Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Chapter 613: A Single Tree

Ashlock opened a desolation rift leading to Empyrea so that Stella could ask her mother for an audience on his behalf.

”Just wait right here,” Stella said with brimming excitement. ”Iʼll go say hello to my mother first and plead your case.”

”Thank you,” Ashlock said honestly. ”I donʼt know what Iʼd do without you.”

Stella giggled and vanished into the aether, leaving him alone to watch over Empyrea. Built around the base of the World Tree and upon her lower branches, the heart of the Celestial Empire was in ruins. Even a month after the battle, remnants of collapsed Monarch Realm domains lingered, scarring the land with unclosed spatial rifts and rivers that flowed upwards and led nowhere.

Compared to Empyrea, Floridawn, which surrounded the World Tree until the edge of her canopy, seemed in better shape—at least at first glance. But upon looking closer, it was worse. Hidden under the layer of budding flora were the deep scars left in the wake of a savage battle waged between the cultivators of the Empire and the beast tide.

”It looks like they wiped out the remaining beasts during my slumber,” Ashlock mused as he noticed a few cultivators flying on swords over the reclaimed wilderness and hunting the wandering beasts.

After looting the corpses of anything valuable, he noticed many simply left the corpses behind for his offspring to absorb. While the loss of sacrificial credits was a little unfortunate, he had drawn heavily on his offspringʼs Qi reserves during the battle, so they deserved the food for themselves.

Glancing over Floridawn some more, he spotted dense settlements nestled between his forests of demonic trees. The largest of which was centered around the healing wound in the earth left behind by the collapse of his Hellroot Abyss.

The death, destruction, and damage the war had inflicted on the land were deep. But already, he could see the land healing. In the wake of his Desolation Qi leaving, his offspring had led the recovery in his absence.

[{Divine Cycle of Creation and Ruin [SS]} Your offspring have become the yin to your yang. As you wreak ruin upon the world, they provide regrowth through Harmony Dao and vice versa]

Though the rate of recovery was remarkably fast, the war ended the legacy of an Empire that had stood for as long as history and had seen the deaths of many Monarchs. Such a battle should have left the area surrounding the World Tree a chaotic hellscape of Qi storms fighting for balance.

But with Harmony, that chaos had been overcome quickly. The land would heal in time and likely flourish even more than before.

”The question is how long it will take for the people to forgive and forget,” Ashlock murmured. He could only shower them with so many gifts and miracles to try and numb the cost of war. Millions, if not billions, of mortals had died in a single week. Those who had survived were displaced, their homes and communities erased from existence by the monsters and his desolation.

It didnʼt matter who the conductor of their misery had been, whether it had been the monsters or cultivators, the blame would naturally fall on the one who had instigated the war.

The Ashfallen Sect, the All-Seeing Eye, the invaders.

Him.

He had already inflicted enough pain and misery upon the world to satisfy his own selfish desires, to go ahead with his ascension and disregard the rest of the people who called this layer of creation home.

If karma existed, he needed to tip the scales.

”I will rebuild this place from the ashes to be better than the Celestial Empire ever was,” Ashlock made the silent promise to himself. ”In this new life, Iʼve cultivated the power to affect billions of lives.” He looked up at the World Treeʼs vast form that reached into the heavens. ”Itʼs about time I started using it for good.”

Stella popped back into existence.

”Ash! Sheʼs waiting for you. Come, come, follow me,” she flew upward without waiting for a reply, her form becoming a blur.

”So energetic,” Ashlock chuckled and rushed to follow after her. As they got closer to the opening, he felt an emotion sit heavily in his mind that he hadnʼt felt in a long time. Anxiety. He used to suffer from it back on Earth when he was a programmer at a big firm. Every time there was an important 10:00 a.m. meeting, he felt a knot form in his stomach that made getting breakfast down a battle.

The World Tree was a mythical existence that Senior Lee had warned him about. But things had grown complicated. He had raised and protected her child and gone on to help free her from her torment. But that didnʼt change the fact that the Divine Fragment intended for her was fused to his soul. If she decided that inheriting her divinity was more important, they would go to war.

A war he was destined to lose catastrophically. Red Vine Peak and the surrounding cities he lorded over sat neatly on just one of her roots, which she had displayed the ability to move upon her freedom. Not just that, her roots were the ley lines, the very things that fed the ninth layer with Qi. Should she withdraw her Qi from the leyline he grew upon, his sect would be reduced to a barren wasteland.

Fighting the World Tree was like trying to fight reality itself.

Yet that wasnʼt why he was feeling anxious.

Ashlock and the World Tree had interwoven roots, shared Qi and resources, a few short conversations, and even co-parented an absolute menace of a daughter together. But they had never sat down and had a proper discussion about what all that meant. What were they, how did they think about one another? What did they want from this partnership?

He had so many questions.

She was also... single.

As far as he knew, at least. And while being a tree had removed or dulled many of his human desires, he still yearned for companionship. Stella was great company, as was the rest of the sect. But they were mostly humans. None of them truly understood the struggles of being a spirit tree.

So even if they didnʼt get together in the traditional sense, Ashlock wanted this to go well.

”Over here!” Stella said, abruptly changing direction and landing on a floating island. At first glance, it seemed empty because it was. But when he focused his presence on it some more, he could feel it.

The World Treeʼs focus was awaiting him there.

Stella touched down on the island and summoned a chair. She sat herself down in the dead center with a childlike grin. ”Okay, this is really happening! My parents are finally going to meet, and we can be one big family,” she could hardly sit still. ”Come, Ash, over here!”

Ashlock chuckled, his nerves washing away. With Stellaʼs invitation, he gently blanketed his presence over the empty north half of the island until he felt himself pressed up against an invisible wall. That being the World Treeʼs utterly immense soul pressure.

Stella looked between the two invisible forces with her legs kicking.

This bookʼs true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Ashlock decided to make the first move. He had replayed this conversation a million times in his head, so he was ready.

”Um—” he blanked. All the preparation had seemingly fizzled into nothingness. ”—Lovely weather we are having.”

The World Tree answered his blunder of an opening not with language, but with raw emotion that rumbled through the earth, rippled the sky, and rustled her leaves. Her spiritual pressure pressed into his, but it didnʼt feel threatening. It was gentle, and her words bloomed in his mind as smooth as honey.

”I suppose the weather is rather lovely today,” the World Tree answered. The stark difference between her tortured tone from before threw him off for a moment. ”Is this your favorite season?”

”Y-Yes, I quite like spring,” Ashlock replied, hating how his mind had seemingly forgotten how to communicate. ”Itʼs better than summer, where the sun rises so early and Iʼm left with little time to sleep.”

The realm rumbled as the World Tree seemed to laugh. ”Thatʼs true. Thereʼs nothing worse than having oneʼs sleep interrupted, though my last slumber was before my enslavement by the Celestial Empire. Iʼve missed sleep dearly.”

”Wait, you havenʼt slept since the founding of the Celestial Empire?”

”No,”she answered, her mood turning somber enough to darken the skies with a layer of cloud cover. ”Sleeping is how we spirit trees grow in size and strength. Knowing this, the Celestial Empire forcefully kept me awake by torturing my soul to stunt my growth. It was all to maintain their control.”

”Iʼm so sorry you had to go through that,” Ashlock muttered, unsure what else to say. He couldnʼt even begin to imagine what that had been like. Stella also lowered her head, her expression saddened.

”Donʼt be. You two saved me from that endless nightmare,” the World Tree said, the clouds overhead dispersing, and sunlight returned. ”For that, Iʼm eternally grateful.”

Ashlock could feel the resolve in her words.

”Then—”

”You donʼt have to say it. I know why you are here to speak with me, Ashlock,” the World Tree said, cutting him off.

”Really?” Ashlock asked. Did she also want to...

”You came to discuss Stellaʼs punishment.”

”Huh?” Stella blurted out.

Ashlockʼs mind froze. That hadnʼt even been on his list of topics to discuss at all.

”Only joking,” the World Tree mused. ”Ashlock, I know you have fused your soul with the Divine Fragment that I need to inherit my divinity and initiate the Era of Ascension.”

Ashlock tensed. This was it, the conversation he had been dreading.

”Look, a powerful cultivator called Senior Lee gave it to me on a whim. I know it was destined for you, and I basically stole it, but I have two leads on other Divine Fragments. I might even be able to get one of them right now—”

”You can keep them all,” the World Tree said dismissively.

”...What?”

”I said you can keep them,” the World Tree said firmly. ”While you see the Divine Fragments as a route to power, I see them as nothing but a curse. What happened to me will happen to you in time. Thereʼs a reason trees grow in forests and aim not to stand out. It only invites disaster.”

She wasnʼt theorizing his future. She was telling him what would happen.

”A curse... I see,” Ashlock muttered, relief washing over him despite her ominous warning. ”I expected more of a fight over it. Itʼs a relief to know you would rather I take them.”

”A fight? Did you think I was going to kill you for the honor of inviting heavenʼs wrath upon myself and opening a hole into the next layer of creation? I might as well be begging to be enslaved again should I do that.” Ashlock felt her attention shift. ”That would be utterly foolish. What I want is to sleep and heal. Chasing power only invites pain.”

”Then let me bear that pain and chase power for the both of us,” Ashlock said, feeling great about the conversation so far. The World Tree clearly wanted nothing to do with the Divine Fragments or the Era of Ascension, leaving it up to him.

He felt a sudden, hostile shift in the World Treeʼs mood.

”What do you mean?” she pointedly asked.

Ashlock paused, wondering what he had done wrong. ”Iʼm saying I can chase power on your behalf. While you rest, Iʼll ascend to the Monarch Realm and initiate the Era of Ascension—”

The World Treeʼs spiritual pressure descended on him like a falling sky.

”You must not initiate the Era of Ascension. I will not allow it!”

”But why? I—”

The words were torn out of him. Reality groaned as her presence bore down, vast and immovable, and his own pressure buckled beneath it like a seedling under a landslide. Without even seeming to try, she swept him back across the island as if he were a fly.

”Stay as you are. Please.” Her voice cracked, and for the first time, the tenderness in it splintered, letting something raw and frightened bleed through. ”Remain at the Nascent Soul Realm and let Stella protect you. Thereʼs no need to open the skies. Chasing power will only destroy you and everything you love!” She pushed him over the edge. ”Please, donʼt do something so foolish.”

Ashlock dug his spiritual pressure into the side of the island, refusing to be defeated.

”Foolish?” His voice was deathly quiet. The World Treeʼs spiritual presence was overwhelming, but despite pushing him off the edge, she didnʼt finish the job. ”You think reaching for more is the foolish thing?”

His spiritual pressure erupted, and he clawed his way back onto the island, inch by inch, until he stood his ground before her once more.

”You were enslaved because you were too weak to resist. Every World Tree before you met the same fate, for the same reason—because they believed, as you do, that staying still would keep them safe. Yes. Chasing power is painful. I know that better than most now. But you, of all beings, should understand—”

His presence surged forward, punching through her spiritual pressure.

”—that the alternative is worse.”

He fully retook his half of the island and refused to budge. He would not accept being stuck at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm for the rest of existence, patiently awaiting for everything to be taken from him. Being at the peak of power didnʼt guarantee anything. Vincent Nightrose, the Chairman, the World Tree. All were examples of this simple truth. Lording over the weak didnʼt make you strong.

You became strong by soldiering on and overcoming adversity. Not by being complacent and waiting for someone to decide your fate for you.

”Mom. Dad.” Stellaʼs small voice cut through the chaotic storm of spiritual pressure. Her eyes were red from tears. ”Please stop fighting.”

Ashlock instantly relaxed at the sight of Stella crying. The World Tree held her ground, but didnʼt push him off again. There was a tense silence for a long, drawn out moment.

”Fine,” the World Tree relented. ”Because of Stella, and only because of her, I will at least hear you out. Ashlock, what is it you propose we do?”

”I...” he paused, gathering his courage. ”I propose we work together.”

”Work together?” Her tone was confused.”For what exactly?”

”Everything. To survive my tribulation, protect the mortals of the ninth layer, initiate the Era of Ascension, and everything that follows. I want us to do it together,” he glanced at Stella. ”From now on, we tackle this life as a family.”

The World Tree fell silent.

”Mother?” Stella said, her eyes wide and pleading. ”Please...”

Ashlock felt through his roots a sigh that reverberated through the realm.

”Iʼm trying to protect you two and the realm from destruction,” the World Tree muttered. ”But how can I say no to Stella and my saviors?” A coil of pressure reached out, patting Stella on the head. ”Alright, fine. So long as you both promise to protect me while on your suicidal quest for power.”

”Of course, mother!”

”I planned to from the start,” Ashlock added.

”Okay,” the World Tree retreated her spiritual pressure from Stellaʼs head and calmed. ”What is it you need me to do?”

Ashlock sighed in relief. He had not only avoided a fight with the World Tree, but she seemed open to offering help.

”How good is your control over your roots?” Ashlock asked. ”Because the only way my Empireʼs cities and I are surviving this tribulation is if we cower under your canopy. As a peak Monarch Realm existence and with my aid, your chances of survival are a magnitude higher.”

”I can split the earth on a whim,” the World Tree replied. ”What did you have in mind?”

Ashlock paused and wondered if what he was about to ask was a little too insane.

But then he realized, what other choice did he have? The worst she could say was no...

”I know this sounds crazy, but I need you to raise the leyline running beneath my mountain range and lift me alongside all my cities and bring us all here, to shelter under your canopy,” Ashlock said as seriously as he could, yet the idea sounded even more insane out loud. ”I know that Iʼm basically asking you to pick up a continentʼs worth of earth and move it. But... do you think you could do it?”

The World Tree fell silent.

But Ashlock could feel a rumbling from below.