-You want me to untie this?!
The sprouting Yggdrasil let out a horrifying scream. If it had the ability to move, I can only imagine how its roots would squirm in frustration.
In just a moment, it grew this large, and if it throws a tantrum right in the middle of the royal palace…
I glance at the others.
Kureka and Eris were staring at me blankly, seemingly not hearing the monster’s screams.
“Is something wrong?”
“Is it something you can’t hold back for long?”
They were mistaken, thinking that I was using too much of the power of time and burdening my body.
“No, it’s not that.”
-Damn the god’s follower! Let this go!
Ah, it’s really annoyingly loud.
“Did Yggdrasil really give you this and not say a word?”
“Yes, they said it would be enough to take the sprout. However, they added that it would take some time to grow…”
“Seems like way too little time.”
From Yggdrasil’s perspective, living for thousands of years, is this what a ‘little’ means? I imagine it would call 2 or 3 years ‘a little.’
Kureka, who was tapping his chin with his fingers, pointed to the center of the tree.
“I heard you got Sharcarl’s staff. There must be some secret buried in it.”
“Secret?”
“Yes, for example.”
Kureka slowly lifts his gaze toward the tree, answering in a deadpan tone.
“That Sharcarl’s staff was made from a part of Yggdrasil.”
“Eh?!”
Someone made a staff from Yggdrasil, which is their guardian and home?
For Eris, that’s a thought she could never entertain.
It’s like saying someone made a staff from a part of a god’s flesh.
However, I found myself nodding in agreement.
A staff that could accept Sharcarl’s extreme and unique mana while also enduring his self-destruction? It makes sense that it would need to be made from something like Yggdrasil.
Thinking this way, everything started to add up.
“The staff made from Yggdrasil acted as a catalyst, suddenly causing the sprout to grow so much, and its personality changed strangely too.”
-It’s not strange! You need to untie this!
‘Could the resistance to time stop be an extension of that? I’m not sure if it’s Yggdrasil’s ability or due to Sharcarl’s twisted mana…’
I clenched my fist tightly.
It felt like something was tickling me, about to slip through my fingers but then it would dash away.
“So, I understand that Sharcarl’s staff was made from a part of Yggdrasil, but what do we do about this?”
Eris, still worried that the sprout might harm the palace, looked uneasy. I reassured her with a smile and drew my sword.
“Just slice it.”
“Huh?”
-What?
Why complicate things?
“Slice open the center of the tree, and just pull out the staff, right?”
Eris looked dumbfounded at the overly simple answer, but Kureka’s mouth curved into a quiet smile.
“I’ll help.”
The ground trembled as Kureka’s great sword rose.
Suddenly, memories from the divine realm flashed through my mind. He thought that strength was granted by Demeter, the goddess of the earth, but in reality, it was a power given by the god of life.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue unconsciously and got ready. Kureka lifted his sword beside me.
-E-Elf! Stop these crazy guys!
The sprouting Yggdrasil started screaming, but Eris couldn’t hear his voice. Only I, the one who stopped time, could hear that voice, and I desperately stifled my laughter.
“It’s a shame it’s not an axe.”
“It’s gotta be cut with mana, not the blade anyway.”
-You, you! Human! You hear my voice! Don’t! Don’t do it! Crazy!
“Should I go first?”
“Do as you please.”
As I coated my sword with faint mana and thrust it into the creature’s stem…
-Gurgh! I get it! I understand! I’ll stop! I’m sorry!
With a voice that sounded like it would burst into tears, I pulled the sword back. Kureka looked puzzled, but I placed my hand on the stem and sneered.
It resembles Sharcarl’s personality, but it’s not him. He would probably be hearty laughing and provoking ‘Go ahead, take my head!’
“Can you shrink back down?”
-Y-Yes! Possible!
How convenient?
“So do you know what the main body, Yggdrasil, wanted from you?”
-I am a gift for the Guardian!
“To Eris?”
I glanced at Eris.
She couldn’t bear to watch as this being, akin to a part of Yggdrasil itself, would be cut down, so she squeezed her eyes shut and turned away.
-That’s right!
“Then can you return to your form as a gift?”
-It originally would take about three years.
Of course.
One characteristic of beings like Yggdrasil, who have lived so long, is that their sense of time is entirely different from ours.
Three years may feel short for Eris or Yggdrasil, but for humans, it’s not the same at all.
-I can. Coincidentally, I obtained a fragment of the main body along with a unique catalyst.
That’s great.
Nodding satisfactorily, I noticed Kureka approaching with a puzzled expression.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s the opposite. The problem’s been solved.”
I subtly stepped back with Kureka.
“You know what to do, right?”
As I spoke with a cheeky grin, nearly bordering on blackmail, the sprouting Yggdrasil, despite feeling wronged, started to obey.
As I released the time stop, it began to shrink back of its own accord.
-I wanted to become a great being like the main body!
“That’s your wish. The staff’s owner has such a strong ego that it seeped into you.”
The shrinking being soon turned into a staff. A little larger than Sharcarl’s staff, but wrapped by the roots of the tree; a new design.
As I plucked the staff from the pot, I certainly felt something tingle throughout my whole body.
If I could feel this with my low mana, Eris would definitely perceive it.
I handed the staff to Eris.
“Here, this is what Yggdrasil referred to as the essence of the sprout.”
“This staff?”
“Yup, a gift for the Guardian who protected itself.”
Eris, with a touched expression, carefully held the staff with both hands.
The moment it touched her, the surge of mana made her golden hair briefly rise into the air before settling back down.
A soft smile graced her lips.
“A gift from Yggdrasil? I never imagined.”
“That’s proof of how hard you worked, Eris.”
As Eris closed her eyes to immerse herself and pour mana into the staff, Kureka approached.
“Does Sharcarl’s voice not reach you anymore?”
“I don’t know. More importantly, how did Sharcarl make a staff using a part of Yggdrasil?”
Kureka frowned in thought, but soon let out a resigned laugh.
“Maybe he went and threatened Yggdrasil. There’s no one stronger than him, he probably barged in. With the Elf race in crisis, Yggdrasil might have offered part of itself.”
“…That’s the only scenario that makes sense.”
Given what a lunatic he is, it’s more probable he grabbed Yggdrasil by the collar and took it by force rather than humbly requesting it.
-Ha ha ha ha! Guardian! From now on, prepare to ascend the path of the strongest!
“Uh, Daniel. Is there any way to silence this voice?”
Eris, who had been pouring mana into her staff, startled and asked, but I shook my head.
“I don’t know.”
What can I do?
It has a lot of pointless chatter, but its efficiency is top-notch.
“Sigh, of all things.”
-Ha? You’re saying ‘of all things’? Guardian! With this body……!
“Silas.”
Eris used silence magic on her staff. She finally looked satisfied, smiling blissfully, but…
-Ha ha ha ha! Don’t you know your magic manifests through me!? Disturbing my magic is easy for me!
“……”
Eris soon returned to her previous expression as if she just bit into something sour.
Kureka and I pretended not to notice and moved on. Behind us, Adriana was explaining the situation to the incoming knights.
In the distance, I saw a dwarf sprinting over with short legs.
“Hatsim Velok?”
I distinctly remembered he had gone with Hayun and Tana as part of the dwarves’ group, so why was he returning alone?
From the look on his face, I could tell something was seriously wrong.
“Pl-please, lend me your support!”
*
BAM!
“Ugh!”
I felt blood about to burst from my mouth, but my tightly clenched teeth kept it from spilling out, leaving my mouth filled with it instead.
Hayun, collapsed on the ground, spat the blood pooling in her mouth to the side and stood up again.
She’d been knocked back so hard that she crashed through the wall of Volpete’s workshop.
Volpete and Tana, who were busy working, jumped in surprise and crouched down.
In that gap, a dwarf with an impressively long white beard appeared, bold and arrogant, shouldering a halberd far larger than him.
The moment Volpete saw him, he shouted.
“Gromhelter!”
“Volpete, can’t you let go of your obsession with that dagger?”
Gromhelter made an exceedingly bored expression, clicking his tongue, causing Volpete to bite his lip.
“This is the essence! It’s an item infused with the power of the gods, guaranteed by these human girls! How could I give this up as an artisan?”
“I find it tiresome.”
THUNK! He slammed his halberd down on the ground.
While the two were debating, Tana carefully approached Hayun, who was forcing her sword back into its sheath, leaning against a nearby work desk, catching her breath.
“That person was Gromhelter.”
“Big shot just appeared out of nowhere.”
Just yesterday, we had only encountered miners and warriors wielding axes. Though Hayun had grown stronger, dwarves weren’t typically built for combat.
We could handle them somewhat easily…
But Gromhelter was different.
A Dwarf Warrior.
One of the seven masters wielding the hammers, but the reason he became a master was simply that he couldn’t find a weapon that suited him.
As his combat skills grew, he naturally had to become a master, a tale well known among humans.
He was keenly interested in the histories of other races.
“What do we do now?”
As Hayun spit out the blood flavor from her mouth, Tana smiled slightly.
“We’ll run away.”
She then pulled out a small remote control from her pocket and pressed it down firmly.
One side of the wall exploded, and a red carriage came crashing in.
