“Arshay, did you notice that?” Misty said.
“Notice what?” the Demon Lord asked.
As the pair spoke, they skillfully dodged an onslaught of roots and vines that came from all directions.
“Our opponent seems to have calmed down,” Misty observed.
“I-I can’t tell! I’m too busy fighting back,” Arshay replied.
“Come on. Just take a good look.”
Just then, the vines and roots around them had all been sliced into little pieces.
“She’s right,” the Dullahan chimed in. “This is our greatest opportunity yet.”
“Dear! What happened with Marco?!” Misty inquired.
“I’ll explain later! Just know that he’s on our side!”
Arshay was elated to hear the news from Ramza. She had assumed that Marco had abandoned her, and breathed a sigh of relief. As she calmed down, Ramza was quick to snap her back to her senses.
“We’re really at our limit here!” he roared. “If we don’t hurry, we won’t be able to stop him!”
Misty launched a volley of spells, Ramza swung his blade, and Arshay continued to lull her enemies into a slumber. With the Dullahan joining the fray, the battlefield had stabilized. The trio grew tired, but the World Tree of Gluttony was running on fumes as well.
“I get that we’re forcing Ein into a dormant state, but then what?!” Ramza asked.
“We’ll think about it when we get there!” Misty replied. “We must focus on sending Ein to sleep, then we’ll be able to handle him from there!”
“Got it! Simple enough! I’m not against that at all!”
As the three began to fight back with gusto, a new horde of rose monsters emerged before them, laughing and giggling eerily. The multiplying creatures were hell-bent on protecting the World Tree, and bared their fangs at the intruders.
“Outta my way!” Ramza roared.
He was most suited to fight against them. With a single swing of his sword, the creatures were shredded into ribbons.
“Keep it up, you two!” Misty shouted. “I’ll work on Ein’s roots and force him to take a nap!”
“What if we go all out and kill him?!” Arshay asked.
“Even if we did, we can’t kill him anymore! He’s way too tough! Don’t worry about that!”
Upon hearing those words, Ramza leaped ahead to aim for the trunk.
“Dear!”
“Brother!”
The ladies called out to the Dullahan, but he paid them no heed.
“Remember this well, Ein,” he said. “This is the might of the man who taught you the way of the sword.”
Every time he swung his jet-black greatsword, the air was sliced in twain. It was almost as if the space between each slice wavered, like it had some sort of magnetic force.
“Raaaaah!” Ramza shouted.
The air surrounding Ramza’s blade was dragged along as he swung at the World Tree, creating a powerful gust of wind in the process. It was a squall so powerful that it caused the ocean to crash against Port Roundheart and towards the capital. His strike was bleaker than the dark of night, blotting out the light as it crawled towards the World Tree of Gluttony.
“Gh... Gyaaaaah!”
An earsplitting shriek pierced the air, its howling so loud that the three were tempted to cover their ears. As the World Tree cried out in pain, a deep gash ran along its trunk, proof of the attack’s success. But their joy lasted for only a second as everyone shuddered at the thing that emerged from the gash.
“That’s the calamity given form once the World Tree of Gluttony reaches maturity,” Misty explained.
“Yeah,” Ramza nodded. “It’s enough to destroy this continent in an instant! He would’ve become an absurdly terrifying Demon Lord!”
Several large eyeballs peeked from the gash, their gazes darting around grotesquely. A dark, viscous liquid surrounded them before it started leaking from the wound, as though the tree were crying.
Arshay had locked eyes with the abhorrent entity for only a moment, and she still couldn’t stop shuddering. She gritted her teeth in response to the fear that gripped her entire body.
“I’m scared. But...” She knew that she couldn’t let this slide and chose to look within herself to renew her strength. “You can’t come out. You can’t! Just—” Arshay paused as she outstretched her arms, using all her strength to unleash a torrent of magic at the World Tree.
“Stop already!”
Arshay’s attack was much mightier than the blast she’d fired off upon arriving in Heim. Her mana, thick with magical energy, shone brightly as it whizzed through the air. Like a spear, the mana plunged into the trunk, and for a few moments, silence settled upon the city. The Demon Lord’s attack exploded within the tree, damaging its innards.
“Misty!” Ramza shouted. He continued to hack away at the vines as he encouraged his wife to take advantage of this priceless opportunity.
The Elder Lich swiftly raised her staff in the air, and turned it on its side in front of her. “I’ll seal it up, tree and all!”
Her spells displayed a level of dominance unlike any other. The ground beneath her staff started crystallizing and spreading, freezing the roots dead in their tracks—as if they’d fallen into a deep slumber. The rose creatures stopped in their tracks, unable to fight back. The wave of crystallization reached the World Tree’s roots, swiftly transmogrifying its trunk from wood into beautifully glistening crystal. However, the crystallization slowed to a crawl as it tried to work its way up; the polished earth began to crack, and the tree started to shake. It was then that Misty knew her attempt to seal it had failed.
“Is this still not enough?!” she cried.
“Let’s try again!” Ramza shouted. “I’ll create an opening somehow! I know the three of us can do it!”