My world-tree system-Chapter 36 - 35: Avatar of life

Foster opened the System interface with a simple thought.

The bluish words appeared before his eyes:

[Quest Completed: Turn 50 Wood Elves into World Tree Elves]

[Reward revealed: A drop of the Water of Life]

A shiver ran down her spine as a small crystal bottle appeared in her hands. It was light, almost unreal, but the liquid it contained pulsed with a primordial energy, an essence of pure creation.

The Water of Life.

[Description: A legendary artefact, a mythical substance that even the world’s greatest mages could only hope to contemplate].

Foster clutched the bottle, inhaling deeply.

- The description is vague...

As he opened the bottle, he suddenly felt something very hot in his chest, reacting very strongly to the liquid.

- What is it?

His inner World Tree Seed was literally burning.

- Double or nothing!

He drank the entire bottle and guided the liquid next to his heart, where the seed was located.

The effect was instantaneous.

A sharp pain shot through him, burning and freezing at the same time, as if a storm of divine energy had seeped into him. His heart beat at a frenetic pace, then a new force exploded inside him.

His vision shifted.

His mind was sucked into a vortex of blinding light. He felt his body dissolve, every shred of his essence projected into an infinite space, yet contained within itself.

He was falling.

No... he was being drawn.

A powerful, primordial force was pulling him towards a place he didn’t know...

When he opened his eyes, he was no longer in Vollua.

The sky above him was neither blue nor black, but a cosmic expanse where thousands of ethereal green lights danced. The ground beneath his feet was not earth, but a surface of pure, living, breathing energy.

Then he saw it.

The Tree.

At the centre of this inner space, his World Tree Seed had sprouted.

It was no longer just a seed hidden deep in his soul. Now a sturdy young trunk stood before him, its roots reaching into the very ether of his being, feeding on its essence.

But this was only the beginning.

Foster felt the effect of the Water of Life take full effect.

First, the roots quivered. They plunged deeper into the immaterial soil, stretching out, greedily sucking up the surrounding energy. Every fibre of wood grew before his eyes, like a hungry beast discovering its food source.

Then the trunk vibrated.

It was no longer smooth and young. It swelled, hardened and sculpted under the effect of sudden growth, as if a thousand years of development had been compressed into a few moments.

Foster felt every beat of this evolution in his own flesh.

His breathing became erratic.

His heart followed the rhythm of this mad expansion, pumping out raw, uncontrollable energy. Her magic was boiling, a raging sea desperate to express itself.

Then the branches appeared.

Thin growths sprouted from the trunk, timid at first, as if hesitant. But as soon as they touched the surrounding ether, they stretched out with an incredible frenzy, multiplying, thickening, forming a luminous canopy.

Leaves were born.

A deeper green than anything he’d seen before, they pulsed like living hearts, each leaf containing a fraction of raw life energy within itself.

The air around Foster changed.

It was no longer simply an interior space.

It had become a domain. A kingdom.

And this inner World Tree was its heart.

Another shiver ran through Foster as he felt a profound change inside him.

He was... bigger.

Not physically, but in his very essence. His being had expanded, his power was rising, as if the expansion of his Inner Tree was expanding everything he was tenfold.

[Ding , Your connection with the Seed of the World Tree has evolved].

[You have reached Adept level 7]

His grimoire suddenly opened in front of him, its pages fluttering at breakneck speed as writing filled the pages.

- What’s this grimoire doing here?

Foster inhaled deeply, his thoughts racing.

Then he heard the voices.

At first, they were just whispers.

Ancient. Distant.

But very quickly they became clear, precise, powerful.

He turned his head slowly.

Translucent silhouettes formed around him.

Majestic beings, figures from forgotten eras.

Their gazes rested on him, appraising, filled with unfathomable wisdom.

One of them stepped forward.

An immense woman, with skin like polished bark, whose presence alone exuded a natural authority.

- We were the bearers of the seed and you’re next.

A second voice, deeper and heavier, sounded behind her.

- We all walked this path before you. Everyone has left their mark... now it’s your turn.

A softer, almost sad whisper:

- The burden is heavy, Foster. But we’re with you. Always with you.

Foster felt a chill in the depths of his soul.

What he was experiencing at that moment was beyond all mortal comprehension.

This seed wasn’t just an artefact or a product of nature, no, it was a legacy.

Foster looked down at the notification that had just appeared.

[The Avatar of Life]

[Description: Allows you to enter a state where the experience of previous Avatars of the Seed is maximised within you. Each user from the past speaks to you, guides you and strengthens your abilities for a limited time].

Taking a deep breath, he raised a trembling hand, then placed it against the trunk of his inner World Tree.

- Show me.

The Avatars smiled.

A flood of visions swept through him.

He saw himself brandishing a blade under a stormy sky, annihilating entire legions.

He saw himself manipulating magic with inhuman precision, reshaping the world around him with a simple gesture.

He felt the pain of every wound, the satisfaction of every victory, the crushing of every defeat.

He was every one of them.

He had lived their lives, fought their wars, suffered their losses.

And now their experiences belonged to him.

His mind was expanding. His thoughts increased tenfold. His reflexes were perfected.

His body was reacting to millennia of knowledge he hadn’t possessed a second earlier.

His muscles remembered.

His bones were getting stronger.

His blood burned with a new power.

Then the pain struck.

Brutal. Devouring.

The transformation began.

Before her eyes, her skin lit up.

Patterns appeared on her palms, spreading slowly down her arms, tracing their intertwined roots to her shoulders.

Then her back blazed with incandescent light.

A sacred circle took shape, covered in archaic runes and beating like a living heart.

Finally, a final mark was inscribed on his torso, stretching from his sternum to his abdomen. A well of power.

Then his eyes changed.

They were no longer simple human eyes.

They were two wells of pure energy, a perfect fusion of Ki and primordial magic.

He was no longer just Foster.

He was the Avatar.

A being forged by generations of experience, a living weapon sculpted from the memory of the seven previous Avatars.

Then the World Tree answered.

Its branches trembled.

An invisible wind arose, carrying with it an ancient, primordial energy.

Foster became a fragment of this tree, an extension of his will.

His Ki exploded.

His mana devastated the space around him.

The universe resonated with him.

He no longer needed to think.

Every movement was precise.

Every breath perfect.

Every heartbeat synchronised with absolute power.

He was a war machine, devoid of hesitation. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Doubts? Weakness? Fragility?

All that remained was certainty.

Like an immense breath of air sucked into nothingness, Foster’s transcendence dissipated in a fraction of a second. His entire being was thrown out of the inner world.

- This state consumes too much energy...

One moment, he was an absolute entity, connected to the memories and power of seven generations of Avatars.

The next, he was falling.

His body fell violently to the spiritual ground of the inner world. A cold shiver ran through him.

He gasped.

His heart beat in a chaotic, out-of-sync rhythm. His lungs refused to inflate completely. His muscles tensed to the breaking point, keeping him pinned to the ground, unable to move in the slightest.

He felt as if a thousand invisible needles were ploughing through his nerves. His own blood was burning, as if it were on fire under his own skin.

Then the real pain hit him.

Foster screamed.

Incandescent pain exploded in his bones, his Ki surged uncontrollably, his magic refused to flow normally.

His once majestic golden tattoos gradually faded.

He tried to sit up. His arm shook violently under his own weight. His legs refused to obey.

He was at his wits’ end.

A superior being for a moment...

... and now reduced to an exhausted wreck, unable even to stand.

A hoarse laugh echoed in the immaterial air.

- Ha... So that’s the limit of our heir.’

Foster raised his head with difficulty.

The Seven Avatars stood before him. As imposing as ever. As unfathomable as ever.

But this time, he could feel their stares weighing down on him like a sentence.

One of them knelt down beside him.

- You have tasted power, Foster. His voice was deep, vibrating with an ancient weight. ’But that power comes at a price.’

Another Avatar crossed his arms, a stern look on his face.

- ’Did you really think you could carry such a load without consequence?’

Foster gritted his teeth.

He wanted to retort, but his body refused to respond. He had no energy left.

A third Avatar stepped forward, his gaze imbued with impenetrable wisdom.

- The Avatar of Life confers absolute power on you...’ He paused, looking at him critically. ’But a mortal like you cannot bear the weight of it for too long.’

- ’Every second spent in this state reduces your stamina, consumes your vital energy, and crushes your own spirit under a flood of memories and experiences that your soul cannot fully absorb.’

Foster felt a cold sweat run down his forehead. He remembered...

The absence of doubt.

The absence of fear.

The absence of hesitation.

The Avatar State was a perfect weapon. A state where everything was clear.

But now that he was out of it... the aftermath was terrible.

A fourth Avatar crouched beside him, his gaze filled with compassion.

- Using this power is like burning a candle at both ends. He pointed to the pain twisting Foster’s body. "If you abuse it, you’ll end up broken. Definitely."

The first Avatar, the one who had reached out to him earlier, laid a heavy hand on his shoulder.

- "But... you can learn."

Foster blinked, still panting with exhaustion.

- "Learn?" he whispered hoarsely.

The Avatar nodded slowly.

- Yes, like all of us before you, you must learn to bear this burden.

A fifth Avatar, quieter until then, took a step forward.

- "Your first activation lasted barely a few minutes... and put you in this state." He crossed his arms thoughtfully. "As you grow, your stamina in this state will increase. Perhaps one day... you’ll be able to hold the Avatar for hours on end."

The Sixth Avatar raised an eyebrow.

- "Or even days."

The last Avatar, the eldest of them all, merely glared at Foster.

- "But as it is... even five minutes is enough to reduce you to ashes."

Foster gritted his teeth. This power was double-edged.

The Avatar of Life made him a force of nature

... ...but he risked killing himself by using it too long.

The old Avatars looked at him in silence, before the first one spoke again.

- "We cannot give you more than you have already received."

The second Avatar nodded.

- "But we can teach you how to bear this burden."

Foster took a deep breath. His body was still burning, he was still shaking, he was exhausted beyond belief.

But he understood one thing.

This power was not to be used lightly.

It was not a trick, not an instantaneous transformation without consequence.

It was a weapon, and a poorly mastered weapon could be more dangerous to its bearer than to its enemies.

He lifted his head with difficulty.

- "Teach me."

The Avatars smiled.

The oldest of them took a step forward, holding out a hand.

- Go and do what you have to do outside, we’ll contact you when the time is right.