I only wanted to explore the second branch, locate Alysa, and perhaps collect a few key parts along the way. Instead, i had accidentally created a light show visible across the entire branch.
A rather impressive achievement, considering i hadn't intended to do anything at all.
I closed my eyes and replayed the sensation from earlier.
The blue sphere in my dream. The strange warmth. The moment my fingers touched its surface.
Then the light.
A thought slowly emerged.
"A second awakening...?"
I opened my eyes and looked down at my hands.
"An awakening of the Light element?"
It sounded plausible. I was a Creator, after all. Perhaps my body possessed more than one element, and the conditions of the tournament had somehow triggered another awakening.
But the more I thought about it, the less convincing that explanation became.
The power hadn't felt like Wind. That much was obvious. Yet it hadn't felt like a normal element either. There had been something fundamentally different about it, something that made the very idea of controlling it seem laughable.
My Wind element had required practice.
This power had nearly blinded me with its first uncontrolled release.
And that was only what i had witnessed mymself.
I swallowed.
"Whatever it is... it's dangerous."
I had no intention of experimenting with it again until i understood what I was dealing with. Accidentally illuminating the branch was one thing. Accidentally destroying it was another.
I was about to stand when a voice reached my ears.
"We've located the Creators' position, but we lost our target because of that strange light!"
I froze.
I recognized the tone immediately.
Death Givers.
I slowly lowered myself behind the bushes and peered through the leaves.
Three fairies stood a short distance away. They didn't look like ordinary tournament participants. Their movements were coordinated, and their conversation carried the confidence of people following orders rather than pursuing their own goals.
One of them held a strange, mirror-like artifact. Its surface shimmered faintly as a voice emerged from it, suggesting that it was being used to communicate with someone elsewhere.
A communication artifact?
Interesting.
And by interesting, I meant deeply concerning.
"We're moving toward the second target," one of the fairies said. "Once you locate the other Creator again, inform us immediately."
The three exchanged a few more words before beginning to move away.
I remained hidden until they had put some distance between themselves and my position.
Then i slowly sat back.
"Of course. Of course, they'd be here."
I rubbed my temples.
I had suspected that the Death Givers might be interfering with the tournament, but hearing them openly discuss their targets was another matter entirely.
And they weren't merely looking for me.
They were looking for the other Creator.
Alysa.
My expression darkened.
If they had already discovered her location, then she could be in danger. Worse, they seemed to be coordinating their movements with someone else.
This wasn't a handful of reckless participants acting on their own. They had information, communication equipment, and a clear objective.
I needed to understand what they were planning.
Before i could decide what to do, the mirror-like artifact produced another sound.
A new voice came through.
"Return to the base on the second branch for now. The Nature user Creator is there. You'll need a Neutralization Artifact before engaging her. Come and collect it."
My eyes narrowed."Neutralization Artifact?"
I had never heard of such a thing.
Was it designed to suppress an element? Weaken a Creator? Interfere with someone's abilities?
The possibilities were unpleasant.
Whatever its purpose, the Death Givers clearly believed it would help them deal with Alysa.
And that meant i couldn't afford to ignore it.
I reached into my pocket and felt the small object resting there.my fingers closed around the coin-like token, the symbol i had obtained through my connection to their existence.
I looked down at it.
"...Sacrifice."
The word escaped my lips quietly.
I didn't know exactly what the token meant, but i understood enough to realize that it might help me uncover something about the Death Givers.
And if they were gathering at a base on this branch, I might finally have an opportunity to learn more about them.
I looked toward the direction in which the three fairies had departed."There's only one way to find out."I rose and followed them.
---
Following three suspicious fairies through an unfamiliar branch was considerably harder than it sounded.
For starters i couldn't simply fly after them at a comfortable distance. My control over Wind was still limited, and keeping myself airborne while navigating through dense vegetation required more concentration than I cared to admit.
The branches were filled with obstacles, from thick roots to clusters of leaves that seemed determined to slap me out of the sky.
After nearly colliding with a particularly large branch, I decided that discretion was the better part of survival.
I landed and continued on foot.
"Dammit. What do they want from her?"
My grip tightened around my sword.
If the Death Givers had been targeting me, I might have confronted them already. I wasn't foolish enough to believe i could defeat an entire hidden organization by myself, but at least I could assess the situation directly.
Alysa was different.
She had only recently entered this world. Although she had demonstrated how dangerous her abilities could be, she still lacked the experience that came from surviving in the Imaginary World.
And now an organization that apparently knew how to prepare counters against Creators had decided to target her.
I couldn't let that happen.i also remembered Gray.
If the Death Givers were actively hunting Creators, then Gray might be facing the same danger on another route.
I had trusted my friend's strength, but strength wasn't always enough when an enemy operated from the shadows.
"Why didn't I warn him?"
I cursed under my breath.
I should have told Gray to be careful the moment i suspected the Death Givers were interfering with the tournament. Even a brief warning might have helped him recognize a threat before it was too late.
Still, Gray was strong. I trusted him to survive.
I just hoped that trust wouldn't turn into a regret.
For now, there was nothing i could do for Gray. My immediate priority was to discover what the Death Givers intended to do with Alysa and why they needed a Neutralization Artifact to deal with her.
The three fairies continued moving ahead, unaware that someone was following them.
I kept my distance.
Hours passed.
Eventually, the darkness began to recede, and the natural light returned to the branch.
The enormous leaves gradually brightened, revealing the intricate network of roots that stretched across the landscape. With the improved visibility, I could finally observe his surroundings properly.
And then I saw their destination.
The three fairies approached a massive root that curved upward before disappearing into the earth. At first, it looked like an ordinary part of the Exil Tree, no different from the countless roots scattered throughout the branch.
But the fairies didn't continue past it.
Instead, one of them approached the root and performed a brief action with the mirror artifact. A faint shimmer appeared across the wood.
followed by an opening that hadn't been there a moment earlier.A hidden entrance.
I stopped behind a distant cluster of vegetation and watched as the fairies slipped inside.
The opening closed behind them, leaving no obvious trace of its existence.
I stared at the root.
"So they have an underground hideout."
That explained why i hadn't found any visible structures while travelling through the branch.
The Death Givers weren't operating from an ordinary camp. They had concealed their base within the roots of the Exil Tree itself.
Which meant getting inside wouldn't be easy.
I crouched and examined the entrance from a distance, searching for a weakness or some indication of how it worked.
Nothing.
I sighed.
"I need to get in there."
But how?
I couldn't simply knock on the entrance and ask whether the Death Givers were accepting visitors.
And if the mirror artifact was required to open it, i would need to obtain one or discover another way inside.
I rubbed my chin, trying to think.
Something similar had happened before, hadn't it?
I had managed to get myself into an unreasonable situation, and somehow I had found a way out.
Perhaps i could do the same thing here.
I stared at the hidden entrance for a few more seconds.
Then i remembered how i had ended up in this situation in the first place.
My hunch had led me north.
My hunch had led me to the suspiciously comfortable bushes.
And my hunch had somehow led me to awaken a mysterious power that had illuminated the entire branch.
I slowly loweredy head.
"...I need to stop trusting my hunches."
Unfortunately, the entrance to the Death Givers' base wasn't going to open just because I had reached a moment of self-reflection.
I needed a plan.
And preferably one that didn't involve accidentally awakening another mysterious power.
---
Far away from the underground entrance, two observers descended toward the place where my light had first erupted.
They were familiar faces: the same two fairies who had previously explained the tournament's rules to the participants beneath the Exil Tree.
The female observer landed first. Her gaze immediately settled on the surrounding vegetation, and her eyes widened.
"Look! I think this is where the light appeared!"
The bald male observer followed her gaze, examining the area with a serious expression.
"What happened here?"
He walked around the clearing, looking for signs of a battle.
There were no obvious traces of combat, no broken weapons, and no evidence that a group of participants had fought here.
Yet something extraordinary had clearly occurred.
He narrowed his eyes.
"There are no signs of a confrontation. No struggle between participants, either.
Then what could have caused that light?"
The female observer stepped closer to the ground.
Even after the enormous radiance had disappeared from the sky, faint traces of blue light remained scattered across the vegetation.
They clung to the roots and leaves like a gentle flame, illuminating the area without producing any heat.
She crouched and carefully reached toward one of the glowing patches.
The moment her fingers touched it, her expression changed.
"That's strange..."
She examined the light more closely.
"I've never seen anything like this before. Is it an aura? Some form of mana?"
She tried to sense its nature, but the result only deepened her confusion.
"And we can't even investigate it properly. Our golems went blind the moment that light appeared!"
The bald observer didn't answer.He had noticed something else.His expression gradually stiffened, and he lowered his gaze toward the root beneath his feet.
For a moment, he seemed unable to believe what his senses were telling him.
"No..."
The female observer turned toward him.
"What happened? Did you discover something?"
He crouched and placed his hand against the root, concentrating on the faint energy flowing through it.
Then his eyes widened."That's impossible!"
She frowned impatiently.
"Would you stop saying that and explain what you're talking about?"
He looked up at her.
"Feel the condition of the Exil Tree."
She sighed, but followed his instruction. Closing her eyes, she extended her perception into the root, searching for the traces of energy that flowed through the ancient tree.
At first, she sensed only the familiar presence of the Exil Tree.
Then she felt the difference.Her eyes flew open.
"How...?"
She reached out again, desperately trying to confirm what she had just sensed.
The tree had changed.
The traces of dark energy that had once clung to this part of the branch were gone.
The corruption had been erased, and the damaged wood had been restored to a condition she had never encountered before.
It wasn't merely recovering.
It was as though the corruption had never existed.
"The dark energy..." she whispered. "It's gone.
This entire area has been purified."
Her voice trembled as she continued sensing the root.
"And the tree... it's healed. Completely."
The bald observer slowly stood.
He had reached the same conclusion.
The blue light hadn't merely illuminated the darkness.
It had purified the Exil Tree, erasing the dark energy that had contaminated it and restoring the affected area to an extraordinary state of health.
But how?
What kind of power could accomplish something like this?
The female observer stared at the glowing vegetation, unable to hide her shock.
"Whoever did this..."
She couldn't finish the sentence.
The bald observer reached into his belongings and retrieved a mirror artifact of his own.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
His expression had become grave.
"We need to inform the Head Observer. She has to see this for herself."
The female observer hesitated.
"But she's currently on the forty-fifth branch. Do you really think she can come all the way here?"
The bald observer looked toward the enormous branches stretching into the distance.
"She has to."
There was no room for hesitation in his voice.
This was no ordinary display of power. Someone had appeared in the tournament with an ability capable of purifying the Exil Tree itself, and they had done so without leaving behind any obvious signs of a battle.
If the wrong people learned about this first, the consequences could be disastrous.
He activated the mirror artifact.
"We need to report an extraordinary discovery on the second branch."
---
By the time the observers began sending their report, the entire fairy kingdom was still reeling from the sudden appearance of the blue light.
Participants were searching for its source. Observers were trying to understand what they had witnessed. Even those who had remained safely inside their camps could no longer ignore the possibility that something extraordinary had entered the tournament.
And somewhere beneath the roots of the Exil Tree, me with a sword was following a group of lunatics into their hidden base.
I had no idea that the light I just released done more than expose his position.
I had no idea that the Exil Tree itself had been healed.
And i certainly had no idea that, somewhere in the kingdom, people were already preparing to investigate the identity of the person responsible.
For me, the situation was simple.
I needed to find Alysa.
I needed to discover what the Death Givers were planning.
And, preferably, i needed to figure out what the hell had happened to my body.
In that order.
Though, considering how my luck had been behaving lately, i suspected that none of those things would be particularly easy.