[MA] 383. Disgusting (Patreon)

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A Realization held the Undying Emissary tightly. The S-rank responsible was in the same universe but nowhere near the creature. They had allowed Darla to get rid of it—though she hadn't revealed how—so she approached it.

The behemoth had been compressed into a fist-sized ball of liquid darkness floating above the Ocean of Fire. The hungry flames, usually so keen to burn anything on reach, couldn't be found directly beneath the orb. They flew from an S-rank's Realization like a barokus from a temorin.

They also didn't approach Darla as she neared the prisoner. They couldn't sense her. She had long Denied her presence for safety, and the B-rank flames couldn't counter her Realization.

She got to the orb and took the seed of the World Tree from her Inventory.

A shockwave of pure Life spread from the acorn-sized golden seed as soon as it materialized, covering everything for thousands of miles. Life touched the air, and it became pure oxygen, the most common gas that supported the most average biological lifeforms. Life touched the scorched ground, and it became filled with the best nutrients to support plants. Just like that, it became at least a C-rank farming field, maybe B-rank. Life touched the flames, and they quieted; then, ninety percent of the Ocean of Flames was quenched, while the remaining ten percent became fire elementals closely linked to the Laws of Life.

Darla felt souls spontaneously materialize inside the newly born creatures; thus, a new species was born.

Such was the power of an S-rank item that hadn't even been used yet.

The compressed Void Spawn fared only a little better. Most of its substance was dissipated by the enormous amounts of Life. The Axiom of Life was made manifest with too much potency in the seed. Life demanded continued existence, and the peak A-rank Emissary couldn't suppress it.

Yet, its core remained. A tiny wisp of liquid darkness, trembling to resist the power of Life, was still there.

Darla threw the seed at it.

The S-rank keeping the Void Spawn captive felt the seed when it was made public, but they decided they would rather get rid of the pest under their watch than steal the seed. Darla breathed in relief when the S-rank's Realization was retracted, and the seed touched the Void Spawn.

The resulting explosion shook everything, and the newly created species of fire elementals was annihilated. Darla used her Realization to resist the destruction. The seed released rainbow-colored light like a black hole's event horizon, which grabbed the wisp of darkness that was trying to flee. The seed pulled, forcing what remained of the Emissary into itself.

The Seed of Life ate to sustain itself and grow into a tree—and then black veins quickly grew from within.

Darla grabbed the thing with her Realization and got away from that place before the S-rank watching over it decided it wanted the corrupted seed for themselves.

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Stealing Shen's blood essence from Shar'Talon's Blood Trees was way too easy. Darla would have to talk to them about their defenses later.

The drops of blood disappeared inside the seed.

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The rainbow-colored big wolf—Darla wondered if rainbows were fashionable nowadays—carefully pushed the five blood drops from the latest B-rank orc into the seed. That blood essence was an involuntary donation from the ninth B-rank Darla killed, its corpse long Denied, only its blood essence extracted. No evidence would remain of her killing them on the front lines. The grayness of the Voided Subnode was spotless.

Shen's blood essence, already inside the seed, merged with the ninth orc's blood. Only then did the Void Energy inside react. It consumed all the orc blood, destroying it for all manners and purposes. For any observer, nothing remained, and what Darla was attempting to do would lead nowhere.

Hopefully, the Void would ignore cause and effect and simple logic as Darla needed it to.

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Darla had kept three details from the Gardener.

First, she couldn't Deny someone's race when it was in their True Self unless she replaced it with something stronger. Second, she couldn't prevent the Primordials from feeling Shen's return unless she was intrinsically linked to the new existence. Her Realization alone wasn't strong enough.

So, she pulled a drop of blood essence from her own body and threw it at the seed.

This step was almost as dangerous as leaving things to the Void and chance. An A-rank's blood essence included principles of their Realization. Her blood attempted to Deny the seed and almost accomplished it, but the Void Energy in the seed consumed the blood drop in time.

The resulting seed was an unstable thing. Half was a black liquid that kept taking different forms; the other half was a golden seed with pulsating black veins.

"Disgusting," the Queen of Spring and Autumn said as she appeared in the Void beside Shen's frozen essence. Her latest plaything, the draggor, came with her.

"Indeed," Darla agreed and looked at the high-elven woman's womb. It was pulsating with Life. Not as much as the uncorrupted seed, but enough that it was evident the child would be born anytime now. Winter was almost over. "Are you ready?"

"Do it," the Queen confirmed.

Darla threw the seed at Shen's essence, which couldn't be felt without a Realization. Despite feeling it, Darla couldn't explain it. It was Shen's Will and more, yet so much less. It almost didn't exist. It was immaterial. A spark of his soul was inside, yet it wasn't a true soul. It was something only S-ranks could manipulate.

The seed was an S-rank item, and it touched Shen's essence.

Nothing happened.

Theoretically, the Queen's presence was unnecessary. Darla had asked for it anyway, and the lack of reaction from the seed made her glad she did. More Life in the Void, especially Creation Life, would increase the odds of the Void Energy reacting to the blood essence in the seed. It would also help stabilize the creature that would be born from it—which led to the main reason: the Queen had Baptized Shen's Self, and their strong connection would ensure Shen was reborn, not anything else.

Also relevant was that the abundance of Life there would help mask Shen's rebirth from the Primordials and everyone else. Darla was confident that wasn't needed but would use anything she could.

Lastly, if Darla hadn't promised to take the Queen's child away from the Alliance—or close enough; the World Tree was free of politics and included a relatively easy opportunity to actually leave the Alliance—the Queen wouldn't have participated in the little play with Youngling Liya. But Darla needed to know if the girl's heart was in the right place. Darla couldn't leave the drow to her after Liya reached A-rank otherwise.

The third detail Darla had hidden from the Gardener was that Shen would have company when Liya delivered him.

A-ranks gave birth however they wanted. The Queen of Spring and Autumn went with Nature. She "laid" on nothingness, opened her legs, and her companion helped her deliver. Everything went without complications. The baby was born within seconds.

The moment the child was born, Spring started. The Queen's Realization released a lot of Life, almost half as much as the seed had in the Ocean of Fire.

The seed blinked out of existence, and Darla filled the surroundings with her Realization. A moment later, the point the seed had disappeared into exploded, releasing corrupted Laws from an Axiom that mimicked twisted Life.

In its midst, a creature came to be out of nothingness.

It was a humanoid the size of a three-year-old, made of an unholy mix of flesh and plant. Its heart pumped blood into tree branches that weren't meant to receive it and left its feeble body. Its head was a deformed mix of orc, human, and drow. Void Energy ran in its malformed limbs. Shen's True Self was wrapped in the center, held firmly by Darla's Realization, Denied permission to expand and become one with the vessel.

Darla Denied that body while also Denying Shen's connection to anyone else. Then, she used her blood essence to produce a new body.

Shen was remade as a drow in his mid-twenties. He was tall, his body was well-toned, and his long white hair and eyes contrasted with his dark skin. Darla would be interested in taking a piece of him if he weren't so young—and he didn't have her blood.

"I need to go," Darla told the Queen as soon as the process was over. Less than a second had passed, and she was already feeling the strains of keeping a True Self from its body.

The Queen held her baby in her arms, feeding her milk. She was an ugly yet cute little thing, the little high elf. Mother and father looked at her with boundless love.

"Lariel," the Queen said without taking her eyes off the girl. "She'll be called Lariel."

"Not to be a heartless bitch," Darla replied, "but I really need to go. I can't keep the True Self from integrating with the body for too long, and we need the Gardener to stop Shen from dying when he synchronizes with a strange body—and gains a human soul in the process." Reality wouldn't give him a drow-tuned soul just because Darla had changed his body.

"You shouldn't have lied to the little one," the Queen replied, being an obnoxious bitch. "She has a good heart. She'll never forgive you."

"Good thing I don't care about a Youngling's forgiveness," Darla replied. "Give me the baby or take her back to the Alliance. I'm leaving."

The Queen sighed, kissed Lariel's forehead—painfully slowly—gave the child to be kissed by the draggor, who also kissed her, then reluctantly offered it to Darla.

Darla enveloped the kid in her Realization and left with her and Shen.

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Darla was willing to do a lot for Shen because he was drow, and she wouldn't let Reality mess with him like that. Yet, she wasn't willing to risk another meeting with the Gardener, especially not after adding more blood essence into Shen than she had said and bringing a surprise.

She was pretty sure the ridiculously kind guy wouldn't let the baby die, but that didn't mean he wouldn't kill Darla for bringing politics to his World Tree. The Gardener didn't offer asylum to anyone, and that's what the Queen's baby represented.

So, Darla stopped in front of the two bronze colossi guarding the World Tree and left Shen and the baby there without a word. The two were surrounded by a cocoon of her Realization that would disintegrate in a few seconds.

Then, she immediately fled the hell away from there.

She was twenty universes away when the Gardener found the two people, grabbed her Realization through Spacetime, and would've killed her through it if she didn't Deny herself and cut that part of her from her essence—and almost from Reality itself. Without her Path's high purity, that would've been impossible. But it worked. The Gardener would need to come to kill her personally, but he never left his World Tree.

A few hours later, she was confident he wouldn't make an exception for her. She was relatively safe. She had paid a high price; the drop of blood essence had weakened Darla during a Void Tide, and hastening its replenishment would be expensive, but her plans had succeeded.

Now, for the final step.

She Denied herself all knowledge of what she had just done and went on with her life.

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Shen woke up with the worst headache of his life.

Yet, he was elated. Pain meant he was alive.

He had survived!

He embraced the pain like an old lover and opened his eyes to check what new adventures awaited him.

His eyes refused to obey. His soul burned in agony and sheer wrongness.

He fainted.

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