Chapter 126-128: Heroes vs Divine Tree

I control the dark matter and fly into the sky.

Looking down at a decent height, I could see the full picture of Grandma Wood once again.

I knew that the roots that were jutting out from the ground were wriggling like tentacles and were being used as weapons, but now that I look at it like this, the roots were branched to some extent, but there’s no more than 5 main roots.

There’s probably several times more of those underground, but it is most likely not utilizing those to maintain balance.

In the first place, the important role of the roots is to support the trunk that is towering high up. If it were to use all of them as weapons and takes them out from underground, the tree wouldn’t be able to maintain balance and fall.

Those five are probably the bare limit to how many Grandma Wood can take out while still maintaining balance.

At least that’s what I would like to think. If it were to increase even more, no matter how reliable of a reinforcement were to come, we wouldn’t be able to control the situation.

I heard a shout from my ear.

“And so, what are we going to do?! Just trying to stop those giant roots of the tree is already a crazy tough mission, you know! It might even be an impossible task!” (Celestis)

“You might already know, but I will say it just in case! Don’t touch that root directly! We will end up assimilated as well after all!” (Mirack)

“Eeh?! But I can’t do proper damage unless I cut it directly-dasu!” (Sasae)

“Calm down, Sasae-chan! If you do a hit-and-run, you won’t get caught!” (Karen)

Their voices were coming at me from the wireless device.

Thanks to the work of the heroes, there’s already no people around the perimeter of battle. Looks like they have been safely evacuated.

But now that there’s no people around, the Golems that now have nothing to do were gathering around where Karen-san and her group are in, and the more time passes, the higher the chances they will be crushed by the numbers.

“From what I see from above, the Golems have changed their objective and are heading your direction! Their moves are dull, but they are trying to crowd onto you! The more time it passes, the difficult it will be to move!” (Haine)

“Above?! Where are you at?!” (Celestis)

“I am going to be entering preparations, so I can’t help. I repeat! I can’t help! Please stop the movements of the roots by yourselves! I am counting on you!” (Haine)

I was already in the process of compressing my dark matter.

I would say it will take me until around the time I count to 1,000. Will the heroes be able to stop the movements of the roots by then?

“Everyone, hear me out!” (Karen)

The voice of Karen-san reverberates from the wireless device.

“Each of us fighting one separately won’t let us stop the roots from moving! Let’s gather up, cooperate, and find a method that we can do!” (Karen)

“Cooperate…in other words—?!” (Mirack)

“When in trouble, combined elements, right?!” (Celestis)

That’s right. In the long history of the five churches, not only the five have been fighting each other, this in turn made the heroes antagonistic with each other too.

When those heroes have overcome their conflicts with each other and put their hearts together, put their elements together, a new element is created.

That miracle has saved those girls from danger several times already.

“Eh? What you girls talking about-dasu?” (Sasae)

The new member Sasae-chan was the only one who couldn’t keep up with the conversation.

“It is that! The thing that destroyed your Golems in Apollon City!” (Mirack)

“But what will we be combining with what?! Mine and Karen-chi’s ‘Mirage’ may serve to confuse, but it won’t be fulfilling the request of stopping its movements, you know!” (Celestis)

“‘Lightning’ and ‘Explosion’ have way too high of a possibility to drag the people that are captured in the roots along with it, so we can’t use those either. In other words, the things we have used until now are all out of the question. That’s why, the one that we can put our hopes into is…at a new possibility!” (Karen)

A new possibility?

“……I see. Sasae! Where are you right now?!” (Celestis)

“What-dasu?! I be sending a sign-dasu!” (Sasae)

Soon after, a big cloud of dust rose up in the battlefield at a certain place.

“—Okay!”

Not long after…

“—Alright! I am the first one! Sasae, let’s do it!” (Mirack)

“Hiiiaa?! What-dasu?! Suddenly hugging me?! Why ye suddenly pouring divine power inside mah body-dasu?!” (Sasae)

“It is fine, just match my breathing! Mix the divine power! Chant the words that appear inside your heart just as it is! Get it?!” (Mirack)

“Fueeeee?!!” (Sasae)

““[Magma Ocean]-dasu!!”” (Mirack+Sasae)

The ground was dyed completely red.

I was in standby high up in the sky, so I could tell. It was letting out a fluid-type of shine that was different from fire, and the ground was shining in red.

Could that be…lava?!

The combination of fire and earth has created this lava?!

Because the ground has been covered in a liquid that is several thousand degrees in temperature, it made the roots of Grandma Wood falter and loosen their attacks but…

“This is just…!” (Mirack)

“It would burn the captured people into a crisp-dasu!!” (Sasae)

That’s right. If they were to make a wave from the lava that appeared, they would be able to deal heavy damage to Grandma Wood, but the people that are captured in the roots will certainly die.

Just like how ‘Lightning’ and ‘Explosion’ are no good, the new ‘Magma’ is obviously also an overkill.

“Geez, as expected of the fire element! No matter what you mix into it, it all turns into something atrocious!” (Celestis)

The voice I heard from the wireless device was Celestis. The next one to run to Sasae-chan was her huh.

“Just watch! This idol hero, Celestis-sama, will produce magnificent and beautiful water divine power, and do a complete make-up of this country bumpkin girl!” (Celestis)

“Hiiih?! I be in great demand for a while now-dasu?!” (Sasae)

It is hard to tell from just their voices alone, but Sasae-chan is probably in a state where she is being treated like a pet by a group of girls.

It is the pattern where she gets pampered so much that the next day she will end up all exhausted.

And then, what appeared from mixing ‘water’ and ‘earth’…

“”[Tree Plant]!!” (Celestis+Sasae)

With the two as the center, a green color mist was released, which is something I could see from my point of view.

What’s that mist?

And then, it fell due to gravity and falls to the ground, and when that happened, a surprising change occurred.

Grass began visibly growing on the surface of the ground, moreover, it was stretching without limits.

It was terrifyingly thick ivies. That’s the kind of plant it gave me the impression of.

Those wrapped around the roots of Grandma Wood and drag them to the ground.

Because they were plants, I thought for a second that they might be enemies, so I was cautious, but as I thought, it seems to be the combined element of Sasae-chan and Celestis.

Mixing earth and water, ‘Green’ appears. Moisturizing the earth, it invigorates the plants.

“Bingo!! Look at that! Being wrapped in ivy, the roots of that bastard tree can’t do anything! It is fulfilling the request of Haine-chi a 100%! Truly fighting fire with fire, plants with plants! As expected, of an idol. This is Celes-tan!” (Celestis)

“Enough with the boasting! If the combination of you and Sasae is a jackpot, grab the other roots as well.” (Mirack)

“Yes yes, I get it. I will move now—wait, eeeeh?!” (Celestis)

But she couldn’t. The Golems that had gathered at the surroundings were still continuing to surround them after all.

The giant roots that Grandma Wood is swinging around are 5 in total. Right now, only one of them has been wrapped and immobilized.

To restrain the remaining 4, she has to get close to where each of them is and activate the green element. But to do that, she has to get through the encirclement of Golems, and even if she manages to, it would take too much time.

“Oi, Sasae! You were controlling Golems in Apollon City, right?! Can’t you have them retreat with that ability of yours?!” (Mirack)

“It be impossible-dasu! They are not taking orders-dasu! The order authority was most likely taken away by Great Pillar-sama-dasu yo!!” (Sasae)

The one who was giving birth to the Golems is the Mother Monster, Grandma Wood.

The residents called it Great Pillar-sama and it should be easy even for Sasae-chan to imagine that it possesses high influence with the Golems.

But this doesn’t link to a solution.

They have to do something fast, or my preparations will be ending before they manage to stop them!

“Mirack-chi, you don’t have a role anymore, so how about going kamikaze on those Golems and self-destruct?” (Celestis)

“When that happens, I will make sure to bring you along with me! But, it looks like this time there’s no need for that.” (Mirack)

Weaving through the encirclement of Golems and passing by the giants one after the other, a silver flash approaches the three.

“Karen!” “Karen-chi!” “Karen-neechan!”

The light hero arrives at this moment.

• 127: Outside reality

Karen-san arrives to where the team is.

“You are late, Karen! I was tired of waiting!!” (Mirack)

“We have found a solution, but there’s a lot of problems!! For the combined element of Sasae-chi and I to bind the roots, there’s the need to approach the objective to a certain degree! But for the sake of that, the Golems are a complete hindrance!!” (Celestis)

“What should we do?! Have Karen and I take the front and advance as we open the path?!” (Mirack)

The four congregated and their morale increased by quite a lot.

They are brimming with the will of overcoming this crisis by joining forces.

“…Hmm, it probably won’t make it in time. Haine-san will soon finish his preparations.” (Karen)

I felt the gaze of Karen-san from below.

“Haine-san is compressing the dark matter he releases at an incredible rate. It will probably be finished soon. We most likely don’t have the time to go around binding each root one by one. That’s why…let’s bet on the last possibility.” (Karen)

“The last possibility?” (Mirack)

“That’s right. There’s still one combination that we haven’t tried out yet, right?” (Karen)

“Understood! Then Celestis and I will hold back the Golems!” (Mirack)

“Sasae-chi! Do your best, got it?! This is the Earth capital, Ishtar Blaze! This is the main stage of the earth hero! Make sure you rock it!” (Celestis)

I hear the sound of fierce fighting from the wireless device.

But I could tell that there was a side that was incredibly silent.

“Let’s go, Sasae-chan. Light and earth combined element. With that, we will create a breakthrough.” (Karen)

“Understood-dasu. I been smushed for a while now, so I already got the gist of it-dasu yo!!” (Sasae)

And then, the different types of divine power were mixed, and after mixing, one new type of divine power appears.

“?!!! What?!” (Mirack)

“The Golems are—?!” (Celestis)

The first ones to notice the abnormality was Mirack and Celestis who were fighting at the frontline.

“The movements of the Golems have stopped! What happened?!” (Mirack)

“Don’t lower your guard, Mirack-chi! This might be the prelude to a new setup that large tree bastard is preparing!” (Celestis)

But that wasn’t the case.

In the moment the stopped Golems began moving again…their objective was already not the heroes –it was the roots of Grandma Wood.

Even with their big frames, the Golems jumped, used each other as footholds, and clung onto the giant roots, trying to bring them down to the ground.

The Golems were indeed encircling the heroes, but most of the Golems were scattered at the surroundings of the giant tree, so the attack occurred on all the roots at the same time.

In order to not hurt the people assimilated at the surface, they did it gently, but also firmly held down the roots to the ground.

That means the Golems are completely following our will.

Why did the Golems suddenly becomes our allies?

“Could it be…was this done by Karen and Sasae?” (Mirack)

Mirack reached straight to that conclusion.

“Light doesn’t only provide energy, it can also be used as a way to relay information. The things we see are because we can visualize the reflected light with our eyes, and light tells us a variety of information.” (Mirack)

“If I remember correctly, when Sasae-chi gives orders to the Golems, she pours earth divine power, right? When the light divine power and earth divine power combined, the earth divine power rode the light that is in the air, and was able to reach several Golems in far distances at the same time? Is that the combined element of light and earth?” (Celestis)

Celestis also joins in the deduction.

Even if that’s correct, the current Golems are being controlled by the highest authority holder; they should be moving on the direct orders of Mother Earth Mantle.

Are you telling me they have rewritten that control? Humans have?

“I…really can’t believe it-dasu yo.” (Sasae)

From the wireless device, a small and fragile voice is transmitted.

It is Sasae-chan’s voice.

“Golems been together with me since I be born-dasu. They been together with me since forever. They helped me, protected me. They be the friends of all the people in Ishtar Blaze-dasu yo. That’s why, I really can’t believe that they are enemies-dasu yo!!” (Sasae)

The hero, that lived in this land and knew of this land more than anyone else, raised her voice along with those violent emotions rising in her.

That voice rode the light and reaches the far ends of the world.

“Nice, Sasae-chan. Shout more. More!!” (Karen)

“Please, Golems!! Please help us-dasu yo!!” (Sasae)

The Golems overlapped and fuse into a giant Golem.

It was bigger than any Golem I have seen. To make a comparison, it is big enough to fight against the Fire Cow Phalaris and the Hydra Serpent. Moreover, fight several of them.

With that sufficient frame, it holds down the roots of Grandma Wood. The people at its surface are also okay.

Placing all of its weight, it felt as if it were trying to fix the rampaging roots in place.

The Golems are helping the humans again.

They have been relied upon so heavily, and in the end, betrayed them. In a situation where no one believed in them anymore, Sasae-chan was the only one who blindly believed in them, and that believing heart turned it into reality.

A young hero; a country bumpkin hero; a hero that doesn’t know things and stupidly causes problems to others. But that foolishness of hers is a foolishness that allows her to stupidly believe until the very end.

A believe towards the Golems that has been with her since birth.

It is because she believes in the Golems that she believed in Grandma Wood who gave birth to them; It is because she believes in the Golems that she believed in the Mother Earth God Mantle that they served.

Even if she ends up not believing in those two, she still didn’t stop believing in the Golems.

A foolishness that will be forgotten in time as you grow up; a foolishness that comes from youth.

Sasae-chan’s voice reached the places that it should have reached.

“Seriously, to think that a hero would ask for help from someone else to change the situation…” (Mirack)

“Isn’t that fine? Sasae-chi gives out an aura that makes you want to dote on her, right? Don’t you think that’s a quality of a hero as well?” (Celestis)

Even Mirack and Celestis laugh at the silly miracle that Sasae-chan created.

But that’s fine.

I love that foolishness that allowed for this miracle.

As someone who loves humans, loving only a part of the humans that I like would make that love of mine a lie after all.

And so, I finished what was in my hand right in time.

A compressed to the very limits dark matter; a ‘Micro Black Hole’.

I actually didn’t want to use it.

The strongest destruction method I possess as the Dark God. This is something that is originally used in order to reset a world that isn’t favorable.

By reducing its power to a trillion times, I get the thing that is in my hands.

But even with that, it is still hard to use this technique with my human body.

“…Even so, this is still plenty enough to erase half of your body!!” (Haine)

Giant tree!

Thanks to the heroes, the fear of dragging humans into it has completely disappeared.

There’s already no need to worry.

I stabilize my aim and release it.

“Wait!!”

But, at the place where I aimed at, at the light brown trunk of Grandma Wood that covers my whole view, there was one part that was shining fluorescently.

That shine had the figure of a human.

It was the Fairy of Mother Earth Mantle.

• 128: Black Demise

Mother Earth God, Mantle.

The very culprit of this disaster has showed up again.

I can understand the reason of it.

She knows that she has been checkmated.

I take away the wireless device from my ear, and throw it away.

“Mantle, move away.” (Haine)

Even if we are far away, if we overlap the wavelength of Gods, we can have a conversation plenty well.

“If you think there won’t be any problems in being crushed because you are in the temporal form of a Fairy, you are heavily mistaken, you know?” (Haine)

“Why, Entropy-san?! Didn’t you praise me?! Didn’t you acknowledge that what I was doing was splendid?! And yet, are you going to reject everything now?!” (Mantle)

Mantle’s objection was painful.

“Everyone will be happy! Humans don’t have to fight, don’t have to work. They can push away all the troublesome things aside, and live forever! In return, I receive soul energy that is similar to that of prayer energy. Everyone gets something out of it, and no one suffers! Why are you getting in the way of such a splendid thing?!” (Mantle)

“Mantle…” (Haine)

That’s right. I didn’t notice how scary you could be.

Without understanding the other side of that frailty of yours, I thoughtlessly praised you, and as a result, promoted your rampage.

Inflation most likely noticed that madness that was hiding inside of you, and in order for it to not surface, she was always careful about it and pushing it down.

That’s probably the reason for Mantle’s usual weak demeanor she normally shows.  

“I am sorry. I was unable to truly understand you. Without understanding everything, I looked at only a part of you. I could only appreciate a part of you that was convenient for me. I am sorry. I am truly sorry!!” (Haine)

“Entropy-san, what are you saying?” (Mantle)

“But Mantle, happiness is probably not that simple of a subject. Just what is true happiness? An answer to that won’t easily come out. Everyone gets troubled by that question, and each individual has a completely different answer to it. That’s why there is no true answer, not now, and not ever.” (Haine)

Making someone else happy.

That might be meddlesome, but as a wish, I have to admit that a wish like that is not wrong in the least.

But to ignore the will of the other party and push your own answer at someone else, I think it is an irreparable sin.

Rather than obtaining happiness, thinking about what is happiness; for humans, the search for that in itself is important.

“That’s why, Mantle, I can’t forgive you, the you that is trying to steal the right of humans to think. I will be erasing that very action of yours. Just like how humans certainly die, just like how demise will always occur in the millenias of this world, right now, I will…” (Haine)

…Provide that demise to you and your subordinate  

“Heavily decreased [Black Hole Cannon]” (Haine)

From my hand, something that was as small as a grain was shot.

“I will say it again, Mantle. Move away.” (Haine)

Right now, it was docilely flying in one direction, and in the moment it arrived at the trunk of the giant tree, it does as it was set up to do beforehand…

It swallowed everything.

“Kyaaa!! Whaaat?!!” (Mantle)

The dark matter, that was compressed to the very limits, increased the gravity due to its mass, and when it reached a certain critical point, it turns into a black hole that releases unlimited gravity.

When that happens, nothing can escape. Whether it is something with substance or not, everything will get caught in its gravity, and be thrown into the depths of darkness.

Even the earth Mother Monster that possesses the most mass in this whole world had its wooden body creak conspicuously, and even the very creaking sound got swallowed along with the air, got crushed, broken, and disappears inside the darkness.

And then, the other things as well.

“Iyaaaa!! Why?! Why is my body as well?! Even my body is being dragged by the gravity~~~!” (Mantle)

Mantle’s desperate scream.

That’s why I warned you to move away from there.

This last resort of I -the Dark God Entropy- is not something sweet that would ignore things just because they don’t have an actual body.

A body that has nothing to do with mass… It can even swallow the soul of a God.

In my conversation with the Fire God Nova, I told him that ‘I can’t seal Gods’.

I can’t seal, but I can erase them.

To the depths of the darkness inside the Black Hole, that is.

This power that I didn’t use on even Nova and Coacervate; to think I would be forced to use it in you.

“…….You are the epitome of pity, Mother Earth God, Mantle.” (Haine)

If I had been more careful in my choice of words, we might have entered an understanding.

“Kyaaaaaaaaa!!! Noooooo!!” (Mantle)

Swallowing even the cries of the Mother Earth God, the Black Hole in time swallows even itself, and disappears without leaving a trace.

Just like how I set it up to do –it doesn’t leave anything behind.

Most of the giant tree was swallowed, and excluding the lower part that was gouged out and was left as just a stump…it didn’t have a single leaf remaining.

If I had set up the range, I could have made it so that the outside didn’t have a single wound, but the inside would not even have dust left.

My ultimate destructive technique.

That’s why I didn’t want to use it ever if possible.

But because of it, we were able to win this time.

No, it wasn’t only the power of the Black Hole.

The four heroes that came at the perfect time and did a splendid job at supporting me.

The victory was theirs.

***

And like this, the curtains to the battle in Ishtar Blaze closed.

The people that were assimilated into the roots of Grandma Wood were cut out one by one in time, and we managed to save them all without sacrificing anyone.

Separated from the tree bark, they regained their consciousness right after, and were able to operate just like before without change.

In terms of humans, there were no lives that were lost. In that sense, it can be said to be a blessing. But in exchange, the damage to the land was terrible.

Because of the rampaging of Grandma Wood, most of the buildings collapsed, the ground was broken, as if this were what was left after a natural disaster.

The sight was so terrible that it made me think it would be next to impossible to return it to being one of the five major cities.

But that almost impossible task is something that humans have to overcome.

No matter what difficulties are in front of them, to think about it and overcome it is what makes a human.

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