Minx and Violet also got serious and Violet asked: “Are you doing it here?”

Edward was about to nod when Fenrir said: [I don’t think that would be wise. We don’t know if anything would happen with the curse. It would be troublesome if it were released here.]

After thinking for a while, Edward agreed with Fenrir and looked at the two girls: “I’ll listen to Fenrir and do it outside the city.”

“At least take Minx with you. Won’t you be extremely weak after that?” said Violet in worry, to which Minx agreed in an instant.

Edward shook his head and said: “The city is not safe either and I don’t want you to remain here alone at night.”

“I can stay with Echo.”, said Violet immediately, but Edward still shook his head.

“I will be fine, and I trust in Minx’s strength more to keep you protected. Don’t worry, if things get bad, I’ll just have Fenrir help me.”

After more back and forth, Edward convinced the two girls to remain in the city. Since he didn’t know what would happen with his wolf form after everything was over, he agreed to meet with them in the same spot they met when he first arrived in the city two days later.

Violet and Minx wished him good luck and watched Edward with worry as he took his wolf form and rushed out of the small house. Using the cover of the night, he easily made his way out of the city and traveled north for almost an entire hour before stopping.

Looking at the endless sand surrounding him, Edward took his human form and sat down.

“I guess this is it, Fenrir.”, muttered Edward while summoning his status tablet. “Can’t believe I’m about to throw away so many years of hard work…”

[You still don’t have to…]

“Don’t I? I have my grudge against that tree as well and, aren’t you, my friend? Even if I were to take you there with this borrowed strength, it doesn’t sit well with me to have you fight her alone. We started this journey together and we’ll end it together.”

[But we still share a body.]

“For now. Who knows what would happen in the future? We might find a way to recover your body.”

Seeing that Edward was so insistent, Fenrir didn’t try to convince him anymore. [Tell me when you are ready and I’ll consume the link between your soul and Yggdrasil.]

Edward took one more look at his level, skills, and spells before taking a deep breath and summoning all his mana.

He watched as his left mana reached 100 and he stopped. He wanted to take something away from Yggdrasil before finally breaking the link. It was a petty move, and he didn’t even know if it would work, but he still wanted to do it.

“Do it.”, said Edward with a serious look.

*Crack*

A snapping sound resounded deep in his soul as his tablet dried up right in front of his eyes. Sudden fatigue followed next, as he felt his body grow heavy suddenly.

He knew this resulted from strength leaving his body, so just ignored it, paying attention to his own body for other changes. The water mana in the surroundings also dissipated, like it lost its link to this world.

Edward tried to control it like he used to, but it didn’t respond to his call anymore.

“Any change from the curse?” asked Edward weakly after the entire mana was gone.

[No reaction for now, but something is happening with Azure.]

Edward frowned, but before he even ask what was wrong with her, he noticed the skin on his hands cracking. There was no pain, but the sight was quite disturbing.

“Do you see this?”

[Your body is getting destroyed by the sudden loss of life force. Change with the wolf. It should have no problem.]

Edward nodded and simply closed his eyes. He was already exhausted and fell asleep in an instant.

When he arrived inside his soul space, he noticed Azure’s body was leaking water all over and blinking in and out of existence.

“What is going on with Azure?”

“We made the contract using Yggdrasil’s power.” Replied Azure, “Now that the link is broken, so is our contract. The spirit world is summoning me back.”

Edward bit his lip in frustration before asking: “Can’t we make a new contract? Outside of Yggdrasil’s control.”

“We can’t. Don’t worry, I will be fine. We’ll meet again when you reach the top of the tree. Please, don’t forget your promise.”

Edward nodded and looked sadly at the dissipating fish before saying: “I won’t. When we reach the spirit world, I’ll take care of the curse placed on Undine. You have my word.”

It was like these words were all Azure wanted to hear as her body dissipated, taking all the water leaking out of her spiritual body with her.

Turning towards Fenrir, Edward asked: “What’s going on outside?”

“The wolf had stopped your body from discomposing, but we don’t know what will happen after you return. The difference between yours and the wolf’s level of existence is too large now…”

Edward nodded and understood what she was worried about. His body might discompose again after he wakes up.

“It should be fine. Since me and the wolf share a body, its level of existence should supplement mine and replace the power Yggdrasil took back.”

“Let’s hope so.”

The two waited for about a quarter of an hour when another cracking sound resounded throughout the soul space.

They were startled and turned to the side, only to notice the small chaos core he received from that unknown god cracking as well.

“What is going on with that?…” asked Edward as he got closer to it. He was not that scared since he believed that god wouldn’t hurt him.

When the cracks covered the entire core, it finally broke apart, and Edward’s vision brightened completely.

He was not in his soul space anymore but in an entirely gray one. A small ethereal image of the same god that gave him the core was standing in front of Edward, a small smile on his lips.

“You finally noticed, didn’t you?” asked the god.

“What do you mean?” asked Edward back, not able to make sense of his words.

“That you are all nothing but puppets.”

Edward was about to ask something when the surrounding space changed. He was now on an empty flat plain with only a tree growing out in the middle of it.

“Is that Yggdrasil?” asked Edward as he fixed his eyes on the tree. It looked nothing special, but for some reason, he felt it to be so.

“Yes, when she was still young. 938 eons back.”, replied the god as he appeared next to Edward.

“What you see around you is the entire world, and this in front of you is nothing but a simple, giant ash tree. It was the beginning of this universe and this small world was one of the first that took form out of the chaos.”

“It had no soul, no thoughts, no mind.”

“Since this world had no death…” said the god as the world started changing and the three grew larger than even the plain underneath it, “the tree knew no end, slowly growing outside the bounds of its world.”

Edward’s vision was slowly pushed back and he could see that the plain disappeared completely as the tree had grown out into the universe. Then, its roots started withering and disappearing.

“With no world to feed onto anymore, it tried to feed on the chaos around, but the chaos was not something the tree could consume as it pleased and it got poisoned by the chaos.”

“ With no death to claim it yet and its roots gone, it stopped growing and just existed, for hundreds of eons, until its roots grew back anew and it tried feeding on chaos once more.”

Edward could see the tree’s roots grow back before getting poisoned and disappearing again. The same cycle repeated itself until something changed.

“Eventually, it developed an instinct, a fear of chaos, and with it, it started attracting a soul. Feeling, memories and instincts are attributes of the soul. The soul grew until it formed a consciousness, and that was how Yggdrasil was born. The first life paragon of this universe.”

“Life is an energy of the universe, just like water, air, fire, earth, chaos and so on, and was the energy Yggdrasil was born with as the first conscious soul of the world it just consumed.”

“Then, it encountered its first problem. To grow in life energy, one must absorb life, but there was no life around it to absorb.”

“It then remembered the world it was born in, the small world with only it inside, the ground beneath, the water that gave it life, the air that surrounded its leaves, and the fire that would sometimes rain down from above, burning its branches.”

“Remembering the environment that gave birth to her, she started seeking to replicate it. That’s how many worlds took form before disappearing back inside her roots. She would create life and also bring death to it so that she can feed on the life energy inside.”

“It formed a cycle of creation and destruction for hundreds of eons, in which she kept gaining power until she finally reached godhood. Even if she didn’t need to feed on other lives anymore after that, she still did it, for quite a while, seeking to reach godhood with the other energies that she had mastered while creating other worlds, but once she reached the peak with them as well, she noticed she couldn’t get a divinity for them.”

“Finding herself with no way forward, she stopped destroying the worlds, seeking to observe as other races try to attain godhood and learn from them.”

“She played the role of an impartial observer, tricking everyone into thinking she didn’t have a goal of her own, as she started raising gods while waiting to absorb them inside herself to steal their godhood.”

“Her experiment failed as she found their divinities to only be empty fakes, but she kept observing, hoping one would finally reach true godhood. That first one was Fenrir, but the energy in which she reached godhood terrified Yggdrasil. It was the same chaos that scared her soul from birth.”

“Since Fenrir was born out of chaos and couldn’t be consumed at will, like the other living beings, she sought to destroy her using other people.”

“What she was not aware of was that her desire to control the other beings was the reason none of them reached godhood before. All their strength was fake and was borrowed from her, as were their souls.”

Edward watched, astonished, as he was shown a representation of everything the god was telling him. Once he was done, Edward turned towards the god and asked: “What about the beasts? They don’t rely on Yggdrasil’s strength.”

“They don’t, but their souls are also born out of her. The last step in reaching godhood is to fuse your power completely with your soul. If that soul is under Yggdrasil’s control, complete fusion was never a possibility.”

“I see. Why are you telling me all this?” asked Edward after nodding in understanding.

“I told you this was my gift to you. That core of chaos is a shell to protect a neutral divinity. Since your soul was also born out of Yggdrasil and you won’t be able to form a divinity on your own, I just gave you a neutral one. It will break the hold Yggdrasil has on your soul. This will allow you and Fenrir to fight together against her, but even then… the fight will not be an easy one. Remember, whatever sources you pick, it must not be a chaos one, even if you have an affinity for chaos. It will devour any other source you’re trying to build by its side and it will also conflict with Fenrir’s divinity.”

The god smiled when he saw Edward in deep thought and his body started fading away, together with the space all around.

“My time is almost over. That divinity will remain dormant inside your soul and latch upon your first source to reach the peak. I wish you good luck, Edward, and I hope we’ll meet again at the top of the tower.”

As the god’s words ended, Edward woke up back inside his soul space, staring at an ethereal revolving crown. It looked no different from Fenrir’s.