Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls-Chapter 145: Ygg.

The air... was rich.

So full of mana that it seemed liquid. With each breath, Kael felt his vital energy replenish, his senses sharpen, his muscles relax and vibrate at the same time.

He stood, amazed.

All around him, gigantic flowers sprouted from between the roots - some closed with his movement, others followed him with golden eyes on their pistils, as if studying him. Luminous lianas descended from the highest branches, winding gently like strings of liquid light. The ground was lined with a carpet of living grass, which changed color slightly as he stepped on it, as if reacting to his presence.

Butterflies the size of eagles flapped their wings lazily above, leaving a trail of sparkling magic dust in the air. And beyond... he saw a river.

No, a river of mana.

Literally made of liquid energy, pale blue and pulsating like the blood of a divine entity. It snaked through the roots like a cosmic circulatory system. Creatures drank from it - small crystal deer, birds made of leaves, and even... tiny dragons, which floated like birds, with curious eyes and ethereal wings.

Kael took a few hesitant steps forward, feeling for the first time like an intruder in a truly sacred place.

"This place..." he muttered. "...shouldn't exist." What did he mean? That it seemed too fantastic to be something that existed in his world, it was simply surreal.

As he touched the trunk of one of the nearby trees, the bark responded. It didn't recoil but pulsed. As if it accepted his touch. A warmth ran up his arm, and images crossed his mind... ancient forests, extinct civilizations, forgotten pacts. The World Tree wasn't just alive.

It was conscious.

And she was testing him.

"I... Why am I here?" he asked himself aloud, touching the center of his chest where the Seed of Eternity throbbed more strongly than ever.

Suddenly, the ground in front of him shattered. Slowly. Without violence, as if it were giving way, opening up, like a blossoming flower.

A path emerged from it. A path made of rigid leaves and trunks that curved naturally, forming arches and spirals. Along it, small crystals floated, forming living symbols in the air. The runes rotated, changed, as if reacting to Kael's thoughts. He took another step and the crystals lined up, as if tracing a route.

The forest... accepted him.

Not only that - it was guiding him.

"That's..." he began, but his voice was lost. There weren't enough words in the human vocabulary to describe it.

The forest, with its vastness, its eternity, was like a heart beating in the center of the world. And Kael... it was the blood starting to circulate again.

In the distance, the sound of something huge moving. A roar? A whisper? He couldn't tell. But it sounded like a tree breathing.

Umbra, even from a distance, whispered in his mind through the link:

"You have reached the Realm of the Primordial Root. This is the origin of everything, Kael. The place where the first spell was whispered. Where the gods looked at the earth and decided to shape it."

He clenched his fists.

There was no turning back.

The trail stretched ahead like an invitation. Like a call.

And Kael, his gaze steady and his soul on fire, began to walk.

Each step took him deeper into the womb of creation.

Kael followed the living trail, mesmerized. Every step he took, the roots and leaves gently moved away, as if the forest itself were escorting him. The air was sweet, with the scent of ethereal flowers and the distant sound of an invisible harp resonating between the branches. Time seemed suspended there - as if the real world were millennia away.

And then... he arrived.

The path opened gently, revealing a perfect clearing. An almost sacred circle, where the sounds of the forest ceased, where the air seemed lighter, where even mana stopped to observe.

In the center, like a living painting in the middle of the impossible, was a single tea table.

Carved white wood with floral details that breathed. It was set with fine porcelain tableware - a kettle that let off fragrant steam, two steaming cups, plates with small cakes of petals and unknown fruits.

And sitting there, with an impeccable and serene posture, as if time didn't touch her...

There she was.

The woman was a spectacle in herself. An impossible sight.

She looked like a perfect doll sculpted by divine hands - but alive. So alive that the air around her seemed to mold to her presence.

Her hair, long and scarlet like strands of ruby fire, was tied delicately into a ponytail, followed by an emerald green dress that fitted her body with the precision of a dream - every curve, every sigh of the fabric seemed to obey the harmony of nature. The sleeves were loose, waving in the wind like leaves, and the hem of the dress touched the grass without ever getting dirty.

Her eyes...

Green.

Deep.

Like two ancient forests where ancient secrets slept.

Kael stopped. His heart stopped.

She was pouring the tea with gestures so graceful, so natural, that it seemed as if her every movement was part of an invisible dance with the world around her. When she had finished filling the second cup - his - she raised her face.

And her eyes met his.

A shiver ran down Kael's spine.

She smiled. Soft. Warm. Untouched.

And then she spoke.

"It's good to see you again." The voice.

That voice.

That voice that, as a young man, he had heard coming from Sylphie's lips during that moment... that instant when everything changed. When an ancient, unknown presence used his friend's body to whisper and thank him. And, of course, to bless him.

The same.

Identical.

Like an angel who carried the stars in her throat.

Kael staggered forward a step, his eyes wide. His lips moved, but no words came out. As if the sound died before it reached her. As if his voice wasn't worthy.

"Do you remember..." he finally managed to say, in a hoarse, almost broken tone. "...of me?"

She tilted her head slightly, as if the question was strange. As if... of course she did.

"Since before you were born," she said, resting the cup gently on the saucer. "I saw you. I saw your first breath. I saw your pain, your strength, your rise. I saw what even you still don't see."

Kael took another step, now overwhelmed by a confusion of emotions. Tension, fascination, anger, reverence. He didn't know whether to fall to his knees or shake that woman until he had all the answers.

"Who... who are you?" he murmured.

She watched him for a moment, then rose from her chair.

And even that gesture... simple, mundane... made the whole clearing shudder gently. Moss bloomed around her feet. The mana swirled in the air. The birds themselves fell silent.

"I'm what you call the World Tree," she said, walking to the other side of the table, towards him. "But you can call me Ygg, it sounds more natural and I don't like someone so young being so strict with me, you know, it's hard being the Mother of Everything all the time, I need to relax sometimes."

Kael winked. Once. Twice.

The clearing seemed stuck in an eternal instant. The soft fragrance of tea still hung in the air, but now mixed with something much older, deeper - as if the very heart of the world had whispered its name.

"World Tree..." he repeated in an almost inaudible tone, his mind racing to connect all the stories, legends and records he had read in his life. "You... are Yggdrasil?"

She smiled with a softness that bordered on irony, crossing her arms elegantly.

"Yggdrasil... Yggdrasyl... Yx... Drys... Dryade Primordial... I've been called many things." She spun in place like a dancer, the hem of her green dress floating like leaves in the wind. "But 'Ygg' is enough. Simple, direct... less weight on your shoulders."

Kael felt like he was trying to breathe amidst a sea of revelations. The woman - no, the entity - in front of him was the origin. The root of everything. The mother of the forests, of mana, of life.

And yet, there she was, with a mischievous smile, like a young girl who had grown tired of being treated like a sacred relic.

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"Are you... kidding me?" he asked, frowning. "You're literally the World Tree and you're... serving tea? Wearing dresses? Acting like you're just another one?"

Ygg laughed. A sound so beautiful that even the branches above swayed, as if the forest was laughing along.

"What did you expect? That I'd be an old log with a face in the middle of the stem? To speak in riddles and demand sacrifices?"

She walked slowly, her bare feet touching the grass with the lightness of a sigh. Each step made small flowers open, only to disappear into the air like vapor.

"Kael, I am ancient, yes. Countless ages have passed through my branches. But I'm also alive. I have wills, sensations, desires. I've been adored, feared, forgotten, remembered... and now, I'm tired of pretending that I can't just... have some tea and talk."

Kael sat down again. This time, not by invitation, but because his body had finally accepted that he was nothing more than a leaf in the wind.

He looked at the cup in front of him. The porcelain gleamed with delicacy, the golden liquid reflected the invisible sky above the leaves. It smelled of flowers, fruit and nostalgia.

"So... why now? Why call me here?" Ygg didn't answer immediately. Instead, she pulled out a chair, sat down facing him and watched him. Not with the eyes of a deity, but with the gaze of a mother seeing her son for the first time after years apart.

"We have problems," Ygg said, looking directly at him. "Protecting the girl hasn't been enough... so, even though I'm a pacifist, I can't just allow beings to do what they want... Especially that disgusting old man." She spoke and then a vine pulled Kael up and sat him on the chair.

"You... than you..." Kael began, but first...

"I'm hiring the Supreme Hunting entity, named in this world as Kael Scarlet to Exterminate some pests for me, the World Tree." Ygg smiled as thousands of energy flakes appeared around her.

"I, Yggdrazil, swear in the name of my existence to fulfill any request should the contractor, Kael Scarlet, be able to complete a job." She said and then a message appeared...

[Divine contract established].