A few, like the holy knights, were already inford beforehand and stood at attention in the distance, ready to respond if the process went wrong.
Then there was Cecilia, standing at the place marked by him. It was the very place where the mana vein connected.
Looking at the nervous and quiet girl, Reinhardt did not have to think to know why she was so despondent.
Since her mother and father had not passed her any song from their ancestors, she was uncertain whether she would be able to do it or not. What if she failed?
Reinhardt exhaled softly. He looked at her without putting any pressure on her and spoke with calm certainty.
"If you fear failure even before trying, you are destined never to succeed. Instead of thinking about failure, think about what you can do right now to increase the chances of success"...
"If you give it your all and still fail in the end, then you will have no regrets. What I want from you is to give it your all."
Cecilia blinked. Her head lifted slightly in surprise.
For a mont, she just stared at him, as if trying to understand how soone could speak of sothing so important so lightly. Yet there was no carelessness in his tone. Only reassurance.
"Success or failure doesn’t matter right now. We’ll deal with it when it cos. So just try."
Sothing in her chest eased, just a little. Although the tight knot of anxiety didn’t disappear completely, it loosened enough for her to breathe again.
Reinhardt extended his hand toward Cecilia. When he opened his fist, there was a seed resting atop his palm.
The seed was none other than the Origin Seed of the World Tree.
Maybe it was the effect of so unknown force or simply the resonance effect, but as soon as Reinhardt let go of the seed, it started floating up and flew toward Cecilia.
The elf caught it instinctively, and at that mont, everything changed.
A faint tremor ran through the air. The seed of the World Tree reacted, as if it had been waiting for this exact mont.
For her.
In front of Reinhardt’s incredulous eyes, the outer shell of the seed started peeling away layer by layer. And from within, a radiant erald light erged.
Although this light was not too bright, it was incredibly pure and filled with a vast, almost unending amount of vitality.
When the erald light appeared, the surrounding air shifted. Mana, dense and ancient, began to stir.
As for Cecilia, who was caught in the center of all of it, she was in a state of trance.
"It’s... warm..."
The light bathed her face, reflecting in her eyes. Within those clear crystal eyes, one could see the reflection of the seed, pulsing gently in her palm like a living heartbeat.
Cecilia, who was imrsed in the light of the seed, suddenly felt a force pulling at her. However, before she could resist, it directly pulled her in.
Standing at a distance, Reinhardt watched everything silently. He did not interfere, nor did he say any words to Cecilia.
Outwardly, he appeared the very definition of calm. However, inwardly, he was still a little anxious.
The revival of the World Tree was a crucial part of his plans for the future.
It was then, in the midst of his thoughts, that he suddenly felt his soul being pulled. Although this kind of force would have been impossible for anyone else to resist, Reinhardt could still easily resist it if he wanted to.
After thinking about it, he let the force pull his soul away.
.
.
A soft, endless white stretched in all directions. There was no sky or horizon to be seen. Just existence itself, stripped of form.
When Cecilia opened her eyes, she suddenly found herself in such a place.
Huh? Where was she?
As she looked around her surroundings, confusion filled her face. There was nothing in this place as far as the eye could see. No building, no people. Even the ever present mana was absent. Only a heavy, suffocating silence remained.
STEP...
Just as those thoughts appeared in her mind, Cecilia sensed sothing. Her ears twitched, sensing a faint disturbance. From the makeup of the sound, it sounded like footsteps. Soone was moving.
Quickly turning toward the noise, she noticed that it was coming from the distance and approaching this place.
"You..."
A while later, when the form finally beca clearer, she noticed who it was. However, upon noticing that figure, Cecilia’s face, which had lit up for a brief mont, suddenly flushed crimson. Her words caught in her throat, and she hurriedly covered her eyes.
The figure approaching from a distance was none other than Reinhardt.
However, there was a reason behind Cecilia’s strange reaction.
And it was...
"W-Why... are you n-naked?"
Cecilia spoke in a trembling voice.
Reinhardt blinked, then paused mid-step. When he looked down, realization dawned on him.
"I see..."
That said, there was no panic or embarrassnt to be seen on his face. Just simple acknowledgnt.
Then, without a word, he raised his hand and pointed at her.
Although he did not say anything, the aning behind his gesture was clear.
Almost instinctively, Cecilia’s eyes followed his gesture and looked down.
And at that mont, her entire body froze.
There was silence for a second or two, then...
"KYAAAA!!"
A sharp, flustered cry shattered the silence. Cecilia imdiately dropped to her knees, arms crossing over herself as she tried to cover up, her entire face now burning red.
"W-What is this?! Why?!" Her voice shook in pure embarrassnt. "Where are our clothes?! What is happening?!"
Compared to Cecilia’s flustered and embarrassed state, Reinhardt, in contrast, remained composed.
His gaze observed his surroundings with curiosity. If one looked at his eyes, they would be able to notice that they were shining with streaks of golden light coming from the edges.
Reinhardt had already activated [Eyes of Divine Clarity] and was trying to decipher where they were.
Under the scrutiny of the Eyes of the God, the world unraveled itself. Layers unseen to normal perception began revealing themselves.
The place appeared empty and white. However, there were in fact invisible threads of existence that connected this entire place.
They were in the sky and on the ground. They interconnected and spread all across the place like a network of roots.
What’s more, there was sothing ancient about them, sothing vast that had existed for a very, very long ti.
After a mont, Reinhardt spoke.
"This is not the physical world."
His words caused Cecilia to peek at him. Still flustered and covering her body, she tried not to look at him directly. However, her eyes still betrayed her intentions.
"W-What do you an...?"
Reinhardt pointed at his body.
"These are not our bodies. They are manifestations of our souls."
It was also the reason why they were naked. Their actual physical bodies were still in the Training Ground of Snowpoint City. What was pulled here was only their soul.
Cecilia blinked. Her embarrassnt didn’t vanish, but confusion began to overtake it.
"S-Souls...?"
Reinhardt nodded slightly.
"This place... is a spiritual domain. An isolated layer between reality and essence."
His gaze swept the endless white once more.
"Then why are we here...?"
Cecilia hugged herself tighter, still trying to process everything.
Reinhardt’s eyes shifted and fell on her.
"You tell ."
Of course, he wasn’t trying to look at her naked body.
"The fact that we were pulled here ans this space recognized sothing... or soone."
The implication of his words was clear.
Cecilia blinked and pointed at herself.
"?"
Reinhardt did not answer. His mind reeled back to the mont when the Origin Seed revealed its true appearance. The erald green light that overflowed at that ti covered Cecilia and him in its radiance.
Their appearance here and the mysterious spiritual space... all of it pointed in one direction.
The Origin Seed brought us here after resonating with you. Try to resonate back with it.
"Resonate?"
Cecilia knitted her brows together in confusion. She had never done sothing like this before, nor was she taught about it. Even the space they were in, she couldn’t understand it at all.
Cecilia opened her mouth. She was just about to say sothing when suddenly her eyes contracted and the words got swallowed in her throat.
She saw it!
Threads, no, roots, vast and complex, spreading everywhere. They were in the sky and on the land, glowing with the brilliance of all the colors in the world.
Just a second ago, there had been nothing in this dull world. Yet the next second, countless pale, luminous roots appeared in the endless white world, interwoven like veins beneath reality itself.
They pulsed faintly, like sothing ancient and alive.
"What... is that...?"
Cecilia’s lips parted in wonder.
Reinhardt watched her reaction with a smile. He had seen it too, using the [Eyes of Divine Clarity]. However, he waited for her to unveil it herself.
The Origin Seed brought her here for a reason.
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