My Skeleton Soldier Is Strange - Chapter 190
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 190
From the World Tree, a wave of devastation surged forth, spreading to every corner of the forest in the blink of an eye. Blackened branches expanded at a speed so relentless that no amount of struggle could escape them. Like ravenous beasts, they descended from all directions, devouring every living creature in their path.
A hollow, mournful wail echoed through the darkness.
The leaves withered, stained by that consuming shadow. As though buried beneath volcanic ash, each leaf transformed into an empty husk. When a wind carrying death’s touch swept past, the leaves crumbled like cinders, falling to the earth below.
A new terror poured from the heavens. The sky, shrouded in roiling storm clouds, darkened as if by sorcery, marred by grotesque forms. Pitch-black magical energy gnawed at the firmament, swirling with thunderous fury. From within that maelstrom, nightmare-like tentacles writhed and unfurled. Their moist, glistening skin, their countless suckers, their undulating extensions—all so bizarrely alien that no human imagination could conjure such a sight.
The tentacles descended toward the earth, burrowing deep into the ground with tremendous force. Devouring rock and soil alike, they carved out a Massive Underground Cavern. Their movements, erupting from the darkness below, were so violent they seemed to stop the very heartbeat of the land. In mere moments, the earth lay covered in a black web, and the forest transformed into a realm of death, stained with crimson sinews.
Gazing upon the forest now shrouded in an eerie, oppressive miasma, Arulan’s eyes flickered with an infernal glow.
A sharp, brittle sound crackled forth.
With a sinister whisper, blood-red vitality surged from the web-like roots that blanketed the earth. Splitting into a hundred, a thousand tributaries, these crimson streams rapidly consumed the sky.
The radiant force of life surged wildly, coiling around the colossal tree. Where sap once flowed through the trunk, the World Tree’s veins now pulsed with fresh blood in reverse. It was a being that drained all the forest’s power unto itself.
A thunderous boom shook the world.
Then it came.
The earth convulsed with catastrophic upheaval. A violent tempest engulfed the forest.
Ancient trees trembled to their roots, branches splintered and shattered, and dust swirled through the air, caught in the whirlwind’s grasp.
Crash, crash!
As the earth convulsed endlessly, deep and lengthy fissures tore across the ground. The cracks widened further, and from within them, the darkness of the Abyss writhed. Shattered stone fragments tumbled downward.
From the chasms emerged something sinister—claw-like protrusions. Eerie branches stretched forth, twisted forms of white bone intertwined. Cursed Trent creatures clawed their way upward through the narrow gaps.
Bark blackened with rot. Eyes blazing crimson. Between hollow chests, sinews tangled like chains. Once the forest’s guardians, these wardens had become shambling undead, decaying while still alive. Foul stench wafted from their withered throats, and dark blood dripped between their jagged branches.
Thud, thud, thud. With heavy footfalls, the Undead Trent creatures slowly emerged from the earth. Dozens, hundreds—their numbers were beyond counting. An army of darkness surging across the land like a tide. The banner of death fluttered over the desolate plain. And every gaze was fixed upon a single point: where Kim Jae-beom stood.
Crack, crack. Their rigid joints snapped and popped as the Trent legion lined up before Kim Jae-beom. Their grotesquely twisted bodies bent in unison, and they knelt upon their right knees. A chilling moan, like wind through a graveyard, assailed the ears. As if swearing fealty to their lord, blackened branches extended toward him.
Kim Jae-beom’s gaze was cold and merciless as he inhaled the stench of corrupted resin.
A sharp breath escaped his lips.
He opened his mouth, looking down upon his kneeling subordinates.
“Conquer beyond the forest.”
Before his words had even finished, excitement rippled through the Undead Trent ranks. Their rotted bark trembled, and the cursed legion slowly rose to their feet. With powerful legs, they kicked off the ground and began marching out of the lifeless forest.
Thud, thud, thud. Deafening footsteps echoed across the sky. Bristling with sharp spines, they vanished into the darkness. The reek of decayed leaves, blood, and curse filled the air.
* * *
Thirty minutes had elapsed. From the Forest of Death, emanating an eerie presence, the Undead Trent creatures poured forth in a torrent. Their eyes gleamed with hunger and madness. With limbs of rotted wood aching and throbbing, the cursed tree spirits began their charge beyond the forest.
Thud, thud, thud. Heavy footfalls shook the earth. Monsters dwelling at the forest’s edge turned their heads in alarm at the vibrations. Orc Warriors and werewolf packs shrieked in terror at the horrifying sight. Gripped by fear, they began fleeing desperately.
But flight was futile. The Trent creatures, their bodies grotesquely twisted, closed the distance at an incomprehensible speed. Swift as shadows, merciless and relentless. Branch-like tentacles whistled through the air, cutting through the void.
In an instant, the Undead Trent creatures descended upon their prey. With agonized death cries, Orc Warriors and werewolves fell. Shattered bodies, crushed flesh. Over the blood-stained earth, the chill of death lingered.
The grotesque spectacle did not end there. From the bodies of monsters slain in the Trent creatures’ grasp, dark energy began to rise. Piercing through decaying flesh, black mist swarmed over the corpses.
In an instant, they awakened from death. From hollow eye sockets, a brilliant crimson madness blazed forth. Dragging their shattered forms, the resurrected undead began hunting their hidden kin, burrowing deeper into the forest.
A wave of terror consumed the forest. Panicked monsters fled in confusion, but it was in vain. Dripping with black blood, the Trent creatures and their undead prey hunted them down one by one.
A procession of death and terror. It seemed it would never cease. In the forest where verdant life had vanished, only darkness remained. Amid echoing screams of agony, the Undead Legion advanced, their footsteps carrying them toward consuming the world.
As the Undead Legion continued their march of devastation, the earth suddenly convulsed violently. Tremors beginning beneath their feet spread rapidly through their entire bodies. It was as though the Continent itself roared in fury from the depths of its strata.
From the cracks in the fractured earth, something sinister emerged. Black roots. Extending from the corrupted World Tree, they writhed like serpents, crawling upward across the surface. Like nightmares awakening from the deep darkness beneath the ground. Roots advancing slowly yet inexorably toward the Dark Forest.
Some time passed. The roots that had been spreading to consume all suddenly halted. And there, something new began to unfold. From the tips of the blackened roots, bizarre forms—resembling both tender sprouts and centipede legs—began to bloom. Seeds of death sprouting in darkness. They grew at a terrifying pace, rapidly overrunning their surroundings.
The ever-growing trees of darkness soon extended thin roots toward the corpses scattered about. The earth stained with death, pools of blood left by undead monsters—the black trees greedily drained it all, their bodies swelling ever larger. Grotesque living things bloating on blood as sustenance.
For a moment, the massively grown trees of madness seemed to still. Then they began to shake wildly, thrashing about. A breathtaking spectacle unfolded. From between the pitch-black leaves, black light poured forth in torrents. It flickered like lightning, emanating a terrifying aura.
In that instant, something extraordinary occurred. The undead monsters enveloped in the radiance of darkness underwent a miraculous transformation. Wounds that had been drenched in blood sealed themselves in the blink of an eye, and shattered bones clicked and groaned as they returned to their proper places. Even severed flesh regenerated anew. They rose from death, reborn in forms far more formidable than before. They appeared to fear nothing any longer.
A sharp grin spread across my face.
Kim Jae-beom smiled as he witnessed the spectacle. Now that he possessed the Undead World Tree, there was nothing left to fear.
“At this rate, I’m going to become the leader of the evil faction….”
Until the very beginning, his playstyle had been ordinary, but Kim Jae-beom now walked a different path from the others.
Yet there was no great concern.
Regardless of which path he took, Kim Jae-beom possessed the confidence to achieve it. The confidence to be reborn as the strongest player in this game.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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