Chapter 961

C961

Elona didn’t understand death.

She didn’t understand what it meant for a person to lose someone they loved.

She only recoiled uncomfortably at the unexpected discomfort of the world. Instead of experiencing the joy of communicating with others as a living being, she was now despairing, knowing things could never be the same again.

The realm where the Holy Land once stood was gone, but the Holy Land still shone green beneath the destroyed realm. The tree from which Elona had emerged still had its roots firmly planted.

“Ugh…”

Elona wanted to become a tree again, so she went to the tree’s crevice every day and crouched down.

However, just as a once-born life cannot return to its mother, Elona could never merge with the tree.

Nevertheless, Elona slept within the tree every day. It was the only place where she could somehow shield herself from the foul smell of humans and the world.

Elona as a tree was complete, safe, and selfless.

But now it was different. Sometimes, a terrible smell and energy, which couldn’t even be hidden by the scent of trees, seeped into the Holy Land. Every time this happened, Elona would emerge from the tree and scream in agony for a long time.

Finally, Elona began to contemplate what she needed to do to find peace again. Even when quietly hiding inside the tree, impure and unpleasant things always found their way to her.

It didn’t take long for her to find an answer.

She would go outside and eliminate everything except this place.

That was Elona’s conclusion.

On the day Reginald fled, she recalled the destroyed realm. The massacre and destruction were so tremendous that not a single person survived, yet Elona didn’t even hear a single scream from them.

This was because the realm vanished from the face of the earth through the mana she had unleashed in her pursuit of Reginald.

Elona possessed the sense to estimate the size of the world even from where she sat.

It took her an hour to annihilate the realm. Based on that, destroying the entire human world would take approximately ten days.

It would take longer if there were humans like Reginald who fiercely resisted or tried to escape.

Even taking those variables into account, it seemed it wouldn’t exceed a month.

Furthermore, this felt natural to her, as if it had been her desire from before she was born. Elona didn’t know she was born from the Sun God’s desire for destruction, but she instinctively craved destruction.

The only problem was that she would have to leave the Holy Land until her objective was fulfilled. It seemed quite dangerous to wander outside, leaving behind my only safe haven.

Though she couldn’t understand resentment, she had firsthand experience with people coming to this place. She couldn’t help but wonder what terrible things those harmful beings would do to the tree when she wasn’t around.

A few days later, Elona could directly sense her ominous premonition coming true.

“The devil who killed my sister Vichelin is here.”

It was Reginald.

He had arrived leading an army with red eyes. The harsh footsteps of hired mercenaries, elite knights from allied nations, and Zipple’s magic corps were trampling all over the Holy Land.

There were about five hundred people in total.

However, there wasn’t anyone among them who posed a threat to Elona. In the first place, even the strongest among them, Reginald, couldn’t even scratch her body, and the air was more dangerous than the weaker ones among them. If Elona were a beast, most of them couldn’t even be considered mosquitoes.

The unpleasant heat radiating from the humans was agitating the Holy Land.

Elona waited until they approached the tree. The humans surrounding the tree seemed frightened, and Reginald positioned himself in the rear.

“Is this the right tree?”

“This is indeed a strange place… I don’t feel hunger or fatigue, as Sir Reginald mentioned.”

*Swoosh!*

The moment a group of knights and mercenaries stood right in front of the tree, Elona lightly waved her hand and took their lives.

And before their filthy blood could touch the Holy Land, she conjured flames to vaporize it. The mana as sharp as a sword and the flames instantly spread and killed most of the people who had gathered nearby.

At that moment, most of the humans who had come to the Holy Land lost their composure.

“Ugh, aah!”

“What is this…!”

Those who had lost their spirit turned around and fled in terror, but Reginald showed no interest in them. He dryly ordered the Zipple magicians to create a protective shield.

“Sir Reginald! What does this mean, why are you blocking our path!”

Reginald didn’t answer and focused his gaze solely on Elona, who was wielding her transcendent power.

Originally, the mercenaries and allied nation forces Reginald had brought consisted mainly of low-to-mid-low level martial artists.

“The massacre began without a doubt. The magnitude of her power is beyond imagination. It might even surpass Sir Sheenu. However, her fighting style is extremely crude and lacks depth. She’s fighting like a beast.”

Reginald had brought knights and mercenaries to use them as expendable resources to understand how Elona mainly engaged in combat, whether she had any weaknesses, or if she needed recovery time after using her power.

If he could discern these facts by sacrificing the insignificant lives of low-ranking mercenaries and knights, Reginald was willing to do it repeatedly.

“…I feel she’s obsessed with that tree. Damn monster, could she be considering the tree as her mother? Also, she’s being deliberately careful not to let the blood splatter on the ground.”

“It certainly seems to be so. It seems the monster is extremely cautious about damage to the tree and this land.”

“It’s a good harvest. Let’s return for now. Tomorrow, I’ll deploy a thousand men.”

“Understood, Patriarch.”

Elona also poured her mana towards the fleeing Reginald, but he had perfectly understood the fact that her attacks were direct from their first encounter. Her mana bolt missed Reginald’s departing group.

From then on, Reginald led his army to the Holy Land every day.

Some days, he used around a hundred people as bait, and on others, he increased it to almost a thousand. The allied nations and mercenaries knew that those sent wouldn’t return, but they couldn’t defy Reginald’s orders. Defying him meant losing their standing in the world.

Elona was becoming increasingly worried about this.

Elona couldn’t abandon her position because of the insects constantly arriving. She had realized that they were gradually clinging to the tree, something Reginald had also realized due to her protective attitude towards the tree.

Reginald persistently provoked Elona using her weaknesses.

Finally, the day arrived when Reginald finally decided to finish things with Elona. He visited the Holy Land with some of Zipple’s elite magic corps and a knight known as the best of the era.

Unlike those who had been used as expendables until now, it was the number of people who would properly attack Elona.

The tactic was simple: the elite magic corps would relentlessly unleash mana, and while Elona was busy defending against their attacks, the knights would approach the tree and attack.

*Kwaang, kudddd…!*

The bombardment from the elite magic corps continuously rained down on the Holy Land, but Elona easily repelled their attacks.

However, she belatedly realized that the knight was approaching the tree, taking advantage of the confusion, and the knight managed to leave a long, deep sword mark in the middle of the tree.

“Aaaaah!”

At that moment, Elona screamed in agony for the first time. She lost her composure as she clung to the tree and shed tears.

The knight’s body was shattered by the mana emanating from Elona, but Reginald secured his future victory at that moment.

Elona even seemed anxious for a while after that day. Reginald led his scouting party every day to observe her movements. Elona didn’t attack as she used to even when they approached closer than usual. It was as if her will had been broken.

“Summon the White Knights and tower masters, gather all the knights who are waiting. Tomorrow, we will crush that monster and avenge Vichelin.”

Thus, the strongest force of the human world gathered at the Holy Land.

The knights were obsessed with defeating Elona to become the strongest knights of their time, and Reginald said with a cold smile, “Let the hunt begin.”

No matter how strong Elona was, the battle couldn’t take place while she showed such weakness before the enemy. To Reginald, Elona had gone from being an object of worship to prey in his eyes.

It was a well-prepared hunt. The knights found it much easier to approach the tree compared to the first knight who tried to cut it, and the magicians bravely unleashed their magic spells.

Elona unleashed a burst of mana fueled by rage, and many magicians were swept away and killed by her simple attack.

However, when the knights’ swords began to devastate the tree, she crumbled like a pile of sand.

Learning from the first knight’s death, the knights prevented her from approaching while they swung their swords at the tree and used it as a hostage.

At that moment, everyone could hear Elona’s voice for the first time.

“No, please… Stop.”

Those were the words Elona had heard the most since she was born into this world. She had unconsciously repeated them while killing countless members of the scouting party.

She unconsciously imitated their words and even knelt down while putting her hands together like them.

“Ja, ja…!”

Seeing her like that, Reginald maniacally laughed and approached her.

“Patriarch, it’s dangerous!”

“Patriarch!”

Despite the warnings from his aides, Reginald stood before Elona and looked at her. Elona was repeating the same words. Tears streamed down her face, and she was begging them to spare the tree.

“You killed my sister and as many people as killing insects, but you can’t bear to see your precious thing hurt, right?”

“Stop, please, stop!”

Reginald looked at the completely submissive Elona for a moment.

“Originally, I intended to kill you immediately. But there might be a better revenge than that. Yes, I’ve been shortsighted. I can’t kill you so easily.”

Reginald erased his smile and said,

“From today on, this monster will be an asset of Zipple. Uproot the tree and move this monster to the 1st Magic Tower’s laboratory.”