Episode 309: The World Tree (1)
“Are you just going to leave your brother like that?”
Damian turned his gaze away as he asked. The ruler of the Inferno lay dead before them.
Caught in the crossfire of Damian’s battle with the Four Great Demon Lords, he had perished—a shrimp crushed in a whale’s fight.
It was an unceremonious end for someone who had been a pillar of Pandemonium. Perhaps it was the spike lodged in his chest that made it so.
The spike was crafted with the essence of demons. By driving it into his heart, the ruler had likely intended to apply his powers to both himself and his brother.
With his knowledge as a dark sorcerer, Damian quickly understood this.
“A fitting end for him,” he said, though his eyes betrayed a hint of bitterness as he looked at his fallen brother.
“We can deal with his body later. Right now, the World Tree is our priority.”
The Empire’s greatest swordsman struggled to his feet but stumbled, unable to stand properly.
Damian hoisted him onto his back and headed for Elfheim.
Damian returned to the royal palace of Elfheim with the Empire’s greatest swordsman.
“The World Tree is collapsing!”
“What do we do now?”
“We’re all going to die! Aaaah!”
Inside the palace, chaos reigned. The elves could do nothing but watch helplessly as the World Tree crumbled.
”…Let’s head to the throne room.”
The Empire’s greatest swordsman urged Damian forward. Supporting him, Damian made his way into the kingdom.
“You’ve arrived.”
Milene greeted them, though she didn’t look well either.
Like the World Tree, her body was slowly disintegrating into dust.
She, too, was dying.
“I watched your battle through magic. You both did well,” Milene said softly, praising them. But the Empire’s greatest swordsman asked in a troubled voice, “Is there no way to save the World Tree?”
Milene only offered a bitter smile in response, prompting a sigh from the swordsman.
“As expected, it’s impossible.”
Reviving the dead was an impossibility, an unchangeable truth.
Many sorcerers and dark sorcerers had tried to defy this truth, but all had failed.
“You are a curious person. You despise elves, yet you genuinely wish for Elfheim’s survival.”
“I’m merely following my mother’s wishes.”
“That’s fortunate. Thanks to that, we have a reliable ally.”
Milene paused, as if speaking was difficult.
“You asked if there’s a way to save the World Tree? There is one.”
“What is it?”
“If Damian Haxen helps, it’s possible.”
Milene turned to Damian.
“I watched you through magic, using your powers in the void.”
Damian immediately understood what she was referring to.
“You’ve figured out how to reverse time? With that, we can save the World Tree.”
“No, it’s impossible,” Damian shook his head.
“Even reversing the landslide required all my magic and strength.”
He couldn’t even begin to estimate how much power it would take to revive the World Tree.
“No, it is possible,” Milene insisted, pointing to Damian’s wrist.
“Because you have Erebus.”
”…You know about Erebus?”
Damian asked, surprised.
Erebus was an artifact with no information left in the world.
Even demons didn’t fully understand its nature.
“Yes, I know. I also know who created it.”
“Who?”
“A person named Ruin.”
Ruin.
It was a name he had heard before. Dorgo had shouted it.
“Dorgo mentioned that name too. Who exactly is this Ruin?”
Milene’s eyes wavered for a moment. She hesitated before speaking to Damian.
“The true hero who drove demons and monsters from the continent.”
“Does that mean he was part of the Salvation Corps? But I’ve never heard that name.”
“Of course not. We killed him and erased his name.”
Milene spoke of this shocking revelation as if it were nothing.
“Most of the feats attributed to the Salvation Corps were actually Ruin’s. We merely claimed them as our own.”
Damian was stunned.
He had grown up hearing tales of the Salvation Corps.
People praised their nobility and strength through stories, plays, and songs.
But to think it was all a lie?
“Why did you do such a thing?”
“For some, it was for honor, for others, jealousy. And for me… it was for the future of my race.”
“The future?”
“With someone like Ruin by the humans’ side, he would have been a threat to the elves.”
By now, Damian was deeply curious about this Ruin.
What kind of person was he, to have created Erebus and to be so feared by Milene?
“What kind of person was Ruin? How did he create Erebus?”
“Ruin was…”
Suddenly, Milene’s eyes widened. She bent over, coughing.
“Cough, cough.”
Dust spilled from her mouth, indicating her organs were disintegrating.
”…Damian, I wish I could explain everything, but I truly have no time left.”
Milene clutched her chest, speaking with difficulty.
“Erebus was a weapon that absorbed and transformed everything into power. Dorgo planned to use the power stored in Erebus to travel back in time.”
Damian looked puzzled. Despite using Erebus for a long time, he had never sensed any stored power within it.
“After killing Ruin, we all wanted to become the master of Erebus. But Erebus chose no one. Instead, it destroyed itself.”
Milene formed a seal, opening a subspace. From it, a large blade emerged.
“This is a fragment I kept. Damian, I trust you with it.”
With those words, Milene’s body crumbled into dust.
Damian stared at the dust left behind by Milene for a long time.
The flood of information had left him bewildered.
But there was no time to dwell on it. The moment Milene died, the World Tree’s collapse accelerated.
Its sprawling branches fell, and the trunk began to crumble.
“Damian, I’m counting on you.”
The Empire’s greatest swordsman spoke with urgency. Damian set aside his doubts and drew Erebus.
The fragment Milene had produced was enormous.
In his past life, Dorgo had destroyed Elfheim and fused the fragment with Erebus.
‘Back then, I couldn’t complete Erebus. But now…’
Since his reincarnation, Damian had found fragments even Dorgo hadn’t and absorbed them into Erebus.
“Erebus, absorb.”
The fragment liquefied and adhered to Erebus.
The missing parts of Erebus began to fill in. The damaged sections started to mend.
Unfortunately, Erebus was still incomplete. It remained broken.
But there was a significant change.
‘It’s longer than in my past life.’
Erebus’s restoration had surpassed his previous life. Judging by the state of the blade, completion was near.
Damian gripped Erebus. Perhaps because it was more restored than before, he could feel the power stored within.
‘This power…’
It was the same power that had surged when he had tried to end his life with Erebus.
‘It wasn’t my own power, but the power stored in Erebus.’
Damian drew on Erebus’s power and infused it into his abilities.
Six powers began to glow. Damian placed his glowing hand on the World Tree.
’…There’s no reaction.’
According to Milene, using his powers should revive the World Tree.
But no matter how much energy he poured in, he couldn’t reverse the World Tree’s time.
‘What’s wrong? What’s missing?’
Damian retraced his past actions, replicating everything.
Except for one difference: there was a power he hadn’t yet awakened.
‘But that power wasn’t used before, was it?’
Greed.
The seventh power allowed for wide-range detection.
In his past life, when the powers activated, Greed hadn’t been used.
‘Is that what’s needed?’
Damian channeled energy into the seventh mark. Greed’s power awakened.
The seven powers connected as one. Suddenly, darkness enveloped Damian’s vision.
‘Where am I?’
Damian floated in the darkness. He flailed his limbs but couldn’t move forward.
Then, something unfolded before his eyes.
A massive seed fell into the sea. It sprouted and grew tall.
It was the life of the World Tree.
The World Tree’s journey from its first sprout to its current state unfurled like a map.
‘These are coordinates.’
Damian instinctively understood. These were the coordinates for traveling back in time.
‘The further back, the more power is needed.’
The World Tree’s history spanned over three thousand years.
Naturally, reversing three thousand years would require all the power stored in Erebus, and even that wouldn’t be enough.
‘But a day back… that’s doable.’
Just as Damian set the coordinates and prepared to execute, another map appeared before him.
What he saw left him astonished.
‘That’s me?’
It was the story of Damian’s life.
In his reckless youth, his boyhood, and even as a newborn.
Yet, the map was split into two paths right in the middle.
The moment he saw the other path, Demian felt a chill run down his spine.
”…Death Knight.”
Demian’s life was divided into two distinct parts.
His current life and his past life.
The person he was now and the person he was when he lived as a Death Knight.
As Demian stared at the map, a chilling thought crossed his mind.
“Could it be… that I can relive my days as a Death Knight?”
Just the thought made him feel sick to his stomach. He was on the verge of retching.
Yet, despite the nausea, Demian couldn’t tear his eyes away from the map.
His time as a Death Knight was the darkest period of his life.
But regardless of how vile it was, the fact remained that he was the “strongest” during those days.
“No… there’s no way that could happen,” he reassured himself, pushing the thought aside. He turned his attention back to the map of the World Tree.
“Rewind the World Tree by one day.”
The power he had drawn from Erebus quickly dissipated.
And then, a monumental change began.