Vilto Village, two years after."Your holiness, this is the fruit of our harvest from the northern forest" a green woman said, bowing in front of another green woman with a flower crown on her head.
"Yes Kasey, you have done well. Go home with 80 percent of this for your family with the blessing of the G.o.ddess Dryad"
"Yes your holiness" Kasey said excitedly, taking the large basket out with her little green girl in tow.
The woman she just talked to is the chosen Priestess, Ditoria. Raised from a common launder woman and mortal to a Peak Grand saint level elemental in two years was just a pipe dream and yet, she achieved it.
Regarding their forest, it just grew from the little they were planting to a full blown forest. That invited a lot of lower leveled demons and a lot of animals. The village grew in strength as Black gold level and knight level elementals could be seen walking around the village.
They expanded their area of influence to the while country and in just a few months, the whole country was subdued by a little fishing village. Everyone of them was told the greatness of the G.o.ddess Dryad and many travelled to her temple to receive her blessings, particularly mortals. Some elementals went there to increase their affinities after hearing the testimony of Riech.
Before Dryad left, she set down some ground rules and showed them what would happen should anyone else apart from the main priestess and priest should touch the tree. She didn"t apparently kill all the spies and left only one of them alive.
When the spy touched the tree, the tree began absorbing all the mana in his body. When it was all gone, it absorbed his life force. They all watched in horror as the spy melted away into nothingness. They all went home that day to warn their children to tell their own children to never touch the daughter tree.
Ditoria was somewhat distress she couldn"t travel the world like Eldor and spread the greatness of their G.o.ddess Dryad but was stuck guarding the tree for the next five years. She had to receive the harvests of the people to feed herself and the priests in the temple since they couldn"t leave unless it was an emergency.
As for Dryad, she returned back to her original body with Ariama and Shadow to recharge. She can only be away from her body for a total of five years but she needed to do something important, like locating the b.a.s.t.a.r.d who took over her world.
When she got back to her body, she found out her whole body was pulsing with energy, particularly her root.
"Worship energy?"
"Yes. Once the creations of the life seed worships it for being kind and benevolent, it turns to worship energy which is far superior to mana. If you get your whole planet to worship you, the energy you would be getting will be more than this. You could evolve your world"
"Evolve?"
"Yes, right now, your world is comparable to an upper realm but it needs something to evolve so it can be called a half step upper world. We have three types of realms: Lower, middle and upper worlds"
"Hmph, I see. Okay then. Let"s get this over with and find that b.a.s.t.a.r.d" Ariama chuckled and let her do her work.
She lay gently on the ground and moved her consciousness out of her new body back to her original body. Then she dived from the humanoid shape on the tree into the root.
Based on the knowledge she received from Ariama, since the roots were the first to spring from the life seed, the heart of the life seed was there and she would be able to find out everything about her world.
She got there and saw a giant heart shaped root pulsing with much energy. She took a deep breath and entered it. Once she entered, everything started to play out in her mind like an old record.
From when the life seed started it"s growth till when the first human was born. She watched as her people grew in knowledge and from experience. From animals, humans and plants. She was shocked to see there were trees and various plants everywhere. The forest were not made up of stones like she saw before but of actual trees.
But in all these, there were no elementals because there was no mana. After two billion years, the trees and plants miraculously started producing mana. The elementals appeared and that"s when humanity started building society. Apparently, the wood elementals were on top of the world because they were the most powerful. This went on for a thousand years before the planet attracted the attention of a vagabond G.o.d.
He searched the world and when he found the life seed was an unconcious spirit tree, he decided to take control of the world. He started by stealing the mana from the trees and storing them in water then he killed off all the wood elementals. Finally, he killed off all the trees and replaced them with stones.
8 billion years later, the world completely forgot about the existence of trees and could live completely without them, worshiping Ilerisa as their true G.o.d and creator. Ilerisa manipulated them and blotted out the fact that he was a two timing b.a.s.t.a.r.d.
Dryad watched how he manipulated, killed, destroyed and took advantage of them. He turned them into twisted little puppets. She cried out in both anger and pain.
She flew out of there and into her new body with her chest heaving in anger. She was so mad, she wanted to run off to find that b.a.s.t.a.r.d and decimate him for what he has done to her planet. He was in the biggest city in the planet.
"I am going to kill him. I will rip him apart and feed his bones to the devourers of the universe. I will burn his face and I will thrust his soul into the fiery depths of abyss. I will torture him for a long time till he wishes he was never born" She yelled in fury.
"Calm down Dryad. If you go there now, he will surely kill you. You and your planet will die because once he finds your original body, he will destroy it. He has more power than you because the number of worship energy he had tops yours by a lot. He will destroy you" Ariama said and Dryad slumped on his shoulders.
She cried for a long time while Ariama pat her back.
"You know, the tears of a G.o.ddess are very precious. They are used to cast very powerful spells as G.o.ddesses never cry and they contain the essence of their being" He joked, when she had calmed herself.
"Don"t joke with me like that and make me smile" she said, punching him lightly.
"No, I"m not joking. I really collected those" he said with a straight face and vials filled with sparkling liquid appeared in the air.
"You look hot when you"re red and angry you know?"
"You know old man, that makes you sound perverted"
"You know I can change my appearance right?"
"At this point, you"ll still be a pervert"
"I can"t believe you" he huffed and walked away.
When Ariama went to relax, Dryad went to the edge of the ocean from her side and conjured a spell. A huge golden throne appeared in the water and a blue skinned young man sat on the throne with a nonchalant att.i.tude. He looked very handsome but there was an evil glint in his eyes. He was Ilerisa, G.o.d of ponds.
"Ilerisa"
"And who might this beautiful G.o.ddess be?"
"The one who you stole from"
"I"ve stolen from a lot of G.o.ddesses and G.o.ds. You"ll have to be more specific"
"This planet you hijacked, it"s mine"
"Oh, you"re that tree spirit. I heard about you. What"s your name?"
"Dryad, sugar. Remember it well for when I come for you. I am going to kill you"
"Okay pretty girl, let me tell it to you straight. A lot of divine beings have said that to me and none of them have managed to do that. Just submit and be my slave. You"re a newbie G.o.ddess, I can tell. Don"t worry, I"ll treat you well" He said with a lascivious smile.
"I"d rather die" she growled.
"It"ll be a shame to let this world to to waste. I love it here"
"Screw you" She said and disrupted the spell.
Ilerisa chuckled at the red looking G.o.ddess. He ordered his best water elementals to capture her with a queer smile.
"Ilerisa hun? Who knew that"s where the minx was hiding?" Simour said with a chin propped on his arm with a curious expression.
"Yeah, Ariama has been searching for him for ages. I was surprised when he was able to keep his cool. I think he"s starting to get soft with that little tree" Bolsa said on a throne beside him. They were occupying two thrones according to their powers.
Bolsa was on a throne of reinforced clay. Simour was a green throne made of vines and there was an empty white throne which belonged to Ariama. Those three were the head G.o.ds in paradise.
"Wonder why he chose the appearance of an old man when he went to search for her?" Simour pouted, making his youthful face look more adorable.
"He said it made us look wise. Now, she"s calling him a pervert. Serves him right, hahaha. I looked ridiculous as an old man" A youthful looking Bolsa said, laughing hard.
"We did look very wise. Did you see the look on the G.o.ds faces when we did morning court, hilarious" Simour cackled.
"Oh Bolsa, tell our dear old brother to capture that flimsy G.o.d. I"ve been hearing so much complaints about him it"s making me sick"
"Will do brother" Bolsa replied and send a telepathic message. The two head G.o.ds continued to watch the drama unfold in Dryad"s world.