All elves are equal.
But some elves are more equal than others. While elven society ostensibly strives for equality, sometimes certain elves forget that others have to clean up the trash.
In elven society, there are always those who take on the trivial, lowly tasks—tasks that are precisely judged as such. Elpina, the cleaning elf who had been grumbling and sweeping the streets since morning, frowned deeply at the loud noise.
Kugugugugung!
The heavens and earth seemed to flip entirely, and a series of deafening roars echoed one after another.
If this had been the capital, Grantera, instead of Elvenheim, the great city would have changed its nationality to the underworld in less than an hour.
Yet, the Barrier of the World Tree remained completely intact. This had nothing to do with the magnitude of power.
The Law of the Universe is a single law decreed by the cosmos. It is a great principle that must be obeyed by anyone or anything within the universe.
“Ah, it’s so noisy this early in the morning, it’s killing me.”
After plugging her ears with earplugs, she continued her work without a hint of disturbance, calmly sweeping as if nothing had happened.
There’s a saying that ignoring someone is the greatest form of contempt. Elpina treated the Demon King in exactly that manner. Of course, she hadn’t always had the courage to do so.
When the Demon King first appeared outside the protective barrier, she was terrified. Everyone was.
The elves, who had collectively panicked, only realized after he left that their fear had been baseless.
The second time, they were less afraid. By the third visit, some elves even began to show composure.
And by the fourth, fifth time… eventually, more and more elves stopped caring whether the Demon King came or not.
The Demon King? Whether he comes or not, who cares?
Some elves even became arrogant, believing that even the Primal Demon King couldn’t do anything to them. They were the group of spectators sitting on the branches of the World Tree, watching the Demon King from afar.
They found amusement in the existence of this Demon King who sought to destroy them. They even clapped whenever an attack came.
The thrill of seeing the Demon King fail and retreat! Despite his clear intent to annihilate them, he couldn’t even touch a hair on their heads. They relieved their stress by clapping.
They giggled as if watching a grand performance. Some elves even secretly looked forward to the Demon King’s visits. To them, the Demon King was nothing more than entertainment to spice up their dull lives.
Among the equal elves, the most equal of them all, the High Elf Kania, stretched elegantly and retorted. She was leaning against the World Tree, comfortably positioned for a good view.
“It’s pointless. No matter how many times he tries, he just fails and leaves. It’s meaningless.”
“He may have failed and left, but it wasn’t meaningless.”
But alas, this time, the Demon King had no intention of leaving.
This was indeed his twenty-third attempt. But to say that the previous twenty-two attempts were meaningless failures would be incorrect.
During those twenty-two attempts, he had clashed with the World Tree’s protection at full force and realized that this law was a dead law, incapable of any revision.
The previous attacks were merely reconnaissance. This time was the real deal. Grimudo spat something out. Like clearing his throat, there was no grand preparation or warning.
“Is he just going to spit and leave? I’ll have to clean that up.”
Elpina, who had been sweeping, grumbled. But the color of the spit was a bit too dark.
No one felt any sense of danger from such a small thing. Not until it passed through the World Tree’s barrier without resistance and fell to the ground.
It was just that. Nothing exploded, and the barrier didn’t break. But the laughter stopped abruptly. The fear of the Demon King, which they had forgotten—or perhaps deliberately ignored—suddenly resurfaced.
“…What is that?”
It fell as naturally as a thrown pebble hitting the ground. Kania’s eyes narrowed as she saw it pass through the World Tree’s barrier without any resistance.
Pitch black in color, its form remained unchanged. It was something no one, especially not the elves, could fail to recognize.
“Th-the Fruit of the World Tree?!”
But it was hard to believe. According to their knowledge, the Fruit of the World Tree should not have changed color like this.
What is the Fruit of the World Tree? It is fundamentally different from the fruit of an ordinary tree, containing a fragment of the Law of the Universe.
In short, it holds a portion of the Ancient God’s divinity. Even if a person swallowed it, they couldn’t digest it and would have to expel it.
Not even the Demon King could do anything about it. Grimudo’s dark energy couldn’t taint this fruit.
“You must have thought all my efforts were meaningless, foolish, and trivial.”
The Demon King closed his eyes. It took less than ten seconds to spit it out, but he had spent nearly a hundred years preparing for this moment. From a certain perspective, it could even be seen as longer.
Through countless collisions with the World Tree’s barrier over the years, the Demon King had studied the barrier with his own body. He eventually formed a hypothesis: even the invincible Barrier of the World Tree might allow passage to something with the same attributes.
For example, the Fruit of the World Tree, sharing the same origin as the World Tree, remains a part of it even after taking the form of a fruit. Thus, the fruit could blend seamlessly with the World Tree.
Based on this hypothesis, he gathered items originating from the World Tree and, luckily, received the Fruit of the World Tree from the Citadel’s Chancellor, Adolf Macliren.
He still remembers the day Adolf Macliren offered the Fruit of the World Tree. Thanks to that, he could now erase the elves before the next cycle.
“As you said, there were many trials and errors. Even after obtaining the fruit, I couldn’t use it and was anxious.”
The Demon King’s reminiscence was long. This victory was, in fact, a human victory. It was not achieved with little effort.
The moment the fruit passed through the barrier, the Demon King was overcome with emotion. For the first time in a long while, a sense of accomplishment washed over him. Now, all he had to do was watch. The rest was just a spectacle.
“Was it the twenty-second time last time? Back then, I tried to pass through the barrier while consuming the Fruit of the World Tree, but it didn’t work. So, I decided to try a different method.”
“A different… what method?”
From the fruit, black smoke began to rise. It was a cold, eerie smoke, different from the kind that comes from burning.
The elves near the fruit quickly distanced themselves. It was clear that touching this smoke would be disastrous. They didn’t even want to get a finger near it.
Even the High Elf Kania was no longer composed. She hurriedly descended from the World Tree to the ground.
Before the Fruit of the World Tree could emit any more strange energy, she intended to seal it away, whether by burying it or containing it in the wind.
“Assuming the Fruit of the World Tree contains a fragment of the Ancient God’s divinity, I pondered over it. The answer wasn’t far. Only divinity can harmonize with divinity. So, I infused my own divinity into the Fruit of the World Tree.”
“W-what?!”
The brave elf who had been talking about beer snacks earlier vomited his beer and trembled like he had a seizure. With shaking hands, he pointed accusingly.
“That’s impossible! You’re the Demon King! How could you become a god?!”
“Why, if I had wanted to become a god, do you think I couldn’t have? I just chose not to. For me, becoming a god would be a downgrade.”
The Demon King laughed. He simply laughed. To him, it was an incomprehensible matter, but there were people on the continent who worshipped him.
They didn’t gain great power from worshipping him. In fact, they had never seen his face, never spoken to him, and he had never given them a single coin.
The number of his followers, while relatively small, was not insignificant in absolute terms.
This faith, though small, had persisted steadily over hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of years.
Humans weren’t the first to worship him, and even before the last cycle, there were heretics who worshipped Grimudo.
This faith had never been mainstream, but it had never disappeared. It was the faith of those who, in their despair, turned to the Demon King, and it had accumulated over time.
Still, humans practice restraint. And if one’s worship of Grimudo was discovered, they would be socially ostracized, if not buried alive, so the number of believers never significantly increased.
But what about the demon race? Originally rejected by the gods, the demon race had no one to pray to or worship.
For them, a perfectly crafted idol was right before their eyes. The strongest being they could idolize, not a legend but a real existence in this world.
So, the Demon King could have become a god long ago if he wished. But he didn’t. While an ordinary person might weep and accept the offer to become a god, the Demon King would kick such an opportunity away.
He already knew that being a god, especially a personal god, was not all that great. Becoming a god would grant various powers and the ability to use divine energy, but all of that depended on the supply of faith.
For an already self-sufficient being like him, using such trivial powers by relying on others’ faith was unthinkable. Grimudo had no interest in that position.
So, taking advantage of this opportunity, he separated all the faith he had accumulated and condensed it into divinity. He infused this divinity into the Fruit of the World Tree, creating a new god with the attributes of the World Tree.
Sssss…
The god born from the faith of those who worshipped Grimudo was exactly what they had wished for: a being to destroy the current absurd world and open a new one.
A god that taints and destroys the world. A type of death god, but one whose danger and level were on a completely different dimension from any death god that had appeared before.
“Wh-what is this…?”
Kania, who had approached to seal the Fruit of the World Tree, screamed. As a High Elf of her clan, she was equivalent to a Master-level human.
But without even touching it, she felt a horrifying sensation the moment she got close. Darkness was slowly creeping up her pure white skin.
Her jade-like skin turned as black as obsidian. Her glorious golden hair also darkened into a black hue. Grimudo smiled as he watched the scene. It wasn’t the direction he had envisioned, but this was good too.
Crack!
Whether it was a god that destroyed elves or turned them into something else, he had achieved his goal. The Fruit of the World Tree, which had been indestructible, began to crack and shatter.
A shadowy figure, more like a shadow than a person, poked its head out of the fruit like a chick hatching from an egg. The death god crafted by the Demon King revealed itself.
Resembling a miniature version of Grimudo, it scanned its surroundings with sharp eyes. Then, upon seeing the Demon King, it glared at him with intense hostility.
Regardless.
The Demon King smiled and greeted the child he had created.
“Congratulations on your birth. Modrig.”
This child’s name was Modrig.
The death god of corruption, who taints the world and assimilates it into his own.
