The World Tree Reborn
The view from above.
At first, it was only a faint tremor.
So slight that even the elves—renowned for their razor-sharp senses—failed to notice it. Only a handful of the most sensitive among them felt so much as a vague unease.
But soon, every elf began to sense that something was wrong. Honestly, it no longer took elven instincts to notice. What had started as a delicate shiver of the earth had grown into a rumbling that shook the entirety of the Great Forest.
First the fire, and now an earthquake—an unprecedented catastrophe. The aftershocks struck everywhere at once across the Great Forest, and by all rights the elves should have been thrown into chaos. Disaster piled upon disaster.
And yet the elves neither panicked nor fled in terror. Instead, the mouths that had been speaking only moments before snapped shut as one, and every gaze turned toward the same place.
Toward the scorched remains of the World Tree.
"…No way."
One of the elves, frozen stiff as if her body had simply locked in place, finally found her voice as she stared at the ruin.
"…You feel it too?"
"You feel it as well?"
"I—I feel it too…!"
Like a stone cast into a still lake, a ripple of voices spread through the crowd. One by one, they began to speak. Bewilderment. Disbelief. And yet every elf present was feeling the same thing.
The mana of the vanished World Tree was beginning to radiate from that very spot.
The tremors grew stronger still, strong enough that some elves staggered and sank to their knees. Even so, they held their ground and kept their eyes fixed on the place.
How much time passed, no one could say. Then, all at once, the quake that had threatened to overturn the entire Great Forest simply… stopped.
A heavy silence followed.
To an ordinary person, it might have seemed as though everything was over. But the elves' pupils dilated, and tears began to gather at the corners of their eyes.
Like the heart of a patient in cardiac arrest suddenly beating again, the World Tree's mana pulse began to wash over the whole of the Great Forest.
And then—
KRA-KOOOOM—!!!
With a tremendous roar, a single tree burst up through the ash and soil of the barren waste. What began as a slender sapling surged upward in an instant, swelling thicker and taller than every tree around it. Its growth made even bamboo look sluggish by comparison.
Then, just as suddenly, the tree stopped growing. Its size was identical to the World Tree that had stood firm in that very place only a day before.
Branches unfurled next, and fresh green leaves began to fill the bare limbs. At last the growth was complete. The tree—no, the World Tree—stood there with serene majesty, as if it had never been gone at all.
"Ah… aah…!!"
"World Tree… my lady…!"
"It's a miracle!!"
"The World Tree has returned!!!"
The elves who had witnessed it all erupted into cheers so loud they seemed to shake the entire Great Forest. For them, the return of the World Tree they had failed to protect from the human assault was nothing short of a miracle.
"But… how did the World Tree…?"
"Even if we poured elven mana into her roots every single day, it should have taken hundreds of years…"
Some among them still voiced their doubts. The World Tree's trunk had burned completely to ash and scattered on the wind; only the roots had remained. How could such a tree revive so suddenly?
The answer did not take long to arrive.
"…Yooooou…"
"Hm?"
"What is that?"
A distant shout came from high in the sky. The elves lifted their heads.
"Look oooouuut!!!!"
There, plummeting from the heavens—arms and legs flailing—was Tene, screaming at the top of her lungs.
KRAAAASH—!
She slammed into the ground at tremendous speed, carving out a deep crater with a deafening impact.
"Ow… that scared me…"
Anyone looking into that crater would have expected a gruesome sight. Instead, the one who had made the hole—Tene—simply staggered out without a single scratch, wobbling on her feet. The image of a cute, pure-looking girl dropping from the stratosphere, gouging a crater into the earth, and walking out unscathed was jarring enough on its own. Measured against the aura she radiated, though, it was only natural.
She had been sharing her power with the World Tree. The next thing she knew, she had opened her eyes in midair. The World Tree's explosive growth had simply carried her skyward along with it.
"…Ah! It really came back!"
It hadn't hurt, but the sudden shift in her field of vision had dropped her onto her backside. Looking up belatedly at the restored World Tree, Tene smiled.
"…G-Great Tenebrix Nox…?"
"Huh? Yes?"
"J-Just now… you said it really came back… Does that mean, by any chance, that Lady Tenebrix Nox… the World Tree…?"
A World Tree reduced to cinders, restored by miracle. A Black Flame Dragon plummeting from the sky without warning. That same dragon murmuring that it had truly returned as she gazed upon the revived World Tree. Put it all together, and the answer was obvious.
"Uh… yeah. All of a sudden I heard the World Tree's voice, and she asked me to help her—"
"Thank you so much!!!!"
Grab—
"Ehk!?"
The moment solid proof left Tene's mouth, the elf who had been carefully questioning her seized both of her hands, dropped to her knees, and cried out.
"Lady Tenebrix Nox has restored the World Tree!!"
"Long live the great Black Flame Dragon!!!"
"Long live Lady Tenebrix Nox!!"
"Long live the World Tree!!!"
"Uh? Everyone?"
At once the elves gathered around her fell to their knees as well, bowing and praising Tene. A miracle. It was a miracle. Their creator, their mother, their goddess—the World Tree—had been torn from them in an instant, plunging them into despair and grief. And in that darkest hour, Tene had restored her in the blink of an eye.
Not a speck of despair remained in their hearts. In its place, respect and gratitude and joy for Tene filled them to overflowing, and every one of them laughed and shouted.
"…Ha, haha…!"
Startled at first by the sudden throng of people bowing and thanking her, Tene soon found a laugh rising from her own lips.
"What do you know. I could do it after all."
She had been miserable. Her self-worth had scraped the floor. She was supposed to be the apex of the food chain, the strongest being alive—and yet she had been unable to help anyone, forced instead to lean on others just to get by. Even the reverence that came with being called an evil dragon had been laced with fear, a burden she could never quite put into words.
But look.
Look at the World Tree, standing firm enough to pierce the sky, blanketing the Great Forest once more. And look straight ahead—at eyes filled not with fear or revulsion, but with pure, heartfelt respect and gratitude.
She could do it. She could be of help to people. That simple truth made Tene smile.
"…Behold me!!"
Unable to contain the feeling welling up from deep inside, Tene began to shout at the elves.
"Eternal darkness! Immortal being! Ruler who dwells within the shadows!"
With every powerful cry, the elves' eyes sparkled as they gazed upon her—the gaze reserved for a great existence.
"I, Tenebrix Nox, to keep the promise made to the elves—"
Her hair was a mess. Dirt covered her from head to toe.
"—reached out my hand to the World Tree and restored her once more!"
Her eyes had gone faintly red with overflowing emotion; the tip of her nose stung.
"So look upon me, and feel it!"
"Who I am! The miracle I have wrought!"
"I, the one called eternal darkness, who has brought something back to life for your sake!"
"It is I! Tenebrix Nox!!!!!!!"
Dark smoke began to pour from the girl's body—black enough to swallow anything. In an instant the smoke engulfed Tene, swelling until it was the size of a house.
Whoosh—
A wind rose. Nearby elves staggered; the hair of the gathered crowd whipped about. When the wind died and the smoke dispersed, a single being stood revealed in all her glory.
Scales blacker than the night sky. Sharply slit vertical pupils. Claws honed as if they could cleave anything in two. Enormous wings that beat the air, proclaiming her dominion over the heavens.
Tenebrix Nox had revealed her true form.
The full power hidden behind her Polymorph washed over the elves. In the past, merely sensing that power had made people abandon life itself and wait only for eternal rest—an overwhelming presence. Who would dare stand tall before such strength?
At the same moment, a maw vast enough to swallow anything whole opened wide, and a roar thundered across the entire clearing. Just hearing it made every hair on the body stand on end; the body itself locked up in pure terror.
[..........]
Ah… I got way too carried away…
After bellowing so grandly, Tene held a solemn expression in silence—while her actual thoughts were utterly pathetic. All the praise had gone to her head, and she had simply revealed her true form on a high. She still remembered that when she first appeared, nearly half the elves who saw her had fainted from sheer terror. Fearing the disaster about to unfold, she squeezed her eyes shut without thinking.
Any second now the screams will start and everyone will scatter in a panic, she thought.
[...?]
But no matter how long she waited with her eyes closed, no terror-soaked screams came. Sensing something odd, Tene carefully opened her eyes.
And then—
[.......]
A sight she had never seen before unfolded before her.
The elves were not trembling in fear. They had not fainted. They simply knelt in silence, heads bowed with what looked like genuine respect and faith—the bearing of those who beheld a great being. Not a performance to get out of a tight spot, but a sincere act from the heart.
[…Heh, hehe…]
At that sight, Tene couldn't help grinning goofily—even in her dragon form. This was the very scene she had longed to see. She had not a shred of a dragon's dignity left, but she smiled freely, filled with pure joy.