The changes in his body happened rapidly and tremendously, just as his urge to help Von Von reaches the peak.

The artefact that used to simply reside in his body started merging into him. The Yggdrasil seedling grew to become a part of his body. Two powerful forces – the Origin Cultivation Method and its ability to activate and control life energy, and the World Tree with its immense life force – fused together to forge something unthinkable.

As the seedling grew and opened up new meridian channels in his body, Kairos felt his strength and power returning at a rate he never thought possible. A new, alien, flow of energy coursed through his veins from the Anima Infinitus, and he was amazed how his body transformed under the influence. With a greater network of Ki, the potency of his combat arts will increase by many folds in the future, and this is but the least of the changes.

In his unconscious dream state, the screen showing him the world around him started to twist and distort as the Yggdrasil Treasure adopted to Kairos’ Origin Cultivation Method. Or perhaps, it is the cultivation method that is guiding the artefact?

The screen flashed violently, then faint images of different worlds around him seemed to appear all around.

This suddenly and unbelievable sight, nearly drove Kairos’ mind back to sober. He can detect… Gaia!

The World Tree is a magnificent lifeform that is home to countless living things and as large as the planet it has taken root on. To sustain itself and its inhabitants, the tree’s roots and branches reaches out to other realms for energy. Of course, the Anima Infinitus also holds such potential, except that it is in its infancy and still needs much development to harness the ability. Now, Kairos also can access to this ability.

Going back to Gaia using the World Tree’s interdimensional power may be years away, but one day he might open the doors to any world he wish to visit.

He could feel his heart pounding with great excitement. Reality is crazier than anything he could dream of. But being in a dream state also means that many sections of his brain is resting, and he quickly moved on without thinking too deeply.

He could feel the seedling’s presence inside of himself, taking root on his Dantian and becoming a part of it, similar to how World Trees take are planted. The Anima Infinitus’ energy flowed into him, granting him access to the World Tree’s life force to use for his own purposes, such as to empower himself, granting him increased strength, speed, and endurance, allowing him to perform at a much higher level in battles or enhance his Origin Energy levels temporarily.

The Yggdrasil Treasure, like other World Trees, is a powerful species of the kingdom Plantae. To be able to grow to the size of a planet and feed countless creatures, its life force is immense. When the day comes where the artefact reaches the height of its power, those who fight Kairos will be facing the might of an entire realm. Granted, that is also very far off but the seedling is already a potent source of life energy… Well, it should be but it is almost completely drained to sustain Kairos and prevent his wounds from worsening.

As Kairos was focusing on the link between himself and the artefact, he discovered an interesting reaction. The energy generation of the Anima Infinitus was at a snail’s pace at best… but now it seemed to be improved to the speed of a turtle on land. Becoming a part of his body seemed to have enhanced the artefact’s abilities making Kairos suspect that the Origin Cultivation’s abilities might also been enhanced. The cultivation improves his latent talents, strengthens his senses, grants him Soul Perception, taught him how to cut off pain and other sensory feelings, and activated his life energy for him to direct and control. If these abilities are amplified, even a little, it will benefit him to no end.

In addition to tapping into the seedling’s life energy, Kairos found new information in his head telling him some of the World Tree’s properties that he had gained thanks to the fusion. First, he can now regenerate lost limbs, albeit rather slowly. It will take years for him to grow back an arm just like how a tree would replace a large branch and the energy it will take means that he cannot use this regeneration sparingly. But perhaps this will change when the seedling grows into a sapling or greater?

Secondly, he acquired the World Tree’s ability to sustain inhabitants, but unlike the providing the sap of life like an Yggdrasil tree, this ability had been altered by his Origin Cultivation Method to transfer his life force to entire groups of people, allowing them to heal and gain strength as one. Now he no longer must place his palm on the person he wanted to heal but allows his Origin Energy to stretch out like the branches of an Yggdrasil. If this ability is combined with his battle formations, especially the Bagua Array, Kairos shudders to think of the result. Granted, the amount of life energy he needs for this will be tremendous, making the ability might as well not exist. For now.

Kairos should have counted himself lucky to gain all these because the artefact had merged with his body, but his expression remained grim. None of these abilities can save his life. His decision might have failed.

But when things are hard, life will find a way. Under the duress, a final and perhaps the most dangerous ability is born.

Like a tree reaching out with its roots for nutrients, or leaves towards the sun, Kairos gained the ability to absorb the life force from the surrounding environment, including other living beings, and use it to replenish his own life energy. This is an ability born solely to help his body heal and regenerate.

Unfortunately, he had no time to dwindle. The moment Kairos felt that there is a chance to recover his movements, he immediately forced the ability into action. This sudden halt nearly broke the Anima Infinitus, and it stumped the development of this final ability causing significant limitations.

In the first place, because the leeching life energy breaks the balance of nature by taking what should not be obtainable, using it excessively will lead to serious consequences for both Kairos and his targets. Both absorbing or losing copious amounts of life energy can lead to mutations, sickness, death, and even the creation of dark creatures. And the amount and quality of life energy obtained depends on his targets. As a higher lifeform from Gaia, Kairos requires significantly more energy from the residents of Axis Mundi to heal even small wounds.

The abrupt stop to use the ability stunted its growth and while it means saving several hours, it severely limited the range where he can leech life energy from, beyond which it becomes too diluted to be useful. Secondly, the absorption rate decreased to a point where it becomes more suitable to be used outside of combat. To recover from all wounds and continue fighting will be something impossible until Kairos finds the resources needed to remedy the growth stunt of the celestial-level Yggdrasil artefact, but it would not be easy.

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Despite these limitations, the ability has a great deal of potential. If used wisely and in moderation, it can help the Kairos to fight ceaselessly without any rest. If he had to fight an army by himself again, this time, as long as he avoid getting mutilated, he can outlast mere mortals.

In addition, by carefully regulating the amount of life force absorbed, he can maintain a harmonious balance with the surrounding environment, allowing him to cultivate safely and efficiently.

The Heavenly Eyes spell acted swiftly performing the actions Kairos instructed. Thin networks of Origin Energy like countless tendrils reached out across the place and searched from any living being it can draw life energy from. The range is only a pathetic hundred metre radius, and this made Sparrow and her guards who are in closest proximity become the first targets. Granted, any dungeon creatures, critters, rodents, even shrubbery will not be spared within the range.

They struggled instinctively but can only helplessly feel their life energy drained away. Soon, even the vigorous dwarves felt like they had battled for a day and night without rest and are reduced to heaving for breaths.

At the same time, the fractures in his neck quickly mended and Kairos’ eyes snapped open. As soon as he recovered the sensation of his body, Kairos stopped the healing. Even though this is only the bare minimum, he is already feeling the negative results of having foreign life energy in his body. Unlike the Origin Energy where the life force is ready to be used, the stolen life energy once belonged to someone else, and his body screamed silently in rejection. If he had more time to slowly convert them into Origin Energy, he can fully benefit from it or even use it to improve his cultivation but in his hurry, his cells are dividing at an abnormal rate.

The faster this is, the more errors will occur, and multiple cancer cells appeared. Not only so, because this is a world of magic, cancer mutation is but a milder form of sickness compared to dark magic defilement that can cause one to be corrupted into a tortured creature.

The same thing is happening for Sparrow and the guards but to a lesser extent. Whether losing or gaining copious amount of life energy, cells in the body will be incited into a replicating frenzy. The prior is the body’s survival instinct to replace cells that had died from the loss of life energy, whereas the latter is the body trying to cope with too much life energy. As for which party have it worse, it will depend on the amount of energy gained or lost and therefore usually Kairos. Unless his target is a small critter that cannot withstand the strain.

Kairos slowly got up to his feet, all the while staring intensely at the direction where Von Von’s scream came from. But he did not take any steps forward. It’s not because he wouldn’t but he cannot move without his patchwork healing coming off by the seams. Even standing motionlessly made his vision swirl uncontrollably and Kairos dared not restore his sense of pain.

To see if Von Von is alright, the Heavenly Eyes spell and the City Surveillance spell worked hand-in-hand to gather information. As the spell’s capacity overloads to collect all the details surrounding Kairos, his eyes started glowing brighter.

The Heavenly Eyes spell has a hiding function that makes his eyes appear normally as his regular colour, black. But as the spell is strengthened to deal with high intensity situations, the golden glow from the Veritable Sight section of the spell will seep through.

His eyes turned purplish because of the mana, but the crowd of dwarves blocked Von Von out of sight even with the City Surveillance spell’s help. Then it turned red as the colour grew brighter to quickly capture more information. Instantly, Kairos restored – from the scars of combat – the entire battle between the elf and the dwarven guards in his mind.

With a snarl, Kairos felt his grip on reality slip as he was consumed by pure white rage. He knows that Von Von's fate was dire, and the thought of the dwarves inflicting untold horrors upon her sent a surge of fury through Kairos' body. He didn't care about the consequences anymore. He landed his friend in this situation, even if it meant tearing the entire city apart, he will save her.

The Heavenly Eyes spell immediately exceeded capacity to calculate all the information gleaned from his enemies as his eyes glowed bright golden orange. Everything became statistics in his eyes, the dwarves’ physical attributes, their positions, possible movements, and even their characteristics and quirks. Kairos immediately know who is favourable with their right hand, which dwarf tend put his body weight on his left foot, who had a heavy breakfast and is now less responsive.

In his madness, Kairos exceeded his ability and improved from initial mastery of chantless spell casting to basic mastery, casting two or three spells at the same time without needing any incantation although at a-third of the strength. Without the full power of his magic, it is unlikely that he can kill the dwarves easily and so he shot off spells not to dispatch the dwarves but to steer them towards each other, like a puppeteer controlling them, using his knowledge of their physical attributes, positions, possible movements, characteristics, and quirks to manipulate them.

Despite his immobility, Kairos weaved his magic aggressively, his eyes glowing brighter with each passing moment. He cast multiple spells at once, a feat that no one in the room had ever seen before. The dwarven guards were no match for his skill and power. As he continued to cast his spells, the room became a chaotic mess of bodies colliding with each other.

Despite the pain and exhaustion, Kairos did not stop. He was consumed by a fierce determination to save his friend, and he knew that he had to take down these guards if he was going to succeed. With a final burst of energy, he unleashed a flurry of spells that sent the remaining dwarves flying across the room.

As he watched the dwarves tumble to the ground, writhing in pain, Kairos finally saw Von Von. The elf’s apparel was torn to barely covering her body. The intention of the dwarven guards was disgustingly clear but that was not what made Kairos snap completely. It was the sight of the grievous wound on Von Von's abdomen that brought him closer to the brink of madness. Blood flowed freely from the wound, staining her clothes and the ground beneath her. Kairos rushed towards her, forgetting his own injuries, and knelt beside her.

"Von Von, hold on," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I'll get you out of here."

Von Von weakly opened her eyes, her breathing ragged. "Kairos...,” was all she managed to say, her voice barely audible. Kairos gritted his teeth, his hands shaking as he tried to apply pressure to the wound. "Stay with me, Von Von. You're going to be alright. I promise."

But even as he spoke the words, Kairos knew that Von Von's injuries were too severe. Her life force was fading fast, and there was little he could do to stop it. He felt a pang of helplessness and despair, but he refused to give up. He weaved a healing magic to stop the bleeding and mend the damage. As he worked, he couldn't help but it was his fault for trusting Sparrow. He should have been able to prevent this from happening. But now, all he could do was fight to keep Von Von alive. Kairos knows that it is already too late for the elf.

“Hold on for a little more, Von Von. At least until you see how I avenge you.”

Now only one dwarf is left standing. The girl who betrayed him, Princess Sparrow. He looked intensely at Sparrow. The betrayal was unexpected, but looking at her expressions, Kairos seemed to understand the reason behind her action.

Kairos took a step forward, his eyes never leaving Sparrow's. He felt a surge of anger and betrayal, but he also felt a strange sense of clarity. He realized that Sparrow must have been a cultist all along, working for the cultists. It was the only explanation for her sudden betrayal and her involvement in Von Von's capture.

Kairos drew upon the mana around, knowing that he had to end this once and for all. He didn't know what Sparrow was capable of, but he knew that he couldn't let her escape. He lifted his hand and started to chant, but then he hesitated.

For the first time, Kairos wondered if he was doing the right thing. He had always believed that he was fighting for justice, but now he wasn't sure. Maybe he was just another pawn in a larger game, a game that he couldn't even begin to comprehend.

But then he looked at Sparrow again, and all of his doubts vanished. He saw the hatred in her eyes, the twisted smile on her face, and he knew that he had to act.