Chapter 61

Haruka POV

As I fell down time slowed to an enormous degree, the weight of my body became none existing while the embrace of gravity could only pull me down to my doom.

These few days were probably the happiest days of my life, considering that I fought against a dragon and then a spawn from hell to survive, this could only tell that my life was really not that exciting…

To be honest, I felt relieved that Daiki is back with the living, not only that he is strong…he still wants revenge, something that I actually gave up on…trying to persuade him into forgiving the ones that killed him would be an insult towards him.

Nothing much happened in the last few days, except a small detail that I probably couldn’t overlook.

In these few days, we met an elf! A real one, like those I read about in stories when I was young. She was pretty, strong, and well mannered…yet something ticked me off when I saw her resting on Daiki’s lap…I couldn’t get my hand on it at first, it was some sort of irritation seeing her so up close, this irritation only grew once I saw him the following morning carrying her like that…only then did it hit me. I was actually feeling jealous…jealous huh, this could only mean that I find that I might actually be liking Daiki…

To like someone, that is a first, if I exempt the unconditional love for one’s family, this feeling is new to me…it’s as if I want to be the only one in that certain person’s view and perception, to not let anyone take them away from me…it’s nothing different than a feeling of complete control over another one, yet at the same time…a pleasant feeling that you want to never end…

And now while I lost my balance from the force of that horrendous being, I was falling to my death…I could only shed a few drops of tears from regret…regret to have never been able to do anything I truly wanted…the tear drops could only fly away as my body was heavier than the small droplets.

Perhaps there is peace in death…

“You don’t get to die this early!” came the roaring voice of Daiki who jumped off the dragon, dropping like a bullet towards me.

That idiot! He will only get himself killed along with me!

Ah, wait…he can’t die…

Daiki disappeared from sight, and for a moment a shadow appeared in front of me. it morphed into a person, and Daiki was now here, he grabbed me by the waist and his other hand was grabbing my thighs, as if on cue I grabbed at his neck, I know I won’t survive the fall, but at least I got to be carried like a princess, even if it is for a while…

“Shadow step”

Said Daiki, and for a split second the world turned dark until I saw that we actually rose

“Shadow step,” he said again

And the same feeling, as if we passed through a darkened tunnel we appeared even higher

Was he flying? No, he was walking through space.

Few more of these steps we reached the back of the dragon…

Putting me on its back, I couldn’t believe that I have survived that…

I looked at Daiki who looked to be more interested in the abomination that was following us.

“Nemu,” he said, “How about we get this thing’s attention for a while?”

“Huh, to dare attack one of the four great ideas is a thing only a fool would do. Yet, where can anyone find such excitement” said the dragon and roared after that, this time his maw opened while a swirling ball of darkness and dark green particles were conjured.

The shot was fired, and the monster took the blast to its left shoulder, wounding it, and at the same time catching its attention.

The monster cried from pain as its shoulder was being consumed by the dark flame of the dragon, it began decomposing at a rapid rate, and its flesh began to darken. It is probably the dragon nightmare’s curse…

Yet before the blackness could spread even further, the being did something that made its flesh collapse of itself, its shoulder began to reform until all signs of wound or blackness were gone.

It looked at us and hissed.

“We need to move now!” said Daiki, this time in a more serious manner.

The monster began dragging its body forward, ignoring the tree and getting closer and closer to us.

“Soul eruption!” Daiki summoned a giant ball of energy right above us, it pumped and glowed, threatening to burst at any given moment. Faces of souls long since gone would occasionally try to leave the ball’s perimeter but to no avail.

“Abyssal projection” cast Daiki. To this, the ball was engulfed in a dark matter, and disappeared, this thing looked similar to the shadow step he used, only this was used to move objects…in this case. It was used to move his own spell.

“Brace for impact.” Said Daiki who looked to be grinning.

The ball appeared in front of the monster’s face…Famine was its name. The sphere blew up after imploding on itself. A shockwave was sent afterward, that was enough to destabilize the dragon for a second. Yet thankfully I was firmly gripping on the scales of Nemu, taking Daiki’s advice in consideration.

The monster’s face was mutilated, it became disfigured more than it already was. Black blood began to pour from its ghastly wounds. But as if it was in a frenzy, it didn’t care and kept on walking, or just dragging itself in this case forward.

“Get us down Nemu.”

“Are you sure banished one?”

“Yes, it is enough.”

And the dragon began its descent, I have no idea what Daiki has in mind, but I hope it would work…this thing seems a bit insisting on following us…

Daiki POV

God, that was close…I thought that my shadow step would not work for a moment there, and I would have to lose Haruka…well thankfully it all worked out, but this giant thing is annoying

Even after shooting it right in the face with a soul eruption, which by the way was one of my strongest spells, it did nothing to halt its movement, it only made it angrier and more insisting.

This thing must be after magic…Mana, it needs to feed and we are probably the richest elements with many in this region, after all, we are riding a dragon…Hang on… a dragon…

I ordered Nemu to get us down, then once we were on the ground I asked once again.

“Get its attention, make it chase you as far as it could, blow some shots at it whenever you can just to keep it on your tail.”

“To use a dragon’s tail this way is most offending! But I will see what I can do…”

Said the dragon after it lifted itself up. The beast was near us, but another dragon shot was enough to force it to chase after Nemu.

“This should buy us a few moments…” I said

“Moments for what?” asked Misaka, a bit out of her usual calmness.

“We need to meet the queen of this country, it seems that the reason this being is here is that the tree of life is rich with mana, the queen will probably know the reason for why did this guy decide to take this place as its home.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Yes, Mother will certainly know…” said the Elf. “But I can’t feel her presence…And this thing it was not this big the last time I was here…it grew even more…please help us…” Cried the elven girl…

We walked forward, walking was an understatement. Actually, we took a full sprint. The girls were actually keeping up. We should reach the tree in less than a minute now.

“Do you know the closest way to the queen?” I asked

“Yes, all the ways lead to the royal palace, and just reaching one of the tree’s branches would be enough to get us to her”

“Very well,” I said as I picked up speed.

For a normal human, we would probably look like high-speed cars going at about 150MPH.

This was all thanks to the bonuses I got from the STR and AGI stats.

I could still hear the bombing going behind us, Nemu was having fun blasting a barely mobile target…

Strangely though, I didn’t receive any notification that its Hp dropped when I attacked it…perhaps the system is bugged?

Once we reached the root of the giant tree, it was also withered, barely containing any signs of life.

There were some smaller trees near the base of the giant tree of life, though I said small, it was in comparison to the giant one, these trees were actually the houses of Elves as I understood from the small doors and windows…yet they were all voided of life…

“Where are the citizen?” I asked the elf.

“I-I Don’t know…”

I looked up, and as I had my helmet still on, I activated the ability soul seeker. Within the trees, I saw numerous fading souls…these must belong to the elves.

“They are all up in the tree…” I said

“That’s it! My mother must have called upon all of the population inside the tree…they can still survive inside…but I doubt that it will last for long, the tree of life is dying…”

“How do we get inside?” I asked.

“Follow me!” she said and hurriedly scurried away, reaching a root that had a smidgen of life in it, she touched it and a magic circle appeared, though faint and mainly unstable.

The elf then said, “We can use this to get inside.” And so she did as she entered the circle and disappeared.

The rest of us followed suit. Once we entered the root, we found ourselves inside the trunk of the giant tree. Numerous lights were shining upon the darkness of its inside, but it was still not enough to have perfect vision, not that I had a problem with darkness.

The insides of the tree looked like if they were rotting and dying, even the smell of death was premating the place.

Looking around, some people were almost shriveled up like mummies, though not dead, they looked like they wanted to.

“So many elves...” said Haruka in a sad manner, yes they looked pitiful, dirtied and all over the place, some were even wearing armor made of roots…but even that armor was dying as it was rotting away.

“My mother is at the top level…”

Going up was not that hard, as another root, that looked in better shape than the one we used to enter was what we used to go up.

Though I was wondering what a root would be doing inside a tree and not outside it, I didn’t really care enough to investigate.

Once up, we found ourselves in a hall, emptied of any time of decoration and with few people inside.

At the farthest part of the hall was a person, it was a woman, an old one, her skin was dried up her hair was white and shriveled, and her eyes looked unfocused, she had wrinkles on her face while she looked severely malnourished…she looked like the ones on the lower floor, almost dying but she had something different about her.

She had a crown made of dried up flowers while her back was impaled with hundreds of roots that stemmed from the trunk of the tree she was resting against.

She had about four women near her they wore full armor made of steel and roots while their heads were covered in some sort of organic helmet, the only thing that enabled me to discern their gender was their enormous chests and long hair, they looked a bit in a better shape but they still looked tired, they must be her guards…

“Mother!” cried the girl as she ran towards the old woman…

So this is the elf queen, I kind of felt disappointed…

“What happened, mother?”

The woman barely able to open her eyes looked at the elf and smiled.

“Daughter of mine…you came back…though for a moment I feel that the abomination has left this perimeter, I still feel its presence nearby…Did the humans decide to help us?” said the elf queen in a tired voice.

“No mother…they didn’t even let me meet their king…”

“Then we are for naught, my dear…But who is this that you brought with you, they look human…but the one in the middle…not so much…”

“These are…”

“Queen of elves,” I said as I approached the woman

“Bow to her majesty filthy human!” said one of the guards…

I looked at the insolent woman and said

“Is this how you treat people who want to help…I think that I should rethink about my offer…Come, Elia! We leave now”

I said as I turned away.

“Please no!” shouted the Elven princess, she then came running towards me holding my left leg “Please, we need your help…Please…”

I looked at the pitiful girl and could only sigh, but before I could speak one of the guards was ready to pull her sword”

“Halt right there,” said the queen.

“Who may you be?” asked the queen

“I, am the current owner of your daughter, she is my slave right now,” I said to irk the woman a bit.

“What is the meaning of this Elia…” asked the queen

“I-I had to do this, he said he will offer help if I was to promise servitude…”

“My queen! We do not need one such as him, let me slay that man and set the princess free! His actions are offensive to our race! How dare he enslave our princess and then have the audacity to show his face here!”

“Silence!” said the queen then entered a coughing seizure.

“Mother!” cried the little girl. Torn between either following me or to go to her mother’s side.

“Listen up, Elves…” I said “Prideful or not, your lives depend on my actions, if I were to help or not, it shall be decided by how you say your next few words…”

The guards didn’t dare say a word, but I could feel their hateful gazes from under their helmets.

The queen then sighed and said

“Human…We apologize for the maltreatment you suffered and would repay you kindly if you do as you say, we need help…and if my daughter had decided to give her own free will to you in exchange for your assistance…then it must mean that you are more than capable of help…though I cannot see how the four of you can defeat something like that…”

“Who said anything about defeating it…that thing is not even real…”

“Huh?” Exclaimed the elven queen “What do you mean?” asked the queen

“That thing is not what you all seem to think it is, It is an Idea, a lord over a concept, the concept of Famine…it feeds upon your magic, and would only grow more the weaker you get, not the more it eats…”

“I still cannot understand, human.”

“Stop with that human thing, my name is Daiki…And furthermore it is like I said, that thing is but the representation of Famine, the only way to defeat it is to remove the very concept of famine from this land”

“And how would you do that?” asked the queen.

“Before I answer such a question, can I know when did this event exactly happen?”

“It was a few years ago when the moons merged together…this only happens once in every thousand years…”

Is she talking about a lunar eclipse?

“Does this event have anything to do with your racial trait? Does it weaken you in some way?”

“How would you know that?” asked the queen

“Just answer me,” I said

“Yes, but not us, it is the time where the tree of life sheds its leaves…its then when we are at our weakest, the tree becomes unable to sustain us with mana for a month…but that should be a closed secret, none of the other races know about it, otherwise, we would have been attacked by them long ago”

 “Then this makes sense,” I said

“How so?” asked the queen

“I read the books of a certain library, in the last few years, wars were rare, and struggle was minimal. So it should be the reason why this happened”

“I still cannot understand,” said the queen

Sigh, I have to explain everything don’t I…

“Oh, I get it!” said Misaka

I turned to look at her and said

“Then care to explain”

She fidgeted a bit but said

“Yes! He is right, if the case was like he said, and war was not present, then there is no need for famine to appear in any of the countries, the only place left for it is a place where people would struggle and feel famished, so normally instead of appearing within poor countries, that is none existent at the present time, it chose to appear here in the land of the elves where they were in their weakest moment”

“Exactly,” I said “It’s just a case of bad luck…your country was the weakest one, and the one that was starving the most, so it attacked and its passive corrupted the tree from giving you mana, so it became stronger and you weaker…if there was a severer case of famine in another country it would have probably gone there and devoured it…”

“Huh…so we, the elves were forever fortunate that whenever the moon merging would occur, another country would already be plagued with famine, and the monster would emerge there…”

“Yes, but surprisingly I never heard about this thing in any of the books…perhaps it grew this largely due to the enormity of the tree’s own mana reserves…”

“You said you had a way to remove the concept of famine from this place…how you would go about that?” asked the queen

Well, she was following along though she looks fatigued.

“Well, like I said, there are two ways, the first is to replenish the mana reserves of the populace which will require enormous amounts of mana potions, and even this will probably not help much”

“How so?”

“Even if we do this, the monster, like you called it would still stay around, as the tree still holds enough mana for it to feed upon...”

“And what is the second option,” asked the queen

“Well, it’s a bit easier to do…you just have to revive the tree,” I said with a grin.

“Hahaha” laughed the queen, “You think we haven’t thought about that? There is no way to revive this tree…that abomination needs to leave this place and the tree needs time to recuperate…time which we don’t have…”

“No, time that you don’t have…I have all the time in the world in my hand”

“You are not thinking about…” said Haruka

“Yes, I am…it should be feasible…” I added

“What are you talking about? Make sense”

“I need to discuss terms of help with you, I can help you, and I can revive this tree right now…”

“You seem to not be speaking lies…What do you require, Gold? Power? Women, you name it, and it shall be yours if you promise to help us…”

“I want none of that…what I want is a fruit from the tree of life…”

“…”

“A fruit?” asked Haruka?

 “The price you ask for is high…but I shall provide…” said the queen and threw me a small ring.

I caught it and inspected it

Dimensional ring

1 item in storage.

Fruit of life.

Fruit of life huh…

“Thank you.” I said grinning “Well how hard could reviving a tree be?” I added while removing the gauntlet of my left arm.

“Not that hard apparently…” and I touched the floor that we were stepping upon…