Family heirloom, then turned into a demon girl

Chapter 204 Mission: 06-1 Stranger

The earth-shaking impact quickly caught the attention of most people. As they looked in the direction of the impact, they saw thick, twisted gray tree roots rising from the ground amidst the smoke and dust.

"Sure enough."

Nero wasn't surprised by this; the appearance of the Demon Tree simply confirmed her earlier suspicions. However, in Devil May Cry 5, the Demon Tree, after emerging from the ground, absorbed countless blood and took a full month to grow before finally bearing fruit. Was that enough time now?

No, you should think about it the other way around.

Nero recalled the rules of the game and immediately realized something. Since the rules required the contestants to "erect the statue," this meant that the process inherently required their intervention. It was logical that their intervention would cause the Demonic World Tree to bear fruit earlier.

On the other hand, the "countdown" mechanism in the game is not necessarily absolute. In many games, such as classic chess, the mechanism of increasing the time every time a contestant completes a "move" is widely used.

In other words, there might be a mechanism in the game that pauses the countdown. Otherwise, by the time the Demon World Tree is halfway grown, that strange hurricane might also grow and destroy the Demon World Tree. By then, not only would the game be impossible to complete, but the Demon King's legacy would also be completely lost. The "Beast of Six Hundred and Sixty-Six" wouldn't set up such a self-defeating game rule.

But compared to this, Nero's first thought was to "go to the location where the Demon Tree appeared." She wanted to know who first discovered the Demon Tree underground and how it started to grow.

There was also one more thing: the Demon World Tree grew upside down, its fruit growing underground. Nero believed that she was the only one who knew this at the moment. If she could reach there in advance, Nero would have secured her chance of victory.

She spread her wings and prepared to fly to where the tree roots appeared. At that moment, two people with the same idea passed by quickly from not far away.

The two dazzling golden hairs quickly transformed into two golden streaks—they were Izayoi Sakamaki and Leticia.

"Is that the answer to the puzzle?"

Leticia asked with a hint of doubt, while Izayoi said with conviction, "It's undoubtedly this. The Tower of the Ruler and its statue share a common symbolic meaning, and using a tree to represent the tower is a common tactic. And as long as we're sure the object we're trying to 'erect' is a tree, then what we're fighting for is clear, isn't it?"

"fruit?"

"Exactly. So I suspect this tree also carries a reference to the 'Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil'—the Garden of Eden, the original utopia, where humans didn't know what good and evil were, and the same is true for humans controlled by 'dystopia'."

Izayoi's words accurately point to the root of why "dystopia" is "dystopia": "Dystopia is consistent with utopia in form, but its core is the opposite. Therefore, the ruler of dystopia, like the owner of the Garden of Eden, is the only being in the entire country who knows good and evil - that is, the only being who has eaten the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. The fruit of that tree is the so-called "kingship of the beast"!"

As he said this, Izayoi was also grateful in his heart to the unknown strong man who revealed the existence of the "tree". If he had not been able to work backwards from the conclusion, who knows how many more detours they would have taken.

But just when everyone was still moving towards the roots of the tree, someone had already gone deeper into the ground.

Aisha, the earthbound spirit, and Jack, who controls the underground phantom fire, had already discovered the strange creatures lurking and wriggling under the earth through the flow of underground gas. Now they have activated the power of "realm" and come underground, standing among the tree trunks flowing with blood.

"I didn't expect it to be so weird..."

Jack frowned, carrying Aisha on his back as he soared through the countless hollows between the massive tree trunks. Though only a few scales and feathers could be seen above the surface, a small kingdom had already formed beneath the surface within this massive tree, rooted throughout the entire city. A tangled web of branches extended from a pool of blood solidified like amber, and transport tubes, wriggling like blood vessels, carried countless grotesque demons with insect mouthparts throughout the process, seemingly orderly yet disgusting. "What the hell is this thing?"

Aisha asked in a low voice in astonishment.

But Jack, the demon who had lived for hundreds of years, couldn't give an answer. They watched from afar as these hardworking "soldier ants" and "worker bees" transported the energy from the blood pool to various locations, and for a moment they were at a loss as to what to do.

At this moment, a "mosquito" carrying a blood-colored crystal happened to pass by Jack. It seemed not to notice the motionless pumpkin devil until it got closer and realized that "something seemed to be wrong."

Jack reached out and grasped it. A pale flame instantly ignited, reducing it to ash. Jack felt the mark on his hand react at that moment, but he still cast his gaze on the crystal carried by the mosquito-like demon.

"It's the demon's spirit."

The flames in his eyes on his pumpkin face, which couldn't change its expression, flickered twice. "Did they transform the blood in the blood pool into demonic spirits?"

According to common sense, deeds performed within the small garden usually do not bring spiritual power. Therefore, the birth of spiritual power here must also come from the influence of the outside world - this tree must have accomplished similar "merits" in the world outside the small garden.

So, Jack came to a conclusion.

"This is a summoning ceremony."

He said with certainty, "The [Beast of Six Hundred and Sixty-Six] is going to summon this tree from outside the box garden."

Jack's conclusion was absolutely correct. However, the creature summoned by the "Beast of Six Hundred and Sixty-Six" wasn't just one tree.

On the ground, not far above Jack and Aisha's heads, the realm gate that should have finished opening suddenly and abnormally opened again.

In this corner that no one noticed, a pale, thin, black-haired man covered with black tattoos emerged from the door and landed on the ground with a cane.

As he emerged, a bloody, malevolent aura slowly rose from the ground. The man flipped open an old hardcover book and pulled out a pitch-black invitation. He let it burn in the air, then carved a mark on the back of his hand.

At the same moment, several vines covered in bloody pustules pierced the ground and attacked the man. Just as they were about to strangle him, they finally sensed a familiar presence and slowly gave up, returning to the ground.

A large black bird emerged from behind the man, landed on his shoulder, and made an unpleasant "cackle" sound.

　I actually forgot to remind you at noon. It’s better to set a time. From now on, the second chapter will be updated at 18: in the afternoon.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)