CHAPTER 521: THE CAUSE OF EVERYTHING

Elaina struggled for a bit, trying to drag the unconscious dragon knight back to the pixies. It was a hard thing to do due to how she underestimated how heavy the dragon knight was.

Just dragging the unconscious guy alone is like dragging 100 kilos of grain. It was so heavy that Elaina felt like she was going to develop a back pain of some sort. She just prays that her back will last long enough not to give in and crack from the pressure.

Despite the heaviness of the Dragon Knight, she still managed to drag the guy slowly and surely, resting in between the dragging process. She tried pushing him to move, but it is much more taxing to do compared to pulling, so she continued pulling for the guy despite how he is weighing a lot.

It took Elaina a few hours of constant pulling and resting for her to finally reach the barrier where the brooch she was wearing should be working.

That’s when Elaina realized something.

"Wait, does that mean the dragon knight can’t move past the barrier without the brooch?" Elaina frowned and glanced at the brooch on her sleeve.

"[How about trying to drag him to the barrier? We will know if he was blocked by it or not since he will certainly not pass that without bumping his head to the barrier once.]" the God of Farming rubs his chin while still looking at the screen.

"Right," Elaina nodded as she grabbed the coat of the Dragon Knight she wrapping it around him just to fully pull him out of the previous position.

"Let’s see... alright, one, two, three!"

As Elaina passes through the barrier, the sleeves of the clothes of the Dragon Knight seem to have snugged to something, and before the unconscious Dragon Knight can bump his head against the barrier, the barrier itself is preventing the clothes from even passing through.

"[Well now, that was an interesting thing, so it isn’t just the individual itself, even the items that were not part of the recognition by the barrier would be blocked? That brooch has some unique properties for it to be able to do that on your clothes and things, while it is only attached to your upper clothes, Elaina.]" the God of Farming found the borrowed brooch very interesting after seeing the spectacle.

"Ugh, this is just making things more complicated. Oh well, gotta do what I can do," Elaina returned to the barrier and pulled the Dragon Knight once again, but this time she didn’t pull it towards the barrier. She just pulled his unconscious body and leaned him against the wall for a bit.

"[Remember that he can’t stay in that place for a while due to the influence of the World Tree around, and for him to be near the World Tree for quite a long time, just being near it is enough to cause his body to be ill in the process. To make him fully recover and also remove that debuff on his body without fully taking him away from the tree, it is a necessary thing to do.]" the Goddess of Medicine reminded Elaina about what she said before.

"Don’t worry, I know. I needed to have that barrier removed, though, as they also can’t just ignore the second world tree present deeper into the cave. It might not be the most healthy World Tree right now, but it still needed the effort to be cured in the process and not just the sapling that has also been corrupted, yet has the biggest chance to be saved out of the two."

Elaina looked around the place where the fairies were present at the moment, and all she could see was an empty place with the World Tree sapling still rotting in its place. The Pixies in the surroundings have disappeared completely without a sign that they were any of the Pixies present.

"That’s weird. Where are the pixies that were just here a few hours ago?" Elaina looked around, and even Raguna, who should be resting, was not present in the area. It was like they disappeared all of a sudden.

She continued to investigate the cave for a few moments and then, when she was still trying to check her surroundings for any signs of the Pixies, she heard some screams outside.

That’s when Elaina found out why everyone was not present in the area of the World Tree sapling and doing their work; it was because they were doing another defense against the enemies of the World Tree that were invading the cave again. They are all gathered there in the hopes of driving the enemies away, and considering the way they battle based on the description that Raguna told her last time, it is little wonder why they have to gather in one place.

"I hope there is some sort of overtime pay for this. I am not paid enough to make these kinds of actions in the first place," Elaina muttered to herself as she rushes to the main entrance and give help to the defense and ensured the battle would end much faster than it should have.

"Farmer?!" Raguna, who was actually part of the reserves for the battle, noticed Elaina was coming but couldn’t say anything much as Elaina ignored him and headed straight to the action.

Her eyes quickly scanned the surroundings for potential threats. One, two, three, four, five, six. One on the front and the main danger, three on the backup, waiting for the pack leader of the worms to deal substantial damage, and the remaining two are on the very back line.

"How amusing. Even worms have formation now?" Elaina lightly chuckled as she simulated her possible actions that would allow her to dispose of the worms quickly and efficiently.

Before the other pixies can even react to Elaina’s assault, Elaina passes through them with insane speed, hard enough for the naked eye to quickly follow. With her sword hilt tightly gripped, Elaina’s precise movements are smooth enough for her to easily take out the biggest of the worms with just one swing of her sword.

"One."

Her legs did not stop moving from just one worm. In another moment, her movement briefly sped up to simultaneously face three of the worms. In normal circumstances, Elaina would just face them one by one, but considering how weak the worms were in slashes, there is no need for her to make more effort for the same results. In one single horizontal slash, the three worms that are still in the process of doing their attempts to fill the vacant role of the main attacker have been eliminated in one quick sweep.

All of those happened in just 10 seconds. In quick 10 seconds, four of the worms were gone in a flash. However, that was just the beginning. The remaining two that are still a few distances away are also not in a safe position, as Elaina used her previous momentum to send herself straight into the last two worms’ location.

The two worms are a few meters apart, but not a big problem. First, Elaina got close to the nearest one, swiftly cut the worm in half, before headed straight to the remaining worm. With another swift cut, the remaining worm did not survive as well, eventually destroying the attacking forces of the worms before they could even cause further damage.

And when Elaina is fully done with her assault, the pixies were still readying their next blast. However, what are they even going to shoot at when the biggest of the worms were gone before they can even do something about it? All of their enemies that were supposed to have been attacking are all split into pieces by Elaina’s sword. Quick, bloody, yet flawless and easy.

"Wait, what?" the Pixies, who are still channeling their next attack, were flabbergasted as they are still facing one of their worst enemies for quite a while, and they are staring at certain danger at that time, only for in the blink of an eye, the monsters have been dispatched, killing the monsters in quick action.

The Pixie Elder, who quickly noticed the changes, immediately shouted to every Pixie in the area.

"Stop the assault! The defense has won!"

At first, everyone looked stunned. Bewildered by how it all happened and what just occurred while their head were looking elsewhere. Seeing the carnage in front of them with Elaina standing there, flicking her sword to the side and slowly walking back inside the cave, their prior grievances and fear from Elaina’s presence were soon replaced with wonder and admiration, seeing the monsters they were dreading to kill in the first place had been easily dealt with in just a few seconds.

Seeing the situation and why it seems that the worms have been relentless against the attacks while there is only a sapling there, now Elaina has an idea of why they are there in the first place. They only have one objective, the second World Tree.