There was no use denying how important and precious Cale was to everyone in this room – after all none of them would even be here if not for Cale and Kim Rok Soo after all. Reading these sentiments from the guests of her hall, Grigori smiled ethereally to herself and nodded – permitting Naur to continue showing the record.
“Fire.”
– Alright! Choi Han!
The tens of black spears quickly started to move.
“Block them!”
“Retreat!”
The shamans instantly cast barriers of fire and wind with Elisneh at the center. The knights quickly hid inside those barriers as well.
Loud explosions filled the room as the powerful magic collided with one another. It was as awe-inspiring as it was terrifying to watch.
“…What the…?”
However, they soon had to turn their gazes toward the direction of the noise. The spears had not aimed for them.
“You crazy bastards!”
The black spears were ruthlessly destroying the maze walls. The entire maze was starting to be destroyed. The maze walls fell one after another until the maze disappeared and just a flat open plain was left behind.
“Let’s go!” Tasha started to move once she heard the explosions.
“Ahhh… it makes even more sense now!” TBOAH!Rex mumbled watching how Raon's magic went about destroying the maze walls and the Dark Elves rushed forward to absorb the dead mana and so that their allies both elves and humans would not be harmed by it.
Choi Han lifted his sword back up as well. The tip of his sword pointed at the shamans one by one.
“Thirty minutes. I’ll get you one by one during that time.”
The tip of his sword last pointed at Elisneh who was groaning while holding the staff that wouldn’t listen to her. Choi Han calmly started to explain.
“One by one. I’ll get rid of all of you.”
Choi Han’s feet kicked off the ground as he shot forward.
Everyone could now grasp the situation and were curious what would soon follow – they were full of questions about what would happen next so Grigori looked around the room. She paid particular attention to TBOAH!Jopis and TCF!Jopis who were the current subjects she was targeting for healing. TBOAH!Jopis needed more confirmation – her soul was demanded more appeasement before it would be willing to accept the Goddess' divine mana.
The first shaman was currently fainted under Choi Han’s foot. Choi Han gave a short explanation of the situation to Cale who was looking at him with a pale expression.
“We just flipped everything over. Did we do a good job?”
“…Well-”
It was good that they flipped everything over, but… Cale’s expression turned odd and he was unable to say anything. It was at that moment.
“Aigoo. I barely made it here.”
They suddenly heard a voice.
“Ahhh… Choi Han are you still upset that you didn’t get praised?” TCF!Rosalyn teased TCF!Choi Han who immediately upon recalling the interruption from back then frowned. His glowing puppy-aura turning dark and brooding as his eyes and expression turned vicious. TCF!Alberu glanced down at Cale and quietly agreed with Cale's lingering observation about Choi Han being quite vicious. TCF!Alberu glanced toward TBOAH!Choi Han and then looked away a few seconds later – TBOAH!Choi Han was nothing at all like their TCF!Choi Han and although he seemed to have calmed down at lot, he was still terrifying and wore and aura of malice and deadly bloodlust around him like it was armour. It was actually a little sad to see.
“What?!” Cale got scared and looked behind him.
An Elf was slowly approaching them from the maze walls behind the World Tree that Raon had not destroyed.
“…Pendrick?”
Seeing the smiling Pendrick was a treat for TBOAH!Eruhaben and TBOAH!Lock who smiled tenderly as they paid close attention to him when he appeared fully upon the Palantír.
Pendrick smiled gently as he approached them.
“You really did wake up. Young master-nim, you truly are a great individual who would not even submit to illusions.”
‘What’s up with this bastard?’
Pendrick was huffing as if he was out of breath even as he continued to approach them. He had struggled stealthily getting here.
“Here.”
He then took something out of his pocket that was wrapped in silk. Pendrick slowly opened the silk.
“Young master-nim. This is a sword the World Tree-nim gave me to give you.”
“Hey now… w-what am I seeing right now?” TCF!Bud asked, his voice shaking as he uncharacteristically stuttered.
“Why, no… What is he giving Young Master Cale-nim?” TCF!Jack questioned in a voice full of disbelief and some heavier emotion that TCF!Hannah had never heard before.
“Why is that… that thing there?!” TCF!Deruth hissed becoming angry and restless in his seat beside his wife and their children.
“…A sword? This thing?” Cale looked inside the silk before looking up at Pendrick and asking. “Isn’t this just a branch of the World Tree?”
“No, sir. It is a sword.”
‘A sword my ass. What’s up with this wooden skewer?’
TCF!Lily covered her face with her hands, muttering something very similar to something like:
"No, Oraboni, please throw that away!!"
Something that looked like a wooden chopstick was inside the silk. However, Pendrick was serious. The World Tree had called him over and stealthily informed him before he left with Cale.
“It seems we will need to have a nice talk with Young Pendrick when we get back!” Sherritt spoke in an ominous tone, her gaze was piercing and sharp. Even TCF!Eruhaben was upset by what he was seeing on the Palantír right now.
“Young master-nim. The World Tree-nim said to use this if you were in danger. If you stab this into a living being’s heart and cover it in blood, it’ll become a great weapon-”
“Burn… we will burn it down!” Raon could barely hold in his outraged shouts. However he was not alone in his cries for the destruction of the World Tree.
“And poison it's roots Nyaa!!” TCF!Hong shouted too, his voice shaking as his fur bristled and stood on ends with anger.
“And chop up it's branches for kindling! Winter will be here soon so we'll need plenty of firewood for our house!” TCF!Ohn hissed. She was also expressing her anger. The adults around them couldn't disagree, but they also couldn’t voice reassurance to the young children because they knew that those kids were clever and they had a reason for voicing their hostility toward the World Tree – it was because they were afraid, they were afraid of losing Cale.
Choi Han’s eyes opened wide as he listened.
‘There was such a weapon?’
It sounded like a weapon that would come out of a legend. The Sword of the World Tree. The name already weighed heavily on their hearts.
“This nonsense! So he's the one that put this nonsense into Cale's head!” TCF!Fredo mumbled, his eyes glowing with something akin to disapproval and anger. As much as TCF!Fredo teased Cale about wanting to taste his blood, he never wanted Cale to be hurt and he'd heard enough about how Cale defeated White Star to know that because of this damn World Tree, Cale had been hurt and had also almost died. No one was actually sure how Cale had managed to survive being stabbed in the heart, it was a taboo to talk about among everyone, but that didn’t mean any of them forgot about it and it didn’t mean any of them were less angry about it even now when they all knew that Cale was fine.
Cale cut Pendrick off at that moment.
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
“…Excuse me?”
Cale pointed to the battlefield.
“Does it look like we’re in danger? They’re destroying everything.”
The underground maze was being destroyed into pieces. It was not just chaotic, it was extremely chaotic.
“Ah.”
Pendrick had recalled the World Tree’s words as soon as he saw Cale faint earlier. That was why he had left the battlefield and stealthily took a roundabout way to get here. However, the situation was not very dire once he got here. He quietly wrapped the sword back inside the silk. However, he had to stop moving once he heard Cale’s voice.
“Give it to me.”
“This bastard!!” TCF!Alberu snarled and grit his teeth a furious glare upon his face as he stared harshly down at Cale sleeping on his lap. TCF!Alberu was almost overwhelmed by the urge he felt to slap Cale and pull his hair for being so reckless with his life.
“You damn fool! Just watch what happens if you continue doing stupid shit like this!” TCF!Alberu hissed crossly. Kim Rok Soo agreed. He also wanted to pinch Cale's cheeks and reprimand him until either Cale's ears fell off or Rok Soo's lips went numb from nagging.
“Excuse me?”
“I thought you said she told you to give it to me.”
“…Yes?”
Cale looked at the confused Pendrick and thought about the World Tre
‘It’s a sword that needs you to stab a living being’s heart and cover it in blood? What a damn rotten item.’
“If that's how you feel, don't take the stupid thing Cale!!” Even TCF!Violan was clutching her head in frustration – her usual pristine etiquette was nowhere to be seen right now.
“Well, then we're all agreed yes! We will burn it down!” TCF!Rasheel declared. The two Pink Dragons nearby began to nod aggressively.
“This bullshit is not a good ending! The hero has to live and find peace with his loved ones at the end.” TBOAH!Dodori snarled.
“That’s right! What good is it if the heroes don’t get to enjoy the peace they fought so hard to achieve! That's the ending I want! Not this shit! The tree has to go!” TCF!Dodori hissed furiously.
TCF!Mila blinked in surprise, although it was not the first time she'd heard her son talking about heroes, it was the first time she'd ever heard him talk about the kind of ending he wanted the heroes he followed to have. TCF!Mila glanced toward where she knew Cale was sleeping and then nodded – Cale was someone who deserved to be such a hero and he also deserved to have the ending her son was talking about, so she decided there and then to support her son no matter how crazy his plan would be.
Cale found it weird that such an item suddenly appeared, but it wasn’t odd especially after hearing about the Gate to the Demon World. Cale just found it hard to understand the World Tree’s intentions.
The TBOAH!Dragons winced, but their TCF!World counterparts were all too riled up by now to care about all that greater good crap and whatever ‘good’ intentions the World Tree had. All they cared about was acknowledging the fact that the World Tree only did things that benefitted itself and it only offered Cale that thing because it felt that it's existence was being threatened. TCF!Eruhaben clenched his fists and grit his teeth forcing his mind not to recall that terrible moment that everyone had seen in Puzzle City.
He needed to be careful about such items. He also needed to hear more about this wooden skewer from Pendrick or the World Tree. Of course, he would have to wait to hear about it because things were chaotic right now. Because of that…
“So hand it over.”
He decided to hold onto it for now.
“NO!! Cale!!!” TCF!Deruth groaned in grief and despair. Grigori had a sympathetic expression upon her face, but she did not hide nor redact the information. She showed them everything that was deemed important.
“Looks like we'll all need to have a nice long talk with Teacher when he wakes up!!” TCF!Mila rumbled, her tone was dangerously impassive and TCF!Dodori felt sorry for his teacher.
He heard a voice in his mind at that moment.
– Should I fight again?
The Super Rock cautiously asked.
“NO! You can't help, didn't you say he'd pass out for a week or even a month if you help?!” TBOAH!Basen exclaimed in protest of the question that the Super Rock asked Cale.
“That would only be if Cale destroyed the whole ceiling of the maze!” TCF!Basen corrected his counterpart.
“But isn't the Molden Palace above them…” TBOAH!Lily timidly questioned and the four Henituse children became tense in their seats.
<Chapter 504: It works! (1)>
“…You want this thing?”
“Yes.” Cale confidently reached his hand out toward Pendrick.
The fake World Tree made it so that Cale could easily move his hand.
“I thought it was for me.”
“That is true, but…” Pendrick had an awkward expression on his face as he handed the Sword of the World Tree over to Cale. He then shared what the World Tree had told him.
“The World Tree-nim said that young master-nim’s blood is special.”
“My blood?”
“Looks like we need to have an even more serious talk with Pendrick when we get back!” TCF!Eruhaben rumbled, his pupils becoming serpentine slits as he teeth sharpened and his claws lengthened to manifest the barest traces of his draconic features – the divine power of the goddess was suppressing all traces of Dragon Fear from the room in order for it not to suffocate the humans and other races, but that didn't mean she was blocking everything. TCF!Eruhaben was merely the first to become angry enough to manifest scales and some of his dragon features.
Cale and Choi Han both looked at Pendrick in confusion. Pendrick peeked at the maze that was turning into a mess and quickly whispered.
“Yes, sir. She said that your blood has more life force and vitality than anyone else. That is why she said that Cale-nim’s blood was the perfect weapon against those with weak vigor or vitality.”
Cale recalled a thought he had in the past. There was a power that opposed dead mana. It was life force. When fighting against dead mana, the stupidest and most dangerous yet easiest method was to cover your entire body with blood and charge against the dead mana. Of course, most people were likely to die from a loss of blood first. Cale felt his heart beating wildly for some reason.
“Please don’t tell me…” TBOAH!Alberu gasped, his eyes widening with horror and shock. TCF!Alberu grit his teeth and turned his face away from his counterpart – unwilling to answer his question or give him any kind of response. He was actually a little worried he might grab Cale and shake him into consciousness just to yell at him. He massaged his temple and practiced taking deep breaths to calm himself and maintain some semblance of his composure.
<Chapter 505: It works! (2)>
“That is not allowed.”
“Finally!! Someone that has their head on straight!” TBOAH!Cage exclaimed in relief. Even she had become uncomfortable with where this conversation between the elf with the scar on his face and Cale was going.
“Good job Choi Han!” Kim Rok Soo praised TCF!Choi Han firmly. It didn’t matter that he had a grudge against TBOAH!Choi Han a lifetime ago. Kim Rok Soo knew when to give praise where it was due. He looked toward TCF!Choi Han to praise him again, but stopped at the sombre and disappointed look upon TCF!Choi Han's face.
“I didn't do a good job… so, don't praise me!” He spoke with a heavy tone full of anger and regret. Everyone on the TCF!World side fell ominously silent and refused to say anymore no matter how much their counterparts pressed them. So, Naur continued the record forcing everyone to stop talking and return their attention to the Palantír.
Cale turned his head. He could see Choi Han’s stiff expression. He looked toward Cale and started to sternly speak.
“I don’t know what thoughts you are having right now, but no matter what they are, they are not allowed.”
“Hmm?”
“Please let me tell you a fact.” Choi Han slightly pulled his sword out of the scabbard. “You will die if you are stabbed in the heart. Blood is not allowed.”
Choi Han’s vicious glare made Cale’s already wildly beating heart beat even faster. Forget being his senior or whatever, that gaze was really scary no matter what. Extremely scary.
That was why he subconsciously responded like this.
“Are you crazy? I’m someone who dreams about living a long life as a wealthy slacker!”
‘Ah.’ He really ended up sharing his honest sentiments.
“He really is an Unlucky punk!” TBOAH!Eruhaben mumbled and TCF!Eruhaben forced himself to calm down and nodded to his counterpart.
“That’s right. He’s the unluckiest of unlucky bastards… but he's ours!” TCF!Eruhaben declared. A strange air of territorial obsession seemed to pulsate around each of the TCF!Dragons – notifying their TBOAH!World counterparts that all the TCF!Dragons would keep Cale even if it meant destroying the whole world to do so. The TBOAH!Dragons blinked and gulped sharing a look amongst themselves and then trying to see things from their counterpart's perspective.
However, Choi Han just quietly observed him without saying anything.
After thinking about it for a bit, the TBOAH!Dragons all nodded and agreed that they would feel and behave the same if their places had been reversed. For the TBOAH!Dragons who'd met gruesome and horrific ends in their TBOAH!World timeline, someone like Cale who saved and protected them in his own way was precious and worthy of their respect and loyalty. The sincere consideration and genuine care that Cale always showed them was also something that could not be faked. The TBOAH!Dragons decided that their counterparts weren't so strange after all.
Cale looked away as he could not meet Choi Han’s gaze any longer. Pendrick started to speak at that moment.
“Anyway, I delivered the World Tree-nim’s message.”
Cale looked at Pendrick and thought about the World Tree.
“Grigori-nim, it's a good think you didn't bring Pendrick here!” TCF!Alberu suddenly announced.
Grigori turned her head and looked around the hall at all the angry faces glaring daggers at the recording of Pendrick on the Palantír, she then nodded and smiled innocently.
He felt iffy after thinking that the World Tree might know about all of his ancient powers.
‘…I thought she said my future was not visible.’
Did she lie when she said that it was difficult to see the futures of people with ancient powers?
‘I don’t think that it is that.’
Cale had a lot to think about. The problem was that this was not the time to thoroughly think things through.
“Truly, he’s always so busy, it’s no wonder he has no time to take care of himself! This is why he looks like that!” Kim Rok Soo grumbled under his breath.
“Meaning?” TCF!Alberu demanded, feeling slightly offended for some odd reason.
“Well when I was his age, I definitely did not look like I would snap in half like a twig from a mere breeze!”
“Oi!” the TBOAH!Black Dragon did not appreciate Kim Rok Soo's response and glared at him.
“Other-Human, you're wrong. My Human is weak, yes, but he can also get as strong as my front paw… You must not underestimate our Human!” Raon advised Rok Soo with a strange glint in his eyes. Kim Rok Soo paused for a moment and then nodded.
“Alright… but I meant no disrespect Raon-nim… I just meant that when I was his age in that body I actually was a lot stronger…”
“As strong as you are now?” The TBOAH!Black Dragon asked, his sparkling eyes roaming Rok Soo's form curiously.
“Oh, no… definitely not…” Kim Rok Soo immediately replied gesturing to his body. “This is the result of that guy's hard work before I transmigrated into his body.” He confessed and then felt all the eyes in the room fixate upon him. It made him tense as a cold shiver slid down his spine in response to the sudden attention.