The dragon's harem

Arad had finally reached the lowest branches of the great World Tree, and he was stunned to find out just how large they were. For some reason, the higher he climbed, the bigger the tree seemed to become. Luckily, this time he doesn’t need to speculate and could just ask Dendron for an explanation.

“The World Tree, Yggdrasil, is a primordial being. What that means is that she was created long before AO, the first Overgod, understood the concept of putting limits on something.” She flew around Arad and landed on his shoulder, putting one leg on another as she looked forward, basking in the radiance of the sun and the faint golden glow of Yggdrasil’s bark.

“Putting limits on something?” Arad asked, and she nodded.

“Imagine someone who can just create anything, and that person is so stupid and naive that he decides to crank everything up to eleven when making the stupidest shit ever. Like a tree that can grow infinitely through dimensions, so he doesn’t have to go around planting it in different worlds.”

“Calling the First Overgod stupid and naive, he might resurrect from the dead to kill you.” Arad smiled, and she frowned. “He didn’t even die, just faded into nothing, erased from all existence, so I’ll be fine.” She then smiled and pointed down.

“As I said, the First Overgod wanted Yggdrasil to grow in every single world without him needing to go around planting her, so he gave a lot of lifeforce, power, and authority.” She then flew away and waved her hands. “At the base of the world tree, we were in the mortal world, but the higher we climb, the more warped space becomes, resulting in the tree having more space to grow.” She pointed down, “One foot down is around a thousand feet up here.”

“So, Yggdrasil grows through the fabric of space instead of soil. What we see is just a sapling, nothing more?” Arad looked around at the distorted threads of space around him. That explained why teleportation was hard here; it was because the tree itself twisted space.

“If Yggdrasil grows through the fabric of space, is there a tree that grows through the fabric of time?” Arad asked, just because he always heard about the fabric of space and time being mentioned together, since they are intertwined.

Dendron nodded, “Yep, The First Overgod was a baffon, so he didn’t make one tree, but two. Said that so they won’t be lonely. The other tree is Qliphoth; She grows through time.”

“Wait! You’re serious. There is another World Tree?” Arad gasped, and Dendron burst laughing, “Told you the First Overgod was an idiot. The fool created many powerful monsters just because he wanted to, and now we have to deal with what he created.”

She pointed down. “The other tree is called the Tree of the Underworld. Mortals and gods mostly live in the fabric of space, so they see the World Tree. If you want to visit Qliphoth, you have to either be a time dragon or pass through the Gate of Raptur at the bottom of the abyss.” She shrugged, “But, getting to the bottom of the abyss would have you stepping over The Pale Night, the mother of all demons. And she is known to kill anyone who dares get close, let alone step on her.”

Dendron then smiled, “But, you seem to have quite a good relationship with Kali. She might be able to talk the Pale Night into allowing you through, but expect a hefty price.”

Arad looked around. “I think I can reach the bottom of the abyss. I also know a time dragon, but he only shows up when he wants to.”

Dendron looked at Arad with a terrified face. “Don’t try going there. If for nothing else, for the possibility of you getting stuck there for thousands of years. You might only spend a day there, but here, a century might’ve passed. So, unless you can travel through time, I suggest staying away from the tree that grows on time itself.”

Arad nodded and looked around at the massive branches. The branch they stood on looked to be almost as wide as the Dark Elf kingdom, almost a thousand kilometers in diameter. The leaves of the tree were just as massive, some of them emerald green and the others golden, radiating with light.

“Just how big will it get?”

Dendron closed her eyes and tried to remember something that Yggdrasil told her a few thousand years ago. “Yeah, Yggdrasil once mentioned that the First Overgod blessed her. He said that she’ll grow bigger, bigger than last time, bigger than ever, and greater than great.”

She looked at Arad. “Take how big you can imagine her, and she’ll be bigger.”

Arad flew with gravity magic, and Dendron took a seat on his shoulder. Everyone else was now hiding inside his stomach since Dendron warned them; the danger here would one-shot them out of nowhere.

“This place is weird, this tree is weird, how, why?” Arad looked aside and saw one massive lemon, as big as the moon, dangling in the distance. “The hell is that for?”

“See? The First Overgod was an idiot, making someone so massive and powerful just because he didn’t want to bother doing some gardening.” Dendron nodded with a happy face. She couldn’t believe that Arad ended up agreeing with her. It seems that despite their rough first meeting, she is holding up quite well in his eyes for now.

“No, I meant why a lemon?”

“Yggdrasil is a lemon tree.” Dendron replied, “Didn’t Cerilla tell you that?”

“Yeah, I believe she mentioned that once, but I thought she was joking.” Arad blinked. “Does that mean that Qliphoth is an orange tree?”

“No, that would make too much sense. Qliphoth is a lime tree.” She shook her head in dejection.

“Aren’t lime and lemon the same thing? One just isn’t ripe?” Arad tilted his head, and Dendron burst laughing.

“What are you? A kid, well, probably true. You can defeat me, but you still don’t know much about the mundane world.” She smiled, “Limes and lemons aren’t the same, different fruits.”

Arad looked a bit sad. “And… I had some lemon trees planted to get lime. Now, how are we going to make stamina potions?”

“You did what? That won’t work. I hope you didn’t get anyone to do it.”

Arad rubbed his face. “This explains why they looked confused, and they are working to make it happen. They should’ve just told me that lemons and lime aren’t the same.”

“You, how much?”

“Several fields, hundreds of farmers.”

“The goddess of harvest is going to be pissed off, especially if those farmers started to butcher the trees or use magic to force them to bear lime. You better tell them to stop, and put an offering so the goddess doesn’t smite you.”

Arad scratched the back of his head. “She already did try. When I visited the half-angels, they dropped a divine punishment on me, and it was Goddess Jemima who struck me down. Of course, I sent that thing straight back at her.”

“Stop joking. We won’t be talking now if she attacked you.” Dendron pointed down, “Qliphoth is Yggdrasil’s twin sister, but I won’t really call them twins since they are quite different. Just don’t go there.”

“Now that you said it’s a lime tree, and seeing that moon of a lemon over there, can’t I get a massive lime if I went there and picked one? It could solve all my drinking… I mean, potion problems.”

“It’s not worth it.” Dendron flew up, and Arad followed her. “Stay close and focused. We’re going to start facing a lot of monsters that won’t even care about giving me face, because I’m bringing two Dark Elves with me.” Then looked at Arad. “Most are mindless golems that just enact the law. So we’ll have to destroy or disable them temporarily.”

“I see. Is that giant bird one of them?” Arad pointed at one massive eagle.

“That’s a bald eagle, the bird of OH, SHIT! Dodge!” She grabbed Arad by the hair and pulled him aside, a fraction of a second before a second bald eagle ripped the branch they were on apart.