Game of the World Tree

Within the divine kingdom of the World Tree, Eve sat upon her divine throne, enjoying the crisp, sweet fruit brought by the Oak Guardians.

As she savored the treat, she squinted her eyes and gazed at the scene before her.

“Is this the city of Seigües?”

In front of her stood the large sand table she used to monitor the players’ actions, with five images projected above it.

The angles of the images shifted constantly, changing with each player’s activities, but the content remained largely the same, which was a bustling cityscape.

These projected images reflected the perspectives of the five members of Boxlunch’s team.

The city in question was, of course, Seigües City, the heartland of this demi-realm and the primary stronghold of the Church of Creation.

By the looks of it, this city surpassed even the capital of the Holy Maniya Empire’s Maple Leaf Territory in its vibrancy and prosperity.

Moreover, its architectural style clearly drew inspiration from the ancient elves, much like how the old buildings in Florence were majestically and elegantly built.

However, possibly due to material limitations and the absence of the white marble commonly used in most Elven architecture outside of this demi-realm, the city predominantly featured gray stone, thereby giving it an ashen tone instead.

Soldiers in full armor and priests donning gray robes and hoods could be seen patrolling the streets everywhere, their presence commanding an unspoken authority that permeated the air.

Their faces were expressionless as they walked through the city and whenever a resident spotted these soldiers and priests, people would instinctively stopped and bowed their heads, remaining still until the entire procession passed.

Only then did the locals resume their tasks, albeit moving more slowly and deliberately, as if the moment had left a lingering weight upon them.

Judging by the looks of it, the city’s population was quite vast, and Eve estimated that it was likely even larger than that of Maple Leaf City.

Yet despite the large population, Evé also noticed that most of these local residents appeared numb, their eyes vacant and distant.

They lacked the vibrancy and enthusiasm she had witnessed in the villagers outside the city.

The contrast was striking.

Even people like Lilia from Divine Grace Town, whom Evé had seen in the players perspective, radiated more warmth and liveliness than these city dwellers.

It was unsettling, to say the least.

Despite its prosperity, the city of Seigües gave off a stifling, dissonant atmosphere.

“This seems like… mental manipulation?”

Evé murmured, frowning slightly.

Her gaze shifted across each projections and looked towards the city gate.

She watched as some residents, before entering the city, exhibited lively expressions that gradually turned vacant upon entry. Conversely, those leaving the city, whose eyes had initially been empty, quickly regained their normal state, as if the numbing effect had somehow faded automatically.

Seeing all this, Evé raised her eyebrows.

“So that’s it. It looks like anyone who enters this city is somehow being affected by a force that invades their mind, which could alter their thoughts.”

“However, this mind manipulation seems to be localized and not entirely permanent. It appears to be limited to the vicinity of the city itself, and seems more like an attempt to conceal something within the city.”

At that moment, Evé suddenly sensed a familiar energy fluctuation, which is attempting to infiltrate her game system network.

More specifically, it was attempting to invade the mind of Boxlunch and his teammates.

Evé was very familiar with this fluctuation as it was the same mysterious mental intrusion she had encountered back when she first tried entering this demi-realm.

At the time, she had assumed it was the innate will of the demi-realm itself, but after learning about the so-called ‘God of Creation’ she now understood that it was some sort of emergency mechanism left behind by this slumbering entity.

Clearly, this force was now targeting the players.

Nonetheless, Evé did not immediately repel this invasive force, because in doing so, she would likely alert the enemy and compromised the mission of those five players.

So instead, she extended her right hand and summoned several vines, causing the space around her to twist slightly and create a crack in the fabric of space.

At the same time, inside the Demon Labyrinth located at the roots of the World Tree…

A group of players found themselves under attack by a swarm of demons.

Their situation seemed grim and hopeless, but without warning, a blinding flash of light erupted, followed by a vine streaking through the air.

To these players’ astonishment, the vine that emerged from this seemingly small crack in space wrapped around the strongest of the demons, and with a piercing screech, it quickly dragged the demon in before disappearing entirely.

Seeing the strongest demon being captured, the lesser demons scattered in panic, while a furious roar echoed throughout the labyrinth:

“Yggdrasill!”

The surrounding players stood frozen, completely bewildered by this sudden turn of events.

“W-What the hell was that?”

“That… looked like the goddess’s vine?”

“Did the goddess saw that we couldn’t win and somehow lend us a hand?”

“Wake up, we’d have better luck getting a dragon familiar than that.”

Similar events were unfolding simultaneously at various locations within the Labyrinth.

Soon, Evé had captured five powerful demons whose strength nearly reached the Gold-rank.

Watching these trembling demons, with each of their tails tucked between their legs, Evé shook her head slightly.

“That rascal Azazel really can’t be underestimated. He managed to summon such strong demons without me noticing. It seems like he’s not giving up just yet…”

“Looks like I still haven’t squeezed him enough, since he’s still secretly amassing the energy needed to create demons of this caliber. Hmm… maybe I should just change this dungeon so that it can be refreshed every twelve hours from now on.”

Evé muttered to herself while deciding to increase the workload of a certain hardworking demon lord.

She then redirected the invading force which is targeting Boxlunch’s team to the five demons instead, causing them to bear the ‘mental manipulation’ intended for those five players.

Immediately, Evé noticed that the eyes of these five demons glazed over almost instantly.

At the same time, they also knelt on the ground, whilst profusely praising nature and life.

Seeing this, Evé raised an eyebrow.

“Huh, it seems like this mental manipulation can also strengthen the target’s faith. It appears that this so-called ‘God of Creation,’ possibly the elven demigod Ouros, has directed his faith to be attuned with the Divinity of Nature and Life…”

“Should I call him ambitious, or is he simply overconfident?”

If she had not been reincarnated as the World Tree, and if there were no one governing over the Divinity of Nature and Life, then this kind of faith attunement would likely have helped Ouros claim those two divinity.

However, now that Evé controls the Divinity of Nature and Life, this power of faith can only be directed towards her.

Of course, these five demons could never truly become her believers as being in this state was only temporary and this fake belief was done through mind manipulation.

Moreover, after having successfully invaded the mind of these five demons, Evé also confirmed another detail:

Her divine rank must be higher than that of this ‘God of Creation.’

Otherwise, her ‘sleight of hand’ trick would never have gone unnoticed by the other party, even if he were asleep.

“So, he really hasn’t ascended to godhood yet?”

Evé thought deeply.

“Given that, it seems that the city residents’ mental manipulation is also directed at the Divinity of nature and life.”

“Logically speaking, after my resurrection, their faith should have reached me, but I haven’t received any feedback at all, which means this ‘Creator’ likely used some special method to substitute the intended target so that he could receive it instead…”

“If I’m correct, it’s probably because of the ‘Heart of Life.’ He might be using this fragment as a foci to collect the faith of the inhabitants of this demi-realm to strengthen his claim over the Divinity of Nature and Life.”

“However, just doing this alone would likely be insufficient for him to fully claim ownership over the Divinity of Life and Nature, right? Or perhaps he has some sort of secret or backup plan that I don’t know about?”

“I don’t know why, but I always have an uneasy feeling.”

Eve thought about it and frowned slightly.

As long as it does not involve confrontation between gods, the premonitions of deities would be very accurate.

“But this mental manipulation didn’t detect me using my divine power at all, so it likely means that this ‘Creator’ lacks enough strength compared to mine…”

“This mental probe probably is connected to his internal faith network. He can block other divine beings from infiltrating through this mental pathway, but he can’t prevent someone from breaking in from within!”

“That means I should be able to reverse-probe his current position.”

With that thought, Eve’s attention shifted to the crystal ball in the players’ possession, given to them by Roergue.

However, Evé felt that the crystal ball’s sensing ability was still too vague. If the players were to entirely rely upon it to locate the Heart of Life, then it would likely take them several days to do so.

She was concerned that relying solely on this method would take too much time and pose a lot of trouble.

Therefore, she immediately took action.

Using her divine power, she accessed the mental pathways of the five demons and initiated a reverse-probe…

Evé operated her intrusion very carefully, and the whole process surprisingly went on quite smoothly.

As her divine power infiltrated the other party’s mental pathways, Evé quickly ‘saw’ a vast, sprawling network of faith.

Countless brilliant lights of faith formed a dense network, and a diamond-shaped crystal was constantly rotating at the center of it all…

“This… it really is indeed the last fragment of the Scepter of Life!”

Eve’s mind jolted.

She focused her divine energy, as her senses expand until she finally felt the precise pulse of the fragment’s location.

With a surge of power, her ‘mind vision’ flickered and began its journey beyond the material plane.

Her consciousness slipped from the confines of the physical world, before diving into the void wherein she “saw” the entire city of Seigües appeared before her.

As her mental probe traveled across time and space, she passed over the towering spires of the city’s largest cathedral, before entering the underground palace buried deep beneath it.

And there, within the palace’s heart, she finally found it:

—A massive crystal coffin.

Floating above it, was Scepter of Life’s last fragment, surrounded by countless starlight rays.

“I’ve found it!”

Eve felt a surge of joy within her heart.

After noting the fragments exact location, Evé planned to withdraw her mental probe.

But just before she could withdrew herself, her ‘sight’ briefly lingered upon the crystal coffin beneath the fragment.

In that brief moment, Eve’s heart skipped a beat, and she almost lost control of herself.

Because inside the crytal coffin, therein lay an elven girl with her eyes closed.

The girl was wearing an exquisite white gown with flawless features and silver hair cascading beside her.

But the most shocking of all is that the girl’s appearance was almost identical to Eve’s.

— 445 —

【 ANOTHER ‘EVÉ’ 】

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