I am not a complicated creature.

Trees in general, are not complex things.

I may have departed a bit from the norm...

I may have changed slightly from the known…

Yet, I’m still me.

The same Tree.

With the same Dryad.

The same love of eating.

The great Dao of Nix, in and of itself, is not a difficult Dao to understand.

Such a Dao is simple in its structure, and sublime in execution.

However, all simple things have secret costs.

Nix, as a Dao, has the immense burden of supply…

For one who follows the path of Nix, is always, completely, and utterly....

Hungry.

Nix is not to be confused with Greed, though.

The simple, easy, and perfect way to contrast them is Greed is the bottomless pit that can never be filled. Upon trying to fill it only grants greater desire to be filled.

While, Nix is the bottomless pit, of which filling grants greater heights of hunger. However, with greater hunger accompanies greater power given to the practitioner.

In very, very, very rare cases though, enough energy can be eaten to cause even the Dao of Nix to evolve.

My daos…

Dao of Fire, the Flame.

Dao of Nix, the Endless Hunger.

Under the heat and pressure of a thousand thousand million burning motes of starstruck sunlight…

A mutation occurred…

A twist in the grand design, a deviation from the path paved by others…

A parting of the endless curtain of uncertainty, a glimpse of eternity, unveiled at the cost of an entire Worldheart was shown to me…

I could see it.

With senses tuned and stretched by multiple supernova level amounts of energy, I could see beyond the Veil.

The path forward, the evolution of what I had, to what I could become.

In the vastness of the empty space between stars I saw myself, titanic, immense, with heights of glory greater than the paltry planets orbiting me.

I saw the nature of Flame in a brief moment, and it pushed me upwards, further along the path of my Dao.

For at its most basic, isn’t flame merely the power of elemental heat, to convert dross to purity?

What else among all the great forces that I know does the same thing?

Time.

Time is the flame that purges all things.

Space is the crucible, Time is the Flame!

With this realization my Everburning Flame evolved one step higher. I can feel the new flame form within me, invisible in the overwhelming vastness of Eternity…

It is a flame that is both there, and not, a partial structure created by my glimpse of what Time truly is.

I shall call this creation…

My creation, Time’s Shadow, a Soulflame the evolution of Everburning.

The soulflame is not built to burn merely material things, instead, like a shadow of time itself, it burns things outside the physical realm.

I look around, and there is nothing.

Well, nothing except the endless darkness of a hollowed world. The surface is still there countless miles above me, but the world is now like an eggshell drained of power. The entire Worldheart has been devoured, along with the inner core, and oceans of magma energy.

I have fed very well.

If it were not for the Dao of Nix within me drawing all energy into me, this planet would likely be floating chunks of barren lifeless rock by now.

My previous soul seal is now gone, and my full power stretches outward encompassing the entire planet’s surface shell.

I see Divine heads raise on a mountain far above in the surface world.

A table surrounded by powerful Divinities, each one responding differently to the aura that flows out from me.

Yet those threats are not what I care most for.

I focus in on the ledge where I previously leaped from.

With the coordinates fresh in my mind, Time’s Shadow melts a path through space directly to my servants.

I float out of the portal, my presence alone causing battle to pause.

Mishra has wounds all over, her entire body is a mish mash of poisoned skin, broken bones, and ruptured organs. If it wasn’t for the incredible physical power she’d gained through constant tempering from her Dao, she would definitely be dead.

Huddled behind Mishra are the rest, S’neli in full potion battle-gear, the gnomes in armored battle suits with energy lines pulsing, my whole team…

Looks like they’ve been beaten to hell and back!

Anger flows through me, along with the innate desire to make an example of my new power.

I turn my attention towards the insects that dare to touch what is mine!

I push outward with my power ripping the invisibility formed of darkness from the enemies with a ruthless use of power.

Long ears.

Dark skin.

Purple eyes.

Elves.

Elves.

Elves.

My anger reaches new heights, I can barely see straight now.

Time’s Shadow flashes outwards from me, faster than the speed my opponents can possibly react to, its very nature disintegrating the souls of every elf. Before they are even able to scream I have turned each and every opponent’s soul to stardust.

For a moment there is silence, and then every single elf collapses like a puppet whose strings have been cut. Before they even reach the ground their corpses disintegrate into nothingness.

Taking a look at my own allies, Time’s Shadow pulses, this time focused with pure intent on me and mine. In a flash, Mishra, S’neli, and all the gnomes are restored to full health. I even went the extra mile to replace all their gear as good as new.

Without warning I reach out and pull all of them into one of my leaves.

I can sense the Divinities on the surface turning their senses towards me, attempting to lock onto my position.

Another use of Times’s Shadow and portal to the airship, without delay I place it inside my leaves as well.

Not a moment too soon, as a fraction of a microsecond later I am surrounded.

An elderly human.

A gorgeous elf.

An armored dwarf.

Various elemental golems.

Various forms of darkness.

Lastly, Vex, dressed to kill. I’d been wondering where she was. Also, how does she ever find the time to get such killer wardrobes assembled before battle?

Vex flashes me a smile before slowly backing away from the encirclement.

Oh…someone isn’t suicidal it seems…

***

Nif stared at the lifeform that they had been preparing to fight for over a decade. It didn’t seem that threatening. If you disregarded the almost physical sensation of power rolling off from the creature, it was almost cute.

However, to those who had lived thousands of years, and who had walked the path to Divinity through oceans of blood…

The short half-meter high Tree in front of them gave off a terrifying aura.

Moments ago at the yearly meeting, everyone had sensed the horrific destruction of the Worldheart.

This tiny tree in front of them was no innocent lamb, instead it was a monster that had devoured the very source of life for planet Vespar.

Nif sent a message to the human rulers he kept in contact with immediately, it was all he could spare attention for. He felt the Forgelord and the Forest Lady do so as well, it appeared no one was willing to gamble. The messages contained a simple phrase, translated most easily as…

Escape. Now.

Without a doubt, Vespar as a planet was finished. Without a Worldheart, the source of energy for the entire planet was lost. First the atmosphere would die, then the creatures, and finally, ice would begin to creep out from the oceans. Eventually the world would be nothing except a cold dead shell of a once thriving planet.

Nif steeled himself and opened the channel of faith between his Chosen humans, and himself.

With an expression of sadness, he pulled on the deep of faith within it.

Power filled his frail form, like sunlight given flesh. His eyes glowed with might, and youthful vigor. Time reversed on his body, age rapidly vanishing as he became younger, his form shifting to his prime.

The Forgelord stared for a moment before sighing deeply as he did the same.

The Forest Lady grimaced as she did the same as well.

This move was a trump card, pushing them above the low level class of Diety, and into the upper-middle rank.

However, it came with a monstrous cost.

The lives of their followers were burned like candles to fuel the increase in power, their unwavering faith fueling the transformation. Even worse, the move itself took time to mature into full power.

The Elemental Lords had such a move as well, however, with the destruction of the Worldheart they no longer had access to it.

As such, each Elemental Lord attacked first to buy time for the three humanoid Divinities to complete their transformation.

Flames hotter than molten magma flew towards the small tree. At the same time ice harder than steel, vacuum winds stronger than a hurricane, and earthen spikes of pure mithril all struck at once.

The flames being used by the Firelord vanished like snow meeting heated steel. As they vanished, a perfectly circular almost invisible orb was revealed. All the other attacks that struck, vanished in the same manner. It was as if the four Elemental Lords were throwing punches that were eaten by nothingness.

“Children shouldn’t play in the games of adults.” the Tree said, before an immense pressure crushed down onto the Elemental Lords.

Without the Worldheart to supply them power, they were slowly ripped apart and forced back to their respective Elemental Planes. As true Lords, they could not be killed except on their home planes.

However, the time they bought was enough for Nif, the Forgelord, and the Forest Lady!

“Sword of a thousand shattered stars.” the Forgelord intoned pointing at Nif.

“Grace of a hundred whispered winds.” the Forest Lady whispered, pointing at Nif.

Nif sprung forward, his right arm slashing with a barely visible plain metal sword. His speed boosted beyond earthly limits from the elven Blessing of Grace.

“If you leave now Dwarf, I will not pursue you, or your race…” the Tree said, in his insidious voice.

Nif didn’t allow himself to be distracted, and his blow cleaved down on the Tree’s crown without pause.

A scream like the murder of a billion throats ripped out from the Tree.

“I won’t pursue you Dwarf…but the human and elf…” the Tree said, his voice no longer kind, “…forfeit their chance.”

Nif felt the Forgelord hesitate, out of all the three of them, the Dwarves were the race with the lowest birthrate. Unlike elves, they couldn’t increase their numbers with a half-elf population.

“Nif…” the Forgelord said, his voice torn in anguish.

“Go, the Sword is the largest portion of your power, if we can’t defeat him with it, your prescence wouldn’t matter.” Nif said, his voice short. It was better to let those unwilling to make the final sacrifice escape, so as not to distract him during battle.

“Time is an illusion, space a distant memory.” the Forest Lady said, her form slowly shattering into dust.

Nif felt the High Elf’s final blessing as she spent the power of her race without holding back. He was clear the only reason this happened was she knew there was no chance otherwise.

“Silly girl…” Nif said, tears in his eyes. Now he’d never have the chance to confess his feelings to her.

In a blink of molten fire, the Forgelord vanished.

Nif knew that as long as he could defeat the Tree, it would be no problem to evolve into a high level Diety. At that point, the Darkness, Void, Shadow, and Vex would be ants beneath his feet. They could be dealt with at any time.

Nif blinked forward once again, the Sword swinging in a horizontal slash.

For a moment he was confused, he could see his body moving forward, but, his vision was moving backwards.

Faster…than…time… was Nif’s last thought as his body disintegrated in the crushing Flame that melted even the Sword he held to nothingness.

***

I haven’t felt fear in forever, Trees don’t have the same nervous system as a human. However, it appeared there was an obvious downside to transforming my soul.

Focusing blearily through the fear, I mumbled an offer to the Dwarf. Considering the person who had taught me the basics of forging was a dwarf, my personal honor demanded they get a chance.

Pain.

Pain.

PAIN!

I gave a chance to the dwarf.

The human and the elf though…

Their chances are spent.

The human managed to slice off several of my branches, causing untold agony.

It was this agony that caused me to reach deeper than I ever had into the well of Chaos that I had.

Time’s Shadow rushed outward like an array of thin sharp hidden razor wires.

I may not be fast.

I may not be tall.

I may not be the best, brightest, or most powerful.

However, within the limits of my range…

All will turn to ashes, as the shadow of time eats from within.

When I managed to focus again, the human was disintegrating in front of me.

I snapped further aware searching for the elf.

Tsk, that damn thing got away.

Vex walked over to me from where she’d been watching. Glittering eyes stared down at me, before she drew back. Good thing too, I had only spent 70% of my power surviving.

Call me paranoid, but, I don’t trust demons. Even the ones that are my friends.

Without even speaking a word, I picked up all my fallen branches and leaves. It would be a massive amount of work to re-attach them all.

“What did I miss?” I asked Vex.

“The elf disintegrated feeding an enormous portion of power to the human, Nif. Not surprising though, she was a clone. After your offer, the Forgelord accepted and bowed out.” Vex said, placing a finger in a questioning manner. “Were you planning anything else?” a devious smile that couldn’t be seen by her allies was shown.

I looked over at the Darkness, Shadow, and Void.

“I’m still hungry.” I said.

“I’ll be off then.” Vex said, edging away from me with rapid haste.

My full attention turned to the ‘allies’ she’d made.

Time to replenish my energy. That human was hideously strong, but these creatures…are not.