Axel had managed to free Zeta from the seal, thus saving himself the trouble of finding a way to kill her with his limited power. And, he had made another enemy for the Kraken. A very powerful one.
Axel considered this a great move.
To defeat your opponent with your mere words.
In Magical Japan, this is considered to be the peak of Magi-jutsu.
Axel seemed to have achieved it just now, making him feel like having won a lottery.
'This method is amazing!' He thought.
It's just that this method is extremely unreliable and there's no guarantee of success. That's why he usually doesn't go for it.
BAAM
A light beam suddenly emerged from the shining halo that had been obscuring Zeta.
'Damnit!'
Hit head on, Axel was thrown back 20 meters due to the sheer force of impact.
The blast was so fast that Axel's body simply couldn't react fast enough to escape. The only thing he was able to move were his Lightning-fast hands which he has trained the most.
His brain processed nothing. His hands simply reacted on instinct, activating [Magic Hands] and blocking the beam.
Axel cough, having gotten hit in the chest by his own hand that he was thrown back after block the spell.
"Cough-Cough.. Excuse me, but WHAT THE FUCK?!" He asked, getting up while looking at his glowing hands.
Zeta emerged from her Halo, glaring down at Axel.
"I'm grateful for the freedom. but you HAVE to pay for what you've done!"
"Hey! Wait!"
The vines re-emerged from the ground, and this time Axel had to pull out his knives to defend himself the old-fashioned way.
"Stop! Don't you think you're barking up the wrong tree with your pet tree here? The Organisation was the one trapped and manipulated you! As for what I did, well, you're still alive right? It's no big deal!"
"No big deal? NO BIG DEAL?!" Zeta suddenly stopped, but her anger seemed nothing but gone. "Do you think plant lives don't matter at all? Do you have ANY idea just how many lives you've ruin when you destroyed the forest and the world tree like that?! I planted each of them personally! And for years, I saw them grow from saplings to giants. And then YOU barge in here, destroy EVERYTHING, and then expect me to just… let it go?!"
She asked, firing another beam at him.
'Fuck!' It was then that Axel realize, he might have fucked up. She was one of those tree-huggers who'd murder your entire bloodline for causing harm to the nature.
He knew because he had seen Daphne. That girl hadn't talked to him for a day because she had seen him cut down the wild plants in the abandoned greenhouse to make room for training.
'Do you think they do not have lives?' She had also asked the same question.
And to this question, Axel only had one answer. 'I don't give a fuck.'
That's right. He. didn't. care.!! Heck, he didn't care if there were humans instead of those plants. As long as it's in his way, Axel's gonna cut.
Of course, he had the common sense to not say it out loud at the time, just like right now.
"Hey! I'm really sorry for that. And I will take responsibility! But can we settle this after we've dealt with the Organization?" He asked, trying to look sincere.
Zeta only seemed to grow more angry though. "Do you think you'd wait after someone murders your entire family and smiles while looking at the scene?!"
The World Tree had regrown to a decent size by now and the Light Magic which had dispersed had also gathered again.
"Now I am in a hurry. And you are in the way." she said, her whole body turning golden.
"So, this is the end, evil destroyer of nature."
[PURIFY]
A scorching wave was released, literally turning anything in its path into light.
Axel tried teleportation, but found that it was impossible. It was already impossible back in the space layer, and now he's in the deepest part of the Trench. It wouldn't make sense if the Organisation members could teleport in and out here.
Having no choice, he had to activate his defenses and brace himself for what seemed like the most powerful attack in Zeta's arsenal.
[Light Armor]
[Arcane barrier]
[Light Infusion]
Axel cast [Light Armor], covering himself with an armor of light, and then he cast [Arcane Barrier], infusing it with light magic.
And it was just in time as the intense light magic hit his barrier. But, this magic was different, as it passed right through his defenses like they didn't exist.
The Light hit Axel and his whole being started to burn as he felt pure light magic passing right through his body. His body started to turn into light particles, starting from his skin.
It was then that he realized it was similar to Aslot's water curse.
He was able to escape the water curse through his high water affinity, but compared to his water affinity, his light affinity was negligible. All the light affinity he had was actually borrowed from his connection with his wand, which has extremely high affinity with light.
But that was not enough right now.
'Seems like there's no other choice.'
After a long time, Axel finally reached out to his wand in order to draw more power.
He had refrained from it until now because he had left it for ritual in case Daphne needed it. And he didn't know if the ritual would succeed if the wand didn't have enough magic.
But now, it seems he had no choice but to draw its power.
'What?!'
But, as soon as he accessed the connection, two things shocked him.
First, the wand was considerably drained, making the connection weak as well.
Being that drained only meant one thing: It had been used.
And if it had been used, that meant only one thing. Daphne had to go through the Ritual.
And if Daphne, who had said she'd only go through with it when he comes back safely, has already gone through the Ritual, THAT means only one thing: Her curse returned!
Damn it!
The news was alarming but Axel had no time to think about it as he was currently literally being purified by light.
With the wand drained, it couldn't help him much. But... the wand was considerably closer to him than it should be!
That's right. That's the second thing that shocked him.
"How did it get here?!"
Since the wand was so close, Axel tried activating the connection to summon it.
The wand responded sluggishly, seemingly having woken up from a long slumber. But as soon as Axel sent out the Light magic that was currently attacking him through the connection, it perked right up!
More than it expected, in fact.
It reacted so intensely that it began actively absorbing the magic through the connection.
And even that wasn't enough. A whirlpool appeared in front of Axel, greedily absorbing the light magic that had been attacking him.
"What… What is that?"
Zeta was enjoying the view of Axel slowly but surely being purified. Just as she was fantasizing about using him to make seeds of next generation of trees, she saw a void appearing in front of Axel, all but nullifying her spell.
"How is that possible?!"
"I'll tell you as soon as I find out," said Axel curtly.
Space fluctuations appeared in the space as the amount of magic began to increase.
'Seriously?' Axel was surprised as the wand expressed an intense desire to come to his side.
After it had been upgraded with the dual light and dark cores and World Tree wood, the wand barely responded to him, sucking an atrocious amount of energy even for casting simple spells.
The system had said it was too powerful and it would take time and effort for him to build a connection and prove himself worthy.
That had seemed fucking bullshit to him, as he couldn't understand who could be more worthy than him. He thought even more so now, since even the Royal Trident had also immediately submitted to him.
But still, Axel had been slowly increasing his connection with it, gradually proving himself worthy.
But until now, the wand had never been as excited and proactive as it was right now.
'How can you even come here?' He asked back through the connection.
Even he couldn't use teleportation here. How can the wand even get here?
The wand didn't respond. Instead, the space fluctuations in the void increased, along with the magic being sucked in.
And then, bright light flashed as the wand actually appeared in front of him.
"Fuck! You can even do that?!"
And, as soon as it did, the World Tree, or the imitation of the World Tree suddenly bent backwards, seemingly withdrawing away from the wand.
"What is happening?!" Exclaimed Zeta, but Axel was similarly confused, if not more.
But as soon as Zeta sensed the wand's aura, her eyes widened in disbelief.
"The real World Tree… how?!"
"Ah…" It was only then that it clicked to him. "So the original >>>>> fake, huh?"
He didn't know how the imitation had been made, but it doesn't seem it was as real as it seemed. On the other hand, the piece of wood that was used in Axel's wand was part of the real World Tree straight from the Aetherworld.
"That wood… how did you even get that?" Asked Zeta, looking at Axel's wand with an intense gaze. "It's so big… so beautiful…" She whispered.
With hungry eyes. she raised her hand forward, as if reaching out to it, but suddenly recoiled when the wand released powerful magic, clearly telling her to go fuck herself.
Axel grinned as he finally grasped the wand, causing his raven hair to blow back wildly due to the intense burst of magic released upon the reunion.
"You… how?" Zeta couldn't seem to understand the situation at all. She couldn't understand how Axel had that piece of wood, let alone how he managed to control it.
Axel had no idea how the piece of wood ended up becoming the Family Heirloom of the Greengrass Family, but he did have to make a lot of effort to strengthen his connection with the wand. Besides, it's not even completely light-element oriented as it has a darkness core inside it.
So, of course it wasn't going to listen to the Royal bitch.
"Now, what do we do?" He asked, grinning evilly.
The wand seemed to be waiting for this moment as it immediately pointed a particular point at the ground.
"What's there?" Asked Axel, starting to walk in the direction.
"Wait, no! You can't!"
For some reason, Zeta suddenly started to freak out as she fired more powerful attacks at Axel. But this time, whatever she fired was absorbed straight into the wand which had been continuously devouring the Light magic ever since it had arrived.
But seeing Zeta's reaction, Axel was now even more curious to uncover what she had been trying to hide.
The direction the wand had been pointing at suddenly changed, meaning either its focus had shifted or what it wanted had started to move.
"So it's like this, huh?"
Axel started to run at top speed, following wherever the wand was pointing at. Tree roots grew out of the ground, trying to stop him.
"Annoying."
Axel's knife flashed and everything in his path was cut down without mercy.
He pointed the wanted at Zeta and cast a dark curse at her using the darkness core, stunning her for a few seconds.
In the meantime, even though the location was constantly changing, he quickly managed to catch up and appear right above the place.
"Go!"
He channeled the magic and—
BOOOOM
The wand multiplied it by multiple times, creating a huge creator in the ground. But Axel still didn't see anything but soil and roots.
"Again! GO!"
Another huge explosion. And this time, light began shining out of the crater, causing the wand to also light up out of excitement.
"What do we have here?" Axel squinted his eyes, looking down the source.
It was a golden color root that was quickly moving, disappearing back into the ground.
"Uh-ha, no way you're running away," said Axel, quickly yoinked the root with magic hands.
Suddenly, a colossal amount of magic was released from the root, making Axel instinctively drop it. But a tangible connection was formed between the root and wand as the root got bound by the wand, making it unable to leave.
Trapped in the middle, Axel was being burned by the magical clash between the two, but he was just too intrigued to care.
The root struggled like a captured snake, trying its best to run away. And when Axel activated [Arcane Eyes], he was blinded by the light magic hidden inside the tiny root.
More specifically…
A small hole appeared in the golden root, and a bean sized piece of wood was extracted from it, held in front of Axel by the golden tether.
"I'll be damned," muttered Axel, looking at the tiny piece.
"It was you all along?!"
The one controlling that giant tree this whole time. An extremely small piece of the Real World tree. That's how the imitation had the properties of the real world tree. Because the core component was a tiny piece of the original.
But, his surprise didn't end there.
Despite its struggles, slowly, the piece was forcefully pulled towards the wand. When it reached a small depression at the side of the wand, it actually fit perfectly!
"Fuck…"
Now Axel understood why the wand was so excited.
It had actually found its long lost body part.
He just had no idea how it ended up here.
Now having full control over the core of the World Tree, all the magic in the surroundings began to be indiscriminately devoured by Axel's wand, which was now no longer as drained as before.
....
A.N.: Well, it was a Reunion of his wand. How sweet
(Actually, even I forgot it wasn't about Reunion with His friends but with wand. The title was so deceiving that I even fooled myself. I'm a victim as well. He'll make a dramatic entry in the battlefield in the Battle of Atlantis Chapter)
POWERSTONES
Come read ahead:
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Edit: I assure you that no trees were harmed in making these chapters, neither am I anti-nature. I love nature and believe we should all protect it. I only think it will be the last thing on Axel's mind