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We dispersed to our respective laboratories after having an unofficial meeting at the café, contemplating how to make the World Tree grow.

Aushilion stated that the World Tree grows by engulfing other trees. In other words, the more life force the engulfed tree possesses, the larger and faster the World Tree grows.

Thus, they must have preemptively reserved the Eternal Tree as a sacrifice. The largest tree in the world. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have dared to think of trying this, but— isn’t City N currently in a state where they don’t have the luxury to care about their landmarks?

“The larger the sacrifice, the better…”

As soon as I heard that, I discarded all the herbicides and bacteria that’ll rot the tree I was making. There was no reason to deliberately damage or interfere with the growth of the Eternal Tree, which was to be the sacrifice. On the contrary.

I had to help the Eternal Tree grow. How? The answer was simple. The laboratory corner was already filled with fertilizer prepared to restore the desertified City Z.

“I never thought I’d use this like this…”

I paused while glancing at the footage of the rampaging Eternal Tree in City N on TV. As I was solely focused on the Eternal Tree, I almost forgot something crucial.

What was the reason for the Eternal Tree’s rampage? Wasn’t it because the Flower hiding inside was controlling the Eternal Tree and causing it to rampage?

Even if I succeeded in installing the World Tree like this, I’d simply end up putting the Flower right in its mouth. In other words, it meant I needed to figure out how to deal with the Flower before I could install the World Tree…

“This is such a hassle.”

This was truly a headache.

I had to find a way to restrain Flower inside the Eternal Tree without harming the tree that was to be sacrificed.

And that was to deal with a superpowered individual who could render modern weaponry useless.

I groaned and leaned back on the sofa. No matter how much I thought about it, a proper method didn’t come to mind. It wasn’t something I could just easily give up on.

Nobody would be foolish enough to pass up the opportunity to witness the World Tree, which was created through pure magic, growing right before their eyes.

*

Vroooom-!

A gigantic transport helicopter zoomed past, revving its rotors. Heroes and firefighters laboring to cut or burn the tree roots looked up to see it.

Soon, the back of the helicopter opened, and white powder began to fall like snow. Artificial snow was descending from the sky.

Unlike the herbicides that had been spread until now, the roots of the trees hit by the powder immediately stopped moving and began to focus all their nerves on the falling substance. The crowd sighed in relief upon seeing this.

“We finally get a breather…”

“Did they say it was made in City E? It really stops the trees from moving?”

“Our city’s herbicide turned black and rotted the moment it touched anything.”

People gasped in amazement at the technology from City E, but soon the gentle snowflakes began to cover the Eternal Tree. At that moment, the Eternal Tree strangely halted its movements.

However, everyone knew this respite wouldn’t last long. People rushed to cut the tree roots, clear the path, and rescue citizens trapped under collapsed buildings.

As heroic feats erupted here and there, some heroes and police realized that this was the momento to act while the tree was still.

“We need to send heroes in to infiltrate now!”

“If we know where the perpetrator is hiding?”

“The association lent us a hand. Seers, future predictors, fortune tellers, celestial readers… they used all means to pinpoint the location of the perpetrator. We can do this.”

Thus, several heroes began to penetrate the trunk of the Eternal Tree. A superpowered individual capable of emitting a cutting wind that sliced anything in its path led the charge, cutting through the tree stronger than steel as they pressed on.

A hero with the trivial power of not getting lost guided them to their destination as conveyed by the association, while another with the ability to temporarily erase their pain and fear made their hardships forgettable.

Boom…!

“Are you kidding, already!?”

“Damn it! Run fast! If we get caught now, we’ll die!”

“I’m already doing my best!”

Just as the heroes were on the verge of reaching their destination, the Eternal Tree, which had been halted from swallowing the powdered substance from above, finally realized the presence of the intruders and began to react.

Filling the hole cut by the overflowing nutrients, the heroes, seeing the trees pressing down on them from all sides, panicked and began to move even faster.

Fortunately, they soon reached their destination. A pitch-dark chamber where not a single beam of light shone. It seemed that the Eternal Tree couldn’t press them further here.

“I found it!”

“Don’t move! Flower!”

The heroes rushed at the Flower, who was hugging her knees and crouching in the dark, aiming their weapons at her. The worst criminal, the S-rank villain responsible for this chaos.

Faced with the antagonistic gazes of the heroes, the Flower merely lifted her head slightly and glared at the flashlight.

“…Can you turn off the light?”

“Don’t move-!”

“…That’s because it’s happening.”

The next moment, the lanterns created by modern civilization began to turn into dust. In an instant, the heroes lost their light, startled momentarily before quickly creating a new light with their powers.

The hero with the power to manipulate light froze as they realized that everyone but themselves and the Flower had vanished.

“What is going on…”

“I told you to turn it off—!”

Once more, a booming voice echoed—and the next moment, the light vanished. The chamber, which had been filled with the sound of numerous feet, sank back into silence and darkness.

Regaining her calm, the Flower buried her head between her knees and closed her eyes. Ah, the terrible thing is coming…

*

The Eternal Tree was truly growing rapidly, day by day. It had certainly not been this massive just a while ago, and people began to grow fearful of how powerful the Flower hiding inside the Eternal Tree must have been for it to grow this way.

Of course, the reason the Eternal Tree had grown that large wasn’t because of the Flower. It was entirely due to the fertilizer I had sprinkled.

“Maybe it’s time for a harvest?”

I grinned as I looked at the tree that had grown tall enough to reach the sky after eagerly absorbing the fertilizer. Normally, a tree wouldn’t grow that big, but in this world of superpowers, it seemed to disregard physical laws.

And if physical laws can be ignored by superpowers, then surely, they can be even more easily overcome by magic. Perhaps the World Tree might grow so tall it would pierce the sky and reach the universe.

Contrary to the legends that one could see the Great Wall from planetary orbits, the World Tree born from that tree would indeed be visible from planetary orbits.

Perhaps in a distant future, space travelers would come across the World Tree, using it as a landmark, no, a Planetmark.

“And I’ll be the one who made it.”

In the history of Earth, there likely hasn’t been anyone who achieved such a feat. After all, no one has ever attempted to create a tree the size of a planet.

As I savored the thrill of accumulating another achievement, Aushilion, who had finished preparing, came to me holding the seed.

“What have you done?”

“What do you mean all of a sudden?”

“I never imagined that tree could grow that big… how can you grow a tree that’s not even the World Tree to such a size?”

At that remark, I shrugged as if it was nothing special.

“It’s the power of superpowers, I guess.”

“Superpowers?”

“Yes. Inside that tree is a superpowered individual called Flower… and I suppose my ability is maintaining that ridiculous size. Once she disappears, that tree won’t be able to hold its size and will collapse.”

“That can’t happen. We need to proceed as quickly as possible.”

Of course, just planting the World Tree wouldn’t suffice. I needed to both plant the World Tree and simultaneously extract the Flower that was hiding within it.

There happened to be someone who could help me resolve this frustrating task. It was the bandaged thug who had come to raid my field together with her.

“…You all do have plans to save her, right?”

“Of course. Did you not hear what I just said? If she’s gone, the tree will collapse!”

“Dr. Eight. What about you?”

“Oh, this is Steil. He claims to be Flower’s boyfriend. He said he has confidence in persuading her, so I called him.”

After casually introducing the bandaged thug, I immediately received the World Tree seed. Aushilion mentioned that she originally intended to shoot this seed with a rocket or something to send it to the surface of the Eternal Tree.

It was an incredibly unstable method that could potentially damage the one and only seed. I knew of a much more sophisticated way.

“—Then, let’s begin.”

Vroooom-!

The gate trembled.

Opening up space directly connected to the core of the Eternal Tree—

I hurled the World Tree seed with all my might.