Chapter 744 — Beneath the Sorin Tree
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
An alloy base several meters wide, complex locking, support, and levitation mechanisms, and a diamond-shaped metal frame several meters tall, its surface inlaid with a great many faintly glowing Holm crystals.
This was a gigantic mana obelisk—its crystalline structure was too large in scale, and so it had been assembled from a great many smaller crystals.
"Everyone be careful! This thing cost a fortune—enough to frighten you to death!" the commander shouted from atop the exposed root. "Watch yourselves when you release those hooks—no more poor bastards getting their fingers crushed! Alchemical potions don't come from scooping up the Gorgon River, you know!"
The workers answered the commander's orders, while the arcane technicians climbed onto the vehicle once the side panels were down, checking the condition of the critical rune substrates and verifying that the crystals were intact.
The commander turned and called toward the Great Sorin Tree: "Lady Beiyila, are you there?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a rustling sound came from all around, and then vines wreathed in blossoms and brown roots emerged from the nearby ground. These flowering vines and roots twisted and merged into the shape of Beiyila: "I have always been here."
"Good day, my lady," the commander said with a smile, greeting this incredible "tree spirit." Although he had heard that she had once been a hierarch of the Church of the End of All Things—that the entire Great Sorin Tree was in fact the mutated result of the combined power of all that church's surviving followers—he had worked here for some time now and dealt with this "tree spirit" many times, and was long since able to converse with her calmly. "Fine weather today."
Some things were already past. This land was still alive—that was what mattered most, the young commander thought.
"Yes, fine weather," Beiyila said slowly. She raised her head slightly, and a faint rustling answered from within the Great Sorin Tree's canopy. The sunlight did not fall upon her face, but it shone upon her canopy, and it made her narrow her eyes. "Today's sunlight is very suitable... for photosynthesis."
"The mana obelisk I mentioned to you before," the commander said, raising a hand toward the large vehicle nearby, "has been shipped over from the Pompeii Factory in the south."
"Oh, it is indeed larger than usual..." Beiyila did not turn her head, yet she had already "seen" what lay upon the vehicle. "Do you need me to send it up?"
"Yes," the commander said. "Just send it straight up, then assemble it according to the blueprints we gave you earlier. The equipment has already been calibrated; it can be activated remotely."
Beiyila nodded, and a clattering, rustling sound came from the canopy of the Great Sorin Tree.
The arcane technicians and workers near the vehicle had long since withdrawn; people stood in a ring at a distance, watching as several exceptionally thick vines extended from the base of the canopy hundreds of meters above, pushed out through layer upon layer of branches and leaves, and came trailing all the way down to the great mana obelisk, carefully curling around its components and lifting them upward.
The specially made large mana obelisk seemed weightless in those vine "hands," drawn effortlessly toward the canopy; the dense, layered leaves parted with a rustle to either side, revealing a "road" that led straight to the Crown Level.
Beside the commander, Beiyila slowly raised a hand and made as if to balance something atop her head; after a moment's hesitation, she lowered it again.
She glanced around and found that no one had noticed her gesture.