After this flurry of attacks, the spreading Parasitic Roots seemed to cause an immediate result. The front of the tree immediately split apart, but it did not seem to be because of the roots. Instead this split grew into a large door sized opening and from a dark alcove Count Voctem showed his face once again. He frowned at the sight of the roots and he drew the large scythe out from the center of the tree and swung it against the place the seeds had burrowed into the dark wood. He cleaved off a layer of the black charcoal-like bark along with a red wood the color of blood. The wood that was sliced off contained the seeds of the Parasitic Roots and the scythe cut through the roots.

Removing the seeds didn’t stop the Parasitic Roots from spreading, but the seeds did contain an immense amount of energy. Without this reinforcement of power, the spread of the roots in the black tree slowed to a crawl. On the ground, the chunks of wood sprouted many bright green roots. These hair-thin lines spread out and searched for something to sink into like sea grass swaying with the current. Just like the piece of wood infected by Nightmare Garden poison, these new chunks of wood were thrown far away from the central tree so it wouldn’t be affected further.

Count Voctem lifted his scythe with one hand ran the palm of his other hand along its edge. Then he waved his hand and flung droplets of crimson onto the soil in front of the tree. After his blood stained the ground a soft rumbling sound spread through the area. Then dirt started to spew up from out of the ground like a soil fountain. This strange phenomenon started all over the ground in front of Voctem. The soil started to pile up making tiny hills a few inches tall like an ant hill that had spontaneously started to form. This unusual sight was suddenly broken when one of the small mounds was blasted apart when a hand burst out from the ground. This first hand was followed by many others. Each of the little mounds was only the precursor to what could only be described as zombies digging their way out of their own graves.

Sage didn’t understand the mechanics of this operation. If they were in a coffin that was broken open, wouldn’t the soil sink to fill the open area inside? Why would it rise into small mounds? If there wasn’t a coffin or air cavity down there, where did they push soil to in order to make room for them to move? Wouldn’t they just be pinned there by the weight of the ground? Sage watched this strange show as he was being chased around by the remaining ghosts. They had learned their lesson and were very spread out. This meant he couldn’t kill as many of them with a single attack, but also made it difficult for them to restrict his movement.

The hands soon turned into arms and just as expected rotting corpses crawled their way out of the ground. Their clothing was tattered and rotted, but not as rotten as their skin and flesh. Compared to the gruesome appearance of the ghosts, the zombies were far less mangled and disgusting. They seemed to be more damaged by time and the decomposition of their bodies rather than the terrible ways in which they died.

Sage didn’t act immediately, continuing to move around near the edge of the clearing. He didn’t use the flames of the First Light again, making it seem like it was costly to use. The dark tree also lit up with power again and more glowing seed pods hanging from it split apart to reveal new ghosts. The first wave of ghosts wasn’t equal to the number of pods on the tree and now more of them had split open to reveal another wave. While this was going on, the pods from the first wave dissipated and new growths started to form upon the tree.

The new wave of ghosts didn’t fly towards him this time, instead they floated down towards the zombies that had just climbed out of the ground. Count Voctem raised his hand and his blackish-green energy appeared again, radiating outwards like the glow of a lantern. This dim green light spread over the zombies and ghosts. While bathing in the light, a ghost flew into the body of the zombie nearest to it. The zombie’s body took on the ghost’s glowing aura, but it was now tinted with green light instead of blue like before. Of course, it wasn’t just one ghost and zombie, but all of them. They flew into the bodies of the zombies and empowered them, causing their aura and energy density to multiply.

Count Voctem lowered his hand and the blackish-green energy stopped being emitted by his hand, but the zombies still had a green glow in their eyes. Their lumbering postures suddenly straightened and they looked down at themselves with disgust. They hadn’t acted much, but it seemed they’d immediately gained a spark of intelligence. A few of them were stretching out their rotten bodies while Count Voctem pointed in Sage’s direction.

Without a word, the zombies seemed to receive a command and started to move towards Sage. Unlike the ghosts they didn’t sweep towards him at full speed. Instead they acted like a gang of hooligans slowly preparing an ambush. Some of them walked casually while others spread out and moved a little faster, jogging over to form a loose perimeter. Once they’d formed a sort of semi-circle they all turned to close in on him. There were smiles on their faces, and only some of them were marred by lips hanging from only one side, or splits in their jaw or cheeks that showed their teeth when their mouths weren’t open.

Since this was the same sort of dense formation that the First Light worked so well on before, Sage opened his mouth and gave them a taste. The white flames were so bright and uniform in color that it was hard to make the distinction between them and just a flash of light. The white flame spilled over the zombies and struck more than half of them. He released the flames for a second just like the last time, but this time when the flames faded the horde of enemies wasn’t completely consumed. The zombies that were hit had their clothing burned away and their skin was left burned by the sudden flame, but it hadn’t remained around long enough to fully cremate these zombies. The First Light’s temperature and burning ability were limited after all. For these two qualities they were actually only slightly better than normal mortal flames.

The zombies were only lightly scorched and far from being destroyed or even heavily impaired. Sage was surprised to see this result and quickly came to the conclusion that the zombie’s flesh protected the ‘evil’ spirits within from being hurt by the First Light. It was likely also because the exposure was so brief. The flames of the First Light were being propelled by his Divine Breath, but they were being spread over a wide area and only maintained for a short moment.

Good move.

Then Sage rushed forward and swung a blade on his left arm past one zombie before smashing his bare fist against the chest of another. The first zombie’s arm flew into the air while the second was sent tumbling backwards at high speed, flying off into the distance.

Not quite good enough.