It was a surprise, discovering the one behind the extremely dangerous vault was Yggdrasil. What was even more of a surprise was that she was currently attacking them. It didnt make sense, Yggdrasil was always a bit passive, and she was never so aggressive as to strike first, and yet here she was.
As she avoided the vines and roots that threatened to impale her, Loki thought back to how she'd met Yggdrasil. It had been when she was still constructing Asgard, back when the world was wild, she had gone to the Faery realm in search of a spirit tree to use for the tower core. Since spirit trees originated from the World Tree, they were very rare, so Loki made an agreement with the then Administartor; Loki would receive a spirit tree sapling, and a wood nymph, an attendant of the World Tree and the spirit forest, would be dispatched to watch over the sapling, to make sure it did die or get misused.
This wood nymph, would join the ranks of the Valkyrie, and be altered by Loki so she could travel to the physical plane and continue her duty. To fulfil her role as a representative of the faery realm, she was also given the name, Yggdrasil, after a famous World Tree on a far away world.
Loki had been skeptical at first, not expecting much from the lesser spirit, but over time, she was won over. Although not adept in any form of combat, the wood nymph was a master of support and healing, and she was also a calming influence on the other more volatile Valkyrie. She was the little sister of the group, and their unofficial mascot.
The fact that it was that same little girl that was currently keeping two of the Valkyrie's best fighters at bay was a shock. Another thing that was distracting Loki was why Yggdrasil still looked like a kid? The other Valkyrie were already in their prime before being sealed, buy Yggdrasil was still growing, yet she looked exactly the same as she did a million years ago.
All this was going through Loki's mind as she danced through the torrent of attacks Yggdrasil seemed to be launching at breakneck speed.
Loki stayed behind, to watch over the battle and protect the twins.
"What's wrong with her?" Thor demanded, "Yggy never gave ultimatums, or went on the offensive."
"Yeah, well she's obviously not herself right now." Fen retorted
"I think she's under some sort of influence," Loki said, "she doesn't seem conscious, and is acting under preset parameters."
"So how do we— YE-OW!" Fen yelped as one of the vines caught her in the shoulder. It was a flesh wound, but still chipped away at her health.
"These things are bad news," Fen reported, "I think they're poison tipped."
"How bad a poison?" Thor asked
"Not thar bad," Fen replied, "my body is already detoxifying."
"She's trying to put distance between you," Loki said, "don't let her."
"Right," Fen said, happy to have received the order to counterattack.
"I'm sorry to have to do this to you, Yggy," Thor said as she charged up her hammer, "but you need the wakeup call."
She blasted Yggdrasil with just enough lightning to knock her out. Enemy or not, Thor couldn't bring herself to hurt the young wood nymph. The blast tore through her vines, striking true at the vault guardian, but when the smoke cleared, her right side had been blasted away.
"What the f@£k did you do, Tin can?" Fen snapped, horrified, "did you just kill her?"
"No." Thor defended, similarly horrified, "that shouldn't have been nearly enough juice to kill Yggy."
"That's not Yggdrasil," Loki realized, "it's a golem, a lifelike golem."
They Yggdrasil golem looked down at her damaged form, studying it clinically.
"Damage sustained to sentry dryad exceeds acceptable levels. Recalibrating threat response measures. Reassessing intruder power level and threat potential for new response parameters. Deploying revised combat dryad. Increase anti-intruder field effect."
As she spoke, her body began to crumble. The large doors behind her disintegrating body opened a crack and out stepped a new body. Strangely, it still looked like Yggdrasil, but gone was the child-like appearance. This new golem was a full adult wearing elaborate form fitting body armor and wielding a large great sword.
"Eliminate all hostiles. Begin combat." She said, her golden eyes shining through the combat visor she wore.
"Oh s#!t." Thor said as the adult Yggdrasil suddenly dashed towards her at incredible speed, and striking down with a swing of her sword, only to be blocked by Thor.
"Okay," Thor said through gritted teeth, "you might be tougher than I thought. Though thats still not tough enough to bring me down."
"Yggdrasil, snap out of it." Fen ordered, as her chains wrapped around the dryad, tossing her aside, only for the golem to break free and strike at Fen.
"Her swordsmanship," Fen noted
"Yeah, it's just like his," Thor nodded, "that's Heimdall's style. When did he teach her the sword?"
All the while, Loki was observing the fight. So far, this combat golem was up against two Valkyrie, and seemed specifically designed to account for the level of power they showed against the first one, and Loki didn't know how the golem would react if she stepped in. But right now she needed to help her people.
Using her [Transmutation] skill, she tried to alter the feild of combat in her Valkyrie's favor, but found that difficult. Whatever power was behind the golems was also in control of the space and was fighting against Loki's manupulation. Left with little more options, Loki summoned sone of the spare material from her inventory and used that to create several golems of her own, these were crude as Loki wasn't used to making golems, but they resembled Loki and the Valkyrie. She then had these golems go out to assist Thor and Fen.
With Loki's help, they were able to destroy both arms of the golem, but doing so had cost them all of Loki's golems. Both Fen and Thor were starting to tire, but the dryad already seemed to be regenerating.
"What's going on, fighting her shouldn't be this hard?" Thor wondered, panting
"Thats what I sensed, it's this place," Fen realised, "it has some sort of debuff effect on us; the longer we stay her, the weaker we get."
"F@£k," Thor commented
"Exactly. It's a dirty trick, but an effective one." Fen said.
"Just keep her busy," Loki said to them through the system messaging, "I think I can bring her down if the two of you can distract her for me."
They nodded, and prepared to continue the fight. Confident that she would be able to get through to this Yggdrasil golem, Loki snuck in behind her
She was just within range to grab the golem when it spoke, "I see you."
Suddenly, as a mass of gnarled thorns and roots shot up from the ground behind the dryad, impaling Loki multiple times.
"LOKKUN!" Fen screamed
"Lokkun...?" The dryad said, looking up at the dying Loki confused, as her glowing white blood dripped onto her face.
Loki felt the roots and vines tearing into her body, she watched as her HP dropped rapidly, much to quickly for it to be any normal attack. Even now, her mind was racing, working to solve thus problem.
When her HP reached 0% she received a new notification.
[YOUR HP HAS REACHED 0%. YOUR VESSEL HAS SUFFERED SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. YOUR VESSEL HAS DIED. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. YOUR [AUTHORITY] AND [HERESY] ARE STILL IN EFFECT, AND YOUR PRIMORDIAL ESSENCE REMAINS INTACT. ACTIVATING REGENERATION PROCESS.]
All of a sudden, Loki's dead eyes began to glow, the same light that emanated from her open mouth.
With a burst of energy, Loki was freed from the bramble of roots, and the golem was thrown back in the gust,
"It... cannot be..." she said, watching on in shock as Loki's body reformed.
When she was whole again, her body stopped glowing and she floated down to the ground, naked. Fafnir's Mantle flew to support her before she collapsed, covering her body protectively.
Fen and Thor rushed over as Loki blinked awake.
"Lokkun, are you alright?" Fen asked panicked.
"I think so," Loki replied
"Loki...? Nex Loki?" Yggdrasil said softly, as her sword and armor was replaced by a white dress. She eyed them in awe, as if only seeing them for the first time. "Is it really you?"
"You finally recognise me, huh, Yggdrasil?" Loki asked with a weak smirk.
"Can it really be?" She asked her trembling hands covering her mouth, "after all these years...? You'reback?"
"Yeah," Loki said walking towards her
"Careful," Fen urged, as she and Thor both stepped forwards, ready for an attack
"Relax guys." Loki said, "Yggdrail's awake now, she recognises me. Don't you?"
Yggdrasil smiled and nodded, tears in her eyes, she then dropped to a knee. {This Yggdrasil welcomes you back, my beloved master, Prime Nex Loki.}
"It's good to have you back with us, Yggy," Thor said, slapping her against her back, "I never knew you were such a heavy hitter."
"I had to learn to defend myself." She said, hugging Loki, "I have been waiting 1,093,501 years for you to come back,"
"Wait, you were conscious the whole time?" Fen demanded, unnerved.
"Not the whole time, but was conscious for a lot of it, yes. I was in the middle of my thousand year hibernation cycle, I developed an automated defense system, using my sentry golems, to defend this place."
"Why defend this place?" Thor asked, "why didn't you just leave this vault as soon as it opened?"
"I couldn't." She replied, "Asgard must be defended at all times."
"Asgard is here?" Fen exclaimed
"Further in," Yggy said, "and so am I."
"What happened?" Loki demanded
"When I woke up, I was alone in the tower. I tried to reach you and the others, but the connection was blocked, and Asgard was stuck." She began, "I spent a few thousand years trying to get out of this place, then things started to change."
"Change?"
"It was clear that the tower and I were in an isolated space, and the sapling used as the tower core began to evolve.
Loki paused at that, "What?"
If the Tower sapling was evolving, that could only mean...
"Then there's a young World Tree in the heart of Asgard?" She deduced
"Yes. And then Asgard sort of, absorbed the isolated space of the vault into itself." Yggdrasil said,
"Is that even possible?" Thor asked
"If the Tower was in the isolated space long enough, it's possible for the sapling to take root in its Conceptual Plane to further develop into a pseudo-World Tree." Loki theorised, "but to complete the process it would need a spirit to serve as administrator."
"That would be me," Yggdrasil said, "I fused with the tower core and became its administartor,"
The others stared at her. If she had become an administartor, she was basically the will of Asgard Tower now.
"I just existed like that for millenia, subsuming everything in this vault into Asgard, then the doors opened and the intruders came."
"You mean the adventurers?" Thor asked
"Yes, them." Yggy scowled, "I knew from the previous vault guardian that I had to defend this place against them, and I did so, I created the sentry golems, giving them strict operational parameters not to let anyone near the tower. I even created these dryad golems, my direct proxies, to act as vault guardians in case anyone was strong enough to get pass my sentries."
"That's amazing." Loki said, patting the dryads head like she had when she was younger, "you defended our home by yourself for eons, even fusing with the tower core and becomingthe administrator. I'm very proud of you."
"Thank you," Yggy blushed, "I evolved into a nature elemental after the fusion, and the tower has gone through some changes as well."
"Is it still standing?" Thor asked jokingly
"It's... different. I should just show you."
The massive doors opened fully, letting them pass into a cavern that was the bottom of a massive shaft, in the center of which stood a massive stone building. Asgard Tower, the main base of Nex Loki.
It was a massive column of dark gray concrete standing at about 100 stories tall, with brutalist utilitarian style architecture that resembles an office building. At every tenth floor was a wrap-around veranda that was now covered in dense flora like a hanging garden. The vegetation was the first major difference they noticed, the other change was that its exterior walls were covered in sporadic veins of glittering crystals that crept up the walls in random yet intricate patterns.
"F@£k me," Thor said, her eyes watery,
"it's really here." Fen sniffled
"Asgard."
They walked through the massive entrance into the cavernous open concept atrium, breathing in the familiar air of home.
The first ten floors were designed to be awe-inspiring and intinidating; a large courtyard with balconies ringing each floor, and a giant crystal diarama of planets and stars suspended in the empty space above their heads. Each of those balconies above them led off to one of the many facilities of the visitors wing, but from floor 11 upwards, that was restricted access only.
There were a lot more flora inside, roots and branches sprouting from walls, vines and bushes hanging from ceilings. Despite the new growths, there didn't seem to be any major structural damage.
In the middle of the courtyard was a large gazebo-like structure known as a transfer point. Inside was a pedestal made of bismuth crystals, the same kind of crystals that adorned the gazebo and allowed for fast travel to other transfer points on the other floors.
"What's wrong here?" Fen asked looking around, the atrium and courtyard were barely lit, and there was a notable lack of activity.
"I'm running things at minimal capacity," Yggdrasil said, "to conserve power,"
"But the tower has a limitless supply," Fen argued
"That entire tower went into lockdown when the world ended," Yggdrasil explained, "only the most critical systems are still active, but the rest are all offline. I've only barely been able to restore partial functionality to what I can, but I'm still locked out of most systems."
"Can't you get to the control room?" Loki asked
"I'm already there," Yggdrasil answered, "But I don't have proper authorization."
"I thought you were the tower administrator?" Thor asked
"The system needs to be recalibrate before I can fully take over," Yggdrasil said, "right now, there's very little I can do."
"Do the transfer points still work?" Loki asked
She nodded
They gathered inside the gazebo and Loki placed her hand on the pedestal, which held within a holographic cross-section model of Asgard Tower. Loki set their destination to the control room at the 100th floor, then the crystals glowed, before each of them flickered and vanished in a flash of light.
A second later, they reappeared in an identical gazebo at the top of the tower. They were in an alcove at the back of a large chamber, which appeared like a command center, with several terminals overgrown with vegetation. At the other end of the chamber, was another alcove with a large tree with shimmering crystalline leaves that shifted colors.
In the trunk of the tree, was a woman, her body partially fused to the tree from the waist down, as were her arms, but her head and torso were still visible. Her head is now bowed, and her face was hidden behind her long hair of leaves and vines, that cascaded down past her shoulders. Beneath that, her face was the visage of serenity and peace. She was naked, with engorged breasts and nipples that occasionally dripped what appeard to be liquid gold into a small moat around the base of the tree, flowing through shallow canals leading around the room before gathering into another moat by the walls.
"That's me," Yggdrasil introduced, "Yggdrasil the World Tree."
"Are you... awake in there?" Fen asked waving her hand before the other woman's face.
"I think so," Yggdrasil said, "I'm one with the tower, so my main body has been unresponsive ever since my evolution. I use these dryad golems to actually move around and interact with stuff."
Loki stepped towards Yggdrail's main body, inspecting it. She then flicked one of her nipples, which caused the tree and the whole chamber to shiver.
"Yes, I felt that," Yggdrasil shivered, instinctively covering her proxy body's breasts. "Please don't do that again."
Loki just nodded, and examined the golden liquid that had gotten onto her finger.
"Is that...?" Fen wondered
Loki popped the finger into her mouth and licked it clean
"Yep, it's ambrosia." Loki concluded, smacking her lips, "I'd know that taste anywhere."
"That is both insanely cool, and a bit gross," Thor commented
Ambrosia was the sap of a World Tree, a nectar of concentrated divinity beyond any mortal comprehension. It was a mythical substance, that was said to be the purest form of anima. It was only edible to those of divinity, as they are already trancendent, but if any other lower lifeform tried to ingest it raw, they would be consumed by the raw power and burn from the within.
"I'm guessing this is the reason the tower is still standing, even with a whole World Tree growing through it?" Loki mused
"You noticed?" Yggdrasil said
"Yes, it explains the vegetation along the exterior and interior; it's all one organism, running through all of Asgard Tower."
Loki then walked over to the command throne, a simple thing, set right in the middle of the chamber, facing Yggdrasil.
"After I became one with the tower I realised I could Bifrost the whole tower out of here." Yggdrasil said, "but I don't know anywhere outside of this vault, and the lockdown needs master override to unlock it."
"That is interesting," Loki grinned
Loki took a seat in the throne, feeling herself connect to the control system of the tower. The tower was a part of her, and she was a part of it, Yggdrasil was an interface to facilitate that bond, but she still needed Loki to express the towers true capabilities.
"Nex Loki. Master control authentication, Prime-3. Recognise."
Yggdrail's main body in the tree spoke,
[PRIME-3 AUTHENTICATION RECOGNIZED.] She said, [WELCOME BACK, MASTER NEX LOKI.]
"Override lockdown protocol and return tower to full operation. Recalibrate tower system and authorise Yggdrasil full administrative control."
The lips of Yggdrail's real face curled in a smile as she spoke again.
[RECOGNIZED. LIFTING LOCKDOWN.] She said [FULL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL AUTHORISED. RETURNING TOWER TO FULL OPERATION.]
Asgard was alive once again, they could all feel it, the hum in the air, the slight tremor in the walls. Around them, long dormant systems came back online.
Loki then received the expected notification;
[CONGRATULATIONS! YGGDRASIL THE WORLD TREE HAS JOINED YOUR CLAN!]
[THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE NEW PILLAR OF HEAVEN [ASGARD TOWER] HAS BEEN REUNITED WITH HER MASTER! YOU HAVE LEVELED UP [X20]! THE FULL SUPPORT AND RESOURCES OF ASGARD ARE NOW AT YOUR DISPOSAL!]
"What now?" The Yggdrasil dryad asked
"We get out of here, if that's alright with you?"
"Now that the tower is fully operational, its defenses are back online, including the same sort of dimensional isolation barrier used in the vault." Yggy reported, "there's no risk of existential conflict with the other World Tree out there."
"Good, opening the Bifrost." Loki said, pulling up her map and assigning target coordinates. Even if she just learned of this new function, the activation process was seamlessly provided as soon as the tower came back online.
Outside, the dark grey walls of the massive tower began to thrum as the crystals embeded in the wall started to glow a myriad of colors, warping space around it, then the whole structure flickered and vanished in a flash of light and crack of thunder.
In the heart of Nüjaven, where the vault used to be located, there was a bright flash like a bolt of lightning hitting the ground, followed by the rapid warping of space as suddenly, a hundred story tower now appeared out of nowhere, flickering for a few seconds before it's existence solidified.
The commotion drew the attention of the city lord, who rushed to meet this new development. The last thing she expected was for Nex Loki to step out of the massive entryway.
"Hi. Hope you don't mind me moving in?" She asked innocently.