Early Afternoon - Late Fall : Northern Market District (Valtivar)

"Will you all be returning after the prayer?" The receptionist, who seemed to be gathering her things to leave as well, caught us as we walked out of the inn.

"Yes, we should be back afterward. We locked our room already." Bjorn was quick to respond.

"Good. Also, please note that the inn will be locked until I return. Since you are all leaving already though, you shouldn't have to worry about that."

"Yeah, we are going all the way to the tree, so you will definitely be back first."

"Wow, how exciting! In that case, I'll quit holding you back. Be sure to enjoy the ceremony!" The kind receptionist waved to us as we finally walked outside.

-She seems awfully excited, huh...-

It was early in the afternoon when we left. We originally planned to leave a little later, but because of Amara's gut feeling, we left extra early.

But things ended up working out.

The next several hours were filled with a mix of walking and running as we passed through district after district until we eventually came to the innermost layer, the 'industrial district'.

The district, built on a branch over a kilometer off the ground, was like a totally different world, with buildings made entirely of stone and a smithy, alchemist, and guild building on every tiny stretch of road.

-Amara wasn't calling it a hunter's paradise for no reason, I guess...-

But the hunters weren't the only ones living in the area. Usually, wrapped around the center of the treants were stone residences meant for the wealthy and low nobility.

But even though the building was like an apartment building, the rooms were far from cheap.

"50 platinum for one room?! If low nobility can afford that, what are the homes of high nobles like?!"

Amara was wearing a gleeful smile as she explained. "Haha, high nobles have entire treants to themselves, they just aren't this close to the Tree of Prayer. The only larger estates in this direction are the homes of the Great Apostles."

"Damn..." -I wonder what their estates are like...- As I mindlessly thought about it, I glanced around at the surrounding crowd of people getting ready for the ceremony and noticed I couldn't find a single one that wasn't smiling.

"Do you think we will see them, Mother?!" A young kid standing outside of a high-end restaurant was literally bouncing up and down with excitement.

And his mother wasn't much different either. "I'm not sure, but even if we only receive a sign from them, it will be an event we can tell later generations with pride!"

For a moment, I thought she was just being a bit over the top for her child, but the more I looked around, the more I noticed that her excitement was far from out of place.

All around us were elves and demihumans alike, filled with childish excitement. -I mean, I would understand if it was just some or even most of them.. but all of them?- I found it quite odd.

Seeing me looking around, Amara let out a hardy laugh. "Haha, you think their excitement is a bit much, don't you?"

"I mean, yeah?" I responded somewhat absentmindedly.

"Well, I can't blame you. Even in Siratha, people have never been this excited about the prayer before."

"Hm?" Finally turning back to her, I noticed she wore a warm smile while staring off into space. -Does she have fond memories of this event?- Not wanting to interrupt her reminiscing, I turned to Bjorn. "What's different this year?"

He was quick on the uptake. "Well, 15 years ago, during the last pilgrimage, we were all told that our gods had returned. This will be the first time in nearly 10,000 years that we have the chance actually see our beloved gods."

-I guess that's true... But for people to go 10,000 years without seeing them once... How are they still this devoted?- There was a pause while I gave it some thought. "The Ancient Fenrir must have been some really benevolent gods."

"Well, of course! They gave elves longer lifespans, demihumans greater strength, and, to top it off, they even gave us the Tree of Prayer!" His smile was wide and bright.

"What's so great about the Tree of Prayer?" -Is it not just a big treant that happens to be a place of worship?-

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Bjorn immediately turned to me with sparks of devotion in his eyes. "The Tree of Prayer is the very foundation of Siratha! It's where the sick come to heal, where the weak come to grow strong, and where the poor come for opportunity. It is the source of health and prosperity for every Sirathian, no matter their origins!" His eyes were full of pride and confidence.

"Haha, it seems I underestimated the gods' benevolence then." Thinking it was best to not show my skepticism, I just smiled and went along with him. -I'm sure he's exaggerating since, even if the tree really is the source of all the ambient mana around here, it would only help so much...-

Amara gave me a smug look while I was thinking to myself. "You're in for quite a surprise..."

"Hm?" Turning to see what she was talking about, Yolanda looked me in the eyes for a moment before her look turned smug as well. "Hehe~..."

Their expressions made me quite uncomfortable, but it wasn't long before my worries were needed elsewhere.

About 30 minutes later, when we reached the end of the last branch of the final treant, we made our way into one of the hundreds of small huts with tight ropes leading all the way to the ground, some 1500 meters below us. -What are these things?- Although I had seen them everywhere around treant territory, I didn't exactly know what they were for and never cared enough to ask.

But as we walked in, my expression turned troubled. "So.. what is this?" Looking at the center of the room, I saw what could only be described as a big wooden bucket with a tube and rope running through the middle of it.

"Hm? Are you talking about this?" Amara nonchalantly glanced at me as she stepped onto it. "This is our way down!"

I could only look at her in disbelief. -There's no way this thing will handle my weight...- Although I was in my humanoid form, I was still far from the weight of a normal humanoid, and would normally have to distribute my weight around large areas to make sure I didn't break the floor. "I think I'm a bit too heavy for this thing..." -Maybe it'd be easier if I just jumped down myself...-

But Amara and Yolanda weren't fans of the idea. "Oh, quit thinking of ways to escape and get on!" Amara hastily grabbed my arm and pulled me onto the lift.

Seeing how badly she wanted me to go with them, I just gave up. -I guess I'll just strengthen the rope and hope it doesn't snap...-

*creaakkk* As I slowly got rid of my weight distribution spread around the small hut, the bucket and rope started to creak, but surprisingly, it seemed to hold me.. barely. -If I strengthen it as we go down, it'll be fine.. hopefully.- But when I thought about that, I started to wonder how exactly the lift worked.

But it turned out to be much more simple than I thought. Inside the tube in the middle of the bucket, the rope was being pinched by alternating gears that were each connected to two different runes which, when supplied with mana, would bring the bucket up and down, respectively. -Simple enough...-

But it wasn't till we started descending that I asked a question that came to mind. "How do the lifts get brought back up for the next group to use?" I could vividly remember seeing several lines outside of other lifts.

"For this lift, it'd be whoever happens to want to come back up. This is a two-way lift. The ones up top with lines were one way and just go down before coming straight back up." She pointed behind herself to an empty lift, that was being pulled back up with a pully of some kind.

-So the one-way lifts are the reliable ones. That's why people don't mind waiting on them...- "So does that mean we just get lucky to get an available two-way?"

She shrugged her shoulders with a playful smile on her face. "Who knows?"

I couldn't help but feel like she was a bit out of character at the time, but little did I know, it was just her excitement from earlier returning. -What is she so eager for anyways...- Seeing her look of expectation, I decided to just change the subject. "So where's the Tree of Prayer from here?" I casually leaned my back against the side of the bucket as I looked toward Amara.

But instead of giving directions, she just smiled and pointed behind me.

"Hm? What are you-" My voice was cut off, and I froze in place when I turned around. "Ho..ly.. sh*t..."

Amara and Yolanda's faces showed pure joy the instant I said anything, but I couldn't have cared less.

I was simply entranced to the point that I almost accidentally stopped strengthening the rope.

-This.. is a tree?!- Looking straight out towards where the horizon would normally be, my gaze was set on the center of a tree trunk well over five kilometers across. -What the f*ck?!-

Looking down towards the colossal roots of the oak-like tree, I saw it was surrounded by a circular, grassy clearing that extended another 20 kilometers before continuing under the treants all the way to the horizon.

But the most mind-boggling thing was that no matter where I looked, I could see people littering the ground like ants. -Just how many people are there...-

Amara already knew what I was thinking when she saw me looking all around the ground. "The population of Siratha around the last pilgrimage was a bit over 160 million. People will be lining the ground for another few hundred kilometers into the treant forest in all directions."

My jaw, which was already hanging slightly open, widened. "I'm sorry, what?" It took a solid minute for a single coherent thought to even come to mind. "How would people so far over the horizon even participate in the prayer?"

Amara gave me a surprised look before quickly answering. "If you look at the base of the treants around here, you'll see people standing about a hundred meters up the trunk. Those are priests and clerics that relay the voices of the apostles who stand on the Tree of Prayer out to those farther away. They also stand guard over the people on the ground."

-They just relay the voices?- Thinking back to the game telephone from Earth, I started to wonder how reasonable such a method really was.

But Amara was quick to pull me from my thoughts again. "In case you're wondering, even if the people hundreds of kilometers away dont hear the message of the apostles, they will still know when the prayer begins."

-Huh? How does that work?- As I went to give it some thought, I quickly realized I wouldn't be able to figure it out on my own anyways and just kept my mouth shut. -At any rate.. this is on a scale I really underestimated...-

As we were slowly lowered to the ground, I could do nothing but gawk at the horrific amount of aura and mana already in the air. -If this is the combined aura of this many people.. what will it be like when everyone is here?-

Looking up towards the base of the tree, where a huge crowd of people were already gathered, I could see a blue cloud of mana encompassing everything. -It really is as intimidating as it is beautiful...-