CHAPTER 168
168- To Prove It**

With the sudden appearance of Prycia over Seoul, and her body being burned away by sunlight, the zombies' movements slowed.

The sunlight itself didn't have any special effect. The zombies and undead roaming Seoul had been moving around just fine in broad daylight anyway.

The current slowdown was likely due to their wariness of the enemy—an enemy who had so easily disposed of the undead creation made from the corpse of the Lord Prycia.

“This is our chance! Push forward and eliminate as many as you can!”

Ma Doo-sik shouted into his radio. His command spread like wildfire to those defending Seoul.

The horde of undead was still overflowing. There were probably more zombies roaming around than there were citizens in Seoul.

As they all slowed down at once, the military and Hunters, who had switched to the offensive, began to reduce their numbers as much as possible. Shells exploded and thunderbolts crashed down, steadily thinning the ranks of the undead.

It wasn't much compared to the number that had occupied the entire city, but they were at least able to clear the areas around the shelters.

“I’m heading to my shelter as well. I’ll leave Hunter Kang Jinwoo to you.”

“Yes. Leave it to me.”

Shin Do-woong also left the rest to Chartia and departed. He too knew this was a golden opportunity. They had to wipe out as many zombies as possible right now to make future battles easier.

Both the fight for survival and, beyond that, the fight to retake Seoul.

After seeing Ma Doo-sik and Shin Do-woong off, Chartia immediately answered her phone. This was no time for pleasantries, so she shouted as soon as she hit the call button.

“Jinwoo! Where are you right now?! What? Your house?”

Jinwoo said he was at his house. It was quite a distance from here, but for an S-class Hunter, it was a distance that could be covered in a single bound.

“I’ll be right there. Please wait!”

Hanging up the phone, Chartia immediately took flight. She had merely kicked off the ground, but she went so high it looked as if she were flying.

Tree stems grew from beneath her soaring feet, supporting them. Bouncing off the elastic wood, her figure quickly disappeared.

Click.

• The call ended, and Jinwoo put his smartphone in his pocket. She said she’d be right over, so he just had to wait a bit.

In the short time until Chartia arrived, Jinwoo decided to clean up the house a little. Not the inside of the house. His house had completely collapsed from the roof down, so it was beyond a quick tidying up.

What he tidied was the yard. It was so torn up that it was hard to walk, with zombie hordes strewn about everywhere.

“...First, let’s get rid of these.”

He dealt with the zombies in and around the yard first. Since they were soulless, he couldn't kill them by cutting their flames, but they were still beings that would be annihilated with a single swing of his sword. Each time Jinwoo’s sword, filled with sunlight, was swung, the zombies and undead turned to dust and vanished.

Next, he examined the dead World Tree. Its roots were stained black. It was different from being tainted by Erosion. It looked as if all its life force had drained away, causing it to naturally wither and die.

“To think it would end up like this…”

Jinwoo examined the dead tree with a frown. No matter where he looked, he couldn't find any living parts. It had been killed cleanly and meticulously.

He knew things had gone wrong on Earth when Prycia attacked the white tower in the Spirit Realm. He had expected chaos, but he never thought the World Tree would fall so helplessly.

'Should I have brought a sapling?'

With the main body like this, it was safe to assume that all the roots that had spread out were dead too. The roots of the World Tree that had been purifying the Earth, spreading not only throughout Seoul but across the Korean peninsula and into the continent. But the purification had failed, and instead, it had all died.

If he had known this would happen, he would have broken off a branch from the flower tree at the white tower.

As he was thinking this, Chartia arrived. At the same time, Jinwoo sensed the Blue Flame coming from her embrace.

'The World Tree’s flame. She cut a branch before it died!'

Thankfully, there was a living branch. Realizing this, Jinwoo felt a quiet sense of relief and greeted Chartia.

“Chartia. It’s been a while.”

“Jinwoo! Where have you been and what have you been doing?!”

“I told you I was going into a Gate.”

“You were gone for so long…”

The time Jinwoo had spent in the Gate was by no means short. The current Jinwoo could explore most places with ease and return, so for him to be gone this long, she couldn't help but worry.

Especially with all this chaos breaking out on Earth in his absence.

“More importantly, you have the branch, right? Let’s plant it first.”

“Ah, yes!”

They both had many stories to share. But right now, planting and growing the World Tree as quickly as possible was the priority.

Jinwoo took the World Tree branch from Chartia and examined its flame. He ran his hand down the branch, sensing the life force dwelling within it. At the same time, he infused his own mana into it, further activating the branch's inherent vitality.

The current Jinwoo was different from before. He had always had a close connection with the World Tree, but not to this extent. The current Jinwoo had received the flower's anointing; he was the officially appointed gardener of the World Tree.

“As I thought…”

Watching the process, Chartia nodded. The branch that wouldn't budge no matter what she did when she studied it. Yet, the moment Jinwoo touched it, it bloomed wide open, accepting his touch.

He was able to activate it to this degree because he had received the flower's anointing in the Spirit Realm, but Chartia didn't know that. She could only guess that it was originally part of Jinwoo’s ability.

As Chartia watched Jinwoo examine the branch with a serious expression, she soon shook her head and found her own task. While she couldn't handle the World Tree itself, she could certainly cultivate the surrounding environment.

The trees she raised overturned the messy yard, pulling out the dead World Tree's roots and clearing them away. She tilled the soil, ground the debris to dust, and transformed it into more nutritious land.

The World Tree's nutrient was souls, so the soil's nutrients weren't strictly necessary, but growing in good soil wasn't unhelpful for its growth. Separate from food, the surrounding environment was also an indispensable factor for growth.

After the two of them finished their preparations, they planted the branch in a suitably sunny spot. They sprinkled water, and Chartia inserted a handmade nutrient injection.

They had done everything they could for now. All that was left was to stay by its side and care for it until it grew to a reasonable size.

“You’ve gotten quite skilled at taking care of plants.”

“I’ve had a lot of practice recently.”

Jinwoo replied to the impressed Chartia with a wry smile.

Come to think of it, he had been planting a lot of trees lately. Not just at the white tower, but he had planted them several times before that too.

'I hope I don't end up just planting trees all the time.'

Earth needed trees, of course, but so did the Spirit Realm. To be precise, it wasn't just trees but a normal, natural environment. A nature that could sustain itself through its own cycles without anyone's intervention or care.

The nature of the Spirit Realm had been greatly damaged by the various spirits, and especially by the Lords. Their twisted powers destroyed the normal circulatory structure, making nature subservient to them.

Jerakson had dominated the sky, and Neldym had gone around scattering his homemade poison. Prycia and Cain were likely the same.

To normalize that world, it was necessary to restore the correct circulatory structure. And the first step for that was to plant trees. Branches obtained from the World Tree.

'Earth comes first, though.'

The Spirit Realm still had plenty of strength and wasn't in a hurry. Earth, on the other hand, had been destroyed once by Jerakson and was about to be seized once again by the Lord of Eternity.

Saving it and ensuring the World Tree was firmly rooted on Earth came first.

And it seemed the enemy had the same thought.

“J-Jinwoo! Look over there!”

“What is it?”

Jinwoo looked up at the sky where Chartia was pointing. A large shadow was there, passing diagonally over Seoul.

Jinwoo narrowed his eyes at the familiar shape.

“Silbaern. An undead made from the corpse of the Water Dragon that ruled the forest.”

A dragon zombie, restored by gathering the remains of Silbaern that had scattered into dust upon her death. It was the second card played by the Lord of Eternity.

'He's quite interested in my activities. Or is he deliberately provoking me?'

First Prycia, and now Silbaern. He had diligently collected the enemies Jinwoo had defeated.

It was a good thing Jerakson had been sealed whole within a Seed, leaving no corpse behind. Otherwise, Jerakson too would have been resurrected as an undead and be flying over Seoul right now.

'Of all things, Silbaern…'

A being of his caliber probably had plenty of dragon corpses. The fact that he chose Silbaern out of all the many dragons was a clear provocation aimed at him.

'Yuberis, the Lord of Eternity. How much do you know about me?'

Judging by Silbaern and Prycia, he was certainly well-informed about his current life. It wasn't strange, as there were countless ways to obtain information, though he didn't know where or how he had observed him.

There was one question. Did he know not just about his current self, but also about his past self?

“First…”

But thoughts could wait. The Silbaern flying over Seoul had spotted Jinwoo—or more accurately, the new branch Jinwoo had planted—and began to gather magic in its mouth.

“Let’s deal with it quickly and think later, Chartia!”

“I’ll help!”

The surrounding ground churned, and dozens of trees controlled by Chartia shot up. Some of them wrapped around the young World Tree to protect it, while others moved toward Silbaern to assist Jinwoo.

Jinwoo did the same. The Seed of Cain he activated bestowed the sun’s blessing upon the young World Tree, and the Seed of Jerakson granted him the arrogant aura of the sky.

'Come out.'

That wasn't all. Their immediate enemy wasn't just Silbaern in the sky. It was also the zombies and undead still running rampant throughout Seoul.

'Help the other Hunters.'

At Jinwoo’s command, numerous auras scattered from his shadow across Seoul. The separated shadows would then summon the Disciples of Rain to protect the citizens of Seoul from the undead.

No matter how strong Jinwoo was, there was a limit to what he could do with only two hands. The Disciples of Rain obtained from Neldym filled that gap.

Therefore, what Jinwoo himself needed to focus on was just one thing. The dragon floating in the sky.

'Silbaern.'

Silbaern, the Water Dragon. She had been no match for Jinwoo even when she was alive. It was a mistake to think she could fight him just by having her corpse reanimated.

To prove it, Jinwoo swung his sword.