Chapter 1500: Through The Hole

Four pairs of Dragon wings unfolded behind their backs in a burst of shimmering Magic. The instant those majestic wings appeared, the four Dragonborn stopped concealing their presence.

Their overwhelming aura erupted across the forest like an invisible tidal wave. The countless creatures lurking within the shadows immediately froze.

From behind tangled vines, beneath twisted roots, and among the moving branches, hundreds of crimson eyes widened in fear. Their instincts screamed the same warning that these four were something far worse than them.

The corrupted plants reacted as well. Thick vines that had been creeping toward the Dragonborn suddenly recoiled. Carnivorous flowers folded their petals shut while enormous roots buried themselves beneath the earth. Every living thing recognized the enormous difference in power.

But just instinct could not completely suppress the corruption driving them. They hesitated, they feared, but they still hungered for their blood. Sooner or later, they would attack the moment an opportunity presented itself.

"Let’s go," Erend said.

With a single powerful beat of their wings, the four Dragonborn launched themselves into the air.

The ground beneath them shattered from the force of their takeoff as they accelerated toward the narrow opening Sylven had discovered.

And the forest reacted instantly. Thousands of vines burst from the darkened earth.

An entire group of trees bent and swung their branches toward the Dragonborn. Thorn roots erupted beneath them, giant flowers spat torrents of corrosive liquid into the sky.

The entire forest attacked at the same time. No ordinary human could have survived attacks like that. The attacks came from every direction simultaneously, leaving virtually no path of escape.

But the Dragonborn were anything but ordinary. Their speed far surpassed anything the living forest could follow.

They slipped between grasping branches, exploding vines, and darted through the narrowest openings with effortless precision.

The hidden passage rapidly grew closer. Without slowing down, Eccar shot through the opening first. Aesa followed immediately behind him. Sylven came third, and Erend entered last, sweeping one wing backward to deflect a gigantic thorned vine before disappearing through the gap.

—

They emerged into another section of the corrupted forest. All four of them slowed to a hover.

The scenery before them looked even more alien than the forest they had just crossed.

The sky had darkened until it resembled perpetual twilight. Strange emerald and crimson lights flickered high above the canopy instead of sunlight.

The vegetation had become unimaginably dense now. Trees towered hundreds of meters into the air, their blackened trunks twisting. Many of them actually moved, slowly dragging colossal roots across the ground as though searching for prey.

Entire groves shifted positions. Massive branches intertwined overhead to create an endless living ceiling.

The region stretched beyond the horizon in every direction. It didn’t feel like a forest and more like another country made of an ocean of living vegetation.

The air also had changed. They carried immense concentration of corrupted Magic. It was so dense that the surrounding atmosphere shimmered faintly with a darkened color variety of Magic energy.

Boom!

Something enormous crashed through the canopy. It was a massive ape-like creature that burst into the air.

It possessed the muscular frame of a gorilla standing nearly six meters tall. Big black wings sprouted from its shoulders, allowing it to soar effortlessly through the forest. Its black fur seemed to absorb the dim light around it. There was a streak of white covering the top of its head.

A deafening roar echoed across the forest. And more answered from all directions.

Within seconds, nearly fifty winged apes erupted from every direction. They attacked together at the same time.

The Dragonborn didn’t bother to exchange a single word. They just moved instinctively.

Erend became a crimson blur, crashing straight through the first ape with a lightning-covered punch that detonated its chest.

Eccar swung his arm, raising towering stone pillars that impaled several charging monsters before hurling them into the sky.

Aesa flashed across the battlefield into a streak of pale blue light. Spears of ice pierced one monster after another with flawless precision, freezing their bodies before shattering them apart.

Sylven raised both hands, gigantic vines erupted from beneath the forest floor, coiling around entire groups of winged apes before crushing them with terrifying force.

The battle lasted barely a minute. When silence returned, broken bodies littered the forest floor. The monsters had been wiped out completely.

Sylven looked around before speaking. "I need to talk to a tree again."

Erend glanced toward the surrounding forest. The enormous black trees continued moving slowly across the landscape, their roots crawling over the earth.

"Are you sure they’ll even talk to you?" he asked. "These trees indeed looked more alive than the others. But are you certain they want to talk?"

"Yes." Sylven answered without hesitation. "I just need to find the oldest one. The biggest tree always remembers the most."

His confidence left little room for doubt.

Erend nodded. "Alright. Then let’s find it."

The four Dragonborn resumed their journey.

The deeper they ventured into the moving forest, the more resistance they encountered. Every few minutes another wave of monsters attacked. Some resembled giant insects or looked like reptiles or enormous carnivorous birds.

Living plants joined the assaults as well of course. Huge vines attempted to crush them and mobile trees swung entire trunks like clubs.

None of it slowed them for long, though. Every battle ended with another trail of corpses left behind as they pressed relentlessly toward the forest’s heart.

Eventually, they found it. Even from several meters away, the ancient tree dominated the horizon. It dwarfed every other tree surrounding it.

Its trunk alone measured nearly fifty meters across, resembling the wall of an enormous fortress.

The bark had turned completely black, as though countless ages of scorching fire had permanently burned its surface.

But despite its charred appearance, countless branches stretched toward the dark sky, supporting an immense canopy of living leaves.

The tree still lived. It had simply become saturated with the corrupted Magic permeating this land.

Erend stopped beneath its colossal shadow. He looked toward Sylven.

"That’s your tree. We’ll cover you."

Sylven nodded. Without another word, he flew toward the immense trunk.

He remained cautious throughout his approach.

Given how alive the surrounding forest had become, there was every possibility this ancient tree would attack the moment he came close.

But it didn’t. The colossal tree was just perfectly still. It neither welcomed nor rejected him. It simply watched him.

Sylven slowly reached out and placed his palm against the rough black bark. The instant his Magic flowed into the ancient tree... The stories began.

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