Focusing my mana into my eyes, I noticed that there were spirits fluttering about the village, making for a beautiful, twinkling landscape. The large, perfectly straight trees had doors and round little windows installed in them—they were cozy, snug, literal tree houses. It looked a bit like the village the insect- and plant-type demons had built in my forest, except that the trees in the elves’ kingdom were much bigger, and so was the scale of the settlement itself. The soft sound of running water filled the air, and a pleasant breeze danced through the branches of the tree houses, causing the leaves to sway and dappled sunlight to filter through the foliage.
Beside me, Althea looked up at the World Tree from a small gap in the tree line. It was so tall it looked like it would pierce the sky if it grew much taller.
“This is our last stop until the capital,” she said.
That night, I went to bed in the tree house I had been led to, my heart pounding at the idea of finally reaching the elven capital.
“The interference spells are even stronger from this point onward. Please be careful not to get lost,” Althea told us the next day as we were preparing to depart.
“Noted. But is there really any point in having them set up in these parts? Even with your sense of direction skewed, you could simply look up and head towards the World Tree,” I said, my head tilted to the side.
“Yeah, you can just walk towards the big tree,” Teto added.
“I see your point. But do you think that the World Tree you’re seeing from here is the real World Tree?” Althea asked us.
At first, I found Althea’s question a bit weird, but then my eyes shot wide open. I hadn’t thought about it before, but I had absolutely no way of knowing.
“There are far more spirits dedicated to safeguarding the World Tree at the heart of the forest than in the middle stratum. All of them work around the clock, clouding minds and weaving illusions to ensure no harm will befall the World Tree. Light spirits might shift the scenery you’re seeing slightly to the right, while dark spirits might conceal the World Tree entirely. So if you used it as your beacon to reach the capital...” Fauzard trailed off.
“You’d never make it,” I concluded.
Teto and I realized that we had been completely deceived by the sight of the World Tree standing proudly over the forest.
As a sidenote, light and dark spirits weren’t the only ones who could mess with one’s perception; water spirits could envelop the World Tree in dense fog to conceal it, earth spirits could mess up the ambient mana to prevent one from using detection spells like Earth Sonar, et cetera. I surmised that they might even have been able to reduce the accuracy of skills like Mana Perception.
Spirits were pretty much the personification of nature itself. The fact that the elves had them on their side made them much scarier than I had initially thought.
And this wasn’t even the last of it.
“Huh? Looks like the path...ends here?” I wondered aloud, looking down and seeing that there was no more animal trail.
“Did we take a wrong turn?” Teto asked.
As we wondered what had happened, Fauzard’s mana-laced voice echoed from the lantern. “I have returned. Open the path.”
Instantly, the trees in front of us started swaying, parting to the sides, while the thorny shrubs and vines formed an arch to let us through.
“Wow! That’s so cool!” Teto exclaimed.
“I see. So plant spirits were hiding the way, huh?” I muttered in a mixture of shock and amazement.
“We’ll be passing through this thorny tunnel. The ceiling is quite low, so let us proceed on foot for the time being,” Althea said as she dismounted her sleipnir and led it by its reins.
Teto and I hopped down from our flying carpet and followed her. Glancing back a few meters in, I noticed that the path had already closed behind us. Feeling a bit of pressure at the thought that we couldn’t double back in case we got lost, I focused all of my attention on following Althea.
“This is quite the punishing trek,” I muttered.
“Are you okay, Lady Witch?”
As we proceeded deeper and deeper into the woods, a thick fog massed around us. It took all of my concentration to follow Althea and the spirit lantern hanging from her hip.
It was my first time finding myself in a situation where I could rely on neither my vision nor my Mana Perception. Teto and I were used to walking in the forest, but we soon found our paces slowing, and our conversation dwindled until silence enveloped us. Mindlessly following Althea, I glanced back to see how Teto was doing.
“Teto, are you okay? Are you keeping up?” I asked, but then I felt my blood run cold; she wasn’t behind me. “Teto?! Miss Althea! Teto has disappeared!”
I turned back around, only to see that Althea wasn’t there either.
“Huh? How...” I gasped, completely dumbfounded.
I tried to use Mana Perception to look for Teto and Althea, but there were way too many mana signatures jumbled together to pick them out.
“This way! This way!”
The only thing that I could pinpoint was a single voice cheerfully calling for me in the middle of the fog.
“What’s calling for me?” I muttered, following the voice.
The closer I got to it, the thinner the fog got; soon I found myself in a clearing, a beautiful spring glistening in the center.
“What is this place?”
Making my way to the edge of the spring, I used Mana Perception again. The mana signatures that were causing interference earlier all disappeared at once, yet there was no sign of Teto and the others.
“Teto! Miss Althea! Fauzard! If you can hear me, please respond!” I yelled, my voice echoing among the trees.
But still nothing.
“I’ve gotten myself completely lost,” I groaned.
With no other option, I sat at the edge of the spring and decided to wait for Teto and Althea to come find me.