Capturing a strong warrior is far more difficult than killing one. A warrior who has cultivated qigong can flow subtle qi into ropes or handcuffs to destroy them, and if necessary, can dislocate their own joints or compress their body to escape.
That is why the handling of prisoners has always been a truly difficult problem. Without a warrior of the same level constantly watching over them, it's little different from leaving them in a cheap inn. One might think it better to simply smash both arms, but a warrior who has reached the level of controlling qi can control their own body with qi, and even heal themselves. Even that is not perfect.
But what if both arms were torn off entirely? No matter how powerful a warrior might be, without arms they wouldn't be able to resist. One might call it rational, but....
Still, what difference would there be between that and killing, if you tear both arms from a martial artist?
Since the arms had been pulled out by sheer force, the regressor's condition was disastrous. Even the peerless qigong called Cheonban-gyeong was insufficient to control this amount of bleeding.
I barely managed to retrieve the regressor's two arms, which were twitching after losing their master. I used divine power to circulate blood through the severed arms so they wouldn't necrose.
If the arms remained, they could be reattached. They wouldn't be exactly the same as before, but if a qigong master received sufficient rest and proper treatment, they could still recover.
"We shall arrive soon. As I also came without notice, preparations to receive you, my Lord, may be insufficient. I ask for your understanding."
...Though I'm not sure if Nebida would give such an opening.
A flower bud bloomed from the ground and enveloped me and the regressor. Nebida departed without any signal. Almost dropping the arms, I barely managed to steady myself while supporting the regressor.
The unique method of movement—creating a passage called the "Flower Crown" with druidic power and riding along it—was unbelievably fast. It was as if we were swimming through this dense sea of trees.
But even in this moment, the regressor's life hung by a thread. Suppressing my anxiety, I circulated blood through the regressor's arms for several hours.
Suddenly my body shook this way and that. The flower bud contracted, then squeezed through a narrow gap and began to surge upward. While I grabbed the wall and barely kept my balance, the flower bud, which had been rapidly sucked somewhere, bloomed fully without any warning.
My ears went deaf. My body was the first to sense the changed altitude. Squinting at the light streaming in, I stepped outside.
It was a burl hole of a giant tree. I could see an interior carved from the tree's living wood. Leaves and vines, and stairs made of raw logs filled the space inside. This must be what it looks like from a fairy's perspective, making a home of a tree and living in it.
I turned my head to look outside the burl.
"This is the World Tree. It is a tree that this humble one grafted onto a seedling of the World Tree."
What lay before my eyes was an endless sea of leaves. And enormous branches pushing inward from beyond the field of vision.
It was so vast that it distorted my sense of distance. Stairs ran along the thickly spreading branches, and I could see people walking across them. A trunk of a size surpassing any ordinary road or building. The massive branches soon split into dozens of forks, each bearing different leaves as they stretched outward.
Just the branches visible before my eyes numbered in the thousands. And below, where I couldn't see, there were likely even more branches. Though it wasn't an animal, I could feel its vitality pulsing strongly.
"Welcome to the World Tree, Lord of All Creation."
This was the World Tree, the Tree of Origins. And this was the highest floor where Nebida resided.
The Floor of the Sovereign.
Perhaps the Floor of the Sovereign wasn't a residential space for humans, as not many thoughts came through. I read the thoughts quickly, as always. About twenty people. They were immersed in something.
At that moment, I heard a dissonant echo. Attempting to use my telepathy, I suddenly felt dizzy and staggered.
"Huh? What's this?"
Wait. Something's strange.
Until now, my telepathy had been absolute. While it had its limits, the ability of telepathy itself had always shown human minds honestly and accurately. That shouldn't have changed.
'Is this Nebida's wind? He's already achieved most of his wind with his own hands. But the irony is that the last piece is me. It's like I'm just adding the finishing touch.'
But this resonance I'm feeling now is different. Unlike when reading a person's mind. An empty voice echoes within a hollow consciousness. The thoughts I'm hearing now are alien.
'Still, Nebida's method itself is the correct answer. There's no problem with me filling in that last piece. It's entirely Nebida's achievement. So what's important isn't over there. Right now, first the arms....'
"Wait. What is this?"
Seeing my confusion, Nebida looked satisfied, as if things had gone as expected.
"My Lord. I am ashamed to say this, but please forgive my rudeness in speaking thus..."
"You've been committing rudeness to your heart's content all this time, so what? And it's not like you were planning to be polite anyway! Just tell me quickly. What is this?"
"As you must have felt, my Lord, I serve a Lord. Not the Lord before my eyes, but the Lord who was betrayed and wounded in the past."
They say humans are the lords of all creation. And the top of the Tree of Origins is the Floor of the Sovereign. However, this place wasn't for humans... it was for the King of Humans.
The top of the Tree of Immorality. There lay the remains of the past King of Humans that Nebida had served. The very corpse of that girl I had read about in the Sacrificial God's memories.
"My Lord. Now, your power has been torn from your flesh. The five lords, minions of the wicked harlot, seized your 'power' and dared to usurp the title of king. It was an impious rebellion... but the harlot made kings commonplace, ultimately profaning you, my Lord."
Nebida raised his head to even higher above. He recalled what he had enshrined at the top of the World Tree, where no one dared look down upon it.
"As one who serves as a subject, I could not stand by and watch that. For the Lord who would one day return, I have been guarding your precious body."
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This was the reason the regressor was hostile toward Nebida, and the reason the King of Sin who appeared in the past had a woman's form. For Nebida, possessing the corpse of the King of Humans, was essentially a priest who could summon the King of Sin.
And that must be why Nebida brought me here.
"Then the reason you dragged me here must be even further above."
"I believe you would also be interested in that, my Lord."
"Yes. I am interested. But before that."
I said, pointing at the regressor barely clinging to fading consciousness, and the two detached arms beside him.
"Could you treat Shei? He's going to die at this rate."
You said you'd save him. Still, the wounds need to be treated. Nebida seemed indifferent to the regressor's life or death, but recalling his words about keeping him alive, he raised his hand.
The Tree of Origins changed its structure according to the divine spirit's will. The wooden walls rolled up on their own, and stairs grew from both sides of the wall. Someone walked down the hastily constructed stairs. It was a middle-aged woman wearing loose-fitting clothes, holding a flat broom, and wearing a half-folded conical hat.
The woman felt neither fear nor terror upon seeing Nebida. It wasn't simply because she was familiar with him.
She too was a being who had touched the mysteries of this land.
Because she was a witch.
"Archdruid. Did you call?"
"Walpurgis. Healing. Just keep them alive."
The witch Walpurgis merely felt it was a bit troublesome upon seeing the two torn-off arms. Of course, she only thought that; it didn't show in her expression or gestures. Walpurgis moved her broom emotionlessly. The broom, as if alive on its own, burrowed under the regressor and lifted him up.
Walpurgis looked at the remaining two arms and asked.
"Shall I reattach the torn-off arms as well?"
Oh. So there's a technique for reattaching arms here too. As expected of a witch. I quickly nodded.
"Yes, if possible, please do that..."
"It's better without arms."
"No. How merciless. Since we can tear them off anytime, it's fine to reattach them. If too much time passes, they can't be reattached!"
"It will be easier to handle without arms, my Lord. Please do not worry."
Raising his words without any intention of listening—it's a bit infuriating. Is he joking?
'There's a conflict of opinion between clients. Even if I don't reattach the arms, I should at least collect them.'
The witch considered which opinion to follow between mine and Nebida's, and ultimately decided to accommodate both sides. A wise choice.
The witch merely bent her knees slightly in a bow and collected even the regressor's arms. Nebida didn't even glance in that direction and clicked his small branch.
"Then, I shall guide you to my Lord's chambers."
"When you say 'Lord,' do you mean where I'll sleep, or someone else?"
"...It is the chambers of the Lord I served."
A lucky wood plant with large leaves sprouted from the ground, and carrying me and Nebida on its leaves, it began to gradually grow upward.
Even such an enormous World Tree had a top. The trunk, as large as a building, gradually thinned, and after a certain point, only the blue sky remained as the background.
Sky and World Tree. Between them was a single flower bud. Nebida grew the lucky wood up to the top of the flower bud. As we drew closer, an unknown noise came through my telepathy.
'A King of Humans meeting a King of Humans. When the wind reaches its peak, such irony arises. That's why wind is necessary, whatever kind it may be.'
The flower bud, which looked like a lotus, was large enough for a person to enter. I lightly brought my hand to the lotus petal. The overlapping petals were dense and firm, seeming impossible to peel off by force.
"Step back."
Nebida raised his hand and swirled it once in a circle. The tightly closed lotus petals swayed gently and followed Nebida's will. The barrier of petals was stripped away layer by layer. Slowly loosening, it revealed 'that' which it had so preciously embraced within.
Nebida knelt toward the inside and bowed his head.
"This humble Nebida shall enter for a moment."
What was inside the flower was the figure of a 'girl,' somewhat more mature than when I had seen her in the Sacrificial God's dream. Curled up like a child, she had vine-like tendrils, similar to an umbilical cord, attached to her mouth and nose, receiving nourishment through them. Her heart wasn't beating and her breathing had stopped. If asked whether she was alive or dead, I would confidently say she was closer to dead.
But thanks to Nebida's ministrations, the King of Humans existed even across vast spans of time.
'The King of Humans from the distant past that Nebida cherishes so dearly. He's fixated on that King of Humans rather than me, whose appearance and memories are unfamiliar. Nebida's true wind is probably not me but...'
The voice coming from my telepathy gradually grows louder. As expected, the thoughts I'm reading through telepathy now are alien. My head throbs as if listening to a song composed of dissonance.
Without realizing it, I followed an instinctive pull.