A heavy pressure bore down on my shoulders.
It seemed I was a bit hasty in attacking this place. Even if I had grown stronger, this was Flower’s headquarters. I forgot about the possibility of encountering an executive here.
With so many places to break into, I thought this was another outskirt location, like those cult sites connected to Lee Seonghan that were outside their control.
‘Who would’ve thought I’d run into an executive here?’
Should I run? The thought crossed my mind. I knew Cistus could manipulate doppelgangers. From my previous encounter, I knew that her self-destruction could deal critical damage, not only to my teacher but even to me as I was now.
A walking bomb that can turn an entire factory to dust. ‘The suicidal flower, Cistus.’ Sumpee, Goroshi, and I once barely managed to block an explosion by pouring all our magical energy into a barrier. Even then, it was not enough, and we were exposed to the blast once. That time, I almost died.
<Master.>
‘Yes?’
<That one… is rather disturbing.>
‘Disturbing? What do you mean?’Luci the woodpecker sharpened her spirit gaze as she watched Cistus.
<The Spirit’s Eye can see through not only magical power but also its essence.>
‘I don’t see anything, though.’
<That’s because you have not yet reached that level of spirit assimilation, Master.>
The Cistus I saw. She looked like a young child, with short limbs. Even in this spirit-fused state, I could tell the magical energy within her was packed so tightly it couldn’t be ignored.
Luci hesitated slightly in her speech. It was as if she was questioning whether she was really seeing what she thought. Her voice trembled with fear.
<Neither alive nor dead… no, it’s…>
‘Calm down. What is it?’
<…I see children’s corpses.>
What composed the being known as Cistus.
Silence followed, heavy and still. The branches of the sweet oak swayed wordlessly.
Children used to create this doppelganger? My gaze turned to Cistus’s face.
She looked like an ordinary child. But now that I looked closer, her features seem oddly unnatural. An unsettling valley where someone’s eyes and nose seem to have been forcibly attached. A cold sweat broke out on my back. It’s like looking at a doll that imitated a human.
Cistus watched me from afar. Her eyes scanned me from top to bottom. Suddenly, she took a step forward.
Cistus’s doppelganger vanished before my eyes.
-Whoosh!
I barely managed to perceive her movement. I twisted my neck back just in time to avoid a kick.
Her blunt kick sent a wave through the air, scattering the dust that had collected on the church floor with the gust she created.
“…Oh.”
Cistus’s tone was one of faint amazement. It was obvious she was assessing me.
‘The first time we met, she seemed to recognize me. But now she doesn’t?’
When I met Cistus in the factory, I had not hidden my identity. She had looked as though she recognized me, and I could now guess why. Within Flower, my identity was already well-known among the executives. As the heir to the Tree Spirit King, I was no secret.
‘Even if she doesn’t recognize me, I have no way of knowing why.’
I thrust my fist forward. I turned my staff into a form of leather gloves that wrapped around both hands.
‘I don’t even know if doppelgangers share memories.’
As I infused it with magical power, an ink-colored flame spread.
‘I don’t even know when this doppelganger was created.’
It’s possible it was created not long ago. Or maybe it was a spare one, left unused with no knowledge imprinted on it.
Whichever it was, it didn’t matter to me.
Kidnapping children seemed to be part of Cistus’s scheme. Normally, such actions would be prohibited even within Flower’s territory, as they risked turning public opinion against them. But seeing Cistus’s doppelganger here suggested she acted despite that. It implied a rift among the executives.
[…]
The sweet oak was too terrified to speak. Its branches shivered like an aspen in fear.
“I’ll delay your punishment for now.”
[Lord Ci-Cistus.]
Cistus slowly lowered her foot from the air, her expression still blank.
Naturally, I didn’t need to see to know her next move. Without time to think, I commanded the spirits internally.
“Both of you, fall back.”
[Mas- Ahh!]
Eleonore was thrown back by the shockwave.
-Bang!
A crater formed in the stone floor of the church. Cistus had stomped down with her heel.
A child’s body. Despite the physical limitations of such a form for martial arts, the aura of killing intent from her fists was nothing to underestimate.
There was no sense that I was facing a mere child. Lucy and Eleonore were flung back from the impact, soaring through the air. Perhaps aiming at the spirits, Cistus bent her knee.
Given my opponent, there was no way I could engage in an all-out brawl.
-Boom!
I struck at Cistus’s soaring body.
She blocked with crossed arms, naturally shifting her focus to me.
‘I can handle this.’
My opponent was a suicide weapon. Her pure combat power wasn’t all that high.
If she were solely a being of combat, things might be different. But at best, she was on the higher end of A-rank power. She couldn’t control her strength well. Most likely an incomplete or a simple defensive measure set up here.
I infused my body with magic, boosting my speed.
-Boom!
Cistus’s body, suspended in the air, plummeted to the floor. As her head broke through the ground, blood oozed from her face, held in my grasp.
A loathsome sensation washed over me, repulsive in that I was forced to face a child.
“…You.”
Cistus spoke through clenched teeth between my fingers.
“You’re strong.”
She could not even fully grip my forearm with both hands. In other words, she was just that small.
Blood trickled from Cistus’s eyes as her body convulsed violently.
“I have no choice. I must abandon this body.”
From between my fingers, the child’s eyes stared at my face.
“For a creature wrapped in human skin, you’re impressive.”
“……”
She spoke longer and more naturally than she did before. The emotionless gaze and voice remained the same, but perhaps the quality of the doppelgangers was improving over time.
Cistus continued.
“Congratulations.”
As if intending to implant trauma in me.
“You just killed ten innocent children.”
Cistus’s face contorted grotesquely. One by one, the faces of children appeared. Each one, soaked in blood, on the verge of screaming, flashed before my eyes.
This must be Cistus’s plan as well. It’s easier to kill a hero with guilt than with dynamite.
The reason hunters fall into madness. It was because of beings like Cistus.
I raised my fist. After showing me all ten children’s faces, she might self-destruct. I brought my fist down, ending it before he could.
Maybe the children were alive inside Cistus’s body. Maybe they could still be saved. Maybe the faces I saw were really theirs.
These thoughts. They crossed my mind, but I was already too weary to care. Cistus’s cruel intentions were pointless.
-Crunch!
Her head crumbled, and it was over.
[Master, are you okay!?]
“Yes.”
I wiped off the thick blood clinging to my fist with magic. Then I covered Cistus’s body with sand.
I killed ten but saved ten more. Glancing at the children behind me, I turned back to the sweet oak.
[…Lord…Cis…tus?]
The sweet oak whispered in shock. It hadn’t anticipated the executive’s defeat. Its fighting spirit vanished. As I approached, its roots recoiled in horror, trying to block my way.
“Now.”
Cistus’s punishment. It was my turn to deal it out.
“Spill everything you know, you wretch.”
“She’s dead.”
As expected. She sent one of the countless doppelgangers, but it didn’t fulfill its role.
“I should have granted it permission to self-destruct.”
Cistus leaned lazily to one side of her throne. No one was around her. Even her attendants were her doppelgangers; every aspect of her daily life was managed by them.
It’s possible only because of her power and resources.
“I thought it could at least relay some information. It couldn’t even do that.”
Useless creature. Even an innocent tree was ultimately sacrificed.
Just one church in Texas. It wouldn’t matter if it collapsed at any moment, and given its location, it was difficult to support. Nobody would mind if it were targeted. No secrets or critical information were dealt with there, and they refrained from any terrorist activity, so even the Hunters and the Church wouldn’t intervene.
It was one of hundreds of locations set up to supply doppelgangers. Even so, losing it along with a doppelganger was a shock.
“…I suppose it’s not unusual for a defective product to appear.”
Cistus narrowed her eyes, staring at the long red carpet stretched before her. Its end was so distant it felt as if it extended into infinity, like an entire fortress in itself.
The size of four or five football fields combined. It was packed densely with her doppelgangers.
Thirty thousand.
Every single one was a doppelganger of Cistus. The number of victims sacrificed to create these went without saying.
Each one required additional control to be used properly, and those set aside for self-destructive missions were kept separately. Each was equivalent to a B to A-ranked Hunter. Cistus, with a body that appeared about fifteen years old, yawned as she surveyed her doppelgangers.
Her own combat power was far from lacking. One could understand why Cistus rose to the rank of Third Leaf.
“Not much longer now.”
Revenge against the Tree People and the World Tree. Cistus smiled with a smoldering heart.
––
Dealing with the thoroughly demoralized sweet oak was simple.
It didn’t even think to resist, shrinking away.
[…]
I sent Tina and the other children to a slum I knew of. Then, I was alone with the two spirits. There were still some priests remaining, but since Cistus’s doppelganger’s death, they had no intention of coming here.
[Hurry up and talk!]
The assertive woodpecker pecked furiously at the branches with her tiny claws.
[Just kill me already.]
“You’re being difficult.”
Just how deeply was this thing connected to Flower to guard its secrets like this?
[…It’s all for humanity. You’re human too. Why are you doing this to us?]
“Oh, look at this.”
Now it was even appealing to me. I never thought I’d hear a tree speak with so much emotion.
Joining Flower for the sake of protecting human rights? If I generously conceded, maybe that was possible. Even trying to persuade me was understandable, considering Guseul’s case.
“But you’re still a tree.”
By now, I knew the truth. I had learned a lot about how the World Tree treated humans from the Sage. I understand why it did so.
I didn’t necessarily oppose that belief. It’s just that Flower and I were entangled, inevitably, and I had no choice but to fight. The same went for the World Tree.
“Are you telling me you joined Flower out of love for humanity? And you expect me to believe that?”
[…If you don’t want to believe it, don’t. But it’s the truth.]
“And yet, this supposed ‘lover of humanity’ is kidnapping children to kill them?”
[Kill them? Lord Cistus is only protecting them from the vile World Trees.]
“Oh.”
This one’s completely delusional. From what I had seen of Cistus’s doppelganger, that was nonsense.
Besides, the spirit Luci identified it long ago. That doppelganger was created from the children’s sacrifices.
[She promised to give starving humans a safe home.]
On her own body, no less.
There’s no convincing a madman. I had no choice but to use threats to make it talk.
I took a step closer to the sweet oak.
[Wh-why are you coming closer?]
“I’ve told you already. Tell me everything you know. Why, how, and for what purpose is this place operating?”
[I won’t say anything. I’d rather die.]
“Is that so?”
Then there was no other option.
“Let’s see how long you can hold out without talking.”
I reached out and tore a branch off in one swift motion. Grabbing its robe, I yanked it backward.
-Rip!-
The cloth tore, revealing the smooth body of the tree.
[…Whimper.]
The reaction was as annoying as ever. The sweet oak covered its knots and body with its branches. As I lifted a branch, a knot it had been hiding came into view. It was trembling.
“Not going to talk?”
[…Are you going to torture me… sexually?]
“Trees are strangely good at withstanding pain.”
[…Ha, ha. I won’t tell. No matter what you do to me.]
Breaking branches and torturing until it spoke. It’s useless with a lunatic like this. In this case, something like brainwashing or blurring its senses entirely is more effective.
“Luci.”
[Yes, Master.]
“Get on top of this.”
[…What? Yes, understood.]
Though puzzled, the woodpecker perched on top of the sweet oak. I stroked the woodpecker and spoke to her.
“You stay inside.”
[Wh-why, Master? Am I not helpful?]
“It might be a bit too much for you to watch.”
[…I, I can handle it.]
I released the summoning without a word.
[Mas… Master-]
The sparrow called out to me urgently as she returned to the spirit realm. Only Luci and I were left. As a soldier, Luci probably wasn’t unfamiliar with such experiences.
[Um, Master. What are you planning?]
Luci asked cautiously. I replied dryly.
“Woodpecker.”
[…Yes?]
“Peck it.”
Three seconds passed before she understood.
[…!!!!]
The sweet oak was horrified.
[W-wait a minute.]
“Scared?”
[What… what kind of cruel act is this?]
It was already too late. Lucy, though initially shocked, quickly understood her mission. She started moving her head back and forth rapidly.
When a woodpecker pecks into a tree, it does so at a rate of 20 times per second. With a speed of 7 meters per second, it thrusts its head back and forth.
When football players collided, the impact force was around 80g. The force of a woodpecker striking a tree with its beak was 1200g.
[Ah, ah… Ahhh, no!]
For something thought up on the spot, it was quite effective torture. I sat down, watching the trembling sweet oak.
“If you don’t want your knot to be reduced to pulp, you’d better start talking.”
<…Master, you’re so cruel.>
I was aware of that too.
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