“Are you insane!” Yup that was about the reaction Azura had expected. “Putting aside the fact you think you can put the tree of yggdrasil back together in the first place, do you have any idea how much magic is stored in the tree? Even if you had the blueprint the kind of control it would require to manage the mana is godly. No flesh and… blood being… You aren’t seriously planning what I think you’re planning are you? Elismera’s angry tirade slowly came to an end as she figured out exactly what he was planning to do. The rest of his friends sat around them listening to them argue about the giant tree off to their side.
“It sounds like you’re on the right track. It’s true managing that much mana would be impossible for any being with a physical body, even with my copies helping out, but if I dissolve my body with the tree, I think my consciousness can take control of the full mass of magic, and with a copy of mine managing the spellwork for creating our subspace, I think we might be able to pull this off.” His body may not have been able to handle that kind of power, but his mind and will wouldn’t fall short. He fully believed that.
Elismera sighed. “Ok so assuming we let you go through with this insanity, how exactly do you plan to put the tree back together?” He winced, that was where things got a bit complicated.
“Well to start with I ran every test I possibly could on the tree. Which is important because I need as much information on this tree as possible. It’s height, durability, magical properties, total number of branches, rate of growth, and plenty more. Even still, all that won’t be enough on its own, but When I’m dissolving it for a brief moment I’ll feel the tree in its entirety. With the information I already have it should be possible for me to fill in the blanks in that brief moment so that I can properly put it together as I weave the subspace.” Normally such a thing would be impossible, since for one you’d need to have someone who was a being of magic to even try it, and for two the one making the subspace and the one managing the tree would have to be in perfect sync. Perfect sync was nearly impossible, unless it was with yourself that is.
“Ahh ok I see now.” Elsimera nodded calmly. His eyes narrowed, that didn’t seem right. Sure enough her visage quickly shifted to rage. “You are insane after all! A split second, that’s all the time you’ll have to learn everything you need to know about the structure of a divine tree! You do realize that this isn’t just some tree you can find anywhere right? It’s a seed of the very tree that realities rest on. Do you really think you can comprehend it in its entirety with just some tests and a brief moment where you can see it?!”
“Yes.” There was no need for him to be overly verbose like he usually was. The best way to convince her was to show his confidence. He maintained eye contact, as he made his determination clear. He could do this, perhaps it was impossible for anyone else, but for him there was a chance for success, and as long as it was a possibility he’d find a way to achieve it.
Elsimera sighed, the anger leaving her with her breath. “Ok. I’ll trust you to do this, but know this, if you fail the consequences would be vast, and not just for us.” He slowly released a breath. He of course knew the cost of failing here. It would be beyond disastrous. Even assuming there were no consequences for the tree being destroyed itself, the reactions of others if they learned he was responsible for the distraction of what was basically a divine artifact, he would be ruined.
“Thank you for your trust. I know it's difficult thing to trust someone else, especially with something like this, and it means a lot to me that you are giving me this chance. I’ll be sure not to make it a mistake.” He’d like to think it said good things about him, that he had more pride in the fact people trusted him like this than he did in all of his magic combined.
“Be sure that you don’t, it would be difficult for me to properly hate you when I owe you so much.” He laughed. She wasn’t exaggerating, he had done a lot for her, but if he messed up with the tree the resulting catastrophe would put her in a very rough place. Not like he needed any extra motivation not to mess up. He had plenty riding on this success as well.
He stopped laughing abruptly and turned to the tree. It was time, his magic circle was fully charged, and he’d have to act fast if he didn’t want to risk there being too much mana in the magic circle. Often too much was just as bad as too little, sometimes worse. Elismera nodded at him and stepped back towards the entrance with the rest of his friends. He quickly made a copy to manage the circle and control the spell. Which of course left the real him with the hardest, and most dangerous part.
He might have left a few details out when he explained the plan to everyone, the biggest of which was that the danger wasn’t simply that he’d fail to put the tree together properly. The biggest danger was that his consciousness would be overwhelmed by the mana he was basically temporarily assimilating, and he’d become part of the tree. A state between life and death for all eternity. He really hoped it didn’t come to that. He really didn’t want to spend the rest of eternity as part of a tree.
Despite the risk he steeled himself as his part in the spell neared. He took a deep breath, and placed his hand on the trunk of the huge tree as light began to flood the room. He could feel the tree begin to dissolve, and for a brief moment felt the wright of eternity on his shoulders. Every reality all at once, the tree wasn’t really a tree at all, or perhaps it was, and the trees in this reality were merely fakes. It was alien to him, the entire structure wasn’t at all like he’d thought it was. All the tests in the world wouldn’t prepare him for this.
And yet the strangest part was how familiar it was. The contradiction left him dazed and confused, but as the subspace formed with him and the tree at its center he knew where every piece of the tree's magic went. An instinctive understanding that overrode his complete inability to properly grasp the tree's form. He had failed? Yet the tree was forming fine. What was he doing? He didn’t know. He was being guided by something… or someone.
His body finished forming next to the still forming tree. The subspace forming slowly around him. The area looked familiar, but it was missing the most distinctive landmark. A spreading plane of grass and flowers. With waterfalls coming down and forming lakes and rivers. The floating islands the falls originated from seemingly an endless supply. The tree rested in a field of grass with a much higher density of flowers than anywhere else in the subspace. The tree had almost fully formed, but the subspace was still expanding. Even though it was already much bigger than it was intended to be.
His mind still felt overwhelmed by the moment where he had seen the tree in its entirety, but he was slowly recovering, not that his inability to properly comprehend it had stopped the experience from influencing him more than he had anticipated. He had seen worlds that weren’t his own, and what was worse, was that he had a feeling it wasn’t the first time that had happened to him. The pressure in his head was giving him a splitting headache now, but all he could think about was the images flitting through his head now. The realities where he saved, the realities where he failed, and the realities that were still unresolved. A web more vast than he could possibly comprehend, and he had barely even scratched the surface. It was too much, with his task complete the iron will he had used to maintain his brittle consciousness finally gave out. He fell back resting his back against the tree that put him in this state to begin with, and he allowed darkness to overtake him.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
***
Luna wished not for the first time that she was a more studious person. As it was she had no idea what was happening. Azura and the tree had vanished, and the copy Azura had left had been meditating as he struggled to manipulate all the thick latent mana in the air into its proper place so the spell wouldn’t unwind. He had explained it to them of course, but to be honest aside from Rroran most of them just tuned him out when he got down to the details of it. It wasn’t from lack of care, but no matter how much they listened, everything he said still sounded like gibberish.
It was ok though, they didn’t have to understand what he was doing to trust he’d manage it properly. He wasn’t infallible, she along with the others had learned that well enough, but he was really smart. So if he thought this would work, then she was confident it would work. Still, maybe they should have asked how long this was supposed to take. It had almost been an hour, and the copy was still struggling to keep the spell running smoothly. He was building a whole subspace, so she supposed it made sense. Not like Azura would just make a normal subspace either, she bet it would have all kinds of special properties.
“How long is this going to take?! I’m bored!” she sighed as Lily’s patience finally ran out. Not that there was much of it to begin with. Lily may have the most destructive force in the group, but she was also easily the least patient, well maybe not worse than Roran, but Roran adored magic stuff, so his impatience didn’t come into play for spells that take a while.
“He’s basically creating a whole nother dimension! It even goes beyond a subspace since it isn’t linked to any dimension or space in particular! A ship that can travel through dimensions! Do you not realize how incredible an achievement this is?!” To no one's surprise Roran jumped in to defend the long spell. “If normal mages were making this, it would take several of them many weeks to finish it.” Lily paled, and perhaps she might have a bit too. Even assuming Azura was 3 times as efficient as a whole group of mages it would still take a week for the spell to finish.
“Don’t forget the tree is still there. I’m assuming since we haven’t all been wiped off the map that the transfer is going well if not already finished, and the tree working as the focal point of the spell probably makes it all a lot easier.” She almost slipped and asked about that, but she didn’t really need a long explanation she wouldn’t understand.
“Oh?! I knew the tree would be important for the finished project to be mobile, but I didn’t realize the tree would help with the spell itself?!” She sighed, of course Roran was going to ask anyway. Lily looked like she regretted all her life decisions, and the others all looked bored, but were clearly ignoring Roran and Elismera’s conversation.
“In a lot of ways, first and most obvious is the well of spatial magic that comes from the tree, the tree's mana works on cutting down the number of steps required to make a subspace. It basically makes it easier to create a new dimension, and set clearly defined boundaries so the dimension doesn’t collapse or merge with other spaces. Beyond that the tree is oddly malleable around Azura, or at least it seems to be from my perspective. Perhaps Azura simply has tools for it that I don’t, but it seems easier for him to shape and form the tree’s energy, even if I can pull power from it more directly than he can.
“Fascinating. I didn’t realize the tree could affect the forming of the subspace without any conscious action on Azura’s part, but if even its passive existence would have such an effect then I bet Azura has found a way to optimize that assistance and will be done relatively quickly.” She rolled her eyes, she didn’t really think it mattered either way. Azura was all about efficiency, she had no doubt that whether the tree passively helped or not Azura would have found a way to make it work for him.
Before Elismera had a chance to reply, Azura's copy collapsed, and the light from the magic circle shone brightly, before slowly dimming down to nothing. “For the record, even with the tree creating an entire dimension is not an easy task. Or a cheap one, it took almost all of the latent mana in the area, and there was a lot since the tree has been here a while.” She smiled in relief. It looked like he was done, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t curious about the subspace. What kind of world had Azura created, she wondered.
“Can we see it?” Siara was the first to ask, as Roran had walked over to help the copy stand up. The copy gave her a dead stare as he gestured to himself struggling to stand up. Siara blushed in embarrassment, and sighed. “Later then.” She chuckled. It was good to see everyone getting along, and while it was unfortunate that they’d have to wait to enter the subspace, she was sure it would be well worth it.
***
When Azura’s consciousness returned, he was greeted by the sight of a completed world. It was beautiful, but he almost wished it didn’t look so similar to the eternal library. It was an odd feeling, all the crazy circumstances around the library made him uncomfortable, but if he was being honest the scenery and the library itself actually left him oddly relaxed. This space was no different. A serene silence filled the air, and he was left calm and content. A fairly rare pair of emotions for him.
He could feel the tree against his back thrumming with energy, and see its branches extend far into the space, many of them ending slightly above the floating islands. The life energy of the tree had made the grass a bit more luscious, and unlike the eternal library the grassy plains had flowers placed seemingly at random with some spots having large clusters of them, and many more were completely devoid of flowers. Overall it was the kind of place he wouldn’t mind dying in. Not that he had any intention of doing so anytime soon of course.
He shakily stood, and basked in his pride. He had succeeded, it had been a bit harder than he had expected, and it was only because of the book of origin he had succeeded. Or at least he assumed that was how the alien nature of the tree had been able to be processed and properly formed, because he knew there was no way he could have handled that on his own. Even that short brush with the true nature of the tree had nearly driven him to insanity. Apparently there was such a thing as learning too much at once, even without using his copies to cheat.
It would probably take him a few days to properly recover, but he should be able to at least form the circle that would serve as a means for him and his friends to travel to and from this world. He had already made one that he left with his copy, so he could get back to them after he finished this part. In time he could make a more intricate system to decide where to be teleported, but for now he would only be able to go wherever the proper magic circle rested.
With his plan of action in mind he began inscribing his circle. Thankfully the hard part was over, and spells of this magnitude wouldn’t require all those expensive resources. Power wouldn’t be an issue either, not with the tree so close. Still the one part where no shortcut could be taken was time. Some magic circles he could make in an instant, but the more complex ones he'd have to make by hand. Still no one could argue with the end result. He’d bet this subspace was leagues above what the school used, and he’d bet even without the tree it would have at least been up to par if it wasn’t outright better anyway.
Unfortunately after his brush with the unknown he was still shaking, and that made inscribing the circle incredibly difficult. Not enough to actually stop him, but enough that it took him almost an hour. This circle was smaller than the one he had used as the base for the subspace creation spell. Merely being 6 ft from one end to the other, and that meant he had to be very careful with his shaky hands. The smaller the circle the smaller the margin for error. Still handicap or not, he had been doing this since he was little, so the circle was flawless as always.
He took a deep breath. It was time to show his friends the finished product. He was sure they would all be quite relieved to see the tree in one piece, and he needed to get the inevitable questions over with so he could take a nap.