Inheriting a Lost Bloodline, My First Task is to have heirs?!

Chapter 96: Chapter 96 - The Unconditional Love of the Golden Tree

After touching the body of the golden tree which is Nische’s current form, I guided my soul power to the sleeping child floating in the middle of its consciousness. As I was trying to reach Nische’s young form, I noticed that there seems to be a thick barrier that was trying to block my mana from entering his personal space. The barrier is doing everything it can from stopping anything from getting into the innermost part of the tree which is also it’s most vulnerable point. Why would a tree set up this much defense in a territory he built himself? Was he being threatened by anybody before? Does he think that someone may try to hurt him while he is in a deep slumber?

It took almost half an hour of continuously applying my mana to the barrier before I was able to weaken it a bit and be able to find an area that was weakened enough for me to get through. I was able to force a bit of my mana to the inner areas of Nische’s consciousness. I thought that another barrier will push me out but for some reason once a strand of my mana touched his tiny soul form, the barrier that gave me a hard time entering just less than an hour ago, disintegrated like a burst of soap bubbles. I can’t help but smile when I realized that he thinks that I am the only one he can trust in this world.

Once I am finally fully inside his consciousness, I used my mana to envelope the young sleeping child. I want to hug him so bad, to heal him, to wake him up but as of the moment, this is the best that I can do. I tried to remember all the spells that I can get from my inherited memories as well as all the books I have read from the time I arrived in this world in my desperation to try and make him feel a bit better. Once I found the spells that I think were applicable or maybe somewhat helpful for his situation, I did silent chanting for spells one after the other. The spells included mana recovery, health recovery, soul strengthening and soul stabilizing types. After exhausting almost half of my remaining mana, he finally looked a bit healthier. His skin isn’t that pale, and his cheeks seem to be less gaunt. Sadly, it was not enough to wake him up. He is still sleeping like he doesn’t have a care in the world but I am still fine with that since at least he’s not in pain.

It took a lot of me to just get into his barrier and even had to heal his soul afterwards so I feel drained. After all the desperate struggle, I found myself sliding down to the ground exhausted while leaning on the tree trunk. I changed my position a bit so my head is leaned sideways to its trunk. I swear I felt it shiver a bit as if feeling happy that I was willingly being close to it somehow. I did not know why but I started feeling sleepy while leaning on the tree. Maybe it was the quick draining of my mana, the cool breeze blowing in the area, being under the shade of a tree or maybe the calming scent of flowers that caused this. Maybe, it was all of them together that somehow contributed to my drowsiness. I don’t remember the exact time but I fell asleep.

When I opened my eyes, I was still in the middle of the field of flowers but when I looked at the tree I was leaning on, it was no longer a young tree with a thin trunk. It was a huge tree that was also so tall that you can’t see the top most part of it. The trunk was really thick like I needed ten of me to fully hug it. When I saw how the tree looked like, I knew that this wasn’t part of reality and definitely not happening at the present. Am I looking into a part of his memory or just a dream I am having? I tried confirming if my guess was correct by speaking but no sound came out of my lips. I don’t think my vocal chords even made a single vibration. Am I only allowed to watch silently as everything, both good and bad happens here? Well, it is indeed someone else’s memories so I am not supposed to meddle in it.

I stopped leaning on the tree and stood up with my shaky legs. I think I stayed in the same position for too long that my legs became a bit numb. Am I supposed to feel numb if this was just a dream? Nevermind. Let’s focus on more important things.

I walked around the golden tree while keeping one of my hands touching the surface of the trunk. I was marveling at how big and majestic it looked and how beautiful its golden color was. I can’t help but be more curious about this world tree even more. Is this is how a fully grown World Tree should look like? How many years has it been since this tree has been planted for it to grow this much?

After going around the full circumference of the tree once, I stopped walking around it, closed my eyes and tried to enter it’s consciousness but unfortunately, I was immediately kicked out. I felt like I bounced back and that I was not even given a chance to be able to get even a foot in. While I was wondering what to do next to get inside, what came out from inside the tree was a younger version of the sleeping boy I saw before I fell into this dream world. This version of him was a toddler of about 5 years of age. He approached me while running using his small footsteps. Once he was in front of me, he gave me a sweet smile then suddenly held my right hand. He then started to walk forward while tugging me to follow him. I couldn’t help but ask, ”Where are you bringing me, Nische?” The little guy then pointed to somewhere farther away from where we were standing. The place he pointed at is somewhere that I couldn’t see clearly so I just followed him quietly.

This cute little boy has a little happy hop on his step while he was walking as he was pulling me to wherever he pointed to before. After about 15 minutes of walking, I felt like we passed through a thin and invisible barrier. If you have no mana sensitivity, you won’t notice there was a barrier at all. After that weird feeling, the surroundings abruptly changed as if we were teleported to another place instantly. This time, we were somewhere inside of a vast forest and in the middle of it was a huge and clear lake. The variety of flaura and fauna are also flourishing in this place that I can honestly say that it was a hidden paradise. Since we are now in a different place, I couldn’t help but ask the young boy, ”Where are you taking me?” The child looked up at me and smiled, ”I’m a little landlord, you see? This is just one of the many layers of this realm that I created. If I remember it right, this one is where the elves live.” He looked happy and proud while saying those words which made him even cuter. I looked around but there seems to be no elves in the area. This is kind of weird since I would have seen and felt those traitors immediately if they lived here. Afterwards, little Nische gave me a simple tour of the beautiful places and types of living things in this layer which he called, Freyheimr. I think this is the same name those elves used to name their new living area in the human realm.

For some reason, we kept walking and each time I felt that we hit a thin barrier, we get teleported to a new place or should I say a new layer. He showed me around each of these layers and talked about the places he was most proud of from each. He is very proud of his creation and his position as the little landlord of this realm. I felt like a VIP who is being guided by an ever reliable personal tour guide too. He looked really happy of being able to create every single living thing in all the layers of this world tree realm. As we went through one layer to another layer, I noticed the little child looking more tired, weaker and paler. The happy smile he used to have eventually did not reach his eyes anymore and his voice no longer carries the usual energy and joy. After the last layer’s thin barrier, we were transported back to the original place where I woke up in, which was the beautiful field of flowers. This must be the core of this realm and his personal space.

He suddenly let go of my hand and then slowly walked towards the body of the golden tree. He leaned his little back on the tree and slid down till he was seated on the ground. He looked tired and even a little breathless even if we did not walk that fast. I sat next to him in silence and leaned my back on the tree as well until he was able to catch up with his breath and looked a bit better. There is something soothing and peaceful when you simply sit like this under the shade of a tree. I always liked going on nature trips so this is really refreshing for me. I think I should visit this place more in the future.