Zefra and Skyrith had important business to attend to so they left the moment we came to the bottom roots of the world tree. They’ll be watching the battle with holograms and will send people to help me if I struggle.

–Please be careful.

“Y-Yeah.”

Xantha hugged my head, causing me to suffocate inside her jugs.

“Before I forget..” I took off my dimensional ring, “Can you perhaps tell me what this is?”

It was the tree branch I found in the Four Palace.

Xantha’s eyes opened wide.

–This is...

Xantha took it into her hands and examined it.

–This staff has pure spirit essence inside of it.

Pure spirit essence?

“What is that?”

–This is what our race calls the mana of the World Tree. Pure essence is mana of the purest quality. Where did you find this artifact?

“Ah, I err... found it at an auction...”

I couldn’t really reveal the United Empire’s existence.

–...What foolish humans. They sold an artifact that could change the very nature of magic. I believe that this staff was crafted when the World tree was still a small sapling. Its mana was far more abundant than it is now.

“...?”

I looked at the giant tree a few meters away from us. How huge would it have been when it was a sapling?

“Does that mean it would be effective as a staff?”

–Yes. Your mana circulation will be better and your control will slightly improve. As for spirits magic, it can increase the capacity of spirits you hold up to two fold.

So that meant I could hold two million spirits inside my body if I can use the staff effectively.

–There’s a problem though...

“Huh?”

–The overall frame of the branch is crumbling. It might last a few more days before it crumbles down. If that happens then the ancient power it holds could be released.

“Isn’t there a way to fix it?”

Being able to have a staff that increases my spirits capacity would indeed be helpful.

–...Hmm... if I can find a suitable host for the essence then perhaps...

She then looked back at me.

–Do you have another staff on you right now?

“Ah? Oh, yeah.”

I took Redheart out of the dimensional ring. I forget time and time again to buy a suitable magic crystal. I already knew that I’d never find one as good as Edna’s again.

–I will see what I can do with this. The craftsmanship is excellent so I will find a way to fuse the two.

“Thank you so much, Lady Xantha.”

I bowed politely.

She’s already the one who’ll fix my cores after I get back and now she’s doing this favour too.

–Think nothing of it. I am glad to help. Oh?

She looked behind me. I followed her gaze.

“There they are...”

–It seems we have run out of time. Please be careful. I won’t be of much help to you in this battle. Please use my life force wisely.

She kissed my forehead before walking away with the two staves.

I breathed deeply to calm myself.

I was about to take on an army.

The undead seemed to have noticed me standing near the World Tree.

He was big unlike his soldiers of skeletons.

–A human in the land of the sacred elven race?

A thunderous voice carrying both authority and sovereignty reached my ears.

◇◇◇

The Undead King looked at the single boy standing in his army’s way.

He was expecting to fight an entire platoon of elves to make his way down to the World Tree’s core. If he can obtain even a fraction of the core then he will greatly expand his own powers by consuming the fragment.

Since he is an undead, consuming in his case would mean to absorb its power by planting it in his chest where his heart used to be. It can act as his heart as an undead and the source of his power. The knowledge and wisdom of the World Tree’s spirit could also become his to obtain just by reading the scripts left behind by the Ancient Elves that went extinct millennia ago.

It is said that if the World Tree Spirit awakens then the end of the world is near. The Dryad Queen said this herself. No one believes it since nothing like that has ever occurred even if the Four Heroes are no more.

The Undead King who they refer to as the Litch King has a goal for doing this. He is in search of his comrades who seemingly disappeared when the “Red Chaos” happened back then.

The Red Chaos had many names. What occurred during such a crisis was related to the Red Abyss dungeon. Millions of monsters would pour out of the worlds of the labyrinths from the Red Abyss. The entire continent was almost wiped out when the Disaster monsters were released.

Disaster class monsters are monsters that have lived for thousands of years. During all those years their strength would grow to incredible heights. This differed from species to species, however.

Monsters like dragons, titans, giants and undead like vampires are all included in Disaster class.

Only Alucard was the one who helped fight against this threat. The Saintess was long dead since she killed herself. The Great Sage disappeared after destroying many nations and cities. The third hero....

The Undead King has no clue who this third hero is. But whenever he hears the names of the heroes, he’d have a physiological reaction. A shiver down his spine.

This might just be an illusion since he is undead. He does not know who his comrades are but he knows they existed and he’s determined to find them.

Over the years, his memories and power dwindled from what they once were. He could even classify as a disaster class being back when he was alive. That meant that he was similar in strength to people like The White Order....

–Why have you chosen to stand in my way, human?

Undead King, Rolath asked with majesty.

“I was given a task to eradicate the enemies of my allies.”

Rolath snorted in his mind.

He doesn’t know why they’d let a boy do such a thing.

–They underestimate my power.

He broke the seal on his mana and then–

“Guh!”

A heavy force of pure killing intent reached Clyde’s body. It felt suffocating.

It was something he has never felt before.

But he does have an advantage.

Ancient spirit magic.

A thin golden film wrapped around Clyde’s body.

“[Spirit Mana Armour]”

As its name suggests, it’s fuelled by the spirits in the atmosphere.

Rolath expressed his astonishment.

–Ho? Spirit magic?

He can’t remember the last time he saw a human spirit mage. That’s even more rare than finding Supreme Undead such as himself.

He upped his guard after finding out his opponent is a spirit mage.

Spirit mages are known to be the most effective against large armies and disaster monsters. Seeing as how he has an army, he’d have to constantly focus on defending and attacking.

Spirit mages can literally destroy a city using only water element alone. They are classified as a special kind of AOE mages.

Rolath walked out of the protection of his army and stood before Clyde. He was a towering giant reaching 3m. His robe touched the ground but there were barely any stains. One could see that the robe itself has excellent magic runes imbued in itself.

Rolath’s voice sounded much more clear now.

“I will give you one last chance to surrender and go back to your human nation...”

Dark mana circulated around Rolath as his eyes glowed red.

Clyde didn’t waver at all. He also gathered spirits around himself.

Both sides had overwhelming amounts of mana that seemed to be infinite.

Crack—!

Parts of the ground caved in from the force of their colliding mana.

The sky itself seemed to change from sunny to dark clouds. A sound similar to lightning struck deep within the clouds.

“Very well. I admire your courage and bravery.”

‘This guy really likes to monologue.’

“But you will regret it after tasting my vast knowledge of magic. Prepare yourself.”

He took the black staff floating next to him and struck the ground. Even more mana burst out of his body.

His mana manifested a giant summoning magic circle.

“---!!!”

An undead dragon crawled out of the summoning circle.

“Oh, shit...”

“This is a corpse of an ancient dragon.” The dragon let out a loud roar, “Will you be able to touch me before this dragons annihilates you?”