Chapter 74

Chapter Player.7 The Forest of the God-Tree, Yggdrasil Gods’ Games We Play 1 The gods on high invited players to be part of the gods’ games, though by what standards they were chosen, that special handful from around the world, only the gods knew. The chosen ones were given powers and became apostles, and they became able to travel to the superior spiritual realm known as Elements. They never knew what they would find there—what kind of place it would be, what kind of game they would play. That all depended on the gods. “Master Fay?!” “Fay! Leshea, over here! We found him!” “Geez! Fay?! Stay with me, man!” He felt something hit him on the shoulder, hard. The impact and the pain slowly brought him around, dragging his consciousness out of what felt like a dream. Where…where am I? He could hear someone talking. Someone was hitting him on the shoulder. Fay’s eyes drifted open, and although his vision was still fuzzy, he recognized the faces he saw. “He opened his eyes! Master Fay, do you recognize me?! Stay right there, I’m going to go get Mistress Leshea!” No sooner had the black-haired girl stopped shouting than she turned and ran off. In her place, a golden-haired girl and a young man with brown hair moved in and peered at Fay. “Fay!” the golden-haired girl said. “Hey! Fay! Get up already!” “…Ugh…” Fay made a noise and rubbed his eyes. He registered the faces staring down at him, then finally began to absorb his surroundings. He was lying on the ground in a place full of green. “Pearl? Captain Ashlan? Wait… So am I…?” He looked around. His still slightly foggy brain conjured a memory, a distant recollection of a place without light. Not here. This was somewhere different. When Fay got to his feet, he found he was in a forest of trees so massive they seemed to reach up to the heavens. The ground was covered in a riot of colorful flowers, while from overhead, sunlight came dappled and lovely through the leaves. “Well, you sure know how to make a scene. Lying on the ground alone in the middle of a forest like this.” Fay turned and saw a young woman with very pink hair; she had her arms crossed and looked annoyed. “Me and Captain Ashlan and my treasured sisters spent a whole hour looking for you. I thought you were supposed to be the world’s greatest rookie! You’d think you’d be paying a little more attention to what you were—” She was interrupted by a voice shouting Fay’s name from among the massive trees, echoing around the woods. “Faaaaay!” A trace of vermilion. Hair that shone like fire fluttered in the wind, and almost before he knew what he was doing, Fay followed it. His big sister with the red hair. “Oh…” “Fay, you’re all right!” The dragon god Leoleshea stood there looking as grave and serious as he’d ever seen her. And for the second time, she looked to him like his “big sister,” the girl who had taught him to play games when he’d been so young. “Gosh! We looked everywhere for you, you know. This forest is gigantic. I must have jogged five hundred kilometers over that way all by myself, and I couldn’t even find you!” Indeed, she’d come running up full-tilt, only to screech to a halt. “I’m sure I know what happened. You were late diving through the Divine Gate, so it must have landed you at different coordinates. Silly Miranda. She said the Divine Gate was fixed, but it looks to me like it’s still got a few bugs. Hey, Fay, are you listening?” “Huh? Uh, oh, yeah. Sure.” “Are you feeling all right?” “Y-yeah! I’m fine now… I think.” He gave a vigorous shake of his head. He was too embarrassed to admit he’d had another hallucination. “…?” Leshea looked at him, questioning. But only for a moment—then the former god with the bright red hair smiled at him. “Well, don’t worry. The point is, you’re safe.” “Sorry to worry you,” Fay said. “I’m a little shaken myself. I never thought a whole different—” He broke off abruptly and looked around the gigantic forest. It was beautiful, sunlight pouring amid the leaves. Is this a different world? It seems totally different from the pitch-black Elements where I was imprisoned. Had he escaped? No matter how hard he looked around or how closely he listened, he didn’t hear the voice of the god from before. Which had to mean this was… “At least we’re not still stuck in that maze! This is definitely a different Elements from that,” Captain Ashlan sighed. He had gone over by his teammates and was looking up at one of the huge trees. “Man, that’s big! And this forest is sized to match. We spent a good hour looking for you, Fay, but we never found the edge of the woods. I think for sheer scale, this forest might be on par with that labyrinth.” “Oh yeah?” Fay felt unconsciously relieved. In that case, who was the god of this world? If it wasn’t the mysterious deity from that subdimension, then maybe this place was at least safe, as far as it went. “Captain Ashlan, who’s the god around here?” “Haven’t met ’em yet. Since we found you, I’m hoping for some sort of event to trigger.” Ashlan looked around, and at just that moment… “Welcome to the forest of the God-Tree, Yggdrasil!” A cheerful voice spoke. Fay looked into the branches of one of the immense trees and saw a sprite of a light green color descending. “I am the meep who lives in these woods. Are you all first-time visitors?” “Well, yeah!” Anita replied instantly, seizing the initiative. “I don’t remember seeing anything about a forest like this in the Arcane Court’s data banks. So, Mister Meep, this big old tree here is Yggdrasil, is it?”