Honestly, I had expected Alysa to be weak.
Compared to the other Creators, she had only recently entered the Imaginary World, and unlike us, she hadn't received proper training from other Creators to understand and control her element. The truth was, I didn't even know what her element was. She looked silly most of the time, and sometimes... well, an idiot too. But I couldn't really judge her yet. I hadn't seen her fight seriously. I had only seen her curiosity, her strange way of talking, and the way she somehow managed to get excited about almost everything.
But then, on the First Branch of Route Two, while I was facing an enemy squad, something happened that completely changed my understanding of her.
It wasn't Alysa herself who appeared.
It was her presence.
A flower near my feet suddenly spoke to me, warning me about the attack coming from behind. Because of that warning, I was able to dodge the long-faced fairy's strike and survive the arrows coming from his teammates. I still didn't know where Alysa was hiding, but somehow, she was watching the entire battlefield through that flower.
The long-faced fairy had also created some distance between us after the exchange. It gave me a moment to think about something else I had just discovered.
Aura.
It wasn't exactly a huge surprise to me. I had already experienced something similar when fighting Master Ben. Calling what happened between us a fight might be generous, but whenever Master Ben became serious, his fists were covered in that strange, unscathed flame. It seemed similar to what these fairies were doing with their weapons.
Maybe the difference was simply refinement.
Control.
A weapon could be covered in an element, or it could be reinforced by aura. In the end, what mattered was how well the power was refined and controlled.
But right now, I had more important things to worry about.
I looked toward the flower.
"Can you see us? And hear me?"
There was no answer from Alysa herself.
I didn't even know where she was.
And honestly, that was a good thing.
If I couldn't find her, neither could our enemies.
Judging from the way the wood around us had changed shape, and the fact that Alysa was apparently hiding somewhere beneath the roots, I could make a pretty good guess about her element. Nature. Or perhaps something related to wood. I still didn't know exactly what she could do, but after what she had just done for me, I decided I could trust her.
The two archers suddenly raised their bows.
The arrows were covered in aura.
They released them.
The moment the arrows flew toward me, the flower beneath the ground spoke again.
I heard her warning.
And this time, I couldn't hold myself back.
I rushed straight toward the long-faced fairy.
When he saw me coming, his expression changed.
"Huh? You want to die sooner?"
He shouted and launched himself toward me.
Who did he think he was?
We couldn't even die in this tournament because of the bracelet's teleportation spell. If someone received a fatal injury, they would simply be eliminated and sent to the safe zone.
So what was he trying to accomplish by acting like death itself was standing behind me?
I needed to teach him a lesson.
The arrows came toward me, but the wood around us reacted again. Roots and branches twisted together and blocked the projectiles before they could reach me. At the same time, I collided with the long-faced fairy.
Our swords struck each other.
"Be careful of your surroundings!" he shouted toward his allies. "Another Creator or his ally is nearby!"
The support fairies immediately reacted. They clapped their hands together, and the strange energy from before flowed through them and toward the long-faced fairy. His body became stronger, and the aura surrounding his sword intensified.
"Now let us end this!" he shouted. "It doesn't matter who your ally is! If I kill you here, that person can't do anything!"
Bold of you, son of a shit.
I pushed against his blade.
Then suddenly, the two support fairies behind him froze.
Roots had wrapped around their feet.
Before they could react, the roots tightened and dragged them backward.
"What?!"
Their connection broke.
The buffs surrounding the long-faced fairy disappeared.
I immediately took advantage of the opening and pushed him away with everything I had. Then I jumped into the air, gathering wind around my sword and refining the blade until the pressure around it became sharp enough to cut through the surrounding air.
The long-faced fairy raised his sword as well.
His aura gathered around the broad blade.
We both understood what was coming next.
He launched himself toward me.
I did the same.
"Wind's Way!"
Our blades collided.
The impact was destructive.
A violent shockwave spread through the branch, sending dust, leaves, and broken pieces of wood flying in every direction. The ground shook beneath us, and the sudden cloud of debris covered the entire battlefield.
The two archers moved closer, trying to see through the dust.
They shouldn't have.
The moment they stepped forward, the ground beneath them disappeared.
Both of them fell straight into a hole.
"What?!"
Before they could recover, roots burst from the darkness and wrapped around their bodies. The wooden vines tightened around them, holding them so firmly that struggling only made the grip stronger. It was almost like being caught by a giant python.
The more they moved, the tighter the roots became.
Eventually, they stopped struggling.
Then they noticed something.
A tunnel.
The roots began clearing a path through the darkness.
And from the other end of that tunnel, Alysa walked toward them.
She looked completely relaxed.
"You fell for it!"
She tilted her head and smiled.
"Though you guys were pretty good. But I played Squid Game a lot, so... yeah. Bad luck!"
She continued walking through the tunnel as if this was nothing more than a game.
Then she remembered the conversation we had before the second round of the fight.
"I'll handle the archers and the supporters."
"And you'll handle the leader."
"You can do it, right?"
Alysa smiled.
You aren't weak.
She paused.
In a fight, I mean.
---
The dust slowly began to clear.
The long-faced fairy was still standing.
He was breathing heavily.
His clothes were damaged, and blood was flowing from a wound on his body.
"Damn you, bastard!"
He gritted his teeth.
"Using another wind blade immediately after the clash!"
Yes.
I had done exactly that.
The moment our swords collided, the impact pushed both of us backward. While he was recovering from the clash, I had used the wind in my other hand and formed a sharp blade.
Then I enlarged it.
And cut him.
It had worked.
But I was tired too.
I lowered my sword slightly, thinking the battle was finally over.
That was my mistake.
The long-faced fairy suddenly jumped toward me.
"I'm not over yet!"
I instinctively raised my sword and blocked his attack.
The impact forced me backward.
Damn it.
There it was again.
My bad habit.
The moment I thought a fight was over, I lowered my guard.
I needed to change that if I wanted to live longer.
The fairy's breathing became rough.
"I'm bleeding!"
He grinned through the pain.
"But I can't die here! So I'll fight until the moment I defeat you!"
What a stubborn man.
Fine.
If that was what he wanted, then I'd give it to him.
"I think you're underestimating me."
I pushed him away.
Then I lowered my sword.
For a moment, I simply stood there.
I pulled my sword into its sheath.
Let it breathe.
The long-faced fairy stared at me in confusion.
Then his aura began gathering again.
He raised his broad blade.
I understood immediately.
This would be the last attack between us.
Whoever lost would be eliminated from the tournament.
I placed my hand on the sword.
Then I drew it.
In one flash.
As fast as I could.
But this time, I did something different.
I guided the wind along the path of my sword.
It was something I had thought about back home.
I'd never tried it before.
Yet the moment my blade moved, the wind followed it.
The long-faced fairy charged at the same time.
Our swords collided.
His aura-covered broad blade stopped mine.
For a moment, it seemed like he had won the clash.
Then the wind came.
Not around my sword.
Not around my body.
It followed the path of my blade like a wave.
The force exploded outward.
A massive wave of wind struck him.
His aura had been concentrated around his sword.
He hadn't covered his body.
And that was enough.
The wind wave slammed into him and sent him flying backward.
The attack finally ended.
Silence followed.
The long-faced fairy slowly dropped to his knees.
He coughed.
Blood spilled from his mouth.
I stared at it.
"...You guys bleed red?"
Even in a battle like this, I had to admit...
That was an interesting discovery.
Alysa suddenly emerged from beneath the roots.
She looked toward the long-faced fairy, then at me.
But before either of us could say anything, the bracelet around the fairy's wrist suddenly began glowing.
A magic circle appeared beneath him.
It was different from the teleportation magic I had seen before.
Symbols covered the circle.
I didn't recognize the language.
Yet somehow...
The symbols felt familiar.
I stared at them.
Something about them pulled at my attention.
I wanted to look closer.
I wanted to understand what they meant.
Then—
The fairy disappeared.
His body vanished along with the glowing magic circle beneath him.
Alysa looked at the empty space.
"So that's how someone gets disqualified."
She sounded genuinely interested.
I looked at my bracelet.
"So we're safe as long as we have these?"
Alysa nodded.
I turned toward her.
"What were you—"
Before I could finish the sentence, her stomach growled.
Grrrrrrr.
Alysa froze.
She slowly looked at me.
Then smiled awkwardly.
"Ha... ha..."
I stared at her.
"I was hungry, so I went to find you."
She pointed toward me.
"So give me something to eat."
I stared at her.
"...Am I your mother?"
I didn't have anything particularly special with me. Only some light food I'd picked up along the way, including a few berries from one of the branches of the tree. They hadn't looked poisonous, and I'd already eaten one myself, so I figured they were safe.
I handed some to Alysa.
Her face immediately brightened.
She looked genuinely happy.
Something this simple made her that excited?
"Why are you so happy?"
I narrowed my eyes.
"Don't tell me you're actually enjoying this tournament?"
Alysa tilted her head.
"What do you mean? I always enjoy everything!"
I stared at her.
Hmm.
Now that I thought about it, she really was curious about everything.
Bright.
Maybe childish.
Definitely childish.
She sat down and started eating the berries.
I sat beside her.
It was time to understand what I was fighting alongside.
"So tell me. What's your element, and what can you do? We need to build our combat strategy around your abilities."
Alysa thought for a moment.
"Hmm... my element is nature."
"Nature?"
"Yeah. But it's not like I can create nature myself like you did with your body back there."
"Huh?"
She pointed at me.
"You created that force field around your body by regenerating wind from inside your body, right? It looked really strong..."
She suddenly stopped.
Her expression changed.
She hesitated.
I noticed it immediately.
"What's wrong?"
Alysa looked at me.
"I can't see it."
She touched her chest.
"But I can feel it."
Her eyes became more serious.
"That technique is destroying your body."
I froze.
"I don't know the details. Maybe I'm wrong. But that's what I felt when you used it. So without knowing exactly what it's doing to you, I think you shouldn't use that method with your element."
Destroying my body?
I looked down at my hands.
I'd never noticed anything like that.
As a Creator of the Imaginary World, I could use and control my element. My masters could create fire directly from thin air. They didn't simply control existing fire.
So why was creating wind from my body different?
Or perhaps...
Does their body get damaged too?
I needed to look into this.
Alysa leaned toward me.
Her eyes shined as she made her request.
"You won't use it again, right?"
How was I supposed to reject her after that?
"Fine."
I sighed.
"But in return, you won't fight alone."
I looked directly at her.
"I know I told you before, but I'm telling you again. Don't fight alone."
Alysa dramatically raised her hands.
"But I'm weak! How am I supposed to fight other people?"
I stared at her.
Look at this acting.Then she became more serious."Anyway, back to my element. I can feel the wood around me. It's like a connection. I can sense things from a certain distance, and I can use my powers to command pieces of wood, like branches, bales, and other parts of the tree."
She smiled proudly."They follow me like a queen!"
I stared at her.She's delusional, right?
She continued before I could say anything.
"Besides that, I can use seeds to grow plants. And I can create a connection with them, like I did before. I can send my words through the connection and talk through the flower."
I still didn't completely understand her ability.
Maybe she wasn't very good at explaining it.
But one thing was clear.She could create a connection with seeds.That gave me an idea.
"Can you create a connection with a seed and give it to me? That way, we could communicate even if we're separated on different branches."
Alysa thought about it for a while.
"It's possible. But my connection with flowers isn't that strong."
She pointed toward the flower that had spoken to me earlier.
"Look at that one."
I looked.The flower was already dead.
Its petals had withered, and its life force seemed completely gone."You did that to the flower?"
Alysa nodded.
"When I create a connection with a seed and it blossoms, I can hear through it. But the connection uses the flower's life force."
She lowered her voice.
"Because I'm far away from it, I can't regenerate that life force. So eventually, the flower burns through its own life force..."
She looked at the dead flower.
"...and dies."
That was enough information.
"So to create a communication system between us, we need a seed with a large amount of life force. If we can't find that, then we need a seed with greater durability. And if even that doesn't work, I can carry a connected seed. When it blossoms, we can use it for emergency communication and coordination."
I finished explaining.Alysa stared at me.
Then suddenly—
She laughed.Hard.
I looked at her in confusion.
"What?"
She continued laughing.
"Did I say something funny?"
She wiped the corner of her eye.
"Are you making fun of me?"
"No!"
She tried to stop laughing.
"I didn't mean to laugh! And I'm not laughing at you."
She took a deep breath.
"Let me catch my breath first."
She inhaled deeply.
"Huuu..."
Then exhaled.
"Haaaa..."
After calming herself, she looked at me.
"You actually understand the way I explain things?"
"Yeah."
She smiled.
"When I talk to other people, nobody understands me. Even when I try to explain things properly, they don't get what I'm saying. Until now, only Captain Shin really understood me."
She lowered her eyes.
"When I was in the Human World, I used to explain my game account powers to other people. They never understood what I was talking about."
A small laugh escaped her.
"I thought maybe I was just bad at explaining things."
She looked at me.
"Maybe I'm not?"
Yes, you are.I kept that thought to myself.
But she had just casually mentioned something about her life in the Human World.
And strangely, I didn't mind.
She was being open with me.
Alysa looked upward.
Her eyes shined like stars.
"When I was a child, I always wanted to have fun."
Her voice became quieter.
"Because I was sick back then."
I looked at her.
"But after the operation..."
She smiled.
"It had a fifty-fifty chance."
She paused.
"I succeeded."
Sick?
I wondered what kind of illness she had.
But I decided not to ask.
She was already healed.
At least, that's what I assumed.
Alysa suddenly shook her head.
"Let's not bring that up here."
I understood.
She was still affected by those memories.
It reminded me of Abeth.
She had spent a long time in a hospital too.
I hated that kind of place.
Those cold white rooms where people were forced to stay while watching everyone else outside, smiling and living their lives.
Then a memory suddenly flashed through my mind.
A hospital.
I was lying on a bed.
Bandages covered my body.
My eyes looked dead.
I was alone in the room.
But there was something more.
Something buried deeper.
The memory didn't feel like a normal memory. It was more like watching a scene from a different perspective, like a clip from a play where the meaning was hidden behind the actions.
I couldn't tell what I had been feeling.
I couldn't tell what I had been thinking.
Maybe those missing pieces had been lost during the Split Time.
Or maybe...
Shadow has the other parts.
But one thing was certain.
I had been involved in some kind of accident.
The memory became hazy.
Then, at the very end, I saw my mother's face.
Tears were in her eyes.
She rushed toward me.
And hugged me.
Before I could fall deeper into the memory, Alysa's voice snapped me back to reality.
"As I was saying! We need to move now!"
She stood up.
"It's time to clear the branch!"
I blinked.
"Yes."
I stood as well.
"It is time."
We had already wasted nearly eight hours since entering the branch.
Eight hours.
If we wanted to find the key parts and win this tournament, we needed to move.
---
In another corner of the First Branch, three young fairies stood together.
At the center was the young fairy who had asked the question about death during the tournament explanation.
He was still holding his book.
His eyes were fixed on the distant parts of the branch.
A sly smile rested on his face.
But it was clearly fabricated.
He was the first son of the head of the Wtchy family, a family whose wealth exceeded even that of many royals.
His words alone were enough to shake the will of nobles and civilians alike.
His connections extended far beyond titles.
A young fairy boy approached him from behind.
He was his junior at the academy.
"Lord Crassus."
Crassus didn't look at him.
The boy continued.
"Lahod Baywee and his squad have been defeated by the Creator team."
A strange expression appeared on Crassus's face.
Disappointment.
He slowly closed his book.
"Things have already been put into place."
His voice was calm.
"Yet he was too slow to take advantage of them."
The boy hesitated.
Crassus looked toward the distant branch.
"Keep an eye on them."
The boy couldn't help himself.
"May I ask, Lord Crassus? What's so special about them? They haven't shown anything particularly impressive."
Crassus slowly turned his head.
"They may be slow."
He looked toward the direction where Zaraf and Alysa had disappeared.
"But that doesn't mean they're weak."
His fingers tightened around the book.
"I may have been disappointed, but it's better to be prepared than defeated."
The boy behind him froze.
What?
He stared at Crassus in disbelief.
Lord Crassus? The same Lord Crassus who went against the Golden Child of the Magic Tower? He's being more cautious about these Creators than her?
It didn't make sense.
Crassus took a slow breath.
"It is about to start."
Then suddenly—
A light appeared.
Not just around them.
All across the First Branch.
I noticed it at almost the same time.
Alysa looked upward.
"What is this now?"
We both looked around.
Magic artifacts began appearing in the air.
They had been moving through the branch under some kind of invisibility spell.
Then a voice echoed throughout the entire branch.
"THE FIRST BRANCH VOILÀ SPELL HAS BEEN AWAKENED!"
I froze.
"...What did that say?"
The announcement continued.
"THE PARTICIPANT WHO COMPLETED THE REQUIREMENTS WAS THE GOLDEN CHILD OF THE HIGH ARCANEUM TOWER!"
A pause.
Then the name was announced.
"ELARIA VALERIAN!"
My eyes widened.
Already?She had already acquired the three key parts and awakened the spell?
Had we wasted too much time?
Or were they simply that powerful?
Before I could answer my own question, the
announcement continued.
"ALL REMAINING PARTICIPANTS HAVE TWENTY-FOUR HOURS TO FIND THE AWAKENED VOILÀ SPELL AND PASS THE FIRST BRANCH!"
Suddenly, every flying golem revealed a glowing countdown.
Numbers appeared in their eyes.And immediately began decreasing.I stared at the countdown.
Then slowly looked toward Alysa.
"We're in trouble."
Far away, Crassus stood within the awakened spell.The light surrounded him.
He looked toward the path leading deeper into the Exil Tree.A strange smile appeared on his face.
"Show me."
His voice was almost a whisper.
"You are the Down Bringer..."
He closed his book.
"Just like the previous ones who conquered the tower with only three members."
His eyes shined with anticipation.
"I've been waiting for this."
Then Crassus stepped forward.
And disappeared toward the Second Branch.
The countdown continued.
23:59:59...
The tournament had changed.