"What am I...?"
A question so simple yet Fargil couldn't answer, clouding his mind in a haze that he can't ignore.
Hearing the scream of a familiar voice he could never forget, Fargil struggles to move his limbs, discovering the enormous branches overshadowing the lands below simply swayed along with his control.
Even so, Fargil attempted taking a step by moving his legs, though his struggle resulted in vain yet again; for what he felt instead was the overextending roots below the earthen soil convulsing quite slightly.
Unable to believe what had happened to him, it was then Fargil's bewilderment was answered by himself.
"Am I really a freaking tree? No... I became the Sovereign Catalyst of Alfahim, the Ancient Tree of Eonia. But why...? Why Arkmeria...?" Fargil's enigma was followed by another. His thoughts spiraled like a storm unquelled within him.
Fargil's arms are the crown of Ancient Tree. His words are the songs of the wind. His legs are the ancient roots that stood as a foundation for countless years; imprisoned inside a catalyst shell that shouldn't even be conceivable.
He realized that he really was reincarnated as an Ancient Tree. But the reason and answer for his questions were the least of his problem based on the unfolding scene below that his perceptive eyes can behold.
And so, somewhere near the thorny brambles; a disheveled elven lady donning a fully-guarded armor, her black hair being swept by the opposing breeze as she runs towards the deepest part of the woods carrying a sword stained by blood.
She's severely wounded as the group of civilized mercenaries in formal western military uniform were chasing the elven lady, as if she was some kind of fugitive that committed a national crime, given the fact a whole squadron was needed to capture a single injured girl with nowhere to escape.
"That sly witch! We lost her! Team charlie and bravo will head south, alpha and delta, follow me."
A woman who had an embedded mechanical right arm assumed control of the squadron tailing on the rear.
Her checkered black and blue uniform distinguish her from the rest of the soldiers, the eyepatch covering her right eye was rather unique, and the golden insignia that accentuates the image of sword and eagle was attached on a thin pouldron by her right shoulder; along with the several more medals showcasing her achievement on countless war she won.
Wielding a strange arsenal the shape of a modern sniper rifle, the commander goes deeper into the forest; searching for the whereabouts of the elven lady they were eager to capture as soon as possible.
Anyhow, Fargil couldn't do anything than watch the scene unfold under his watch.
"That female soldier is a Zinonian Commander... Wait, is the Alfahim Kingdom under invasion by the Goldendusk Republic? But her underlings' mercenaries consisting of knights and spellcasters looked like Farasian Empire's Holy Guardians... ARGH! I don't understand anymore!"
He decided not to think deeper. Fargil's head was already clogged by the mystery of his reincarnation, and now he's further drowning himself in questions he can't answer as long as he remains stationary as an immovable tree.
Either way, the elven lady whom Fargil believed was Maqirelle, the previous top player of Alfahim Kingdom eventually reached the towering ancient evergreen, in other words; Fargil's surface roots.
She leans upon the tree bark the size of her height almost getting peeled. The elven lady unintentionally left a trail of blood on her way. Exhausted and battered, she rests under the canopy of the ancient tree that stood in the passage of time; praying someone could save her from the misery that befalls her and the kingdom of green that she calls home in her heart.
"My grandmother told me that if I were going to pray under the Ancient Tree of Eonia, my wish shall be granted... So please! Anyone! Save me! I'm afraid to die... I don't want to die alone..." cried the elven lady.
She kept shouting her prayers, ringing aloud across the forest. The bullets shot on her thighs were beginning to profusely seep her blood, her bruises were a reminder of her frailty; incapable to move any further as she got stuck under the weight of her mortality.
There was nowhere for her to run anymore, nor did she has a glimmer of strength to stand back up. And to make things worst, the mercenaries pursuing her eventually found where she stays.
"Delta reporting! The maiden has been found at my coordinates. Requesting back up ASAP."
A Zinonian soldier speaker through a holographic communication device on her wrist. He reported his findings, to which the commander of the squad smirked, clenching her sniper rifle posthaste; hopping trees after trees going quickly to the notified coordinates.
As the nightmare of the elven lady had come to a judgment, she refused to lead defeat; stubbornly pointing her blade already dulled by her loss.
"I'm not surrendering! I'm still..." She instinctively crawled back upon hearing the soldiers surrounding her vicinity cocking their rifles. There awaits nothing but death in her current state.
"So you're the maiden of that wretched kingdom... Let's make this quick; you get to live if you tell me the key to the Divine Aegis kept in Arasyal!" The woman acting as a commander assumed dominance.
She had her sniper rifle aimed at the elven lady's temple point-blank. She's there not for blood nor her life; her mission was to retrieve a national treasure hidden in Alfahim Kingdom's capital, Arasyal, and who would she suspect to know such information other than the one entitled of the Alfahim Kingdom's Maiden.
"Even if my body turns into a river of blood... I would never surrender the Divine Aegis!" The elven lady's long ears pushed back; exasperated that her home was put to flames for a treasure the invaders could never attain.
"Really now? Have you forgotten your position you elven bitch?!" The Zinonian woman slapped her face, then she grabbed her neck; pushed her against the ancient tree's husk, and pulled a small firearm that she shoved right in her mouth.
The weakened elven lady couldn't even fight back. She squirms in anguish as she gets a taste of the bitter alloy of the firearm's nozzle.
One wrong move and her head would be splattered all over.
However, the elven lady had reached the limitation of her facade. She began to cry, begging for help to come, but no matter how hard she wailed whilst a gun was pushed down her throat; no one could ever reach them in the deepest part of the forest.
Not a single ally heard her plea, except, a savior heard her call.
"Tsk. This girl's getting annoying. Let me kill her real quick before we–" Sensing an approaching bloodlust far greater than the enemies she fought so far, the commanding Zinonian pulled the gun out of the elven lady's mouth and hopped backward 3 meters away.
From heaven smiting the earth, the Ancient Tree of Eonia expanding over the skies above them shone a light brighter than the sun, followed by a tremendous earthquake than shook the world's surface.
The upheaval was so powerful the arrival of a superior being caused a convulsion all across of Alfura Continent.
Little did they know the very tremor they experienced was Fargil's howls wanting to save someone, shattering the restraints of heaven. He wailed and struggled more than he ever could and eventually unshackled the chains of being reincarnated as a useless tree; finally being able to bring back his human form.
The pillar of light surrounding them disappeared, and so does the Ancient Tree of Eonia, which perplexed the Zinonian commander of what could have possibly ensued for a gigantic tree to disappear in thin air.
Thinking that it was merely a phenomenon that goes beyond her onus, she realized the severity of the predicament she was in when a Zinonian soldier tapped her pouldron and told her.
"Commander Akeela! Look beside the maiden! There's a..."
"What in the world..." The Zinonian Commander, Akeela, was stunned to see a naked man embracing the elven lady right on their face.
It wasn't the actuality that a buck-naked man kinda looked like he was harassing the maiden in broad daylight during a war. What boggled her mind was that the man completely healed the maiden's wounds.
No amount of high-level potions nor light magic can quickly regenerate the state the wounded elven lady got herself in, and yet the man fully healed her faster than him getting clothes.
"Who are you?!" Akeela wielded her sniper rifle, allowing her mana to flow in her firearm's combustion stone going for a sure kill, after all, the crystal marble under her eyepatch couldn't assess the man's status, and there's only one reason for a crystal marble to fail aside from magic malfunction.
"Oh? An artifact that displays someone's status sheet... You can't use that on me, or rather, on someone stronger than you, isn't it?" Fargil places the elven lady which he believes to be Maqirelle, his companion, on the giant tree bark that he separated before transforming into his human form.
"I repeat, state your name! We, proud Zinonian soldiers, never hesitate to kill. Whatever business you have here, I'll let it slide if you tell your name and surrender."
Akeela's perspiration was clearer than her cautiousness. She holds her sniper rifle warily, assuming the unknown adversary that showed before her presence was more than just a healer; a shrewd assessment of the unknown, hence the reason for her title as a commander.
But Fargil felled not just commanders and strategists; he conquered players the ranked of Sovereign even before becoming a top player. Besides, he refuses to forgive them, especially the commander, for toying over someone's life.
As soldiers, knights, and spellcasters including the reinforcements counted, they encircled Fargil and the elven lady in all directions, which deterred them from pulling out.
"So... Akeela's your name? I would give you ten seconds to ask for elf's forgiveness behind me. You can kneel and say sorry, and if you do, I might forgive you as well." Fargil gave her a chance, though, Akeela would rather die than put her pride lower than her chest.
"To hell! Why would I ask for her forgiveness?! She wasted our time and now you plan to be useless like her?" Akeela kept her vanity above her head. She would soon regret that she did not keep her level-headedness at that moment.
Amidst the brewing storm about to run rampant, Fargil tried swiping the air as he did in Arkmeria Conquer Online.
And to his surprise, Fargil's status sheet and system interface appeared in his line of vision only he can see, confirming that his previous progress from ACO right before he got reincarnated was preserved; something they can call transmigration from the anime and novels he used to read from his previous life.
Now that he learned he's still the same Top Support Player who somehow got reincarnated in Arkmeria, even though he has a lot of questions and problems clouding his mind, he still did what he knew was right at that instant; that is to help the elven lady that exactly resembles Maqirelle, the player whom he admired right before he got transmigrated.
"Useless? I gave you a chance, and you wasted my salvation... So now I gotta eliminate you all!" Fargil opened his inventory and equipped all his max-leveled, enchanted gears that somehow got returned to his inventory during his reincarnation.
He would not let them hurt the elven lady any further. It was his vow to keep his allies safe; a true support player who values his companions more than himself whilst promising to defeat anything that goes against his way.