The Origin Seed brought her here for a reason, and it had sothing to do with her lineage.
This mont was critical for Cecilia, and Reinhardt couldn’t intervene unnecessarily because this wasn’t sothing he could guide her through.
This had to be hers.
Just as he expected, even without [Eyes of Divine Clarity], Cecilia saw through the mysteries of this world.
Cecilia’s gaze began to follow the roots instinctively. There was an invisible pull within her, guiding and showing her the way.
This pull was sothing that even eluded Reinhardt’s eyes.
"They’re... going sowhere..." Cecilia said, looking in a certain direction.
The roots, no matter where they originated from or where they were flowing, were converging toward a single point.
"Good, lead the way." Reinhardt nodded.
"O-oh... right."
Cecilia flinched, coming back to herself. She was just about to do as she was told when suddenly she hesitated. Her face flushed again.
Then slowly she stood up and stopped covering her body, though her cheeks remained red.
It’s just a soul, not her real body.
At first, her steps were slightly awkward and self-conscious. However, as ti passed and she noticed that Reinhardt was deliberately trying not to look at her, she adapted a little.
Though not completely used to walking naked.
With Cecilia walking ahead and Reinhardt silently following behind her, the two continued to walk for a long ti.
Through the endless white, they moved along the invisible current of roots. The deeper they went, the denser the roots beca.
What’s more, ti seed to have lost all aning here. It felt like a long ti had passed, yet at the sa ti, not.
They appeared at the center of this white space, the place where everything converged. And what they saw there left them speechless.
Cecilia stopped and arched her head upwards.
"This... is..."
"The World Tree," Reinhardt, beside her, completed her sentence.
Before them stood a tree, its branches spread all across the do of the sky in an endless manner. Its trunk was so vast that it could seemingly encompass dozens of cities the size of Solaris. And its presence was overwhelming.
The tree was majestic and towering beyond comprehension.
However, there was a critical flaw.
The tree was just a shadow of what it once was. It might look colossal, stretching from the ground beneath their feet all the way to the unseen heavens above. But it was still just a silhouette.
The tree did not truly exist, nor did it have that bountiful vitality that a tree of this size should have.
That said, there must be a reason why they arrived here. Every root in the ground, every branch in the sky led here. To this place which was the coordinate of everything.
Just as Reinhardt was wondering about the next step, Cecilia started moving in a trance. Her erald eyes shimred.
"It’s... calling ..."
Then, without any warning, she walked straight into the towering phantom of the tree.
Reinhardt wanted to call her, but seeing that she was being guided by so force, he did not intervene.
That said, his eyes sharpened. His instincts flared, telling him that sothing wasn’t right.
In front of him, Cecilia crossed the threshold and entered the projection. At that mont, there was so strange activity.
The roots, the countless pale roots that spread across the world, suddenly twitched. They started coming alive, like serpents, and surged from everywhere toward Cecilia.
In an instant, they coiled around her body, wrapping and binding her. Before long, her figure disappeared inside the writhing cocoon of roots. The entire process looked like she was swallowed whole.
Reinhardt watched the whole scene with narrowed eyes, deliberating whether he should make his move or not.
While he was caught in the dilemma of indecision, a sickening sound ca from the cocoon.
GURGLE... GURGLE...
The sound was visceral, unnatural even. And most disturbing of all, the roots pulsed, expanding and contracting. It was almost as if they were feeding.
At this mont, his instincts scread, and the warning signs beca sharper.
This was unnatural. This did not seem like guidance but rather sothing far more dangerous.
The tree was trying to consu Cecilia and absorb her as nourishnt. He needed to stop this.
At this mont, Reinhardt made up his mind. The mont he stepped forward, power surged from his body. He was ready to tear this entire realm apart if needed.
It was then that the white world started trembling intensely. Cracks started appearing in the sky above, and in the blink of an eye, a fissure split open the space.
Reinhardt, who was about to punch, stopped mid-motion and looked at the sudden turn of events incredulously.
From the fissure, a pillar of erald light descended. It was pure and blinding, and it directly fell upon the cocoon.
BOOOM...
The mont the roots ca in contact with the light, they shrieked.
That’s right, the roots shrieked, and the shrill scream echoed all across the white space.
What’s more, black smoke ca out of the roots and released a malignant energy that Reinhardt was too familiar with.
At this mont, realization finally dawned on him, and his expression beca grave.
To think that they laid such a sche.
In the distance, under the pure erald green brilliance, the roots recoiled violently before getting burned and disintegrating into nothing.
Within seconds, the cocoon collapsed, and the figure of Cecilia appeared before Reinhardt once again.
Seeing this scene, Reinhardt sighed with relief. The tension in his body eased a little, but it did not go away completely.
He looked at Cecilia, bathed in the erald-green light. The pillar of brilliance illuminated her figure, highlighting her beautiful body and making her almost seem ethereal.
The beautiful scene was captured by Reinhardt and etched into his soul.
"So you intervened, huh," Reinhardt spoke, looking at the light, more specifically at the source of the light.
The small erald green bead, the size of a chestnut. Yet it pulsed with boundless vitality.
There was no doubt, this thing was the Origin Seed.
It hovered silently above her, radiating a power that drove away the roots that were trying to latch onto her.
The Origin Seed was protecting her. And what it was protecting her from, Reinhardt now was fully aware of.
"W-What... what just happened...?"
At this mont, Cecilia seed to have also co to her senses. However, she had no mory of what went down or why she was there.
Her eyes darted around in confusion. But when she saw Reinhardt, she felt relieved for so reason.
"It’s alright, just focus on the key. Leave everything else to ."
He pointed at the Origin Seed floating above Cecilia. He did not tell her what happened because he did not want to burden her with what he had realized or fill her with tension.
As such, he diverted her attention to the most pressing matter at hand.
Cecilia followed his gaze and looked at the erald seed hovering before her, as if calling her.
Although she didn’t fully understand what Reinhardt ant, or what happened earlier, she trusted him wholeheartedly.
Looking at the seed, she nodded her head and followed his instructions.
She tried to resonate with the seed. Not physically, but with sothing deeper. Her soul.
The mont her senses touched the seed, the world changed.
The endless white began to fade, and color seeped in, like ink bleeding into water.
First, there was green. Soft and vibrant, it filled the place, like a painter filling an empty canvas with more and more colors.
After green ca blue, then red. Then more and more colors started filtering in... yellow, pink, brown, purple...
Soon, the world exploded into colors.
The roots, previously a dull gray, took on their natural color. The sky shimred with a shade of blue, the land, the branches, the leaves... The very world itself ca alive.
Cecilia, who was the source of all of this, remained unaware. Her eyes were closed and her breathing steady.
It was as if she had reached a deeper realm of consciousness, her presence beginning to harmonize with the seed.
Inside her subconscious, sothing stirred. It was mories, though not her own. These mories were ancient, gentle, and... lancholic.
They filled her with a past she had never experienced: a life she had never lived, a kingdom she had never seen, people who were strangers to her, and a great tree that stood at the center of all life.
Cecilia parted her lips and, without realizing it herself, began singing.
It was a gentle lody, calm and soothing to listen to.
Thanks to his [Heaven’s mory] Divine Trait, Reinhardt easily interpreted the lyrics even without knowing the ancient elf language.
Be that as it may, because he could understand it, he knew that this was the song passed down in the royal family.
The Royal Song.
Cecilia continued to sing in a gentle tone. It gave the feeling of a mother consoling a child, a lullaby.
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