There's No Paradise in Escape
Why is a clear condition suddenly showing up now?
Kill the Dark Elves.
No matter how many times I checked, the status window floating before my eyes refused to change.
If I take down the Dark Elves, I can escape this place?
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
It wasn't enough that the status window — which until now had moved entirely at my will — had suddenly revealed itself. Now it was even publishing a clear condition to force my hand.
Nairak's voice shattered my thoughts.
"Dad, please — wake up!"
Right. Barkan was collapsed behind me.
I could see Nairak desperately trying to rouse him without pause. Even under that frantic shouting, Barkan showed no sign of stirring.
It isn't just Nairak and Barkan.
The other elves weren't faring any better. Looking around, I finally grasped what the Elder's magic had done.
Only the elder elves are down — every last one of them. Like their life force has been completely drained.
I'd already known the Elder could manipulate the elves' life force. I just never imagined he could siphon it this fast.
I barely had time to draw a conclusion about his magic before a sudden thought made me whip my head around without a second's hesitation.
Where's Rune?
Please — let Rune at least be safe.
Clinging to a hope I knew couldn't come true, I searched for her everywhere. Among the elves, one figure stood out: a distinctive head of golden hair.
Silaea was on her knees, quietly weeping. And lying still beside her was someone — it had to be Rune.
I was already taking a step toward them when the Elf Elder addressed me.
"Human child. Can you not understand my sacred purpose for the World Tree?"
"How is any of this for the World Tree?!"
It was absurd. Even if it was to save the World Tree — if the sacrifice of the elves who had followed it was inevitable, what meaning could that act possibly hold?
Furious at the Elder's sophistry, I snapped back.
"Oh, so that pitiful scrap of a tree over there is the 'World Tree' you keep going on about?"
"You dare call it pitiful with that mouth of yours."
"But there is no reason the World Tree should be only that single trunk, is there?"
"What?"
Everything until now — the elves bowing before the World Tree, crafting gear and consumables from its byproducts — had all been about that shabby tree in the village center?
I wasn't the only one thrown by his words. The elves, still reeling from the sudden chaos, all turned their eyes on the Elder.
What's he so pleased about, grinning like that?
The Elder looked at us and smiled in a way that made my skin crawl — a far cry from the solemn face and archaic speech he usually wore. Still wearing that oily smile, he pointed at the entire gathering of elves and spoke again.
"Have you truly forgotten that the seed of the World Tree dwells within the vessels that are yourselves?"
"?!"
"I have merely returned the life force the World Tree bestowed to the place where it rightfully belongs."
The more I listen, the more I want to punch him.
The right to spend other elves' life force however he pleased? Even an Elder shouldn't have that. Of course he shouldn't.
Then Belis, who had been silent until now, shouted at him.
"You think the World Tree will forgive you for doing something like this?"
"That wretched form of yours — an elf who has strayed from the World Tree's providence. I had intended to leave the matter to the human, but that one's foul self-righteousness has ruined every arrangement I made."
Having only just noticed Belis's existence as a Dark Elf, the Elder suddenly fixed me with a piercing glare.
So the clear condition on my status window was the Elder's will all along.
His original plan had been to stoke my fear of the outside world, then use me to dispose of the Dark Elves. Instead, I'd brought the Dark Elves into the village myself and wrecked the whole scheme.
I'd expected him to stop at blaming me. His words kept going.
"Forgiveness from the World Tree? It seems you have failed to understand me properly. I am the World Tree's self. I am the World Tree's will."
"What are you talking about?!"
"Exactly what I said. That vast plant called the World Tree, seeking to surpass its own limits, fashioned an elf and poured its self into it."
The Elder's habit of twisting every sentence into pretzels made it hard to follow. Even so, every scrap of information I'd gathered about him until now — every puzzle piece — clicked perfectly into place as I listened.
That's it. I finally get it.
From the handwriting, I'd guessed that every Elder until now had actually been the same person. Half right, half wrong. Unlike the other elves, the Elder's self was inherited from the World Tree — so the habits came with it, identical every time.
And that generational gap I'd always felt in his speech — was it because he was roughly as old as the World Tree itself?
The thrill of finally finding the answer was one thing. The situation itself was pure despair.
By his own words, he was the World Tree's stand-in. Fighting him meant fighting the World Tree. And the magic that had dropped the elder elves was the World Tree's will.
Belis asked him a question, her lips trembling in a way they hadn't before.
"What kind of twisted game is this, leaving only us? If you'd just taken everyone's life force, none of this would even be happening!"
"I devoted my entire life to the World Tree's well-being. But even that devotion met its limit. The World Tree's spiritual power was spent — no further recovery was possible."
"So you're giving up on the World Tree?"
"No. Did I not say you yourselves are the World Tree's seeds? Sending you out to plant new World Trees in every direction — that is my final calling."
"This can't be…"
I knew something felt off.
In a typical fantasy setting, a World Tree was a transcendent being the elves worshipped. Here, the only impression I'd ever gotten was of a somewhat special tree that birthed elves.
The intuition I'd felt the moment I first arrived in the village had been right all along. The World Tree was simply a tree that scattered its seeds. The elves grown from those seeds were meant to walk far on their own two feet and spread its descendants — that was the goal.
As if answering my thoughts, the Elder raised his staff toward us and gave the order.
"I poured the World Tree's final strength into fashioning seeds finer than any before. Now it is time for you to leave — to carry on the World Tree's bloodline."
"Ugh — my head!"
"Someone's whispering inside my mind—"
"If we don't get outside soon…"
The moment the Elder spoke, the remaining elves clutched their heads. Their own reason and the Elder's whisper commanding them to leave — were the two fighting each other?
As if everything else wasn't enough — now he's brainwashing them too.
The elder elves had already collapsed long ago. The young ones were losing their minds under the Elder's order to spread the World Tree's seeds. The only ones still standing with their wits intact were me and a handful of remaining Dark Elves.
Seeing the Dark Elves still unharmed, the Elder clicked his tongue.
"Tsk, tsk. As expected — those rotten, withered seeds lack the strength to receive a command. Whatever am I to do with you?"
On the heels of his words, the status window rose before my eyes once more.
Kill the Dark Elves.
Is there really no way out anymore?
The status window flickered in front of me like a temptation. In the end, what the Elder wanted was for me to dispose of the Dark Elves. Follow what the window demanded, and clearing the second floor would be instantaneous.
What's Belis doing right now?
Even at a glance, her shoulders had slumped — the look of someone who had given up on everything. She was holding someone's hand, quietly offering a prayer. So that man was Belis's father. The same man who had eyed us warily the first time we arrived at the Dark Elves' dwelling.
And Nairak? No different.
He was simply kneeling beside Barkan with his head bowed, saying nothing.
Is there really no hope left for us?
The Elder, who had been quietly watching me, spoke.
"Human child. Your interference has been most vexing — yet I, too, summoned you here by my own design, did I not? Let us call it even, and have you withdraw quietly. How does that sound?"
Once again, the second floor's clear condition lit up before my eyes. My grip on the staff tightened — and then, from far away, a familiar voice broke the silence.
"Mom, please wake up! I'm sorry I never listened to you. I won't run away from home anymore — I promise."
"…"
"Lord World Tree — no, not the World Tree — anyone, please, just help us."
My heart dropped into my stomach at the sound of that voice. The same voice that had chattered beside me all day long. The one I'd sometimes wished would just be a little quieter.
Why does it hit me harder now than it ever has before?
Even Silaea — who had always been so childish — was crying beside Rune, stroking her face with small, delicate hands. In her eyes I could see regret for the past and a deep, aching sorrow.
It's not as if Silaea is free from the Elder's command either.
Everyone had suffered under the order to spread the seeds. The other elves were either collapsed on the ground screaming, or unconscious and staggering blindly toward the outside.
The sight of it all closed around my chest like a vise of nameless frustration. Before I knew it, I was shouting at the empty air.
"Then nothing's changed at all!"
If I escape the second floor like this, how am I supposed to live with myself?
Even Silaea was enduring the pain to show her love for Rune — and all I could think about was running because I had an exit waiting for me?
I'd sworn I'd be different after entering the Tower. That I'd leave the old me behind and start fresh. I'd said all that — and look at me now.
"Three days' resolve" was too generous a phrase. I was worse than the people who make New Year's resolutions and quit by the next morning.
I couldn't spend my whole life running and then drowning in regret. At the very least, I would show a different face — starting now. For Silaea. For everyone. And for myself.
I raised the staff clenched in my hand and leveled it at the Elder.
"There's no paradise where you run away!"
"Hoh. So you chose that path after all."
And then—
Dawn of Ashes
Flame several times more powerful than any magic I had used before engulfed the Elder. There was only one reason for that: the resolve to cast off my past self and be reborn was burning clearer than it ever had.
Belis, Nairak, Silaea — all of them froze mid-motion at the sight. They could only stare at my flames, stunned.
"Don't tell me… that's it…?"
Where my fire slowly died away, nothing remained but empty ground — not a single speck of ash. Of the Elder, there was not so much as a fingernail's worth of a trace.
The Elder who absorbed every elder elf's life force… and that's all he amounts to?
I couldn't let my guard down. If it was the Elder, this wouldn't be the end.
Looking around, his influence still hadn't lifted. The elder elves were all down, and the young ones still couldn't control their bodies through the pain.
Just as my grim prediction expected, the Elder reappeared at leisure in the center of the village.
"Well met. Strictly speaking, this is our first meeting. The one standing before you now is the thirtieth Elder."
"…"
"I put real heart into that little jest, and you won't even smile. How disappointing. It seems fire-attribute mages and elves truly are a poor match."
"You — how did you come back?"
"Why, the World Tree conceived me anew, of course. The World Tree as it stands now possesses life force stronger than it has ever held."
At his words I glanced toward the village center — and there stood a colossal tree I had never seen before. That must have been the World Tree, restored after reclaiming the elves' life force.
Looking up at a World Tree that towered like a hill, my fighting spirit began to falter. No matter how many times I felled the Elder, all he had to do was be born again just as many times. He must have known that — which was why he'd taken my magic so calmly.
"Creating a new Elder from rotten seeds has drained the life force severely. You, too, should return quietly to nature's embrace."
Now there's really no hope left.
I couldn't see any chance of beating an Elder with infinite life force. Still — I had to fight to the end. After swearing I'd change, to give up in less than a day? Even the reaper who came to collect me would laugh at how pathetic I looked.
"Until this life runs out, I'll keep standing in your way!"
"Admirable spirit. Challenging the impossible — this old one has always been rather fond of that himself. The trials that have befallen the World Tree, we elves have overcome together time and again."
"You knew that, and you still did this to them—"
"That, too, is part of the process of overcoming the World Tree's trials."
An Elder fighting in earnest was no easy opponent. As a fire attribute, I naturally held the elemental advantage against elf magic — but thousands of years of experience, and this damnably frail body of mine, held me back.
"Flame, by its nature, dies once there is nothing left to burn. When I was the twenty-second Elder, a great mana-infused wildfire once broke out."
"I didn't ask!"
"We felled every tree around it and stopped the blaze. A strategy of giving flesh to take bone."
He said it that way, but what he meant was simply that he had blocked fire magic. On the barren sand, my flames slowly guttered out.
"How do you do. I can scarcely recall which number Elder this body is. The thirty-seventh, was it?"
I brought the Elder down again and again, and each time he was reborn almost instantly to stand before me. My mental strength was finally hitting its limit. Even when I tried to command my mana, it no longer moved the way I wanted.
"Human child. What is your name? Among all the trials we have endured, I have never faced a threat quite like you. Before this body crumbles alongside the World Tree, I shall be buried with your name."
"…"
This was really the end, then.
Had Soli cleared the second floor safely? What would she think, looking at the me who never came back? If somehow my last words could reach her—
I acted so that I wouldn't have to regret it.
That felt like the right thing to say.
I was ready to give up on living and lower my staff — when a fierce flash of light poured in from far away and filled my vision. My own flames had long since gone out. Without thinking, I looked around for the source of the light.
"Seha… I finally understand what you meant."
"That voice — Silaea…?"
My vision had gone white; I couldn't even make out her face. Unbothered, she spoke to me anyway.
"Make the image firm in your mind, then borrow mana's power and believe you can make it real. I remember every word you taught me."
"That was just a little magic lesson I gave you for a bit—"
"Yeah. Wanting to save Mom — that one feeling was enough."
As we talked, my vision gradually returned. I could see her drawing in the surrounding mana with everything she had. Centered on that magic, the collapsed elves were slowly coming to their senses.
"This cannot be — my life force is being stolen! My life force, my dream!"
"It's not being stolen. It's just going back where it belongs."
He took it however he pleased, and now he called it "stolen"? That Elder really never changed.
I naturally looked away from his ugly thrashing and turned to the side.
"Silaea? Is that really my daughter?"
"Mom — I'm so glad you're okay!"
At some point Rune had woken, staring at Silaea without understanding any of it. Watching that scene, I felt the corner of my mouth lift on its own.
I never thought I'd live to see Silaea save Rune.
Yesterday's me would have snorted and asked what kind of nonsense that was. But the me of today could accept it.
Because today, I feel like I've been reborn too.
I'd learned how to repay the people who believed in me instead of abandoning them. I'd gained the experience of facing a crisis head-on instead of turning my back.
"Silaea — we've all taken a step forward. I'll handle the Elder."
"KRAAAAGH! Give me back my life force this instant! H-how dare you do this to me—!"
The Elder's bloodshot eyes flared as if they might burst from his skull at any second. It was an expression I could hardly believe belonged to the always-composed Elder.
That's right. The situation is reversed now.
Until a moment ago I'd been fighting an Elder with infinite life force. Now he was the one on a timer.
I copied the oily smile he had worn and slowly opened my mouth.
"Hey. Time for round two."