LU 115 - Space 23

I found some guy admiring the buildings at spawn, so I went to join him. We got talking about or names and who we are and whatnot, but somewhere along the way this guy brought up the trees; this peaked my interest, so I asked a bit more about how he knew them. Turns out he not only has connections to Illios and Edelle, but was also somehow around during the pre-sword era of my life. He also explained how he passes out near the trees, which intrigued me. 
After some persuasion, this guy (Nat) decided to help me find out how he's special and possibly get rid of the trees. Then I asked if he knew where the two were and if I could see them, and he did know so we went to their hotel room. Edelle wasn't terribly happy to see me, but I didn't care anymore. I began asking about the tree by confirming my suspicions from yesterday, and sure enough I was right; Illios did defeat zinnia and stored them in her mind. I asked how they did it, and apparently they did it by playing the same games I did all those years ago. I didn't wanna risk my only like for a second time that way, so I offered to join this group they've got going. Edelle took me on, and I left Edelle to her thoughts. 
I talked with Nat for a bit, and pitched my theory that he enters the dream reality (where Illios goes) when he gets near a tree; he liked that idea, and was willing to help me figure that out. In the meantime, I wanna go see Illios. However, my luck sucks and I couldn't find her. So, I went off to go do that interview I've been putting off. I found vice, and went over to the reporter's place. Ribbun seemed happy to see us, and welcomed us into their talking room. Once settled in, they started asking us questions like where Vice has been and what plans we have for the future. I explained how Vice was kidnapped and held there, but Vice yet again went on about how he was just on a vacation. After some fighting, we reluctantly moved on to other topics regarding the town and our situations.
However, all this talking made me zone out and due to how active I've been lately, I fell asleep. When I woke back up, vice was gone and Ribbuns was packing up. I stopped the kid, and asked to continue the interview. Ribbuns sat back down, and we talked about how vice definitely has Stockholm syndrome and how delusional he's being. We also talked about people's opinions on me and vice, and I dismissed every rumor with a viable alibi and some truth. After some more questioning, I made sure that Ribbuns sent me the report before posting it. Then I made my way back to vice, who was just coming back from "getting things at his house". I knew that was horse shit, but I moved on.
Before letting him go, I saw someone on the ledge of a roof and asked Vice to help me with them. Turns out this girl wasn't going to [Redacted] like we thought, but was instead looking out for criminals. She explained how she was hunting criminals and how she was a descendant of some god eye lineage, and actually fought with us because we were trying to legally help this girl fight crime. After some mindless banter, I gave up and decided to mask this kid's murders by saying it was just the police doing their jobs. I got her name, Malice, and walked off with Vice. He seemed impatient to leave, so I let him run off.
When I went to go sit down and process everything Edelle told me, something kept bugging me: why are the tree people doing all of this? I couldn't shake the question, and knew that neither Illios nor Edelle could answer me. So, I reluctantly made my way back to Morpheus, who was pissed that I was back. I explained in a panic that I wasn't here with anything or anyone, so he had no reason to be so aggressive. He allowed me to stay, so I asked away. Morpheus explained that like the shard, these trees were a by-product of the war between the gods. Due to this, the tree deities were dead-set on getting revenge and proving some twisted point. I asked how they expected to contact the gods, and she said that they were gonna kill enough people and create enough dimension portals (the void blobs) to get their attention. I asked what they'd do once they've proven their point, and she said that they'd reform the world in their image. I tried to say that there were only about 4 gods left (minus Amathis), but she didn't seem deterred at all. After some more boring history lessons and fruitless banter, I wished Morpheus well and walked off, saying that I might (probably will) return. Since I tried to use my words and reason with a tree, they can't be mad when I kill them all off once I figure out how. All I've got to do to complete this puzzle is to go talk with Illios. I'm so close to cracking this case, I can feel it.