Game of the World Tree

The pressure on Optimist’s shoulders vanished, leaving him feeling strangely weightless.

Confused, he noticed that the soft, delicate sensation he had been focusing on had suddenly disappeared without a trace.

In its place, he sensed a radiant, holy light spreading outward, illuminating everything in its path.

At the same time, an incomparably powerful yet strangely comforting force appeared behind him.

This energy was vast and boundless, yet gentle and warm,as it emanated waves that caressed his body, which evoked the feeling of basking in sunlight.

Moreover, this energy waves carried an extraordinary effect.

Just as when he had carried the goddess’s body earlier, the energy waves now washing over him rapidly restored his physical condition.

Even the oppressive force exerted by the enemy boss began to dissipate under the influence of this energy.

However, the ‘Creator’ showed no sign of halting his attack.

With his hands morphing into a claw-like form, he lunged toward Optimist, whilst the black miasma encircling his form spread ever outward.

The oppressive and malevolent aura of the abyss exuded a suffocating intensity, and the sheer power it displayed was so overwhelming.

There was no doubt that should the Creator’s attack successfully landed upon Optimist, then his fate would be no better than those players who had been instantly annihilated earlier.

But this time, this attack was destined to miss.

As the warm energy behind him continued to spread, Optimist also noticed that everything around him seemed to have slowed down, as if the very world itself had shifted into slow motion.

Then, a radiant figure cloaked in a soft, glowing light stepped past him with an unhurried grace.

Draped in a pure white divine gown, with cascading silver hair and a side profile so stunning it felt like a dream, the figure was unmistakable.

He knew this figure well—after all, everyone who played Elven Kingdom also did for that matter.

Moreover, how could he not recognize it?

It was the very body he had been carrying on his back across the map just moments ago.

In an instant, Optimist’s expression lit up with joy and excitement.

—It was the Goddess Eve.

This was indeed, the Goddess Eve!

The goddess had finally descended!

Yet, compared to her appearances in countless cutscenes before, there was something different about her now.

She seemed more vivid, more real, and more profoundly captivating.

There was an indescribable quality about her.

To Optimist, the goddess seemed less imposing than before, exuding instead a newfound sense of approachability.

She walked forward casually, stepping in front of Optimist and shielding him behind her.

As she passed by, she then glanced back briefly and offered him a small, gentle smile.

That smile was so beautiful, so moving, so warm and inviting, Optimist felt as though it could intoxicate the entire world.

Then, the goddess gently stretched out her right hand, with her palm facing outwards, facing the ‘God of Creation’.

A soft, shimmering light flowed around her.

With just this simple gesture, the ‘Creator’ seemed to crash into an invisible barrier, unable to move another inch forward.

“Blasphemer! Die!”

The ‘Creator’ roared in rage once more, the black miasma around him thickening into an even darker, more oppressive mass.

Yet the goddess simply just stood there, seemingly not taking him seriously at all.

Then, she gently raised her hand, forming a pinch with her thumb and forefinger, and flicked lightly towards the ‘Creator’ that was rushing towards her…

That mere flick looked so simple yet it carried an unfathomable power, which somehow distorted the very space around it.

In that instant, the ‘Creator’ was struck as if by a catastrophic force and was sent hurtling backward by the flick.

Under the stunned gazes of the players, the once-unstoppable boss was flung like a stone just like that, tumbling through the air as if utterly weightless.

The ‘Creator’ crashed through countless palace columns, hurtling over a thousand meters before finally slamming into a heap of ruins.

For a brief moment, the whole battlefield fell silent.

Then, a wave of cheers erupted:

“Ha ha ha! It’s the goddess! The goddess has finally descended!”

“She’s so… beautiful! And so… powerful!”

“Whoa! That was insane! A one-shot kill?”

“As expected of my waifu!”

“All hail the goddess! Long live the goddess!”

The players gazed at the goddess with overwhelming palpable excitement.

Of course, they also didn’t stop their attacks.

With the goddess’s arrival, the battle’s momentum had instantly shifted entirely in their favor.

Now was the perfect time to kick a fallen enemy while they were down—which also means, a golden opportunity to farm experience!

In an instant, the players’ morale soared to new heights.

They charged forward with renewed vigor, battling the palace guardians and the now city residents-turned-monsters with wild enthusiasm.

At the same time, while the players fought with fervor, Evé spent the few seconds following her descent acclimating to her new body.

Yet, even as she projected an air of mystique and composure in the eyes of the players, internally, she was reeling with shock.

“This body… it’s storing such an immense amount of divine life force?! Could the ‘Creator’ have been using this body as a container for storing divine power?”

Feeling the boundless life energy coursing through her, Eve was elated.

Before her descent, her perception of this body’s true nature had been vague.

But now that she had fully taken control over it, she discovered that the deepest recesses of this vessel held nearly two thousand units of divine power!

This amount was almost equivalent to the full reserves of a senior True God with weak divine power!

However, although she was surprised, after thinking about it carefully, Evé also understood why the other party did this.

The ‘God of Creation,’ after all, was only a demigod.

A demigod could control a maximum of 300 units of divine power and any more would exceed their capacity.

So to store additional power, they would need an external container.

And it was obvious that a vessel of a true god would be the perfect container!

Eve even suspected that the ‘God of Creation’ had intended to use this vessel as his foundation for ascension, in order to achieve true godhood.

At the same time, Evé personally felt the passive siphoning of life force from this demi-realm for the first time.

Yet to her surprise, however, the siphoned life force was being funneled directly into the body she now inhabited.

In other words, this realm’s entire life force harvesting system had been designed for the sole purpose of accumulating divine power into this sacred vessel.

At that moment, Evé finally understood why the other party was so angry after the players had stolen this body.

No wonder—they outright sabotage his whole operation!

With this revelation in mind, Evé cast her gaze across the world around her.

For reasons she couldn’t entirely explain, Evé felt her spiritual power felt more active and attuned here than she had anticipated.

More than that, she also experienced a peculiar sense of intimacy with this demi-realm.

She even had a strange intuition—

If she desired it, Evé was pretty sure that she could fully take control of this demi-realm in as little as ten days to just two weeks, by leveraging the fragments of the Scepter she had already acquired.

In other words, she could reach the same level of mastery over this realm as the ‘Creator’ had achieved.

Which was odd, considering under normal circumstances, even a true god would require a lengthy process to merge with a demi-realm’s provenance in order to gain full control over it.

Typically, the time needed to do such a thing would span years.

And although this demi-realm has low amount of mana, its fundamental laws were highly refined.

Hence, fully gaining mastery over it should have taken an even longer time.

Yet, Eve felt confident that it wouldn’t take her nearly as long to gain control over it.

This was what her divine intuition was telling her.

A true god’s intuition about demi-realms is extraordinarily precise—almost like foresight.

“There’s something strange about the Provenance of this demi-realm! Could it be connected to me? Or has the prolonged forced absorption of life force caused some mysterious bond between this vessel and this demi-realm?”

Eve’s thoughts stirred.

This demi-realm must not be destroyed!

Once the battle is over, she’ll definitely need to investigate its secrets thoroughly!

Evé thought to herself.

Having determined the demi-realm’s fate within her heart, Evé turned her attention to the ruins where the ‘Creator’ had crashed.

Although she was highly satisfied with her new incarnate vessel, she doubted that her earlier strike had actually defeated the other party.

In fact, Eve highly suspected that her initial attack had merely caught the ‘Creator’ off guard, temporarily throwing him off balance but doing little else.

And the result went precisely as Evé had anticipated.

Moments later, the ruins erupted as the ‘God of Creation’ reappeared before everyone once again.

The black smoke, which had continued to swirl around him like a living thing, clung to his form as the cloaked figure stood, perfectly intact—without so much as a single tear in the fabric of his cloak.

Their aura also remained just as oppressive as ever.

The sight stunned the players, silencing their celebratory cheers.

Many stood with mouths agape, their expressions filled with disbelief:

“No way… not even a scratch?”

“What is this monster? Their defense is insane, isn’t it?”

“What kind of joke is this?”

The players’ faces mirrored their shock, as though they’d seen a ghost.

But Evé remained unfazed.

This demi-realm’s power ceiling was capped at the peak of the Silver-rank.

Which means, no matter how powerful Evé was, her abilities here were restricted to the upper limits of Silver-rank strength.

The flick she had delivered earlier was roughly to this extent.

Although an attack of such level could send the opponent flying, it was impossible to cause any harm to the other party.

This was because the ‘God of Creation’ s’ essence was that of a demigod.

Even though this demi-realm’s restrictions limits the exertion of his power, it did not alter the fundamental nature of his existence as a demigod.

After all, a demigod’s body is very special.

Without external constraints, the true body a Demigod is naturally protected by the laws they have respectively comprehended.

Under the protection of such laws, a Demigod’s body is essentially immune to all ordinary physical and magical attacks below golden-rank.

In other words, a mere silver-rank attack would not be able to deliver a fatal blow to a demigod.

At most, it could only generate enough force to send them flying, just as Evé had done so earlier.

Of course, if Evé were to unleash a greater attack with more power to it, then it might actually be able to harm the other party.

However, such an act would exceed this demi-realm’s threshold, thereby accelerating its collapse, which was already precariously unstable as it was.

In other words, if she wants to win by conventional combat, then Evé can only defeat the God of Creation at the cost of destroying the demi-realm.

Alas, this method was a dead end.

Moreover, Evé herself had no intention of destroying this demi-realm—especially not now that she caught a glimpse of its hidden secrets, and not under these circumstances.

Fortunately, she had already devised a strategy to handle the other party.

Since conventional methods couldn’t possibly defeat the ‘Creator’ without actually damaging the demi-realm, then she could simply use unconventional methods instead.

If the God of Creation’s body was immune to attacks at this level, then the solution was pretty simple:

—Just seal off their power until they were no longer immune to such attacks!

In other words, just as she had done with the demon lord Azazel beforehand, she could also seal off the ‘God of Creations’ strength—especially their control over the laws for which she actually have authority over.

Back when she had sealed the powers of Azazel, even the players managed to land hits on him, and while they couldn’t kill the demon lord outright, weakening his strength was more than sufficient enough.

What’s more, unlike Azazel, the ‘God of Creation’ was not a true god.

They had merely just comprehended some laws, and had not actually gained authority over them.

This meant that sealing off their connection to these laws would render the God of Creation vulnerable.

With this in mind, a flash of crimson light appeared in Eve’s hand, revealing a necklace.

A true divine artifact—The Withering Heart!

— 452 —

【 UNEXPECTEDDIVINE POWER 】

— —