Lars knew that something had changed when the tendrils attacking him suddenly stopped at a distance, swaying back and forth menacingly but held at bay like dogs on leashes. Though his line of sight of the corrupted treant"s main body was blocked by the sea of dark vines, he noticed it straight away, because the treant released an instinctive soul-attack, las.h.i.+ng out at Lars" soul-sense with a roar."s.h.i.+t! Defend!" Lars" eyes widened – though the corrupted treant"s soul was far weaker than his, he had to protect Luca, lest she be turned into a mindless puppet by the soul-scorching attack.
He formed a spirit s.h.i.+eld around his soul and allowed the soul-strike to disperse around harmlessly. He also took the chance to dash backwards to open up as much distance as he could. Just in time as well, for when it realised that it"s unfocused soul attack was ineffective, the treant released another roar and uprooted itself, forming countless legs with its roots to pursue Lars and Luca.
In contrast to it"s looming size and height that was by now over 50 metres high, the rotting treant moved like a blur, cras.h.i.+ng it"s way through the destroyed remains of Fetch"s city walls and bearing down on Lars.
Despite it being awake, he could feel from the touch of their soul-senses that the creature was… Like a mindless beast or a child… But in this case, the child was in control of a monstrous body and flinging hundreds of dark tendrils of raw power in their direction!
"Come back here!!! I"ll crush you and suck out the sweet blood from your bodies!!!" The corrupted treant chased after the duo relentlessly while growling out sentences that sent chills up Luca"s spine. She held on tight as they weaved their way, turning left and right in the air to avoid the straight-line charges of the treant.
Lars frowned as he shot out wave after wave of a combination of Earth Pulse and Divine Light runes around them. Each time the tendrils. .h.i.t the runes, they would still turn to dust, however, it seemed that the energy required for the runes to counter the tendrils was increasing steadily, almost as if…
"As if the child were maturing in real time… From being unable to use any laws, to gradually grasping the basic laws of distortion… s.h.i.+t… This isn"t going to end well..."
Lars felt his throat tighten as he grasped Luca"s supple waist. He still had more than 70% of his energy in reserve, but he could not identify a path of escape or victory. And what was worse was that the enemy was improving by the second.
Where earlier it would charge headlong blindly after him, allowing Lars to zip off to the side and leave it in the lurch, now the treant began to moderate the speed of it"s charge, allowing it to make quicker adjustments to its path.
"Lars, what are we going to do…?E-everyone"s already… Already dead…" Luca spoke breathlessly as they soared through the air at breakneck speeds. She had thought that she would be protecting the youth, however, she now found herself in complete dependence on the heroic boy"s strength and agility for survival. She could only hang on to him and hope that they found a solution – and quick.
"d.a.m.n! Think, Luca! You need to think! Do you have any backup plans, any artefacts or something?" Lars yelled back as he dodged a hulking tree root that rose up unseen and nearly skewered them both like kebabs.
"T-The Bell of the North Heaven has an escape mechanism, but…"
"But what! Quick!" Lars dropped down out of the air and kicked off the tree bark before shooting back up, narrowly avoiding the treant"s arm that descended where they were just moments ago.
"Ahhh!! But it requires us to stand still and chant for 15… No, I can do it in 10 seconds!" She screamed back, still thinking quick and replying.
"10 seconds! Impossible! Even 2 seconds would be too much! Come on, lady! Don"t you have some powerful tool or secret weapon?!"
Lars exclaimed, pouring forth his powers at maximum capacity. He could sense that the treant was adapting to his movements swiftly, but worse than that, the powers of distortion that he had been unravelling earlier were now powered by the laws of distortion that he did not have the power to challenge with his mere Legend strength…
"Something else… Something… Wait!" It was then that she noticed something.
The homestead was now a web of roots, covered almost completely by tendrils. However, every now and then, she catch sight of a twinkle of fading light.
At first, with how fast they were darting around in evasion, she had thought it to be her mistake. However, the longer she observed, the more certain she was.
"Lars! Over there! The Truthstone… Mother, I mean, Elder Mash"noth is still alive! We need to save her! Maybe she"ll have a solution!"
But before he could act on it, Lars felt the air around him change suddenly. The tendrils ceased moving abruptly, stopping their pursuit. At the same time though, the s.p.a.ce itself was frozen.
The sensation… The *presence* of the corrupted treant had completely changed – changed so abruptly that Lars had barely noticed it before the new consciousness had already locked onto them both.
Locked down in mid-air, the boy and the girl strained with all their might, Lars even las.h.i.+ng out with his soul which did manage to make the consciousness retreat slightly and raise it"s defences. However, the s.p.a.ce remained locked down along with the two occupants who were suspended and helpless.
The treant then approached at a slow, almost leisurely pace, it"s black eyes twinkling and face seeming to smile in delight. Then it spoke with a completely different voice from it"s earlier growling guttural one, a young female voice that was sweet, enchanting and mesmerising.
"I was wondering what had held up my pet for so long. Interesting… I was initially going to punish it for having wasted so much effort... I didn"t expect it to have fished up someone so valuable as the Child of that d.a.m.nable scoundrel Sun…! Aghahaha!" Only, the enchantment of that sweet voice was broken by the grating laugh at the end.
From the smiling treant, a sinister presence descended upon them, one that gave Lars a sense of immenseness, like an ent.i.ty that towered above the heavens and was toying with a pair of goldfish.
"…Semi Divine realm… Even if it"s just the sliver of it"s consciousness, I"m doomed… d.a.m.n it, d.a.m.n it all!!!!!!!!" Every muscle of Lars" body trembled as he screamed in his mind, trying to escape the predator before him. But no matter what he did, he couldn"t even move a strand of hair.
He could only watch as the treant under the control of a Semi Divine conscient raised it"s hand and pointed it"s index finger at him.
"I"m so glad you chose to, *hang around*! Aghahahah! I"ll settle both you lil" rats as well as the other rat hiding with the Truthstone… Do you get it? I"m calling the white cat a rat! Aghahaha!"
Lars winced in pain unintentionally, cringing at the inappropriateness and bad quality of the words the being seemed to regard as humour…
Noticing his change of expression, the treant/ being smiled even wider and drew Lars and Luca towards itself.
"I hope you don"t mind my jokes. You should learn to enjoy them; after all, I"m going to keep you alive for a veeeeery long time with I, Belic Wildwood…"
Then, from that index finger, one dark spine extended towards Lars" chest to pierce his heart.