Game of the World Tree

The universe that surrounds Seigües is composed of countless realms, each of which has its own various respective demi-realms that are connected to it, both large and small.

These demi-realms may have been created by some mythical beings that are native from that realm, or in some cases, by beings who came from outside and just later on connected a specific demi-realm to the one they inhabit.

Typically, the connection of these demi-realms to the main realm is through portals known as dimensional passageways.

And the one Evé found was an example of such a portal.

This discovery went beyond her expectations, though in hindsight, it also made some sense in a way.

It was surprising because for over a thousand years, the dimensional passage of Seigües to the outside world had almost been completely sealed off.

In this situation, aside from the gods who possess immense divine power and a vast collection of faith to forcefully perform cross-dimensional channeling, the realm of Seigües was almost entirely isolated from the rest of the universe.

Thus, under such circumstances, there should normally have been no active passageways within Seigües that could connect to any external demi-realms, let alone to other independent realms outside of it.

However, it also made sense because, with Eve’s revival, the mana reserves of Seigües have gradually started to recover, which makes it natural for previously closed passageways to loosen and become active once more.

In addition, the dimensional passage she discovered appeared to connect to a lower-tier demi-realm, making it normal to be one of the first amongst the demi-realms to reopen.

“No wonder I couldn’t sense this particular fragment before, unlike now. Most likely, it’s not just due to the interference from Reinhardt’s fragment but also because this demi-realm’s passageway hadn’t been opened much earlier.”

“But now that I’ve almost restored the Scepter of Life and the passageway to this demi-realm has been reopened, I’m now able to sense the last fragment of the Scepter on the other side of the portal…”

“…Yet why did this particular fragment ended up inside this demi-realm in the first place? Moreover, which demi-realm is this, anyway?”

This is what perplexed her.

It’s widely known that the number of demi-realms connected to Seigües is rather limited in number, and their relative positions are fixated as well.

In other words, if there had been a portal to a demi-realm here beforehand, then she should have already been aware of it, given that she had acquired the World Tree’s inheritance.

Furthermore, even if the inheritance has no records of this particular demi-realm, the mere fact that it is situated deep within the territory of the Elven Forest should have alerted the native elves about it. However, the mysterious thing is that even the elves have no idea of its existence nor have even written about it in their legends or history books.

Moreover, according to the knowledge contained in the World Tree’s inheritance, there should not have been any active passageways within the Elven Forest that are connected to any demi-realm in this location.

Quite frankly, this demi-realm should have not existed at all…

—Unless it was only created after the World Tree had already fallen.

“Strange.”

Evé became cautious.

After a moment of contemplation, she tentatively reached out her hand inside the portal to sense out the stability of this dimensional passageway.

Eve: “…”

“It seems relatively stable enough and can be entered.”

Regardless of this demi-realm’s mysterious origins, the last fragment of the Scepter of Life is inside it, so at the end of the day, she still have to enter it in some way or another.

Besides, Evé herself was somewhat curious about the details regarding this demi-realm.

After considering her options, she ultimately chose to enter the portal and investigate for herself.

And while the other side might contain some potential danger or even a trap, it wouldn’t matter much since she was currently in her incarnation form.

However, just as Evé was about to step forward, she suddenly sensed the portal begin to tremble violently.

Accompanied by creaking sounds, the entire portal shook and became unstable the moment she took a step into the passageway.

Then, the misty light within the portal began to churn like fog, which partly revealed the landscape inside the demi-realm.

It was a lush forest, and there was a faint smoke rising from the sky that seemed to come from a town visible in the distance.

However, at the precise moment she attempted to enter, the other side of the portal was suddenly hit by a massive earthquake.

The entire forest trembled, as cracks appeared on the ground, and countless trees collapsed one after another, startling flocks of birds and beasts.

Seeing this, Evé quickly halted her attempt to pass through the portal.

As if on cue, the tremors subsided and mist once again obscured the landscape inside the demi-realm.

Eve: “…”

“It seems this demi-realm can’t accommodate my power, and judging by how badly it reacted to my presence, it’s most likely a lower-tier one like I initially suspected.”

Evé murmured to herself.

Generally speaking, demi-realms like these vary in strength and each one has a certain limit to the power it could accommodate.

Much like how the realm of Seigües can only accommodate beings with demigod-level power—if a god were to forcibly enter Seigües, just like she did in this demi-realm, it would almost certainly cause the entire realm to collapse onto itself.

With this in mind, Evé reached out her hand over the portal again, closed her eyes, and used her divine power to sense the full extent of the maximum threshold of this particular demi-realm…

Moments later, she slowly reopened her eyes.

“It is indeed a lower-tier demi-realm, or at most, a mid-tier one…”

In this universe, the myriad of realms and demi-realms across the cosmos can be categorized into various tiers.

Generally speaking, realms are either divided into low-tier, mid-tier, high-tier realms as well as legendary and mythical tier in accordance to the strength they could accommodate.

So in short, each realm has a certain threshold depending on the corresponding levels of strength, which are iron, silver, gold, legendary, and above demigod.

These thresholds define the upper limits of power that the realm can support, and could potentially break down if one were to intrude upon a realm that cannot accommodate their strength.

“Hmm, this demi-realm can at most, only accommodate people with silver-rank strength?”

With this realization, Evé suddenly had an idea.

The current incarnation she is using has the strength of a demigod, which clearly exceeds the threshold of what the demi-realm could accommodate.

But she immediately thought of a workaround to this dilemma, as Evé quickly decided to create a new incarnation of herself but limit its strength to the peak of silver-rank.

Without hesitation, she summoned one of the spare avatars from the stockpile that she had stored back at the World Tree.

Although the original purpose of this avatar was to serve as a spare body for the players, she could also use it as a base to speed up the process of creating an incarnation.

After summoning the avatar, Evé then took out a leaf from her robes—one that came from the World Tree.

By using her divine power, she fused the leaf from the World Tree with the avatar, and soon its physical features transformed into a something that resembled her own.

Then, she took out the Scepter of Life and gently tapped the modified avatar with it, thereby enhancing its innate ability to contain a divine soul.

At the same time, she also used some of her divine power to elevate its strength to the peak of the silver-rank.

Next, Evé separated a piece of her soul and transferred it over into the modified avatar.

Thus, a new incarnation of herself was formed.

Normally, creating an incarnation is a really complicated process, but with the assistance of the Scepter of Life, Evé found it much easier to create one.

While using her new incarnation, she remotely controlled it and attempted to enter the passageway leading to the demi-realm once more.

At first, everything seemed to have went smoothly.

However, just as Eve’s new incarnation was about to pass through to the other side, she suddenly sensed a strange, somewhat familiar fluctuation from deep within the demi-realm.

It instantly swept over her.

Then immediately afterwards, the previously calm demi-realm began to tremble yet again, with even signs of an impending collapse.

Startled, Evé quickly halted her movement.

The tremors ceased as soon as she stopped. Yet, Eve also noticed that the demi-realm’s portal had become highly unstable after being affected twice.

A third disturbance might cause it to collapse entirely.

Seeing this, she frowned in dismay.

Glancing around the vicinity, she soon spotted a goblin sneaking along a nearby ruins, attempting to flee.

With a slight gesture, Evé summoned vines from the ground as it lunges forward and ensnared the fleeing goblin, before pulling the creature towards her.

Terrified, the goblin trembled uncontrollably.

Evé gave the creature a brief look, before casually tossing it over into the portal.

This time, the transmission went smoothly.

The goblin successfully crossed over into the demi-realm with no further tremors happening.

Seeing this, Evé had an epiphany:

“So that’s how it is…”

“It wasn’t just one’s own power that was affecting the demi-realm, but the quality of a person’s soul was also being factored in…”

“That familiar fluctuation just now was the result of the demi-realm sensing that my soul is of divine quality, which triggered the spatial disturbance…”

“Hmm, it feels like the demi-realm itself is preventing any mythical existence from entering. So as soon as a divine being tries to forcefully enter, it immediately collapses upon its own.”

With this realization, Eve’s curiosity about the demi-realm deepened even further.

“…What is it hiding?”

After a moment’s contemplation, Evé smiled as she slightly shrugged her shoulders:

“So what? if it’s so adamant on preventing me from entering then I can just send someone else to do my bidding instead. In this manner, I can still get the information that I need.”

As such, Evé once again turned her thoughts to the players.

Since her forced intrusion would lead to the demi-realm’s collapse, then, why not let the players enter as her proxy in her stead?

Besides, the first batch of dragons are going to arrive soon and selecting a potential dragon knight amongst the playerbase was an issue she needed to address.

She could combine these two and issue a quest to explore this demi-realm in exchange for being a Dragon Knight as a reward.

In any case, Evé had a feeling.

This demi-realm likely contained some deep hidden secrets within it…

— 425 —

【 PORTAL TO THE DEMI-REALM 】

---

— —

---