The Golden Tree (1)
It appeared suddenly one day.
Seven constellations that sprang into being without warning across the vast sky, gazing down upon the earth with lofty indifference.
They were called the Eyes of God.
Anyone who lifted their head toward the heavens could see those divine eyes looking down upon the world—and that included demons and their worshippers without exception.
It was, quite literally, a state of emergency. The existence of the gods had been made known to the entire world with absolute certainty.
For the demons who had been roaming free across the land, exploiting the gods’ silence and absence, it was a nightmare.
“Grrrk, so. Grrrk! Why did you call every last one of us here, grrrk!?”
It was a black, massive mass of sludge—if one could even call it that. The voice of the endlessly dripping colony of black filth came laced with the sound of bursting bubbles between every word.
“You stupid dung-headed idiot. That’s exactly why you’ll spend your whole life as a lump of filth. Try thinking for once. Just a little.”
A goat-like beast studded with countless eyeballs snapped at the sludge mass. The eyes embedded all over its body twitched and jerked without rest, their gazes constantly shifting.
And they were far from alone. Deep underground, the vast cavern was packed with every sort of blasphemous, corrupted thing.
A heart that held endless hunger. The form of a giant locust whose jaws clacked without pause. A beast with six pairs of horns, the hind legs of a bull, the forelegs of a lion, and the head of a serpent—and more besides.
Demons beyond counting filled the space.
Anyone who saw this cavern would have been certain they were looking straight into hell itself.
“You. Don’t. Come closer. I’ll kill you.”
“Grrrk, you trash insect. Grrrk! How dare you speak to me?”
Demons were, by nature, a race far removed from cooperation, affinity, or unity. The fact that so many had gathered in one place was itself highly unusual.
Ssssshhh.
The sound of massive scales dragging across the ground reached them. The demons who had been noisily arguing, the ones who had kept silent, even those who had been watching from a distance—
All of them shut their mouths at once and bowed their heads.
The sound of scales grew closer, and then came the soft rattle of a bell.
Even with countless demons filling the space, a presence large enough to swallow the remaining emptiness arrived. At last, it revealed itself.
Black-and-crimson scales. Eyes that gleamed with the color of blood. Venom dripped from its fangs, and each drop that struck the cavern floor burned a hole straight through the stone.
In form it looked almost like an ordinary lizard—yet every demon present knew better.
That thing was no mere lizard.
Without question, among all the demons gathered here, that lizard was the most dangerous. No one knew its true power. No one even knew its name.
So they simply called it the Lizard.
“Oh, my dear brothers. To think you would gather in such numbers at my call—I am truly grateful.”
A low, heavy voice that compelled every listener to focus. One by one, the demons who had kept their heads bowed lifted them without realizing it.
“We now face a great danger. Our stable, pleasant games are over. That which is practically our natural enemy has returned.”
“...■!”
Someone spat the word as if chewing it. How could any of them not know? Every last one of them had fled the Eyes of the Sky into the underground and the shadows.
The atmosphere among the demons turned ugly. Seeing this, the Lizard’s eyes seemed to smile.
“Will you simply withdraw again and hide yourselves in damp, filthy muck? Will you run with your tails between your legs like beaten beasts, bury yourselves in the mud, and rot away in some mold-choked hole?”
Of course not.
The eyes of every demon in the cavern blazed with rage, hatred, and the hunger for revenge. A good reaction.
The Lizard flicked its tongue and whispered.
“I have a fine plan, my brothers. A way to land a solid blow on that ■ who sits up there so smugly looking down on us—no! A way that might even kill ■ outright!”
There was such a method? The demons’ ears pricked; they leaned closer toward the Lizard.
“Unfortunately, it is a method I cannot accomplish alone. That is why I called my brothers. If one cannot do it alone, then we simply join our strength, do we not?”
The Lizard’s low, deep voice filled the cavern. The resonant sound amplified and reflected, shaking through the demons’ minds.
“Listen to me. Oh, of course it will not be easy. A little effort and a few minor sacrifices will be required—but for the greater cause, I am willing to lead the way with tears in my eyes. So listen to me.”
It inspired trust. It was believable. This one’s words were true, without a single falsehood. The demons’ eyes gradually grew unfocused. The smile in the Lizard’s gaze deepened.
“Yes, my brothers. Come a little closer. Come and listen to me. Incline your ears and look into my eyes. That’s it—just a little closer.”
Ssssssss.
The soft rattle of a bell. The sound of a predator brimming with excitement, just before devouring its prey.
“I shall become one with you all, devour the last divinity, and then I shall eat ■.”
Crrraaack.
The sound of predation filled the cavern. Now alone, the Lizard wore a sated smile and murmured to itself.
“Mmm. Since you all volunteered to help me lead the way, I shall not refuse, my brothers.”
The Lizard gave a light shake of its body. It could feel the power of its brothers settling into the authority it had manifested on the surface. With this much, summoning its true form would be possible.
Now only the final key remained.
“Divinity... I wonder what that tastes like.”
The Lizard flicked its tongue. If it used the power gathered through its brothers’ willing sacrifice to call its true body, and then devoured the last divinity—
“What will ■ taste like, I wonder...”
Ssssssss—
The rattle of the bell filled the cavern, then gradually faded.
And within the cavern, only silence remained.
A dense, deep-green forest of the primeval wild, overflowing with life.
Tap. Ta-tap!
A figure leapt from branch to branch among trees that rose like pillars. The being moved with easy familiarity across the widely spaced boughs.
“Whew. Almost there.”
Short golden hair cut to the shoulders caught the light. Vivid green eyes sparkling with life swept across the forest. Between the strands of her bob, long, pointed ears stood out with particular presence.
She drew a deep breath, savoring the scents of the woods.
The smell of damp earth, of wild animals, of leaves... Only then did she truly feel she had come home.
“It really took forever.”
Estel—who had confirmed the existence of the god through the duel festival—had returned straight to her homeland, yet the journey had still been long.
Even after covering such a distance, her belongings were sparse.
A bow slung across her shoulder, several daggers at her waist, a small shoulder bag containing the bracelet she had received at the duel festival, and a pair of wooden clogs tied with cord that dangled from the bag.
Remarkably, Estel was leaping barefoot from branch to branch.
Taat!
“Hup.”
The rough bark should have torn into her pale, tender soles, yet Estel paid it no mind and launched herself lightly onward. Her movements were bold and effortless, as if the possibility of falling never even crossed her mind.
“Ah.”
Her gear, however, was less cooperative. One dagger, fixed a little too loosely, slipped free with a soft rasp and spun through the air before landing with a soft thud on the ground far below.
“...What a waste.”
She could have climbed down and retrieved it. Instead Estel merely stared at the fallen dagger for a moment, then leapt onward again.
She flew on without pause, kicking off branch after branch—until she suddenly stopped dead. Far ahead, her homeland came into faint view.
A tree of brilliant golden light, rising as solid and unyielding as a giant holding up the sky.
It was so enormous that even at this distance it felt close. Still, the mere fact that she could see it was a good omen.
“Not much farther now.”
The last legacy of myth. Mother of the race and their homeland.
The Golden Tree.
Being able to see the Golden Tree meant she had entered the domain it had spread.
Estel’s steps grew noticeably lighter. Her mind was already full of the stories she would tell her people.
I should speak to the Elder first, right? Tell him that the god has returned, then gather everyone at the Golden Tree and—
KWAANG—!
“...Huh?”
A wave of scorching heat struck Estel’s face.
The Golden Tree, whose leaves had shone with radiant gold, was now engulfed in flames after a massive explosion.
“Wh-what... Aaaaaah!!”
It could not be. The sight before her eyes felt so distant that it seemed divorced from reality. Wordless emotions burst from Estel’s mouth as she kicked off the branches hard enough to shatter them and sprinted forward.
KWAANG—!
Another explosion. The Golden Tree screamed and twisted its body. Dark-crimson flames burned with sticky hunger, devouring the Golden Tree.
She ran like a madwoman. A reality that felt like a cheap illusion or a nightmare.
When Estel finally reached the Golden Tree, the scene was hell itself.
“Everyone keep low! Don’t breathe the smoke—move low to the ground!”
“Run! All of you, run!!”
“Kyaaah—! M-my leg! My leeeeg!!”
“Ah... ahhh!! The Golden... the Golden Tree... the Golden Tree is...!”
Those evacuating others. Those who had lost a leg. Those who wailed while staring at the burning Golden Tree.
The open space formed by linked trees was already packed with the wounded.
It was horrific.
A child clutching a parent’s corpse and sobbing. A young man screaming as he charged toward the flames. A woman supporting an injured companion.
Estel’s mind went blank.
“Estel! Estel! You’re safe!”
“...Elder?”
“It’s a raid. Somehow that filthy demon bastard found us and attacked!”
Raid.
The word cracked like a whip across Estel’s frozen mind. Her vacant eyes sharpened in an instant. Her hand went to her only remaining weapons—the daggers—while her gaze swept the surroundings in alert readiness.
“I’ll join the fight. How many enemies? Where, and how?”
“...The enemy is that flame. Just one.”
“What?”
The Elder’s expression darkened.
Crrrack— thud!
A section of the Golden Tree, already charred black, crashed to the ground. Estel looked up at the tree with trembling eyes.
Leaves and branches and the great trunk that filled the sky—all of it was burning dark crimson, as if the entire world were on fire.
The dark-crimson flames climbed the Golden Tree, spitting fire without cease.
That flame... was a demon?
“Whatever method it used, it came in its true form. We... could not stop it.”
“That’s impossible—!”
“Estel!”
The Elder seized her as she reflexively tried to charge forward. His eyes were full of rage, self-reproach, and grief. Blood dripped steadily from his clenched fist.
“...It’s already too late. The Golden Tree... sacrificed itself for us.”
“No, no! Why—why would it—!”
“...Estel, we have to go. We have to get out of here and live. Only then can we choose whether to take revenge or give up.”
Estel let herself be pulled along by the Elder’s hand, her strength gone.
What... what on earth was happening?
She had only wanted to tell her people that the god had returned—
...The god!
Estel shook free of the Elder’s grip and dropped to her knees. She clasped her hands and closed her eyes. And she prayed. She prayed desperately for mercy to the god who must be watching all of this.
“Estel? Estel! We don’t have time for this! Hurry and—”
She let the chieftain’s urging go in one ear and out the other. Estel prayed with everything she had. That the miracle of the One who had ended the long silence and returned to the earth would reach them as well. That the prayer of this insignificant being might somehow be heard.
She prayed, and prayed, and prayed again.
Whoooosh—!
Perhaps her voice had finally reached the heavens.
A sound like a giant arrow being loosed tore across the sky.
And then—
Crrrack!
Part of the fire that had been devouring the Golden Tree froze solid in a massive block of ice. Those who had been moving frantically beneath the tree froze as well.
A sudden upheaval.
Only the sound of enormous wings beating filled the air.
“What a foul stench you reek of.”
A voice of pure, lofty arrogance.
Cloaked in deep-blue ice, great wings beating, the last Frost Dragon revealed itself.
“You insignificant worm.”
And thus the king of all winged things descended.