216 - - Art. 216. The Thing That Eat the Big Tree

A demon...

The battle between us demons and humans had stalled.

Just when we thought we had the upper hand, it was quickly reversed.

Such a battle had been going on for a long time.

Therefore, even among the demons, there was a division of opinion between those who wanted to continue the battle and those who wanted to retreat.

Of course, I am a fighter for the continuation of the war.

But it is true that there is no effective strategy at present.

So we decided to send us demons from the demon world into the human world.

The demons of our world are far more ferocious than the demons of this world.

But perhaps this is the reason why many of our world's demons are not suitable for survival in the human world, and we could not let them work for a long period of time.

If only we could solve this problem, we could send a large number of powerful demons to the human world.

One day, it was discovered that a certain demon living deep in the demon world can survive for a long period of time by ingesting a plant called the World Tree, which is only found in the human world.

I was delighted.

The world tree grows all over the human world. With this, we can make the human world a world full of dangerous monsters.

It would reduce the number of children and the number of non-fighting, non-producing individuals, if not the human warriors.　

This will reduce the strength of the humans in the long run.

I immediately sent a demon named Yugd-eater into the human world.

And just as I was about to turn a certain forest into a breeding ground for the Yggdooter, he appeared.

The White Peril. The creature, whose true identity was unknown, attacked and devoured humans and demons alike.　

As a matter of course, the Yggdociaters I had bred were also eaten and killed.

I could not stand to see my Yugd-eaters dwindle any further, so I decided to build a shelter in the basement and breed Yugd-eaters there.

But here comes the problem.

The white plague began to devour not only flesh, but also plants.

Of course, the plants included the World Tree.

The World Tree, with its conspicuously large size, grew like a mountain and was quickly devoured by the White Plague.

As a result, the food supply of the Yggdrasheeters, who until then had had no trouble eating, was rapidly dwindling.

Yugd-eaters can eat meat, but the most nutritious food they can consume is the World Tree.

I moved the Yugd-eater to the only remaining world tree in the neighborhood.

Here, they can be raised on the fallen leaves and fallen bark of the World Tree.

One day, after a while, the forest was shrouded in fog.

Probably, the humans had put a ward on the forest as a countermeasure against the white plague.

It would have been fine if that was all, but the worst thing happened to me.

The World Tree disappeared without a trace.

This must have been caused by the magic of the humans.

But because of that, we could no longer use the World Tree as food.

Naturally, starving Yugd-eaters wandered the forest in search of food.

They began to compete with each other for the fallen leaves and berries of the World Tree that they happened to find.

It would be a mistake to let the Yugd Eaters kill each other.

So I decided to seal off the Yugd Eaters.

And while the seal was in effect, I decided to find out where the World Tree was and break the spell of the humans.

I will create a huge sealing circle underground and place the only remaining piece of the World Tree in the center of the circle.

We demons don't know it, but it seems that the Yggdoc Eaters can sense the smell of the World Tree.

In particular, the smell of the fruit of the tree seems to be the strongest, and they tend to rush to the fruit of the tree.

It would have been nice if the Yggdrasheet hidden by the humans could have been detected by their sense of smell, but either the humans' magic was superior or the Yggdrasheeters' sense of smell was not that good, it seemed that they could not find it.

Anyway, we wait for the Yugd Eaters to be lured by the smell of this piece of the World Tree and gather inside the sealed ward.

The pieces of the world tree are not edible due to the protective wards I made, so they will be safe until all the Yugd-eaters are gathered.

Especially the queen, Mother Yggd-eater, must be protected at all costs.

Mother Yugd Eater, who has grown up eating plenty of the World Tree, is much more powerful than the Yugd Eater that was in the Demon World.

We have a problem.

All the Yugd Eaters were gathered, but Mother Yugd Eater went on a rampage for the piece of the World Tree, and a part of the wards were damaged.

The wards cannot be put up.

We have no choice but to put the Yugd Eaters to sleep and then repair the wards. ......

◆ ◆

"So this is where the record ends."

I understood from the record left in the small room that this demoniac was trying to seal up the Yugd Eater.

"And then we were attacked by a Yggd Eater that wasn't fully asleep, and we were just one step away from escaping here in time, I guess. I think we managed to deploy the sealing wards, though."

It seems that this was a farm for raising demons.

But their evil plan failed and they met their end by the demons they raised.

"So the ones attacking the World Tree Township are Yugd-eaters who have awakened from the seal. And the Mother Yugd Eater who was listed in the demon records was not here. She must have gone out in search of the World Tree.

We struck out as a result, but it gave us a lot of information.

The world tree disappeared from this world because of the White Plague.

And that the Yugd Eater is targeting a few world trees.

"...... but I'm not bothered if there are no world trees."

To be honest, cutting down the world tree on a regular basis is very troublesome.

After all, it is troublesome to just cut down the tree because of its huge size, it is also troublesome to process and dispose of the cut timber, and if the stump is left, it absorbs nutrients from the roots, which reduces the nutrients in the surrounding land. ......

"But if we exterminate the species, the environment will be drastically changed. In that sense, it is also true that we have to leave a certain number of world trees. ......

But it's still a hassle.

I don't know what to do.

While I was wondering like that, the basement shook again.

Another collapse?　No, no!"

The shaking sensation is not caused by the collapse, but by the tremors of something shaking.

"Could this be ...... Mother Yugd Eater moving?

If so, its destination!

"World Tree Township is in danger!"