The group of ents, led by a fifteen-metre tree monster, finally reached a completely empty clearing. At its centre stood a huge, lush tree that spread across the entire open space. The moment they crossed an invisible line, two green lights ignited near the top of the trunk.
Severus was not particularly concerned and calmly met the gaze of the King of the Ents. These creatures were not aggressive and on the contrary tried to avoid conflict, maintaining strict neutrality. Even if this tree harboured less than kind intentions and suddenly decided to attack, Severus could burn it all down without much difficulty.
"Young man, I have a request for you," a calm, elderly voice said, which mildly surprised Severus.
"A request? Why me specifically?"
"You are the strongest human I have encountered in my seven hundred years, and only you can help us deal with the catastrophe that has befallen us."
"Catastrophe? Could you tell me what the problem is first? And why can you not handle it yourselves?" Severus asked, adding a few more questions.
"An intelligent creature has appeared here. If it entered the forest, I might have a chance to deal with it, but it is too cunning. It sends beasts that command fire, and they constantly set our territory alight," the King of the Ents answered heavily. The others looked sorrowful too. "We cannot leave the forest, except for me. But if I leave, there will be no sufficiently intelligent creature left here to manage this place, and if I die, our kind may go extinct."
Now I understand why they answered simple questions but stayed silent on the more complex ones. I thought they were simply as taciturn as the ents in my old world.
"I understand. But what do I get out of it?"
"I will allow you to come here at any time and take whatever you wish."
"That is certainly an interesting offer, but I must refuse."
"Why?" The King of the Ents sounded genuinely taken aback. Over the centuries, many people had tried to sneak in here, blinded by greed. Even this human had come for herbs, and yet he refused. The fortune he could earn by selling everything here should have tempted him.
"I can buy herbs outside whenever I want, so that does not interest me. But I have a different offer." The corners of Severus's lips lifted. "I will help you if you give me one thing."
"Hmm. And what is that?"
"A Heart."
In the next moment, the earth shook. The tree trembled and began to rise before Severus's eyes. First came massive arms made of roots and smaller branches, then legs.
A few seconds later, a huge humanoid creature nearly forty metres tall stood before him. Earth and pebbles rained from it. Its eyes, glowing a faint green, blazed brighter, and below them a maw appeared, emitting a pale green glow and rimmed with roots.
"How?!" a grim, elderly voice thundered, and with terrifying force the King of the Ents slammed a fist into the ground a metre from Severus, sending out a shockwave that should have flung him off his feet. Severus did not move an inch. He still looked perfectly calm, though Nagini did not. She was breaking into a cold sweat under the magical pressure rolling off the King of the Ents.
"From ancient treatises. So, what do you say? Do you agree? And if the text is correct, you always preserve the Hearts of your ancestors. I am not asking for the very first one, only one that lived at least five hundred years. You have to admit, that is a modest price."
"Watch your tongue, human!"
"Old man, are you threatening me?" Severus's gaze sharpened, and a scorching red aura wrapped around him. At the sight of it, the King of the Ents pulled his hand back immediately. "If I wanted to, I could burn this entire forest down without much effort. Or do you not believe me?"
"I... believe." A trace of fear crept into the giant's voice.
"Good." The aura vanished at once, and a smile returned to Severus's face. "So do you agree? I understand the Heart is precious to your kind. It is memory. But it is useless to you in practice. I will rid you of those wolves and that serpent. And there do not appear to be any other fire creatures around here, unless I am mistaken. Do we have a deal?"
"Let me think," the King of the Ents sighed heavily. Although he had sensed this human's power from the moment Severus entered the forest, the precision of his control over flame still surprised him.
Of course, he feared Severus, but not for himself. He feared for the forest and his kin, because if a battle began, they might not survive, and that he could not permit under any circumstances. Deep down, he wanted to kill Severus even more than he wanted to kill that serpent.
Severus was not particularly bothered by the tree monster's deliberation. He wanted such a precious ingredient as the Heart of the King of the Ents, but if it came to nothing, he would not be devastated.
He needed the Heart to develop his own core, to reach the peak of the Master rank faster and become a true Archmage. Usually they used a Heart at least three times older than the number of years he had named, but for him, who had managed to materialise a core yet remained at the Master rank, that would be too much. The core might not withstand the incoming magic and could simply explode.
Another use for the Heart was an elixir of life capable of extending even an ordinary person's lifespan by a thousand years. Of course, that also depended on the quality of the ingredient itself, and that was the main reason Severus wanted it. After all, even a single Heart could produce up to ten potions.
The reason Severus did not simply take all the Hearts at once was the curse. If anyone tried to steal one, magic would curse them: the Heart itself would rot, and the thief would rot with it, only very slowly, from the inside, and the sensations would be unforgettable. That was another reason ents were called favourites of magic.
Nagini tried to stay completely out of sight beneath the cloak. Even from the Basilisk she had never felt pressure like this, and only the fact that Severus stood beside her kept her calm. Even so, she had no desire to show herself.
Finally, after nearly ten minutes, the King of the Ents fixed his gaze on the human before him.
"All right, I accept your condition."
"Wonderful. Then let us seal it with a contract." A clean sheet appeared in Severus's right hand and a pen in his left. He quickly drafted a standard contract: Severus would deal with the blood wolves and the serpent, and the King of the Ents would voluntarily provide the Heart of one of the past kings, with penalties for either side if they failed to fulfil their obligations. "Take it and channel a little magic into it," Severus said, holding out a simple A4 sheet he had bought in the Muggle world.
The King of the Ents did so with ill grace, and then Severus did the same. As usual, the contract burned up, and the mark of the agreement, a flame symbol, appeared on both of them.
"Then I will handle this today. I never asked: why did it attack you?" Severus put the pen away and asked with genuine curiosity.
"It wants to become the true King of the jungle. My existence is a thorn in its side, so it tries to force us out of our territory and beyond it, where we will be weakened and unable to put up a decent fight," the tree monster answered, anger straining his voice.
"Then why did you relocate right next to the blood wolves?"
"I was deceived. We ents are a peaceful people. We never interfered in the lives of the creatures here. But one day that serpent came to us with more than three dozen blood wolves at its back. It feared our strength." A bitter laugh escaped him. "It offered me a choice: relocate closer to the blood wolves so they could suppress us if we ever rebelled, or war. I believed it, because I worried about my kin who had not yet gained full consciousness, and we moved. At first everything was fine. It left us alone and we lived peacefully, making the new land our own. But after five months the fires began. Then the serpent itself appeared, demanding that several of my brothers and sisters follow it and serve it."
"And you allowed it?"
"Yes. And a few days later I felt them all die at once. Then it came again and demanded more, and I refused." His voice darkened, and a thirst for blood seemed to bleed into it. "Most of all, I regret that I let that bastard go back then. And from that day it began."
"I see. Then show me where its lair is. You can break off a small piece of your root and control it from here, can you not?" Severus kept looking at him without expression. The King's story did not move him. In his previous life he had heard far more tragic ones, and he had no desire to pity such a foolish, wretched creature.
"How do you know about that ability?!"
"It was in the treatise, so I asked. From your reaction, I can tell you can, so let us go. I need to reach the safe zone by evening."
When a small root finally landed in Severus's palm, he turned and headed back the way the ent had brought him.
"Wait," the creature called after him.
"What? I am in a hurry."
"Its lair is in the other direction."
Without a trace of embarrassment, Severus turned around and walked back.
As the King of the Ents had said, the blood wolves really did live nearby, about five kilometres from the forest of tree monsters. They lived on a small slope riddled with holes, wolves constantly entering and exiting. Some lounged at the bottom, basking in the sun, while others watched a fight between two of their kin. At the very top stood one especially large wolf, the size of a small truck, its bright fur covered in orange symbols.
Severus watched it for a moment and nodded to himself. He tried to locate the serpent with magic, but it was not nearby. The strongest presence here was only that wolf at the top.
"Do you know where the serpent is?" Severus asked, glancing at the small root in his hand as he walked calmly toward the blood wolves.
"In the cave, three kilometres from here," the King of the Ents replied in his head.
"Good. I will finish here first, then we will go."
Leaving the forest behind, Severus stepped onto a slope clear of trees and bushes, spotted with soot and scorched patches. At that same moment, the predators' gazes locked onto him. They began to growl, baring sharp fangs, and slowly moved in, surrounding him from all sides.
"Still... I do not like killing animals." Severus raised his palm to chest height, and several wind blades appeared above it.
"GRR! Roaar!" In the next moment, two of the more than five dozen wolves around him leapt.
But while they were still in the air, one blade shot forward. The beasts did not even have time to understand what happened before their heads separated from their bodies, splashing the ground with a bloody fountain. Their bodies landed at Severus's feet, and the wind blade returned to his palm like a boomerang.
"What are you staring at?"
As if on cue, his calm voice snapped them out of their stupor. With a wild roar, they rushed him almost all at once, hatred burning in their eyes at the human who had dared kill their kin.
The corners of Severus's lips lifted, and the blades flew forward again. The slaughter began.
Not a single wolf could get within a metre of him. With every passing second, panic spread through the pack watching the carnage, and even the King of the Ents, seeing it all through the root, could not help feeling fear. From the moment the fight began, Severus had not taken a single step, and the indifference with which he took lives was terrifying. Deep down, the King was glad he had not provoked this monster.
Finally, when the thirtieth headless body dropped to the ground, a stream of flame blasted down from the top of the slope toward Severus. He only raised his hands, stopped it with ease, and dispersed it without any trouble.
At that moment, the pack leader landed in front of him, fixing Severus with a malicious stare. He even caught a spark of intelligence in its eyes, which surprised him. Beasts at this level should not have it, with the exception of ents. A few seconds later, he understood how the serpent had managed to bend the wolves to its will.
"Do you understand me?" Severus asked with a smile, noticing six more behind the leader, a little smaller but marked with the same symbols in their fur. Only those six carried an especially large amount of magic. The rest looked closer to ordinary wolves, just with better physical abilities.
"Grrr."
"How nice that you understand. I have been thinking about getting a dog to guard my territory. What do you think? Want a job? I promise to feed you, walk you, and scratch your belly."
"Grrr." Flame began to leak from the leader's maw, and its gaze sharpened.
"You do not want to? What a pity. Then I will look elsewhere." Severus's smile faded, and a blood-red aura began to surround him. The fur of every wolf stood on end. Almost all of those before him jumped back, and the weakest collapsed at once. Only about a third stayed on their paws, and even then most had lost the will to fight. Not bad. Studying the seven still standing, who even under the fear aura remained ready to fight, Severus smiled again. "And now?" At his voice, the beasts shuddered and retreated a couple more steps. The leader still bared its fangs, but the aggression was gone, leaving only a clumsy attempt to frighten him off.
"You will not kill them?" the King of the Ents asked grimly in his head.
"Since when have ents become so bloodthirsty?"
"Because of them, many of my brothers and sisters died!"
"Hmm. Logical. But they were being manipulated. I can sense it: a weak mental influence on the pack leader, so they are only indirectly guilty." Severus was not lying. The moment he met the leader's gaze, he had noticed foreign magic around the wolf's head, one of the clearest signs of mind magic.
"Why should I believe you, and even if I do, so what?! They still—"
"You are nearly seven hundred years old and you are acting like a child. I will say it once more for the especially sharp-witted: my job is to rid you of them, but the method was not specified in the contract. So stop bothering me, or after them you will all go too. Or have you already forgotten?" After that, the tree monster fell silent. Severus did not speak to him either. He bared his teeth slightly and focused on the wolves, who shuddered and retreated yet another step, the leader's growl growing much quieter. "Time to finish this."
//==============//
"Chapters on Patreon progress: Currently at;
1. Harry Potter: Satan? Nah, Just My Family Crest = CHAPTER 181
2.Marvel: Cosmic Forger of Infinity = CHAPTER 109
3.Harry Potter: Beyond Good and Evil in the Wizarding World = CHAPTER 163
support me on Patreon for instant access to the 60+ advance chapters: patreon.com/redofic"