The Tree Of Eden

"Hey old man, how do we leave here and start our journey? I want to go as soon as possible"

"Calm yourself Dryad. We have to select a location first and bypa.s.s your personal body guard, the devourer"

"Oh that guy, nothing to worry about in that case. It can transform into a shadow and protect me since it"s technically my shadow"

"I..see. In that case, chose a gender and we"re good to go"

"You called me a mother one time, so, what"s the gender of a mother?"

"Female..."

"Yes, that"s the one I chose"

"Oh, then touch the symbol then" Dryad nodded and stretched his hand to touch the blue symbol. It glowed brightly and covered Dryad in a bright blue light. After a few minutes, the light subsided and the result left Ariama shocked.

Green skin like the healthiest leaves, brown doey eyes and a figure that made men drool. Dryad as a female was beautiful. Ariama knew even if it chose to be a male, it would still be very handsome. It wasn"t something that Bolsa could control, it was how Dryad was supposed to look like.

"If Amphia, G.o.ddess of beauty, sees you like this, she"s going to be very jealous" Ariama joked making Dryad roll her beautiful eyes.

"At least I"m not old and wrinkly"

"Urgh, shut up and let"s go"

"Okay. Shadow" She called and out of the black ma.s.s, a human like figure came out and stood behind Dryad. She touched the it"s forehead and the information she got over the years flowed into the shadow.

The shadow became more solid, shocking Ariama.

"You"d follow me from now on while the rest of you looks after my body" Shadow nodded and blended into the environment.

"Okay old man, shut your mouth and let"s go"

"Oh, okay....Wait, you d.a.m.n tree!" Ariama yelled and punched her head.

"Ow, bully" She cried pouting.

Few hours later, they were travelling on a boat made by Ariama. Surprisingly, it was a wooden boat. The boat moved in its own towards a direction only known to Ariama.

"Hey Dryad"

"Yes?"

"Open your real eyes for me"

"Why? They give me a headache"

"Just this once, bear with me" Dryad looked at him and saw he was sincere so she complied. The veil of her fake eyes removed and the eyes that she always closed appeared. She opened her real eyes for the third time and stared into the universe.

She looked beside her and saw a huge glowing light that was a hundred times her size.

"Is that Ariama?" she asked herself.

"Yes, little one, it"s me. You can close your eyes now" She did so and her fake eyes returned.

"I"ve verified what I wanted to check. You got the heavenly eyes"

"Heavenly Eyes? What is that?"

"The eyes that always sees the truth and knows everything. A gift from the creator to a special creation of his. This is the first time I"m seeing this. The other G.o.ds will flip if they know you possess this treasure" Ariama replied, grinning.

"Whatever old man. I just want to know if we"re close to our destination" she said indifferently. Smoke curled out from the G.o.d"s ears as he tried to reign in his temper.

"We are almost there Lady Dryad" Shadow answered from her side. Ariama was shocked again when he heard Shadow talk. Just a few hours later, the devourer"s small manifestation could talk. The little tree just kept on surprising him.

An hour later and they approached a sh.o.r.e. They alighted and Ariama waved his hand, making the boat disappear. They marched forward, trying to get to a settlement before night approached. The lack of trees in that place made all three of them feel insecure.

The place had a lot of caves and stones that acted as natural barriers. It seemed as rocks had replaced trees making it a stone forest. Dryad wanted to start planting trees right away but was stopped by Ariama who told her to observe before acting. Against her desires, she agreed.

They walked for 15 hours before reaching a small settlement. There was an arc there made of stones and a stone sign saying the name of the village.

"Vilto Village" Dryad read and frowned. How could a village be named fish village when it was far from the sea.

They walked for a while before seeing a grey skinned woman. That was the first time all three if them had seen a person in the flesh so they were quite surprised. But they covered it up well.

"She"s normal" they all thought.

"h.e.l.lo there" the woman greeted with a smile as soon as she saw them. It was quite dark so she couldn"t see their figures well.

"Hi, we"re travellers and we managed to find this village. Could you please settle us in?" Dryad said in a sweet tone. The woman froze as she struggled to speak. Ariama stiffled his laughter while Dryad and shadow gave him a weird look.

He knew what happened to the poor mortal. That"s what happens when they hear the melodious voice of a G.o.ddess. Ariama transmitted it to their minds and they glared at him. The woman was in a daze and did not answer for quite a while. Ariama decided to take pity in the poor woman and used his power to snap her out of it.

"Oh, please forgive my rudeness. We have a small inn where you can settle for the night. Please follow me. You can meet the village head tomorrow" She said.

"Thank you kind lady" This time it was Ariama who spoke.

The woman led them to a small inn and introduced them to the innkeeper. In the dim light, the woman could see clearly their complexions. Ariama was pure white, Dryad was emerald green and Shadow was nowhere to be found. It had blended into the environment.

"Elementals!" The woman gasped and the innkeeper had a shocked look on his face. Ariama"s element, light, was one that was rarely seen in that world and Dryad"s has never been seen before.

The two grey mortals were trembling.

"Forgive me your graces, I had no idea you were elementals. This is a village of mortals so we rarely have Elementals except for the tax collectors and the few children who awaken their affinities" The grey woman said with a bow.

Ariama dismissed them with a wave of his hand. The two of them visibly relaxed and after a few discussions, the woman went home and the innkeeper gave them both the best rooms. They thanked him and retired for the night as they were both tired. They didn"t need to sleep but they needed to recharge they energies.

The next morning when they woke up, they were both visibly upset. The only one who was looking happy was Shadow. Since it was a creature of darkness, it benefited from the night. When they both settled in for breakfast, they both had frowns in their faces.

"I can"t believe I"m saying this but I wish I didn"t leave home. There is no suitable mana for me here. I need to plant trees asap" Dryad grumbled.

"Not only you. This world of yours is damaged. The air outside of your tree makes me sick" Ariama said, his face a little green.

"We need to fix this world" They both said and deflated in their seat.

"Good morning your graces. I hope you had a good ni.....You both look terrible. What happened last night?" The innkeeper greeted with a worried expression. They both grimaced.

"No need to worry about us. We are just tired"

"Oh, okay. Are you interested in breakfast?" The innkeeper inquired politely. They looked in each other"s eyes as they thought of the stale air. If their air was this bad, then how would the food be? They both shuddered and shook their head. The innkeeper bowed and left them.

"Say Ariama, that woman I saw yesterday, I had some kind of attraction towards her. Any idea what that could be?"

"Maybe if there were trees, she would"ve had a high affinity to wood"

"I see. So how do we plan this?"

"Well, since the only tree in this world is you and they have never seen any before, a tree just popping up anywhere might look strange and they might think it would harm them. So we need a way to handle that properly"

"You"re right and I suppose you have a solution to that?"

"As a matter of fact, I do" the G.o.d grinned.

"In your former world, if someone wanted to spread a religion, they must first have faith in what they are spreading. For example, the church of light, a church in your former world, history states that the G.o.d of light visited a man and chose him as his priest and the first missionary.

The man is said to have received blessings from the G.o.d of light and went around as a vessel for this G.o.d spreading healing and miracles. As a result, faith grew and a world grew to believe the teachings of the G.o.d of light.

In this case, you can chose that woman as your priestess and you can sow a seed of faith in your creations with benevolence and justice" Ariama explained.

"I think I get it" Dryad said nodding her head slowly.

"So, how do we implement this plan?"

"Simple, I can deduce that this village has a problem. You start by helping them and sow a seed of belief when you manifest yourself as a G.o.ddess. So when you start planting trees, they will not find anything off with it" Dryad nodded and relaxed.

Soon enough, the woman from the previous night came back to the inn.

"Good morning your graces. My name is Ditoria. I am a simple launder woman in this village. I"m here to take you both to the village head"

"Nice to meet you Ditoria. My name is Ariama and my companion here is Dryad. Please lead the way" Ditoria nodded and led them towards the centre of the village where a modern looking house was situated.

"This is the house of the village head. I have informed him that we have two guests here. Please wait a bit while I go get the butler" Ditoria said politely and left them at the entrance of the house.

"He"s a village head not a prince" Ariama mocked in disgust and Dryad just laughed. Not long after, Ditoria came out with three men in tow, an old man, a middle aged man and a young man.

"h.e.l.lo fellow elementals, my name is Ca.s.sian, this is my butler, Eldor and this is my son Riech. I"m the village head of this humble village" The middle aged man introduced with a smile.

Ca.s.sian and his son both had light blue skin while Eldor had grey skin.

"My name is Ariama and I"m the G.o.d of soul. This is Dryad, the G.o.ddess of trees" Ariama said in return with an indifferent look.

Ca.s.sian laughed as if Ariama just told a joke.

"A G.o.d? That"s a good joke fellow elemental Ariama. The only G.o.d this country has is Ilerisa, the G.o.d of water"

"Ilerisa, that minor G.o.d? How did he get here? And that joker isn"t the G.o.d of water, he"s the G.o.d of ponds" Ariama replied with a snort.

Ca.s.sian was obviously annoyed by that but he kept his smile and his eyes kept straying to Dryad. Although her skin colour was strange, she was undeniably beautiful.

"No need to take offence fellow elemental Ariama. I presume that young lady with you is your daughter. Such a beautiful woman" he praised with a queer smile.

Ariama frowned when he heard that. Dryad herself had not spoken since.

"If fellow elemental Ariama doesn"t mind, my son would like to take her as a wife. Seeing her strange skin colour, I bet no one was willing to take her as a wife so you decided to settle in this village. Don"t worry, my son has a lot of talent and he will be a good husband to her" Ca.s.sain suggested.

Ariama froze and turned his head to Dryad"s direction. Seeing her with no reaction, he relaxed. He then glared at Ca.s.sian for suggesting such shameless thing with his creator.

"I refuse"

"Then we"ll just have to take her from you" Ca.s.sian smiled and many elementals appeared around them. Ariama grasped their situation then. Ever since they reached the island, they have had their eyes on them. Ditoria was just a p.a.w.n.

"You have disrespected a G.o.ddess. That offence is punishable by death" Dryad, who had not spoken since, suddenly said. Her melodious voice stunned all of them and Ca.s.sian grinned more.

"Bring her to me. I will taste her first before pa.s.sing her to Riech" he rubbed his palms with a perverted look.

"Shadow, knock them out"

"Yes Lady Dryad" a voice replied and a black figure appeared before them. They were all shocked but recovered quickly. Shadow disappeared and in a split second, all the elementals fell to the floor.

Ca.s.sian stared at this scene in horror. Soon, he became more scared because Dryad was now floating and her eyes had turned black.

"You...Only Knight level elementals can fly" he screamed pointing at her.

"I"m not an elemental, I"m a G.o.d" she corrected in an otherworldly voice.

"I summon the book of judgement; the one which governs the world laws. Judge this mortal that offends his creator. Erase his existence and let his essence return to the mother tree" She read in that voice from a white book that appeared in her hands.

Green fire descended from the sky and engulfed Ca.s.sian who began screaming. This continued for a while till his ashes disappeared and his life source, which was a pale blue light, traveled back towards the direction of the mother tree.

Dryad floated gently to the ground as she observed everyone below.

"Now, who"s next?"