novelonline Chapter 3519 The Burned Tree
Chapter 3519 The Burned Tree
Chapter 3519 The Burned Tree
The trees seemed to grow directly from the ground of St. Teresa's Square, and their outward-spreading canopies soon reached the top of Shad's head.
As the shadow enveloped him, he took a step forward, his body suddenly growing larger as he used "Lagray's Leap" to appear in front of the tree trunk. The giant Shad took a deep breath, then wrapped his arms around the thick trunk of the giant tree.
The raging curse accumulated from devouring countless cursed beings of time surged into Shad's body through direct contact, but immediately fiery red cracks appeared on his hands. The cracks quickly spread throughout his body, and crimson sparks drifted from the cracks upwards and touched the tree canopy, causing the giant tree to shake violently.
"Burning Oath! Red Dragon Power!"
Ignoring the curse that was battling the Primordial Flame within him, Shad gripped the tree trunk tightly, attempting to uproot it. This was an experience he had gained from the Vista Forest; no matter how powerful the tree was, it was still just a tree. Once it was uprooted, many things would become much easier.
Is this considered a direct hug for Helena Carter?
"She" asked with a light laugh at that moment, and Xia replied in his heart, "This is not the time to joke," while the vines hanging down from the tree canopy above his head had already firmly bound his huge body.
The tree seemed to want to absorb Shad into its own part, but it couldn't, so it had to use these vines to restrict and interfere with Shad's power.
But these were just some vines, not a threat to Shad at this moment. With his feet planted firmly on the ground, the power of the Primal Flame, the Red Dragon, and the Titans appeared together, and scorching steam emanated from his skin, which even began to turn faintly red.
Dangerous noises came from the tree roots beneath the ground, and the giant tree was shaking violently; it was indeed being uprooted by Shad.
The tree, long corrupted by the curse, sensed the danger. The corpses hanging from its canopy all turned towards the giant beneath. Then, their eyes glowed, and thousands of deadly gray-green rays shot towards Shad's massive body.
Even though the tree was weakened at this moment, Shad dared not take such an attack head-on. He released the tree trunk, stepped back, and disappeared beneath it, leaving the trunk to be struck by its own attack amidst a rumbling sound.
Then the giant tree's canopy shook violently again, and the giant Shad landed directly above it. He stood up, took a deep breath under the dim sky, and opened his mouth towards the canopy below:
"Miraculous Technique - Dragon's Breath!"
He spewed out crimson flames, instantly igniting a large section of the tree canopy. But then the curse materialized, rising as a cold, gray mist that forcefully suppressed the spread of the flames.
At the same time, vines extending from the tree canopy had already bound the giant Shad's feet, but Shad didn't care. After taking another deep breath, he spewed out brilliant silver light towards the gray mist on the tree canopy, and then the moonfire directly ignited the curse. A shrill scream came from below the tree canopy. This time, Shad had truly damaged its essence.
The shaking of the tree canopy intensified, as the tree attempted to extinguish the moonfire by reversing time. However, Shad, whose legs were now completely bound by vines, had already retrieved the black key. A massive ritual array of sun, moon, and stars unfolded above the canopy, and then Shad plunged the enormous World Tree Staff deep into its base.
"A magical technique - the stability principle of the ancient elves!"
He plunged the end of his staff directly into the trunk of the Cursed Tree. The magic took effect, and the phantom of the lush giant tree superimposed itself on the Cursed Tree. The pure silver secret fire immediately spread throughout the entire giant tree at an even faster speed.
When it comes to dealing with curses, Moonfire is definitely the most professional.
Even the vines binding Shad were ignited by his flames, weakening their ability to confine space. Shad then used Ragnarok's Leap to return to the ground.
Before the thousands of corpses could attack him again, Shad breathed a mouthful of moonfire onto the treetops, and as the moonfire ignited the trunks, he quickly shrank back to avoid most of the gray-green curse rays:
"Nightfall Seal!"
A few attacks were absorbed by the night, and when the night broke, the giant Shad, who had reappeared, once again embraced the burning tree trunk. Then, with his roar, the giant tree tilted little by little until he actually pulled the tree directly out of the bricks and stones below the square.
The corpses of the cursed ones hanging from the trees fell one by one like apples, turning into dust and disappearing before actually hitting the ground.
He casually tossed the giant tree onto the ground, a deafening roar accompanied by plumes of smoke and dust shooting into the sky. Panting heavily, Shad reverted to his original form and, beside the now completely ablaze tree, retrieved a small, eerily pink perfume bottle and took a large gulp.
Once the tree fell, it was powerless to resist, as the moonfire had already covered two-thirds of its volume. Shad stood there watching as the tree was burned to ashes inch by inch by the moonfire. Although the tree had a physical form, its essence was already a materialized aggregate of curses; otherwise, it wouldn't have been burned so thoroughly.
White ash and yellow sand mingled and drifted past Shad, but the moonlight had no warmth. Instead, the white ash took away the little warmth left in this world, making Shad feel inexplicably cold.
But the calamity of time is not so easily killed. When the last wisp of moonlight went out and a thick layer of white ash covered the badly damaged St. Teresa Square, Shad was shocked to see a figure standing up in the thickest part of the white ash.
Helena Carter.
It was the familiar black-haired woman. She was not wearing any clothes at first, but when she stood up, the white dust around her quickly gathered towards her body until it wove together into a pure white dress.
But Xia De's expression didn't relax; instead, it became tense. Even from a distance of half a square, he could tell what kind of person the other was.
The soul named Helena Carter had long since vanished under the crushing weight of countless curses of time. Now that the giant tree was burned, the remaining essence was merely a shell re-formed based on the deepest memories within the cursed tree.
Its essence remains a cursed aggregate, a monster with that familiar face of Shad. Of course, it is impossible to bring back Ms. Helena Carter by burning down the Cursed Tree.
"I will send you away—Sword Pact!"
He reached out to the side, and the sword stuck in the doorway flew into Xia De's hand with a whoosh.
She whispered:
"You didn't leave the sword by the wall just for this, did you?"
Shad, of course, would not admit it. At this moment, the pure silver Moonlight Greatsword had already enveloped the blade of the Night Watchman. He charged forward, sword in hand, stepping on the white ash that covered the square.
Meanwhile, the "lady" standing on the other side of the square, dressed in a white dress, stretched out her hand, causing the white ash to gather in her hand into another white two-handed greatsword that looked very much like the "Moonlight Greatsword," which then charged towards Shad.
The two met in the center of the square, the pure silver holy sword clashing with the cursed white sword, and after a loud clang, their figures quickly separated again.
Shad staggered forward two steps, clutching his chest and looking down at the gash on his skin. His right hand, burning with moonlight, covered the wound, rapidly clearing away the curse's power.
The black-haired woman's white-ash greatsword had broken, and she too took two steps forward before staggering and collapsing to her knees. As she struggled to get up, Shad, having retrieved his staff from the white-ash, turned and hurled it behind her. The Staff of Yggdrasil, imbued with lightning spears, pierced her chest from behind, pinning her to the ground.
When Shad, having finished healing, approached it, white dust swirled around it in the wind. Moonfire is the most effective counter to this cursed aggregate; if Moonfire had possessed its current power during the Battle of Vistalin, the battle wouldn't have been so difficult.
He hesitated for a moment, then knelt on one knee in front of the black-haired woman. She raised her head shakily and looked at Shad, but he could not see any familiar light in her eyes.
Are you the moon?
It asked softly, and Shad shook his head. He usually wouldn't speak at times like this, but this time he took the initiative to ask:
Do you remember Danist Gustav?
He stared into its eyes, but it did not answer. Instead, it gradually dissipated in the wind, leaving only a card slowly falling beside the black staff.
Xia De sighed deeply, picked up the card but didn't look at its contents. He wasn't disappointed; the story of the past was over, and whatever happened here was irrelevant to him.
The past Lacey committed suicide, Ms. Helena Carter will never return, Sister Daphne turned to ashes in the fire, and Adele was left alone in the post-apocalyptic world. But none of that matters. Adele will eventually be taken away by him, and as for the others, they will all have their own different fates in his time.
This was the first time Shad had defeated the Cursed Tree, which was the "Moon Sorcerer" in disguise, and there would be a second time in his time. The Cursed Tree at that time had not absorbed so many curses, nor did it possess the "Doomsday Power" that only existed after the apocalypse, so its power would be weaker than the tree that is now suppressed.
He already knew how to fight the tree; next time, the tree would not be burned, but would bear fruit containing the souls that he and Daniste longed for.
The thick layer of white ash covering the square was blown away and disappeared completely by the wind when Xia De walked back to his doorstep from the center of the square. When he turned back with his sword in hand, all he saw was a mess on the square with its stone slabs warped, yellow sand rolling on the ground, and the traces of the cursed tree completely gone.
Shad didn't care about any of that. He struggled to open the door, which was stuck in the frame, and went back into his house. Now, all he had to do was wait for Adele to return.