The forest burst into chaos instantaneously, with Hope at the epitome of it all. Standing up, Hope immediately commanded her ether to come alive, powering its vessel. At her point in her training, Hope was only capable of basic body enchantment and she knew this all too well. Knowing that failure to efficiently use her energy and ether would cost her greatly, she zoned out, letting her instincts and ether take control. Looking to her right, she realized that several trees had deformed into hideous masses of rotting wood with protruding spikes. However the speed of the transformation was unusually slow, raising her suspicion. Just then, her feet sensed tiny ripples in the earth, alerting her of the trap. Relaxing her body even further and channeling faint drops of ether to the very tip of her feet, she dashed back just in time. A torrent of barbed wooden spikes shot up from the ground, narrowly missing. Having a moment of respite, she decided to reactive part of her mind. The second she did, the familiar sound of the crown was felt and screeched at her harshly, "Ruined it! All ruined! The vessel was almost perfected, all you had to to was say yes you filthy mortal!"
Realizing that her break had ended and that the morphing trees, which were no longer obstructed by their slow transformation, had all charged at her. Her head toppled down on her shoulder as she reentered the state of pure clarity, allowing her body to flow through every attack with ease. A trunk-like arm swung at her, hoping to impale her on one of its spikes, but barely missed as Hope's body stumbled to the floor. Although it looked like a stumble, she had landed on one leg and immediately shot forward, straight at the crowd of forest beings. At first she had wanted to blind them with ether, but quickly realized that neither the crown, nor the trees had eyes to damage. Luckily she had taken her sword with her which she had named bastard blade and currently brandished it. Snapping out of the state; she regained control of her consciousness and immediately channeled her ether through the blade. Feeling the familiar light of her ether wash over her eyes was strangely calming, as if they were already too used to seeing it. Landing on the torso of one tree, she quickly sent ether to her legs and kicked off, obliterating its chest. Seeing their fellow kin die had no visible effect on the trees' expression, but she saw a few smart ones raise their arms to cover their chest. 'Huh, so they aren't all stupid.'
Even with the sheer number advantage,
Hope was quite relaxed, realizing that their speed was morbidly inferior to hers. Deciding that no better practice targets would be found for a while, she took this as an opportunity to train. When the crown used her connection to manipulate the earth and nature, she entered the state of no mind, easily clearing the attacks. The second the crown's attack lessened, she would shift back to her natural control of her mind. Every now and then the crown would curse her out, often mentioning the 'vessel' and 'mother'. Knowing that the mother was probably the world tree, she decided that getting caught would be a dire mistake. At the start the crown had not exerted her full display of strength, aiming to restrain her, but now nothing was being withheld as it relentlessly barraged Hope at every opportunity. As the crowd of tree monsters lessened, the voice grew frantic, more desperate, eventually trying to coax her back into a conversation. 'Hey… let's think this through again! I'll sweeten the offer even! You just have to accept our side, don't make a stupid choice like the faries…"
As she swung her sword to fling off tar, she spoke hesitantly, "The fairies… What have you done to them…?"
The rustling of moving vines and mutated trees stilled, and the crown spoke eagerly, assuming that Hope had reconsidered. "Don't worry, don't worry! If you promise to join us, we can arrange for the revival of the fairies if you so wish."
Hope was surprised, she realized there was a reason the crown had said revival instead of anything else. Thinking far back as to how she even got here, her eyes widened. "The orbs…"
A chuckle rippled through the forest, emanating a sense of dread. "Yes, those were my doing. The foolish fairies tried to fight nature with nature and suffered dearly as you've seen."
Hope sighed and raised her blade once more, finally coming to a decision. 'I saw the energy flow out of that gem on the crown, I bet breaking it would do something.' The crown bitterly spoke, "Taking that step is not the right choice child… some fates are worse than death."
So Hope took several. Normally, approaching the crown would have been a menial task. However, even without using her energy sense, she could feel the waves of mana brushing against her skin. 'Must be a last trick.' The second she reached a few meters from the crown, her instincts went on alarm. Her legs rabidly backstopped as she analyzed the crown with a reborn intensity. 'Where's the attack?!'
A moment of silence passed which felt eerie to Hope. Suddenly, she realized what the attack was. Her body buckled as she felt her mind being invaded. Taking this as an opportunity, several tendrils of vines launched at Hope, aiming to finally end her. Suddenly, a large streak of dark fur flew across the canopy and easily broke them apart. Several more arose along with dozens of living trees, and charged straight at the two. The last thing Hope could do before she blacked out was a desperate command to Anesta. "Anesta! Kill!" Then complete darkness shrouded her eyes. By now Hope had recognized the feeling of blacking out, but this felt different, more vivid somehow. Then, instantaneously a forest bloomed. Instead of the lavender shade she had gotten accustomed too, the forest was a vivid green paradise with endless fields of flowers in view. Not letting her guard down, Hope raised her fist, ready to fight whatever being had taken her here. After a few moments of tense silence, a voice spoke. It seemed faint, so gentle, yet Hope knew that it was deception, for she had recognized the feeling of mind hex from the mysterious angels she once dreamt about. "Won't you reconsider, child of the flame? No. Wait, you are not her.. yet you are…? Tell me, who's body have you taken?"
Hope flinched, that had been an unexpected question. Although she wanted to remain silent, it was apparent the control of this situation was not in her hands. So she spoke, "I have no clue who the child of the flame is. Would you care to explain what you mean by taken…?"
The voice hummed, deciding what to say. "Normally I would have corrupted your inner realm by now. It is pitifully weak, but then again, no normal being would even bear one. I will answer one question of yours before I do, what do you wish to know child?"
'Inner realm?! What is that? Is it really that easy for her to take my body?'
After a period of thinking, the voice hummed impatiently, letting her know that time was up. Hope spoke quietly, hoping to buy some time. "Well I've been questioning my origin the most. I fell from the sky like a dying bird and remembered nothing. So tell me, what do you mean by 'body I've taken'.?"
The voice replied eagerly, "Ah, I think I've figured it out now that I had some time to inspect your realm! You see 'Hope'," Emphasizing the sarcasm,"I believe the reason you've felt so incomplete, is because you are. Your realm and memories are a terrible mess! It all makes sense once you realize it actually. You are two different halves, forced to join as one. Being the world tree allows me to peer into some concepts one normally wouldn't be able to. The concept of Fate bound two broken souls together!"
Hope was utterly confused, stumbling back she raised her fists at the forest and scowled, "It matters not! I refuse to forfeit my soul to the likes of filth like you!" Her eyes went wide open, 'Were those really my words!?' The voice chuckled, "Ah that must beR#*\%#, that bitch refused to die. Still not dead it seems! Let me finish the j-." The voice cut out, well everything did. Hope felt the darkness shroud the world yet again. However, this time she was woken up by Anesta licking her face and violently rubbing her head against her body while purring.
As she began to open her eyes, Quin yelled, "You idiot! I leave you alone for 3 hours! Three! And you somehow go and almost get killed by a forest!?" Hope laughed, she had missed Quins voice more than she realized. "Yeah my bad Quin, I wanted to try using fairy energy so I was looking for a place with a lot of it. Turns out, evil crowns grow out of trees around here." Quin pointed at a shredded tree stump and muttered. "That crown was ridiculously hard to break! Anesta was gnawing at it while getting chased. The only reason I knew you were here is because she ran back to the temple and woke me up; from my wonderful sleep mind you!"
Hope grinned sheepishly, "If it's any help I think I found our next goal!"
Quin looked confused, "Did that crown give you any more crazy ideas!?"
Hope chuckled as she replied. "No, no she gave me a target though. Quin, once we get stronger. Do you wanna go kill a world tree?"