Strongest Tree

Modern Earth, year 2019

Earth was the same as usual. Having those high-rise buildings, the constant traffic, the vehicles on the road that harms the atmosphere.

Adults that are getting ready to go to their respective jobs. While the young ones are getting annoyed by the loud noise that was created by their alarm clock and the nagging of their parents to wake them up or they will be late in their school

Yup, all things are normal well that is for normal people but Kence is not.

On a certain forest a group of men can be seen chasing a man with disheveled hair, rag clothes that has many holes on it even the poorest of poor might not even wear it as it has dried and fresh blood, filth of any kinds ranging from dirt, mud, excrement from both animals and humans.

But the man being chased seems like the clothes doesn't bother him well who would if you are being chase by a group of highly trained and skilled men wanting to capture you and torture you again

Yeah, again. At a closer look you can saw numerous kinds of wounds both old and new on the man's body. Seeing him with those horrible wounds while still running like a cheetah is a sign of how resilient the man is, it makes one think that the man is defying death itself.

"Mr. Kence just give what the organization wants, you do know that you are only prolonging your hardships" shouted one of the men that are chasing Kence

"HAHAHAAHHAHAHA- ugh" I laugh hearing those words that is until a mouthful of blood came out of my mouth. Giving a deprecating laugh in my mind, I guess I still have blood after having go through those tortures

The man was clearly annoyed at hearing Kence laugh it's as if the latter was insulting him

"Bastard!!" The man gritted his teeth in frustration, only god knows how much he want to grab Kence and rip his throat. Unfortunately, he can't, first is that even though Kence has numerous wounds and any man would be weaken and unable to even lift a finger this one is different. Not only can Kence move but his running speed is even faster than a perfectly healthy and well-trained men! Second, he can't, only Kence knows where the chip containing a very important research data is.

Yes, they are exactly chasing Kence to know the location that his parents hide the research data about a certain elixir

An elixir that can prolong one's life for at least a hundred years, a revolutionary elixir indeed for the humans who only have at most and hundred and few years life span

Kence's parents was a famous researcher that are experts in various fields such as biology, chemistry, genetic engineering and other fields of science.

Due to their intelligence a lot of hidden organizations want his parents to work for them and even willing to use force if necessary that is why from childhood Kence received trainings that can save his life like physical combat, using firearms and even undergo training that can make him withstand tortures if ever he was caught!

With those training he received he became a famous assassin, after all even if you caught him and use all tortures that you can think of, he won't spill out any information and he also has the great ability to escape

But despite of Kence's ability he is still a human of blood and flesh. It's already astonishing for him to persist this long but he knew that he will see his parents soon and that is by dying

He is dying, he knows it. Even his wounds open up again and blood are continuously flowing out from him

Maybe in a few seconds or minutes he will die, his running speed decreasing, vision being blurry those are signs of him dying

While the earth is operating like normal and Kence slowly dying, in different dimension or space a God is watching the humans on earth

Gaia's God Realm

On a place that is greatly different from earth that is full of modern buildings and infrastructure a woman shrouded with holy aura as if nothing can taint her can be seen seating on a gigantic tree near a pond with a fountain on the middle of it

But those tree and pond is not your normal tree and pond. Those are the famous Tree of Life that also known as the Tree of Knowledge and the pond that has a fountain on it is called the Fountain of Youth where even just a drop from it can make one stop aging and have eternal life span or immortality

Looking at the woman one can notice that there is a crack like thing on the space but the crack on the space look just like a television because there are scenes that you can see from it and those are exactly the scenes from earth. Specifically, the woman is watching the humans live their life

Suddenly an angel like being with wings that are whiter and purer than anything in the world descended in front of Gaia and kneeled

Gaia gave a light smile to the angel

"Raphaela, stop kneeling. We are friends, right?" An ethereal voice sounded from Gaia, any man who heard it would get his heart captured and captivated to the owner of the voice. It is not exaggerating to say that men will be willing to give up their life just to hear those sweet ethereal voice

Even the angel named Raphaela can't stop herself from being captivated by the Goddess' voice

"I-I can't not k-kneel in front of the supreme Goddess, it is a blasphemy!" A voice only inferior to Gaia's voice was heard from the angel and hearing those words Gaia can only give a helpless smile

"They are here right?" Asked Gaia as she looks above where a sky so beautiful can be seen. Her eyes seemed to pierce through space to look at the void outside her realm

"Y-yes" the angel gave her respond and a moment of silence prevail in the whole realm

After a while Gaia spoke "Raphaela can I request something cruel from you?"

"Even if it is my life, I will willingly give it to the supreme Goddess" a resolute answer coming from the angel

"I will activate the Absolute World Protection and --" the angel Raphaela immediately interrupted Gaia, in normal times the angel would never do such a thing but hearing that the Goddess will activate the famous Absolute World Protection Raphaela can't help but cried out

"Y-you can't!" the angel shouted

Absolute World Protection

As its name implies it can protect a world from absolutely anything even from Gods of all ranks!

From the history of Gods and Goddesses no one has ever destroyed the protective layer that was made from this spell

But just like the law of equivalent exchange a certain thing was needed to be use or in this case sacrifice in order for the spell to be activated and that is a God's Divine Body, Divine Soul, Divine Realm

A God can't really die, instead once killed their soul will shatter and scatter into different places and will slowly gather again to revive that God but it will take trillions of years for that to happen and even then, the God would be severely weakened

But using the Absolute World Protection on the other hand will consume everything that a God has and will make that God be unable to revive again. In short once they used it, they will really be dead and nothing can ever revive them

The Goddess move closer to Raphaela and started caressing the angel's head "Raphaela, this is the only way that we can save earth, the humans and all creatures that has earth as their home"

"T-they are just insignificant mortals why do you care about them?!" Tears started spilling from her eyes, she knew that once the Goddess said those words there is absolutely no one that can stop her. But she just can't understand why she a Goddess will sacrifice herself for just mere insignificant mortals

Gaia's expression turned serious and like a mother scolding her daughter she said "They are not just mere mortals Raphaela, they are my dearest creation and I won't let anyone harm them"

"Listen Raphaela, this will be my last command for you as my angel. Remember every word that I will say"

Although extremely unwilling Raphaela knows that she can't do anything to change her mind all she can do is cry while nodding indicating that she is listening to what the Goddess will say

"After I cast the Absolute World Protection I will remove the restrictions from earth so that they can become stronger but that is not enough to produce God rank individuals that is why I am giving you the duty to push them, to make them thirst for strength"

"For them to thirst for strength an apocalypse is needed, you know those apocalyptic novels that they like to make right?" Gaia chuckled at how humans are so creative. They manage to imagine things that cannot be seen in their world like magic and mythical creatures

"Make an apocalypse but make sure a portion of humanity will survive. And absolutely do not control a human's fate like manipulating a specific human to experience hardships so that he can become a God rank creature. You know the consequences of doing that"

"Only make the general things that will happen and have nature take its course. After that please refine void energy to fill the earth, having more energy on earth can make the humans progress faster"

"Can you do that please Raphaela?" The angel having not much choice nodded her head while crying seeing this Gaia can't help but feel sad. This is the last time that she can see this beautiful and kind hearted girl

Gaia went to hug the angel and the angel cried harder

BOOM!!!

At this moment a thundering sound was heard from the sky in Gaia's realm and figures of several humanoid beings can be seen.

If a mortal looks at them that mortal will surely kneel down and worship these beings as they carry with them a Godly presence that only real Gods can have

Yes, they are Gods, real Gods and there is actually 50 of them. As they descended from the sky they look at Gaia with greedy eyes

"I'll be direct with you Gaia, give us the essence" a God with black wings and two horns on his forehead quickly demanded to Gaia as soon as he descended

If it were before these Gods will do anything to please her but after a certain incident in the War of Gods where her father also used Absolute World Protection to protect her and her mother from other Gods their attitude turn 180°

One might think that it is foolish for her father to activate the forbidden spell because Gods will just revive after they are killed but it's not like the whole revival thing is something unnoticeable. The Gods can just kill again the God that they killed before after having their revival as a newly revive God was severely weakened

"Never" Gaia answered and the God named Mammon laughed

"HAHAHAHAHA! as if you have a choice Gaia, we can just kill you and forcefully take it from you" Mammon said full of confidence and arrogance after all they have 50 Gods in their side

But Gaia just smiled and turned her head to the angel

"Good bye Raphaela" she softly whispered in the angel's ear before using her power to seal most of Raphaela's power and sent her to earth. After all an Angel Queen's presence is too much for earth to handle

Before Raphaela could react, she was already in a world different from her home

Mammon's eyebrows creased at Gaia's action but he didn't think much of it after all anything Gaia will do is useless in front of absolute power of 50 Gods

"Absolute World Protection activate" without any warning or any of long fantastic chant one might expect when casting a protection spell that even Gods can't break only a few simple words are needed to activate the spell

Gaia's body started to fade while a protective barrier was covering earth

Seeing those all the Gods were agitated

"Gaia!! Are you out of your mind?!!" Roared Mammon

Gaia's faint figured was unfazed from Mammon's angry roar

"I sent the essence to earth you will never get it, after this barrier fade my creation will rise to defend against greedy Gods like you"

Before being reduce to nothingness Gaia used the last of her ability to connect to earth and every living creature can hear her voice

My beloved creation, I apologize for not being able to protect all of you by myself but I prepare things for my beloved creations to protect yourselves from an incoming disaster

I remove all the restrictions on earth, you all now can have supernatural powers like you all desire

I will give powerful spell to those who have their affinity inclined to being a mage

Rune formulas to those suited to become a rune master

Cultivation arts to those who are suited to become cultivator

And bloodlines to those special people who met certain criteria

Farewell my beloved creations

And those are Gaia's last words before she was reduced into nothingness

After hearing those words, the humans and animals cry as if a special someone for them died....