A gigantic tree and the buildings surrounding it.
It was the same sight as before I had entered the memory.
Only, this time too, it was the same place in location alone; both the tree and the buildings were different from reality.
Unlike the real Star Tree, which looked like a dead old tree without even a single leaf, the tree before my eyes was a beautiful young tree, vividly alive.
The buildings around it were the same.
Clean, splendid buildings that had been well maintained, and even several mages passing between them.
The Star Tree ruins I saw through the memory were exceedingly beautiful and full of life.
As I was looking around, my mouth moved.
“Even in a situation like this, nothing has changed here.”
As expected, the sound that came from my mouth was Sof’s grumbling voice.
This time too, I was inside Sof’s body.
A gentle voice came from beside me.
“Don’t say that. The people who guard this place aren’t skilled in combat, are they? Besides, everyone will be going down to the surface to protect the kingdom.”
Sof’s gaze turned to the side.
Shamara was right there.
Unlike before, she was not wearing travel clothes, but a formal uniform.
Seeing the peaceful surroundings and the way she was dressed, this memory seemed to be from before Sof went to fight the Demon King.
After hearing Shamara’s words, Sof replied.
“That’s only natural. If we can’t stop the Demon King, it’s over. There’s no reason for anyone to stay here.”
At his words, Shamara smiled softly.
“Did you hate it that much that I asked to come here?”
Sof raised a hand and answered in a sullen voice.
“There’s no way I’d hate something you wanted. I just still don’t understand why you made me bring this thing here.”
There was a staff clutched in Sof’s hand.
It was not the spear I was using now, but the staff I had seen in reality just a moment ago.
The staff that had been floating above the altar was in Sof’s hand.
“So in the end, you’re saying you didn’t like it.”
“That’s different.”
After the childish exchange between lovers repeated itself, Sof let out a sigh.
“Of course I don’t understand. To think I have to refine this defective product here before going to kill the Demon King… If anyone else had said it, I would have snorted in their face first.”
At Sof’s words, Shamara brought her hands together and apologized.
“I’m sorry for insisting. But it’s absolutely necessary. And don’t call the staff you worked so hard to make a defective product.”
Sof looked at the staff and sighed.
“It is defective. A staff that takes tens of thousands of years to complete can’t be anything else. Though it’s my fault for using Star Tree wood because I thought it would have a good energy absorption rate.”
Just as Sof said, the staff was made from the same wood as the lush tree before my eyes.
It was unusually straight for a branch, like a spear, but the countless magic circles drawn on the branch and the grooves prepared all over the wood made the staff special.
Unlike when I saw it in reality, I could not feel any energy from it, but just as he had said, it looked extraordinary, as if an archmage had truly poured his effort into making it.
At Sof’s words, Shamara tapped the empty altar and said,
“That’s why we came to an energy refinery that moves to where energy gathers.”
Sof shook his head.
“Even so, it’ll take over ten thousand years in the end, so it’s useless. There’s no way a facility like this will last that long.”
At Sof’s words, Shamara raised her hand and pointed to the living Star Tree.
“It will last. Because this place has a Star Tree that seeks out energy.”
“Since it floats in the sky, it may be able to avoid the contamination on the surface, but… can even a Star Tree endure that long? Well, since it’s something a prophet says, who knows.”
As if giving up, Sof raised both hands, then placed the staff on the altar.
“That’s right. It’s a prophecy spoken by the prophet and saintess of this generation. I’ll prophesy it again. The staff left here will be of great help to our star.”
Shamara said with both hands on her waist.
Sof gave a faint laugh and shook his head.
“Even so, it’ll be long after I’m dead. Even if the staff remains until then, it’ll just benefit someone else.”
After hearing Sof’s words, Shamara’s expression changed.
With a serious face, she looked at “Sof” and at “me.”
Shamara said,
“No. This is for you.”
Flaaash!
Along with the staff rising into the air, the world turned white.
I had been pulled out of the memory.
A moment later, the light disappeared, and the staff came into view.
The staff floating above the altar.
It was the very staff I had seen in the memory a moment ago.
[…So I had forgotten this too.]
Sof’s voice rang out.
It sounded the same as the voice I had heard in the memory, yet different.
There was regret in that voice.
[Do you think Shamara knew things would turn out like this?]
[Who can say? An ordinary person cannot know how a prophet sees the world.]
I had not expected Sof to call himself an ordinary person.
Sounding somewhat unfamiliar, he continued.
[However, like Miss Hanna, she must have known that it was absolutely necessary. That is a prophet’s prophecy.]
At Sof’s words, I turned my head and looked at Hanna.
She was looking around at the ancient, withered tree with a curious expression.
I asked Sof,
[Then will Hanna become a saintess too?]
[A saintess is merely a name given by those who believe in a prophet. If the people who follow Hanna create a religion, then she will become a saintess as well.]
Since this was a mage talking about religion, I did not know if I should believe all of it, but if Sof was right, there did not seem to be any particular problem on that front.
And right now, that was not the issue.
The staff before my eyes, the staff leaking energy in streams, was the more important matter.
I asked Sof again.
[Then is that staff complete now?]
More than ten thousand years had easily passed since the staff had been placed on the altar.
Sof sighed.
[…It is. That damned defective product has finally ended up being completed.]
At Sof’s words, I stood before the altar.
The staff floating above the altar seemed as if it were calling to me.
The other members did not seem to feel it.
They were busy looking around the ruins and the tree, and checking whether the barrier was all right.
Without realizing it, I reached my hand toward the altar.
Just as I was about to grab the staff, I hesitated and stopped my hand.
I had thought of Sof.
Frowning, I asked Sof,
[But isn’t this staff useless to me? It looks impressive at a glance, but you’re not inside that staff, Sof.]
After saying it, it sounded somewhat strange, but it was not wrong.
No matter how incredible a magic staff it was, without Sof, it was no different to me from an ordinary wooden pole.
[….]
Sof did not answer.
[Sof?]
When I asked again, Sof let out a sigh.
[To think I have to enter that antique… Place me on the altar, beside that staff. It will take some time, but I should be able to transfer my ego to that staff.]
Transfer his ego?
Could Sof enter other staffs as well?
[Not just any staff. It is possible because both are staffs I made. And also because I am an archmage.]
At any other time, I would have simply believed Sof’s words, but this time I had no choice but to ask again.
“There won’t be any problems, right?”
[Probably not.]
The nuance of his words was a little unsettling, but I decided to follow Sof’s words.
However, there was one more thing I had to ask now.
“How long will it take?”
The magical monsters were attacking the barrier again.
Craaaack.
The barrier, struck by the attacks, was weakening so quickly that all the members could tell.
If it took too long, we would have to postpone transferring the ego until later.
[The best time to transfer the ego is now, before it has been touched by human hands. Places where the energy is this clean are rare as well… I will do my utmost.]
When Sof put it that way, it was difficult to object.
Trusting the archmage’s words, I stood the spear beside the staff.
Seeing me place the spear on the altar, Magreta asked,
“Why are you putting the spear there?”
Before I could answer, the spear floated up.
The members were surprised that the spear had risen into the air, but they were even more surprised when they saw another staff beside it.
“The spear is floating.”
“Uh, there’s a staff next to the spear!”
“You’re right. I only noticed it now too.”
It seemed the three of them had only just realized that a staff was floating above the altar.
Unlike the other members, Hanna was looking at the staff while stroking the bow in her hand.
The members, who had been staring at the altar with startled eyes, turned their heads toward me.
I told them the reason.
“I’m changing weapons. The reason Hanna told us to come here was probably because of that staff.”
This time, the members looked at Hanna.
“That’s what it was?”
At Magreta’s words, Hanna shook her head.
“I was just following the light.”
The moment Hanna answered, a sound came from the direction of the barrier again.
Crack!
It was the sound of the barrier breaking.
The barrier had shattered faster than expected.
The magical monsters began pouring magic toward the broken hole.
“Block it!”
Startled, the members fired energy and arrows toward the hole.
Magic exploded against flaming arrows, and ice arrows burst apart against the energy shot from guns, but the number of spells the members managed to hit was small.
The other spells passed through the broken hole and fell all over the ruins.
Booom! Bang!
Buildings collapsed, and the tree caught fire.
Debris and fragments rained down from the sky.
Magreta knocked the fragments away with her whip, but there were too many falling pieces.
I also moved frantically, striking away burning branches and building debris, but without the spear, without Sof, there was not much I could do.
All I could do was block attacks like this.
“Move.”
And use spatial movement to cling to a monster’s body, then blow apart the part closest to the black stone.
“Explode!”
Booom!
For anyone else, that alone would have been an incredible achievement, but there was not only one magical monster here.
Moreover, since the monsters were flying in the sky, I could not move with spatial movement every single time.
In the end, I had to return and protect the members again.
My brow furrowed.
I was wounded, and I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood, but I did not feel it.
Crash!
While I was protecting the members and the altar, the barrier completely shattered.
Then the ruins began to sway.
The repeated attacks had caused a problem with the magic that kept it flying in the sky.
[Sof!]
I shouted toward the spear, but no answer came from it.
Instead, Sof’s voice came from the staff floating beside it.
[…I am not too late, am I?]
I threw myself onto the altar and snatched up the staff.
The staff came into my hand without the slightest resistance.
[The structure is somewhat different. It will take time to adapt.]
Sof’s voice came from the staff.
Fortunately, it seemed he had transferred properly.
However, it seemed moving Sof into the staff now had been a mistake.
The new staff accepted my energy much more smoothly, but that was all.
It felt as though I could use magic better, but right now, what I needed was not such an excellent tool, but one powerful blow.
[It feels like I’ve gotten weaker instead. There’s no black stone attached to the staff either… Can we swap the black stone onto this here?]
[We cannot.]
As expected.
I had trusted Sof, but it seemed this choice had been a failure.
[And there is no need to.]
Then, Sof said something unexpected.
I had no choice but to ask back.
[What?]
Surprisingly, someone else answered my question.
Looking at the tree, Hanna said in a sorrowful voice,
“The last Star Tree waited for too long. It endured beyond its lifespan, but now it says it is time to return. The Star Tree says it will hand over all its energy and return to the stars.”
The moment her words ended, an enormous amount of energy rushed into the staff I was holding.
The staff shone brightly.
At the same time, the tree began to break apart.
Crack, craaack.
The ruins were the same.
Rumble.
The flying ruins broke apart and began to fall toward the ground.
New Staff (1)