Chương 827: Chapter 1. Eternal Vows in the Twilight of Reality.

"Why are you doing this?" A woman was screaming at a tree, her form flickering with infinite colors.

"This doesn't make any sense!" Her anguished tone and gestures echoed in the fabric of the Universe as just a wave of her hand created ripples through reality.

"Why must you be so ruthless and forget our promise!?" This person was talking to a tree so big that the planets didn't compare.

"The only outcome of this is pure chaos! Nothing is for sure. IT'S A HAREBRAINED GAMBLE!" She was talking to a tree so huge that the stars didn't compare.

"If you follow through, the heavenly layers will be destroyed!" A tree with galaxies interlocking around its roots and with the Universe resting below its gargantuan canopy.

"Galaxies will die out, killing life throughout the Universe!" A tree that the speaker could "see" only because of her power was so vast that few could even fathom challenging them.

"The fabric of reality will collapse! And your strength will disappear!" However, even with the clearly desperate pleas and anxious voice, the tree that expanded throughout the Universe continued to crack, its iridescent sap flowing through the bark and creating stars just with the leaking energy. Even its "blood" broke the laws of physics as if said laws were not something natural but something it controlled. Something it was made out of. Something stronger than a World Tree. The one and only Universal Tree.

The woman speaking cried in the last moments of their time, desperately asking in incomprehension and confusion, surrounded by agony and despair.

"WHY ARE YOU KILLING YOURSELF!? YOUR FALL WILL ONLY LEAD TO THE DESTRUCTION OF LIFE THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE COSMOS!" Knowing that her screams didn't appear to reach it, her voice lowered, becoming heartbreaking and low, sounding like an anguished but muffled plea of a person losing all that mattered to them.

"If you kill yourself, I won't be able to continue living with you for eternity…" However, there was no answer. The only "sound" that reached them was the sound of the dying Tree. The eerie sound of a collapsing Universe. Distraught, the powerful woman cried.

"Why won't you speak to me…" The fabric of reality cracked, creating voids that swallowed galaxies and every kind of celestial object. The anguish of the female reached a heartbreaking point, making her sight blur with the tears that accumulated on her eyelids. And when her heart was about to break and collapse like fragile glass. When she thought she couldn't bear the sadness accumulating in her heart, a palm-sized leaf fell onto her hand.

The humanoid woman looked at the ethereally beautiful golden leaf surrounded by an iridescent glow, and the water that accumulated in her eyes flowed, spilling her tears down her cheeks and making them fall onto it. She brought the leaf close to her chest with utmost care, hugging it tenderly.

'I see…' If anybody from the collapsing Universe saw the current state of the previously thought absolute being, it would've made them incredulous of their reality. Holding the leaf dear and close to her chest, the woman poured her energy into it so gently, so carefully, so lovingly as if blowing at it would make it scatter like dust, allowing her presence to be imprinted in it.

"If life thrives again in the future, I swear I'll find you. This time, I'll teach you from the start… I'll not leave you to develop and be influenced by anything. I'll teach you, even if you are just a normal tree…"

"That I, Stellar Devastation, can support you."

"That I, Celestial Slaughter Goddess, will stay by your side no matter what."

"That even if you are a small seed, my heart will only beat for you."

"That I…" The woman smiled through her tears and swore with her very existence, "Chaosara Veilithra can love you." In the next instant, the Universe around the gargantuan Tree collapsed, and reality crumbled together with the death of the incomprehensively vast arboreal being. As the collapsing reality destroyed the all-powerful Goddess talking to the tree, it heard an ethereally tender and soothing voice.

A voice that permeated the fundamental fabric of creation with such gentleness that the Goddess, who once only found solace in slaughter, felt her entire being embraced by the Tree's presence.

"I'll be waiting. As always." The Goddess's eyes opened wide while tears poured faster, and a smile that could eclipse the Sun and the Moon with her beauty appeared on her face.

"I love you, Celestia." And then, the void consumed everything connected to the Tree and further beyond in a cataclysmic disaster that erased life from creation. Nothing survived. Not Galaxies. Not Stars. Not planets. Nothing. With the death of the Universal Tree, everything was destroyed and grounded to the fundamental energies. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. With the destruction of everything, an era of darkness began. With nothing being born.

With nothing dying. The concept of time, space, or reality did not make sense, as even an eon was nothing but a droplet of the vast river of time that flowed. The death of the Tree led to the collapse of the Universe. The only thing left was an infinite ocean of stilled energies that couldn't interact, as if something had forced them to a standstill. However, while life was incomparably fragile, at the same time, it was incomparably resilient. The stale energy might not have moved for a trillion years.

It might not have flowed for a million times more. Yet, within such a still Universe, "how much time" mattered not, as what mattered was that "It could happen." And with a probability existing in an infinite river of time, "something" was bound to happen. Thus, after so many years that quantifying it would be redundant, something moved. The movement was created by a coincidence of a particle transforming into a new type of energy. And with that single spark, the thing that kept everything stale broke.

It was a movement so small that a mortal would not even feel it, yet a ripple effect was created. The energy shifted, reactions occurred, and particles bonded, creating new and interesting energies called Aether, Phoer, and Anima. That single spark erased eternal darkness. Energy combusted the void, exploding in a surge of matter, allowing time, space, and reality to flow again. At first, there wasn't much, and life was nowhere to be seen. However, with "something" now existing, it was just a matter of time.

Years went by, which gave birth to galaxies, star systems, and planets, and on a remote planet, a spark of life appeared. In another one, another spark. Throughout existence, the clogs of Fate finally began turning, leading the world to a new era. However, what the creatures of this new Universe gained was much more than what they would expect. Years passed, and the strength of individuals flourished.

In this new thriving era, on a planet far away from conflicts, in a beautiful blue and green world, a family of two just welcomed a new life. The little child had gorgeous orange eyes, looking like a gentle but passionate fire, even from the moment she was born. Her parents smiled lovingly, and her mother, drenched in sweat because of the hard birth, spoke.

"Oh, my baby, you are so beautiful. You will be called, Cinderielle." The man looked at the green-haired woman with a smile.

"Have you checked her gender?" The woman blinked, tired, looking at her brown-haired husband.

"Huh? Didn't the flower shaman say that she was going to be a girl?" The man laughed softly, caressing her sweaty face.

"Silly, it's just to make sure." The woman smiled and gently opened the cloth wrapped around Cinderielle. Both parents looked down, and their expressions froze in bewilderment.

"Huh?" At the same time as Cinderielle, six other children were born in different parts of the Universe, and all their parents had similar expressions when looking at their gender. Furthermore, when these seven children were born, someone opened her eyes in an obscure part of the Universe, illuminating her surroundings with kaleidoscopic lights.

'What's this feeling?'

A few years after Cinderielle's birth, her family of three was shopping in the city. The two parents held the hands of a little girl with orange eyes and fiery hair. The city's architecture was mixed with natural materials like vines, trunks, and other similar nature-like shapes. There were even shops built inside very wide but not too tall trees. The people walking on the street had human forms, but looking closely, many weren't such.

While humans were the most numerous race, the second most abundant intelligent race and the most revered were those who descended from flora, not animals. They were called Sylvans. So, besides the usual humans, you could see a woman with rare pink hair and flowers naturally blooming on her head. Maybe, when looking right, there was another woman with beautiful ocean-blue colored eyes and hair, releasing a mint-like natural scent a human would never have.

What was strange, however, was that every single humanoid with these extraordinary features was a female. Or at least, they had an outward female figure. Other than the people, even the shops, streets, buildings, and even the shape of the clothes and instruments used were reminiscent of flowers or trees. It was clear that nature was deeply intertwined with the cultural development of this place.

If that wasn't enough, in the middle of the large city, a tree whose canopy covered a significant part of the place was visible from everywhere. When one looked closely at the twisting trunk of the tree and the way the upper branches spread, one could see that it resembled a female figure raising her arms. But, while it resembled the figure of a woman, you could easily distinguish that it was a tree. The family's child was curious because she thought the tree was gorgeous.

Having learned to speak not long ago, she asked, "Mom, why is that big tree there?" The woman smiled, looking at it with reverence.

"That's called a World Tree, Cinder. They are your and my ancestors, and unlike normal trees, they have intelligence. Their lifespans are very, very long, and their strength is immeasurable, although it varies a lot." Cinderielle looked at it with interest as she walked through the streets covered in smooth rock slabs with her parents. The child was clever and realized that her mother didn't mention her father.

"What about dad?" The mother smiled.

"Your father, unlike us, is a human, not a sylvan, love. His ancestry comes from animals, not plants." The child looked at her father and continued asking curiously.

"Which animal, Dad?" The father answered with a smile.

"Well, most of the humans come from the same animals, which are primates. However, there are a few races that come from other ancestries. Our world has people from many different places, Cinder." Society appeared backward because there were instruments that avoided the necessity of technological advancement. Of course, it didn't mean that technology didn't exist. It was just used for other things that were not miscellaneous tasks. The tool that allowed them to have ease in the miscellaneous tasks was this.

[You've witnessed the <Seedling World Tree of Fortune> for the first time. Your <Destiny> stat will increase by 100 for the next three hours.] A message popped in Cinderielle's retina. The child had heard from her parents, and this wasn't the first time in her life, so she smiled widely and said excitedly.

"Mom, Dad! I've gotten a buff from the World Tree!" The mother laughed.

"Right, I forgot that Fortune City gives one to new Sylvans who visit this place. What was it?" Cinderielle spoke.

"Um… It says that my Destiny stat will increase by 100 for three hours. What does that mean?" The father lifted his bushy eyebrow.

"Oh? So much? That's worth a few levels. Let's go to the lottery lot, Cinder. With a higher Destiny, your luck must be good, hahaha." The mother frowned.

"Do you want her to gamble? She is still level zero and only five years old." The father waved his hand.

"Don't worry so much; she is just a few years away from awakening the System. Although we can't see it yet and she can't gain experience, she might be a little fortune master. After all, hasn't she been quite lucky since birth?" The mother sighed and relented, silently allowing him to move with Cinderielle to a lottery post. However, she didn't stop nagging, which the husband accepted with a smile.

Meanwhile, Cinderielle kept looking around with interest, her orange eyes observing the surroundings with child-like curiosity. After all, she has lived in something similar to a closed sect for a while, and this was her first time outside. While she walked, something caught her attention. It was something everyone else would have ignored. A very dull, palm-sized, yellow leaf that flowed with the wind. Cinderielle's heart strangely thumped, making her frown and feel strangely excited.

She wanted to run forward, but her parents were grabbing her hands tightly so that she didn't get lost.

"M-Mom! That leaf! Catch that leaf!" Cinderielle tried getting free from her parents' hands, extremely anxious as she saw the leaf gently flowing away with the wind. Her parents looked at her, and the mother said.

"Cinder, stay still. There are many people, and if we let go, you might get lost. Moreover, some bad people try to steal beautiful children like you. You must stay by our side." Cinderielle's heart squeezed, and the young child, who didn't know what to do with her emotions, felt like crying.

"F-Father, please catch the leaf before it goes away!" The father looked at the place she was looking at and saw more than one leaf flying, so he didn't really know which one his daughter wanted. He looked at his daughter strangely and then at a nearby roadside stall.

"Isn't that leaf ugly? Look at that shop. Aren't there beautiful leaf accessories there? Handpicked from very exotic trees on the outskirts of the forest nearby! Do you want to buy one, Cinder?" Unknown anger boiled inside the child, and as tears spilled, Cinderielle shouted.

"IT'S NOT UGLY! YOU ARE UGLY! I HATE YOU!" The mother frowned and said sternly.

"Cinderielle, do not shout outside!" Cinderielle looked over toward the leaf's direction, and to her dismay, the leaf had already flown out of her sight. Unable to hold the surging sadness back, she started to wail. Her parents became confused and flustered, not expecting such a big reaction for not getting a simple leaf. To prevent her from crying, they asked her how it looked, found similar leaves, and tried giving them to her.

Still, for the rest of that day, Cinderielle didn't stop crying no matter what her parents did, saying that they were not the correct ones, and wept until she fell asleep from exhaustion.