Darkness melting away. An endless expanse of the open sea. Numerous rafts carrying demons drifted across the gently swaying surface of the water.
Splash—
The only sound that could be heard was the faint noise of the oars pushing against the viscous seawater and the flow of the polluted air due to the resulting headwind.
'The Sea of The Afterlife'
The demons rowing the oars had serious expressions as they tracked the scent of the World Tree that was somewhere in this place. It looked like a peaceful and comfortable journey on the surface, but in reality, the demons were exploring a 'hell' in the truest sense of the word. Beneath the rafts was a bottomless abyss. Countless weeds lurking below were waiting for an opportunity to devour them.
Wave—!
[Again!]
The moment the raft was violently rocked by a sudden wave, The ravenous weeds, unable to bear their hunger, sprang up from the black seawater. But even in this moment, the demons rowed without wavering.
[Catch them!] It wasn't the demons who shouted, but the bearded dwarves.
Whoosh—!
At that command, shadow spiders on the raft spread their webs. The black net caught the weeds that popped out from the sea.
[A big catch!] The shadow dwarves chuckled and raised their sharp axes and saw blades.
Crack! Crack!
Slash! Slash!
The sounds of tools being used echoed from the previously silent rafts.
[Good. With this much, we can double the size of the vessel.]
[We can't lose! Demons! If you still can't find the direction, why don't you go where there are more weeds!]
"…"
[Tsk tsk. You silent bunch. You look scary, but you're all cowards.]
"We're not scared." The demons couldn't help but be cautious, despite the urging of the shadow dwarves.
"You seem to keep forgetting, but we're not immortal like you."
[Heh. That's unfortunate.]
"Tsk." The demons decided to just keep their mouths shut.
They knew that the shadow dwarves didn't mean to mock them with those words, so it was awkward to be angry. The dwarves truly felt sorry for the demons. Because their souls were contaminated, they couldn't become shadow soldiers. Perhaps there was a way. Suho's flames of destruction had the power to purify contaminated souls, and if they used that power, maybe even the demon race could become shadow soldiers. But from the perspective of the demons who were still alive, it didn't make sense to ask Suho to burn them to death.
'Burn them with the power of destruction?'
If he failed to control the firepower, their souls would be annihilated instead of purified, and who would take responsibility for that? It was better to perish while fighting; that wasn't just a meaningless death. Similarly, being devoured by the weeds lurking in this sea was also a meaningless death. It wasn't just demise; their existence itself would be taken away by them, so the demons' cautiousness was only natural. Of course, the dwarves had a point. It was only natural that expanding the size of the raft from the beginning was advantageous for exploration in the long run, even if it meant taking risks. But they had to calculate that risk.
"If we go to a place with many enemies with this small raft, we'll be isolated."
The moment the number of weeds attacking them became overwhelmingly greater than the shadow spiders' webs, this crude raft would be helplessly destroyed. There were already dozens of rafts that were stranded like that. Fortunately, no demons had lost their lives yet. The moment the raft was stuck, Suho's shadow spiders would quickly carry the shadow dwarves and demons on their backs and move them to another safe raft. And they would stay there for a while, build a new raft, and become independent. The problem was that if this happened repeatedly, the expansion of the raft would slow down. Because they had to share resources.
[Tsk tsk. It's harder to find the World Tree than we thought.]
[Yeah. I thought the demons would find it as soon as they smelled it.]
"…The sea is too vast." Of course, the demons had an excuse.
"Besides, our senses are dulled in here."
This wasn't called the Sea of The Afterlife for nothing. Not only was it dark, but this Sea of The Afterlife was also dulling the demons' senses. It was as if a perception-impairing barrier was in place. In this situation, the only option was to use overwhelming numbers to detect the scent of the World Tree. They literally had to search every nook and cranny.
"…But we will definitely find it." Esil, receiving updates on the situation from her subordinate demons, gleamed with determination as if she could see through the dark sea.
The reason why she could know the situation of her subordinates scattered across this vast sea was thanks to the abilities she awakened upon becoming the King of Demons. No matter where or who found the World Tree, Esil would know immediately.
Lick. Esil suddenly smacked her lips as she recalled the leaf of the World Tree. Having tasted it once, Esil could understand why Vulcan was called the Demon of Greed. And why she herself became the 'Monarch of Gluttony.' For the demon race, the taste of the World Tree was truly the best.
'A way to increase the size of the raft continuously from the beginning…'
That's why Esil agreed with the shadow dwarves' suggestion. To gather a lot of materials to expand the raft, even if it meant taking some risks. And it was more efficient for the Monarch herself to take on such dangerous tasks rather than her weak subordinate demons. Esil had been leading the way since the beginning, searching for places with many weeds and hunting them. Now, the weeds had become cunning and were avoiding Esil's raft whenever they saw it.
[Hmm. The weeds aren't appearing at all.]
Esil nodded at the dwarf's words and focused all her senses to find traces of the weeds. But all that came back was a quiet silence. She clicked her tongue.
"Cunning bastards."
[At this rate, our ship will never be able to evolve beyond a raft, let alone a warship. I wish a big one would appear… Keuk?!]
"…?!" At that moment.
Stab—!
Suddenly, there was a sharp object protruding from the chest of the shadow dwarf who was grumbling next to her. Esil, startled, soon recognized what it was, and her expression brightened.
[Using Item: 'Shadow Key'.]
Whoosh—!
A hole spread in the shadow dwarf's body around the key, and a Shadow Gate opened.
[Demons of hell! Are you doing well?!] Beru's stern gaze, peeking from the Gate opened in the shadow dwarf, scanned Esil's surroundings sharply. And after seeing the size of the demons' raft, he roared,
[Kieek! You lazy bums! Why is the ship still so small?!]
"What can we do? The materials are all hiding because they're scared of us." Esil grumbled in response.
"I can dive and catch them myself, but it's too dangerous for my subordinates. In the first place, the weeds are also just waiting for us to do that and are only engaging in a battle of nerves. There's a limit to how much I can catch and distribute individually."
[Tsk. Knowing you would be like this, our liege has personally come to solve your problem.]
"What?"
[So be grateful and worship.]
Before the bewildered Esil, Suho appeared through the Shadow Gate. But he didn't come empty-handed.
Whoosh—
"Wh-what! What's this tree?!" Esil was shocked. Suho dragged a large, thick tree trunk through the Gate with tremendous strength.
"It's Elvenwood."
[…?!] All the shadow dwarves' faces were filled with shock at that answer.
[E-Elvenwood?!]
[The divine tree of the elves…!]
Splash—!
As Suho threw the charred 'Fragment of Elvenwood' onto the Sea of The Afterlife, it floated on the black surface. Although it was called a fragment for convenience, it was still incredibly large because he personally cut off all the roots and pulled out only the trunk. Its scale alone made the rafts the demons were riding on look insignificant. The demons and dwarves looked at Suho in shock.
[Kraa! As expected of our Master!]
[How did you obtain this precious wood?!]
"How is it? I thought it would be a shame to just burn it, so I brought it whole. Can we use it as material for the raft?"
[It couldn't be better!]
Oooooh—!
The shadow dwarves responded to Suho's words with cheers. And they looked at the Fragment of Elvenwood with eyes blazing with greed. And without prompting, they all jumped on it with saws and hammers. No matter how big it was, it was still just one tree. If they didn't hurry, other rafts would take this precious material away from them.
"Ah, be careful. That tree is still alive."
Whoosh—!
[…Keuk?!]
"Ah, too late." Before Suho could even finish his words, the branches attached to the Fragment of Elvenwood pierced the shadow dwarves' bodies.
But they were immortal soldiers in the first place. Even with their bodies skewered by the vicious branches, the shadow dwarves diligently sawed away. And they triumphantly raised the branches of Elvenwood stuck in their bodies like trophies and burst into laughter.
[Khahaha! What an honor!]
[To think I would touch the divine tree of the elves with my own hands! Of course, it's already dead, but still!]
[If I had done this while I was alive, that day would have been my death! Khahahaha!] The shadow dwarves couldn't help but be excited. It was only natural…
Elvenwood!
How many dwarves would have ever touched this precious divine tree of the elves? Probably almost none throughout history! Even those who did, probably just gently stroked the bark. Doing something as blasphemous as sawing it like this was unimaginable. How vicious and tenacious those pointy-eared elves were! Not to mention the spirits. But now they were personally sawing that precious tree! It was such an overwhelming honor that they wondered if it was even okay.
[My saw is having a feast today!]
[Building a ship with the divine tree of the elves?]
[And a ship to explore the Sea of The Afterlife?!]
[Kyaa! This is romance!]
[I would have no regrets even if I were to die today! Of course, I'm already dead…! Hahaha!]
Ordinary materials would quickly rot when they came into contact with the death air and water of the Sea of The Afterlife. But lumber like Elvenwood… It was disrespectful to call it ordinary. But something was strange.
[Hmm. But was Elvenwood originally this kind of tree?]
Even though they had only heard of Elvenwood and never actually seen it, The lumber that Suho brought was quite strange. The energy it emitted was strange. The way the branches wriggled incessantly, trying to attack them, was also very ominous.
[I heard it was very sacred.]
[This is no different from… a tree-type magical beast.]
"No." Refuting the dwarves' words, Esil was staring at Elvenwood with a stiff expression. The other demons had the same look.
"This tree… The divine tree of the elves? It feels very similar to the weeds here."
"You think so too?" Esil nodded in agreement with Suho's words.
"I felt it while fighting, but this Elvenwood somehow feels like something between the weeds of the afterlife and the World Tree." That was the nature of Elvenwood that Suho personally experienced. When he told Esil about what happened, she muttered with a serious expression,
"Don't tell me… you're saying that the weeds were preying on not only us demons but also the elves?"
"No one knows the exact details. The method is different, but they're quite similar, aren't they?"
The difference in method. Directly hunting versus raising to devour them. If the weeds of the afterlife became residents of the gap and hunted and devoured demons, It seemed plausible that Elvenwood, which slowly raised elves to devour them, was originally a weed too. Even the process was similar. If the weeds evolved by devouring 'dead souls,' Elvenwood grew by coexisting with 'spirits.'
"…They're certainly similar. Especially in that they have to struggle forever to survive. Even more so if that was the fate of the creatures that the 'Absolute Being' wanted, for the warriors who gradually grew stronger to be thrown into the war against the Rulers."
Esil felt a chill as if she had learned a truth about the world she didn't know. And it didn't matter whether Elvenwood was originally a weed or not. In the end, what the now-deceased Absolute Being wanted was to watch the never-ending war of his creations, so Elvenwood was an accessory that perfectly suited that purpose.
[But now it has become our excellent lumber.] Beru chuckled, unconcerned. And the shadow dwarves, who were excitedly sawing Elvenwood, looked at Suho and asked,
[Master, where did you get this Elvenwood?]
"Why?" Suho, sensing their greedy eyes, chuckled and replied,
"You want more?"
[Don't tell me it's possible?!] The dwarves were surprised and shouted in excitement.
[Look at the vitality of this Elvenwood!]
[It's so tenacious that even at this moment, it's extending its branches and catching the weeds hiding in the sea!]
[If we actively utilize this principle, creating a self-repairing warship of the afterlife isn't a dream!]
"Indeed." Suho was also watching Elvenwood wriggling its branches. And he nodded at the dwarves' sparkling eyes.
"I can get you as much as you want. Enough to build all your rafts with Elvenwood."
[Gasp?!]
Yes… The problem was that there was too much.