So, even if we teleported together with our team, we could still end up separated on the next branch?
I stared at the unfamiliar surroundings, trying to make sense of the situation. Then I let out a quiet sigh of relief. Thank God, if someone like that exists.
Before we had separated, Alysa had given me something important. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the five seeds she had entrusted to me. Each one glimmered with a tiny, sparkling light, almost as if a star had been trapped inside its surface.
With these, we could contact each other.
Well, technically.
There was just one problem. I couldn't initiate contact with her. Only Alysa could use the seeds to reach me, and even then, the connection would last barely a few seconds. Distance was a problem, and we only had five seeds. Five attempts. Five chances to exchange whatever information we needed before the connection disappeared.
Wonderful. Truly wonderful.
"Well, at least it's something."
I returned the seeds to my pocket and looked around. "Now, let's see what the second branch has in store for me."
At first glance, nothing seemed particularly different from the previous branch. The same endless stretch of vegetation, the same enormous branches extending farther than the eye could see, and the same strange light illuminating everything from above. At least there were no monsters waiting to welcome me this time. That was a pleasant change.
However, as I continued observing my surroundings, I noticed something unusual. The light above the branches was slowly fading. It wasn't disappearing all at once, but gradually dimming, as though an invisible sun were setting beyond the horizon.
Is this how night works here?
I tilted my head and watched the remaining light filter through the leaves. I still had no idea where the illumination came from in the first place. There was no sun that I could see, yet the entire branch had been bright enough to resemble an ordinary day.
Whatever. That wasn't my immediate problem.
The more important question was what I would do once darkness arrived.
I couldn't see properly in the dark, and stumbling blindly through an unfamiliar branch was practically an invitation to become something's dinner. Sleeping wasn't a good option either. I had no idea what kinds of creatures prowled around here at night, and I certainly didn't want to wake up with something chewing on my leg.
So, naturally, I decided to keep moving.
I started heading north.
Why north?
Well... I had a hunch.
Sometimes, listening to your instincts could lead you to great heights. Other times, it could lead you directly into a pit. The problem was that I had no reliable method of distinguishing between the two.
Still, the feeling was strong enough that I followed it.
For a while, everything went smoothly. I moved through the vegetation, keeping my sword close and watching the surrounding branches as the light continued to fade. Eventually, however, fatigue began catching up with me. My legs grew heavier, my eyes started closing on their own, and the temptation to stop for just a moment became increasingly difficult to resist.
Then I found it.
A patch of bushes nestled between two thick roots, their leaves forming a surprisingly comfortable-looking bed. The branches above them offered shelter, while the soft vegetation beneath looked almost inviting.
I stopped.
No.
Absolutely not.
I knew this trick.
There was no way a random patch of bushes could look that comfortable without some sinister explanation. Perhaps it was a monster. Perhaps it was a poisonous plant. Perhaps the entire place was cursed. There were countless possibilities, and none of them justified trusting a suspiciously comfortable bush.
"I need to resist the temptation!"
I stood there for a few seconds, staring at the bushes with the determination of a warrior facing his greatest enemy.
Then I sat down.
Just for a moment, I told myself.
I placed my sword within reach, leaned against the roots, and closed my eyes.
Soon afterward, I was sleeping peacefully, without a care in the world.
Apparently, my determination had lasted less than a minute.
And then I saw that dream again.
---
The endless white space.
No walls. No ceiling. No floor that I could properly identify. There was nothing in any direction, and yet I could somehow stand within it, surrounded by an emptiness that seemed to stretch beyond the limits of existence itself.
It was the same place I had visited before.
The same dream I had experienced on several occasions, always waking up before I could understand what it meant.
Except this time, something felt different.
A strange uneasiness settled deep within my chest. I couldn't explain it, but every instinct I possessed was telling me that something was wrong. I had never been particularly fond of these dreams, but this was the first time I had genuinely felt afraid of what might happen inside one.
"What the fuck is this?"
My voice echoed through the endless whiteness, though there was nothing for it to echo against.
"I'm almost eighteen, and I've never had these weird dreams before. So why now? And why does this keep happening?"
No answer came.
Of course.
Because apparently, whatever was responsible for these dreams had decided that basic communication was beneath its dignity.
I took a slow breath and tried to calm myself. Perhaps it was simply another strange dream. There was no reason to panic over something I couldn't understand.
Then I felt it.
Something existed behind me.
A presence, impossibly close, seemed to emerge from the emptiness. A cold sensation brushed against my back, followed by a gentle warmth that spread through the air around me.
My entire body stiffened.
I didn't need to see it to know that something was there.
And the moment I understood that, another thought entered my mind.
If I looked back, I would see it.
I stood motionless.
Seconds passed. Then more seconds. My breathing gradually became uneven, and sweat trickled down my forehead despite the complete absence of heat. I wanted to turn around, but every part of me resisted the idea. Whatever stood behind me was not something I wanted to see.
Unfortunately, fear and curiosity were two rather unpleasant companions.
After what felt like several minutes, I finally made my decision.
Slowly, I turned my head.
My eyes widened.
There was nothing behind me.
No creature. No figure. No mysterious presence waiting to reveal itself.
Just the same endless white space.
"...What?"
I narrowed my eyes and stared harder, almost offended that I had allowed myself to become frightened by nothing. Perhaps I had imagined the entire thing. Perhaps my mind was simply playing tricks on me.
Then I heard a cracking sound.
A thin fracture appeared in the empty space before me.
I froze.
Another crack spread outward, branching into smaller fractures as though an invisible surface were breaking apart. The cracks widened, and something became visible through them.
A blue light.
It was faint at first, barely distinguishable against the whiteness. Then it grew brighter, revealing a shape suspended within the fractured space.
A sphere.
Or perhaps an egg?
I couldn't tell.
It resembled an egg, yet its surface seemed too smooth, too perfectly rounded. A faint radiance flowed through it, giving it the appearance of a vessel filled with pure blue light. There were no markings, no visible cracks on its surface, and nothing that suggested it belonged to any living creature I had ever encountered.
I stared at it, unable to look away.
The blue was unlike anything I had seen before. It was clean, brilliant, and impossibly pure, as though every impurity in existence had been stripped away from that single colour.
For a while, I simply waited.
Surely, this was the point where the dream would end.
Dreams were supposed to be strange, weren't they? Things appeared, things disappeared, and eventually you woke up. That was how it worked.
But the seconds continued passing.
Nothing changed.
The blue sphere remained suspended before me, quietly illuminating the endless white space.
"...Is this dream not going to end?"
I looked around, growing increasingly suspicious of my surroundings.
"Wait. This isn't heaven, is it?"
I glanced down at myself.
I still had my bracelet. That was something, at least. And considering that I had merely fallen asleep in some bushes, dying and ascending to heaven seemed a little excessive.
No, I was probably still dreaming.
Probably.
My gaze returned to the blue sphere.
It was the only unusual thing in this entire place. If I wanted answers, it seemed like my best option.
Which was unfortunate, because I had a terrible habit of making decisions that I regretted afterward.
Curiosity.
The greatest mistake humanity had ever made.
And I was about to make it again.
I approached the sphere cautiously, drifting closer through the white emptiness. I wasn't entirely sure how I was moving. There was no ground beneath my feet, yet my body responded as though I were walking through shallow water.
When I finally reached it, I extended my hand.
The warmth touched me first.
It was gentle, almost comforting. The moment I drew closer, the uneasiness that had followed me since entering this dream began to fade. A strange feeling of peace settled over me, so complete that I nearly forgot why I had been afraid in the first place.
That was what made it frightening.
Something that had appeared without explanation, inside a dream I couldn't escape, was making me feel safe.
And for some reason, I wanted to touch it.
I hesitated.
Then, slowly, I reached forward and pressed my fingertips against its surface.
The moment I made contact, the sphere leaked.
A tiny stream of blue matter emerged from the point where my fingers touched it. It resembled water, though its movements were strange, almost as if liquid light were flowing from within the sphere.
Only a little escaped.
Yet that was enough.
The blue radiance erupted.
In an instant, the entire endless space was swallowed by light. The whiteness disappeared beneath an overwhelming brilliance, and I felt something surge through my body. It was warm, powerful, and completely beyond my understanding.
I tried to pull my hand away.
I couldn't tell whether I succeeded.
The light consumed everything.
And I knew nothing of what was happening beyond that dream.
---
My body began to rise.
Back in the second branch, the boy who had fallen asleep among the bushes was no longer resting peacefully. His feet had lifted from the ground, his body suspended several inches above the vegetation as a brilliant blue radiance spread from his skin.
The light grew stronger.
It spilled through the surrounding leaves, travelled along the roots, and illuminated the darkness that had settled over the branch. There was no fire, no explosion, and no sound to announce what was happening. Yet the radiance continued expanding, reaching farther and farther into the night.
Then Zaraf regained consciousness.
His eyes opened.
For a moment, he couldn't understand what he was seeing. He was floating above the ground, surrounded by an intense blue glow that seemed to pour directly from his body.
"What the—"
He immediately tried to move, only to realize that the light was growing brighter.
Something strange was happening to his hands.
Zaraf raised them in front of his face. A faint blue radiance clung to his fingers, growing stronger with every passing second. He could feel something gathering inside them, an unfamiliar force that seemed to answer his thoughts without truly obeying them.
"What's coming out of me?"
The light intensified until he could barely see his own hands.
Instinctively, he raised one arm toward the sky and gave it a sharp shake, hoping to disperse whatever was gathering there.
The result was immediate.
A streak of blue light shot upward.
It rose through the darkness, passing between the enormous branches before bursting into a brilliant radiance high above the surrounding vegetation.
Zaraf stared.
The night disappeared.
Not gradually, as the light from above had faded earlier, but all at once. The darkness was replaced by a brilliant blue illumination that spread across the surrounding landscape, turning night into something resembling day.
Except this wasn't natural sunlight.
The light had come from him.
A glowing blue sphere hung above the branches, illuminating everything within its reach. Its brilliance was so overwhelming that Zaraf had to shield his eyes, while the surrounding vegetation shimmered beneath its radiance.
For a brief moment, he simply floated there, too stunned to do anything else.
Then his mind finally caught up.
"Wait... this is coming from me?"
He stared at his hands again.
The power felt familiar in the strangest possible way. He could sense it responding to him, as though the light were an extension of his own body. Yet it felt nothing like his Wind element. His wind had always possessed a distinct sensation, something he had gradually learned to recognize and control.
This was different.
It was heavier, purer, and far more terrifying.
And it was getting out of control.
"Calm down. Calm down..."
Zaraf forced himself to concentrate, trying to suppress the radiance gathering around his body. At first, nothing happened. The light continued flowing through him, almost indifferent to his efforts.
He gritted his teeth and tried again.
Slowly, the radiance began to diminish.
His body descended until his feet touched the ground. The enormous blue sphere above the branches flickered, its brilliance fading before the remaining light scattered into the darkness.
Within moments, the night returned.
Silence followed.
Zaraf remained motionless, staring at the place where the blue sphere had disappeared.
Then he remembered something important.
He had just illuminated a massive portion of the branch with a power he couldn't explain.
And there were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of participants scattered throughout this place.
Not to mention the monsters.
"...What have I done?"
He looked around, suddenly aware of how exposed he was. Whatever had happened, anyone nearby would have noticed it. Some might already be on their way to investigate.
He needed to leave.
Immediately.
Zaraf grabbed his sword and ran, abandoning the suspiciously comfortable bushes that had brought him here in the first place.
He had absolutely no intention of explaining why he had turned the night into day.
Unfortunately, he had no idea how far the consequences of his little mistake would reach.
Because the light hadn't illuminated merely a small section of the branch.
Every participant on the second branch had seen it.
Far from Zaraf's hiding place, Crassus stood among three companions, watching the enormous branches glow beneath the strange blue radiance.
The light reflected in his eyes.
For once, the usual confidence on his face gave way to genuine surprise.
"What is that?"
He had already collected two Jelic key parts, and with three people following him, his group was making steady progress through the second branch. Yet the sudden illumination had brought their journey to a halt.
Crassus continued staring at the sky, trying to understand what he had just witnessed.
He knew someone capable of illuminating an entire battlefield and turning night into day.
Captain Shin.
But there was a problem.
Captain Shin's power was supposed to produce a different kind of light, one associated with the brilliance of daylight. This radiance had been blue, so pure and intense that it had seemed to wash away the darkness itself.
And when had the Creator captain arrived here?
Surely, that couldn't be the explanation.
Crassus narrowed his eyes.
"Could someone else possess a similar ability?"
One of his companions glanced at him. "Could it be Elaria?Perhaps she's hiding another trump card."
Crassus shook his head.
"No. Even Elaria shouldn't be capable of something like this with her current level of magic."
He paused, considering another possibility.
"Could it be someone at the 7—Moon of magic?"
That would at least explain the sheer scale of the phenomenon. But even then, the purity of the light had been extraordinary.
He turned toward his companions.
"Find out what happened. I want to know who caused that light and where they are now."
One of them immediately departed to investigate.
Crassus remained where he was, his gaze drifting toward the direction in which the light had first appeared.
Something about that location bothered him.
Wasn't Creator Zaraf somewhere in that direction?
He remembered the boy who had fought his way through the first branch, the one who had worked alongside the Nature Creator to overcome opponents who had underestimated them.
Could he have caused this?
Crassus almost laughed at the thought.
No. That can't be right.
Zaraf had demonstrated a Wind element. Even if the boy possessed another element, there was no reason to believe it could produce such a phenomenon. And if he truly possessed Light, the scale of this display would still be difficult to explain.
Yet Crassus couldn't completely dismiss the possibility.
He had learned long ago that the most dangerous assumptions were the ones that felt obvious.
"Keep an eye on him," he muttered.
Then he turned away, his expression returning to its usual composure.
Whatever had happened, he intended to discover the truth.
---
Meanwhile, the person responsible for the entire commotion was crouching behind a cluster of bushes, trying very hard to pretend that he had not just become the most conspicuous person on the branch.
"Haaa... what have I done?"