Under Dixue’s lead, the girls dove into the pool like swallows cutting through mirror-blue water.

Yue Liuyi braced for pain, yet a vast power only brushed her skin like a warm tide, leaving no discomfort behind.

She sank; the world dimmed to ink. Then, as if through a long, quiet tunnel, light bloomed around her again.

Weightless rose her body. When her fingers met the surface, an indescribable tremor ran her veins, like starlight flooding a riverbed.

“Huh?”

Yue broke the water. Beads pattered down her azure hair, rain on willow strands.

A bright world lifted into her eyes, clear as a new dawn.

“Where… is this?”

She found herself in a small lake set within a wide, open expanse. Sunlight slanted from the sky like molten gold and painted the water. Around the shore spread a soft meadow, every kind of plant unfurling like quiet flags—like stepping into a tranquil lakeside forest.

“Yue, this is the inside of the World Tree.”

Dixue surfaced. A moment later, Ailuna’s little head popped up, hair slick and eyes round.

“This place… feels so familiar…”

Ailuna looked more confused, pale-gold eyes drifting over the scenery, as if chasing old echoes.

“Ailuna, did anything come back to you?”

“Mmm… vaguely. Especially over there. It feels so familiar…”

She raised her hand toward the far horizon. The place she pointed at was a broad backbone of mountains.

“Looks like that’s where Ailuna slept before. Let’s go together.”

“Walk there?”

“Yeah. But heads up—there are two other auras here. I’m sensing Breeze and the Elven Queen.”

“Breeze… is here too?”

“Should be.”

They helped each other up and waded ashore, drops ringing off them like tiny bells.

Walking this unknown land, Yue realized how vast this inner world was. The mountain range Ailuna mentioned lay at least dozens of kilometers away.

Even after a long stretch, the ridge barely drew nearer, a mirage stilled under a bright sky.

“Inside the World Tree… it’s this spacious?”

Yue asked, puzzled. Even a giant trunk shouldn’t hold such a boundless heart.

“Yue, you didn’t know? The core of the World Tree is a secret realm—a folded space.”

“A f-fold that big?”

“Ailuna, do you know what a folded space is?”

“Mmm… not really.”

“Okay. Think of it like this.”

Yue turned to Ailuna, voice gentle as she painted the picture.

“Four dimensions are hard to grasp, so imagine a flat sheet. Take a piece of paper—tissue works best, right?”

“Our everyday three-dimensional space is like a sheet laid smooth on a table—even, open.

“Now zigzag the paper into pleats, then press it flat.

“With enough pressure, it still looks like one flat sheet. But inside each fold, a sealed pocket hides—a quiet room you can’t see from the surface.

“Sometimes nature crumples space this way, so people call those places folded spaces.

“They show up clearly where energy runs rich. With magic, we can craft small folds for use too.

“That’s how the Inner Ring civilization makes storage packs and rings. Same trick.”

As Yue explained, they kept moving, wind like a mild hand on their backs, grass brushing their ankles with velvet whispers, toward the mountains’ shadowed spine.

“Ah! Little bunnies!”

Ailuna lit up at the sight of white darts bounding through the trees, joy bright as sunlight on water.

Here too, inside the World Tree, ran a full living cycle. And like Ailuna’s nature, everything held a peace untouched by quarrel.

Tree-shadows swayed; a kind breeze hummed. The meadow felt like a soft quilt that begged you to lie down and dream.

“I didn’t expect the World Tree’s heart to be like this.”

“Yue, you’ve never visited?”

“Of course not… if LittleSnow hadn’t brought me, I couldn’t have gotten in.”

“True…”

“Ailuna remembers now! I love the little animals here. Everyone’s so loving. So lively!”

Long-missed, the pink-haired girl smiled. She crouched and played with the rabbits, laughter crisp as bells.

“Heh, that’s perfect…”

“If only we had treats for them… Hey! Bunny, where are you going?”

The rabbits were too lively. After a while, one rose up and bolted toward a shaded thicket, a white flame in green.

Ailuna chased, feet light as petals on wind.

…

And then—

In their warmth, a wrong note cut through. A thick scent of blood slid into Yue’s breath like rusty iron.

Unlike the forest’s calm, this tang was abrupt, ominous—like stumbling onto a fresh crime scene still slick with red. Cold crawled under her skin.

“Ailuna, don’t go!”

Dixue called, but too late. Ailuna had already sped far ahead, following the white tails.

“LittleSnow, what is that smell?”

“Bad. That rabbit is—Yue, we have to catch up!”

“Right!”

Yue and Dixue ran, hearts drumming, their steps chasing Ailuna’s fluttering silhouette into the forest’s deep.

After a long sprint, Ailuna stopped. The place wasn’t far from where they’d started, just past a dense stand of trees—

And the sight that flooded Yue’s eyes nearly buckled her knees.

Before her stretched an endless field of graves.

Stone markers stood on the open ground, crowded like grey reeds, row upon row, reaching all the way to the mountains’ foot in the far haze.

There had to be hundreds of thousands. A chill rose from Yue’s soles like winter water. Death, multiplied to a sea, towered in silence right in front of them—

Any living heart would tremble.

“Yue, don’t be afraid. They’re only the dead… Dixue will stay with you.”

Warmth pressed into her back, a spring thaw after frost. Yue blinked and saw Dixue hugging her, eyes soft as clear water.

“LittleSnow…”

“Rest easy. Nothing will happen.”

“I’m sorry.”

Up ahead, Ailuna faltered—

Then dropped to her knees with a dull thud.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, everyone. I ran from my duty. I abandoned you.”

From behind, Yue couldn’t see her face. But the pink-haired girl’s tremor—the collapse in her shoulders—spoke louder than words.

“Ailuna, what happened? This place…”

“Yue, Dixue… I’m sorry. I… remember everything now.”

Ailuna turned.

Her face was grief driven past the edge.

Her pure smile hung there, empty and wrong.

Her eyes were hollow wells filled with ash, despair sinking without a bottom.

It felt like hope had already left this world behind her.

No redemption in sight.

“Ailuna!”

Yue rushed and held the fragile girl tight. Yet even in her arms—

It felt like she hugged a corpse.

Ailuna’s body was cold, stripped of the warmth she always carried.

“Yue… can I ask you for something?”

Ailuna shook her head softly, words a low drift.

“Bully me. Humiliate me. Kill me… Only then will everyone’s souls find rest.”

“Ailuna, what are you saying!? I… I could never…”

“I’m not joking. Ailuna is a failure of a World Tree Maiden. Because I did nothing, everyone died. Because… Ailuna is trash.”

She laughed suddenly.

The smile that was always pure turned bone-chilling in this light.

“So this scene… couldn’t be avoided, after all.”

Dixue sighed and stepped forward, a small shake of her head. Her silver hair caught the sun like frostlight.

She pulled Yue close, and Ailuna too, a quiet embrace that made a small island in the field of stone.

“LittleSnow, this is…”

“These markers belong to the dead of the New Land. Souls heavy with resentment.”

“Huh…?”

“Chaos lands, elven wars… so many died without proper graves. They lay exposed to sky and carrion, and the stink of death kept spreading like plague.”

“Ah!”

Yue remembered what she had lived through in the illusion.

Bandits like weeds—endless.

Killings led by greed’s crooked finger.

Earth tipped red.

Eyes that never closed.

And the one who fell there—Dongfang Chen.

If such scenes repeat, again and again—

Then these graves might be where all the restless finally come to rest.

“Mhm. Dixue is right. Everyone died because of Ailuna!”

Ailuna clapped “cheerfully,” then sprang up and shouted toward the mountains, voice echoing over stone:

“Don’t worry—Ailuna will make it up to you! If you have complaints, come at Ailuna. It’s okay. Let it all out!”

“Ailuna! This isn’t your fault!”

“Yue, wait…”

Dixue caught Yue’s hand, her whisper close at the blue-haired girl’s ear.

“Some World Tree Maidens see themselves as mothers to all life. For those who die with grudges and won’t let go, she tries to heal and guide them, no matter how long it takes.”

“Really!?”

“That’s part of a World Tree Maiden’s duty. Souls who release their obsession return to the natural cycle. Those who cling to it turn into wraiths and harm the living.”

“—!”

“Ailuna probably thinks she ran from her responsibility.”

“B-but asking a girl to bear this… it’s too much!”

“Ailuna is actually very responsible. She tries to fulfill every task with all her heart. Even the smallest plea, the humblest wish—she’ll try to grant it. And that was… the start of her breaking.”

“Huh?”

“Too many nameless died in the New Land. Ailuna thought she could save them all. Long exposure to that weight of grief twists anyone. Even a World Tree Maiden’s heart can bend.”

“LittleSnow… you mean…”

“Masochism, self-harm. That’s likely how it began.”

Yue fell silent. She remembered her own helplessness in the illusion—defeat, despair, sadness like a storm. That alone had been pain she could barely hold. But a World Tree Maiden bears a world’s worth of grief.

Not one person’s bitterness, but everyone’s.

Falling into a pit like this… was almost inevitable.

“But… it’s too unfair! Ailuna can save drifting souls, but who saves her?”

Watching Ailuna on the edge, Yue’s heart ached with a sharp, nameless hurt.

Breeze too—still a young girl—carrying such a burden. The scales felt wrong.

“Don’t worry, Yue. Ailuna’s stronger than you think. Right now she’s just shaken.”

“You mean…?”

“We’re going to save Ailuna. That’s why I brought you here.”

“We… can help?”

“We can. Because it’s you and me.”

Dixue stroked Yue’s head, voice gentle as falling snow.