A slash that shouldn't exist in this modern era sundered the Tree of Origin at a diagonal. It was unclear if it was intentional, but the flames engulfed in a new star incinerated every branch where the beast was growing.
The World Tree suffered its second arson. The only fortunate thing was that the star's flames left not even ashes behind. Unlike the previous fire, the sparks only soared upward and vanished, becoming stars that embroidered the sky instead of sowing the seeds of fire in the jungle.
Thanks to the gracious flames heading toward the sky, the people living atop the giant managed to survive.
The people who had bound their bodies and held on atop the rampaging World Tree cheered at its silence. It seemed their immediate safety was more important than the fact that the blessed tree that had fed them was now dead.
It was only natural. Even eating something was for the sake of continuing today's life.
The World Tree burning and collapsing. Such a tragedy repeating itself. The fact that countless people had already stumbled and were on the verge of falling to their deaths.
All of it was swept away before the immense relief of having just survived.
And, inside the giant lotus at the top of the World Tree....
***
The worst way to wake up from sleep is falling. Experiencing a fall in the most defenseless state is indescribably unpleasant. Even someone who sleeps so deeply they wouldn't know if they were being carried off would wake up flailing their limbs unsightly if dropped mid-carriage.
Therefore, the best way to wake up from sleep is falling. Because if you aren't dead, you'll wake up. And if you can't wake up, you're dead.
And when I came to my senses, I was falling.
Damn it. What the hell is going on.
The once-lush leaves were gone. The dense branches were nowhere to be seen. Before my eyes stretched a clear sky, as if it had blown away even the clouds, stretching out endlessly.
Even as I fell, I used telepathy to grasp the situation. Fragmented information pieced itself together in my head.
Flames erupted. An incredibly massive flame blew away the top of the World Tree's head. Despite such tremendous power, because the direction of the force had slightly veered off, only the Spirit Lord's layer burned relatively intact.
I'm not sure if 'burned intact' is really the right phrase, but whatever, I'm alive, so it's fine.
With my regenerative abilities, I should survive, right? If so, let me think during this short fall. Who did what to make the Tree of Origin burn to ashes, and if it was someone's doing, what I should do about it.
...Hmm. I can't really get a grasp on it? Who could do what to blow away the Tree of Origin? If they had that kind of firepower, they should have shown up earlier.
Ah, whatever. Let's just fall for now. Looking at this mess, Navida probably doesn't have the leeway to chase me either....
"Hughes!"
Just as I thought that, a familiar voice approached me. Turning my head, to my surprise, Shay was flying near me.
What? What's going on? Reading her thoughts, it seemed Shay had done something. Maybe because we were both disoriented, it wasn't reading clearly.
I greeted Shay cheerfully.
"Oh, Ms. Shay? It's nice to see you after so long. Have you been well?"
"Is this the time for greetings?! Fly, quickly!"
"Humans can't fly. Don't demand the impossible."
"You act all high and mighty usually. Tch. Just grab on for now!"
I grabbed the hand Shay offered. Shay, pulling me in, firmly gripped my clothes and steadied her posture. So we could land safely right away.
Suddenly finding myself in her embrace, I asked Shay.
"No, Ms. Shay. What's going on? I fell asleep and woke up, and the Tree of Origin is gone?"
Shay spewed wind with Cheon-aeng and replied shortly.
"Burned it."
"Burned it? The Tree of Origin? How?"
"It's nothing big. It's something I've done before. I told you I regressed last time, right?"
"Yes. You mentioned it in passing."
I had read it countless times with telepathy, but I played dumb and asked again. Unaware of that, Shay nodded and answered.
"Hughes. This isn't my first time in this situation."
"What situation? Falling from the sky?"
"No. Not that. This situation of moving to attack the Tree of Origin. I've experienced this before. You weren't there then, and I came with much more troops, but."
Again, when? If you had such memories, you should have told me earlier.
Well, if she was brought in with her arm severed, it's understandable she couldn't recall.
"The Tree of Origin is in the shape of a tree, and it requires a massive amount of water to moisten the tree. So the Tree of Origin has xylem vessels—pathways that transport water absorbed from all its roots—scattered everywhere."
"We climbed up using that at first."
"Yeah. And I flushed alchemy bombs down them."
"Alchemy bombs?"
Alchemical flowers themselves held magical value, and their alchemical value meant changing in the intended direction. In other words, by applying specific processing to alchemical flowers, they could become gunpowder or bombs. It required considerable technical skill, though.
"I turned all my alchemical flowers into alchemy bombs and flushed them toward the xylem vessels."
"No. What crazy behavior. What if a fire broke out?"
That's extreme. The entire Tree of Origin could have burned down.
"Don't worry. Alchemy bombs right before ignition are lighter than water. If you flush them into the xylem, they naturally head for the highest point. Even using all my alchemy bombs, it's impossible to burn the entire Tree of Origin, but I can at least blow away the top."
"So you blew it away?"
"I had no choice. Mayen helped out, too. The atmosphere became dry and the riverbeds dried up. It was the optimal condition for a fire to catch."
Shay said, full of conviction. Indeed, with the strangely dry sky lacking moisture, the blessing bestowed by the Saint of the Sky, and the tremendous treasure Shay possessed, it was possible. In fact, Shay had done it once before.
...But, something. I'm not sure if what came to Shay's mind was a memory from a previous iteration or from this one. Is it because she's a regressor?
And, can you burn it like that with that method?
I don't know well. Anyway, that wasn't very important right now.
"Anything else to see here? No, right?"
"No. I'm mostly done."
"The druids will escape taking advantage of this chaos, too. Because they have trained owls. It's a chance while Navida's gaze is focused. Let's escape this time!"
Neither I nor Shay can handle Navida. It's beyond simply not being able to handle her; the moment we're discovered, it's over.
"That's right. We need to run. But where is Navida?"
"Probably where the King of Humans she loves so much is! Oh right, Hughes. What happened to the King of Humans?"
"Ah. Don't worry about that. Everyone got what they wanted."
"What?"
"'Older sister' will wake up. Navida will get her sister back."
"Uh, huh? Why?"
"What can I do? Should I tell my sister to kill herself right there? It's incest. And I'd be the one dying. Even for me, getting out alive is the best outcome."
"Sister...?"
Getting out of there alive was exactly what I wanted. I have to protect my own life, too.
And my sister has to protect her own life as well.
My sister doesn't need to judge humans. Because humans will try to judge her. As she responds to that, she will naturally develop her own yardstick.
That's how yardsticks are made. They aren't just given.
Though it might not resonate that way with the King of Humans, who was born with one given from the very start.
"I used too much power, so flying for long is hard! I'll land for now!"
Shay held me like a princess and summoned wind to prepare for landing. However she retrieved it, Cheon-aeng spewed wind with difficulty, pushing me and Shay up.
At least with Shay holding me, I wouldn't shatter to pieces from the fall... I thought with relief, but suddenly felt something unstable.
"Wait a minute, Ms. Shay. Your arms are trembling."
"Don't mind it."
"How can I not mind?! My body is shaking as if caught in turbulence!"
"It's because my arm hasn't been attached for long. It's fine. I can move it with aura."
Glancing briefly, she was purely trembling from a lack of arm strength. The shaking started from the shoulder hidden by her clothes. Precisely from the cross-section of the arm that had been torn off by Navida.
"Hey! Let me go! This just makes me more anxious!"
"You're the one making it anxious! Stay still!"
"Stay still, my foot. If we land like this, I'll drop right off along with your arm!"
I didn't really trust it. Bickering with Shay, I shifted my posture in mid-air. Instead of being held by Shay, I grabbed onto her and waited for the ground to gradually approach.
"Heup!"
Even if my body regenerates, the pain remains the same. I braced my legs and waist for the impending impact.
Kwaang. My legs dug deep into the ground. Perhaps because the speed had bled off, I was able to touch down without much issue. No, it wasn't simply that the speed was reduced. Even though I was holding Shay, my body felt lighter than expected.
"Alright. Come down now!"
"...Uh."
Despite tilting slightly, Shay showed no intention of coming down, keeping both hands neatly gathered. She just hovered, panting heavily like a beast grabbed by the scruff of the neck. Unable to just toss away the stiffened Shay, I looked down and asked.
"No, why are you staying still? Come down. Did your legs get cut off too?"
Meeting my eyes, Shay widened her eyes, then flailed her limbs and pushed me away.
"Ah, it's nothing! Put me down!"
"What kind of nonsense is that, telling me to come down when I'm already down. Anyone listening would think I hadn't let you down!"
Shay, who had jumped down, covered her mouth with a confused expression. Is she nauseous? Why is she acting like that all of a sudden?
'What? What's going on? Her reaction is weird...'
"You said we should escape quickly. Aren't you running?"
"...Yeah. Let's go."
"What about the druids?"
"We agreed to each survive on our own. It's too much for us to look after someone else's life."
"That's good. You have to look out for your own life."
It's better than gathering together and getting wiped out all at once.
...And Navida won't have the leeway to catch them either. No, anyone here wouldn't even be able to spare attention for such trivial matters.
Because my sister is waking up soon.
"Let's run!"
"Yeah..."
After answering, Shay, who was about to run, immediately staggered and pitched forward toward the ground. Right before her head hit the dirt, I snatched the back of her neck with amazing reflexes.
"See, I told you something felt off. You're already exhausted. Where did you use up so much strength?"
"...Ugh. Right before setting the fire, pulling Cheon-aeng and Ji-jan out of Navida's core."
Telepathy only reads people, after all. Shay thought she was still in a state to move, but in reality, she was practically exhausted from overexerting herself somewhere. Maybe because she's a regressor, the disconnect between her will and physical condition is severe.
"You pushed yourself when your body isn't even fully healed. You'll die at this rate."
"It's fine. I'm a regressor. Even if I die... I'll go back."
"I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but you're not going back with me, are you?"
Shay paused for a moment, then gave a small nod.
"...Right."
"Then what. It's the same as dying to me. Geez. I sent you off to live, and you come back trying to die again."
"Hmph. I came to save you. You can't even say thank you."
"Come on. You came to try and deal with the King of Sins."
"...That too!"
"Whatever. Just fold your arms and stay still like earlier. It's hard to carry you."
"What? How did you tell me to stay?"
She was demure earlier, but now she's getting prickly because I ordered her to. I pointed at the hem of Shay's shirt, which had gotten slightly dirty from the fight, and said.
"I told you to fold your arms over your chest."
"...! This is--"
"It's fine. Up we go."
Taking advantage of the moment Shay crossed her arms and shrank back, I scooped her up in my arms. It seemed better for me to carry her and run than for someone who couldn't move. Unlike Shay, maybe because I had rested for a few days, my body was perfectly fine.
"Mmmuu...!"
"...Light. What is it? You weren't this light before."
"I was originally light!"
Shay screamed 'Bbyik!' and clamped her mouth shut, her face flushed red. When being carried, it was better to just stay still like this. Holding Shay, I hastily ran toward the outskirts of the jungle.
"But can we escape by just running like this? If Navida takes a moment to come find us, we'll be caught."
"..."
"What's with this person, not answering."
'Is Cheonban-gyeong the problem...? Why. Why isn't Cheonban-gyeong reacting even when Hughes is holding me? Does it mean it's okay now...?'
Tsk. Her attitude seems to have changed a little. Did she have a change of heart?
Ah, whatever. Let's think while running. Escaping the jungle has to be the top priority. If a fire caught this much, Navida and the other members of the Lord of All Creation would be frantic, too.
It was then, after running for a while. Shay stared quietly upward with her seven-colored shining eyes, then brought out her yellow pupils and glared.
Three colors of the Seven-Colored Eyes. The Golden Eyes that see the unseen. Witnessing the blue sky peeking through the leaves with the eyes known as Hwangeumjeong, Shay shouted loudly.
"Hughes! Above!"
"Above?"
I looked up following Shay's gaze. There was nothing to see in the blue sky visible between the leaves. The empty sky was filled with the void, tinged with blue as always.
But Shay's Golden Eyes had clearly seen something. Something unseen but undoubtedly existing, a trace occupying a corner of the world. The Hwangeumjeong showed Shay even what shouldn't be seen.
Therefore, I could see it too.
Within Shay's vision, sparsely visible through the leaves. A beautiful curve shimmering with a torrent of golden power.
And along that curve, someone was 'falling'.
"Trajectory of the Heavenly Fall...!"
Shay murmured.
The floating city of the Magical Federation has a golden trajectory. An unknown power that levitates a massive structure comparable to a castle in midair. The trajectory of the Heavenly Fall, which allows one to land somewhere in this world pointed to by that august power that holds the world together.
An immediate, fast, and... absolutely unblockable means of movement that only the sorcerers of the Magical Federation can use.
"Hughes. Be careful! I don't know what that is or why it's coming...! But the enemy is a sorcerer of the Magical Federation! One trained in combat magic techniques and inherent magic!"
Shay warned quickly, but even that was already too late. Because the rule he had created had arrived before the sorcerer himself.
My steps suddenly faltered. No, I was walking just fine. But the direction I was moving in was reversed. No one pushed or pulled me, yet I found myself walking back the exact way I had just run. As if I had become a fish trapped in a fishbowl.
It's not that I'm strange. It's a sensation like the world becoming strange, and I've become a traveler fallen into that strange land.
I've experienced this a few times before. When was it?
When I stopped walking at the sense of déjà vu and touched a tree with my hand.
"Fool. I will explain kindly so that even an idiot can understand, so don't panic and listen."
From above, a voice that was somehow missed yet utterly sickening rang out. I looked up and took in the sorcerer settling down, whipping up a storm around him.
"I am a Federal Investigator of the Magical Federation. I discovered the massive attack that occurred here, and am currently gathering information after finding magical traces. If you reveal all the information you know, I will pay a price. Make sure to answer as quickly as possible. The time I allow you to live is also part of that price..."
It was an unexpected encounter, but not a particularly strange one.
The Magical Federation was an organization founded by countless sorcerers gathered together to explore magic itself.
And the Demon God who pierced through the logic of the world was the object of envy for sorcerers... and at the same time, a power to be explored.
To the Magical Federation, which built the temple of the Demon God and explored it, the Tree of Origin was also an object to be explored and observed. With such a Tree of Origin burning to ashes, it was only natural they would come looking.
However, the fact that the Federal Investigator was an acquaintance of mine was a bit unexpected.
"Rankart?"
"Do you know my name, fool?... No, wait."
A figure who shared the same past but did not want to live the same future. Graduated as the salutatorian from the Military State's Central Military Academy, and a sorcerer recorded as the Military State's disgrace.
Rankart Spendry. Once my friend, and now a sorcerer who had become the Military State's disgrace.
Frowning deeply, he scrutinized my face up and down and asked back.
"Are you really Hugh?"