Chapter 94
94. Snake of Greed
An incomparably powerful mana, and the World Tree that supplies it almost endlessly.
Every strike is deadly even to me with mana reinforcement active, and it even has shameless defense and instantaneous teleportation.
No matter how many times the Trial Tower has been a pain in the ass, there was no way they expected us to tackle something like this head-on.
Even if this were balanced for twenty-five people, it wouldn't matter. I'm probably about twenty times stronger than the average challenger on the 9th Floor.
-KRAAANG!
“Kheuk!”
The moment I destroyed the throne, the High Elf King, who had been about to attack Eleanor, coughed up blood and collapsed.
Just as expected, the throne was his weakness. When I checked with mana detection, he was dead in an instant.
All the magic circles he'd spread everywhere vanished, and the raging torrent of mana that had made it hard to breathe also calmed down.
“Kheh.”
And I, almost at the same time, spat out blood as well. I'd pushed my body too far just to break the throne in one go.
I hadn't been hit cleanly many times, but every single one of those hits was fatal.
If I'd failed to avoid the vital spots, depending on where I was hit, I might have died on the spot.
No, right. The system doesn't actually allow instant death.
“Eleanor, the door!”
Mercedes shouted at Eleanor. Eleanor, snapping back to her senses, sent a shadow flying toward the door.
-KABOOM!
The firmly shut door shattered to pieces. Since we'd destroyed the throne, the door didn't matter anymore anyway.
Right now was the perfect time to cut off the fallen king's head and finish him off—but my body wouldn't move properly.
Mana reinforcement had canceled itself, leaving my whole body drained. I'd lost a ridiculous amount of blood, and my insides felt messed up too.
Just as I couldn't move properly, the ground under my feet suddenly gave way and my vision flipped upside down.
“Ugh, what the hell, shit.”
The next moment, I was in Eleanor's arms. It looked like she'd summoned me with shadow magic.
“Sorry. This was the only way. Let's get out of here.”
“No, more importantly, confirm the kill!”
“That bastard just died. His life signs are completely gone.”
I know that. My mana detection says that bastard's dead too. But no matter how I look at it, this isn't the end.
The clear message still isn't showing up.
-Rrrrk!
As expected, a bad premonition never misses.
The body of the High Elf King, who had collapsed coughing up blood, began to change.
**
Something that looked like pitch-black tree branches burst out through the king's body.
The black branches planted themselves on the ground like spider legs and forcibly propped up the king's dead body.
“Foolish.”
The near-infinite mana was gone, but an absurd amount of mana was still flowing through that dead body.
“If I'd only gotten my hands on the crown... I was even planning to make you understand my cause as well. And yet you smashed the throne without warning.”
What the hell is that lunatic talking about? As if he hadn't been trying to kill us while hurling insane magic at us a moment ago.
“Didn't I tell you? The World Tree is a tree that grows by absorbing the planet's ley lines... why don't you understand what that means?”
“This world was already doomed. The moment we elves were born, this planet's destruction was foretold!”
“Do you know why the elf race has such an excellent sensitivity to mana? Because the World Tree wanted it—to find a new land overflowing with mana!”
We left the babbling High Elf King behind and quickly fled the room.
“If we can't find a new land, the World Tree is finished. If the World Tree is finished, the elves are finished! Our souls will never return again!”
Eleanor hoisted me up and picked up speed. Mercedes kept her mana reinforcement up and ran alongside us.
We were moving at a ridiculous speed. We were already far, far away from the audience chamber where the High Elf King had been.
But the voice kept following us, even though we were already too far away for it to reach us.
“Did you think I'd be done just because my connection to the World Tree was cut? I have plenty of power stored up. You've only hastened the destruction of this world!”
That was when it happened. High Elf knights, having detected us as intruders, suddenly sprang out and blocked our way.
“You there, what the hell are you doing!”
“Move aside!”
“M-Mercedes, ma'am?”
When Mercedes lunged forward and barked at them, the knights froze in panic.
Even if she's been banished, the fact that she was once the High Elves' greatest knight doesn't seem to have gone anywhere.
But then black tree branches shot out from a nearby wall and speared through the knights like harpoons.
“W-What the hell is that...!”
The knights pierced by the branches struggled for a moment, then their bodies shriveled up in an instant and turned to dust.
“If you'd handed over the crown willingly, the lives that needed to be sacrificed would have been only those of the human soldiers... but now that can't happen anymore.”
The pitch-black branches carried the king's voice as they spread in every direction. This is no longer even a branch.
They're just monster tentacles that brutally suck the life out of anything they touch.
Our escape route was instantly surrounded and blocked by black branches too. Eleanor frowned and said,
“Hold on to me with all your strength. You must not let go.”
Eleanor stopped abruptly, grabbed Mercedes with one hand, and drew a magic circle in shadow.
And the next moment, the shadow that erupted like a fountain launched us straight into the ceiling.
-BOOM! KABOOM! KRA-KABOOM!
We blasted through several layers of ceiling and shot up into the sky in an instant. The impact shook my innards.
My already wrecked insides twisted further. Something rose up my throat.
“Urgh, cough.”
The ground below, seen through the blood I spewed from my mouth, was horrifying.
Countless branches spreading out from the royal castle now covered the entire castle like a gigantic wave.
They pierced every elf in sight, drained their life force, and split apart as if they were breeding, spreading farther and farther outward.
They spread at a speed as fast as a wildfire driven by a gale, and the branches were now heading toward the World Tree.
The pitch-black branches crawling up the massive World Tree reminded me of mistletoe sucking the nutrients from a tree.
No, not something that gentle—they looked more like hundreds of thousands of twisted snakes climbing the World Tree.
Neither Eleanor, Mercedes, nor I could say a word at the sight.
“I will leave this world with the World Tree and build a new kingdom of elves in a faraway land. I no longer need the crown.”
“I had wanted to leave together with the World Tree intact, but now that the throne is broken and the connection ruined—I'll have to use another method.”
“A world that's only waiting for the day it dies is of no concern to me. I will destroy everything and make it the World Tree's nourishment.”
The deafening telepathic voice, loud enough to ring across the sky, and the countless thorns eventually twisted together into one massive shape.
What they formed, woven together to a size rivaling the World Tree, was a gigantic snake.
[Warning, as the Epic Quest progress exceeds 99%, the layer settings will be changed.]
[The labyrinth region will disappear. The boss monster's transfer-gate activation privileges will be temporarily transferred to the Epic Quest.]
[While the Epic Quest is in progress, you can form a party with an NPC whose affinity is 80 or higher.]
[A World Raid will now begin. Party and raid formation limits will be lifted.]
[Warning: The difficulty of the World Raid is set based on a raid force of 50 or more members.]
[Form a raid. Current challengers available on this server: 1]
**
The bright red system interface displayed a message I'd never seen before.
World Raid, raid party—those weren't unfamiliar terms.
But I never dreamed I'd see them on Server 2661.
At the same time, the Epic Quest updated once more, and the giant snake's name was engraved in the air.
[A monster born from the obsession to live forever, one who lived a long life and ceased to be human, yet was more human than anyone else.]
[One who devours greedily, breeds and prospers without end, and dreams until the very last end.]
[The sum of living desire, a flame that wishes to breathe until the day the universe ends. What could possibly stand against such a being?]
[WORLD BOSS - the World-Devouring Snake-Dragon, Nidgrak'Svarpfbalnir]
The enormous black snake simply gnawed at the World Tree from the roots up, broke off its last branches, and stuffed them into its mouth.
After greedily devouring the tree of life—and not stopping there, devouring everything around it as well—the snake opened its mouth and said.
“I will devour this world together with the World Tree.”
The king, transformed into a World Boss that would appear only under specific conditions and the target of a massive raid, let his red eyes gleam.
[Epic: The Dark Elf's Book - Final Chapter]
The updated Epic Quest was telling us this would truly be the final battle.
The objective was extremely simple. Kill that snake.
The Dark Elf's Book, which had continued from the 7th Floor and gone on for so long, had finally entered its final chapter.