Chapter 171: Messiah

After Poppy’s declaration to her planet, Kalon left and returned to Earth.

He was feeling good about the way things had turned out.

The invasion was called off. Daisy had been made into his pet. Cupid’s council had watched a foreign man receive a pardon and a formal request for knowledge in the same breath.

All of his planets seemed to be falling into place.

He only stayed on the rooftop long enough to check the system and confirm the daily allowance still had room.

Veylora needed to head the news.

He selected the coordinates for Nyphara and initiated the travel.

[Initiating Travel Sequence...]

[Adapting body to suit conditions...]

[...]

[You have arrived!]

[Welcome to Veylora!]

Kalon appeared at the rear of the main cathedral hall.

At the front, near the mother tree and the living, the priests and recognised women of the congregation were deep in prayer.

They knelt in long rows with their heads bowed and their chests lowered all the way forward.

Bare leaf-breasts of every size pressed against the cool stone floor.

Nyphara was at the centre of the first line, heavy green breasts flattened to the ground beneath her as she prayed.

Yildaphia and Niralana were nearby in the same posture.

Trainees with closed robes filled the rear ranks.

The only sound was the low, steady murmur of devotion.

Kalon did not interrupt at once. He waited until the nearest heads began to lift at the simple fact of a new presence in the hall.

Nyphara noticed him first. She rose from the floor with the same calm grace she always carried, nectar-slick skin catching the green light as her breasts settled free again under the open cut of her robes.

Others followed her up in a spreading wave of movement and sudden attention.

"Light Bringer," Nyphara said. Her warm smile appeared as soon as her pink-green eyes fully found him. "You return in the middle of the Mother’s hour."

Kalon walked forward between the rows. Dozens of bare chests and watching faces turned with him.

"I bring news," he said. "The invasion from Cupid is over. Their Supreme Leader has called it off in front of her full council. The scout groups are being recalled. Veylora is not under that danger anymore."

For a second the cathedral held pure silence.

Then the reaction broke through all at once.

Whispers surged between the kneeling ranks and the standing priestesses. Some of the women pressed their hands together. Others stared at Kalon with wide, shining eyes.

The words describing Kalon started flowing in: blessed, worthy, the one who turned away the hunters’ masters, saviour, chosen. A few of the younger trainees openly called him Messiah before older voices hushed them.

The air in the hall changed. It was no longer only prayer. It was directed at him.

Nyphara lifted both hands, and the noise softened under her authority.

"The Mother Tree has watched this man walk between worlds and return with life in his hands," she said powerfully. "He has given light where we had none. He has stood between Veylora and the ones who would strip it. Kalon Manchester is truly blessed."

She turned fully toward him. The heavy green weight of her bare breasts shifted with the movement. Behind her, Yildaphia, Niralana, and the rest of the priestesses watched.

"The proper answer to such blessing is not words alone," Nyphara continued. "Light Bringer. Embrace the Mother Tree. Receive what she has prepared. This is your reward."

Kalon looked past her to the living trunk that rose through the centre of the cathedral. It was thicker than any ordinary tree, bark layered with soft glowing veins of green-gold sap, roots sunk deep into the stone as if the building had been grown around it rather than built.

He had stood near it before. He had never been told to put his body against it.

"What happens if I do?" he asked.

Nyphara’s smile remained warm and certain.

"Then the Mother will show you."

The whispers started again around the hall.

Saviour. Worthy. Messiah. Blessed of the Tree.

The combined attention of the congregation pressed against his back as he stepped forward.

Confusion sat under his ribs, but it would feel wrong to refuse.

Kalon walked to the Mother Tree and placed both hands against the living bark.

Then the world changed around him.

One moment his palms were on warm wood in the cathedral. The next, the cathedral was gone.

He stood in an ethereal world covered in vines and thick trees, all of them glowing with soft green-gold light. The ground under his feet was moss thick enough to silence every step.

The air tasted clean and sweet.

Above him there was no sky in the normal sense, only layers of green light.

Kalon turned in a slow circle. The space felt less like a forest and more like the inside of a dream.

Paths of tree roots ran in several directions. In the distance, pale flowers opened and closed as if breathing.

Then the nearest great trunk parted like curtains of bark and vine.

A woman emerged from the tree itself.

There was no other way to describe her except as a tree goddess.

Her skin was smooth living wood the colour of pale honey-green, polished and flawless. From her scalp fell long cascading vines in place of hair, each strand threaded with tiny glowing leaves and soft white flowers.

Her body was art. She had a narrow waist flaring into wide, fertile hips, long legs marked with delicate natural grain patterns, and full, heavy breasts that hung slightly due to gravity. Her nipples were the soft dark green shade.

Droplets of honey trickled down her gloriously naked body.

Her eyes were golden-green, and when she looked at Kalon the entire strange world seemed to lean in with her attention.

She was beautiful in a way that Kalon hadn’t experienced from any alien before.

He felt himself filling with a deep desire to explore this woman’s body, and from the seductive look on her face, she seemed to want the same thing too.