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“That’s an amazing ritual, right?”
It was an unexpected question, but Renu proudly answered it. There was no reason for him to deny it. This ritual was their pride—the thing that would make the Iron Tribe great.
“Of course! My ancestors spent a great amount of time and effort creating this ritual! Why? Are you getting scared now? It’s too late. You will be ripped into shreds like I said and—!”
“Ah, I’ve heard enough,” Zich cut off Renu’s words. There was no need for him to hear Renu’s unachievable delusions at this rate. Zich also felt no reason to help cool down Renu’s reddened face. “I admit—it really is an amazing ritual.”
The tree of fire’s mana was truly immense. He could feel it by just standing in the room where the tree was. Thus, a ritual that could control such a tree was definitely extraordinary.
‘The Iron Tribe must have really used all their skills and abilities to create this ritual in secret.’ Considering that it was a ritual made from elves who specialized in magic and had incredibly long lives, it was no doubt a great ritual. “It’s not perfect, right?”
“…Are you planning to insult the ritual our ancestors created?!” Renu let out his fury, but it didn’t concern Zich. He also didn’t mean to insult the ritual; he simply spoke the truth.
“No matter how great this ritual is, the difference between your guys’ and the tree’s power is too large.”
In comparison to the tree of fire, the group of outstanding elders was no more than a gathering of a couple of ants. No, the difference in power might have been even more than that.
“To make up for that difference, the ritual has to be annoyingly elaborate.” Even Zich acknowledged the ritual because it was running well without any experiments or targets despite its sophisticated and complex steps. Fundamentally, these kinds of rituals tested the participants’ limits.
Zich raised Windur up high. Renu felt nervous as he looked at Zich’s movements suspiciously.
‘That sword is…’ Surprisingly, it was the sword that Zich had used to open the room that housed the tree of fire. Due to the hectic battle, Renu didn’t have the chance to look at it carefully, but now that Zich had raised it upwards, he took a closer look at it.
“That kind of sophisticated ritual will disappear in vain if any kind of abnormality happens inside the tree of fire. Isn’t that right, Renu?”
No matter how sophisticated the ritual was or how amazing the elders were, the fire tree’s power exceeded everything. The only reason why they could barely control it through a ritual was because it was a mass of power that existed with no specific purpose.
“Then the way to deal with the power is simple. I just have to give it a change beyond what you guys calculated.” There was some sense to Zich’s words, but that was the extent of it. They were simply reasonable words, and Renu wasn’t swayed at all.
“Sure, why don’t you try? As if you could alter the tree of fire’s power.” Renu ridiculed him and added, “If you can.”
“…Kuhkuhkuh!” Zich let out a low laugh.
‘Ah, I really can’t endure it any longer.’ The thought of Renu’s confident face changing into one of humiliation and rage stirred up Zich’s desire for his dark and dreadful hobby. Whenever an enemy who opposed him displayed this behavior, Zich felt happiness from the bottom of his heart. He had promised Lyla that he didn’t intend to become the Demon Lord for a while, but that didn’t mean he would give up this hobby.
“A while ago, I saw a unique tree.” Thus, Zich couldn’t stop his mouth from moving, because it was more enjoyable once his opponent knew why, how, and for what reason he was receiving this pain. “When I approached it, my sword suddenly resonated with the tree.”
Zich stared at the tree of fire and continued, “Since this tree is very special, I think it’s similar to the one I saw before. Don’t you think this tree would also resonate with my sword?” Zich thought the tree that he saw from the cemetery and the tree in Mentis were among the five special trees that Romanne mentioned. “The most important thing is that my sword assured me of my thoughts.”
Zich raised his sword and walked three steps forward. “Then if I do this, what do you suppose will happen to your ritual?”
Wing!
Windur’s body trembled.
Craaaackle!
Flames rapidly erupted from the tree of fire.
“W-What!”
Although the flames were rough and heavy, they had always followed the ritual’s mana; with Zich’s actions, the flames began to jump around like crazy. Like a wild horse that had realized the beauty of freedom and desired to go outside, the flames freed themselves from the ritual’s control.
“Endure it! Endure it somehow!” Renu hastily said and raised his mana. The elders also raised their mana to the limit. No, they were already at their limit, and the mana they were pouring out right now was what they got in exchange for their life force.
The flames’ power weakened a bit. It seemed like they were under control, but soon, the rough flames raised their heads again.
“Kuuuuh!” the elders groaned. They were all sweating, and some were even bleeding from their noses.
It was a battle between the raging flames and those who tried to contain them. Renu and the elders battled with their lives on the line, but there was also someone who looked completely unconcerned.
“Oh! As expected! This happens!” Zich was having fun, seeing the colorfully raging flames. Then, he stomped towards Renu and the elders. He placed some distance between him and them and asked Renu who was concentrating hard, “How is it? Is it endurable?”
“…” Renu did not reply. He couldn’t even afford to reply as the raging fire went on. He even closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. Since the ritual wasn’t completely destroyed yet, he believed that there were still some parts of the fire that would protect them.
Unfortunately, there was no way for him to clamp down his ears like he did with his eyes. Moreover, as an elf, his sense of hearing was extremely keen.
“Hey, hey, don’t ignore me. How is the situation? What does it feel like to have blazing flames roaring all over you?”
“…”
“I only swung at the ritual because you told me to. As expected, doesn’t it feel awesome? Isn’t this ritual like cracked glass? Even if you just touch it super lightly, it completely shatters. Or is it more like a sandcastle crumbling down in front of you? I wonder how those idiotic fools who took hundreds and thousands of years to make this would feel? Ah, sorry. Did I just insult your ancestors? I’m sorry, that really wasn’t my intention. You believe me, right? I mean, come on, think of our relationship.”
“…”
“Wow, but you are actually pretty good at enduring? You seem like a dandelion seed that would fly away at a kid’s sneeze, so I thought you would give up after a few seconds.”
“…”
“Fine. I guess I’ll have to praise you since you worked this hard. Yeah, I actually really like people who are hard workers. When I watch pathetic low-lives who have no shred of talent crawl around like bugs, I even start thinking about the meaning of life.”
“…”
“Ah, what is the meaning of life! Why were you born in this world when all you did was chase after an unreachable dream and wander here and there. All you can do is pray with old farts and meet your tragic end! What is the point of such an existence!”
“…”
“Good, you’re doing great! I’ll be cheering for you. Work hard, harder! Work hard, work!”
“…”
“Hey, hey, hey! You have to focus a little harder! The second old fart next to you is about to kick the bucket! He’s one of your precious tribe’s elders! You can’t let him die! I’ve already decreased the number! Now, it won’t be too much pressure on you. You have to work harder to make up for that gap!”
Crunch!
Blood dripped out of Renu’s mouth; he clenched his teeth so hard that his gums collapsed. The elders next to him were also red with anger and humiliation. Was it because their minds were disturbed? Or was it going to end up like this either way? They completely lost control of one flame.
Explode!
“Aghhhhhhh!”
One of the elders was very unlucky, and the flame directly hit his body. The flame was still on the weak side, but this was actually misfortunate for the elder. The elder had to experience his body burning alive. The only comfort he had was that he still had his mouth to scream, and this signalled the beginning of the ritual’s collapse. It might have been because one elder was no longer able to support the ritual, or the other elders were saddened by their comrade’s death, but the ritual was now significantly weakened.
The tree of fire was already forced to go berserk; with Windur’s connection, the fire tree became even more ferocious and let out huge flames. It was a majestic but also horrifying sight. The raging flames began to spread to the rest of the room.
“Ughhhh!
“Ahhhhhhhhck!”
The elders covered in flames made pitiful screams and ran around, but the fire didn’t stop.
Splash!
One of the elders stopped the ritual and splashed water magic on the burning elders, but the flames still weren’t extinguished. On the other hand, the elder who used water magic was also swept up by the flames. Screams erupted outside of the room as well. It seemed as if the tree’s flames had spread to other parts of the castle. However, the flames were unable to come close to Zich.
Zich stared at Windur. “You really are useful.”  It had really been a good decision for him to choose this sword instead of Tornium. Windur reflected the flames and let out a pale red light; it looked as if it felt prideful at Zich’s praise.
“Yoooouuuuuuu!” The ritual and everything else had already crossed the river of no return. The elders rushed to Zich to try to at least kill him before they died. While not even caring about the flames covering their bodies, they ran to Zich with all their might. It was a terrifying sight, but to Zich, it was the same as flies rushing to him.
Swish!
It was a clean swing; with just this swing, Zich was able to cut the elders cleanly in half.
Thud! Thud! Without being able to reach Zich, the elders turned into burning corpses.
Crasssh! A fireball landed on top of the corpses. The already burning corpses immediately turned into ash. With this, two of the last elders were gone. The elders who locked themselves into this stuffy and dark basement for their tribe’s future were all dead now. The only one left was Zich who was holding Windur and Renu, who was sprawled underneath the fire tree. The flames also avoided Renu, and Zich recalled what happened when he opened the door to this room for the first time.
‘That time, the flames also avoided him as well.’
Of course, the flames didn’t completely avoid him, so Renu was left with severe burn marks. However, everyone swallowed by the flames met their demise. Thinking back to this event, Zich thought there was a way for Renu to avoid the flames. Zich walked in front of Renu, but Renu could not even raise his head.
“Did you roughly finish everything you could do?” Zich said with a friendly and kind voice as if they were childhood friends.