Rykler followed behind his granddaughter, he could smell her flowery perfume as her purple hair swayed side to side. His mind was subconsciously trying to distract itself from this situation.

Before him and Diana was a glowing blue portal. It was pulsating with power. Since simulating with mana, Rykler could sense the presence of mana in the air. It felt like a light fog was surrounding him, it felt warm as it flowed through the pores in his skin and circulated around his body. It was gentle and slow when compared to the portal.

If surrounding him was a thin mist or fog, that portal was like a vortex of water, sucking everything inside with fighting speed. Rykler could feel the thin mist of mana surrounding him rushing past his skin to feed the hungry beast that was this portal.

Diana was visibly shaking in fear, Rykler was too. Who wouldn’t be scared when they witnessed people in front of them step into the portal and vanish as if they never existed. The aliens told them it was safe but how trustworthy were they really? Even with his improved body, Rykler still had an asthma attack when he stood up too fast and got excited. What if he had an attack while travelling through the portal?

Rykler reached out his hand and gently placed it on Diana’s head, she jumped a little at the sudden contact but calmed down shortly after. Rykler gently rubbed Diana’s head, he used to do this when she was a child, it always calmed her down.

Sure enough she stopped shaking like a leaf and seemed to be enjoying the warm hand on her head. Only two more people stood in front of them before it was their turn. “Grandpa will be fine right?” Diana asked with a whisper. “You won’t leave me all alone like mom and dad did? I can’t be alone again… *hic*”

Ryklers hand stopped moving for a moment. Although she is 30 years old it seems she still hasn't gotten over her parents sudden death when she was little. In the most soothing voice he could muster in this situation Rykler whispered “Of course I won’t, you couldn’t get rid of this old man even if you wanted hahaha! What kind of Grandpa would leave his granddaughter all alone?”

“Mhm” she replied, seemingly happy with the answer.

Finally, their turn arrived. Diana decided to go first, one of the military officials beckoned her to walk through while explaining a few procedures.

Rykler watched as she walked through the portal, turning her head to give him a genuine smile before vanishing into thin air. She was engulfed by that mana vortex, after entering it seemed the blue portal dimmed slightly and the suction effect increased.

“Why does this planet have such weak mana?” the military official sighed deeply. He then took a football-sized blue stone from behind him and threw it at the portal. Rykler could feel the immense mana that was stored inside that stone.

The stone shattered on contact and the vortex-like portal began greedly absorbing the mana, although the portal absorbed most of the mana in seconds, a small amount of mana escaped the intense pull and instead went towards Rykler.

Rykler watched the mana that looked like a snake, as it swam through the air towards him. The military guard raised an eyebrow at the sight but didn’t intervene. The snake increased its speed and lunged at Rykler.

Rykler stubbled back in surprise, almost knocking into the official waiting behind him but managed to catch himself. The snake slammed straight into his forehead and entered between his eyes.

An immense headache took over, followed by the feeling of power shooting through his body. His body became incredibly hot as the mana rushed inside him. He desperately tried to control the raging mana inside his body but his mana control was too weak, he only knew how to control it on an instinctual level and had little practice.

Rykler dropped to the ground on one knee and clutched his heart. It was beating wildly in his chest making him freak out. Did he lie to his granddaughter? Was she going to be all alone on the other side? No! He refused.

Ignoring the pain he pushed and squeezed all the mana he could and tried to force it into a single point. It was like an untamed beast and refused to listen. His body burned and his mind started shifting in and out of consciousness. He could hear the faint shouting of the people around him but it was too hazy.

He opened his eyes with great effort but what greeted him was a green meadow. Standing before a tree that reached to the stars was a beautiful elven woman. She was gently caressing the tree and humming a tune. After a moment she opened her eyes and turned to look at Rykler.

“A lost one?” she asked with a tilt of her head. “From so far… maybe we can continue on…”

Rykler was stunned, tears were streaming down the woman's pale face. She reminds Rykler of his granddaughter Diana, those same green eyes and blonde hair…

“Who are you?” Rykler asked with a calm tone, trying to make sense of this weird dream. Was this the afterlife? Did he die?

A huge explosion rang out and shook the world. The sky was filled with fire in an instant as if a volcano had erupted. The serene and beautiful scenery now looked more like an apocalypse.

“There is no time my child, there is no hope for us here as they have come,” she said in a sad tone as if the destruction around her was expected.

“We thought we had more time, the world tree is still an infant.”

“The world tree?” Rykler asked. ‘Is this massive tree that reaches for the stars the world tree?’

A sonic boom smashed into Rykler as the fire in the sky flew away, the bottom of an enormous spaceship became visible in the darkened sky. It was easily a few kilometers long and was made out of black metal. It slowly descended from the heavens like a harbinger of death.

Soon an enormous cannon emerged from the bottom of the spaceship. It rotated and aimed directly at Rykler and the elven woman. Staring into the 100-meter long barrel a green glow could be seen. The glow slowly got more intense as the weapon charged up.

The elven woman flew towards Rykler like a celestial being and put her palm on his chest.

“My inheritance, live long my child,” she said while crying. “This is goodbye…”

An almost divine power entered Ryklers body and brought the raging mana under control. The mana quickly converged into a single point and formed a small blue stone right next to his heart.

Rykler looked into the woman's eyes with surprise and quickly cried out “What is happening, where is this, who are you? What is that spaceship!”

The woman just gave him a sad smile “Is it such a sin to live? Why must the universe return to nothingness?”

“What is your name?” he desperately calls out, but before she can answer the world goes bright as if the sun had descended upon this mortal plane, the 100 meters long cannon fired directly at the world tree, annihilating it and everything around.

[Race: Earthling (Elf bloodline 10%)] -> [Race: High Elf]

[New title Yggdrasil’s Inheritance (locked)]

[New class and skills (locked)]

Rykler heard the voice of the system inside his head as his consciousness slowly returned…