Chapter 435: Act 187 – The Final Moment (3)
The silver light portal vanished as if it had never existed, leaving only Brendel, who was holding a box and looking somewhat bewildered.
“Pfft.” Faina suddenly laughed at the young man.
“Is it that funny?” Brendel retorted angrily while opening the box.
“Humph, who are you to say if this lady can laugh or not?”
“Yeah, I wonder whose claws these are—” Brendel glanced at his left hand and shook his head in exasperation.
The princess with the flowered collar swiftly pulled her hand back, her pale neck blushing: “How can you say that—”
“Eh, did I promise you something?”
Faina clenched her fists and glared at him, her eyes blazing as if she wanted to eat Brendel alive. This young lady stamped her foot and haughtily declared, “You wait and see, I will tell Lord Veronika!”
“Tell on me? About what?”
The noble girl was momentarily stunned, then blushed and stammered, “Just… just say that you took advantage of me.”
This woman…
Brendel stared in shock at Faina, never expecting her to pull a stunt like this. It felt like he had been punched in the face, and he was left breathless for a moment.
“Did you really say that?”
“Of course not, I’m just joking!” Faina lightly huffed, “There’s no benefit for me anyway. Besides, it’s too embarrassing to be taken advantage of by a bumpkin.”
Brendel was immediately speechless.
However, if this brainless woman actually went to tell the Duke things she shouldn’t, he really feared that the Duke would be furious and send the Cruz Empire’s Pegasus Knights to capture him.
It was just that the earlier argument had almost made him forget the box he was holding.
Speaking of the box, Brendel quickly discovered that it seemed to be a magical item as well—he pulled out a long cloak from it, as if drawing a curtain; one corner continuously emerged from the box, eventually becoming several times larger than the box itself.
But no matter how magical this cloak was, without an activation spell, it was truly no different from a curtain—indeed, even worse, as at least a curtain has beautiful patterns and can block sunlight.
Brendel shook the cloak and could only regard it as a large rag; it felt too wasteful to just throw it away, but it was cumbersome to hold, and he found that William had given him a problem.
He thought for a moment, wrapped the cloak around his arm, and continued forward. This underground passage shouldn’t be too long; he remembered reading in a player’s post that they seemed to wander in the dark for over ten minutes, almost giving up and returning to town, when they suddenly entered the Loop of Trade Winds’ center.
So it should be similar here.
He looked up; the vine-like “bridges” seemed to be converging towards a certain point above, and the higher he ascended, the more pronounced that point became.
Brendel silently calculated the time. He held Funiya’s hand, with Faina following behind; the footsteps of the three echoed sharply in the dark and silence, and the rustling sound didn’t feel like their footsteps on the ground but rather like some sinister shadow stealthily following them, making them feel creeped out.
The noble girl turned back more than once; the dark void behind her filled her with dread as she wished to keep close to Brendel, but thinking of his insufferable face made her hesitate to fall behind to avoid mockery.
After nearly half an hour, Brendel finally felt the air around him start to move, which made him think that the player’s guide was a bit too misleading. However, upon further thought, timing in the dark isn’t an easy task, and errors might be inevitable, so he let it go.
After advancing a few more minutes, another stone door appeared before him.
This door opened upward at an angle to the ground, and the stone door along with the mysterious and historically adorned patterns were shrouded in darkness, like a segment of history buried beneath dust.
However, this door was much smaller than the one below, only about one-tenth its size.
Brendel originally thought he would have to open another door, but just as they approached this door, it suddenly creaked open on its own, dust cascading down from above as it retreated.
Rather than saying it fell in, it was as if the door was slowly opening backward.
Brendel couldn’t help but pause slightly, surprised to find that this door was equipped with a sensor; he thought that was quite advanced. But once the door opened, the scenery behind it left him speechless.
Not just him; even Faina and Funiya behind him gaped in astonishment.
First, a beam of light burst forth from behind the door—
This was their first contact with sunlight since entering the eternal night outside; gentle white light poured in like water from behind the door, filtering through every crevice and forming patches of light on the faces of the three.
As the gap between the doors widened, the light increased, beams of light piercing through the darkness like swords, tearing apart the black curtain and enveloping the three in a tide of white light.
In that moment, Brendel, Faina, and Funiya couldn’t help but squint their eyes.
However, when their vision finally adjusted to the bright environment, the scene behind them captured everyone’s soul.
The Loop of Trade Winds was situated in the core area surrounded by the mountains of Karanjar, within the eye of the storm, and Brendel had imagined that tranquil region in the eye of the storm more than once.
Just as he envisioned, it was a basin surrounded by mountains, with the rolling peaks stretching like those they saw near the Wolf’s Pass and the Thornflower Wall.
However, the scenery here was clearly much more beautiful—
From a distance, the backdrop was the atmospheric currents swirling beyond the mountains, the surging storms forming walls hundreds of meters high above the peaks, and no one had passed through that invisible atmospheric wall in centuries.
Yet only by seeing the wild winds up there could Brendel confirm they had entered the heart of the Loop of Trade Winds.
He looked up, the sky above was a vast cloud layer—gray thick clouds with golden light shining from the edges, sunlight freely cascading down from behind the clouds onto the broad land.
It was as if the darkness and storms surrounding the Loop of Trade Winds, along with the wild tides of magic, did not exist at all.
Here was a peaceful realm.
Even in the distance, he could see flocks of birds flying, everything seemed like a scene depicted in a myth.
But Brendel’s attention was immediately drawn to another thing, a giant tree in the center of the basin—he couldn’t even be sure if it was indeed a tree; he had to lift his head to see its full form, the canopy nearly obscuring half the sky.
The enormous trunk pierced into the cloud layer, and its massive root system occupied almost the entire basin, deeply embedding in the soil, covered with layers of moss that made it look like rolling green hills from a distance.
Brendel inhaled sharply.
This was the World Tree—
Legend had it that in an ancient era, the Druids possessed a “massive” golden oak tree, and the sky ring was once called the World Ring, where they had lived for generations around this tree.
However, since the Babel Tower collapsed, the World Tree also perished in the flames of war, causing the Druids to fracture and leading to today’s sky ring and shepherds.
Yet no historical record ever spoke of another World Tree existing in this world.
Brendel gasped and stared at this giant tree; it wasn’t as gloriously golden as depicted in myths but was closer to nature, with the green moss and forest covered in shades of lush green atop the roots and trunk, vibrant in color.
And on the massive trunk, mist curled around it, faint lightning flickering through.
“This can’t be the one from Norse mythology…” Brendel couldn’t help but mutter.
“Is this the World Tree from the stories, Brother Brendel?” Funiya asked, taking a gentle breath and looking up.
Brendel nodded; he suddenly thought about those cylindrical “bridges.” Perhaps they weren’t bridges at all but roots of this World Tree extending into the ground.
The thinnest roots had a diameter of at least a hundred meters.
Martha is up there—
Brendel took a deep breath and squinted at this verdant, dreamlike forest, where flocks of birds flew over the canopy, but the entire forest was eerily silent, with no sign of human activity.
Is this Valhalla?
Brendel suddenly started to understand why Valhalla would be destroyed in a great fire in the game. Although it seemed absurd that the World Tree would perish in flames, it was reasonable for such a forest to fall into a sea of fire.
“B-Brendel?”
This stuttering voice belonged to Faina; the noble young lady almost bit her own tongue in surprise; she had just secretly pinched her own cheek to confirm that she wasn’t dreaming.
“What now?” Brendel turned back.
“Look at that tree—” the flower-collared princess pointed above.
Brendel looked up and paused slightly—he had been too amazed to notice that above the cloud layer, the canopy of the World Tree actually had no leaves.
“A dead World Tree?” He couldn’t help but exclaim.
“No, not that!” Faina replied, “Look below!”
What else could there be? Brendel’s gaze shifted downward, but soon he was frozen, his eyes seemingly rooted to the center of this World Tree.
Surrounding the massive trunk was an artificial structure!
Or rather, it was a colossal palace, surrounded by mist and lightning, resembling a dwelling of ancient deities, and even from such a distance, the grandeur and magnificence of the building were palpable.
“Valhalla…” Brendel blurted out.
“What… what is that?” Faina asked, confused.
Just as this young lady raised her question, Brendel suddenly heard another shout not far from the forest: “Chaos above, World Tree!”
That was Andisha’s hoarse voice.
Both of them paled in an instant.
…(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please consider voting on Qidian (qidian.com) with recommendations or monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)
