Chapter 55

Chapter 55
## Chapter 55

Elf (3)

A shift in strategy.

At first, his intention was simply to cause as much destruction as he could and then flee alongside Dismiss if the opposition became overwhelming…

“Um… excuse me…”

The exact Elf girl that both the Main God Church and the Elven Kingdom were desperately seeking.

‘This is a situation I can turn to my advantage.’

His thoughts spun rapidly.

It was a perfect mutually beneficial scenario to elevate Harley’s renown while simultaneously allowing Heinrich to secure a notable achievement for the Church.

“Hmm! My name is Harley. In any case, your goal is to flee this place, correct?”

“…Yes!”

The scent of corrupted dark magic was intensifying by the second.

A massive wave of foes was surging forward from the depths of the cavern.

“Then please pardon me for a brief moment!”

“What? Whoa—!”

He quickly slung his weapon onto his back, scooped Cecily up securely under his arm, spun around, and dashed away.

The fibers of his legs expanded tightly, giving his frame an explosive burst of velocity.

“Whooo—!”

Cecily squeezed her eyes tightly shut, gripping Harley’s side for dear life.

She remained firmly clutching the piece of timber in her arms.

“By the way, what exactly is that branch? Is it of great value?”

He questioned her, capitalizing on a fleeting moment of calm as they bolted toward the exit at extreme velocity.

To the naked eye, it did not appear particularly remarkable.

“Huh? Ah, this is… a branch of the World Tree. It is solely because of this that I managed to flee unharmed from the depths…”

She replied with earnest effort, her features twisting against the rushing wind battering her face.

He had previously pondered how she managed to break away from the hidden inner chamber where the dark sacrifice was actively taking place to reach Harley’s location, and it appeared the World Tree had provided her with assistance.

He remained entirely ignorant of how that specific piece of wood had come to be in her possession, considering she was intended to be the offering.

‘Reflecting on it now, I overlooked it due to the pressing crisis, but she is remarkably compliant.’

Cecily had displayed a gentle demeanor toward him from their very first interaction up to this precise moment.

This was despite the circumstances being entirely ripe for deep suspicion and fear.

She had encountered a heavily muscled, unclothed male standing inside a stronghold of dark mages.

Not only was he drenched in crimson gore, but he was also gripping a pair of axes that were actively dripping with blood.

‘Ugh, even I would be absolutely terrified.’

To be sure, he personally took pride in his own appearance, but he possessed enough self-awareness to realize it was not visually comforting by objective standards.

Yet, facing all of that, she had merely shown a slight hint of nervousness.

‘Come to think of it, there are rumors that those deemed worthy to ascend as High Elves receive direct portents from the World Tree.’

It would provide a path so they could journey safely back to the World Tree itself.

It seemed the World Tree had determined that Harley represented her sole path of survival in this predicament.

‘Her willingness to cooperate makes things highly efficient for me. However, that object fastened around Cecily’s throat… ’

Hans, the practitioner of dark sorcery, swiftly delivered the analytical conclusions to him.

‘A restrictive binding implement fueled by dark magic. Its construction is exceptionally complex. Attempting to shatter it by brute force would carry immense peril. Hans possesses the knowledge to neutralize it, but… ’

Deactivating such a device demanded incredibly precise sorcerous management, a capability that Harley completely lacked.

‘I comprehend the mechanism perfectly within my consciousness, but I am incapable of executing it physically.’

That explained why Rapori, the High Elf, had been entirely unable to pinpoint Cecily’s whereabouts.

‘Considering how the World Tree reacted the instant Harley stepped inside, it clearly possessed knowledge of Cecily’s coordinates.’

Indeed, the World Tree stood as a divine entity commanding the reverence of the Elves, even if it didn’t quite match the prestige of the Main God.

There must have been separate divine constraints preventing it from communicating the location explicitly.

“Hahaha! None of that matters at this moment!”

He could sense the corrupt energy swelling behind them like a tidal wave, but their destination at the cave opening was already coming into view.

The moment they breached the exterior, capturing him would become an exercise in futility, given his monstrous and unyielding physical endurance.

Right at that split second,

He perceived another entity surging upward from beneath the earth at incredible speed.

In contrast to the previous encounters, this entity broadcasted an undeniable aura of lethal malice.

The complication was that its trajectory originated from the outer woods where they were trying to escape…

Boom—!

And its physical dimensions were so immense that it completely sealed off the exit as it burst forth from the bedrock directly in the cavern’s mouth.

“Get out of my path!”

Yet Harley paid the obstacle no heed and pressed his advance toward the colossal burrowing creature, the Earthworm, which obstructed their passage, pushing his velocity to its absolute limit.

“Eek—?!”

He deftly shifted Cecily from her position beneath his arm to a proper, protective embrace, cushioning her completely from the impending collision…

Boom!

And then he launched himself into the air, driving a powerful drop-kick directly into the beast.

[Kraaaagh—!]

The Earthworm writhed violently under the sheer force of the impact.

However, owing to its tremendous mass and the fact that its lower half remained firmly rooted in the dirt, the path through the exit remained completely barred.

Harley, propelled backward by the kinetic rebound, executed a seamless landing and let out a low chuckle.

“Hehehe… I suppose expecting things to progress flawlessly was foolish.”

It became apparent that clearing a path through the exit would require an investment of time.

And that reality dictated he could no longer evade an engagement with the pursuers closing in from their rear.

“Listen closely, young lady, rouse yourself. It appears we must ready ourselves for conflict.”

“Huh~?”

While her senses swirled from the violent, rapid shifts in movement, Harley was already enacting his preparations.

He set Cecily down on the ground and utilized his sharpened fingernails to sever the beasthide attached to his black panther helmet, which trailed behind him like a mantle.

He sliced it down the center to yield two separate bands, subsequently lengthening the upper portions of both strips.

“Get over here!”

“Yes, yes!”

He then drew Cecily close and swathed her within the two lengths of hide like a protective chrysalis, binding her securely to his torso.

The hide that had formerly shielded his back possessed such vast dimensions that it enveloped her entire form, leaving only a small gap for respiration, ensuring the surrounding chaos remained hidden from her sight.

A compact bundle of hide… or rather, an Elf youth, suspended from a muscular titan in the manner of an infant secured in a carrier.

‘This method surpasses carrying her on my back. This is the hide of a monster, meaning it will not easily tear apart.’

As Harley concluded his preparations for engagement and tightened his grasp upon his weaponry, the Earthworm maintained its static position, resolutely blocking the portal.

This behavior deviated significantly from what one would anticipate from a creature guided purely by base impulses.

It was undeniably acting under the explicit command of a master.

“Haha! In that case, let us commence the festivities! You shall be the opening act!”

Harley unleashed his internal reserves without the slightest hesitation, manifesting his “Bio-Aura” across his entire physical frame.

His priority was to shatter the barrier at the exit before turning his attention to the remaining adversaries.

—

“What? What did you just say, Sir Heinrich?”

The Saintess questioned him, her features mirroring her profound confusion.

The countenances of the remaining individuals in the vicinity reflected the exact same sentiment.

Archbishop Latiaus, the holy knights of the Paladins, and the present Elves, Rapori included.

“I believe I have ascertained the location of Cecily.”

Nevertheless, Heinrich reiterated his assertion, completely unphased by their collective scrutiny.

“Hmm… Do you possess some form of divine favor that permits you to track designated individuals?”

Archbishop Latiaus inquired with an air of skepticism.

It was undeniably an assertion that stretched credibility.

Could they truly have located their target so rapidly, mere moments after the High Elf representing the Elven Kingdom had introduced the matter?

Yet the circumstances left no room for prolonged debate.

“It does not stem from a divine favor, yet I can perceive it with absolute certainty. The essence of an Elf identifying as Cecily, possessing pale green tresses and orange irises. Furthermore, she is currently imperiled by severe danger.”

Upon hearing his declaration, the temperaments of everyone present underwent an immediate shift.

The Elves cast desperate glances toward the senior figures of the ministry, including the Saintess.

They were entirely uncertain of how much faith to place in the sudden pronouncements of an individual who appeared, on the surface, quite ordinary.

The Saintess fixed her gaze upon Heinrich for a brief interval, then redirected her serious attention toward the Elven contingent.

“Sir Heinrich is completely reliable. He is an individual who commands the notice of the Main God Himself. If he experiences such a perception, an unassailable justification must exist.”

“We shall defer to the ultimate consensus of the Church.”

With the Elves offering their grim assent, she rose swiftly from her position and locked eyes with Heinrich.

“Then we must depart without a moment’s delay. In which direction does she lie?”

Her gaze, locked squarely with his, radiated absolute confidence.

“She is positioned within the northern peaks, tracing the frontier of the Tulk Kingdom situated in the western expanse of the continent. We can bypass immense travel time if we utilize the teleportation circle to transition to the Tarak Temple located in Aonia County.”

“We shall deliberate further as we move.”

The entire assembly abandoned their seats, directing their hurried steps toward the teleportation portal.

The Saintess murmured a quiet incantation while clutching her sacred talisman, thereafter glancing back in Heinrich’s direction.

“I have commanded the overseers to prime the portal for our immediate deployment. We shall transition the instant we arrive at the platform.”

“Sir Heinrich Landguard. Do you possess a methodology to pinpoint her precise coordinates?”

“I anticipate that I can guide us straight to her utilizing my ‘Blessing’ once we achieve proximity… however, at this present moment, my awareness is limited to the fact that she is situated somewhere north of the Iron Fortress.”

Every individual present was operating under the assumption that Heinrich’s declarations were absolute truth.

The unyielding endorsement of the Saintess undoubtedly carried immense weight in establishing this belief.

At this juncture, if he merely vindicated that confidence, his standing and reliability within the hierarchy of the Church would be elevated dramatically.

They pressed forward in a rush and shortly arrived before the teleportation structure.

A brief dispute manifested during their approach, however.

“That is out of the question, Saintess.”

“When our numbers include a pair of Paladins, an Archbishop, and a High Elf, what necessity compels your personal involvement?”

“Hahaha! Relinquish the task of purging the defilers to our hands!”

The Saintess, who was naturally proceeding toward the portal structure, found her path blocked by the ecclesiastical guards.

Her expressions soured slightly, yet she refrained from voicing a public objection, presumably to preserve her proper decorum before the Elves, who were external dignitaries.

Given the extreme haste of the decision, time had not permitted the mobilization of supplementary forces, yet even this gathered group represented an overwhelming concentration of military might.

“Our current numbers are more than sufficient to resolve the matter, provided the coordinates are precise.”

The High Elf Rapori chimed in with absolute self-assurance, leaving her with no alternative but to offer a slight nod of concession and step aside.

Nevertheless, this did not imply the Saintess was rendered useless to the endeavor.

Wooong—

While the destination was not quite as distant as the Talia Kingdom at the absolute western fringe of the landmass, the space separating the central territories from the western Tulk Kingdom was nonetheless immense.

An extraordinary reservoir of sacred energy was required to bridge such a vast span instantaneously, making the Saintess’s mystical contribution vital to achieving a direct transition.

“May safety accompany you all.”

“Dismiss your anxieties. No significant complications shall arise.”

Heinrich offered a solemn nod to the Saintess, who was delivering her anxious valedictions.

Given the sheer power concentrated in their party, they possessed the capability to conclude the mission without sustaining any noteworthy harm.

‘In truth, the sole variable is whether our arrival will be timely.’

Harley was capable of maintaining his ground independently for the time being, but the outcome would become entirely unpredictable if the opposition launched a coordinated, all-out assault.

The initial indicators of such a development were already unfolding.

—

“Hahaha!”

Harley let out a brutal laugh, pulverizing the skull of a Gremlin, a diminutive beast, with a heavy swing of his axe.

The ground encompassing his immediate position was already heavily blanketed with an assortment of carcasses, leaving virtually no clear terrain upon which to step.

Creatures he had previously slaughtered within the woodlands, bizarre specimens he was observing for the very first time, and the mercenary forces of the dark sorcerer were all mingled together in the pile.

He slaughtered them sequentially, yet a ceaseless stream of fresh beasts continued to pour out from the surrounding tree line.

‘Breaking free of the cavern was a positive step, yet… ’

He had successfully battered his way through the Earthworm that obstructed the portal, but during that precise sequence, the practitioners of dark magic had closed the distance.

The far greater complication lay in the fact that these dark mages were masters of beast manipulation.

The tactical advantage this granted them within the monster-packed northern mountains defied conventional calculation.

‘They undoubtedly established their base in this region with that exact synergy in mind!’

The beasts they commanded from the wilderness were problematic enough, but the entities they conjured through independent ritual presented an equal challenge.

They comprised entirely unfamiliar aberrations, each boasting highly unorthodox traits.

The solitary stroke of fortune was their deliberate avoidance of direct strikes against Cecily, presumably out of a desire to keep their intended offering unmarred.

Naturally, this reality did not imply he could utilize her form as a physical shield.

There existed absolutely no assurance that the frenzied beasts participating in the assault would flawlessly adhere to their masters’ restrictions.

It amounted to nothing more than a unspoken mutual caution regarding her safety.

‘However, if this stalemate persists indefinitely, it will transform into a critical vulnerability. Harley’s primary martial advantage lies in his unbridled ferocity, wading into combat with zero regard for personal safety, but under these constraints, his tactical options are severely limited.’

Should he deposit Cecily on the earth to engage freely, the opposition would simply seize her instantly, and if this attrition continued, his vitality would eventually wane, resulting in his demise.

Concurrently, Heinrich’s detachment had transitioned into the territory of Tarak via the portal.

They were advancing at extreme speed courtesy of an aerial entity evoked by the High Elf, yet they still required an additional interval of time to reach this theater of combat.

‘Very well, it is time for a high-stakes gamble.’

He locked his gaze onto one of the dark mages who was entirely occupied with directing the movements of the beasts.

The figure was heavily insulated by a defensive ring of monsters acting as sentries, augmented by an active barrier of mystic energy, yet…

“Haa!”

A dense concentration of combat aura coalesced upon the cutting edge of the axe gripped in his right hand, and he rotated his torso violently, executing a full spin on the spot.

The resulting arc of kinetic energy, tracing a vast and flawless circle augmented by immense momentum,

Whoosh— Crack!

“Gah—!”

Tore through the air like a heavy projectile, utterly shattered the protective barrier, buried itself deep within the torso of the dark mage, and vanished from Harley’s field of vision as the target was launched violently skyward.

The surrounding beasts experienced a momentary lapse in synchronization as the mental bonds controlling them collapsed.

Harley capitalized on the momentary disruption instantly, plunging directly into the heart of their formation with a maniacal laugh.

Splat—

The weapon secured in his left hand persisted in carving precise, lethal trajectories through the air, laying waste to his targets, while his monstrously altered right hand systematically ripped out the internal essence stones and vital organs of the creatures, shoving them directly into his maw.

His internal reserves were being continuously replenished by the harvest, causing his vitality to surge with renewed vigor.

He possessed the capacity to maintain this cycle of slaughter for an entire day.

Naturally, his adversaries had no intention of allowing him that luxury.

Clang—!

He swung a set of claws infused with aura, successfully deflecting a spear thrust that suddenly targeted his blind spot.

The assailant wielding the polearm, recognizing the failure of the ambush, instantly retreated back into the dense cluster of monsters.

“A Lycanthrope? No, the characteristics diverge… some manner of mutant variant?”

An analytical voice drifted from a nearby position, however…

Clang!

A projectile discharged from the opposing flank struck the broadside of his axe blade and deflected away harmlessly.

“It appears he does not share lineage with standard beast-kin, given that our binding spells exert absolutely no influence over his actions.”

Yet another offensive strike materialized from an alternate vector even as the speaker concluded the observation.

Furthermore, the endless waves of monsters persisted in their relentless charges, rendering focused defense nearly impossible.

‘Ah, these individuals employ exceptionally underhanded tactics.’

Harley shifted his physical frame without a moment’s cessation, mentally acknowledging the efficacy of his foes’ strategy.

He was forced to employ his “Physical Transformation” without holding anything back, as the escalating intensity of the combat left no room for conservation.

“Hehehe.”

His muscle groups swelled to grotesque proportions, his dentition sharpened into rows resembling those of a apex aquatic predator, and his jaw structures underwent massive reinforcement.

His visual, olfactory, and auditory organs had long since shed any semblance of human geometry.

‘Is this progression safe? His psychological stability is already beginning to fray.’

He could actively perceive Harley’s consciousness becoming steadily overwhelmed by an unbridled bloodlust as the duration of the engagement lengthened.

He had been laughing hysterically for some time now.

He would refrain from any action that completely jeopardized their objectives because he retained the capacity to intervene at any moment, yet he desperately wished to avoid a scenario where the avatar became permanently unfit to appear before civilized society, much like Hans.

While he briefly weighed these concerns,

《The subject has fulfilled the necessary criteria and achieved a state of realization. You have successfully unlocked the capability “Wildness”.》

His sensory perception underwent an instantaneous, fundamental reorganization.

The exact moment he wavered from the abrupt sensation of perceptual misalignment, his physical form began operating purely on primal reflex.

His skull snapped abruptly to the flank, and…

Crack—!

A blade, calculated to exploit his brief lapse in defense, was caught and arrested firmly between Harley’s jagged, saw-like teeth.

Simultaneously, the axe held in his left hand, unleashed without a microsecond of hesitation, cleaved the would-be executioner cleanly into two segments, and only then did he achieve a comprehensive understanding of the “Wildness” capability.

It was a capability that amplified raw lethality to its zenith by surrendering behavioral control entirely to primal instinct.

Crucially, it did not discard the martial disciplines and combat forms deeply grooved into his physical memory.

The resulting movements were vastly more uninhibited and chaotic, yet they remained undeniably anchored to the specific axe forms and evasive disciplines he had mastered through experience.

Harley’s nose and ears pulsed with hyper-awareness as he dropped his center of gravity in a fraction of a second…

Dash— Crack!

“Ugh!”

He instantly maneuvered through the dense press of monsters and snapped the neck of the spear-wielding combatant utilizing his right hand.

His raw instincts processed and acted upon subtle environmental data that his conscious intellect would have dismissed as irrelevant noise.

‘…This methodology may actually prove highly advantageous.’

The operational paradigm of utilizing “Wildness” diverged completely from the tactical combat methodology he had traditionally relied upon.

His premier asset had always been his capacity to maintain absolute analytical detachment, calculating variables and orchestrating optimal responses regardless of the chaos encompassing him.

Operating akin to a strategist viewing a simulation, he could identify and counter every shifting variable utilizing his immense psychological capacity from an elevated, objective viewpoint.

However, that specific approach was fundamentally incompatible with Harley’s optimal function.

To unlock the full potential of a physical frame that had fundamentally adapted by digesting countless apex predators, he required an entirely novel operational philosophy that abandoned human paradigms.

Precisely what was unfolding at this moment.

Moreover, the most critical element was,

‘I possess the authority to regulate its engagement!’

He could consciously manage the mechanism to ensure that Harley’s underlying psychological instability was channeled entirely into the activation of “Wildness”.

Transforming him into a controlled engine of destruction that only unleashed its full fury within designated parameters of engagement!

‘This adaptation should guarantee our survival until the arrival of our allies.’

The invisible countdown toward their relief was steadily ticking away toward zero.