing escaped her sight.
[You are the passage between life and death, two worlds. The symbol of peace and balance, the witness of harmony.]
Hearing her voice made him feel he could do anything.
As if all the world's worries and pains parted before him.
But......
[Run!]
With a sensation piercing his brainstem.
The memory of the day the World Tree split in half assaulted him.
[Lucarion, run. If you fall into that one's hands too, the world ends!]
Her steadfast roots became rags.
The six branches where the Great Spirits played snapped and corrupted.
[We must plan for the future. I have a thought. Endure until then. When he takes me, the boundaries of your consciousness will crumble......!]
He didn't remember the rest of the conversation well.
What had the World Tree said?
That Lucarion would sink into madness.
That his self would collapse, swept by uncontrollable impulses.
Not only that, but the spirits under the World Tree would all be consumed without exception.
They would no longer be spirits, but monsters yielding self-control to greed.
"In the end......"
Lucarion looked down at his hands.
The human skin had vanished.
Bones twisted and elongated, long sharp claws sprouting at the tips.
Demonic energy wrapped his body, the rampage reaching its peak.
"Astie! No!"
A desperate voice came from behind.
Turning, an Underworld monster restrained a human.
Now fully draconic, Lucarion muttered.
"Strong human."
That one was the strongest among the humans who entered today.
And the hardest to kill.
He felt the rage in his mind's rampage.
[Kill that one too! Kill the child he loves most! Tear the flesh, take the blood!]
He had sought a way to resist the voice.
So he hid in the canyon.
But now, it was all over.
"......Shut up."
Lucarion spread his wings.
An Underworld monster sank its claws into Tese tan's right shoulder.
But the human didn't even scream.
Shoulder mangled, he didn't glance at the monster that wounded him.
His gaze fixed on one thing alone.
"Waaah! Waaah-!"
The human baby crying on the ground.
Lucarion's red eyes chilled.
Feeling deeper fatigue from the long rampage, he lowered his gaze.
Then spread his wings toward the crying sound.
"Waaah! Waah! Waah!"
The baby cried desperately.
Scrunched eyes.
Tiny hands poking through the cloth.
"Astie-!"
The baby's father thrashed.
Right arm nearly torn off, yet he twisted his body again and again.
"No! Not the child!"
[Kill! Crush it!]
Lucarion's heart pounded fiercely.
Blood vessels burst in his eyes, pain piercing his head again.
"Kieeeek-!"
Opening his mouth unleashed a beastly roar mad with blood.
Lucarion raised his sharp claws into the air.
A single motion would snuff out that life.
Yielding to the rampage, perhaps he had now fully lost his reason.
'Then, can I be at ease too?'
After the World Tree split.
He had fled and fled from the pursuing grasp.
To plan for the future, as the World Tree said.
For if even Lucarion fell into his hands, the world truly would end.
'I wanted to do well.'
Now he was tired.
He could endure no more.
Feeling horrific thirst every moment, he could live no longer like this.
The claws swung down toward the child.
No one could stop it, he thought.
But that instant.
Kaboom-!
The backlash exploding from the child's heart blasted Lucarion's body into the air.
A deep scar gouged the ground.
Buried in the dirt mound, Lucarion stared at Astie with red eyes.
"Waaah! Waah!"
Golden energy flowed around the child's body.
An immense amount, enough to purify the entire canyon.
But that wasn't all.
He rose.
His arms were returning to human form.
Black scales vanished, sharp teeth receding into his skull.
In disbelief, Lucarion stepped forward.
One step, another.
The unharmed, crying child came into view.
"Waaah!"
A faint diamond-shaped something rose and vanished above the child's chest.
Lucarion drew a short breath.
[We must plan for the future.]
That future was today.
[I have a thought.]
That thought was this.
Lucarion slowly knelt, rigid.
The now-silent child looked up at his face with round eyes.
A groan nearly escaped his lips.
"My lord......?"
The World Tree, roots shattered and decayed.
Thus, what the world needed was the next generation tree.
His hands trembled.
As Lucarion bowed his head at Tie's feet, the Underworld monsters vanished, the surroundings dyeing gold.
Astie.
The name her father called etched into his mind like an imprint.
"My new......"
The child chosen by the World Tree was whom Lucarion would serve.
As long as the World Tree's seed resided in that small chest,
"......Fate."
Lucarion had no other choice.