I Picked Up the Hero Who Banished Me - Chapter 60
59 – [From the Land of the Elves – 27]
“Huff.”
I opened my eyes.
Did I pass out?
The World Tree…?
Elvenheim…?
Livia…?
The others…?
A maelstrom of questions churned in my head as I rose. Within the emerald-tinged depths of the World Tree, its spirit was gazing at me.
“A quicker awakening than expected. That peculiar body of yours seems to possess a strong resistance to spirits. In the worst-case scenario, we might have assumed you wouldn’t awaken at all.”
That’s a frightening thing to say.
“Is it…activated?”
“You were speaking informally a moment ago. Why the sudden shift to honorifics?”
“I was a little…worked up earlier. I apologize for the discourtesy.”
Ancient spirits, they were revered by some to the point of worship, truly noble beings.
Like royalty among us humans… No, more akin to legendary heroes, I suppose.
Thinking about it that way, I can’t fathom what kind of nerve I had just now.
I was definitely a bit flustered.
“So, what about Elvenheim now…”
“The battle continues. However, thanks to the protection, no one will receive instantly fatal wounds, and if treated, they can survive. It may be impossible to prevent deaths entirely, but the number will be significantly reduced.”
“I see. I know this is a presumptuous request, but could you give me some of the World Tree sap right now?”
“……”
The fact that the battle isn’t over means Livia hasn’t finished fighting either.
In other words, either the opponent’s strength is far beyond our expectations, or the curse is causing her to have seizures and is preventing her from fighting properly. If I can save Livia, the number of lives she can save in turn is immense.
Right now, saving Lybia was the most crucial thing in this fight.
No matter if Elvenheim ultimately won, the damage couldn’t be too great.
Even if a victory soaked in blood was inevitable, wouldn’t it be better to minimize the blood spilled?
It’s best if no blood flows at all.
And if it must flow, then let it be as little as possible.
“Hmm, certainly, Hero Olivia Reinhart is rather dangerous right now. Her fits are severe… no, how is she even alive?”
It seemed Lybia raised the question, ‘How is that thing still alive?’ not just in the eyes of humans, half-elves, and elves, but also in the eyes of the spirits.
“I offer you this.”
“What is this?”
A jewel-like green orb.
It vaguely seemed to give off a sweet fragrance.
“It’s a fruit of the World Tree. Using the sap will take time to dispel the curse, but with this, you can deal with it on the spot without any problems.”
“I’ve never seen one before.”
“Because I’ve never given it to anyone.”
“Then why now…?”
“It’s a gesture of respect for someone who, for even a moment, was a contractor. I am also a spirit, after all.”
“…Is that so.”
As was said, spirits are eccentric, and they stubbornly ignore or refuse to listen to those who don’t meet their standards.
But it seemed they had an instinctive tendency to be quite devoted and open their hearts to those they had recognized, even just once.
Even if it was just a moment, I became the contractor recognized by the World Tree’s spirit, and from that, the World Tree’s spirit seemed to have taken a liking to me.
“But it’s quite a distance from here to where the hero Olivia Reinhart is. Something could happen before I get there.”
“We need to run with all our might.”
“I will send you.”
“Huh? Is that possible?”
“This Elvenheim is all within the World Tree’s territory. While the location may be slightly off, I will send you as close as possible.”
“Understood, thank you.”
“It’s nothing. And the World Tree hasn’t completely revived yet, it needs your visit again. Be sure to visit after you’re done.”
“Of course.”
So, it’s not going to be just once.
Huh?
“Wait a second, do I have to fight for my life like this every time I come…”
“Be sure to come.”
“……!!”
A hand reaches out.
Ignoring my words, the World Tree’s spirit transported me as is.
*
*Thwang!!*
Ah.
That kinda hurt.
Ugh.
It hurts like hell.
“Haa, haa… haa…”
“……”
I coughed up blood, dragging myself upright.
I had no idea how many times I’d been hit.
He aimed the spear to avoid the vitals as much as possible, but I guess there’s no avoiding the baseline stat increase.
Given my current condition, I barely managed to handle that Garfield earlier. And now, he’s suddenly powered up to a Demon King level. It’s too much to deal with.
The only thing saving me was I’d already analyzed his fighting style, so I’ve been dodging his attacks and trying to hold on, but that’s reaching its limit.
I managed to dodge, or if I got hit, it was away from vital points.
My limbs were shaking, and I could feel my body dying from the Reaper’s curse.
‘How many minutes left?’
It felt like I’d die in a few minutes.
That’s how bad my condition was.
Bleeding, wounds, and the curse, they all seemed to be holding hands, running full force to kill me.
“Y-you, y-you b*stard.”
“……”
Garfield was panting, his face twisted in a grimace.
No, I’m the one who was attacked way more. Why is *he* the one getting exhausted?
That’s ridiculous.
“Why are you still alive!! Just die already!!”
“…….”
I remained silent, still, and pushed myself up.
My death will only come when my body decides I am dead.
Until that moment, I will not drop my sword.
By doing so, perhaps even one more might survive.
It could be a meaningless struggle.
If so, then struggle I will.
If there’s even a chance of saving one more life, how could I ever let go of my sword?
The value of life cannot be measured by numbers, but striving to save even one more life could never be wrong.
“UWoooH!!”
*Ting!!*
Barely deflecting it, my body was torn again.
Avoiding the vital points, I kicked Garfield’s jaw. *Thwack!!* Despite his jaw being blown away, it instantly regenerated; it was almost nauseating now.
Berserk Wyverns do have great regenerative capabilities, but this was beyond anything I could have imagined.
*Baak!!*
He punched my gut and tried to spear me, but I barely managed to dodge again, avoiding my vitals.
Punches and kicks are manageable.
I can endure.
If I match the timing of the attack and reinforce only the impacted area with magic, I can minimize the damage. However, a spear made of magic ignores my magical reinforcement.
I had to block with my sword, or dodge, and if that wasn’t possible, avoid the vital points.
“Now! It’s come to this!! I didn’t want to use this here of all places, but a hero is a hero, I guess!”
“…….”
I staggered and rose again.
Magic was gathering in the spear.
Hmm.
That’s dangerous.
With my current strength, it’s hard to block.
I stalled for as much time as I could.
I don’t know if my death will mean anything, but I wish it would.
‘I don’t want to die.’
That was what I thought in the final moment.
As a hero, dying to protect someone was definitely glorious, but the one standing here wasn’t the hero Olivia Reinhart, but a regular woman named Olivia Reinhart.
So the feeling of not wanting to die came first, and Royce’s face flashed into my mind.
“Die!!”
“Livia!!”
Our voices overlapped and echoed.
“Royce?”
Is this a hallucination before death?
The moment I thought that, Royce threw something.
A green marble?
No, a gem?
“Eat it!”
What it was didn’t matter.
Royce was covered in blood.
Whatever it was that had struggled so hard to reach me with such injuries, I trusted it.
I ran with everything I had.
In the pain that felt like my legs would burst, I opened my mouth and caught the flying bead.
*Gulped,* and something began to spread inside me.
“Kuh!!”
*Thwack!*
Garfield must have felt something, as he immediately hurled a spear at me. The enormous spear was filled with preposterous magic, it was no exaggeration to say it was a Demon Lord’s attack.
Even if I dodged, it likely would have burrowed deep, harming someone in Elvenheim.
But.
Magic flows.
The magic nerves that had been corrupted and unusable.
It felt as though everything was being activated.
*Thwack!*
I swung my holy sword, batting the attack into the sky.
The spear, sent flying by the swing, pierced the clouds, and I stared wide-eyed at my own body.
“Move… I’m moving, I’m moving…”
My body, as if seized by some kind of paralysis, was moving without issue.
Scars still remained, the serious injuries were still there, and even if the curse was undone, the damage it caused wouldn’t just vanish.
Damage still lingered in my magic nerves, weaker than when I faced the Demon King in my prime, but it was enough.
“My, my spear…!!”
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Ignoring the flustered Garfield, I looked towards Royce.
Leaning against a tree, he was breathing shallowly, slumped down. He looked utterly exhausted, like he’d suffered through hell.
He was alive, thankfully.
Then.
“My turn.”
“Kuh! Even if the curse is gone, your body! You’re still much weaker than when you fought the Demon King!!”
“Yeah, I am.”
That was true.
My prime was when I fought the Demon King.
The time when I was the strongest.
It wasn’t just fighting the Demon King, but all the accumulated experience and talent just exploded with light during that time. From the beginning, it wasn’t anything else but the curse that made me so weak.
“I’m weaker now than when I fought the Demon King.”
I drew my sword.
“But that doesn’t give you a reason to beat me, does it?”
*Thwung!!*
Leapt in.
“Whoa.”
*Zzzzzzip!!*
And at that instant, it sliced through.
“Want me to tell you the key difference between the Demon Lord I killed and you?”
“Where, where are you?!”
“That Demon Lord was similar to you in terms of raw power. Maybe the Demon Lord had a slight edge, but there wasn’t a huge difference.”
Even so, it took time, and it was pretty tough.
The reason was obvious.
“That guy knew technique, you could even call him seasoned. For a monster, he had mastered quite a few skills. He didn’t just try to crush with pure force.”
There wasn’t a reason to speak well of a monster, but that much was worthy of recognition.
I’ve faced many monsters up until now, and quite a few used weapons.
But most of them just tried to brute force, or even if they had techniques, they tended to stick to their own. It was a kind of arrogance, or pride, that monsters have.
They refuse to bow their heads to anyone but the strongest and see humans as prey that they must devour.
That’s why they never change their approach.
But the Demon Lord abandoned that pride and used every technique he could, using everything even if it was considered cowardly. Back then, my companions called him cowardly, but I didn’t see it that way.
What’s cowardly in a fight?
There’s a story of an ordinary person who won against a trained soldier by throwing dirt in his eyes.
If you die, that’s the end.
Only the victor gets to continue the tale.
Whether it was a tale of honorable deeds or a story of tainted sins, regardless, I had to live.
“You’re far weaker than the Demon Lord.”
“Yo-you b*stard!!”
*Swish! Swish!!*
“Useless!! No matter how much you cut me, I won’t die! Judging by the looks of it, you’re not in a condition to unleash any major power!!”
He was right.
Considering my current state, using a large-scale technique was difficult.
Besides, if I used a big technique here, Elvenheim might also be damaged. I really wanted to finish this with a small technique, if possible.
Regardless of my physical state, if my physical abilities were somewhat restored, there was a tactic that could be used.
*Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!!*
“Ugh, I told you it was impossible!”
*Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!!*
It didn’t stop.
Arms, legs.
Head.
Chest.
Stomach.
Thigh.
Groin.
Without discrimination, I slashed and stabbed, going through him.
The regeneration was fast, but Garfield’s expression contorted further with pain.
“You b*stard!!”
He’d lucked out reading my move, tried to block with his spear, but I just ignored it, smashing through the spear and cutting him along with it.
*Shhkk!*
“My, my spear….”
“A Berserk Wyvern’s regeneration is impressive, but it’s not invincible, and it’s not infinite.”
“……!!”
The regeneration rate was noticeably slowing down.
The more severe the wound, and the more magic it consumed to heal. He’d been regenerating at what you might call a super-speed before, and that magic drain was substantial.
It seemed like he was replenishing it with the power of that reaper or whatever, but at best, that was temporary, a power transferred from another.
Its sustaining power was different from power that’s been built up.
*Thwack! Thwack!!*
“S-Stop…! I, I, to a cripple like this!!”
*Shhhaaak!!*
I slashed him multiple times in an instant.
Arms, legs, head, torso, lower body, every part I could cut was cut, and he became a corpse that was truly chopped to bits.
He was twitching, but he wasn’t regenerating anymore.
“Hmph.”
*Swwshshsh!*
I carved up Garfield’s dismembered body again until no scraps of flesh remained.
I shook the blood off the holy sword and said,
“You damn monsters all have the same kind of last words.”
“Livia, good work.”
“Royce.”
“Yes.”
“I’m gonna pass out.”
“Huh?”
Saying that, I fell backward, and Royce quickly rushed to catch and hold me up.
Damn it.
Royce was holding me, for once.
But my senses were blurring, I couldn’t properly feel it.
‘The wounds…’
More than that, the curse on my mana pathways was lifted but the damage wasn’t, and I used mana amplification way too strongly.
‘I can’t, lose consciousness…’
“Livia! Are you okay!?”
“Please, take me, to Elvenheim. …I’ll be able to move a little before then.”
“…”
Royce looked at me with a fed-up expression.
“Yes, I will escort you safely.”
“…Not bad.”