It was a dark night.

Neither the moonlight nor the starlight could make it through the trees of the Jungle.

A person's voice could be heard through a small video communication device.

> The Roan Kingdom, Breck Kingdom, Whipper Kingdom, and the three Northern Kingdoms all declare that black magic has resurfaced on the Western continent and that we will do everything we can to destroy it once again.

Cale turned the video communication device off as soon as Alberu finished speaking.

Raon's voice could be heard in Cale's mind.

– Human! Is it our turn now?

He looked around. He did not see that many warriors.

He only saw Tasha, a few Dark Elves who were as dark as the night, Rosalyn, Litana, Choi Han, Eruhaben, and Mary.

Shaaaaaaa- shaaaaaaaaa- Cale started to speak while the river that cut through the Jungle was next to him.

"Let's get started."

It was at that moment.

The Dark Elves and Litana all turned toward Eruhaben.

He was someone that Cale had suddenly brought with him.

The Dark Elves had their fists clenched and were looking at him with shaking pupils while Litana was full of questions.

He had been introduced to her in the past during the meeting of the four kingdoms and one tribe as Cale's guard knight. However, Cale introduced him differently this time.

"He is an archmage."

He was someone who was beyond the level of Rosalyn, a highest-grade mage. His white gold hair was shining even in the darkness.

Eruhaben moved his hand. Gold dust quickly surrounded the group. They all disappeared into the darkness once that happened.

Rosalyn had a relaxed expression on her face as she started to speak. "I will be waiting for you."

She could hear the sound of the wind once she said goodbye to them.

Rustle- It was the sound of the group starting to run.

There was no reason to use the difficult path under the water now that Eruhaben was here. They were all running next to the river toward Section 7 while being invisible thanks to Eruhaben's magic.

Shaaaaa- shaaaaa- The Sound of the Wind surrounded Cale's feet.

**********************************

– Human! They're all so fast!

'Right?' Cale lifted his head up.

They had quickly arrived right outside the range of the Empire's surveillance. However, they could not see the castle walls of Section 7. There were no walls around the river that cut through Section 7 from north to south.

Instead, they saw a large number of the Empire's soldiers. Soldiers were stationed on both sides of the river without leaving any gaps.

They would crash into them if they tried to run by, even if they were invisible. Of course, they had enough skills to stealthily jump past them, however, they needed to get to the center of Section 7 as quietly as possible without leaving anything to chance.

Snap. Snap. It was the moment Cale snapped his fingers.

– Alright. Human!

– We will get started.

He heard Raon and Eruhaben's voices.

Cale jumped into the river after hearing their voices. They were still far enough away not to be seen.

Splash- Shaaaaaaa- Shaaaaaaaa-

He could hear the sound of people walking through the water.

They were now underwater. They were surrounded by transparent orbs.

Cale started to speak.

A speck of gold dust moved by his neck. He was able to breathe normally and speak in this orb that the Dark Elves and Litana thought Eruhaben had created on his own but was actually the work of two Dragons.

His group could hear his voice clearly even though they were underwater thanks to the magic spell.

"We will move straight forward."

The transparent orbs started to move on the bottom of the river. They were now within the range of the Empire's surveillance, but nobody could see them.

Shaaaaaaaa- shaaaaaaaaaaaa-

Cale and the others were walking up the river. They would go from the bottom to the top.

Cale's group finally made it to the center of Section 7 through the calm river water under the night sky.

It was at that moment.

Cale could hear Raon's voice. It was the voice of the only one who had been moving above the river instead of underneath the water.

– Human! Humaaaaan!

Cale flinched. The young Dragon sounded worried. Cale noticed something odd at that moment.

He was not the only one to stop moving. A couple of the other transparent orbs had stopped moving even though he had not given any type of signal.

– Human! The Empire is crazy!

Cale raised his head after hearing Raon's voice. He could see the water swaying.

Raon's voice was swaying just as much.

– Inside Section 7, Human, there are many large bombs inside Section 7!

'What? Bombs?'

– They are all dead mana bombs! They are huge in size as well! They all located all throughout the residences! There are hundreds of them!

Cale heard a snap as everyone became visible.

The ancient Dragon Eruhaben had removed the invisibility magic.

Cale could now tell who it was that had stopped once he had stopped.

The Dark Elves, Mary, and Eruhaben. All of them had stopped. They all had serious expressions on their faces. They could not see above the river as Raon was doing, however, they had all felt the presence of dead mana.

They had felt an extremely large and terrible presence.

– These hundreds of bombs ... Everyone in Section 7 will die if they blow up! No, Section 7 will just become a land of death! Nothing will be able to live here anymore!

'These scum bastards.' Cale finally figured out what the Empire was thinking. 'They weren't done with just taking hostages.'

Their plan was to completely destroy Section 7. They might even be planning to kill the Jungle warriors who would come to rescue the hostages as well.

– Human! The entire Section 7 is pretty much an enormous dead mana bomb! This is bad!

The golems and soldiers on guard were all there in order to hide this from being noticed.

They were not to prevent Jungle warriors from charging in, but so that nobody could see what they were doing inside Section 7.

"Hahaha bastards" Cale was shocked.

– It is not something Mary and the Dark Elves can handle! Someone will die if all of these exploded at once!

That someone would most likely be the innocent Jungle citizens.

Anger could be seen in Cale's eyes. His mind became complicated as he thought of anyway to get past this problem.

– But it will be even worse if gramps or I destroy them all! We can't leave them alone either!

Cale was about to respond after hearing the urgency in Raon's voice before stopping himself.

– Human?

He ignored Raon's voice. It was because he heard a different voice through the young Dragon's urgent voice.

• I'm hungry.

'Glutton! Maybe...'

The voice was coming from the glutton priestess, the owner of the Indestructible Shield.

'Tell me that you could help me, please....'

Glutton happily added on.

• I can eat it, Cale. Let me eat it. I've been good and wait patiently before.

'You mean the dead mana, right?'

• Yes. Don't you remember?

Glutton asked.

• Remember where we first met. Remember the tree where you fed me those tasty bread. Don't you remember?

He remembered it. He remembered the 'Man-Eating Tree,' at the top of the slums in the Henituse territory.

He remembered that black tree. It was the spot where he got the Indestructible Shield and started on this odd journey.

'...Hold on. Black?' Cale recalled how the tree turned from black to white once he earned the Indestructible Shield.

'Perhaps? Is that why you said you died eating dirt?'

The people of the slums said that everything underneath the black tree was desolate and avoided that area in fear.

Cale had been moving alone at that time without Raon. He then thought about how the ground becomes desolate from dead mana.

The Super Rock chimed in at that moment.

• Living beings were able to live and breathe underneath the shield when the black rain came down in the past. Although it still couldn't be purified.

Glutton's Indestructible Shield which had the wood attribute added on. Her voice was now a slow but sure voice.

• I'm good at eating everything.

'What a cool glutton! That's why I love you the most! It's fortunate to have friends like you guys!'

Cale started to smile happily. 'This is the Jungle. It was the place with the largest number of trees.'

Cale then heard Tasha's voice. The voice that made it through the water sounded worried. "...This is bad. W-We can't handle this much."

Tasha looked toward her subordinates while standing between Litana and Choi Han who did not know what was going on.

Although some of them were left behind in Section 8, the best of the Dark Elves in the entire Dark Elf city were by her side right now.

All of them had stiff expressions on their faces.

Tasha bit down on her lips. '...There are so many.'

She had smelled a sweet yet bitter fragrance as soon as they entered Section 7 underwater. That was the fragrance of dead mana that was like a fountain of strength for them.

She was happy to smell it at first.

However, she started to feel suffocated the farther they walked up the river.

There was too much dead mana for them to absorb. Just how much death had to have happened for this much dead mana to be here?

Tasha subconsciously looked toward Mary. Her grandfather, the current mayor of the Dark Elves' Underground City, had told her a little bit about black magic.

"Protect Mary."

"Excuse me? Grandfather, what do you mean?"

"It is an order as the mayor. Mary might..." The Dark Elf mayor who had lived for over five hundred years blinked before continuing to speak. "Yes, this may all just be nature taking its course. It is finally time for someone to receive the will of the Sage of Death."

"The Sage of Death? Who is that?"

Tasha was confused, but the mayor continued to speak in a serious tone.

"Take our best warriors with you. I'll send some more as reinforcements as well. However, you MUST protect Mary. We must protect the only necromancer in the world."

Tasha had planned on protecting Mary even if the mayor had not said to do so. Alberu was her nephew by blood, however, she felt just as close to Mary.

Tasha had still not forgotten about when she had saved the ten-years-old Mary.

"This is bad."

Tasha flinched and turned toward Eruhaben. She knew the true identity of this Archmage, unlike the other Dark Elves.

The other Dark Elves were probably debating whether this was real right now and questioning whether Eruhaben really was a Dragon.

Tasha tightly clenched her eyes after hearing the stiff ancient Dragon's comment.

"It looks like the Empire's goal from the beginning was to destroy the Jungle."

An urgent voice shot out through the water after a moment of silence.

"...Just what? What do you mean?" Litana, the Queen of the Jungle, responded back in anger.

Tasha slowly started to explain the power that they were feeling from throughout Section 7.

Both Litana and Choi Han's pupils started to shake after hearing Tasha's explanation.

"S-So what you're saying is... There are currently dead mana bombs throughout Section 7 and although the Dark Elves may eventually be able to absorb all the dead mana, it will be hard to deal with it at the moment of explosion?"

Litana's voice was shaking as she stood there with a blank expression while trying to calmly assess what Tasha had just told her. "That is why we might not be able to save everyone, and Section 7 might be destroyed as well?"

She could hear the low voice of the mysterious Archmage who started to speak as if he was responding to her.

"They plan on creating hell."

Hell. Litana felt chills on the back of her neck as soon as Eruhaben said that word.

She tightly clenched onto her spear. Her gaze headed toward a specific person at the same time.

Cale Henituse. Her gaze had subconsciously headed toward this man.

'Why am I looking at him when he probably can't give me any answers? This was not something any of us expected.'

Who would have known that the Empire wished to destroy Section 7 instead of taking it over out of greed?

'Should I have told them to run and resist?' Litana recalled how she had ordered her people to not resist and remain still.

She also thought about her decision to wait at Section 8 instead of barging in right away.

"Damn it!" She noticed Cale's expression as anger started to fill her eyes.

"...Young master Cale?" She then subconsciously called out to him.

It was because he was smiling, happily as well.

Cale had no other choice. Glutton was continuously sharing her feeling in his mind.

• Oh, I'm glad you're the first friend I've got in a long time as well, Cale. But you know, when I'm hungry, I can really eat and eat and eat nonstop.

'Yes, please eat as much as you can later.'

• Remember what Thief told you? Thief said to use her if you want to run and use Super Rock if you want to protect your home. So, use me for this.

Glutton sounded very serious this time.

• I am the only one here who can 'grow.'

Fire, water, wind, and earth.

Those were things that had existed from the beginning. However, wood was different.

• Wood is a living being, like humans.

It is born and it dies. It is alive.

• And I am the 'Indestructible' wood.

Normal woods break. However, Glutton was an indestructible existence. That was why she could grow without stopping.

She could lower her roots into the ground, absorb the sunlight, air, water, warmth...

She could eat everything over and over and continue to grow.

She couldn't survive on her own, but she could reach anywhere and everything as long as she had a sill to connect her. And that sill had been created for the glutton.

Everything she needed existed inside this plate called Cale.

• Do you know why I died in the land of boulders?

Glutton asked Cale while laughing. She then soon answered her own question.

• There were not enough trees there. There are only boulders.

Cale quietly chuckled. It could not be helped. 'It's a problem, fighting in a disadvantaging location.'

• I was born in the Jungle.

He couldn't help but laugh after hearing what Glutton had to say. He had finally learnt more about them.

• The Jungle was dark back then. The trees were all black. That was why this was called the Forest of Darkness as well.

Cale recalled the conversation he had when he had first gained an Ancient Power after regression. This was what the owner of the Indestructible Shield had said to him.

• You know, the people of the Forest of Darkness claimed to be servant of god but they only give me tasteless things. And they dare to say I'm a glutton! I'm not a glutton, so I left with my friends, to put the world back on the right track.

He had thought that she meant the Forest of Darkness that Choi Han had come from, but apparently, he had been wrong.

There was a different Forest of Darkness during ancient times.

• Do you remember what I told you in the beginning?

Cale nodded his head at Glutton's question. Of course, he remembered.

It was the moment he gained his first Ancient Power, his first friend.

It was what this glutton friend had said when the shield was etched on top of his heart.

• Yes. I will protect you, so make sure you get to eat a lot of foods for me.

The shield had been protecting Cale ever since that moment. It would protect him this time as well.

'Let's eat delicious food this time as well. After everything done.' Cale then started to speak to those who were looking at him. "We will proceed with the original plan."

He then started to think about the layout of Section 7. He had seen it before when he visited because of the Sun God Twins.

All of the people and buildings, including the palace, coexisted with the trees. The buildings were built between or on top of trees, making the entire city seem like one large forest.

"Young master-nim, then the Empire can detonate the dead mana bombs and destroy Section 7!"

Tasha urgently shared her opinion and Cale nodded his head before responding.

"Please don't worry about the explosion."

"...Excuse me?"

Cale smoothly repeated Glutton's words to Litana who asked in confusion. "I will eat everything up so that nobody gets hurt."

He prepared to head above water.

"The dead mana will not hurt the forest nor the people. Please trust me."

All of the group members heard Cale's statement.

"We also do not have many opportunities. We do not know what will happen in the future. It is not time to look back."

"...Young master Cale."

Litana bit down on her lips and started to contemplate things in her mind. She trusted Cale, however, a lot of people's lives were on the line.

It was at that moment.

"Cale-nim." The quiet Choi Han finally chimed in. "Will you be using an Ancient Power?"

Ancient power. Those words made Litana flinch.

She had heard from Rosalyn and Choi Han about how bad Cale's current situation was, but that he continued to push himself regardless of what was going on to his own body.

It made her think about how Cale had almost fainted after putting out the fire in Section 1.

She looked toward Cale who was thinking Choi Han was smart as he answered back.

"Yes. After all, a glutton inside me is waiting to eat everything."

Litana bit her lips at this slightly joking tone, but she had felt the seriousness in it.

Many people lived here in Section 7 of the Jungle. One person was putting his own life on the line in order to save these people.

'...We have no way of knowing how the Empire would act.'

They might destroy Section 7 and run even if the Jungle did not do anything because the declaration from the other kingdoms would put them in danger.

They would do it so that the Jungle would be too busy dealing with this situation to be able to participate in the war or at least delay their entry into the war. It was possible that the Empire would aim to do that.

Litana calmed down. "Shall we go?"

Cale heard Raon's voice once the decision-maker made up her mind

– There are no guards here right now!

Cale kicked off the bottom of the river. He soon shot out of the water.

Chhhhhhh- Gold dust covered Cale and the others who cut through the water.

Eruhaben had turned them invisible once again. That was why nothing was visible even though they shot out of the water.

"Ha." Cale let out a small scoff as soon as he came out of the water.

It was as Raon had described.

There were hundreds of cylindrical water-tank looking things throughout Section 7.

Beep- Beeeeeep- They each had a beautifully shining orb on top of them. However, these beautiful orbs were giving off some odd noises.

Tap. Cale, who landed on the ground with a quiet noise, could hear Litana's voice that was full of despair.

However, there was no other way to describe them. They were bright.

Although all of the houses in Section 7 were dark without even one lit light...

Although the people of the Jungle were probably curled up inside while being too afraid to even breathe...