Chapter 413
Chapter 413
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 413
Chapter Title: World Tree's Roots, Sanctuary of Life
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Roots of the World Tree, Sanctuary of Life.
Before leaving that chamber, Raniel pulled out a potion bottle and filled it to the brim with the water flowing through the channel. After all, one of the reasons she'd come here was to obtain the essence of life.
Wriggle.
The World Tree's root undulated with a distinctly sour look, but Raniel paid no mind to its movements as she pulled out another potion bottle and filled that one too.
"You're supposed to be saving the world—cooperate a little. It's not like it's going to wear out from a bit of use..."
I have plenty of uses for it.
Muttering under her breath, Raniel stubbornly filled three potion bottles. Since this was part of her deal with Orvel, the World Tree's root could only sulk and ripple around her.
The fairies and spirits dwelling in the World Tree's roots loved the forest, and they sensed no 'impure intentions' from the woman before them. So they silently watched her.
"Heave-ho."
With the filled potion bottles secured at her waist, Raniel flung open the door to the sanctuary. Just before stepping out, she glanced back one last time at Kyle and Sara.
"Anyway."
A light, carefree laugh.
With that laugh as her farewell, Raniel turned her gaze forward. She'd looked back at everything she needed to before things got truly hectic. Now it was time to go.
Back to the stage where she belonged.
In other words, the battlefield.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "How'd the talk go?"
"Good. It was a hassle prying loose, though. They clung to my ankle, begging me to stay just a little longer."
Cardi shook his head wearily.
"And you, Raniel? How about you?"
"What?"
Cardi pointed at Raniel's face.
It looked more relaxed than usual.
The face of someone who'd resolved their worries.
"Your face is brighter."
"I've cleared everything I kept putting off for the last three years whenever I had time—'gotta do it, gotta do it.'"
She'd visited her master, gotten some real sleep sprawled out, and checked on those sleepyheads. Her steps felt lighter for some reason as she let out a long breath.
"Now it's back to the battlefield."
The path out of Yggdrasil.
"By the way."
Raniel, leading the way, spun around with a grin to face Cardi. Mischief danced in her eyes as she spoke.
"What's your take? Heading back to the battlefield."
After hundreds of years, returning to the front lines.
Something she never could have imagined. Chewing over the opportunity she'd been given, Cardi shrugged.
"Time is merciless. I'm not even a grand wizard or great sage anymore."
"Your knowledge is still there, though?"
Raniel smiled.
"I already told Resti. That an ancient senior is returning to the Mage Tower."
The inaugural lord of the Ashen Mage Tower, Armiel.
No mage in the Ashen Mage Tower didn't know that name. A legendary wizard and the one who'd laid the foundations for the current tower.
"The facilities should be plenty. So there, you'll..."
"Yeah, there."
Cardi picked up the thread.
"Prepare for that day, right?"
Six months from now.
Waiting for the day when all her accumulated efforts would bear fruit, Cardi would dive back into research. To fulfill the wish she'd failed to achieve in the past.
And...
To put a final end to the research she'd left unfinished.
"Gonna be busy for a while."
"You say that, but you look thrilled?"
Raniel pointed at Cardi's face.
His golden eyes gazed back, relaxed and smiling. The unique listlessness, laced with resignation, that always lingered there was gone now.
"I should be."
Cardi laughed.
"This is all a miracle to me."
A light laugh, not a sneer.
As she walked, Cardi reminisced about the past. Reflecting on the many paths she'd trod. Back when she'd made her contract in the northern tower centuries ago, could she have envisioned this future?
No, probably not.
She would've dismissed it as a joke.
Scoffed at it as baseless nonsense.
Stories like that...
Now carried the weight of reality.
Not by chance, but by her own efforts—inevitable outcomes in her grasp. At that realization, Cardi van Armiel smiled in satisfaction.
The wizard who'd chased empty dreams for over a millennium now knew that what she'd sought wasn't entirely futile. It existed in reality. An achievable end. So...
"Gotta put in the work."
"Yeah, give it your all."
Raniel spun around again with a grin.
As her ashen hair swayed in the wind, Cardi's gaze drifted to her waist. Pointing at the clinking potion bottles infused with the World Tree's aura, she asked.
"So, why'd you bring those?"
"Got uses for 'em."
Raniel tapped the bottles at her waist.
"For that guy Kalt."
"You mean the hunting dog?"
"Yeah. He's gonna be working his body even harder soon. But the kid's got nothing special, right?"
He didn't have the hero's healing, the shadow dragon lord's blessing, or even the first holy sword. In short, he lacked ways to quickly recover from injuries.
"Might collapse any day now, so gotta give him something good. I don't usually fuss over this stuff... but I figured he needs it. His eyes looked so sunken."
Like looking at a zombie.
Worried the kid might drop dead any second.
"Uh, Raniel."
Glancing sidelong at Raniel as she muttered, Cardi let slip a remark.
"...If you're that worried, just lighten his workload, no?"
A perfectly obvious question.
But no answer came.
Ignoring it entirely, Raniel fiddled with the potion at her waist and said only this.
Word was, this stuff even restored fatigue.
2.
"Ugh."
"Why's your body shivering all sudden, bro?"
"Dunno. Just got chills outta nowhere. Weather ain't even cold."
"Someone cursing you or what?"
"Pfft, who'd curse me?"
Kalt chuckled hollowly.
"I'm working my ass off here."
Atop a pile of demon corpses.
Sitting on the mound of bodies, Kalt tapped it with his scabbard. His silver blade was caked in blood and flesh, turned dark crimson.
"Looks like you wrapped up over there too, Kariot?"
"Somehow, yeah?"
The immortal Kariot.
The superhuman knight gestured at the demon corpses piled behind him and gave a wry smile.
"Way slower than you, though."
Both had reached superhuman ranks around the same time.
But after being thrown into operations with Kalt time and again, Kariot had sensed something off. A strangeness about the swordsman Kalt—a sense of alienation.
Swordsmanship wasn't solely determined by years, sure. But Kariot had swung the blade for ages. She had confidence in weapons like swords. Especially now, as a superhuman.
Yet...
That swordsman smoking atop the corpse pile was different. The hunting dog, Kalt. A young superhuman who'd survived disasters multiple times.
Something was off about that young blade-master.
When had she first felt that alienation?
Probably during their second spar. Exchanges to hone superhuman senses. In the first, Kariot had clashed blades with Kalt for a good while.
She'd lost, but not disastrously.
A mistake or a razor-thin exchange.
She thought the next fight might be hers. A few days later, in their second spar...
Clang!
Kariot fell in just three exchanges.
She hadn't even used her signature immortal tactics fully, but she never expected such a crushing defeat.
That was when the unease hit.
Kalt hadn't gotten faster. His technique hadn't leaped in days. What decided it was something simpler...
"You're one unique guy, bro."
"Huh? What is?"
Kariot pointed at Kalt with her crossguard sword.
"That beast you're sitting on. Sandworm."
"Oh, this?"
Kalt stabbed the sandworm corpse with his sword.
Green blood spurted out as Kariot continued.
"Last battle, you said they were a pain, right? Always burrowing underground, annoying to catch. That's why it took so long."
"Yeah."
"But today, you shredded 'em the second they showed."
Kariot had clearly seen it: the sandworm diving into the dunes, bisected in one swing—somehow. A bizarre sight even witnessing it.
"How'd you do it?"
"Sandworms got habits too."
Kalt exhaled a long plume of smoke, muttering.
"Moment they dive into the desert, pop out, tremors overlap. Watched 'em last fight. Spotted the patterns. Predicted based on that this time."
"...Huh. Didn't see it myself."
"My class is Tracker, after all. Old habits from tailing don't die easy."
Watch long enough, and it reads itself.
Kariot stared at him, incredulous. Grasping a beast's habits in one fight? If it were easy, sandworms wouldn't have their rep.
"Anyway, hate fighting 'em more than once."
Kariot shook her head.
Yeah, that was the alienation.
This sword superhuman and tracker boasted overwhelming win rates against any foe he'd fought even once. He pierced their ingrained battle habits, exploiting the gaps precisely.
First strike: twist the blade's path.
Second: create an opening.
Third: sword to the nape.
Kariot remembered Kalt's moves vividly. And those chilling eyes.
As those eerie memories surfaced, she noticed Kalt chain-smoking, staring vacantly at the sky with sunken eyes, looking utterly drained by the world.
"...Why the death wish face, bro?"
"Kariot, lemme tell ya."
No life in his voice.
He looked like he'd take damage from a heal. Rubbing his hollow eyes, Kalt said.
"I got this senior I really respect. Truly admire..."
Sounds like I know who.
"She said on my retirement day, she'd build me a place in the capital. In my name. A huge building. Y'know, generational wealth type. Insane, right?"
Kalt chuckled—more hollow than mirth.
"Lately, I imagine that building for motivation. Picture it, and energy surges. Gilded tower. Mage Tower-sized. Gotta be..."
"Uh, yeah?"
"Right? Wonder what kinda epic place she's planning..."
Kalt staggered to his feet.
"...to pile on this much work."
A letter clutched in his hand.
Join the 4th Front, Kremphelia.
The next battlefield marked on the page.
"I'll head out first..."
Kariot clicked her tongue at Kalt's stumbling back. Poor young guy's suffering.
3.
4th Front, Kremphelia.
"Hey, Rak."
Saintess Natida.
"We've known each other a while now, right? Close enough for 'comrade'? Soulmates at this point? Yeah?"
Under the moonlight.
"So, like."
She whispered.
"Wanna date?"