I was surprised to see a quest notification pop up in front of my eyes.
It's been a long-ass time since the last one.
[Quest Details: The World Tree is experiencing a unique and powerful awakening, a surge of life force that threatens to overwhelm its nascent consciousness. Its physical form is transforming in response, and without guidance, this transformation could be chaotic and destructive.
The tree yearns for a deeper connection—a convergence of root and rider, of bark and bliss.]
[Objective: Reclaim a part of the old World Tree and feed it to the new World Tree. This will help anchor her consciousness and stabilize her transformation.]
[Time Limit: Six months]
[Reward: World Tree Awakening, New Form, New Skill]
[Failure: The World Tree will become a mindless beast.]
"..." I stared at the glowing text, my mind racing.
"Reclaim a part of the old World Tree," I muttered slowly, the words rolling off my tongue like a threat and a promise all at once. "Feed it to the new one. Cute. Cannibalistic. Very on-brand for my family."
I pressed my forehead to the bark, letting my aura seep into her—warm, steady, comforting—like a mother trying to soothe a panicked child.
Except my "child" was a rapidly evolving, world-spine, hyper-fertile sentient tree-girl who was currently leaking so much divine pheromone into the air that even the flowers were blushing.
"Oh sweetheart… you're really going through it, aren't you?" I whispered. I could feel her confusion, her fear, and beneath it all, her desperate, clawing need for me.
It wasn't just lust. Not exactly.
It was recognition.
She knew me.
Her core, her very essence, remembered the touch that had forged her. And now, in her tumultuous adolescence, she was reaching for the only anchor she had ever known.
Her mother.
Her lover.
Her goddess.
"I'm here, my daughter," I cooed, my hands tracing patterns on the bark. "Mommy's here. Don't worry, I'll get you your snack."
My words had barely left my mouth when the World Tree shuddered—hard.
Rumble!
A low, resonant groan rippled through her trunk, deep and aching, like the earth itself was gasping. A pulse of green-gold light surged up her bark, racing along every branch, every leaf, every root until the entire canopy glowed bright enough to cast shadows across half my domain.
"MORGANA!"
BOOM!
I didn't even have time to turn before Vicky slammed into the ground behind me, landing in a crouch like a predator that smelled blood. Dust exploded outward, her tail carving a furrow through the earth as her eyes locked onto me.
Correction: locked onto my ass.
Her nostrils flared.
"You ran off," she said flatly.
"I teleported," I corrected.
"You ran off."
"…Vicky, sweetie, I'm literally next to a screaming magical landmark, this is clearly not a horny getaway attempt—"
"..." She narrowed her eyes. I felt the territorial dragon energy radiating off her like heat from a forge.
"If you're not trying to masturbate," she said slowly, "why is your aura doing that?"
"That? Oh, for fuck's sake, it's the World Tree!" I snapped, jabbing a finger at the trembling trunk behind me. "She's having a metaphysical puberty crisis, and my divine essence is the only thing keeping her from reformatting the continent into one giant orgasm!"
"Hm?" Vicky's eyebrow twitched. "It's moaning."
"She's transforming!"
"It's moaning."
"YES, BECAUSE SHE NEEDS HELP!"
"She sounds like you when you're—"
"VICKY, THIS IS NOT THE TIME."
Then a slow, wicked grin spread across her face.
"A world-ending orgasm," she repeated, tasting the words. "So… a Tuesday."
"I hate you," I said, but my lips were already twitching.
"No, you don't." She stood up, brushing the dust off her leather-clad thighs with deliberate slowness, her gaze raking over the glowing tree. "So what's the problem? Let her have her fun. A world reshaped by pleasure sounds like a significant upgrade."
"The problem," I said, gesturing to the quest screen still floating beside my head, "is that if this thing goes sideways, she becomes a mindless, rampaging beast instead of my beautiful, sentient tree-daughter."
Vicky leaned closer, her crimson eyes scanning the golden text. Since she was 'me' according to the system, she could see my interface.
"'Reclaim a part of the old World Tree'…" she read aloud. "That's cute. Sounds like a family reunion where we bring home a dead relative and force the kids to eat it."
"Ugh!... Don't start."
"I like it," Vicky decided, her grin widening. "It's efficient. Gruesome. Violent. And it involves trespassing somewhere we're not wanted. It's like every adventure we've ever had."
"Finally, something we agree on," I muttered, dismissing the screen with a wave of my hand. "The only issue is finding the old World Tree. I have no idea where it is. And you know what that means."
Vicky's head tilted, her expression shifting from mischief to sharp, predatory focus.
"Research," we said in unison.
"Ah!"
But then I quickly recalled something about the old World Tree. She was destroyed by humans and an undead dragon. If I could find any clues about the location, maybe I could find a piece lying around.
"Let's go and talk to Leaf; she probably knows something about it."
"Leaf?" Vicky asked, her interest piqued. "The elf? The one who was nursing those two little spawnlings like a farm girl trying to win a blue ribbon at the county fair?"
"That's the one," I confirmed. "She was the one who told me about the old World Tree."
"Right," Vicky said, rolling her shoulders as if preparing to punch an elf through a wall. "Then let's go squeeze her for info. Preferably gently. Maybe. Depending on her attitude."
"She's skittish," I warned. "You can't just—"
"Can't what?" Vicky tilted her head.
"…Never mind. You're going to do it anyway."
"Good girl," she purred.
I resisted the urge to punch her in the face.
Barely.
The World Tree trembled again behind us, a long, needy vibration that rolled through the ground and up my legs like a lover dragging her nails down my spine.
Sigh
I turned, pressing a final kiss to the bark.
"I'll be back soon," I murmured. She shivered under me, petals fluttering like eyelashes. "Stay strong. Stay you. Don't let the surge eat you."
Her roots wrapped around my calf—not tight, just clinging, like a scared child holding its mother's skirt.
My heart clenched.
"…I know, baby. I know."
Vicky tapped her foot loudly on purpose.
"Morgi. If we stay any longer, I will climb that tree and bite something important."
"!!!" The tree whimpered.
I shot Vicky a glare so sharp it could cut steel.
"Touch her, and I'll replace your horns with fucking dildos."
"Kinky." She smirked.
I exhaled through my nose, grabbed her wrist, and teleported.
With a flash, we stood before Leaf's little grove-house, a delicate structure woven from living branches and glowing moss that smelled like rain and honey.
It looked peaceful.
Calm.
Serene.
Which was impressive, considering Leaf was nursing the two babies at that exact moment, her bare breasts exposed, her expression one of utter contentment as the two little ones suckled greedily.
"Leaf?" I called, stepping forward.
Leaf jolted, her head snapping up, her eyes wide with a panic that only someone who had been hunted her entire life could possess. She quickly pulled a blanket over herself, shielding the babies with her body, her movements quick, practiced—designed to hide in plain sight.
"M-Morgana," she stammered, her green eyes darting from me to Vicky and back again. "My lady. I—"
"Relax, little Leaf," I said softly, my voice a warm caress meant to soothe. "I'm not here to do anything. We just have a question."
Her gaze locked on Vicky, who was leaning against a tree, arms crossed, a look of bored, carnivorous amusement plastered on her face.
"Who… who is that?" Leaf asked, her voice barely a whisper. She pulled the babies closer, her body tensing.
"That's my sister," I said, trying to make it sound less like an apocalypse and more like a casual family introduction.
Leaf was stuck in her house for the past week, so she didn't know about Vicky's appearance.
"Your… sister?" Leaf's brow furrowed. "You… never mentioned a sister."
"There are a lot of things I don't mention," I said gently. "Anyway, I want to ask you about the old World Tree. Do you happen to know where we can find any remains of it?"
Leaf's eyes widened. Her pupils dilated in fear. Her body tensed so tight I thought she might snap. The babies, sensing their mother's distress, began to fuss, their tiny whimpers filling the air.
"The old World Tree…" she whispered, her voice trembling with a terror so profound it seemed to echo in the silence of the grove. "Why… Why would you want to find it? That place… It's a graveyard. A monument to our sins. A wound upon the world that has never healed."
"..."
Losing their great mother was probably the most devastating thing that happened to the elven race, so it was normal for her to react this way.
However, we have a new World Tree, and Leaf is a wood elf; her connection to the tree was undeniable.
"I need to feed the new World Tree a piece from the old one to stabilize her condition. She is going through a transformation, and if we can't get a piece in the next six months, she will become a mindless creature," I explained, my tone serious, leaving no room for misinterpretation.
Leaf's face paled. She looked from me to the two babies cradled in her arms, her mind racing.
"A mindless beast…" she repeated, her voice filled with horror. "But… that would be.... a second death for our great mother. We can't let that happen. We can't let her be defiled again. But..."
She paused for a second.
"Sigh... the only piece of the old World Tree that I know of is the staff of the elven queen," she said, her gaze distant, lost in memories of a world long gone.
"Why am I not surprised?" I muttered, rolling my eyes.
The elven queen was the one who drove Leaf from her home and hunted her like a rabid dog. She wanted to kill her because she was the most suited to be the next queen.
So she cursed Leaf's body to ensure she could not ascend to the throne.
However, I'm more curious about the origin of that dick-shrinking and infertility curse she put on Leaf.
I couldn't remove it. Even now, with my divine energy, I couldn't break the curse.
The only curse that divine beings cannot easily break is from other gods. The elf queen must have made a pact with a god to get that kind of power.
Which god?
I didn't know.
But if I had to make a guess, it would be one of the demon gods that invaded my world. They are known for their twisted sense of humor.
"So I guess it's time to pay the queen a friendly visit."