Chapter 16: Eva’s world

Noah woke up to the sound of an annoying morning alarm, the type of sound that could make one commit suicide if left on for more than 3 seconds. When he sat up, pip rolled down his body before Noah caught her, the aliens three eyes opening and closing in a half delirious state. “Hey Gaia, can you turn that alarm off? Also, why did you set an alarm anyway?” noah called out into the hallway. Gaia’s head popped out; an awkward smile plastered on her face. “Ah, yeah, that’s the fire alarm, I was trying to make gel pancakes for pip, turns out the gel is slightly flammable… when it reaches 1500 degrees Celsius.

Noah grabbed Pip and ran out to the kitchen on the ship, only to find a mess of gel and other miscellaneous ingredients he had brough over from his domain. “Gaia, I don’t recall lettuce being a common ingredient in pancakes, also, why the fuck are you cooking them at the melting point of iron god damn it?”

“Hey, Pip needs her fiber… I think. Also, I didn’t mean to use this much heat, but when I used my energy to heat the pan, the thing started to melt! It didn’t do this before!” Gaia defended herself.

Noah thought back to last night after he was infused with celestial energy, feeling more in tune with it. “Ah, might be because of the reward I got? Though I didn’t think it would make you lose control, for me I felt like I gained MORE control.” Gaia rolled her eyes, and slapped Noah on the head.

“Ouch! What the fu-“

“Idiot! You may have gotten better at controlling the energy, but I AM the energy remember? I’m merged with that seed so when it grows in power, so do I. Haah, guess I’ll just refrain from cooking from now on… so Noah…” Gaia’s eyes upturned, feigning an innocent expression.

“Why do I feel like you planned all of this? Fine, I’ll cook, just clean all this up, will you?” After the group had cleaned up the room, Noah received a call from Eva.

“Hey Noah, long time no see! So, I had a meeting a few days ago with Mr Morris, not sure if I already told you. But he agrees that trading between our worlds would be a good idea. So can we talk? I’ll give you the coordinates for my domain.”

“Yeah, that sounds great, I’ve just made contact with my world, things are going well, but it’ll take time for them to allow Mr Agar’s rejuvenating gel to be sold. Bureaucracy and all.”

“Oh yeah I understand that all too well, though over time when my position became more of a religious figure, that red tape could be mostly avoided haha. Anyway, I’ll see you soon!”

And with that, she ended the call. Gaia couldn’t resist elbowing Noah, teasing him about being invited over to a girl’s house.

Before leaving, Noah contacted his American liaison, who happened to be Susan, the woman from space force. Gary was also a part of her team for some reason. The two were instructed to ensure Noah’s needs were met and to promote American products, though both scientists grumbled at being glorified servants, they couldn’t resist the opportunity to study Noah up close. He asked if they could procure a basket of goods including fruit, vegetables, dips, cheese, wine… “Noah you’re not going on a picnic date.” Gaia said, barely holding in her giggle. Noah looked away, his face flashing a shade of red, and his halo emitting small solar flares.

With the picnic basket delivered, Noah announced to the UN HQ he would be leaving the planet for business. He was about to say for them to contact him if they needed anything but realised Earths technology wasn’t advanced enough to pass through into the Void. Though Noah would have no problem contacting them if he initiated it.

[Diamedius city: The Void]

Flying through the city, Noah made his way to Eva’s domain. When he reached the destination, he landed on a patch of grass in what was presumedly, the middle of a large forest. After the group had shut down the ship, there was a notification from one of the ships cameras showing Eva sitting on a rock about 30 meters from the ship.

“Hey Noah! Its good to see you…” Eva cut herself off as her ethereal eyes drifted towards Gaia, and then down to her chest.

Gaia smirked and introduced herself, “nice to see you again, I’m Noah’s companion. Noah gave me this body, how is it?” Gaia switched between sensual poses, a smug look on her face.

“Huh, didn’t think you were into that kind of girl Noah.” She said, covering her chest with her arms.

“Hey wait! I didn’t give you that body, you went and did that yourself! Don’t cause misunderstandings! It’s not like that, we’re just friends!” Noah tried to explain but he was so flustered it all came out at once.

“Oh? Is that all I am to you? A piece of meat? After everything we’ve done together?” Gaia said, acting like a wife who found out her husband had cheated on her.

“Hahahaha, you two crack me up! Hey Noah, Gaia and… little fella.” A voice came from the tree line. “Don’t tease Eva too much, she may technically be old, but she’s an innocent little flower.”

“Hey Nina stop using my last name as a Pun! And I’m not innocent, I’ve gone volcano surfing with Rusty that one time…” Eva defended herself with puffed up cheeks.

“Haah, that wasn’t what I meant.” Nina sighed. “Anyway, let’s go back to your domain.”

The group followed Eva towards the forest edge. Two trees bent and intertwined forming a natural arch. Eva muttered something before a green portal appeared in front of them. Eva and Nina walked in nonchalantly, with Noah’s group following behind, slightly cautious of the weird magic they had just witnessed.

Once they were through, they found themselves standing in front of a gigantic tree, about a hundred meters in diameter and so tall they couldn’t see the top, even with Noah’s improved eyesight. “Woah”, “Damn boy he thicc!”, “Squee!” The trio commented in sequence.

“Welcome everyone to my Domain, people from my world call it the origin tree,or the world tree, but to me, it’s just home.” Eva said as she brushed her hand along the trunk.

A large, gnarled door formed by itself along the trunk where Eva touched, a handle growing out of the door. The group entered, finding a beautiful interior, filled with elegant wooden furniture, decorative flowers, vines, and a small pool in the middle of the main room. A curtain waterfall feeding it, whilst also refracting light throughout the room. There was a large balcony on the other side of the waterfall. A panoramic forest view filled the landscape, sharp cliffs of alien morphology dotting the landscape. They were above all of that, thousands of meters above the ground.

“Ok, how did we get this high?” Noah said as he soaked in the beautiful landscape. “And where is Diamedius city?”

“Oh, we aren’t in the Void anymore. We’re in Eva’s world. Her home planet Verda.” Nina said as she reached into Noah’s picnic basket and stole an apple. “Ooh, this round fella looks tasty!”

“Ah! Wait, so her Domain is directly connected to her world? I guess it’s a reward for later levels. Oh, and that’s called an apple, it’s a fruit from my world.” Noah added.

“Did you say fruit from your world!?” Eva burst out of the kitchen carrying some sort of green tea.

“Yes, I brought some items to taste from my world, some of which I haven’t even had before. I figured, you being an elf, would be interested in fruit from Earth.”

“Oh thankyou Noah! Here, this is tea made from the leaves of my domain, I’ll bring out some stuff I wanted to show you too.” Eva excitedly ran to another room, her body almost dancing as she made her way.

“Oh you two should just bang already.” Nina said as she took a sip of her tea. Gaia burst out into laughter as well.

“Wha!? Hey! We barely even know each other anyway.” Noah’s voice fell slightly at the end of his sentence.

“You’re closer than you think, after all, your see- “Nina was cut off as Eva re-entered the room, a woven basket in her hands.

“Ok, so here is the main thing I wanted to show you. I heard your world was like Mr Morris’s, a tech world mostly, so I figured you’d be having trouble with pollution, right? This right here,” She brought out a sapling with leaves that shifted between blue and green depending on the way light hit them, “is a plant that lives near volcanic regions here, it has adapted to the environment, and is great at filtering out toxins in the air, and those toxins are purified and sent into the Earth to rejuvenate the land.”

Noah thought for a second before clarifying, “so it absorbs atmospheric gasses, and then converts stored carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus into bioavailable nutrients?”

“Ahh, I guess? I don’t understand what you mean by carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus but it seems like you get it?” Eva tilted her head cutely.

“Noah remember, they haven’t developed chemistry to the same degree as your world, since they rely on magic so-“ Nina cut herself off before flicking her head to the side, glaring out onto the balcony as her tails shot out. The tree started to rumble before a loud boom was heard.

“Get down!!” Nina screamed as the world turned black.