Returned to reality, Sedina finally grasped the situation.
Not only had Ludger saved her, but she was now being held in his arms.
It was reality, and yet it felt so much like a dream that she wondered if it really was.
“Teacher...”
But before she could say anything more, the ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) World Tree trembled violently.
Rumble—rumble—
The World Tree shook, and countless leaves cascaded down to the ground.
Sedina could feel the emotions overflowing from it.
It was grieving—grieving that it had lost the long-sought blood of Plante.
“We’re getting out of here first.”
Ludger supported both Sedina and Ambella as he leapt down from the World Tree.
The height alone was hundreds of meters, and from there the surrounding landscape spread out before them.
Serendel Castle—completely destroyed.
Roots of the World Tree heaving everywhere.
A battlefield drowned in death and screams made Sedina gasp for breath.
While she had been unconscious, everything around the once-beautiful World Tree had changed.
The shock of seeing that sight overwhelmed even the fear of leaping down from such a height.
“Hold tight.”
Kieeeek!
From afar, a colossal steel bird swooped in and caught Ludger, Sedina, and Ambella on its back.
Ludger immediately infused the creature with Ater Nocturnus.
The Steel Raven, reborn with new strength, rippled with shadow and dove to aid their allies still struggling on the ground.
Vierno, besieged by wood zombies, brightened at the sight of Sedina.
“You’ve succeeded!”
Lutus, fighting at his side, allowed a faint smile at the news of their success.
Strangely enough, the swarm of wood zombies that had been surging endlessly just moments ago seemed to falter—the result of Ludger’s intervention.
The Steel Raven landed, sweeping away the surrounding zombies with its wings.
A brief opening appeared.
Ludger immediately pulled out an artifact to replenish his mana, then handed a recovery potion to Ambella.
“Kh. Damn, that hurts like hell.”
Ambella accepted the vial and injected it into her shoulder.
Her severed arm did not regrow, but it was enough to stop the bleeding and dull the pain.
“Lady Ambella!”
Vierno’s face went pale at the sight of her missing arm.
“Don’t make a fuss. It’s nothing.”
“But still...”
“If I think of it as the price for saving that child, it’s cheap.”
Ambella turned her gaze on Sedina.
Sedina also looked at Ambella Burke.
At first she had only noticed Ludger, but now she realized Ambella had been there with him at the throne.
That wound—she must have suffered it to save her together with Ludger.
“Looking at you now, your eyes are the very same.”
“...Who are you?”
Sedina felt a strange sensation as she faced Ambella.
Her way of speaking, as if she already knew her. And above all, the warm gaze directed at her—it wasn’t unfamiliar.
At Sedina’s bold question, Ambella chuckled softly.
“...Just someone who once knew your mother.”
“My mother...”
Sedina wanted to ask her.
What kind of person her mother had been. And why she had gone so far to save her.
But at that moment, Lutus cut in.
“Forgive me for interrupting the reunion, but now’s not the time for it.”
And he was right.
They had succeeded in saving Sedina, but the World Tree was still raging.
Its power seemed a little weaker than before, yet the situation was still no different from a natural disaster.
What was even more concerning was Ventmin’s reaction.
Having lost Sedina, Ventmin was furious at the sharp decline in the World Tree’s output that she could control.
“You filthy vermin!”
Her form—a towering wooden effigy over ten meters high—twisted its bark-face into a grimace.
Chips and fragments flaked from her skin, crumbling into powder.
The absolute power she had just seized was leaking out, like a vessel cracked through.
They were mere insects she could have crushed at will—
Yet now, she was the one humiliated.
Rage and shame boiled over inside her.
And the target of that fury was the one most responsible for interfering—Bellaruna.
“I should have killed you the moment I first saw you!”
She had been arrogant. She had been careless.
Ventmin admitted her mistake—and resolved that this time, Bellaruna would die.
Facing that murderous intent, Bellaruna’s complexion turned pale.
Ventmin stretched her hand toward her.
Her wooden fingers split open, forming spears that launched straight at Bellaruna.
Though she was skilled at hacking the World Tree, Bellaruna’s physical ability was insignificant. Dodging such an attack was impossible.
But Bellaruna was not alone.
Out of the air dropped Alex, slashing all the wooden spears aside with his sword.
They were no ordinary spears—they were infused with the World Tree’s power. Each parry sent jolts up his wrists, but Alex did not show it.
“You...”
Ventmin’s eyes widened at the sight of Alex, then she bit her lip.
“...So Bereborn is...”
If Alex was alive, then it meant Bereborn—the blade who had been her most loyal servant—was dead.
Meanwhile, Alex supported Bellaruna and retreated to Ludger’s position.
“Alex. So you lived.”
“Of course. You think I’d go down so easily?”
“I-I’m alive too, you know.”
Hans, now back in his human form, joined them as Ludger, Alex, and Bellaruna reunited.
Alex’s eyes met Lutus’s.
Lutus gave a small, approving nod in place of words.
There was no need to ask why he was here or what he was doing.
At this moment, they were comrades, guarding each other’s backs.
“So. We’ve rescued who we came for, and now everyone’s here. What do you intend to do next?”
Lutus directed the question to Ludger.
Their primary mission—saving Sedina—had been accomplished.
Of course, calling it a success felt hollow, given the cost in lives.
But had they failed to save her, the sacrifice would have been far greater.
“It seems best to withdraw at once.”
Without Sedina, the World Tree could not wield its full power.
For now it was thrashing madly, but in time it would calm.
Ludger agreed with that assessment.
There was no need to take unnecessary risks. They could simply retreat.
But the one who objected was none other than Sedina.
“No. We can’t.”
Everyone’s eyes turned toward her.
And of course, given her bloodline’s deep bond with the World Tree, they believed she must have a reason.
“If we leave it like this, the World Tree will never return to what it was.”
“Never return?”
“Yes. Right now, its power has been forcefully awakened by Ventmin Lifret. She embedded malicious code using the lives of our kin, corrupting and damaging the World Tree throughout its depths.”
And Sedina—blood of Plante—could feel it.
The World Tree was suffering. That was why it had reached out to her.
Because she was the only one who could heal it.
If they simply left now, the World Tree would never recover from its wounds.
And if that happened, the forest that received its blessing would wither away.
The elves’ homeland would face inevitable ruin.
At those words, Ambella’s expression hardened coldly.
But Lutus thought differently.
“The World Tree being wounded or not has nothing to do with me. My only duty is to reduce what could be a threat to the Empire.”
For Lutus, whether the World Tree withered and died was of no concern.
Even if it perished, it was the elves who would fall, not the Empire.
If anything, the fall of the Elven Kingdom, a potential threat, was something the Empire would welcome.
“This isn’t something you can brush off so simply!”
Sedina fixed her gaze on Lutus.
Even against a man several times larger than herself, Sedina did not shrink back.
Ludger was reminded of the first time he had met Sedina.
Back then, she stammered, could not meet his eyes, and lit up just because he spoke a few words to her.
Now she was a completely different person.
“The World Tree governs the life force of all living beings. If such a World Tree withers, that means nature itself will be affected.”
“And what does that matter?”
“It matters. Do you think the influence of the Forest of Life is confined only to the forest? If the World Tree withers, all the surrounding lands will be affected. Even the Empire’s breadbasket won’t be safe.”
“Heh.”
Sedina’s expression was far too serious for her words to be dismissed as exaggeration.
Lutus clicked his tongue.
If the World Tree’s influence was that great, then this was not something he could simply ignore.
And besides, there remained the troubling presence of Ventmin Lifret, the very source of all this.
Everyone turned their eyes to Ventmin Lifret.
No matter how vicious and cruel she was, the death of Bereborn, who had stood by her side for centuries, seemed to have struck her, leaving her standing still.
But she was like a volcano about to erupt.
Everyone instinctively felt it.
“Survival of the fittest is the law of nature.”
The gigantic wooden effigy that Ventmin had become stretched its hand toward the ground.
Following its movement, a sapling pierced the soil and quickly grew into a tree.
“The strong devour, the weak are devoured. That is the law of the world, one that can never be denied.”
The tree twisted grotesquely and then took on a human form.
With well-defined features and dressed in luxurious attire.
It was Bereborn, slain by Alex’s hand, now resurrected as a wooden zombie.
“That’s why I devoured. Because if I didn’t devour, I would be devoured. And so I devoured, again and again.”
Ventmin looked at the wooden zombie of Bereborn with conflicted eyes.
This was not Bereborn.
Merely a counterfeit newly created, based on the data of him stored within the World Tree.
“Yet, in some corner of my heart, I accepted it. That I could not stay in this place forever. That just as I had devoured, one day I too would meet the fate of the prey and be devoured.”
Creaking, Ventmin tilted her head upward to look at the World Tree.
Though she had fused with it, the World Tree, robbed of its Plante bloodline, was once again sinking, its power settling down.
So close.
It was so close to full awakening.
And yet she had failed.
“But now that this moment has come, I find no hollow despair, no rage.”
Her subordinate was gone, she had failed to awaken the World Tree.
And her enemies showed no sign of letting her be.
She, who had always reigned from above, was now standing in the place of the weak.
At that eye level, she could understand it.
The feelings that the prey experiences when faced with its fate.
Fear? Terror?
No.
The emotion rising up was only one.
“To survive.”
To struggle with all strength, with everything, not to stop even for a moment.
Like a frog in a snake’s jaws.
Like a rabbit caught in a fox’s bite.
Like a deer pursued by a wolf.
Even in that fleeting moment, the struggle for life never ceases.
Because that too is the law of nature.
“Come then. You who would devour me. I shall answer you with all I have.”
At Ventmin’s resolute voice, Ludger furrowed his brows.
He would rather she had gone mad, raging blindly in fury.
But as expected of an elf who had lived long, Ventmin was not so simple.
Compared to before, when she had drawn most of the World Tree’s power, now she was far more dangerous.
But.
Ludger was not alone.
“Leader. What are we going to do?”
“We fight.”
Ludger straightened his clothes as he replied.
“There’s no retreat for us now.”
“But are you sure about this? That tree girl over there—her eyes didn’t just roll back, they went all the way around and came back again.”
Even if she had lost some of her power, Ventmin, merged with the World Tree, was not an opponent to be underestimated.
Considering her endless regeneration, one could say that physically, she was nearly unkillable.
But it was not as if there were no options.
“I can do it.”
Sedina stepped forward, her face resolute.
Ventmin silently fixed her gaze on the small girl.
And Sedina did not waver, meeting Ventmin’s eyes without flinching.
“I will separate the World Tree from that woman. Then she can be dealt with.”
“How long will it take?”
Ludger's first question was about time.
Not whether she could do it, not whether it was possible.
Because he believed she could.
“I’ve never accessed the World Tree before, so I can’t give a definite answer. But if there’s one factor in our favor—”
Sedina’s eyes turned toward the pond beyond Ventmin.
The pond where the sap of the World Tree, capable of reaching its deepest roots, had gathered.
If they could just reach it, the possibility was open.
“Good grief. We went through hell to pull you out of the World Tree, and now we’ve got to send you right back in.”
Hearing that, Ambella muttered in disbelief.
But there was no frustration or resignation in her voice.
If anything, seeing Sedina’s firm resolve made Ambella quietly happy.
‘Hah. She really did give birth to a daughter just like herself...’
In Sedina’s figure, Ambella saw Ella Plante’s image overlap.
That back she had once been forced to watch depart, because of her own weakness.
So this time, she would not let her go alone.
Ambella gripped her sword with her one remaining hand.
“No one’s planning on backing out here, right? If you are, raise your hand now.”
No one answered.
Ambella nodded in satisfaction.
“Good. Then let’s go.”