On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

The first leaf of the World Tree.

Unlike ordinary World Tree leaves, the First Leaf is the very first leaf to grow when the World Tree is born, and its effects are...

Liao Ji recalled Professor Einstein's words at the time.

The World Tree is a connection of souls.

Legend has it that every leaf of the World Tree contains a part of the soul of an elf, and the elves are connected by the sacred World Tree.

Liao Ji truly understood this point from the cyber version of the World Tree that could connect the servants and form a servant network.

As the most powerful elf species, Anno possesses the most powerful "First Leaf" containing the soul of an elf.

That should be Anno's own soul.

The next elves seemed to want to put the leaves into their game characters' mouths, but they quickly failed because they couldn't remove their cloaks.

Yes.

This is something that "they" in the game have never done before, nor dared to do, so Anno's attempt to remove the cloak for Lord Ash is the first time.

However, it was as if a rule was binding them, prohibiting the act of "removing the cloak," and no matter what they did, they could not see their true faces.

"How could this be? Damn it! Why! Why can't I take it off?!"

Lena was frantic, but Anno quickly changed his strategy and resolutely used magic to crush the precious "First Leaf" into fragments and powder, which he then sprinkled directly onto his game character.

Liao Ji saw that after doing this, Anuo's aura weakened considerably, and his body seemed to be on the verge of collapse. This was because grinding the first leaf was equivalent to grinding his own soul as well. Such pain in the soul was no less than being cut into pieces.

Even so, Anno did not make a sound. He quickly activated the secret technique of the Elven race. As a "guardian", Anno had more protective abilities, one of which was the soul link.

"It's a success! It's a success, Sister Anno!"

"Lord Ash's soul is slowing down! Quick! Sister Anno, pull Lord Ash's soul back!"

After Anno connected his soul with the Ash Emperor, the sound of Lena's long sigh of relief and extreme excitement showed that it had indeed worked.

however

Anno's next answer caused Lena's expression to freeze instantly.

"I'm sorry, Lena, I can't do it."

"What?! Why?! Is the enemy too strong? No, the Mother of Turbid Calamity has already been annihilated by Lord Ash, so what... what else could threaten Lord Ash? What is it?"

Lena was becoming somewhat incoherent, a far cry from her former image of wisdom; rather, she seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown.

To the succubus's surprise, Anno shook his head again.

"No, they are not enemies."

"After connecting with Lord Ash's soul, although I can't fully understand it, I can vaguely sense that it will become what it is now. This is Lord Ash's own will."

From one's own will?

In other words, it was Ash Lord himself who was splitting the soul?

What a joke!

"Anno, what are you saying?!"

"You mean, Lord Ash is deliberately leaving us?"

"No, not leaving us."

After a pause, Anno sighed and said, "Lord Ash is leaving this world."

“There are two forces at present. One is the force that is separating Lord Ash’s soul from his body. I can stop this, and I have already stopped it. But the other force is Lord Ash’s will. If he insists on leaving, we are powerless to stop him.”

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible, Anno, you must be mistaken, impossible! Yes... it must be the first force you mentioned causing this. Didn't you say there were no enemies? Then what exactly is this first force!"

Lena shook her head frantically; the succubus could not accept Anno's explanation.

“I had vaguely sensed this power before, and just now, when I tried to remove Lord Ash’s cloak, I was absolutely certain that these two powers are the same.”

"They are the power of rules."

"The power of rules and regulations?" Lena had never heard of this term before.

Seeing that the succubus didn't understand, Anno changed his approach.

"You can think of it as the will of this world."

"You mean, Lord Ash is actually the embodiment of the world's will? The savior who saved us, nurtured us, ate with us, fought with us, experienced so much with us, built the empire with us, and defeated the Turbid Calamity with us, is not actually a living being, but merely the will of the world, an illusory concept?"

Lena seemed to laugh in anger, and questioned Anno in a hurried tone filled with rage.

fortunately.

Anno's answer was no.

No, quite the opposite.

"Lord Ash is not the embodiment of the world's will, but rather the world's will that is currently trying to take its place and become the embodiment of Lord Ash."

Anno's words seemed to shatter Reina's worldview. The succubus still couldn't understand, much less how Anno knew so much.

"The World Tree".

"Let's move Lord Ash's body to the World Tree first. You should be able to understand what I'm saying there, Lena. In fact, with your powerful abilities in psychic powers and sorcery, you should be able to see more than I do."

"See more?"

Anno paused for a moment, then finally decided to tell Lena the biggest secret that this elf species had always kept.

After all, this might be the only way to find Lord Ash.

“That’s right. With the help of the World Tree, although I can’t do it, Lena, you should be able to see more of the world.”

"The other worlds besides us."

Chapter 292 Similarities and Differences

Carrying the unconscious body of "Ash," Lena and Anno returned to the border of the Ash Empire, the Elf Forest, and headed straight for the ancient tree deep within the forest.

Regarding the World Tree, Liao Ji doesn't know much about this "neutral building" in the game, mainly because the original World Tree was not nearly as conspicuous as it is now.

Liao Ji remembers his first encounter with the World Tree. The leaves of the tree were almost all withered and yellow, with hardly any green in sight, and the branches were bent and sunken like an old man in his twilight years.

Large and small brown scales, whether from pollution or corrosion, covered a large area of ​​the bark, making the ancient tree sway precariously. The next gust of turbid wind might destroy the hollowed-out trunk.

Later, after his Ash Army marched to this place and joined forces with the forest races to wipe out the "Dragon"-level Turbid Lord who was entrenched here, the pollution of the forest was alleviated.

After that, he came into contact with the most mysterious elf species and formed a contract with Anno. He then handed over the World Tree to Anno to manage. Liao Ji remembered that he had glanced at the World Tree once, but the game panel description was that it was an ancient tree that had stood since the beginning of the world. Apart from that, Liao Ji did not see any other operation pages.

Afterwards, I focused on launching a counterattack against the Turbid Calamity, carrying out the final chapter, and reaching the decisive battle at the "ending" of the game, so I put the World Tree out of my mind and forgot about it.

Following the succubus's diary perspective, Liao Ji sees Anno and Reina delve directly into the underground of the World Tree, a space that Liao Ji in the game has never entered before.

Beneath the World Tree, there seemed to be a place that could simultaneously nurture both the physical body and the soul. Under Anno's manipulation, the roots of the ancient tree partially enveloped the unconscious body of his game character.

The physical body that houses "Ashes" is only one reason. Anno's main purpose in bringing Lena here, as she said, is to let Lena see other worlds through the World Tree.

"Other worlds of the World Tree?"

“Yes, we elves have always believed that the World Tree belongs to our race and that its function is to store our souls. But as I nurtured it and allowed it to continue growing, I discovered that this ancient tree is far more complex than we imagined.”

The World Tree can only be communicated with by elves. As a succubus, Lena cannot contact it, but Anno has another way. The elf placed one hand on the tree trunk and took Lena's hand with the other.

Anno used himself as a bridge to indirectly allow Lena to also perceive the World Tree.

As the spirit initiated communication, this underground world immediately began to shimmer with crystalline light, and every intricately intertwined root began to twinkle. Rena's vision also changed, rapidly ascending.

"This is."

Now that Lena has communicated with the World Tree, she seems to be able to perceive the entire world. She sees countless "deceased" souls drifting towards the World Tree, being absorbed by its roots, and then being cleansed and purified by the World Tree, finally becoming new life and returning to this world.

At the same time, she also saw the ley lines buried deep beneath the World Tree. These ley lines had shrunk due to the erosion of the turbid calamity, but now that they have been restored, they are like the blood vessels of the world. The World Tree disperses its power to all parts of the world, which is how mountains, rivers, fields, and waterfalls were created.

This is the first level of the World Tree, which protects this world and allows souls to return home. As Lena's consciousness continued to descend, she arrived at the second level of the World Tree that Anno had seen.

Here, Lena's perspective is further elevated, as if she were in the vast starry sky.

The succubus saw an even larger ancient tree, like the true prototype of the "World Tree." In this World Tree rooted in the galaxy, each leaf was no longer an elf's soul, but a world in itself.

The vast majority of the "leaves" have withered and decayed. Some "leaves" seem to be barely clinging to life, drooping listlessly, turning yellow in large patches, and on the verge of death.

Only a very small number of the "leaves" were still healthy and green. Among these "healthy" "leaves," Lena spotted at a glance the World Leaf, which symbolized their world.

Because this particular "leaf" is the greenest and most upright, making it stand out among all the trees in the world.

With Anno's mental strength, he could only perceive this far, and knew that there were many other worlds similar to theirs.

But Lena is different.

As a top-tier sorcerer with supernatural abilities, Lena concentrated all her immense mental power and plunged into these "leaves" in one go. As her soul permeated them, the succubus successfully entered another world, allowing her to truly see the real appearance of other worlds.

Blood-red sky.

A turbid and perilous atmosphere prevailed.

Lena was familiar with the setting of this world; it was almost identical to their own.

The only difference is

Lena could no longer sense any living beings here. The dead earth was covered with bottomless, enormous cracks, from which the aura of pollution and corrosion frequently emanated. As far as the eye could see, countless monstrous creatures of turbidity lurked within them.

From the perspective of living beings, this world has been conquered and completely overrun by the calamity; it is the true end of the world.

When Lena uses the power of the World Tree to look from the perspective of a soul, she can see many wandering, lifeless spirits with dull faces and dead eyes in this dead world.

When Lena looked at the neck of one of the most powerful undead, the succubus's eyes narrowed sharply, for she saw a familiar pattern.

contract.

Can't go wrong.

Lena would admit to everything, but this was the only exception.

Although the pattern is slightly different from that of Lord Ash, the primal power is almost identical.

This left Lena stunned for a moment.

The contract that should have belonged exclusively to Lord Ash has now appeared on these other worlds' Calamity Undead, proving that they were also Lord Ash's contractors in their previous lives.

wrong.