"The Heavenly Tree? What an overly haughty and grandiose name. I admit, it sounds vaguely familiar. But if you are hoping to find it, then I will have to disappoint you. The name sounds familiar but whether it actually exists, I have no idea, never mind where you might find one. Is it something that you need?"

Seth clicked his tongue in annoyance, cursing in his mind

"No... Not for me. It's something that the Lord, our leader, needs to progress. He uh... He told me about it before we left."

"Your leader... but I thought the leader was this one."

The wooden woman, Juniper, tilted her head curiously and gestured to Astra, who was standing to the side with her arms crossed and giving Seth a very complicated, narrowed eyed glare. Hearing the question, she didn't bother averting her gaze from the 'squire' when he answered.

"I am the leader of this group. We all serve the one we call the Lord. He stayed behind to care for the city while we went out on his order."

"Ah, I see. Well, I would hate to disappoint your leader. Although I haven't heard of this 'Heavenly Tree' it is possible that one of my kin have. After all, I did not have much time to gather their knowledge before I was taken away."

"You have people? I never considered the fact that non-humans could have been building their own societies. Then again... it's rare to encounter one so... Eloquent. Then again, there was the issue with the Goblins..."

Finally pulling her gaze away from Seth, Astra glanced at Juniper before looking down and biting her lip in contemplation, her sentence trailing off as she lost herself in thought. Seth didn't have to be a mind reader to know she was already making various plans based on possible encounters, as well as whether or not they should interact with these non-human civilizations.

After all, he was thinking about the exact same thing, as well as mentally going over their root and considering where there might be hot spots of people, beasts and living plants making civilisations for themselves.

However, Juniper was not done adding to their plate.

"Of course we do, I thought you would have known this. Are you not followers of the Human God like the others?"

"The... Human God?"

Astra lifted her head slowly, looking at Juniper with a complicated expression before shooting a narrowed eyed glare at Seth, who gave her a confused shrug in response. Sure, there were people who worshipped him like a god, but he made sure to keep the talk of actual godhood to the minimum.

If he could, the worship entirely would have been ceased, but they were set in their ways and refused to stop with any of that.

However, even if his most fervent followers had been referring to his alter ego as their god again, he had definitely not heard of Juniper or her people.

"What does this Human God look like? Does he happen to wear all black?"

"Black? No, no. He wears white, at least from what I've seen on the humans banners. We've never actually seen this Human God, but I thought all of you worshipped him. All the humans I have ever met have.

My people have been fighting in a war with his people ever since the beginning."

"Tell me about him... From the beginning."

Juniper let out a deep sigh and began to regale them with the tale of the Human God and the fury of his followers.

Hailing from an area high in the North of the country, near the town previously known as Inverness, was the new civilisation of Bo'Garen, composed entirely of evolved plants. Some of them took a humanoid form, some of them bestial, while others stayed in their most natural forms. This was were Juniper had come from, before she was enslaved by her first master, a follower of the Human God.

From this master, she had heard all of his tales. They were vague, mostly stories of his deeds. They say he first descended from the skies, soaring on wings of pure light, with his most loyal followers in tow. His disciples of the stars, as he called them.

They say that the Human God was the most handsome man in existence, a blessed being of complete and utter purity who had the ability to gift life, as well as take it away.

They say he has the strength to crush mountains with little more than a flick of his finger and that when the beasts attacked the old city, surging from the very depths of the dreadful seas, that he called down the very heavens themselves to wipe these creatures from existence.

Although the members of Bo'Garen might not have seen him, they were not the only one's that were in this war with him.

The beasts of the city, especially those of the steel barred jungle, had banded together under the strength of their Beast King and mounted an attack on the Human Gods dwelling. As far as the plant people had heard, it was an attack force consisting of thousands of beasts, yet only a dozen survived.

The main number of the invading force had been composed of the previous swarm of the Ant Queen, who had stayed far from the battle alongside her new slave, which she had acquired from a human unfortunate enough to wander into her territory. Her swarm was unsurprisingly annihilated by the Human God, and through their hive mind connection, she was able to experience every moment and every death.

Horrified of his radiance, she retreated to the south, desperate to recover her loses and build herself a new swarm, to build her own empire far from that monster.

A human with golden hair, matching that of his regal armour, as if his hair itself was a crown that anointed him King of kings. Pure white eyes that looked at the world with contempt and apathy, as if his enemies were nothing more than worthless insects not worthy of his time.

A being that even the stars themselves bent the knee to, who smote his enemies with dazzling rays of pure light, incinerating them with the wrath of the heavens, as to not dirty his divine hands.

But the God did not partake in the entire battle alone. For what kind of God did their own dirty work?

When his followers descended onto the attacking beasts, they did so with They had watched his followers throw themselves at the claws of their enemies without care for their lives just at a chance to cull his enemies, screaming his name with their final breathes.

Lightbringer. That lingered on their blood soaked lips as they sacrificed themselves just to kill one more enemy.

As Juniper had been talking, she had silently been given permission to use her abilities, allowing her not just to withdraw the attacking aspects of the forest, such as the spear of grass, but withdraw the entire forest in its entirety.

The blanket of leaves wilting away rapidly before falling to the ground, only to dissolve into the ground upon contact. Tree's grew in reverse, their branches unravelling themselves and retreating into their trunks before the trunks sunk into the ground themselves.

Even the grass beneath their feet withered away into nothingness, leaving them standing in a barren plain of nothing but upturned dirt from where the trees had dragged themselves.

By the time Juniper was finishing her story, she was plucking a small acorn from the ground at her feet, the wood of her palm opening up to allow tendrils of vine to snake out, wrap around the acorn and drag it into the depths of her palm.

Astra silently contemplated the information they had been told, tapping her arm softly with a finger before subconsciously looking towards Seth, only to be met with the sight of his twisted expression. There were hints of fear and despair at the information, but there was something more... something deeper.

"Everything alright Squire? They are most likely just stories, nothing more. If they come our way, the Lord will take care of it I'm sure."

"Yeah... I don't think he will have a chance. North, near Inverness. That's where our goal is, more or less.

There's a strong chance we'll come into contact with this Lightbringer. Heh, knowing our luck we will probably come to blows with all three."

"Maybe we can negotiate with him, or maybe he can even help us! I mean we are all humans fighting against the monsters, right? Oh... No offense Juniper."

Erik laughed nervously as he perked up into the conversation, trying to bring a little life to the melancholic mood. As the others began to discuss the possibilities of an alliance with the 'Human God' Lightbringer, as well as possible alliances with Juniper's people, Seth stepped away from the conversation.

Turning his back, he brushed his hair out of his face and let out a deep, heartfelt sigh as yet another weight began to press down on his shoulders. He didn't miss the fact that, as he moved away from the group, Astra was staring at him deeply. He just didn't care.

His eyes were full of a complex mix of emotions as he stared off into the distance, finding himself drowning in a sea of distant memories. Memories that he tried his best to forget about, but to no avail.

'Of course... It had to be him, it had to be them. So, Lightbringer... that's better than what he used to go by, but I know it just has to be him. Lucifer.'

His mind swam with the memories of a man with golden hair and bright eyes, the type of eyes that held no joy or compassion even when he was smiling at you. It was a smile that had always chilled Seth to his very core, but others had found heart warming and enlightening.

But then again, people always said that children were better at detecting these sorts of things. These were the memories of his time in the cult he had been born into, the cult that gave he and his siblings their horrible name.

The same cult that they had escaped from, and left their parents behind to sink even deeper into.

'I wonder... I wonder if they were one of them. Probably... Those parents of mine would do anything for him. If they had survived the initial event, they would be on the front lines without a doubt.

Come to think of it...If Lea never got us out... Would I be one of those disciples? Would I be throwing myself to the wolves for the glory of the Lightbringer?'