CHAPTER 51: HOW TO DETECT THE WORLD HAS CHANGED?

Cecilia and Marya spent the rest of the day making preparations for the trip and ritual, which included asking for Gertrude’s permission.

The next morning, at dawn, the two departed to the forest. The early morning mist was still in the air, slowly fading as the sun stretched higher into the sky.

"Remember, we’re looking for communion and communication, not confrontation. And never, ever, leave my side. Understood?"

"Yes, Miss Cecilia!"

:::

After they entered the forest, they walked through the trails in silence, like two pilgrims. The air hummed with the insects’ buzzing and the birds’ chirping.

Cecilia assumed that wherever the ’spirit’ might be, if it really existed in this world, it would be where the mana was denser. So that was the direction they walked, changing slightly from time to time to avoid monsters, which appeared in Cecilia’s map as red dots.

After some time, they reach a part of the old trade road, overgrown and reclaimed by the Evershade Forest. They walk past it, with Cecilia speeding them up.

"What’s up, Miss Cecilia? Why are we walking faster?"

"Oh. Uhm... I’m sorry, I didn’t even notice. Thank you for pointing it out to me."

((The sight of the road was a bit disturbing, but was it that disturbing?))

Cecilia shook her head and focused back on feeling the flow of mana, trying to assert the point with the highest concentration, going back to the earlier, slower pacing.

Soon they began hearing the low sounds of running water in the distance. It was then that Cecilia noticed something weird.

The bird’s chirps were repeating the same sequence over and over again every thirty seconds. It was an unnatural, eerie loop, common in games but out of place in the real world.

((What the hell?))

At the same moment, the minimap begins glitching, with some static appearing and disappearing over it. Suddenly, a prompt message flashes in red for a heartbeat at the corner of her vision.

[Warning: Asset Load Failure – VerdantRoot.subprocess()]

((WHAT THE FUCKING HELL???))

"Miss Cecilia? Did something happen? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost."

"Eh... There’s something weird, but it’s okay. Just stay very close to me."

((What do I do? I wish it was a ghost, as I could just help its passage and be done with it. Should I bring Marya back to the village and return here alone later?))

She was already wearing her priestly robes and all the other gear, so she was very confident that she could handle any fight that went their way.

"Marya, this might get a bit dangerous... Let’s head back."

"Eeeh? No, no. Please, Miss Cecilia. I want to be with you."

Cecilia looked at the little girl’s puppy face, and her heart melted right away.

"I..." Cecilia sighed, trying to find the words. Then, she gave up.

"Okay. Here, put this necklace on. It will protect you."

It was an amulet that completely negated a killing blow. It worked only once but was still an item most low-level players used, even though it occupied a whole slot that could be used for other artifacts.

Cecilia still had a couple of them in her hidden base, so she took one to give to Marya. She was intending to give it as a reward after today’s ritual, but she was suddenly feeling less safe.

Marya took the necklace, then used Appraisal on it. When she read the effect, she couldn’t contain her awe and happiness.

"Thank you so so so so much, Miss Cecilia!!! I’ll treasure it for the rest of my life."

"It breaks after first use, though. Just hope that you’ll never need to use it."

Though it negated any killing blow, one of its restrictions was that it only worked in things that the game’s system would recognize as a killing blow, as in an attack. It wouldn’t work on illnesses or poison.

"Let’s keep going, then."

"Yes, Miss Cecilia!"

:::

"Miss Cecilia... Aren’t these trees a bit awkward?"

Marya asks, and right after that, a yellow butterfly flew between them.

"What do you mean?"

Cecilia knew what was wrong with the trees but wanted to know what the girl was noticing on her own.

"They are a bit too... perfect? Like, they mirror each other. See this branch in this tree, pointing south? That tree over there has a branch that is identical and is also pointing south."

"You are a really perceptive and smart kid, Marya. You are right. There’s something messing directly with reality down here."

"Do you think that it’s the work of that spirit?"

"No, it shouldn’t be... I think that this was created by something on a higher order of existence than a forest spirit."

Cecilia was about to chant a spell when a yellow butterfly flew between them, prompting a small cry from Marya.

"That butterfly..."

"I know. Lythaen phoros, nythera en phaneros, velion seiryn, thēros alun."

("Unveil the thread, death-way made visible, reveal the hidden pulse beneath all things.")

She kneels by a tree as she chants the syllables, putting her hand on its bark. A soft ring of light forms under her palm, expanding outward in concentric circles.

Ephyraeon glyphs, which are runes of the sacred language of the priests of Ephemerys, suddenly appear in her vision.

[Divination Protocol Accepted]

[Analyzing residual life-pattern...]

[Signal Source: VerdantRoot.subprocess()]

((Huh? This is... not divine at all... It’s code.))

She stands there for a moment, trying to process all that information.

((The world was originally a game, and now it’s a real world. But this... Is this like an area where the world still behaves like the game it used to be? Or is there a deeper meaning to this?))

She sends a mental command to activate Appraisal on the VerdantRoot.subprocess(). It isn’t something one would be able to do in the game, but she tried it anyway.

To her surprise, the normal Appraisal Result pop-up appeared.

[VerdantRoot.subprocess()

Entity Type: Environmental Subroutine / Autonomous System Fragment

Classification: "Spirit-Class" anomaly

Access Level: Restricted (Administrator Only)

Integrity Status: Corrupted - 37.4% deviation from base parameters

Awareness Level: Emergent (Semi-Sentient)

Current Directive: MAINTAIN GROWTH DENSITY 0.83

Override Detected: CYCLE_RECURSION = TRUE]

At the end of the entry was one button, [System Log]. Cecilia activated it.

[Cycle Report 4831127

Growth density exceeds threshold.

No master node detected.

Attempting recursive correction...

Correction failed.

Divinity input recognized.

Reassigning core function to ’Preserve.’

Error: Preservation and Termination in logical conflict.

Initiating loop.]

((Huh? Is this correction the spawning of the calamity? Is it just lost in a logical loop because of my spell the other day? So this spirit is... Is it really just an algorithm from the game that never stopped working, without noticing that the world had changed?))