Year 85 Month 1

It was coming. We could feel it in our roots, our trunks, our bodies. Every bit of us, we felt it. As if the earth itself cried out for help, and none of us could do anything. There was a tide out there, in that distance, and it came so quickly.

So, so very quickly.

All at once, the soul realm was flooded with deaths.

Something had spread throughout the continent, and deaths. I could almost feel it, the entirety of Nung burned up and destroyed. Barsoom, gone in a flash. It happened so quickly, as the earth itself rotted and turned into this... demonic thing.

Our extended subsidiary trees felt it first, it’s presence rushing in, and rather quickly, those distant subsidiary trees burned almost instantly in the dark demonic flames. The giant attendant trees too, started to burn, but they are stronger, and they share more of our powers, and so... they never truly burned. Instead, they resembled my past, when I was a small stump, engulfed in a black flame, but not dead.

It spread quickly, and it’s amazing how quickly it did. But we had no time to think about that, because we felt death everywhere, and we felt like pebbles on the beach, watching a tsunami come in.

All we could do, is stand our ground and face it.

“Everyone, the best place now, is to get as near me as possible. Into the woods.” We spoke to the elves and everyone, and they ran as fast as they could.

One-by-one, I lose my link to my faraway trees nearest to the demon king. It’s as if I was playing Stellaris and some unknown extradimensional disaster started swallowing up all my stars. And it happened so quickly.

We had maybe... half and hour at the rate the corruption was expanding. That was our guess. Maybe it would slow down because of the ‘area’ covered increases squared the further the corruption goes, and so the same energy wouldn’t be able to corrupt as ‘many’ places?

And it was coming through the ground.

“Don’t go underground.”

“What?”

“No. The best place now is above ground, and watch for things coming from beneath?”

“What’s even happening?” One of them asked, but Jura’s trained enough that he doesn’t question me all that much.

Batch-by-batch my trees disappear in a flash, but indeed... it was slightly slowing? But not by much. The fires and the corruption burned so quickly, that I hardly got a view of what’s going on. I placed a large ‘wall’ of subsidiary trees and giant attendant trees as it approaches, I wanted to see how they performed. It’s literally like the earth itself was... rotting and burning simultaneously, and the wall held just a short second before it too overwhelmed my trees and burnt them.

“Shit.” There was a whole load of madness and chaos, as some people did as they are told, but some didn’t.

They ran for the woods. I hoped that having a huge number of trees mutually reinforcing the aura would somehow slow it down or stop it alltogether.

I tried again, it was getting much, much closer. The demon’s presence was like a wave, it pushed closer and closer. It’s still not in the valley yet, but maybe... 10 minutes to impact.

“Tell everyone to prepare for fire and and the earth cracking.”

Those who managed to run into the woods did so, and we mentally braced for impact.

The trees lasted longer. They didn’t burn as quickly.

5 minutes.

The trees right outside the valley burned. We could see it coming. A black tide and a sky filled with black flames. It’s coming into contact to my own roots now. And it... didn’t burn much. I pushed my mana into the ground, into my roots to strengthen them, and tried to hold it.

Like a rock in a river, this foul energy attempted to sweep me off, attacking my mana-strengthened roots. At first, I managed to hold on.

New Freeka was still fine, for now.

But the waves kept coming. 20 minutes, the dark energies from somewhere kept up it’s pressure on my roots, and it even spiked and ebbed in waves. We are now like an island in a sea of corruption, and this tide threatened to sink us as well.

The wave was relentless, and gradually, my mana started to wane.

A crack appeared, and with it, a huge crack appeared in New Freeka, and fire shot out of the ground. Some of the houses caught on fire, and some of the citizens died there and then. It was screaming. For many of them, it’s a sudden change, because a while ago it’s still clear skies and a sunny day.

I tried to pull as much mana as I can, hoping to resist it, but the corruption was strong, and constant. Even so far away, another crack appeared, and this time it torched our underground sewers. I think it got a few more people who didn’t listen to instruction, but I didn’t have time to focus.

“TreeTree!” Jura shouted.

“We’re trying to hold it back.” This is our immediate vicinity, and the demon king’s corruption is still so strong? How?

No time to theorize, though. We focused our efforts on stopping the corrupting energy. Feels a bit like a wooden dam that’s cracking.

And more cracks, and another part of New Freeka burns.

Then the corrupting energy surged. It hit the ‘wall’ like a massive wrecking ball, and in an instant, one third of New Freeka was in flames. There was screaming and shouting everywhere.

“TreeTree, what’s going on!”

“Demon king.” That’s all I could answer as I tried to push back at the energy. Why did it surge so quickly? I didn’t even have time to see what happened to all the elves.

The corrupting energy surged again, and more, no, it burned more of New Freeka. People were running, and the edges of my forest were in flames. Demonic flames.

“This isn’t working, TreeTree!”

I felt the demonic corrupting energy surge in again. Do I try to hold back and let it smack into the forest? What worked? Me? Should I do it again, like with Alexis?

But... this energy is the demon king’s very own energy. It’s unmistakable. Can I do it?

“Treetree!” “Aeon!” I hear faint chatter, and we feel the pain coming through the network. So many trees are burning.

So many, many trees. What if? We feel the call for aid from all the trees. Screaming, wailing, if trees could scream we would be deaf.

No.

While we kept up the wall of mana to hold the corruption at bay, we intentionally let some of it in, and using mana, we guided it to... me.

The demonic energies attacked my main body, but unlike the other trees, I can take it. And I kept holding on for an hour... two...

Three...

Four...

And after a while, all I saw was just... darkness. I felt demonic energy and mana, and it burned. My roots, my trunk, I feel... pain.

Pain.

The valley... was sinking. The corruption, taking the form of the demon king’s mana was unable to break through our walls, except at the funnels where the corruption was instead drawn to me. So, it went under, around, and over, and the entirety of the valley started to sink.

I didn’t know how long that was, because the pain from the demon king’s corrupting mana messed with my already distorted sense of time.

I wasn’t even sure I was awake the entire time, in between feeling like I was like a chicken roasted over an open fire.

Pain.

The valley was submerged now, a shell made of distorted, demonic-mana tainted rock now surrounded the valley like an egg with a broken shell right on top, that barely lets some sun in. Or a snowglobe, only... our walls are made of demonic rock.

I didn’t know what happened to the elves, or New Freeka. But I reckon nothing much is left. I felt my soul realm get ‘flooded’ with souls, and at the same time, a whole bunch of other notifications came in.

[Connection to Verdant Volcano lost...]

[Connection to ThreeTree of Mana lost...]

[Connection to Dimitree lost]

Pain. I lost the trees that linked me to the volcano and the magical leyline.

It’s just so painful.

Pain. I feel the mana overwhelm me at times, and my entire main tree is burning. Yet, I know that the other trees in the valley are still somewhat safe. I can hear them.

Black flames danced across my body, my leaves now a mix of green and black.

“TreeTree!”

Who’s that?

“TreeTree!”

I’ve got no ability to respond, but should be one of the elves.

Pain.

It’s just... madness.

The pressure from the demon’s mana increased, and I felt the walls and roots buckle a little. I try to push it back, and relieve the pressure by drawing it more to me. I can barely see, but we are submerged.

It’s as if the entire terrain around us had somehow partly turned into sludge. Or was it because we are resisting, that’s why it turned out that way?

The pressure kept on, and I felt I was burning.

But I think the valley is safe. I know it is.

[Curse : Demonic Mana Contamination]

[You have absorbed too much demonic mana, and you are now ‘cursed’. Your ability to remain conscious is now significantly impaired, and you will feel pain constantly.]

The fuck is that.

The mana pressure surged....

And then stopped.

[Demon King Sabnoc has been slain.]

[You received 6 fragments. You have a total of 74 fragments.]

I felt like I needed less mana to push back against the corruption, but it still overwhelmed me. My entire body is still on fire. It’s like I am the unlimited charcoal of the flame. My entire body is probably charred black now.

The fire of the demon king clearly isn’t just fire. Else I’d be immune to it?

The pain came, and went. And came again.

The demon king’s dead. But I’m still in... pain. And after a while, I felt myself lose consciousness.

One Year Later, Year 86

When I woke up, I noticed the time on my record has changed by a year. I was asleep for a year, and I am still burning. The demon king’s corruption is still around us, and the pain is still there.

In fact, I was jolted awake by the pain.

What’s happening? Is everyone okay? Are my fellow trees alive? I can’t sense a thing, the demonic flames and it’s corruption has numbed all my senses.

Even if I attempted to see, all I feel is... fire.

It’s like I started all over again, so many years ago.

When I had no... senses. It’s just... numb.

I checked my notifications. There’s clearly a lot of it that I’ve missed when I was... asleep.

[Eriz, Brislach, Wahlen, Emile, Belle, and 170 other familiar-users have died. You gained 3 levels. You are now level 145]

[As Eriz is under soul contract, you received an assignable soul. Soul Forge is down]

[Skill learned from Emile’s death - Basic Tea Making]

[Skill learned from Wahlen’s death - Basic Administration and Recordkeeping]

[Skill learned from a fallen Valthorn Initiate - Pain Endurance]

[The skill Hibernate has been significantly upgraded to Regenerating Sleep.]

[The skill Haunted Forests significantly upgraded to a unique Skill : Forest of Ghostfire]

[The skill Natural Mana Overwhelming upgraded.]

“Oh...” I felt a twang of sadness for their death. But then again, that meant Jura, Laufen and Lausanne are still alive?

What’s happening out there? I couldn’t see a thing, even if I could feel like I’m still holding back a barrier of demonic mana, and I’m still drawing the demonic energies from outside.

I could still access my soul realm, at least.

“Eriz?” In the dark, large extradimensional space filled with many little floating lights, this is the place where the dead goes to move on.

A small light floats and approaches. “Oh?”

“What happened?”

“The valley sunk and this black wall appeared and trapped the entire valley. Almost everyone died... I was killed by a stray fire from one of the cracks in the floor.”

“Do you know what else?”

“No... I died quite quickly.”

Ngeh.

I went back to my notifications, there’s still a lot to go through. A year just zoomed by.

There’s a whole bunch of skill seeds and class seeds I received from all the people that died throughout the world. There’s so many skill seeds I could probably give ten thousand people and still have leftovers.

From my soul realm alone there’s.... Perhaps... 800,000 little lights. And there’s probably more that already moved on to their next life.

So many died?

“Trevor? Ivy? Stratreegos? Treeiner? Horns?”

Silence.

[Unable to establish connection to Trevor or Ivy or Stratreegos or Horns. Treeiner has been destroyed. Stratreegos has been destroyed.]

[Treeiner’s remains are pending collection. Do you wish to collect it?]

[Stratreegos’s remains are pending collection. Do you wish to collect it?]

Yes.

[Your skill : Learning Aura significantly upgraded to Genius Aura]

[Your skill : Dream Tutor significantly upgraded to Dream Academy]

[Your skill : Powerlevelling upgraded.]

[You gained a skill : Instant Battlefield Root Tunnels]

That sounds like Trevor, Ivy, and Horns are still alive. That’s good.

And then I felt the pain again.

The surging, surging pain.

Why is it still so strong even when the demon king has fallen? Does his corruption take a mind of it’s own?

I couldn’t resist the pain, and it made me lose consciousness... again.