Ethan braced himself as the attack surged toward him. In this place, the only thing that ca to mind was the Sigil of the Wild Legion. He was ready to call upon it—until he rembered a certain mischievous little rascal nad Luna.
"AAAHHHH..."
The cry was so soft and milky that Ethan froze mid-breath. A small figure suddenly materialized out of thin air in front of him.
"Ugly monster! If Yaya hadn’t stopped , Luna would’ve eaten you the mont you ca in! And now you dare to attack Luna’s master? Luna is so mad!"
The sight left Ethan stunned. For the first ti, he witnessed the Twilight Warspear take on a human form. It wasn’t what he expected. Instead of so divine warrior, a pink-skinned, round-cheeked baby floated before him, wearing nothing but a tiny vest. And it looked like a little girl.
Ethan had no ti to process the strangeness of it. His opponent was not about to wait. With a cruel expression, the shadowy figure unleashed a storm of dark tendrils, each one snaking hungrily toward both Ethan and the chubby child.
Instinctively, Ethan reached out to grab Luna, but before his hand could close, the little girl shot forward. With a flick of her tiny fist she vanished, only to reappear instantly behind the shadowy figure.
A gaping hole opened in his chest, though it began knitting back together imdiately. In Luna’s hand, however, was a ball of black mist condensed into light. She bit into it with a sound far too gleeful for the situation—crunch, crunch—and swallowed it whole.
"Ahhh..." The will of the Spirit Realm cried out, though whether from pain or anguish, Ethan couldn’t tell.
The black tendrils accelerated, striking even faster toward Ethan. Yet instead of panic, a calm stole over him, and a faintly wicked smile touched his lips.
Just as the darkness was about to consu him, the air tore open with a chorus of sharp, ripping sounds. Behind him, thousands of faint green projections shot outward like a storm of blades. They were even more nurous than the enemy’s tendrils. The clash was imdiate, needles against haystacks, light against shadow.
Though the erald light seed less oppressive than the black, in that instant the dark tendrils ruptured, bursting into fragnts of energy that were devoured by the green projections.
"What? Impossible..." The shadowy figure reeled, stunned that Ethan possessed such power.
"Yay, yay, yay! Yaya is amazing! This guy’s energy is so pure, even the scraps are delicious!" Luna squealed in delight. Without waiting, she transford into a streak of white light and pierced through the figure again. Another crystalline black orb appeared in her hand, proof of her strike.
In truth, she had already pierced him several tis in that instant. Yet the shadowy figure seed unconcerned. What she had taken was nothing to him—barely a drop stolen from an endless ocean.
As Luna celebrated, another presence stirred. From behind Ethan peeked a small head—this one belonging to a girl who looked older than Luna, perhaps four years old. Her hair was crowned with a wreath woven of living branches, dew-speckled leaves glistening in the dim light. Tiny red berries, twenty-seven in all, circled the wreath like gemstones. She wore a pale green dress of translucent gauze, and though she was still a child, her delicate features hinted at a beauty that one day might sway nations. Her very presence radiated a freshness, an ethereal quality, as though she didn’t fully belong to this world.
"Yaya?" Ethan asked, his voice cautious.
The little girl smiled at him and nodded.
"Tree of Life?" The words left him before he could think, accompanied by a sudden, strange familiarity.
"Mmm," she answered softly, her cheeks coloring with shyness before hiding behind him again. One bright eye peeked out, watching the shadowy figure in the distance.
"Brother... he’s very strong," Yaya whispered, her small hand clutching the edge of Ethan’s sleeve.
Ethan blinked. Brother. The word struck sothing deep in him, a rush of affection so sudden it nearly overwheld him. He had grown up alone. Even in the orphanage, he’d kept to himself. Now, for the first ti, it felt as though he had family—a bond born of blood itself.
And of course it made sense. The Tree of Life had taken root within him. Now that she stood in human form, it was natural that he felt this connection.
When he had first entered this place, his focus had been on the invading will of the Spirit Realm, so he hadn’t noticed that the crown of the Tree of Life, which had always grown before the Gate of Ascension, had vanished, along with the Twilight Warspear. Only when Luna appeared, and then Yaya, had he realized their true forms.
Yaya’s quiet words—"I can deal with it"—were what had shifted his dread into composure.
"Can you beat him?" Ethan asked in a low voice.
Yaya shook her head gently. "Not defeat him... but I can capture him. Then slowly... digest him."
Digest. The word gave Ethan pause, but he understood. She ant drawing out his energy, little by little, and making it her own.
"Good," Ethan said, nodding with resolve.
Morzan had told him that the will of the Spirit Realm was nothing less than concentrated Soul Energy, sharpened into a conscious being. If Yaya absorbed it, her strength would rise beyond comprehension—and perhaps his own soul would be elevated with hers. Ethan’s heart leapt at the thought, forgetting for a mont Morzan’s earlier warnings.
At his signal, Yaya’s small body shimred, transforming into a streak of green light that darted forward. She reappeared near the Gate of Ascension, her child’s fra unfolding into the colossal Tree of Life. The crown surged upward, branches multiplying and stretching like an ocean of green, all lashing toward the shadowy invader.
"What the hell is that..." The figure’s voice shook with alarm. Black mist roared around him, condensing into a massive shield of overlapping, blackened scales.
The shield had barely solidified when the first wave of branches struck. Ethan braced for the collision—but it never ca. The branches vanished into nothingness, dissolving just before touching the shield, as if swallowed by an unseen void.
The shadowy figure flinched, body trembling as he whirled around. The scaled shield spun with him. But it was already too late. Behind him, countless branches burst forth, tearing through space itself to cling to his back like a swarm.
Space redirection...? The thought shot through Ethan’s mind, chilling and wondrous all at once.
Even as he watched, he could see the Tree of Life growing wildly before him, yet at certain points, whole sections of its branches simply vanished, reappearing elsewhere, already entwining their prey.
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