That gigantic, blasphemous tree of flesh—the trunk was thick as a mountain, formed by countless corpses pressed and fused together; severed limbs and grinning faces twisted into grotesque patterns under the congealing meat.
Pale bones and dark red tendons crisscrossed, wrapping the trunk like bark, faintly pulsing as if the whole tree were breathing.
Countless faces were embedded on the trunk's surface; empty eye sockets and gaping mouths silently told of pain, as if the imprisoned souls still struggled.
The branches stretched outward from the trunk on their own, gnarled and dense, like desiccated giant claws reaching for the sky, each great claw itself made of innumerable smaller, withered talons.
Every bough was hung with corpses, densely packed like rotting fruit swaying in the wind.
Some were entangled by vines of flesh, some pierced through by bone spikes; limbs bent at unnatural angles, blood dripping from the breaks and pooling into dark-red rivulets on the ground.
Looking up, tens of thousands—even hundreds of thousands—of corpses obscured the heavens; sunlight was utterly devoured, leaving only a grim shadow hanging over the land.
When the wind blew, the "leaves" rubbed against one another, producing a hair-raising sound. At the same time, thousands upon thousands of crows circled and roosted around the giant tree, as though offering a requiem to this horror.
It was hard to imagine this as a man-made wonder; its existence itself was a desecration of life—a terrifying totem of the apocalypse, silently watching over this forsaken world from the moment it was born.
"..."
Who would understand the feeling of waking up early and seeing such a thing.
"Are the people you met online for real?"
"That I don't know—after all, it's over the net—but I think they're legit."
"..." You think so?
Patchouli had no desire to argue with this wildly imaginative person.
"So why did you make something like this? Isn't a corpse tower enough to satisfy your curiosity?"
"..."
Zeroy's cheeks puffed out at once.
She reached out and rubbed Patchouli's cheek.
"Even if it's you, Patchy, falsely accusing me like that makes me mad. Who even has those morbid curiosities? I'm a girl who likes sugar and spice, you know."
"...."
Patchouli frowned, staring at Zeroy as she behaved so impertinently toward her.
"It's just that this world is unusual. I feel the old corpse tower might not have been sufficiently intimidating—after all, the people here have all endured the baptism of the apocalypse; in their hearts, the seeds of madness have been planted to some degree."
"Although this thing looks a bit scary, it's better than people committing crimes because they lack any fear, right?"
"..."
Patchouli gave no reply, only calmly watching Zeroy.
"Patchy?"
"How long are you going to keep rubbing?"
"Hehe, it feels great—kinda don't want to stop."
"..."
When Zeroy finally let go, Patchouli, a little dissatisfied, rubbed her cheek.
"You're really someone with zero sense of personal space... But won't this thing soon collapse from rot? Or have you solved that problem?"
Unlike the corpse tower, this giant tree had too many weak points; pure magic alone wouldn't be enough.
"That's exactly it!"
Zeroy clapped her hands in delight; Patchouli had hit the point.
She stepped back a few paces to create some distance, then donned yellow armor from head to toe, striking a fighting stance.
"Kaina armor—this thing I thought was useless, though now I find it's actually very useful!"
Kaina armor was well known for melee and engineering work—what the workers called construction-duty graybeating.
Zeroy preferred Flash Blades for fighting, and she normally wouldn't do construction-duty tasks like post-disaster rebuilding—magic worked better for that.
However, now, Zeroy realized she had been wrong.
Who said she wouldn't need to do graybeating? Creating wonders, building corpse towers—that's construction and engineering, isn't it?
"Structures built by Kaina's hand are granted a series of conceptual effects—such as solidity, anti-corrosion, pest resistance, damp-proofing, and so on."
"Although this giant tree is made of blood and flesh, it can still trigger that effect. Though the effect is rather weak, combined with Patchouli's magic, I estimate this wonder can stand for at least a few years; holding up for ten years shouldn't be impossible, provided no one deliberately destroys it."
"And not only Kaina's effect—if it's blessed by the power of faith, this tree can exist even longer!"
"Well, congratulations then."
Zeroy's discovery was only something she herself would be pleased about; Patchouli felt nothing in particular.
"So, I plan to place my little idol beneath this tree—or maybe embedding it on the tree would work better. Then the idol will draw on the power of belief and, using that faith, corrupt the tree."
"No... that would truly birth an evil god, wouldn't it?"
Patchouli felt a little uneasy.
You really don't mind, do you—embedding your own idol into something like that.
"Is that not allowed?"
"...It's not that it's impossible; you'll have to watch it closely. If the tree is influenced by the faith emanating from the idol and gains unusual special powers, even consciousness, normally, it would recognize who its master is and obediently not cause trouble."
"Still, that's the normal case. Something born from this tree... that would likely be quite evil; a small slip could make it go warped."
"Alright..."
Zeroy nodded thoughtfully.
"Also, about these crow flocks—I plan to let them roost on the tree. They'll protect the tree from deliberate destruction, and they'll add to the intimidation factor."
A tree like this would be stranger without a host of monstrous birds circling it—something would feel missing.
As for these crows, Zeroy had already verified them several times in recent days: they possessed above-average intelligence, and crucially, were obedient.
Their attitude toward her was a mix of fear and a petlike closeness.
Even if she killed them, they wouldn't snarl at her.
So obedient.
This made Zeroy actually want to keep them as pets.
"Later I'll bathe the crow flocks in the power of faith... I'm excited to see what changes may occur."
"Are you sure this is really okay?"
Seeing Zeroy so gleeful, Patchouli couldn't help but sigh.
"A mountain of corpses and a flock of crows again—don't you realize you're walking further down the path of an evil god? At least in other people's eyes, someone seeing you like this would definitely mistake you for an evil deity."
"Emmm..."
Zeroy fell silent.
"Oh—right. That's actually a problem."
...
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