Chapter 137: Corrupted Core

A information window for a new Mythical Power appeared before Evan’s eyes.

Evan took a step back and shifted into a stance.

The soldiers he had been fighting grew wary of his sudden movement and surrounded him.

In that brief opening, Evan quickly read through the information.

[Legion Slayer]

[Grade: Hidden]

[Description: You have defeated soldiers on a legion scale alone. Summons the strength Lee Han used when facing the Legion. Grants the use of Ihan’s 4th Form.]

As expected, the new Mythical Power surpassed the Hero grade.

Hidden—the grade above Hero.

And the most notable part was Ihan’s 4th Form.

‘Fourth form? Back when I took those guys down…’

Evan searched his memories as he adjusted his posture.

He decided to use the Mythical Power, [Legion Slayer], immediately.

The Mythical Power began to dwell within his entire body.

The density of his aura increased dramatically, and the length of his Aura Blade stretched to more than twice its original size.

The blade’s color began to turn golden, emitting a powerful wave of energy into the surroundings.

“This is a bit much.”

Evan’s arm felt numb.

Nevertheless, he did not break his stance and remained focused.

This was a technique using the reinforced Aura Blade.

Evan began to move, tracing the memories of his previous life.

Concentrating the strength in his arm, he swung his sword with all his might.

Shink!

Dozens of heads were sent flying in a single strike, and the decapitated soldiers collapsed where they stood.

Soon after, their headless bodies reverted back into tree branches.

Because the Aura Blade had lengthened, a single swing was enough to take down dozens at once.

Slash!

As Evan swung his sword repeatedly, another several dozen were knocked away.

The remaining soldiers grew cautious after witnessing the display.

Instead of approaching recklessly, they maintained their distance and loitered around Evan.

However, the moment an opening appeared, they rushed in instantly.

Clang!

Evan blocked the attacks with his sword.

Though the soldiers had reached him in the blink of an eye, Evan grasped all their movements and countered.

Rather, he drew out an explosive amount of power and swung his sword with force.

In that moment.

Vwoooom!

The Aura Blade shot forward in a crescent shape.

The soldiers caught in the blast were instantly sliced into two pieces.

Evan’s eyes shone at the wide-range killing potential.

‘…Is the system giving me what I need for the situation?’

Obtaining [Legion Slayer], which was specialized for dealing with many foes, seemed like it would be useful for future battles as well.

However, the aura consumption was so high that indiscriminate use was impossible.

‘But it’ll be enough to sweep these guys away.’

Evan took his stance again and prepared Ihan’s 4th Form.

[Aura Mastery skill level has increased.]

The corpses of over a thousand soldiers lay scattered around Evan.

But as time passed, even those reverted back into the form of plant stems.

Everything was an illusion created by Yggdrasil.

Evan caught his breath and looked up at Yggdrasil.

‘Damn it. Stubborn bastards. I’ve been delayed too much. What on earth happened?’

Since the Pioneer’s Power was involved, this matter did not seem like it would end easily.

Evan became curious about their true identities.

They possessed power that transcended common sense, and the traces they left behind were appearing everywhere as seeds of disaster.

The problem was that these things had a connection to his previous life.

Deep in thought, Evan looked down.

Currently, he had climbed quite high, reaching the upper part of Yggdrasil’s trunk.

To check on the rest of his party, he had to look far below.

The Phoenix was flying at a low altitude, burning the Entrees to prevent them from approaching.

Ainis was also deterring them with fire arrows, while Alan and Reynold were successfully holding the line as instructed.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly, but looking down from the heights, that wasn’t the case at all.

He could see the overall situation in a single glance.

“This is insane.”

A curse escaped Evan’s mouth.

It was because he could see a bizarre spectacle that created the illusion that the entire forest was moving.

In addition to the Entrees, various forest monsters could be seen.

It seemed that his attempt to attack Yggdrasil had acted as aggro for all the monsters in the area.

Seeing the monsters swarming like a tidal wave, he felt that if they didn’t succeed now, it would truly be the end.

Evan turned his gaze forward again.

He had to take down Yggdrasil as much as possible before those things arrived.

Evan continued to climb Yggdrasil’s body.

He recalled the information Yggdrasil had given him in his previous life.

‘Yggdrasil’s weakness.’

Even back then, Yggdrasil had told him its weakness in preparation for a potential crisis.

It had asked him to take care of it for the sake of the world if something were to happen.

This was something no one but Yggdrasil could know.

‘Yggdrasil has a central core.’

The inner world of Yggdrasil.

Evan began to search for the entrance.

Of course, dealing with the core was by no means an easy task.

He had to pour in all his strength.

He would use the Conqueror’s Power he had been saving for this very moment.

Evan narrowed his eyes and trudged forward with effort.

‘The place that emits the strongest energy of life.’

Forget the energy of life—the higher he went, the thicker the evil Magia became.

The black aura grew so vivid that it now looked like fog.

‘If a human without Holy Power had approached this place, they would have been dead already.’

The evil Magia was so dense that even Evan found it difficult to breathe.

Fortunately, his Holy Power kept it from being life-threatening, but staying here for long wouldn’t be good.

Evan continued to search for the entrance through the Magia.

While tracking the energy of life, he finally discovered a certain point.

It was faint, but he could feel the energy of life.

Evan walked toward that sensation, and upon arriving at a specific spot, he found a magic circle made of runes.

“This is…”

A powerful Magia and a faint energy of life could be felt from this spot.

Evan placed his hand on the magic circle.

A warning window popped up before his eyes.

[Warning! You have discovered a Hidden Boss Room.]

[Once you enter this place, you cannot leave until the conditions are met.]

[Would you like to enter the Boss Room? (Y/N)]

Evan’s eyes narrowed.

‘…A Hidden Boss Room?’

It was an unexpected discovery.

A Boss Room existed inside a boss monster.

Perhaps the real enemy was in here.

‘Pioneer’s Power. I wonder what kind of bastard will jump out.’

As soon as Evan accepted, his body was sucked into the magic circle.

His consciousness blurred.

He felt as if he were being moved somewhere for a long time.

After some time had passed, he regained his senses.

Evan slowly opened his eyes.

“What on earth is this?”

Evan was at a loss for words at the sight before him.

“Block them all! If this place is breached, our fate is sealed!”

Helena was leading all the Elves in a desperate defense.

Gates had opened throughout the forest.

A massive number of monsters from the polluted forest poured out, and key strongpoints had been attacked and destroyed.

Now, they had been pushed back and isolated within the Elf Village.

If this place were taken, the fate of the Elves would be as good as decided.

Helena bit her lip hard.

It felt as though the mission she had protected since her ancestors’ time would end in her generation.

The world would ultimately be unable to escape a miserable fate.

‘I’m sorry. It seems I won’t be able to protect your will.’

Helena had been wary of this situation for a long time.

Gates had never appeared here while Yggdrasil was present.

However, after Yggdrasil’s power weakened rapidly, the power protecting the forest vanished.

As a result, it wouldn’t have been strange for a gate to appear at any moment.

In fact, gates had been appearing frequently in the forest recently.

“Chief! What do we do?”

“Keep holding out. We have no choice but to wait until the Dimensional Rift disappears…”

Helena looked down from the watchtower.

The monsters of the forest were constantly swarming into the Elf Village.

Entrees and the Kalaone, which fluttered colorful petals, were among them.

The Monster Legion, composed of various monsters, seemed endless.

All the Elves in the village rained down arrows from the watchtowers.

They also used spirit arts to make the ground sink or held out with walls built of earth.

‘We can hold out for a while with this, but is it only for a moment?’

It was a desperate situation with no apparent answer.

If this continued, they would eventually be breached.

“If only we could use the artifact…”

The Elf artifact passed down from their ancestors.

It had protected the village until now, but suddenly, the artifact’s power could no longer be used.

Since it was an artifact that functioned using the forest’s power, it was essentially neutralized if the forest was destroyed.

That meant the forest had been destroyed to the point where it could no longer function.

As long as the World Tree did not disappear, the forest would not be destroyed.

But now, that immutable law had been broken for the first time.

‘I wonder what happened to the World Tree…’

Helena was worried about Evan’s party and Ainis.

“I hope we can meet again alive.”

Sighing deeply, she began to summon High Spirits.

It seemed she would have to push herself to push back the monster wave at least once.

Rumble!

A magic circle formed beneath her feet.

Soon, two spirits were summoned.

Noeanen, the Earth Spirit, and Saleana, the Fire Spirit.

There was a young girl with long brown hair and a passionate girl with flaming red hair.

“Contractor. Is something the matter? You haven’t called us even once, so why the sudden summon?”

Saleana grumbled and questioned Helena.

“Don’t be like that… We High Spirits are a great burden on our summoner…”

Noeanen spoke softly, mindful of Helena’s state, as she tried to stop Saleana.

“I think I’ll need you to use some of your power for the first time in a while.”

Helena pointed outside the watchtower.

The spirits flew out of the tower in surprise.

“Whoa! What are these things?”

“There are so many monsters…”

“Please sweep them away. At this rate, we’ll all die.”

Just as Helena was pleading with the spirits.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The ground began to shake with a loud, heavy sound.

An Elf who had been firing arrows from the watchtower spoke to Helena urgently.

“Chief! Look over there!”

“What is it now?”

The moment Helena turned her gaze to where he pointed, she was horrified.

A massive Golem made of rock was walking toward them.

The sight of it destroying the forest while emitting evil Magia was reminiscent of a demon risen from hell.

Helena broke into a cold sweat.

“Stop it from getting close! If that thing reaches us, it’s all over!”

At her words, the spirits nodded.

Evan walked forward slowly, step by step.

The inner world of Yggdrasil.

The central core of Yggdrasil existed here.

But what was this sight before him?

Inside the tree, this space was filled with chains of light.

And in the center, a large, black-stained crystal sphere was pulsing, wrapped in the chains of light.

It looked as if the core was being restrained.

‘The Magia is being emitted from there.’

The large crystal sphere, Yggdrasil’s central core, was producing Magia in massive quantities.

He didn’t know what bastards had done such a thing, but this was the end of it.

“I’ll save you right now.”

But it didn’t seem like it would end easily.

[The corrupted master of the Fruit of Good and Evil, Hidden Boss Monster Leviathan, has appeared.]

A being appeared along with the notification message.

The worst of the four evil snakes had arrived.