Chapter 134 The Flying Tree
As if he had a crowd cheering him on, Draha nodded his head. “I know, I know. They all did the unforgivable, but let’s wait for the results.”
Two sets of numbers appeared on the projection. All four numbers flew upward, reaching over a million within minutes. After one glance at the numbers, a vicious smile grew on his face. “You know what who cares about the numbers they all deserve to die.”
A growl broke Evernya from the projection, only to realize it was her own. The next moment, a new arrival appeared out of thin air on the stage. With glistening Emerald armor, she strode forward, causing every Draecath to bow deeply. “Thank you Draha, I will take it from here.”
Evernya instantly recognized the new arrival, causing her to do a double take to find her mother gone.
In a clear voice, seemingly speaking into everyone’s head, Avonya spoke. “As I’m sure many of you from Kitsun know, I am the Emerald Queen. Long have I observed both your countries, especially Sespina and their violations of demi human rights. Your leadership failed you, but the blame lies with the people.”
Tears glistened in her eyes as she continued, “two years ago my daughter appeared in Sespina. Instead of being welcomed with open arms like any innocent sentient race, she faced discrimination and harassment everywhere she went, just because she happened to be different! To make it worse, the leadership of both your countries used my daughter to get back at me while I was helpless to respond.”
Avonya paused to let her words sink in before revealing, “yes as some of you may have guessed, my daughter is Princess Evernya Draor Draxia Draoraxia, and those who wronged her will pay!”
A pulse of mana dropping the surrounding Draecath to their knees shot out of Avonya. The mana coated the four game contestants, filling the stage with screams as they disintegrated, starting from their toes.
Uncaring about their suffering, Avonya’s Emerald eyes stared into the viewers. “If you hurt my daughter, there is nowhere for you to run, nowhere for you to hide. I will come for you and judge you for your sins.”
With that, the projection disappeared.
A minute later, Avonya reappeared in the tree village with a broad smile. “Look who I found on my way back?”
Everyone spun to find Avonya surrounded by a group of disoriented humans. Evernya instantly recognized several of them. Aiden Firebear, old gray and his family minus a certain to grandson and even the hairdresser. Evernya put her hands on her hips as she glared at her mother. “You can’t just kidnap anyone you want!”
Avonya’s smile widened. “Yes, I can.”
Giving up, Evernya inspected the gathered people, frowning as each one of them had crippled mana systems. An instinctual desire sprouted deep into her soul, drawing her toward the group. Mana flowed out of her and into the group, rejuvenating ruptured mana veins and shattered cores as it went. The effects, especially on old gray, were immediate. His snow-white beard even gained hints of brown. Avonya looked particularly proud of herself as her daughter worked, but most failed to notice what she did because of the surrounding powerhouses smothering their mana senses.
Emily Bradford sprinted toward the group from her spot next to Elizabeth, eyes zeroed in on Aiden Firebear, all weakness of her disease long gone. “Inferno!? Is it really you? I thought you died! You haven’t uploaded in over a year!”
Aiden flinched back, looking for somewhere to hide from an obviously rabid fan, but found none. Evernya smiled at the scene, tension gone as all she saw with her divine eyes were healthy mana systems.
She mouthed have fun before walking away as Emily stared up at Aiden, eyes sparkling.
Something fluffy latched around her waist, pulling her in. “I can’t complain about your fluffy tails, but do you have to cling to me at all times?”
Aya smiled resolutely. “Yes.”
“You do realize we could live forever, right?”
“Yes.”
Evernya shook her head as she walked toward Meira and Elizabeth, who were watching Emily pepper Aiden with questions. Next to Meira and Elizabeth were three people resembling Emily, trying their best to avert their gaze from the show.
“So how long do you think Aiden will last?”
Emily’s family winced but remain quiet as both Meira and Elizabeth smiled at Evernya and her clinging fox. “I give it a minute more tops before the begging starts.”
Evernya nodded her head in agreement. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Emily forced a courtship. I know a love-struck girl when I see one.”
To spare Emily’s family anymore embarrassment, Evernya changed the subject. “Anything new with you two?”
Before they could answer, Evernya’s eyes shot toward matching rings on each of their fingers. A pout formed as she glared up at the pair. “No fair. How could you have a wedding without me?” As soon as she said the words, Evernya’s mouth snapped shut as she gave the pair an apologetic look. “Sorry, that was wrong of me. You thought I was dead.”
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Meira and Elizabeth came forward and gave her a hug. “It’s okay, it’s not your fault. The ones responsible are dealt with, so let’s put this behind us. And yes, we soul bonded. The tree spirit performed the ceremony for us last year.”
Meira and Elizabeth try to disengage only for the eight remaining tales to wraparound everyone in a cocoon of fluff. Despite the smothering tails, Aya’s voice reached each of their ears. “Family.”
“Family.”
“Family.”
“Family.”
Satisfied, Aya disengaged her eight tails, keeping the ninth securely cinched around her mate’s waist as to not lose her again.
Evernya grasped both Meira’s and Elizabeth’s hands before pumping mana into them. Any blockages instantly cleared as their veins widened and hardened with each cycle until the mana reached their mana cores. In an instant, their mana grades jumped a stage as their capacity skyrocketed. As the mana dissipated, Evernya let go and smiled at the pair, staring at her frozen in shock. “My wedding gift.”
To give the pair some time to recover, Evernya turned away to investigate the groups of people. As they predicted, Aiden appeared broken under Emily’s barrage now on his knees, begging her to stop, which she did, but with a conniving smile.
Any further investigation halted as her eyes landed on a pouting Avonya being consoled by the tree spirit. With the occasional glances at her, Evernya guessed the reason, so she walked over. “Sorry I left you out. It was kind of spontaneous.”
Avonya’s pout vanished in an instant as her mother’s mana prodded her domain, but not wanting to leave, she blocked it. Her mother’s pout returned, but she didn’t push.
“What happened to the Fleming family?”
“They weren’t famous enough, so I disposed of them.” Replied Avonya as if it was no big deal.
“No fair! I wanted some revenge too!” Pouted Evernya.
“I said no one who hurt my precious princess would escape punishment, and I meant it. You should have seen Alpha Wittke’s face when I teleported into his throne room in the middle of a meeting. Since instincts pushed him to antagonize you, I was gracious and only forced him to step down as alpha.”
“Who else did you punish?”
Avonya paused for a moment with a thinking expression, causing Evernya’s worried to grow. “There was that guy who copped a tail grab. I won’t go into detail on what I did, but let’s just say he won’t be grabbing any tails ever again.”
Evernya groaned, deciding to change the subject. “So what’s next? If you hunted down even that guy, I doubt there’s anything left for me to do in Sespina. Besides, you sort of killed me during the trial.”
“Yup, we are going on a trip. You said you wanted to explore the world freely. Well that’s what we are going to do.”
Evernya’s ears perked up. “Really?”
“Yup, it’s going to be a fun next few millennia. Maybe by the time we explore everywhere, Sespina will recover.”
At the mention of Sespina’s recovery, Evernya asked, “are you sure it’s a good idea to leave them like this? You sort of killed off their leadership and I accidentally crippled them.”
With a wave of her hand, Avonya replied, “they will be fine. They deserve any hardships they face for hurting my Princess. Besides, all the breaking of the crystal did was reset their country. Without the corrupted mana, humans only have a 10% chance of awakening magic. They make up for this with their absurd birthrates. If anything, they are still ahead of other human civilizations, as I estimate over 20% of the population still has magic. Humans are incredibly adaptable, they will probably reorganize themselves within the next decade. Like the other human civilizations, it will probably eventually turn into a Magocracy, with the ruling class being mages, but that’s to be expected as the powerful rule.”
Evernya glanced at the groups of people she met along her journey. “What about them?”
“They’re coming along, of course. Unless they want to return to their collapsed country.”
“You’re going to teleport everyone? Isn’t that a waste?”
“Of course not, little Oaklina will handle the transportation.”
Evernya raised her brow at the name. “Oaklina?”
With a teasing smile, knowing the tree spirit heard her, Avonya replied, “yes Oaklina. She isn’t really a tree spirit, just an overcharged tree bonded dryad. She always hated her name, so she rebranded herself. Her parents are going to be overjoyed to meet their sapling again after all these millennia.”
Evernya smiled at the tree spirit, who averted her gaze from the duo. Bark skin cheeks darkened. Her eyes then moved to the massive tree. “How will she? Will she leave her tree? She moved us within her domain, but I doubt that extends through the universe.”
“Simple, we are going to transplant her.”
“Transplant? She’s huge!”
“I think you’re underestimating how powerful you are now. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could move an entire city. Those so called awakened beings in Sespina could level a small city within a couple hours. What do you think we could do with many times the power?”
“Won’t ripping her out of the ground hurt her? If she could leave, why didn’t she leave sooner?”
“The reason she survived the corruption is also the reason why she couldn’t leave. She burrowed her roots into a pure mana vein. If she left, she would probably wither before reaching the border and besides, someone of her power level would shatter the barrier just by trying to leave.”
Evernya turned a sympathetic smile on Oaklina, who recovered from her embarrassment. The dryad nodded to Avonya, announcing she was ready before stepping into her tree.
“This is going to be so fun! It’s been 10,000 years since I rode an ascended dryad.” Announced Avonya excitement leaking into her tone.
Evernya raised her brow at her mother, causing Avonya to wink at her daughter. “Nope, I did that last century.”
While shaking her head, Evernya walked away, finding Kya standing off to the side alone now that the dryad went into her tree.
Kya gave a curtsy to both Evernya and her furry attachment. “Hello my ladies, what can I do for you?”
“First, drop the formalities. You aren’t my AI anymore. You are free to live your life the way you want.”
“Thank you, my lady, but I rather like giving respect to you. You will always be my host for as long as I live. Sure, I’m not a chip in your head anymore, but your own mana created my body. I will serve you whether you like it or not.”
Evernya pinched her brow but gave up. “Fine, but please try to find friends.”
Kya nodded her head. “Of course, my lady.”
A rumble cut their conversation short. Wanting to get a Bird’s-eye view, Evernya shifted her latched fox into a princess carry before spreading her wings and taking to the sky.
She hovered a kilometer in the sky, watching with wide eyes as roots as thick as a semi dug themselves out of the ground. Somehow, despite their size, none of the surrounding trees uprooted.
After hundreds of roots pulled themselves from the ground, the entire village began to ascend. Once the village lifted above the surrounding treetops, mana radiated off the now flying tree village. The massive hole she left filled in with new dirty as trees sprouted. Within a minute, Oaklina’s previous home looked like any other part of the forest.
Oaklina ascended to their height before floating to the north, with Evernya flying behind, easily keeping pace with the massive flying tree.
Dragons and dwarves gathered on the mountain tops as they flew over the dusk mountain range and out of Sespina on a new adventure.