Ascension of the Sylvan Cosmos.

Chapter 294. Battle In Golden Sap City (3)

The fight was slowly tipping the scales in favor of Tianlian Liu Shu’s army. The surprisingly strong combat power of the ants and the Tree Houses hit Baron Lorbase's army with such strength that it plummeted the enemy morale. Even then, the numbers on the enemy side were many. 

Moreover, unlike Liu Shu, Wisdom didn’t actively participate in the war with big spells. First of all, Wisdom’s first and basically only priority was Liu Shu’s survival. Wasting ternary essences to help non-essential groups win was out of the question. 

This created some breaches in the formation, allowing some groups to break through and approach the middle point where Mother Of Thousand Flower Field was. Once those groups did so, they were welcomed by a terrifying barrage of projectiles.

“Protect against the projectiles! Breakthrough and attack the World Tree!”

The 200-strong group that managed to pierce through was relatively powerful, led by one of the Level 30s who was not held back by anyone. However, as they were making progress and defending against the barrage from <Mother Of Thousand Flower Field>, they failed to realize that the giant canopy of the World Tree started to move.

Wisdom looked at them coldly.

[The enemy group has reached a distance of 540 meters. Initiating melee assault.]

For a gargantuan creature like Liu Shu, 600 meters was considered a close combat distance. Phantom branches appeared around her canopy, and then, they all descended with the entire weight of Liu Shu’s devastating nearly 5,000 <Physique> stat points.

BOOOOM!

The entire city trembled, making many look over with heavy hearts. The image they saw was hopelessly demoralizing or awe-inspiring, depending on which side of the war you were on.

The Level 30 tried with all his might to defend against the barbaric attack. However, his stat points were in the low to mid-2000s. When one of the massive roots fell and struck his bubble shield, the floor below him sank, burying him underground. ‘T-This World Tree… She is not an <Aether> based World Tree!?’

The Level 30 shouted, his voice booming. “Careful! The World Tree is a <Physique> based World Tree!”

BOOOOOOOM!

The land exploded as Wisdom struck down with the entirety of Liu Shu’s strength. Ignatia, looking from a distance, scratched her cheek. ‘I hope the tunnels can hold. Dear me, my eldest daughter is a little bit too strong, eh? Does she even need us?’ 

Baron Lorbase, who was sent flying near the Mother Of Thousand Flower Field, felt his heart’s courage finally cracking when he heard and saw what had happened. ‘Not <Aether> based? Impossible! How could a non-Aether-Mana-based World Tree threaten me with Aether Mana Spells!?’

However, looking over at the place where Wisdom struck, Baron Lorbase’s heart cracked a bit more. The soil was full of massive craters from each strike Wisdom delivered. There was also no trace of any of the 200 people that had managed to cross the distance. ‘Buried to death…’

The shock was such that Baron Lorbase felt the strange mist in his mind dissipate. His thoughts became sharper again, and his eyes widened as what he had been doing flashed in his mind. ‘W-What… What did I do…?’

He looked around, absorbing the battle around him. It looked like people from both sides were dying in droves. However, once he looked closer, he noticed that the Tree Houses were basically absorbing all the damage like sponges, avoiding many deaths. The entire city was literally sacrificing itself to save the inhabitants.

When one of the House Trees would fall, Lorbase noticed the faces of Golden Sap City soldiers gaining a fearfully enraged face as their ferocity increased manyfold, slaughtering people left and right. 

‘We lost.’

Lorbase was sure of it. Now that his mind was clear, he was sure that the World Tree he so stubbornly decided to attack was just an anomaly. 

‘This World Tree is too strong… No. It’s not just the World Tree. How did this city even manage to grow so many of those strange living buildings…? Ah. They didn’t.’

His gaze turned toward the massive World Tree, and he muttered. “It’s you… It is indeed just you.”

Wisdom noticed Baron Lorbase standing there, looking at Liu Shu with a shocked and pale face. 

[Baron Lorbase is outside the influence of the curse. Don’t lose the opportunity.]

One thorn manifested in front of Liu Shu’s chest. However, this thorn was completely transparent. Aether Mana rushed toward it as spatial energies gathered around it.

When the structure of the thorn solidified, Wisdom released it. 

“BARON!”

Lorbase felt someone push him, and a sense of Deja Vu flashed in his mind. Looking sideways, he saw someone that made his heart twist with guilt. “Elenara-”

BOOM!

The powerful thorn pierced through Elenara's chest, leaving a massive gaping hole. Elenara’s transformed body lost its form and became human form again. Lorbase rushed forward, his face pale, and quickly caught the falling Sylvan.

“You… Elenara! Why!?”

Elenara’s eyes gently moved to look at Baron Lorbase, and a small smile appeared on her lips. “I felt… that you… were you… again.”

Baron Lorbase’s heart twisted in pain as a knot appeared in his throat. Elenara tried to take a deep breath, but her lungs were utterly destroyed, forcing her to make heart-wrenching gargling noise. “Baron… Retreat… You can’t… win.”

Baron Lorbase’s danger senses flared up, and he quickly jumped backward, dodging Wisdom’s second attack. He looked at Liu Shu’s body with rage, but Elenara grabbed his arm tightly. “Not… Her fault…” n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Baron Lorbase looked down, biting his lips. “... Whose then?” He really wanted to ask why she would say that, as raw emotions surfaced on his face. However, hearing her out was much more important than expressing himself at the moment. 

Elenara whispered as the light slowly left her eyes. “Evan…geline.”

Then, her strength faded away, her arms falling limp. Looking at the dead Sylvan in her arms, Lorbase felt like the world was collapsing. ‘This… Shouldn’t have happened.’

Looking up, he used his entire strength and shouted one word he should’ve said long ago.

“RETREAT!”

His booming order was something that neither side expected. 

Eila looked over while she grabbed the neck of Balaric. “Oh? That’s where Elenara went… Oh? Did Wisdom kill her?” 

Balaric’s strained and hoarse voice as Eila choked him to death gurgled out. “You… monster.”

Eila looked at him and blinked. “Monster?” A small smile appeared on her lips as an electric charge rushed at her from the surrounding flowers. “Perhaps. Now, die.”

RUMBLE!

Balaric’s entire body was engulfed by lightning, and his limbs spasm without any control. The man’s eyes flipped upward, eventually becoming thoroughly rigid.

[Congratulations on defeating <Ceperet Human Level 33 (D- Rank)>. You’ve gained 705 Experience Points.]

Eila dropped the corpse and heard Flor’s booming voice. “DON’T LET A SINGLE BASTARD FLEE! SLAUGHTER THEM ALL! WISDOM!”

Eila looked into the distance and saw Liu Shu’s roots bursting from the ground, reforming the walls with her roots. 

HISS!

Looking over, she saw Ophion running over everyone in his way as he rushed toward Baron Lorbase. She rubbed her chin and muttered. “Let’s help Ophion. Baron Lorbase must die here.”

Using her terrifying speed, Eila burst forward like a lightning bolt. As she approached, Eila shouted. “Ophion! Push him toward Liu Shu! The branches will deal with him!”

Lorbase saw the intention of those two creatures and quickly accelerated toward the place with the least enemies, carrying Elenara’s corpse between his arms. He looked around the place, trying to find a location where it would be safer to flee. However, he couldn’t find any. ‘This city feels like a cage! Wait.’

Looking around again from his position, his face quickly crumpled. “This city doesn’t look like a cage… It is one.”

“Oho? So you realized?”

Baron Lorbase’s face changed, and he quickly ducked. Eila’s leg swept past the place his chest was before. ‘She is so fast!’

A massive shadow hid the sun above him, and looking upward, he saw Ophion diving down toward him. 

BOOM!

He barely dodged the literal meteor serpent strike. Sadly, the shockwave was too powerful, and he lost grip of Elenara, making her corpse bounce in different directions to him.

Looking at her at a close yet so far-away distance, he bit his lips and rushed toward her. Eila’s sigh reached him. “Being sentimental on the battlefield is really not like you, Baron Lorbase.”

BANG!

Baron Lorbase’s body bent like a bow when Eila’s fist struck his stomach. From the brutal strength behind the blow, the man’s body flew upward. The small distance between him and Elenara widened beyond what he could reach.

His body flipped slightly, making him face the sky at one moment. During that second that he was looking away from the carnage, Baron Lorbase found momentary peace. “... All my fault.”

Even before he met Evangeline, he had been stubborn. He was sure of something that couldn’t be proven, and he tried to follow through until the bitter end. “But… at what cost?”

As the sky left his sight, the figure of the flying serpent substituted it. “Basically…” He smiled mockingly. “Everything.”

Ophion then rammed him with his head.

BANG!

His body streaked across the sky toward Liu Shu’s body. Baron Lorbase could see the giant tree’s body magnifying as he streaked toward him. Sadly, though, the sight was not lasting.

Wisdom was ruthless and swung one of Liu Shu’s phantom branches down. The massive branch fell like a guillotine and struck the man.

BOOM!

His body became a streak of light as he cratered down, marking the place of his grave with a massive cavity from the explosion. 

With the Level 30s being killed and most of the Level 25s having been slaughtered, the remaining enemy army was nothing but sacrificial lambs waiting for slaughter. The eight Arboreal Serpents, Ignatia, Eila, and the Sylvans, were like tigers between a sheep flock. 

Death and blood stained the borders of Liu Shu’s city, and those who luckily managed to escape the shield were eventually caught by Wisdom using Liu Shu’s extensive and all-encompassing root net. 

There were no survivors.

However, the people from Golden Sap City didn’t celebrate. Looking at their city, the wing where the enemies entered was now flattened. The fierce enemy army managed to kill the grand majority of Tree Houses in their way. When Liu Shu’s roots returned to the ground, the state of the Guardian Trees and the Living Wall were revealed to be disastrous as well.

Scorched down, torn apart, split open, and reduced to splinters. Those were a few of the many gruesome fates of the Tree Houses and other structures.

All the survivors looked at them and engraved this view in their hearts. Before, they had some fondness toward those Tree Houses, but it was somewhat superficial, like how you look at another person’s pet. 

Now, though… If anyone dared to mess with them, these soldiers would be ruthless. In the future, Golden Sap City’s Tree Houses would be known for being the bottom line of every soldier of the Golden Sap City Army.

Flor looked at everything and bit her lip. ‘Was allowing them inside a good decision?’

The weight of their death was on her shoulders, and doubts and regret overcame her. Thankfully for her, Ignatia approached and hugged the small Flower Fairy into her warm embrace. 

Flor felt her throat choke up as tears started spilling from her eyes. Ignatia gently patted the crying Flower Fairy’s back and whispered. “This was the correct decision, Flor. The enemies were just that strong.”