Endless Evolution: Last Star

Chapter 1830: Iron Tree and Crystal

Step. Step. Step.

For some time, Adam walked through the rift, encountering new Cloud Elementals along the way. There were quite a few of them, as they inhabited the depths of such rifts and their caves.

However, once the first Cloud Elementals recognized his power, the rest treated him the same way.

They didn’t attack, but simply watched him from a distance. They had no faces, but from their slow flashes, he could see their curiosity.

“What a strange place. So the mist tigers up above are protecting these elementals, but why? What’s so special about these Glass Roots that such a complex system has been created here for them?” Adam mused as he moved forward.

Several times, Adam thought the Glass Root might be in one of the caves, but as soon as he tried to enter one, several Cloud Elementals would immediately appear at the entrance.

They didn’t try to stop him aggressively, but rather to suggest that this was the wrong path.

“Agh…” Adam sighed heavily, looking at the three hovering Cloud Elementals in front of him. “So I can’t go any further?”

He glanced to the side.

“This place is just huge!” Adam kicked a rock.

After that, he shook his head, shoved his hands in his pockets, and headed forward.

He walked for more than ten minutes without stopping until he saw something unusual in the distance.

“Hmm? Is that… a tree?” Adam tilted his head.

At the very end of the rift stood a majestic tree, but its bark and branches were neither wood nor stone. The tree looked as if it had been cast from iron, as suggested by the glint of sunlight running across its surface.

“Why is this tree made of metal?”

Then, Adam’s gaze drifted further.

The tree was split down the middle, and the inside was covered in cyan crystals. Most of them were small, running like thorns along the inner surface of the bark, while at the very center was a single large crystal.

Adam blinked several times, in disbelief.

He froze in shock because he realized what this tree resembled.

“Wait, wait, wait…” Adam gulped as his face turned pale. “Doesn’t Queen Elisa’s tree look just like this one?”

Sure, Queen Elisa’s tree was significantly larger and more majestic. A powerful aura constantly emanated from it, and even the auras of the Lords were no match for its might.

But, in appearance, the tree before Adam was very similar.

“No, I must be confusing something, I’m surely missing some detail!”

Adam bit his lip as soon as he found one difference between this tree and Queen Elisa’s.

The main crystal was empty.

“Right, if this tree were the same as Queen Elisa’s, there would have to be someone inside the crystal, some kind of person!”

Taking a deep breath, Adam nodded and moved forward.

The tree’s appearance still made him wary, but he was glad he wouldn’t have to encounter another phantom in that state, caught between life and death.

‘Although…’ Adam mused as his pace slowed. ‘I doubt anyone other than Queen Elisa could survive in that state. What’s more, I still don’t have a single clue as to why this happened to her.’

True, Adam didn’t know how Queen Elisa’s tree had appeared right in the center of Heaven Island, nor why Queen Elisa was caught between life and death. If it weren’t for her energy and her slowly beating heart, she would be no different from a statue trapped inside the tree.

‘And this tree… I hadn’t thought about it before, but could this really be her Evolution Tree? What would have to happen to a Phantom for his Evolution Tree to take on a physical form and appear in the real world?’

Adam was so deep in thought that he didn’t notice when he reached the end of the rift.

Tremble!

A tremor echoed from the distance as four Cloud Elementals headed toward him. They were significantly larger than all the others, and instead of two, they had four long crystals.

However, like all the others, they did not attack Adam and stopped a few meters away.

Crack.

“What?”

The rock on the left cracked as a bright blue light burst forth.

In the next moment, the rock opened like a gate as the Cloud Elemental, the special one, stepped out.

It was even larger than the four standing next to Adam, and seven sharp crystals resembling a crown hovered above its head.

“Is this their king? Something like that, right?”

[Human.]

Suddenly, a deep voice echoed in Adam’s head, causing his eyes to widen.

“You…” Adam stared at the King Elemental. “Are you talking to me?”

The King Elemental’s crystals formed a single circle around its tip.

[Yes… As I understand it, you didn’t come here to fight me and my subordinates, did you?]

Adam nodded with a confident look.

“Yes. I need the Glass Root, and that’s it.”

[Oh… That’s bad…]

“Hmm?” Adam narrowed his eyes. “If you try to protect it, I’ll have no choice but to crush every one of you!”

[No. We won’t have a problem with that. We won’t fight over the Glass Root, we don’t need that thing. On the contrary, we wouldn’t mind if you took it.]

“Then what’s the problem? What do you mean, ‘That’s bad’?”

[Let me show you something.]

The King Elemental flashed as two stone slabs in front of the tree’s roots began to move.

They revealed the tree’s roots, the ground, and something else.

Adam’s pupils narrowed as four skeletons were reflected in his eyes. Three of them were still wearing tattered clothes that were slowly crumbling into fragments under the force of time.

Moreover, each of them was a Phantom. Adam could sense it from their auras.

[We didn’t kill them. We didn’t fight any of them.]

“Then… How did this happen?!” Adam exclaimed, clenching his fists tightly.

The King Elemental turned toward the roots as yet another, final stone slab slid aside.

[You must take a look at this.]

Adam took a step forward, then froze for a long moment as his face turned as pale as a sheet of paper.

Beneath the iron tree lay another crystal, large and bright.

Inside was a girl with her eyes closed, but her heart had long since stopped beating.

Like the skeletons on the ground and Adam, she was a Phantom. Once upon a time.