Chapter 88: Chapter 88:The World Tree [1]

Having surveyed most of the mansion, I had the blueprint of it in my head, so I was content with leaving.

Also, I learned quite a bit about Albus.

Despite being terrifyingly strong... he was somewhat of a pushover. I was sure he would forcefully kick me out after the second out, yet he still let me stay for another!

Leaving the palace and heading out of the gates, I dropped by the hut for a quick meal.

As I entered the hut, I realized both Jin and Han were nowhere to be seen while the travel club president was eating at the table

...I'll eat later.

As I reopened the door and headed out, I used my eyesight to quickly scan the entire hearing before catching a glimpse of the two walking around with one of the Elven local specialties in their hand.

The specialty large resembled ice cream from my word; however, the main difference was that you could bite right into it as the surface was made to be warm.

Could an awakened even receive a brain freeze?

Wasting no more standing around, I decided to head out of the clearing to scout to see if they had arrived yet.

The World Tree doesn't just randomly corrupt after being fined for over a thousand years; there has to be a cause for it.

That cause is the dark elves.

Like humans, elves can also become djinns, but the number of dark elves is much lower than that of djinns. It's almost impossible for them to meet a demon, as they're always stuck in this forest.

But when there's a will, there's a way.

As a result, only elves with the most hate and desire could transform into dark elves.

Using their dark mana, they slowly began to corrupt the World Tree, hoping to wipe out the entire elven population.

And while their plan worked perfectly, for now, they would soon realize something very important.

The World Tree, or in this case the World Tree's Spirit, cannot be ended from the outside world. To completely corruption the tree and take control of it, they must directly enter the tree and corrupt it from the inside.

That's why the Elven Queen has yet to take action on these dark elves. So far, they do not pose a significant threat.

But she was soon to be proven very wrong...

Considering the importance of this mission, the demons had personally sent their own, a B-rank at that, to help the C-rank dark elves.

Unlike humans and other species who simply die, when a demon meets its demise, all the djinns contracted with it instantly die, all the demon's blood-related family dies, and finally, the demon itself meets its end.

Simply put, sending a demon out of the dark lands right now was a huge risk, but they had decided to do it anyway.

Well, with Lily on their side, the queen should know about the demon and not underestimate the power of the dark elves.

But that was exactly what I wanted.

There were two goals that I needed to be accomplished.

The World Tree needed to be saved.... and the spirit needed to be replaced.

While the first part would likely happen naturally with Lily and the main cast's help, our paths diverged in the second part.

Looking at the guards, who were standing outside the only entrance to the clearing, I let out a sigh.

There was only one problem.

I was genuinely in the wrong here.

In the book, the World Tree's Spirit hadn't been replaced and stayed the same... yet here I was trying to change that.

Had I become my greatest nightmare, Lily...?

Well, technically, I was purposely changing the plot, but it was for good reason!

Later in this story, Alya and the main cast are forced to return to the Elven Kingdom as the spirit of the World Tree is fading away.

The corruption sent by the Dark Elves and his already long lifespan had already put it on death's door.

But with the addition of the incoming wars and more demons leaving the Darklands, the spirit simply couldn't hold on any longer.

So... they replaced her.

The World Tree is essential for the Elves as all their magic and power stems from it, so losing it would be incomprehensible.

But then, who would want to volunteer to become the Spirit of the World Tree?

Well, I've already met him...Albert.

Thus, that entire ark was spent with the main cast finding a way to replace the Spirit with Albert before it dies.

Of course, with Lily over there, they did not need for that long journey as she already knew the method.

So, then, what's my job?

I need to convince Lily that something changed, and now the World Tree is already more corrupt and on death's bed. She'll see that and immediately speed up the events by replacing the World Tree early.

Why was I trying to change the book's events when my motto was to follow the plot?

First, this change wouldn't significantly impact the plot, which centers around the human realm. As long as the elves retain their power, what happens in their realm won't have any significant impact.

Sure, it would introduce some variables, but I was ready to accept that.

But, the more important reason is... that it's my only option.

During their attempts to replace the World Tree spirit with Albert, the dark elves would take advantage of this by launching countless attacks.

That was just a distraction, though...

On the same day, for the first time in ten years, the demons would make a public move as they would attack not the Elven realm but the human one.

As you can expect, the sudden attack caught the entire realm off-guard, and with Liam, the story's protagonist, not here, it only got worse.

Only after two days were the demons able to be stopped with the help of two top hundred heroes from the high dominion.

When Liam and the cast returned from the realm, completely oblivious to the events, they could only describe what they saw as a wasteland.

Confusion and shock immediately enveloped them as they stared out the carriage window at the area of the demon's attack.

A wasteland.

Burned villages, trampled vegetation, no life to be seen in a hundred-meter radius, and finally, the dead body of someone I knew very well...

Han.

What was his use in the story?

Just like me, another character fated to die just to help the protagonist's personality advance...

The village the demons attacked was the one that Han's family had control of.

Liam's reaction to seeing a fellow academy student dead was to train even harder and become even stronger before the eventual counterattack.

That was something that didn't require Han's death at all, though...

Finally, my third reason was power.

I knew I had to do something after seeing Albert's performance versus mine in that bow deal.

Especially since I plan to complete my dream advancement to C-rank soon, I need all the power I can get right now.

You can never be too careful; I had learned that lesson too many times now...

All I wanted was a fruit from the World Tree, which was very obtainable considering my goal destination.

Waiting in the bushes about five meters from the guards, I waited for the perfect moment when both of them were turned away before dashing ahead and out of sight.

Now, once again surrounded by the tower trees, I moved the corruption inside my body to combine with my mana in the center.

Manifesting one black and red wing attached to my right shoulder, I ignored the pain and flapped it three times.

Instead of moving forward in any direction, I moved upwards, along the trunk of one of the trees.

Sitting on a high branch of one of the trees, I kept my wing before using my eyes to scan the part of the forest I was in.

Nothing.

Flapping my wing again, I appeared on an elevated branch of another tree before scanning with my eyes.

Taking advantage of my limited time with the wing, I did the same actions until finally... there was something.

Although I couldn't see anyone or anything with the density of the trees, my eyes caught a faint sign.

A misplaced leaf was sitting on the forest floor.

Bingo.

Sitting atop the elevated branch, I didn't immediately rush in, but I first disseised my wing as I was running too low on time.

With my wing gone, I manifested my two corrupted daggers alongside a mask to cover my face.

Twisting my head, I tried to work around the trees' density by specifically peering through their gaps, but there were no more signs.

Besides that one misplaced leaf, there was nothing.

Yet... that was a good sign for me.

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Jumping off the tree, I stabbed my daggers into the trunk's bark to break my fall, the tree's leaves turning grey shortly after due to my corruption