A violent tremor—one that truly deserved to be called a great earthquake—struck the Treant Forest.
However, the shaking itself did not last very long. In fact, the tremor had likely lasted less than a minute.
Once the quake, which had made even standing difficult, subsided, the first to speak was not Rei, nor Marina or Vihera, nor even Thresha or Luno, but one of the adventurers.
"Hey, look! The monsters are crumbling!"
The shout came from an adventurer who had been attacking the immobilized monsters right up until the earthquake hit.
At those words, everyone nearby turned to look at the monsters simultaneously. There had been various creatures among them, starting with the Treants, but now every single one was crumbling away. It was as if their entire bodies had turned to dust, swept away on the wind and vanished.
"What's going on? The trees are completely unaffected, but... why is this happening?"
One of the researchers turned his gaze toward the disintegrating monsters, his eyes shining with curiosity.
The others around him likely felt something eerie as well, watching the monsters crumble before their very eyes. Almost on instinct, they took a step back, then another.
Then came a low, deep rumble—heard, no, resonating from deep within the Treant Forest. That sound, which accompanied the monsters' collapse, was unmistakably significant to anyone who heard it.
"Everyone, prepare yourselves! Be ready to respond to whatever happens!"
The moment she heard that deep roar, Marina shouted to all the adventurers present. Her command during the battle against the monster horde had been precise, and the adventurers, who had been standing in a daze, quickly snapped back to their senses at her voice. They raised their weapons and readied their stances.
"You need to get out of here right now. I don't care if you take the carriages or run on foot, just go!"
"No, but—"
Marina's next words were directed at the researchers, but they had no intention of simply withdrawing. Right before their eyes was the Treant Forest—an entity, or rather, a phenomenon they had never seen or heard of before. Their intellectual curiosity as researchers was exceedingly high, and there was no way they could just leave it as it was and return to Gilm.
"If you stay here, you might die! I won't have the leeway to protect you like I did earlier!"
"...I don't mind."
One of the researchers spoke up with slight hesitation. In his eyes dwelled a strong will—a light colored by intellectual curiosity. He was declaring that he, that they, would unravel the secrets of the Treant Forest. Seeing his resolve, Marina was at a loss for words.
When she faltered, the other researchers nodded in agreement with the first one's words.
"Me too."
"Same here."
"So will I."
"As will I."
"Count me in."
Each of them spoke, fixing Marina with a gaze that declared they would absolutely not retreat from this place.
Marina opened her mouth to respond, but the next moment, a sound greater than any before echoed through the forest.
It was an explosion. An explosion powerful enough to be seen, heard, and understood even from the outer edge of the Treant Forest where the adventurers were currently stationed. And it had occurred deep within the forest.
Only the two people and one creature present—Rei, Vihera, and Set—could surmise that the blast had originated at the center of the Treant Forest, at the place where they had been until recently, which had already been swallowed by the earthquake.
"...What do you think?"
Vihera asked briefly, but that alone was enough for Rei to understand what she meant.
"Hard to say. For starters, I've got a bad feeling about this. No matter how I look at it, nothing good can come of this."
"Figured as much."
"Gruu."
A short distance from the two people and one creature having that conversation, Marina decided she no longer had time to deal with the researchers.
"Fine. Those of you who are prepared to die can stay. But I won't have the leeway to protect you, so defend yourselves. ...Also, I need you to head to the Guild immediately. Tell them an Abnormality has occurred, and request reinforcements if possible."
She directed those words to the carriage drivers—the Guild Staff Members. They nodded and scrambled to get the horses moving. The animals had been shifting restlessly since the tremors and explosion, glancing about nervously, much like small animals that sensed something was wrong. Because of that, the drivers' attempts to leave were likely a relief to the horses as well. Pulling the carriages, the horses bolted from the area immediately.
No—it would be more accurate to say they fled.
Watching the scene from the corner of his eye, Rei turned his gaze to the sky, toward the Treant Forest illuminated by moonlight.
"Well now... I wonder what's going to come out."
"True. Considering you're the one who angered the Treant Forest, Rei, I doubt anything friendly will emerge."
As if to confirm Vihera's words, Rei sensed an emotion surging from the center of the forest toward their position—no, clearly directed at him personally. It was an emotion that could be interpreted as hostility, hatred, or rejection.
Actually, this seems to be aimed at me personally, isn't it? Well, I can't say I don't understand why.
After all, it was Rei's magic that had burned the root puppet to ashes and triggered the current situation. Thinking of it that way, it was only natural that such negative emotions were being directed at Rei personally rather than everyone present.
"...Looks like things are developing to your liking, Vihera."
Readying Death Scythe, Rei waited for the entity directing its hostility at him to reveal itself.
"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!"
Eventually, a roar swept through the surroundings. Rei and his party had no way of knowing, but that roar reached not only the Treant Forest but Gilm as well, and even Abuelo far beyond.
A roar loud enough to travel that far would normally have damaged the eardrums of anyone who heard it. However, perhaps because the roar itself was a voice laden with magical power, no one's eardrums ruptured.
Instead, a succession of people found themselves unable to move, as if they had been struck by Set's King's Intimidation.
Even so, the fact that those affected were limited to the vicinity of the Treant Forest was less a matter of luck and more because the target of the forest's hatred was right there.
"Tch. Noisy bastard."
Muttering under his breath, Rei turned his gaze toward the Treant Forest—or more precisely, toward the entity that had emerged from within it.
It was, in a word, a giant turtle. But countless trees sprouted from its shell, three necks extended from its body, and sharp fangs lined each of its mouths. It had six legs in total, and attached to the tip of its tail was something resembling a massive chestnut or sea urchin, much like a morning star.
Despite the growing trees being roughly ten meters tall, the highest point of the giant turtle's shell exceeded even them, and from that towering shell, still more trees grew.
It was a creature that truly warranted the phrase "towering overhead," and it was walking straight toward Rei and his party, snapping the trees of the Treant Forest as it advanced. With every step it took, a light tremor shook the ground—a testament to the giant turtle's sheer weight.
It appeared to be the incarnation of the Treant Forest, or perhaps its true body. Rei wondered whether it was really acceptable for such a being to be destroying the very forest it walked through, and surveyed his surroundings.
The roar the giant turtle had unleashed moments earlier had immobilized nearly every adventurer present. Considering that only those who held a certain rank or above had accepted this quest, the sheer power of that roar was self-evident.
Well, it doesn't seem like it can use a roar like that so easily.
If it could still unleash a similar roar, there was no reason it couldn't fire one off repeatedly instead of just once. The fact that it hadn't meant there was likely some limiting factor.
In other words, if I can somehow snap these guys out of the shock from that preemptive roar, they'll still serve as plenty of combat power. Besides, they're not beginners who just became adventurers. They should have survived numerous life-or-death situations to reach this rank.
Of course, there were probably some among them who had risen in rank through sheer luck rather than effort, but such individuals were rare. Given that, even if they were frozen by the giant turtle's roar now, they should be able to join the battle without issue once they could move again.
Having made that judgment, Rei thought for a moment, then let out a small sigh and began raising his magical power, as if resigning himself to the inevitable.
The first to react was Luno, who possessed the Magic Eye that allowed him to see magical power.
Luno himself had survived more hellish battlefields as a solo adventurer than most who fought in parties, and the giant turtle's roar had not been enough to stop him. However, Thresha, his temporary party member, was far less experienced than the other adventurers present, and as expected, she had been completely immobilized.
Luno had been trying to do something about his partner's condition, but the moment he saw the magical power radiating from Rei's entire body, he was unable to keep his eyes open, as if he had stared directly into the sun.
Rei usually concealed his magical power with the Ring of the New Moon, but right now he was intentionally releasing it. Because Luno possessed the Magic Eye, his vision had likely been temporarily blinded by the sheer magnitude of Rei's magical output.
Moreover, Luno was not the only one who noticed the change. Marina, Vihera, and Set, of course, as well as those who could still move even after the giant turtle's roar, were equally aware of it.
Byune, who was in a party with Rei, was among those immobilized by the roar, however.
The giant turtle itself seemed to notice the change in Rei as it advanced. After all, it had revealed itself for the express purpose of eliminating Rei, who posed a threat to the Treant Forest. There was no way it would fail to detect such a drastic change in its target.
Even so, its speed did not increase significantly, likely due to its body structure. Using its six legs, it plodded toward Rei one step at a time, shaking the earth with each stride.
Gazing at the giant turtle, Rei further concentrated and compressed his magical power. His immense reserves were condensed to the absolute limit, until eventually the magical power—which normally could not be perceived by anyone other than those with special senses like Luno—was compressed enough to become visible.
And then, in the next moment, Rei's magical power was dyed in his attribute, turning into a crimson aura that clung to his body.
Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor—one of Rei's greatest skills. It was because he possessed this skill that he had been able to fight even the S-Rank Adventurer Noise.
When such a skill was suddenly activated right before their eyes, the adventurers had no choice but to react. Those who had been immobilized by the giant turtle's roar could not ignore something happening right beside them that surpassed the cowering effect of that roar. Their gazes snapped to Rei, and the sheer shock of what they saw blew away the roar's paralyzing grip.
Such was the impact of seeing Rei activate Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor.
Naturally, Rei had been aiming for exactly that effect, and he had no intention of letting this opening slip away.
"Everyone, fall back for now! It's too hard to move in the forest!"
"W-wait! Are you planning to fight that thing alone!?"
One of the adventurers shouted at Rei's words. Fighting a monster that looked like a walking mountain—it was not something they believed they could do. As adventurers active in Gilm, they naturally had confidence in their skills. But even so, if asked whether they could face such a colossal monster, they could not honestly say yes.
"...Right. In that case, only those who think they can fight should stay. Everyone else, report this situation to Gilm. It'd help if you brought reinforcements too."
With that, Rei led only those he judged capable of fighting away from the forest.
Among them, some suggested it might be better to fight while hiding among the trees of the Treant Forest. But when told there was no knowing when those trees might turn into Treants, they agreed to head to the outer edge where they could focus solely on the giant turtle.
The fact that Byune was among those left behind was unavoidable, given her abilities.