Adrean alucard's Arc

Chapter 21 of 28

Adrean reached the great tree at the city's heart. Up close its trunk split into red veins that pulsed like open wounds. Green light spun around the roots in slow rings. The people had built their spire beside it, all runes and glowing glass, but the tree was older than any of it. He pressed his palm to the bark. Heat ran up his arm. The tree drank at his hand. He felt his own blood pull toward the wood, thin threads leaving his skin and sinking into the veins. This was no ordinary tree. It fed on blood. His blood. He tried to pull back and could not. The bark held him like a mouth. His system flared. A panel snapped open in the air, brighter than before. SIDE QUEST: Bond with all world trees. Reward: elemental power. Below it a second line burned red. He read it twice. This tree was one root of many, spread across the land, and each one hungered. Then a voice entered his mind. It did not come from the panel. It came from inside the wood, low and old and pleased. "You carry a throne's blood," it said. "Feed me, king, and I will feed you." Adrean's grip on his blade tightened. He had built his strength on his own flesh, not on gifts. But he had learned to take. He stopped fighting the pull. He fed the tree on purpose, a hard steady stream of his blood, more than it asked. The veins glowed white. The rings around the roots spun fast. The bond locked. The panel chimed. QUEST BOND FORMED. A new power settled in his chest, cool then hot, water then fire, earth then wind. The tree's roots ran under the whole city. Through them he now touched every stone, every drop of water, every fire in every hearth. The elements answered him. The voice spoke again, softer now, bound. "The others will feel this. The one made of light already turns his gaze." Adrean pulled his hand free. The bark released him. His palm healed clean. High above, in a vast starlit chamber where a thousand gods sat in judgment, he knew the king made of light had felt the tree bond wake. Chronos Luminar, who had ruled his trial and spared his life, would not have missed a new power rising in a land beyond the door. Adrean turned toward the spire. The people inside had felt the tree shift. Faces appeared at the glowing windows. They had drawn strength from this tree their whole lives. Now the tree answered a stranger. He raised his free hand, and a ring of water rose from the ground and hung in the air. He had the root of their power now. But he had traded his blood for a debt to something old, and every god in creation had just felt him grow.