Chapter 476. The Crumbling Line of Defense 6
Seo Yuhui fell to her knees.
She bowed forward until her forehead touched the ground, turned her hands over so that her palms faced the sky, and then slowly raised them to her temples.
Then she rose to her feet. Her hands came back down and clasped in front of her chest as she bowed her head.
She repeated this process over and over again.
Everyone looked tense as they watched her.
Currently, Seo Yuhui was a Level 9.
Luxuria granted a special privilege to Priests who, from Level 1 to Level 4, served her and only her without turning to other G.o.ds.
Through a Ceremony, a Priest could plead with her G.o.d to grant herself the right to use spells beyond her present Level.
Of course, the higher the Level of the Priest, the greater the effect of the Ceremony.
A Level 4 could use a High Ranker spell, a Level 6 could use a Unique Ranker spell, and a Level 9 could use a Level 10 spell, which was said to have reached the realm of Divine Beginning.
For that reason, everyone’s nervous faces showed a glimpse of antic.i.p.ation.
What kind of spell would Seo Yuhui ask for? Could she really pull it off?
Amidst the gazes of everyone watching, Seo Yuhui patiently repeated the same movements over and over.
She knelt down, bowed, stood up, and then prayed.
Once, twice, three times, four times….
When she reached the tenth repet.i.tion, Seo Yuhui suddenly stopped.
Slowly, she tilted her head back and raised her chin. Her eyes gazed up at the sky, only slightly open.
Those watching blinked in confusion.
The Priest stopped, but nothing seemed to have changed.
But their confusion did not last long.
A Sky Fairy’s eyes narrowed slightly, and then suddenly opened wide.
Chwaaaaaaaa…
She saw the light of dawn s.h.i.+ning down on Seo Yuhui from the sky.
This light was not as dazzlingly bright as her other spells.
In fact, it was pale, almost invisible.
Still, the light was so divine that it made everyone close their eyes in awe.
They all sensed an unprecedented amount of divinity in the air.
Surrounded by the pale light, Seo Yuhui’s appearance slowly began to change under the dawning sky.
Specks of light gathered on her face to form a veil.
A pair of earrings formed on her ears and a necklace appeared around her neck.
The light gathered around her arms became fluttering fabric, and a silky cloth covered her back.
Dressed in immaculate white, Seo Yuhui looked radiant and so completely pure that she stole everyone’s breath away.
It was then.
The ground under Seo Yuhui’s feet began to shake, and the Sky Fairy widened her eyes.
When the fairy saw the boiling column of water of light rising from the earth, she finally became certain.
“Could that be…!?”
As the Sky Fairy recalled a pa.s.sage from an ancient scripture, Seo Yuhui moved.
She spun halfway around and gracefully flicked her left arm.
And then….
Kwaaaarrrrrr!
Light soared, to a height of more than 10 meters, and then spread across the gray earth toward the horizon until it could no longer be seen with bare eyes.
“Just how far…!?”
Before the Sky Fairy could even finish her sentence, Seo Yuhui flicked her right arm toward the sky.
Light surged up again like a tsunami and devoured everything in the vicinity.
With her eyes only slightly open, Seo Yuhui curled her lips into an elegant smile.
Then she began to dance slowly.
Her dance wasn’t exactly entertaining, nor was it high on glamour, but people simply couldn’t take their eyes off her.
One small gesture of the hand roused light, and one flick of the arm gave birth to a miracle.
Soon, light consumed everything around them.
Amidst the blinding light, only Seo Yuhui was clearly visible.
‘Yes…. I’m sure of it.’
The Sky Fairy trembled with emotion inside the warm light.
‘This is….’
Level 10, Exquisite Dancer, Unknown — Miracle of Gloria Aeterna.
The myth of the distant past about a mysterious dancer who was said to have rescued Gloria Aeterna from the darkness with just one dance was now unfolding before their very eyes.
“Sea…!”
Suddenly, a voice shouted.
“It’s the sea…!”
Indeed, he was right.
The sea of light was rolling in and out around everyone.
As if pouring water into an arid desert, the surface of the sea quickly sank, breathing life into the corrupted soil and boosting its vitality.
The earth devoured the light like a baby hungry for milk.
After a while….
As the sea of light silently dissipated and the world regained its former visibility, the Sky Fairy raised her foot.
The texture underneath the soles of her feet felt both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
“Ah….”
Her eyes shook as she looked down.
The earth was no longer gray.
There was no gra.s.s or flowers yet, but… the soil was brown.
The corrupted soil had undoubtedly come back to life again.
Drawn by the smell of the fresh soil, the Sky Fairy fell to her knees.
She took a handful of soil and carefully rubbed it between her fingers.
It was soft and wet.
Above all, she could sense the enormous amount of divinity it possessed.
It even left a smear of sparkling grains over her palm.
“Yes! Yessss!”
The Sky Fairy exclaimed in joy.
All they wanted was soil clean enough for the World Tree to take root.
But Seo Yuhui did so much more than that. She created soil of the highest quality that any tree could hope for.
“This much divinity should be enough to…!”
The Sky Fairy raised her head and flinched.
Suddenly, the pale light around Seo Yuhui’s body disappeared, and….
“Ahaaak!”
She collapsed, blood spurting from every inch of her body.
The amount of blood pouring from her mouth was almost enough to fill a whole bucket.
The Sky Fairy rushed to support Seo Yuhui, appalled.
“Ji… Jihu….”
Cough, cough! Even as she coughed out blood, Seo Yuhui kept calling out a name, over and over again.
“Don’t you worry. We’ll get started right away.”
The Sky Fairy articulated every syllable.
“P-Please….”
Seo Yuhui’s eyelids trembled.
“Take… care of… him….”
Her eyes shut and her body went limp. She had lost all consciousness.
“I’m going to move her! You guys should….”
The Sky Fairy quickly commanded and lifted Seo Yuhui in her arms.
With that, Seo Yuhui became the third person to leave the battlefield after Philip Muller and Eun Yuri.
Under normal circ.u.mstances, their absence would have been a major setback.
But this time, no one was worried, because they knew a reinforcement strong enough to make up for the trio’s absence was about to arrive.
Soon, a small cheer erupted as the seed of the World Tree took root in the light-filled soil, germinated, and grew into a seedling tree all in the blink of an eye.
“You-You mustn’t touch the divinity in the soil, World Tree-nim.”
The Sky Fairy, who planted the seed, warned in surprise.
Although the surrounding area had thoroughly been cleansed, it was only a fraction of the entire imperial territory.
What Seo Yuhui did was, of course, remarkable, but strictly speaking, she simply reenacted a scene from the myth.
There was a possibility that once the World Tree absorbed all the divinity that was protecting the soil, it would start to wither again.
So they thought it would be safer to rely on a different method to mature the World Tree into the adult stage and let it take charge from there.
After the World Tree stopped absorbing the divinity in the soil, the Sky Fairy took five tuberous roots out of her pocket.
They were the Aphriso’s Sedges.
After the Tigol Fortress War, the Sky Fairies traveled to the Spirit Realm and asked the World Tree for its seed and Aphriso’s Sedges.
The World Tree willingly complied not only because it was its duty to prepare for the next life, but also because it feared the past would repeat itself.
Of course, once the World Tree’s avatar moved, Tigol Fortress would no longer benefit from its protection.
But that was the least of anybody’s concern. Both the Federation and humanity had staked everything on this war.
A moment later, the Sky Fairy, who finished planting all five roots, tilted her head farther and farther back until she couldn’t do so anymore.
A bright smile spread over the faces of those looking up.
*
“Euu, euuuugh!”
Exploding Patience was in a desperate position.
She had managed to hold out until now, but with every pa.s.sing moment, she was becoming increasingly more disadvantaged.
It wasn’t blatantly obvious, only because she was withdrawing one step at a time rather than all at once.
But finally, Exploding Patience ran out of room to run.
‘What…!’
It couldn’t be helped.
It was hard enough just to deal with the Spirit Lords of Light and Darkness, but on top of that, she had a flock of Spirit Kings to take care of as well.
And if she wasn’t mistaken, Spirits had been buzzing around her for a while now.
This could mean only one thing: the enemy not only had broken through the front lines but had also defeated the Fifth Army.
That wasn’t all.
She felt multiple presences, all as powerful as the apostles of the Seven Sins, approaching her from the right.
‘What the h.e.l.l is going on…!?’
She knew Vulgar Chast.i.ty and Unsightly Humility had perished.
But she didn’t even have the time to dwell on that. It was clear what would happen if she came under attack right now.
In the end, there was only one choice left for Exploding Patience.
“d.a.m.n it!”
Exploding Patience’s robe fluttered as her body emitted a bright light.
[KIAAAAAAAA!]
Finally revealing her true self, the Banshee Queen shrieked at the top of her lungs.
The sound waves carrying shocking amounts of energy filled the battlefield, bursting not only the Spirit Kings but also the palms of Light and Darkness….
[?]
…Or so she thought.
The palms of heaven and earth, which had been pushed back by the impact, once again began to rush toward Exploding Patience, giving off even greater energy than before.
Exploding Patience flinched.
‘But I released my divinity?’ she thought, confused.
So far, it was only in Tigol Fortress, which had been under the protection of the World Tree, that she failed to turn the tide of a battle even after releasing her divinity.
‘…Wait a minute.’
Come to think of it…. She could feel the Spirits around her getting stronger.
Exploding Patience turned her gaze nervously.
*
Around the same time, Teresa also sensed a change in the atmosphere.
She had been brandis.h.i.+ng her longsword on a Horus when suddenly she felt all shackles fall from her.
Exuberant energy began to fill and revitalize her exhausted body.
Boom!
A loud noise resounded behind her.
As soon as Teresa turned around, her head tilted far back.
At the center of the pillar of light, she saw a giant ash tree standing so tall that it nearly touched the sky.
“Alright!”
Teresa tightened her grip around the hilt.
The fact that the World Tree was here now meant that two of the Army Commanders were dead, and all Nests were destroyed.
UWOOOOAAAAAAH!
She heard the cheers of the dwarves in the distance.
Following them, Fairies, Beastmen, Fallen Angels, Paradisians, and Earthlings all began to shout out one after another.
At last, the entire allied force roared in unison, rus.h.i.+ng toward the enemy with a never-before-seen enthusiasm.
“Oh yeah!”
Teresa, too, shouted at the top of her lungs, waving her sword in the air.
On the contrary, a heavy silence descended on the Parasites.
Until now, they believed that the time was on their side, that the corrupted soil would weaken their enemies, and everything would work out in their favor over time.
But their hope was now ruined.
They knew too well what would happen from now on because they had already experienced it once during the Tigol Fortress War.
The deaths of the two Army Commanders served as a signal for the resurrection of the World Tree, which then marked the beginning of a change.
As a result, the Parasites’ line of defense was quickly falling apart.
No, in fact, it had already been destroyed, falling from right to left like a row of dominoes.
“Hey, Crybaby, how do you feel now?”
Gripping the Spear of Purity in his hand, Seol Jihu asked with a smirk.
“I—we have experienced what you’re feeling right now thousands of times before.”
The Parasite Queen remained silent.
She only stared at the wave of soldiers pouring across the battlefield.