Game of the World Tree

—I thank you for returning my body!

Upon hearing these words, an idea formed within Eve’s mind, as if she had found the missing parts of a puzzle and things finally clicked into place.

In that moment, it was as if she vaguely comprehended the reason behind how an imaginary world tree has taken root upon Meryer’s subconscious world.

If it’s really what I’m assuming, then I definitely couldn’t let him succeed!

Eve’s expression hardened.

Her gaze remained fixed and followed each step Nidhogg took, whilst also monitoring how the cocoon in response seemed to inexorably drew more closer towards the approaching Ancient Dragon.

With resolve in her heart, Evé tapped into her divine power and conjured forth the Scepter of Life.

Although this sudden turn of events greatly exceeded Eve’s initial expectations, she hadn’t entered this battle unprepared and had several trump cards up her sleeve.

Specifically, using the Scepter of Life was her ace in the hole should the situation really turn for the worst.

As a powerful artifact that can somewhat control the laws of life, even though it’s still in a incomplete state, the Scepter of Life still had the effect of augmenting her powers.

And obtaining this artifact is what gave Evé the courage to possessed Meryer’s body in the first place and confront Nidhogg!

“The Scepter of Life?! How is that possible?! So it was you who actually stole the Scepter of Life!” Nidhogg exclaimed, his face turning pale at the sight of the divine artifact.

In response, Evé maintained her silence as she directed her full attention towards Meryer inside the cocoon, which, by this point, is looking a lot more like Nidhogg himself, yet it also alarmingly flickered and faded with each passing second.

If this continued on, I’m afraid the consciousness of Meryer would definitely disappear, and Nidhogg would ultimately become the dominant personality…

Evé somberly thought and decisively infused a portion of her divine power into the Scepter of Life, awakening its latent power.

Then, a golden light enveloped her illusory body, rendering her current form even more tangible as it exudes as more potent aura.

Following this, without hesitation, Evé also began to rushed towards the cocoon.

Seeing her approaching from behind, Nidhogg’s expression contorted into a ferocious grimace, and with a deafening roar, he surged forward whilst burning through all the divine power left within him to rush towards the cocoon at an even faster speed!

With his speed greatly amplified, Nidhogg finally reached to the cocoon’s side first, while Evé lagged behind, still some distance away.

By this point, Nidhogg’s divine power reserves had nearly been depleted, leaving him visibly weakened.

Yet, despite his diminished state, a fervent gleam danced within his eyes, brimming with ecstasy and anticipation.

He then cast a glance over his shoulder at Eve, who was still trailing behind, and laughed heartily, as his aged voice resonated through the entirety of Meryer’s subconscious world.

“Hahaha! You’re already too late, Yggdrasill! Prepare to be hunted down again by the gods! Once I devour this dragon’s psyche, then you’ll be expelled from this mindscape, even if you have the Scepter of Life!”

However, as soon as his words trailed off, a calm voice, imbued with authority, sliced through in response.

“Imprisonment.”

In an instant, Nidhogg felt an irresistible force grip his entire being, rendering him immobile all of a sudden.

Moreover, the cocoon that had been drifting towards him also stopped moving, along with Meryer’s mental personification inside it, which was gradually fading, becoming visibly more solid once more.

In an instant, Nidhogg’s smile faltered and froze in place upon his face once more.

He was only mere seconds away from grasping the cocoon…yet these last few seconds seemed to stretch into an eternity, as if time had halted and stood frozen in place.

This was the power of Eve’s domain and also one of her trump cards in her arsenal.

The moment Nidhogg invaded Mayer’s mindscape, Evé decisively sent the young black dragon’s physical body back to the core area of the Elven Forest via teleportation so that he could be in the vicinity of her True Body, the World Tree, hereby allowing her to manifest her Celestial Domain.

Since only within her Celestial Domain could she unleash her strongest power.

And only within this domain could Evé navigate unforeseen circumstances, like what’s happening right now, with ease, thus ensuring Nidhogg had no means of escape.

Out of all the trump cards she had prepared, her Celestial Domain definitely stands out as her ultimate weapon!

In fact, as soon as Nidhogg invaded Mayer’s mindscape, she knew deep down that no matter how much this Ancient Dragon struggled, the outcome had already been predetermined.

Even if he truly devoured the Black Dragon’s consciousness and took control of Meryer’s physical body, he still wouldn’t have been able to escape from Eve’s grasp.

“T-This…domain! You… you—”

Nidhogg’s expression contorted into horror as Evé gradually approached and eventually caught up to him.

“—I told you.”

Evé sighed softly.

“You…lost.”

Anger and despair mingled within Nidhogg’s roar, which is a bit ironic as he himself embodied the very essence of Despair, so to speak.

“No! No—!”

With him being imprisoned by the power of Eve’s domain, while at the same time his strength was being sealed by the Withering Heart, and adding to the fact that he had no body and was only in a spectral state, at that point, Nidhogg, the Ancient Divine Dragon of Despair and one of the oldest ancestors of the Black Dragon Bloodline, had ultimately become nothing more than a piece of meat on the chopping board, subject to whatever Evé had desired.

It was to the extent that even Nidhogg himself couldn’t even kill himself!

With a decisive gesture, Evé extended her hand and delved into Nidhogg’s consciousness to extract his memories.

She wanted to uncover the secrets of the thousand-year heavenly war and understand why her predecessor had been attacked.

With her divine power surging through his mind, Evé intruded into Nidhogg’s mindscape and began analyzing his vast expanse of memories.

On the other hand, this Ancient Dragon let out a miserable wail as his spectral form flickered in and out under Eve’s mental intrusion.

For a moment, Evé felt a surge of vast memories flooding into her mind.

These were Nidhogg’s enormous collection of memories, which span millions of years, dating all the way from the early Dragon Era up until now in the present age…

I am afraid that only True God’s like myself can handle such large amount of information flowing directly into our minds like these…

Evé thought as she skimmed through a lot of redundant information and finally found some useful images within Nidhogg’s ocean of memories.

The first piece was a scene depicting a temple composed of white pillars.

In particular, right at the center of this temple was a long table with figures exuding grandeur, engaged in what appeared to be a deep discussion.

Each of them had majestic and sacred voices as their conversation reverberated through the temple:

“The World Tree must fall, or else… it shall be us who will!”

“If the status quo continues on like this, more mortals will gain strength and ultimately shall attain the right to ascend into Godhood. In due time, these beings shall eventually question our authority, akin to our defiance against the Ancient Ones beforehand…”

“Nidhogg, did you not aspire to ascend to the status of a Great Old One? Should you manage to sever the connection between the World Tree and the Provenance of Seigües, then… we shall grant you a share of this Provenance…”

The second scene depicted a fierce battlefield.

Fiery streams of molten lava cascaded from above as mountains trembled and shattered.

Amidst the chaos, numerous oak guardians unleashed thunderous roars as this Legion of Treants engaged in fierce combat against divine angels hovering in the skies.

In the sky, over a dozen majestic figures materialized, their forms shimmering with illusionary grace. With sweeping gestures, they unleashed myriad of divine spells, transforming the forest below into a blazing inferno.

At the center of this scene stood a towering World Tree from the distance, clearly viewed from Nidhogg’s perspective.

Whilst being accompanied by resounding dragon roars, the scene unfolded from a first-person perspective as Nidhogg tore through the ground and unearthed the World Tree’s majestic roots.

He ferociously tore and gnawed at them before devouring the roots piece by piece…

The third scene was viewed from a deep canyon.

Painful cries accompanied the continuous rolling perspective, punctuated by a voice speaking from behind.

“Nidhogg, do you really believe that you can entirely devour the World Tree?”

Suddenly, a gentle and mellow voice resounded and the perspective steadied and shifted slightly to reveal a massive platinum dragon.

“Rein…hart…”

The voice of Nidhogg, old and feeble, echoed slowly.

Then, the platinum dragon breathed out a frozen breath, instantly freezing the Ancient Black Dragon and enclosing him into a prison of ice.

Subsequently, with a thunderous roar, the perspective shifted once more and the spectral soul of Nidhogg escaped from his frozen body before fleeing into the distance…

As he fled, the perspective showed Nidhogg looking back and seeing his gigantic body in the center of the canyon suddenly shattering from its ice prison.

The shattered crystals from his frozen remains, along with some mangled flesh, then merged with a faint green light, which surprisingly formed into a massive egg…

After viewing each scene, Evé sank into contemplative silence.

— 324 —

【 NIDHOGG’S MEMORIES 】

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