'Osvald killed more than a dozen dragons? Holy shit!' Wain inwardly exclaimed.

"Huh, you shouldn't be so surprised. For those below the Fourth Chronicle, the Dragon is an invincible and invulnerable creature, but the stronger you are, the more opportunities open up for you."

"Osvald, is killing a dragon any different than killing other creatures?" Wain asked seriously. He wanted to know what Osvald felt about defeating such majestic creatures.

"Of course, but I won't tell you all the details." Osvald smiled, "I'm sure you will and can understand what it's like one day. Evil and troublesome dragons abound in this world, especially now."

Wain nodded and thought. He would like to fight a dragon, it would be a great battle in his history, and of course, Wain would win.

"Come on, Keith should be done by now." Osvald said and looked at the sun brightly illuminating the village.

"Sure."

Wain and Osvald left the village and half an hour later reached the tree.

Keith and his partners stood at the barrier and set scrolls and special ritual daggers covered in runes on the ground.

"Looks like we got here a little early as planned." Wain muttered.

Keith heard this and beckoned to approach them.

"How long do we have to wait?" Osvald asked.

"Not at all. We're all set. You didn't come early, you're late, we've been waiting for hours." Keith said calmly and stood in the center of the circle.

A parchment scroll and a dagger with a blue blade appeared in his hand. He placed the scroll on the ground and pierced it with the dagger. His partners did the same on the outside, and the scrolls all glowed brightly.

Blue energy flowed toward Keith, and his fingertips glowed. He manipulated the energy like threads to create a drawing of it in the form of a knife covered in electricity. Then Keith touched the pattern, and it imprinted on the barrier.

Lightning discharged through the barrier, and it trembled violently.

"Mr. Osvald, I need your help. The barrier is now weakened, and any outside influence will activate the seal and cause powerful damage to the barrier at one point."historical

"I understand." Osvald nodded and approached the barrier.

Although Keith said that breaking through the barrier was no problem, he had not said something. Without Osvald's power, they couldn't break through, because otherwise, they would have already stolen all the Soul Pearls.

Osvald's fist was coated with a layer of energy, and he made a sharp lunge forward. He struck the center of the seal, and there was an energy explosion, cracks appeared in the barrier, and the seal activated. Lightning went through the cracks into the barrier's outer layer, and there was an explosion.

There was a load on the barrier from both sides, and it shattered into small pieces.

"All right, let's go." Osvald ran forward. The others followed him.

"What's the plan?" Keith asked.

"Very simple. Look over there." Osvald pointed to the tree's roots, "They're huge, we'll easily make our way to the core, then get the pearls and finally leave this wondrous place."

"Got it."

At the tree's roots was a small base of the remaining Hunters. They had been here the whole time and watched the core, so they didn't know that their main base had already been destroyed and their leader killed.

"Alert! We're under attack! Kill the bastards!" Hunter exclaimed and attacked.

"I'm on it." Keith muttered, and blades appeared in his hands.

He disappeared and turned into a shadow, moving from Hunter to Hunter. He swung his blade after a few seconds, dislodging the clinging blood.

"Done."

More than twenty decapitated Hunters lay on the ground, many of them before they even realized what had happened. Keith's movements were too quick.

"Not bad. If you were twice as fast, you could definitely beat Zariel, he wouldn't have had time to escape."

"What? Even faster?" Keith turned to Osvald, but he wasn't there.

"Sure, is that enough?" Osvald touched Keith's shoulder.

'What?! Keith inwardly exclaimed. Even though he was incredibly fast, he didn't even have time to notice Osvald's movements.

"You shouldn't be so surprised. You Undeads are overconfident in your speed, and that's your main mistake." Osvald shook his head and jumped off the cliff, toward the core.

'Speed... I lack that, too,' Wain reflected. He was able to defeat the Queen as he saw the future, but even so, he found it very difficult as she outmatched him in speed. Wain wanted to fix this, he realized that there was no point in strength if the opponent could easily come back from slow blows.

...

The tree's roots sprouted deep down, and it took them a long time to get close to the core.

They met no more danger on their way. The hunters were the only ones near the tree.

They followed the biggest root and ended up in a long tunnel. It was dark, and Keith created several orbs of blue flame, they lit up the tunnel like lamps.

"Great, we're here." Osvald stood at the edge of the tunnel.

The others approached him, and the sound of flowing water was heard.

"Is this where the core is?" Wain muttered.

They entered a vast room over a hundred feet high. Roots were bursting out of the walls and heading down, and water was flowing from some of the tunnels. It looked like waterfalls.

"Yeah, that's it." Osvald pointed to a massive sphere in the center.

The sphere was made of roots, and something glowed brightly inside it. Around the sphere was a semi-transparent barrier that looked very strong.

Whooooooosh.

Keith disappeared and appeared in front of the barrier. Wain and Osvald walked leisurely toward it. Now came the moment they had all been waiting for. They finally got to the core and were ready to know the number of pearls.

"How many?" Osvald asked.

Keith smiled and turned around, "Better than I thought. This area has such powerful restraining powers because there are five pearls, and they're so big."