Chapter 468: Crown of the Withered

Ashlock felt like he had checked on the library at an awkward time.

Stella was standing waist-deep in the ink lake and having a standoff with Kaida—or at least, that's the vibe he got from seeing Kaida's intense glare at his daughter.

"What a dumb question," Kaida said, breaking eye contact with Stella after an intense silence and looking at a giant silver dragon egg. "How could I like her? We just met hours ago."

"Is that egg Nymeria?" Ashlock wondered as he pieced together the situation from context clues. "If so, how did that happen?"

Oblivious to his confusion, Stella shrugged. "That shouldn't matter—Diana told me there's a thing called 'love at first sight,' and you certainly went above and beyond for Nymeria, who is some random monster."

"Okay, that egg is definitely Nymeria," Ashlock mused. But he still couldn't figure out what Stella was asking Kaida about. Love at first sight? Was she accusing Kaida and Nymeria of loving each other? All he had seen them do was briefly talk.

"She's not some random monster," Kaida snarled.

Stella smiled. "Oh? Are you sure? Didn't you just admit you only met her a few hours ago?"

"Fine," Kaida narrowed his eyes. "Maybe I do have some attraction to her, but so what? Why is that any of your business?"

Stella blinked. "It's not, I was just curious. You're free to do whatever you want. It's not like I'm going to stop you or anything."

"Humans are strange creatures," Kaida said and let out an amused snort. "What even is love at first sight? I simply deemed Nymeria as a suitable mate."

"Why? Because she's the first dragon you have come across?"

"She's not even a real dragon," Kaida traced his finger along the egg. "But after this, she will be."

"Wait," Stella stepped forward, sending ripples through the ink lake, "what did you do to her?"

"Don't look at me like that," Kaida said. "Her vessel was too damaged, and Astralis's attack had grazed her soul, which is why traditional healing techniques didn't work. Therefore, I had to repair her damaged soul."

"That's what that massive array shooting lightning was for? I thought it was just healing her body... not changing her?"

Kaida sighed. "I tried to change her as little as possible, but I had to hastily construct the array, and I'm not well-versed in repairing souls, so there's a chance I went too far. We can only hope for the best."

"I can take a look," Ashlock offered through abyssal whispers after seeing an opportunity to join the heated conversation.

"Tree!" Stella said excitedly, but then her mood soured. "I'm... sorry."

Ashlock was confused. "Sorry about what?"

"You know..." Stella said hesitantly as she played with her ink-drenched cloak. "I shouldn't have forced my way onto that mission. You set the condition of me reaching the Nascent Soul Realm before going into the beast tide, but I ignored it and came anyway. I thought with Larry there I would be safe, but his domain can't save me if the enemy strikes first."

Ashlock appreciated the self-reflection and knew this was a good opportunity to scold her some more, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He never claimed to be a good parent—he might even be a terrible one.

"I'm just glad you are okay," he said, voicing his honest thoughts. "But yeah, don't do that again. I want you to be safe, you know?"

Stella nodded. "I don't want to die either, Tree. I just got carried away and forgot how dangerous it would be to go into the beast tide. Speaking of, how are Moros and the spirit trees? Did Astralis cut it in half?"

"Almost, but Erebus managed to barely stop it with void Qi by relying on my entire Qi pool at the time. So Moros and the spirit trees are safe."

Stella whistled in amazement. "That's a relief, but that dragon sure had some firepower."

"Yes, cosmic Qi is known to have one of the highest firepower potentials out of all the affinities, and Astralis was a whole realm above Erebus."

"Is void Qi really that strong?" Stella mused.

"Depends on what you define as strong. For the insane amount of Qi I spent, I could have blocked that attack many times over with a more basic affinity like earth or water. I'd say void Qi can only be considered a strong defensive affinity when the user has the Qi pool and regeneration that I have. If Elaine had to try and mirror what I did, she would have run out of Qi within a second. Now, as an offensive affinity? I'd argue it's unmatched."

"Wait," Stella patted her ink-stained hands on her head and found nothing there. "Where's Maple?"

Kaida tilted his head forward, showing the squirrel slumbering. Stella appeared beside Kaida in a flash of white flames and carefully picked up and cradled the sleeping Maple. "What happened to him? He seems injured," she asked after noticing his bloodstained fur.

"Maple fought against Astralis and managed to drive him away," Ashlock said.

"He... lost?" Stella looked down at Maple in surprise, "I thought you said the void was unmatched as an offensive affinity?"

"Unless the opponent is divine, then they are immune to the void," Ashlock said. "However, if Astralis was a divine being and immune to the void, I don't see why he would flee and not go for the kill. My theory is that while Maple is technically stronger than Astralis, he wasn't able to defend against multiple high-intensity cosmic Qi attacks while also contending with the world rejecting his existence."

There was a reason Maple remained in his tiny form and chose not to speak too much. It was incredibly hard for him to cultivate within a reality that rejected his very existence.

"Perhaps once his rage against Astralis for hurting you faded, he decided to focus on scaring Astralis off rather than going for the kill. You can ask him yourself when he wakes up."

"Awww," Stella said, lovingly rubbing Maple's head. "I appreciate the sentiment for standing up for me, but I was the dumb one who rushed into a star beam to get Nymeria out of there," she leaned in and kissed the squirrel on the head. "You don't need to hurt yourself for me, little guy."

Maple rolled over in response.

As great as this moment of peace was, they were on a tight time schedule, so Ashlock had to ruin the mood and get people moving.

"Say, Stella. Could you go and grab Douglas and a few Mudcloaks for me?"

"Huh? Sure, I guess," Stella said with fewer questions and less resistance than he was expecting. Placing Maple on her head, the sleeping squirrel reached out and held onto the tufts of her hair. With that, she vanished in a flash of white flames, and he felt her then use the ethereal root network that linked to Nightrose City, where Douglas was currently overseeing the Mudcloaks.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Now, about this egg," Ashlock said as he opened a portal and peered through it with his Evil Eye. Inside, he could see Nymeria. She looked the same as before, just curled up. However, there were a few notable changes. First, she was growing a tail. Second, she was growing a pair of wings. But her overall appearance still remained humanoid. He shared his findings with Kaida, and he seemed pleased with the changes.

Not seeing anything else wrong and surprised at how good of a job Kaida had done, Ashlock closed the portal and his eye. Coming from Earth, he obviously mirrored Stella's casual attitude toward Kaida and Nymeria having a relationship. So long as it didn't get in the way of them surviving the beast tide, he was all for it.

Stella hadn't yet returned with Douglas, so he switched his focus to the large number of sacrificial credits he had saved up. It was clear that if he wanted to deal with a Primal Overlord, he had to power up, and there was no better way to do that than relying on his golden finger in this world—the system.

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3680

Daily Credit: 22

Sacrifice Credit: 2285

[Sign in?]

"Mhm, 2285 credits is enough to guarantee an S grade random draw, or I could upgrade two of my B grade skills into A grade ones. I'm really tempted to do a random draw, but let me check what skills I have and see if any are worth upgrading first."

[Demonic Demi-Divine Tree (Age: 10)]

[Nascent Soul Realm: 5th Stage]

[Soul Type: Nine Moons (Desolation)]

[Mutations...]

{Evil Eye [A]}

{Cursebloom Sap [A]}

[Summons...]

{Netherwood Wraith: Nox [Mythical]}

{Harbinger of the Eternal Ash: Larry [SS]}

{Celestial Ink Dragon: Kaida [A]}

[Soul Weapons...]

{The Sword of New Beginnings [?]}

[Skills...]

{Skyborne Bastion [SSS]}

{Necroflora Sovereign [SS]}

{Divine Cycle of Creation and Ruin [SS]}

{Mystic Realm [S]} [Locked until day: 3699]

{Progeny Dominion [S]}

{Dimensional Overlap [S]}

{Nocturnal Genesis [S]}

{Ethereal Roots [S]}

{Voidstorm Aegis [S]}

{Dao Fruit Production [S]}

{Abyssal Maw [S]}

{Eye of the Tree God [A]}

{Abyssal Whispers [A]}

{Magic Mushroom Production [A]}

{Soul Fortress [A]}

{Language of the Eldertree [A]}

{Blooming Root Flower Production [B]}

{Fire Qi Protection [B]}

{Superior Poison Resistance [C]}

Whenever he saw his complete skill list floating in his consciousness, he was reminded of just how far he had come in a mere decade. When he was a little sapling, he only had a handful of skills. Now, the list was so long he could hardly see it all in one go.

"I wish I had enough credits to upgrade {Necroflora Sovereign [SS]} as the beast tide has really shown how useful, but also lacking the skill is. Out of curiosity, system, how much would upgrading my Ent skill cost?"

[Directly upgrading the skill {Necroflora Sovereign [SS]} will consume 9830 credits]

"Yeah..." Ashlock chuckled. "I ain't got anywhere near that much, and none of my B-grade skills seem worthwhile to upgrade right now to help me deal with a Primal Overlord."

That meant he could justifiably gamble!

"I wonder what I'll get from the gacha? Another skill? Or perhaps something different this time, like a mutation, new summon, or possibly even an item."

[Do you wish to random draw with 2307 total credits?]

Ashlock stared at the floating message. It was a lot to spend on the unknown, but it wasn't like whatever the system gave him was going to be useless. No matter if it was a skill, summon, mutation, or item, S-grade was still S-grade. It was going to be a game-changer.

Right as he was about to gamble, Stella and Douglas emerged from the ethereal root network alongside a few Mudcloaks.

"We are back, Tree!" Stella shouted.

"Welcome back, and thank you for bringing Douglas—just hold tight for a minute. I'm in the middle of something."

"Sure," Stella led Douglas toward her bench, and they sat down to wait. The Mudcloaks began wrestling one another for no particular reason, but Ashlock left them to it. He had bigger things to focus on right now.

"Okay, system," Ashlock said. "Let's do it."

[Sign in successful, 2307 credits consumed...]

[Unlocked an S-grade mutation: Crown of the Withered Sovereign [S]]

"An S-grade mutation?!" Ashlock was surprised, as he had fully been expecting to receive another skill. Both of his current mutations—Evil Eye and Cursebloom Sap—were incredibly useful and at the A grade. What could an S-grade mutation that sat a tier above those two possibly do?

The name alone, Crown of the Withered Sovereign, sounded quite domineering. However, before he could ask about it, his trunk began to groan and creak as if it were being torn from within—a soul-wrenching pain as if he were on fire, followed swiftly.

A message flashed in his vision.

[To preserve the sanity of your soul while inheriting the Crown of the Withered Sovereign, the skills {Nocturnal Genesis [S]} and {Soul Fortress [A]} will be forcefully activated]

"Tree?" Stella stood up worriedly from the bench, looking up at his canopy, "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing to be worried about. I'm just going to be going through some changes," Ashlock said in an attempt to reassure her, though he wasn't even sure what changes this Crown of the Withered Sovereignmutation would entail. "Wait there until I wake up. Okay?"

[Estimated time until complete mutation assimilation: 6 hours]

"I'll be awake before sundown..." Ashlock slurred as his consciousness slipped away.

***

Stella was somewhat reassured by Ash's words, but fear crept back into her heart as giant cracks appeared down Ash's trunk, and the intense groaning of wood being warped and snapped reverberated from within.

She and Douglas stood side by side near the bench, staring up at Ash's towering form. He was over two hundred meters tall, with his canopy sprawling out to cover half the mountain peak. When she had been a child, she had almost managed to wrap her hands around his trunk. But now? Ash's trunk was so wide to support his massive size that it took time to walk around him. Even the branches that she had once barely managed to sit on without breaking under her weight were now thick and wide enough to build something on.

If he were to collapse, like the sounds from within were suggesting might happen, Ash would tear apart the mountain peak during his fall with his roots before flattening everything under his immense weight—the library, the citadel that the Mudcloaks called home, and the dozens of spirit trees that lived on Red Vine Peak would be obliterated.

Douglas took a few steps back, concern deeply entrenched on his face. "Is he really going to be fine?"

"I... don't know," Stella said, at a loss for what to do. She had only been gone a few minutes to fetch Douglas. What had possibly happened in the time she was gone?

As the noise from within got louder, large pieces of Ash's bark began to wither away and turn into black dust that started orbiting him in a ring just below his canopy.

"What is happening?" Kaida asked as he floated through the air toward them.

"Kaida! That's what I was going to ask you!" Stella said, a slight panic in her tone. "All he told me was to sit and wait as he was in the middle of something, and then he told me he was going through some changes and would be done by sundown—"

"Relax, Stella," Kaida said smoothly, his golden eyes meeting her gaze. "Breathe in and out. He's going to be fine, okay?"

Stella did as Kaida suggested and felt better.

Satisfied that she had calmed down, the dragon looked up at Ash's canopy and said, "If Master said he was going through some changes, then all we can do is sit back and watch history in the making."

There was a giant cracking sound that made all three of them flinch—it was so loud Stella felt it rattle her bones, and it echoed throughout the mountain range.

Looking up, they saw one of Ashlock's largest branches, which loomed over the mountain peak, splitting in half. They didn't need to exchange words as they sprang into action. Stella's spatial ring flashed, and she summoned her flying sword. Douglas followed suit, and the pair of them flew up.

"We need to stop it from falling down and crushing everything!" Stella shouted over the roaring wind and rain that battered Ash's canopy.

"But how?!" Douglas shouted back. "Do you have any idea how much this thing weighs?! If it falls, there's no chance we can stop it."

"I can," Kaida said as golden writing began to appear on his body. "I'll suspend it in the air by reversing gravity with a formation—you two find one of the larger Ents that can hold this up."

Stella shook her head. "There are none that are two hundred meters tall! We have to handle this ourselves."

Douglas shouted a suggestion, "The Mudcloaks! They might have a contraption of some kind that can help—" He was cut off by the massive branch further splitting apart. In a panic, the three of them used their bodies to stop its fall.

"Agh!" Stella grunted as her Star Core thumped loudly in her chest. Her entire body blazed with white flames, yet no matter how much she pushed, it felt like she was up against a stone wall. But she also wasn't falling... were her efforts really stopping the branch from falling?

The answer came when, instead of falling... the pressure on her back lightened, and the branch began to curl upwards. At first, Stella thought Kaida had deployed his formation, but the dragon seemed as confused as she was.

Stella floated backward to give it room and watched in awe as the branch slowly continued to twist upwards over the course of an hour until it was almost vertical. More bone-rattling cracks followed, and the trio watched in silent wonder as more and more of Ash's branches defied logic and rose to point at the heavens.

"What is he doing?" Douglas muttered after a while.

Stella glanced at Douglas and noticed the gem-encrusted crown on his head. Looking back at Ash and then comparing it to Douglas's crown a few times, she figured it out.

"He's making himself a crown."

The question was, what would this result in?

Looking to the horizon at the afternoon sun, Stella knew that only time would tell.