【World Tree】

When the sun went down, Bethelmer kept his promise and wrote the name of Canaan on the leaves of the World Tree.

The moment he carved his name, something in the dark looked over at him.

How to describe Him? It is the eyes of the world, the irresistible bell, the thunder that flashes like lightning in the void, the grand notes pouring down from the heights, the silent waves that stir up a storm. The skin of the silver-haired young man cracked, bursting with clusters of blood. Then a white light overflowed - that is the power of [Heaven].

The domain that had been motionless since arriving in this world sensed the danger and suddenly released a strong aura. The translucent flower branches were firmly locked in place before they could spread out. Then, little by little, they were pressed back into the young man's body.

Besemai immediately lowered his head to avoid looking directly at the huge being. But at this moment, he suddenly heard a faint sound.

"Lend me your eyes."

Besema was stunned. Is this guy crazy?

Even they didn't dare to look directly at the will of the mother tree, and he actually wanted to borrow his own eyes?

To lend or not to lend?

Of course he would! He couldn't wait to see this interesting scene!

Without any hesitation, Besemai used his mind to share his eyes with the other party. The original human beings have the power to make their wishes come true. In an instant, dark flames ignited in Canaan's blue eyes. The world in his cognition was distorted, and he finally saw the twisted and lingering terrifying giant.

Millions of flesh branches danced wildly, tearing the sky and darkness. Only by seeing its appearance can one realize how superficial Beselmeier's description is. It is an ancient instinct of mankind, a fear that was known long before the word terror appeared.

The blood-red skin was covered with gullies, and the whimpering sound of the wind reminded people of blood. The being stood between heaven and earth, and flesh and blood grew slightly between its roots.

His head buzzed, and blood flowed out of his mouth and nose. This feeling was terrible, but except now, he would never have the chance to see the real World Tree with his own eyes again!

Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, and the silver-haired young man tried to clear them out and stay calm. He was familiar with this feeling, as he had felt it when he first entered the Holy City.

It was as if his brain had been dug out and read through, without a single secret. He avoided thinking about the gold finger and tried to focus his thoughts on less important issues.

If the world is the flesh and blood of this giant tree, then what is the creation that was born? What exactly is the world tree?

In the dim light, something seemed to be peeking at him with interest, but it did nothing else.

The action was like seeing a strange ant and casting a glance at it with interest. The World Tree quickly withdrew its gaze, leaving only the silver-haired young man who was already soaked in cold sweat.

"Amazing! The Mother Tree is watching you."

Beselmei stared at Canaan without blinking, with a deep curiosity in his eyes, as if he saw something interesting.

I would rather not have the attention from the other party...

The silver-haired young man's mouth twitched. No matter from which angle, that was definitely not a good thing.

The World Tree has its own will, but since its rebirth in this world, its golden finger has never revealed its will.

Was it destroyed or hidden? There must be something hidden in there that he didn't know about.

The silver-haired young man sorted out his thoughts. The heartless evil god quickly recovered and urged him to tell the story.

As Canaan told him what had happened, the horrific scene came back to his mind.

From beginning to end, he communicated with the World Tree three times.

The first time was during the Dark Mist Era, when the World Tree was a golden finger. It worked hard and never complained, and never had any adverse reactions.

The second time was when he used Canaan to return to the past. In the story of the elf Pica, he aroused the vigilance of the World Tree and was expelled.

At that time, He was a fair judge, not biased by any party. However, facing the original World Tree, the silver-haired young man felt evil and terrified.

…No, the answer he was looking for had nothing to do with these. The most important question was, what exactly cut down the World Tree? And what was the difference between the two World Trees?

If the normal world tree looks like twisted flesh and blood to Besemai, then what does the half-tree of flesh and blood in his eyes look like to the other party?

There are so many things to think about that it's hard to breathe.

The Monster Lord wants to control the World Tree and will not take the initiative to cut it down. So who will cut down the World Tree?

Who else can cut down the World Tree except the Monster Lord who escapes from his cage?

The answer was obvious, but it made the young man frown.

——There are things that humans cannot do, only the gods can do.

But under what circumstances would the gods cut down the World Tree themselves?

Why would they destroy the pillars of the world?

He had personally interacted with those gods, so he understood their personalities. There were only two possibilities. One was that the polluted gods wanted to destroy the world, and in order to let the Lord of Monsters escape, they manipulated the World Tree to be cut down.

According to records, the first to start the war between gods was the God of War, but he was soon suppressed by other righteous gods. The importance of the World Tree is beyond doubt, as long as there is still a god with reason, it is impossible to let it fall.

At that time, the power of the Monster Lord was far less powerful than it is now, and he had been suppressed on the other side of the world for many years. Even if he wanted to cut down the World Tree, couldn't so many gods come up with an emergency solution?

Compared to this, he is more inclined to the second possibility.

——The world tree was cut down by the gods.

As gods who protect humanity, they destroyed the World Tree to prevent greater terror from coming.

But what on earth could have required such a huge price to pay? Even if the World Tree was really as complex as Bethemer said, it had supported the operation of the entire world for thousands of years without any mistakes.

Thinking of this, the young man gradually slowed down his storytelling speed and was completely immersed in his own thoughts.

"Don't stop, keep talking."

Seeing him stop, Besemai got anxious. He had just heard the most interesting part. Why didn't he continue?

"That's all. You'll need to make other requests later."

“……!?”

Besemai was shocked: "I even shared my eyes with you, and you didn't even tell me the end??"

The silver-haired young man replied calmly: "Let's talk about it later. I want to go to the beach."

He was intrigued by the sirens Bethemer had mentioned.

If the evil god had experienced the Holy Age, he would know that this was a trick used by the bards to get money. If he had experienced the Magic Age, he would know that this was the favorite chapter of those travel writers. If he had experienced the Dark Age, he would know that the person in front of him must be a profiteer waiting to be priced.

Unfortunately, he was just a young evil god who had just been born, so after trying to entangle him in vain, he had to compromise reluctantly and secretly scolded the other party for being dishonest.

The oceans of this era were not as vast as they are today. They were shrunk to a small corner of the world and had very few creatures.

The young sea god had not yet experienced the changes that followed, and remained shy, unwilling to meet people directly. And Besemai remembered the grudge just now, and was also unwilling to speak.

Canaan was not in a hurry, as he had already seen the long tail emerging from the water. The shining silver silk approached the shore and then revealed its beautiful face.

The waves lifted the curtain, isolating Besmer from the outside. The angry evil god jumped up and said, "Whose brother are you, to treat me like this?"

A faint voice came from the water: "Don't be angry, Besemai. They just want to see that person alone."

"Who is your brother?"

Poseidon murmured: "That's not the case. You are of course my best brother..."

"Then why are you holding me back for these little things?"

“But they are also very important…”

While the two primitive humans were communicating, the sirens had already surrounded Canaan. They had seen each other before in the seabed, and although they looked terrifying at the time, the mark of the sea god on each other made these newly arrived sirens feel at ease.

"My Lord, do you know where this place is?"

"Why are we here? What happened to Lord Poseidon?"

"Can we go back?"

“…”

Canaan knew more and answered all the questions. The Sirens then asked about the situation in the Sirens City. When they heard that the Sirens City was safe, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

It can be seen that these sirens have feelings for their hometown. Canaan had almost finished talking, so he started to ask about the thing that he was most concerned about.

"What's going on between you and...?"

Even though the name was not spoken, both parties knew who it was.

"It's a long story..."

The Sirens looked at each other and one of them started to explain.

"In fact, each of us knew that we would leave Siren City. Ever since the anomaly at the end of the month, we always have the same dream."

"In my dream, there was an endless ocean and a bright moon. From the deepest part of the ocean came a faint song, calling us back home."

"After returning to the sea, our Lord would occasionally say something when we woke up. He once mentioned that every time there was a disaster, various kinds of God's favored ones would be born. Some were born bathed in glory, while some would only know their identities when they reached a certain age. Still others would only awaken when they encountered a disaster or a call."

"In the records of the sirens, this tribe is called the Silver Tail. Only pure-blooded sirens have the chance to be favored by the gods. With the same dream every night, at the end of the month, we will follow the singing and dive into the sea. The moonlight will pave a long road, and no monster will harm us."

"There is only one child who is different. She fell into a coma after arriving here, and even Poseidon couldn't figure out the reason. Please help us check her out."

The sirens pushed a huge shell into the sea. Before the young man could take a closer look, a chubby little mouse jumped out of the shell and crawled into the young man's arms with its head down and dejected.

"……?"

Isn't this a treasure-hunting mouse? Why is it here?

The Siren also saw it: "When we woke up, it was beside us, holding something."

The siren who spoke rummaged around for a while and handed something to the young man. It was an old pocket watch, broken in half, and completely broken.

The treasure-hunting rat let out a sharp and sad cry. The young man figured out the whole story in a few seconds. So far, every SSS-level monster has a pocket watch of the goddess of fate, and the sea god should have one too.

Probably because he dragged them in when the treasure-hunting mouse found it, the power of the World Tree Leaf was infused into the two pocket watches, teleporting everyone back together.

But this thing can't carry too many people, so it's broken.

The silver-haired young man touched the other's head and looked inside the shell. The girl lying inside was unconscious, her brows furrowed, as if she was enduring great pain.

The face was very familiar, it was Sarah.

Jianan reached out and touched the other person's forehead. The temperature was surprisingly hot. "What's different about her?"

"This child is not a person favored by God. Logically speaking, she should not have come to the bottom of the sea."

The mermaid hesitated for a moment, then reached out and pulled away the seaweed in the shell, revealing Shar's long, silver-white tail. The glittering scales looked like gems, and some of them were stained a dull black.

"Although the power of my god purified her body, she is actually just a black tail. Perhaps because of this, she fell asleep after completing the sacrifice and has not woken up until today. If you go back, please be sure to take her with you, otherwise if you stay any longer, you will most likely be poisoned by the power of the god."

The silver-haired young man asked, "What about you guys?"

“We don’t want to leave.”

The Sirens smiled and said softly, "In the Sirens City, we are just the most insignificant Sirens. It doesn't matter whether we live or die. And after becoming like this, we can also feel that the original world is excluding us."

"We want to stay and accompany the Lord of the Sea. Even though He doesn't know the Sirens now, the Sirens will always be His most loyal followers."