Chapter 336: Blessing: The Most Sincere Blessings, Bestowed Upon Our Finest Guests and Friends
“Did we… win?”
“I guess we did?”
The male and female leads stared at the Red-Skinned Giant’s remains for a while, then looked at each other before simultaneously turning their eyes toward Everly.
Whether it was that gray-white, lanky monster or the blue-green giant snake that had appeared later, both had been brought forth by that girl. If anything unusual happened, she would undoubtedly be the first to notice it.
The focus of everyone’s attention, Everly was standing right where she was, slightly tilting her head back as she met the gazes of the Sacred Tree’s true form and the giant snake before her.
After defeating Oseiwa, the Sacred Tree did not disappear as Everly had expected. Instead, it crossed the ground littered with corpses alongside the giant snake and came before Everly.
“Chirp-chirp—!”
The melodious chirping echoed across the rocky shore like the call of a bird. The lanky monster, whose head rose higher than the girl’s, lowered its head, exposing its long, defenseless neck. Just as it had done in the past, it politely and gracefully bowed to Everly in gratitude.
After the lanky monster, it was the giant snake’s turn.
The coldness and sharpness that had lingered in its golden snake eyes had vanished. Its gaze was now calm and tolerant. Its long tail glided forward, drawing slightly closer, and, imitating the Sacred Tree, its massive head dipped gently downward as it gave Everly an extraordinarily humanlike bow.
Silver-white moonlight spilled down from the sky, illuminating a scene rarely witnessed even once in a century upon the rocky shore.
On the left stood the lanky monster, a crown upon its head. Bathed in moonlight, its slender, wood-grained body was so white that it seemed almost luminous. Despite its bizarre features, so utterly different from those of a human, it was paradoxically surrounded by an irresistible beauty.
To the right of the lanky monster was a giant snake nearly five meters long. Its blue-green scales glittered brightly, bringing to mind the surface of a lake rippling beneath the night breeze. Light shimmered and flowed across them, and the edges of its scales reflected dreamlike halos.
Standing between the two monsters, facing them, was a young and beautiful human girl. Her deeply defined features were like the finest sculpture an ancient Roman craftsman had ever created in his lifetime, her proportions perfect and utterly without flaw. The hazy moonlight draped itself around her, giving the girl a gentle yet compassionate air.
The three beings, each possessing an entirely different presence, stood together in a scene that was both contradictory and harmonious, making the moment beautiful enough to resemble an adult fairy tale.
“May I ask, are you the Sacred Serpent of the Winton people?”
Everly gazed at the blue-green giant snake and asked curiously.
A few years ago, in order to obtain clues about the Fountain of Youth, Everly had visited Tunumo Village in Yanifly State. There, an old Winton priest had shared the Winton people’s creation myth with her.
According to the myth, the ancient Earth had originally been nothing more than a pitch-black ball of water. Later, the supreme god Aurelbis created two subordinate gods, Anu and Enlil. In order to please their chief god, they each used a part of their own bodies to create a mythical creature:
Anu plucked out a single strand of hair. As the hair drifted downward, it transformed into a giant snake. The giant snake plunged into the depths of the sea and brought up a mass of black mud. When the black mud reached the surface, it became land.
Enlil, meanwhile, broke off one of his fingers. The finger fell into the sea and instantly grew into a banyan tree so immense that it blocked out the heavens and sun. Its aerial roots burrowed into the soil like countless ropes, firmly anchoring the drifting land in place from that moment onward.
Thus, the continent upon which the Winton people depended for their survival was formed.
Horror Movie Survival Rule #1: Pay attention to the hints.
The two mythical creatures before her corresponded perfectly to the giant snake and banyan tree from the creation myth. Furthermore, from the moment the snakeskin appeared, the Sacred Tree had behaved extremely strangely. Not only had it extended its branches to tear at the snakeskin, but when Oseiwa appeared, it had leaped to the ground of its own accord, revealed itself, and snatched away the snake’s corpse.
All these strange details left Everly with no choice but to start connecting the dots.
“Hiss…”
The giant snake could not speak. It flicked its tongue, let out a hiss, and gave a slight nod, which Everly took as confirmation.
“Then…” Having received an answer, Everly wanted to ask a few more questions, but the giant snake suddenly flicked its long tail, circled around Everly, and slithered toward the space behind her.
Its hard scales scraped against the rubble with a rustling sound. When the giant snake’s tail passed Everly, she wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but the slender tip seemed to lightly hook around her ankle.
Everly turned her head and watched for a moment, still puzzled by the giant snake’s attitude. Then she turned her head back, only to suddenly find the Sacred Tree’s face looming enormously right in front of her.
It was imitating Everly, tilting its head as it intently examined her with eyes whose location she could not even tell. It was only after she was startled badly by it that it pretended nothing had happened, innocently retracting its slender neck. Its mouth opened, revealing a row of nail-like fangs, and from its thin throat came a melodious birdlike cry.
“Shriek—!”
Everly: “???”
After crying out, the Sacred Tree shook its head. Its bent limbs swung back and forth like the legs of a spider as it circled around Everly and likewise headed toward the space behind her.
Wanting to figure out what was going on, Everly turned around and followed the giant snake and the Sacred Tree for a couple of steps, only to discover that both were headed for the banyan tree that had been transformed from the bracelet.
The giant snake pushed aside the corpses blocking its path, went around the group of survivors who were shrieking in terror, and slithered up to the banyan tree’s thick trunk.
It raised the front half of its body, its powerful tail sweeping back and forth as it climbed the trunk with remarkable familiarity in just a few movements. Finding a thick branch, it wrapped its body around it several times and hung itself from the branch, closing its eyes and becoming completely still.
As for the Sacred Tree’s true form, it pressed its tall body against the trunk of the banyan tree.
It was the banyan tree, and the banyan tree was it. When the two touched, it was like one drop of water merging into another. The boundary between its body and the tree trunk gradually blurred, and its enormous form quickly sank into the tree. Before long, the Sacred Tree’s true form disappeared, while the once-lush banyan tree with its dense foliage withered and turned yellow in an instant.
A cold night wind swept past, sending countless dry yellow leaves fluttering down from the treetop like butterflies in flight. It was a grand farewell, an elegy played by the rhythm of nature—both sorrowful and magnificent, deeply captivating the gazes of everyone present.
When the spectacular rain of leaves finally ended, there was no longer any sign of the banyan tree or the giant snake on the rocky shore. Only a simple, old-fashioned wooden bracelet lay there alone on the ground.
Unlike the Sacred Tree bracelet from before, the surface of the newly formed bracelet now bore several blue-green snake scales. Under the moonlight, they looked like gemstones, reflecting a mesmerizing radiance.
Everly stepped forward and picked up the wooden bracelet from the ground.
The instant she touched it, it seemed to come alive, transforming into a vine covered in green scales. It crawled onto Everly’s right wrist of its own accord and slipped itself around her wrist.
At the same time, the method for using the new bracelet automatically appeared in Everly’s mind.
Much like the old version, it was activated by taking off the bracelet and throwing it onto soil connected to the earth, thereby summoning a clone of the Sacred Tree’s true form. The difference was that this time, the bracelet was no longer a single-use item. The user could also control how long the Sacred Tree’s true form remained manifested—
During its use, a banyan tree identical to the one that had appeared today would emerge from the ground. As long as blood offerings were made to the banyan tree, the duration of the Sacred Tree’s manifestation could be extended. Only when its energy was completely depleted would the Sacred Tree disappear and transform back into the bracelet.
Once the bracelet had been used, it would enter a cooldown period lasting approximately one year. During this time, the buds and leaves on the bracelet would appear wilted and yellow.
As time passed, the buds and leaves would slowly unfurl, and their color would gradually turn green. Once the leaves became completely green, it meant that the bracelet had finished its rest and could be used again.
In addition to summoning the Sacred Tree, the bracelet had also gained a new supplementary ability called “Blessing.”
This ability was rather mysterious. Its entire description consisted of just one sentence: “The most sincere blessings, bestowed upon our finest guests and friends.”
The new ability could not be activated voluntarily. It could only be triggered passively when the required conditions were met.
Although Everly could not understand exactly what this so-called “Blessing” referred to, its name alone made it clear that it was definitely beneficial to her. There was still plenty of time, anyway, so Everly decided to observe it and figure things out gradually.
“How is it, Everly? Those two…” Sophia’s voice came from behind her.
Everly shifted her attention away from the bracelet and discovered that all the survivors scattered across the rocky shore had gathered together. Some were hiding in the shadows, secretly observing Everly with furtive glances. Others openly stared at her bracelet without taking their eyes off it. Still others had vacant expressions, apparently still shaken by what had happened.
Of everyone present, only her original three companions were genuinely concerned about how she was doing.
After making a mental note of the few people who had been sneaking glances at her bracelet, Everly kept a neutral expression and answered Sophia, “Yes. They’ve already left.”
Sophia breathed a sigh of relief.
Although the two suspected mythical creatures, or “monsters,” had given off a much less threatening impression than Oseiwa, and had even been somewhat beautiful, there was no denying that their presence exerted a very real sense of oppression. Even though they had never harmed their own people, everyone was still somewhat afraid of them.
She pressed further, “Are we completely safe now?”
Everly nodded. “More or less.”
“That’s wonderful! I’ll use a flare to call for rescue right away!”
Sophia still had three flares left, while Everly had two that she had not had the chance to use. After discussing their plan, they decided to fire one flare every two hours for the rest of the night, using the last one just as dawn arrived.
If no one came looking for them by daylight, they would burn damp firewood to create a smoke signal. As long as the outside world had not given up, they would eventually be able to summon a rescue team.
After the first flare had been fired, everyone found a clean spot and sat down on the ground, waiting for rescue to arrive.
Everly did not rest with them.
Horror Movie Survival Rule #22: Never let your guard down until you have confirmed that you are completely safe.
No one knew whether another variable might emerge. On top of that, Everly had just helped the Sacred Tree and the giant snake defeat a BOSS, leaving her mind in a state of intense excitement. She could not sleep at all, so she simply returned to the priest’s tent and looked through the painted murals she had examined earlier once again.
Sophia went with her. When a piece of lost history appeared right before your eyes, and all you had to do was turn the pages to uncover long-forgotten events, what anthropologist could possibly resist such temptation?
Sophia clearly could not.
Using their phones as flashlights, the two entered the tent. They passed the various artifacts displayed on the storage-room shelves and, without even discussing it, found themselves standing before the tapestries at the very back.
Sophia was interested in why the Carib people had come to North America, while Everly was more interested in what had happened to them after they arrived in North America. They searched through the tapestries for a while and found the “Crossing the Sea” tapestry in the center. Using it as their dividing line, they instinctively moved to opposite sides of the tapestry, each beginning to examine one side.
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