I ran into the World Tree before slowing down, I didn’t really know where to go and I didn’t really know how to open any of the doors. In fact the door behind me quickly closed up, cutting off the sounds from outside. I paced around in the room I was in thinking to myself when I felt another earth shattering shake. There was nothing I could do. I had no strength to fight something like that or even bother trying to help, the best I could do was make sure that I stayed out of the way and waited for them to resolve the issue.
‘And what if they can’t? What if they lose against whatever is fighting?’
Well, if they lost. I was dead too so it didn’t really matter. I probably could have run away if I was still outside. But I wasn’t. I was here now so I was just gonna have to make do. I went and sat against the wall holding tightly onto the sword Illesea gave me.
Illesea ran as fast as she could, and yet it didn’t feel like it was enough. The pillar of fire was extremely powerful magic, there was only one person in the entirety of the Nalthien Forest that could match that level of strength. As she got closer to the source of the fire she started to feel more mana sources in the area, flying high above the barrier.
‘One, two, three, four, five… Six… Seven…’ Illesea let out a torrent of curses and swears that would have made her mothers ears bleed. Illesea was by no means weak, in fact she was one of the strongest people within the citadel subtracting the elders, the Speaker was obviously an exception as well being a force of nature few things could hope to compare to the strength of a Dryad within their natural domain. But all seven of the sources she felt were all stronger than her.
Half the world believed they were just a fairy tale, a myth to scare your children to not do naughty things, to make them behave. But that was only within the mortal realms, the shorter-lived races tended to forget the source of their fears within a couple hundred years. Immortals were a different story. Illesea could still remember the smoke that day, the fires burning, and rubble raining down from the sky as an entire section of a city was upheaved and thrown. She remembered the last time they had gotten involved with the world, the last time they had destroyed a nation.
Illesea slowed to a halt as she came up on multiple squadrons of elves poised under where the pillar of flame had been, waiting.
“Warden Illesea!” The squads instantly stood at attention slamming their fists over their hearts in salute.
“Don’t turn away,” Illesea spoke briefly, they knew what was expected of them. They had trained thousands upon thousands of times for this very situation, and given the enemy they didn’t have time to focus on formalities for rank.
“Prepare, we face the Sentinels of Discord.”
I was still sitting against the wall when I saw the floor bulge in front of me. I shot to my feet and took a stance with the sword Illesea had given me. I tried not to let it show on my face but I was so terrified I thought I felt as if I was going to throw up. I saw the wood rise up in front of me and I nearly collapsed in relief as I saw the Speaker form in front of me.
“Human, come with me.” The Speaker’s tone made it clear I did not have a say in this. I was told to follow and so I did. The Speaker didn’t so much walk as glide across the floor.
[????]
That was odd, this is what I would’ve normally expected trying to identify a high level creature, but I was able to see Illesea’s level. What did this mean?
“Why can’t I see your level? And for that matter what are you? I don’t believe you are an elf.” I was once again having to half-jog to keep up with the pace of the towering creature.
The Speaker did not look back at me as it replied, “I am a Dryad. The reason you can not see my level is because you are not looking at my true form, only one I use for convenience.”
Huh, interesting. True form? Wait, it’s a Dryad. Forest, form, Speaker….
“Oh. Oooooh, you’re the Heart aren’t you? It’s not that you speak with or necessarily for the Heart, you’re how the Heart communicates outward aren’t you?”
This time the Speaker actually stopped to look at me, as if it was actually seeing me for the first time, “... That is only half correct. Very few mortals ever make the connection however. I am how the Heart communicates outward and we do share a bond. But I am not the Heart itself, yet we are one…” The Speaker glided towards me lowering itself so it could look into my eyes, “Yes, I think I understand the Hearts decision now. We have no time, we must hurry now, Alex.”
The Speaker picked up its pace and I had to run to keep up with it, “What’s happening outside? Who would attack you all? I figured you all were pretty strong based off of Illesea’s level, but even she seemed concerned about what was happening.”
“The elves are powerful, even a young elf only a decade old would have the strength to match that of a fully grown mortal. Illesea is one of the strongest fighters within the city and has been given the title of Kel’ran or Warden in the mortal tongues. Illesea is our second line of defense and single handedly powers the barriers you see surrounding the citadel. She is the protector of her people and there are only 6 who rank above her in power. The five elders and myself. However, none of them will be able to stop the opponents that are here. As it stands, there’s not a single group capable of stopping the ones attacking the Citadel of Nalthien.”
“If you are one of the strongest fighters here, why are you here and not fighting? If you all worked together you might be able to push them back, maybe not decisively win but at least preserve some of the people here?” I knew what I was saying was unreasonable, I had no right telling this person what to do. But the words spilled out faster than I could stop them.
“I am the Hearts last line of defense. All non-combatants have already taken shelter within my roots, and should our fighters be pushed back they will seek refuge with me as well and I will defend them to my last. However, the heart has given me an important mission to fulfill first and I will not forsake it even at the expense of our entire population.”
The Speaker's words were not harsh or cold, just factual. The Speaker had something it needed to do and showed unwavering loyalty to this Heart, something I didn’t fully understand and probably never would. I’m sure Illesea and the other elves already knew that as well. My eyes were downcast as I ran next to the Speaker thinking over its words before my mind grinded to a halt. ‘My roots’. I can’t believe I had gotten that mixed up. The Speaker wasn’t the form of the Heart. Dryads were tree spirits, and the Heart resided within the world tree.
The Speaker was the Dryad of the World Tree.
Another one died as Illesea could do nothing but stare.
One of them had some sort of curse aura that interfered with healing magic, it didn’t stop it entirely, just slowed it to a crawl making it practically ineffective. As such re-attaching her legs was taking way longer than it should have.
Eventually she just gave up and tossed them to the side, using her wood magic to form the rest of her legs in place of her real ones. She could regrow them later, these would have to do for now. She formed tiny droplets of water and had them blast forwards towards the towering demon in front of her. The elf in its hands uncaringly tossed aside as it brushed its other hand in front of the droplets creating a wave of fire that evaporated them and caused the ground to glow and melt under the heat.
Illesea sprinted forward coming behind the demon unleashing a flurry of sword strikes combined with tendrils of water flashing out. The demon blocked her attacks with its claws and everytime her water made contact with him, flames would gush out from where she cut his skin before the gashed closed back up not looking any worse for wear. The demon stopped its foot causing a spike of obsidian to shoot of the ground from her side trying to impale. Illesea didn’t even glance at it as she brought out a countering spike formed from wood that hit against it causing the obsidian to grind to a halt.
“You are strong little elf, much more so than the ones you keep around you.” The demon smiled maliciously as it walked towards her before lunging forward with a sudden motion bringing its fist towards her from underneath. Illesea waited until the last moment before stepping to the side, her wooden blade flashing out and cutting straight through his arm at the elbow, the demon roaring in pain. She immediately pressed her advantage, refusing to give the demon a chance to recover. She formed a second blade in the air letting it drop in her hand, her wood magic seemed to prevail where her water magics had failed. Her swords kept slashing outwards from every direction as she built up to using one of her skills. Finally she gave a feint as if she was going for a double overhead slash before spinning around kicking the demon in the stomach launching it backwards into a wall and unleashing her skill,
[Slumber of Nalthien]
Thousands of roots instantly sprang from the ground wrapping around the demon pulling its arms behind its back. Every root it broke one hundred more took its place binding him, covering him, sealing him. After a brief struggle the demon was covered within a cocoon of wood that wouldn’t fade for a thousand years, by then they could come up with a solution to deal with him permanently.
Illesea fell to her knee’s heaving, she had used nearly all her mana casting that spell. And she wouldn’t be able to use it again for another day, she just had to hope that the elders and the Speaker would be able to deal with the rest.
“Impressive, and here we thought you wouldn’t be that much of an issue to deal with. Although Zalkus wasn’t the best matchup against you with the elements of your classes.” Illesea whipped around to the source of the voice holding her blade out. Three people were standing behind her. The first was a fae, those ones were easy to tell, their hair usually gave it away looking as if they were constantly looking into a wind in slow motion making their hair flutter. The second had soft golden flames covering her skin and was covered with golden scales on her forearms and cheeks, with spiraling horns coming out of her golden mane. This one could only be a dragon, the amount of power emanating from this dragon easily outclassed the demon she had just fought, the only one with any hope of defeating her was the Speaker. The last one, and the one that had spoken, was the most confusing and the most damning. An Angel. Angels and Demons working together?
Any Angel that supposedly worked with Demons became a Demon themselves, they Fall out of grace. That was kind of the point. “Why are you working with a Demon?” She should try and get some information before retreating, anything she could gather on the Sentinels was bound to be useful for future encounters.
The Angel just smiled at her refusing to say anything before a thousand bolts of light flared up behind him. Illesea didn’t hesitate and instantly ran, as it stood she had no mana and was under half health. Even if she were at full strength she had no chance of beating an Angel, this she was just going to have to leave to the speaker.
The Speaker stopped and opened a part of the wall next to us, it opened into a long deep hallway that led further within the World Tree. The Speaker wasted no time instantly moving through once there was enough space leaving me to run to try and keep up. Eventually the long tunnel opened up into an extremely familiar chamber filled with trees, lights glowed in all the colors in the spectrum.
The mana density here was absurd. I could barely breathe. At the very least I wasn’t bleeding from my eyes again. Too often since coming to this world I’ve been seeing my own blood, I needed to put a stop to that as soon as possible. The trees hummed with power as we moved through, the Speaker didn’t slow down in the slightest and I was beginning to struggle with keeping up.
I felt something pulse through me, at first I thought it was a spell from the fighting outside the tree but that wasn’t it. It was extremely rhythmical in nature, it didn’t take me long to figure out it was probably just the Heart. Every pulse coming from it lined up in time with the beating of my own heart causing it to slow down making my body relax and decreasing the weight of the crushing atmosphere. After several more minutes of running we reached a clearing, here the pulses were the strongest, and looking up I saw a massive organ glowing with awe-inspiring power.
I’d seen a few human hearts before thanks to the internet so I had a rough idea of what I was comparing against. This looked not even remotely similar. Which was fair since this thing was easily twice my height in both length and width and was also inside quite literally the largest tree I’d ever seen. There weren’t a lot of similarities, but well. Heart was still an apt description for the kind of gross way it wiggled around, beating, pulsing. Kind of nasty honestly.
“So why did you bring me here? I’m guessing it has to do with the mission the Heart gave you, but I don’t see how I can assist. After all, I'm only level 1.” I glanced at the Speaker as the dryad stared at the Heart in silent communication.
“You are indeed level 1. For now. That will change, you will get stronger. The Heart has foreseen it. Bringing you here was half the mission, the other half begins now.” While speaking the dryad raised its hands and magic flowed out from it.
Roots raised out of the ground, branches spread from the trees around us, the glowing insects swirled around us and the bushes swayed in time with everything around it. The air went from barely tolerable to unbreathable instantly, my breath catching in my throat causing me to choke. I fell down only to feel someone catch me and for healing power to flow through me. I was really starting to hate this place, every two seconds it felt like the mana was trying to kill me. I could hardly do anything or go anywhere without being attacked.
My eyes managed to focus thanks to the healing and I saw who it was. Illesea. Except she was missing an arm and was extremely cut up and bruised.
“You should be… healing yourself…” I managed to choke out, only for her to shake her head. She laid me on the ground and motioned for me to be silent before looking up to the Speaker as it continued its grand scale of magic. A few more moments passed like this with me barely hanging on thanks to Illesea before a powerful wave of magic pushed out from the Speaker and the Heart at the same time causing my vision to black for a brief moment.
When I came to the Heart was no longer suspended in the air and was being held within the hands of the Speaker. The Speaker turned to look at me with the Heart, “I initially thought it was impossible. How could a human with no power have ended up in my innermost chambers, the most sacred and protected place within the citadel without any assistance. I considered every possibility, from time paradoxes to the whims of gods. Perhaps an extra dimensional being though it would be amusing to aggravate me, or maybe you were the extra dimensional being. I considered every possible situation. It took me a while to finally realize what I was missing. You did have help in getting here.” The Speaker stepped forward until it was standing directly in front of me, Illesea helping me rise to my feet. The Speaker held the Heart out towards me until it nearly touched my chest.
“You had help, just not from without. From within,” the Speaker then shoved the Heart forward and it pierced straight through my chest. I didn’t feel anything at first other than shock, looking down I could see the Speakers hand going into my chest next to where my actual heart was located before I looked back up to look into its eyes.
“What… Why…?” The pain hit me like fire, it was all-encompassing and all-consuming. I couldn’t even let out a scream as I felt the Heart's power flow through me trying to heal the damage it was dealing to me. All I could do was sit there silently and try to wait out the pain in hopes that I might actually live.
Illesea did not like this. No. She hated this, it wasn’t right. And it definitely wasn’t fair. She had voiced as much to the Speaker and the elders as well. The Heart had plucked Alex out of his world without giving him a choice and pulled him here to this damned-by-the-gods world in an effort to change the course of the future. The worst part was that he wasn’t even the best choice. The chances alone he had to change anything were so small and insignificant it wouldn’t even be worth considering at all. He would just be a sacrifice in vain. His chances to even survive taking the Heart were astronomically low.
“Speaker this is not right.” She already knew what was going to be said, but she had to at least try. It did not sit well with her to see someone so weak take on such pain without a say.
“You are correct. It is not right. But even still, I will do what I must. Even if it is cruel, even if it is considered evil. I will not ask his forgiveness, only for his grace. That he might look past the wrong I do to him and save our world from collapsing on itself. Now ready yourself, I must prepare to send him and the Sentinels approach.” With those final words healing magic flowed through her fixing her injuries and bolstering her strength.
She didn’t like it. She hated every second of it. What they did here went against everything her classes stood for, everything her title stood for, everything she had stood for since taking her position as warden. She hated it with every fiber of her being.
“I’ll be damned if I let him die to them here.”
I woke up feeling like I had gotten hit by truck-kun and been properly isekai’d. Everything in my body hurt, but at least it no longer felt like I was melting from the inside out. A bunch of notifications had accumulated while I was out.
“Good it seems like your body is acclimating to the Heart. Come, it is time for you to go while Illesea assists in holding them off. If you remain here any longer you will perish.” The Speakers voice sounded almost desperate, I glanced around not seeing Illesea anymore or even the Speaker.
Off in the distance I saw, and even felt, an explosion of force. It happened several times in quick succession before settling down for a moment and picking back up. I assumed Illesea and the Speaker were out there fighting. Who or what, I had no idea. But they had to be strong that they’d made it so far in the first place and the fact that the elves hadn’t won already in the first place.
I slowly managed to pull myself off the floor and glanced around unsure where I was supposed to be going. Off in the distance I saw a massive spire of wood form before it sprouted a bunch of branches curving back downwards to create an enormous birdcage. The branches criss-crossing to create a latticework of reinforcement and make sure what was inside stayed contained.
Illesea landed lightly in front of me looking worse for wear, but at least she had her arm back. She positively radiated power, her form fluctuating due to the sheer amount of mana she pushed out idly.
“You must leave while the Speakers skill holds. We will not be able to protect you from them.” She glanced back towards the cage, “Kor! Bil ka meth!”
As she yelled that a portal opened up next to me, I couldn’t see through it where it led, only the blackness within it. Illesea placed her hand on my shoulder gently, “I’m sorry Alex, for everything that has happened. I did not wish for this to be your fate, but it was not my place to speak out against it. May you find the strength to stand tall in the coming days ahead.”
“Wait, what about you all? Surely you have a way to escape, better yet you’re standing right here, why can’t you just walk through the portal with me?” This was bull. So fucking cliché. It pissed me off, I’d seen this trope a billion times and I hated it. I hated then, I hated it now. She was killing herself for someone she didn’t even know because someone else told her too.
Illesea shook her head in response to my question, “I can’t come with you, you already know that though. You are just being stubborn.”
“So you’re just going to die for someone you don’t even know just because you were told too? That makes zero sense! It’s bullshit and you know it!” I was so pissed off tears were welling up in my eyes. Why was I crying? I was too old to be crying like a child.
A pitying smile adorned her face, “Do not mourn me, young one. You never even knew me.” And then she pushed me through the portal as it closed in front of me, cutting off my vision.
I ran into the World Tree before slowing down, I didn’t really know where to go and I didn’t really know how to open any of the doors. In fact the door behind me quickly closed up, cutting off the sounds from outside. I paced around in the room I was in thinking to myself when I felt another earth shattering shake. There was nothing I could do. I had no strength to fight something like that or even bother trying to help, the best I could do was make sure that I stayed out of the way and waited for them to resolve the issue.
‘And what if they can’t? What if they lose against whatever is fighting?’
Well, if they lost. I was dead too so it didn’t really matter. I probably could have run away if I was still outside. But I wasn’t. I was here now so I was just gonna have to make do. I went and sat against the wall holding tightly onto the sword Illesea gave me.
Illesea ran as fast as she could, and yet it didn’t feel like it was enough. The pillar of fire was extremely powerful magic, there was only one person in the entirety of the Nalthien Forest that could match that level of strength. As she got closer to the source of the fire she started to feel more mana sources in the area, flying high above the barrier.
‘One, two, three, four, five… Six… Seven…’ Illesea let out a torrent of curses and swears that would have made her mothers ears bleed. Illesea was by no means weak, in fact she was one of the strongest people within the citadel subtracting the elders, the Speaker was obviously an exception as well being a force of nature few things could hope to compare to the strength of a Dryad within their natural domain. But all seven of the sources she felt were all stronger than her.
Half the world believed they were just a fairy tale, a myth to scare your children to not do naughty things, to make them behave. But that was only within the mortal realms, the shorter-lived races tended to forget the source of their fears within a couple hundred years. Immortals were a different story. Illesea could still remember the smoke that day, the fires burning, and rubble raining down from the sky as an entire section of a city was upheaved and thrown. She remembered the last time they had gotten involved with the world, the last time they had destroyed a nation.
Illesea slowed to a halt as she came up on multiple squadrons of elves poised under where the pillar of flame had been, waiting.
“Warden Illesea!” The squads instantly stood at attention slamming their fists over their hearts in salute.
“Don’t turn away,” Illesea spoke briefly, they knew what was expected of them. They had trained thousands upon thousands of times for this very situation, and given the enemy they didn’t have time to focus on formalities for rank.
“Prepare, we face the Sentinels of Discord.”
I was still sitting against the wall when I saw the floor bulge in front of me. I shot to my feet and took a stance with the sword Illesea had given me. I tried not to let it show on my face but I was so terrified I thought I felt as if I was going to throw up. I saw the wood rise up in front of me and I nearly collapsed in relief as I saw the Speaker form in front of me.
“Human, come with me.” The Speaker’s tone made it clear I did not have a say in this. I was told to follow and so I did. The Speaker didn’t so much walk as glide across the floor.
[????]
That was odd, this is what I would’ve normally expected trying to identify a high level creature, but I was able to see Illesea’s level. What did this mean?
“Why can’t I see your level? And for that matter what are you? I don’t believe you are an elf.” I was once again having to half-jog to keep up with the pace of the towering creature.
The Speaker did not look back at me as it replied, “I am a Dryad. The reason you can not see my level is because you are not looking at my true form, only one I use for convenience.”
Huh, interesting. True form? Wait, it’s a Dryad. Forest, form, Speaker….
“Oh. Oooooh, you’re the Heart aren’t you? It’s not that you speak with or necessarily for the Heart, you’re how the Heart communicates outward aren’t you?”
This time the Speaker actually stopped to look at me, as if it was actually seeing me for the first time, “... That is only half correct. Very few mortals ever make the connection however. I am how the Heart communicates outward and we do share a bond. But I am not the Heart itself, yet we are one…” The Speaker glided towards me lowering itself so it could look into my eyes, “Yes, I think I understand the Hearts decision now. We have no time, we must hurry now, Alex.”
The Speaker picked up its pace and I had to run to keep up with it, “What’s happening outside? Who would attack you all? I figured you all were pretty strong based off of Illesea’s level, but even she seemed concerned about what was happening.”
“The elves are powerful, even a young elf only a decade old would have the strength to match that of a fully grown mortal. Illesea is one of the strongest fighters within the city and has been given the title of Kel’ran or Warden in the mortal tongues. Illesea is our second line of defense and single handedly powers the barriers you see surrounding the citadel. She is the protector of her people and there are only 6 who rank above her in power. The five elders and myself. However, none of them will be able to stop the opponents that are here. As it stands, there’s not a single group capable of stopping the ones attacking the Citadel of Nalthien.”
“If you are one of the strongest fighters here, why are you here and not fighting? If you all worked together you might be able to push them back, maybe not decisively win but at least preserve some of the people here?” I knew what I was saying was unreasonable, I had no right telling this person what to do. But the words spilled out faster than I could stop them.
“I am the Hearts last line of defense. All non-combatants have already taken shelter within my roots, and should our fighters be pushed back they will seek refuge with me as well and I will defend them to my last. However, the heart has given me an important mission to fulfill first and I will not forsake it even at the expense of our entire population.”
The Speaker's words were not harsh or cold, just factual. The Speaker had something it needed to do and showed unwavering loyalty to this Heart, something I didn’t fully understand and probably never would. I’m sure Illesea and the other elves already knew that as well. My eyes were downcast as I ran next to the Speaker thinking over its words before my mind grinded to a halt. ‘My roots’. I can’t believe I had gotten that mixed up. The Speaker wasn’t the form of the Heart. Dryads were tree spirits, and the Heart resided within the world tree.
The Speaker was the Dryad of the World Tree.
Another one died as Illesea could do nothing but stare.
One of them had some sort of curse aura that interfered with healing magic, it didn’t stop it entirely, just slowed it to a crawl making it practically ineffective. As such re-attaching her legs was taking way longer than it should have.
Eventually she just gave up and tossed them to the side, using her wood magic to form the rest of her legs in place of her real ones. She could regrow them later, these would have to do for now. She formed tiny droplets of water and had them blast forwards towards the towering demon in front of her. The elf in its hands uncaringly tossed aside as it brushed its other hand in front of the droplets creating a wave of fire that evaporated them and caused the ground to glow and melt under the heat.
Illesea sprinted forward coming behind the demon unleashing a flurry of sword strikes combined with tendrils of water flashing out. The demon blocked her attacks with its claws and everytime her water made contact with him, flames would gush out from where she cut his skin before the gashed closed back up not looking any worse for wear. The demon stopped its foot causing a spike of obsidian to shoot of the ground from her side trying to impale. Illesea didn’t even glance at it as she brought out a countering spike formed from wood that hit against it causing the obsidian to grind to a halt.
“You are strong little elf, much more so than the ones you keep around you.” The demon smiled maliciously as it walked towards her before lunging forward with a sudden motion bringing its fist towards her from underneath. Illesea waited until the last moment before stepping to the side, her wooden blade flashing out and cutting straight through his arm at the elbow, the demon roaring in pain. She immediately pressed her advantage, refusing to give the demon a chance to recover. She formed a second blade in the air letting it drop in her hand, her wood magic seemed to prevail where her water magics had failed. Her swords kept slashing outwards from every direction as she built up to using one of her skills. Finally she gave a feint as if she was going for a double overhead slash before spinning around kicking the demon in the stomach launching it backwards into a wall and unleashing her skill,
[Slumber of Nalthien]
Thousands of roots instantly sprang from the ground wrapping around the demon pulling its arms behind its back. Every root it broke one hundred more took its place binding him, covering him, sealing him. After a brief struggle the demon was covered within a cocoon of wood that wouldn’t fade for a thousand years, by then they could come up with a solution to deal with him permanently.
Illesea fell to her knee’s heaving, she had used nearly all her mana casting that spell. And she wouldn’t be able to use it again for another day, she just had to hope that the elders and the Speaker would be able to deal with the rest.
“Impressive, and here we thought you wouldn’t be that much of an issue to deal with. Although Zalkus wasn’t the best matchup against you with the elements of your classes.” Illesea whipped around to the source of the voice holding her blade out. Three people were standing behind her. The first was a fae, those ones were easy to tell, their hair usually gave it away looking as if they were constantly looking into a wind in slow motion making their hair flutter. The second had soft golden flames covering her skin and was covered with golden scales on her forearms and cheeks, with spiraling horns coming out of her golden mane. This one could only be a dragon, the amount of power emanating from this dragon easily outclassed the demon she had just fought, the only one with any hope of defeating her was the Speaker. The last one, and the one that had spoken, was the most confusing and the most damning. An Angel. Angels and Demons working together?
Any Angel that supposedly worked with Demons became a Demon themselves, they Fall out of grace. That was kind of the point. “Why are you working with a Demon?” She should try and get some information before retreating, anything she could gather on the Sentinels was bound to be useful for future encounters.
The Angel just smiled at her refusing to say anything before a thousand bolts of light flared up behind him. Illesea didn’t hesitate and instantly ran, as it stood she had no mana and was under half health. Even if she were at full strength she had no chance of beating an Angel, this she was just going to have to leave to the speaker.
The Speaker stopped and opened a part of the wall next to us, it opened into a long deep hallway that led further within the World Tree. The Speaker wasted no time instantly moving through once there was enough space leaving me to run to try and keep up. Eventually the long tunnel opened up into an extremely familiar chamber filled with trees, lights glowed in all the colors in the spectrum.
The mana density here was absurd. I could barely breathe. At the very least I wasn’t bleeding from my eyes again. Too often since coming to this world I’ve been seeing my own blood, I needed to put a stop to that as soon as possible. The trees hummed with power as we moved through, the Speaker didn’t slow down in the slightest and I was beginning to struggle with keeping up.
I felt something pulse through me, at first I thought it was a spell from the fighting outside the tree but that wasn’t it. It was extremely rhythmical in nature, it didn’t take me long to figure out it was probably just the Heart. Every pulse coming from it lined up in time with the beating of my own heart causing it to slow down making my body relax and decreasing the weight of the crushing atmosphere. After several more minutes of running we reached a clearing, here the pulses were the strongest, and looking up I saw a massive organ glowing with awe-inspiring power.
I’d seen a few human hearts before thanks to the internet so I had a rough idea of what I was comparing against. This looked not even remotely similar. Which was fair since this thing was easily twice my height in both length and width and was also inside quite literally the largest tree I’d ever seen. There weren’t a lot of similarities, but well. Heart was still an apt description for the kind of gross way it wiggled around, beating, pulsing. Kind of nasty honestly.
“So why did you bring me here? I’m guessing it has to do with the mission the Heart gave you, but I don’t see how I can assist. After all, I'm only level 1.” I glanced at the Speaker as the dryad stared at the Heart in silent communication.
“You are indeed level 1. For now. That will change, you will get stronger. The Heart has foreseen it. Bringing you here was half the mission, the other half begins now.” While speaking the dryad raised its hands and magic flowed out from it.
Roots raised out of the ground, branches spread from the trees around us, the glowing insects swirled around us and the bushes swayed in time with everything around it. The air went from barely tolerable to unbreathable instantly, my breath catching in my throat causing me to choke. I fell down only to feel someone catch me and for healing power to flow through me. I was really starting to hate this place, every two seconds it felt like the mana was trying to kill me. I could hardly do anything or go anywhere without being attacked.
My eyes managed to focus thanks to the healing and I saw who it was. Illesea. Except she was missing an arm and was extremely cut up and bruised.
“You should be… healing yourself…” I managed to choke out, only for her to shake her head. She laid me on the ground and motioned for me to be silent before looking up to the Speaker as it continued its grand scale of magic. A few more moments passed like this with me barely hanging on thanks to Illesea before a powerful wave of magic pushed out from the Speaker and the Heart at the same time causing my vision to black for a brief moment.
When I came to the Heart was no longer suspended in the air and was being held within the hands of the Speaker. The Speaker turned to look at me with the Heart, “I initially thought it was impossible. How could a human with no power have ended up in my innermost chambers, the most sacred and protected place within the citadel without any assistance. I considered every possibility, from time paradoxes to the whims of gods. Perhaps an extra dimensional being though it would be amusing to aggravate me, or maybe you were the extra dimensional being. I considered every possible situation. It took me a while to finally realize what I was missing. You did have help in getting here.” The Speaker stepped forward until it was standing directly in front of me, Illesea helping me rise to my feet. The Speaker held the Heart out towards me until it nearly touched my chest.
“You had help, just not from without. From within,” the Speaker then shoved the Heart forward and it pierced straight through my chest. I didn’t feel anything at first other than shock, looking down I could see the Speakers hand going into my chest next to where my actual heart was located before I looked back up to look into its eyes.
“What… Why…?” The pain hit me like fire, it was all-encompassing and all-consuming. I couldn’t even let out a scream as I felt the Heart's power flow through me trying to heal the damage it was dealing to me. All I could do was sit there silently and try to wait out the pain in hopes that I might actually live.
Illesea did not like this. No. She hated this, it wasn’t right. And it definitely wasn’t fair. She had voiced as much to the Speaker and the elders as well. The Heart had plucked Alex out of his world without giving him a choice and pulled him here to this damned-by-the-gods world in an effort to change the course of the future. The worst part was that he wasn’t even the best choice. The chances alone he had to change anything were so small and insignificant it wouldn’t even be worth considering at all. He would just be a sacrifice in vain. His chances to even survive taking the Heart were astronomically low.
“Speaker this is not right.” She already knew what was going to be said, but she had to at least try. It did not sit well with her to see someone so weak take on such pain without a say.
“You are correct. It is not right. But even still, I will do what I must. Even if it is cruel, even if it is considered evil. I will not ask his forgiveness, only for his grace. That he might look past the wrong I do to him and save our world from collapsing on itself. Now ready yourself, I must prepare to send him and the Sentinels approach.” With those final words healing magic flowed through her fixing her injuries and bolstering her strength.
She didn’t like it. She hated every second of it. What they did here went against everything her classes stood for, everything her title stood for, everything she had stood for since taking her position as warden. She hated it with every fiber of her being.
“I’ll be damned if I let him die to them here.”
I woke up feeling like I had gotten hit by truck-kun and been properly isekai’d. Everything in my body hurt, but at least it no longer felt like I was melting from the inside out. A bunch of notifications had accumulated while I was out.
“Good it seems like your body is acclimating to the Heart. Come, it is time for you to go while Illesea assists in holding them off. If you remain here any longer you will perish.” The Speakers voice sounded almost desperate, I glanced around not seeing Illesea anymore or even the Speaker.
Off in the distance I saw, and even felt, an explosion of force. It happened several times in quick succession before settling down for a moment and picking back up. I assumed Illesea and the Speaker were out there fighting. Who or what, I had no idea. But they had to be strong that they’d made it so far in the first place and the fact that the elves hadn’t won already in the first place.
I slowly managed to pull myself off the floor and glanced around unsure where I was supposed to be going. Off in the distance I saw a massive spire of wood form before it sprouted a bunch of branches curving back downwards to create an enormous birdcage. The branches criss-crossing to create a latticework of reinforcement and make sure what was inside stayed contained.
Illesea landed lightly in front of me looking worse for wear, but at least she had her arm back. She positively radiated power, her form fluctuating due to the sheer amount of mana she pushed out idly.
“You must leave while the Speakers skill holds. We will not be able to protect you from them.” She glanced back towards the cage, “Kor! Bil ka meth!”
As she yelled that a portal opened up next to me, I couldn’t see through it where it led, only the blackness within it. Illesea placed her hand on my shoulder gently, “I’m sorry Alex, for everything that has happened. I did not wish for this to be your fate, but it was not my place to speak out against it. May you find the strength to stand tall in the coming days ahead.”
“Wait, what about you all? Surely you have a way to escape, better yet you’re standing right here, why can’t you just walk through the portal with me?” This was bull. So fucking cliché. It pissed me off, I’d seen this trope a billion times and I hated it. I hated then, I hated it now. She was killing herself for someone she didn’t even know because someone else told her too.
Illesea shook her head in response to my question, “I can’t come with you, you already know that though. You are just being stubborn.”
“So you’re just going to die for someone you don’t even know just because you were told too? That makes zero sense! It’s bullshit and you know it!” I was so pissed off tears were welling up in my eyes. Why was I crying? I was too old to be crying like a child.
A pitying smile adorned her face, “Do not mourn me, young one. You never even knew me.” And then she pushed me through the portal as it closed in front of me, cutting off my vision.
