Volume 4 Chapter 29 Extraordinary Growth
"W-What is this wind...?"
An eerie black wind blowing in from nowhere.
I reflexively check it with my Divine Eye skill as it gathers around Spirit King Vamph.
Knowing its true identity, I involuntarily widen my eyes.
"Those are soldiers of the Spirit King's Army!"
"Huh? W-What does this mean?"
"He's converting the lives of the Spirit King's Army's subordinates into cursed energy and drawing them to him."
The undead monsters can wield the most powerful curses among all races.
By sacrificing the very lives of those monsters, Spirit King Vamph generated vast amounts of cursed energy.
What he's going to use such an enormous amount of cursed energy for is still unclear...
"So that means he still plans to do something."
As Cosmos said, I can still sense a hostile intent from Spirit King Vamph.
Vamph, now grown into a young man, wears a sinister smile that pales in comparison to his youthful form.
"With this, the era of humanity will come to an end. How pitiful it will be to witness that moment while crying and screaming."
Immediately after, he raised his right hand enveloped in the black wind.
I feel a premonition that he is about to take some kind of action.
I tried to move to stop it, but a red shadow was already behind Vamph.
Wielding a crimson straight sword, Valkyrie Rose.
She sensed the danger before anyone else and immediately circled around behind Vamph.
"Haah!"
Rose slashes her sword at Vamph without him noticing.
The final blow was aimed precisely at the neck, but was narrowly avoided by tilting his head.
As a result, Rose's sword only manages to slice off the man's raised arm.
Just landing that blow against the Spirit King is something to be praised, but she seemed to have planned to defeat him, and grimaced in frustration.
Vamph grabs his right arm, which is flying in the air, and transfers his cursed power from there to his left hand.
"Farewell, weak humans"
He put his left hand, which was wrapped in a black aura, into the pocket of his clothes and took out something like a small "tree branch."
My Divine Eye skill reacts strongly.
That's the "Cursed Funeral Trees"...!
In an instant, the sapling gripped in Vamph's left hand rapidly "grew" while sucking in a black wind.
"──!?"
Rose, who was standing nearby, quickly jumped back.
We, who were watching beside her, also stepped back in surprise.
The giant Cursed Funeral Trees continued to grow, swallowing Vamph's body as it expanded before our eyes.
Breaking through the floor of the ruins and spreading thick roots into the ground, the cursed funeral tree grew to a size that was almost breathtaking, yet it still showed no sign of stopping in its growth.
"W-What is this!? What in the world did that guy do!?"
"That Vamph, he sacrificed himself and his subordinates to inject an enormous amount of cursed power into the Cursed Funeral Trees...!"
Why would he do something like that...!?
Dahlia showed a look of confusion.
I can only guess the reason, but I have an idea.
From what I saw with the Divine Eye skill, that cursed funeral tree grows much faster than normal ones and has an exceptionally wide spreading range for its curse.
Unlike typical cursed power injections, it's likely the result of sacrificing all the soldiers of the Spirit King's Army and the Spirit King's life for this purpose.
The total amount of cursed power poured in was unimaginable, leading the cursed funeral tree to achieve a peculiar evolution.
It's left us with a very troublesome legacy.
As I secretly cursed it in my mind, the spreading of the curse began much sooner than I feared.
The time it takes to mature is astonishingly short.
Thanks to Ms. Nemophila's Barrier magic, we are safe for now, but if this curse reaches the town, it will be a catastrophe.
We have to do something quickly.
"Rose! Cut it down!"
"Got it!"
I immediately raised my voice to Rose, and she nodded without asking me why.
It seems that Rose also intuitively understood the danger of the cursed tree in front of her.
Rose suddenly moves and closes in on the Cursed Tree just as quickly as when she cut down Vamph.
From what I can see, the cursed tree has grown into a very strong and thick tree.
With an average sword and arm, you probably wouldn't be able to do much damage...
"Haah!"
The sword swung by Rose didn't stop midway and cleanly carved a horizontal cut.
We can do this.
With her strength and sword, she could inflict damage on that special cursed tree.
Cutting it down wouldn't be too difficult... or so I secretly relieved myself, but unfortunately, that was short-lived.
"Huh..."
The horizontal cut made by Rose began to heal before her eyes.
And within the blink of an eye, the wound completely disappeared.
The cursed tree's self-restoration.
Having already chopped down several cursed trees, this was the first time we saw such a phenomenon.
Rose struck again and again, but the wounds closed up almost instantly.
"Th-this!"
Frustrated by the tenacious cursed tree, Rose swung her sword with all her might.
This created a sharp shockwave, appearing to reflect the slashing action.
That one strike buried deep into the trunk of the cursed tree and shot out from the back without stopping.
The cursed tree, now severed in 2, shook its massive trunk violently.
"Alright, with this...! Huh?"
The cursed tree that she thought would fall from her blow...
surprisingly, the severed wound closed up instantly.
Her best effort was completely nullified, and Rose stared up at the cursed tree in disbelief.
Meanwhile, Dahlia standing next to me also murmured in astonishment.
"W-why isn't it falling after that...! I'm sure she cut it in half..."
"That cursed tree has awakened astonishing restorative abilities by acquiring immense cursed power. If you just make small scratches on it, it will regenerate in no time."
"Don't make something so troublesome...!"
I completely agree.
However, by creating the cursed tree, we were able to annihilate the Spirit King Vamph and all the soldiers of his army.
Because he was driven into a corner by these girls, he had no choice but to take on this plan that would risk his life.
This is, so to speak, the "last resort."
That is...
"Well, if we destroy it, then we'll win for sure, right?"
"...I see."
Cosmos spoke as if speaking for me, and I nodded in response.
Yes, if we can somehow deal with that cursed burial tree, we can completely thwart the Spirit King's Army's scheme.
It seems that the guys from the Forest King's Army have mostly been turned into soldiers of the Spirit King's Army before this battle, so they must have been sacrificed and absorbed by the cursed burial tree through power conversion.
I also confirmed that what looks like the corpse of Forest King Gálu is lying around in the ruins.
If we destroy that massive tree, this battle will come to an end.
"...but it doesn't seem like it's going to let us break it so easily."
Its astonishing regenerative ability and toughness are truly remarkable, and I'm not sure if we can destroy it even with Rose and Cosmos combining their powers.
Aside from that concern, even more troublesome phenomena begin to happen.
Suddenly, the ground shook violently, and roots from the cursed burial tree burst out from the surrounding floor like spears.
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