"The 'Erdtree' you speak of may be powerful, but can the Valley of the Wind, caught between it and the Sea of Corruption, really survive a conflict between the two?"
The old woman turned her seemingly all-seeing gaze on Nausicaä, meeting her golden eyes.
"But Granny, why must the Sea of Corruption and the Erdtree fight to the death? Most insects won't attack humans unless they're provoked." Nausicaä was puzzled.
The old woman shook her head, rejecting the girl's naive notion.
"The insect swarm of the Sea of Corruption is fiercely protective of its own. If it learns that the Valley of the Wind can purify the Sea of Corruption and destroy its home, will it really stand by and do nothing?
"Remember, aside from the Kingdom of Pejite, the Valley of the Wind is the country closest to the Sea of Corruption. If those two powerful forces ever clash head-on, we'll be the first to suffer."
Though the Valley of the Wind was called a country, it was really just a village of a little over six hundred people, tucked away in a narrow valley at the very edge of the continent.
Between them and the Sea of Corruption lay only a vast stretch of desert a few dozen kilometers wide, with no natural barriers to stop an enemy.
To think they could stand against the Sea of Corruption, which had wiped out an entire mighty ancient civilization, was sheer fantasy.
But Nausicaä didn't care about that.
Or rather, she had no choice now.
"With the Erdtree, we can at least help the Valley of the Wind through its present hardship. If we can't make it through this, how can we even talk about the future?"
The girl answered without a moment's hesitation. She knew very well what she needed.
The most important thing was to carry on the responsibility she had inherited from her father.
The old woman fell silent for a long time. In the end, she gave only a sigh.
"Then remember, Nausicaä, you're different from others. Your heart will never deceive you."
The meager dinner ended in silence.
Only the old woman remained in the room.
The image Mito had described, of Nausicaä standing quietly in the golden light, kept rising in her mind. She recalled another ancient prophecy.
[The saint clad in blue shall descend upon a golden field]
[Renew the bond once lost with the earth, and at last guide the people to a land of blue and purity]
Beneath the Erdtree.
Aside from the footprints left by the patrol drawn here by the explosion, nothing seemed to have changed.
But on closer inspection, there seemed to be a few more golden leaves on the ground, like hairs a corporate drone had shed after staying up late working overtime.
The information Mu En had observed through Nausicaä's eyes was entirely unexpected, and it had shattered his earlier assumptions.
The first unforeseen problem was the famine in the valley.
He had originally thought that, in the peaceful Valley of the Wind, he only had to wait for word of his miracle of saving the forest to spread among the villagers, then show off the healing power of Erdtree's Favor...
Wouldn't the power of faith be his for the taking?
But now, not only were their food reserves nearly exhausted, most of their farmland had been burned.
At a life-or-death moment like this, who would have time to believe in an Erdtree?
It couldn't fill their stomachs anyway.
Yet without the support of faith, he couldn't last long on the meager feedback from the disaster relief team and Nausicaä alone.
If the difficulty of spreading faith was merely a worry, the second important piece of information made him break out in a sweat.
Mu En had never imagined that his attempt to save himself might draw the attention of the insect swarm of the Sea of Corruption, the true overlord of the Valley of the Wind's world.
Nausicaä, Mito and the others might have treated it as nothing more than a legend, but he had seen tens of thousands of Ohmu charging with his own eyes! (Though it had been in a movie.)
As for "confronting the Sea of Corruption head-on"...
The Erdtree in its prime might not necessarily have feared the Sea of Corruption.
But the problem was, he was just a lonely sapling now, not the one who had led the ferocious Golden Dynasty!
Those Ohmu were nearly a hundred meters long, with ultra-hard shells that even a Giant God Warrior's breath couldn't completely destroy. Just one could trample him and the Valley of the Wind flat.
Under the enormous pressure to survive, Mu En felt both his thoughts and the Rune energy in his body grow restless.
If anyone happened to pass by, they would see the golden streams of light churning around the Erdtree.
Calm down... Think carefully. You're the Erdtree.
If Mu En had still been human, he might have broken down under the pressure, perhaps even temporarily losing the ability to think.
But with his enhanced capacity for thought, he quickly calmed down and grasped the key to the problem.
He had to gain believers faster.
With enough faith and recipients of his blessing, let alone the little Sea of Corruption, even changing the laws of the entire world would be easy.
Huh... What's this? A pillow just when I'm getting sleepy?
Under these circumstances, there was only one way to gain believers as quickly as possible:
Resolve the food crisis and make himself indispensable to their survival.
As it happened, he did have that ability, and he had only just figured it out not long ago.
Erdtree's Favor.
Like several of his other incantations, this one, originally used to heal injuries, had developed a new ability: it could make plants grow rapidly.
Food crops were plants too.
It's time to make a proper plan for the Valley of the Wind's future with Nausicaä.
Early the next morning.
Dawn had just broken, and a few birdsongs slipped through the window with the morning light.
"Mm..."
Nausicaä turned over in her alcove bed and buried her face in her pillow.
These beds, set into the wall to retain warmth and save space, were common in the Valley of the Wind, but now hers seemed to hold her fast as if by magic.
Even after a night's rest, she still felt terribly tired.
Unlike Mu En, the recipients of his blessing did not consume the Golden Runes in their bodies when they cast incantations, but they did expend their own mental and physical energy (corresponding to stamina and focus in Elden Ring).
Even with Nausicaä's exceptional talent, she couldn't withstand the strain of repeatedly using the Law of Regression to carve out a kilometer-long firebreak.
After struggling with the bed for a while, the girl finally crawled groggily out from under the covers and dragged herself to the washbasin.
When she turned the valve, cold running water gurgled out of the metal tap.
Thanks to the ceaseless sea breeze, the huge windmill atop the castle continuously pumped groundwater into a storage tank.
The castle tower then served as a water tower, sending the groundwater into the supply system for the entire village.
They could obtain pure water from deep underground in their own homes without any additional machinery or fuel. It was a technology the people of the Valley of the Wind had always taken pride in.
Nausicaä splashed the cold water on her face, trying to dispel the drowsiness lingering in her mind.
As she washed, she thought about her plans for the day.
I need to hear Grandpa Mito's report on last week, settle the dispute between the miners' and farmers' foremen, try to purify the contaminated land, and...
Nausicaä suddenly remembered her great-grandmother's warning.
Should she really continue using the Erdtree's power?
If it did bring destruction upon them, would she regret it?
"Nausicaä."
Just as the girl was briefly lost in uncertainty, a grand voice, like a chorus of many people, suddenly rang out in her mind.
"!"
Crack!
Startled, Nausicaä instinctively tightened her grip, and a chunk broke off the edge of the stone basin.
The three-centimeter-thick slab crumbled to powder in the princess's slender hand.