Chapter 366 A Frightening Situation
Meanwhile,
Ray's mother fought against the apparition of the tree fiercely. Locked in combat, Ray's mother tried to avoid getting hit as much as she could but she was only human. She tried everything but there were some attacks that would eventually hit her and those attacks piled up.
Albeit slowly, the damage took toll on her body and that was being reflected on the result of the battle.
Slowly, the battle started to tilt in the apparition's favor while all that Ray's mother was left to do was either to dodge or block the attacks.
On the other hand, Ray was trying his best to damage the tree as much as he could. However, that was proving to be much harder than before. The branches were continuously going after him and unlike before, he didn't have the help of his mother to fight against the branches and that put Ray in a pickle.
His speed had reduced by a lot whereas another big problem was posing an issue for him. The form he was currently using was putting a load on his mana core and Ray feared that if he exerted any more pressure, the already cracked mana core of his would turn worse and crack more or even worse, it would shatter.
Fearing that, all Ray could do was use a quarter of his maximum power and it wasn't enough for what he was doing.
Looking down at the base of the tree, Ray noticed that even Sirius was tiring out. He had already lost alot of blood and it was to the point that his supernatural regeneration was finding it hard to cope up with and so, Sirius was also slowing down while his attacks were also losing their power. They weren't as fierce as before and neither did they do as much damage as they did before and hence, it worried Ray even more.
"Aliya, what's the situation with Aella?" Ray asked, thinking of focusing on Aella's rescue first as the goal of bringing down the tree was seeming more and more far fetched with every second that passed.
"Nothing yet, Emma asked me to wait. I guess she has some trick to solve the issue," Elina's voice sounded from the other side as Ray sighed.
He was really confused about what to do with the whole situation because from how it looked, it was either they going all out and escaping right now or die trying.
"What do I do?" Questioning himself in desperation, Ray once again found himself asking Aurora.
"Aurora, I need your help," He turned to her, his voice was cracking while his eyes were clearly showing him to be on the verge of breaking down.
"Such a kid," Aurora commented and said, "Just do what you do Ray. Use the tools and knowledge at your disposal and finish the tree. Use the staff and do what you intended to do in the first place,"
"But the price for it is too big," Ray said back, a hint of displeasure in his voice as he seemed against the idea of using the Yagdrassil staff to finish off the tree.
"Ray, believe me. If you don't do anything now, you will regret if for the rest of your life. A few plants and beasts aren't worth that at all," As Aurora said those words, she made sure to flash some of the best memories Ray had with his loved ones in front of his eyes.
As those memories flashed in front his eyes as slowly, his resolve was steeled, "I wont stop, not now; not ever," Saying those words, he took out the Yagdrassil staff from his dimensional storage and retreated back from the tree.
He stared at the tree and sensed the mana flowing within his body, "I know it's dangerous but i need to do it atleast once," thinking that, he asked Aurora to look out for him and inform him when he reached the limit.
Doing so, Ray started to slowly increase the flow of his bloodline energy within his mana core. As the bloodline energy flowed more and more, the mana that previously flowed through decreased.
It was a natural phenomenon that happened because of the opposing natures of bloodline energy and mana. Both can't exist together and hence repelled one another. Also, it was safe to say that the mana core was the natural place for mana and not for bloodline energy and hence, when he filled it with bloodline energy, the effect wasn't good for Ray in any way possible.
However, it was the only way Ray had and he knew that he was walking on a thin thread but for the future that he wanted, he had to.
As the bloodline energy was pumped from the mana core to the rest of his body, his strength naturally increased while his features also changed. The faint scales on his skin turned clearer and even reflected under the faint light in the sky while the horns on his head grew longer and curved slightly upwards as a purple flame was ignited on them.
His tail also elongated behind him as spikes formed over it. The spikes were in form of Void Shards and they were filled to the brim with chaotic energy that made the space around them tremble.
His irises turned purple as the temporal flame burned within them. Following that, Ray's hands and legs also changed. Claws elongated in place of his nails while all over his body, runic patterns had appeared. The patterns resembled a huge starry void within which a flame burned earnestly and every few seconds, the void and flame pulsed simultaneously as they released waves of energy that travelled through his body.
The energy empowered Ray and in turn fueled the new abilities he had gained from the transformation. Looking down at his palm, Ray clenched it into a fist as a deep fury burned in his eyes. He looked up at the tree and grabbed the staff tightly. During all this time, the staff had been gathering power as it floated around him silently.
"Ray, you are currently using half of the maximum power you can hold and it is already turning out to be a huge toll on your body. You have ten minutes at max before your mana core cracks even more and your body shuts down. I suggest you hurry up," Aurora spoke in his mind as Ray nodded at her and then looked at the tree.
He waved the staff as the temporary link he had formed with it gave him an idea of the staff's powers that it could use. Amongst those powers was one called,
[Life Banishment],
This was a great power derived from the world tree itself and what it did was very simple. The world tree was the connector of many worlds and in turn it had a certain control over souls that belonged to those worlds. Therefore, whenever this power was activated, the user could choose a target and sever its soul from the main body.
Though it had various requirement and the most important was that the power needed the life force equivalent of the target to work. Since the world tree itself was a legendary existence, it didn't matter much when it used that power but for Ray, it was a huge obstacle and hence, Ray had to use the life force available in his surroundings.
He raised the staff in the air and activated [Life Banishment]. Following its activation, a green light shone over the staff as it spread out in the surroundings, searching for sources of life force as slowly; the already withered forest started wither out even more.
The plants wilted while the grass lost its color. The trees turned to dried husk while the soil turned to sand. Everything was being destroyed while their life force was sucked out of them.
It caused great changes and that didnt skip the notice one being. The target itself, the malevolent tree sensed the change and its spirit turned its attention from Ray's mother to Ray.
He looked at Ray and then at the staff in his hand. As soon as he saw that staff, an imperceptible fury ignited in his eyes. Though hidden behind the fury was another emotion, even darker and more deeper than the fury that burned within him.
The emotion was greed. An emotion that had caused various races to fall and rise, the emotion burned everywhere where life existed and right now, it burned deeply within the malevolent tree's spirit.
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A/N:- Hello everyone. Im your author and am deeply sorry for being so inconsistent with the chapters. I hereby apologize and promise that it wont happen again.
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