Angel Monarch-Chapter 536: Soul Tree

Sera took a huge gamble by flying down and giving David her sword. The swift direction change caused Yggdrasil to close the distance, but since Jörmungandr died, the gamble worked out.

However, as the enormous snake hit the ground, concern rose in Sera’s heart. With one Ethereal dead, her chances of defeating the World Tree grew exponentially, yet she felt uneasy.

Under Sera’s armor, Bea had similar thoughts. She knew best how powerful World Trees were. Their regeneration was near impossible to counteract, so how could they kill this ancient tree?

In the air, Sera turned rapidly. She brandished her only sword and with a clean cut, beheaded Yggdrasil. Golden flames spread across her body, burning every single cell to ashes. Her entire body disappeared, leaving both Sera and Bea confused.

’Did you kill her?’ asked Bea inside Sera’s mind.

"I don’t think so. It felt like I cut through a paper replica of a real person... How strange..."

A sudden shiver ran down Sera’s spine as her sense of danger skyrocketed. Her head snapped towards the forest, causing her mouth to fall open in shock.

The great trees, which fell over after Jörmungandr’s pained shout, straightened themselves. A gentle green energy glowed on their surface as tiny, light blue flowers bloomed on their branches.

Across the North American continent, the great trees bloomed, bringing light to the dark night. The roots below began attacking all the monsters living inside the forest. It didn’t care if the creatures were Corrupted, Horrors or Abominations. They all died the same bloody way.

The gigantic forest stretching from the east coast to the west became a massive graveyard as everything died within its dark depths. The last surviving place was the Village, since Sabyr used her powers to hide herself and consequently all humans.

Back on the West Coast, Sera continued floating midair. Her three pairs of wings beat the air with powerful strokes as her golden-green eyes focused on the great forest’s deeper parts.

A loud shriek echoed from its depths, and soon thousands of vines appeared all around Sera. They came from every direction, making escape impossible.

Each vine moved with such vast speed, she could barely recognize the threat before it was too late.

Her silver sword slashed through the air, sending a wave of golden, cleansing flames a few hundred meters forward. She then spun around and sent more fiery flames all around her.

Like a dancer who controlled golden flames, she burned away the vines. When they regrew, she summoned vaporized Angelic Metal, which had a special property... They were molecules with such a sharp design that they cut up everything touching them...

The Angelic Metal barrier shredded the vines, creating a hundred meter wide sphere around Sera. She took a brief sigh of relief, but her guard stayed high.

Another shriek echoed from inside the great forest. The vines continued attacking the barrier, but no matter how many got destroyed, they couldn’t move past it.

Suddenly, however, Sera’s sense of danger rose high once more, as something heavy and enormous flew in her direction.

Her wings beat fast, raising Sera towards the barrier’s top. Below her, an enormous pale snake-like scale pierced the barrier. The Angelic Metal couldn’t destroy the material, since it was the near-impenetrable skin of an Ethereal.

Through the newly made opening, the vines entered the sphere and attacked Sera once again.

The Angel took a deep, annoyed sigh and waved her hand. In the next moment, the entire barrier exploded, bright as the sun. All the vines burned away as Sera’s glowing form flew higher into the air.

However, her efforts became futile, as more tentacles appeared all around her. She glanced around in confusion. Even a few kilometers in the air, it felt as if she stood inside a massive, dark forest.

She swung her sword in wide arcs, abandoning precision for speed. The golden flames burned the vines away as she threw dozens of tiny, Angelic Metal spheres, which exploded a moment later.

The shrieks grew even louder, as if something horrifying was approaching Sera’s position.

Beads of sweat ran down the Angel’s face as her Essence expenditure sent waves of exhaustion across her body. Her wing beats became clumsy and less powerful, yet she fought on uselessly.

Her silver blade cut away a hundred more vines as suddenly, Yggdrasil’s humanoid form jumped out from the vines. A dress made of light blue flower petals covered her green body. The dress had an ethereal glow around it, and just standing in its proximity weakened Sera’s soul.

Bea kept pushing more Essence inside Sera, enabling her to fight past most limits. However, even she couldn’t do anything as Yggdrasil summoned a wooden sword and pierced through the Angel’s skull.

The light immediately left Sera’s eyes as blood dripped along the glowing, light blue blade.

With a wave of Essence, Bea tried bringing her lover back to life, but her efforts were worthless. The blade didn’t just kill Sera’s body... it destroyed her soul...

Sera fell through the darkness. The vines disappeared just as fast as they grew, and didn’t interrupt the Angel’s fall. A couple of seconds later, she hit the ground hard, creating a small crater as the heavy golden armor embedded itself.

A moment later, Bea appeared beside her body. Tears ran down her face as she desperately tried to wake Sera up. She mumbled loving words, speaking of unkept promises, yet the corpse stayed unresponsive.

Seconds passed, and soon gentle footsteps echoed as a pair of naked feet approached Bea. The grassy ground seemed to hug Yggdrasil’s feet, as she appeared standing before the broken woman.

The World Tree’s glowing green eyes stared into Bea’s teary, greenish-gold ones. Yggdrasil seemed confused as she tilted her head.

"You look sad," spoke an ethereal, emotionless voice from the depths of the forest.

That’s when understanding dawned on Bea. Her face went pale as she reached down and brushed her hand against the grass around her feet.

This humanoid creature Jörmungandr tried killing isn’t Yggdrasil. It was just like those vines, which she controlled. A simple avatar, made of her Essence and controlled by her consciousness.

The real Yggdrasil... Earth’s World Tree... That was the entire great forest...

"You killed the love of my life," answered Bea, her voice fully hopeless.

If she only needed to kill this creature, then at least she could’ve achieved vengeance. However, she couldn’t kill a continent-sized forest, so her revenge became impossible.

"Love? What’s that? I only wanted to kill you, but she tried to prevent it."

Bea raised a confused eyebrow, which caused the avatar to tilt its head once again. It didn’t showcase any emotion on its face, just like in its voice.

"Why do you want to kill me? Just because I’m a World Tree too?" asked Bea, while ignoring Yggdrasil’s words. They caused a burning rage in her heart, yet Bea kept her cool for reasons even she couldn’t guess.

"I needed a World Tree to Evolve. You came along, so I wanted to kill you."

"Why do you want to Evolve?"

Yggdrasil glanced towards the foliage above. However, it seemed as if her eyes looked past the trees and dark sky. As if her eyes stared past any physical and metaphysical barrier, gazing at something between the borders of reality.

"That was Its only command. We need to grow stronger and cause havoc. We need to destroy. We need to kill. Until nothing remains of this world."

Bea gazed up at the avatar in utter bewilderment. She couldn’t understand what the hell she was talking about.

"This world? You mean Earth?"

The World Tree reached down and touched the grass. A sudden giggle echoed through the trees as Yggdrasil’s voice reached Bea’s ears...

"World could refer to many things, child. Earth is certainly a world, but there are many more outside its borders. The number of Realms is incalculable, yet It didn’t refer to any specific world... It meant everything inside and outside the borders of reality. True and thorough destruction..."

A violent shiver ran down Bea’s spine. The voice wasn’t emotionless anymore. It spoke clearly, as if it had gained consciousness.

"But don’t worry, child. You won’t witness the end of reality, since you won’t survive the next few seconds!"

Suddenly, roots grew from the ground and tried grasping at Bea’s arms and legs. However, that’s when something strange happened... 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Bea heard as if a glass wall shattered inside her mind. Her entire body trembled as something deep within her soul unlocked and opened.

The light blue glow on the surrounding great trees brightened as Bea recalled something she had read a long time ago... A hint her watch gave to unlocking her third Heritage...

’Let someone crush your world, so the tree inside the soul could blossom.’

The words meant nothing, since she had read them before reconnecting with Sera. She then consequently forgot about them, without ever figuring out its meaning.

Now though, after seeing Sera die permanently. Her soul, where Bea’s Seed sprouted, getting crushed... it unlocked the last vestige of power locked inside her soul.

A sudden burst of energy went through her body, which then it exploded, destroying the great forest around them.

The avatar of Yggdrasil staggered and glanced around confused...

"What? Why am I here?" she asked, then glanced towards Bea with accusatory eyes. "What did you do?"

That was certainly an interesting question, since Bea hadn’t had the slightest clue about her newfound power. Either way, a chance arose before her, and she won’t let it slip through her fingers!

A wooden longsword grew from Bea’s right hand. Bright green energy danced along its blade as she jumped forward, attacking Yggdrasil without warning.