Chapter 01
▪️Reincarnation of the World Tree
Do humans actually have souls?
If so, what would the afterlife be like? Will one's consciousness still be retained after death?
Back when she was still alive, Evé often pondered about such philosophical questions.
Nevertheless with each time she thought about such matters, the same answer she came into conclusion have always stayed the same—that is, she probably just eaten way too much hence her brain kept thinking of such profound things as some form of mental exertion.
However, when the actual chance to verify and experience such an unbelievable occurrence had finally happened to her, Evé instead refused to processed anything so she just stood there in utter bewilderment.
Silence.
She seems to be within a void.
With nothing but an endless expanse of darkness before her, Evé's only option to appease her boredom was hiding into the deep recesses of her mind and be lost in contemplation.
Firstly, she was absolutely certain that she had indeed died moments before she reappeared in this bizarre world.
Evé didn't know how she could still retain her old consciousness after dying, but regardless of such out of this world scenario, one's things for sure is that she's now stuck here in this world of nothingness.
Loneliness, Darkness, Isolation.
Aside from these immaterial concepts, the only things she could perceive that may have some sort of substance are those two orbs of light, one blue and one green flickering aimlessly at a distance.
Evé once tried to reach these shining orbs with her hand, but soon found that she had no actual body and was only a bundle of consciousness.
Fortunately, she seemed to still be able to float akin to a cloud.
Could it be...she's now merely just a soul?
Evé suddenly had this thought.
After pondering for a moment, she tentatively floated towards the two orbs of light.
The green one was large and emitted a flickering light, giving Evé a sense of grandeur and mystery.
The blue one on the other hand was small and emitted a soft glow, making Evé feel at peace and comfortable.
After thinking for several seconds, Evé decided to first make contact with the latter.
However, just as she was about to touch it, a faint cascade of solemn prayers suddenly echoed within this devoid space...
The voices were ethereal, soft, and solemn, seemingly laden with deep yearning and melancholia.
Evé was perplexed and shifted her attention to the source of the sound, realizing that it seemed to be coming from the green orb of light.
The prayers were intermittent, and it was spoken in a language that Evé had never heard before, but it gave her a profound sense of solemnity.
Evé couldn't understand the content, but she seemed to be able to sense the countless sorrows and despair contained within the prayers.
Curiosity killed the cat so to speak.
As if guided by a strange force, Evé shifted her attention and tentatively touched the green light instead.
At the moment she touched the bright viridescent orb, the dark world stirred as if provoked then changes started happening.
Her consciousness soon fell into a trance within an instant, and a huge amount of information burst forth like a deluge within her mind.
Evé then felt her vision go black as countless scenes appeared within her subconscious mind one after another...
A vast and ancient continent...
A mysterious seed falling from the sky...
A strange and enormous tree sprouting from the ground...
Beautiful figures born from the tree...
"Elves...?"
This term instinctively resurfaced through Evé's mind the moment she took a glimpse of those long-eared figures often seen in the fantasy RPG games of her past life.
But before she could think of anything further, the green light sphere generated a strong inescapable vacuum force and sucked her in an instant...
"Suitable soul captured."
"Condition triggered, activating the World Tree Awakening Ritual."
In a daze, Evé heard a stranger's voice.
It was spoken in an unknown language, but Evé was surprised to find that she could still understand it.
Evé's vision then brightened just as the voice slowly fades into a whisper.
Looking around her new unfamiliar surroundings, Evé came to the conclusion that she had been transported into a world filled with wonder as countless flickering tiny orbs of light dances through the air as if heralding her arrival.
Such dreamy and otherworldly sceneries are indescribable by words alone.
What's going on?
Evé was perplexed.
"Initiating soul fusion, activating World Tree inheritance ceremony..."
The mysterious synthetic voice rang out again, and then the countless flying particles around Evé began to converge towards her body.
She felt a strong and mysterious power pouring into her body, accompanied by a flood of countless information as well.
As the fusion continued, Evé felt her innate senses becoming more clearer and better, and the prayers echoed again within her mind, becoming more pronounced and coherent.
With the lights that entered her body slowly becoming intertwined with her, Evé's consciousness have also began to radiate a faint divine light, as the solemn green energy continued to converge until it engulfed the entire space for which she stood still...
In the last second, Evé heard that synthetic voice again:
"The Union is successful."
"Welcome back your divine grace, the new seed that have finally been reborn to replace the old one in the realm of Saigües—"
"Evé Yggdrasill."
When her consciousness had finally returned, Evé fell into contemplation right away.
She was no longer in that strange void, but on the contrary she seemed to have arrived in a lush vibrant world instead.
An ever expansive range of high mountains encompasses her view in the far distance whilst being surrounded by lush dense forests in close proximity.
...That is, only if one could ignore the distinct difference between the plants here in comparison from those on Earth, Evé would have doubled as to whether she had really come to a primeval forest.
However, all the forest and mountains around her are far too small for some reason.
It was such a strange feeling, like being in an Ultraman film set or being spirited away into the lands of the tiny Lilliputians. Evé felt as if she was overseeing everything in the world through the POV from high above.
Even the flock of birds gliding through the skies look like mere flies in her eyes.
Moreover, her vision was very peculiar, its like having an eyesight capable of 360°degree angle view, something entirely unimaginable in her past human life...
Drawing her attention to something else down below, Evé saw a palm-sized lake not far away from where she stood.
The lake was still as a mirror and shimmering, and it clearly showed her reflection, a being of colossal proportions with twisting roots, a robust and majestic trunk, and ever expansive branches that almost blocked out the skies.
Combing through all the vast information that was forcefully poured into her frayed mind, Evé eventually got the gist of it:
"I'm the World Tree?"
Yggdrasill—the World Tree.
She was hailed as the primordial root of nature, the mother goddess of the Elvenkind, and the Miraculous life giver...
She was an unfathomable existence comparable to likes of dragons for which were hailed to as the most powerful race in the entire history of Saigües. The one she had reincarnated into was a real mythical being rivaling the might of gods.
"Is this really true that I'm now the World Tree...and all of this is not just an insane delusion of mine...?"
Looking at the falling withered leaves at it ripples her reflection within the mirror-like lake, Evé didn't know if she was sighing or lamenting in her heart.
Perhaps both.
Anyhow.
After sorting through the information she had been forcefully inherited, Evé had more or less figured out her current situation.
Her soul had crossed over to a fantasy world called Saigües.
And as a newly minted recruit for the army of transmigrators, she seemed to have been handpicked by the old dying World Tree to replace it. Her soul had been fused with the mother tree's essence, as well as the remaining memories and Divinity, while retaining her prior consciousness, henceforth becoming the new World Tree - Evé Yggdrasill.
A Quasi-dead one, that is.
The inheritance of the World Tree seems to possess a peculiar power that calms one's bearings. Evé didn't feel panicked or lost in her heart after seeing the state of her new body. On the contrary, she was surprised to find that she was incredibly composed at this moment, with even had a hint of joy in her heart...
"Joy...?"
Indeed, what she's really feeling now was joy, the mirth of surviving posthumously.
After merging with the inheritance of the World Tree, Evé knew that she had been very lucky. As a soul wandering in the endless void, unless one experienced something miraculous like this, the destruction of one's soul would be the actual norm.
However, with her crossing worlds and merging to a new life had inadvertently helped her escape her imminent destruction back in that Dark World.
Henceforth, begins her new life...as a tree.
"Anyway, It's good that I am alive again...I guess?"
Looking at her reflection at the lake's surface whilst trying to move her newfound wooden body, Evé was filled with curiosity.
It's great that she's alive once again but the sense of decay that seem to pervades this new body of hers is quite alarming considering that she just transmigrated onto it.
Without a doubt, the current state of this body is not so well. Just by looking at her reflection in the lake, it is clear that the branches are withered and the leaves are decaying, a perilous state of quasi-death right off the bat.
Great.
What a spendid way to start her reincarnated life, indeed!
Sarcasm aside, Evé can still feel a powerful and ancient power lying deep within her body, brimming with vitality, stirring and seemingly just reawakened from its deep slumber.
At the same time, a profound feeling also arises within her.
It is a feeling of being in complete control of the heavens and earth, Evé felt as if she is the reigning sovereign of this entire world, and as long as she wills it, she can dominate everything within several kilometers around her.
This feeling is quite addicting once you gets a taste of it, she mused. Evé then looks around in search of things she could apply her powers into and found a withered Oak tree not far away from her and she tried to focus in her magic onto it.
Harnessing her power mentally, eventually strange things suddenly happened to the Oak Tree.
That dead tree suddenly bursts with new life, sprouting leaves and branches in a matter of seconds. Not only that, but Evé also felt as if she has formed some kind of special connection with the Oak tree, as if she can control everything about it.
However, she also realizes that the magical power within her is rapidly depleting, and a third of it disappears in the blink of an eye. Realizing this, she quickly stops reviving the dead tree.
Evé, who had already merged with the essence of the World Tree, knows that this power is the energy of life, which is also the source of the World Tree's strength, or...its Divinity.
Once it runs out, the World Tree will inevitably fall into a deep slumber.
That also means Evé's death.
Feeling the pain of losing a third of her magical power, Evé regrets her carelessness.
She did not expect such a large consumption just by trying to "resurrect" this particular withered oak tree.
What's so special about it anyway? Initially she thought that it was just your average Oak tree.
Focusing on the tree whom that had just been infused with her natural divine power, Evé soon felt a little strange.
The withered tree at this moment had already completely changed. Not only did it become lush again, but it also grew almost three times taller than it was before.
Comparing it to the surrounding trees, Evé guessed that this oak tree, for which had regained its vitality, was probably at least thirty meters tall.
And then, what happened next further astounds her.
Suddenly, the lucky oak tree trembled and struggled to break free its roots from the ground whilst sprouting new roots that twisted and curled into two strange legs. Its branches grew into two muscular arms, while the crown became a tangled mass of wooden hair, and a pair of shining eyes appeared on the top of the trunk.
In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a majestic treant!
As Evé watched in astonishment as the thirty-meter-tall oak treant shook off the dirt on its legs, turned toward the World Tree, and knelt down on one knee. his powerful voice was filled with excitement and sincerity:
"Oh, Mother Nature, I thank you for your favor. Please grant this Oak Guardian a name, your divine grace!"
Mother Nature? Oak Guardian? Granting a name?
Evé couldn't help but smirk wryly at the sight of the tiny toy-sized treant posturing beneath her. Meanwhile, she felt a strange connection with it, as if she could directly convey commands to it.
His posture somehow made her remember a particular scene she had watched back at her past life and a mischievous thought crossed Evé's mind, and she hesitated for a moment before giving the treant a name.
Suddenly, a sacred, majestic, and ethereal voice echoed in the Oak Guardian's mind:
"Very well, then you shall be known as Berserker!"
Nihil Note : Hello, I decided to retranslate all the old chapters to make it more consistent with my own translations. I'm still thankful for the earlier TL's since it's through them that I've stumbled upon this gem. Anyhow, I'm still releasing my usual chapters but I'm also adding some of these retranslated ch alongside as well.