The System Awakens: Rise of the Champion - Chapter 251

Capítulo 251: Chapter 251: The Existence – 2

It had been three months since Damian reunited with his family, yes, three long months.

It took three months for Damian’s three sisters, his mother, his aunt, and his aunt’s daughter to finally talk and spend time with him before they could begin to sublimate the pain they had carried from being separated from him for so many years.

During these three months, while his family spent time with the Emperor of the Ouroboros Empire, the emperor’s wives also used the opportunity to learn more about their husband and about his family.

Safe to say, they learned a lot.

“He changed a lot. I’m happy that he did,” Victoria, the sister of the Queen of the Kingdom of Ignatius, muttered with a small smile.

The huge group of women seated nearby followed her line of sight and saw the young man speaking with four women who shared identical appearances.

Three of them were sisters, Damian’s sisters, and the fourth was Victoria’s daughter, Damian and his sisters’ only cousin.

Yet they never saw her merely as a cousin.

To them, she was a true sister, just as she had been while they were growing up together.

“Are they also… like our king?” Maria asked softly.

“It’s alright, dear. You don’t need to be so timid or nervous. You are my daughter-in-law now,” Valentina Ignatius said with a chuckle.

She couldn’t help but find her new daughters-in-law adorable.

They were still shy and easily flustered whenever the conversation revolved around their husband and their relationship with him.

“To answer your question, no. Our daughters are not like my nephew,” Victoria said gently. “My nephew is… unique and special.”

“Unique how?” Countess Kathryne Dracula asked.

Unlike the others, she had accepted Damian’s family as her own with remarkable ease.

“Well, in simple terms, my son is a World Tree,” Valentina said matter-of-factly.

“Wait, what?” Countess Amaya uttered in disbelief.

“A World Tree? Did you just say he is a World Tree?”

It was not only Amaya.

Everyone who heard Valentina’s words showed expressions of shock, surprise, and confusion.

Everyone present knew, or had at least heard, of World Trees.

They should have, especially when they lived alongside an existence like Damian, someone around whom everything in existence seemed to revolve.

Whenever World Trees were mentioned, the topic inevitably turned toward existence itself.

After all, World Trees were an essential part of existence, second only to the Seven Primordials.

Beneath the Primordials, yet still far beyond gods or concepts revered by mortals and deities alike, were the beings known as World Trees.

They were not eternal like the Universal Tree, nor absolute like the Primordials, but they were productive.

They were, in essence, the architects of habitable reality.

A World Tree could be considered a miniaturized Universal Tree.

However, their domain only extended to a planet or a cluster of planets.

If a World Tree lived long enough, her domain could expand further into an entire dimension, encompassing countless planets and solar systems.

Without World Trees, cosmic dust and raw matter would drift endlessly through existence, lifeless and inert, forever unchanged.

For habitable worlds, stable solar systems, or self-contained dimensions to exist, World Trees were essential.

They were directly responsible for the birth of life, and life itself was as fundamental to existence as the Primordials.

Without World Trees, there would be no space for the concepts of existence to manifest in real time.

World Trees were governed by none and were birthed directly by the Universal Tree, the Mother of the Universe herself.

They cared neither for good nor evil.

They cared only that space existed for life to flourish, regardless of what form that life took.

Even Heaven and Hell were domains governed by World Trees.

“I understand what World Trees are,” Avenya Rughal, one of the werewolf wives, said with a frustrated expression. “What I want to understand is my king.”

“To understand what Damian is, you must first understand what we are,” Thea, the World Tree of Thaerris, said.

Yes, the World Trees themselves were present among the group.

Given their close relationship with Damian, it was only natural for them to be there.

“There are currently five World Trees in existence within our universe, including myself,” Thea continued, listing her sisters.

By the laws of existence, all World Trees were born as women.

They were sisters in the truest sense of the word.

From the oldest to the youngest, there had once been seven World Trees.

Unfortunately, two of them were killed due to the detestable actions of the Invaders, beings from beyond the universe.

When they fell, hundreds of worlds with thriving civilizations perished alongside them, killing billions upon billions of lives before Damian, still in an earlier stage of his existence, managed to drive the invaders out.

“We will speak of my two fallen sisters another time,” Thea said solemnly, glancing toward Damian.

Everyone noticed the tension in Damian’s eyes as the topic turned to the World Trees.

It was clear that Damian was particularly sensitive when it came to them.

Continuing, there were five world trees that still existed.

Yggdrasil, the oldest of the world trees, possessed the largest domain among them all.

Most pantheons fell under her domain, such as the Norse pantheon, the Biblical pantheon, and the Greek pantheon.

In addition, several smaller kingdoms in the Upper Plane and the world of Nevalia were also currently within her domain.

Isha was the second-oldest world tree.

Her domain was only slightly smaller than Yggdrasil’s and included the Egyptian pantheon, the Celtic pantheon, and several smaller pantheons of the Upper Plane.

Asheve was the third-oldest world tree.

Her domain encompassed the Hindu pantheon and the Shinto pantheon, along with several worlds inhabited by unique and powerful monsters of all shapes and sizes.

Finally, there were Reiya and Thea.

Reiya and Thea were close in age, with only a few tens of thousands of years separating them.

They were considered young world trees, each possessing only a few worlds within their domains.

Reiya’s domain included Nightingale, Vargheim, and a third unnamed world, three worlds where night reigned almost constantly, with daytime existing only briefly.

Thea’s domain included the world of Thaerris and all worlds inhabited or governed by elemental spirits.

“You still haven’t explained how my king is a world tree,” Lillian said.

“Patience…” Reiya sighed, shaking her head. “As Nightingale’s world tree, I have watched you since the day you were born. I’ve never seen you this agitated before. It’s amusing how much my brother has changed you.”

“You see,” Yggdrasil continued, glancing at her sisters, “all World Trees are women, not by choice, but by the rules of existence. Just like the Mother of the Universe, the Universal Tree, we are all born female. That is how it was meant to be. However, something changed. Something no primordial understands, not even my mother. When the Eighth World Tree was about to be born, it was not born as a she, but as a he.”

“You’re saying my king was meant to be born as a world tree, as a woman, according to the system of existence, but instead was born as a male world tree?” Amaya asked, sighing. “I don’t understand.”

“There is no such thing as a male world tree,” Isha said calmly. “All world trees are women. My brother’s existence was unprecedented. Although he possessed the qualities of a world tree, he was far more than that.”

“Think of it this way,” Asheve added. “We world trees are responsible for creating visible space where life can exist. We generate immense energy to make hundreds of planets, even entire dimensions, habitable as we grow. But my brother didn’t need to do any of that. Unlike us, he didn’t have to expend his energy on creating space for life.”

“Oh… I get it,” Maria said slowly. “He could use all the energy he generated for himself.”

“Not exactly,” Yggdrasil said, shaking her head. “Didn’t I say he is not truly a world tree? He merely possesses the qualities of one, yes, including the ability to access any and all forms of energy. But his soul was far superior to ours. As he grew, he began to display abilities that evolved like those of mortals, eventually reaching into the domain of the Primordials.”

“We world trees can govern our domains, but we cannot rule over the beings who live within them. We may influence them, but influence does not equate to control. My brother, on the other hand, possesses the power not only to rule over life, but also to destroy, create, and control it.”

“He essentially became a new being,” Reiya continued with a faint smile. “Neither world tree, nor mortal, nor god, nor monster, but something that possessed the qualities of all of them and more. A being capable of interfering with even the domains of the Primordials. His soul carried a unique trait, the ability to accept, develop, and perfectly attune to any and all essences.”

“That explains how he could become the progenitor of so many races by himself,” Countess Kathryne muttered.

“Actually, it’s not that simple,” Reiya said with a chuckle. “To become what he is now, he had to live fourteen lifetimes. Although his soul possessed those capabilities from the start, he couldn’t manifest them immediately. That’s why he underwent the simulation of fourteen lives, seven reincarnations and seven regressions, leading up to this life, the fourteenth regressed life.”