The roar of a dragon was not among the things Razark expected to hear during their attack on the grove, yet there it was. For a fraction of a second, he thought the Tree of Life had somehow managed to call in a dragon for additional defense. It would not be impossible for the forest to house a forest dragon of some kind, and the tree seemed to have at least limited control over the denizens of the forest. That thought only last until he saw the half-ethereal half solid form of an Abyssal Dragon barely visible from behind the tree. The old man had informed him in passing that Dee was here, and he could put two and two together. Not like there were all that many Abyssal Dragons running around in the first place.

Apparently, the dragon part of Dee had grown with her feeding it, as it was significantly larger than the first time Razark saw signs of it. It was still much smaller than the gigantic tree that took most of the room inside this sealed space, but now the dragon form had reached a large enough size that it could at the very least be compared to the tree. The roars told him that the dragon was locked in combat with something dangerous enough to be a threat at least.

“Go, we can handle this.” The old man suddenly urged Razark.

The four of them had managed to cut down on the number of Treants attacking them. The situation had been a little dicey when the druid in charge of the grove had managed to wound Dagnal before going down in a fight against the old man. With just the three of them, they had been hard-pressed to face the Treants and their magic. Even though their powers as immortal were somewhat diminished by the suppression of the tree, they were still rather sturdy and difficult to kill, and the wound on Dagnal was the only one of its kind so far. One of the good sides about three of them coming from the Order of the Radiant Sun was that they had at least some ability to heal wounds, even if none of them specialized in healing, which is why Dagnal was now returning to the battle.

Razark realized this and saw that the three of them would be able to contend with the remaining Treants without his presence. He ran towards the place where the dragon was locked in battle. With Dee being here, he could guess that something had gone wrong with Noyala. Otherwise, his disciple would still be watching over the Sidhe woman. It didn’t take much to figure out that the tree was probably causing havoc with the curse while trying to defend against the four of them.

As he rounded the trunk of the tree and got close enough to see what was going on, he immediately recognized Dee’s opponent. The Winter Queen might have lost a lot of her life-force but she was still an immortal of sorts, even though her powers seemed to have diminished greatly. He could figure out that Dee had most likely surrendered herself to her dragon side to speed the battle up, which spoke of how serious the situation with Noyala must be, but that was not having quite the desired effect. This might not have been the best choice ever made by Dee.

The Winter Queen was a mage through and through, which in theory was a bad matchup against a powerful Abyssal Dragon, even if Dee’s current form was somewhat ethereal and incomplete. Dragons were naturally resistant to magic, and so was Dee. Her current form complimented that fact well, and the ice magic the queen threw at the dragon was borderline useless. Several orbs of ice hovered around the queen and autonomously launched attacks at the dragon, but they were largely ignored and for a good reason as they had little effect. The problem was when you combined an ice mage with an Authority like the Winter Queen’s.

There were many reasons that Authorities were as desired as they were. They provided an almost instant power up and could provide a myriad of benefits. The strongest Authorities could match the power of the most powerful immortals, especially if the Authority was combined with an already skilled and powerful owner. But the thing that made them the most special and desired commodity, was their ability to break rules. While the dragon form of Dee was perfect against a mage, it was not a good idea against the Authority of someone wielding magic of the same element.

Some of the ice attacks launched by the orbs seemed to change somehow in midair, and those changed attacks went through the magic resistance of the ethereal dragon like it wasn’t even there. A normal dragon would have a powerful body with its defenses to compensate, but this dragon was not even completely solid. That was both good and bad. The dragon didn’t really take any damage from the spells, but on the other hand, it couldn’t move forward either. Every time it attacked, the limb or tail that struck at the Winter Queen was dispersed, only to reform a short moment later. There also seemed to be some power holding the dragon in place, slowing its movements.

The dragon noticed Razark’s careful approach, while the queen did not. Razark looked into the large reptile’s eyes and saw something of Dee within. This beast was Dee, but at the same time it wasn’t. It had very little of his student's personality and inhibitions, but there was a glint of intelligence very familiar to him deep inside. The eye that looked at Razark seemed to send a silent message as it gave a quick glance at the queen. Razark nodded in agreement. A plan was formed in that quick exchange of glances.

Suddenly the dragon reared backward, almost rising to stand on its hind legs. Anyone with a passing familiarity with dragons would recognize the buildup of energy forming at the beast’s maw. A giant ball of pure energy formed between its jaws and the dragon suddenly lashed its neck and head towards the queen.

“Do you really think I would simply stand here and take a breath from a dragon?!” The queen screamed in a strained voice. Even though the queen was holding the dragon back, it was taking its toll on her rapidly aging body. Even though she had not taken injuries, it was taking a lot out of her to fend off the attacks of the great beast, and to top it all off her Authority was already slowly returning to the tree behind her. Every use was taxing the power she had left and she could barely utilize the power of the Authority. The only reason she had managed to keep up with the dragon so far, was because the beast was also not a fully formed dragon and a bad matchup against an Authority like hers. Many heroes gained their fame from killing dragons after all because they were almost the only ones able to do so. She wasn’t sure if the Authority she possessed was counted as a hero Authority, but that did not matter. It did the trick anyway.

As she tried to move to dodge the incoming attack, she suddenly felt the gravity around her increase. Instead of an agile dodge, she stumbled on the ground without any of the grace usually found in Sidhe. She looked up to see one of the people who had been fighting the Treants standing nearby, a dark light surrounding his hand and apparently increasing the gravity around her. In her last moments, she managed to look horrified at the beam of pure energy coming at her. She might be able to hurt the dragon thanks to her Authority, but she did not have the defenses of a real immortal even at her strongest, and she was far from her strongest.

Razark felt the power connecting him to the gravity increase snap, signaling that his target had passed away. Good thing too, because it was bloody hard to use an incomplete totem under the suppression of the Tree of Life! He realized that a completed totem would not have that sort of difficulty, and he silently vowed to renew his efforts to complete his own totem once this mad endeavor was over. Which reminded him, how could they finish it exactly? What could they do to the tree itself?

He watched as the beam of energy rammed into a green field light that sprung up to defend the tree. Apparently, the dragon had been smart enough to combine two targets into one attack. The Tree of life itself was not about to simply take a breath from a dragon head on. While the tree’s offensive capabilities were somewhat limited, the Tree had plenty of ways to defend itself. Even if all four of them combined their powers with the Dee-dragon, it would be a real problem to bring down the tree in any meaningful timeframe.

That wasn’t about to stop the dragon from trying. It rushed at the tree and used its claws to swipe at the tree. The same field of life energy once again stopped the attack, but this time there was something different. While the dragon kept raining strikes at the shield with its enormous body, the claws actually had some effect. While dragons may have a horrible matchup against many Authorities, their claws were perfect at trying to pierce through defenses. Only the most powerful magical and divine weapons could match the claws and fangs of dragons when it came to simple penetrative power. Those wilds attacks were taking a toll on the protective barrier, but they were also taking a toll on the dragon. Dee’s form was not that of a true dragon, not yet anyway, so fully materializing the claws came at a cost.

Razark realized that his observations were doing no one any good, and decided to return to help his friends against the Treants. Perhaps with their combined efforts they might be able to do something.

-----

Dee felt like an observer in her own body. She felt mad that the dragon side of her didn’t seem to have a strategic enough mindset and seemed to be operating on pure instincts and hunger. Almost like a feral dragon would. On the positive side of things, at least this time she retained full awareness and didn’t just wake up after everything was done. She was glad to see the queen’s death, though it had taken much too long and Razark’s help. She wasn’t sure if the dragon side of her sensed her growing urgency, or maybe it was just hungry, but it threw all its energy at the protective field surrounding the tree.

As the dragon started losing energy, she started noticing that she was regaining a certain level of control. Not enough to move her body, or the dragon as it were, but her own powers were returning. She suddenly figured out a plan. Several dark gems and pearls appeared beside the dragon’s body, and the claws of the dragon were now clad in the thickest layer of Umbra’s power Dee had ever managed. Just before the dragon struck again, the pearls and gems all struck the place where the dragon was aiming at, severely weakening the green field. Dee cursed silently as she didn’t manage to put her full strength behind the attack. She might have gained some control over her powers but not all of it.

Luckily the dark-clad claws cleaved the field wide open due to it being severely overstressed by the combined attacks. She could sense the field starting to close almost immediately, but the dragon wasn’t wasting any time. It dove straight through the created opening. Now the fact that the dragon was half ethereal became handy as it managed to go through an opening that was much too small for its large frame. It also didn’t waste any time as it swiped its claws, still clad in holy power, at the trunk of the tree.

The Tree of Life was worthy of its name, and the damage to its bark was almost immediately regenerated, even with Umbra’s corrupting power hindering the process. Dee felt a little helpless but it seemed the dragon did not. She could feel…that there was a plan of sorts. The dragon pulled its head back for another breath attack, this time laced with the power of Umbra that Dee had used earlier. It seemed like the dragon side of her could learn new tricks. The breath took a huge chunk out of the side of the tree, huge on the scale of the dragon that is, and it started growing back again though slower with the Umbra’s power now heavy in the damaged area. Dee had assumed the dragon would try to attack again and in effect try to cut down the tree even if it would take ages, but instead, it drove directly into the damaged section. Now that the bark was gone, the wood below was revealed and the dragon bit straight down.

Dee was confused for a moment before she felt an enormous stream of power flowing into her. The dragon wasn’t planning on attacking the tree itself, but the power within. The tree might have what felt like endless amounts of life energy, but there had to be a limit. She felt that what was happening was little like what Moirai had taught her about psions absorbing the power of a location or a dead enemy. This enemy was still alive though and live enemies would actively resist against their power being stolen. For some reason, the tree didn’t quite have that ability, maybe because it was not quite the same kind of living being as many others were. Or maybe it was because it too was receiving power from elsewhere and thus had its defenses down.

The power itself was a heavy concentration of the life element, though laced with some death energy that theoretically should not be there. Normally opposing elements like this should not mix, but the cycle of life and death was a little different. There was always life in death, and all life was doomed to die eventually. The two forces were not really antagonistic, just on the opposing sides of a coin. Dee had read some theories about the circle of life and death but honestly didn’t care much for such philosophy.

What she did care about was the fact that this life energy seemed to be just the thing for the changes the Zabaniya had made to her body. The modifications were supposed to strengthen her slowly over a long period of time, at least according to her limited understanding, and they had. She was stronger than she should be at her level. How much of that was due to her heritage and how much was due to the modifications was an open question. Now those modifications were going into overdrive.

She could feel every cell in her body gaining strength. Her bones increased in durability, her muscles gained strength, her organs seemed to improve and gain a protective layer of power and the very nature of her skin, fur and claws seemed to be changing. The change was rapid and profound. Something supposed to have taken place over decades was happening in minutes and seconds instead. The dragon part of her seemed to be skimming a portion of the power away, but Dee felt that it actually didn’t have a proper plan beyond this. It had acted more on hunger and instinct than anything else. This was one way to defeat the tree if taken to an extreme, but the dragon part of her had reached its goal and was somewhat letting it just happen. It didn’t mind if it would take forever to drain the tree, it was just happy for the free food.

Dee realized that it would take years to drain away all the power of the tree with the current rate, and Noyala didn’t have that kind of time. Neither did she or Razark and his allies, as the people outside would manage to come in to see what was wrong sooner or later. The dragon seemed to be ceding more control back to her, so she increased the rate at which the power was being drained. Thing was, there was an actual reason the power drain was limited to the current level. The dragon wasn’t stupid. Draining too much power wasn’t without consequences. That power had to go somewhere.

Dee’s body and the dragon part of her could absorb a lot of power, but there was a limit. Yet, Dee increased the rate of absorption. Not just a little either, she increased the rate almost hundredfold. The consequences were immediate. Her body felt as if it was burning. The dragon groaned, half in pain half as if drunk with power, which was fairly accurate. ‘I need to go faster.’ Dee thought as the rate of absorption was still too slow.

Suddenly it felt like a barrier broke inside her. She knew what that barrier was. There would be a ninth tail waiting for her when she returned to her normal form. That opened another fertile ground for all that power to flow into, which reduced the pressure on her significantly. She once again increased the rate at which she was absorbing power, and it seemed the drain was finally enough to alarm the tree itself.

The Tree of life had the power to suppress immortals, so doing the same to Dee should’ve been a simple matter, dragon form or no dragon form. The tree truly tried, but the problem was that its own power was flowing through Dee like a river. It was like trying to suppress itself, which was impossible. Instead, the tree noticed that this little fly stuck to it had trouble dealing with the amount of power involved. If the fly wanted power then let her have it! There would be consequences, but the tree had time and it would recover. So it started shoving more and more power at the annoying tick draining its blood.

This alarmed Dee greatly. Even with the rank-up, she was already reaching the limit of what she could handle. Her body was already burning due to the amount of power passing through. There were literally green flames eating at her real body cocooned within the ethereal form of the dragon. At the same time, her body was regenerating all the damage done and rebuilding her body much stronger than it had been before thanks to the power she was draining. The only problem was that the green flames were starting to eat at her faster than she could regenerate. She should be in great pain, but the river of power left her feeling almost euphoric.

She searched for another way to expend the power, as the tree kept shoving more and more at her, doubling, tripling, quadrupling the already stunning amounts she was absorbing. The dragon form around her was starting to collapse, and she found herself in her kitsune form, still stubbornly biting at the tree, knowing she could not let go. Noyala would die if she did. The flames were growing worse, and her regeneration was losing the fight.

Suddenly in a fit of frustration, she shoved the power at her Domain. She had no idea how she did it, as she wasn’t even sure where the soul space was within her, but she did it anyway. The soul space latched on the influx of power like a hungry drago-bear latching on a prey animal. Now the soul space was the one increasing the absorption of power. Even the tree realized something had gone terribly wrong as it felt like floodgates had opened and the power drained from the tree with an alarming rate.

The empty Domain inside Dee started expanding into all direction seemingly without limit. The totem inside the space suddenly seemed to be empowered, as the thus far empty eye-sockets of the skulls gained an eerie green glow. The four holy symbols of the gods that had given their blessings to Dee started getting drawn in towards the totem. They had wildly varying sizes while located within Dee’s Domain, but suddenly they were all surrounded by a green glow and they all became equal in size. Then like heads on a hydra, several skeletal dragons struck out from the empty space above the totem. The serpentine dragons closed their jaws around the green glow around the holy symbols and dragged them into place around the totem. The symbols and skeletal dragons stayed there as if stuck in the empty space.

Looking closely, one could see that the skeletal dragons were part of the totem. Part of the totem that wasn’t there yet. Their tails were hanging in the empty air in a way that suggested that they would become part of the totem once it rose high enough. The tails of the dragons also seemed to go onto different levels. The one holding Eternity’s symbol was at the highest level, while the one holding Lumen’s symbol was three levels down. It was like they would be connected to tiers that were not there yet.

-----

“What is that?” Lumen demanded. As they stared into Dee’s soul space through the vision in the air above Eternity’s campfire. “What. Is. THAT?!” She demanded again.

The three deities looked at Death. They all knew she had her fingers in Dee’s early development of a Domain and totem. Death, on the other hand, looked thoroughly confused, which brought some weird satisfaction to Eternity, as he had never seen the stoic goddess react like this. “I don’t know. This is not how it was supposed to go.” The goddess admitted equally confused.

“You know something. Obviously, you had some idea what her totem would be.” Umbra pointed out.

“What is the driving force behind Dee’s actions?” Eternity suddenly pointed out, interjecting an important question that they should all have thought about.

Totems of normal immortals were based a bit on their personality and a lot on their strongest abilities. A mage powerful with lighting had a lightning based totem, and the exact form depended on their personality. A dominating personality might form the totem as a mighty beast, a battle-crazed person would form it into a weapon, while those that desired beauty might form a landscape or an artwork like a statue. Those with Domains had their totems based on their deepest desires and the most deep-rooted parts of their personality instead.

“Fear.” Umbra replied quietly. “She doesn’t want to be afraid anymore. She might not even realize the significance, but there it is.”

Death sighed. “Exactly. She doesn’t want to be afraid of anyone or anything anymore, but the only way to reach that is to stand above everyone and have enough power that they will no longer dare to come after you. So, her totem would obviously reflect that. It shows her desire to stand above everyone. I don’t know the exact form it will take, but the idea behind a tiered pyramid is pretty clear. The skulls represent all those under her foot, admittedly in a fashion I might have influenced just a tiny bit. I am the Goddess of Death after all. I’m not sure what those new things are supposed to be though.”

Umbra laughed merrily as a realization hit her. “Of course. Her purpose driving at the growth of her totem understands the situation better than she does or you do. If she wants to never feel fear again, then she needs to stand above not only the mortals but us as well.”

Lumen smiled. This turn of events was unexpected but suited her just fine. Now that she got over the shock, she knew it was good for her own goals. She didn’t mind that someone like Dee might stand above her in the distant future. She already had three gods tower above her, so she more than any of the others was used to it. One more would not matter, especially one that she might be able to have close ties with. “A hard to reach goal if there ever was one. At the very least we are now part of her totem. Seems like you were wrong about that Death.”

------

Dee had no idea what the thing was with the holy symbols and the dragons, but she didn’t care. That little maneuver had sapped nearly all of the remaining power from the tree at once and the rest had gone towards expanding her Domain. She could feel the tree’s ability to struggle fading. Good thing too, because she was at her limits as well. She could feel something snapping and knew the suppression on Razark, the old man and the two others had disappeared. She also knew the curse laid on Noyala was gone. Whether that was because her friend was dead or because she had done what she came here to do remained to be seen. At least she had done what she could.

Her feeble grip on the tree finally slipped off, as she no longer had the strength to close her fangs on the tough wood. Despite everything, the tree was still sturdy beyond belief, and she had no power left. Her charred form slipped down the tree’s trunk. Despite her dreadful appearance, she was filled with the power of life and she would recover. The damage was almost entirely on the outside, as her insides were better than new. She was just exhausted beyond belief and her newly formed body had no strength at the moment. She could feel that something within her was starting to connect with her soul space, or Domain as it were, which also made her much harder to kill. She was no immortal, not yet, and not for a while still, but unlike most new immortals her Domain was all ready to be used and was starting to confer some benefits to her.

She felt one of those benefits rise within. The kitsune were beings of fire, and the first time their flames awoke it was clear. Amusingly her flames had not even been ones to activate at rank nine, just that her Domain was granting her the ability early thanks to the slowly forming connection. Her body was bathed in black and purple flames with a weird green tinge to it. Something she had inherited from the tree dying next to her. The flames didn’t burn her, and weirdly not the tree next to her either.

She felt the consciousness of the tree reaching out for her. In its final moments, the tree had regained some of the clarity it had lost in its lust for power. It would not resist. It asked Dee to burn away the husk that remained, fooling anyone watching into thinking the tree was still ok. From the ashes would rise new life. Whether that new life went down the same path of corruption was an open question, but that was for the distant future to decide. Without that new life, the forest might face unexpected consequences, even beyond Noyala’s predictions about the forest turning hostile. That would happen anyway. The tree was the heart of the forest after all.

Dee needed to let her new flames manifest for the first time anyway, so without moving any of her tired and charred muscles, she directed the dark flames at the trunk of the enormous tree next to her. The tree did not resist. It had chosen to go like this and the final scraps of its power fed the flames further.

Unfortunately, the elves and Sidhe who finally barged into the spatial bubbles didn’t see it that way. The only thing they saw was the Tree of Life burning.

“Uh-oh. Time to go!” The old man shouted at his companions who had all been momentarily mesmerized by the sight of the burning tree. The old man dashed to scoop up Dee’s prone body still at the foot of the burning tree. Her form was quite large though and most certainly didn’t go unnoticed by the elves and Sidhe. It was hard to miss a kitsune the size of a barn bathed in the same dark flames that were eating at their beloved tree, which many were seeing for the first time thanks to the protections on the spatial pocket dispersing with the tree losing strength.

The old man took a sudden look at the prone form of Dee as they were escaping. ‘Well now. Seems you really benefitted from this encounter.’ He could now feel some of Dee’s soul space. It was very faint, but enough for him to recognize the Domain for what it was.