“It’s impossible, there’s no way to win at all” Chromie was sent flying into a natural pile of rocks. If he didn’t reveal the two authorities that the sprout of the Moon Tree had retrieved and used the corresponding techniques, he wouldn’t be a match for this nearly completed 100-headed beast at all.
In the past, Chromie had used Sacrificial Magic to improve his constitution, then his elven bloodline was activated and turned into a half-elf, and he had diligently trained himself for the past 10 years to fully exert his elven potential, but the result of all of that was only equivalent to reaching the second stage of release.
Chromie was nothing but a [Protagonist] who was born naturally insufficient. The will of the Moon Tree didn’t have many resources to grant him at all, the only preparation he had was the grand banquet of Dim Silence Envoy, but even that was already consumed by Negary’s devout worshipper, Darr.
Without Dim Silence Envoy’s soul to strengthen himself, Chromie quickly reached a bottleneck of strength. If not for Eternal Heat providing him with the remnant information of the elven Lord God, the Hunter, Chromie might have been stuck there for good.
Although Chromie had now retrieved the Hunter’s relics, it hadn’t even been a month since then. Even plot armor needed reasonable progression, not to mention that this wasn’t ‘paid’ plot armor.
It couldn’t be helped. The sprout of the Moon Tree was certainly impressive, but the sprout of the Moon Tree was actually lacking resources even more than Chromie was. It had been relying on the old elf Pernod’s mana circulation for the past 1000 years to maintain itself, which was why it was still a sprout after so long. After attaching itself to Chromie’s body, not only did its circulation not change at all, but it now also had to consider helping Chromie resolve his issues.
There was literally no more spare resources to be obtained, truly. The range of the original Moon Tree’s influence had already been completely taken over by the Seven Gods, the only reason why the will of the Moon Tree still existed was that if the will of the world was completely dead, the world would definitely undergo change. It might collapse, or even devolve, but it would never maintain its current form of the perfect Source Energy farm.
Being so thoroughly restrained, the will of the Moon Tree only had so many tricks remaining up its sleeves, and all of them involved so much that each one that was used up would be truly used up for good.
And so, while the standard level of strength for the enemy was at the 3rd stage of release, the [Protagonist] Chromie was still only at the 2nd stage of release, and without using the aspect of silence and the world barrier authorities, he was no match for the 100-headed beast at all.
He was currently acting as the Chief of the Saint Hunters, so using any of these authorities would mean completely exposing himself. Never mind how that would cause the dying Pope’s heart to grow even colder after learning of it, exposing his true identity to the Seven Gods would cause unpredictable changes in his plan to migrate the will of the Moon Tree.
The will of the Moon Tree hadn’t told Chromie about its relatively strange cooperation with Eternal Heat, and Eternal Heat wouldn’t specifically explain himself to a half-elf, so Chromie didn’t know about any of this and had to wrack his brains over the issue of his identity.
The reason why the will of the Moon Tree did this was to train Chromie. At the moment, Chromie was a bit too reliant on his world authorities, while he had been doing everything he could to improve his own strength as well, he lacked the spirit to actually risk his life doing it. The difference between these two situations might not be that great most of the time, but sometimes it would be the entire difference between day and night.
This was Chromie’s state after Olga’s incident. While he still resolved himself to attempt everything as best as he could, he had lost the absolute resolution to lay down everything when he was trying to avenge his family.
This wasn’t due to his love for Olga, but simply that he lacked motivation. Regardless of whether he wanted to admit it or not, he no longer had the chance to make it up to Olga, and he had already accomplished practically everything he wanted to do. His current mission was something that the will of the Moon Tree gave him through various means of guidance, so it was natural for his motivation to be lacking.
[The soul fluid with the Decanter of God’s Offering is necessary to accelerate the ripening of the Source Energy fruit, try and think about what would happen if Eternal Heat lost the Decanter of God’s Offering]
At the depths of Chromie’s consciousness, under the will of the Moon Tree’s guidance, Chromie began to ponder his question, then quickly arrived at an answer.
A God would not care about humans, if the ants that he had collected earlier were lost, he would simply gather them again. And it doesn’t matter whether or not they were dead or alive.
Under the will of the Moon Tree’s years of guidance, Chromie had gained a certain kind of personality, which was to feel an almost crippling sense of responsibility towards everything related to himself. This was why he chose to redeem his family’s name when the Farnate family was caught in that past incident and later went on to take up the responsibility of the elven race as a Farnate.
If anyone else were to befall misfortune due to his actions, as long as he didn’t believe that it was well-deserved, he would also feel intense guilt, which was what happened to Olga. For the sake of his self-claimed responsibility, he essentially abandoned Olga, then killed Olga with his own hands due to her guidance. While he had sacrificed his love, he didn’t believe that Olga was in the wrong at all, so he had continued to feel guilty for this.
This was also the reason why he felt annoyed with Killer J but didn’t try to attack him. Unless it was necessary, he didn’t like to kill more people and take on more guilt for it.
And now, the will of the Moon Tree had used this sense of guilt as a weapon. His current duty was to transport the Decanter of God’s Offering, so if the Decanter of God’s Offering was lost, he would not escape responsibility. If Eternal Heat murdered a large number of people to make up for the loss that originated from his mistake, Chromie would definitely be completely overwhelmed by his guilt.
[Risk it all once again, Chromie. To make sure the innocent people aren’t affected, surpass your limits and kill the monster in front of you, otherwise, millions of people will die from your incompetence]
At the depths of his consciousness, this statement continuously drifted around his mind. Rising up from the pile of rocks, Chromie once again rushed towards the 100-headed beast.
…
It should be enough for me to stall them long enough for the beast to fully manifest.
Standing in front of Chromie, Sarmyte saw the situation very clearly. While the majority of the Awakened Wicked Souls he had gathered was already dead, it was fine as long as he wasn’t.
After accomplishing this task, the Half Life Church would tolerate his existence within the range of the Half Life Church’s influence. The Half Life Church had also gone after his life in the past, but that didn’t matter at this point since he had already given up on his grudge. He cared a lot more about the life of suffering he currently lived compared to the grudge of the past, which was the main reason why he accepted the Half Life Church’s offering of amnesty.
Right as Sarmyte was about to kill Chromie who was rushing towards the 100-headed beast, a sword clad in black smoke drew his attention. It was only a hair’s breadth away from slashing his throat and killing him.
〖 This isn’t a coincidence, mister Sarmyte. I’ve actually discovered your position 〗wielding the sword clad in dark smoke, Green declared: 〖 I’ve read the records of escaped Awakened Wicked Souls that the Sun Shadow church had collected over the years. The only person capable of causing this mass obscurement of personnel was you 〗
〖 And now, I’ve found you. If you don’t pay attention when fighting against me, I’d think that you’ve wasted your talents 〗Green declared clearly: 〖 After all, even though I am not fully Negary, I still hate those who waste their years away the most 〗
