The much larger group, now also containing Twig’s master and his whole military escort, was just a few dozen meters away from the entrance of the village when they started to notice that something felt… off. The first odd thing was noted by Mira. “Daz? Isn’t there a unusually high amount of birds?” And indeed, Daz had to admit it was strange. “Twig? Are these ravens your minions?”

Twig just shrugged. “No, mine are still busy keeping eyes on the army. Why are you asking?” Daz frowned. “Cause that’s not very common. There are a lot of crows and ravens.” Twig was not sure what his disciple was getting at, but his master finished the thought. “Maybe the village was attacked? Or their hunters brought in a few deer and they fed the innards to the birds? That would be rather unusual though. Marq, go take a few soldiers and check this in advance.”

Teiming did not seem all that concerned, after all the undead army that Twig had summoned for him was trailing a couple hundred meters behind them. After all, what could possibly have attacked the village that about six hundred skeletons could not handle? And apparently there was no immediate danger, as Marquis and his soldiers returned just a few minutes later. “My liege, it appears that the village is… empty. Well, we found a few dead villagers that the crows were feasting on, but other than that there is nothing around.”

Twig sighted. “Oh.” The whole group turned towards him, looking suspicious. Immediately he corrected himself. “I mean, how horrible?” But since nobody bought his attempt at compassion, he revealed his suspicions. “I may have, and this is entirely coincidence if it happened, summoned a tree of darkness. Which I can’t control and I may have… sacrificed hundreds of goblin corpses to in order to make it grow.” While Twig mumbled the last part to himself it made his disciples understand all too clearly.

Daz was the first one to voice his suspicions. “So, we have grown a tree that is now powerful enough to kill the entire village?” Twig nodded and continued the scenario. “And has now grown further by killing them all. Most likely. Maybe.” Teiming raised his eyebrow and asked in rather curious tone: “So… You are telling me that you have summoned something that erased the existence of an entire village? And that it was just coincidence?” Twig flinched as his master spew that last word at him. “Yes.”

“Well, that’s just great. Everyone get ready to fight. We may have to conquer the teleport platform and kill that tree.” Twig however was not so sure about that. “Maybe we can talk to it though? It’s not like a lot of damage was done? Only a few people are… missing?” Teiming realised at this point that Twig was clearly not holding humans in a very high regard. Apparently none at all.

“These were all good people! I have lived here for the last six years and they always treated us well. Even in wartime when we basically took this as our outpost gathering center, they were loyal to Antalia!” The outburst of the unknown soldier was voiced with agreement. Twig could see their point, in all honesty. But he still needed Matah Naht and he would not surrender his chance so easily. “Master, I know it’s not… optimal. But the tree could be a valuable ally…”

Teiming waited for a few seconds to form a final decision. “Fine. We will move out to subdue the tree. We will not kill it yet, I want to see everything first.” The men were not happy to hear this first order. “Understood?”, he added, this time more vigilant to their reaction. Only the earlier speaker grumbled an “okay”, the rest followed the order and readied their weapons. Twig also signaled his disciples to move out.

Moving through the few hundred buildings the village consisted off, made it very clear that something odd had happened. The few corpses that lied around indicated that the men or women killed themselves, often violently with knives or smashing their heads against stones on the ground. That in itself was weird enough already, but what had happened to all the other souls of this place?

Another disturbing image were all the plants in the nearby area. They had lost nearly all their color, reverting to a grey-green and very lifeless sight. Some flowers or plants had also dyed themselves black, creating a eerie and creepy szene. All that was amplified by the obviously dead trees that surrounded the mansion now. Was Matah Naht really capable of all this already? And how was she able to affect the humans in this way?

The answer laid ahead. As soon as the rather large group of humans entered the passageway, which lead from the front side of the mansion towards the protected garden area a few purple lights greeted them. Barely bigger than the palm of a human hand, these lights sped up faster than anything Twig had ever seen. Easily toppling the speed of a falcon descending upon its prey, the lights crashed into the group.

One moment ready to cast a large scale defensive spell against a shiny new opponent, Mira found herself sitting down. Her aunt walked up to her and hugged her briefly before sitting across from her on a dining table. She was as kind looking as ever. “How are you, darling? Is my brother worrying you with all this marriage talk again? Hmph. It would be far too soon anyway... “ Mira shrugged briefly in a “can’t be helped” matter of fact, only triggering her aunt’s anger.

“No. I refuse to leave you alone. Come with me, I have a excellent wedding match organised for you. Far away from my brother and his political schemes.” The woman with the short blond hair waved her to come along and Mira did as she was told. “Come. HE is just beyond that door, right here.” The door then revealed a rather plain but kind of cute young man. He was muscular, kind looking and most importantly… Mira knew him.

“Isn’t he charming?”, her Aunt added, just before leaving her and the boy alone. “Hi.” A smile that just moltened her heart made Mira quiver in anticipation. He was so handsome. It did not help that he was half naked and sweating in the sunlight. Wait, were they in a sunlight flooded garden before? Ah, why bother. Mira just followed the dreamy Daz along a small path, which lead through the garden towards a giant blossoming cherry tree…

Marcella found herself briefly confused. She had the feeling that she came to this particular place with someone else? Maybe even a multitude of people? But it must have been her mind playing tricks on her. Before her a group of people was waiting. Again a wave of nostalgia hit her, for this was impossible.

Her brothers and sisters, which had grown up alongside her. All standing there, right in that pathway. But they had died. Marcella had lost them, she wa quite sure of that. Shaking her head she looked up again, this time seeing the scenery more clearly. The old entry towards the ruined church of Larmen Déin. A beautiful building carved of stone and home to her… family. Crying she stood there briefly, sure that her mind was playing tricks on her.

Then they turned. “Marcy?”, Sheila exclaimed cheerfully as always. “Yo commin?”, added Tarfin, the eighteen year old ruffian. Marcella had to feel them. Touch them. How could she be sure otherwise? How would she ever be certain? No. This was impossible. She stopped after rushing towards the entry. A stone pillar resembling a large oak tree inside towered over her friends. Then Daz stood beside her, handsome, strong and gentle.

His smell briefly washed over her, before she noticed his manhood. He was naked. And quite attractively so. His hand reached out waiting for her to grab it and follow him. “Come…” And Marcella followed him towards the pillar, wanting to feel him on her skin all while confirming her dead friends being alive…

Daz saw his family in danger. Wrath swallowed up inside him, seeing them tortured and beaten under that large oaken tree that grew out in a field. [Dumbass, stop daydreaming.] His dark alter ego scolded him. Huh? Why dreaming? These soldiers clearly hurt his family! He could not possibly- [Wake UP!] A forcewave washed over him, knocking him out of his lucid dream.

A purple light let go of him and dissipated into nothingness. [Good. Go and release your friends. They will die otherwise.] And clearly his dark presence was right. Twig was slowly running after a purple light, much in anticipation of something that lurked in the garden. A few soldiers were clearly feeling each other up, kissing wildly while slowly advancing towards the garden. Even the two girls, which were highly capable of using magic were slowly stumbling forward. What was going on?

[The bitch is using powerful seduction magic. Clearly succubi spirits. They apply to the targets lust.] Daz was confused. How come he was shown something so disturbingly violent? [Yours was a wrath spirit. Go wake them. A slap to the back of their head should rattle them enough. Two if one is not enough.] Quickly Daz sprinted and did as he was told. He was just in time to wake up all off his group, dispelling all the spirits.

“What is going on?”, Teiming exclaimed in confused manner. “Why did you hit me, boy?” Daz quickly summarized the situation before noticing that one soldier had dashed ahead earlier. There was no way to catch up before he reached the garden now… Twig however responded with a show of power. There was just no way he would carelessly run ahead to face his creation. His current mana pool was sitting at 54.294, which allowed him to summon about fifty stone golems. Each of them one meter tall, they followed him as he rushed towards the garden.

Daz followed him with the rest of the group and a truly horrifying scenario unfolded in front of his eyes. Dark, rotten ground, grey and lifeless grass alongside hundreds of goblin skeletons paired with the grotesque ritual writings at a different part of the garden. In those ritual circles a few humans had been stabbed to death, while others had been just pierced by roots that now grew out various openings in their dead bodies.

Towering above all: Matah Naht. The dark tree had grown quite significantly. With at least three meters in height and a far bigger span of her branches, she was at least six times as large. Daz was disturbed. “Master, can I attack it?” He just wanted to end this trees life. It was unnatural and it just could not possibly be allowed to remain alive. After a nod from Teiming and Twig, Daz dashed forward.

A few large roots breached the ground and tried to get a hold of him, but nimbly avoiding them, the soon after placed a powerful punch at the tree trunk. He put all his force behind it and clearly felt the impact resonating in his body, but the bark did not even burst. Not a single scratch remained on it.

Twig noted the force with which Daz had just assaulted the tree. It was beyond anything a normal tree should be able to take. Why wasn’t it working? “Welcome back. Tell the little fly to back off. Or I will take him as my next meal…” Matah Naht. Her voice had become far more terrifying. There was real threat in it, so Twig recalled Daz from his frontal assault. Quickly Twig tried to calm the waves before she took offense.

“He is a little over eager. Apologies.” Matah Naht laughed. “Hahah. As if. What do you want?” Twig briefly considered his options, but telling her the truth was most likely the best outcome. “You attempted to kill us and you clearly have murdered everyone in the village, so we are going to kill you and burn you down. At least that is what my master wants.” The tree immediately brimmed in annoyance. “Bring your little master. I will show him something. Come towards this dead human over here.”

Twig quickly briefed his master and told the others to stand down. “Do you really want to talk to a tree? It killed the whole village. This massacre is proof enough.” He was quite annoyed and just could not see why Twig was insisting on talking. “She can’t run away, it’s not like we can’t end her later.” Continuing the mental conversation, Twig inquired about what she wanted exactly and Matah Naht replied to them both.

“You want to kill me, but listen first. You too, human. I am capable of using blood magic and I can raise the dead to tell the truth. Listen here.” A red mist rose from the ground conjuring a ghostly figure of the disfigured soldier corpse. “Speak true.” The mist bound the spirit and squeezed painfully onto it. “You were planning to betray Antalia?” A whisper was barely enough the describe the voice that answered in front of them. “Yes. We planned to destroy the teleportation zone in order to keep Antalia from attacking us. We were order to do so by our lord. Long life the north~”

Twig shrugged and Teiming looked unimpressed. “Why show us that? Who cares about a small fry claiming something that we already suspected? It’s not new to us that our enemies disable those devices and render out Kingdom immobile. They are quite expensive too. Why bring that up?” Twig also added: “What do you want?”

Matah Naht had a simple answer. “I want to be left alone. I killed everyone in the village because they wanted to kill me and they wanted to destroy that teleportation platform. I was summoned by Twig, he knows I am loyal to him and to the kingdom. I was only protecting it!”

Twig knew that this was clearly a lie. And he knew what the tree wanted. She wanted for him to protect her, even though she went and killed a bunch of humans. Not that he actually cared about something like that, no. He would need her later to possibly heal his soul bind. And she was offering his master an excuse to keep her alive. Twig had a decision to make.

Kill her with her master? Or help her survive by backing her story?