After seeing Liana''s lightning trail and incredible speed, the group looked at the sparks of lighting in awe for a second before regaining theirposure.


    Taking the lead was Albert as he immediatly ran in the opposite direction of Liana before gesturing to the students behind him.


    "THIS WAY!"


    Trailing behind the main cast with Irene, Ruby followed Albert as he led them through the various paths.


    Even though there was a chance of demons popping out at any wrong turn or a sudden sneak attack, Ruby''s mind waspletely elsewhere.


    Where was he?


    First, he attempts to infiltrate the gemstone order before she catches him after looking into his soul. Then, he somehow remained awake andpletely fine after the cruise ship incident, and finally, he somehow managed to take down the djinn during the dormitory attack.


    Once, it could have been a mistake; two could have been coincidences, but three were far too many.


    For the past three months, Ren had been involved in every important moment, and... it was all of his own volition.''


    He had been purposely cing himself in danger to save the same people who had spread malicious rumors about him.


    Recalling the rumors spreading at the academy about Ren being a terrible, selfish, and moral-less person, Ruby almost wanted tough.


    He had been there at all the most important moments behind the scenes, and despite there being no proof for the other incidents besides the dormitory attack, Ruby was inclined to believe that he had also contributed the most during those.


    Even Liam and Kevin, who Ren had basically helped save during the dormitory attack, were bad-mouthing him.


    Although Ruby knew that Ren was always involved in these important events, she still had no idea why and how.


    How had he known about Alya''s kidnapping beforehand and managed to infiltrate the squad despite only being a D-rank?


    How was he able to arrive at the royal dormitory during the attack when nobody else should have known about it?


    Why was he interfering in these situations?


    She had a lot of information, but somehow, none of it seemed connected, like a bunch of randomly plotted points on a line graph.


    Ruby knew that Ren had to be here somewhere based on his previous actions... but since she didn''t know or understand his methods in the slightest, she had no idea where.


    The chances of him being here were almost zero, considering the special entry method required to go inside the World Tree and the fact the demons were roaming around... yet Ruby couldn''t shake the feeling that he was somewhere here, just waiting for them...


    "Well... if it''s Ren... he''s probably already at the World Tree''s center, already fighting and saving the tree from death."


    Hearing Ruby''s muttering, Irene asked.


    "What''d you say?"


    Waving her hands, Ruby replied.


    "Nothing, nothing."


    "If you say so..."


    Although Ruby''s muttering had mostly been incoherent to Irene, she had managed to make out a single word.


    Ren.


    Recalling that she had gone to see Ren for help under the student council president''s instructions, Irene pondered whether Ren had gone to help them.


    The investigative reports did not mention him at all, but the student council president wouldn''t call him for no reason, right?


    Well... even if he had gone to help, he had probably arrived toote, as Ruby had teleported them and the rest of the students out while the official heroes took care of the djinn.


    As Albert''s pace suddenly increased, both Irene and Ruby refocused their thoughts on their current situation, speeding up to catch up with the group ahead of them.


    As they reconvened with the rest of the group, Albert began speaking while slowly increasing his pace, allowing everyone to keep up with him.


    "We''re almost there; be ready. We can''t be sure that the queen has all the demons detained; the possibility of a few outliers is high."


    While Irene, Lily, and Ruby drew their wands, the other five took out swords, bows, quivers, and other various weapons that the Elven queen had given them.


    Seeing a pure-white light illuminating the path ahead, Albert immediately recognized it as the the spirit of the World tree, sprinting ahead.


    Leaving the rest of the group behind, Albert nocked an arrow in his bow and charged straight into the center of the tree... where he spotted two demons with their backspletely turned to him.


    "...?"


    Not giving up the opportunity, Albert waited for the rest of the group to catch up before shooting his arrow at one demon while the others all simultaneously attacked the other one.


    With incredible speed, though notparable to Liana''s lightning, the arrow pierced right through the first demon.


    As the other demon turned his head in shock, it was toote. Various spells such as fireballs, icences, water bullets, a light-blue shining sword, and a regr sword were barrelling towards him with no mercy.


    Unlike the clean and precise death of the first demon by Albert''s arrow, this one was a mess. After disposing of the demon, the various spells reacted together, creating many explosions.


    Seeing the excited figures of the group behind him, Albert turned around after confirming the demons'' death to face the group.


    "That was luck; all luck. If it had been a confrontation, our victory would have been much longer... and maybe impossible. So, don''t get co-"


    Interrupting Albert''s speech was Kevin as he replied.


    "Hey, luck is a part of the game. So what if our luck won that fight; in the end, our attacks and spells won!"


    Chucking, Liam patted Kevin on the shoulder and replied.


    "So, when you win, it''s all you and no luck, but when you lose, it''s always luck''s fault. Make it make sense."


    Ignoring the two''s banter, Albert began examining the spirit of the World Tree from a distance, noticing a faint gray polluting the pure white color of the fog.


    The amount of grey would naturally clear up in a couple of days, but there was just one problem: the amount of grey would slowly increase.


    Staring at the device below the fog, Albert rushed over and picked it up, immediately noticing the ck smoke it was emitting.


    Smashing it onto the ground with all his awakened force, Albert attempted to break it; however, the ck fog kepting out despite the outside being heavily damaged.


    Wasting no time, Albert tossed the device to Alya, who he obviously trusted the most among the group.


    "Take this out of here now; the longer it stays, the worse the tree bes. You know how to leave, don''t you the tree, don''t you?"


    Alya and the others, who had been previously staring at the white fog in confusion and awe, immediately realized the connection between the fog and the World Tree''s condition at Albert''s words.


    Catching the device, Alya nodded her head before sprinting out of the room and back towards where they started.


    Upon seeing Albert''s way of entering the World Tree, Alya immediately deduced that to enter and exit the tree, she simply needed to use one of her many contracted spirits.