Demon Lord's Reincarnation

After the short delay with talking to the elven children, Kara guided Ren and Leila to the center of the city near the tree of life. Now that he was close to the tree, Ren noticed that the tree was bigger than it was when looking at it from a distance. But more than that what really took Ren by surprise was the thickness of the mana near the tree. 

It was thicker and denser than whatever Ren could dish out. In fact, this level of power was the same as those on the top 50 incarnations in his soul realm. Yet unlike what they emit which was suffocating and overbearing, the mana released by the tree was soothing and harmonious. 

Ren found that being this close to something that's pumping out this much mana made it easier for his body to absorb more mana. Right now after his soul was fixed by the ORIGIN, he was already growing stronger at a ridiculous rate, but being near this tree was able to slightly speed up his already ludicrous growth rate. 

'Just by merely existing I grow stronger. This is so much more than I expected when I heard him say that. If I had this ability back in the day wouldn't the battles become boring even faster?... Well, even with this kind of growth rate I'm still not going to be a match for the ORIGIN any time soon. Heck, I'm still not even a match for an adult dragon at this point.' Ren whose thoughts were straying noticed that Kara stopped moving. 

They had reached a place beside the Tree of life near where the river flows. In that place, there was a house made out of roots and greenery. 

"This is a safe place to have our conversation." After Kara spoke she signaled the Elders and the Guards to leave them be. Once the others were gone Kara gestured for Ren and Leila to enter. 

...

Ren, Kara, and Leila sat down inside the house made from nature. The seats were branches and the table was also a large branch. Ren finally noticed that this house as well as all the other houses seem to be connected to the Tree of Life. 

At first, he thought that the houses were connected to the trees near them, but now that he looked at it that doesn't seem to be the case. Ren was rather intrigued by the tree of life, to be able to do all of this did it have sapience or not?

While Ren was once again having his thoughts going elsewhere, Kara was about ready to talk. She looked at the wandering eyes of Ren and coughed. Ren was brought back from his idle thought and looked at Kara. 

"So what is it that you wanted to talk about?" Ren asked as he was finally focused on Kara. 

"I want to talk about the person of whom you seek, but before that, I need to explain something about the tree of life, the world tree."

"Stop trying to sound mysterious and just get to the point," Ren spoke while exuding a tiny portion of his mana. 

"Yes, I'm sorry about that. The world tree or as you know it the giant tree Jubokko is the source of this world's mana. The mana that flows and surrounds us, all of it comes from the tree. This tree has existed since the world restarted, nay it existed even before that. It provides the mana to every single thing in this world." 

"Then what of the mana that flows within me?" Leila interrupted as she found what Kara was saying confusing. 

"The mana that is within you is produced by yourself, but at the beginning of everything, the tree of life was the one that granted mana onto the world. In the beginning, nothing had mana but upon the tree of life's creation, it created a new source of energy, which was later called mana. With the tree of life present, the world was slowly being filled with mana. As the world changed every single thing within it changed alongside it, which included humans and the other races. To adapt to a world that was brimming with mana, the bodies of all the races evolved into one that can store mana into their bodies like blood. If ever there comes a time when the tree of life was lost then our world will slowly lose mana and everything that has to do with it will disappear. The races will slowly forget about the world that was once filled with magical spells, and the races that are mostly made of mana will cease to exist."

Hearing what Kara said Ren could already guess where this conversation was going, making him frown. Still, he patiently listened to what Kara was saying. On the other hand, Leila found the conversation strange.

"Does this history lesson have anything to do with the person big bro is looking for?" 

"It has everything to do with her. The one you're looking for is the Demonic Fox Tsukiko, correct?" Ren and Leila nodded their heads in response. 

"She is indeed here and had woken up five centuries ago. Based on what she told me, a couple of millennia ago she was on the verge of death, and as she laid underneath the tree of life she was absorbed by it. The tree of life had chosen her as its protector, it shared its life and power with Tsukiko thus saving her. It took a few millennia to change her body into something that could take in the power of the tree of life."

"That's wonderful that means she's alive and I can see her, right?" Ren spoke with a bright smile on his face. Seeing Ren's reaction Kara found it difficult to say the next part. 

"Yes, she is indeed alive, and yes you could see her, but..." 

"But what?" 

"The protector of the tree of life is connected to the tree of life. As she shares her life with the tree, if she dies or gets hurt the tree will be affected as well. She can leave the forest but only for a short period of time. In the end, she needs to stay here to protect the tree of life for all eternity."