Chapter 528 - Birthing the Tree of Fertility

The fruit was almost ripe and Zero hurried to pack up and made his way over to the Tree of Life's shrine. Axel and the Tree of Life have been keeping Zero's array active so that no stray souls may occupy the reserved vessel.

Instead of letting Sylvia say goodbye to Baku properly, Zero told Truen to leave the Great Sylph a note as he kidnapped the wandering G.o.d's soul and jumped out of there using the lamp's portal as a shortcut.

Once they arrived, Zero was quick to get to business. Axel and the Tree of Life took care of the arrays so that Zero could concentrate on tugging and weaving the soul binding. Qin Yun was waiting for Zero's instructions to increase the qi output to Baku's soul and Lily was on standby to offer support to anyone who needed it.

Similar to the first experiment that created the Flower of Enlightenment, reaching the apex of the seed's limits took a while. In the meanwhile, Baku's soul was getting ready for the transition. Thanks to the preparations done beforehand, Baku's soul was very receptive to the changes. It reached out to the soul bound and waited eagerly, humming in excitement at meeting its new vessel.

Axel ġrȯȧnėd as the fruit grew bigger than the spriggan. He could hardly keep holding the fruit up but the Tree of Life showed no signs of stopping. Zero noticed this and summoned Bob to ȧssist the struggling spriggan.

The Eternal Dragon arrived in a timely manner and ȧssisted in holding the fruit up. The cross-pollinated fruit was shaped like an egg with a fetus inside. Zero wasn't sure if there was a particular method of birthing the Tree of Fertility with this weird appearance. He had a feeling it wouldn't be right to pluck the fruit and cut it open to retrieve the seed.

The Tree of Life trembled with great effort at supplying the new fruit with mana. She appeared to be in great pain similar to a mother going through labour. Axel wasn't completely unaffected either and Zero took pity on them.

"Lily, grab my natural herbal painkillers from the pharmacy stock and dilute it with three cups of water. Give Axel one cup and pour the rest by the Tree of Life's roots."

The flower fairy flew quickly to grab the things she needed from Zero's mindscape and gave Axel his portion while watering the Tree of Life with the remaining medicine, hoping that it would make the birthing process easier.

Zero kept an eye on the suffering duo and the fruit. The soul bond was established and he could feel the seed awakening, calling out for a soul to host. Quickly, he introduced the eager wandering G.o.d to the seed and they spent a long time feeling each other up before they became comfortable enough to reach a level of acceptance.

Zero felt like a proud midwife when the connection was established. It was weak and feeble but Zero gently encouraged the two shy parties using the soul binding spell and told Qin Yun to bring Baku closer to the fruit that stopped swelling. Instead, the fruit was beating like a heart, slowly expanding and contracting as the seed moved inside it.

It took many hours and several recovery and rejuvenation potions before the bond was strong enough for Zero to release the spell and soul capturing array. Baku's soul radiated and purified the radius around the Tree of Life's temple with a few good pulses as if to thank everyone for their hard work before it successfully settled into the fetus seed.

The Tree of Life trembled when the fruit swelled abnormally after the soul settled into the fruit and Zero had to cast calming magic quickly as Axel screamed in agony from the shared bond with his tree. The painkillers didn't do much and it was at this point that Zero had to make a decision.

Zero took out YY Tonfas and transformed it into a saw. "Help me cut it out!" he yelled at Qin Yun who hurried over.

Lily continued to give painkillers to the suffering Tree of Life and spriggan. Wii materialised and started to cast spells to put them to sleep so that they would not suffer as much while Zero and Qin Yun worked.

The stem that the fruit was hanging from was very tough so it took them fifteen minutes or so to finally cut it. Bob waited below and caught the fruit successfully. The fruit felt warm to touch and Zero told Bob to take it to the lamp to keep warm for now. He had to check on Axel and the Tree of Life first now that the worst was over.

Qin Yun was also exhausted so Zero told her to rest up. The Tree of Life appeared to be a little malnourished after that ordeal acting as the mother for the Tree of Fertility. Zero contacted Zoe to find Cleo. After some soil supplement and conditioning, the Tree of Life should be healthy again. Axel was fatigued and asleep so he should get better in a few days. The tree and her spriggan were not in immediate danger despite the traumatising birthing process. It was more tiring than helping baby Seff come into this world.

Now that the soul was successfully fused with the seed, Zero decided to put the planting on hold for now. Still, he called Enma up to briefly inform him of the success.

Enma congratulated Zero on his successful delivery and informed him that the plot of land had been reserved for his use. Hades heard about it and took over the project of building the new home for a new world tree. There was a portal in the Purgatory now leading to the supposed shrine of the Tree of Fertility connecting back to the Ten-Path Crossway. Zero thought that it should be renamed to the Twelve-Path Crossway but seeing as he didn't know how many more new portals they were going to connect to the hub, he didn't bring it up. The Tree of Fertility's shrine hasn't been built yet but the area has been marked out and reserved with a spell barrier.

Zero sank to the ground after checking in with Bob on the fruit's condition.

"She's humming and thriving. Instead of fruit, it should be safer to call it an egg. The stem has fallen off but the fruit shows no sign of ripening further. It still feels warm and I'm keeping it that way. The outer layer of the fruit is hardening and the fetus inside is moving more than before."

Zero was tired but he told Bob to wait for him as he gave Lily some instructions to follow up on the matters here before he returned to the lamp to talk to Baku.

Baku was resting peacefully and Zero approached the strange fruit-egg. He tapped at the outer wall lightly and asked if he could talk. Baku woke up and replied telepathically that she was awake even if she sounded sleepy.

"Does your new vessel need to be birthed before planting in the soil or is planting it into the soil directly as it is right now alright?"

Baku yawned. "Sleepy... Soil sounds good. Need lots of qi and mana... need prayers too."

Happy with the answer he received, he let Baku sleep again and called for the gardening team. They had some work to do before the new world tree was planted. For now, he was going to take a short rest before going back to tell Sylvia the news.