WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Alone Against the Tower ◈
Chapter 94: Serpent of Greed
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The World Tree possessed mana so powerful it was beyond all reach, and supplied that mana in near-infinite amounts.
Every attack was lethal even to me with Mana Enhancement active, and he even had absurd defense and teleportation with no delay.
It wasn't like the Tower of Trials had only been fucked up once or twice, but there was no way it had thrown something like this at us expecting us to clear it head-on.
The same held true even if it was designed for twenty-five people. I was probably about twenty times stronger than the average Challenger on the ninth floor.
Boom!
“Cough!”
The moment the throne shattered, the High Elf King, who had been about to attack Eleanor, coughed up blood and collapsed.
Just as I'd expected, the throne was his weakness. When I checked with Mana Detection, his life had ended immediately.
All the magic circles he had spread throughout the room vanished, and the raging torrent of mana that had made breathing difficult also calmed.
“Cough.”
I coughed up blood almost at the same time. I'd pushed myself too hard to destroy the throne in one strike.
I hadn't been hit properly many times, but every one of those hits had been devastating.
It was fortunate that I'd avoided vital points. Depending on where I'd been hit, I might have died on the spot.
No, right. Instant death wasn't possible because of the system.
“Eleanor, the door!”
Mercedes shouted at Eleanor. Eleanor snapped back to her senses and sent shadows toward the door.
Boom!
The tightly shut door shattered into pieces. Now that the throne was destroyed, the door didn't matter anyway.
This was the moment when I wanted to finish things by cutting off the fallen King's head, but my body wouldn't move properly.
Mana Enhancement deactivated on its own, and all strength drained from my body. I'd lost an absurd amount of blood, and something seemed wrong with my organs too.
Then, while I was unable to move properly, the ground suddenly gave way beneath my feet, and my vision flipped.
“Ugh, what the fuck?”
The next moment, I was in Eleanor's arms. It seemed she had called me over with Shadow Magic.
“Sorry. This was the only way. Let's get out of here.”
“No, more importantly, finish him off!”
“That man died just now. His life sign has completely disappeared.”
I knew that too. Mana Detection told me that bastard was dead.
But no matter how I looked at it, this wasn't over.
The clear message hadn't appeared.
Crack!
Of course, ominous premonitions never failed to come true.
The High Elf King's body, which had collapsed while coughing blood, underwent a bizarre change.
* * *
Something resembling pitch-black tree branches burst through the King's body.
The black branches planted themselves on the ground like spider legs and forcibly raised the lifeless body back up.
“How foolish.”
The nearly infinite mana was gone, but an absurd amount of mana still flowed through that corpse.
“I had intended to make you understand my great cause as well, once I had the crown in my hands. Yet you destroyed the throne without warning.”
What the fuck was that lunatic talking about? When had he been trying to kill us by firing insane magic everywhere?
“Did I not tell you? The World Tree is a tree that grows by absorbing the star's ley lines. How can you not understand what that means?”
“This star is already doomed. From the moment we Elves were born, this star's destruction was inevitable!”
“Do you know why the Elven race possesses such exceptional mana perception? It is what the World Tree wished for, that we find new land overflowing with mana!”
Leaving the rambling High Elf King behind, we quickly fled the room.
“If we cannot find new land, the World Tree will end. If the World Tree ends, the Elves will end too! Our souls will never return!”
Eleanor carried me on her back and accelerated. Mercedes ran alongside us while keeping Mana Enhancement active.
Our speed was unbelievably fast. We were already far from the audience chamber where the High Elf King had been.
Yet his voice continued to reach us, even though we were well beyond a distance where we should have been able to hear it.
“Did you think I would be finished just because my connection to the World Tree was severed? I have more than enough power stored away. You have merely hastened destruction!”
Then, High Elf Knights who had noticed us intruders suddenly appeared and blocked our path.
“Hey! What are you doing there?!”
“Move!”
“M-Mercedes?”
When Mercedes rushed forward and shouted at them, the Knights stopped in confusion.
She might have been exiled, but it seemed her past as the High Elves' First Knight still carried weight.
Then black branches burst from the nearby walls and pierced the Knights' bodies like harpoons.
“W-What is that...?!”
The Knights impaled by the branches struggled briefly, then their entire bodies shriveled up and turned to dust in an instant.
“If you had handed over the crown obediently, the lives of human soldiers would have been enough of a sacrifice. But now, that is no longer possible.”
Pitch-black branches carrying the King's voice stretched in every direction. They were no longer branches at all.
They were merely a monster's tentacles, brutally draining the life from anything they touched.
Our escape route was quickly surrounded and blocked by black branches. Eleanor frowned.
“Hold on to me with all your strength. You must never let go.”
Eleanor came to an abrupt stop, grabbed Mercedes with one hand, and drew a magic circle with shadows.
The next moment, shadows surged upward like a fountain and launched us into the ceiling.
Bang! Boom! Boom!
We broke through several layers of ceiling and rose into the sky in an instant. The impact shook my organs.
My insides, already smashed to pulp, twisted. Something rose in my throat.
“Urgh, cough.”
The sight below me as I vomited a great deal of blood was horrifying.
Countless branches extending from the royal castle now covered the entire castle like a massive wave.
They pierced every Elf in sight, drained their life force, and split apart as though reproducing, spreading farther and farther.
They spread as fast as a wildfire driven by strong winds, and the branches were now heading toward the World Tree.
The pitch-black branches crawling up the enormous World Tree reminded me of mistletoe absorbing a tree's nutrients.
No, rather than something so harmless, they looked like hundreds of thousands of twisted snakes climbing the World Tree.
Eleanor, Mercedes, and I couldn't say a word as we watched.
“I will leave this star with the World Tree and establish a new Elven kingdom in a distant land. I no longer need something as trivial as a crown.”
“I wished to leave whole alongside the World Tree, but now that the throne has been destroyed and the connection ruined, I will have to use another method.”
“It doesn't matter what becomes of a star waiting only for its day of death. I will destroy everything and make it nourishment for the World Tree.”
The transmitted voice was so loud that it thundered through the sky. Countless spikes soon intertwined into one massive shape.
It was a gigantic serpent, formed from intertwined spikes and comparable in size to the World Tree.
[Warning. As the Epic Quest's progress has exceeded 99%, the floor's configuration will be changed.]
[The Labyrinth Area will disappear. The authority to activate the boss monster's Transfer Gate is temporarily transferred to the Epic Quest.]
[During the Epic Quest, you may form a party with Non-Player Characters whose Affinity is 80 or higher.]
[A World Raid will now begin. Party and Raid Party size limits have been lifted.]
[Warning: The World Raid's difficulty is set for a Raid Party of fifty or more.]
[Form a Raid Party. Challengers available to participate on the current server: 1]
* * *
A bright red system interface displayed messages I'd never seen before.
World Raid. Raid Party. They weren't unfamiliar words.
But I'd never dreamed I would see them on Server 2661.
At the same time, the Epic Quest updated once more, and the giant serpent's name was inscribed in the air.
[A monster created by the obstinacy of one who wished to live forever. One who became no longer human after a long life, yet is more human than anyone.]
[One who greedily devours, endlessly multiplies and prospers, and dreams until the very end.]
[The sum of living desire, a flame that wishes to breathe until the day the universe ends. What could stand against it?]
[WORLD BOSS - Nidhgrak'Svarfbalnir, the Serpent Dragon That Devours the World]
The immense black serpent gnawed through the World Tree from its base, breaking and swallowing even its final branches.
Having greedily devoured the World Tree, then everything around it as well, the serpent opened its mouth and spoke.
“I will devour this world along with the World Tree.”
The King, reborn as a World Boss, a massive raid target that appeared only when specific conditions were met, shone red eyes.
[Epic: Dark Elf's Letter - Final Chapter]
The updated Epic Quest made it clear that this would truly be the final battle.
The objective was exceedingly simple.
Kill that serpent.
Dark Elf's Letter, which had begun on the seventh floor and continued for so long, had finally entered its final chapter.
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