“I have never intended to reveal this to anyone. If the number of people who know this increases, it won’t be a secret anymore. And it is because I don’t like what I know. If the managers weren’t needed, perhaps this information wouldn’t have been shown to us.”
Hiyan took Sarah to the basement of the library. She talked a lot on the way.
She didn’t know if it was because she had always been a talkative person or because she had prepared what she wanted to say beforehand.
But Sarah was feeling something strange from her.
“This was the world of the Gods a long time ago. There was a huge nation under the World Tree Yggdrasil. It was known as Asgard, and where we are now is what remains of it. However, it was destroyed tens of thousands of years ago. It was because of the great war for world supremacy. At that time, not a single member of the Asgardian Gods had survived. Odin, the king of Asgard, Thor, his brave son, and many other Gods perished without leaving their tombs behind.”
It was the secret of history, of which not a single word was told to the human world.
“It is just that some of the Gods’ clan were lucky to have survived and carried on their legacy. That was all. The power of the world was passed over to the enemies, and they had no choice but to hide under the World Tree.”
“That clan…”
“Right. The High Elves. We are the descendants of Odin, as well as the descendants of the Asgardian Gods who lived in the World Tree. And there was no way that the 12 Gods who had the power of the world were unaware of the existence of their ancestors. They were as such. In fact, it was more of a threat than a suggestion of theirs. Do not fight. Continue to protect the World Tree. Don’t leave this place and live your life. Then your clan would live. The war ended in our defeat, and the power gap was too much. The difference between the Gods and us was like that between humans and ants, maybe even more. We had no choice but to accept that unfair contract, and our ancestors stayed as slaves, protecting the World Tree.”
Outside, they were all High Elves, who were called one of the top three races in the world, but that was something they could say because they didn’t know their true story.
When the 12 Gods ruled the land, the dragons and the Rans also had a tough time moving around, just like the elves.
Which was why there weren’t any rumors of them seeing the World Tree.
“Anyway, our ancestors were trapped in the World Tree, but they didn’t give everything up. If there was nothing they could do externally, the consensus was for them to do whatever they could internally.”
“And those are the records.”
“Right. All of that long history was recorded. One generation after another, we continued to write. We created a subspecies that could live outside the World Tree and re-recorded the information that they passed on. We recorded and re-recorded even until five minutes before you came.”
Then the two of them stood in front of a large door.
Hiyan snapped her fingers, and the torches around the door began to burn.
“And this place is a repository of records made by the successive managers. This is information that only the managers know. As I said before, no one of the same clan can even know about the existence of this place.”
“Is there a God here?”
Hiyan said something about waking up a God.
They were incomprehensible words since all the Gods were known to be dead.
However, what she just said, that a God could be awoken, would contradict that statement. Be it a metaphor or a hidden truth, Sarah couldn’t tell.
“Come in.”
Hiyan didn’t answer her.
Even until now.
She put her hand over the door, and a wave of golden light spread around like a wave.
White light shone from the cracks around the door, and it began to open with a creaking sound.
A great light shone and made it difficult for Sarah to look straight ahead. Right when she was trying to cover her eyes with her hand, her vision felt a bit dim.
“Come on.”
Sarah’s gaze fell to the door that had opened.
A huge coffin was at the center of it.
The coffin was standing at an angle and had unknown characters on it. Sarah’s mouth moved on its own as she began to read the words on it.
“I will climb to Valhalla. I will head to the place where the souls of the warriors breathe. Do not forget the crushing defeat and shattered pride of the land. I will come back from the dead to put a spear into the heart of the Sun. Yggdrasil— Burn this body and open the way to heaven on the last day so that we can step into this land again.”
It felt like a diary page filled with someone’s resentment.
She didn’t know whose it was, but based on the level of the content, it felt like it spoke about avenging the happenings, even in death.
The Sun.
Sarah thought that meant Ra.
Sarah looked at Hiyan to ask who was in the coffin.
“But whose coffin is this…”
She couldn’t finish her question because Hiyan was looking at Sarah, shocked.
Flustered by her, she changed the question.
“W-Why are you looking at me like that?”
“How did you read it? Do you know how to read that text?”
“Uh? Ah.”
It was then that Sarah noticed something strange. It was a language that she surely shouldn’t have known, but she could casually interpret it.
She read it without much thought and didn’t expect it to be strange. It was the same even now.
“H-How did I read it?”
“What do you mean? You read it, yet you are asking me?”
“I don’t know either. I just read it naturally. And until you mentioned it, it even seemed like the language of humans, so it didn’t feel strange.”
“You mean you just read it? The ancient rune language?”
“It sounded like that.”
“They are letters used in the age of the Gods. It is an ancient language that existed 100,000 years ago.”
At the words ‘100,000 years,’ Sarah was shocked.
Hiyan was said to have been alive for 20,000 years, but 100,000 years old….
‘It is from that time.’
In the past that Gaia showed her, there were beings who fought fiercely against the 12 Gods that invaded that time. They were the people who had lived in the era before her brother, and it seemed like Hiyan was talking about them.
“You just read it.”
Hiyan rubbed her chin and looked at the coffin with a frown.
And then she said,
“The owner of this coffin is one of those who once visited this world. The one who protected the World Tree and is the one who established the huge kingdom of Gods on this land.”
With that being said, Sarah could figure out who the God was.
“Odin.”
“Right. This coffin belongs to Odin. And this…”
As Hiyan gestured in the air, an old book appeared in her hand. The stiff paper that looked like it would crumble at any moment moved.
“Do not worry since it has been treated with magic.”
“Ah.”
As if she had read Sarah’s concern, Hiyan told her and flipped through the pages.
And she touched it twice with her finger.
“This is what I was trying to show you. I tried to interpret it, but I didn’t think it was necessary.”
Hiyan closed the book and handed it to Sarah, who was really concerned about whether she had to accept it or not. However, when she was offered it the second time, she held out both of her hands and carefully accepted it.
“Open it. If I am right, you will know how to save the World Tree the moment you see it.”
“Then I will open it.”
Sarah took a few deep breaths and carefully opened the book. There were a couple of pages and not that many letters.
Since it was an ancient book, it had a very simple recording, so Sarah could read it fast.
Her eyes got bigger.
“This…!”
The contents were very simple.
[The Divine Tree will die someday. There is no way to prevent its death. Since the king of the Gods is dead, the World Tree will also face the same fate. However, if the death of the World Tree is prevented, he might return from Valhalla. He is a being born from the Divine Tree. An alter ego. I finished writing this while waiting for the spear to sink the Sun down.]
At first glance, it looked like a simple note of wishes, but what surprised her more was what came next.
[P.S. Meet my descendants. One day, someone with a complicated fate will come. Maybe they are the key.]
“… am I the one who is born with the complicated fate that was mentioned here?”
“I wasn’t ready to accept it at first, but what you said after coming from World Tree made me sure of it. You are definitely the person that our ancestor who left this book spoke about.”
“But I don’t know.”
As she was looking at the book, she couldn’t think of a way to save the World Tree.
Hiyan suddenly turned around and walked towards the coffin. And then she opened the coffin’s lid.
Sarah knew that the seal on the coffin shouldn’t be undone, so she was horrified by her actions.
“What are you doing?!”
“I intend to do everything I can.”
There was madness in Hiyan’s eyes as she felt a strong desire to save the World Tree.
She completely pulled the lid open, and the inside of the coffin, which had never been opened, was revealed for the first time.
The corpse of a God.
“…Is not here.”
But nothing was inside.
The coffin, which had been kept here for so long, was empty. There was no trace of anything at all. It was nothing more or less than a jewel made formally in order to exist.
Hiyan shouted, rubbing her face in disbelief.
“NO!!”
The coffin she hid and didn’t show anyone was actually empty?
What about the last 20,000 years?
Hiyan sat down as if she were about to collapse. That was what was about to happen until Sarah grabbed her arm.
“… Sarah?”
Hiyang looked at her in despair, and Sarah was staring into the coffin.
She had a face that one couldn’t read.
And she said,
“I get it.”
“Uh?”
“How to save the World Tree.”
Hiyan made a puzzled expression at those sudden words. She couldn’t help but be taken aback when she was saying that in such a confident manner.
After Sarah lifted Hiyan to her feet, she approached the coffin, and she mumbled as she was reaching inside.
“The alter ego of the Divine Tree. The being connected as one. There is no such thing as forever.”
Her eyes shone softly. A green pattern of a tree began to draw itself on the back of her palm.
And her brown hair, which fell slightly over her shoulder, was fluttering in the air.
“You have waited for the next generation.”
Sarah raised her eyebrow.
Chak—
Cracks began to form randomly on the wooden coffin. When the coffin, which had been preserved for tens of thousands of years, was about to be destroyed, Hiyan tried to use magic to repair it.
“It is fine. In the first place, it exists to be broken. It is now time for it to fulfill its purpose for being created.”
A pattern with a complex structure in the form of a diamond appeared on Sarah’s forehead.
It resonated with the tree pattern carved on the back of her hand, and green energy began to cover the entire coffin.
Then the coffin cracked with an even louder noise.
Euk.
“Come to me.”
When the coffin completely broke, a small sphere of light rose.
The light sphere went closer as if it were being guided by Sarah’s hand, and it landed slowly on top of it.
As Sarah saw it, she smiled and turned to Hiyan.
“Take this.”
“This….”
Hiyan held her hand out like she was possessed, and Sarah handed her what she was holding. Upon receiving it, Hiyan checked what it was.
“A seed.”
A normal seed.
A seed that seemed to have no importance.
Sarah said,
“The seed of the World Tree. Plant it under the World Tree, which has reached the end of its life. Then it will bring vibrant life to this land again.”
“What are….”
Hiyan looked at Sarah in disbelief.
A girl with a green aura behind her back. With the energy that she had experienced for the first time in her life, Hiyan couldn’t understand what Sarah was.
Sarah stroked Hiyan’s face in a gentle manner.
“See you next time.”
At the same time, Sarah’s form disappeared like a lie, making Hiyan jump up and look around.
Sarah was nowhere to be seen. Hiyan just stood there blankly, as if she were possessed by a ghost.
