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Chapter 44: New Light

*Creaaaak*

Instantly my vision goes dark on one side as the tree shivers. Something has gone horrible wrong. When my connection to its lifeforce severs, all my strength goes with it. The world sways and tilts. Vaguely, I watch the ceiling of the Underworld rush by.

I'm falling.

Wait...no, that's not right.

We're falling.

The World Tree is falling.

I pushed Yggdrasil too far. Down below, the very heart of the tree, it's trunk, has slipped into the waters somehow. The incomparably solid foundation is being swept away. It's tipping...falling...

*CRAAAACK*

The sound of the World Tree breaking is so loud it cracks like a lightning bolt. Then what's left goes over the falls and I feel the wind rushing by. In the last moments before we hit the bottom, something wraps around me protectively. One of the branches holds me tight in an iron cradle.

Where is he? Did we get him?!

I call out to the tree, trying to understand if we've at the very least exacted retribution on our foe, but the water is the only thing that answers.

*SPLAAAAAAAAAASH*

Our impact shakes the World Tree and me in its cage of branches like a monsoon. It obliterates my thoughts as we roll around and around, tumbling everywhere. As the blood rushes to my head, I struggle to hold onto consciousness, but the light slips away no matter how hard I try to hold onto it.

I'm passing out...

I don't want to die again...

Am I going back to the darkness?

#

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Something's falling on my head. I groan, the darkness is slow to let me go this time. Not at all what I've come to expect when I come back to life...

Wait.

Rain?

That's not right!?

I open my eyes and a dim eerie graveyard is revealed to me. It is not one of humans, but that of the World Tree. My mouth opens into a small circle as I take in the extend of the devastation. I...I caused this? Though it was just a tree, the sight before me is still enough to make me sad.

I didn't mean to...

In my rage, I must have commanded the World Tree to do something it shouldn't while trying to hunt down that Hunter. Unfortunately, it resulted in this. High up above, I can see the cascading waterfall which I fell over so many times trying to climb Yggdrasil. It seems, after the tree broke, we fell all the way down to the lake below. I notice a broken branch about the width of my body. It's broken in half now, but a distinct bend shows how it tried its best to protect me. Even the World Tree's iron strength was not enough to withstand a fall of that magnitude. However, the great tree has done me one last favor in even death. Its endless boughs stretch over the surface of the lake, bridging the serpent infested waters. The waters beneath its branches are so dark that even my new eyes cannot see too deeply into them. But I know there are things in there which hunger for meat at all times.

Jormungandr...the Midgard Serpent. I wonder what level it is?

Carefully, I walk across the tree, using its fallen body to cross the lake. As I walk, the various glowing fruits of the tree begin to lose their luster, rotting instantly and falling into the waters below. Dark jaws eagerly snatch them up before they can sink into the murky depths. My eyes ache horribly, and go to a puddle of still-water captured inside a man-sized hole in the trunk. Staring into the pool, my reflection meets my gaze with a fiery, haunted expression. Though the cold air feels good on my burning right eye, to my left eye, the freezing wind of the Underworld is like sandpaper. Additionally, while I was able to connect to the World Tree through my right, the left is just bizarrely dim, it seems to see through things, almost like I'm looking at x-rays.