I Killed the Player of the Academy-Chapter 244 :

→ World Tree (1)←

It was dark.

The light was suddenly shut off from the entire world.

It was so pitch dark that you couldn’t see what was a meter in front of you.

Naturally, it resulted in a massive commotion.

“Korin-dongsaeng. Korin-dongsaeng! Grab my hand!”

“I’m here.”

“I can’t see! Hold my hand! I’m scared!”

“You’ll be fine!”

I pushed aside Estelle who was making a big fuss about it. One of the knights dashed to her side screaming, ‘Saintess!’ but Estelle slapped his hand away while shouting ‘Not you!’

“What a crazy magic.”

Meanwhile, the mages used light magic to create orbs of light while soldiers used their flint to make torches.

Thanks to that, there was some light here and there, but the world was still dark with the main source of light gone.

“You’re here, dongsaeng~. Hiing! Where were you?! I was scared…!”

“Please be a bit more serious. And don’t cling onto me.”

It wasn’t that scary with everyone nearby. Using the few light sources they had, everyone else was also trying to make sense of what was going on.

“By the way… I don’t remember you telling us about this.”

“This is my first time seeing it too.”

“Danann of ‘Light’, right?”

Danann of Light, Tates Valtazar.

In other words, he signified the ‘light’ of this world, and that meant he had free reign over the concept of ‘light’.

But… I really wasn’t expecting his ability to be able to affect the entire planet.

“Did the light really disappear from the entire world? Or is it just this area that’s dark?” asked Estelle.

“Even the stars aren’t glowing anymore. It’s probably the whole world that’s gone dark.”

“Is this what a real god can do…?”

Light.

I heard it was a powerful divinity even among the divinities.

The King of Gods praised as the most powerful were Lugh, Nuada and Dagda, who each represented Light, Sun and the Earth. Their powers were a testimony to how strong each divinity was.

With Estelle and me here, the question now was if we could offset this. If I either summoned the Sun or if Estelle prayed as much as she could, would that change anything

I was thinking along the lines of that when the ground suddenly shook.

————!!

It was a faint vibration from the ground, but by the time we realized it, it was too late.

– Kwaaah!

Gigantic pillars suddenly shot out from the earth, and only after a careful inspection were we able to tell what they were.

“…Are these roots?”

Lines of roots, so big that even a hundred-year-old tree would look like a new sprout in comparison, expanded itself into thousands and tens of thousands of roots that expanded across the earth.

With its immense size and speed, they broke the ranks of the military and instilled chaos within the army.

And one of the roots was headed straight towards me.

“Huhp…!”

I blocked the root that just emerged from the ground with the shaft of my spear. It felt heavy as if I was being pushed down by an enormous hammer, but that wasn’t the scariest bit.

It grew rapidly, reminding me of the rapid growth ability of a druid. The roots diverged endlessly, binding me and anything else in its path.

– Kagagagak!

The ground was torn apart along with the expanding roots. I tried to burn them down with the divinity of the Sun but—

‘It’s absorbing divine energy!’

The roots were not only tough but also had a unique characteristic. I quickly called for my team.

“Hua Ran! Alicia!”

As soon as I called them, Hua Ran reached out towards my back and supported me from being pushed back any further by the monstrous roots, while Alicia jumped in front of me to slice the roots apart.

– Clink!

It sounded abnormally tough to be that of tree roots, but fortunately, they weren’t tough enough to stop Alicia’s sword.

“Korin-ssi, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Thank you. You too, Hua.”

“…”

Hua didn’t say much but seemed worried about me.

“Ugh, what is happening though? These things just keep coming out from the ground.”

“They’re the roots of the World Tree. But I didn’t know these could grow so quickly until now.”

That wasn’t the end.

“And besides, this tree. Don’t tell me…”

That was when I heard a large commotion from the other side.

– Ohh, light is coming out from the Saintess…!

– The Saintess is praying for us!

Estelle began to pray with her hands together.

The radiant light of divinity seeping out from Estelle excited the soldiers, but right when her prayer appeared to be reaching the pinnacle, she suddenly put an abrupt stop to it.

“Haak…”

“S, Saintess!”

Estelle was sweating buckets and gasping for breath with a look of dismay on her face.

“This feeling…"

“It’s absorbing your divine energy, right?”

“…Did you know about it, dongsaeng?”

“Felt the same just then when I touched the root.”

In the last iteration, I wasn’t able to take part in this final war, because I had been sealed by Park Sihu.

However, I had cleared the game multiple times before that, and the roots of the World Tree were just a background of the war, with no mention of them absorbing divine energy.

‘I guess that’s because the original player doesn’t use divine energy.’

The Sun, Claiomh Solais, and the Magic Cauldron of Undry were both possessed by Valtazar’s subordinates, and awakening into having divine energy wasn’t the original storyline of the game.

“Looks like manifesting the Sun would be hard at this rate.”

“Dongsaeng. That’s true too but… Take a look.”

Estelle reached out towards what was beyond the darkness. Normal people might not be able to see what was beyond, but after brightening my sight with the help of runes, I was able to look beyond the darkness into the horrors.

“Fuu…”

The roots of the World Tree had spread into all sides, expanding like a massive forest.

– Hans! Wait right there! I will cut these vines and save you in no time!

– Damn it, they’re too tough! We can’t! It’ll be quicker for us to find a way around!

– The rear army has been entirely cut off! We’re being blocked by the roots!

– Damn it! Half of our supplies are over there!

The roots of Yggdrasil were spreading out like a labyrinth isolating people and the world.

“Korin-ssi. Are these… really just roots?”

“It is the ‘World Tree’… and it’s also referred to as the ‘Cosmic Tree’ as well, after all. But this is my first time seeing it on this scale as well.”

“The world would have been over already if there was a second time.”

“You’re right. Seeing it once is more than enough.”

In the original bad ending of the game, there was a mention about the world drying up in contrast to the flourishing leaves of the World Tree, so it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that this tree was reaching all sides of the world.

– Korin…! Korin!

That was when I heard people yelling my name. I headed to where the voice was coming from, and found Master and Marie looking through a small gap in the wall of roots.

“Sunbae, Master.”

“Ah, you’re okay! Thank goodness!”

“My disciple. Are you hurt anywhere?”

Thankfully, it seemed that the two of them were fine. I could only hope the same for the rest.

“Do you think you can come over?”

“Uun. They’re too tough! They keep growing back up the more I cut them, so it’s not easy.”

“It might be because of me too. These roots… they’re absorbing my divine energy.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but it feels like they’re getting stronger because of me.”

It was a fact at this point that the roots of the World Tree could devour divine energy. In that case…

“It can’t be helped. Besides, our objective was to follow the path of the roots anyway.”

The roots were always headed for the same place. In other words, there was a place we could reach by following the trajectory of these roots.

Arriving at the three wells and stopping the growth of the World Tree was the beginning of the raid.

“It seems like we will each have to do our best in groups. Master. Marie-sunbae. I’ll leave that side to you guys. I have no idea where that will lead to, though.”

“Fuu… Fine. Don’t worry about us and be safe.”

After bidding farewell to Master and Marie-sunbae, I headed to Estelle who was trying to settle the army.

“How are the other battalions?”

“It looks like we have been completely separated from Miruam’s group. I’m sure she will be able to manage, but it’s the same for others.”

“…We’re all completely divided up.”

“Yeah, just as they wanted.”

It did follow a similar plan in the game. Although the player wouldn’t have ever had an army this big, on the way to the World Tree, they still had to divide up into three groups and follow the roots for the raid.

In three groups, go up the roots and raid the three wells of water and destroy them to stop the growth of the World Tree. That was the 1st phase of the World Tree raid.

‘The problem is that it’s a lot worse than how it was in the game.’

Light had vanished and it was pitch black, and the growth of the World Tree was at a speed and scale incomparable to what was mentioned in the game.

“What should we do, dongsaeng?”

Estelle asked anxiously, hoping that I would be able to give her a response that could settle her uneasiness down.

“We will be wasting our energy cutting these roots down. The energy source of these roots are the three wells, so we should regroup our army in this area and aim for the well.”

I explained while keeping myself as calm as possible.

The original plan was to storm each side at a time with sheer force but that became impossible.

There was approximately 200,000 in our group including the rear army, but the rearguard was fully cut off by the roots, and it was hard to tell where the vanguards were because of the little roots blocking our path.

From a glance, it seemed that there were less than 10,000 in this area, which would go down in numbers even more if we took out the injured.

“They won’t let us take the easy path, it seems.”

“…Yeah.”

“But it will be better after we raid the wells. Tell everyone to bring themselves back together and continue moving.”

“Okay. Captain!”

“Yes, Your Holiness!” replied the captain of the Holy Knights.

“Take care of the injured and tell everyone to get prepared to move on!”

We gathered as much as we could and followed where the main root had come from.

“Korin-ssi… Where are we headed?” 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

“There are three energy sources for the World Tree.”

The well of Urdarbrunnr, Hvergelmr, and Mimisbrunnr.

“The worst of them is Hvergelmr.”

On that path would be an endless amount of undead and the dragon of death. It was the most dangerous and difficult road.

“Ugh… I hope this is not it.”

“No, in fact, it has to be that.” I replied.

“Huh?”

“The two others are comparatively easy but not Hvergelmr. We have to break through with the most number of elites. And…”

“Is it because our group is the strongest?”

“Yeah.”

The named characters in our group were me and Alicia, Hua Ran and Estelle. It was the best group to have for a fight against a dragon.

“If only I could deal with all the risks.”

The other two roads won’t be that easy either. One of the paths would have a massive hawk and the other was filled by four predatory stags.

We were walking down when a few soldiers came rushing from the front.

“Your Holiness! A message from the scouts! We have found a group of corpses!”

“…Was it from the vanguards of our army?”

“Yes. They were the barabaria… the northern warriors!”

It appeared that a group that had been separated from us had also followed the roots up, but had been attacked by an unknown group.

Of course, we had conveyed to the entire army about the nature of the enemy.

Most of the military under Tates Valtazar were the Shadow Beasts, who would thrive the most in this darkness.

“Let me take the lead from the front.”

“Are you sure, dongsaeng?”

“I don’t have any talent at commanding an army. So I should be taking these roles instead."

“… I believe you will be safe.”

I took the trustworthy Alicia and Hua Ran and headed to the front of the army.

“These way please, Sir Korin.”

At the front were at least a hundred corpses and among them were also soldiers and knights of the kingdom. The problem, however…

“There aren’t any signs of battle.”

“…They’re all chopped up.”

Alicia and Hua Ran were also puzzled by the state of the corpses, and how there was not a single sign of battle nearby.

This could only mean one thing.

“Something must have chopped a hundred people at once. What a monster.”

Among the northerners were great warriors, mages, and warriors at the level of knights. All of them died without having the time to do anything.

Although the power balance did get crazy towards the final war, there still weren’t many people capable of doing such a thing.

“Eochaid Bres.”

The previous previous previous King of Gods. Unless it was him who could wield the mountain-severing blade with his sheer force—

“That is exactly right. Nemesis of the Light.”

A familiar voice was heard from the darkness.

– Clonk!

It was followed by the sound of armor hitting the ground.

– Gugugugugugu…!

Soon, a radiant light of golden mana brightened up the world as if he was trying to let the world see his beauty.

Despite wearing dashing armor and having a brilliant appearance, his eyes could not hide the violence and brutality hiding within.

“Korin-ssi… Looks like we picked the worst of the worst.”

“…Yeah.”

Eochaid Bres.

He stood there looking at us with a greatsword dripping with blood over his shoulders.