Chapter 99

Chapter 99.

In the world of Lost Honor, the Elf Queen trembled and could not even hold her head up at the mere mention of the name ‘Nebula.’

If all one saw was her repeatedly being made to say, ‘The World Tree is just a big tree,’ she might have looked exactly like some pathetic Monster A.

But one must not misunderstand.

That was a special situation that happened because she was before Nebula, who possessed strength outside all standards. It did not mean the Elf Queen was weak.

The ‘Elf Forest.’

Despite the number 70th tier, in terms of perceived difficulty, this place was far more vicious than the 80th tier.

The reason lay in the broken nature of the Elf race.

It was a racial trait far too blatant to be brushed aside with a single line of text like ‘forest-friendly.’

The moment Elves stood on a field called a forest, their raw stats themselves surged by more than double.

In other words, even an Elf Warrior on the level of a trash mob could easily take the head of an 80th tier trash mob if the battlefield was inside a forest.

Of course, it would never have become so infamous if all it did was raise their physical specs.

The real terror lay elsewhere.

Namely, the fact that they ‘could not be seen.’

These insane bastards possessed a special ability that allowed them to melt into the greenery of the forest, so they could not be identified with the naked eye, like chameleons with protective coloration.

To begin with, Elves’ Mana was on the quiet side, so it was not easy to detect them through Mana sensing either...

And Elves were not the only things living in the forest.

There was no way to tell whether the presence above that tree was a squirrel or an Elf hiding its presence.

Arrowheads flying soundlessly from blind spots where not even a leaf stirred, and bombardments of Spirit Sorcery suddenly exploding in midair.

Anyone who had tasted that baptism of assassination even once could never let go of their tension inside a forest.

The suffocating pressure of never knowing when or where an arrow would lodge itself between your eyes!

‘A bloody, straight-up fight would have been better. That damned tension is what drives people insane.’

But it did not end there!

There was an even more ridiculous gimmick left.

The closer Elves were to the World Tree, the stronger they became at a geometric rate.

Because the World Tree’s true identity was actually a giant ‘tree totem’ that scattered unlimited wide-area buffs onto Elves.

On top of that, what kind of existence was the Elf Queen?

Among countless Elves, she was an out-of-standard individual who was the strongest and had survived the longest.

Let us put the situation together.

A racial trait that inflated her power nearly twofold on the field called a forest.

The monstrous wide-area buffs emitted by a giant tree totem.

The Queen’s own combat power, already the strongest of her race by itself.

And the current battlefield was even the World Tree’s front yard, where the buff was at its strongest.

That was right.

Right now, those three had to face the strongest Elf, created by all those vicious conditions interlocking perfectly.

‘This is fun.’

I looked down with great interest, in the mood to eat popcorn.

CRACK! CRUNCH!

...Though instead of popcorn, I was busily breaking off and gathering the World Tree’s sturdy, top-grade branches.

***

“Noooo—!!!”

The Elf Queen shrieked.

“You despicable creatures...! You drew my gaze away and dared wound Mother?!”

“?”

Han Seol-ah, who had just been preparing for battle, could not understand the Elf Queen’s words and looked purely bewildered.

The surroundings were a forest.

The only Elf present was the one individual before her, huffing in rage.

Where in the world was that Elf’s ‘mother’ supposed to be?

And when had they hurt that mother enough for her to fly into such a frenzy?

“Where is your mother?”

“Y-you insolent creatures, deceiving me to the end...!”

Han Seol-ah was sincere.

The party had come strictly to farm items and clear the floor, not as some vicious party that went around beating other people’s elderly mothers.

“Are your ears deaf?! Mother is screaming over there, is she not?!”

The Elf Queen pointed toward the distant sky with a trembling finger.

Han Seol-ah’s gaze stretched up along the tip of that finger.

And at the end of it was...

“That is just a big tree.”

“Wha, whaaaat!!!”

“Ah, do you mean your mother lives in that tree?”

“Y-you, youuu...! To dare treat Mother as just a big tree...!”

The Elf Queen’s snow-white face flushed so red it seemed about to burst.

Han Seol-ah had no idea what was going on.

And Ha Seong-un, the person who had controlled Nebula, had not known either, but...

To Elves, daring to call the World Tree something like a ‘tree’ was the worst blasphemy, worthy of immediate execution.

The reason was simple.

Elves were truly born from the World Tree.

About once every hundred years, a special fruit formed at the end of the World Tree, and this was essentially an Elf egg.

When senior Elves carefully picked this fruit and cared for it like an incubator, a young Elf would pop out from it.

In other words, Elves calling the World Tree Mother was not some metaphor or totemic faith.

It was because the tree was truly their direct ascendant, the one who had created and given birth to them.

Even if its appearance was just that of an absurdly huge tree.

And even if it was a plant that could not speak and only performed photosynthesis.

In any case, to Elves, the World Tree was the ‘real mother’ who had given birth to them.

“We just entered this floor, and we have not the slightest intention of hurting your elderly mo—no, your mother...”

“She is being torn away even at this very moment, is she not!!”

Han Seol-ah felt wronged, but to the Elf Queen’s pointed ears, it was all too clearly audible.

The horrific sound of Mother World Tree’s branches snapping off in droves!

“You vicious human bastards are breaking my mother’s arms and legs, are you nottttt!!!”

The Elf Queen’s hair, which had been shooting toward the sky in strands, turned deathly white.

And the storm of Mana that had been raging around the Elf Queen suddenly stopped.

An eerie silence settled in.

This was the phenomenon that appeared when the Elf Queen’s anger reached its peak!

At this moment, the Elf Queen had broken through the limit of a 70th tier Boss.

“I will... kill you all.”

The Elf Queen raised a finger toward Han Seol-ah.

“Starting with you.”

***

At the same time as the Elf Queen’s death sentence, Han Seol-ah felt a chilling sensation at the back of her neck.

There was clearly no incantation and no magic circle.

The Elf Queen had merely lifted a finger and aimed it at Han Seol-ah.

“!”

At that moment.

Han Seol-ah felt murderous intent, as if the entire forest had become one bowstring aiming between her eyes.

FLASH—!

Immediately afterward, a soundless arrow like a streak of light split the air.

FLASH—!

The one who blocked that arrow was Eternal Winter, Frozen.

[Get a hold of yourself, you idiot!]

Frozen’s shout thundered in her ears.

There had been no change in temperature.

No flow of Mana.

It was an arrow shot with no warning sign of magic activation whatsoever.

‘If Frozen had not been there, I would have died...!’

“Summon Elemental!”

Lee A-un, who detected the attack a beat late, shot forward and opened the Primordial Essence.

Dozens of Mutant Spirits containing pitch-black Dark Mana poured out like sprouting leaves, forming a wall to block the Queen’s arrow.

Lee A-un’s infinite tanking meta, where he crushed any fierce attack with numbers, then made them self-destruct to counterattack!

However, the Elf Queen looked at the sight and grew coldly enraged.

“How dare you... pollute Mother’s energy with such disgusting Mana...!”

The Elf Queen reached into the air and clenched her hand.

At that moment, the Dark Spirits pouring out from A-un’s body all froze in midair at once.

FSSSS—!

In just one second, they became dazzling clusters of light as if black grime had been stripped away, then scattered to the Queen’s side.

“Huh?!”

Spirits were the siblings of Elves from the beginning!

They were children of a different mother, born from the World Tree.

However, the hierarchy between them was clear.

If Elves were the head of World Tree society, Spirits were the arms and legs.

Therefore, when the Elf Queen, the pinnacle of Elves, gave a command, even the Spirits summoned by Lee A-un had their control stolen, and the Dark Mana was purified and scattered.

“Wh-what...!”

A-un tried to summon Skeletons in shock, but the arrow fired by the Queen rushed straight toward A-un’s heart one step faster.

At that instant.

“Earthen Wall!”

BOOM—!

A wall of earth drawn up by Kim Cheol-su, who had been waiting in the rear, surged upward and formed a barricade.

With a BANG, the Earthen Wall trembled violently, but it barely succeeded in blocking the arrow.

“A-un! Get a hold of yourself! Our moves are not work—”

Just as Cheol-su was about to shout in relief.

The Queen landed lightly on the ground and twisted her lips.

“Playing with dirt on Mother’s land, are you?”

CREAK! CRRRUNCH!

Blue roots of the World Tree suddenly burst wildly out of the Earthen Wall Cheol-su had erected.

The Queen, who governed the forest and the earth, had turned Cheol-su’s earth wall into her own weapon.

“Guh?!”

Before he could even react, the massive roots coiled tightly around Kim Cheol-su’s arms, legs, and torso.

“Ice Arrow!”

Han Seol-ah hastily launched an attack, but...

“Slow.”

The Elf Queen easily dodged all of Han Seol-ah’s heavy Ice Arrows.

Immediately afterward, the Elf Queen’s finger flew in through the gap between their linked attacks and pierced Kim Cheol-su’s chest with a SQUELCH—.

“Kugh!”

Kim Cheol-su went limp, and after pulling her finger out of his chest, the Elf Queen shook it off as if something filthy had gotten on it.

Thud.

“One for now.”

After flinging Kim Cheol-su aside, the Elf Queen turned toward the remaining two.

‘...She is strong.’

Han Seol-ah tensed as she raised Eternal Winter.

Dispel Magic, which had allowed her to gain the upper hand in magical battles, did not work.

The summons of an infinite-summoning Tanker had their control stolen as well.

The victory formulas that had brought them triumph in every moment of crisis up until now were all countered and collapsed before a single Boss.

“You verminous humans. Your comrade died, yet not one of you even blinks.”

The Elf Queen’s face twisted, as if she truly found them disgusting.

It was a hair-trigger situation.

Ironically, the first of the three panicking people to regain his senses was Kim Cheol-su, who had died and come back to life.

As long as he had the Immortal Vestment, Kim Cheol-su did not die.

He merely lost consciousness for a moment.

Kim Cheol-su calculated the moves he could make right now.

However.

“You do not die, do you?”

CRUNCH—!

Noticing Cheol-su’s revival with her outstanding senses, the Elf Queen bound Kim Cheol-su again.

“Good. I will not kill you.”

Before he knew it, the Elf Queen had taken Cheol-su’s back, and she whispered cold, murderous words into his ear.

“I will make you Mother’s nourishment like this, burying you underground forever so you rot alive.”

The roots sealed Cheol-su’s mouth and began dragging him deep underground.

No matter how broken the Immortal Vestment was, it was useless in a situation where he was permanently sealed without being killed.

“Brother Cheol-su...!”

At last, even Kim Cheol-su’s final move, ‘Undying,’ had been neutralized.

***

“Good, good. This is going well.”

Everything was according to plan.

“Fight longer, if possible.”

Oh, fruit grew here too?

Should I harvest some of this as well?