Rustle~
A soft rustling sound rippled through the Kasha. Though faint, it reached everyone’s ears, like a delicate tickle brushing against their ears. Everything came to a sudden standstill, be it the monsters attacking the city or the people fighting back.
All heads turned towards the northern side.
While some could see it clearly, some could only catch the faint red rustling in the air.
However, if there was one felt, it was the tremendous pressure coming from the distance. It overwhelmed everything, and the faces of several people paled at the sight.
“Oh, no.”
Mumbling quietly, Arten Myron placed his hand behind his back in an attempt to hide the trembling. But it was no use.
Every part of him gave away the dread and terror he felt.
From his overly constricted pupils, his labored breath, and his pale face.
He wasn’t the only one feeling this way.
‘…This is bad.’
Rosanna, the Head Elder of the Astrid family, was in a similar situation. While she handled it better than Arten, her composure was faltering.
This marked the second Destroyer-ranked monster in her sight.
One was already hard enough, but two…?
‘It’s impossible.’
There was no way for them to handle it.
Had the old head been alive then things would’ve been different, but…
He was gone.
He had already left the world.
“Haa.”
Lifting her head, Rosanna stared at the blue sky above.
This was the first time she took a proper look at it since snapping out of it and staring at it, she felt her chest squeeze.
This was the last gift the old head had given them, and yet…
“I wish… I could’ve properly savored the sight.”
Pursing her lips, she closed her eyes and looked away.
“….It’s good that you don’t feel emotions.”
Kaelion mumbled while staring towards the distance and then towards Caius. He was standing quietly next to him. Opposite them were several dozen monsters who had all stopped at once, their gazes fixed in the direction of where the pressure was coming from. Both their bodies were riddled with injuries, their shirts and pants torn.
They had been fighting for quite some time, trying to hold the line and prevent the monsters from fully entering the city.
They were doing well, and yet…
“We should try our best to have the civilians evacuate. We might not make it but it might be the best course of ac-“
Cutting Kaelion’s words was a sudden trembling.
Lifting his head, he looked around him, towards the multitude of monsters that surrounded him and his body grew tense.
“Get ready.”
Mana started to funnel out of his body, similar to Caius who frowned and opened his mouth, his eyes turning white.
With his eyes focused on the monsters around him, his mouth parted as he prepared to speak, but just as the words were about to leave his body, Kaelion pushed his hand in front o of him.
“Wait…”
“??”
Caius blinked, the energy gathered at his throat condensing. Confused, he looked at Kaelion and that was when he noticed something.
‘This…’
He wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Practically everyone noticed the sudden changes in the situation, and similar looks of confusion appeared on their faces as they stared at the monsters before them and suddenly turned to face the direction of where the pressure was coming from.
Then…
As everyone was confused by the situation, the monsters all dashed in the direction of the pressure.
Thump! Thump-!
They almost seemed to be rushing out.
“What is going on?”
“Why are they leaving?”
Their sudden behavior left everyone puzzled and apprehensive.
Just moments before, they were trying their best to break through, and yet all of a sudden,
they wanted to go out.
What in the world was going on?
“….For the monsters to leave like this, could either be a good thing or a bad thing. I hope it is the former, but I fear that may not be the case. The best course of action is to have everyone
evacuate.”
Staring at the monsters with squinted eyes, Rossanna was prepared to turn back and start the evacuation process when a pair of yellow eyes suddenly appeared in her vision.
“Head Elder.”
With his soft and monotone voice, Caius stood before her, his gaze focused on the departing
monsters.
“What is it.”
“…We need to stop the monsters from leaving.”
“Pardon?”
Rosanna’s brows knit tightly as she looked intently at Caius. It was also then that she noticed
the small cat resting over his shoulder.
When…
“That pressure you’re feeling…”
Ignoring her stare, Caius continued, his chin nudging in the direction of where the pressure
was coming from.
“…It’s coming from our side.”
***
At the same time.
At the source of all the pressure.
“What’s going on? What is happening…?”
Holding her hand on the bark of the tree, Seraphina’s face changed. ‘Snap, snap, snap-!’ She could feel the connection between the tree and her shatter, and her expression twisted as she
noticed herself lose control.
Looking around, she saw changes occur to the tree.
Rustle~
The leaves that were once falling started to return, becoming a deeper shade of crimson than
before.
But that wasn’t all.
What followed the leaves was another change.
Lifting her head up, a faint pinkish hue reflected in Seraphina’s crystal eyes as she looked up.
‘Flowers.’
Indeed, flowers had started to appear all over the tree.
As seconds passed, more and more flowers blossomed, gradually blanketing the treetop, accompanied by a peculiar, sweet fragrance.
Seraphina didn’t put the smell to mind at first, focusing her attention back on the tree and trying her best to regain control of it, but a few seconds after, her expression couldn’t help
but change.
‘Danger…!’
Separating her hand away from the tree, her figure blurred, appearing a few dozen feet away from the tree.
At the same time she did, she held her neck and started to gag.
“Huek-!”
Her vision was blurry and the world before her started to distort. Raising her hand, she
snapped her finger and everything shattered.
Snap!
The world returned to normal right after.
Looking around, she felt a tinge of cold sweat running down her back as her eyes faintly shook
upon seeing the tree in front of her.
…What was that smell?’
Just a simple smell and her mind almost fell for an illusion.
Alarm bells rang in her mind.
“This is dangerous.’ There was one thing Seraphina prided herself and that was her mental strength. She could
count on one hand the number of people she thought could rival her in terms of mental
strength.
In fact, the reason why she could control so many monsters at once was because of her mental
strength.
It was something she was proud of.
Yet, a single whiff of the tree’s scent was enough to throw her mind into disarray.
What sort of situation was this?
“No, ukh-!”
Clutching her head, Seraphina heard a continuous snapping sound echoing in her mind as she
watched the threads snap from the tree. Her control over the tree continued to diminish as its
scent started to spread.
“No, no…”
She stepped back with a pale expression.
“How is this…?”
She could feel all her work start to crumble. Her plan, which had taken so long to formulate
and put into action… All of it, she was watching it fall apart right before her very eyes. She
couldn’t afford to fail.
This plan was of utter importance.
After all…
This was going to be the place where the merging was going to start.
“Yes, I can’t fail. I mustn’t fail.”
Turning her head, Seraphina’s expression softened, and her demeanor shifted completely as
if she had become a different person. With a calmness that almost felt unsettling, she gazed in
the direction of the city walls.
Rumble, rumble-!
The surroundings shook.
***
It was strange.
Something about the air changed.
It felt ligher all of a sudden.
Squelch~
Looking down at the roots that had once entangled my body, I began to relax as they no
longer pressed against me with the same intensity as before.
I could breathe again.
But that wasn’t the most important thing.
I pulled my hand away from the tree and gazed at it, watching countless flowers bloom before
my eyes.
It was…
“Beautiful.”
There were hardly any words I could use to describe the current sight before me, and as I took
a step back, I bumped into something.
“Uh?”
When I turned my head, I realized it was Leon.
He was staring at Owl-Mighty with a blank expression on his face.
“That…”
His brows scrunched up a few moments after as he focused his gaze towards me.
“What happened? Did you…?”
“No, it wasn’t me.”
I smiled at the thought.
This change was hardly because of me.
Owl-Mighty had always been on the verge of reaching the Destroyer-Rank. Its body was ready
but its conciousness was not. All Owl-Mighty needed was a little push to get it to reach this
point.
This was all inevitable.
“Oh.”
Leon’s eyes squinted in doubt, and just as his lips opened, he suddenly stopped and sniffed
the air.
“…Do you smell something?”
“Smell?”
I sniffed around and frowned.
“No, I don’t.”
There was no smell in the air.
“How strange.”
Leon mumbled while scratching the back of his head.
“…I smell something sweet, pleasant, but I can’t quite tell where I’ve smelled it before. It
also feels strangely enticing. My head feels a little light, but only a tiny bit.”
“Really?”
I looked back at Owl-Mighty, or more specifically the flowers blooming across its body and
had a faint idea of what was happening.
‘I guess the smell must be coming from there.’
The fact that I couldn’t smell whatever scent was coming out of them was quite surprising,
but perhaps there was a reason to it.
Whatever the case was, this wasn’t the time for me to dwell on it as I looked around.
The reality of our situation soon dawned on me and my face turned grim. “Owl-Mighty seems to have grown stronger, but there’s no guarantee we’ll make it out of
here alive. In fact, it’s highly likely that ‘she’ is planning something outside.”
“…I know.”
Leon’s face grew grim as he similarly looked around.
“Do you think you can tell the tree to take us away?”
“That’s not possible.”
How could a tree outrun a human? No, not just a human, but an extremely powerful one that
could control several dozen equally powerful monsters.
“Then…?”
“I don’t know.”
Biting my finger, I felt the urgency of the situation. While it was true that Owl-Mighty got
stronger, it still didn’t mean anything. Julien’s mother was extremely powerful, and Owl- Mighty had just merely stepped into the Destroyer Rank.
How strong could it-
It was in the midst of my thoughts that a notification flashed before my very eyes, grabbing
my immediate attention.
Lifting my head up to stare at the notification, my heart and face paused.
“Wha… What?”
As if the air had been sucked out of my body, I stared at the notification for a few seconds
before taking a deep breath.
“This…”
[Veil of Deceit] –> [Lament of Lies]
….Was this even possible?