Chapter 47. Another Way

“Ivan! Are you okay!”
Ivan, who suddenly regained consciousness at Delfino’s shouts that hit his ear, nodded.
“I’m okay.”
Delfino and Ferocious Tooth were vigilant in all directions with sharp eyes. It was just before the World Tree called him. Perhaps the time, in reality, has not passed.
“You don’t have to be too vigilant. It’s already gone.”
“What happened?”
“The World Tree has called me. We talked.”
“Talked with the World Tree?”
Delfino looked very puzzled. The World Tree was like the God of elf. Ivan said that he suddenly faced God, that’s why he couldn’t understand it.
“That’s right. It talked a lot more than I thought. It must be bored by itself. I’ll tell you the details later.”
After that, Ivan turned his gaze and looked at Elena Evenwood. She looked drained for a moment.
‘Well, it would not be easy to host the spirit of the World Tree, even for a moment.’
The World Tree is a transcendent that has deified the collective consciousness of the elves, and all elves share the divinity of the World Tree.
Even so, not all elves were able to summon the World Tree because it was too heavy of a burden for a single elf to bear.
It was something that only a very few elves with very high stamina could do, and they were called shamans of the World Tree.
She is a shaman because the first being who responded to the World Tree was a woman. After that, mostly only women became shamans of the World Tree.
“Can I ask who you are now? Elena Evenwood.”
Elena Even Wood erased her tired look at those words and spoke calmly.
“I am Elena Evenwood. The younger sister of Ciarin Evenwood, the shaman of the World Tree, and one who once wanted to become a shaman.”
Contrary to how she had never felt any emotion before, she now seemed forced to pretend to be indifferent. It meant that her emotions were very severe.
It didn’t seem to be because of what she said, more because of the aftermath of having the World Tree hosted in her body.
Even The World Tree, which is transcendent, showed its emotions by saying that it was destined to burn and disappear. How could an individual fully bear such heavy emotions?
Elena Evenwood, too, now seemed very confused, swept away by intense emotions. It was such a shock to her.
Ivan and his party returned to the house where they were first guided. With only three of them, Ivan confided what he had experienced.
Why did his lost eye react, why the World Tree invited him, and what did it want.
After hearing the story, Delfino nodded his head with a very heavy face.
“Okay. Now I understand. Why did the Lord of Brilliant Light care about you, Morna the Serpent God looked at you, or the World Tree invited you.”
Delfino began explaining the religious significance of fate for a while. He compared the interpretation of the Temple of Arun with the interpretation of other denominations. (dlazarturead(dot)wordpress(dot)com)
Of course, Ivan and Ferocious Tooth did not listen to it.
“So, what should I do?”
Ivan let out a long sigh at the question of Ferocious Tooth.
“You don’t have to do something specifically. If the World Tree had known that, it would have solved it alone. To be honest, our strength isn’t comparable to that of the Transcendent, right? I will not let you do anything beyond our ability.”
The strength of the party was not weak, but there is a mountain of people stronger than them in the world.
The intention of the World Tree is to use Ivan, who has escaped from fate, as a variable, not wanting him to do something right now.
Throb.
Again his lost eye stung. Odin couldn’t stand the fact that even the World Tree stood still and was shaking.
Ivan let out a swear word to himself.
‘Damn it! Stop it! Don’t be like a drunkard who contacted someone who looks like his ex while getting drunk.’
Ragnarok has already passed. Yggdrasil burned and disappeared, and they passed on to a new world.
Even if this World Tree could be prevented from burning and disappearing, they could not change their past.
Of course, Odin probably knew that. Ivan knows he can’t stand it. Watching the World Tree burn and disappear once again.
The Norse god, Odin’s life was always to prepare for Ragnarok someday. Despite that, he failed due to a lack of preparation from another side. That was his fate. No, it was the fate of all gods.
That is why the day of destruction in Norse mythology is called Ragnarok—literally translated as the fate of the gods. In the end, a fixed future that no one can escape from.
‘Can you stop the World Tree from burning?’
If the Demon King existed, he had to descend at least once. If peace had lasted for 200 years in Moorim world, there should be a bloody battle, and if the Statue of Liberty appeared in a disaster movie, it had to be destroyed. From the player’s point of view, the World Tree was that kind of existence.
As Ivan was thinking alone, Ferocious Tooth roared as he took off his clothes.
He said,
“When your head is complicated, it’s best to dip in warm water.”
“You must have forgotten, there is no bathtub here.”
“…Damn the elves!”

Elena Evenwood came back to her usual appearance the next day, apparently feeling settled. Here, the usual appearance means a state of expressionless enough to doubt whether she is a living being.
“Did you rest well?”
“Yes. Sleeping well anywhere is my specialty.”
“That’s a relief. How do you feel about meeting the World Tree?”
“It wasn’t a very pleasant meeting. I still feel itchy here.”
Ivan poked over his eye patch and pointed. And he spoke bluntly.
“I understand your situation, but honestly, it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with me. What’s important is your request, and what kind of compensation we can receive, isn’t it?”
“I understand. I’ll tell you about it.”
She took the map out of her arms and unfolded it. It was a continental map in which the topography was drawn in quite a detail. Although villages or roads were not marked, natural objects such as mountains, rivers, and valleys were displayed quite well.
Elena Evenwood started explaining while pointing to several marked places.
“Not long ago, a series of mysterious and evil rituals were performed. As a result, the dimensional barrier was shaken, and the borders of the fairy forest collapsed. Everything has now been restored, but the damage is accumulating little by little each time the ritual is performed.”
Ivan and Delfino’s expressions hardened as they looked at where she was pointing because one of them was somewhere familiar.
“This looks like the place where the demon worshipers used to be.”
A ritual performed by sacrificing an entire village. The very place where the power of the Great Evil, Deathbringer flowed.
Delfino’s eyes became very sharp.
His sense of being an exorcist whispered to him.
“Where exactly was the ceremony?”
Elena Evenwood once again pointed to a few places, and Delfino, who looked closely at them, nodded heavily.
“There is a slight difference, but it’s almost identical to what the Sanctus Populi has confirmed. It’s definitely the demon worshipers.”
Hearing that, Elena added her explanation.
“As the ritual continues, the dimensional barrier weakens. It makes it easier to summon demons from other dimensions to this land. Not only that, the fairy forest is forced to appear on the continent. We want to stop it.”
Demon worshipers were mostly in the realm of humans, so it was not a suitable place for elves to move. So, it seems they are trying to solve it by borrowing an outside hand.
“Stop the rituals of the demon worshipers? It’s not easy. The enemy is moving very secretly enough to thwart the pursuit of the temple. We only have a few people, how can we stop it?”
Elena Evenwood shook her head when Ivan showed a negative attitude.
“We are making our own preparations, but prevention is better. And you won’t be the only ones moving.”
Hearing that, Ivan realized. This was kind of a test. It looked like she was trying to figure out how much work she could entrust to him.
Although he is a singularity, she cannot completely trust outsiders and entrust this work. They were not such an open race.
“What’s the reward?”
“If successful, we will help your eye recover. Your broken vessel may be healed to some extent.”
Not bad. No, it could have been seen as generous.
As Delfino said in the past, it was not common to recover the wounds that God himself had engraved. Moreover, if even a broken vessel could be recovered, there was no reason to hesitate. (dlazarturead(dot)wordpress(dot)com)
“I will accept it.”
Her desired area of ​​activity was the west. Not the west of the Roman Kingdom, but the west of the continent, the Western Union Kingdom.
It was a good thing. Killing one of the orc lord’s sons, Kartak, and sending one son back as a half-corpse must have turned his eyes around.
Ivan shouldn’t even think about coming back until he develops enough power.
As Ivan nodded his head as he made such a promise, Elena Evenwood, who was staring at him, muttered out words.
“By the way, you don’t have any friends yet.”
‘What? Are you making fun of me now?’
Ivan’s hand twitched. He wanted to pull out his ax for a moment and barely held back.
“What do you mean?”
When Ivan asked the question twistedly, Elena Evenwood continued her words in an elf-specific, simplistic, factual voice.
“You didn’t use the spirit stone we gave you before. You don’t smell of spirits. You could have become friends with them.”
‘Come to think of it, there was something like that. She said she felt an affinity for spirits in me.’
Ivan took out a spirit stone from his inventory and held it in his hand.
“I’ve been so busy. It wasn’t easy to find a way to connect with the spirits in the human world.”
At that, Elena Evenwood tilted her head.
“I don’t understand. Do you need to find a way to become friends?”
Ivan answered, suppressing his rising emotions.
“Humans are like that. Even when you meet someone, you need some way.”
The reason why spirits are rare among humans is because it is so difficult to communicate with spirits. The situation was different from the elves, who were born close to spirits and easily made contracts.
“Unlike this place close to the spirit world, it is difficult to see a spirit with a substance in the material world. You have to use a separate spirit summoning circle to make a contract, but I don’t know how to do that.”
Of course, if he use the skill points, he will be able to make a contract with the spirit. Naturally, knowledge will be engraved in his head, and he will be able to gain favor with spirits.
However, he was reluctant to use skill points for things related to personal abilities like magic or swordsmanship and things related to relationships with others like spirits.
How much trouble did he have until now by raising his divine power like that? If the spirits were like that too, it would have been better without them.
Hearing Ivan’s story, Elena Evenwood slowly nodded her head.
“I understand. But we can help you. This is the Fairy Forest.”
She said as she got up from her seat.
“Follow me. I will guide you to the resting place of the spirits.”