Sarah let out a long scream at the feeling of falling down a cliff. She couldn’t understand why she would do such a thing.
Inside, she cursed Venus.
‘You disgusting woman!!!!’
She wanted to swear more harshly, but for some reason, she thought Venus could read her thoughts, so she decided to be a bit respectful to her.
Anyway.
How many minutes did she fall?
Perhaps she had adapted to the continuous fall, so Sarah sat cross-legged with her arms crossed as she was falling.
“How long will I be falling?”
Her initial fear vanished, and she just wondered when she would reach the ground. Will she be falling like this for the rest of her life?
It was around the time when she was thinking that a cold wind blew from behind her, and everything around her changed.
“Woah!”
She let out a scream only then. It was clear that if she touched the ground at this speed, her body would explode into millions of pieces.
And the thought of that shocked her. However, even that thought didn’t last long.
Puak!
“…”
She felt a soft touch on her back.
It didn’t seem like she had fallen on hard ground. Still, unlike the speed she was falling, her body became lighter.
Well, if Venus were sane, she wouldn’t kill her by throwing her.
Unless she really intended to kill her.
Sarah rubbed her butt with her hand. Then, she felt something smooth on the back of her hand, followed by another soft thing like a water balloon.
“Cushion?”
Thinking so, she looked back.
“WACK!”
It was Rata.
With his round eyes.
“W-Why are you here?”
“Why did you suddenly fall on my stomach?”
Rata was also surprised to see Sarah, and she was speechless.
It was because she had fallen onto Rata’s soft stomach.
Sarah, who cleared her throat, was asked by Rata about what had happened.
“What happened? You just walked inside and stood there. What do we do now?”
“What? I just entered?”
Sarah asked again, like someone who misunderstood his words.
Rata looked like she was losing it and said,
“Has it been around ten seconds? So why did you come back in such a sudden manner? From above too.”
He pointed up, and Sarah was flustered. About ten days passed in the world of trials alone, and her conversation with Gaia had gone on for hours. But only ten seconds had passed?
It was hard for her to believe that, but Rata wasn’t joking.
Sarah told him what had happened.
“Ehh?? You seem to be joking?”
“It’s not a joke. It’s real.”
“So you mean you passed the trial and met Miss Gaia?”
“It is true.”
“Really? For real?”
“Enough!”
As Rata continued to ask the same thing, Sarah yelled.
“It is true, so stop it!”
“Ah, fine. Don’t get hyper for no reason.”
Sarah glanced at Rata, who flinched. Actually, the reason she got angry on purpose was that she didn’t want him to ask any more questions.
If he talked further, she might end up mentioning becoming her Apostle.
Gaia told her to hide that fact, so she couldn’t tell Rata. So she tried to change the topic.
“Anyway, it had been ten seconds.”
Did the Gods deal with space and time that easily? To be honest, she was dumbfounded.
It felt like she was finding out too many things about the world, and it made her feel a bit odd.
‘Am I also a small change?’
Sarah shook her head.
“It will not change anything if I become serious here.”
“Right. So did you figure out how to save the World Tree?”
“Hmm… that.”
Rata rubbed his nose after hearing everything.
“That means that you will find out naturally.”
“But no matter how much I think about it, I don’t get it. How do I even save the World Tree?”
“Right. Well, there is no way Miss Gaia could have lied to you. It might be something like a flash in your memory.”
“Hmm.”
“Let’s head down at once. Staying here will not change anything, and you need to tell your friends about this place.”
“Right. Everyone has been waiting for a long time.”
It had been quite a while since she had come to this place, and fortunately, only ten seconds had passed when she was in the world of trials.
She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not yet, but she was a little relieved to know that the people below waited less time.
“Let us head down right now.”
Sarah tried to head back the way she came, but Rata didn’t answer.
Sarah walked ahead. Then she turned around because she didn’t feel like he was following her and saw that Rata just stood still.
“What are you doing? Come.”
“I cannot.”
“Uh?”
At those words, Sarah looked a bit taken aback, and Rata continued.
“I am one who belongs to this tree. I cannot go with you.”
“…Why?”
Since he didn’t tell her the circumstances, Sarah didn’t know why Rata couldn’t come.
Rata had a bitter smile and scratched his cheek.
“I did bad things in the past, and I will be punished for them. So from now on, you need to do it all alone.”
“Rata.”
“It is fine. If I am able to help you, that is good enough for me. Come on. Time is being wasted.”
“You really cannot come with me?”
At first, she didn’t trust him, so she had been wary all this time, but she now knew how sincere he was. If asked, she would say they weren’t close, but they fought together, and they developed a bond as comrades.
So she wanted to end this journey with him.
“Come play again here next time. I will stay here until then.”
“You are being serious.”
“Why would I tell a lie that hurts me?”
Sarah sighed. It seemed like he couldn’t walk out of the tree.
If she had known this, she would have asked Gaia to help her out, but Rata didn’t talk about the problem he had.
‘Should I try now?’
She thought about it, but she wasn’t sure how to go back in.
There was nothing she could do.
‘As an Apostle there aren’t many things I can do, huh?’
Sarah looked at her hands. Come to think of it, she was an Apostle, but she wasn’t sure what the power she had was.
Something had changed, but…
She put that thought aside and looked at Rata.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Rata smiled softly.
Sarah also smiled and turned around.
“See you again.”
And she began to descend.
Rata sighed as he watched her walk into the darkness.
“I will pray that everything will work out.”
He sincerely hoped so.
Sarah came out of the super large cave Nidhog had made and went down the wooden wall. Since she jumped without a rope, she felt the air pushing her body.
However, she thought going down swiftly would be better, so she strengthened her body with aura and increased the speed she was falling.
A fall from such a height wouldn’t even leave a corpse, but she didn’t care now.
The speed of her descent was so fast that no bugs could catch her.
‘It took so long to go up.’
And going down was instant. The ground covered by clouds slowly came into view. The lower she got, the more complicated her mind became.
‘But what do I say?’
She couldn’t say she had met Gaia. But if she didn’t mention the Goddess, how would she talk about the World Tree?
A lie wouldn’t work.
In a situation where she couldn’t speak the truth, Sarah shook her head many times. But she couldn’t think of an answer.
Sarah sighed and mumbled.
“Well, it will somehow work out.”
The ground was right in front of her. The houses of the High Elves in the distance began to become clear.
Sarah turned her body horizontally and spread her arms and legs wide, so the speed of her descent decreased.
Even so, it was still a good pace.
She measured the distance as she was falling with her eyes and unfolded her aura when she reached a certain height. Having learned from her last fight, she could now deal with aura more naturally.
Her aura spread all over her body and even filled the gaps between her limbs, making her look like a flying squirrel.
And her aura moved convexly. As her speed decreased a lot, she was able to control her movement little by little.
It was her first time flying like this, so it wasn’t easy, but Sarah’s genius sense was enough to make it possible.
“YAHOO~”
An overwhelming sense of pleasure and joy dominated her mind. Sarah moved freely, turning in various directions, and despite being her first time, she felt refreshed.
Well, it wasn’t really free to fly,1 but where else could she fly like this? Sarah descended all the way to the ground in a good mood.
And she could finally see people.
“I am here!!”
She shouted loudly and began to see people waving their hands at her.
Sarah smiled and gradually reduced her speed. When she reached the level she wanted to, she made her aura turn into wings.
And with a flapping sound, she landed on the ground.
“Sarah!”
“You are back alive!”
The two warriors who greeted her were Mero and Gen, who had been waiting for her return.
“Are you fine?”
“Are you not hurt anywhere?”
“Hehe. I am fine.”
Sarah answered with an awkward smile.
Mero and Gen must have been worried, and it was clear from their faces. In particular, Mero sighed in relief and patted Sarah on the shoulder.
“I am really glad.”
“W-Were you that worried? I didn’t expect this.”
“Shut it, brat. Do you know how heartbreaking it was to send a child like you in there?”
“Mero is right, we felt bad that it all happened because of us.”
At that time, Sarah had to climb the World Tree because they had informed Hasyath about her dream. No matter how much the World Tree was saved, the guilt was something they couldn’t forget.
If Sarah had died, they would have lived all their lives in guilt.
“You went through a lot.”
“No. I did what I had to do. And it was right for me to go up there.”
“Did anything work out?”
“Yes, I will tell you when everyone comes.”
Sarah looked at the two groups behind Gen.
Hiyan and Hasyath were walking with their people.
However, Rebecca and Ash were nowhere to be seen.
“Sisters Rebecca and Ash?”
“The big one hasn’t woken up yet, and the little one is helping her.”
“Still?”
“It looks like she overdid it.”
At Mero’s words, Sarah looked concerned.
She was thinking of talking to them as soon as she came down. At that time, Hiyan and Hasyath got closer to her.
“You have been through a lot of trouble.”
“Really. You did so much.”
Hasyath smiled and greeted Sarah, while Hiyan kneeled down with a happy smile and tightly held her hand.
She was a little shocked because she didn’t think the two would act like this, but it didn’t feel bad.
Sarah smiled and nodded at them.
“I am back, and I have something to say.”
After talking with Gaia, she decided to prioritize one thing.
And she said,
“I want to go see my brother. Right now.”
Everyone went silent at those sudden words.
