Chapter 528: Birthing the Tree of Fertility (1/2)
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 god'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 groaned 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 assist the struggling spriggan.
The Eternal Dragon arrived in a timely manner and assisted 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 god 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.