Chapter 151: Chapter 151:Déjà Vu [3]

Not waiting for a response, Alya stepped away from the group and leaned against a nearby wall while waiting and tapping her foot, causing the sound to reverberate throughout the cave.

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Leaving the main cast behind, I ventured deeper further into the cave, surveying my surroundings carefully as I walked.

I had to make sure that there were no exit routes to this cave so the main cast would be forced to fight the real body of the tree and finally put an end to the loop.

If they were just a random path out of here somewhere in this path, their group would most likely take it, leaving me behind alone to fight the tree's real body.

Surprisingly, though, as I continued deeper into the cave, the tunnel did not diverge, so there was only one path that could be taken.

Were my worries for nothing?

...did the tree spirit plan this so that we would be forced to kill it?

"...I've never heard of a suicidal spirit before..."

As I continued walking deeper into the cave, the green particles began to group up and accumulate more.

Before, I would see a new green particle every five seconds I walked, but now, I was seeing two of them at least every three seconds.

Were all my worries for nothing?

Was I already reaching the end of this path?

Considering whether to risk going further forward and maybe running into the tree's real body, I sat down for a moment.

Wasn't this a little bit weird?

First, we seemed to escape the boundaries of the loop as we were no longer teleported back to the carriage.

However, this was completely false, as even though we "escaped" the loop, we were still forced to follow this odd and unnatural path.

It was a false... a red herring.

We were just as trapped as we were in the loop in this tunnel.

Next, after destroying the end condition, we quickly learned that it wasn't actually the main body and that its real body was somewhere else.

But...hadn't Ruby said that the tree was a living thing?

How would it be a decoy body if it was an actual living thing?

I had dismissed this earlier as it was possible for the tree to have a skill or trait that allowed it to create clones of itself, explaining the existence of the tree.

But... now that the inconsistencies and odd things were increasing, I couldn't just ignore it.

Once An Accident, Twice A Coincidence, Three Times A Pattern.

How many odd things have happened since the destruction of the tree?

There were simply too many to count.

The random appearance of the tree spirit that somehow communicated with Alya.

The secret tunnel was clearly human-created as it was too erratic for nature to have formed it.

Us somehow escaping the boundaries of the loop.

This path somehow did not diverge at any point.

This cave seemed to have no exit or way out, as there was only one way forward...straight.

How hadn't I noticed all these inconsistencies at the start...?

Hope.

After we had destroyed the tree with our purple beam, and I found out that the loop hadn't ended, my hope had been shattered.

It has disappeared.

The same could be said for the girls as when I gave them the news about the loop not ending, their expressions visibly grimaced and saddened.

We were all at an all-time low since entering the loop.

...UNTIL

Alya's sudden discovery of the tree spirit basically gives us the path ahead to destroy and end the loop through the green particles.

Wasn't this too convenient?

Right, we were at an all-time low, and the spirit suddenly appeared and gave us hope again.

Since we were hopeless and had no other idea of what to do, we just trusted and followed the path that the spirit had given to us without any qualms.

All my hope and faith was now in the spirit and its instruction.

Anything it says, I would have done... just like how I'm following its path of green particles right now.

Normally, I would have been suspicious and questionable, especially when seeing a random spirit appear... but here, I had just blindly followed its instructions, believing its words without considering anything else.

A false sense of safety.

My emotions had been played... and manipulated.

I had been played.

What was at the end of this path?

I had just blindly assumed it was the real body of the tree... but what if it was something else?

All of our exit routes were cut off as there was no escaping this tunnel.

There was only one way: forward.

A trap...a trap.

Didn't this perfectly match the definition of a trap...?

But, then... who was trapping us?

Digger further back into my head and eliminating all my blind faith in the spirit, I discovered one glaring inconsistency.

The tree stump.

What had happened when I had switched bodies with my crow?

The tree from earlier was one of the toughest and hardest things I had ever seen in the world.

My power, combined with the four girls, had barely managed to destroy it.

Only the trump had remained after our beam. the place mvlempy _r

But... then, how did that stump suddenly disappear?

This trunk that had withstood the impact of our powerful beam had just... suddenly vanished without a trace?

How could that be?

What the hell had happened when I switched bodies with my crow...?

Something was wrong... something had to be wrong.

Rushing in the opposite direction, I tried to peer through the darkness and find the main cast; however, just like last time I couldn't.

There were countless rocks and walls in my way, forcing me to continue running to get a better angle.

I had all the information in my head... but there was one part missing.

I was missing one puzzle piece.

And the holders of that missing piece were the four girls.