Chapter 568: World Tree

— Snow Leonhart’s Pov —

“So, it has begun…”

Even from this far away, I can still feel that explosive aura… Frey’s power.

Just as I expected, the moment he pushed us aside, he threw himself into battle. And most likely, he will slaughter every last one of the Church’s followers standing before him—no matter their motives or their pasts.

Without exception, he will kill them all.

To feed the demands of that Blood Path he has chosen for himself.

Ever since the day Frey somehow fused with my body, I’ve felt as though I started to understand him—my mysterious friend who carried more secrets than anyone else.

That day, he must have glimpsed the world through my eyes… but at the same time, I saw through his.

I felt what he felt. I lived, if only for an instant, what it meant to exist as Frey Starlight.

The Blood Path is a road of darkness, forcing its bearer into endless killing, drowning in blood until the red floods form rivers and seas…

A truly demonic path. One that even Frey himself could not predict where it would ultimately lead.

“The Paths…”

All my life, I believed there was only one way to become stronger ..unceasing training, polishing the body, absorbing aura, meditating until the next breakthrough.

That method served me well for a time, and I thought it would carry me to my peak.

But reality was different. Eventually, I struck the wall. No matter how hard I trained, no matter how much I tried, I could never break past Rank A.

And yet, in a cruel twist, I shattered the shackle and broke through the wall the moment I devoured the corpse of a single human being.

Raising my fist before my eyes, I let my aura flow freely—golden energy gathering thickly around it.

“I am not human…”

Or rather, only part of me is human. That was why the human method worked for me for a while ..but it revealed only a fraction of the power I sought.

The other part of me is demonic… the blood injected into my body again and again since childhood.

That makes me, too, a demonic contractor, giving me the right to walk a demonic path.

The method of Yosefka…

“To grow stronger with every corpse of my own kind I consume.”

A path fouler than even the one Frey follows.

Perched on the branch of one of the tallest trees in the area, I watched the chaos around me while my thoughts drifted far.

“The human path… the demon path… the blood path… How many Paths exist in this world?”

The demon’s method—devouring his own kind—was but one training path of a High Seat Demon, Yosefka.

Which meant that even among demons, there might be countless Paths, each different from the next.

And what of the other races, far above in the heavens ..beings I know nothing of?

The more knowledge I gained, the smaller I felt… like a mere ink drop lost in the vast canvas of existence.

But then—what is the right Path for me?

What is the true way I must walk if I wish to reach the same kind of strength Frey holds?

What must I sacrifice? What exactly must I do?

I didn’t yet know the answer—but I resolved to find it here, no matter the cost.

Leaping from the tree, I drew my blade Vermithor, letting its holy power pour through me.

From the moment we set foot in this strange land, my sword had behaved differently ..almost as if it had returned home, to the place it was born.

And because of that, I too felt a deep bond to this land, strengthening my conviction that the answer I sought lay here.

Every time I synced my consciousness with Vermithor, I caught glimpses of strange aura trails in the air… golden currents weaving through earth and sky, flooding even the void itself.

No one else could see them. Only by synchronizing with Vermithor—and awakening the War King Form—was I able to perceive them.

Golden aura currents swirling around me, often passing directly through my body…

I couldn’t tell what force could emit such energy, or whether it was even a living being at all.

But I was almost certain: if I continued following these trails, they would lead me at last to Blattier and his followers—and perhaps, to the very answer I sought.

Thus, with my mind synchronized to Vermithor, I pressed deeper into the City of Eternal Night.

Minutes passed. Then hours. Time fled swiftly as my senses focused on nothing but the golden aura trails.

From time to time, I collided with stray Church followers, but I cut them down with ease and pressed forward, using Void Step to shift constantly.

Constant movement kept me from unnecessary fights, but it slowed my progress.

Every distraction around me made me lose track of the golden trails, forcing me to stop and find them again—a process that wasted far too much time.

That was why, even after hours, I had barely advanced at all.

“I must keep trying.”

I alone could perceive these trails. Frey was likely still fighting the Church’s hordes, while the prince… who knew what schemes lingered in his mind, or what he would do next.

I wouldn’t let him steer us the way he wanted ..so I had to find the path myself.

And that was what I focused on.

In this way, I kept moving forward, while time sped past too quickly for my senses to grasp.

From time to time, waves of destructive aura reached me from afar—proof that the war Frey had waged against the Church was still raging.

But I ignored it completely and kept following those trails.

That immersion severed my connection to the world around me; I could see nothing but black.

A darkness in which no light existed—save for those golden trails.

That golden light grew stronger and stronger the farther I went, until it swelled from the size of a fist to envelop my entire body.

And the more intense it became, the more I felt a bond with it—a longing for it—

as if it were a part of my very being.

The overwhelming experience stirred tangled feelings in my heart, sharpening my desire to explore that dormant side of myself.

At some point, progress became smoother, and I stopped running into enemies. My link to the golden trails grew so strong that I stopped walking and began to sprint, surging forward in pursuit.

After delving for a long time, I finally reached the end of the trail—the place from which that all-encompassing golden power sprang.

What I saw left me speechless.

At the end of the path stood a towering structure that pierced the dark sky. I couldn’t make out its features—the world to me was still wrapped in shadow—but I could see what crowned it, clearly.

“This… a tree…”

It was a tree—a colossal golden tree, its branches and leaves unfurled, radiating such power that I flinched and stood stunned.

The golden aura path I had followed until now was only one among thousands of other trails—all of them leading to that tree.

In that moment I realized: these were its roots, creeping everywhere across this land, feeding it with a mighty power that made it look like a paradise upon the earth.

I couldn’t see its true form ..it was far above, in the sky ..yet before me it manifested in that shape of aura alone.

Magnificent and awe-inspiring—a thing from another world.

A phenomenon not wrought by human hands.

“So this is the Church’s secret…”

The secret behind that great waterfall, behind the prosperity the Church enjoyed—the source of their intense holy power.

There was no doubt.

“Blattier and the other bishops are there.”

I had found them—and to be honest, I burned to climb that place and end it myself. But I knew the true measure of the enemy’s strength—and the unknowns they still hid.

So, reluctantly… I chose to withdraw.

“Time to find Frey.”

Rather than charge in alone, it would be better to unite our strength and destroy them with a single strike.

Separating my consciousness from Vermithor and letting the War King Form fade, I finally regained my sense of the world around me, able at last to see colors other than black and gold.

And then I found myself standing, at a loss, unable to place where I was.

I now stood in what seemed to be a labyrinth—a strange forest constructed in such twisting fashion that getting lost was child’s play.

“Where am I now? And how much time has passed, exactly?”

Tracking that golden trail had severed my sense of time and place.

I had focused so hard I’d failed to realize several days had gone by since I split from Frey and Aegon.

“I can’t feel Frey’s aura… Has the fight already ended? Or am I simply too far away to sense him?”

Knowing I had no time to waste, I plunged back into the forest at once, using Void Step.

I hadn’t been attacked by Church followers for a while now… did that mean they couldn’t reach this place?

It was strange. True, this forest felt like a maze, saturated with a peculiar aura.

Even so, I found my way through with ease, and going in and out was no challenge for me.

I didn’t understand the secret behind this place ..but so long as I could move freely within it, that was all that mattered.

Delving into the recesses of the sacred land, I cut my way forward in search of Frey … intent on ending the battle with the Church once and for all.