A few days later, inside the dubiously large dancing hall where all Year 1 students practiced their grand dance, a young elven girl was talking to a young lass with snow-white hair and rainbow-colored eyes.

“Are you and Noel fine now?” Nuela asked while happily enjoying her sandwich filled to the brim with meat.

“We’re mostly fine…” Anna answered softly as she inspected the meaty sandwich with a twitching smile. “Anyways, that’s a lot of meat you got there…”

“Oh, aha.” Nuela laughed and wiped away the juices on her mouth like a brute before she coughed to clear her throat. “I guess you must be a bit shocked to see an elf eat so much meat, huh?”

“No, it’s fine…” Anna shook her head and waved her hands.

“You might not know this, but us elves have been completely okay with eating meat since hundreds of years ago,” said Nuela. “It’s just that the normal tradition and culture is to be vegetarian since the plants we usually eat back at home provide plenty of health benefits, give us better appearances, and allow us to live longer.”

“But I’m living here, in the human continent! It would be stupid to continue my vegetarian ways since the plant-based food here is just… decent at best. Besides, I’m still young and have more than a thousand years to live!” Nuela laughed cheekily and flexed her bicep to showcase her youth. “See? All of this protein is giving me some serious gains!”

“I can see it indeed…” Anna smiled subtly and felt herself relax, well a bit more relaxed compared to before. She was still wary as heck, especially to this Nuela girl, because in the original game, she wasn’t given much attention and was at most a side character who played a slightly major role in some events and side quests..

Of course, she can still view the fate of others as long as they belong to the world of Tyr, but with her damaged soul, the damaged world spirit, and Mammon constantly messing with fate itself, her ability to perceive fate is less helpful than one would at first think.

And even if she can view the fate of others completely without restriction, she would be hesitant to believe what she sees since Mammon had showcased his ability to meddle with all sorts of divination-based abilities. Even Winston went under the world spirit’s radar and managed to kill Arvil Bloodthorn, further causing a shift in the world’s planned story.

“You know… you should read her mind already…”

The world abruptly shifted, going from inside the dancing hall to an endless dark void with her body transforming into an astral projection of her soul. In front of her, a ball of iridescent lights appeared from the darkness, shimmering and pulsating at a rhythmic interval.

“Here you go again with reading minds!” Anna rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

“I’m telling you that if we want to be more efficient and secure with our every move, reading minds is the way to go. I’ll gladly do it myself, but as you can see, it’d take a little while before I get to fully heal. If I foolishly exert myself in this state, the whole world will get implicated,” Tyr said and sighed. “Come on, do you want to read her mind, or do you want Mammon to kill us all.”

“That’s you! I’m still human, okay?! There’s no way in hell I’ll read her mind just because of my paranoia!” Anna clicked her tongue and felt a mixture of anger, helplessness, loss, and agreement with Tyr’s words.

“…” Tyr fell silent for a moment as the world spirit’s astral projection pulsated for a moment. “Fine…”

“Thank you…” Anna heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed.

“I’ll just have to force you to do it then,” Tyr said coldly.

Then, before Anna could process what just happened, the whole world shattered and her vision returned to normal. Finding herself back in the dancing hall once more, Anna blinked her eyes in confusion as she felt a slight pang from the back of her head.

The weird feeling quickly disappeared though as she placed her focus back on the young elven girl in front of her and smiled.

“So, Nuela…” Anna smiled and leaned forward with a mysterious glint in her eyes. “You’ve told me that you’re also able to see spirits, right? Tell me, honestly, do you just want to be my friend because I can see spirits just like you?”

“Oh, haha…” Nuela scratched her chin from the sudden question and nodded her head rather stiffly. “Yeah… Yeah.”

Of course, it’s not just that! You can see spirits, SPIRITS! That’s like an ability exclusive to us of royal elven blood! And then you can also control those spirits?! Like, what the heck bro?!

“Thank you for being honest with me, Nuela…” Anna’s smile deepened as she leaned away from Nuela. “I’m glad your reason for befriending me is pure.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

…

“God damn…” Atop a strangely tall tree taller than a building, with dark green leaves, thick bark, and a large base, a young man with raven black hair and pale-white skin burst out of the roof of leaves and stood on top of a single leaf with the tip of his toes.

In front of him was a mesmerizing scenery of nature. Tall trees, taller than the one he was on right now, extended out as far as the eye could see to form a gargantuan circle, acting as a sort of wall that nature itself created to protect the kingdom of elves within.

Trees and more trees filled his view, with each tree acting as the house of each family of elves, with windows and doors that seemed to have been there naturally and not man-made. It’s like the trees themselves grew that way, giving the place a lively, naturalistic feel.

Elves, both young and old, both boys and girls, both man and woman, roamed the lively grassy streets with bare feet. They wore the stylish clothes of elves that were mostly in the colors of either white, green, or brown.

Some elves in the distance carried bows on their back, wore armor, and walked alongside their powerful tamed monsters. At a glance, the young man could easily differentiate who was combat-ready, and who was not.

Those random details didn’t matter though, because in the centerpiece of it all, the thing that was most important in this place, could be found in the very center of this dense forest. Like a pillar of wood piercing through the sky and blocking the moon from showing its beauty, a horrifyingly large tree that clouded the sky with its extending branches stood tall like a guardian for the elves. The tree covered the land in an eternal shadow, while vines drooped down all across the sky full of branches and leaves.

Wrapping around the base of the tree was a large palace that seemed to have sprouted out of the ground, with stark-white walls covered in runic scriptures and artistic designs like statues, paintings, and beautiful architecture at the pinnacle of elven aesthetics.

Winston’s eyes glimmered with delight as he looked upon the gargantuan tree, his eyes turning a hue of gold. In an instant, his vision pierced through layers upon layers of anti-divination barriers, piercing through the palace, the thick tree, and into the very center of it all.

Soon, his eyes landed on a ball of iridescent lights that rhythmically pulsed. It didn’t move nor did its appearance change, it was just there, like a mote of light in never-ending darkness. Still, its mere sight caused Winston’s eyes to suddenly crack and strain, causing him to quickly look away and wipe the blood that dripped down from his eyes.

“Ahaha… fuck,” Winston cursed as he hurriedly healed his eyes to normal. Opening and closing his eyes in rapid succession, he felt his vision return to normal and he moved his gaze back towards the gargantuan tree in the center of the kingdom and chuckled. “So you’re really here, Tyr.”

His eyes then returned back to a golden color and his vision pierced through the walls of the palace, until eventually, his vision landed on a few certain rooms where the royal elven family resided.

There was the king and queen, their children, their various maids, and butlers… Instantly, the entire structure of the palace, the place where each member resided, the rooms and facilities, along with its various staff was printed onto his brain.

Reviewing his data and comparing it back to reality to make sure his memory was as perfect as usual, his golden eyes turned purple and Winston smiled helplessly.

“Sigh, so much for bearing the title of Pride. I’m just the fucking freelancer that the bastard Greed abuses.” Gritting his teeth, jet-black wings erupted out of his back covered in a gooey membrane before fully unfurling in the blanket of the night.

Black runic inscriptions formed all over his skin as his legs turned long and grotesque, like the fusion of the legs of a grasshopper and frog. The middle of his chest then caved in to form a purple sphere which occasionally dimmed down and brightened up.

Feeling the endless power course through his body as his strength rose to the level of a Demigod, Winston smiled maniacally as his dark purple eyes glowed brightly in the night sky.

“Elmaers… Prepare to die…” Winston whispered as dark purple light around his body. “Prepare to die later!”

In the blink of an eye, the dark purple light gathering around Winston blinked out of existence along with his figure. From where he stood, a single leaf was charred and dispersed into dust; it was the same leaf he stood on a moment before.

…

Mammon raised his cup of tea and took a quick sip. Feeling the warm liquid diffuse its mellow flavor across his mouth, Mammon released a satisfied sigh and returned the cup of tea onto his table before mumbling, “Perfect as always.”

“Now then…” Scratching his chin, he squinted his ‘eyes’ and stared at the large illusory projection floating in the air in front of him that displayed a board similar to a chess board, but what was strange was that rather than it being a single board, there were multiple, each fragmenting off from one another like a strange fractal, and each board was interconnected with another by a white thread.

“What move should I make?” Mammon smacked his lips as he prepared to move the cursor and click on a certain pawn, when all of a sudden, the stability of mana in the air warped, and a fracture in space opened up behind him.

Without having to take a look with his eyes, his nigh-omniscient view of everything around him allowed him to see Winston teleport into his lab through a fracture in space. As cool as it was, the spatial fracture and warped mana stability meant one thing—his little round with the 5d Chess AI was abruptly over.

Feeling his rage bubble, Mammon slowly turned to look around and met Winston’s gaze with the unfeeling stare of his glasses. Winston appeared rather surprised by the apparent coldness in Mammon’s stare, but his eyes soon landed on the projected screen floating behind Mammon, and he quickly realized his mistake.

“Hey…” Winston hurriedly raised his arm. “You can’t fucking blame me with that.”

“Yeah, I can’t, it’s by pure accident,” said Mammon calmly.

“So… why is space around me constricting, eh?” Winston asked with dilated eyes. Unable to move a single muscle fiber in his body, Winston felt the scythe of death brushing right against his neck, ready to take him to the afterlife and reap his soul.

“Blaming you would just be really petty and unbefitting of the image of a Supreme Existence…” Mammon continued with a monotonous voice.

“Yeah, it’s really unbefitting of the Supreme Existence Devouring Darkness who was on the same level as God, Buddha, and all the other top-tier Supreme Existences-“

“Well, I’m just glad that we’re not Supreme Existences anymore.” Mammon cracked his fists and a pitch-black blade formed beside him.

Winston smiled helplessly, his dark purple eyes staring helplessly as the pitch black blade slowly floated towards him, its pointy blade aimed right at his heart.