Chapter 995 Inescapable Crisis P5: Woodland Poison Treant and Woodland Poison Zombie

The first traces entered throughout Mirelle’s body before seeping into her Soul Space.

Her eyes widened as she felt something intrude upon her very soul. She had never experienced anything like it.

The moment the unfiltered Negative Emotion Essence entered her Soul Space, her consciousness was overwhelmed by a torrent of suffering.

She saw herself drowning in an endless ocean, unable to reach the surface no matter how desperately she struggled.

In the next instant, she found herself trapped in a dark chamber where the walls slowly closed around her. Before she could comprehend what was happening, the scenes changed again.

She experienced terror, grief, helplessness, despair, and rage in rapid succession.

Some of the emotions felt as though they belonged to her. Others seemed to have been taken from countless strangers, each carrying fragments of their suffering.

There was no order to the experience.

No distinction between one emotion and another.

The raw negative emotional essence flooded her consciousness, forcing her to experience countless forms of anguish without giving her the opportunity to process or resist them.

Mirelle’s thoughts became disorganized.

Her memories blurred, and her sense of identity began to slip away beneath the overwhelming tide of foreign emotions. She could no longer distinguish between what she was experiencing and what the essence was forcing her to experience.

Her body stopped moving.

The Spirit Spell she had been preparing dissipated before it could be completed, while her weapon artifact slipped from her fingers.

Mirelle stood frozen in place, her eyes open but devoid of awareness.

The vines continued tightening around her body.

Then something strange began to happen.

Small buds emerged from the places where the thorns and subroots had pierced her skin. They grew rapidly, their delicate petals unfolding across her arms, shoulders, neck, and torso.

Flowers began blooming all over Mirelle’s body.

Some were dark purple, their petals resembling bruised flesh. Others were a deep, sorrowful blue, while a few displayed shades of crimson, black, and pale yellow. Each flower seemed to correspond to a different emotion carried by the essence flowing through her body.

The Flowers of Bitter Emotions had begun to bloom.

Their roots remained embedded in Mirelle’s flesh, drawing nourishment from the Negative Emotion Essence that had entered her Soul Space. As more essence flowed into her being, additional buds appeared, spreading across her body like an unnatural garden.

Mirelle remained motionless. She couldn’t even scream. And all of this happened within a few moments.

Meanwhile, Kanis was still occupied with the formation’s attacks.

His sword flashed repeatedly, cutting apart woodland creatures and severing the roots attempting to entangle him. Rumaal and Anaah were similarly engaged, struggling to prevent the relentless assault from separating them completely.

It took several moments before Kanis noticed that something was wrong.

“Lordess Mirelle?”

He glanced toward the direction where she had last been standing.

His expression changed immediately.

Mirelle was surrounded by blue and purple vines, her body covered in strange flowers. She stood completely motionless, showing no signs of resisting even as the vines continued spreading across her skin.

“Mirelle!”

Rumaal’s voice rang out in alarm.

He immediately tried to move toward his second wife, but a massive woodland bear charged between them. At the same time, thick roots burst from the ground, forcing him to defend himself rather than rush forward blindly.

Anaah’s expression turned pale.

The formation had deliberately exploited their divided attention to attack Mirelle while the others were occupied.

Kanis’s eyes narrowed as he examined the flowers covering her body.

He could sense that something was interfering with her consciousness, but he couldn’t immediately determine what it was. The energy flowing through the blue and purple vines was fundamentally different from ordinary Spirit Essence.

It wasn’t even the strange Intent-based power he had sensed within the formation’s defensive barrier.

Instead, the energy seemed to carry fragments of something intangible.

Fear. Sorrow. Despair.

Kanis suddenly understood.

His gaze shifted toward the woodland barrier surrounding them. Beyond its wooden walls lay the settlements of Emerald Cove Island, where countless mortals and low-level cultivators were still suffering from the devastation.

The formation had not merely used the Demon Tree’s remains to construct another defensive barrier. Instead, it had found another source of power.

The negative emotions generated by the island’s inhabitants were being harvested and channeled into the formation, providing it with the means to sustain itself and launch attacks against its enemies.

The realization made Kanis’s expression turn grim.

‘So that’s what powers this modified formation!’

Despite their mind boggling coordination and exceptional individual might, the woodland creatures and ordinary vines were merely distractions. The formation was using them to keep its opponents occupied while its special blue and purple vines targeted individuals who became isolated.

And unlike a conventional attack, the Negative Emotion Essence didn’t need to overwhelm its target physically. It attacked the mind and soul directly.

The Flowers of Bitter Emotions continued blooming across Mirelle’s body.

Their petals unfolded in shades of blue, purple, crimson, and black, each flower carrying a different trace of the Negative Emotion Essence that had invaded her Soul Space. Fine roots spread beneath her skin, while the strange vines wrapped around her limbs tightened their grip.

Mirelle remained motionless.

Her eyes were still open, but there was no awareness left in them. Her consciousness had been plunged into a seemingly endless stream of suffering, leaving her unable to distinguish reality from the countless negative emotions flooding her mind.

The formation had accomplished its purpose.

Mirelle was no longer capable of defending herself.

Then one of the larger vines moved.

Unlike the ordinary roots that had entangled her, this particular vine resembled a wild serpent. It twisted and writhed through the air, changing directions unpredictably as though guided by an independent consciousness.

Strange pieces of emerald-colored bark protruded from its surface, resembling miniature spheres and short, sharpened swords.

The vine suddenly changed its trajectory.

Before Kanis or Rumaal could react, it swept toward Mirelle’s neck.

SHING!

Her head was severed in a single instant.

The vine continued flying, carrying the momentum of its strike into the surrounding woodland barrier. Mirelle’s headless body remained standing for a brief moment before collapsing to its knees, while her severed head spun through the air.

“MIRELLE!”

Rumaal’s furious roar shook the surrounding forest.

For an instant, he forgot about the formation, the woodland creatures, and even the danger posed by the vines attacking him. His eyes were fixed on his second wife’s falling body, disbelief and rage flashing across his face.

Anaah’s expression turned ashen.

Even Kanis, who had remained composed throughout the battle, was momentarily startled by the sudden turn of events.

But the formation wasn’t finished.

Before Mirelle’s severed head could hit the ground, green vines burst from the exposed base of her neck. They grew at an astonishing speed, twisting together and forming a thick, tangled mass beneath the head.

More roots emerged from the growing structure, extending outward like limbs. The vines coiled around one another, gradually assuming the shape of a humanoid creature.

Within moments, a woodland monster nearly ten feet tall had taken shape.

Its body was composed of intertwined roots, green vines, and pieces of emerald bark. Several branches extended from its back like crooked limbs, while smaller vines dangled from its shoulders and waist. Its hands resembled clusters of twisted roots, each ending in sharp wooden protrusions.

Atop this monstrous body rested Mirelle’s severed head.

The transformation wasn’t complete until her eyes opened again.

They no longer possessed the calmness or composure that had once characterized her. Instead, a strange green light flickered within them, accompanied by an unmistakable hostility.

The creature slowly turned its head toward Kanis and the others.

It stared at them as though they were enemies that needed to be exterminated.

The woodland formation had created a new monster.

A Woodland Poison Treant.

Yet the transformation of Mirelle’s head was only half of the process.

At almost the same moment, her headless body began to twitch.

The Flowers of Bitter Emotions covering its surface withered before dissolving into dark particles. Those particles sank into the flesh, and the surrounding roots immediately began weaving themselves around the corpse.

A thick layer of emerald bark spread across the body’s surface. Vines penetrated its limbs, replacing damaged muscles and reinforcing the bones with woody structures. The corpse jerked violently as its spine twisted into an unnatural shape.

Then something began growing from its neck.

It was not a proper human head.

Instead, a deformed mass of wood, flesh, and tangled roots emerged from the severed stump. Its surface was covered in irregular growths, while several thin vines protruded from its sides like writhing feelers.

Two dull green lights appeared within the malformed structure.

The creature staggered to its feet.

Unlike the Woodland Poison Treant, whose body had been constructed beneath Mirelle’s severed head, this monster retained her headless body as its foundation. Its limbs were unevenly proportioned, and its movements possessed a disturbing stiffness, as though the vines were pulling its joints in different directions.

Nevertheless, it stood upright.

The woodland formation had transformed Mirelle’s corpse into another creature.

A Woodland Poison Zombie.