"I can’t believe this. This is actually insane." Valindra admitted. "But I’m not against it."
"I’m already liking where this is going," Zion muttered under his breath.
"This...This is a lot to take in. I mean, you want to kill the gods and take over every continent? I mean, that’s crazy! And would you rule the world or something?" Melina wondered, now pacing around the jet.
"Nah, that’s too much work. I’d have people rule in my name. You’d still be the queen of the elves, but I’ll be the one you refer to, and I make the big decisions." He answered
"So I’d be your puppet?"
"No, you’d be a partner. I have no interest in ruling with an iron fist or being a dictator and causing the people harm. You’d implement the changes I order you to do, and see to it that the kingdom is evolving to my vision. Other than that, you can do whatever you fucking want."
Valindra chimed in. "I’ll join you!"
"Bet, here. Place this on the back of your neck." He tossed her a neural link.
She did without any hesitation.
The metal device clamped onto her neck, sinking into her skin before clamping onto her brainstem. Then, all the information started flooding into her mind.
"Arghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!" She screamed in pain, clutching her head.
"Valindra!" Melina turned to Zion, grabbing his collar. "What did you do?!"
"Calm down, she’s okay. Her mind is being flooded with information, and it’s just overwhelming her. She’ll be okay in a bit."
And just as he said, Valindra was doing well after about five minutes. She stood up, a bit dizzy, and opened her eyes.
"W-What is this? I can see a bunch of things in the air that are not in the air."
[Welcome to the Zion Sky Network, or the ZSN for short. I’m Tessa, the AI responsible for managing everything.]
"What the..." Valindra started punching the air once she heard Tessa’s voice. "Who was that in my head just now?!"
"Heh, that was Tessa. She’s the AI responsible for managing the network. She’s very helpful when you need something."
"What’s an AI?" She asked.
"Read the user manual." The Zion turned to Melina. "So? What about you?"
She hesitated, but ultimately gave in. "I’ll join you."
Zion smiled and handed her the neural link as well, and after doing so, he removed the nullvoid rune from their bodies.
It took a bit for Melina to get adjusted to the information that flooded her brain, but after doing so, she was truly amazed by everything she saw.
She had lived for over 2000 years, yet this was the first time she had seen anything of this caliber. Not even the Dwarves could pull something off , according to her knowledge.
"Looks like you couldn’t resist the thought of wielding more power, huh, Melly?" Zaleena entered the jet, all smug as she saw Melina poke the air as if she was pressing something.
"D-Do you see this Z? I’m touching the air, yet I’m clicking on something! This is amazing!"
"Uhhuh, I know. I was like that when I first got my neural link as well. Oh, and I found these world tree saplings. Do you need them?"
"I’ll take that." Zion said, snatching them out of his mother’s hand.
"What do you plan to do with those? They are still important to us, no, to everyone." Melina reminded him.
"Don’t worry, everything will be fine. I got work to do. Mom, walk them through the ZSN, please."
After leaving the jet, Zion flew toward the world tree. It was still poisoned with infernal energy and was dying slowly. Thankfully, the divine barrier was slowing down that process and would help with what he planned to do.
"Everyone," He called on the communication line. "Gather the remaining five world tree saplings and bring them to me at the world tree."
Within ten minutes, the five saplings were in Zion’s hands.
[What’s next?] Tessa wondered.
"I’ll be turning the world tree into a divine world tree, one that holds the power of Luminera, not Freya."
"No idea. Aryah, I’ll be needing your help with this as well."
"You can count on me, master!" She smiled, hugging Zion from the side.
"Alright, let’s begin."
He entered his Apostle form, and Aryah transformed herself into a spirit of pure Holy Power, leaving her other powers lying dormant inside herself.
Zion placed all five saplings into a sphere of holy power, then completely bombarded them with the energy until they leaked holy power similar to how one of them leaked Infernal energy.
Then Zion took a gamble. Since the saplings were still connected to the world tree, it would take in all the holy power once they returned to it, just like the previous sapling. So, Zion destroyed them all.
They burst into thousands of small particles, each laced with holy power, and reassimilated themselves with the world tree.
"Please work. Please work. Please work. Please work. Please work." He begged under his breath, then the world tree shook and started glowing golden.
"Yes! Okay, Aryah, now I’ll be needing you."
She nodded. "What do I need to do?"
"I’ll remove the barrier around the tree and place its power inside of it. Then, I’ll need you to keep that power from leaking out of the tree. I need it to stay in there completely."
"Got it. Ready when you are." Her hands started glowing brightly.
Zion’s hands also started glowing brightly as he commanded the barrier around the world tree.
"Here goes nothing. Or everything because if this fails, the world tree is fucked." He removed the barrier, and all the infernal energy started leaking once more. But because of the five holy saplings, the tree also started leaking holy power.
He focused his power on the barrier, breaking it down into pure divine energy and forcing it into the tree. Once every bit of energy entered the tree, Aryah used her power to contain it.
"Now, it’s time for the heavy lifting."