Read Novel Full Chapter 635: Serena???
Chapter 635: Serena???
“If you truly want to know, then come with me.” The elderly elf slowly turned around.
“Because the person capable of answering that question is not me.”
Sophie looked over at Gabriel as if asking permission from him.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Sophie gave a light nod. The two followed after the woman a moment later.
The hundreds of elves surrounding them did not all accompany the group. Most disappeared back into the forest after receiving their orders, and in less than a minute, the dense gathering that had previously filled the surrounding area had mostly vanished, leaving only a little over twenty elves continuing alongside them.
Erin was among them.
She maintained a distance of more than ten meters from Gabriel at all times.
Clearly, their brief clash earlier had done nothing to improve her opinion of him.
Gabriel did not care.
Something else had already captured his interest.
The forest had changed.
More precisely, the forest itself had not changed, but the way they were moving through it had.
When Gabriel and Sophie had traveled alone, the surrounding trees and pathways had constantly shifted in small, almost imperceptible ways, and every landmark they might have used to guide themselves would gradually disappear after they had traveled a certain distance.
Now that they were following the elves, however, those abnormalities were becoming much less frequent.
Every so often, the elder would choose a direction that did not appear to contain any path at all, and sometimes she would even walk directly toward two enormous ancient trees growing so close together that passage between them looked impossible.
Yet when the group approached, vines and bushes that had completely covered the area would naturally reveal a narrow path wide enough for several people to pass through.
There were even several occasions when Gabriel was certain they were moving in a direction completely different from the one Sophie had been sensing.
Then, only a few minutes later, their direction would somehow shift again.
Sophie had clearly noticed it as well.
“This place…”
“It’s alive,” Gabriel said calmly.
Sophie looked at him.
“What?”
“This forest.”
Gabriel raised his head and looked at the immense canopies blocking out the sky.
“It isn’t simply changing the paths. It’s choosing which paths exist.”
The elder walking ahead paused for the briefest instant before continuing forward without arguing.
Her silence was confirmation enough.
Sophie’s expression changed slightly as she looked once more at the ancient trees surrounding them.
“You mean… ever since we entered this place, the forest itself has been actively preventing us from reaching the World Tree.”
Sophie fell silent. She suddenly thought back to the nearly hour long journey they had taken earlier.
No monsters had appeared, nor had any normal animals crossed their path.
The forest had remained unnaturally quiet while the terrain continually shifted around them, and throughout that entire time, elves had been hidden in the shadows, watching their movements.
They had been discovered almost immediately after entering.
The elves had simply chosen not to reveal themselves until Sophie continued advancing deeper.
The elder finally spoke.
“The Sacred Forest does not welcome outsiders. Everything here rejects lives that do not belong within it, whether that means the paths beneath your feet, the plants around you, or the people who live here.”
She turned her head slightly.
“Under normal circumstances, you would never have found the inner region.”
Gabriel looked toward Sophie.
“But she could.”
The elder did not answer.
Gabriel continued. “That’s why you finally appeared.”
Again, she said nothing, but the answer had become obvious.
The elves had not revealed themselves simply because Gabriel and Sophie entered the forest.
They had appeared because they realized that no matter how the Sacred Forest altered the paths around her, Sophie continued moving toward the World Tree.
That was what had truly alarmed them.
The group continued deeper.
Roughly half an hour later, their surroundings finally began to undergo obvious changes.
The first difference was in the air.
The natural energy, which had already been unusually dense, suddenly became several times stronger as soon as they entered a certain area. It was now so concentrated that there was no need to deliberately sense it, because the almost tangible vitality within the air could be felt with every breath.
Then sunlight began to appear again.
Gabriel raised his head.
The nearly impenetrable canopy ahead was gradually thinning, and beyond the overlapping branches, an enormous shadow far larger than any of the surrounding ancient trees was beginning to emerge at the edge of his vision.
Sophie suddenly stopped and raised her head.
Thump!
Almost at the exact moment her heartbeat accelerated, an indescribable fluctuation spread from somewhere deep within the forest.
Hum…
Countless leaves throughout the surrounding area began trembling softly.
There was no wind. Every plant within several hundred meters seemed to sense something at the same moment.
Tiny points of tender green light began rising from the grass, flowers, and trees.
Erin abruptly looked up.
“What’s happening?”
The other elves stopped as well.
The elder elf who was at the front completely lost her composure. Her eyes fixed firmly on Sophie because she knew exactly what this phenomenon represented.
Sophie was no longer merely sensing the World Tree.
The World Tree was responding to her.
Sophie slowly raised her hand.
A tiny green light drifted toward her from the distance and gently settled upon the tip of her finger.
The next instant, a much stronger fluctuation swept through the forest.
Hum!
A vast will that seemed to have been sleeping for countless years had finally noticed her existence, and a deep rumbling sound suddenly spread from the depths of the Sacred Forest. Innumerable branches trembled overhead while the earth beneath their feet released heavy vibrations, as though gigantic roots buried far below were beginning to move.
Rumble…
The expressions of every elf changed completely.
Several even dropped to their knees instinctively.
“The Mother Tree…” Erin stared blankly ahead.
The elder was no longer capable of saying anything.
Deep within the forest, a pillar of emerald light was slowly rising.
It pierced through the canopy and extended straight into the sky.
Sophie stood motionless. The faint call that had followed her ever since she was a child had now become clearer than ever before.
There were no spoken words. Yet somehow, she understood the meaning perfectly.
Come. Come to me.
Sophie’s eyes slowly widened.
At the same time, several kilometers away in the deepest region of the Sacred Forest, beneath an ancient tree so enormous that its scale almost defied description, several elderly elves who had been sitting silently among its massive roots opened their eyes at the same moment.
One of them abruptly rose to his feet.
“The Mother Tree has awakened?”
“No.”
Another elder raised his head and stared at the emerald radiance spreading across the sky, unable to conceal the shock on his face.
“It hasn’t awakened.”
He could feel it clearly.
The will of the World Tree was actively extending itself in a certain direction.
Almost as though it were welcoming someone.
The elder slowly turned his head.
The next instant, his pupils contracted sharply.
On the oldest primary root of the World Tree, a golden green mark that had remained dormant for exactly eighteen years was gradually beginning to glow again.
The elder stared at the mark without moving.
A long time passed before a name that should never have appeared again slowly escaped his lips.
“Serena…”
“…”