31. Guardian of the World Tree

<Rei PoV>

I flew for a while until I finally reached the place where I sensed the power of that Primal Beast.

Yggdrasil huh? So this is where they are fighting the Primal Beast Yggdrasil, because Black Knight forcing Orchid to awaken and control Yggdrasil.

[IMAGE]

I could see Djeeta and the others trying to stop the rampage of Yggdrasil. It seemed they were restraining themselves because Yggdrasil was only controlled by Orchid.

So they didn't want to harm Yggdrasil, and they should be able to easily defeat Yggdrasil since Lyria had already absorbed the power of Leviathan and Water was much stronger than Earth.

But oddly, I could see that Yggdrasil was surrounded by a blue aura, a very thin aura that seemed to originate from something.

I then tried to follow the source of that aura with my gaze, and soon I could see that the aura was coming from Orchid.

Hmm, seeing this made me wonder if this aura was what allowed Orchid to control Yggdrasil. And since Orchid is only half astral her ability to control Primal Beasts might not be as good as Lyria's.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to observe that, as I could see symbols behind Yggdrasil beginning to glow.

It seemed like she wanted to do something, and shortly after really a lot of orbs of light appeared behind Yggdrasil.

Io that noticed this immediately created a magical barrier to protect everyone, but I was certain that the barrier wouldn't be strong enough to withstand the orbs of light attacking them continuously.

I flew straight toward Io and the others that sheltering behind the magic barrier.

<3rd PoV>

But before Rei could reach their location, Yggdrasil finally began to attack them with a lot of orbs of light.

Djeeta and the others were bombarded by the orbs of light continuously, but thanks to Io's shield, they were able to evade them.

"Ughhhh, this is so heavy!" Io grumbled as she tried to hold off Yggdrasil's attack.

"Come on, Io, you can do it!" Vyrn said to Io while trying to find a way for them to escape.

But Vyrn couldn't find any opening at all because the barrage of light orbs didn't have any delay in their attacks.

All they could do was wait until Yggdrasil's attack was over.

"Haah...haahh...hahhh" Djeeta was seen sitting on the ground, still very tired from her previous battle with Scarlet Knight.

"Djeeta, are you okay?" Lyria spoke as she checked on Djeeta's condition.

Djeeta then turned to Lyria, trying to respond, "Haahh...yes... I'm fine... I'm just really tired..."

They all were truly worried about Djeeta's condition. Earlier, she had fought Scarlet Knight, and now she had to face a Primal Beast.

Rosetta, seeing that they were cornered, decided to help them by transforming into her Primal Beast form.

"Io, after I give you the signal, I want you to stop your magic barrier," Rosetta said to Io, who was still focused on maintaining her magic barrier.

"Eh?" Io was confused when she heard Rosetta's words.

"What is your plan, Miss Rosetta?" Eugen asked her.

Before Rosetta could telling them her plan, suddenly Lyria's expression changed drastically from being worried and scared to happy and relieved.

"This!! I can sense Rei!" Lyria immediately told them.

"Rei!? Is that true? Where is he?" Vyrn, upon hearing this, immediately looked around.

Lyria then looked up and smiled, "He's here!"

"Phosphorous!"

Rei slashed the symbol behind Yggdrasil, destroying it completely.

Initially, Rei wanted to approach them and come up with a plan to stop Yggdrasil's rampage, but unfortunately, he was too late. Djeeta and the others were already trapped inside the magic circle.

So the only way to stop Yggdrasil's attack was to destroy the symbol behind her.

And indeed after Rei destroyed it, Yggdrasil suddenly lost her balance and fell to the ground.

But Rei not only destroyed the symbol behind Yggdrasil but also severed Orchis's connection to Yggdrasil.

Feeling the sudden loss of connection, Orchis immediately grabbed her head in pain.

"Ughhh!"

Orchis then lost her balance and began to fall, but luckily the Black Knight managed to catch her before she fell.

"What's wrong with you?" Black Knight spoke to her.

But Black Knight didn't receive any response from Orchis as she was currently unconscious due to her connection being severed by Rei.

Black Knight then turned to Lyria and the others and saw that Rei had appeared and was standing beside them.

But as Black Knight staring at Rei, Rei suddenly turned and stared at her sharply...

Black Knight immediately felt the pressure of the aura emanating from Rei.

Black Knight could see that Rei was saying something, and even though she couldn't hear him, she still could read Rei's lips.

"!!!" Black Knight was shocked after reading Rei's lips. How could he know her plan?? She hadn't told anyone, even Drang and Sturm doesn't know about that.

Black Knight wanted to approach Rei and ask him about it, but unfortunately, she could see Yggdrasil beginning to standing up again.

In the end she chose to return to her airship while carrying the unconscious Orchis. If she met Rei again she definitely gonna asked him about it.

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >

<Rei PoV>

After I said the words "Queen Orchis" to the Black Knight, I could see her body jolted in surprised, then after that she and Orchid starting to leave this place.

"Rei, you're finally back!" - but suddenly my head was hit by Vyrn who immediately hugged my head.

"Owch owch, Vyrn, I can't breathe," I tried to pull Vyrn, who was clinging to my face.

But it seemed we didn't have time for a reunion, as Yggdrasil began to standing up and starting to flying again.

I hoped Yggdrasil would calm down after being freed from Orchis's control.

"So Lyria can you ask Yggdrasil? She should be back to normal now that I've severed Orchis's control over her" I asked Lyria while keeping an eye on Yggdrasil.

"Ah, yes!" Lyria immediately realized it and closed her eyes to communicate with Yggdrasil.

While Lyria was trying to communicate with Yggdrasil, I looked around at everyone condition.

Besides their bodies being covered in dust and dirt, they didn't seem too injured... except for Djeeta, who was sitting on the ground while looking at me.

"Rei?" Djeeta spoke softly.

Seeing Djeeta's condition made me wonder what had happened to her, how she could be this exhausted compared to the others.

I approached Djeeta and knelt in front of her. "Hey, Djeeta, I'm sorry for suddenly disappearing from the Grandcypher. I'll explain everything once we're back."

"You... you always make me worry. If I wasn't so tired, I'd really scold you for this," Djeeta replied with a smile, but I could hear the exhaustion in her voice.

I really wanted to take Djeeta back to the Grandcypher and let her rest, but I still needed to wait for Lyria to finish her conversation with Yggdrasil.

"Please rest here for a moment, after Lyria finishes talking to Yggdrasil I will take you back to the Grandcypher." I stroked Djeeta's head and then stood up, turning back towards Yggdrasil again.

But suddenly I saw Rosetta in front of me, staring at me. "Uwaah!"

I jumped back in surprise, I didn't expect Rosetta to suddenly be in front of me.

"Hmm this aura... I feel like I've experienced this aura before," Rosetta murmured as she looked at my face.

Ah, that's right, Rosetta is a primal beast who once joined Djeeta's father's crew, so I'm sure Rosetta has met astrals before and can sense my aura!

"Um, could you step back a bit from me? You're too close to me right now," I said to her.

"Wow, look Rei, you suddenly leave and now you come back with 4 wings," Rackam said, observing my wings.

They all heard that and then started to pay attention to my wings, trying to touch them.

"Oh, Rackam is right, you seem to have gotten stronger since you left, Rei," Katalina said, stroking the feathers of my wings.

"Hoohh, this is the first time I've seen a human with wings like yours. I've heard about it from the others when I joined, but seeing it with my own eyes is truly different," Eugen also tried to touch my wings.

I really felt ticklish when they did that, it felt like someone was tickling my waist.

"Ughh, can you guys stop?"

"You've been through a lot today, Yggdrasil... But it's okay. You can rest now," we then heard Lyria's voice speaking to Yggdrasil.

We turned to look at Lyria and could see that Yggdrasil began to glow and finally disappeared, absorbed by Lyria.

"Phew, at least we managed to resolve everything quickly," Rackam said after seeing that Yggdrasil had disappeared.

"But I don't see any sign of the Black Knight... or Orchis," Katalina observed their surroundings.

"Oh, I saw them, they had already escaped from here," I replied to Katalina.

"Aw, c'mon! You've gotta be kidding me!" Io looked annoyed about something, I didn't know why she was upset that the Black Knight and Orchis had escaped from here.

"What's wrong, Io? Why do you sound upset just because the Black Knight and Orchis managed to escape?" I asked Io.

They seemed to realize something and began nodding to each other.

"Oh right, you weren't there when we went through this with Orchis on this island," Katalina explained what happened to them on the island.

Ahhh, I started to remember this. The Black Knight only saw Orchid as a puppet and casually ordered Orchid to do whatever she wanted. I knew she planned to use Lyria to return Orchid to her former self, but unfortunately Lyria didn't have that kind of ability.

The only way to return Orchid to her true self was to create a body for her and use the Primal Beast Deus Ex Machina to transfer Orchid's soul elsewhere and then return Orchis soul to her own body.

"So... do you really want to help Orchis?" I asked them.

"Of course, I want to help her. When I talked to her, I could see that she was very lonely and she seemed happy when we spoke to her. But when she met the Black Knight again, she immediately reverted to her emotionless self," Io replied, feeling angry recalling the Black Knight's behavior towards Orchis.

Hahhh... Then the only way to help Orchis is to create a body for her and use the Primal Beast Deus Ex Machina to transfer Orchid's soul elsewhere and return Orchis soul back to her own body.

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >

Heya it's me, I'm sure you confused about the whole ordeal with Orchid and Orchis.

Orchis is basically Princess from Erste Kingdom, Orchis is also a childhood friend of the Black Knight Apollonia.

The current Orchis is not really Orchis because the soul inside is different, the real Orchis is trapped within Deus Ex Machina Primal Beast and the current one is just vessel for activating Primal Beast Akasha.