"Come here."
Hel invoked her authority over living beings and extended an invitation to the Flower Spirit Mother Tree.
Ordinarily, a being like an Elven Mother Tree—one that had reached the demigod tier—would never submit to a witch's authority. Yet the Elven Mother Trees were an exception.
These Mother Trees were a peculiar race of beings without true self-awareness. Hel's bloodline as the Witch of Life itself held an overwhelming attraction for them. Had it not been for the fact that half of Hel's blood belonged to the lineage of Death, the Flower Spirit Mother Tree would likely have rushed out long ago.
Soon enough, Hel felt a special kind of energy connect with her. However, the Flower Spirit Mother Tree did not emerge from the spatial turbulence. What remained in the real world was still only a projection.
No matter how Hel called to it afterward, it behaved like an aloof, tsundere noble lady, utterly unwilling to descend into reality.
This gave Hel a headache. If she could not summon the Flower Spirit Mother Tree itself, then everything they had done would amount to nothing.
"This is troublesome. No matter what, it refuses to come out. I can't even communicate properly with it using my authority," Hel muttered with a frown.
"Looks like I'll have to use the same method Spur used back then. What spell did he cast at the time, anyway? …Wait, I'll link up with the Reincarnation Brain."
Hel quickly mobilized her mental power and established a connection with the Reincarnation Brain.
At present, both her death magic and life magic were only at gold-tier quality. There were many obscure top-tier spells she simply did not know. Thus, she had no choice but to rely on the Reincarnation Brain, which possessed red-tier magic traits, to answer her questions.
Yet just as Hel connected to it, more than a dozen spell records were already transmitted to her.
Niv had organized them in advance.
"Niv wasn't present during that battle, so she doesn't know exactly what spell Spur used," Niv explained gently with a smile at Hel's side.
"But these are the relevant spells Niv compiled. Perhaps they'll be of some help to Master."
Hel felt a bit dizzy looking at Niv's warm smile. She could almost sense a powerful aura of maternal radiance emanating from behind her.
Niv was always this reliable. Hel firmly believed that as long as Niv was around, sooner or later she would be spoiled into a useless person who did nothing but cling to Niv's leg and call her 'Mom.'
But she, Hel, could not possibly allow herself to fall into such depravity.
So she decisively returned the gesture with a head pat and smiled back at her.
"Thanks, Niv."
With that, Hel focused all her attention on the spells Niv had shared.
"Top-tier spell: Ancient Flower Spirit Summoning. Top-tier spell: Void Flower Sea Descent. Top-tier spell…"
After reviewing several spells in succession, Hel still felt that something was off. They did not quite match the spell Spur had cast.
What Niv had found were spells that, after modification, might cause the Flower Spirit Mother Tree to descend. But back then, after Spur cast that top-tier spell, he had formed some kind of connection with the Flower Spirit Mother Tree, allowing him to borrow its power.
He had even been able to conceal himself within the spatial turbulence.
After skimming a bit longer, Hel disconnected from the Reincarnation Brain.
"It seems that was a spell he created himself. I'll try equipping his magic trait and see."
Hel opened her trait inventory and equipped the red-tier magic trait she had obtained from Spur.
After closing her eyes and sensing it for a moment, Hel let out a long breath.
"It really was his own creation. A top-tier spell called Reflections in the Mirror, Flowers on the Water. It's basically an expanded version of the intermediate spell Flower Perception that he refined further.
"The effect is to establish a connection with a plant-type entity, allowing one to draw upon the other party's power. At the same time, the other party can also access his abilities.
"It's a skill with a very low floor and an extremely high ceiling. If he didn't have a contract book that could summon the Flower Spirit Mother Tree, at best he'd only be able to link up with some medicinal plants."
"So that's how it is. No wonder Niv couldn't find it," Niv nodded in agreement.
However, although Hel now understood what spell Spur had used, the next problem was even more complicated.
Spur had linked himself to the Flower Spirit Mother Tree and borrowed its power. In other words, the Mother Tree had remained within the spatial turbulence and had never descended into the present world, which made it very difficult for Hel to physically touch it.
And without touching it, she could neither form a contract with it nor modify it.
Thus, the next step would require Hel to use the Flower Spirit Mother Tree's power to personally enter the spatial turbulence and drag it out from within.
"…Forget it. Let's play it safe."
After thinking for half a second, Hel ultimately decided to let her clone, Lyco , take the risk and enter the spatial turbulence.
Lyco possessed life-aspected elemental crystals. Hel could use her body as a medium to wield the life-aligned authority of living beings, drawing upon that authority to lure the Flower Spirit Mother Tree closer.
As long as she could get close enough, the Mother Tree would be completely at Hel's mercy.
Not long after, Hel had her clone Lyco cast the top-tier spell Reflections in the Mirror, Flowers on the Water.
As a bizarre connection was successfully established between the Flower Spirit Mother Tree and Hel's clone, Hel gained an additional sensation—one that told her that the entire real space was rejecting her, loathing her, as though she did not belong to this world at all.
"So that's why the Flower Spirit Mother Tree refuses to come out," Hel sighed softly as she felt her clone gradually being pushed away from the world.
"Even if it descends into the present world, it can't remain for long. That's why it stopped appearing here altogether."
Standing beside her, Niv thoughtfully explained, "It's likely that the Flower Spirit Mother Tree was exiled into the spatial turbulence and became tainted with too much subspace aura. As a result, the main world no longer wishes to acknowledge its return."
"I see. Then as long as we cleanse the subspace aura from it, it should be able to return to the present world."
Hel nodded, golden light flowing through her eyes as the trait interface of the Flower Spirit Mother Tree appeared before her.
Yet something about it was strange. Although it possessed the same traits as other Elven Mother Trees, several of its traits were blurred and indistinct, impossible for her to see clearly.
Even after repeatedly using trait inspection, she was still unable to reveal them.
It was as if those traits had not been projected along with the Flower Spirit Mother Tree's manifestation.