Epic of Ice Dragon: Reborn As An Ice Dragon With A System-Chapter 1556 Demonic Yggdrasil Tree Seedling Spirit

-----

All materials came together, including the soul orbs. The ticket's powers activated, imbuing them with bright light and then fusing all the things into a single entity. Yeah, it was four orbs with four souls, but I only had one ticket, so a spirit with four souls will have to do for now. I couldn't afford any more. I can make Divine Spirits with my Spirit Creation Ability, but they're only temporary and disappear after a few minutes at most.

FLAAASH!

The System and I were left speechless as the shape of the new spirit went from a gigantic one to a very, very small one. Once it was finally over, the spirit was no bigger than the palm of my humanoid hand. And it was slightly spherical, seed shaped.

"Kyuuh!"

It gave out a tiny little sound, and it was quite literally a brown-colored seed. With striking red marks resembling bloody scars, and an aura of both demonic energy and nature spirit essence. It had a small sprout growing from its head, which was adorned by a pair of red leaves.

It had eyes, yes, two small, black eyes that resembled dots. It had no visible mouth, and nothing else to see. We didn't think it would become this small. I was half-expecting this creature to become a large demonic tree with an eldritch appearance or something.

But instead I got a very adorable floating seedling, I can't complain.

[You have successfully created the Divine Spirit [Demonic Yggdrasil Tree Seedling (Rank 6: Initial Stage)]!]

[Please choose a name to complete the bond between the spirit and your soul.]

"So you're still a demonic Yggdrasil tree, huh?" I wondered, patting the little thing with my fingers. "Okay then, calling you "test subject" would be too on the nose. Let's go with a cool name, Ashlock. How about it?"

"Kyuuh!"

[The name [Ashlock] has been chosen for the [Demonic Yggdrasil Tree Seedling (Rank 6: Initial Stage)]!] 𝒻𝓇𝘦𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝑚

[Ashlock] has developed their first Unique Ability: [Predation]!]

"[Predation]?" I wondered. "That's… quite a name for an ability a little tree can have. What can it even do?"

"Kyuuuh!"

Suddenly, Ashlock flew away from my hands and slowly fell into the ground, seeking something. It grew a dozen of sharp, red colored roots out of its base, and pierced the grass with them. After a couple of seconds, it retrieved them back, now full of rodents it caught.

[Look closely…]

"Nom, nom!"

Ashlock's roots started drying the dead rodents until they became mummies and fell apart into ashes. And once it did, it felt much stronger, as if it had drained their complete lifeforce. But that wasn't all, through its entire spiritual body, the lifeforce and mana they drained from these rodents became tiny bits of demonic energy, further nourishing its growth.

"What? So it can use that to drain a target of their essence?" I wondered. "And then somehow turn it into demonic energy. Kind of like plants turn sunlight and carbon dioxide into their own food, huh?"

"Kyuuh!" Ashlock flew to my head and rested above my hair.

"Hey, you're getting pretty comfortable with me already, huh?" I laughed a bit. "Well, I wonder, can you help me cultivate demonic energy and produce it faster?"

Ashlock remained in silence and then touched my horns with its roots, imbuing into me small amounts of demonic energy. This time, this energy was fused with spirit energy and nature elemental essence.

It was strangely different, but much easier to control as well. This is pretty much the creation of someone as ancient as the three Demons. The Demon of Technology was a very smart scientist that was renowned over robotics and bioengineering.

And Ashlock here is the spirit form of one of its children, the Demonic Trees capable of draining miasma, and which managed to cleanse the world of Yggdrasil after the invasion of the Chaos Realm.

I wonder where the other Demonic Trees could be though. Did they die after their job was done?

[I believe that he most likely programmed them to be that way… Wait, why do I believe that? Its odd, after seeing those dreams and memories, it feels like I know this person a lot.]

"Maybe it has to do with the computer he had?" I wondered. "It is also a mystery. Your origins… Might not just a Unique Skill, there's something else behind all of this."

[I know… But it is hard to remember it all. The name of the supercomputer Andromeda, Jonathan's words… And even the visions of his own world. It all brings some sort of sense of nostalgia deep down.]

"Do you think that if we fix the errors in your system's core, we can find some clues?" I asked her.

[Definitely. I feel like… There was something deep within me, information that I wasn't allowed to learn since my "birth" as I was created as your Unique Skill. But when I had to reset myself to evolve into a Divine System, my core glitched and was full of errors, but these errors and glithces opened the way to such memories.]

[They're still clogging the way but… If we can solve all these problems, it might be possible for us to find more clues. Something that can tell me for sure that I was once something else, and that I have a purpose aside from being at your side, Drake.]

[But will you be okay with me remembering something? What if I change? What if this purpose… Makes me want to prioritize something else instead of you or Kate?]

"Will you?" I asked her. "Even then, I doubt that would happen. You remembered most of your memories already, you're back to who you were and its thanks to little Kate. She's our little miracle, our daughter. And, quite honestly, think that there's no way you will leave us aside to prioritize any purpose. Your purpose is already with us."

[Perhaps… You're not wrong. I… Thanks for being there for me] Her projection appeared in front of me, as she hugged me.

"I'll always be there for you… Quite literally, we're stuck together." I laughed. "Now, should we go meet Kate and everyone else? I want to show them little Ashlock."

[For sure! Let's go. I want to meet her. Kate's smile always soothes my worries.]

-----