The 2 Children shivered in fright as they looked at the baleful aura released by the giant Tree of Death. It was so oppressively invasive that thoughts of retreat began to propagate in their minds. ‘RUN! ESCAPE! FLEE!’. The many miles of distance between their location and the Tree apparently meant nothing.

Sweat seeped out of their pores as their skins paled. Chests heaved up and down with hyperventilation with darkness creeping into their vision. They were about to pass out.

“Be calm.”

And like the words of an angel, all of their fears and anxieties fled as peace was once more restored in their hearts. Eridel`s voice blanketed them in an atmosphere of tranquillity and invincibility. Nobody would be able to hurt them here.

Quite the good trick.

They quickly turned to the source of their growing obsessions only for their heads to be forcefully grabbed and made to bow.

‘It would be bad if their minds started glitching again. There’s only so much that their minds can take.’ Eridel thought, keeping his hands on their heads to prevent them from laying eyes on him.

The boy gave a sigh of relief. He was only now remembering the time he had almost imploded from the sight of the mighty entity and his repetitive failure in memory was beginning to annoy him.

‘Why do I keep forgetting?' He thought in frustration. However the thought didn’t last long and his attention was quickly absorbed by the entity before him.

“Look once more~” Eridel whispered.

And they did. This time with Eridel purposefully blocking the tree’s presence.

“Look at the destruction that has been wrought upon your lands. Hundreds of thousands of your people have already perished and more continue to die~”

Eridel spread his arms out like the Christ the Redeemer statue.

“Can you see the claws of death that have grasped your fate? Your people are a doomed race.”

Eridel’s words no longer invoked the enchanting waves of tranquillity, but instead the bone scraping wrath of animosity. An uncomfortable heat smothered them as rage painted itself on their faces.

“If nothing is done, Humanity will go extinct and all the people you love will crumble away. Is this what you want…?” Eridel egged them further.

“N-No! I don’t want that to happen, I hate it! I HATE THEM!” the girl shrieked as she clenched her fists to the point that blood spilled.

Eridel gave a small smile.

“Really? But what can you do? You are weak~” Eridel whispered in her ear.

“I… I-” The girl was stumped with what to say when the boy interjected.

“Save us!”

Eridel wasn’t surprised with the directness of their words. Human beings had yet to learn the art of discretion and had barely scraped on the concept of lying.

“But I can not do that…” Eridel`s voice sounded like it was full of regret, it was as if it was his biggest shame that he couldn’t personally help them.

That was obviously a lie.

But the effects of his voice were indeed marvellous. The whole atmosphere seemed to be dampened with sorrow. You would almost believe that rain would start pouring.

“Wh-”

“However…” and just like that the atmosphere shifted again. “I can grant you the power to change your fate. The power to wrestle survival from extinction and the power… to save your people with your own 2 hands.”

BOOM!

Lightning crackled against the sky with a shocking intensity. Being in such proximity with the sky caused fear to pulse within the 2 Humans, but that was soon drowned by the reality of what the entity that loomed over their backs was presenting.

Power? The power to save humanity by themselves?

“H-How?” The boy's eyes widened with utter confusion and surprise.

“Like this~”

The 2 children felt a hand rest on their heads which caused them to jump but they didn’t even have time to think before waves and waves of unknown Essences began to pour down into their bodies.

“AAAAAAAAAH!”

Shrieking like banshees as their heads snapped back to the sky with their eyes rolled back. It was to the point that their irises had disappeared and anyone looking at the scene would think they were experiencing the worst torture imaginable.

However, the reality of the situation couldn’t be further from the truth.

As the essence that Eridel had shoved into them began to do their work, unprecedented changes began to take place all over their body. Everything down to their very DNA was affected and it quickly began to show.

With the boy, his height steadily grew until he reached 6ft which was an impressive height for a 16 year old in this era and his skin developed a sun-kissed tan that carried a masculine air. His hair rapidly lengthened until it reached his shoulders and the colour was a lustrous amber that wasn’t unlike fire when it moved in the wind. His eyes were a lighter orange and they complimented his hair. On top of that, his musculature had drastically improved and was especially primed for mortal combat.

On the other hand the girl had reached a height of 5 '8, gained clear white skin that was absent of any blemishes and a musculature that whilst defined did not lose a single drop of femininity. In fact it could be said to have increased with the improvement of her figure, especially when you took in her new lavender coloured hair that reached her thighs and her crystal-like blue eyes.

Gallons of impurities were released out of their bodies but they quickly vaporised along with any remaining dirt on their bodies, leaving them clean and visible for Eridel to see.

Both of them had experienced shocking transformations and were completely different to their previous forms. It was to the point that nobody would ever recognize them as the same person if they were to make a comparison.

Clearly. The essence that had entered their bodies hadn’t been normal in the slightest.

And obviously, it didn’t stop at just looks.