A moment later.
As the white light of teleportation gradually vanished, the familiar palace appeared before him.
Colin sighed with relief at the sight and quickly looked around.
"Where is Nasi?"
But the vista was empty, with neither Nasi nor Lillian in sight.
Thump.
At that moment, the archway behind him suddenly closed, its usually faint sound reverberating like thunder in the eerily quiet palace.
However, it was only for a moment. The sound also disappeared once again, and the vast, empty palace regained its silence...silence like a wilderness.
This made Colin feel as though the time he had been away was not a matter of mere minutes, but days, or perhaps years.
Stroking the emerald necklace in his hand, the joy he originally felt upon acquiring the treasure instantly disappeared.
"Could it be that Nasi returned to the world beneath the blue skies because she couldn't find me?"
His expression grew somber, and he stood silent for a while, then without a word, turned around and began meticulously searching for any signs Nasi might have left behind, starting from the Treasure Vault Arch, inch by inch.
The beautifully curved ceiling above, the carved pillars on either side, the colorful door panel in front... With the help of the Superbrain, Colin's gaze was like that of a precise scanning device, and any minor change different from before was thoroughly searched out.
Thus, his gaze traveled from the arch from top to bottom, up to the splendid ceiling in front of the door, and then to the smooth ground corresponding to it. Finally, he found a strange trace on the light golden floor tiles.
It was a fleck of crimson crystal, barely noticeable on the immaculately clean, yet faintly marred light golden tiles... had he found it any later, these subtle traces might have been swept away as dust by the still-functional palace.
Colin held his breath and focused, gently picking up the fragments using his spiritual power.
'These crystal-clear, gem-like, dark red flakes...could they have fallen from Nasi's wings?'
His fair face tensed, with his eyebrows nearly knitting together, he continued to look around the vicinity of the fragments.
Soon after, he found a second dark red fragment about three or four meters ahead on the ground...
These fragments were extremely small, even smaller than sesame seeds, truly difficult to detect.
But Colin possessed astonishing recognition ability brought by the Superbrain. After remembering their characteristics, the efficiency of his search increased.
After finding the second fragment, he quickly found a third, and then a forth... Time passed by like this.
Colin looked up and suddenly realized he had already reached beneath the palace's three Thrones.
And now, lifting his head, he saw that there were also crystal-clear, dark red fragments on top of the middle Throne.
Gathering the fragments collected in his palm, they now joined together, accumulating more and more until they nearly formed a small half of one of Nasi's wings... Nasi had no more than four wings in total.
Colin's movements briefly stalled, then he closed his palm, climbed the steps, and approached the Throne.
He didn't linger at the two slightly forward light golden Thrones but went straight to the last one in the middle, the Emerald Throne.
Instead of hurrying to pick up the fragments on the Throne, Colin closely examined the Throne, then continued walking behind it.
Behind the Emerald Throne was a wall, a dark-colored one with a worn mural of a towering Ancient Tree.
The originally sacred and majestic mural of the Ancient Tree of Life now seemed, with the dark red mottled pollution, to bear an air of desolation.
Thump, thump.
He took out the shovel-shaped Witch Tool from Margaret's Storage Ring, which he had previously used for digging on the edge of the plains, and gently tapped the edge of the wall.
The sound was thick and muffled, the sensation hard and firm... but Colin did not stop, going from left to right, top to bottom, tapping the wall bit by bit.
Thump, thump, thump...
The dull sounds echoed continuously in the silent palace, like a devout monk bowing his head in prayer time and again before Buddha.
Some time passed.
This continuous sound of bowing suddenly broke for a second, the rhythm interrupted...and then it never rose again.
But Colin's shovel-swinging gesture did not stop at all!
The only change was where the shovel tip struck... that part of the wall appeared to be just an illusion, the dark shovel tip encountered no resistance, no impact, and just passed straight through the wall.
After probing for a moment like this, Colin found the range of the seemingly seamless illusion in front of him.
The illusion roughly took the shape of an archway, not particularly tall, less than three meters, right behind the Throne in the middle.
"If there were no illusion hiding this originally, then anyone within the palace looking up in admiration at the Elf Queen would also see at a glance the archway behind her. And behind the archway... something."
Colin withdrew the shovel-shaped Witch Tool with the back of his hand and looked up at the magnificent mural above the wall in front of him.
"Anilasa!"
Just as with the mural he had seen in the Tree Hole Forest, as Colin's gaze fixed on the tree before him, the one the Elves revered as the eternal Mother Tree that fostered all... her noble name emerged in his mind.
He then looked at the archway hidden beneath the mural in the illusion.
It was as if lightning had struck him, Colin's expression froze, and, like an epiphany, he faintly realized something.
A chilling cold suddenly spread from his tailbone to the crown of his head, making him uncontrollably purse his lips, his expression turning solemn.
This was the involuntary reverence, curiosity, and fear one feels in the face of a legendary life.
"Huff~"
Exhaling a long breath, Colin suppressed the tumultuous thoughts in his heart and shook his head.
'The Elf Clan has departed, there's no reason for Anilasa to remain here...'
After a moment of silent contemplation, he took out the crown he had just acquired from the Treasure Vault.
Pausing for a moment, Colin grasped the ends of the crown and carefully set it upon his head.
His spiritual power spread to it, and the pale golden crown immediately glowed softly, with points of star-like gold light emerging from the leaf-shaped gemstone at the front center.
The crown began to tighten automatically, adjusting to the perfect fit and firmly securing itself on Colin's head.
Soon after, information about the crown appeared in Colin's mind, causing him to close his eyes to assimilate the information.
Moments later, he opened his eyes and murmured to himself:
"Inspiration Crown, hm..."
Without delay, Colin also took out the emerald necklace.
Likewise imprinting his spiritual power upon it, he learned the name of the necklace — "Ancient Tree Spring."
'Everything is ready.'
Colin adjusted the Inspiration Crown atop his head, summoned the Tree Armor made to resemble Tree Armor, and his body was covered with Defensive Witchcraft and reinforced with Mechanical Mind.
After completing these preparations, he lifted his right foot, ready to step through the illusion before him.
But as though he had thought of something, Colin's movements hesitated, and he stepped back in front of the Throne, bending over to pick up a dark red fragment from its surface, then turned and strode boldly through the wall's illusion!
It was like walking through a common dimly-lit archway, Colin only felt darkness before his eyes, which then gradually became clear.
A massive, rough-hewn underground space suddenly appeared.
The unadorned walls of rock, hewn with axe and chisel, upheld the space, in their most primitive brown and gray-white colors, with close inspection even revealing stubborn green shoots eking out from the crevices.
However, such details Colin could no longer pay attention to.
All of his sight, even the thoughts in his brain, were occupied by the presence of a grand and indescribably monumental Ancient Tree before him!
"Ugh!" Colin's heart shook, he bit down hard on his tongue, the pain along with the Mechanical Mind that was already in place on his body allowed him a brief moment of lucidity.
It was this clarity that made him suddenly see the whole picture of the tree... that somewhat abnormal trunk thicker at the top than the bottom.
'This isn't the real Tree of Life?!'
At the same time, he also saw the familiar little figure on a pale gold flower at the tip of a brown limb protruding horizontally from the tree's abnormal trunk — Nasi!
Yet, this was not the most surprising thing... Colin's pupils constricted slightly!
At the front center of the tree's abnormal trunk, as if a half-circle of spikes had been affixed, a dozen branches sprawled out, each with a pale golden flower.
Most of these flowers were still closed buds, only the one near Nasi was slightly open.
And within it was another small elf!
An elf that looked extremely similar to Nasi, but was of a light pink color!
However, just then!
A grand yet oddly eerie voice suddenly resounded, its syllables regular, but in a language he had never heard before.
Like a sledgehammer striking his head, a buzz ran through him, Colin's vision blurting once again and bizarre whispers filled his mind.
And it was in the instant the voice sounded that the Inspiration Crown on Colin's head also lit up with a faint glow.
As if ice water had been poured over his head in the blazing heat of summer, Colin felt a refreshing sensation trickle down, soon enveloping his entire scalp.
And in this state, the grand and eerie voice gradually became clear, began to become understandable —
"Tree, why do you not come to greet me?"
The voice said so.