CHAPTER 123
123 - It Hatched**

"If we wait, won't our master release us when she's ready?"

The maid, still tied to the tree, suddenly spoke up. Jinwoo, who had been diligently searching for a way out, paused his search and faced her.

"Just wait?"

"My master must have a plan. And that plan will surely not be one that harms you."

It wasn't an unbelievable statement, but it was still hard to believe. The Belkarim he had met was not the kind of person to look out for others so thoughtfully.

Considering her goal was to have him imbued with Erosion... she probably had no intention of killing or destroying him. But the possibility that she wanted to lock him up and control him as she pleased was not zero.

"If her intentions were benevolent, she would have explained beforehand."

"Perhaps an emergency so urgent that there was no time to explain has occurred."

"It doesn't seem like it would take long to send a message through you. Did you hear anything?"

"...No."

The maid, at a loss for words, turned her head away. She had probably tried her best to think of something on her master's behalf.

But no matter how she framed it, the fact that he was imprisoned didn't change. Whatever the reason, he had to get out first and think later.

Just then, the number of presences increased. Someone who hadn't been in this space before had appeared.

"Someone has entered."

"Pardon?"

The presence was too familiar to be suspicious. Soon, the other party noticed him as well and flew over in an instant. The World Tree, the only green thing in the entirely black landscape, stood out no matter where you looked.

"Jinwoo!"

"Kalesian."

Kalesian had found him. Behind him was a man panting as he followed; he was also a familiar face. The warlock, Johann.

"You managed to find this place. Didn't you say you couldn't see the castle or the garden?"

"A pretty big incident has occurred. It's a total mess outside."

It was the information about the outside world he had been thirsting for. Kalesian told him about the swarm of dozens of dragons attacking the snow mountain, destroying all of Belkarim's territory, and even bringing down the castle that was under construction.

He explained how the barrier that repelled intruders had shattered in the aftermath, allowing him to see the castle and garden. He also mentioned how he had seen the suspicious Erosion covering the garden and was certain Jinwoo was trapped inside.

"Magic doesn't work here, so you shouldn't have been able to detect anything properly..."

"On the contrary, that's what made me certain. Your presence couldn't be detected anywhere else, and this area inside the Erosion was the only place I couldn't search."

The snow mountain was now a battlefield, so none of the defenses that blocked magic were in place. To be precise, all the prepared defenses had been destroyed by the invading dragons.

As a result, Kalesian was able to cast a search spell over the entire snow mountain and had not found Jinwoo in any other area except this one.

That's why he was certain he was here.

"Thank you for coming to rescue me. It seems having allies is necessary after all."

"Of course. Why else do you think Hunters enter Gates with Feathers of Kinship?"

Kalesian laughed heartily. He hadn't been of much help during the Silbaern incident. It wasn't that he did nothing, but Jinwoo had handled most of it.

That's why he seemed pleased to finally have a chance to play an active role. Even if he hadn't molted, he was still a dragon; he couldn't just leave everything to a human.

"Alright, let's get out of here first."

Still in a cheerful tone, Kalesian lifted his head. He opened his mouth towards the Erosion covering the sky and—

KWWAAAAAARGH!

He fired a breath attack. A spear of light made of vast magical power shot up into the sky. It was a mighty force that seemed capable of shattering the entire ceiling that suppressed them and reaching the heavens.

But no matter how powerful a force is, it's meaningless if it doesn't reach its target.

"Huh?"

The soaring breath attack stopped in place. The long streak of light gradually came to a halt from the front, eventually becoming a small cluster of light shining at a single point. The point of light shining in the black Erosion looked like a star.

"H-How can this be..."

Kalesian, in disbelief, turned his head and fired several more breath attacks. They too merely settled in Belkarim's night sky, becoming new stars. The mighty power was not released and failed to shatter the sky, simply concentrating there.

Jinwoo asked, with a sinking feeling.

"Didn't you come in with a plan?"

"I just thought I could break it from the inside..."

Jinwoo covered his face with his hand. The maid tied to the tree turned her head away, her body shaking as if she were trying hard not to laugh. Johann, who had followed them, cried out in despair that this wasn't what he had signed up for.

"It seems I'm trapped as well," Kalesian said in a bewildered tone.

After that, Kalesian fired his breath attack in various places. At a glance, it might have seemed like he was just trying to brute-force his way out, but that wasn't the case. He was firing in different spots to see how the Erosion reacted, analyzing it.

Jinwoo was doing something similar. However, unlike Kalesian, he didn't poke and prod everywhere. Instead, he mainly examined the black earth connected to the World Tree.

The World Tree was the only tree in this black land that hadn't lost its greenness. He thought that if he could understand how that was possible, he might also find a way to break this barrier.

"Johann? What are you doing over there?"

"Ah, ahaha. What am I doing? I'm investigating. Ah! That side looks a little suspicious, I'll go check it out!"

When he happened to run into Johann and ask, he was startled and quickly moved away.

Johann always claimed to be investigating, but he would sneak off to places out of sight and loiter around before returning. It seemed he felt self-conscious because he couldn't do anything.

Just because he was out of sight didn't mean his presence could be erased. There was no one here who couldn't sense Johann's presence.

'Well, it's not like I expected anything.'

He had never once thought he could do anything. He didn't even know why he had followed Kalesian here in the first place.

It was a relief that he was at least staying out of the way and keeping to himself.

With a small sigh, Jinwoo continued to examine the World Tree and its surroundings.

'...It's swallowing the growing Erosion on this side.'

Although it looked the same on the outside, the inside was different. The World Tree was sucking up the energy of the Erosion with its roots and taking it into itself, just like the roots he had seen in Velen Village.

'This might be a desperate stopgap measure for now... but it's not a fundamental solution.'

This might hold it off for a while. But in the end, it couldn't eliminate the Erosion. The target of the Erosion had simply shifted from the ground to the tree.

And that was similar to what Belkarim wanted from him.

'Belkarim also wanted me to accept all the Erosion like this.'

At the same time, she told him to reclaim his past self. Was his past self like this? Did he accept all the Erosion of the world and hold it within his body, just like the World Tree now?

...There was no need to question it now. It was a fact. But he wanted to know what came after.

Why had that past self died, why had he lost his memories, and how was he reincarnated?

What the World Tree was doing was similar to his former self. Perhaps if he met the main body of the World Tree, he might find a clue to regaining his past life's memories.

But first, he had to get out of here.

"Are things going well?"

The maid was still securely tied to the World Tree. It seemed she had tried to resist at first to get free, but now she was quiet, having realized it was useless.

"Who knows."

It wasn't going well. But it wasn't as if he didn't have a method he wanted to test.

The World Tree was still growing. The tree, which originally grew by feeding on souls, was now growing into an ominous tree by sucking up the energy of Erosion.

It didn't feel good, but growth was growth. However, there was a limit to the amount of Erosion energy it could absorb from its surroundings.

'It's only absorbing the residual energy left after forming the barrier.'

The World Tree's roots couldn't penetrate the core structure of the barrier. It was probably because this was a young entity grown from a branch, not the main body.

Since Belkarim herself had created this barrier, it was natural that a young tree, not the main body, couldn't put a dent in it.

So, what if he made it grow more? The World Tree's growth required more souls, and there was a limit to the souls that could be supplied here.

Johann's was worthless, and the maid's was impossible. Her soul was a black soul subservient to Belkarim.

Kalesian's soul, being that of a dragon, was formidable, but it probably wouldn't be enough to grow the tree to the point of breaking this barrier.

And what was left was...

'Will what I've absorbed so far be enough?'

Jinwoo's soul was his own, but it wasn't made up solely of his own power. He had cut down countless beings over time. And he had made what he cut his own and held it within his body.

At some point, he had started to feel a severe hunger for the souls he absorbed. There was a time when he felt a sense of fulfillment every time he cut a flame, but at some point, only emptiness remained.

Now, just absorbing was not enough. That's what he thought.

"Wait a moment...! What are you doing!"

"I'm just doing what you see."

Black water dripped from Jinwoo's palm. It was the energy of the Erosion he had absorbed so far. Fortunately, Jinwoo had more than enough of that energy.

There was what he had absorbed from Belkarim in this garden, and what he had obtained from several divine artifacts on the 3rd Floor. There was also the sword he received from Rondar, and when it came to the Sky God, he had cut down a part of him that had descended to the ground and absorbed it whole.

He made a portion of those countless things into nourishment and let it seep into the World Tree. As he did so, the tree grew noticeably.

"Stop! Do you know how much my master worked to push that into you...!"

This was the exact opposite of what Belkarim had done. She had forced all the Erosion to seep into him. He didn't know what kind of being she wanted him to become at the end of it all, but that's what she had been doing.

That's why he let it go this one time. To shatter the barrier she had created, acting contrary to her intentions seemed like a plausible course of action.

The World Tree grew. Just like the endless void Jinwoo felt, the tree also endlessly sucked up nourishment and raised its branches higher.

When the highest branch finally touched the ceiling, its growth faltered for a moment. In this barrier, the flow of time slowed down closer to the boundary. Therefore, to break through it, it needed far more energy.

There, in the sky, were the sword qi Jinwoo had previously launched. There were also the stars formed from Kalesian's breath attacks, which he had fired to test the reaction. The World Tree's branches pierced through the shining, cracking, flowing Milky Way.

"Ooh—"

Kalesian, having noticed what Jinwoo was doing, approached. He looked up at the sky and said.

"That's quite a beautiful sight."

Absorbing the light of the heavens and accepting the darkness of the earth, embracing everything, the World Tree broke through the barrier and hatched.