Instant Time Mage 17
[Haah... Honestly. Are you like this to a fault? How long are going to keep this up? Making me lose concentration over and over, do you enjoy seeing me embarrassed? Idiot.]
She knocked my head lightly with her head. It didn't hurt but somehow my thoughts were jumbled up because of it. And that was because she didn't retract her head but had instead, further laid her herself on my shoulder.
[... It was the first time I got confessed, you know? I didn't actually know how to respond. Though I do read a lot of romantic stories about a guy confessing to a girl, what you said practically isn't in my database for reference. You know what I'm saying?]
I nodded as I understood. Of course, I know since I've been thinking about that time over and over. And gosh, the stupid things that I said was enough to bury me alive.
She chuckled seeing me pondering with quivering lips. Then she pulled herself closer as my arm above her shoulder wraps her neck. Suddenly, she was so close that I could feel her breathing.
[I've known you since middle school. You know that, right? You're famous for hanging out with your best friend and your best friend was famous for being himself. I was one of those girls who had a middle school crush on him. And even though I told you that...]
She turned her head to look at me as she was closer than ever. I gulp in anticipation of what she was about to say next. Then she said.
[You still denied my rejection and force yourself on me. After that, I gave up rejecting considering the crazy things you said... Haah~ Really now, what are you like when things don't go your way?]
[...]
We looked at each other in the eye. She threw a calm look while I felt mine was stiff. We were stuck like this for a few seconds then she said.
[I won't forgive you for that. And to those who I won't forgive, nasty things will happen. If you want me to forgive you, then you better behave like a proper gentleman who won't embarrass me, okay.]
She then faced away and muttered rather weakly.
[At least do that then I'll consider dating you.]
[Really?]
I heard what she had mutter, but...
[However!]
She went back to face me. Her sharp eyes pierce me deeply as I was caught off guard. And I didn't know when but she was holding a kitchen knife against me. Pressing its cold alloy on my skin, giving me chills in the spine. She then proceeded to speak rather coldly.
[Don't mess with me, okay. Because no matter what, I'm still your senior, your elder and your Vice president. Sexually harass me and I'll cut your hands off. Push me down and I'll chop your arms off. Cheat on me and I'll stab you in the heart. And do anything to embarrass me then see what happens.]
[...]
[Am I clear?]
[Yes, ma'am.]
[Good.]
Scary...
I could feel how heavy this bead of sweat was trickling down on my nose as Vice president flash at me a meaningful smile. I acted like I hadn't notice that and escaped from her grasp.
I'm a little exhausted, but if she kept staying under my embrace then I might die from anxiety. Continuing from here, we moved on one step forward with me in the lead.
I could hear her giggling behind me but I pretended to ignore that as I gaze up front where the rays of the sun were shaped sharply by the wild bushes ahead. The cool breeze blew against our path as I examined our surroundings.
Judging by the strength of the wind, it seems that our altitudes are a bit higher than sea level. Judging by the inclination of the landscape, we should be moving up.
Where are we? A hill? A mountain? Or a cliff ahead? A hill seems unlikely. A mountain is even more unlikely since I didn't see any in the far vicinity. So, a cliff ahead. Not sure. But there's only one way to find out.
We kept moving, brushing the bushes aside while feeling the increasing steepness of the landscape. I had a feeling something incredible was up ahead so I moved a bit faster and finally...
§
The brilliance of the golden sun shrouded the lands in light. Trees, bushes, ponds and rivers, the whole beauty of the forest was apparent to the naked eye. A wonder to behold as mother nature dominated the lands extending to the seas.
Cicadas and insects were chanting. The trees blown by the wind were singing. The bushes rustling were dancing. And the rivers flowing were applauding. Everything was constantly changing in a dramatic and natural pace and the smallest whiff of the wind told an unprecedented health had occurred for centuries as the forest here proudly presented everything it had.
The forest was beautiful. Indeed, it is. However, it fell short to the supernatural beauty that would've caught everyone's attention from the forest.
What dared to show off this seemingly limitless beauty was a tree.
And not just any tree. It was a ginormous tree.
Gigantic, towering, its very leaves touch the heavens itself. None could imagine how such a tree came to be.
From its roots, there laid a foundation comparable to treasure jewels. What seems to be that the ginormous tree had budded once in a small mountain made of blue crystals. Its countless thick roots embedded firmly from the top of the mountain down to the very foot. And from there, it grew to reach the clouds. And eventually, its height became the champion taller than any mountain.
Its trunk, bigger than any skyscraper, was black as ink. However, it didn't feel eerie like the cold embrace of darkness but was reminiscent to the darkest sky of outer space. Where out there was an empty void filled with both everything and nothing. And what made it more reminiscent to the dark sky were the light streaks that flowed like circuits.
The light streaks were reminiscent to the rivers of stars. Each seemingly depicting a single constellation. Like stars aligning to form a painting, it displayed a magnificent circuitry of brilliance.
Moving up, what seems like thousands of meters high, the circuit of light streaks hue down and saturate to brighter, whiter lights in the shape of branches.
These seemingly white branches, having no blemish or shadow to be seen, extended everywhere to become one with the blue skies. Forming a floating city of leaves positioning itself in the heavens.
Up there, electricity was rampantly conducting itself. Like the branches were some kind of super Tesla coils generating energy, lightning dragons were constantly swimming and leaping in circles. The more colorful ones were intersecting with one another, forming a giant star diagram.
And the leaves, the seemingly countless ones that touched the heavens, had five different colors from one another.
One type of leaf was red, another was blue, another was yellow, another black and the last was green. Those five colors came to group up and positioned themselves in five different directions. Whatever it formed, it seems to have assimilated deeply with the colorful lightnings that form the star diagram.
The 5 colored leaves, seemingly enormous from a distance, swayed naturally as the heavenly squalls rustle them with all its might.
And the sky above the tree had become a separate sky of its own world, filled with four different colors.
Those four colors were akin to the four seasons. One was snowing like winter, another was warm like spring, another was hot like summer and the last was cooling like fall. It seems that the four skies of the world's hemispheres had joined to become one sky above the ginormous tree. Birthing, nurturing, cultivating and killing, a perpetual cycle occurring for generations sanctifies the tree like a treasure.
Defying gravity, defying laws, defying natural order and defying chaos. This ginormous tree defied the physical science known to man and displayed such profound supernaturality. Living and breathing to be a miracle and the greatest invention of mother nature.
A manifestation willed by the gods. A deeply concentrated power gathering all the beauty of the world. Shaping and forming to come alive, becoming a god itself.
A god of trees? Nay. It was the God of the world.