Time holds great power over a mortal. We are bound to surf its tides, never to defy, and never to conquer its waves. The only time we get to defy time is during our slumber. An extra five minutes of sleep can drift us closer to the light, away from our consciousness, and into a realm where time holds, but little power.

Defyers are known to witness their wave break beforehand, escape the crash, catch an adjacent current, and surf into the brand-new era. Yet they say that they haven’t defied time, for time is a mortal measure to determine or assign a value.

The distance traveled, an art piece created, or a lifespan calculated—a value for what takes how long. Either to last, create, or destroy. Gods or immortals don’t require such a feeble metric system. For what can’t be conquered now shall be conquered tomorrow or the day after.

We, as mortals, used to live over a century, while now we have a lifespan of fifty… if the circumstances are right. But at the same time, we used to take a day or two to travel a hundred miles, while now we take an hour at best. Now, do you blame technology or praise it?

Drifters do neither.

While energy is neither created nor destroyed, it is convertible. In theory, if you convert any given energy into vital energy or life force, the body remains immortal. Hence, slumber helps us reduce the dispersion of energy, allowing us to live longer.

Old age isn’t lost time, but the lost struggle between energies. An incapable shell unable to convert energy is doomed to lose the struggle, lose its energy, and get converted into a different form of energy.

This is where the belief in eternal souls emerged. If your ancestor had a strong enough will, their energy, even though converted, can still exist. Whether it simply exists, protects, or haunts you, depends on their will and intent.

Over here, to accomplish this miracle, our will and intent play a magical role by bridging the gap between fiction and reality.

A child with cancer can outlive a healthy teenager and your wish can shape reality.

Since the dawn of life, we mortals have had a unique system of passing down our heritage, predetermining a path for our race, and living in an illusion of grandeur. Meanwhile, sharing our space, the lower life forms plan for much less and acquire much more before departing.

Without a path, everything you acquire is a medal. Yet both of us: a fast life form that worked around the tide of time and determined immortality as the speed of consumption and conversion. The lower life forms rode the tide of time with no resistance and embraced its cruelty.

We both dreamt and worked toward it and yet never became immortal, so we found different ways to satisfy ourselves.

One adorned speed and the other chose peace and fate.

Ever wonder why your dogs have such a short lifespan? This is why.

While we both live in the same space, our intent and will to survive affect the time we spend alive.

Alive is a tricky word. Let’s say the time we spend with control over the energy that is neither created nor destroyed, ‘Eney.’

Another life form sharing our space and that has acquired immortality is trees or plant life. They lived before us and will continue to flourish after.

Especially after us.

Yet we never learned from their drive to survive, flourish, and continue to exist. Focusing solely on life force and intending to survive the passage of time through sheer willpower, they attained immortality. As the first-ever species to attain immortality, and blooming at the top, they have since rooted into distinct orders and had offspring who branched out to form different ‘Halflings’ and species as well.

Among those far-fetched branches, many rose to power, commanding their unique paths and conquering their own little place in the multiverse. Yet they bow in the presence of a ‘Seed,’ a glorious title and the order closest to the ‘Almighty Vine Of Life.’

‘Rip-off oak of Illusiant’ a ‘Seed’ and one of a mischievous branch from the order of ‘Soul Harvest’ had a bit too much grief from a certain human that called itself Tetsu.

It, he, she, or whatever the gendered species would call a human that roamed around naked, ignoring a basic sense of life or how to survive, is called. Tetsu constantly tried to die, then survive, and later blamed himself and everything else around him for what he chose and did.

The mighty oak still didn’t mind all of his shenanigans. It had seen many such feeble species throughout its prime, and being a descendent of the almighty vine of life, it had but one duty—to give.

The oak healed and restored energies that were deemed lost by the other species. Even before and after it has been transported to its new home.

Sure, they always give up at the end, blaming everything else but themselves. No one ever tries to live, even when they say and struggle all their life to survive.

Amongst a world filled with weirdos. This particular Tetsu, who names himself and talks to himself in the third person, is weirder. Someone has to come up with a weirder term for weird and then present him with that title.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

This human is the only single individual who utilizes vital energy and actively seeks to destroy it too. Which is preposterous, and he knows it and still does it. He called it a theory, experiment, test, and a slew of other nonsensical words, but all he did was waste energy and later struggle to get said lost energy.

Thanks to the environment filled with dense energy, more than usual, he kept regaining his vital energy. If it wasn’t for this place, he would have been dead a hundred times over.

He is also the first individual who forces the mighty oak to use one of its artifacts to shut him up.

A sensible or even the dumbest individual the mighty oak met so far had used its ‘veil of distorted energy’ to hide, run, or blindside their opponents. Not once did any of them harm the mighty oak, and then enter Tetsu, who tried to suffer and make the oak suffer alongside with him.

First, he takes too long to figure out the veil and once he does, he uses it in the worst way possible. One might think he wanted to die and take the mighty oak with him. The weirdo even refused and bit the mighty oaks ‘coffin of second chance,’ to make a stupid artifact.

Mighty Oak stole the artifact he left behind to teach the imbecile a lesson, but as expected, he forgot and came back with a stronger opponent, which blew him to bits.

Until now, the mighty oak only considered Tetsu a weirdo of the highest order. But once it saw Tetsu cling to life, defying the laws of nature to survive, a newfound respect sprouted for the weird human.

While the mighty oak always followed its duty to give, now it had to give the human a second chance.

The mighty oak tree spreads its coffin roots one last time, and the crazy human accepts them for the first time.

“Oak impressed twice. Oak now knows crazy humans accept help when needed or when he thinks he needs help.”

He kept mumbling about a bed, but he was weird, so Oak did not expect too much.

Coffin roots rise above the ground, forming a boundary around Tetsu and cleansing the area with destructive mana. After a thorough disinfection, the roots spread far and wide, gathering the scattered flesh of the human.

They crept alongside Tetsu’s blood trail, separating, disinfecting, and absorbing the blood. At Tetsu’s lower half, they coiled around his legs and tried to heave them closer. Failing to budge it, they crept inside the artifact, permeated into the leg’s flesh, and tore it into smaller, manageable pieces.

Smaller, transparent, glassy blue vines emerged from within the coffin area, freezing cells they came in contact with. The mighty Oak still couldn’t believe nor understand how Tetsu commanded all of his vital energy to circulate his body even after death. After close inspection, the mighty Oak found Tetsu to be alive. If you stretch the word alive to its thinnest threads.

Wait! No, there wasn’t even the slightest thread. Tetsu hung to life by sheer willpower. An invisible thread, keeping two threads close to each other.

The mighty oak wondered. Factoring in the human's environment, he might stay alive and recover in time. The recovery will be, to put it in human terms, half-assed, like all the other times he self-recovered. The difference is that a half-eaten corpse shall again roam these grounds.

Mighty Oak did not like that. Not that it cared. It has seen its fair share of detestable death affinity users, and in time, a half-corpse will turn into the undead.

Mighty Oak did not want that for Tetsu. Weird though he might be, he fought for life in his unique thoughtless ways, and it shall not let stupidity be the end of Tetsu.

By its estimates and all the pieces of flesh the roots gathered, Tetsu might not be whole, but it shall give him a second chance at life. A second chance to maybe become less stupid.

Thanks to Tetsu roaming naked, the mighty oak even knew what he truly looked like. With a frame of reference and all the pieces gathered inside the sterile area, the roots engulf Tetsu, closing the coffin.

For more precise control, the mighty oak submerged and pulled the coffin closer to its trunk. Various color roots joined in on the operations, each helping the other while carrying out their part.

The Dandralith’s group returned, savaging the battlefield. The strongest one among them yelled at the others. One of them held its head low, disappointed more than the others. It searched the area, almost breaching the veil.

The mighty oak remained emotionless. “Oak knows this human will be the death of mighty oak...” The Dandralith gets scolded again as she abandons the search and scurries away. “... Someday.”

Proper healing takes time if you want to heal the right way. Heal like the myriad species, or worse, like Tetsu, and it’s better to be undead, rather than a walking corpse.

The art of healing is a simple and sacred process. Done right and one can proceed toward immortality, while the slightest altercations can strip your mortal days by months.

The mighty oak took a day to gather the scattered cells of Tetsu, an hour to assemble them, seven hours to reconnect the basic channels, and a split second to jolt the body back to life.

What? The mighty oak tree is one of the masters of life itself and Tetsu is a feeble human that can be operated on in its sleep. Tetsu still had to recover. Operation time depends on the doctor, but the recovery time depends on the patient, their willpower, grit, and, at the very end, genetic Regen capabilities.

The mighty oak had done its part and based on the heavy energy surrounding Tetsu, he struggled with his.

The human. No, Tetsu surprised the mighty oak for the umpteenth time, fluctuating from the unconscious into his conscious state of energy the same day. Such maddening willpower is only found within...

"Hmm..." The leaves of the mighty oak rustle against each other as it hums and realizes. “Avenger.”

Another common idiotic energy the lesser intellectual species carry. Always behind the life force, yet they deem which life form gets to live. None of them understand their feeble efforts to destroy energy never work. Instead, they end up gathering more negative energy which impedes their lifespan.

This was still common ground for the mighty oak. Tetsu shocked it by still contemplating his next move. The energy around Tetsu held doubt more than revenge. He blamed himself for most of it and genuinely wanted to steer clear of hate or negative energy.

A pity as he's inclined toward negative forces and can master them faster than anything else. Yet Tetsu couldn’t completely demolish that energy from his system.

From wonder to empathy and also pride, the mighty oak allowed itself to feel a sting of many emotions as it got invested in Tetsu’s unique energy.

The energy was both calm and a raging fury, kind and filled with hate. It wanted to flee and fight, cautious and a moron, and with a deeper darkness hidden away in a vault.

He contradicted himself at every turn as if he constantly fought against himself for control over his own energy.

All of a sudden, the mighty oak felt fear, as two eyes pierced through its soul and wandered about as if they owned the mighty oak.

“This human...” Oak shakes, driving away all of its emotions and attachments while expanding its veil over a larger area.

Over a closer scan, Oak realizes. Revenge energy isn’t on Tetsu. He either isn’t a hunter or his prey couldn’t place their negative energy on him. The latter gave the mighty oak chills. Yet Tetsu still was the mighty oak's patient and it shall protect its patient to the best of its abilities... For a price, of course.

After all, everyone knows the mighty oak as the “Rip-off oak of Illusiant.”

═─┈─{═E═}─┈─═