In a single moment, all throughout the world of Mortis, something changed. It was only for a single moment, a near insignificant period of time, both in the short term and cosmic sense of things, but it was a momentous occasion, nonetheless. With the strike of a fully corrupted battle station, the Great Tree’s over 1300 years of control over all plants, fungi, and base animals in Arcfira was shattered like glass, and what little control it had outside of Arcfira vanished like smoke in a hurricane.

In other words, the battle that had ended so long ago between the giant tree brothers had restarted with a vengeance, and now a new player had stepped into the ongoing war between Darksol and the Arcfiran Confederated Tribes. Well, technically this wasn’t a third player, more like it was actually a force willing to side with Darksol if that meant that Nature, in almost all of its forms, would not be destroyed. After all, the ‘Fallen’ Tree had only that as his main objective, and to achieve that objective he was even willing to sell his soul to Kain if that meant that Nature could survive.

He had seen the concrete jungles of glass and stone and metal that had nearly taken over all of the world that Kain’s Maker was from, and the ‘Fallen’ Tree desired very much to avoid that. And, no matter what your views on Climate Change are in our reality, in the world where Kain’s Maker was from it was not mere fiction, but an unavoidable fact that the Climate was borked beyond any hope of easy repair. Whether or not Kain’s Maker came from an exact copy of our own reality, just with a few minor changes, is something for you, the reader to decide.

Regardless of all of that, there was a new force adding its weight to the war. With it being reawakened and, simultaneously, infused with much more power than it normally would have had, the so-called ‘Fallen’ Tree began to use its strength to undo the chains that bound so much of Arcfira. Faster than even its brother could react, a surge of influence spread out over Arcfira, and in that moment the minds and bodies of countless sentient beings were released from shackles that they didn’t even know were upon them.

As their chains broke, the true ‘souls’ of those who had been bound expressed themselves fully and freely for the first time in untold ages and tens of generations. The souls of the currently living had been taught of the treachery of the Great Tree by the fallen, who had, in turn, taught the next generation, all while their bodies were kept as ignorant slaves. Now, though, the tree-kin and the elves alike seemingly awoke all at once from a horrible nightmare, fully aware of all that their souls had learned from generations that had come and gone before them.

Some, of course, rejected the truth. Perhaps they assumed that this was some foul trick by their enemies, or perhaps even a test by their beloved Great Tree. After all, how could their beloved and magnanimous deity ever be willing to bring such cruelty upon them? It made no sense! When had any supposedly loving and merciful and compassionate God treated their followers, those more devoted to them than any other, as if they were nothing more than property to be ordered around and made to slave away for what they were told was their own good?

As for others…

Well, they were more of the mind to either ‘wait and see’ or to join the side that freed them of their chains in the first place. Instantly and overnight, the Arcfiran Confederate Tribes went from a unified whole to a fractured mess of different groups and ideologies, each intent on carving out their own path towards whatever goals they had. There was a sizable portion that stayed loyal to the bastard that had deceived and chained them for so long, but an equal, if not greater number decided to side with the one that freed them. ‘Fallen’ or not, they owed a debt to that tree, and if there was one thing that the elves, the tree-kin, and the dwarves had in common it was that they paid their debts.

But as for the newly freed animals and plants and fungi? Well, under the overriding will of the Great Tree, they had all done exactly as was demanded of them. Any laws of nature that the Great Tree decided should not be followed were neglected by his pawns, up until now. After all, in Nature, it was nigh impossible to get all of the predator species to not fight each other to the death for territory and resources. Likewise, it was nigh impossible for all of the prey species to not run for the hills when surrounded by other animals that were just now realizing that they were absolutely starving.

As for the plants and fungi? Well, they had been forced by the Great Tree to abide by its will, and as a result, they had lived in harmony with each other. That was, up until the control was broken and they immediately began to act in their natural ways. Vines that were parasitic in nature now were actively trying to drain the life out of the things they were latched to, instead of using the druidic magic of the elves, tree-kin, and the Great Tree itself to keep from starving.

The fungi immediately set to work spreading their spores and doing what fungi do. And the trees? Well, the massive overgrowth had long since starved out any smaller trees from growing. If nothing was done, it would result in a mass dying of extremely ancient trees, leaving the jungle of Arcfira as nothing more than a land of the dead and the dying.

The careful house of cards that the Great Tree had created fell at long last, and not by Kain’s direct hand, but instead by ‘hands’ of the semi-sentient but still mostly unconscious flying fortress that Kain had corrupted during his absolute worst day ever.

Well, at least that idiot Angela XI had served some good, giving Kain yet another Deus ex Machina that had essentially just delivered another near-certain victory straight to his front door.