Chapter 247 – Rocks – World Tree – C4

Lilyth

It took me a moment to regain my bearings after the psychic attack on me, and Ren suddenly ceased.

The first thing I noticed was that the three of us were alone and that there was a large hole in the floor. There was red, orange and purplish-silver light coming out of it at semi-regular intervals.

I wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, but it explained both our friends ditching us and the route they took.

I didn’t blame them. The future batch of gas station restroom toilet paper was regaining strength, and sending it to the woodchipper was the top priority.

The number of flashes from the hole began to intensify, and smoke began to come out of it.

Yeah. We are out of time.

I looked at my friends.

My poor birdie was still lying on the ground whimpering and crying, while Phosi was still out cold.

The tree probably can only really focus on one group of us right now, and it decided that the three of us were a lesser threat. Big mistake. I might be out of mana, allies and my depth, but I am sure as shit not out of options and ideas.

Savri

Between traps, vines, spores and magical attacks, making our way through the corridors of the fifth level was closer to trying to traverse a partisan-occupied jungle than dungeoneering.

Aki and Persephone clearing the way for us with fire attacks added an extra problem - toxic fumes. Normally, the biggest concern would have been carbon monoxide, but the place had non-existent ventilation, so asphyxiation from carbon dioxide was just as likely. There was also the slight problem of whatever toxins the burning of those plants were releasing into our shrinking air supply.

Persephone and Aki were doing their best to put out every fire they could almost immediately, but since they became the primary focus of the tree, their job was difficult enough without side quests. This was especially true for the sorceress due to her being vulnerable to Light magic.

The closer we got to the trunk on that level, the more resistance we encountered, as at some point vines began erupting from among the other foliage and wrapping themselves around our limbs in order to get us to stay in place.

Then the final obstruction came. There was a magical barrier in the entrance leading to our destination.

Persephone was about to begin her attempts to pierce it, but then more vines shot out from hiding in the attempt to capture and distract her. Luckily, she was in her [Ethereal Form], so they passed straight through her body. Still, they were enough of a distraction that she missed another pillar of light forming beneath her body.

I quickly cast my special reinforced [Primaeval Shield] on her, but it was a moment too late, and Persephone still took a nasty hit from the spell.

This took enough of my own attention that I didn’t notice the Light beginning to gather underneath me.

Lilyth

The barrier around the trunk was still active.

That’s why it didn’t consider me a threat. Still…

I reached into my satchel and took out a breaching charge and a bottle of resin.

I wonder…

It took some doing, but since the magical barrier turned solid upon unauthorised objects touching it, I was able to affix multiple breaching charges to it.

Now let’s see if high explosives beat paper, I thought, raised my right hand and snapped the fingers of it.

Savri

‘SAV!’ Deirdee shouted with alarm in her voice, but as she failed to supply the cause of said alarm, it cost me time I didn’t have to spare.

Seeing the Light rise from the Floor, I braced myself for the searing pain, but suddenly, a sound of an explosion came from above us, causing the spell to fizzle out.

Another explosion followed the first one in quick succession. And then another. And another. The cascade of explosions culminated in a truly massive one that caused the entire building to shake and sent out a shockwave powerful enough to send us all flying.

Fuck…

‘Everybody ok…’ I began asking once I gathered myself from the floor and my ears stopped ringing, but I was stopped by the sheer sight of devastation that Lilyth, I had no doubt it was her handiwork, had wrought.

The wide trunk of the Harvester Tree ended in a ragged stump about a metre from the ceiling, or at least where the ceiling used to be a minute before.

‘HOLY SHIT!’ Aki exclaimed in that particular way people who went temporarily deaf usually try to talk.

Judging by her strained breathing, several of her ribs were broken, and there was a bone jutting out of her left arm.

She must be in shock if she can’t feel it. I just hope her neck didn’t suffer too much whiplash.

I knew her poorly healed vertebrae were causing her issues from time to time, mostly headaches, so getting thrown around by explosions wouldn’t help her one bit.

Still, that’s another one out of action. So that’s now a fifty per cent casualty rate with three incapacitated and one potential furry pile of ash.

I was about to begin triage when something began to rumble from the direction of the trunk.

Thanks to all the fires the explosion started, I was able to clearly see how the top part of the tree finally proved to be too much for the floors it was resting on and began to fall.

The Furry Pile of Ash

It was a miracle I could still walk after crashing through a wall, but judging by the fact that everything inside of me hurt, having a broken spine would have given me a painless death, as it stood…

Well… at least all the blood from the ruptured organs is still within my body. That’s where it is supposed to be… right?

I reached into my satchel and looked for a healing potion, but all I found was shards of glass.

I guess being protected from damage while inside a container that’s larger on the inside has its limits.

It was getting hard to think, but I remembered that Phosi and Ren should have had some potions on them, so I began dragging my feet towards them, using the walls for support. Then there was a heavy crash; the floor began to shake and crack, and before I could get away, I felt it give way under me.

Oh…

Savri

This time around we had enough of a warning to take cover before the tree trunk crashed to the floor with enough force to, by the sounds of it, break on to the sixth level.

That did nothing for the structural integrity of the building, and we could hear parts of the third and fourth levels collapsing.

‘We need to get out of here,’ Aki moaned in pain.

Fuck. Her arm.

‘This might hurt,’ I said, and before she could protest, I reset and healed her broken limb.

She looked at me with a mix of hate and confusion.

‘Sorry, I need you to be functional,’ I said. ‘We have a world tree to kill and prisoners to rescue.’

Not waiting for her response, I turned to Caei and Persephone. They both had magical burns on their bodies, and our resident blood mage looked to have a broken wrist, but they were in mostly working condition.

‘Go find the other three and teleport them out of here. Lilyth is the priority, assuming she is still alive. Then come back for us.’

Caeileera

Lilyth was still somehow barely hanging on to life when we found her and, like always, the state she was in would fill every single healer on Dwynveia with despair. Even the [Scan Body] was confused as to “how the fuck she was still alive."

After all, when someone’s internal organs were turned to mush, they were impaled on a piece of rusty rebar, AND they were partially covered in rubble, they should be dead.

Don’t get me wrong, I was happy Lilyth was still alive, but… You know.

My best guess was that it was due to what Ereshkigal did to her.

‘I don’t even know where to start,’ Persephone said with a mix of horror and amazement in her voice.

‘Yep,’ I could only agree. ‘She certainly makes life interesting.’

Savri

There wasn’t much to the tree chamber. Best I could tell, it used to be a massive hydroponic plant that was now completely overtaken by the Harvester plant, its massive roots digging deep into the earth.

Just like on Julbar, the base of the Harvester plant was surrounded by a massive pile of bones, which only enhanced the experience that the aura of pain and hate far more intense than the one I experienced from Aki moments before filling the room provided.

At least, the girl quickly understood why I did what I did. The building was collapsing around us, and every second counted.

The tree, for reasons beyond me, wasn’t as understanding, and I could tell that it wanted us dead, but the little bitch baby was just too weak to follow up on it.

After looking around for a moment, I found what we were looking for. A winged figure with slightly purplish skin lying on the floor, tied up by vines.

‘Dee!’ I commanded. ‘Akster! Go free the angel. I have some weeding to do.’

I summoned my staff and pointed it at the very opinionated flower.

[Rot Bloom]

Deirdee

Despite all the damage the tree did to her, the Angel was still the most stunningly beautiful woman I have ever seen, with light purple skin, silver hair and glowing silver stars and lines visible on her body, with the most prominent being the star clusters on each side of her eyeline.

‘You know,’ Aki muttered, ‘I never expected Angels to be bugs.’

That was true, but not an issue for me. You see, the Angel had a pair of purple fuzzy antennae growing out of her forehead, as well as what could only be described as “moth wings.”

Still, there would be time to thirst after her later.

Right now, we have to ensure there is someone I can try to fuck to begin with.

‘We need to cut through the vines,’ I told Aki the very obvious thing and drew one of my knives.

[Crystal Weapon]

Suddenly, a psychic scream of pain so powerful it caused the building to shake echoed through our minds. Parts of the ceiling began falling around, one of them painfully hitting me on my knife arm, causing me to drop the weapon.

I watched in slow motion as the very sharp blade fell directly towards the Angel’s heart, only for a vine to shoot out from the floor, wrap itself around its hilt and redirect the blade towards me.

What…

The plant’s attack was short-lived, however, as the vine was engulfed in flames from Aki’s [Abyssal Jet].

‘Bad weed!’ she shouted.

I looked for what happened to my blade, but it was now a pile of molten metal on the floor.

I liked that knife…

It was one of the last “souvenirs” I had from my life as a Serrated Blade, so it had this weird sentimental value for me.

I shrugged. There would be time to mourn it later. Right now, there was a hot Angel-in-distress for me to be a Princess Charming for.

Caeileera

Rennie turned out to be in as dire straits as Lilyth, as it looked like part of the ceiling fell down on her when part of the building collapsed.

Even worse, the fire began spreading inside the room, meaning that there was very little time for us to save her and the still unconscious Phosi.

What the fuck did the leafy bastard do to her?

Praying that Persephone, who was presently moving Lilyth outside of the building, would be back soon, I cast the [Floating Disk] beneath Phosi and started digging Rennie out from under the rubble.

Stay strong, my love