The small seed that had escaped the wooden box flew through the outsider mansion. It completely ignored all of the doors and the walls as it penetrated everything in its path before it was finally in Lone and Sophie's room.

Naturally, Lone and Sophie could sense the immense amounts of mana spewing out of this small object that was coming towards them, so they both shot out of bed and prepared themselves as it approached.

Unfortunately for them, even with their powers as S-rankers, they weren't fast enough to react to the incredible speed of this seed, and before they both knew what was going on, it had already burrowed deep into Lone's body.

"What the hell...?" These were the last words that Lone spoke before he lost consciousness.

----------------------------------------

"Where is this?" Lone said as he looked around.

He seemed to be in some sort of void. The last thing he remembered was that seed entering his body, after that, he suddenly appeared in this place.

It was vastly different to his own mind palace, so Lone was confused.

A few minutes ticked by before the scenery suddenly changed. No longer in an endless void, Lone was now stood in a very familiar room.

"Elestia?" Lone asked as he looked at the small green-haired girl in front of himself.

"Yes, we have no other choice. Ythmagobla is coming to steal the power of the world tree... to steal my power. We can't allow him to break the shackles of Ancientness." Elestia's face was fraught with worry and fear.

Lone was confused. "Shackles of Ancientness? What?"

"I understand. In that case, I shall send my only child, Garadia, and use her as my avatar," a silky yet powerful voice said from behind Lone.

Turning around, Lone was shocked to see a small mote of pure green light shining brightly within Elestia's core.

"Thank you, Lady Radiance! I can't thank you enough! With that, perhaps we can win!" Elestia was ecstatic.

'Wait, Radiance? As in, one of the other Primal Essences? And she controlled the Radiance Dragon herself? Then that means Ythmagobla defeated her as well as Ele'hunda and Lipsilk by himself... I guess that also means I've travelled to the past or something?' Lone thought as he stood between Radiance and Elestia.

Shaking his head, Lone laughed a little. 'There's no way it's time travel. Soph can only reverse time by two hours, and even that was a gift from a god and has heavy limitations. I guess this is a memory or something? Must be from that seed.'

"Unfortunately, my child is only a newborn, and thus, is restricted to B-rank. However, even if it costs me my existence, I shall not allow Darkness to gain an avatar as powerful as an Ancient-level Darkness Dragon. That would mean the end of the world," Radiance claimed with a determined voice.

Elestia bowed her head. " I cannot thank you enough. The world tree will do its best to aid Garadia and yourself."

Lone's vision blurred for a second time before refocusing. Now he was in the King's throne room.

Looking around, Lone saw many familiar faces. Ele'hunda, Lipsilk, the now dead Foru and Shan'len, Elder Talion, Elder Luckful, and every other elder he had seen during his recent trial.

There were some unfamiliar faces mixed in as well. From what Lone could tell, they were all X or XX-rankers. 'Red teams, maybe? I don't recognise them, so they probably died fighting Ythmagobla.'

Behind Lone, the voice of Elestia rang out. "I beg of you, mortals who live atop of me, assist in fending off the Darkness Dragon, Ythmagobla! He approaches even as we speak. he shall be upon me in mere hours. I stand no hope of repelling him with my own powers."

Gazing in her direction, Lone noticed that she was merely an astral projection, and standing next to her, was a cute and chubby baby Dragon whose body was covered in bright green feathers. 'So that's the Radiance Dragon? It really is a newborn, huh? Poor thing, dying to a Dragon far older and stronger than itself. I wonder what Darkness was even doing back then? I guess he expected Ythmagobla's first assault to succeed.'

The first one to reply in the chamber was, of course, Elder Shan'len. "We can't do that! We must flee! I conveniently have connections in the Taslo Empire. They wouldn't be adverse to the idea of us settling in one of their deserts in exchange for our assistance in their war with the Beastmen."

Elder Foru snorted loudly enough for everyone to hear him. "Foolishness! We must fight this evil creature and protect the tree! Don't ever let me hear such traitorous words come from your lips ever again, Shan'len."

Lone whistled with admiration. 'He's good at acting. Either that, or he hadn't swapped sides yet.'

King Ele'hunda nodded his head in agreeance with Elder Foru's words. "Worry not, spirit of the world tree, we will give you all of our strength to defend against this coming Darkness Dragon. I would sooner die than allow it to consume you."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Every single person present agreed, even Shan'len after seeing that his suggestion would only be ignored.

Once more, the sight in front of Lone changed.

Now he was floating just behind the massive barrier that encapsulated the world tree. Beside him was the Radiance Dragon, Garadia along with King Ele'hunda and Great Elder Lipsilk.

Behind them was the massive army that made up the forces of the eastern world tree. At a rough estimate, Lone could feel forty XX-rankers, two-hundred X-rankers, three-thousand s-rankers, five-thousand A-rankers and about ten-thousand B-rankers.

'I guess they're all going to be fighting the Darkness Monsters spawned by Ythmagobla? From what I know, the world tree didn't actually lose that many soldiers except for the red team XX and X-rankers.' Lone found all of this to be very fascinating.

He was, after all, a history teacher before he was forced onto Altros. Experiencing history first-hand like this was a very thrilling experience for him.

Time ticked by and soon the Darkness Dragon arrived by himself. 'I guess he was too arrogant so didn't think he'd need his generals? Shame on his part. Elestia's power would be his if he had brought along his four XXX-ranked generals.'

The fighting was fierce and surprisingly close. As Lone had previously thought, Garadia, the Radiance Dragon that was acting as Radiance's avatar, was pulling most of the weight.

All Lipsilk and Ele'hunda could do was stop Ythmagobla from gaining the advantage.

As the battle ensued, the ground army overwhelmed the monsters created by Ythmagobla and the tide was slowly turning. The forces of the world tree were winning.

Lone frowned. 'This makes no sense. How did Ythmagobla cripple Lipsilk, scar Ele'hunda, kill Garadia and deplete Elestia of all of her strength? I have a feeling another power is about to show itself. Maybe Darkness?'

Lone was only half correct.

A bald old man suddenly appeared in mid-air between Garadia and Ythmagobla. He was wearing a set of rags and seemed unquestionable ordinary, except, for some reason, this man was clicking his fingers repeatedly.

Lone's eyes shook. 'Clicker!'

"This is all very interesting, but I think that we can all agree that it would be even more interesting if this was a draw, no?" Clicker cackled.

For a moment, he stopped clicking his fingers before he snapped them so loudly that the entire field could hear him.

Ythmaoglba's body bloated up and he was filled with so much energy, that looking at him felt like gazing at an endless well of power.

Clicker's laughter filled the air until he suddenly stopped. "Oh, right. I should erase everyone's memories."

He clicked his fingers so fast that it was hard to even see his muscles move. "This is more of Tapper's speciality, but oh well."

Clicker was just about to leave, however, he sensed something was off. He turned his eyes to the position that Lone's astral form was in and grinned. "Very interesting indeed."

After saying that, Clicker finally left and the battle continued. It was completely one-sided at this point. Ythmagobla's rampage ended up taking the lives of many of the S-rankers, a lot of the X-rankers, all of the XX-rankers, and finally, Garadia's life.

In the final moment before he fled, Ythmagobla cast a powerful curse that was designed to kill the world tree over a few short years, however, Lipsilk used a secret and forbidden Fairy magic to transfer some of its effects onto himself, effectively granting Elestia a few more decades of time.

While he was processing all of this information and these sudden events, out of the corner of his eyes, Lone noticed Elder Shan'len picking up a small seed that had fallen out of Garadia's body. He stuffed it in his pocket before trying his best to conceal it with magic.

The scenery changed one final time. Lone was now back in the original void, except this time, the green seed that was glowing faintly could be seen floating in front of him.

"Are you Garadia, or Radiance?" Lone asked.

"Both," the familiar and pleasant voice of Radiance echoed out in the endless expanse.

Lone frowned. "I have a guess about what you want, but first, tell me, how are you 'both?'"

"I understand. An explanation is needed," Radiance sighed calmly. "Garadia was my only child. Ah, not a child in the way that you mortals use the word. You are aware that us former gods, the Primal Essences, can create creatures from our essence's nature, yes?"

Lone nodded. "Yup, that's what Ythmagobla is. I still don't see your point though."

"In the billions of years that I have existed as a Primal Essence, Garadia was the only creature I gave life to. She was special to me. I couldn't allow her to just die after that strange man appeared, so I chose to fuse my entirety into her soul," Radiance explained.

Giving Lone a few seconds to accept this, Radiance continued, "This crystalised into the seed you see before you. That foolish Elf thought that I could stimulate the growth of a new world tree. Truly foolish. World trees aren't simple things that can be grown like vegetables."

"So... Clicker failed to erase your memory?" Lone asked with some scepticism in his tone.

"it would seem so," Radiance answered. "You heard his mumblings for yourself, no? He isn't skilled in memory erasure spells."

Lone shook his head. "He did it on purpose. That fucking manipulative... He knew I'd be here, even though I wasn't in this world at that time. Otherwise, why would he leave your memory unaltered and why would he even bother to interfere between you and Ythmagobla? That bastard definitely knows about the gods..."

"The gods?" Radiance was confused. "This should be common knowledge, but all of the old gods have become Primal Essences like myself."

"Not you guys. Different gods." Lone held his face and then swept back his hair in frustration. Once again Clicker had gotten the better over him, even if this had happened several decades ago.

"I... I do not understand..." Radiance was beginning to ask herself if it was wise to choose this man over the many other potential candidates.

"It doesn't matter. I already know that you guys know nothing about them. Darkness has told me himself." Sighing one final time and then collecting himself, Lone asked, "Anyway, you showed me this for a reason, right? Speak."

"This is new. Never before have I been talked down to in such a manner by a mortal," Radiance noted in a fairly neutral tone.

Lone shrugged. "You Primal Essences aren't worthy of my respect. Well, maybe Sky. He's helped me a lot behind the scenes. Darkness a little bit, but he's the cause behind this mess, so he can go fuck himself, to be honest."

"That is why I wished to converse with you, and it is also the reason that I desire for you to become my new avatar," Radiance claimed in a tone that was almost pleading.

Lone nodded. "I suspected as much. Well then, let me know everything. We can go from there."