THE WITHERED RED TREE

THE WITHERED RED TREE

After a while, the burning on my skin stabilized with the augmentation of the Seeds of Chaos into my body.

But the cost of receiving the Black Heart was enormous, because I seemed to be losing my templar sky. The stars and planets in my templar sky turned chaotic and many stars in my templar sky slowly disintegrated.

Even the bones and artifacts absorbed into my bone realm were disintegrating too. The power of the Dark Angel's Black Heart consumed its magic too.

"Damnit, I am I losing all my magic, and this bloody heart is still burning my body", I complained and told them.

Although the absorption of the Seeds of Chaos helped stabilize the feedback magic from my Black Heart, the Black Heart was still releasing harmful dark magic into my body.

The Dark Angel magic destroyed all the magic in my body that I patiently developed and accumulated all these years. All my templar magic and bone magic was consumed by the overflow of Dark Angel magic.

But even then, losing all my magic would not quench the Dark magic's hunger. It was a matter of time before I would be killed by the overflow in magic again.

"What can we do about the Seed of Temptation? There must be something that we can do?" Rinna asked us.

"Here this is it", Meera told us as she brought out a scroll.

On the scroll there was a Serpent who bit the Dark Angel's heart and inside her mouth there was a large seed of some kind.

"The Serpent must eat the seed from his heart", Meera told us.

"Who is the Serpent? You mentioned about the serpent to us before", Rinna asked Delirium.

"You my girl are the Serpent of Revelations, and the Seed of Temptation's trial is also your trial and like my advice to Orion, the Dark Angel, the same goes to you, you do not need to fulfill the Revelations", Delirium told Rinna to her surprise.

Without thinking twice, Rinna asked Delirium, "How do I get the seed out?"

"Focus on your soul and the seed shall return to you", Delirium replied to her.

Rinna quickly focused on her soul and soon she saw the magic in my Black Heart. She quickly held out her hand and placed it on my chest where my heart was.

Suddenly, black veins grew out from my heart and reached Rinna's hand. The veins pierced through Rinna's hand and entered her body.

My body gleamed with a reddish glow but soon, the light passed into my veins and flowed into Rinna's body.

"The Seed of Temptation is being transplanted", Delirium told us.

The Trial that I was supposed to face when I obtained the Dark Angel's Black Heart was transferred to Rinna instead.

"Damnit, my curse is going into Rinna. Stop it immediately", I pleaded with Delirium.

"You can't stop it. The Serpent is the original owner of the Seed of Temptation in the first place, she is only reclaiming her own magic", Delirium told me.

Suddenly, my body was no longer boiling, and magic stopped pouring out from my Black Heart. I was no longer covered by the brilliant reddish aura glow, but Rinna was.

"Arggghhhhhh"

Rinna screamed as her legs hardened and they turned into red wood. Veins in her legs spurted out and turned into roots that sunk into the floor and her legs became part of a tree.

"What are we going to do? She's turning into a tree", I asked Delirium for his advice and help.

"It is a part of her trials", Delirium replied to me.

------

Rinna underwent a profound metamorphosis, turning into an immense, withered red tree.

It was as if the very life force within her had been drained, leaving behind a colossal reddish dark tree with gnarled branches stretching out like skeletal fingers, shrouding her soul's realm beneath their eerie embrace.

In that moment, an unsettling realization dawned upon me, I had entered Rinna's soul realm. The towering tree before me symbolized not just her body's alteration, but also her inner self, her essence.

This massive, desiccated tree dominated the landscape of her soul's realm, its elongated, thin branches reaching skyward and blotting out the ethereal heavens above.

These branches transformed into massive serpents, one of them I recognized, Neheb the cobra who could summon ethereal serpents from his hoods.

Coiled their way upward, were other serpents.

There was the serpent with the head of Medusa and the fanged serpent resembling Jormungan.

------

"What is happening to you?", I asked Rinna.

Suddenly, a voice from the red withered Tree spoke to me.

"Will you accept your fate and claim the mantle of the Dark Angel?" the voice asked me.

The voice was the soul occupying Rinna's soul, the Serpent Mother, Guardian of the Garden of Eden.

"What has that got to do with you?" I asked the voice.

"Will you reclaim your rightful place in Heaven as prophesized in the Revelations?" the voice asked me again.

"Where is Rinna?" I asked her.

"Her life depends on your actions and decisions. Will you die for her?", the serpent tree mother asked me.

I thought about the matter for a second. It was after all a matter that determined my life and death, so it wasn't unreasonable for me to hesitate.

But my hesitation did not last long.

"I'll die for Rinna if it comes to that", I replied to the voice.

"Accept your fate, so that my daughter can live. Your life for here", the voice told me.

Suddenly, magic from the Tree zapped my body. My entire body disintegrated, and the only thing left was my memories.

-----

The memories of my life flashed before me.

From the days that I ran around the forest of Slowan to the day I whipped the bully in Slowan village with magical sparks. There were many good memories and there were many regrettable ones.

"Am I dead?" I asked myself.

"If you are given a chance, will you choose again? Rinna's life for yours", a voice asked me.