Lucia Reaches the Second Cristallo Sacro

Though we’d been ready to fight the entire way through the forest, we didn’t encounter a single monster on our way. Why? There were so many in Kyriest. When we reached the Cristallo Sacro, it was the same as the tree in Kyriest — a clear, twisted trunk, with crystal branches reaching the sky; spattered spots of black egg-like fruits; even the black miasma around it was the same.

We all dismounted at the base of the tree.

“Okay, I’ll get the pre-purification samples first.” Eric pulled a small knife and bottle from his gear, eyes sparkling. You could tell he was excited to get to his research.

“Don’t we need the stuff from after it’s purified?” Sir Gaius griped.

“We’d have nothing to compare it to if we don’t grab some samples before purifying, too. We wanna see how it changes. The mana content, the composition... Whether it’s a plant or mineral, or some form of matter we’ve never seen. Ahh! I want to go straight back to my lab!”

“Research dummy.”

“Thanks for the compliment!” Eric beamed.

“It wasn’t a compliment.”

Following their exchange, Eric started trying to take off a leaf — but suddenly stopped. “I can’t get it off! Bear, help me out here!”

No matter how he pulled, the leaf didn’t even budge. It looked like it really was one solid piece of crystal.

Sir Gaius approached the tree and started trying to pull one off, too, but no luck. “I can’t get it off either.”

“What, even you can’t get it off? Hey, Captain! Come slice this off!”

He didn’t ask Sir Gaius to cut it off, huh. Sir Celes came closer and silently touched the crystal at the hilt of his sword before aiming a slash at the tree. But, aside from a loud clink that echoed around, the leaves remained unmoved.

Both Eric and Sir Celes’s eyes widened. They clearly had both thought it would work.

“The Captain’s wind magic enchanted slash didn’t work either? How hard is this thing! Geez, guess it’s time to get serious. Rafaga!” Losing his temper, Eric grabbed the crystal on his chest and used his magic. A sharp blade of wind shot towards the branch, but it...didn’t move an inch, much less drop any leaves. “What!? Are you serious!?”

“It looks as if we’re going to have trouble getting a ‘drop’ from the tree... Could there be any other methods we could try?” While Eric’s shoulders sagged in disappointment, Lord Reynard furrowed his brow, deep in thought.

‘The Drop of the Cristallo Sacro’... What was it, and how would we get it?

“Okay then, let’s try purifying it first. We might be able to get it then, since we’re obviously not gonna get anything right now. ...I hate to say it, but I’ll have to give up on a pre-purified sample.”

“...Okay.” Hearing Eric’s idea, Miss Maria nodded from her spot beside Lord Reynard. There was no fear in her obsidian eyes this time, only a strong will. “I’m gonna do it, so everyone should step back!”

“Maria...” His Highness stepped toward her.

Miss Maria just smiled at him. “I told you I was gonna try on my own, Ed. I’m not gonna just rely on others anymore. I’ve stopped running away! It wasn’t like me, anyway.”

Holding Shiro, she stood in front of the Cristallo Sacro, still surrounded by black mist.

“Okay, time for my light magic. Watch this, everyone! Cristallo Sacro — cornerstone of this world — be bathed in light!”

The incantation that she used wasn’t like any I’d ever heard. I might not have known much about magic, but it seemed like it was a different system than Eric’s incantations.

“Ah!”

As soon as she finished the ancient-sounding incantation, the tree lit up. It was different from when I’d done it. It felt...divine. Surrounded by painfully bright light, we all shut our eyes. It was that strong.

“It’s done!”

Opening our eyes at her prompt, we saw the Cristallo Sacro sparkling, clear of miasma.

“Eri-kun, d’you think you can get a leaf off now?”

“Ah... I’ll try!” Eric, who had been captivated by the tree, came back to his senses when Miss Maria spoke to him, nodding quickly. “This is amazing... The eggs are gone. Does that mean they’re made of the same stuff as the mist? Do they not grow off of the purified Cristallo Sacro?”

Now that he mentioned it, there weren’t any on the ground, so they must have really disappeared. But they said that the egg with Shiro hadn’t disappeared back in Kyriest, so...how did it work?

Approaching the shining tree, Eric tried pulling off one of its beautiful leaves. First he did it gently, but he gradually pulled harder. You could tell he was using all of his strength, but the leaf didn’t even budge. “Hmm, it looks like we can’t get anything off of it, even after it’s been purified. What could the ‘drop’ be, then?”

Our happiness at purifying the tree didn’t last long. We all went silent at Eric’s words. How were we supposed to get this ‘drop’!?

Lucia Worries About the Trees

After that, we spent a few days at the Cristallo Sacro, trying to see if we could get a drop, or even a fragment, of the tree. We were attacked by monsters multiple times while we were there. Though purifying the tree had gotten rid of the black mist, the monsters that had been born before hadn’t disappeared. It must have just been a coincidence that we weren’t attacked on the way there.

“Why are monsters born, anyway?” Eric mumbled, clearly exhausted. After many attempts, we had decided to stop our investigation of the Cristallo Sacro of Foristarn. “Why do the Cristallo Sacro make monsters? I mean, they’re supposed to be sacred trees, supporting our world. Why would they mass-produce things that hurt humans?”

No one could answer him. Why the trees...birth monsters.

The Cristallo Sacro were necessary for humans to use magic. But, over the course of our journey, we’d realized that they were also terrifying trees that birthed the monsters that threatened humanity. When they were pure, they gave us our mana, but as soon as they were infected, they hurt us.

“Should we just cull the sprouting monsters before they’re born? Or maybe burn all the fruit up?” Eric mumbled with his cheek on the tree.

Miss Maria spoke up from behind, “Why do you guys need these trees anyway? If we figure out how to cut them, why not just cut them all down? They’re nothing but a pain, anyway.”

“Wha— No! They’re the pillars of this world! Without them, we’d have no magic—”

“You can live without magic, Eri-kun. My world didn’t have any. The only reason you need the Cristallo Sacro is because you rely so much on magic, so if you got rid of it, you wouldn’t need the trees.”

“That’s just...”

“I mean, it’s their fault that the world’s like this, right? I wouldn’t have been summoned if not for the trees. They’re everything that’s wrong, here.”

Miss Maria kicked the Cristallo Sacro with the toe of her boot, while Eric rushed to stop her. “Don’t kick it! The trees are incredibly important pillars made by the gods of creation to support our world!”

“Are they really supporting anything, though, when they’re only causing problems?” Miss Maria looked up at the Cristallo Sacro with a grimace, and the rest of us followed her gaze.

The tree shone in the setting sun, neither deep blue nor orange. The sinister, gloomy miasma was gone, replaced with clear air. There was no magic in Miss Maria’s world, and no Cristallo Sacro. We couldn’t imagine a world without these sacred trees. We didn’t know if our world would even still exist if we lost them.

“It might be time for us to think about the Cristallo Sacro.” Commander Agliardi murmured as his green eyes looked above the treetop. “If we’re going to keep living with the trees, we’ll need to find a way to stop the monsters — and if we want to free ourselves from the Cristallo Sacro, we’ll need to find a way to do that, too. Purifying them isn’t going to solve all of our problems.”

Lord Reynard followed up his thought with, “But if the creation myths are true, the Cristallo Sacro exist to hold the heavens up to protect our world. I think that instead of doing something we could never take back, like getting rid of them, it would be better to find a way to live with them.”

The Commander and Lord Reynard looked at each other before once again focusing on the tree.

What would be best? I had never even imagined a world without the Cristallo Sacro. But if we kept on living like this, there was a chance that they’d once again become surrounded in miasma and birth monsters. Just like they did after the last Sacred Maiden purified them 1600 years ago...

“Whatever the case, let’s get going to the final tree.” His Highness was the one to clear the air. Touching the trunk of the Cristallo Sacro, he looked at all of us. “Right now, we can’t even damage the trees. But maybe things will change once they’ve all been purified. We still need to find the ‘Drop of the Cristallo Sacro,’ as well. We’ve investigated this tree, but there’s nothing else we can do to it right now.”

“Ed...”

“Let’s head to Dal Canto, where the next Cristallo Sacro is. We can discuss what we want to do on the way.”