Chapter 130 The Tree

Avonya’s eyes widened as her daughter shot off. She pumped mana into her wings before following, making sure she protected the two girls levitated along, who were staring down at the city with wonder.

No matter how hard she flapped her wings, her daughter continued to pull away as she soared past Minea. Like the tier 1 cities, chaos reigned through the devastated city but focused on keeping up with her daughter she didn’t investigate further.

Back with Evernya, she frantically flapped her wings, just reaching Druth. Unlike the previous cities she flew over, Druth appeared less affected. While it still showed scars from the dragon rampage, the people appeared to be helping each other out as they picked up the pieces of their lives.

Terrified for her Elven big sister, Evernya veered East over the forest surrounding Druth. Using the road, she reached a familiar house a minute later. Evernya parachuted down to the overgrown backyard with growing dread. Unconsciously, she broke the laws of physics blurring toward the house, only to find the door locked.

In the corner of her vision, a glowing trail appeared. After giving the sliding door a few more yanks with her thin arms, she followed the trail leading in a familiar direction.

Just as her mother and her cargo touched down, Evernya shot back into the sky, flying to the northeast. As she passed the border of Meira’s territory, the lack of barrier she didn’t notice before ratcheted up her panic.

Faster than she ever flew before, she blurred through the sky with a crack. Instead of following her previous route, she ascended higher, then flew over the massive lake toward the city, barely visible in the distance with her enhanced vision.

Still just as undetectable as she was on her first journey into the wilds, the creatures lurking in the depths of the lake failed to notice her as she soared through the air. Unlike the aquatic mana beasts, the aerial creatures jerked out of the way as Evernya’s form shot past them.

Like her daughter, all mana beasts in the area steered clear of Avonya, though for a different reason. Avonya’s smothering mana aura leaking from her body sent any creature in the area scattering.

Evernya turned northward just before Venduva, spotting a massive tree towering over all others in the distance. As she predicted, she re-picked up the mana trail pointing the same direction. The sky darkened to night as she flew toward the tree.

Suddenly movement below sent her veering to the right. A growl rumbled in her throat as she slowed to a stop, scanning the pitch black forest below, but nothing jumped out at her. Refusing to be beaten, Evernya’s eyes shifted to scaly flowers, lighting up her vision with mana.

She flinched back upon finding a shadowy figure glowing with mana floating a couple of meters to her right. Her mind flashed back to a certain unseen creature from her previous journey. In a hurry, but wanting her revenge, Evernya’s mana lashed out, obliterating the shadowy form in a blink of an eye.

Satisfied, Evernya refocused on her previous task, shooting off with a powerful flap of her wings toward the massive tree. A worrying thought came to her upon realizing she could see the tree, which pushed her ever faster, holding out hope her adoptive big sister was all right.

The trio following her caught up from her momentary confrontation with the shadowy creature, but yet again fell behind as Evernya accelerated. Avonya’s Emerald eyes followed her daughter’s shrinking form spotting a familiar treetop. A smile graced her face now understanding where her daughter was heading.

A couple minutes later, Evernya reached the former Elven village. To her relief, it appeared just as mystical as it was last time she visited. Inpatient Evernya moved to land in the village only to bounce off a barrier. A growl rumbled in her throat. But unlike the shadowy creature, no malice was present, as the barrier meant the village was still alive. Still refusing to be beaten, Evernya used her training from her first life to teleport inside, appearing next to the tree with a smug smile.

A giggle fluttered through the wind, announcing the presence of a certain fake elf. Evernya ignored the tree as her nose twitched, picking up several familiar scents, causing tears to form in her eyes. She folded her wings tight to her back before blurring down the street to a nearby tree house with the light shining through the windows.

She grasped the door handle only for a jolt of electricity to shoot through her arm. Evernya’s eyes narrowed as they inspected the enchantment visible clear as day in her shifted eyes. Within moments, she spotted a weak spot tearing at it with her mana.

Deafening alarms filled the air, causing several other previously dark houses to light up. Evernya’s eyes zeroed in on the cause of the alarm, instantly destroying the enchantment to her ears’ relief before stepping back awaiting the welcoming party already knowing who lived nearby with her sensitive senses.

Giggles continued to flutter to the wind as the tree watched the events unfold below her. Looking ready for war, Meira shoved her front door open, wind swirling around her pajama clad body as she surveyed her surroundings only to freeze when her eyes landed on Evernya standing in the middle of the street.

Evernya held herself back with all her will as Meira blinked at her in disbelief. Unable to believe the person in front of her was real, she remained still, staring at Evernya as several other familiar faces joined her.

Avonya teleported into the village in a similar manner as her daughter, with her cargo in tow, but stayed off to the side instead, smiling up at the tree. “If you don’t come down here right now, I’ll go up there and drag you down. You know I can.” Threatened Avonya, though her tone suggested she wasn’t serious.

A moment later, a bark skinned woman stepped out of her tree trunk, moving to hug Avonya only to hit an invisible wall. “No hugging. You know how uncomfortable your bark skin feels.”

The grass haired woman pouted but smiled a moment later as Avonya gave her a telekinetic hug.

Evernya fidgeted as pretty much everyone she knew from Druth silently stared at her as if they couldn’t believe she existed. There were even a few unfamiliar faces, like a woman and teenage boy standing next to Thomas.

Her nerves gave way to confusion as her still shifted eyes focused on the intact mana systems in everyone, though they appeared different from most living in Sespina. Like after her Draecath evolution, they had nodes in strategic sections of their mana systems.

Finally, after imitating a fish for over a minute, Meira spoke at the prodding of Elizabeth, who stood next to her. “Are you really alive? The news said Arthur Elliott killed you during your escape.”

Evernya shrugged her shoulders, still processing the events herself. “I think so. I only woke up a day ago. At least I think it’s hard to keep track of time out there.”

Unable to resist any longer, tears gathered in Meira’s eyes as she shot toward Evernya, arms wide. With a smile, Evernya watched Meira sprint toward her in almost slow motion.

Upon latching onto her adoptive little sister, Meira gushed, “I’m so sorry! I had no choice! They held Maylin hostage.”

Evernya glanced at Maylin, who was standing outside the door of the neighboring house to Meira’s with a downcast expression.

Despite their rocky relationship, Evernya gave the younger elf an encouraging smile as she rubbed Meira’s back.

She returned her attention down at the older elf whose face was buried in her scaly shoulder. “I don’t blame you. Even if you didn’t do it, they would have found someone else and then Maylin may have suffered. In the end, I made it out.” Evernya glanced at Aya, who was trying to make herself invisible near the massive central tree with her tails. “Though he nearly did execute me to get away with his scheme.”

Meira’s response was to hug her tighter, but her sobs lightened.

As Evernya continued to soothe Meira, she scanned the present faces, wincing as many people came to mind who could be suffering in the devastated Sespinian territory.

After a couple more minutes, Meira disengaged herself. “What happened to you? Tell me everything!”

Before answering, Evernya glanced at Avonya, who was staring at them with a fond smile. “I’m not sure how much I can say, but after Arthur’s failed execution, I sort of went supernova.”

Evernya’s sensitive ears picked up a quiet sob from a certain fox but she ignored it for now, still unsure how to feel about Aya as she continued. “Things are a little fuzzy on what followed, but I think I ended up in a lake of mana until I recovered. Then in a daze I kind of destroyed a crystal which set off a chain of events leading to the mana changing here. Oh yeah, and the palace at the center of the Cerulean Lake is kind of a pile of melted rubble.”

Meira’s eyes went wide as a gasp went through the small gathering of people. “Sespina palace fell!?” Squeaked Meira.

Surprised by their lack of reaction to the changed mana, Evernya only nodded dumbly. “Yes, did you not know about the changed mana?”

“Now that you mentioned it, mana did feel different, but not uncomfortable after the northern tree spirit purified our mana systems. Is it really that bad?”

Evernya gave a thankful smile to the bark skinned woman before focusing her senses on the surrounding mana, finding it to differ slightly from the mana near the capital. While it still resonated with her own mana, it felt slightly diluted. The northern tree spirit probably filtered the mana to lessen the impact on her inhabitants.

Another glance at the grass haired woman confirmed her guess based on her fond smile directed at her residents.

After taking a moment to collect her thoughts, Evernya went all in on the isolated group. “The destruction of the Sespinian Palace wasn’t the worst thing to happen to Sespina, far from it. You remember when I couldn’t breathe the mana before all of this happened? Well, I think the Sespinian family did something to the mana a long time ago, which led to the barrier surrounding Sespina. When I destroyed that crystal it caused a chain reaction which changed the mana again.” Evernya paused as a guilty expression formed. “As far as I can tell, I accidentally turned everyone outside of here into mundanes.”

This time gasps sounded through the group except for Meira and Maylin, who stared at her in confusion. “Are you sure? We visited a group of shifters earlier today for supplies who left Venduva to live in the wilds. They appeared fine and none of the mana beasts in the area appear affected either, though their mana did feel slightly different.”

Seeing her daughter at a loss, Avonya decided to reveal herself. Avonya sucked in her mana aura even further to appear unassuming as she strode forward, stopping next to Evernya, leaving Kya and Aya next to the northern tree spirit. Before the group could react to her appearance and obvious resemblance to Evernya, she spoke. “As some of you guessed, yes, I am Evernya’s mother and yes, I am what you call an old one.” She gave a proud smile toward her daughter before adding, “though I am only one of three here and another may ascend soon.”

Shocked into silence, no one interrupted Avonya as she continued. “My daughter is correct. The mana crystal she destroyed was part of the cause of the corrupted mana in this region. Though not the only cause.”

A scowl formed as she thought about the past. “About sixty thousand years ago, just before they forced us to raise the barrier, the Sespina family created a portal to another realm which turned out to be uninhabited, probably because of the toxic mana. In desperation, they created a crystal to filter the mana as a temporary fix until help could arrive. Unfortunately, a worldwide war broke out soon after and the humans realized the changed mana improved human’s chances of awakening, so they tried to spread the corrupted mana to give themselves an advantage, forcing us to seal them off.”

“From our readings, the crystal’s efficiency decreased over the years, leading to those with pure mana systems to struggle inside Sespina, especially those who lived on mana like us Draecath.”

“My daughter destroyed the crystal a few days ago and by some miracle merged the pure mana source under Sespina and the toxic mana to create a new mana with the consequence of the destruction of every human’s mana system because of their dependence on the toxic mana. Fortunately, from what I can tell, only humans were affected negatively.”