Chapter 224

79. Where the World Tree Is.

Janice, confident with herself and her power, channeled all of her strength into pulling the string of her bow before letting it go and letting her arrow fly.

Thump!!!

A loud and heavy sound rang out once the arrow struck the barrier.

Janice was certain that this one attack would crack the barrier. After all, hundreds of elves working together to send such a powerful attack should easily break the barrier that had been set up around the Divine Tree.

This was the reason why the bow was a very precious weapon. So, the question was, how long could a barrier created by a lone human hold up against such a strong attack? The elves silently crouched down and prepared to charge forward, watching the barrier shake from the attack. But...

Ting!!!

The arrow that struck the barrier was trying to pierce through it... However, it only lost its momentum and fell to the ground.

In fact, the barrier had seemingly absorbed the impact of the attack.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—

Janice and the Ancient Guards were left speechless by the arrow’s unexpected fall to the ground. Was the earlier attack going to be wasted just like that? Well, that single shot should have had enough power to smash this barrier. Unfortunately, the arrow had been deflected.

“What the hell happ...” Janice was left in a daze by the absurdity of the situation.

Before Janice could finish speaking, someone suddenly cried out, “Janice!!! Dodge!!!”

However, Janice only registered her own loss of balance from the force of someone pushing her down.

Thud!!!

Only after falling down did Janice regain her senses.

The Ancient Guard, Samara, had fallen down. Shockingly, the upper half of her body had disappeared.

In a single glance, Janice could tell that the impact of her arrow attack had been reflected.

“Sa... Samara...”

But no matter how many times Janice called her name, Samara would not be able to answer. After all, her entire upper body had already disappeared. What could one say in such a situation? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Janice stiffened up. While in a daze, she crawled toward whatever remained of Samara’s body. Upon reaching the bisected body, she could feel Samara’s body heat. It was as if Samara were still alive! But an elf, whose upper body had completely disappeared, could not be alive.

Janice fell back down with a blank expression on her face. She closed her eyes, then opened them in a flash. She yelled, “What... What the hell is going on here?!!!”

“Damn it! It’s a trap! Janice, we have to retreat!!!”

But Janice fell back into her daze after the short outburst, the other Ancient Guards’ shouting not registering in her ears at all. Her current situation became even more shocking when the attack that she had fired had been reflected by the barrier to kill her friend.

Janice wasn’t the only confused one. All of the elves that gathered here were confused.

Crack, crack, crack, crack!!!

Unfortunately, the catastrophe was not yet over. The layout of the forest began to change, as if it had been waiting for this moment.

It all felt so real, the ground rumbling beneath the elves’ feet and the bite of the harsh wind on their skin. The forest appeared to be truly alive. In just an instant, the forest was no longer an ordinary forest; it became an endless maze.

After the forest had become a maze, the dazed Janice finally realized that she had been separated from her comrades. All she could do was stare at her surroundings helplessly while mumbling, “He’s a monster. This...”

How could a single person be able to make such a ridiculous barrier? Could any part of common sense even try explaining this away? Thinking about that, Janice shook her head to give a firm no. This was absolutely impossible, but it was now her reality.

Janice slowly stood up with a blank face. She touched the walls of the maze and felt the rough texture with her fingertips. She murmured, “It’s not an illusion. The barrier is covering the entire forest... I’ve never heard about such a barrier before. This should be...completely impossible to maintain...”

Janice had to wonder how her enemies were maintaining such a barrier. She had so many questions that made her go round in circles, so she ended up shutting herself up. She just could not say anything anymore.

The maze was so dark that Janice could see nothing. There was also the hair-raising killing intent that hovered around her and stiffened her up. Janice turned to look behind her, but all she could see was endless darkness.

Stab—

***

Divine Beasts could fly at unbelievable speeds. In the first place, the existence of Divine Beasts already defied the laws of nature. After all, Divine Beasts were beings born from a human’s desire. Simply put, the speed at which it could fly would depend on its current condition and the power it currently possessed.

Davey had to ignore the changing surroundings as they flew for days.

Fire Chicken had chosen to fly non-stop during the day while eating as much delicious food as it wanted during the night to replenish its strength. This way, it could fly the next day with as much vigor as before.

Based on the reports that Davey had received, the elves no longer attacked recklessly after being hit hard once. They were busy preparing for something now. However, they did not know that Davey had left the battlefield and was now heading toward the Divine Tree’s forest.

The Divine Tree’s Sacred Land was located in the northern area of the western continent. Their neighboring country was the Conthas Empire.

Originally, it was considered rude for a prince of another nation to invade another empire’s airspace without any form of communication. However, there was no way that Davey would foster any kind of good feelings towards Conthas Empire especially since they were the ones who had opened the path for the enemies in the first place. It was none of Davey’s business if they were trying to curry favor with the elves because of political reasons, but he would not stop the animosity that he now felt towards them.

After three whole days of flying non-stop and avoiding detection, they finally reached the edge of an incomparably large forest that was filled with gigantic trees and dazzling greens.

“Let’s go down here. If we fly any further, the Divine Tree will catch us easily.”

Fire Chicken who had been flying excitedly then gently landed on the ground. It seemingly was showing Davey just how satisfied it was with flying freely and doing whatever it pleased. It also retracted its hot flames.

“U-Urk... Rinne discovered a huge error in her sense of direction. Rinne identifies this as motion sickness.”

“So, robots can get motion sickness too.”

“Rinne’s...emotional circuits are rapidly heating up. Rinne identifies this as fierce anger towards Davey,” Rinne said while gnashing her teeth.

Ignoring Rinne, Davey simply patted Fire Chicken. He pulled out a talisman and said, “Go back and rest. Conserve your strength. I’ll call you later. Then, you can run as wild as you can.”

—Kihyeeeeeeeeck!

Fire Chicken roared happily after hearing Davey’s words. Then, it tapped its beak on the talisman.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

Fire Chicken turned into flames and vanished inside the talisman.

—You’re going to go inside just like that? What’s the point of hiding your presence and sneaking out if you’re just going to get caught here?

Davey had heard about the World Tree’s rough location from Yuria and Aina. However, he had no way of knowing the exact location without checking it out himself. Davey also did not know how long the search would take, which was why he was now in a situation that could expose him completely.

The Divine Tree’s Forest was the World Tree’s domain. She could sense everyone who entered and just where they were. In fact, there was no way for Davey to avoid Yggdrasil’s all-seeing eyes. After all, Yggdrasil had the upper hand when it came to holy magic, mana, dark magic, and spirit magic thanks to her special attributes. There was nothing that Davey could use to camouflage himself and hide from her, except for one method...

“I haven’t done this in a long time. Shall we try it?”

Davey did not really like this method, but it was his master’s fault for making sorcery in the first place.

Davey immediately pulled around five or six strands of hair on his head, placed them flat on his palm, and lifted them to the skies. Then, he sandwiched a scarlet talisman between the index and middle finger of his other hand. The strands of hair on his palm began to vibrate and resonate with his other arm, which moved as gently as the waves of the sea.

After moving a certain distance, Davey threw the talisman into the air and blew the strands of hair away.

Poof!

With a pop, a few individuals appeared right in front of Davey.

“Rinne is witnessing a disaster. Rinne evaluates this lowly.” Rinne covered both eyes with her small hands as if she did not want to see anything anymore.

—What... What the hell is that?!

Perserque screamed and jumped behind Davey. Of course, she did not forget to close her eyes tightly.

The hair that Davey blew away had turned into clones that looked just like him.

The problem with using sorcery was that the clones that Davey had made exposed his true build to the world. The build that he had in his previous life was a lot bigger than his build right now, so he was very surprised to see that his clones had followed that size.

Davey looked at his clones with a complicated expression. Then, looking at the naughty little girl beside him, he immediately pressed down on the girl’s silver hair and said, “Rinne, close the gaps between your fingers.”

“Tch... Rinne evaluates Davey’s sharpness very lowly.”