Chapter 210: The Song of the Fallen

Yuuta focused entirely on the darkness surrounding him. It no longer felt like simple meditation.

The deeper he descended, the more it felt as though his consciousness had been pulled away from his own body and carried into another dimension where neither time nor sound existed.

Everything around him was swallowed by an endless void, leaving behind only the echo of Isvarn’s voice repeating through the darkness.

"Fill that emptiness with the very first thought that naturally appears inside your heart."

Yuuta frowned in confusion.

He did not understand what Isvarn meant. The first thought...? he wondered. What exactly is my first thought? He searched his mind for an answer but found only silence. Instead of forcing himself to think, he slowly relaxed and allowed his consciousness to drift naturally.

He stopped resisting, stopped analyzing, and simply waited for whatever thought wished to emerge on its own.

Then...

Something answered.

An image suddenly surfaced from the depths of his mind.

It wasn’t a memory.

It wasn’t a dream.

It wasn’t even a place he recognized.

The moment the image appeared, the darkness around him shattered without warning.

Yuuta instinctively opened his eyes.

His breath caught in his throat.

He was no longer standing within endless darkness.

Soft grass brushed against his bare feet, its cool sensation so vivid that it felt completely real. A gentle breeze drifted across his face, carrying with it an unfamiliar fragrance that he had never experienced before. The air itself felt different—lighter, purer, almost alive. Every breath filled his lungs with an indescribable freshness that made Earth seem lifeless in comparison.

Yuuta slowly lifted his head, his crimson eyes widening in complete disbelief.

Before him stood a colossal tree unlike anything he had ever imagined.

A giant tree stood in the distance, its trunk impossibly thick, its branches reaching toward a sky that was not a sky. The sky above was darkness absolute, infinite, watching. It was not the darkness of night, not the absence of light. It was something else. Something alive. Something that was looking back at him.

Only after several moments did Yuuta realize he had stopped breathing.

He looked around.

The ground beneath him was covered by an endless meadow filled with vibrant flowers swaying gently beneath the invisible wind. Every petal glowed with faint colors that illuminated the surrounding grass, creating a peaceful landscape that felt strangely sacred. Yet despite the beauty surrounding him, an uneasy feeling quietly settled inside his chest.

He slowly raised his head toward the sky.

There was no sun.

No moon.

No stars.

Only endless darkness.

For reasons he could not explain, Yuuta felt as though that darkness was staring back at him.

The sky above was darkness absolute, infinite, watching. It was not the darkness of night, not the absence of light. It was something else. Something alive. Something that was looking back at him.

Yuuta felt a chill run down his spine. The darkness was not empty. It was filled with presence, with awareness, with something that was studying him, measuring him, waiting for him to make a move.

"What... is this place?" he whispered to himself.

No answer came.

Instead, the silence around him only grew heavier.

Yuuta forced himself to look away from the terrifying sky and focused once again on the gigantic tree standing in the distance. The closer he observed it, the more he could feel an indescribable pressure radiating from it. It wasn’t hostility, nor was it killing intent. It felt ancient... as though the tree itself had existed long before history, quietly watching countless civilizations rise and fall beneath its branches.

Unable to suppress his curiosity, Yuuta began walking toward it.

Each step felt astonishingly real. The grass bent beneath his feet, flowers brushed against his legs, and the cool breeze continued flowing through his hair. After only a few steps, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

Isvarn’s voice...

Had disappeared.

No matter how carefully he listened, the telepathic connection was completely gone. It was as though the world he had entered existed beyond Isvarn’s reach, severing every connection to reality itself.

Yuuta slowly narrowed his eyes.

"If Grandpa can’t reach me..."

He looked toward the enormous tree once again.

"...then where exactly am I?"

Before he could think any further, movement beneath the ancient tree caught his attention.

His footsteps gradually slowed.

Several figures stood silently beneath its colossal branches.

Even from this distance, Yuuta could tell...

He was not alone.

Yuuta narrowed his eyes and focused on the figures standing beneath the colossal tree. They were only a few hundred feet away, yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make out their faces.

Their bodies appeared blurred, almost transparent, as though they existed somewhere between reality and illusion.

From a distance they resembled wandering spirits rather than living beings, standing perfectly still beneath the ancient branches without making a single sound.

Curiosity slowly overcame his hesitation.

He began walking toward them.

With every step he took, the figures became clearer, but instead of making more sense, they only appeared stranger. They were undeniably humanoid, yet something about their proportions felt abnormal.

Each one towered over him, their physiques graceful yet powerful. Yuuta, who stood at five feet nine inches, suddenly felt unusually small in their presence. Judging by their height alone, they were easily six foot two, perhaps even six foot four.

They didn’t possess the bulky build of warriors, but there was an overwhelming elegance surrounding them that made their size feel even more imposing.

Yuuta unconsciously slowed his pace.

Then...

His eyes widened in disbelief.

"No way..."

The details finally became clear enough for him to recognize.

Their ears.

Long.

Sharp.

Elegant.

Their flowing hair shimmered beneath the strange darkness surrounding the world. Most possessed brilliant golden hair that reached their waists, while a few carried deep emerald-green locks that gently swayed with the wind. Their clothing resembled ancient ceremonial robes woven from leaves and silver thread, unlike anything Yuuta had ever seen.

They were elves.

Real elves.

Yuuta could hardly believe his own eyes.

There were nearly Hundred of them standing beneath the giant tree, their hands joined together as they slowly circled its enormous trunk. Their lips moved in perfect unison, chanting words Yuuta couldn’t understand.

The language was completely foreign to him, yet the strange melody carried an ancient rhythm that resonated throughout the surrounding world. It sounded less like ordinary speech and more like a sacred prayer offered to something far older than civilization itself.

Oddly enough...

Yuuta wasn’t frightened by the ritual.

Instead...

A strange familiarity settled deep inside his heart.

He couldn’t understand why.

He had never seen elves before.

He had never witnessed anything remotely similar.

And yet...

Watching them circle the ancient tree felt... natural.

Comfortable.

Almost nostalgic.

It was as though he had witnessed this exact ceremony long ago, somewhere beyond the reach of his memories. His mind insisted this was impossible, yet his heart quietly disagreed. A strange feeling rose inside him, whispering that this scene wasn’t foreign at all.

It belonged to him.

A melody so old that it seemed to belong to the forest itself drifted through the silent world. The voices of the elves rose and fell like the wind passing through countless leaves, each note carrying a sorrow too ancient for words alone.

"Return to the roots from which you came,

Lay down your sorrow, lay down your name.

The wind shall carry what we cannot keep,

The ancient branches cradle your sleep.

Leaf to World, and World to sky,

No soul is ever born to die.

Though seasons fade and rivers cease,

May every wandering heart find peace.

When morning fades and daylight ends,

The forest keeps what time transcends.

No path is lost, no soul alone,

For every heart shall find its home.

May rivers sing the names we’ve known,

May blossoms bloom where tears have flown.

Though flesh may fade and voices cease,

The roots shall guard our endless peace.

The stars bear witness high above,

The earth below remembers love.

The leaves shall dance, the branches sway,

Until we meet another day.

We remember.

We remember.

Until the final leaf has fallen...

We remember."

The hymn echoed across the endless meadow before dissolving into the silence of the ancient world.

Yuuta stood motionless.

His chest tightened.

He had never heard those words before.

He had never learned such a song.

Yet every verse felt as though it had been engraved upon his soul long before he was born.

His lips parted on their own.

"...Return to the roots from which you came..."

The words escaped as little more than a whisper.

Warm tears slowly gathered in the corners of his crimson eyes.

He couldn’t understand why he was crying.

He wasn’t sad.

He wasn’t afraid.

Yet his heart ached with a longing so deep that it stole his breath.

"...Lay down your sorrow... lay down your name..."

His voice grew steadier with every line, blending seamlessly with the voices of the elves.

"The wind shall carry what we cannot keep,

The ancient branches cradle your sleep.

Leaf to World, and world to sky,

No soul is ever born to die.

Though seasons fade and rivers cease,

May every wandering heart find peace.

We remember.

We remember.

Until the final leaf has fallen...

We remember."

As the final words left Yuuta’s lips, silence returned to the strange world beneath the giant tree. Tears quietly rolled down his cheeks without him realizing it. His chest tightened, not from sadness alone, but from a longing so deep that it seemed to belong to someone else. He stood there in complete stillness, listening to the last echoes of the melody disappear into the endless darkness surrounding him.

He had no idea why he knew that hymn.

He couldn’t remember ever hearing it.

No one had ever taught him those words.

And yet, when he sang them, they flowed from his lips as naturally as breathing. It didn’t feel as though he had learned the song. It felt as though he had simply remembered something that had always existed deep within his soul.

Then...

Fragments of memory began surfacing.

Not complete memories.

Only scattered pieces.

Blurred images drifted through his consciousness like broken reflections upon water. He saw an enormous tree standing beneath an endless sky. He heard soft laughter carried by the wind. Then another image slowly formed.

An old man.

Yuuta couldn’t see his face clearly.

It remained hidden beneath a veil of light, but somehow he knew the man was smiling. The old man sat beneath the same giant tree while a much smaller child stood before him, listening attentively. That child...

Was him.

The old man gently repeated the words of the hymn, asking the little boy to sing after him. There had been warmth in his voice. Patience. Affection. Every time the child made a mistake, the old man simply smiled and corrected him without anger, treating him with a kindness Yuuta had never experienced before.

The memory became slightly clearer.

The old man’s gentle voice echoed through the ancient forest.

"This is the Song of the Fallen," he had said. "A hymn passed down through countless generations for those forced to leave their homeland. No matter where fate carries them... no matter how many years pass... this song will always guide them home."

The melody continued playing inside Yuuta’s mind as forgotten words resurfaced one after another.

"Return to the roots from which you came..."

"Lay down your sorrow, lay down your name."

"The wind shall carry what we cannot keep..."

"The ancient branches cradle your sleep."

Every verse awakened another fragment buried deep inside his heart.

The old man had loved him.

Not merely cared for him.

Loved him.

He had treated the young Yuuta with a respect that felt almost... royal. Every lesson, every smile, every gentle correction carried the dignity of someone raising a child destined for something far greater than himself.

Yuuta’s breathing became uneven.

His head began to ache.

More memories struggled to surface, crashing against whatever invisible barrier imprisoned them. Faces appeared only to vanish before he could recognize them. Voices called his name from somewhere beyond the darkness, yet he couldn’t understand their words.

Every fragment felt painfully close, as though the answers had always been within reach, separated only by a thin wall he couldn’t break.

Then a terrifying realization struck him.

He knew every word of the Song of the Fallen.

He understood its meaning.

He even knew the emotion hidden behind every verse.

Yet...

He had never learned this language.

Not on Earth.

Not anywhere.

The hymn should have been impossible for him to sing.

Yuuta slowly looked down at his trembling hands.

His heartbeat echoed loudly inside his ears.

"...Who..."

he whispered, his voice barely audible.

"...Who taught me this?"

No answer came.

Only silence.

Then another thought, far more frightening than the first, quietly settled into his mind.

Since the day he woke up in the orphanage, he had accepted one simple truth.

He believed he had no past.

He believed he had simply been abandoned as a child and Sister mary is everything for him.

But standing beneath the ancient tree, with forgotten songs echoing through his soul and memories that did not belong to Earth slowly resurfacing...

Yuuta finally understood something that had never once crossed his mind.

He had never truly known his past.

Everything he knew about himself began the day he entered the orphanage.

Everything before that...

Was nothing but an empty page.

Or perhaps...

An empty page someone had deliberately forced him to forget.

The realization sent a chill through Yuuta’s entire body.

Almost instinctively, Isvarn’s words resurfaced inside his mind.

"The stronger you become... the more truth will reveal itself to you."

At the time, Yuuta hadn’t fully understood what the old dragon meant.

Now...

He finally did.

This wasn’t simply a vision.

It was a clue.

A clue.

The first clue to a past he had spent his entire life searching for without ever realizing it.

The mysterious hymn. The old man who had shown him unimaginable kindness. The colossal tree standing before him. And now... these elves.

None of it felt like coincidence.

Each piece seemed connected to a life that had existed long before the orphanage, long before the lonely childhood he had always believed was the beginning of his story.

For the first time since he had begun questioning his own identity, Yuuta felt as though he had finally grasped the first thread leading toward the truth.

His trembling eyes slowly lifted.

The ancient hymn had fallen silent.

The elves were no longer circling the tree.

Instead, every faceless figure stood motionless, their attention fixed upon him.

Whether they had seen his arrival...

Or whether they had heard him join the Song of the Fallen...

Yuuta couldn’t tell.

All he knew was that they had stopped for him.

One by one, the silent figures turned toward him.

Their faces remained hidden beneath the strange blur that prevented him from recognizing a single feature, yet he could somehow feel their gazes resting upon him.

Without speaking to one another, they slowly stepped aside in perfect harmony, opening a path that stretched directly toward the ancient tree. None of them blocked his way. None of them showed hostility.

Instead...

Every single elf lowered their head.

The sight left Yuuta completely speechless.

Then, as though responding to the same invisible command, their voices echoed together throughout the endless world.

"Welcome home."

The words resonated through Yuuta’s soul.

"Take back what rightfully belongs to you."

"Return to the motherland where you were born."

Yuuta’s heart skipped a beat.

"...Home?"

The word felt painfully unfamiliar.

Yet at the same time...

It felt as though he had been searching for it his entire life.

He stood frozen, unable to move as countless emotions collided within his heart. Fear. Confusion. Curiosity. Hope. Nothing about this place made sense. Nothing about these elves made sense. They were speaking to him as though they had been waiting for his return, as though he truly belonged here.

But how?

He was human.

He had grown up in an orphanage.

He had never left his city.

He had certainly never seen elves before.

So why...

Why did every word they spoke feel so natural?

Yuuta swallowed the lump forming in his throat.

Every instinct warned him to turn around.

To run.

To reject everything happening before his eyes.

But...

He didn’t.

He was tired of running.

He had spent his entire life running from weakness, running from unanswered questions, and accepting ignorance because he believed there was no other choice.

Not anymore.

If this place held even a fragment of the truth...

Then he would keep walking.

Slowly, Yuuta stepped forward.

The elves remained perfectly still, their heads lowered respectfully as he passed between them. None of them spoke again.

They simply watched in complete silence, as though escorting someone whose return had been awaited for countless years.

With every step Yuuta took toward the colossal tree, the strange feeling inside his chest grew stronger. It was impossible to describe. He had never visited a place like this. He had never traveled beyond his own city. Ever since becoming an orphan, Earth had been the only home he had ever known.

And yet...

This place didn’t feel unfamiliar.

It felt forgotten.

Every breath he took carried a strange sense of nostalgia.

The scent of the wind... the soft grass beneath his feet... the ancient tree standing before him... everything awakened emotions his mind couldn’t explain. It was as though his heart remembered a home that his memories had long since lost.

By the time he stood only a few steps away from the giant tree, that feeling had become almost unbearable.

His heartbeat quickened.

An invisible warmth flowed from the ancient trunk, gently wrapping around his body.

Then, from somewhere deep within his soul, a single overwhelming desire emerged.

The tree...

Wanted him to touch it.

Or perhaps...

It had been waiting for him to return all along.

To be Contiuned....

(Credit scene - Author discrod)

Yuuta: "Dear readers, if you’d like to learn more about the world of the novel, read exclusive lore, enjoy funny manga pages, or discuss fan theories, be sure to join my Discord server!"

Elena:tilts her head "Papa... what’s Discord? Is it chicken or meat?"

Yuuta: "Hahaha, no, Elena. It’s not food. It’s a place where readers and I can talk together."

Elena’s eyes sparkled.

Elena: "Really?! We can actually talk to them, Papa?"

Yuuta: "Yep. We can chat with everyone there."

A cold voice suddenly echoed from behind.

Erza: "Excellent."

Yuuta slowly turned around.

Erza stood there with a faint smile that immediately sent a chill down his spine.

Erza: "I’ve been wondering for a long time why the readers refuse to vote for me in the rankings."

She slowly cracked her knuckles.

Erza: "Now I finally know where to find them."

Yuuta: "W-Wait! You can’t threaten the readers!"

Erza: "Threaten?"

She smiled elegantly.

Erza: "Who said anything about threatening? I merely wish to... have a civilized discussion."

Yuuta paled.

Yuuta: "Readers... run."

Erza: "That sounds like none of your business, Mortal."

Yuuta: "...We’re all doomed."

https://discord.gg/svRc4gGJ