Chapter 166 – The Core of the Divine Tree (2)

As expected, the broken gate was the root cause of all this chaos.

After the gate was completely destroyed, the tentacles no longer emerged, and the miasma significantly diminished.

The flickering core once again emitted a radiant light, spreading sacred energy all around. Under the influence of this divine power, the miasma gradually disappeared.

The Divine Tree, which had been moving due to the miasma, lost its power and returned to being a dead tree.

Once the seal was broken, Zahina removed her hand from the core. Exhausted, she bowed her head toward the core with a satisfied expression.

*Whoosh.*

As she greeted it, the core of the Divine Tree vibrated slightly.

While Zahina looked refreshed, the Divine Tree seemed somewhat regretful.

Then, from beneath the core of the Divine Tree, a tentacle—no, a branch—sprouted.

I almost swung my sword in surprise, but fortunately, the branch did not harm Zahina.

Instead, the thin branch wrapped around her wrist, leaving behind a bracelet-like mark on her arm before retreating back into the ground.

‘A gift?’

The branch left on Zahina’s arm looked like a beautiful bracelet.

Zahina gently touched the bracelet on her wrist, and we left the hall, escorted by the low hum of the core.

Just as the miasma had disappeared from the hall, the tree at the center of the city and the city itself were changing.

The tree at the center of the city was turning into a dry, dead tree, and the city made from the Divine Tree was rapidly collapsing.

The twisted walls and houses were crumbling one by one, and the wooden roads were turning into debris.

As the city gradually turned into ruins, blue lights began to rise from various places.

“Those are new branches sprouting. It won’t be long before the revived Divine Tree rebuilds this city.”

Zahina smiled softly as she looked at the new blue sprouts.

The branches and sprouts were growing at a visibly rapid pace.

The quickly growing branches began to restore the city and started dealing with the remaining undead.

The new branches and roots wrapped around the undead and pulled them underground.

Just as the living elves had been victims of the miasma-infected Divine Tree, the undead were now becoming fertilizer for the revived Divine Tree.

Although they were still just newly sprouted branches and shoots, the revived Divine Tree showed us its majesty, not allowing the Demon King’s army to take even a single city.

Seeing the city being rebuilt and the undead being dealt with, it was clear that this city, which had turned into ruins in an instant, would soon be restored, just as Zahina had said.

As we watched the city being revived, we moved on.

Now, it was time to check our original objective.

Since we no longer needed to jump over broken rooftops, we walked along the exposed dirt roads.

After passing through half of the city, we saw people running toward us.

They were the elves who had fled the city earlier.

They must have seen the city collapse and revive, as they ran toward us with determined expressions.

They rushed toward us—no, toward Zahina—but stopped midway.

‘Their expressions are strange…’

The elves were making odd expressions as they looked at Zahina.

Their faces were not as expressionless as usual, nor did they look at her as if she were a fallen outcast.

They all seemed confused.

Rashid, who had the same expression, asked Zahina,

“Why… are you still disconnected? You could have connected with the revived Divine Tree.”

We would later learn the details from Zahina, but it seemed that the newly sprouted Divine Tree, which would create a new city, allowed one member of the elven race to connect directly with it.

That person would be the first child of the Divine Tree, and they could represent the elves of each city to communicate with the Divine Tree.

They could request changes, defenses, and improvements from the Divine Tree, making the first child of the Divine Tree the priest, mayor, administrator, and commander of each city.

Now that the Divine Tree of this city had revived and was creating a new city, it needed to reconnect with its people.

Any member of the race could make this connection, whether they were connected to another city or a young elf who had not yet been connected.

Naturally, Zahina could have connected with the revived Divine Tree.

Moreover, Zahina had conversed with the core of the Divine Tree and even revived it.

It would have been only natural for her to become the first daughter of the Divine Tree’s “sapling.”

Zahina, who had been disconnected and become an outcast, could have become the new first daughter of this Divine Tree city.

The elves who had run toward us knew this, and they couldn’t help but be surprised to see Zahina still disconnected.

Looking at her fellow elves, who were making uncharacteristic expressions, Zahina spoke in a calm voice.

“I am not the first daughter of the Divine Tree. I am neither disconnected nor an outcast. My name is Zahina. I am someone who stands alone.”

Hearing Zahina’s words, most of the elves looked confused, and Rashid’s expression hardened.

But Zahina didn’t care what expressions her fellow elves made.

“Well, I’ll leave the gate management to you after we return.”

After saying this to her fellow elves, she began walking toward the rift.

I followed closely behind her.

*Step, step.*

Only the sounds of Zahina’s and my footsteps echoed on the path now free of undead.

The elves stood behind us, watching as we walked away.

After a while, when the elves were out of sight, I asked Zahina,

“Aren’t you disappointed?”

At my question, she turned her head to look at me and instead asked me,

“Not at all. Why, are you disappointed?”

There was no reason to be disappointed.

Even if I set aside the worry that she might leave the party if she became the first daughter of the Divine Tree again, Zahina’s mischievous smile directed at me was something I wouldn’t trade for the position of the first daughter of the elven race.

As we headed toward the rift on the outskirts of the city, we saw the rift instead of the twisted walls.

The existing walls had turned into dry piles of firewood, and the roots that had been writhing near the rift had all crumbled, leaving only traces.

The roots inside the rift were no longer visible, and the rift was gradually changing, emitting a bright light.

Like the gate we had seen before.

The rift was slowly transforming into a gate floating in the air.

After some time, a gate now floated where the rift had been.

Unfortunately, this gate did not have the sturdy frame of the other gates.

Since it was created by transforming the rift without any materials, the gate’s frame was made of shimmering mana.

It looked quite fragile, but I wasn’t too worried.

The city had been restored, and the elves had returned, so this dimension would take care of repairing and maintaining the gate.

In fact, the gate on Earth seemed more vulnerable, but even that didn’t worry me much.

Since the Divine Tree had returned to its original state, Manhattan was now much safer than before.

“Shall we go back now?”

“Yes.”

After confirming that the gate had stabilized, we jumped into it.

Fortunately, this gate didn’t show any strange illusions. Nor did it cause the intense dizziness like the rift had.

We safely returned to Earth.

As expected, Manhattan Island had changed since we left.

‘It’s the skyscraper I saw in my past life.’

The countless roots that had covered the buildings were no longer visible. Instead, dried and twisted tree debris was piled up on the ground.

They were the remains of the roots that had covered the buildings.

Manhattan had been free of undead even before due to the roots of the Divine Tree. Now that the roots were gone, Manhattan had become the safest place in New York.

Of course, there were still some undead left.

Below the gate we had emerged from, inside the meteor crater, were the ghouls and undead elves we had avoided.

After exiting the gate, I clicked my tongue softly as I saw the undead on the surface.

The other party members were still underground, and only Zahina and I were here, so it didn’t seem like the fight would end easily.

Of course, we could have avoided it like we did when entering the rift, but since these were the only undead left on the island, we needed to deal with them here for the future.

“I’ll take care of them. Stay back and assist when you see an opening.”

After landing on the ground, I shouted to Zahina, who was following behind me.

Zahina was much weaker on Earth, but she could still protect herself.

In this surrounded situation, it would be difficult for her to help me as she usually did, but on Earth, that was enough.

However, her response was different from what I expected.

“Don’t worry about me. And shouldn’t you be the one assisting me?”

Her voice came not from behind me, but from above.

Looking up, I saw Zahina still floating in the air.

Just like when she had floated in the sky with me in the land of the Divine Tree, she was floating in the air, gathering mana in her hands.

It was a form of flight I had never seen from her on Earth.

Moreover, she was casting magic while floating in the air.

*Whoosh!*

Blades of wind swept away the approaching undead.

It wasn’t the overwhelming magic we had seen in the other world, but it was definitely more powerful than before.

Surprised, I examined her and saw a blue light flowing from her wrist.

The blue light was coming from the bracelet on her wrist—no, from the branch the Divine Tree had given her as a final gift.

The blue light, resembling the sacred light we had seen from the core of the Divine Tree, flowed into her body, enhancing Zahina’s mana.

“Since she refused the position of first daughter, it seems she was given a real gift.”

Now Zahina no longer looked like a weak druid, but a proper mage.

Although she was a different type of mage compared to human battle mages or traditional mages, her power was unmatched by any other battle mage.

As Zahina had said, the battle proceeded with her leading and me assisting.

She swept away the undead elves and ghouls with blades of wind from the sky, while I dealt with any undead that her attacks missed.

‘A skilled mage and a proper knight party are invincible.’

Well, maybe not invincible, but in this situation, there was no enemy that could match us.

The ghouls and undead elves charged at us on the open plain, but we easily dealt with all of them.

After clearing out all the undead in the meteor crater, we reunited with our comrades from underground.

The Americans who came up to the surface were amazed to see the empty Manhattan Island, and the party members were relieved to see Zahina and me return safely.

“……!”

“Sister, are you smiling?”

The party members looked puzzled as Zahina hugged them with a bright smile, but I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight.

Seeing the party members chatting and laughing, I felt that this ordeal was finally over.

It was time to go back.