Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 316

Dungeon Journal-316

# 316

Dungeon Journal

317. End

Dominique, who had been gazing blankly at the Underworld Tree, waiting for her master to return, suddenly widened her eyes and staggered.

“Ah…”

She let out a strained groan and barely managed to steady herself. But it was only for a moment. Soon, her face turned deathly pale, and she swayed again.

“Again, Master is…”

The surging malice, greed, and deep, deep hatred flooded her mind beyond the limits of her telepathic abilities, throwing it into chaos.

Angela, belatedly realizing the situation, rushed to support her, but instead of accepting the help, Dominique cried out in terror.

“E-Everyone, get out of here!”

No sooner had she spoken than Quantus shouted, and the Nagas began to retreat swiftly.

“Fall back, you idiots!”

The problem lay with the Einherjar. Morrigan screamed at the top of her lungs, but the wraiths, who knew nothing but battle, were slow and unenthusiastic.

Groooooan.

In that instant, disaster struck them.

“Kieeeeeeek!”

Flesh scattered, and bones melted. Just like in their Moai days before becoming Einherjar, the wraiths of the battlefield rapidly disintegrated.

However, unlike the past when they were crushed and battered but still retained some form, their collapse now completely melted their bodies, leaving only a handful of bloody water.

All of this was due to the immense energy that suddenly erupted from the Underworld Tree.

The Underworld Tree’s divinity was so powerful that merely looking at it and showing interest could shatter the mind of a mighty monarch.

But now, the energy spreading in all directions was far more concentrated and potent than before.

The situation was so intense that even breathing was difficult, as if all the surrounding air had been replaced with divine energy. And such a high concentration was a terrible disaster in itself.

Most of the tens of thousands of Einherjar who had survived the arduous battle melted away in the face of the overwhelming divinity. The damage was so severe that the number of surviving Einherjar was less than ten thousand.

Fortunately, thanks to their quick movements, the Nagas suffered no casualties.

“Further! We need to retreat further!”

But the disaster was not over yet, Dominique continued to warn.

“Retreat! You fools! Forget formations, just get out of here!”

Despite suffering terrible damage, the Einherjar still moved sluggishly, and even the surviving ones began to be caught up in the expanding divinity one by one.

“Ah… this is a nightmare.”

Morrigan muttered to herself in despair as the divinity followed them relentlessly, no matter how far they retreated.

Even so, she couldn’t dare to look at the Underworld Tree, the source of all this.

She was too afraid to turn her head, overwhelmed by the oppressive energy that felt as if it would blind her just by looking at it.

She wasn’t the only one. None of those who were hastily retreating dared to look back.

They felt that if they stopped and turned their heads, they would be overwhelmed by the otherworldly energy and would never be able to move again.

And in a situation like this, stopping was no different from death.

“What on earth is happening…”

Even Angela, the only Highlord besides Kim Jin-woo since almost all the other Highlords had been annihilated, was overwhelmed by the Underworld Tree’s divinity and couldn’t speak easily.

“Master…”

Dominique, held in her arms, opened her mouth with a face that looked as if she would stop breathing at any moment.

“He has started a fight with the Underworld Tree.”

“What?”

Angela couldn’t understand. Wasn’t her master supposed to receive the immense reward of becoming the rightful king of the Underworld for finding the Wish Stone? She couldn’t comprehend that he had started a fight with the Underworld Tree.

“Master didn’t want to sit on a throne that someone else had made for him. He hated everyone who had mocked his life, and that’s why he no longer wanted his life to be controlled by others.”

“Could it be, that’s why…”

“Yes. Master decided to become king on his own, not a king created by the mysteries of the Underworld.”

The Tyrant had decided to become a true king, not a puppet king who could be discarded at any time by the mysteries of the Underworld.

“He can’t possibly win!”

Angela screamed, belatedly realizing the situation. Her master’s existence had almost been shattered just by facing the divinity. There was no way he could win against such an overwhelming difference in power.

“Master thought that the Wish Stone would allow him to withstand the divinity of the Underworld Tree.”

“Even so…”

Angela looked as if she would rush to find her master right away.

“Trust Master a little more.”

Dominique, still pale, stopped Angela with a weak gesture.

“Because it seems like Master’s idea wasn’t wrong.”

Her gaze was directed towards the highest point of the Underworld Tree.

“Ah…”

Angela followed her gaze and let out a sound that was a mix of exclamation and lamentation. In her eyes, a black snake suddenly raised its head at the highest point of the massive Underworld Tree.

“And it seems Master has completely mastered the power of the night.”

The scales were darker than the darkest shadows, and the vertically split eyes were red and ominous, like those of the most evil and ferocious creatures.

The black snake was so sinister and terrifying, and also as huge as the Underworld Tree.

Swish.

A grating noise, like scraping bones and scratching fingernails, the sound of black scales colliding echoed all around. And as that terrible sound spread, the divinity of the Underworld Tree faded.

Surprisingly, the black snake was standing up to the Underworld Tree’s divinity on equal terms. Well, that’s why its existence wasn’t collapsing in the midst of that dense divinity, and it was even revealing its fangs.

The snake coiled around the Underworld Tree’s massive trunk several times, as if strangling its prey.

Crack.

The branches of the Underworld Tree, which they thought would never be damaged, broke, and the leaves that had spread out wide like the ceiling of the Underworld fell like rain.

“Ah.”

Angela couldn’t help but admire the sight. It was as if a blue light was snowing in the Underworld. She was so captivated by the fantastic and dreamlike scene that she forgot the situation and opened her mouth in awe.

“Kieeeeeeek!”

But not everyone was as impressed by the sight as she was. Unlike the Nagas, who had retreated far away following Dominique’s warning, the Einherjar, who were lagging behind, melted as soon as they touched the falling leaves.

“Don’t just stand there and get hit! You’ll melt!”

Morrigan screamed, and the Einherjar belatedly used their respective abilities to create barriers in the air and raise massive shields. But it was all in vain.

The green snow melted everything it touched, whether it was a thick iron shield or a barrier created with mysterious abilities, and devoured its owner as well.

Morrigan, who had been encouraging them until the end, couldn’t hold out any longer and had to retreat. The number of Einherjar who survived following her was less than a thousand.

While the Einherjar were being swept away by the disaster and suffering near-annihilation, the black snake and the Underworld Tree were locked in a desperate battle.

***

The snake was attacking the Underworld Tree by coiling around its trunk and cutting off its branches, and the Underworld Tree was constantly spewing out divinity to melt the snake’s scales.

The vast forest that had surrounded the area disappeared without a trace, but the fight did not end easily.

The snake was several times larger and more powerful than the Jormungandr [a mythical sea serpent] of the past, but the Underworld Tree was even stronger.

The snake’s malice could not overwhelm the Underworld Tree’s divinity, and the bark of the ancient tree, which had endured countless ages, could not be penetrated even by the sharpest fangs.

The divinity that had been spreading in all directions continued to expand its territory. The Nagas and the surviving Einherjar fled again.

But the divinity continued to spread, as if it would engulf the entire Underworld and turn everything to nothing.

Perhaps the destruction of the Underworld that the one-eyed monarch had seen was exactly like this. The Underworld Tree seemed to be purifying the entire Underworld to purify the evil of the wicked snake, and the Underworld seemed to be on the verge of destruction.

But the snake was tenacious. New scales grew back on the hideously holed skin where the scales had melted, and new fangs grew where the sharp fangs that had been biting into the hard tree broke and shattered.

And the scales and fangs that grew back were harder and sharper than before.

As time went on, the number of branches of the Underworld Tree that broke and fell increased. Little by little, scratches began to appear on the hard bark, and the snake tenaciously clung to the wounds.

Thanks to this, at some point, what had initially been just a small scratch on the bark became a large hole.

A divinity that could not even be compared to what had been released until now flowed out through the hole, and the snake devoured all the divine energy ravenously.

As if it was not satisfied with just what was flowing out, it eventually buried its head in the hole.

The snake’s body grew larger and larger. The snake, which had barely coiled around only the uppermost part of the trunk, was now coiling around the entire Underworld Tree at some point.

The snake continued to grow, and the Underworld Tree shrank in the opposite direction.

And finally, when the Underworld Tree became a pathetic tree, the snake opened its massive jaws and swallowed the Underworld Tree.

***

On the day the black snake and the Underworld Tree fought, many explorers who were scouting the Underworld witnessed the scene.

They were all terrified and fled the Underworld, and they announced the existence of the terrible monster they had witnessed to the surface.

“The monster that was like a giant snake at first became a completely different being at the end.”

“Nothing can stop the terrible monster that spread nine pairs of wings. Invading the Underworld where such a thing exists is suicide. I’m dropping out of this. And I swear I’ll never go into the Underworld again.”

“If the monster comes up to the surface, a terrible disaster will come. We may have to worry about survival, not war.”

The surface, which had been preparing for war to conquer the Underworld, had to re-examine all its plans.

The explorers’ testimonies were enough to bring a sense of crisis to the surface. They now had to prepare for the Underworld’s movements with defense in mind, not conquest.

But as time passed, the terrible monster that the explorers had spoken of did not appear.

And more time passed, and a courageous explorer found a gate.

Instead of the long, winding passages of the Underworld, what he had to face was just a narrow, dark little cave, and a wall blocked with solid rock.

Belatedly realizing this fact, explorers from various countries came forward to find another passage, but no one could find the Underworld again.

“The Underworld no longer exists in the world.”

When the explorer who had been searching for a way until the very end gave up, the surface had no choice but to accept the fact that the world deep beneath the earth no longer existed.

Some rejoiced at the disappearance of the dark world that threatened the world above ground, and some regretted the disappearance of the Underworld, which had immense value.

But no matter what they thought, no more paths leading from the surface to the Underworld were discovered, at least not to them.