The border wall separating Tijuana in northern Mexico and San Diego in the United States had collapsed.
The cause of the situation was five undead-type mutants.
The Governor of California, faced with this unprecedented crisis, requested help from the nation’s mutants.
But the only one who responded was Choi Si-ah, a High Elf-type mutant.
Choi Si-ah sighed and looked at the army in front of her.
It wasn’t out of some noble sense of duty that she came here.
She was simply honoring the promise she had made to the Governor of California.
Of course, the other mutants, who weren’t bound by that promise, quietly stepped back.
They had no intention of risking their lives for the governor.
It wasn’t an incomprehensible decision.
To begin with, the Governor of California wasn’t exactly known for being mutant-friendly.
He had only accepted Choi Si-ah’s proposal because he saw the potential benefits it could bring to California.
Choi Si-ah understood that much. She knew very well that her relationship with the governor was strictly business.
And perhaps because of that, other mutants who knew the governor’s true nature refused to help Si-ah.
Choi Si-ah respected their decision.
Who would willingly fight for a governor who had once rejected them?
If she hadn’t been trying to plant the World Tree in this world, she wouldn’t have stayed either.
Because she had something she wanted to accomplish, she chose to be here of her own will.
Still… with this situation suddenly crashing down, it was nothing but a headache.
The undead-type mutants she had to face were extremely powerful.
There were liches, who could raise corpses and preserve their combat abilities.
And there were Dullahans, wearing armor made of some unknown material that modern weaponry couldn’t even scratch, who had slaughtered the extermination squad.
Worse yet, there wasn’t just one of them.
Two liches and three Dullahans.
Enough to terrify most mutants.
Si-ah didn’t show it, but she knew she had little chance of winning.
Even if she made full use of her High Elf abilities, they were fundamentally beings specialized in taking life.
They were basically natural enemies to someone like her, who controlled plants.
Still, San Diego wouldn’t fall so easily.
At the very least, she could delay them.
After all, San Diego was not only a resort city but also a military one.
If they used high-powered weapons to burn the corpses the liches raised, they could at least buy some time.
But that was the limit.
Hadn’t the extermination squad already proven it?
Ordinary weapons couldn’t even leave a scratch on those monsters.
To defeat them, they’d probably have to launch a nuke. But how could they?
Using a nuclear weapon on their own land would be a nightmare to clean up afterward.
Then again, who knows.
If things get bad enough, maybe a nuke really will be launched.
The funny thing is, even if they did launch a nuke, there’s no guarantee it would stop the army of the dead.
Si-ah let out another sigh.
This situation was a headache in every possible way.
She honestly wanted to ask Seo-hyun for help, but how could she possibly ask with a straight face?
No, even if she did ask someone all the way in Korea to come, there’s no way she actually would.
She had no choice but to endure this alone and try to hold the line.
How long she could hold out, though—that was anyone’s guess.
The liches and Dullahans.
Once known as Robert, Daniel, Christopher, Kevin, and Brian, they stared at the distant city of San Diego.
It wouldn’t be long now.
Soon, they would strike a major blow against the country that had cast them aside, America.
Ever since mutants had first appeared in the world, they, as undead-type mutants, had been relentlessly rejected.
Other mutants could at least blend into human society to some extent, but they had lost everything and were met only with fear and hatred.
And for what?
It wasn’t like they had done anything wrong!
Another mutant caused an incident, and yet they were the ones treated like criminals—how did that make any sense?
They couldn’t understand it at all.
It had happened countless times.
The more mutant-related crimes occurred, the more they, who were completely innocent, were accused.
Isn’t that absurd?
Just because they were undead, just because their bodies had suddenly changed, they were labeled suspects for crimes they didn’t even commit.
Every time that happened, Robert wanted to destroy everything.
The lover who abandoned him… the parents who turned their backs on him…
The other four were the same. Each of them had been forced to give up their former lives.
They were abandoned by everything and rejected by everyone.
So Robert, along with four other mutants who shared his fate, headed to Mexico.
If they were going to suffer for crimes they never committed, then why not just go all in and commit some real ones?
And just like that, in barely a month, they took control of the drug cartels in northern Mexico.
It was only natural.
They were undead.
Beings that couldn’t die.
Even when their bodies were shattered, it didn’t take long for them to recover.
Modern firepower?
Even if such weapons reduced their bodies to ash, they always came back.
There was clearly some kind of magical force at work—that much was obvious.
And once Robert realized this, he also realized something else, he no longer needed to fear anything.
Nuclear weapons?
He was certain now—even if they were hit directly, they’d rise again.
They raised the dead and built an army of corpses, taking over the drug cartels.
They had only one goal: to kill every last person who had rejected them.
The chain of hatred, poured out so carelessly, had turned them into monsters.
They cut away the last scraps of their humanity and tortured the extermination squads in the most brutal ways before tearing them apart.
And now.
They were ready to cross the Mexican border and advance into the United States.
Si-ah looked out at the mass of soldiers spread across San Diego.
From their eyes, she could sense only fear.
Understandable.
The U.S. extermination squads weren’t ordinary troops.
And if even those squads had been wiped out… that meant these soldiers were in danger too.
But Si-ah felt this entire situation was self-inflicted.
Really now—why had they poured such blind hatred onto innocent mutants?
If they hadn’t done that, at least something like this could have been prevented.
“People always say they only regret things after it’s too late. This is exactly that,”
Si-ah murmured as she stood up.
She didn’t know whether she could stop this, but all she could do now was give it her all.
She couldn’t stand by and watch her World Tree be trampled by avatars of hatred.
She raised her hand.
Responding to her call, the natural elements around her rose with will.
Then, thousands of trees, each bearing their own will, began to intertwine.
Crackkk!
…There was no guarantee this would be enough to stop them.
The roots tangled together, forming a massive figure.
A Root Giant.
The strongest force to protect the World Tree’s herald had revealed itself on the border.
And the moment the giant appeared, the liches and Dullahans began to move.
Robert gave a dry chuckle the moment he saw the monstrous Root Giant rise in the middle of the border—and the High Elf standing atop it.
He had heard rumors once.
Of a peculiar High Elf who could grow Giant Sequoias like wildfire.
Supposedly, that elf lived in California and had charmed people with her unique looks.
She probably lived in comfort, surrounded by goodwill, unlike him and the others, who had been cast aside in misery.
Si-ah was overwhelmed.
How was she supposed to stop that?
There was no answer.
The sheer threat of that monstrous Corpse Dragon was bad enough, but those berserk Dullahans were an even bigger problem.
The Root Giant would soon fall.
And once it did, Si-ah’s options would become severely limited.
Not even modern firepower worked on the Corpse Dragon.
Grenade blasts, carpet bombing—none of it left a scratch.
“What even is that thing? How many months into their mutation are those monsters, anyway?”
Honestly, in terms of pure danger level, they made the demon-type mutant that appeared in Korea look like a joke.
What was America even thinking, turning enemies of those kinds of mutants?
Si-ah started to feel anxious.
She didn’t think she could stop them.
And the moment she thought that, the Root Giant—unable to withstand the poisonous breath and the Dullahans’ assault—shattered to pieces.
“It’s over.”
The Root Giant had been her strongest defense.
With the World Tree not yet complete, there were limits to what she could summon.
If things went wrong, she might die.
She might really die.
The Corpse Dragon steadily approached.
Si-ah shouted.
“Run!”
And just as she yelled, and the U.S. soldiers frantically tried to flee, suddenly, the surroundings went dark.
“…?”
All of it.
Si-ah, startled by the sudden darkness, looked up at the sky, and found her mouth hanging open in shock.
Up above, was a real dragon, one that made the corpse dragon crawling across the ground seem utterly insignificant by comparison.
Seo-hyun had finally arrived in the United States.
I saw it.
That massive, grotesque imitation of a dragon.
The moment I laid eyes on it, I felt my anger surge.
Because it was made from human corpses.
And to make things worse, those damn bastards had used that pile of corpses
to mimic the form of a dragon.
How dare they.
That thought came naturally.
Maybe it was part of my species’ instincts, but my dragon pride was screaming at me to erase that thing from existence.
Without hesitation, I gathered the raging power inside me.
Near the mouth of my true form, a fearsome force began to build.
Once I judged that the power had reached its peak, I unleashed it all at once.
KWAAAAAAHHH!
The most powerful breath I could release shot straight toward the dragon made of corpses.