I’m Stuck on a Remote Island With the Male Leads - Chapter 140

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 140
Soon, a colossal tree erupted from beneath the Flower Field—the cursed tree that had pierced through Diego Bastian Vilterheim’s abdomen.
Crash—
As the tree surged upward, the sound of shattering glass pierced the air. There had been a Barrier.
It seemed the tree itself had created the Barrier. Now I understood why the three men hadn’t heard my calls.
Belatedly registering the sound, the three men rushed toward me in panic.
“What is this?! Margaret!”
“Margaret. Are you alright?!”
“Lady Flone! What on earth is that tree?!”
Kaiden, Enoch Aster Klaus Langrid, and Archbishop Luzef cried out in chaos. I sat frozen in place, staring at the tree before me. Diego Bastian Vilterheim had vanished from sight, and only the massive tree dominated my vision.
“It took Diego Bastian Vilterheim. He said he was threatened. He said it plans to use him as bait to extort my Mana… What do I do? He’s not dead, is he?”
I grabbed Enoch Aster Klaus Langrid’s Collar desperately. At my words, the three men’s gazes snapped toward the tree.
Enoch Aster Klaus Langrid wrapped an arm around my shoulder and lifted me to my feet, stroking my head soothingly to calm me.
“Diego Bastian Vilterheim will be fine. We’ll rescue him.”
“But wait, that tree wasn’t there before.”
I heard Kaiden’s bewildered murmur.
Then, the Flashlight containing the fireflies emitted an extraordinary burst of light. In an instant, the surroundings blazed as bright as daytime.
At the far edge of the illuminated visibility, the colossal tree, suffused with a subtle, hazy glow, became far more distinct than before.
I stared at it in a daze for a moment, then gasped in horror as I noticed something densely embedded across the tree’s surface.
‘…What is that?!’
Things that resembled human faces were densely studded across the tree’s Pillar.
It was grotesque and eerie. Terror that enveloped my entire body made me shudder uncontrollably.
Then, the bizarre faces clinging to the tree slowly rotated. I swallowed hard, my expression tense, and stared at them fixedly.
Dozens of faces, now turned, fixed their gaze directly upon me. An overwhelming deluge of stares poured down upon me.
“Gasp!”
Archbishop Luzef collapsed to the ground.
“Those—those are them! The ones that surrounded us the day Diego Bastian Vilterheim disappeared!”
They resembled a tree formed from hundreds of thousands of ghosts gathered together.
[Found—]
A massive, alien resonance thrummed through the Cave, reverberating with a sound like dozens of voices merged into one—an eerie, unsettling chorus.
It was so horrifyingly repulsive that my skin crawled.
“Damn it, what is that?”
Kaiden drew his Dagger. Enoch Aster Klaus Langrid similarly unsheathed his Long Sword, standing alert.
The Tree Branch that had pierced Diego Bastian Vilterheim’s abdomen seemed reluctant to approach us, as if repelled by the light the fireflies emitted.
I had thought the Flashlight merely used the fireflies to illuminate, but I noticed the word “Alea” inscribed upon it. I never imagined it had been modified for such a purpose.
Since Jenas had given me this Flashlight while instructing me to find the Magical Beast Mother Body, had he anticipated all of this?
‘Could that be the Magical Beast Mother Body?’
There was nothing else in this vicinity capable of displaying such overwhelming power—it had to be the Magical Beast Mother Body.
[Mana—]
That voice unmistakably came from the tree. And the “Mana” it continued to speak of was clearly referring to the Mana I possessed.
‘Meg must smell delicious to them. Different from other people.’
That’s what Jenas had said.
The tree before my eyes certainly seemed to be the Magical Beast Mother Body, but its appearance was so drastically different from my expectations that I felt utterly bewildered.
I had naturally assumed it would take the form of some final boss-like monster.
“I have no idea what that even is. Based on the aura it’s giving off, it doesn’t seem like a simple specter—more like a mass of vengeful spirits.”
Enoch muttered quietly as he studied the creatures.
Enoch’s assessment held the most weight. It was possible that the test subjects who had died unjustly on this Island had become vengeful spirits.
Just like those skeletons in the Bunker.
I stared blankly at the tree, my mind churning.
Why had it taken Diego specifically? Archbishop Luzef had always been fortunate, true. But Archbishop Luzef had been there too at the time—so why had he been left alone?
‘Is Diego still alive?’
I had no idea where it had taken him. His abdomen had looked completely pierced through. I swallowed hard.
Please let him be alive.
“It seems like those insects are preventing us from getting closer?”
Kaiden, who had been quietly assessing the situation, pointed at the Flashlight in my hand as he spoke.
“That’s true, but if we just stay in this Standoff indefinitely, we won’t get anywhere. I need to figure out what they want….”
Then the Tree Branch, which had been moving like it was dancing, suddenly went still.
[Bad ones-]
An eerie resonance echoed through the Cave again.
‘Bad ones? Suddenly?’
In my moment of confusion, the tree’s strange voice sounded once more.
[Must kill-]
An unsettling sound reverberated through the space.
[Kill- kill- kill- kill-]
I covered my ears. The pain was so intense it felt like my eardrums would tear.
“Ahhh! Stop it!”
My scream-like cry made the sound cease.
“Margaret, are you alright?”
“Are you okay?”
Enoch and Kaiden asked me in quick succession. I managed a stiff nod and pushed myself up from the ground. That’s when something flickered into view between the Tree Branches, which were glowing with pure white light.
“Wait, isn’t that Diego Bastian Vilterheim?”
All three men turned their heads in the direction I was pointing.
Diego Bastian Vilterheim was suspended in midair, his entire body bound tightly by Tree Branches.
“It appears so.”
Enoch answered with a troubled tone, and I turned to look at Kaiden.
“Is Diego Bastian Vilterheim… is he dying?”
Kaiden furrowed the space between his eyebrows and answered.
“As long as he’s still breathing, we can save him. As long as he’s still breathing, we can save him. So hurry.”
“Could that be the Magical Beast Mother Body?”
Archbishop Luzef glanced back at the tree and opened his mouth. Enoch and Kaiden look at me too.
“That seems to be the case.”
“Then shouldn’t we burn it to destroy it?”
At Archbishop Luzef’s words, everyone turned to look at Eun-ji.
Eun-ji, who had been peering in front of the Flashlight that had fallen to the Floor, lifted her head. With an innocent expression, she tilted her head as if she didn’t understand why she was receiving attention.
We turned our gaze back to the Tree.
Archbishop Luzef, who had been glaring at the Tree, shuddered as if seized by a chill. Following his lead, I looked again at Diego Bastian Vilterheim wedged between the Tree’s branches.
“But wouldn’t Diego Bastian Vilterheim get hurt in the process?”
Whether or not the Tree understood our conversation, it suddenly responded.
[Won’t let go—]
“Things without substance…”
Kaiden cried out in exasperation.
Though it was called a Magical Beast Mother Body, it seemed less like a Magical Beast and more like the vengeful spirits of victims had coalesced and evolved to this extent.
How much resentment must they have harbored.
Of course, that didn’t excuse them for attacking Diego Bastian Vilterheim or trying to steal my Mana.
[Bad people—]
The spirits composing the Tree convulsed. The sight was quite horrifying.
[Those who killed us—]
I covered my ears again. It was a shrill voice that felt like it would tear my eardrums.
[Kill them all—]
Enoch Aster Klaus Langrid raised both hands and covered my ears with me. It seemed their talk of killing wasn’t directed at us.
“The way they say ‘those people’ makes it seem like they’re part of some organization. Is it the organization Jenas belonged to?”
“Fine, they might want Margaret’s Mana. But what connection do they have with Diego Bastian Vilterheim that they won’t let him go?”
That was when Kaiden voiced his doubt.
[This bloodline—! This filthy—!]
Suddenly the Tree screamed. Then it shook Diego Bastian Vilterheim’s body, which was bound tightly in branches, in rage.
[Must kill— Mana— give it— Mana—!]
Then the Tree Branch, still emitting a pure white light, lunged at me with aggressive intent.
The momentum was so fierce that the fireflies inside the Flashlight burst out and scattered rapidly in escape.
Screech!
Kaiden and Enoch Aster Klaus Langrid slashed at the Tree with Dagger and Long Sword respectively, while Eun-ji spewed Fire furiously with an angry expression.
I left the combat to them and huddled with Archbishop Luzef to devise a way to extract Diego Bastian Vilterheim.
“Would it calm down if I gave it my Mana?”
“Didn’t you hear? Once the Young Lady gives her Mana, it looked ready to kill Diego Bastian Vilterheim immediately.”
That was true. They certainly seemed ready to send Diego Bastian Vilterheim to the other world. They appeared to harbor deep resentment toward him specifically.
Ugh. I pressed my head at Archbishop Luzef’s words and looked at the Tree again. Enoch Aster Klaus Langrid, Kaiden, and Eun-ji were engaged in fierce Battle against the Tree.
I recalled how the Tree had pointed at Diego Bastian Vilterheim earlier, calling him “filthy” and “this bloodline.”
Perhaps it was related to Diego Bastian Vilterheim’s Family.
Just as Kaiden had been drawn here due to his Connection to the Rohade Family, perhaps everyone had been selected as sacrifices for reasons beyond their Mana.
“But why does the Magical Beast Mother Body look like it was formed from human vengeful spirits?”
Archbishop Luzef raised a probing question that cut to the heart of the matter.
“That’s right…. You said there were other test subjects on this Island. Those must be their vengeful spirits. There were similar ones in the Bunker too.”
“There were in the Bunker as well?!”
“Yes. There were skeletons there, and they were all wearing combat uniforms from the Battle of Romalijan.”
“What?! If they’re from the Battle of Romalijan…. Then they must be Priests and Mages.”
Archbishop Luzef’s complexion turned ashen.
“It seems the vengeful spirits accumulated and accumulated until they became like this. And on top of that, they even possess the power to evolve the Magical Beasts even more powerfully….”
The vengeful spirits of test subjects were triggering the evolution of Magical Beasts. It was a rather grotesque phenomenon.
Those who had died as experimental subjects, harboring resentment—didn’t they want to kill Jenas and destroy this Island?
If this tree of vengeful spirits was itself a massive accumulation of Mana, and if that’s why it desired my Mana….
‘Ah, Meg. Want to know how to survive on this Island one last time? There’s something in the Eastern North Island that serves as the mother body of the Magical Beasts. If you destroy that, the Magical Beasts will probably stop evolving.’
The question was whether I could trust Jenas’s words at face value.
“The aura it’s emanating is ominous. If these are souls of those who were exploited in experiments and harbor resentment, they would surely want to destroy the Island. I suspect that tree’s purpose in evolving the Magical Beasts is connected to that.”
“That makes sense.”
“It seems like it desires my Mana because it seeks greater power. What if destroying that mother body causes the Island to crack?”
“Then all the more reason we must eliminate it, but how do we destroy….”
Archbishop Luzef furrowed his brow, turned to gaze at the tree, and trailed off mid-sentence.
After staring at the tree in silence for a long while, Archbishop Luzef asked me in an unusually low and solemn voice.
“Young Lady, do you believe in God?”
“No. I don’t.”
Had I answered too firmly? Yet Archbishop Luzef continued undeterred.
“Vengeful spirits exist abundantly throughout the Empire. Wherever humans dwell, they exist. The Papal Court even has a separate department dedicated to managing them.”
I immediately grasped what Archbishop Luzef was saying. In the place where I used to live, there were organizations and institutions that performed similar roles.
“With a powerful spiritual force, a vessel imbued with sacred power, and weather conditions like today’s raging storm, we can soothe and contain that mass of vengeful spirits.”
“What is a vessel imbued with sacred power?”
“A Cleric.”
“…What?”
“I will become the vessel, containing all those vengeful spirits within my body.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————