As we sprinted toward the heart of the misty valley, a strange phenomenon occurred. The air, which had been thick with the suffocating weight of corrupted mana, suddenly felt lighter and thinner.
"Strange. The corrupted air is getting weaker," Ria exclaimed, her breath hitching as she tried to adjust to the sudden change in atmospheric pressure.
"Yeah, I noticed it too," Sinata added, her eyes darting around. "It's like the forest is holding its breath."
We didn't have time to ponder what was happening. As we rounded the final bend leading to the valley's floor, the path didn't just end but it was instantly erased. Thick, oily strands of wooden wires surged from the undergrowth, weaving together with impossible speed until they formed a wall that blocked the road completely. We skidded to a halt, retreating instinctively.
Kageno didn't wait. He leaped onto a nearby branch, his dual black blades flashing out of their sheaths in a blur of obsidian steel.
"Wo`leze, predis, tranes..."
A voice, like the grinding of ancient stones, rumbled through the clearing. A tall, spectral figure began to manifest from the shadows of the roots. It was a nightmare rendered in white and black; a pale, ivory body marked with spiraling black spots that pulsed like a heartbeat. Using the wiry wooden ropes as a skeleton, it formed solid, steel-like feet that took on a bi-colored skin of ebony and bone.
Before its head could fully manifest, Kageno vanished. He reappeared behind the forming entity, his blades humming as they sliced through the half-formed skull.
"Not a chance," Kageno remarked, landing gracefully.
"What is this thing?" Ria asked, her voice tensed with a rare hint of fear.
"It seems it might be the guardian of this forest," Kael replied.
"No," I said, my voice cutting through the tension. The God-Sage System flickering to life in my vision. "It's a Tree Demon."
<<
[SPECIES: TREE DEMON]
[LEVEL: DISASTER THREAT]
[UNIQUE ABILITY: CAPILLARY PRESSURE SPIKE, NEURAL VINES, POLLEN BURST, CHLOROPHYLL SIPHON, LIGNIN MATRIX]
[SPECIAL ABILITY: WORLD TREE NETWORK]
"Damn it. This is a problem," I muttered.
The wooden wires extended from the demon's torso, grabbing the severed halves of its head and stitching them back together in a grotesque display of regeneration. The creature stood eight feet tall now, its eyes, knots of glowing, jagged woods fixing on us.
"Wo`leze, predis, tranes..." it repeated.
"Anyone get what it's saying?" Ria asked, stepping into a defensive stance.
"It's simply asking who dares trespass in its territory," Sinata replied, her language comprehension skill translating the subsonic vibrations of the wood.
"Regeneration, huh?" Kageno said, a dangerous glint in his eye.
"Let's take it from all sides." I commanded
"Don't dare order me around, Oliver—" The words hadn't even fully left Kageno's mouth when the demon vanished. It didn't move but displaced. It appeared behind Kageno and swung a massive, bark-covered fist.
Kageno instinctively crossed his blades to block, but the impact sounded like a cannon blast. He was sent flying across the clearing, his body bouncing and skidding through the dirt like a stone skipped across a lake. The demon didn't stop. Its shoulders split open like predatory flower heads, releasing a Pollen burst which was a cloud of corrosive spores that lunged toward Kageno's retreating form.
Sinata blurred into motion, her katana slicing the air to create a vacuum that pulled the burst away. "Now!"
We all lunged, a coordinated strike of four Elite Vanguards. But as we entered its range, the Lignin Matrix activated. The wiry ropes erupted in a hyper-dense lattice, vibrating at a frequency that countered our every move.
I tried to find an opening, but a fist caught me in the ribs. I blocked with both arms, but the force pressed through my bones, rattling my muscle fibers and sending me reeling backward.
Ria roared in frustration. She shifted the metal plates on her waist into a long, gleaming steel rod and launched it like a railgun. It hit the demon's chest and... bounced.
"What?!" Ria exclaimed. She didn't let up, shattering the rod into ten flying blades that swarmed the demon from every angle. They sparked off its skin as if hitting diamond.
"You dropped your guard!" Ria yelled.
Suddenly, Kael slammed his hands into the earth. The minerals in the soil liquefied and rose up, encasing the demon's legs and arms in reinforced iron shackles. Ria seized the moment, launching two massive metal spears at its heart, while Sinata appeared in front of it to deliver a final strike.
The demon didn't panic. It dissolved. Its entire body turned into thin strands of wooden ropes, slipping through Kael's metal grip like water through fingers. It manifested behind them, exhaling a cloud of spores that turned the air into a toxic fog.
"Scatter!" Kael shouted, but the beast was already faster.
Kael dropped low, pressing his palms to the earth to read the vibrations, trying to calculate a safe path. But the Lignin Matrix was sentient. As Kael lunged, three wiry ropes bypassed his guard, weaving through his movements like heat-seeking snakes.
"It's reading my intent!" Kael shouted, a wire grazing his cheek and drawing a line of blood. He fell back, barely dodging a flurry of ropes that hammered the ground like jackhammers.
Sinata stepped in, her katana unsheathed. She unleashed a wind-blade gale, a horizontal sweep of compressed air designed to sever anything in its path. But the Matrix liquefied its movement, swaying with the wind to absorb the energy before snapping back like high-tension steel cables.
"My wind... it isn't cutting!" Sinata gasped. Before she could reset, a rope coiled around her ankle, the thorns sinking through her porcelain armor, while another whipped toward her throat.
"Sinata!" Ria screamed. She threw herself forward, her armor glowing with a protective mana-aura as she swung her sword in a vertical arc.
CLANG.
The wood had crystallized into Lignin armor at the point of impact. It was harder than any steel Ria had ever encountered. Sensing a heavy target, the Matrix shifted. The wires began to spin, turning into high-speed drills that slammed into Ria's shield with a shrieking, grinding sound.
Ria was driven back, her boots carving trenches in the soil. The strongest defensive wall of the group was being treated like a toy. The beast wasn't even moving its main body but it was simply thinking, and the Matrix was executing a perfect slaughter.
"It's no use," Sinata gritted her teeth, her katana slipping from her numb fingers as the vines tightened around her. "It's like fighting a thousand assassins at once."
I managed to push myself up. My hands were numb, my vision blurring from the impact of the demon's punch. When I looked back at the clearing, my heart nearly stopped.
The demon had overwhelmed the group. It had used its Neural vines to wrap around their spines, beginning the slow process of injecting its corrupted sap to turn the group into mindless puppets.
"Oliver!" Ria yelled, her voice fading as the pressure crushed her consciousness. "Do something!"
I stood tall, the Nebula heart within me finally reaching the resonance I had been searching for. I took my hand out of my pocket. The air around me began to hum. A low, terrifying sound that made the tree demon's eyes flicker with the first sign of hesitation.
"I told you before," I whispered, my voice echoing with the weight of a dying star. "It's fragile."