#221
Transcendence (1)
Timer, who had been running with all his might, only came to a stop after confirming that the enemy pursuing them had died. He set down the companions tucked under either arm and collapsed onto the ground.
“Uaaah! I’m dying!”
They were all utterly exhausted.
The other two also sprawled out on the ground, calming the energy roiling from their internal injuries.
“That sniping just now—it was definitely Lord Harris, right? I’d heard a lot about him, but seeing it in person, he really lives up to his name!”
“...Yes, the energy was identical.”
A terrifying long-range shot that had blown away the entire upper body of the lycanthrope general in just two hits.
At their level, it had been a sure-kill strike they hadn’t sensed even the slightest sign of until the attack landed and exploded.
And not just them—most people would likely depart this world without even realizing they were about to die.
“To think he’s already reached that level... Well, now that I think about it, he was extraordinary from the moment I first saw him! Especially that song back then—I still remember it. I suppose there won’t be any more chances to make music together in the future, huh?”
“He’s a high elf now...”
Timer nodded regretfully.
As “band music” began sweeping through the Elven Kingdom, he had participated here and there as a drum session player, but it wasn’t easy to taste again the same thrill he’d felt when first playing together with Harris.
“More importantly, Miss Shapiron was amazing too, wasn’t she? Summoning an upper-rank spirit in that dangerous moment! I never even imagined—hm? Wait, you look really bad. Are you okay?”
“...I’m fine. I just... overdid it a little.”
“No, you don’t look fine at all?!”
In truth, just as he said, she was not fine at all.
Thanks to her dangerous gamble succeeding, they had defeated the enemy and somehow managed to survive, but the aftereffects were now flooding in like a tide, leaving her unable to move even a finger.
“Still, I’m not dead, so if I rest a little, I’ll recover soon—mmph, uweeek.”
Another basinful of blood poured from her like a waterfall.
Her white face turned pale as a corpse.
“Let’s move to the rear ward first. We barely came back from the brink of death, but at this rate, you really will die.”
“Her internal injuries are severe... My healing magic won’t be enough.”
Timer and Cury, their expressions turning serious, hurriedly prepared to transport Shapiron to the rear.
And just as they were about to move.
Swaaaa—
From the branches of the World Tree hanging above their heads.
An oddly loud rustle of leaves echoed out.
“Huh?”
“...?”
It should have been a familiar sound to elves who lived alongside trees, yet perhaps because of the strange resonance contained within it, it felt different from usual—alien.
...No, on second thought, it was not entirely unfamiliar.
Not only the three of them here, but also a few elves from Drasha would feel a sense of déjà vu, as though they had experienced it somewhere before.
But before they could properly recall it.
~♪
From the sky where the branches of the World Tree spread.
A song began to resound, crossing Drasha and reaching throughout the entire Elven Kingdom... perhaps even beyond.
There were no lyrics.
All that existed was melody.
Naturally, there were no instruments either, and the only accompaniment came from sounds born of nature.
~♪
And yet that beautiful, heavenly melody that began in the sky.
Blended fantastically with the sound of the passing wind, the fluttering leaves, and the friction of swaying branches—creating a single strain of a “song of nature.”
“This is, don’t tell me.”
“...Yes.”
There was no need to debate who was behind this phenomenon.
Had they not just been talking at length about him only moments ago?
“...Harris.”
Shapiron, who had been vomiting blood nonstop, quietly murmured that name.
From the moment she heard that song, her insides, which had been twisting without cease, began to regain stability to an astonishing degree.
‘I did feel there was something about it back then too.’
Pure natural power resonated with the World Tree and soothed her inner self.
The song leading that phenomenon had already far surpassed the level it had once possessed.
And naturally, Shapiron was not the only one feeling its effects.
“Keuk, catch the ones falling back! We can’t let them inside—huh?”
“From the sky, a song...”
“...Ah, I hear the sound of heaven... I was going to confess to her if I made it back alive, but to think I’d die like this—huh?”
Everywhere that sound reached.
Whether they were on the front lines or in the rear, in the midst of battle or wounded and withdrawn, it affected every elf of the Elven Kingdom... and even the high elves.
The tide of battle began to tilt drastically.
***
The “Melody of Harmony” spread in all directions through the medium of the World Tree.
~♪
Perhaps because he had borrowed the power of the World Tree in the process, its effects were far superior to when he used it normally.
‘...Though maintaining it is that much harder.’
With both eyes closed and both hands resting against the colossal trunk, Harris used “True Child of the World Tree” and “Assimilation with Nature” to make the notes leaving his mouth resonate with the World Tree.
It was a method only he, whose connection to the World Tree was abnormally strong, could use.
Perhaps due to some restriction, the World Tree did not proactively step forward to help, but it subtly provided convenience so that things could proceed as he intended, so there was no great difficulty in carrying out the task.
‘It’s probably possible because I was born from a branch of the World Tree. ...That must also be why my assimilation with nature was particularly severe compared to others.’
Of course, thanks to that, he had been able to grow stronger quickly, so it was not a bad thing.
Even now, he was benefiting greatly from it.
The vibrations of sound that began from Harris flowed along the World Tree, amplified without end, and were emitted through countless branches.
No matter what, it was not a real speaker, so there were limits to conveying complete lyrics, forcing him to use humming composed only of melody...
‘The amplification is far greater than the effect lost that way, so it doesn’t matter.’
Through the energy radiating in every direction, he could sense the situation on the ground.
The “Melody of Harmony” not only strengthened the elves fighting against the lycanthropes and giants, but also had an outstanding effect in healing the wounded.
And in response to Harris’s overwhelming influence, which changed the course of the battle in an instant, the World Tree repaid him with a fitting merit.
Fwoooosh—
Something that began from the branch beneath his feet surged through his body and exited through the crown of his head.
At the same time, the barrier blocking that place shattered to pieces, and the energy outside was drawn into his mind.
A sensation as though the crown of his head and the soles of his feet were connected as one.
...Then a sense of unity, as though he had become one with nature, with the universe, with this world itself, filled his body.
“Haa—.”
Whoooosh—
A gale swept forth with a single breath of his.
A pure natural phenomenon, with no magical workings whatsoever, dwelled in each and every movement of his body.
Hans inherited the “Immortal King’s Heart,” which was death itself sunk into the abyss and the accumulation of evil karma over long ages, becoming an existence that transcended death.
Heinz II accepted into one body the blood of vampires passed down for thousands of years, transcending the bloodline that could be called the source of their power.
Harley endlessly coveted the possibilities of a living being and pursued evolution until he finally transcended the limits of life.
And Harris, after repeating his unification with nature countless times, had transcended the phenomenon and entered a state where he was half-assimilated with nature...
‘Ah, this is bad... Everything suddenly feels like such a bother...’
At the same time, a languor on a completely different level from before began to dominate his flesh.
It had narrowly exceeded the threshold of mental strength by which he could force his body to move.
If the main body had been intact, it would not have been a major problem thanks to appropriate distribution of mental strength and additional support, but for now, he had no choice but to endure with only the resources allotted to the individual called Harris, which was why this had happened.
Heinz II: If you think about it, assimilation with nature is no different from mental contamination. But since you used that as the core and nurtured it enough to reach transcendence, this is the natural result.
Hubert: A side effect born from using that trait to grow stronger quickly, then. Well, not all high elves could grow like that. If that were possible, the World Tree would have transcended everyone long ago and then some.
Howard: Wait! What about the firewood supply?! I’ve become a body that can no longer be satisfied without it! Hey, get a hold of yourself! Give me my firewood!
Harley: Khahah! I’m going! To the desert! I’ll smash him! The Great Chieftain!
Heinrich: Wait...!
Hannibal Strauss: Tsk, then I’ll...
A sudden commotion broke out in the meeting hall within his brain, but Harris, for whom everything had become bothersome, simply focused on the reality before him.
‘Still.’
Nature is infinitely static, and at the same time, dynamic.
Grass and trees merely grow where they stand, and water and wind simply flow according to providence.
Merely existing in that place according to set laws is its essence and its order, yet...
‘I should at least deal with those.’
As he felt savagery begin to spread within the languor filling his body, Harris slowly raised his bow, Themis.
All while resuming the humming that had briefly stopped.
Rumble—
The natural power spread around the World Tree surged violently and gathered toward him.
He held onto his reason as much as possible, set his targets, and adjusted his energy with all his might to exclude only those enemies.
Nature was not always a benevolent and gentle being.
Once angered, it was a calamity that could erase even a civilization from the earth.
That was what a natural disaster was.
At last.
The natural disaster forged in Harris’s hands took form and shot toward one place like a shower of arrows.
***
“Krikik! Ahh, this is troublesome! Very troublesome! Kikikik!”
The Lycanthrope King, Vaukalakas, twisted his face and let out a bizarre laugh.
Even at this very moment, he could feel his connections to the subordinates scattered across the area being severed one by one.
The most fatal among them was that the “Exile” unit, the core of this operation, had been completely annihilated before even approaching the World Tree.
They were hounds he had taken special pains to treat with shamanic measures so they could escape the elves’ detection, and they had even undergone long-term personality modification solely for this mission.
‘And Supellia, whom I sent along just in case, was the first to croak! Khat!’
When the white giant had been summoned, he had been certain of success, but the elves’ state of preparation was far greater than what he and the Revolutionary had grasped over the past several years.
“Kihihihihik!”
But even though everything he had worked for over long years to bring ruin to this Enamel Continent had come to nothing.
He merely burst into laughter like a madman.
When his kin died, when the newly arrived elven reinforcements began to surround him, and...
Even now, as he stood with both arms planted on the ground because his entire lower body had vanished.
Rumble—
Another thunderous sound rang out from the direction of the World Tree.
He could normally restore most bodily losses in seconds, but for some reason, the parts hit by that sniper shot regenerated extremely slowly, making recovery difficult.
Of course, even at that reduced speed, he would be fully regenerated in a minute...
“Krikik! They’ve come swarming in a whole pack!”
It did not seem that the ones surrounding him now would give him that leisure.
One high elf had suffered a fatal wound and been transported to the rear, and the rest had also sustained no small number of injuries, but the newly added forces more than made up for that.
While he failed to recover properly and wasted time on them, the beam fired by that unidentified sniper over at the World Tree would pierce his body again.
An attack from an enemy of equal rank to himself, no less.
‘That Revolutionary, seriously, he misses the mark at every important point! He was so certain that no transcendent would appear on the elves’ side for at least several years.’
No matter how he thought about it, it did not seem possible to escape the current situation.
If only this had succeeded, not only would the lycanthropes have become a “more complete species” through the contract, but he could have made those pigs who had grown fat in this peaceful land experience the despair they had endured!
‘What a shame. What a shame.’
Even so, he had clawed his way up from a lowly soldier-class to a knight, and thanks to the Revolutionary he had encountered just before death, he had even become a king, so it was not such a bad ending.
“Kihyahahat! Come on, pigs! Let’s play some more!”
But that did not mean it suited his nature to die easily.
Kwaaang!
He struck the ground with both hands and lunged at the enemies surrounding him.
~♪
But it was only natural that, with no lower body, he would have difficulty dealing with elves empowered by the unidentified song still continuing to resound.
Rumble—
“Kihihahyat-ha!”
In the end, the last king of the werewolves, swallowed by a natural disaster.
Left behind after death neither name nor pelt, but only a single crystal.