When the smoke of the explosion cleared, Nirva stood there unscathed.
“Click, click. Had you simply fled, you might have lived a little longer.”
His golden gaze turned toward Seridan, who was firing shells from a distant hill.
“Wha—?! That old man took my shell head-on and he’s still fine! He’s still brimming with strength!”
“Enough chatter, keep firing!”
At Hans’s scolding, Seridan launched shell after shell, conjured purely from imagination.
Swaaang!
Shells cut through the air and rained down around Nirva.
Red explosions and massive shockwaves rippled through the area.
Yet Nirva remained unharmed even amid the searing heat.
His eyes fixed instead on Zantman.
“You think I wouldn’t notice? I realized long ago you were distracting me to rescue Ludger Cherish.”
And the only reason he had not stopped them was because he had the leisure to allow it.
He had more than enough strength left to finish Zantman and then pursue Hans’s group to capture them.
“But since you came to me of your own accord, you’ve saved me the trouble.”
Zantman slowly stretched out his palm.
Dream-sand rose from the ground like dust caught in a breeze, enveloping the incoming shells.
Crunch. Crack.
The sand compressed violently, crushing the shells inside.
But that wasn’t the end.
The form of the sand changed—reshaping itself into identical shells.
The dream-sand shells, exhaling golden smoke, fired back toward Hans and Seridan on the hill.
“Are you kidding me?!”
“Evade! Evade!”
Hans and Seridan immediately scrambled away.
“You think you can escape?”
Zantman gestured toward the fleeing pair, and the shells altered course mid-air.
Glancing back, Seridan’s eyes gleamed.
“They’re guided! Amazing! I want that feature too!”
“This is no time for jokes!”
It seemed they would be caught any moment.
But then, the shells suddenly exploded in midair before reaching them.
“Tch.”
Nirva clicked his tongue and turned his head.
The hand he had extended was pinned fast by thick tree roots.
Their caster stood beside Zantman—Sedina, glaring fiercely at Nirva.
“I’ll commend your will to fight instead of flee. Hm, yes... Sedina Roschen.”
In an instant, Nirva had gathered her information through dreams and spoken her name aloud.
Details about her accumulated in real time, and annoyance gave way to curiosity.
“A World Tree contractor? And a half-elf at that? How very amusing.”
With power like that, it made sense she dared to stand against him.
“And what’s more, you freely command plants. Outsiders would call you the Green Mage.”
At the mention of that title, Zantman turned to Sedina, eyes wide with surprise.
“I’m not Green yet,” she added shyly.
“...Not yet.”
So his worries had not been for nothing after all.
As Zantman had such thoughts, Nirva sneered.
“But tell me, Green Mage though you may be in reality, what can you do inside a dream?”
No matter how great one’s prowess in the waking world, Dreamland was ruled by the unconscious and imagination—abilities could not easily be drawn out to their fullest.
Sedina knew that, yet she did not retreat.
“There must be something... that even I can do.”
Her words were firm, but her body trembled.
This was the very enemy who had defeated her teacher.
To Sedina, Nirva was an insurmountable wall.
But was this the first time she had faced such hopelessness? No.
Hadn’t she felt the same in the elven kingdom?
That she could never win, that hope did not exist.
And yet, they won.
Breaking through impossible odds, they turned hope into reality.
Sedina had seen that miracle with her own eyes.
‘It isn’t hard. All I have to do is imagine it. Picture it clearly—every detail, every form—not hazy, but sharp and complete, like the sight I witnessed that day.’
She focused her mind.
Pain stabbed through her skull like needles—too much energy channeled at once.
Her image wavered as though it might collapse.
“Recall the happiest moment you ever had.”
Zantman’s voice guided her.
He instinctively sensed she was attempting something she had never shown before.
“If sheer will and imagination aren’t enough, use a trick. Negative thoughts won’t anchor it. What stays with us the longest are our happiest memories. Recall them, and manifest from that emotion.”
Sedina followed his instruction.
Nirva frowned.
‘Her energy is stabilizing.’
Moments ago, untamed dream-force had lashed out wildly, but now it flowed calm and steady.
Like the sea after a storm, suddenly serene.
And Nirva felt it—an instinctive alarm.
Something was coming.
“You asked what I could do, didn’t you?”
Sedina’s eyes, sharpened with clarity, locked on Nirva.
“I could summon the World Tree.”
Just as Nirva was about to speak, an immense wall rose before his eyes.
‘A tree?’
He stared, dumbfounded, at the colossal tree that soared into the sky, casting a massive shadow.
A tree rivaling even the obelisk that sealed his Goddess.
The World Tree—revered by elves as divine.
A tree that could, if it willed, blanket the continent in forest.
‘She created a World Tree? Alone?’
Even as a World Tree contractor, Sedina Roschen should not have wielded such power.
That was why he had disregarded her.
But now, Sedina had grown into a threat—one he had not foreseen.
“In the end, it’s just a hollow imitation!”
From atop the World Tree, Sedina looked down and answered,
“You’re right. Compared to the real one, it may be lacking.”
Woooong—
The World Tree quivered.
At once, night descended upon the depths of Dreamland.
“Whoa! What’s that?!”
Seridan, watching from afar, cried out in awe.
Darkness spread through the surroundings, yet the World Tree’s leaves glowed white with sacred light.
It was easy to understand why elves prayed to this tree, why they deified it.
“This is insane.”
Hans, from his distant post, stared with a complicated gaze.
The memory of that destructive light turned upon him resurfaced—an unwelcome memory.
But now that very light was their ally, and nothing could be more reassuring.
He knew she could not hear him, but still Hans wished to say it.
“Blast him to hell, junior.”
A moment later, with a brilliant flash, a beam of pure white light lanced down.
Blinding radiance, searing heat that boiled the air—
All combined into a pillar of destruction that fell straight upon Nirva.
Even if weaker than the original, the World Tree was still the World Tree.
A fraction of its power alone was enough to reduce the land to scorched ruin.
The white light swallowed Nirva and drove into the earth.
Deep underground, the energy spread outward, exploding in a vast eruption.
Vroooom—
The ground swelled like a volcano ready to burst, then split open in a blossom of crimson flame.
“My God...”
From a branch of the World Tree, Zantman could only gape at the sight before him.
He had given her advice, but never imagined it would yield something this magnificent.
He couldn’t deny it—he had underestimated her, even if only a little, because she was still a student.
Zantman let out a hollow laugh before he realized it himself.
“Our youngest really did make one hell of a friend.”
At this rate, it was enough to make him ashamed of the fuss he had raised, thinking he could buy time on his own.
After taking an attack of that magnitude, even Nirva could not possibly be unscathed—
—or so he thought, until he saw the structure slowly revealed within the explosion.
“What the hell is that?”
It was a shape that looked like two clasped hands, as if in prayer, set apart by themselves.
Then the hands opened left and right, and Nirva appeared from inside.
“Somewhat hot.”
From within the explosion, Nirva was unscathed.
He bore slight wounds. His clothes were singed, and faint red burns marked his skin.
But that was all.
After taking such a devastating blow, that was the extent of his injuries.
That fact left Sedina aghast.
“......It was a serious strike.”
Sedina bit her lip.
Deep down, she had harbored a faint sense of unease.
Now that she faced the reality, she could feel anew just how extraordinary Nirva truly was.
Sensing her emotion, Zantman gave a warning.
“We must only hold him off. Cast aside your greed. Our goal is to endure, not to defeat that monster.”
“......Understood.”
Sedina commanded the World Tree.
Its leaves gleamed, and golden spears poured down on Nirva like a driving rain.
Each spear was a storm of death that tore flesh and shattered bone.
Through that downpour Nirva walked as if on a casual stroll.
Sedina resolved to change her approach.
The World Tree’s roots sent massive energy coursing into the ground.
Nirva stopped walking and lowered his gaze to the earth.
Through the sandy floor, tiny sprouts began to emerge.
The sprouts spread endlessly across the horizon, centered on the World Tree.
They grew with unbelievable speed, as if time itself were fast-forwarded hundreds of times.
Sprouts became saplings, saplings became trees.
New plants grew around them.
Where it would take centuries for a forest to flourish, the World Tree birthed one in less than three seconds.
A dense sea of trees filled the view.
Nirva now stood in the very maw of a giant beast called a forest.
From each tree, from every blade of grass, radiated murderous intent.
Each plant.
The entire forest.
It all carried a will bent on killing him.
“To sow seeds and sprout them at will upon the Goddess’s land. Even blasphemy should know its limits.”
And yet, facing all this, Nirva remained calm.
“This too must be a trial given to me. Then I shall accept it.”
He had meant to conserve strength, but instead was being forced to expend more.
Still, it was true the process until now had been far too easy.
At this moment, Nirva chose to show a measure of his “true strength.”
If he thought of the future, it was right to conserve power.
But as long as humans would throw away their lives to hinder him, that was only a wish.
“I will trample you completely.”
Mercy. Leisure.
All of that, cast aside.
“Dream.”
Nirva murmured softly.
A small word, yet brimming with force.
That single word rippled through the world.
Sssrrrk—
Sand began to spread outward from Nirva.
Carried by the wind, it expanded and devoured the trees.
Touched by the sand, the trees melted in an instant like salt in water.
It looked as if they dissolved, but closer inspection showed they reverted to their original state—
—to dream energy.
The spreading sand became a storm, engulfing everything in sight except the World Tree.
In the blink of an eye, a lush jungle turned to desert.
“H-how...?”
Sedina reeled.
At that instant her body swayed violently.
Even in the sandstorm, the World Tree still stood, but only just.
In truth it was not holding out.
A colossal sand mire was swallowing it whole.
The kilometer-tall World Tree sank slowly, as if into a swamp.
In moments, half its towering trunk had already sunk beneath.
And still the mire shoved more of the World Tree down, as if insatiable.
“We must escape!”
“To where?!”
Zantman and Sedina searched for a way out from the World Tree’s branches.
But the mire was too vast.
If it could engulf the World Tree itself, then no matter where they fled, it was only a matter of sinking.
Every vista beyond was nothing but a desert of dream-sand.
At least Hans and Seridan seemed to have escaped safely, but Sedina could not.
Craack.
The branches of the World Tree began to sink into the sand.
Sturdy limbs shattered with hideous sounds.
To be swallowed by that mire would mean more than suffocation—its crushing pressure would grind them apart.
“Child! Take my hand!”
Zantman reached toward Sedina.
As she grabbed hold, their bodies shot skyward.
Behind Zantman’s back stretched wings woven from threads.
But Sedina could not see them as reassuring.
If he could fly, he would have fled sooner. That delay proved how much of his power was spent.
Even flying, if they could not escape the desert, the end was the same.
Above all—
Nirva was not the type to let prey flee.
“Where do you rush off to in such haste?”
The world inverted.
Sky below, desert above.
Ssshhhhh—!
Sand poured down from the heavens like a waterfall.
Swept within, the two plummeted through the endless sky along with the sandfall.
At least it was not a fall without end.
For they were caught by a floor of colossal trees.
“Th-this is—”
Sedina looked around in shock.
Walls of translucent glass rose up around them.
And the pouring sand slowly filled within.
“An hourglass?”
Realizing where they were trapped, Sedina’s face turned ashen.
From outside the hourglass, Nirva spoke to the two, who were steadily being buried in sand.
“Let us see how desperately you squirm. Insects.”