Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 117 - 112: The Tree of Light

With the help of the compass, finding the Tree of Light was quite easy. Just like Fostoria told me, the cave that demon posed as the Tree of Light’s location was fake.

The real location of Tree of Light was around three kilometers away from the demon’s formation.

At first glance it was entirely unassuming, with dead tree trunks and branches covering the area, blending seamlessly with the surrounding forest that had been ravaged by the dark curtain.

As I walked with the compass in my hand, the device started blinking, the arrow on the screen which lead me here, turning into a dot.

I tapped my foot on the ground, and yeah, it did seem a bit lose than normal ground.

’Did the demon simply cover it with mud to keep anyone from noticing something from his residual mana? Or maybe his magic didn’t work near the Tree of Light at all.’

’Wait…! So, I have to dig?!’, I belatedly thought, my eyes widening in horror.

In no means I was in the condition to dig the ground.

Honestly, I was completely drained; my equipment was just a slab of metal now that I was wearing only for physical protection in case demon trapped the place. In fact, I couldn’t even summon new equipment or artefacts as my bracelet stopped working as well.

More importantly my body needed rest from the insane cycle of being broken down and regenerating, and so did my psyche.

’I’ll rest, you guys dig.’

So, I ordered my summons to do the work for me, while I myself laid down on the ground not far away. I watched the Wraith working with the Sentinel for a while before I closed my eyes. There was no time limit now anyways…

-Tick

-Tick

-Tick

A tapping sound disturbed my sleep. I rolled in sleep, ignoring the voice, but it just kept going on. Groggily, I opened one of my eyes, and imagine my surprise as I saw a total of sixteen barrels shoved right in front of my face.

"Whoa!", I jumped back in fright, thinking about what the hell I did in my drunken stupor last night for the police to arrest me, before… I saw Sentinel tilting in the air as if confused and realized that I wasn’t in my old world anymore.

’You fool.’, I facepalmed as I tried to check time on my bracelet. Of course, it didn’t work.

With no choice, I rubbed my eyes and looked at the three suns. They hadn’t moved much, which meant I was out for an hour at most before I turned to look at the spot I told my summons to dig.

And, ’Wow!’

What had been a flat forest was now overturned. Except for a few of the Atlas’ roots which were bigger than buildings, my summons had left no stone unturned. They dug much more than the demon covered, so much so that it felt like I was in a excavation site of some ancient runes.

And right in the middle of that excavation site was a spherical cavern made of roots, rocks and debris. A soft golden glow somehow permeating through the rocks.

’So, this is it.’, I did a few light stretches and double checked the location with the compass, before lunging at the cavern.

Even though I still felt weak, there was no way some stones could stop my way, thinking that I slashed at the cavern—only to be proven wrong.

-Tang…!

My sword stopped at the root’s surface. Not even leaving a scratch before it was pushed back. It was too similar to what I saw in those comedy animated shows, except the hurt was real.

With a trembling arm that felt completely numb, I looked at the cavern with teary eyes.

It was then, that Sentinel tapped on my shoulder again, pointing at my left. There I saw a narrow cave-way made of roots connecting to the cavern.

’You should’ve told me sooner!’, I wanted to scream but held it in, as I placed my sword on top of the flying drone and rubbed my numb arm.

Balancing it somehow, the drone followed after me, towards the entrance of the pathway which was like twenty meters away, where I could see the wraith digging the ground with his swords.

With his sword dimmer and dirt stuck between his armor plates, I sympathized with the dead knight, ’You have seen better days.’

Patting his back, I ordered him to stop and guard the pathway along with the Sentinel while I entered it.

Needless to say, the pathway was bright, too bright actually. Even while squinting my eyes, I could hardly see anything. And not just in physical realm, it seemed that it was too bright in mental realm as well, causing my mental avatar was going haywire.

Regardless, I kept moving on. Even stumbling sometimes from some uneven root as I kept walking.

As I walked, I felt myself being healed, being purified, being baptized, in both my mind and my body.

Feeling the power nourishing me, I smiled as I kept walking, finally entering the cavern with some last steps, as the light brightened for one last time.

’Oh!’

With my mouth hanging open, I looked around.

Leaves, shining leaves, some big, some small, covered the entirety of the cavern’s surface. Each leaf was shining golden, much like the leaf embedded in my golden compass, giving off an divine presence that couldn’t be mistaken.

And it was not just leaves, the mud trapped between the roots, the grass, the rocks, and the roots themselves from which the leaves were growing, had a subtle divine glow emanating from them.

Stepping on the golden grass, I noticed that it bent, but didn’t break.

I knew that roots were tough, but the grass too?

Then I tugged a random leaf quite strongly but it wasn’t plucked.

’Let’s see…’, I placed my leg on of the roots, held the leaf with both hands and…

-Haaa

…pulled it with my full strength!

’Come on, come to papa!’, I continued pulling the leaf, even putting all my weight behind it as I pulled.

But even after a good twenty seconds of vein popping pull, nothing happened.

’So, it’s like that.’, I thought, huffing a little as I looked at the expanse of golden leaves covering the whole cavern.

It wasn’t that only two leaves were meant to be harvested; it was that that only two leaves could be actually harvested.

’Whatever, I am not here for these one shots anyways.’, I gazed ahead, looking at the center of the cavern.

While the whole cavern could be called sanctuary of life, there was a place that was barren in it. And unlike what you’d expect, it was center that was barren of vegetation—completely empty of life.

In fact, even the intense light, the holy aura, and divine presence everything that I could sense didn’t originate from the center, instead, it was the leaves growing on the cavern that emanated such a presence.

Making one wonder if there was anything at all at the center.

Of course, there was.

The Tree of Light, unlike what it was dubbed, wasn’t a tree at all. It wasn’t material, nor did it have leaves or branches per say, but I could understand why the Church got that impression.

Yes, it may have looked a little like a tree along with all those leaves on cavern adding on to its name, but the leaves weren’t even actually a part of Tree of Light, but instead were random plants who had absorbed an infinitely small amount of its residual power.

The Tree of Light was much more than they thought, so much more that they couldn’t even imagine it.

In fact, it wasn’t even simply light, calling it just light was an oversimplification for the sake of communication. It was something far more profound.

It was the very essence of positivity in the universe coalesced into a singularity.

Honestly, it was ’something’ beyond human understanding, if it could even be called something.

Like, it was the brightest thing I had ever seen, radiating the brilliance of million, billion, sextillion of stars, and yet I could look straight at it. Its glow was gentle, warm but still ethereal, out of reach of a mere human.

Ans still, it existed in me, it encompassed me. It encompassed everything, from scientific entities such as the tiniest quark, to the abstract concepts such as joy and happiness.

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It pulsed with the energy of the cosmos and weaved together the very fabric of reality, and yet it stayed disconnected to everything at all.

After all, it was the very essence of existence itself. It was the half, the ’Yang’ of the universe.

It was very hard to describe its appearance, but in shallow human terms, yes, the most similar thing I saw to it would be a tree trunk.

A tree trunk that had a universe, with a mind boggling number of dark matter halos and voids and veins that pulsed with cosmic energy.

Even looking at it, was an experience that I couldn’t forget. A humbling lesson that reminded me how insignificant I was in comparison to the universe.

So, what was I doing here? Claiming something this grand as my reward?

Well, I had something really special within me as well…

I started walking towards the nebulous tree, with a spring in my step.

…embedded in my soul was something that was basically equivalent to unlimited power.

So, unlimited power v/s unlimited power.

Who will win?

’I guess we will find out soon.’

As I walked, my steps got slower. It wasn’t because the Tree was exerting some kind of effort to keep me away.

The Tree was not sentient, and only had a few basic instincts, such as reacting to demonic power, or keeping powerful beings away but nothing more.

What slowed my steps was the Tree’s ambient energy, not the quantity, but the quality of the energy.

What leaked from the Tree was a minuscule amount of energy, insignificant by my usual standards. Yet, the quality of that energy was so different, so refined, so divine, that my body had to pause just to acclimate to it.

Of course, as a magic user, I could still advance, albeit slowly. And though it took a while, I reached it, stopping right in front of the nebules Tree.

With a shaking body, that I couldn’t quite knew why it was shaking, as nothing was wrong with it according to my mystical senses, not that my mystical senses could sense the uncomprehensible power in front of me, I placed my hand on the trunk.

Unsurprisingly, nothing happened, and my hand phased into the trunk.

I kind of predicted it, the Tree was a form of energy after all, I couldn’t interact with it using physical means.

To interact with it meant, I had to trigger it with mana, and Agnil had done exactly that, dying in the process.

I was about to do the same but before that, I dove into my soul scape.

As always, it was white.

Pure white extending in all directions as far as I could see.

Lifting up my hand, I observed it. It was silvery white as usual with a rare hint of gold. Turing my head, I looked back, six black pikes coming into my view.

Tapping those pikes, I said as if coaxing a child, "Wakey, wakey~ I have prepared a meal for you."

"Wakey, wakey~"0

"Wakey, wakey~"

I kept going on, and for those who are thinking I am being ridiculous —no, I was not. This was how I built rapport with the unidentified power in my back.

In fact, I had identified a few of its quirks over a few sessions.

First, it was intelligent but animalistic, I could somewhat understand it as my soul was connected with it.

Second, it was hungry, bottomlessly so, and I was its food.

Third, the timer I had left for the next pike’s assimilation got lower everytime I interacted with it, meaning it got hungrier each time I woke it up.

Fourth, I could make him listen to me, if I could be persuasive enough, except during the assimilation where it could have any piece of me.

And fifth, we couldn’t be separated as long as one of us existed.

"Wakey, wakey~"

"I got food for you, food~ Who’s hungry? Get some food~"

I kept trying, and then, the pikes started vibrating. Turning and twisting, revealing red veins of magic power that made my head spin everytime looked at them. Then, the vibration stopped, as I felt a subtle heat through the pikes… The pikes, they were completely awake.

Unlimited power V/S unlimited power.

It starts now.