Something fell from the far reaches of the sky.
When that “something” reached a certain height, the sky momentarily glowed red as if there were a wall.
The red light vanished in an instant, but the falling “something” continued its descent under gravity, finally hitting the ground.
The impact of the “something” hitting the ground caused a range of about one meter around the impact point to burn away and disappear in an instant.
It was a devastating scene, as if scorched by an incredible amount of heat, but the changes at the site did not stop there.
The trees and plants in the area that should have vanished in an instant returned to their original state just as quickly, as if nothing had happened.
Even if there were any observers watching these changes from afar, it would have been difficult for them to recognize what was happening.
Sylvia, however, was able to observe them closely through the past-viewing ability of the Water Mirror, but in real time, what had just happened was an event of mere moments.
Even if someone had been present, it would have been for a time as short as the blink of an eye, making it difficult to even recognize that anything had occurred.
After all, even the World Tree, deeply rooted in this forest, could only sense that something felt off.
And, as expected by these events, the only one who had witnessed them was the “something” itself.
After finishing her past view, Sylvia slowly withdrew the hand she had held over the Water Mirror and let out a big sigh.
The scene she had been watching was burned into her eyes, and her head felt slightly dizzy.
Seeing Sylvia’s gesture of holding her temple with her right hand, Kousuke looked at her with a worried expression and asked, “Are you alright?”
“Yes. Sorry. I’m alright… It’s just, it’s the first time I’ve seen such a clear scene with past view…”
Sylvia said this while still holding her temple for a while.
Normally, past view through the Water Mirror does not show such clear images, but rather blurred movements.
This sometimes leads to various interpretations, but seeing Sylvia’s state, Kousuke even began to think that perhaps it was intentionally made to appear that way, considering the burden on shrine maidens and priests.
After waiting for Sylvia to recover, Kousuke asked for an explanation and let out a heavy sigh.
“It’s quite troublesome, isn’t it.”
Shurein and Sylvia’s gazes turned to Kousuke as he mumbled those words in succession to his sigh.
“Is that so?”
“Is that so?”
To the questions asked almost simultaneously, Kousuke nodded.
If the scene Sylvia saw had truly happened, then the fact that the divine tool had erased all traces of it meant it possessed considerable power, which both of them understood.
Kousuke’s use of the word “troublesome” here had a different meaning, so they both tilted their heads.
“It’s not just that it erased the traces in almost an instant, but the fact that it did so intentionally means it’s trying to hide.”
“Ah, so if a being with that much power truly wanted to escape, it would be a hassle, is that it?”
“That’s right.”
Shurein and Sylvia both looked convinced by this logical conclusion.
It had the power to undo the destruction of its surroundings, even though it was within a radius of one meter.
What’s more, it did so while evading the notice of the World Tree, which governed this area.
Considering that, Kousuke’s concerns were not entirely groundless.
Of course, it was possible that it had used up all its stored power in this incident, but since they didn’t know what kind of divine tool it was, there was no harm in being overly cautious.
“Still, even with Sylvia’s Water Mirror, you couldn’t see it clearly. Do you still not know what kind of divine tool it is?”
Shurein asked a pertinent question, but Kousuke replied, “We don’t know.”
“Hmm. It was the same with the Water Mirror. Why is that? Since it disappeared from where it was stored, you should be able to identify it, shouldn’t you?”
“Ah, I see. That’s what you mean. Of course, there’s a good reason for that.”
Kousuke began to explain the circumstances of divine tools, prefacing his words.
Originally, the principles for maintaining form in Asura’s divine realm and the world of Asgard are entirely different.
The reason Kousuke can frequently travel back and forth and maintain the same form is that he is an avatar, and additionally, magic circles have been set up to ensure this.
A similar mechanism is in place when goddesses manifest into the world.
Therefore, their forms do not change regardless of which world they travel between. However, this changes when it comes to divine tools and other objects.
With objects, of course, they have a form when they are in the divine realm, but fundamentally, their purpose—”what they are used for”—is more strongly defined.
Therefore, when a divine tool descends from the divine realm to Asgard, it is quite common for it to change its form.
For instance, in the case of the Water Mirror, when Dana picked it up, it recognized it as “something that could be used as a tool for divination,” and thus, the tool took the form of a Water Mirror, which it deemed most suitable.
If Kousuke or another member had been the one to pick it up first, it might have turned into a different tool.
What is important for a tool is not its appearance, but its intended purpose.
By the way, if it were a divine tool made by Kousuke, the situation would become even more complicated.
When Kousuke creates divine tools in the Tower Management Layer or in some town, he creates them by defining their appearance.
Rather, it is natural, as he is processing existing shaped objects in the world of Asgard.
Therefore, even if he brings it into Asura’s divine realm and then back to Asgard, its appearance does not change.
Kousuke added further to the two who were listening and nodding in understanding.
“See? In myths and legends, don’t heroes’ divine tools sometimes change shape depending on the time and situation? That’s because things like this happen.”
“I see.”
“Of course, some items are made to take on multiple forms from the beginning.”
“Is that so?”
Sylvia, who knows more myths and legends than anyone else, nodded deeply.
In addition to such stories, Sylvia had also seen several divine tools with her own eyes in the temple.
Therefore, Kousuke’s explanation felt more real to her.
Shurein, who had been nodding similarly to Sylvia, asked with a troubled expression, “I understand that it’s not good to try to search by appearance, but is it not possible to track it like Sylvia did with past view just now?”
“That would be difficult too,” Kousuke dismissed Shurein’s question easily, and Sylvia nodded in agreement.
“The past view I just did was about events that happened in this location. I wasn’t identifying the divine tool itself. It’s unlikely that we can identify the divine tool and track its destination.”
If they knew what kind of tool it was, they could simply follow it with the past view of the Water Mirror, but for the reason just explained, they cannot identify the divine tool.
Therefore, it is difficult to use past view to track the destination of a divine tool.
As the atmosphere threatened to become one of being at a dead end, Kousuke preempted it and said in a deliberately cheerful voice, “Well, for now, let’s just be glad we know it definitely fell around here. We can think about what to do next slowly, once we’ve calmed down a bit?”
“That seems like a good idea.”
“Yes, it does.”
Thus, having achieved their immediate objective, Kousuke and the others decided to return to the Elf Village for the time being.
This discussion was about the form of divine tools.
By the way, Kousuke’s divine realm is created with laws closer to Asgard’s, so its appearance does not change.
Of course, if Kousuke intentionally created it to change shape, that would be different, but he hasn’t bothered with such a troublesome thing.
