The ground shook as if it was about to erupt and what followed was the bellow of a creature. The voice of something wailed continuously, seeming to shake the heavens of First.

John jumped in the air to take flight, the ground no longer suitable for footing. The Niera-Leafy hybrid controlled by Leafy followed him as they both climbed to higher altitudes.

There they could see better the happenings below them and what had been the cause of everything.

The dead area that they had been on was splitting apart and rising. It was not desolate land, all of it was a single terrifying creature, a dark treant.

Next to impossible to find, the dark treants could be considered relatives to standard treants like the one John and Niera rode coming here. They were treants corrupted by darkness, absorbing life energy to fuel their powers of darkness. It was their strength and weakness as they would soon absorb the essence of a forest then die themselves as their expenditure for living exceeded their intake.

This particular dark treant was not like others though, it's diet had been comprised of intact world tree energy. That its body was made of such material would mean it could live a very long time without feasting on new forests.

It kept rising, leaving a massive crater within the ground where it had been resting, the signature figure of a wood like humanoid shape coming into view. It was twice as tall as a skyscraper by now and still climbing out.

Just how much world tree essence did this thing absorb?!?

"Leafy, get clear Niera clear, this fight is mine."

"I was already planning on doing so, I do not wish to see innocent victims to perish. But you wish to stay even after seeing it in this form?"

"Hey, didn't I say to have a little faith?"

At this moment Leafy actually did, it was tiny, almost none existent but still... there.

"Don't die John Ryder."

"Just watch little tree and open your eyes to the possibilities of this world."

With these words, John bolted forward while activating arcane energy to its other side. When he attacked John knew the retaliation was going to be huge and didn't want Niera, Leafy or the direction he came from being struck.

So he struck the other side, letting loose a powerful arcane spear that tore into its wooden flesh. The dark treant howled again as it noticed it had taken damage from the direction it sensed the seed.

John had its full attention though it was difficult to say that it was a good thing when comparing the two. An ameba vs a boot was a somewhat accurate way to describe the match up.

Still, John was not backing down even as the dark treant became enraged.

There was an explosion of air as it moved its fist, John couldn't even hear it, just see it as the momentum broke the sound barrier and produced a visible shockwave. Going around it was a bad idea, the turbulence and wind pressure would become an omnidirectional attack of lethal proportions. No, he had to punch through.

It was a bit of a gamble, the dark treant had the ability to regenerate itself, the marks of his previous attacks already gone. Still, it was a good move as John charged up spears and fired them at a single point.

They struck, digging in one after another but also closing at the same time. A moment later his surroundings went dark as only the glow of his spears illuminated the make shift hole.

Not a second to lose, the last spear broke through though it still did damage. The fist made a vacuum behind it and as the air rushed back in, John felt its effects. Vision shaky, air sucking out his limbs, and muscles that felt like they were imploding. It hurt like hell but John was still in it.

Not wanting to take those in succession, he motored into close range. It was a better position but the dark treant still had a means to fight smaller objects that came in close, it was a walking forest after all.

Dead cryptic trees grew rapidly from the body, attacking John on his approach. Firing spears and flying fast he evaded them but in no way would did he do damage to this behemoth with just that. And if he went far the behemoth would use even more powerful long range attacks.

It was a dire situation.

John kept fighting and evading, seemingly with no end in sight. He managed to make some pretty big dents, some even punching through but that was useless against something like this.

In a forest, cut a tree down and it grows one back. Burn it down and in time it returns healthier. Poison it and it may die or it could mutate like this dark treants corrupt existence and further poison other things.

Forests are very hard to kill when seen through their perception of time.

Fly faster, hit harder, it was all John could do to just stay alive. He was going beyond his ability to think and relied on instinct and muscle memory instead.

John flew up to the head and fired some of his spears into the small inverted hills it had for eyes. That pissed it off as a fist approached, shredding its own face to pieces. John didn't take a hit this time though as he dodged the fist, the deadly shockwave being absorbed by its own body.

The head flew hard and clear of their fight, in turn devastating the land it fell on, as if it were a first generation nuclear bomb strike. No mushroom cloud, just pure devastation that spread outwards to flatten or knock down many trees and unfortunate lives that got caught in between.

The treants movements slowed, that and the falling head making John form a single bead of nervous sweat.

Parts of the treant glowed a malicious grey.

John stopped flapping his wings and had them begin glowing before his speed dramatically rose. A white ringed cloud burst out from him as he rose his speed beyond the sound barrier. He was glad he did as those spots released their grey energy in beams that punched right through the rear of his arcane shield. If that attack had been a little more centred, this charade would be over. That it had nearly hit him while in supersonic flight was also cause for consern.

Spiralling his flight, John avoided flying in a straight line and prayed as his surroundings lit up like the Fourth of July. He was still staying closely near its front but in any case knew he couldn't keep this up for long.

The mana he could utilize was formidable but still limited and he was burning through it fast. This many arcane spears, the arcane shield and supersonic flight were skills that required enormous amounts of mana and John could feel it, he had at best another 5 min at this rate and still needed to act a decisive blow. Unfortunately all he could do now was evade.

John dropped more spears into the treant, each doing far more damage then before at his new speed. But it still wasn't enough as the dark treant dealt with them as easily as the ones before, it just kept regenerating.

"Common Icarus, get here." John muttered under his breath.

And if summoned by those very words, her form took shape in his sight. Icarus was glowing white and flying far faster then she had before.

There was no time to think more on the matter and John made his final pass on the treant, blasting anything thick as to give him cover. It gave him the chance to disappear for a moment as the cloud of falling debris was difficult to see through.

Then tearing out of the cloud he made a dash to Icarus who was powering up a monstrously large magic array. It was but moments before he landed and grabbed a specially made spear.

The spear was made of adamantine, a metal with no equal and moreover was shinning in a bright white light. That light came from the number of magic circles overlaid onto its body.

John raised it over his shoulder, preparing to throw, and Icarus activated her array.

Immediately in the front of the ship a number of magic circles began to form, spreading like a virus on nitro. Some parts red, some blue, some yellow they intertwined with one another to form every colour imaginable.

Some parts of the array even stepped it up to become magic spheres increasing the complexity yet more. All of this in the fraction of a second before it blinked out of existence with John's throw.

Nothing, it was the only way to describe it as a gapping hole suddenly appeared in the Treant, it's body immediately crumbling like the pile of dead trees it was. Then behind it or, just as easily, through it, one could see the 'nothing.' For behind the treant there was a stretch of land matching the hole's state in an ever growing cone.

Carved with razor precision, the land had no trees, no dirt, no wildlife or beasts and went on for a hundred miles before the distraction on the ground subsided. The destruction could be seen even further though, as even one of the regular meteors falling over the balmora region far far in the distance had crumbled. Those meteor's fell from one of First's orbital rings and ranged in sizes from a little smaller to a little larger then Earth's moon.

This was the result of John and Icarus' trump card. Unfortunately it was not easily repeated as the metal was nearly mythological when trying to find. One needed the guidance of a god or divine luck to come across even a hint of its existence.

Still, for this great loss he gained something even greater, a world tree seed. It was more then mythological, it simply did not exist. Gods didn't mess with world trees, for all their celestial power and defence, a world tree could still harm a god and with luck, kill them. Why would those egotistical, self-centred pricks of a God take that chance? It wasn't like a world tree, rooted in place never to more, could threaten them.

Moreover, the gods didn't have this kind of attack, it was wide then narrow and long, almost as if had been stepped on.

But this wasn't the time to be guessing these things. That dark treant was not dead. Having feasted on the remains of a world tree, it couldn't be.

At best that attack mimicked the strength of a god's single attack. It would take more then one of those to put this monster down for good and frankly speaking, it was not within John's ability to do. Icarus' 2nd crystal was depleted.

That attack was an extreme use of acceleration magic Icarus could also use to to accelerate herself beyond what her main drive crystal could manage. That's all that attack was, a years worth of magic accelation arrays overlaid within the material by John over a period of time with Icarus giving it a relatively small push at the start.

All this meant now was that Icarus would not be getting away quickly if they found themselves in a pinch, leaving even more reasons to immediately leave.

Leafy-Niera landed on Icarus with an eye wide and another wide and twitching. Behind those eyes were a thousand questions.

"Icarus, resume course with no stops. Get us to the next gate on the double."

"Understood" came a tired reply while she moved on a new course. The Icarus avatar and Icarus ship formed one mind, with one expending such energy the other part would show it.

A little while later, as the dark treant screeched a horrifying and booming nail curling noise, a sign it was ready to fight again, was when Icarus passed through the next gate.

But as he did, he could not of know that he had over looked a second mark identical to the one that had slain the world tree just beyond the gate. It was a sign of something that should not exist in this world had defied reason and come. Though it was obviously no longer here since the size of a primordial dragon was far too large to miss. But that said, it still remained that it had been here at some given time. That those overpowered flying fire breathing lizards which, if released from their god made seal in the spiritual world, could obliterate the world First into fine dust... Had been here.