CHAPTER 153: EX 153. WORLD TREE

In the brutal hierarchy of Trial Takers, not all abilities were made equal. Power had rules, unspoken, but absolute. Water drowned fire. Fire melted ice. Ice froze water. But wood... wood burned. It was the universal truth of nature, and in this case, the World Tree was made of it. And Leon? Leon had fire. But not just any fire.

Dragon fire.

One of the rarest and most destructive flames known across the realms. Fire that devoured even spirit and mana. And he wielded it like it was born in his blood.

Elizabeth’s eyes widened from where she stood, heart thudding hard in her chest. Her lips parted, whispering in disbelief.

"Didn’t he just... learn that technique yesterday?"

She knew how long it took to control even a single spark of Dragon Flame. She had struggled with it for months, and still did. It wasn’t just a matter of talent. Most dragons themselves couldn’t master it, forced to settle for Dragon Tongue, a lesser channeling art that let them spew ordinary fire. But this wasn’t ordinary. The heat rolling off Leon’s sword felt alive. It pulsed like a heartbeat.

A dragon’s heartbeat.

Her thoughts slipped into dangerous waters.

’Is he... is he secretly a dragon?’

Around her, murmurs stirred through the gathered soldiers.

"I didn’t know Colonel Leon could do that,"

"At this point... is there anything he can’t do?"

No one dared raise their voice. The heat of the dragon fire still lingered in the air, a pressure that weighed on the skin and spirit alike. The smell of scorched dust clung faintly, and the image of Leon standing in the its glow was burned into everyone’s mind.

Among the silent watchers stood Boniface, a newly promoted Elite Guard. His uniform still felt crisp from the ceremony, but now it felt heavy, like it didn’t belong on his shoulders. His fists clenched by his sides, nails digging into his palm. No one had said a word to him directly, but they didn’t need to.

’The gap is just too wide.’

The thought struck like a weight dropped in his chest. He had clawed his way up through sweat, blood, and shattered bone. But compared to that, compared to someone like Leon he felt like a child.

Around him, more soldiers kept stealing glances at Leon, the awe in their eyes thickening.

But one man, Arbiter George, felt a tremor ripple through his soul the moment he saw the flame. He narrowed his eyes, instincts screaming louder than logic.

’No... it can’t be.’

’That’s not just mimicry, that’s real. Dragonic Flame. The true kind.’

As an SSS-rank and one of the Federation’s oldest veterans, George had seen things few ever lived to speak of. He had walked through ancient ruins lit by dragon hearts. He had fought beasts born from starlight and shadow. There was no mistaking what now blazed in Leon Kael’s hand.

His body tensed.

’If that truly is Dragonic Flame... then the Supreme Heir might be in danger,’

But Before he could act, a calm voice echoed in his mind, cutting through his thoughts like a blade of silence.

"Don’t act. Just watch."

George froze.

That voice.

He could never mistake it.

He had knelt when that man first united humanity under one banner. He had pledged his sword, his soul, and every breath to him. And that voice... belonged to Governor Akira Yakomoto.

George’s lips parted as he responded mentally,

"Yes, Supreme Warden."

His limbs relaxed, but his mind didn’t. It spun, tearing through possibilities, recalculating every scenario.

’Who the hell is this boy? What does the Governor see in him... to value him over his own child?’

A sharp grin broke across George’s weathered face, the kind he hadn’t worn in decades. His thoughts slipped into a storm of prophecy.

’Things are about to change in the Federation...

I haven’t been this excited since the Age of Chaos.’

But no one was more shaken than Sakura.

Her face had drained of all color the moment she saw the flame. Her mind reeled.

’What is that flame?’

None of the reports said he could do that.

That was her first mistake, treating Leon like a known quantity. You never predicted Leon Kael. Because Leon was unpredictability made flesh. He didn’t follow logic. He warped it. He didn’t play by the rules. He rewrote them.

And he never stopped growing.

Power didn’t come to him easily. No, it came to him inevitably.

Her lips curled into a tight line, her eyes narrowing as she fought back the chill crawling down her spine.

"...It doesn’t matter," she whispered to herself. "Because he’ll still fail. After all, I am Beaut—"

She didn’t even finish the sentence.

Leon moved.

There were no attack points to burn. He hadn’t accumulated any yet.

But He didn’t need them.

He poured force affinity into his legs and launched forward with the momentum of a meteor, silent, devastating, and unstoppable. His blade, already drenched in Draconic Flame, now hissed with an added coating of raw force, warping the air around it like a solar flare pressed into steel.

One moment, he was in front of her.

The next,

He was gone, suddenly standing behind her.

Sakura’s eyes barely widened in shock as she spun, but it wasn’t Leon she saw.

It was the World Tree.

Even with its massive size, its thick roots and unshakable presence, it couldn’t hide what had just happened.

A single, clean, burning slash mark cut across the base of the trunk, blackened, seared deep into the bark like a brand from the gods.

Sakura’s mouth parted, her voice barely audible.

"...Impossible."

But it didn’t stop there.

The World Tree groaned.

Its roots creaked.

Leaves rained down.

And slowly... with a sound that silenced the world...

The World Tree began to fall.

Around them, chaos rippled like a sudden wave. Soldiers backed away in a frenzy, boots scraping against the dirt, eyes wide with rising panic.

"The tree! It’s falling!" someone shouted.

The World Tree, an ancient, towering behemoth that dwarfed everything on the training field was tipping. Its groaning trunk cracked under its own weight, a deep rumble echoing through the ground like the growl of a god. The air turned heavy.

Panic swallowed discipline, and Order was forgotten. A single collapse from that size could crush them all like insects beneath a mountain.

Rebecca’s aura flared, her body already coiling with motion, ready to intervene,

SNAP!

The sound rang sharp and clean, like the spark of fate itself.

Arbiter George stood still, arm lowered, fingers just having snapped.

And the tree... didn’t fall.

In a blink, the massive trunk shimmered, then shattered, not into splinters or ash, but into motes of light. Like stars breaking apart under a divine will, the ancient wood scattered into the wind, dissolving into nothing.

Silence fell.

No crash. No dust cloud. Just the soft glitter of vanishing danger. The impossible, erased like it had never existed.

And just like that, the crisis was gone.

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A/N: You have read this far and I want to say thank you for that, you guys continuous support is what keeps me writing, because I sometimes fell like giving up but your supportive comments, keep me going and those who don’t talk much but show their support with power stones and golden tickets you guys are also great

(Sorry I have run out of EX puns)