"It's good to have you back with us. Although, I had hoped you will be able to take care of our little problem. But that doesn't matter" Arnold said, "Either way, it's good that none of you was injured or anything."

"My apologies for not being able to kill the parasite, sir." Talos bowed down in front of Arnold, Bad-Breath followed his lead, after all, he was the one Arnold had trusted to take care of the situation and he failed spectacularly to do so.

"No need for apologies, T. There was nothing more you could have done either way."

"I agree." Devon chimed in.

The four of them had gathered inside Arnold's 'throne' room along with a couple of others. Arnold never wanted to have one of these but Talos insisted on it, and so did the rest of his summons. Even Nicole and Nina suggested there should be such a place on the memorial island which could serve as the administrative centre of his empire. Thus Talos undertook the responsibility of making one such place and he had succeeded in doing so flawlessly. He went all out with the planning and construction of the place and the thing did look grand.

But still, Arnold thought it was nothing but a waste of space because most of the time this place remained closed as Arnold did not enjoy handling the administrative things by himself. He had Talos for all those things, but this time, it was important for them to use this place because delegates from India had arrived with Talos and Bad-Breath.

This just went to show how desperate they were to get rid of the parasitic tree. But for Arnold, their problems were not that important. However, since they were already there, Arnold decided to properly host them... by ignoring them. He was only interested in hearing what his summons had to say and nothing else.

"So you're sure it is an astral parasite?" Arnold had heard what Talos had said in his report, but he also knew if there was something more important than that, then Talos would only tell him in person.

"I'm not so sure whether the parasite belongs to Astral plane or not. But I can confidently say it did not belong to our world. Or at least, it doesn't solely belong to our world."

Arnold had another question but before that, he had to take care of something. He pointed at the Indian delegates who were standing right behind Talos and Bad-Breath, "Would you gentlemen step out for a while?"

"Since this talk may decide the future of our country, it might not-" One of the brown-skinned people started speaking with an arrogant authoritativeness in his voice, but was quickly shot down by Arnold.

"I wasn't asking you whether or not you would like to step out. I was ordering you to get out. I hope I made myself clear this time around?"

Arnold's cold gaze burned a hole through the men. Even Devon couldn't help but shudder until he reminded himself that he was on Arnold's side now. But still... his cold gaze mixed with a tinge of his deadly aura was enough to scare anyone. Even the gods.

A few moments later, a couple of automatons quickly escorted the men out, in a respectful manner. Once the people were out of his sight, did Arnold asked what he wanted to.

"Do you think it is doing of a god or something?"

"I'm not certain but after considering all of the weird things that have happened lately, I wouldn't say it isn't a possibility. It could certainly be the doing of one of the gods."

"You have a sample of the parasite right?" Arnold inquired, "Can I have a look at that?"

Talos wordlessly handed the transparent container to Arnold. Inside it, Arnold could see a small piece of mass that looked like a piece of burned wood. When Talos had the container in his hands, the specimen seemed lifeless, however, as soon as Arnold got the hold of the jar, it started smashing itself against the jar. Probably trying its best to break out of the jar and attack the one holding it.

"Aren't you a lively piece of crap?" Arnold mumbled as he looked inside the jar, "Do you think it could have anything to do with the trees that were found in the swamps before you nuke them?"

"Those trees were alive, but they did not gobble up creature as a whole." Devon replied, "On top of that, those trees did not have to ability to disappear and reappear simultaneously."

"Hm... Let's see what this thing is then."

___

CLASS: Mythic

NAME: World Tree Bark

LEVEL: -

RANK: -

ROLE: Annihilator

AFFINITY/ABILITIES :

• Uproot (active skill)

• Parasitic absorption (active skill)

• Hardening (active skill)

HP: -/- [Please use Probe on the real tree to see the stats]

Damage Resistances:

Condition Immunities: Burn, Frozen

Weak Against: Light affinity based attacks, True damage

THREAT LEVEL: Non-existent [The tree on the other hand is a different matter altogether.]

REMARK: A piece of wood from the world tree. The tree was originally planted in the mortal realm by the gods as a way to connect heaven (The realm of the gods), the Mortal world (the realm of the mortals) and the Underworld (The realm of the demons). However, it was also used as a way to punish the demons as they served as the primary source of nutrition for the tree. But over millenniums, due to negligence of the gods, the demons were successful in ripping the roots off of their realm and now the tree is forced to consume the life force of the moral beings to sustain itself.

___

Arnold closed his eyes before slanting back on his throne. The gods had started to really piss him off now. Whatever wrong happened on earth was a gift of their godly incompetence. All of it might just be a source of entertainment for them, but for the people of the earth, the mood swings of the gods could lead to global extinction. And Arnold was not fond of this idea. They kept toying with them without any consequences, but now it was crossing a limit but Arnold couldn't do anything about them now.

"Fck these gods!"