SFRW-Chapter 201

Ch. 201 Sword God From The Ruined World

The moment the Orb of Withering was shattered, its effect became immediately apparent.  

“Ah… Ah… The the World Tree…!”  

Eliana, who had been deeply shocked by the fact that her kin had turned into zombies, instantly sensed that a portion of the World Tree’s power was rapidly recovering.  

And that change was something Seo Do-jun and the others could also perceive in real-time.  

“Uh, uhhh!”  

Choi Kang-soo’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as he watched Eliana’s hair and skin, which had been tinged with ashen gray, visibly lighten to a near-white shade.  

And her appearance—  

‘Th-this is… impossible…!’  

She was beautiful!  

Gorgeous!  

The ashen color, which had been considered Eliana’s only flaw, had merely lightened to a near-white hue, yet her beauty was amplified to an even greater extreme.  

It was like switching from a black-and-white TV to a color one.  

Or perhaps it was as if Eliana’s true beauty, which had been shrouded in darkness, was now dazzlingly radiant under the sun.  

Not only Choi Kang-soo but even Shinjo stared at Eliana with a dazed expression.  

Hyun Joo-yeon glanced at Seo Do-jun’s reaction while stealing looks at Eliana, whose beauty now seemed to emit a divine aura.  

Fortunately—or perhaps not—Seo Do-jun watched Eliana’s transformed appearance with an unexpectedly calm and indifferent expression.  

Soon, Seo Do-jun turned to the Emperor and asked,  

“How can the curse on the World Tree be lifted?”  

“Th-the curse on the World Tree…!”  

Since the Emperor had known about the Orb of Withering, he had expected to be questioned about the curse as well. After rolling his eyes for a brief moment—  

CRACK!  

“GAAAH! Purify the Fountain of Origin!”  

The Emperor screamed and hastily answered as Seo Do-jun shattered his kneecap.  

“The Fountain of Origin?”  

When Seo Do-jun looked at Eliana, she immediately responded,  

“The Fountain of Origin exists alongside the World Tree. It is the primordial spring of this world, which has always been kept pure and clean.”  

“If it’s purification, leave it to me!”  

As if begging to be entrusted with the task, Choi Kang-soo answered with full confidence.  

Holy power, by its very nature, originated from the ability to purify evil.  

Purifying the Fountain of Origin would naturally be a trivial task for him.  

“The Fountain of Origin… has already completely dried up.”  

“Dried up?”  

“Huh? Th-then what do we do?”  

Eliana’s sorrowful reply made Choi Kang-soo panic even more than Seo Do-jun, and he began rambling thoughtlessly.  

“If we pour in purified, clean water, maybe it’ll somehow recover…”  

Mid-sentence, Choi Kang-soo seemed to realize how crude his suggestion sounded and trailed off, glancing at Eliana’s expression.  

“Tell me the method.”  

Seo Do-jun believed the solution to this problem also lay with the Emperor.  

“O-once the Fountain of Origin dries up, even I don’t know how to… GAAAAH! Th-the palace! There’s a hidden, corrupted springwater beneath the imperial palace!”  

As expected, the answer lay with the Emperor.  

As the administrator of this world, the Emperor was the only one who could know how to restore the World Tree. After all, he needed to know how to revive it in order to seal it away forever.  

“Why would you keep corrupted springwater hidden?”  

“Th-that’s… GAAAAH!”  

He admitted he had been researching ways to corrupt the World Tree.  

Displeased with the Emperor’s answer, Seo Do-jun broke another part of his body before turning to Eliana.  

“We’ll purify the corrupted springwater and pour it back into the Fountain of Origin.”  

Whether it would be as easy as it sounded—or even possible—remained to be seen, but for now, there was no other option.  

Though the problem of the Fountain of Origin remained unresolved, Seo Do-jun felt that, overall, things had gone more smoothly than expected.  

Eliana couldn’t hold back tears of joy at the possibility that the World Tree might truly be revived.  

“Wh-why are you crying?”  

Standing beside the tearful Eliana, Choi Kang-soo fidgeted like a puppy desperate to pee.  

***

“…It’s beautiful.”  

 Seo Do-jun sincerely thought so.  

The colossal tree standing before him, the World Tree that seemed to embrace the entire world—even an emotionless being would have no choice but to call it ‘beautiful’.  

Perhaps because the planet Valitao itself was a world of forests, the World Tree of this ruined world felt far more majestic and immense than the one in the Partishua Forest.  

And perhaps because of the sheer size and energy of this World Tree, the elves here, who had regained their full strength, were far more powerful than Seo Do-jun had anticipated.  

It was clear why the elves were the dominant race in this world.  

“I sincerely thank you.”  

Eliana bowed deeply to Seo Do-jun with the utmost respect she could muster.  

With her platinum-blonde hair and flawlessly white skin that nearly blinded the eyes, Eliana had grown even more beautiful now that the Fountain of Origin had been purified and the World Tree fully revived.  

A higher being on a completely different level from humans.  

Behind Eliana, who had regained the true form of an elf—a race that lived for centuries, even millennia—hundreds of elves bowed in unison.  

A pleasant breeze gently brushed against Seo Do-jun’s skin.  

And that wasn’t all.  

Warm sunlight caressed his head, refreshing scents cleared his mind, and the comforting touch of the earth beneath his feet washed away his fatigue.  

Spirits.  

With the revival of the World Tree, spirits had returned to this world and begun bestowing immense power upon the elves, their natural companions.  

“I only did what needed to be done.”  

A tinge of bitterness laced Seo Do-jun’s voice.  

As if understanding his feelings, Eliana bowed even deeper.  

“Sword God from The Ruined World.”  

She remembered Seo Do-jun’s words to the Emperor clearly—his world had been completely destroyed.  

Eliana fully understood the sorrow in Seo Do-jun’s heart, knowing that his world could never return to what it once was, just as this one had.  

“I hope nothing like this ever happens again.”  

Seo Do-jun meant it.  

As he bid farewell, Eliana quickly spoke up.  

“Could you not stay with us for just a few more days?”  

Though the flow of time between dimensions was unpredictable, Seo Do-jun was in no position to spare even a moment.  

He was about to refuse Eliana’s offer when—  

“Please grant us the time to repay you. We beg you.”  

The word ‘repayment’ piqued Seo Do-jun’s interest.  

These weren’t elves who would simply throw a festival out of gratitude.  

“What kind of repayment are you talking about?”  

In response to Seo Do-jun’s question, Eliana smiled as if embodying all the beauty in the world.  

“We wish to share our power with you.”  

Seo Do-jun didn’t hesitate.  

The power of the elves was anything but insignificant.  

***

For the elves, their greatest power lay in spirits.  

Unfortunately, none of Seo Do-jun’s companions could inherit the power of spirits.  

Unless spirits existed everywhere, forming a contract with one on Valitao would be meaningless in other worlds where they couldn’t be summoned.  

But there was always a workaround.  

“Heh heh heh! With this, my fire magic will reach new heights, right?”  

Kusak caressed the pitch-black stone in his hand like a treasure.  

A Fire Spirit Stone.  

A condensed manifestation of a spirit’s power, the Fire Spirit Stone was a spiritual treasure that maximized fire affinity just by possessing it.  

Since they couldn’t form direct contracts with spirits, Eliana offered Spirit Stones to Seo Do-jun’s group instead.  

Kusak received the Fire Spirit Stone, Veronica the Water Spirit Stone, Rakun the Earth Spirit Stone, Gloria the Wind Spirit Stone, Shinjo the Lightning Spirit Stone, and Hyun Joo-yeon the Light Spirit Stone.  

Choi Kang-soo, who wielded divine power, couldn’t share in the spirits’ power, and spirits held little significance for Seo Do-jun.  

But that didn’t mean Choi Kang-soo and Seo Do-jun got nothing.  

“Eliana…”  

Choi Kang-soo gloomily muttered her name while clutching a star-shaped wooden pendant around his neck.  

Crafted from a branch of the World Tree, the pendant held a special power called ‘Blessing of the Elves’.  

『You lucky bastard… Thanks to the Blessing of the Elves, you’ll survive at least one fatal blow.』  

The Divine Sword declared the wooden pendant—imbued with power surpassing the divine energy it had gathered over centuries—a priceless treasure.  

“I know… This is… Eliana’s…”  

A gift, and her heart.  

Just as the Divine Sword was a treasure of the Holy, the ‘Blessing of the Elves’ was an irreplaceable relic to the elves.  

And yet, Eliana—and the elves—had gifted it to Choi Kang-soo.  

Despite receiving such an incredible gift, the pain of parting with Eliana forever weighed heavily on him.  

“Haaa…”  

If it were up to him, Choi Kang-soo would have stayed on Valitao and lived out his life with Eliana.  

Meanwhile, Seo Do-jun received a single seed, about the size of a walnut.  

Though unremarkable in appearance, it was none other than the ‘Essence of the World Tree’.  

“Why are you giving this to me?”  

“It is the only thing among our possessions that could be of use to you.”  

“So why… should I accept this? I have no need for the World Tree…”  

“It is the will of the World Tree… and the only thing we can offer you.”  

Seo Do-jun had tried to refuse the Essence of the World Tree, but in the end, he had no choice but to accept it.  

It was the will of Eliana, the elves, and the World Tree itself.  

Though Seo Do-jun doubted he would ever have a use for it.  

Beyond that, the rest of the group—Gloria, Shinjo, and Hyun Joo-yeon—received extensive training from the elves during their stay.  

Gloria, in particular, underwent intensive archery training from the elves, who had been born with bows in their hands and were called ‘Bow Gods’ for their skill. Her abilities improved exponentially.  

So much so that—  

“Huh? Even you, Kassal, can’t beat her with a bow now.”  

As Veronica said, Gloria had surpassed Seo Do-jun in archery, at the very least.  

“…I’ve barely even held a bow.”  

Seo Do-jun’s retort made Veronica burst into laughter—a secret between the two.  

In just a few days, Gloria, Shinjo, and Hyun Joo-yeon had absorbed the elves’ combat techniques like sponges, making them their own.  

After receiving the elves’ gratitude, Seo Do-jun’s group returned to the imperial capital.  

“This is the passage to the 38th planet.”  

The Emperor, now a broken man, spoke with resignation.  

The elves, having regained their strength, showed no mercy to the humans who had oppressed them—and sold their world to Barhaut.  

In just a few days, the empire had been crippled beyond function, and the Emperor had lost all power, reduced to a wreck.  

“If we shatter that dimensional stone, we’ll be completely separated from the planet Tirotio, right?”  

“…Yes. But… the moment the planet is separated, Barhaut will be alerted.”  

When the Emperor warned that Barhaut would return to reconquer Valitao, Seo Do-jun scoffed.  

“He won’t have the time. And—”  

Seo Do-jun glanced at Eliana, who responded firmly, as if telling him not to worry.  

“We will never repeat the same mistake again.”  

The elves were not as foolish as humans.  

Above all, the World Tree itself had declared its unwavering resolve to prevent any further intrusions across dimensional boundaries.  

“…You dare underestimate Barhaut’s power? How stup— GACK!”  

“You’re the stupid one! What did Barhaut do for you while you were being reduced to this? And this world wouldn’t have been conquered so easily without trash like you!”  

Choi Kang-soo punched the Emperor in the face, venting his frustration.  

Furious and anxious over his eternal separation from Eliana, the Emperor made for a perfect punching bag.  

“A bastard like you deserves to die!”  

THUD THUD THUD THUD!  

Choi Kang-soo pummeled the Emperor just enough to avoid losing his last shred of sanity.  

“Break the dimensional stone after we’ve all entered.”  

At Seo Do-jun’s words, Eliana nodded.  

“Understood.”  

As Seo Do-jun prepared to step forward, he noticed Choi Kang-soo inching backward, reluctant to leave.  

Having grown close to Eliana during their stay, Choi Kang-soo had repeatedly expressed his desire to remain on Valitao—though he never crossed the line.  

Seo Do-jun couldn’t help but feel uneasy.  

“Hmm.”  

After a moment’s thought, Seo Do-jun grabbed Choi Kang-soo by the scruff of his neck.  

“U-Uncle! W-wait! At least let me say goodbye to Eliana!”  

“You’ve had plenty of time over the past few days.”  

At Seo Do-jun’s cold reply, Choi Kang-soo desperately shouted.  

“I-I have more to say! Let me go! Let go! LET GO, DAMN IT! Elianaaaaa…!”  

As Choi Kang-soo was dragged away, Eliana waved with a bittersweet smile.  

“Goodbye.”  

Her lack of resistance made Choi Kang-soo’s struggles cease abruptly.  

“…Eliana…!”  

Like a puppet with its strings cut, he was pulled into the portal alongside Seo Do-jun.  

“What a pathetic display!”  

Kusak cackled as he stepped into the portal, followed by Veronica, Rakun, Shinjo, and the others after their final goodbyes.  

Once everyone had entered, the Emperor’s eyes darted around nervously.  

He had feared Seo Do-jun, but the others didn’t intimidate him.  

‘I’ll rule this place again— GAAAH!’  

The Emperor’s eyes bulged as a sharp blade pierced his abdomen.  

Looking up, he met Eliana’s icy glare as she twisted the sword’s hilt.  

“I’ll tear you into a thousand pieces and scatter them across the empire. So that filth like you never rises again.”  

Eliana’s blade began slowly carving the Emperor’s wretched body apart.