"How special is this Sky-Piercing Tree that it's worth giving up on New York? Andrew, what comes next is important. It's the foundation of the entire hegemony."
Betty asked, "The Secret Realm and the Sky-Piercing Tree may be important, but the foundation is more important. You should at least stay in New York until the city is fully reclaimed and its former order restored. Only then will everyone recognize you, and only then will the foundation be stable."
"Betty, Mary, I understand what you mean."
Andrew took both women's hands and said, "But that Sky-Piercing Tree is different. There are Nine Special Great Trees in this world. Only by gathering them all can we end this End Times."
"Nine Special Great Trees, ending the End Times?"
Betty's eyes lit up. This was a major matter. Mary complained, "What kind of third-rate novel setup is this? So the main plot from here on is searching for those Nine Special Great Trees?"
"More or less."
Andrew said, "Of course, ending the End Times is still a bit far off, but they have a function we can put to use right now."
"What function?" Betty asked.
"A domain function."
Andrew said, "As long as the Special Great Tree is transplanted into New York City, no new monsters will appear there. In other words, it will become a safe zone."
At present, monsters appeared randomly. Something like this had happened in the Gathering Place before—a person had been washing their hair at home. After rinsing off the shampoo, they looked up and saw that there was suddenly a monster in the bathroom.
That person was scared to death on the spot. Similar incidents had happened quite often in the Gathering Place. The patrol soldiers had a major responsibility: killing monsters that spawned inside the