Epilogue 2 Stella’s Job

"I'll be back as soon as I'm done," Stella said, kissing Joseph on the cheek.

He looked up with a smile and said, "I'm liking this new you. Don't hesitate to call if you need me."

"Don't worry, it sounds like the people I need to kill don't even have magic."

"Oh, well, then, you shouldn't have any problems," he said with a chuckle, turning back to his book.

With a nod of agreement, she stepped into his shadow and teleported to the world tree. Not hesitating in the least, she stepped into the tree, and out again, looking around at the dismal sight before her.

Each tree was connected to each other. By being the chosen champion and guardian, she was able to use them as a type of teleport circle. She could instantaneously travel to any world tree in any world.

Spread out around the world tree, she could see that the trees were limp, their branches dangling on the verge of death. Far in the distance she could see smoke where the humans on this realm were burning the trees and tearing them down.

"You should have called me sooner," she grumbled to the tree, looking up at a flying drone that hovered above her. The small mechanical object had a large glass eye staring at her, that she quickly dispatched with a flick of her wrist. The dagger embedded itself into the drone, sending it spinning, and crashing to the ground. Grabbing up her knife as she stepped past it, she glanced back at the encroaching line of destruction.

This world tree was weak, not able to spew the mana out that it used to do, because the area was saturated with it. There was so much extra mana, the trees were dying. She touched one lightly, noting the trail of mana dust that came off on her fingers, some trickling down to the ground with sparkles of light.

Stepping forward, she kicked off and sprinted in the direction of the men. She could have easily flown there in half the time, but she wanted to sneak up on them. Arriving at the area of devastation, she watched the large machines they were using to tear down the trees. Other machines would then pick up the torn down trees and grind the branches off, and sending everything further back to even more waiting machines.

She paused to look over the situation. She didn't know much about machines, because she had been on an island the entire time she was in the worlds, as Sylva, that had such machinery. It looked like each one had a human driver, so if she took them out, the machines would stop. She knew it would be a temporary fix, because more humans would come, but she had to stop them. The world tree couldn't fix the mana issue if there weren't any trees around it.

Stepping out of the trees, in sight of the lead machine, she waited for him to see her.

Alarms rang out over the newly created clearing, and everything came to an abrupt stop.

"Hey! Who's out there? This is a restricted area!" cried a voice in a language that she recognized. Thanks to the language games she had played with Joseph, she knew quite a few.

"This area belongs to me, and you are encroaching on it! Leave these trees alone and get out, or I will be forced to act!" she called back.

"What the…?"

She listened as many of them got together to discuss, while one of them came forward with a flashlight to see who she was, in the mounting dusk of evening. She squinted at the jerk as he shined his light in her face, but her eyes were able to adjust immediately, without leaving her blinded.

"Who are you? You look like one of those modified wannabe's," he complained, finally pointing his flashlight away from her face, and giving her a once over, probably assuming she was blind from his light.

"I'm the one who is going to kill every human in the forest if you don't leave this area alone," she growled, pulling out one of her daggers.

"Hey! No reason to go crazy!" he cried, backpedaling away from her with his hands up defensively. "Hey Steve! Grab the foreman! We have a crazy up here!"

Stella watched as he dashed back around the huge machine that stood silent before her, and listened as the men talked amongst themselves. It was immediately apparent, that they were not going to leave, and were merely looking for ways to get rid of her.

Smiling as she overheard their plans, she made her way to the top of the first machine, and stood there, looking down on their little group.

"We have roughly fifty guys spread out in this area. If she runs, we'll deploy the drones to find her. As soon as she's apprehended, we'll turn her sorry ass over to the authorities for trespassing and get back to work. This can't take more than an hour tops."

"How much longer do you think it'll be, before we get to that big tree?" asked one of the guys in back.

"Tommy, I keep telling you it shouldn't take more than a week to eat our way through these trees. Stop asking or I'll kick you off the forward detail."

"Sorry," he mumbled, going silent.

"What if she tries to cut one of us with that big knife of hers?" asked one of the guys.

"Then she's free game and we can chew her up with the trees. That's the law. Just try not to be the guy she cuts," laughed the foreman.

Stella reached out to the world tree, and listened as it told her of this world.

"The humans have hunted and killed everything else on this entire world. All of my guardians have been taken out. I hesitated to call for help, because I thought they would at least leave me and the trees alone, but I now see that they intend to finish the destruction of this realm. I am almost ready to just die and give up on them, but my will to live is too strong. There is none left who can use the mana I produce, and the trees are dying from too much of it. Is there any way you can guide me in its use?"

Stella nodded and turned away from the tree. Using the abilities granted her as a guardian of the world trees, she said in a loud booming voice, "To protect this realm, until all who live here learn to appreciate it, or they die out, I enact the Barrier. None shall pass it, who wish the World Tree harm."

A loud clap of thunder echoed over the land, and a shining silver barrier flowed from the crown of the tree, out over the land, to the outer edges of her branches. All of the extra mana in the land would be funneled into the barrier, keeping it working, and allowing an outlet for the extra mana. All of the trees around her immediately perked up, as the mana toxicity was removed. The men below her looked up in hushed amazement.

"If you can pass the barrier, you will get to live," she said with an evil smile, pulling out a second dagger. "But these machines will be reclaimed by the forest and your bodies will nourish the seedlings that will refill this gash you have created."

Several of them peed themselves, and Stella jumped down.