The roar did not come from the demon.
It came from the Mother Tree.
A deep, cracking sound—like thousands of bones breaking at once.The upper branches trembled, and a wave of black mana burst outward like a toxic breath.
The elves recoiled in terror.
Grisela shouted,
"FORM THE RINGS! ARCHERS FIRST, DRUIDS SECOND!"
The archers drew their bows while the druids tried to purify the air with green magic…
…but the demonic mana burned through their spells as if they were smoke.
"It's not working!" one of them cried."The air itself is cursed!"
Bragoz laughed, still fused to the trunk.
"You can die from exhaustion…or surrender.The ending is the same."
The bark of the tree split open into a gigantic crack, like a mouth.
From it began to fall twisted creatures—living roots and mutated beasts fed by corruption.
Northern Front – Grisela and the Elves
They had to hold back the tide of monsters pouring out of the Mother Tree.
Southern Front – Emily and the Wounded Druids
Emily maintained a field of radiant light that slowly purified the corrupted air so the druids would not die from poisoned breaths.
Western Front – Elizabeth and Thunder
Elizabeth generated controlled demonic barriers while Thunder charged through heavier monsters in bursts of lightning.
Eastern Front – Dayana
The vampire hunted elite monsters in the shadows, silently eliminating those trying to flank the elven line.
Central Front – Lusian vs Bragoz
The most dangerous battle.
Lusian had to sever the bond between the demon and the tree before the corruption reached the heart of the trunk.
Bragoz tore his body completely free from the trunk.
His back remained connected by black roots pulsing like giant veins, pumping dark sap directly into his demonic heart.
Every heartbeat…
made the forest tremble.
Lusian stepped forward, shrouded in darkness.
Dense shadows coiled around his blade.
Bragoz spread his arms, amused.
"So you're the little omega who walks around with crying girls."
Emily clenched her fists but did not move from her position—Lusian had ordered her to stay.
Lusian only replied:
"You talk too much."
And he charged.
The clash shook the clearing.
Northern Front (Grisela and the Elves)
The creatures from the Mother Tree moved with eerie synchronization, as if sharing a single mind.
A six-legged beast with bark-like skin slammed into the front line, sending three elves flying.
Grisela raised her sacred bow, the Bow of the Last Shoots, which resonated with a whisper from the forest.
Even though the corruption had severed her bond with nature, luminous sap still pulsed within her.
She fired three arrows at once.
Each shot was guided by the forest's instinct.
The arrowheads pierced the creature's exact joints.
The beast collapsed—but did not die.
A root burst from the ground, trying to impale an archer.
Grisela leapt and rolled, slicing it apart with her dagger while whispering an ancestral spell.
The root twisted and split, weakened.
"DO NOT FALL BACK!THIS IS YOUR HOME!" she shouted, her voice vibrating with the forest's strength.
For a moment, the forest answered her call.
Leaves intertwined to slow the creatures.Vines tightened around invaders.
But the line still retreated.
The creatures kept advancing.
Grisela inhaled deeply, gathering the last of her nature-bound mana.
Her arrows were no longer simple projectiles.
Each shot now carried the forest's energy—slowing beasts and buying vital seconds.
"Hold a little longer," she murmured with iron determination."Even if the forest is wounded… as long as I breathe, I will defend this home."
Southern Front (Emily)
Emily raised her hands, summoning a halo of divine light that pierced the dark undergrowth.
Her magic purified the air so the druids could breathe—but it also weakened demons and caused the Mother Tree itself to tremble, delaying the spread of corruption.
"Emily, the field is weakening!" one of the druids shouted, gasping under the weight of black magic.
"I know! The demonic mana is growing faster than we can contain it!" she replied, sweat pouring down her face as the glow of her spell intensified."Just hold on a little longer!"
A corrosive creature burst from the shadows and lunged at her.
Emily raised a barrier of pure light.
The moment the beast touched it, it shrieked and twisted, weakened by the divine radiance.
But the effort had a price.
The energy of the goddess overloaded within her body.
Emily coughed blood, her skin glowing with the light she struggled to contain.
Every second she held the field slowed the corruption of the Mother Tree.
But every second drained her strength.
She was at her limit—
and still she could not stop fighting.
Western Front (Elizabeth and Thunder)
Elizabeth rode Thunder, her Delta-affinity lightning mana crackling with every movement.
Together they formed a storm of electricity.
She channeled magic.
Thunder unleashed lightning directly into the enemy ranks.
The demonic mana within her threatened to overflow, making every spell a monumental effort.
Thunder, bound only to Lusian by their magical link, moved with perfect instinct—charging monsters and unleashing violent bursts of electricity.
"Hold on," Lusian commanded mentally through the bond."Stay strong, Thunder!"
Elizabeth gritted her teeth as she redirected lightning through the horse's body.
"I… can't… contain… this much dark mana… here…"
Thunder dodged incoming attacks and unleashed electrical bursts, protecting her while she targeted the monsters.
Eastern Front (Dayana)
Dayana leapt through shadows, slitting throats before the creatures even realized she was there.
Her heart burned with a single purpose:
Bragoz.
Then something grabbed her ankle.
A living root.
It dragged her toward the tree where black sap dripped like acid.
Dayana screamed as she was lifted upside down.
"LUSIAN!THIS—BURNS—!"
The sap brushed her skin.
It burned like holy fire.
She could not get closer to the tree.
It was too pure…
or too demonic.
The irony terrified her.
After two years of chasing revenge, she now could not touch Bragoz without burning.
Lusian vs Bragoz
Bragoz emerged from the Mother Tree like a broken shell, a being formed from dark sap and corrupted roots.
His body stretched like liquid shadow.
Every step left pools of demonic mana devouring vegetation.
Behind Lusian, chaos raged.
Elves fought desperately.Emily carved light through the darkness.Elizabeth's shields cracked under pressure.Dayana tore through creatures with feral precision.Thunder's lightning opened electric clearings in the monstrous tide.
Only one man walked calmly toward Bragoz.
Lusian.
Sword sheathed.Breathing steady.Dark flame swirling around him like a living aura.
Bragoz smiled mockingly.
"I don't recognize your aura… who are you, insect?"
"Someone who farmed you too many times," Lusian replied, still walking.
The monster frowned, confused.
Then Lusian activated his enhancement.
No shout.No dramatic gesture.
Just a faint vibration in the air—
and the ground cracked beneath his feet as if the forest recognized him.
Bragoz attacked.
A whip of black sap slammed into the ground where Lusian had stood a second earlier.
"Opening attack. Standard," Lusian murmured."Same as in the weekly event."
The monster launched a wave of crimson energy.
Lusian stepped half a pace back.
The explosion passed without touching even a strand of his hair.
"Secondary pattern. Frontal area… element changes every three attacks," he commented thoughtfully.
Bragoz roared.
"What is so amusing?"
"That you're exactly the same as in the simulator."
For the first time…
the monster felt something like fear.
Bragoz raised his arms.
The ground trembled.
Area devastation spell.
Lusian lifted a single hand.
Darkness condensed.
The wave split in two as if obeying him.
Bragoz stepped back.
"How are you reducing your… consumption so much?"
Lusian did not answer.
He simply advanced.
The monster summoned living roots.
They burst from the ground like serpent necks—
but they were slow.
Far too slow.
"Error," Lusian whispered."High cost. Low speed. Optimal counterattack."
He drew his sword.
Pure darkness flooded the blade—not corruption, but absolute control.
Bragoz stiffened.
"That glow… it can't be…"
Then Lusian stood before him.
One cut.
No clash.No thunder.
Just a whisper.
Bragoz looked down at his torso.
A thread of dark sap dripped to the ground.
The wound did not heal.
"What kind of darkness is that?"
"Yours," Lusian replied."Just properly used."
In desperation, Bragoz tried to heal using the essence of the tree.
But the surrounding corruption distorted the spell.
It drained twice the mana.
Lusian tilted his head.
"And every time you attack with darkness inside my range…"
A soft pulse vibrated around him.
"…I absorb a little of your mana."
Bragoz turned pale.
"Why the hell isn't your mana dropping?! Your level is lower!"
Lusian smiled faintly.
"Because you're strong.
But you're not smart."
Enraged, Bragoz unleashed his most devastating spell.
A demonic eruption meant to consume the entire battlefield.
It was his final mistake.
As he channeled the power, his connection to the Mother Tree tightened.
Lusian struck precisely there—
at the heart of the root binding Bragoz to the source.
The cut did more than break the connection.
It reversed it.
The tree's mana flowed backward—
as if nature itself wanted to expel the sickness infecting it.
Bragoz screamed, burning from the inside.
"NO! DON'T ACTIVATE—!"
Lusian remained calm.
"Too late."
The internal energy exploded.
The monster collapsed to his knees, body scorched by its own power.
His mana dropped like numbers falling off a cliff.
He was no longer a threat.
Only a remnant of what he once had been.
Lusian stepped forward, raising his sword.
The darkness recoiled back toward him, drinking the corrupted mana surrounding the battlefield.
Bragoz extended a trembling hand.
"Stop…"
"Goodbye, weekly drop."
The final cut fell.
Clean.
Bragoz fell.
Not like ordinary monsters.
Not with screams or explosions.
He fell…
as if the world inside his chest had simply gone out.
His body dissolved into reddish smoke, unraveling into strands of contaminated mana that evaporated before touching the ground.
No corpse remained.
No blood.
Only an empty space where, moments before, a demon had burned.
Lusian lowered his sword.
The blade trembled from the energy it had devoured, forcing him to exhale to release it.
"It's over," he murmured.
As Bragoz vanished, the black root that had bound him to the Mother Tree exploded into pure light.