Helmut: The Forsaken Child - H.F.C Chapter 266 (Part 1):

They moved forward silently in a tense atmosphere. Though it seemed quiet and peaceful, this was the Forest of Roots. Anything could jump out at any moment.

They proceeded cautiously, without haste.

“Aaah! What’s this?!”

At one point, Sian yelled dramatically and kicked at the air.

A caterpillar that had been gnawing on his shoe fell off.

Where the caterpillar had been biting, a white vapor arose, and a hole formed.

Alea spoke as if it were nothing unusual.

“It’s a bug carrying acidic poison. Watch your step.”

They had managed to conceal their presence with magic, but there was nothing they could do about direct contact.

After about half a day, small creatures started to appear. It began with small and weak ones.

Sian looked around and said,

“Every tree and blade of grass is infused with demonic energy. How do they manage food supply here?”

“We brought enough food and water. Consider this just an exploration.”

There might be edible things in the Forest of Roots, but there was no need to search for them since they weren’t planning to live here.

‘The further we get from the holy barrier, the more intense the demonic energy becomes. It’s interfering with magic use.’

It felt as if the magic that usually flowed smoothly was now being filtered through a sieve.

Just as holy power conflicted with magical power, demonic energy also conflicted with magical power.

Unless one used black magic to fuse the two forces, there were some restrictions on using magic in the Forest of Roots.

This meant that Alea couldn’t exert 100% of her abilities.

‘We’ll have to manage.’

Given their thorough preparations, there shouldn’t be any major problems unless they encountered a formidable enemy.

Asuka asked Alea,

“By the way, where are we supposed to go? Shouldn’t we have at least some basic reference point?”

There was indeed a ‘minimum’ reference. Alea answered readily.

“For now, towards the center of the Forest of Roots.”

“Why there?”

“Helmut said he grew up there. I don’t know the exact location, but if he returned to the Forest of Roots, wouldn’t he have gone back to his hometown?”

Helmut had grown up in the care of Elaga, the leopard ruler of the central region.

If the meaning of ‘center’ in the Forest of Roots was no different from the outside world, it would be somewhere in the middle of the forest.

‘Elaga was said to be a huge white leopard.’

A leopard as big as a house. It could even talk.

Since the central region was the domain of Elaga, the leopard that had raised Helmut, he would probably be there.

For Helmut, who had lost his sword and fallen into the Forest of Roots, it would have been the most reliable place to go.

That is, if he was in a state to find that leopard.

‘Yes, he must be alive. He has to be.’

Alea shook off the ominous feeling that suddenly arose and organized her thoughts.

“You certainly know a lot about Helmut.”

Asuka grumbled with a somewhat dissatisfied expression. Until Alea told them, neither Asuka nor Sian knew anything about Helmut.

‘He only told everything to his girlfriend, huh.’

Despite having hidden things about himself, Asuka made an unlikely resolution to beat up Helmut.

Inside here, there were many things that interfered with magic, making it difficult to gauge direction.

The sky was always cloudy and gray, so sunlight rarely penetrated.

However, they could still sense day and night, and vaguely determine the sun’s position, which allowed them to gauge direction.

Alea focused on not losing their direction throughout the journey.

‘We should keep going this way.’

If they encountered a cliff or anything else along the way, they could just use magic to cross it. As long as they didn’t lose direction, they would reach the central region. If everything went according to plan, it should be smooth.

Since they had no other means of transportation like horses, they moved solely on foot. Naturally, their progress was not fast.

Sian glanced back and muttered,

“A bit further and we won’t be able to see the barrier anymore.”

Visibility in the Forest of Roots was poor. The holy barrier was visible from a distance because it had the property of repelling demonic energy. The fact that even that would soon be out of sight meant…

“We’re about to enter the real Forest of Roots.”

Those words sounded like an omen of something.

And just as the barrier completely disappeared from view, it appeared. What first appeared was a huge, pitch-black shadow.

In an instant, their vision darkened and wind howled from the sky. Whoosh!

“What’s that? A storm cloud?”

“In the sky… look there!”

Everyone looked up at the sky, bracing against the wind that lashed their entire bodies.

A bird with beautiful, dazzling rainbow-colored feathers was descending from the sky, flapping its wings.

It was a beautiful and overwhelmingly large bird, as if it had descended from the heavens.

But this is the Forest of Roots. That is a demonic beast. A powerful demonic beast that had no need to camouflage itself with natural colors.

Its landing motion was graceful and light. But as soon as it landed just ten paces away, a wind arose from it.

Whoosh!

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