Early Afternoon - Early Fall : The Grand Mountains | Temnota

  (Back Several Minutes)-----

  - Eve Altera ~

  *Ding* -Huh?- Hearing my system ping, I quickly sat up on the dusty stone rooftop, only for my face to be lit with the glow of a familiar 'mission complete' panel. -That was fast... Didn't she say she needed to travel like eight thousand kilometers?-

  Finally reading further and noticing a second, more unfamiliar panel, my head tilted slightly.

  Return Avaible!|- You can now return to worlds you have previously visited as long as they have not been destroyed. -|But while it was odd, I wasn't anything but thankful. "Phew..." Even though nothing had happened, the longer we stayed, the more we rolled the dice. -But...- "How exactly do we leave?" -Is it this?-

  Turning to Bel, I found her staring deep into a panel of her own, reading, before abruptly turning to me. "Y-You have an option in your system, right?!" Quickly hopping up next to me, she darted over and pressed herself into my chest without hesitation. "We need to leave, now! Hurry!"

  Taken by surprise, my mind momentarily stuttered.

  "COME ON EVE! NOW!"

  "U-Uh-" -OKAY!- Finally catching a gear in a bit of a panic, my mind accelerated like I didn't even know possible, and I tapped the return panel, only to be presented of a list of worlds I had previously been to. -U..Uh... Where.. is.. it...- "GOT IT!" *Beep-Vwoop* Almost instantly we were both engulfed in darkness.

  But it ended as soon as it began, barely sting as long as a blink. *Vwoop* Being released from the gate, I found myself exactly where I was when I first got roped in with Evren, standing myself up and catching Bel as we were released onto the Grand Hall's grassy courtyard.

  As I looked around though, I couldn't find Evren anywhere. -Did she get returned somewhere else?- Not quite understanding why Bel was in such a rush for us to leave, I took a few cautious steps back, trying to heighten my senses in case I needed to react to anything.

  But pinly nothing happened.

  Looking down at Bel, wanting to ask about what happened, I let her go, only for her to stumble on three legs. "H-Huh?" Noticing her missing a paw, my expression morphed with concern. "Bel, did we get attacked by-"

  But as I reached out to ask about it, the darkness of a gate devoured everything to my left, and in the next instant, a streak of light zipped past me, taking everything above Bel's shoulders with it. *CRRRRRACK*

  Getting deafened by a sonic boom so intense it caused the air to glow and sparkle, my vision warped, my skin burned, and my mind instinctually jolted, coating my body with a thin yer of ice to protect myself from the bst of heat, only for it to endlessly vaporize.

  *BOOOOOM* Getting concussed and thrown by the aftershock, I threw my hands up in front of my face before digging my fingers into the ground to keep myself from hurtling off the treant. *pitter-Cruunch*

  "HAAAH-" But as I finally came to a screeching halt and let out a panicked, heavy breath, my vision, warped from the liquid on my eyes boiling sharpened, and my ice-covered, steaming body was flooded with adrenaline. -W..WHAT WAS THAT?!-

  Looking up, I immediately found Bel no longer moving, id right on top of a line of destruction that split the courtyard in half, causing the branches on my half to sag, nearly splitting all the way down the trunk.

  But such destruction was only from the shockwave. *CRRRRUNCH* Hearing some unbelievably loud and distorted crackling, I looked over to see one of the Ancient Treants colpsing to the ground before another, simir sound erupted from much farther away.

  It was such an insane sequence of events that just seeing it all made my mind go silent. -Was that.. Evren..?-

  Not feeling her all-encapsuting presence as I somewhat shakily stood up, I stumbled forward a bit before making my way over to Bel.

  But thankfully, as I got close, I found her aura flowing as it normally did, gently caressing mine as if trying to get a look at me before the gentle clinks of metal from inside her body filled the air.

  She was alive. "Phew..." Or at least as alive as a robot could be. -Thank goodness her computing module wasn't in her head...-

  Picking her up in a rush, I wasted no time trying to get away from the cracks as the branches sagged more and more before setting her back down and turning toward the fallen treant with haste.

  Certain that people got caught up in the destruction, I darted out of the courtyard and flew over the colpsed canopy, using my aura to try and find people before diving down and saving who I could.

  But.. something about them seemed off.

  While initially fearful or panicked, as I pulled them out of the rubble, they all gave me a wide-eyed look as if they were seeing a ghost.

  Thinking it was just from shock or something the like, I didn't think much of it, after all, everything happened so fast that even I was still trying to process what it was.

  But as I was administering aid to an unlucky man who lost his leg in the fall, one of the younger boys I saved yelled up at me from the ground. "Y-Your Majesty!"

  Hearing his voice, I quickly looked down toward him, questioning if there was something more urgent.

  But.. his words weren't what I expected at all. "I-I apologize if this is rude, but.. how are you here..?" He seemed somewhat fearful, as if not sure whether to trust me. "Was the ritual conducted early..?"

  -Huh?- "Ritual?" My brows furled in an instant. "What ritual..?"

  The boy immediately turned confused. "U-Uh, the one to retrieve you from the other world..?"

  -What?- "Eborate for me." *Crackle* Cauterizing another elf's wound with ice magic, I quickly turned around and flew to the ground to give the boy my full attention.

  "U-U-Uhm..." But it just made him stutter more, forcing his gaze to the ground he quickly spoke through his nervousness with haste. "A-A few months ago, it was announced that you were missing, and in order to get you back, they needed to have a ritual to bring you back... I-It was scheduled for tomorrow..."

  "What sort of nonsense is that..?" Taken aback, I looked up at the other elves to verify.

  But they all just nodded.

  "Haah..." -You have to be kidding me...- Looking over at the massive, molten hole in the ground, not far away, I quickly weighed my odds on assuming Evren was the one to burst out of the gate, and trusting that she would handle whatever it was before turning back to the boy. "Where is this 'ritual' supposed to take pce?"

  Almost immediately, he pointed to the side, out over the water.

  -At The Olive..?- Looking out toward the World Tree and noticing dozens of helicopters airlifting massive containers to the canopy, an intense, almost instinctual discomfort churned my gut, and anger flooded my eyes. -What the hell did they do while I was gone...-

  Walking out toward the beach to look higher into The Olive's canopy, I quickly found indescribable masses of mana stones littered across its branches before looking down at the long spiral of mana cores embedded in the trunk with a look of disgust rapidly overtaking my face.

  The mana cores were set up for a summoning spell, using the World Tree's consciousness and system overloads to cast a spell that reached through space to 'summon a hero', within or outside of the bounds of the system.

  However, after several disastrous attempts in the past, the ritual was not only outwed but was beyond culturally taboo. Even terrorist organizations didn't attempt it. After all, it was suicidal.

  At least that was until I was a child. While my mother was taking a short break from leading to raise me, an unknown organization did the ritual in the heart of the capital and triggered a disaster that nearly killed my father, then again not long ter, leading to my Father's death, and the arrival of Evren as if she was the System's panic button.

  -But even those disasters didn't have nearly that many mana cores...- Looking up into the canopy, a chill passed down my spine. -Just what are they trying to summon..?-

  Not feeling good about it, I rather quickly finished helping those who needed it before making my way back up to the Grand Hall to grab Bel and head out over the water.

  I couldn't let that kind of disaster fall on my head again, especially while Evren was nowhere to be seen.

  But.. perhaps thinking I could stop it by simply showing my face was wishful thinking...

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