The Holy Heights, the City of the Popes, where Pope Faust VII is sitting in his meditation room in contemplation.

"Squeak-"

As the doors of the meditation room opened, the sunlight from outside shone in, dappling Faust VII's chiseled face.

"Your Excellency, your subordinates have something to report. ”

"Say it. Faust VII kept his hands crossed on his forehead, still not opening his eyes.

"The royal knights of the Duchy of Crist, after escaping from the city of Kingssandra last time, appeared in the central town of Jotun in the kingdom of Obersilis a few days ago. In Jotun, he fought and won against Hughes Eiffel, a fugitive from the Church. ”

"Yes," said Faust VII, as if to himself, "I did not expect him to be able to defeat Eiffel." Nachrantel's report says that Kai Leo may be a rare species, but it doesn't seem to be a joke. So, what happened to Eiffel?"

"It has been taken in by the branch of the Church of Obersilis and handed over to the Papal City at a later date. Also......" replied the priest outside the door, "Ellida Rebecca seems to be acting with Kai Leo. ”

"Hmm, Rebecca?!" Faust VII opened his eyes, revealing a cold glow.

"How did Rebecca come to act with Leo? It is true that they seem to be classmates when they were at the academy, but there should be no further relationship. Faust VII thought to himself, "Could it be that Kai Leo has the key to open the door?"

......

"Now, Ellie......" As the four of Kai were walking unhurriedly, Kai shook the key in his hand and asked, "Actually, there is a question that has been bothering me, what is that World Tree? Can you explain it in detail?"

"It's a complicated question, but in short......," Ellie replied, "The World Tree, also known as the Cosmic Tree, is the union of worlds as the name suggests. ”

"Huh?"

Kay, Pasha, and Milo reacted just as Ellie had expected, their brains couldn't handle such advanced words.

"Okay, I'll start with the source. Ellie regrouped her words and said, "The official name of the World Tree is Yggdrasill. There used to be a hypothesis that our world is not unique, that there are multiple parallel worlds, and the combination of these parallel worlds is the world tree. This hypothesis cannot be verified, but I will say that this hypothesis is valid. The ancients have long argued for the existence of the World Tree. It's just that these ancient civilizations were later lost in the long stream of history and cannot be investigated. The World Tree has many forks, and through a certain node, we can reach an unknown world. And the passage inside the World Tree is called the Void Realm. This realm is far beyond human comprehension, and it is never possible to predict what dangers will arise in it. Many summoned beasts also inhabit unknown worlds. ”

"Oh, I see. The three of them clapped their hands and had an epiphany.

"Actually, you didn't understand it at all. Ellie shook her head, "Forget it, we're going to be a lot more dangerous than you know or anywhere you can imagine. Are you really okay?"

"Hmph, you're underestimating me. Kai replied confidently, "I'm a man who wants to be a great royal knight, how can I be afraid of that kind of place?"

"I am the man who wants to be the great Black Knight,"

"I'm going to be the man who steals the world's treasures,"

Pasha and Milo replied in unison, "How can you be afraid of that kind of place!"

"Have you two had enough trouble!" Kay had to complain, "Ellie and I both had to go to the World Tree, and there was no reason for you to come along, after all, it was dangerous." ”

Pasha and Milo looked at each other and replied, "There's no other place to stay for now." ”

"If I have to give a reason...... Pasha replied, pointing at Kai, "Kai Leo, it is my lifelong wish to defeat you, so I will follow you and find out the secret of your strength." ”

Milo replied: "I am Milo Federimitte, the thief of the century, and my goal is a treasure, a treasure." Obviously, that World Tree contains many great treasures that have never been discovered. ”

"Forget it, ordinary logic won't work for them. Kai shook his head and said helplessly.

"You're pretty much the same. Ellie stood beside Kay and quipped inappropriately.

......

Soon after, the peak of Miluk came into view of Kai and others.

It's not a tall volcano, but the charred black earth and the rolling lava make people feel the new life of this active volcano.

"This is the peak of Mount Miruk," Ellie said, pointing to the crater not far away, "the entrance to the World Tree." ”

"Are you sure this is the entrance to the World Tree?" Milo stood on the edge of the crater, looking at the rolling lava below, sweating nervously, "I think this is more like the entrance to hell." ”

"What do you say?" Ellie's ambiguous reply only added to Milo's nervousness.

"Well, this ......" Kai focused his spiritual power on his eyes, staring at the crater below, and wondered, "The shape of this crater is very similar to the god word, alas, it should be said that it is very similar to the forged god word of Lorient." ”

"In fact, the Divine Word is the door to the World Tree, because the other side of the Divine Character is connected to the boundless and infinitely vast World Tree, so it can absorb all spiritual magic. Ellie replied, "Whether it's this Miruk Peak, or Lorient's forged Divine Characters, or Humanoid Divine Characters like Mezzol, they are all connected to the World Tree. ”

"Hey, Mezol?" Kay asked, "Ray is a humanoid character?"

"Is that a strange statement? you can't accept it for a while?" Ellie said, "All parts of this world are products of the World Tree, including humans and other advanced life forms. Therefore, it is not impossible that there will be a humanoid god character. Although the probability is very low, there are records of humanoid gods in history. The Divine Word is the door of the World Tree, and where this door will appear is arbitrary and unpredictable. ”

"Then why did we have to travel all the way to this hellish place?" Kai asked rhetorically, "Just look for Thunder, right? There's no need to venture through the entrance to Guò Hell to enter the World Tree, right?"

"Mezoll can't," Ellie replied, "his constitution is special, and he has no spiritual power in his body at all, which means that his divine word is connected to a black hole-like danger zone inside the World Tree. If we open his divine word rashly, we will most likely have no return. ”

"Oh, that's right. ”

Ellie's theory, Kai still doesn't understand at all, in short, it's useless to look for Ray.

"Anyway," Kay asked, "where did you know all this? I haven't heard of any of this, and I guess it's not something you'll learn in the academy, right?"

"It's the wisdom of the Rebecca family that has been passed down for a long time," Ellie replied, "and we Rebecca aren't pure-blooded humans, but have some ancient genes with them. All this wisdom I have is the result of the work of my ancient ancestors. ”

It's not the first time Kai has heard the term "ancient species", as his brother Tiger Leo has spoken to him before. The ancient species are highly intelligent life forms that existed in this world before the emergence of human beings, and are now almost extinct, so they are not widely recognized. Broadly speaking, elves, giants, and beasts also belong to the ancient species, but because the birth time of these races is quite close to that of humans, they do not belong to the ancient species in the narrow sense. In the narrow sense of the ancient race, only the Purple Blood Clan who were imprisoned on the Free Island were the Purple Blood Clan, and the Divine Envoy Night Clan, which almost no one had seen.

"So, Ellie, you're an ancient species?"

"Not exactly," Ellie replied, "with thousands of years of racial fusion, Rebecca's ancient abilities have been severely deactivated, and now I can only say that she has some ancient genes. ”

"Oh, that's right. ”

"That's the end of the conversation, I'm going to open the door. Ellie said, "You three, put your hands on my shoulders. ”

"Oh...... Oh. ”

Although they don't know why, Kai, Pasha, and Milo all obediently follow Ellie's orders.

"Key of Kronos......" I saw Ellie raise the bracelet on her right arm high, "the rest of the god of time." ”

Suddenly, a circle of light spread out from the crater, and everywhere it went, birds, beasts, insects, fish, rivers, and rivers stopped moving. Time in the entire Miluk region came to a halt under the action of the Key of Kronos.

"This, this is?!"

Because at the same time that Ellie unleashed the Key of Kronos, all three of Kai came into contact with Ellie, so their time did not stop.

"Welcome to ......," Ellie turned around and smiled at the three of them, "the crack in time." ”

......

The magma beneath the crater also stopped moving, and the magma was frozen in the moment of tumbling, and there was no dreaded burning sensation at all.

"Let's go. ”

Ellie turned around and jumped towards the crater.

Kay, Pasha and Milo then jumped.

When his feet touched the magma, Kai realized that the magma under his feet was not as hot as he imagined, but like soft and warm water.

Ellie pressed her hands on the surface of the magma, and the magma below quickly receded towards the edge, revealing the bottom of the volcanic valley.

"What is this?"

"This is the door to the World Tree. ”

The door, yes, lying at the feet of the four people is a huge door.

In the center of the door, four keyholes stand out.

Ellie untied the three keys from the bracelet, inserted and turned them in turn on the keyhole, and finally reserved a keyhole.

Kai understood this, and immediately took off the key from his neck and handed it to Ellie.

Ellie didn't say much, took the key, and slowly inserted it into the lock hole.

"Guys," Ellie slowly turned the last key, "I'm going to open the door." ”

......