Rustling! Rustling…!
The ground, the plants, the people were staggering from the earthquake while the earth was continuously quaking from the birth of a new tree.
As the tree was beginning to blossom to its full size, everyone speedily evacuated from the area to not get caught up with the tree's growth.
"Mirai! The bouquets!" I called out to Mirai as I was running from the back of everyone.
After Mirai heard me, she had released bouquets of flowers toward where the 'seed' was, laying them down beside the 'seed' gently.
Those bouquets were created by my comrades earlier, I really appreciated that they made them just to give them to me when I was revived, but thanks to them, I got a substitute for sunlight to the 'seed'.
As there was clearly no daylight within this garden covered by layers of snow, there needed to be something for the 'seed' to grow which was why I used the bouquets.
'I better apologize to my comrades for using their presents for this..' I sighed.
BOOM!!!
"...!!"
Noises being resounded to my ears caught my attention abruptly, making me avert my gaze over to where the sound was. The moment my eyes witnessed this scene, I slowed down my pace before I stopped running midway.
Crackle!! Crackle! Crackle!!!
Smashing to smithereens, the glasses and the concrete that made up the roof were collapsing down on us.
The reason they were like this, was because the roof was crushed by a tree..
CRACKLE!!
A prodigious tree that was grown from a tiny seed, was large enough to burst out of the roof of the Garden Of Eden, forcing a huge opening to be created from the top.
As a result of this, it allowed the snow outside to descend into this garden, and since everything was turning to look worse for this garden, this place was inescapably looking like it was about to be ruined by this one tree.
..But does that matter anymore?
"Frostina! Shield!"
A second after I called out to her, a shield was already manifesting itself above everybody's heads, protecting us from the rubble that were dropping onto us.
As clear as it was, I didn't want Frostina to be the only one taking all the burdens, so genuinely, I told everyone here.
"Shoot down the debris as much as possible! We can't let ourselves be buried by snow and rocks!"
The moment I saw an oversized concrete dropping on the shield, I immediately shot it down with my bow, piercing through it to go toward another.
One by one, the arrows were passing through endless amounts of rubble, not even stopping for a second. Once I took notice of how much I had shot, I swiftly uttered a command for Lucifer.
"Ignite."
BANG!
Plenty of the debris that got shot, were without a doubt getting blown to bits and pieces by Lucifer's black lightning, leading some of those tiny bits to sway away from their descents.
"This should be easy to deal with." I mumbled while I was aiming my arrow.
In an instance, those pieces of debris were soon caught into a wave of flame in front of them, melting them in the process. It goes without saying that the snow was also turning to vapor from the blazing hot flame.
"Good work." I told HwanGi since I instinctively knew it was him.
As a response, HwanGi nodded at me before going back to evaporating the snow and burning the rubble.
By now, it was going according to my plan, sooner or later, we may be able to leave this place while also receiving good items as well.
———
After such a long time of dealing with the stuff that came after the tree grew, I made sure the area was safe enough to walk around.
When I considered the place safe again, I called out. "Frostina."
From my words, Frostina instantly stomped the ground to generate a platform of ice underneath everyone. Even though it brought shock to some, Frostina continued doing what she was told to do.
Alaine while wobbling, exclaimed. "Ah! What the?! We're floating?!'
"Be careful, hold on to me, Alaine. You too, Mya." Louis spoke as he was already holding hands with Alaine and Mya.
It was definitely unintentional, it wasn't like Louis wanted to hold hand with Alaine…
And it seemed he's blushing from just touching Alaine's hand..
'Ah, youth.' I gazed at them and exhaled a sigh.
Enough of that nonsense, now was the time to pick those delicious fruit from this holy like tree.
[Haha. We finally will be free from this garden.] Eve uttered with pure happiness, almost sounding like she was about to cry from it.
"Don't get too thrilled yet." I warned her just in case something was off about my plan.
"I can do this too."
At that moment, until I noticed who it was, I felt a hand folding onto mine which surprised me a little.
"You will someday." I said to Noel.
Noel grumbled as he was squeezing Crystal a little too tight, prompting her to wriggle and shriek a bit.
'Is he mad over Frostina's ice platform?' I smiled.
Eventually, Crystal cried out before smacking her paws on Noel's arm. "Hey!! I'm not a teddy bear! Let go of me!!"
"Hah." I laughed at this sight, finding some familiarity from this.
As soon as I stopped chuckling, my expression switched to a solemn one since I was thinking about something crucial.
Afterwards, I thought. 'It had come to this.. I must give him 'that' so he could participate with the stages alongside players.'
Despite the importance of letting him turn to 'that' when he's already a vessel, I felt extreme hesitation from allowing Noel to join in.
'Why?' I asked myself.
'Because Lucas—'
'I know, I know.'
I interrupted Lucifer. 'My hesitation is coming from Lucas. This fatherhood feeling is..'
..It was clear as day that I actually thought of this boy as my child, including his twin sister. Both Noel and Noelle were my children, technically not blood related, but the bond between Lucas and the Absolute Twins were incredibly limitless.
Moreover, I could feel it deep within me…
'So this was what Payne Wayne felt at that time..'
I rubbed my temple while trying to come into a decision. Even if it was a difficult choice to make, I must choose logically for my benefits and my comrades.
And after I figured out my decision, I spoke endearingly to Noel, looking straight in his eyes as I was taking something out of my panel.
"Will you become a—" Not giving me time to finish, Noel glanced back at my glance with his resolved looks.
As though he already knew what I was about to ask him, he responded with this answer. "Yes!"
Needless to say, I was shocked, very bewildered by his quick answer, and also the fact that he cut me off before I could say anything.
That was uncalled for.
'Master, you cut me off earlier too.' Lucifer informed me.
'Haha.. I'm sorry.'
Anyways, I assumed that Noel's answer was a bit rushed, thus I wanted to ask him again to be certain that he definitely and undoubtedly wanted to be 'that'.
"Noel, think about this aga—"
At that moment, Eve's cheer had outshined my words.
[Wow!! The tree looks so much more beautiful than last time!! Woah! The apples! I can't wait to eat them!]
Right, we were being ascended toward the tree a moment ago by Frostina's lift, and currently, we had arrived beneath this tree's fruit.
"..."
By now, I was getting rather vexed. '..But did she have to interrupt me?'
I stored the item back to the panel before stepping away from Noel to go toward Eve. Without a doubt, I wasn't happy about her disturbing me.
"Eve…" I called her.
[Oh! JoonChul! Are you here to eat the apples? Here, why don't you eat it first?]
Immediately without noticing my mood, the overjoyed Eve shoved an apple which she had picked from the tree into my mouth.
"..."
Not only that, she was giggling so carelessly and gleefully while I was taking away the apple from my mouth.
[Heheh.]
"..."
At that point, I was infuriated that I crushed the apple in the process. It was definitely a waste to destroy that beneficial fruit, but I was too annoyed to even give a damn.
Immediately, when Eve realized my mood and how my daggers gaze was directing to her, she flinched like a scared bunny.
[Eep!]
[Run, Eve. Run.] Adam casually just warned Eve.
———
Meanwhile, Adam was picking the apples from the tree, admiring the fruit as he stared at it for a short time.
"Sir.. May I ask what this tree is?"
Without expecting it, Adam flinched when he was bothered by a voice coming from beside his leg. When he turned to look, he realized it was the child that had the dragon within her.
But before Adam could answer this child's question, he heard another voice resounding from behind him.
"Mya, please don't go up to strangers and talk to them." Louis advised Mya.
"But.. I'm curious about this tree."
[Strangers, you say?] Adam's eyebrow twitched slightly when he was deemed as a stranger.
[Gahhhh! Somebody help me!!!]
Eve, screaming in the background with JoonChul angrily chasing after her, ran with all her life in the line.
Amazingly, Adam ignored Eve and just answered Mya's question. [This tree is the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.]
"I think I heard of that tree in a book before.." Alaine, walking up toward them, spoke.
By then, Louis ruffled his hair as he tried to remember what the tree was, so he could explain it to Mya more clearly.
"Her name.." Louis pointed at Eve who was running away from the mad JoonChul, still.
Louis pointed at Adam. "And yours, ring a bell."
[No need to think hard about it. You'll be leaving soon, so take these as a reward for everyone's hard work.]
A basket filled with apples for everybody, Adam had handed it to Louis which caused Louis to reject it.
"No, no. I don't need it."
"You must. These apples are very useful for you."
Louis jolted when he heard a voice creeping behind him, causing him to jump back with his eyes facing at the person.
It was JoonChul who was casually holding Eve, and wasn't fazed by Eve's constant attempt to escape his clutches.
[Please! Help me out of this!] Eve pleaded for help.
"Uh.." Louis muttered.
As for Alaine, she honestly said. "How can we help you when you're moving your hands aggressively?"
[What? I'm gentle! I won't make you feel pain just because I hit you with my thin arm!]
"Exactly, Eve is weak." JoonChul added.
Eve gasped as if her life was shredding apart. [How could you be that mean?!]
[He isn't wrong.]
Eve gasped again. [Adam! Not you, too!]
"Adam and Eve, I hope to never see you again." JoonChul grinned with slight joy mixed with despair of not seeing his friends again.
[Yes, me too.] Adam replied.
Along with him, Eve responded. [Gosh, it was fun a little while ago, and now you're making everything sad..]
Afterwards, JoonChul put Eve down softly to the ice platform as he smiled at her, bidding his goodbyes.
"Farewell, Eve and Adam."
Seeing how JoonChul was saying farewells, Alaine whispered to Louis after she watched the whole scene.
"What kind of goodbye is that when JoonChul just said never to see them again?"
Shrugging without a clue on what's happening, Louis replied. "We know nothing about JoonChul's life, and it isn't our business to poke our noses in his life."
"Bummer."
In due course, Mya gave her thoughts in this. "But it feels kind of sad around them.. I can sense the depressing ambience around them."
"Huh? Is that what you see? It looks normal to me." Alaine mumbled.
"Can we not talk about this? We should give some of the apples in this basket to everyone." Louis mentioned as he was the one holding onto the apples basket.
"Oh, right! Let's do it while we can!"