The lines of drug-hazed warriors moved across a spacious tunnel walking deeper into the cave. The roots which covered the dungeon's floor, walls, and ceiling kept on becoming thicker and thicker till they started resembling a Kraken's tentacles; In some places, we had to literally climb over them before being able to continue our march. One didn’t have to be an expert researcher to know that the plant to which these roots belonged to was most likely responsible for all these strange mutations we had been seeing.

As we kept getting closer from the deepest part of the cave an ear-piercing shriek resonated across the tunnel, making us drop on our knees covering heads - even me, despite my obvious lack of aforementioned organs.

[User] is under the effect of [Medium Tier Mind Magic - telepathy Defensive roll - failed to trigger | Skill is not a direct attack on the [User]’s psyche Message incoming

Come.

Let me make your mothers weep.

Weep, as I wept.

Over children that I have lost.

Come. Let me earn your hate. Now, and forever.>

“Just me or did you hear that too? The… voice….” one of the warriors asked, getting off his knees, still massaging his head. “Sapient monster, able to use wide-area mental magic. I think we found the reason for this dungeon’s corruption.” one of the scouts mumbled to himself, but loud enough for everyone around him to hear it. “Mages! What are you doing! The fact we heard it means it can mess with our heads! Raise a warding barrier!” Lieutenant Louis yelled his command. “No need to. It taunted us, warned about its powers. Also, it looks like it holds a rather personal grudge against us, it wants to kill us with its own claws rather than tricking us into killing one another.” Godrick, raising his hand, stopped the mages “... don’t waste your mana. Sapient monsters are a pain in the ass to kill, you will need all the mana you have to cast even the smallest extra spell.” “Sir, with all due respect, if this creature is psionic, it may use other skills whose effects a mage’s barrier could reduce…” “It MAY, Louise. I will tell you what WILL happen if we raise a ward - we will ground several mages and stop them from fighting so for the duration of battle we could be safe from the attack that MIGHT not come. I prefer having them supporting the bombarding squad rather than have them guard for something that might not happen. Especially now, a brain that knows that it might be controlled is naturally more resistant to all external interferences.”

Lieutenant gritted his teeth, clearly dissatisfied with Captain’s decision.

“As you wish, sir.”

After that, we resumed the march, but in a much, much tighter formation. Soldiers were nervously gripping their weapons, breathing heavily with anticipation till we crossed another corridor and entered a huge, round room, a good hundred meters tall and wide.

Almost everything was covered in hundreds of eggs - floor, walls, ceiling, leaving only a few paths across which some other monster must have been using as traveling routes. Even some pillars were erected all over the place, made of bones and flesh, and even those worked as shelves storing countless offsprings of…

It.

In the center of the room, a huge tree was growing, with completely black bark, white leaves, and small purple fruits resembling apples. Around its trunk, a long, reptile's tail was coiled several times, tracking it with our eyes up and up, we eventually were able to see a grotesque figure sitting among the branches like a monarch on a throne. The lower body of a snake, upper becoming more and more humanoid, with a proper torso, arms, neck, and head, but still bestially feral in appearance.

“Naga? Why is one here? What the hell does it have in common with dragons?”

It opened its mouth, showing long, covered in toxin, fangs, before raising its head up and screaming again.

This time, I will not watch idly by, hoping to start anew. Too much blood has been spilled.

I will not forgive. I will not surrender!

This birthing den, for you, shall be a tomb!>

The black tree pulsed, like a being of flesh, flexing one way then another.

Hirsia The Mother - Touched by The Beast

Hirsia was not always a naga. Before, she was but a colossal reptile, a part of the pack and the Highest Mother that lived in the dungeon for decades, hoping to create her own tribe. A tribe that needed to eat. As soon as the dungeon could no longer sate the hunger of her children, they would march out, hunting beyond its borders, alarming humans. Of course, it was but a matter of time before they started attacking human settlements, and so, once its location was learned, the raids started.

Hirsia was forced to see her children dying, dozens of times, over and over again, and so, at some point - back then but a savage monster, suffering one of the greatest pains - hopelessly watching her kids dying, she began… praying.

For years, part of her days were spent alone, in a secluded part of the cave, crying, swearing, and calling to the heavens, hell, and void for someone to let seek her vengeance against the humans. To let her children not end their lives in pointless slaughter when all she and they wanted was to survive...

And then, one day, her prayers were answered.

Another pulse of the tree, its bark twisting, no scientist was needed to tell us that such behavior was more than just abnormal for a tree.

Iv - Sapling of a Black Oak - Idol of Twisted Fertility

Trees have always been a symbol of life and rebirth. Black Oaks are not any different - they indeed are idols of life and improvement. The environment and everything living in it unintentionally seek equilibrium. Plants need herbivores, so they wouldn’t overgrow and suck all the vitality from the ground. Herbivores need predators, so they wouldn’t eat all the plants and leave the land bare. Even predators are controlled by the laws of equilibrium, for if they would eat all their prey, they would soon go extinct.

When the equilibrium is shaken for far too long, out of their cries of suffering the Black Oak grows - a creature of magic, affecting one of the sides to rise in power and suffocate the element which was disturbing the fragile harmony.

Of all the races in the world, only one was growing uncontrollably. Only one was pushing other creatures from their homes. Only one creature dried rivers cut down forests and kept on spreading.

Like a plague. Like a disease.

This Oak grew in answer to the prayers of creatures that nearly went extinct because of them, not being able to fight back the breakers of the equilibrium.

This Oak grew, to get rid of the human race.

Its very existence affects everything born in its domain, choosing them to be vessels carrying its purpose. And its will is: Go forth, grow, and kill. Rip the weeds of the human race. Fight proudly and fight till the end. For even death shall not stop you.

One more shriek forced the tree to pulsate yet another time, yet now, a weird magical pulse traveled from the tree's core down to its roots, resonating across them and traveling towards the eggs.

Like a spiderweb, the eggs first cracked then ruptured all at once. rowing right after hatching into ridiculous sizes and shapes.

These creatures were almost unrecognizable - random mutations had caused them to grow with several limbs or misplaced organs, each creature was unique in its own gruesome way. From two eggs of the same size and patterns that were put next to each other, two completely different individuals popped out. One was slim, long, with gill-like organs in the side of its neck from which acid kept on dripping, burning the ground underneath it, while another one was bulkier, heavy, with scales glistering in a metallic afterglow.

There were more - a beast with long limbs, that from joints down were turned into sickles, its tiny torso was wobbling awkwardly with each imbalanced step. There were creatures with multiple legs that right away started climbing the vertical walls.

Beasts started crawling from all directions and the knights were grouped tightly right next to the cave entrance. Barely in time, together with the rest of the front liners, we managed to raise our shields stopping the first monsters that ran right into us, still oozing with egg fluids and that strange purple substance.

Eventually, a twisted reptile with insectoid wings was born, like some pseudo-wyvern, it flew above our lines landing (or actually crashing) into a group of archers, from behind me a couple of human’s cries could be heard, resonating across the cave, yet eventually dying in a cacophony of roars, shrieks, growls, and snarls.

Despite the fact that we dug our feet in the ground, the still-growing, now colossal beasts kept on pushing us further back with their strikes, denting our shields.

Attacking them back was pointless. Every wound inflicted upon them was regenerating almost instantly as new tissue was overgrowing on the wound in awful tumor-like structures. Their scales were being peeled off by new ones, growing directly underneath… and then, after three or four minutes of fierce battle, the monster would drop. Dead. Starved. Old. Visibly drained. Only to be replaced by a new one, recently hatched.

Then, I saw it.

Its essence, instead of hovering idly over the body, it was being attracted back to the Black Oak.

‘Blinking’ a few times I changed my vision, and now with Life Sense activated I once again gazed at the Tree.

I have no idea how I managed to avoid losing my mind. Despite the fact that in the past few days I didn’t hunger even once. Despite the fact that in past days I was overeating on the essence, in which the dungeon was overflowing, from one gaze I felt as if my insides became painfully hollow again.

This tree was not a physical being. It was life, pure life which took shape to manifest itself in this mortal realm. Gazing deeper and deeper within, I was eventually able to guess the origin of the tree.

But how did it get here?

Another blow, nearly sending me flying, managed to snap me back into reality.

God damn it, Aster! It’s not the time for daydreaming! You will have time to wonder about its origin once it lies dead!... But, how do you kill something that does not even actually exist? For this was the Oak’s nature - it was but a spell. Normally, killing a caster would be enough, but… this spell looked autonomous. At least, at the first glance, it had no actual connection with Hirshia. She doesn’t maintain it, she does not provide it with mana. She just… commands it, every now and then.

Is there a second mage maintaining the spell? No, it doesn’t seem to be the case either.

Something walked past me, brushing against my calf - a new batch of monsters hatched - much, much smaller. As we were occupied with their colossal cousins, we couldn’t stop them from using small gaps between our armors to sneak past. One of such creatures crawled my leg and started on digging its way through my armor, for now, I had to ignore it.

Another blow pushed us back again, spearmen tried their best to keep the monsters away, but, their effectiveness was greatly reduced, as they fought against monsters that didn’t care about the damage that they suffered.

Another blow. And another. And yet another beast, as it was growing older with every second it sensed its death inevitably approaching. Enraged, it would lose itself in berserk-ish rage increasing the pace of its reckless attacks more and more.

And then, I didn’t manage to hold it. As my position was already shaken, another blow completely broke past my guard and pushed me onto the warrior behind me. I saw as a terrifying mixture of some small, corrupted dragon and insect moved closer, raising its deformed limbs ready to tear me apart, but, then, from behind me a beam of magic scorched the monster, melting its scales, skin, and guts.

How do you know that situation in the dungeon is terrible? It’s simple. Usually, the most experienced and skilled fighters do not fight. Why? Because their number is limited, and, in the end, the battle is won by quantity - not quality. That’s how we killed every dragon until now - by throwing more warriors at it than it could kill. Such experienced individuals would rather stay back and coordinate the attacks of the masses - tell them when to attack, when to retreat - coordinating maneuvers of the entire group.

So, when you would see the commanding core - captains, lieutenants, and other officers entering the battle, not just showing off in one on one battles - you could be sure that the situation that was just bad had become truly terrible.

As the monsters’ onslaught was stopped by magic, through our broken ranks these elite fighters walked, taking a stance in the first line.

“LIOOONS!” yelled Godrick, with a powerful voice that echoed across the room “... LET ME HEAR YOUR OATH!”

Ten knights assembled their line, creating a wall of identical, shining shields. Eight mages followed quickly after, smashing their staffs on the ground creating a barrier around the newly formed line.

“IN LIFE - DUTY! IN WAR - VICTORY! IN DEATH - NOBILITY! DUTY AND HONOR!” elites roared across the battlefield. Monsters were, of course, unaffected by the display, but every battled knight of the order hearing the chant once again got up from their knees with fire of passionate resolve once again burning in their chests. You are under the effect of [Commanders Shout - Rally to arms]

Because of the [User]'s [Race], [User] was denied the effects of the skill

“See, Louis? That’s why you don’t bother with mental-resistance barriers without seeing your enemy’s formation.” the later was said rather quietly, as a friendly lecture to his second-in-command. “... KNIGHTS OF THE ORDER! SHIELDS UP, LINE TIGHT! LET’S SHOW CADETS HOW THE REAL WAR SHOULD LOOK LIKE!”

Two quick shouts - an affirmation from the knights.

Beasts once again pounced onward, blinded by rage. They rammed their bodies on the mage’s barrier, just a meter or two away from knights. Scratching, biting and spitting acid all over it, they kept on reducing the barrier's durability.

“KNIGHTS! GET READY!” one more cry from the Godrick, who twisted his head looking at one of the mages, nodding his head.

Two of the mages twisted their staffs, making the barrier vibrate. Holes appeared in two places, letting some monster run past, before closing behind them once again recreating the impenetrable wall.

The beasts that were let in were not ready for a sudden lack of resistance from the barrier, and fell into the holes, right under the knight's feet. Huge, heavy tower shields were raised and lowered again on the creature’s heads, pulverizing them into the dirt. And again, and again.

Without mercy, the restless knight was butchering and breaking the body over and over again, not letting it heal up, till another mage came from behind his back and unleashed a fire spell upon its body, killing it once and for all.

As the monster was dead, both mage and knight returned to their position, waiting for another command from the captain.

Slowly, the barrier was ‘dispersing’ in the most damaged areas, letting beasts in, one after another, before being re-casted anew. Mage’s mana was being depleted, yes, but they still should be able to maintain it for a good few minutes, if not more.

Still, the problem lied not in the monsters, but rather the tree and the Naga, who seeing that we kept on resisting her children, shrieked again, got off the tree, and raised her hands preparing a spell.

Still, I was taken back. Seeing how the knights fluidly moved, without even a second of delay, in perfect harmony, I knew, that they must have followed some sort of pattern that they trained for years, and yet, I couldn’t see it - till the very last moment I didn’t know which one of them would move, and neither did their enemy.

Snapping back, I gazed all over the room looking for a way to help them. The monsters which moved past us were already eradicated, and so the warriors which gave the front line to the elites had ‘nothing to do’ but to let the priest treat their wounds.

“Prepare to neutralize enemy magic!” one of the mages yelled, as the Naga was about to finish its spell “... Spell Rank Four! Water Type! Crystal use authorized!”

And so, the mages brought small shards of mana crystals from behind their belts, and holding them in hand, they started to sing, with each word, the light glowing within crystals seemed to dim a little, losing its power.

Hirshia clasped her hands, summoning water from the air and the ground, making it spin and pulse before unleashing a violent storm in the direction of the knights, just for it to be cut by several beams of hot air sent by the Order’s mages, turning it into steam.

Another wrathful shriek echoed across the corridors. With every monster that was killed, part of the essence would start returning to the tree. The remaining part, much much smaller, would disappear into thin air. It was losing its power but at an awfully slow pace. At this rate, we would need several days before it would run out of power, and I was too far away to reach the essence from the killed beasts. And, guessing by the number of eggs that were yet to be hatched, the dungeon wouldn’t run out of monsters anytime soon.

… But, if the tree was injecting the essence into the living… and it clearly used its roots to spread it… then maybe…

Once again, the whole room was covered in thick branches and roots growing nearly everywhere. Dropping on my knee I laid my palm over one of the roots, and then, I started seeking.

“Alabaster! I consider myself a devotee to the gods as well but it is not the time for prayer!” someone yelled from behind me.

Ignoring him, I ‘channeled’ my consciousness into the root, traveling through it, before reaching the core. The overwhelming essence.

And then, I started absorbing it. Slowly at first, disgusted by the grim, cold, rotten sensation and disgusting cold aftertaste.

You have drained [10] essence from [Iv] You have drained [10] essence from [Iv] You have drained [10] essence from [Iv] You have drained [10] essence from [Iv] You have drained [10] essence from [Iv]

The colossal ‘cloud’ of dark essence didn’t even seem to ‘notice’ the absence of 50 units, that was both good and terrible news for me - one, I could most likely keep on leeching on it, weakening it over time, but, that also indicated the sheer scale of how much power it had, and what sort of threat it possessed.

You have drained [10] essence from [Iv] You have drained [10] essence from [Iv]

I could accelerate the pace of drainage, but, eventually, I decided otherwise. It would be far too risky, seeing how it kept on pumping hundreds of units into each monster it forcefully ‘awoken’ it wouldn’t notice lack of such an amount, still, not knowing how it would react once it would learn that it had “leak”, I preferred to be overly cautious.

You have drained [10] essence from [Iv] You have drained [10] essence from [Iv] You have drained [10] essence from [Iv]

Another group of monsters died and yet another set of eggs burst open revealing a new brood. Again, just before that, the Oak trembled, sending energy through its roots, nearly bursting with power. Just one glance was more than enough to tell that either Hirshia or Tree was getting impatient. Seeing knights of the Order still standing proud, it decided to release even more corrupted beasts, wasting more of its powers.

The ‘corruption’ of new individuals was even more visible. By now, the creatures started to resemble literally anything but reptiles. Here scale, there tail. And that would be all of that remained from their original self, with the rest being covered by plants and organs of animals not even related to huge lizards. The “new generation” was even bigger, faster, and stronger… and was bound to die even faster than their ‘older’ kinsmen. For the first time, I saw the immeasurable powers of the Tree being slightly reduced.

Creatures resumed their attacks on the barrier, and for the first time, the entire structure pulsated and shook, as some of the mages were pushed back.

Shit! In the end, there was no place for safety measures. At this pace, I would only get all of us killed! I dug back in, more than doubling the pace of my drainage.

You have drained [25] essence from [Iv] You have drained [25] essence from [Iv] You have drained [25] essence from [Iv] You have drained [25] essence from [Iv] You have drained [25] essence from [Iv] You have drained [25] essence from [Iv]

A tiny, observable piece of its power perished, sucked via the roots. Good, that’s better. If I had enough time, then maybe I might manage to…

I wasn’t even allowed to gather my thoughts as monsters attacked again. Some of the monsters were let into the barrier… and some managed to get past the hole on their own, ripping its structure apart and getting past before it managed to close.

The knights knew that they couldn’t hold versus such an onslaught for long, and that fighting their usual way they couldn’t keep up with killing monsters before the new ones would manage to find their way in, and so, their perfect formation broke into smaller groups, each challenging the beasts.

A heavily armored knight with a shield would rush head-on, slamming into his opponent's body, keeping it busy, as a spearman would move from the side, trying to pierce the beast’s body from the side, keeping it in check, letting either a duelist freely aim for the head or let a mage burn it down.

Flawless teamwork without any unnecessary movements. The fluidity of their action was awestrucking, the perfection of their unison was like a work of art, with violence being their brush and the battlefield their canvas.

And still, that was not enough. Even despite the monster losing its head, it kept on standing, madly slashing and piercing. With two more ready to take its place.

And warriors… they were naturally getting more and more tired. At the same time, four mages were fighting their own battle, keeping the magic of the single Naga at bay. The Mother-Beast was getting more and more frustrated, reckless, as her spells were being sent one after another with pure savagery, just to be countered by the efforts of House’s wizards. A small pile of used crystals was rising under their feet. It was but a matter of time when they would run out of them. Still, they didn’t seem to care about it, the drugs which they were taking for days made them far more reckless as well, thus their lack of worry regarding the materials that they kept on using.

Mages and warriors of the Silver Lion’s House continue to suffer from a seemingly permanent, everlasting, brutal attack. They were resisting with everything they had, for they knew that if they fell, it wouldn’t be only them to die, but also their brothers and sisters in arms, and later every village and town would fall under the attack from these abominations.

And so, I tapped in again.

You have drained [50] essence from [Iv] You have drained [50] essence from [Iv] You have drained [50] essence from [Iv] You have drained [50] essence from [Iv] You have drained [50] essence from [Iv]

Suddenly, the Black Oak seemed to ‘shiver’ and stop for a moment.

Its consciousness reached out to me, touched me… and shrieked with its entire existence. In terror and disgust.

Of course - no matter how twisted and corrupted, it was still “life” itself. As an undead it viewed me as its perfect opposition. I was everything it hated. That it feared. It was a life living for purpose. I was a hollow shell whose purpose was its life. To it, I was the most horrible parasite, a bottomless pit that was never satisfied no matter how much I swallowed.

Sickened by even ‘touching me’, the Tree ‘withdrew its consciousness’ and cut off any links it had with me - including the roots, which almost instantly withered, shook, and shattered.

About a fifth of the cave - and countless eggs - lost its connection with the Tree as it kept on ‘crawling’ as far away from me as it could, letting out a disturbing command, which forced lots of the creatures back, to protect it.

Seeing large numbers of enemies suddenly being reduced, the knights managed to cut down these beasts that resisted the call, lost in their frenzy.

Naga yelled once again.

Another pulse from the Black Oak.

She looked in our direction, her gaze seemed to pierce through everything that stood in her way, gazing directly at me.

After a moment of hesitation, the beasts once again resumed their attack, but this time, they lacked their ferocity from the last time.

Getting up from the ground, I quickly marched towards Captain Godrick, and as soon as he finished the monster in front of him, I grabbed him by the shoulder.

“This will never end. The tree pumps its essence into the eggs and sucks it back once they die, retrieving almost all of it back. I was leeching on its roots, but it found me. You need to get me closer, either to other roots, though it would cut me off right away, or better yet, to its trunk.”

Captain looked at me, then at the colossal pulsating tree, then at the huge several meters long naga sitting atop it, and finally at the dozens of monsters standing in our way and hundreds of eggs.

“Seems doable. Are you sure?” “This, or you will have to kill each and every monster that will burst out from the eggs for weeks before the essence is all used up!”

A projectile from our ballista flew above our heads, nailing one of the monsters to the cave’s wall. The beast squealed in pain and started wiggling to free itself.

The beast which Godrick just cut down raised again, and before the Captain could react, I moved forward, in front of him, raising my hands in the ‘walking corpse’s direction, swallowing the essence which was steadily escaping its body. It still managed to get up and even attacked me, yet I just sidewalked off its trajectory, pierced its side, and forced it on the ground, continuing my drainage until it eventually stopped moving.

I pulled my sword back and with a quick movement, I splashed the blood off my blade.

Now, standing so much closer to it and not busy with blocking attacks I could have a better “look” at the Tree.

Iv - Sapling of a Black Oak - Idol of twisted fertility Remaining essence: [8273/10 000]

...It’s going to be rather rough. I foresaw the mother of all stomach aches coming up.