Chapter 351 - Point of Origin

Ren was once again inside his soul realm, and waiting for him, as usual, was Leo. "Hey Leo, I'm sure you already know why I'm here." 

"Yeah," Leo scratched his head as he answered. Seeing the normally rambunctious Leo act this way made Ren uncomfortable. Even though all of his past incarnations share the same core personality there were still some differences. An example of that is Leo's rambunctiousness not all of his incarnations were like this as some preferred to be quiet. Some of them were extroverts while others were introverts. Each incarnation had such minor differences. 

It would seem that Ren had underestimated the tree of life. He was about to say something when Leo raised his hand and signaled him to stop. 

"I know what you want to say... Damn it, I really hate these kinds of things! Just wait a minute for the others to arrive, we'll talk then." 

Ren no longer spoke and waited for the other incarnations to arrive. After a few minutes of waiting more incarnations appeared. The usual people were there like Leo, Edge, and Rei, there was also one new face. There were four incarnations that appeared for this meeting. 

Once Leo noticed that there were no more incarnations arriving, as the one who called this meeting he spoke. 

"Everyone should know why I called you all here today." Everyone except for the new face nodded their heads in unison. Leo looked at Ren and sighed. 

"Alright, I'll get straight to the point. Unlike this guy I know nothing about the topic, I just think you'll feel better if there are some familiar faces while you talk. So I brought Edge and Rei, even though they also know little to nothing about the subject. Now to get this started you're up Ezekiel, tell the boy what he wants to know."

A rather annoyed looking man wearing robes with runes scribbled all over them stepped forward. He glared at Leo and spoke.

"You didn't say what the f*ck this is all about? Edge here just dragged me along without any explanation. You guys might be of higher rank than me, but that doesn't mean you can just drag me wherever!" Even though Leo, Edge, and especially Rei were so much stronger than him as an incarnation of the strongest mortal soul Ezekiel wasn't one to back down. He waited for the three's explanation while his crossing his arms. Edge pointed at Ren and answered.

"Just ask the current incarnation what he wants, he's the one who has a question for you." Edge shrugged his shoulders as he answered. Ezekiel sighed even though he was annoyed, but if the current incarnation has a question then he should at least hear it. Ezekiel looked at Edge with a bit of irritation, he hated how he could easily understand what Edge was feeling at this moment. Ezekiel then started at Ren who was supposedly the current incarnation. 

Unlike the other past incarnations who find joy in watching Ren's development every now and then, Ezekiel wasn't that keen on learning about the current incarnation. He wasn't one to be bothered by what was happening outside, as he was fully focused on his research. Even though he's already considered dead and was just part of a shadow created by his soul, Ezekiel continued to research the mysteries of mana, the universe, and everything in creation. Also ever now and then he would create new spells for fun. So this was the first time he has ever seen Ren. He wasn't even there during the meeting with the original incarnation. 

"Fine let's get straight to it, the name's Ezekiel what do you want?" Ren introduced himself and then told Ezekiel about the tree of life and how Tsukiko was linked to it. When Ren finished his explanation Ezekiel frowned. 

"That's a point of origin, every world has one, it could be an object a living thing or something else altogether. These things are where all the mana of that world originates from. Even the worlds that have no mana surely had a point of origin in the past, but after it's destroyed there's no turning back. There are only two things that could happen when a point of origin is destroyed."

Ezekiel snapped his fingers and two floating orbs appeared before him. They were blue and had a little bit of brown and green all over it. Upon closer inspection, there were also little human-like figures walking on the floating orbs. 

"One, once the point of origin is destroyed the inhabitants of that world fall into despair trying their hardest to return the mana that could never come back. Once they go into this route it's just a matter of time before their civilization dies and the ORIGIN resets the whole world." 

Ezekiel snapped his fingers and one of the blue orbs turned white, and then the human-like figures all disappeared. 

"Two, the inhabitants of that world adapt and accept their loss. They then try to figure out a new way to improve. This would always result in making a world where science and technology reign supreme."

Ezekiel snapped his fingers and the remaining blue orb spun a bit and once it stopped, Ren saw numerous tall buildings sprouting out of the blue orb. There were even floating castles, and flying sh.i.p.s coming out of the blue orb. 

"Alright, I understand the risk of destroying the point of origin in this case the tree of life, but how can I sever the link between the protector and the tree?" 

"Based on your description of the circ.u.mstance revolving around this lass called Tsukiko..." Ezekiel became quiet and started to ponder. A few seconds became a few minutes, and a few minutes became a few hours. Ren waited patiently for an answer not wanting to disturb Ezekiel's thought process. After what felt like half a day of waiting Ezekiel finally gave his answer. 

"With my current knowledge, it is impossible to sever the link between the point of origin and its guardian." When Ren heard Ezekiel's answer he was dumbfounded for a moment. 

"What?... Impossible? I thought that there's nothing impossible for us?! Haven't we defied fate over and over again?! Surely there must be a way?!" 

"If you were the one appointed as the guardian of the point of origin then that would be a different matter altogether. If it was you, then you could forcefully destroy your link to the point of origin. Seeing as our fate is something that the point of origin cannot bind. Well, in the first place no incarnation would become a guardian of the point of origin. If you really want some way to save that lass... The only thing I can think of is that the lass should find the willpower to sever the link herself. If you intervene as an outside force and forcefully sever the link then the most likely outcome will be the lass surely dying." Seeing Ren's reaction to what he said Ezekiel sighed.

"You must never forget, we as the strongest mortal soul might be immune to most things, but the ones that accompany us are not. If they truly wish to follow us in every sense of the word, they must first break free from the shackles of destiny."