CHAPTER 21 – INTERVENTION IN FLAMES

【Underneath the Evergreen – Rank: Regular】

Time Limit: None

Reward: Unique Accessory

Objective: Exterminate The Woodland Spirit

I'll admit, I was a bit excited by the rewards. Hey, it had a guaranteed Unique Accessory, it was only natural I would get fired up... But little did I know that fate had something else in store for me...

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The table of the Nine up in the heavens, found but five of its seats vacant anymore.

⌈This is unreal! This can’t be happening…⌋

A figure clad in white expressed his discontent towards the situation at hand.

The rings of arcane surrounding the ethereal form of the man spun violently and white sparks flew across the empty space as his fist slammed down onto the cold surface of the table.

⌈What’s wrong, Chrono?⌋

A woman dressed in purple and black replied to the man as a sister would to her little brother. Perhaps to poke fun at his childish reaction...

⌈No, no, no. You don't get it, do you, Eriza? The Celestial brat has been blazing through our Trails without a care in the world and now he’s going to tackle a Regular-Rank Trail!⌋

⌈Really?⌋

⌈Yes, really... Now, if you'll allow me…⌋

⌈Mhm... I suppose I don’t object, however, are you sure you want to get rid of your child already? It’s hardly been a full cycle of night and day yet. Besides, you’ll have to regenerate for a good while afterward. It might be months until you regain your strength in full.⌋

⌈How many Trails have those adventurers, who didn’t complete the trial, cleared so far? Five, six In total?⌋

⌈Four, actually… There is a fifth that’s about to be cleared though…⌋

⌈And how about those who did receive the blessings?⌋

⌈All of them have cleared one, with the exception of my child, who has cleared three.⌋

The indifference in the woman's voice faded away for a split second, as she proudly declared.

⌈Do you get it yet, Eriza? Even your child, who has extraordinary talent might I add, has barely accomplished a sixth of what that... otherworldly monster has.⌋

Though a God, Chrono was not yet aware of the frightening accuracy of his description.

⌈So, might I inquire into what your master plan might be?⌋

⌈I didn’t think I’d have to stoop this low… I’ll artificially increase the difficulty of the Trail.⌋

Baffled at what she had just heard, a young, tiny, green haired girl, dressed in clothes made of vines and leaves, joined the heated conversation of the two grandiose beings.

⌈What!? Have you gone mad, Chrono? Are you going to something like that on a Trail I spent so much time creating? Truly despicable.⌋

⌈Shut it, Gaia! This is the only way.⌋

Chrono stated sternly.

⌈In that case, at the very least let me handle it myself. Though you’ll be responsible for supplying the divine powers required for the intervention. And Eriza, you're second in command, you should stop encouraging him…⌋

The young girl sighed in defeat.

⌈Very well... If that's what it takes. I shall provide you with whatever you require…⌋

The girl sat up from her seat and made her way to a figure on the other side of the table.

⌈Igni, wakey wakey... Can you help me with this one? I have an Idea.⌋

She innocently pulled on the loose crimson sleeve of a young adult male who was carelessly dozing off with his feet on the table.

⌈Mhhhnnn... Huh!? Oh!! Sure!!! Oh man, let's do this! I’m getting all fired up!⌋

He quickly went from a zero to a hundred at the mention of his name.

Despite his expression of excitement sounding like nothing more than a bad joke, his long, flowing hair lit up in dancing flames as he sprung up from his seat.

⌈Please stop. It’s not funny…⌋

But to his dismay, his jokes weren't appreciated.

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【□ □ □ – Rank: □】

Time Limit: □

Reward: □ □ □

Objective: □ □ □

⌈Oi…⌋

⌈*What is it?*⌋

⌈What’s happening?⌋

The information about the Trail beaming into my mind became distorted. The short descriptions began twisting and squirming around, quickly becoming absolutely illegible. A sharp pain radiated through my cranium... A glitch in the system? Though the phenomenon certainly felt like one, that can’t be it…

A gentle spring breeze became a howling gale. The clear blue skies faded to red as if the clouds themselves were set ablaze. The countless needles of the evergreen towering above me changed their shade to a deep red, replacing the previous vivid green shade that was brimming life.

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Death.

That was all I could think about…

【Underneath the Blazing Evergreen – Rank: Peculiar】

Time Limit: None

Reward: Unique Accessory

Objective: Exterminate The Great Burning Woodland Spirit

⌈I was feeling a bit ambitious, so I took on a Regular-Rank Trail but…⌋

⌈*Is it just me, or did something just go horribly wrong?*⌋

⌈Yeah, something’s definitely wrong. You have quick wits, right? Alright, riddle me this, Lime. What is an Usual-Rank, with an abysmal class, doing on a Peculiar-Rank Trail?⌋

⌈*Don’t tell me… The Great Elder warned me that the Gods might not take kindly to your reappearance, but I didn’t think they’d go to these lengths just to oppose you.*⌋

⌈Well, it was fun enough while it lasted.⌋

As I uttered those hopeless words of acceptance, preceded by a low rhythmic rumbling of the very earth itself, a giant figure no shorter than ten meters emerged from behind the massive tree.

What now menacingly stood before me was a wooden behemoth of monstrous stature. Squirming roots formed tendons that connected the humongous limbs of the beast. The arms and legs of the monster were but giant wooden chunks, roughly shaped in the form of huge monolithic slabs. A wooden figure of unparalleled mass, supported by an ever-living exoskeleton of roots thicker than those of the evergreen it stood beside.

Numerous runes ran all over the limbs of the beast, especially prominently around the shoulders and the knees, yet instead of the green color of life one would expect from a woodland beast, they were burning in a deep, bloody red tint.

Though the energy in the within said runes seemed to expand outwards from it’s chest, it’s heart was heavily protected by solid wooden plating, covering the possible source of it’s tremendous energy.

【The Great Burning Woodland Spirit – Affinity: Nature, Flame – Rank: Peculiar – Rarity: Unique】

Oi, oi, oi!? Unique rarity? What the fuck is that supposed to mean!? If I said I was currently having flashbacks of the Ogre from the trials, It'd be the understatement of a century. The… thing... in front of me stood no less than thrice as tall and held power at least four times that of what the ogre had.

No... That was a lie. It's probably several times more than four times. No, I don't have any idea how that much is either, but I certainly feel that to be an accurate description.

The monster let out a roar that damn near shattered my eardrums. Lime had already gone hiding ages ago. Not that she has much combat potential anyway.

I guess I’ll give it a shot. I’d rather die trying than give my life up without a fight…

I kicked the ground beneath me and started dashing towards the giant, disregarding the little survival instinct I still had left after dying once before. Who would've known that mass murdering innocent monsters for the sake of reclaiming knowledge would eventually make one go mad?

I remember playing a game in my old life, where a small guy with a puny sword took on colossal monsters on his own. I'm not stupid enough to think that I could replicate that, but to hell with it, I wanted to give it a try. After all, It’s been a fantasy of mine ever since, and fantasies of mine have the tendency to become a little bit too damn real at times...

Maybe I could find a weak point and jab my blade right in? Just maybe. Any chance is better than none. Oh wow, aren’t I philosophical? I guess this is what it means when people turn to faith once death is near.

Laughing at my own poor sense of humor, I steeled my resolve and kept my course flowing straight towards the burning menace.

Precisely like the ogre from before, the giant swung it’s right hand down from above with monstrous strength.

However contrary to before, where I had to take but two steps to dodge, this time the steps had to be replaced by leaps. And even then, I barely avoided the wooden guillotine. However, that was to my advantage. I couldn't dodge too far, as I had plans that required finesse.

I aimed to hop onto the arm after it had hit the ground, and try to climb the beast from there. But as tends to be the norm in this world too, things don’t always go the way they’re supposed to.

My elaborate plans were ruined the moment the colossal fist hit the ground, and the earth below shattered in its wake, causing me to be thrown off my balance…

This isn’t what was supposed to happen! Play by the rules, you brute.

Disoriented, and cursing at the giant, I desperately circled around it as fast as I could. Maybe I could scale the beast from behind? Finding my way behind the beast proved easier than I thought, as compared to me, though its movements certainly were powerful, they were extremely sluggish. 

I already found myself behind it before it even realized that the attack had been evaded. The thick roots on the backside, that acted as the structural spines of the limbs seemed too thick to cut and too smooth to climb. Not to mention, that the roots seemed to be alive, and were weaving around. Imagine if they'd just throw me down after climbing halfway to the top? Yeah, no thanks.

At a glance, I couldn’t single out any weaknesses, yet somehow the monster didn’t seem invincible. I somehow felt like I had a chance. Either my sense of battle was heightened to unprecedented levels as a result of facing such unfavorable odds... Or I had gone mental.

There were three things to consider.

First was how solid the wooden beast was. Could my blade even pierce through the giant wooden plates? Could I at the very least sever the roots that acted as its exoskeleton?

The second point of interest was the glowing runes and streams of magic power that ran all across the monster’s limbs. Was that the weak point? While it did seem unlikely, it was something I couldn’t ignore. Perhaps I could immobilize the colossus by hitting the runes on its knees, or disarm it by hitting the points on the shoulders?

And the third one was about getting into the position to inflict damage if doing so was even possible in the first place. I couldn’t get hit once. As far as power goes, the thing that matters most is rank. But even in my own rank, my defense stat was severely outclassed. A single blow from a unique monster that’s two ranks higher, no matter how puny its attack stat, would blow me to smithereens. Well, that was rather obvious by the stature, even without the mention of ranks or rarity.

After taking all that into consideration, I decided to charge at the opponent before it was able to react. I’ll test the first point now. We'll see whether or not my blade will cut through the roots soon enough... The monster started to turn around counterclockwise to face me, so I aimed my charge a little to the right.

The Woodland Spirit managed to turn only a quarter way around by the time I reached its legs. I vigorously slashed the roots running across the back of the legs and dug my blade deep into them. While the roots were surprisingly soft, the blade still didn’t manage to cut cleanly through.

I only managed to cut a third into the approximately half a meter thick root, yet the giant roared out. Regardless of it howling in pain or anger, a mere third wasn’t nearly enough. Now while I could stand here, whacking away at the beast, slowly chipping away at the roots, there was a glaring problem in the method that was even more detrimental than the obvious inefficiency.

The thin, black blade was now stuck in the living, squirming roots.

I tried to yank it out of the cut, but for naught. The hold was too tight. So tight in fact, that I’m surprised the blade didn’t shatter. It felt as if the roots were sentient, and were grasping the foreign object embedded in them on their own volition.

If I let the blade go, my chances of survival would drop to zero, as I was unable to use even the most elementary of magic spells. I desperately tried to pull the blade out, bracing myself against the root with my leg. Yet even that wasn’t enough. I still couldn’t output the force required to pull the blade out in that angle. Though, I did recognize what the problem was...

Seeing as I had no other choice but to pull the sword out of the stone, I’d have to jump on top of the root, hold the blade with both my hands and pull it out by pushing with both of my legs. This way, I’d have the best angle and the most power that I’m able to currently generate.

My hands were starting to get sweaty from running around in the heat emitting from the blazing beast, so I quickly wiped my hands on the hem of my jacket and jumped on the calf of the colossus…