Trash of the Count's Family Vol 2. Chapter 416: Facing and Protecting (3)
Kuuung—!
At the sound that shook the entire Demon Realm, eyes all across the Demon Realm turned toward its source. In the jungle, the desert, the meadow, the garbage dump. In every region, every being present looked that way.
The dark moon.
Because it was night, and because teleportation magic was impossible in the Demon Realm, it was a night when the weak held their breath even more tightly, and even the strong chose rest over fighting.
And the direction from which the sound that shattered that night was coming was a place that should have been quieter than anywhere else.
The full moon and the dark moon.
The Death Precipice, the bridge that alone connected the gorge dividing the Demon Realm into four parts.
Because it was the day the Primordial Root withdrew.
And yet now, from that Death Precipice, from the direction of the Primordial Root, came a massive roar and tremor.
“.......”
“.......”
“.......”
“.......”
The Demon Realm.
One by one, the beings there who had been hiding their presence and resting began to sharpen their senses.
And some had already started heading there.
Kuuung—!
And the one responsible for creating that situation.
Cale Henituse neither wanted to know nor cared at all about any of that.
Thump, thump.
His heart pounded violently.
-I’m hungry.
The gluttonous priestess revealed her will strongly.
More than at any time before.
-Something I’ve never eaten before.
The gluttonous priestess.
She coveted chaos, something she had never once eaten before.
Kugugugu---
And Cale simply stood there, staring only upward.
But below Cale, the basin was now covered in chaos.
“Huff. Huff!”
“S-save me—!”
Those who had felt as if they were about to be crushed under fear and terror gasped for breath.
And those who had come back to their senses cried out for help even while the hallucinated voices still rang in their ears.
“I-I’ll submit, just save me—!”
They begged for their lives from the very being whose energy they could feel against their skin.
If they could only escape these illusions, then it did not matter who it was. They would accept being dominated by anyone.
“This is insane—”
And the person who had at least kept his senses.
No, the person who had somehow managed to hold onto them.
Wanderer Cho could not find words to describe it.
‘A god—’
No.
“Pushing back a god......?”
A human, and one pushing back the power of chaos?
No, standing against it?
And—
“What is that now?”
Kugugu—
The gorge split apart.
No, it broke.
Something smashing through those hard rocks and descending rapidly.
Roots.
East, west, south, north.
Gigantic tree roots were rushing toward this place from all four directions.
As if they were not afraid of the power of chaos at all.
Rather, as if they wanted to fight it, the roots came plunging down like mad.
“...Hah—”
He could not get words out.
Those insane trees were now—
“What the hell is that human?”
It felt like that human’s power.
Because he was the only one still standing straight.
At that moment, Wanderer Ryeon’s voice was heard.
“...A transcendent.”
What?
Cho wanted to ask what his sister meant, but he could not take his eyes off that man.
For some reason, it felt like he could not miss this moment.
Kugugugugu—
The roots heading downward did not hesitate.
They broke rock apart, and their own bodies were torn up as well, but they paid no attention.
Trees grow even on cliffs and in deserts.
Anywhere, so long as they can put down roots, they live.
Kugugugugu—
And now that tree’s roots had found food.
-I’m hungry.
The moment the priestess spoke once more, Cale opened his mouth.
“Eat your fill.”
That was the moment.
Kuuung—!
The four giant trees touched the ground.
The countless huge and small roots they possessed.
Slosh.
Without the slightest fear, the roots plunged their bodies into the gray water.
-Not enough.
And then they started sucking in the water.
Cale’s eyebrow twitched slightly.
Kwaajik!
A root dyed gray exploded apart.
It was not just one.
Kwaajik! Bang! Kwaajiik!
The moment they were dyed gray, countless roots burst apart or shattered.
But—
-I don’t break.
The gluttonous priestess did not stop.
Where roots burst and broke, new roots sprouted again, and even if the small roots were destroyed, the large roots still remained, quietly waiting, not yet having touched the gray water.
-Again.
Now those large roots too plunged their bodies into the gray water.
Thud!
That was not the end.
Kuuung!
Thud!
Thud!
And then they drove themselves into the very bottom, into the earth.
The roots were fully planted.
Roots that had found something to brace against had nothing to fear.
This was not fire that would burn them.
Nor wind that would break them.
It was only water.
Something they consumed.
Even as they were dyed gray, the roots kept eating, and eating again.
Just as the gluttonous priestess had eaten the soil of land stained with dead mana.
“Ahaha, hahaha—”
Wanderer Cho laughed from sheer absurdity.
“This is insane—”
What the hell am I even looking at right now?
“The trees, these insane trees are sucking it all up.”
The trees were drinking the water!
“Yeah, damn it! If not water, then what the hell would trees drink? Damn it!”
Cho was dumbfounded.
But at the same time, he felt a thrill run through him.
The screams and cheers ringing by his ears, the horrific chaos where everything was mixed together, were gradually receding.
Bang, kwaajik!
Even though roots kept bursting apart without end, the chaos diminished.
Of course it did.
The roots that sucked in the gray water might burst apart, but they did not return to being ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) gray water, to being chaos, again.
-More, more!
The gluttonous priestess did not stop.
Kugugugugu--
Once again, tree roots began coming down from above the gorge.
All roots except the minimum needed to keep themselves anchored in the gorge headed downward again.
Drip.
Cale did not even wipe the blood running down from the corner of his mouth.
He only endured, looking upward.
Smirk.
Even so, a laugh escaped him.
“Hoo.”
“Ha—”
The Heavenly Demon and Eruhaben.
The breathing of the two beings grew lighter.
He could feel them rising from where they had been.
There were now people besides Raon to whom he could entrust his back.
“Ahh—”
“Hic, hic.”
And he could hear the voices of people gradually coming to their senses as well.
“This, this is impossible!”
“Chaos is weakening— no, being eaten? That can’t happen!”
And he could hear the despairing voices of the leadership of the Order of the God of Chaos.
That made Cale laugh.
“What are you smiling at?”
At Eruhaben’s reproachful voice, Cale’s smile only deepened.
Rather than answer the gold dragon, he kept looking upward and spoke.
“They’re coming.”
Kugugugu—
Roots descending through the gray mist, now somewhat thinner than before.
Among them, four especially massive roots.
Enormous roots descending from the east, west, south, and north.
And among them, one.
Wooooo—
A gigantic black dragon could be seen.
“Human, I called Choi Han!”
Raon had called another companion, Choi Han.
Choi Han came down riding the root.
His eyes met Cale’s.
Choi Han’s gentle face twisted.
Seeing the state of his companions, he bit his lip.
Every single one of them looked a mess.
Cale, he had seen like that many times, but he had not expected Eruhaben, the Heavenly Demon, and even Alberu to look like this.
“Choi Han, I’m saving our companions!”
Raon’s words rang out, and after seeing the blood at the corner of Cale’s mouth and the scene Cale had created, Choi Han realized what he had to do.
Tap!
He kicked off the root he was standing on.
Tak.
And landed on another root.
Roots that had risen above the gray water, little tree trunks, branches.
All of them were ground Choi Han could step on.
He descended onto the ground Cale had created for him on this land covered in chaos.
And then—
Slash!
He swung his sword.
Kwaaaaaa!
“Kgh!”
“Kuhek!”
At those who looked like the leadership of the Order of the God of Chaos—
Choi Han poured his attacks toward those who looked strong.
‘Uaaaaagh—!’
‘Puhahaha, hahat!’
Hallucinated voices rang in his ears.
Illusions flickered faintly too.
But reality was still clear.
Choi Han, who had never been stained by chaos from the beginning and was touching only the ground made by the trees, was not shaken by hallucinated voices and illusions at this level.
Someone’s despair?
Despair was already contained within Choi Han’s aura.
Someone’s pleasure?
Choi Han’s hope was not so small that it would be shaken by pleasure like this.
Wooooo—
The small and subtle black energy wrapped around his body.
Yet within it was the straightness of someone who never yielded anywhere and simply walked his own path.
Because it was Choi Han’s energy, stronger now than when he had first faced the power of the God of Chaos in the past.
That power, right on the verge of changing into individuality, had advanced further.
Slash!
Choi Han did not stop.
No, he hurried.
No matter how much the chaos had weakened, it could swallow him at any moment.
Slash!
“Kraaaagh! M-my arm—!”
Chwaaaak—!
“Why is a Sword Master......!”
Choi Han merely swung his sword with a blank face.
Before him, one of the leaders of the Order of the God of Chaos shouted.
“You dare think a mere human can stop what the God of Chaos intends to do!”
At that, Choi Han answered while moving his sword.
“Yeah.”
And then he added,
“We’ve got a god on our side too.”
At that moment, Cale, who had still been looking upward, widened his eyes.
“Ugh—”
At the same time, Alberu Crossman’s groan reached Cale’s ears.
Then Raon said to Cale,
“Human! They say it’s the saintess and a holy knight from the Order of the Sun God! Human, don’t you know that holy knight?”
Kugugugu—
Following behind Choi Han, two people were coming down on one of the remaining giant roots.
One of them was Sir Voltien, and the other was the saintess.
Voltien’s eyes swept across the scene of the holy land spread out below the gray smoke.
Then his eyes met Cale’s.
“!”
The hair color was different, but it was that person he knew.
The one who had warned him that danger was approaching.
And beside him was a man who could not come to his senses.
The moment Voltien saw him, his eyes widened.
“Saintess, is that him?”
The moment he asked, the saintess, who was descending in his arms, clasped both hands together instead of answering.
“O Sun!”
That was the moment.
“Please save that person!”
Her cry rang out through the chaos of battle.
And the moment her clear voice rose toward the sky—
Paaaat!
Brilliant light burst from her and rose into the sky.
The dark moon.
In a place where there was no moon, light rose.
The moment that sphere of light rose.
Twitch.
Alberu stirred.
“Alberu!”
The ancient dragon Eruhaben could see the Sun Sword in Alberu’s arms absorbing that light.
[Fast Charging in Progress]
A message that no one but Alberu could see appeared, and the saintess cried out.
“O Sun, drive back this chaos!”
The saintess, the one with the strongest holy power in the Order of the Sun God, had descended into the holy land of the God of Chaos.
Bang! Kwaajik!
The roots were still bursting apart.
Even so, the roots that survived kept eating, and eating again.
And endured.
-I can eat chaos too.
The moment the gluttonous priestess finally reached her conclusion, Cale slowly lowered the head he had been holding up.
About two-thirds of the gray water remained.
“Aaaaaagh!”
His lowering head halted and turned toward the direction of the scream.
Two people were coming down late, riding another of the giant roots.
“Human, you can ignore them! They’re good ones!”
At Raon’s words, Cale ignored them.
“This is amazing......!”
“Hey, you’re filming this properly, right? This is ten billion views easy!”
“Crazy, I’m tearing up! Look at our cute baby dragon-nim!”
“You insane attention-whore bastard! Is that what you should be looking at right now? Who’s that redhead? Is he a god?”
Cale had no time to pay attention to them.
Of course, he would regret that decision very, very deeply later.
But right now, before he passed out, Cale had to resolve all of this.
Paaaah---
Because he could not miss the moment that sphere of light rose into the sky.
-The gray mist hesitated.
Just as the Ancient Tree said, the gray mist, which had been thinning as the water decreased, faltered the moment the light rose.
Drip. Blood flowed from the corner of the saintess’s mouth too.
He could not waste the opportunity she had created.
And on top of that—
Urrr—
The sky was crying.
No, the clouds had begun to cry.
“We’ll think about the Wanderers later.”
The Heavenly Demon.
He spread out dark red clouds.
And covered the gray smoke with the clouds.
Once more, the hallucinated voices receded far away.
Under a sky where only light and dark red clouds remained.
Cale looked down below.
The basin covered in gray water.
Here and there, roots had planted themselves and made their presence known.
Seeing that the roots had spread evenly, Cale decided.
He stretched out his hands, the two hands still stuck to the knife, forward.
Now that the trees had taken root.
Now—
“Grow.”
Now it was time to make a forest.
“Swallow it all.”
Kugugugu---!
The entire gorge shook.
The ground, the basin, trembled.
And then—
It grew.
At every root, trees grew.
Large or small, trees kept growing without end.
Pillars rose, trunks extended, and leaves unfurled.
“Ah—”
One of the believers dropped to the ground.
And clasped both hands together.
The illusions and hallucinated voices disappeared.
Because the trees had eaten all the gray water.
Kkwaajik.
Kwaajiit.
Even in the middle of that, there were trees that died.
They could not endure it.
But in the end, the forest was made.
“Ah—”
The believer, having driven back the hellish chaos, trembled at the reality now before him.
Gray trees had formed a forest.
This holy land of the God of Chaos, where there had not been a single proper tree or plant.
Now a gray forest had grown there.
And the hellish chaos was receding.
Little by little, it could no longer be seen or heard.
Instead, all he felt was the energy of domination wrapping around him.
But the believer realized it.
That energy of domination was saving him.
And he realized something else.
It was clear.
There was not even the slightest trace of murky chaos mixed into this dominating aura.
Wind blew toward the trees that had eaten chaos.
Ssshaaa---
Gray leaves rustled.
And yet their scent was so crisp and clear.
“Ah—”
The believer turned his head.
All of the trees had grown with their branches stretched in a single direction.
That place was the center of the holy land, Primordial Night’s central point, the Upside-Down Night.
One person atop the risen rock.
He too was dyed gray.
Gray branches, gray leaves, the gray forest—all of it had grown toward one person.
As if to protect him.
Or as if, obeying his command, they had protected them all.
Without realizing it, the believer spoke toward that person.
“O God—”
A shiver ran through him.
Where chaos had disappeared, one person remained.
And that person, Cale—
“God, damn—”
Kuhk!
Coughed up a mouthful of blood, and still in the same posture he had been standing in, his body toppled backward.
-Well eaten.
While hearing the satisfied voice of the gluttonous priestess.