In the sky, Blood Bone's voice continued.
“Twenty-one. Twenty.”
The Protector Priest raised her staff.
The emerald-green light around the Sacred City began to condense, forming a translucent film of light above the city walls.
Dense networks of runic patterns flowed across the surface of the film, each rune frantically drawing energy from deep underground.
“Fifteen. Fourteen.”
The deep green patterns on the two Protector Envoys grew brighter and brighter. Their bodies expanded, the muscles beneath their scales bulging, and their bones popping in rapid succession.
“Nine. Eight.”
Finally, a voice came from the Wizardry Tool.
“This is Thousand Eyes. If we can talk, we talk. It is always better to save some strength.”
Ethan looked up.
In the sky, Blood Bone's voice stopped.
“Five.”
And then there was no four.
Blood Bone tilted his head. A pale gold rune emerged near his right ear, vibrating several times. His brow furrowed slightly, then relaxed.
He raised his left hand and gestured to the four wizards behind him.
The two wizards simultaneously reined in their auras. The soul fire in the bone dragon's eye sockets stopped spewing and retracted, returning to its previous slow-spinning rhythm.
“It seems luck is on your side,” Blood Bone said, looking down at the Sacred City below, his voice completely devoid of emotion. “Hold.”
The Protector Priest's staff froze in midair.
A trace of confusion flashed through her cloudy eyes, but the light at the tip of her staff did not go out. The two Protector Envoys did not stand down from their combat state either; the deep green patterns on their scales remained lit.
“Phew...”
Ethan exhaled a breath of turbid air. “Command, this is Ethan Leo. We are ready to talk.”
“Command received. This is Thousand Eyes. Ethan, you may relay the messages.”
“Understood, Lord Thousand Eyes.”
Ethan looked up.
“World Tree, I have established contact with our commander.”
“Hehe, good,” the World Tree's voice echoed in his consciousness, still gentle. “Young friend, thank you for your trouble.”
“Lord Thousand Eyes, the World Tree is willing to negotiate.”
Wizard Thousand Eyes' voice came from the other end of the Wizardry Tool: “Ask it what terms it can offer.”
Ethan relayed the words.
The World Tree's reply was brief: “The Sacred City's defenses consist of three layers. The outermost layer is the runic array on the city walls, powered by the energy nodes deep beneath the Sacred City. That layer has nothing to do with me; it was built by the Amons themselves. The middle layer is the faith barrier maintained by the temple's Priesthood, supported by the mental power of the believers, which also has nothing to do with me. The innermost and strongest layer, the core barrier, is constructed using my root system as the foundation and my canopy as the energy attraction hub.”
It paused.
“This layer, I can deactivate at any time.”
Ethan relayed the exact words to Thousand Eyes.
The other end of the Wizardry Tool fell silent for two breaths.
“Ask it if there are any other defensive forces inside the Sacred City that it cannot control once the core barrier is deactivated.”
Upon hearing Ethan's relay, a very faint sigh echoed from the World Tree's consciousness.
“No more. Those children built cities, erected walls, and established temples at my feet, but their power was all borrowed from me and the Mother Goddess. Once the core barrier is withdrawn, the Sacred City's defenses will only consist of the runic walls they built themselves and the faith barrier. Those things cannot stop your wizards.”
Ethan relayed this.
Wizard Thousand Eyes' voice rang out once more: “Ask it how long it takes to deactivate the core barrier.”
“An instant,” the World Tree said. “If I wish, I can do it right now.”
After Ethan relayed this, Thousand Eyes paused for longer than before.
About five breaths later, Thousand Eyes' voice rang out again.
“Ethan, tell it that our terms are simple. Once the core barrier is deactivated and the Wizard Legion enters the Sacred City, we will not cause any damage to the World Tree's main body. After the war ends, the World Tree will remain the core of this world, and we will integrate it into the Wizard World's ecological cycle. It will not die, nor will it be felled for alchemy.”
Ethan relayed the terms to the World Tree.
A ripple of subtle fluctuation stirred within the World Tree's consciousness.
“Young friend, ask your commander.”
The World Tree's voice was still so gentle, so gentle that no emotion could be detected. “What about those children? The Amons in the Sacred City, how do you plan to handle them?”
Ethan relayed the question.
Thousand Eyes' reply came without any hesitation: “Slay the resisters, enslave the surrendered.”
Eight words.
Ethan did not change a single word and transmitted it directly to the World Tree.
The World Tree's consciousness fell silent.
That massive, gentle consciousness trembled slightly on the periphery of Ethan's mental sea.
Ethan could feel the leaves of every tree in the entire Azure-Dyed Forest gently shaking at the exact same instant.
The shaking was so minute that even the rustling of the wind blowing through the canopy did not change in the slightest.
“Very well,” the World Tree said. “I have only one condition. When you strike those children in the Sacred City, do not destroy my root system. My roots run very deep, and some of the rootlets are in the uppermost layer of the Sacred City's underground. As long as you do not harm the roots, I do not care about the rest.”
“Do not care.”
Those three words indeed caused Ethan's pupils to contract slightly.
The World Tree.
The core of the Amons' faith, the physical manifestation of the Mother Goddess, a sacred entity that countless Amons worshipped from birth to death.
It did not care.
It did not care.
The Amons who had lived in the Sacred City for countless generations, the priests who daily prayed beneath its roots, and the Protector Envoys who guarded the Sacred City with their lives.
In its eyes, they were no different from a single leaf falling from its canopy.
When leaves fell, they would grow again; when people died, there would be new people.
Ethan relayed the condition to Thousand Eyes.
This time, Thousand Eyes did not hesitate: “Deal. Tell it that once the core barrier is deactivated, our Tier 3 Wizards will be the first to enter the Sacred City. We will handle the Third-Tier lifeforms inside the Sacred City, and we will not affect the underground roots.”
“Lord Thousand Eyes has agreed,” Ethan said to the World Tree.
“Hehe, good,” the World Tree's consciousness receded slightly from the edge of his mental sea. “Young friend, thank you on my behalf to your commander. Furthermore, what you promised me, I shall give to you now.”
As its voice fell, the thick branch beneath Ethan's feet suddenly moved.
The bark on the surface of the branch split open silently, and two emerald-green glows floated out from the crack.
After the first glow dissipated, it revealed a piece of heartwood about the thickness of an arm.
The heartwood was about four meters long, translucent emerald-green throughout, with countless fine specks of light flowing within.
The trajectories of those light specks were not random; they traced out complex, dazzling runic patterns within the heartwood.
With each flicker of the patterns, the surrounding wood-element energy particles would tremble slightly.
After the second glow dissipated, it revealed a fist-sized seed.
The seed was dark green, its surface covered with a thin, translucent shell, beneath which a writhing mass of emerald-green light was faintly visible.
The seed throbbed slowly, as if something were breathing inside.
Rate on N.U.
