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 Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:16 am
Ever since she’d turned fourteen, Jen had felt… off. Much like her brother, she’d sprouted from a relatively tall child into a gangly teenager in the span of two years. By the time she was sixteen, she’d towered over her classmates, and somewhere around seventeen the rest of her body finally decided to catch up. She filled out some, actually looked like her frame could support her height, and would have given Merric a run for his money. As it was, now at eighteen she matched his height. Or would have if he was still alive.
Being taller than literally everyone in her class and in her life had been difficult for Jen - kids are incredibly mean when you’re literally a foot taller than them - but she’d gotten over it. She could reach things other kids couldn’t, she could run faster, go farther, and had a pair of damn good legs that could choke you out without having to bend, Kyle. Once she got to highschool, it wasn’t too bad, either. Perhaps she didn’t get a lot of dates from guys, but for a long time she only had one young man in her heart and that was fine for her.
Young love and all that, chasing monsters under the stars and falling into mirrors and protecting the world in the name of a dead queen.
Yet where he’d grown and become stronger, she’d stayed the same.
For several years she’d stayed the same. Same brat, same whine, same level of power. Same uniform, same naive outlook on the war. Even after she’d shattered her arm fighting that giant youma, or diving into the Rift. She’d gained the rank of ‘Super’ but that meant very little when you were still a Chibi senshi.
She’d kept waiting for something to happen, to come into her powers and strength proper. Nothing. She’d thought maybe she’d get some sort of call, or Cosmos herself would come down and… what, bless her with good fortune? As the years wore on, Jen realized it wasn’t going to happen, not unless she did something about it. Then she sort of just… stopped caring.
Her brother was gone. Cadmus was AWOL. The cat that had brought her into the whole war in the first place wasn’t around. What reason did she even have powering up?
What reason had she had in the first place?
It was with that question in her mind that she stared at the orchard in front of her.
Once, some years ago, she’d gone to Cadmus’ homeworld with him, and before that she’d been summoned to Hugbel’s homeworld as well. Heck, she’d been on the moon at one point too! So it stood to reason that she too had some sort of homeworld. Iduna had never used the ‘Homeworld’ option in her phone before, too terrified of what she’d find. Would it be alive, would it be dead? Or worse, would it attack her?
Yet the orchard was quiet and still when she materialized on her world. Almost deathly so. Only the wind through the leaves on the trees gave her any sort of reassuring this wasn’t just some sort of trap. Or illusion. Somewhat teal-blue sky greeted her above, with wisps of white clouds and the other asteroids of the belt dotting the sky. The orchard followed the roll of a hill, the top of which she couldn’t see from where she was. On all sides, trees stretched until she couldn’t see. It had dropped her in the middle apparently. Well this was nice but where the heck did she go from here? She was tall, but she wasn’t tall enough to see over the trees. The trees, she noticed, were covered in leaves but devoid of flowers or fruit. Did the trees grow anything? They would have had to. Once. She was pretty sure they were apple trees.
Not entirely sure how she knew that tidbit, Iduna took a breath and walked to the top of the hill.
The orchard lines dragged her attention towards the absolutely massive tree beyond. The tallest branches and canopy were lost among the clouds that clung around it. While it sat in a valley of apple trees and the ruins of farmhouses, it still scraped the sky. It was at least six or seven full orchard rows wide - probably more - and she couldn’t even comprehend how tall it was.
What she did notice was the glimmer of... something, among the trunk. Many somethings. How the sun reached this far in the galaxy she wasn’t sure, but her small planet seemed to get enough sunlight to grow things. And sustain the massive tree.
“The Eldermalus,” came a voice to her right. Iduna jumped, almost out of her skin, spinning towards it.
There was nothing there.
Well, no that wasn’t quite… true. There was a flicker of something. Of a small young boy, tiara on his head and bright reds and greens in his attire. It wasn’t defined, beyond that, but she felt a sort of… kindred spirit to the child. He made the action of turning to her, but she couldn’t see his face. Sound came from the flickering image, but she couldn’t understand it.
Then he disappeared, reappearing some feet away, down the path.
“Come on, it’s time.”
“Time for… what?” she asked, following the hazy spirit through the orchard. He did not reply, simply skipped his way along, occasionally appearing far enough away she had to jog to keep up. The tree rose up in front of her, suddenly far larger than she’d been aware of at first. It towered over the land, but not the orchards themselves. As she got closer, a wide ring broke in the apple trees and the ruins of an expansive town, city, really, stretched around the tree.
“Idunus,” the spirit provided as they crossed through a broken gate into the city proper. Iduna could see it having had some sort of… cottagecore look to it, thatched roofs and stone buildings. Things flickered across her vision, where buildings were fully standing then rubble again. Ever did the Eldermalus loom over the city. The city, like the orchards before, was deathly quiet. It felt… somewhat like home, and yet too strange at the same time.
She walked in silence for longer than she’d expected. The tree grew ever taller, ever wider, ever more… unsettling. There was a flash and she was gripped by something not wholly her own mind. Or maybe it was.
”Do you think you’re ready?” asked his companion and best friend. Iduna giggled, resting his hands on his hips and looking up at the Great Tree. Of course he was ready! He hadn’t been training for so long, slowly working up his abilities and strength just to not be ready! He flashed a wide grin at his friend.
“Of course I’m ready! I’m fourteen earth summers now, and I’ve been at this since I was eight. I’m as ready as I can be, given the whispers I’ve been hearing. Something is coming, -----, and I have to be ready for it,” he said, patting the other boy on the shoulder. There was nothing to worry about. The Eldermalus hadn’t rejected a senshi of the planet in generations, and it had no cause to do so now. ----- pursed his lips, arms crossing over his tunic. There had been no true knights of Iduna in a few generations now, but the traditions were kept even in years without a Prince or Princess.
“Iduna, everyone who’s taken the trials have been eternal senshi, neigh on royal level. They’ve all had their crystals. You’re still---”
“I’ve barely become a super senshi, I know -----. But we have to be ready. We have to. Otherwise… No, we just have to. We have to have faith in the Sol Senshi, the Surrounding, and Princess Serenity. I have to have the power to stand with them, no matter what,” he said, hands clenching into fists. Iduna stared up at the altar, carved into one of the many roots of the Great Tree, and the crystals embedded high in the trunk.
Those who failed their trials.
“I… If you are sure, Iduna. I will go as far as I can with you. May you find what you seek among the branches of the Eldermalus.”
She lurched out of the memory to find herself at the base of the tree. One massive root curled up almost vertically, with several flights of stairs carved into the wood. The stairs were well worn but looked solid.
“The trials are ahead. Good luck!” came that same voice again, the same one in her memory. There was a moment where the flickering figure paused, looking up at her. “Succeed… where we failed the first time.”
Then he was gone.
Iduna licked her lips, staring at the stairs and the altar that lay beyond. Trials, huh? She kept waiting for some other flash of memory, some other clue as to what they were. Nothing came. No more ghostly voices either. She wasn’t even sure if all of it had been real or just some sort of hallucination brought up by the stench of rotting fruit. There was no way this all still existed right? This was just some sort of fever dream.
And yet.
And yet the stone was firm where she touched it, the leaves the right leafyness. The shade cool and the wind gentle. No this was real. This tree, the Eldermalus, passed judgement on it’s senshi when they came of age. Whether they were worthy of the full power of their planet, or if they were not.
Of those that were not… Iduna’s eyes strayed to the glittering crystals in the trunk, more than she could count. With wide eyes, she got the distinct impression that the senshi then fueled the tree. Why did her world have something like this? Why was it so… so… much like Chaos that it made her skin crawl?
Damnit she’d come here to see if she could shake off this feeling of being too big for her skin, and now all she wanted to do was go home. Would that Cadmus or Lazurite were here…
“Do you want to be stuck as a chibi until you die, or what Iduna? Do this, and you can go fight Lazurite and test out your power. Do this, and you can honor Merric’s memory,” said Iduna like a mantra, staring at the stairs. She would do this, she had to do this. If nothing else, than for her previous self.
(She’d unpack the whole, she’d been a boy in her past life, at a later date.)
She began to climb, one foot in front of the other. The tree root rumbled softly with each step, as if power was rolling through it. The whole tree creaked, branches swaying as wind curled through the canopy. Up and up she curled around the root, until the root began to level out and presented her with a flat space. The wood beneath her rumbled again, this time far more violently. She braced herself as a platform rose out of the wood about twenty feet away.
“... You who would presume to wear the mantle of Iduna… step forward.” The voice boomed from the tree, sounding as though a tree was cracking and falling. Iduna shivered, every inch of her body telling her to run, to flee, to leave this place. She turned towards the stairs she’d just come from only to see them blocked off. The drop itself would kill her alone if she tried to jump off, augmented agility and resilience notwithstanding. All she could do was go forward.
Iduna stepped up onto the platform, onto the altar the tree had created for her. It was then she noticed the face. Carved into the trunk of the tree, something she was very sure wasn’t there before, was a face. Not like Pocahontas grandmother tree face, but more like Lord of the Rings treant face. It’s eyes slowly opened, revealing only wood knots and black space in their place, and stared at her unblinking and unforgiving. For a moment, Iduna thought there was some sort of black ooze dripping from those eyes.
“Hrmph,” it said, mouth opening slightly in mild disgust. “You are late, and I have slumbered for far too long. I am the Eldermalus, and you are she who would call herself Iduna. Yet you are not Iduna. Not yet.... Not until you survive this trial. Should you succeed, I will grant you your full power. Should you fail…” The face twisted into one of hunger and madness. “Then I will consume you and wait for the next who takes up the mantle.”
Vines of wood shot up from the altar and wrapped around her body, locking her into place and stealing her henshin from her. Jenn froze in it’s grapple, silver eyes wide. The root lifted her higher and higher until she was level with its face.
Panic fluttered in her chest, and then the root began to move. “I will take away from you that which you’ve clung to for too long. Try to be more sport than your previous attempt. Though I do love how you tremble in terror...”
The great mouth opened and swallowed her whole.
[ WC to here: 2230 ]
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Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:18 am
Darkness surrounded her and for a moment, Jenn thought she was dead. Not that she’d ever really expected death to go somewhere - while her parents were very much church going Christians, she’d lost her faith once Merric started to vanish - but this really wasn’t how she’d wanted to go, you know? Eaten by a tree, good grief. It wasn’t even painful, she’d just been nommed by a giant semi sentient tree that liked to eat its own senshi. First off, what was up with that? Seriously. What even was its criterion for who got a pass and who didn’t? And how was Iduna’s last attempt not worthy?! Sounded like he was trying to protect his world from the Negaverse! That was a valorous cause! So what if he was young and not eternal? He was trying to keep his people safe and protect the galaxy at large. How was that not a worthy endeavor? Also, what was with the weird hunger face and the goop?
She was thinking entirely too much for someone who was dead.
“...you are not dead, you are simply within the essence of the Eldermalus…”
Jenn blinked and sat up. Yes, sat up. While there was no distinct floor or, well, anything, she was definitely on something solid and sitting up was easy enough to do. A muted figure floated in front of her, more light than really… anything else. The voice floated in her ears, or maybe her head, she couldn’t really tell.
“Who… who are you? Why does this thing eat its own senshi? Why was it leaking black ooze? What even is this trial I’m supposed to do?” she asked, every question in her head just vomiting out in one long breath. The figure flickered and bobbed a little, as if it was chuckling.
“...it is… a fragment of a long forgotten misstep… it was not always like this… but time has not… been kind…” The figure flickered again, almost as if it sighed. “... I am… forgotten. Have forgotten… you are the newest… to be bestowed m-- Iduna’s power… yet you are… older than your previous self.”
Jenn blinked at the being, standing hesitantly to approach it. It always seemed just out of reach, but the light it gave off was warm and… soothing almost. So very familiar and yet so… distant. “It’s been… a thousand years, since he awoke, at the least. You are aware that… this planet is devoid of life, save for the trees?” she asked the figure. It seemed to nod.
“... yes Eldermalus deemed him… too weak, even though he… passed the trial… he presented a strong heart and determination… but the tree wished to… consume that instead… I was… unable to protect him…” It’s light dimmed in sadness. Jenn tilted her head, making out just the faintest outlines of wings and a bow and something almost… fuku shaped. “... I am… aware of the state of this world… for I am bound to it… after all…”
“... You were the first… weren’t you…” whispered Jenn. The figure seemed to brighten and nodded.
“...I was… yes…” It floated further ahead, wherever they were going, as if somewhat shocked that she figured it out.
“What happened with the tree? Why does it eat it’s senshi?” Jenn needed to know, she needed to understand why this tree, this parasite of a tree was consuming the blood of its own people! That seemed something very Chaos derived for something so bound to Order and the light. The figure stopped, flickering and dimming again.
“... I cannot tell you… it was not me… who did this… but there is… a way to cleanse it…” Not exactly the answer she was hoping for, but then again. She’d been eaten by an apparently carnivorous tree. A bloodthirsty, carnivorous tree. “... first though… you need to regain your powers…”
Eventually they came to the edge of the darkness. Do not ask her how she knew it was the end of the darkness, that it dropped off and the trial was beyond.
“... the trial is simple… confront that which torments you the most…”
Jenn stared at the First. Just stared. ...Seriously, just... Confront your fears? Really? It couldn’t just be that… simple.
“... do so, and claim the golden apple, and the Eldermalus will… have no excuse in returning your powers… fail and… this will be your tomb… I am… sorry… for this…”
Jenn looked down into the darkness that was somehow beyond the darkness she stood on. Provided the fall didn’t kill her… well, this year seemed to be about dealing with her demons after all. If this would get her full senshi abilities though…
“Confront what torments me the most, get a golden apple. Got it. Seems simple enough,” she said, steading herself. She gave a nod and leapt into the darkness below.
Above her, the figure smiled a wide, dripping black filled grin.
[ WC here: 824 ]
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Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:19 am
A garden materialized around her. The odd Biblical implications were not lost on Jenn, but it didn’t seem like the same one. No, this one was surprisingly like… the one behind her house. The treehouse that was consumed by its tree in the corner, poorly kept grass on the left, flower beds teaming with seasonal favorites. Not exactly what she was expecting, all things considered. She didn’t fear this… this was home. Maybe not exactly the same but… home.
“Jenn! What are you doing, dinner is almost ready!”
She turned and suddenly she was eleven again. All long limbed, with eyes only for her brother. Merric, her wonderfully aloof, base playing brother with bright silver eyes and a kind smile. He towered over her at this age, all gangly limbs like she was but starting to fill out. He still had those ridiculous A earrings, and his band t-shirts and ripped jeans and…
He stood by the back door into the house, waiting for her. “Come on, Jenn, mom wants me to get you cleaned up before dinner.”
“I can do it myself!” she huffed, hands on her hips. He laughed, his deep voice ringing clear in the afternoon air. He rolled his eyes at her.
“Yes, little princess, I’m sure you can, now come on!” he said, waving a hand towards her. Her heart soared and she started towards him. He grinned at her, eyes open just a little too long, and held out a hand to her. “If you do a good job I’ll sing you to sleep tonight.”
It was an empty gesture. He would anyway, Mom’s voice just didn’t do it. Not when Merric soothed her through every tantrum, every outburst, every lonely night. Held her through every fight, through every time Mom got too drunk and started throwing things. Merric was her everything, her light among the dark, her…
Jenn’s feet slowed as she neared the patio. He stared at her, one sapphire eyebrow raising over his silver eyes. His eyes that seemed just a little too wide. This was…
“I’ll be right in, I just need to look for something!” she called, glancing around the lawn underneath her.
“Do you need help, princess?” he asked, making to move from his perch in the doorway.
“No! It’s a surprise!” she said defiantly, holding out her hands to stop him. He stalked - that was the only way she could describe the way he began to approach her - towards her, stopping on the other side of the patio table. Jenn took a step backwards, heart pounding. This was… this was wrong. He never looked at her like that, like she was something to capture, to consume. Like… he wanted something from her… His form seemed to shift and twitch, dark uniforms and sharp weapons flickering over him. Lazurite had…
Right Lazurite had thought maybe he’d been part of the Negaverse.
Suddenly she looked at him straight on, and not up at him, and Jenn was eighteen again.
“You’re dead. We buried an empty coffin. You died.” Jenn took several more steps back, into the garden and flower beds. Golden apple, golden apple. She needed to find a golden apple.
The thing that appeared to be Merric tilted it’s head to the side, eyes going dark and black and beginning to ooze. It chuckled, a broken sound trying to imitate him. Who successfully had until she’d paused. The promise of peace and serenity and home had been right in front of her, but it was a lie. A ruse. A gods damned trial set to make her fail, by giving her the one thing she couldn’t have anymore in the whole world.
“Hahaha! I’m impressed! It took your last incarnation far longer to figure it out! Ah but his torment was such a wonderful thing to behold… All his sins, all his fears… all that responsibility weighing on his shoulders! Oh he would have been such a good senshi! So strong, and so convicted in his beliefs… Ah but he tried to fight against me! ME! The very power that he was trying to attain, thinking I was some being of Chaos - nevermind the fact that I lead him to believe that. I couldn’t quite let him simply rise to the threats approaching, after all. Not if I was to survive the calamity,” said the fake Merric, throwing the patio furniture out of the way with one hand. The other held an apple.
The Golden Apple.
“You… monster… you purposefully led senshi to their deaths in the name of Iduna!” snarled Jenn, fists clenching. The fake Merric grinned wide, black ooze dripping from his mouth.
“Well, of course I did. That was the bargain struck. Granted no one knew exactly how that would play out at the time, but here we are. And you, little princess, you could have him back, everything back to normal… you just need to give me your everything.” He launched himself at her, inhuman speed catching her off guard. “Don’t worry, in several hundred years you can try again!”
Jenn ducked and bolted around the garden. Without her senshi powers, she wasn’t fast, she wasn’t strong, but she knew this garden better than even her brother had. All she needed to do was get the apple. Then the Tree would let her go.
“Oh is that what you think? Child do you not know anything about your own history? That if you simply take this apple from my hand, I’ll find you worthy? My dear little princess, that is not how this works. Not anymore.” His voice came from behind her so close, she could feel his breath on her cheek. “Do you know what happens when an apple rots at the bottom of the barrel? It infects the entire bussel.”
She snapped her elbow back into his ribs, hearing a crunch that shouldn’t have been possible in a normal human, and continued running. He could read her thoughts, he could telegraph her movements, it was like she was set up to fail.
“It is a test after all, girl, what did you expect?” She glanced at him long enough to see him stalking slowly towards her. “Wouldn’t do to tire the prey out just yet, now would it? Besides, I am curious if you are the one who can truly pass this test. Do give it your best shot, why don’t you?” He pressed a hand to his ribcage, licking the black ooze from his fingertips.
s**t, s**t, s**t, if it wasn’t the apple in his hands then… Jenn looked around the backyard wildly, trying to spot anything, anything that might point her in the right direction. The tree in the corner had never had fruit, they didn’t plant fruit trees in their yard, not even the plants that were there were fruit or vegetable based. It was all ---
’May you find what you seek among the branches of the Eldermalus’
The memory almost slapped her in the face and she tore through the gate. There was a ‘Tch, damnit’ behind her, the rest lost as the gate swung closed again.
This was inside the tree. This was all just a projection. She wasn’t home, Merric was dead - at least the person he’d been as Merric was - and more over… Her house was at the bottom of a hill. At the top of it was--
A large oak tree.
Jenn crested the hill that flattened out into a park with one of the largest oak trees in the neighbourhood. Except here, right now, it wasn’t an oak tree, but a large apple tree, over laden with apples. Among those branches, heavy and arching towards the ground, was one pristine golden apple.
“Damnit, I’d hoped you were too dumb for the memories to trigger.” He reappeared between her and the tree. “You know, that’s why you awaken so damn young, so you can’t remember the lives prior. But no, you had be late and already an adult when you came here.” He snarled at her, form shifting and cracking and becoming something far, far worse.
That dragon youma that had shattered her arm, only this time an amalgamation of the dragon and Merric. “Though it doesn’t really matter. You’ll be dead soon, your starseed given back to the Cauldron to try again, as it always is, and I will continue unto eternity. I cannot be cleansed, I cannot be defeated, and you will never be a full senshi. So it is written, so it is.” The sudo dragon roared, shaking the ground and the illusion around them.
“... No one has ever… passed the trials?” she asked, bracing herself and keeping an eye on the tree. He laughed.
“Only when it has been convenient for me, though they all come back to me, in the end. It would damage morale, you see, to simply kill everyone who tries. It’s that level of worry, of tension, that helps these tests go so well, you see.” He moved towards her, his form large and oppressive. “I sense the question and no, I am not Chaos. I am simply what happens when the whole bushel is left to rot, for eons and eons. Much more fun this way.”
The illusion around them shook again, ooze starting to drip through cracks in it. The apples on the tree started to turn, falling and rotting away. She was running out of time.
“That you are! Not that it matters!” He sounded like a spoiled little kid who’d never been told no in his life, and when people started, he got angry and violent. Reminded her a little bit of her younger years. Such a bratty little boy. That’s all he was.
Wait.
That’s all he was.
A bratty little boy who’d never been told no, and who’s anger and rage at not passing the trial consumed him.
“Oh for stars sake, stop ruining everyone else’s lives because you didn’t get what you wanted! Stop being a little boy and GROW UP!” she shouted, sprinting for the tree with one final burst of energy.
His form flickered and then exploded, black ooze flying everywhere except the golden apple and Jenn. In fact, it seemed more like she was protected from the ooze. It fell around her, almost like she’d had an umbrella. The scream of frustration and rage and indignation that followed would have shattered her eardrums if not for that same barrier. Apparently, an apple a day kept the whiney little boys away. The tree began to crack and groan, branches falling down around her as she launched herself into the branches.
“NO NO NO! YOU CAN’T JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO! I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE PRINCE! I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR PRINCE. YOU PROMISED ME! YOU PROMISED MEEEEE!!” The being of rage and hurt surged towards her as she reached for the apple. Just… a little… bit… more….
“YOU PROMISED ME EVERYTHING!”
“WELL PAST ME LIED, SUCK IT UP. I. AM. NOT. YOUR! SALVATION!”
Her fingers closed around the apple as something grabbed her leg.
The apple exploded in bright light, all red and green and Order and right.
“... you did it, sweet Iduna…”
Then the illusion exploded around them.
[ WC here: 1883]
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Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:22 am
She’d expected to be spit out in front of the tree. She’d expected to have her henshin back, to be in her fuku again. To feel power in her veins.
Jenn did not expect this.
“... free us… free us… please… Lady Iduna… free… us…” She stared at hundreds… thousands of flickering forms, all reaching for her, all trying to claw at her. Senshi, knights, even normal people… so many dead… so many lost, so many trapped within the Great Tree. Just… what had happened to these people, what could possibly have been worth this pain, this agony.
When an apple rots at the bottom of the barrel, the whole thing is infected… Had… had his rage, his anger, his agony over his failed trial, his failed ritual, created all of… this?
“FREE US. YOU PROMISED. YOU PROMISED.” The voices grew louder and louder as they crowded around her, pulling at her hair, her clothing, her arms. They screamed at her in languages she couldn’t understand, with words that made no sense.
“You promised! You promised you’d come back for us! You promised we would be free! WHY DID YOU ABANDON US?!” One voice in particular broke through the shouting. Her eyes snapped to a little boy, barely ten, who’s form seemed more solid than the rest. He had no eyes. She was very sure he had no eyes. Why did he have no eyes? “You promised if we gave ourselves to the tree willingly, you’d come back and free us once your duty was done! WHY DID YOU NEVER COME BACK? WHY DID YOU LET SO MANY OF US DIE!?”
He stalked towards her and she backed up until her back hit something firm and not weird ghost person. It was… him. The one from the trial. She was sure of it. The figure caged her in, all rage and tears and black ooze from his eyes. Those missing eyes stared at her chest, at her starseed, and his mouth dropped open, oozing black liquid.
“You can free us, Iduna… You can set us free… just give up your soul to us, and the Tree will let us go… give me your everything Iduna… just like you promised…” He reached a hand towards her, hunger in his missing eyes and pressed flickering fingertips to her chest.
Iduna screamed.
---
Sunlight flickered through the leaves above her. The teal blue sky was calm, the breeze gentle against her face. Iduna jerked upright, hands pressing hard against her chest. No holes, no burn marks, no lasting damage. She was back in the orchard she’d arrived at, on the crest of the hill. No beings of light or smoke floated around her, no one was trying to consume her. Iduna gave a look around herself, making sure she wasn’t otherwise damaged. A more appropriately fitted and looking fuku adorned her person. Power hummed under her skin, the mantle of ‘chibi’ and replaced with the power of a full senshi. She’d done it, she’d finally grown into her power.
At what cost, though?
Silver eyes trailed back to the Great Tree looming in the valley below. Even from here, the shadow of it, of those sacrificed to it, stretched almost to her feet. They’d been… their pain, their agony, had corrupted the tree, she was sure of it. Their eternal damnation, even if it was simply the essence of those before… had corrupted the tree.
She wondered if it had corrupted the mantle of Iduna too.
If saving them meant communing with the tree again… Iduna hiccuped, clear tears rolling down her cheeks.
She couldn’t do it.
“I’m… I’m sorry….” she sobbed, pressing the return button on her phone and winking out of existence.
The Great Tree smiled.
[ WC Here: 625 ]
[ WC Total: 4738 ]
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