Chapter 268 – Chapter 268 ― Elements of Restoration (1)
Episode 268 ― Elements of Restoration (1)
Soon, the sun in the forest quickly set. In the darkened forest, I couldn’t hear the sound of grass insects or the sound of the night, so the silence was even heavier.
It was the body that reacted before the mind, which was shocked by the message or the fact that there was a gap in the dark forest.
The malice that seeps out of things in the gaps eats away at the source of life itself.
A strange feeling of being deprived of vitality.
Roan looked down at his hand in amazement.
The demon king’s hand, which had been trained to the limit and always maintained a strong posture, was shaking slightly.
The moment he realized that his body was moving wildly out of his mind, Roan looked around. He has a strong body, and if he himself is affected this much, not to mention others.
After using ‘Blessing of the Stars’ without hesitation, Roan looked again at the pile of black trash at the bottom of the cliff.
“What is that unpleasant thing, Duke?”
With her blessing, the child who was freed from malice threw a question to the duke as soon as he could breathe.
Aina seemed even more shocked because she was a forest fairy. She had looked around this area several times. But I’ve never felt such an evil presence in the woods.
Of course. Isn’t this the dark forest protected by the power of the goddess?
“Signs of evil. My elders and I think so.”
“A sign of evil? That… , Why is such nonsense here? Since when?!”
As if taken aback, Aina threw questions at Amelie. A restless child, I looked anxious even in her outward appearance.
However, Aina was even more shocked by the conversation between Roan and Amelie.
“How does Amelie-sama know what that is? Have you seen that before?”
The objects seen in the distance were things Roan was very familiar with.
It is a trace of modern civilization, which I thought was absolutely nothing to see here.
However, that was only for Roan, who was filled with the secrets of another world.
It would be natural for a forest fairy to not know what those objects are, but Amelie’s attitude toward things she’s never seen in her life is so calm, no matter how malignant they may be.
Although she is a forest fairy whose joys and sorrows are blunted by a long life, she cannot be so calm when she sees traces of evil appearing in the backyard of her house, especially in the backyard protected by the power of the goddess. Like Aina.
“Occasionally, there were times when strange things appeared in this forest.”
Aina, who lost her words in shock, Helen, who prayed as if trying to shake off the traces of her thick malice, and Roan, who looked straight at him, in order, then the duke’s gaze turned to the distant past.
“Sometimes once every few decades, maybe once every few years. They always appeared in that spot. With the most ominous energy.”
“But, Duke.”
Aina still couldn’t shake her embarrassment.
“Even when I came to see the duke, or when I passed by here, I never felt any evil energy. If that was the case, everyone around here would think it was weird.”
“Huh. You’re right. It wasn’t like that then.”
The Duke laughed hard.
Instead of joy, it was a smile filled with struggle and sadness.
“Immediately after it appeared, it gave off a strong miasma like now, but the traces of it would soon disappear due to the power of the forest. After the evil energy dissipated, they became ordinary unknown objects. However.”
Even the faint smile had disappeared from Amelie’s beautiful face. Amelie’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, as if the memories she recalled were painful.
“Not too long ago, humans set fire to the border of the forest. Because of that, the ‘protection’ of the forest was distorted. It was right after that that they suddenly began to increase terribly. Neither I nor the forest could handle it anymore.”
“I can handle…”
Roan’s eyes moved from the byproducts of the filthy crevice to the forest elf’s duke.
“Did you make that malice go away?”
“There is power in the forest. The power to put everything back in place, given time. One of the roles of the duke, including me, is to support that power. Even if I couldn’t make that wickedness disappear completely, I could balance it out. But now…”
Amelie looked down at the clearing.
“Neither I, nor the elders, nor the previous dukes know what it is. We only know that it contains untouchable malice.
I understand that the sudden situation is related to humans, but it seems that our own strength will not be enough to solve it.”
She turned her eyes from below to stare at Roan.
“Roan. I hope for your help. As for what to do against the overflowing wickedness, I think asking you, who has received a revelation from the goddess, will give you the closest conclusion to the correct answer.”
“That…”
After clearing up the confusion in his head, Roan opened his mouth after a moment’s rest.
“That’s what the Goddess called a gap.”
The top of the cliff was enveloped in a strange silence.
It was because of her curiosity and ominous feelings about the first word she heard.
“What gap do you mean?”
Amelie’s eyes sharpened.
“It is the gap between the world and the source where evil can gain strength. Those objects are like traces that this place is connected to its source.”
Roan talked about the hiatus in front of Amelie, her two daughters, and Helen.
Another world full of malice exists,
There is a gap that connects the power of that world and this place, and ‘greed’ accepts the power flowing through that gap through a contract.
“Those things are from another world… , It is a trace of the world connected to ‘greed’. The evil energy is part of the power that ‘greed’ absorbs. Is that why you were emitting such a vicious aura?”
Emily’s expression was darker than ever.
According to Roan, didn’t she say that even this was ‘just a leak’?
“Until now, it seems that this forest and Amelie-sama’s magic were blocking some of the power flowing into ‘greed’. It seems that the king of men, to be exact, the wizard behind him is trying to destroy it.”
“Are you saying that if humans intentionally created this situation, it could have gotten worse?”
Iris, who had been listening to Amelie and Roan’s story, asked anxiously.
As the forest’s magic was partially destroyed by human attacks, the aura of the gap has already begun to spread throughout the Dark Forest. Should I abandon my southeast residence? Such discussions have already begun to emerge.
“It would be possible. If their purpose is to arouse demons by empowering them, this amount of power won’t be enough.”
At Roan’s answer, Iris chewed her lips with a hard expression, and Aina frowned.
Amilie was staring out over the forest that stretched out into the distance with a dark complexion, but with an expression that was rarely clear.
It was Aina who organized her thoughts first.
“I can’t leave Merde’s humans like this, Duke.”
There was a stern look on her face.
“It’s not just because of this byproduct. The forest is the space of our people. It’s not enough to deal with those who enter the forest. You have to keep them from stepping in.”
“I am not a forest fairy, but I agree with Aina.”
Roan added.
“The Dark Forest is a place cut off from the outside world. The energy that cannot spread to other places will eat away at the inside faster than the situation in the east. The energy around here has already surpassed that of the eastern desert.”
Roan knows how much the energy of ‘greed’ sealed in the far east affects the Eastern Emperor and the Southern Dark Spirit.
People are already suffering from side effects, and the land is dying.
Even the dark forest is a space that is no different from an airtight container. As much as the malice outside the forest cannot enter the forest, the mana or magic within the forest cannot escape.
Therefore, once the energy of ‘greed’ starts to rise, the speed will be much faster, and the density will not be comparable to that of the outside world.
As humans began to destroy the forest, the traces of the gap, which grew in earnest, are already affecting the other side of the forest, the northeast, in less than a week.
“It is not too late to find out the perfect causal relationship between Merde’s attack and this situation, even after driving out the humans. We will block what we think is the cause.”
“Duke. Shall we call out part of the patrol?”
Unexpectedly, Iris was the first to open up about the alliance.
As before, there is no room for demons and humans to compete with each other with equal strength.
As long as there is a possibility that a gap will widen in the dark forest according to Merde’s movement, the sooner the war ends, the better.
And one of the most helpful things in war is head count.
“It will be difficult to have a large number because we have to look at both ends of the forest, but we will try to pick a few.”
“Iris.”
Amelie shook her head slowly.
“In the battle between humans and demons, forest fairies must not intervene with numbers.”
“Duke.”
“Roan. The king of demons.”
Aina was surprised by her words and called out to her, but Amily didn’t care.
“I know that when you are trying to embrace change, at some point you suddenly hit a stairway.
Perhaps this is such a moment for us forest fairies. But I dare not tell my children, my people, to climb the steps.”
Roan clenched his fists in silence at the emotion that came through the skill.
Loss.
It was a feeling that the forest fairy duke recalled.
“The dragon and the gnomes have already disappeared because they were caught up in humans. Thousands of hours pass, and the people I can take care of are not even half of half of what they were then. Miss Fiora has no face, but I must selfishly take care of my children first.”
I didn’t want to leave my mouth.
In the end, Roan didn’t protest.
Just as the demons are a precious people to Roan,
Forest fairies are precious people to Amelie.
“Depending on whether we live in a forest or not, our strength varies greatly. You, the patrol, don’t know that well, Iris.”
“… That’s right.”
“It is difficult to find an effect in a battle where the advantage of the ground is abandoned. As a duke, I recommend efficient defense using the forest to you, the northeast ranger. However, since we have figured out the purpose of humans, cooperate with the demons in battles near the forest as much as possible.”
“I accept.”
Iris took a step back.
Duke Emily’s decision is regrettable, but she will have to be content with helping her fight in front of the house.
The gap is also a matter of something Roan has to face in the future, but it is a spark that fell in the dark forest right now. But is the forest fairy’s duke trying to leave this problem locked up in the forest? Roan’s doubts were soon resolved.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Roan. Instead, if it’s about magical powers, I think I can advise you.”
“… Are you talking magic?”
“Okay. As you said, if this is connected to the devil’s power, it will be similar to the by-product of the magic formula that draws power.”
Instead of going to war with humans, Amelie seemed to have come up with the idea of solving this problem through magic, which she knew much better.
Roan remembered the conversation Amelie had with Fiora in the past. Demon power, she said, had a similar origin to that of magic, and he sought to lessen it in the world.
“Let me give you an example. There’s a hole in your basket. The thick contents inside leaked out and soaked into the cloth on which the basket was placed. But you can neither empty the basket nor fill the hole. How should I resolve this situation?”
Suddenly, an enigmatic word came out.
After thinking briefly, Roan answered.
“Wouldn’t it be better to remove the cloth?”
Emily smiled lightly and nodded her head.
“Yes. And making the cloth to be placed under the hole, of course, the coexistence of two objects in that time and that space. Proving all of that is what wizards call contracts.”
