"We donât have much time," Godfrey said as the Alchemists remained silent. "The host I speak about might die at any moment. Besides, havenât your hands been dormant for too long? Why not work on something new?"
"The Golden Order is made up of and for the Phathani," an Alchemist said firmly.
"No, it is made up of an orc and a Pathan, a phoenix and a Pathan, a lich and a Pathan, a chameleon and a Pathan. You forged a new order that wasnât restricted to just Pathans."
Godfrey responded with a soft yet firm tone.
"True, but there was always a Pathan. There is none now," an Alchemist retorted calmly.
Godfrey rose to his feet. "The laws have changed. Whoever I deem worthy to be a Pathan knight will be a Pathan knight. The dream is to forever grow, so tell me, what do you need to make a new knight?"
The Alchemists went silent, and the one seated at the opposite head seat pulled down his hood, revealing the sharp-featured face of a man with long gray hair. He wore a golden headband and had piercing golden eyes, a trait Godfrey believed might be common for the Phathanis.
A little smile appeared on the Chief Alchemistâs face. "You are right. Our new environment makes many things possible, but weâre dependent on what we would not get. To create a False Heart and recreate this elf into a Golden Order Knight who will be bound to your soul to be alive, we will need something so rare it can only be found in one place throughout all worlds."
"What is that?" Godfrey asked with a slight frown.
"A mana fruit." The Chief Alchemistâs word landed heavily.
Godfreyâs eyes widened. He had never gone there before, and he had not heard of a gate somewhere on Earth that always led to that place.
Only those that were chosen could get there.
"Thatâs impossible," he declared. Were these Alchemists joking with him? They who were Pathans werenât even favoured by the mana tree. How in the world would they think he could obtain it?
Or was this another way of saying no?
"Is it?" The Chief Alchemist smiled, his eyes gleaming with profound foresight.
Godfreyâs vision blurred at that moment, and he found himself back in the dungeon, but a bright light shone from his back, prompting him to turn.
Godfreyâs eyes went wide as he stared at a white gate.
"W-Whatâs that?" Tindra stuttered. Godfrey looked at her and Lysander before walking through the white gate. He appeared on golden soil, facing a tree of unthinkable size and height.
No doubt, this entire world was occupied by this tree alone. Something dropped from above, so he stretched his hand and caught it.
It was a mana fruit. It gleamed and seemed as if something was within.
âJust like that, the rarest item fell into my hands,â Godfrey said with a raised eyebrow as he puffed out hot air from his mouth while looking at the tree.
"You want to see what will happen, huh? Evolution excites you. I donât even know what to feel about this..." Godfrey sighed.
This tree wasnât a schemer like Cain. It just had a dream, an ambition, and carried it out. It brought mana, brought dungeons that had killed millions, several hundreds of them, and yet had also given power in return.
He couldnât even call it evil because he used that same mana given power. It was also the reason the Pathani were given a second chance in his soul space.
Without them, he would be powerless. Without the mana tree, there would be nothing like summoners in the first place, but then what would life have been like?
He just couldnât imagine it.
A white gate opened up behind him, a sign that it was time to leave. Godfrey couldnât figure out the mana tree. Was Origin Tier really the end?
Could an Origin Tier stand a chance against this mana tree? He could rise to Divine Tier in Black-Out State yet felt so little before the mana tree.
For now, he had no limits, so he would see just how far it would take him and just how many dungeons he would have to go through to close this gulf.
But would there be any need to?
As Godfrey turned, he had no idea that on the opposite side of the mana tree stood a man leaning against a huge bear-like beast with stone-like carapace on its back.
He looked like a man that had stepped out of a medieval world. His golden hair was quite messy as he held two fruits in his hand.
"Iâm one step closer," Ronald smiled softly as he gently patted the head of his beast.
***
"How long do you think Mr. Pendragonâs daughter and her partner would be in there? Ten days?" a dragon officer asked another.
The other folded his arms. "If I were him, Iâd spend the entire month. It would be foolish to forfeit my alone time with a woman like Isolde, and itâs not like they can kill the dungeon boss. This dungeon has been officially ranked as one of the few Divine Tier dungeons in the world."
"Well, youâre right. If I was the one in there with Isolde Pendraâ!"
The first dragon officerâs eyes widened as Godfrey, clad in his black hood, walked out with Isolde slightly behind him, and that wasnât all, elves came out with them.
Elves!
The dragon officers couldnât believe their eyes. How in the world did elves come out of a dungeon and it had not turned black, signifying a dungeon break?
Their faces went white, completely white, as the swirling blue gate constantly grew faint until it collapsed. Their souls almost left their bodies.
Not only had Godfrey and Isolde returned in just seven hoursâ time, they... they had closed down a blue gate dungeon!
They were witnessing what had never happened in history!
"It actually closed," Isolde said while staring at where the blue gate once was. She looked at Godfrey.
"You shut down a Divine Tier blue gate dungeon. I donât know how my relatives will see this, but youâre an international treasure at this point."
Godfrey shrugged. "Itâs not as easy as you make it sound. We were just lucky. Donât worry, Tindra, your father is fine."
"He chose that path," Tindra said with a strained smile.
"He didnât want to die and leave you all alone. At least, as a knight, he gets to watch out for his daughter," Isolde comforted her with a smile.
...
A/N: Weâre back. Could it be we finally have a knight with an exquisite name already? Lysander? Or should we call him Tree?
Hehe