novelraw Chapter 906: Joining Forces
Chapter 906: Joining Forces
Surrounded by a dark thicket, six-legged creatures diligently cleared away the black, ooze-like muck that had fallen onto the snow.
Silence fell over the clearing in front of the hut.
Prusius was dumbfounded.
Ophelia regarded Lu Li and the Mother of the Swamp with a strange expression.
The Deep God manipulated his power, condensing droplets of water.
"My bloodline?"
Lu Li raised his head, his gaze calm as he looked at the Mother of the Swamp, who was enveloped in a maternal aura.
"Humanity... so that is what you call it."
Prusius breathed a sigh of relief, and the dark red light flickering from the crack in Ophelia's body subsided.
"It is a gift that I bestow upon your offspring."The Deep God alone used pure water to lift a round, dense, pearl-like drop of light-red water.
"It will be blessed by an Ancient God."
"Um... Your Highness, God of the Sea, I do not believe they meant a child when they spoke of 'humanity'."
"Thank you, Ancient God, for this gift..."
The Mother of the Swamp performed an ancient aristocratic ritual, accepting the water droplet as if it were a moving star. Threads emerged from her fingertips, weaving around the shimmering drop to form the shape of a necklace.
The ugly, thick body of the insect approached Lu Li, its form low and seemingly radiating a soft glow, and placed the newly made necklace around his neck.
"This is 'The Bequest of Duke Tuladin'."
"A proverb... from the kingdom... of Allen: Duke... Tuladin... before... his beloved... noble... presents... her... a precious... item... bestowed... by the... royal... family."
Ophelia whispered the origin of the proverb.
If the Mother of the Swamp's gravestone wasn't standing there, perhaps She would have told Lu Li stories of the past twenty-four years, asked about his experiences, marveled at his youth. But now, Her divinity prevailed over Her humanity.
"Friendly... deity, tell Me of your intentions."
"We wish to know about the situation in the Northern Shadow Swamp."
Lu Li's attention shifted from the necklace around his neck.
"The Northern Shadow Swamp..."
The Mother of the Swamp slowly straightened, recalling and speaking of Her enemies: a grove of trees.
There were no other enemies, only a grove of trees that had taken root and expanded, encroaching upon the Mother of the Swamp's territory.
The tree roots Lu Li had encountered were their attacks. But the northern shore was their northernmost border, and the defenses there were weak. If this had been the disputed territory bordering what the Mother of the Swamp was consuming, they would have experienced the full horror of the twisted forest firsthand.
"They awakened suddenly twenty years ago and began to spread, perhaps for some reason. Have you come because of this?.."
"We are searching for something."
Lu Li did not elaborate further. A vengeful spirit and an Ancient God whose power was even weaker than a vengeful spirit—even if the Mother of the Swamp had lost most of her strength due to twenty years of encroachment, She still possessed the power of an evil god.
If She coveted the body of the Ancient God, though it might not have been a bad thing, still—
"My mutilated body is here, young foreign deity. Do you not wish to return it to Me?"
The Deep God proudly declared his intention.
"Thou shouldst use the archaic 'thou'," the Mother of the Swamp corrected the Deep God's unpracticed, archaic pronunciation.
"Thou..." the Deep God repeated.
An evil god of meager power was instructing an Ancient God who once stood at the pinnacle. When the Deep God had mastered the word, the Mother of the Swamp answered His invitation:
"I cannot withstand the power of this forest."
"Our combined strength is greater than yours alone," Lu Li said simply.
The Mother of the Swamp thought for a moment and accepted the offer of cooperation, just as she had twenty-four years ago.
"...Please, follow Me to the battlefield."
As night fell, glowing plants, like laughing elves, ran across the frozen swamp, following them, sometimes struggling to take root in the frozen ground.
The clearing where the Mother of the Swamp resided and the battlefield were only about 1.5 kilometers apart. This was Her forward line of defense against the invasion.
Before it could be captured.
Guardian banyans stood at the edge of the darkness. In the pitch-blackness, where the light of the glowing plants and oil lamps could not reach, only the sound of whipping strikes tearing through the air and the occasional crash could be heard.
The branches and roots of the trees were not suited for combat, but the Mother of the Swamp's servants were even less so.
Only the guardian banyans could offer some resistance, which was the reason She had held out for twenty years.
"Tomorrow, this place will be lost. We will fall back to the next line of defense..."
The Mother of the Swamp's words reminded them of the six-legged creatures they had seen tending to the banyans on their way.
This war was a protracted one. But as the end drew near, the Mother of the Swamp's defeat was inevitable.
The sounds of battle from the darkness suddenly intensified, growing fiercer and more furious, coming as densely as a thunderstorm.
"It has sensed My arrival, and yours..." whispered the Mother of the Swamp, and she and Lu Li retreated from the front line, returning to the quiet house in the clearing.
The Mother of the Swamp invited them into Her home, as the cold outside was no place for conversation.
Entering the house through a wooden door that resembled a gate from a giant's fairy tale, they felt a sense of light and warmth, as if they had returned to human civilization—if not for the tools scattered throughout the house, which were more suited to the Mother of the Swamp.
The books Lilia had brought from the ruins of Tenebrae were not enough to fill the corner shelves. The Toyalagon family crest, her symbol, was imprinted on the most prominent wall.
"It... is not like Anna."
Once inside, the Mother of the Swamp shed her divinity, and her humanity became more pronounced.
"Ophelia," Lu Li said.
They resumed their conversation in the light of a fish-oil lamp.
The twisted forest was clearly not an easy opponent, at least not for the two of them and the Mother of the Swamp.
And therein lay the problem.
They wanted to defeat the forest to recover the mutilated body of the Deep God.
But only by recovering the mutilated body could they defeat the forest.
"Let flame... purify."
Ophelia remembered the fear the tree roots had shown when they came into contact with lava.
"It wields the power of the Ancient God's mutilated body... flame will not be able to burn the forest."
The burning oil lamp was reflected in the Mother of the Swamp's eyes as Ophelia's words were spoken.
"Then... let it be... hotter... than flame."
...
The Swamp Road.
The earthen road that once separated the northern and southern swamps was now replaced by the impenetrable canopy of twisted trees.
A hundred meters above the ground, Lu Li, Ophelia, and the Deep God were lifted by water. Ophelia extended her charred arm, and a searing, bright lava, like blood, streamed down toward the forest.
To destroy the twisted forest with lava, they needed a fire powerful enough to engulf the entire swamp.
Flames gradually appeared, the sound of the air being sliced apart became distinct, and chaos erupted over the burning canopy—
And a sudden attack.
Appearing from nowhere, tree roots that had turned into blurred shadows shot out from the twisted forest, wrapping around the bodies of Ophelia and the Deep God and pulling them toward the ground.
Ophelia melted the roots and saved the Deep God. The newly formed water caught the falling pair, and they retreated to the edge with Lu Li.
"Thou... defile... an ancient... deity!"
Looking down at the forest, which was thrashing its roots and extinguishing the flames, the Deep God whispered in anger.
Defeat had come suddenly, as if they had been prepared for it.
"You... are learning... to speak... like me," Ophelia said.
"My apologies..."
The Deep God, mimicking the Mother of the Swamp's ritual, bowed slightly.
Only Lu Li remained calm, thoughtfully recalling the brief, unsuccessful encounter.
All the attacks from the twisted forest had bypassed him.