Volume 2, Chapter 2 – The Key of the World Tree

Inside the red-painted carriage, Fia sat across from the blue-haired girl named Calista.

Upon closer inspection, one could see that the blue-haired girl was not human. Where her ears should have been, there were instead small, open white wings. Her brown eyes had vertical pupils, like those of a feline. Although these non-human traits couldn’t conceal Calista’s beauty, they would certainly startle someone seeing them for the first time.

With her fingers intertwined and elbows propped on the table, Fia wore a serious expression, making her thoughts impossible to read.

“So, you were looking for me to understand the magical disaster that occurred in the Dry Desert?”

“Th-that’s right.”

Having just been untied by Anastasia, the girl who called herself Calista was still a bit uncomfortable. She stretched her arms while looking around the carriage.

Right now, only she and Fia were in the carriage. Anastasia, not knowing when the heavy rain might return, had to hurry to bleed the rabbits she had caught and prepare dinner early. As for Liti and Calista’s companion, the former found it too stuffy in the carriage and was unwilling to go back, while the latter stayed near the carriage on the pretext of keeping watch.

It was worth noting that these two Third-Tier individuals were actually quite strong. The reason Anastasia had handled them like trash was simply that Anastasia was much stronger than both of them combined.

A quasi-Fifth-Tier, even if not a true Fifth-Tier, was by no means someone two Third-Tier individuals could handle. The gap in mana reserves, learned magic, combat experience, and even the application of power was not something that could be caught up in a day.

Looking at the girl with slightly messy blue hair before her, Fia felt a bit troubled.

The “magical disaster in the Dry Desert” that Calista mentioned was undoubtedly caused by her. The problem now was what Calista’s purpose was in asking her about it. If it was like the Moon Dragon Radric, who simply wanted to know who caused it with no other intentions, that would be fine. But if Calista’s starting point was “because you are strong, I want to ask you for a favor,” she would have to lie tactfully.

There were many such people in the world who, thinking others had plenty of time or were very skilled in a certain area, always wanted to bother them. For example, when a person becomes rich, they are approached by countless distant relatives they’ve never had contact with, and even complete strangers, asking to borrow money, with the reason being “you’re rich, it won’t matter if you lend me a little.” As for when it would be repaid, that was a big question mark. And similar things happened not just with money, but with other things as well.

Fia didn’t mind the issue of reward; what she cared about was that she had no relationship with Calista. There was no need to spend her own time helping Calista, as heaven knew if that would lead to a series of troubles to be solved.

Besides, she had important matters to attend to—a hundred Calistas combined were not as important as Claire.

Compared to admitting that she was responsible for the magic in the Dry Desert, which would lead to Calista kneeling and pleading with a sob story, and then her having to painstakingly refuse, it was simply easier to feign ignorance from the start.

Having formulated her strategy, Fia quietly waited for Calista to speak.

Swallowing hard, a nervous Calista sat up straight with her legs together, the wings at her ears also folding back against her skin.

“As a Seventh-Tier magic caster, Your Highness the Eldest Princess’s achievements in magic have reached a level unimaginable to ordinary people. Although Aurora City is far from the site of the disaster, given the power of the explosion at that time, Your Highness must have realized it was comparable to a Tenth-Tier spell. You should know something about it.”

Calista raised her brown, vertical pupils, observing Fia’s expression.

Compared to Anastasia’s resolve and maturity or Claire’s gentleness and wisdom, Calista was more of the lively and pretty type. Fia could tell from Calista’s constantly shifting eyes that she had a mischievous air about her and had definitely caused her fair share of trouble.

“I do know something about it. And then?”

Seeing that Fia showed no signs of disgust, Calista, dressed in an off-the-shoulder windbreaker, had a bright glint in her eyes.

“I saw your battle with the Moon Dragon that night. That Moon Dragon was at least of the Sixth Tier. If you had defeated it with magic, that would be one thing, but you actually fought it with physical strength. The Moon Dragon had no power to resist in your hands. If you hadn’t held back, it would surely have been beaten to death by you. It’s simply unheard of! If I were to tell people that ‘the Elf Princess beat a Moon Dragon to a pulp with her fists,’ they would definitely think I’m crazy!”

“It was just luck. That Moon Dragon didn’t use magic, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so easy.”

“Even so!”

Calista’s voice suddenly grew louder, so much so that Anastasia, outside the carriage, paused her work and looked towards the carriage.

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Realizing her loss of composure, Calista rubbed her nose and awkwardly sat back down.

“But even so, the physical abilities of elves are well-known among all races on the World Tree Continent. Among all humanoid races, only vampires, some beastmen, and us Stellacryst Beasts possess exceptional physical abilities. Elves, like fairy, are skilled in magic, with bodies as fragile as humans. For you to knock a Moon Dragon to the ground with your fists—if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it. I even think that if you wanted to, you could easily throw me over that mountain.”

Although I could indeed do that—not just over this mountain, but over the one behind it, and the one behind that—I’m not here to listen to your flattery. What are you trying to say?

Fia couldn’t help but tap her fingers on the table.

“Get to the point. What do you want from me?”

“Uh… I want to know, was the magic in the Dry Desert cast by that silver-haired girl who was with you?”

One second you’re praising me, the next the subject is Claire. Don’t you think you’re jumping topics a bit too fast?

Though she thought this, Fia’s expression didn’t change.

“Why do you think that?”

“She destroyed the Unsinkable Moon with the Eighth-Tier forbidden spell, ‘Divine Judgment.’ Putting aside the destruction of the Holy Kingdom’s national treasure, the Unsinkable Moon, the girl showed no signs of fatigue or mana depletion after casting the forbidden spell, which means her strength goes beyond that. So, I think she might be the one who caused the magical disaster. I would like to ask Your Highness the Eldest Princess to introduce me. Of course, our ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ will offer a reward that will satisfy you, be it gold coins, magical items, or even military assistance, we can provide it.”

Calista paused, once again observing Fia’s expression, her tone filled with confidence.

“I’ve heard you love books as much as life itself. Our ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ is founded on pure magic that completely abandons faith magic, and we possess the most advanced magical theories on the continent. We can provide you with as many copies of magic books as you desire.”

“Additionally, the base of ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ is south of the Underworld. If you don’t need magic books but hope for the Elf Kingdom to free up its hands and end the war with the Holy Kingdom sooner, we can send people to assist the Elf Kingdom by attacking the Underworld from the south. This will relieve the pressure on the northern Elf Kingdom, allowing Your Highness to mobilize more troops to deal with the Holy Kingdom to your west.”

“You only need to introduce us to that silver-haired, reclusive witch, and the reward you’ll receive is military assistance that will greatly please the Elf King and enhance your status in the country. This return is by no means insignificant. If not for the fact that no one but you, who is recognized by the witch, can approach her, I would find it difficult to offer such a reward.”

“To be honest, I actually learned the name of that silver-haired girl last night, but when I woke up, I only had a vague impression left in my mind. It was only after a reminder from my companion, who hadn’t slept all night, that I remembered it was Her Excellency the Witch who destroyed the Unsinkable Moon. I assume Her Excellency the Witch does not wish to be disturbed, which is why she cast a spell of cognitive obscurity on herself. Without going through you, even if we spent ten or a hundred years, we would never be able to find her.”

I see.

Fia immediately understood why Calista had sought her out.

Calista mistakenly believed that the curse of being forgotten on Claire was a spell Claire had cast on herself. The logic was, “Claire is very strong, but doesn’t want her peaceful life to be disturbed, so she placed a curse of cognitive obscurity on herself to avoid trouble.”

And Claire traveling with her, helping her against the church, was a clear sign of their close relationship.

Calista believed that only through her could they contact Claire. Furthermore, due to the immense power Claire displayed, Calista had mistaken her for a witch, which was quite an amusing misunderstanding.

Although the conditions offered were good, Calista had gotten the premise wrong.

That magical disaster was her own creation.

As for the rewards proposed by Calista, Fia didn’t find them particularly rare. While she didn’t know much about the undead souls in the Underworld, she assumed that beings like ghosts and gods couldn’t survive a nuclear explosion… an orbital bombardment.

If one time wasn’t enough, she’d do it again.

After all, if the undead were truly unkillable, the elves wouldn’t be able to hold a so-called front line; the undead would have been running rampant all over the continent long ago. Therefore, military assistance was unnecessary.

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And while magic books were tempting, they weren’t indispensable; there were other magic books waiting for her in the Elf Kingdom. Anastasia had said that the Elf Kingdom was extremely powerful, even known as the Elf Empire in some countries. The royal capital alone had two forbidden areas known as forbidden libraries.

The reason the Elf Kingdom’s western front was repeatedly defeated in the early stages of the war with the Holy Kingdom was simply that the Holy Kingdom had gambled most of its assets on a sneak attack, while the Elf Kingdom happened to have redeployed some of its garrisoned troops, and the powerful magic casters were not on the western front. That’s why they were caught off guard.

Once the Elf Kingdom reacted, the front line was quickly pushed back, to the point where the Elf Princess could run amok behind the Holy Kingdom’s lines, forcing them to use their national treasure to stop her. If not for the fact that most of the territory between the elves and the Holy Kingdom was ocean, connected only by a series of small islands, and the elves lacked large ships capable of withstanding magical storms, making supply lines difficult to maintain, the Holy Kingdom would have already lost a large swath ¹ A broad sweep or expanse, such as of land. of territory under the onslaught of the Elf Kingdom’s army.

Even in this situation, the Holy Kingdom still had to thank the undead of the Underworld for tying up the elves. From the elves’ perspective, if they couldn’t completely defeat the Holy Kingdom before winter arrived, they would face a two-front war. On one hand, they would have to face the endless undead of the Underworld, and on the other, they would have to fight the Holy Kingdom across the ocean in the harsh winter and blizzards, with the gains being far less than the cost of war.

However, even under such unfavorable circumstances, the elves still managed to make the Holy Kingdom lose half of its coastal cities.

Fia said with an unchanged expression.

“What is your purpose? The reward is so generous for just an introduction. What do you want with her?”

“We want to invite her to join ‘Eternal Daylight Mages.’ Even just as a figurehead, making an occasional appearance would be good. ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ needs a presence like hers.”

“Oh?” Fia’s expressionless face moved, and she tilted her head slightly. “Tell me more.”

Calista took a deep breath, her expression becoming serious.

“Our ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ is an organization that rejects gods and firmly believes that intelligent beings can change nature and create miracles through their own power alone. While faith magic has its merits, it lacks variation and requires one to be a believer of a god—or rather, a vassal or servant would be more fitting. What a humiliating and self-deprecating act.”

“We are all born equal, whether human or dragon, god or Darkborn-afflicted patient. Intelligent beings have no obligation to obey another race from birth. Gods are just another existence with great power. As long as our magic is sufficiently deterrent, even gods will submit at our feet. Instead of begging a god to perform a miracle to save ourselves, isn’t it more charismatic and feasible to rely on our own strength and that of our peers to overcome difficulties? Gods receive favors but give no return to their benefactors. What arrogance. We have no need to believe in them.”

“So… you want to use a Tenth-Tier spell to kill a god?”

In the eyes of Fia, an atheist, Calista’s words were indeed somewhat inspiring.

In Fia’s world, a sage had said that there was no need to believe in gods; with the development of technology, humans could become gods themselves. However, that was a world without gods. In the World Tree Continent, gods did exist—unless the “divine oracles” mentioned by both the Cardinal and Claire were actually just people pretending to be gods.

“Of course not,” Calista denied. “At least not now. The power wielded by intelligent beings is still too weak to oppose the gods. We want Her Excellency the Witch to join ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ simply to shape her into a hero who proves that man can conquer heaven.”

“Her existence proves that intelligent beings can use Tenth-Tier magic through their own power. Although it can only destroy everything for now, what about the future? Who can guarantee that in the future, someone won’t create magic that turns deserts into oases, or even creates things from nothing? We are full of possibilities. To break free from the shackles of the gods, Your Highness the Eldest Princess, please, you must introduce us to Her Excellency the Witch.”

“Hmm…”

Fia fell into thought.

She could immediately deny Calista, saying that Claire was not the one who caused the magical disaster. However, she wasn’t sure what to do after that. To be fair, Fia thought ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ was a decent organization, but because she couldn’t definitively say that the gods on the World Tree Continent were fake, she couldn’t easily agree.

This world was not Earth. Earth had no observable gods, whereas she hadn’t had a chance to properly look at this world yet. In the future, she would not only have to find the Elf God for a way to lift the curse, but she might also have to seek out gods other than the Elf God. Taking sides rashly was not wise. Moreover, faith magic did bring benefits to people, and the methods to obtain it were even cheaper than elemental magic. Calista’s claim that “gods cannot respond to the piety of believers” was slightly unfounded.

After all, not everyone had the ability to learn elemental magic. For ordinary people who couldn’t use magic, it made no difference whether the faith magic faction or the pure magic faction became mainstream. ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ could bring rain to crops with water magic, and the church could do the same. The church’s healing magic was even stronger than ordinary healing magic.

Thinking of this, Fia couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. Calista spoke eloquently of “overthrowing the gods,” but in the end, the focus of their conflict with the church was actually whether faith magic was supreme or pure magic was superior. The gods and the church were just personified enemies. Their struggle would not change the lives of ordinary people, and might not even lead to social progress. Faith magic and pure magic were, in fact, two different technology trees. Until history truly reached that point, no one could say for sure that faith magic was inferior to pure magic, or that pure magic was superior to faith magic.

After all, both were existences that could progress over time, and the church had not restricted people’s exploration of either type of magic—the church had never forbidden the exploration of magic, otherwise, there wouldn’t be a Magician’s Association in Aurora City. For ordinary people, this was no different from a change of dynasty in a monarchy. Even if pure magic replaced faith magic, the lives of the poor would remain the same. Hunger and cold would always hang over their heads like dark clouds, an inescapable shadow.

Although Calista and her group had saved three Darkborn-afflicted patients in the square before, the reason might have just been to clarify that the patients were not colluding with the Darkborn, thereby causing trouble for the church. If those three people had not been Darkborn-afflicted patients but had been executed by the church under some other fabricated crime, Calista would not have saved them.

Telling the truth would bring no benefits, and could instead create enemies unknowingly, and she might even be inexplicably considered the leader of ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’. More importantly, she first had to solve the curse on Claire. If the goal of ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ in defeating the church was to genuinely help those in need, rather than simply proving that their pure magic was superior to the church’s faith magic, and if they could consider the lives of ordinary people, she might have helped them. An answer gradually formed in her heart. Fia pursed her lips slightly and smiled.

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“Your ideas are good, but the person who created the magical disaster was not Claire. The reason Claire’s image is blurry in your mind, Calista, is because Claire bears a curse of the world. She has two curses: to be feared and to be forgotten. Also, she is not a witch.”

“Claire… so that’s her name. But besides her, who else could create that magical disaster?”

Fia smiled without answering.

After a moment of dazed silence, a look of disappointment appeared in Calista’s eyes.

“Your Highness the Eldest Princess doesn’t know either… Hah, as expected, it’s not as simple as I thought. Ah, we can discuss another matter. Your Highness should also be interested in the magical disaster in the Dry Desert, right? Our ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ are willing to investigate and search for the person who used the Tenth-Tier spell together with Silvar.”

Seeing that Fia still didn’t answer, Calista clenched her fists, and her tone became subdued.

“I know the power of the Elf Kingdom is much stronger than our ‘Eternal Daylight Mages,’ but we won’t just sit back and enjoy the Elf Kingdom’s intelligence. We are willing to pay for it. Of course, if we find any useful information, Your Highness the Eldest Princess will also have to buy it from us. How about it?”

“If it’s just to that extent, I agree,” I am the one who used the Tenth-Tier spell, so agreeing is not a problem, “Also, since ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ has its own unique insights into magic, I think you might be able to provide another perspective on lifting the curse on Claire. Claire’s curse is something even the Goddess of Life cannot solve. If you can find a way to solve it, it would undoubtedly prove that your magic is superior to that of the gods.”

“That’s possible, but the Lady Claire you speak of is not by your side. Without the person here, even if we conduct research, we cannot verify the results. Teacher Andrew said that research is a gradual process. Only through trial and error, step by step, can we gradually find the answer.”

“That’s true.”

Fia couldn’t help but curve her lips. Calista didn’t refuse or show any difficulty, but agreed at once. This organization called ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ was truly impressive. At least in their pursuit of magic, they were serious.

“Can you tell me your address? I will look for you in the future.”

This time, it was Calista’s turn to smile.

“When Your Highness the Eldest Princess returns to your country, go to the Magician’s Association and mention ‘Eternal Daylight Mages’ and my name. The people inside will ask about your request.”

At this point, Calista seemed to remember something and pushed a small, emerald-green leather pouch in front of Fia.

“This is a small token of my sincerity. My magic mentor, Teacher Andrew, is a famous madman in the world of magic studies. This is an item he developed called the ‘Key of the World Tree.’ Inserting it into an enemy’s body can temporarily separate their soul from their body. However, it’s ineffective against souls that are too stable or powerful. It might be of help to Your Highness in battle. Please accept it.”

“It sounds very valuable. Are you sure it’s okay to just give it to me?”

Fia opened the leather pouch. Inside was a yellowish-green short dagger.

“It’s fine,” Calista sighed helplessly, looking troubled. “If Your Highness doesn’t accept it, I’ll be the one with the headache. Teacher Andrew is a famous magic madman. He tells everyone that the Key of the World Tree is his greatest invention, but it’s hard to say that an item with such a bizarre effect has anything to do with a ‘great invention.'”

“And unfortunately for me, I happened to be assigned under Teacher Andrew. If I don’t complete the tasks he assigns, it will be very difficult to graduate from the academy. Even if I have more authority than him, I can’t change this rule. The homework he gave us is to distribute the Key of the World Tree as widely as possible. Whoever can make this thing famous can get a mentor’s recommendation and become one of them. So this thing is not valuable at all. Your Highness, please see.”

With a look of disgust, Calista took out dozens of identical leather pouches from her spatial pocket and spread them on the table.

“The production cost is ridiculously low. Each of us students received two to three hundred of these. Separating the soul from the body sounds impressive, but the prerequisite is that the opponent’s soul cannot be too stable. And what is considered stable? I can assert that except for newborn infants, everyone’s soul is very stable. Our souls and bodies are born to match, there is no such thing as being unstable.”

“Only undead spirits possessing the bodies of others would have the problem of stability. Not to mention, after being stabbed by the Key of the World Tree, the soul only leaves the body for a very short time, recovering in just a few seconds.”

“Ooh!” Fia exclaimed in amazement. This was practically an item made to deal with her. “Does it have a usage limit?”

“No, you just need to inject mana to use it—Hey? Your Highness, wait!”

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While Calista was speaking, Fia had already pressed the dagger firmly against the pad of her finger, drawing a cut.

A line of blood quickly appeared.

However, apart from a little pain in her finger, nothing happened.

Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. It seems this invention is indeed useless.

Fia pouted.

Because of Fia’s sudden action, Calista became extremely flustered. She stood up from her seat, leaned across the table, and grabbed Fia’s injured hand, her face full of excitement.

From this angle… I can already see the cleavage in her collar.

It’s light blue.

Fia politely averted her gaze.

“Huh…? I clearly saw it bleed, how come there’s nothing…”

Because of nanomachines, nanomachines.

Fia answered inwardly.

Thinking her eyes had deceived her, Calista looked quite embarrassed and sat back down.

“Ahem, that’s all I have to say. Does Your Highness have any more questions?”

“No. Thank you for your gift—do you want to have dinner together?”

“No…” Calista’s already embarrassed expression became even more awkward. She touched the white wings that replaced her ears. “That subordinate of yours… I don’t want to see her again. It brings back bad memories.”

It’s probably related to Anastasia’s interrogation.

Somewhat curious about what happened, she decided to ask Anastasia about it later.

“Well then, I will take my leave—oh, right, the division of magic casters that appeared in the square that day and helped me escape was actually commanded by Your Highness the Eldest Princess, wasn’t it? What a well-trained team. I have never seen a division of magic casters with such consistent rhythm and precise magical control. On behalf of ‘Eternal Daylight Mages,’ I salute you. You are a respectable magic caster.”

“Uh, that was actually…”

“Well then, until we meet again.”

Because Fia’s hesitant voice was a bit soft, Calista didn’t hear it. The latter placed her left hand on her right shoulder, bowed to Fia, then jumped out of the carriage and led her other companion away using flight magic.

It was worth noting that, as if on purpose, Calista did not take the dozens of leather pouches containing the Key of the World Tree from the table, leaving them all for Fia.

It seemed Calista was indeed greatly troubled by this invention.

Fia couldn’t help but smile wryly, then let out a long sigh.