Despite the cold the trees did not seem to abate. They only grew and changed further and greater as they ascended, their trunks becoming thicker than the dragons themselves. The snow which blanketed the forest floor began to change into a carpet of long interwoven white vines. The snowflakes that flew upon the raging winds became soft white motes of pollen, carried along as the powerful storm served only to spread them far. To spite the cold itself the trees which still held green leaves started to transform, their leaves coiling up and becoming blankets of needles which shielded them from the biting winds of the cold storm.

The great tree itself had become a unique dichotomy of fire and ice. Large red maple leaves adorned the massive branches on one side while slender pale white leaves were formed across the other. It was a unique splendor onto itself which had absorbed the divine energies being thrown at it, making it it's own. Even still it continued growing.

_
Luckily for Hayim his friend was growing fast enough to keep up with the great tree's ascent. He lifted the not-so-little little god high up, his branch reaching far as he approached the sprawling network of massive branches which grew out from the rising top of the great tree's enormous trunk. With as much haste as the tree man could muster he set Hayim upon a branch close enough for him to reach, rescinding his branch the very moment Hayim stepped off lest he be entangled in the twisting growth of the tree's branches.

"Go now." The tree man imparted his words unto him as he retreated from the great tree's encompassing expanse.

"Go and... Free our people... Tame the tree." With that said Hayim was, for the most part, on his own.

Time was of the essence though. The branch which he stood upon was growing further away from the light which each passing second. Pretty much everywhere he could look all that could be seen from his position were vast networks of interlaced wood, fantastical leaves of many colors blanketing the gaps between the branches like a great curtain cast all around him.

In one space directly opposite from the light he could see a small gap in the branches where the world beyond was visible. Through it he could see not the lands below but rather a vast field of clouds. The tree's limbs had reached beyond them now, branches reaching as far as the upper stratosphere. They extended as far as the last vestiges of oxygen could still be had before curving width-wise to expand outwards rather than upwards.

_
What he couldn't see was that this expanse was not limited to the branches alone. The trunk to this great tree was now miles thick and it's roots reached far and wide. The lowest roots now touched upon the surface of the core itself, it's roots starting to grow around it since it was simply incapable of growing into it like it had for a majority of it's other obstacles. Many of the great chunks of earth that hadn't been transformed by the resident energy were either absorbed into the roots or simply broken apart by them if they were too large. Many deep lurking metals and precious gemstones were now entangled by roots, locked in the hard grasp of powerful wood.

The homes of the dwarves felt the shifts in great force as the mountain ranges began to rise, canted by the shifts in the earth brought upon by the massive roots of the great tree. It's canopy cast a shade upon the land which stretched further than even the storms of Drakairos could cover, blanketing the lands in a speckled twilight as anemic sunlight trickled through the gaps in it's leaves.

What the gods present were looking upon was no mere great tree anymore.

It was a world tree.