Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Chapter 375: Figuring Things Out

Diana blinked in confusion as she stared at Quill across the ink lake in the Ashfallen Sectʼs library. Just a second ago, she had witnessed the Silverspire Third Elder explode. Before sheʼd even had a moment to process the manʼs spontaneous death, she had felt an immense tug on her soul and ended up back here on Red Vine Peak. Glancing around, Diana noted that there was nobody else here. She was the only one that had returned.

”Ashlock?” Diana asked the ceiling. When she received no response, she cupped her hands and infused her voice with Qi. ”Ashlock!!!” The ceiling shook slightly, and Quillʼs leaves rustled, yet she still received no response from the spirit tree that lorded over the peak.

Ashlock not responding when heʼs focusing somewhere else is normal, but why am I back here? Something triggered my void shield and activated my Spatial Anchor, yet Ashlock isnʼt checking on me to ask what happened. That means heʼs either busy dealing with whatever broke my shield, or he doesnʼt even know... which is a far worse-case scenario.

Diana began to get worried.

She thought back to Demetrios Skyrend, who Morrigan adamantly declared should be dead. His questions had seemed a little oddly phrased, and how he spoke to the Third Elder before he exploded was too convenient. If Vincent has some way to bring dead people back to life, who is to say he canʼt do the same for me? Iʼve got to get Ashlockʼs attention somehow and let him know Iʼm safely back here. I could try to wake Larry, but Iʼm unsure if even he can get Ashlockʼs attention if heʼs focused elsewhere. Diana bit her lip as she desperately surveyed the room—her eyes landed on Quill. Thatʼs it! The ink tree is the head of Red Vine Peakʼs defenses when Ashlock isnʼt around, and I bet Ashlock wonʼt ignore one of his favorite offspring.

Kaida was naturally aroused from his slumber by her shouting and presence. His annoyed expression faded once he looked at her and gave a happy hiss.

”Sorry, nowʼs not the time for cuddles,” Diana gently pushed the Lindwyrmʼs head away. ”I need Quill to get Ashlockʼs attention—quickly. Itʼs urgent. I need him to know Iʼm fine and here on Red Vine Peak.”

Kaida bowed his head in understanding and poked Quill with his tail. The Lindwyrm and tree seemed to communicate silently with one another, and a second later, the ink tree radiated presence like a beacon. The ink lake rippled out in waves like a calling signal, and a moment later, Diana felt a familiar voice echo through her mind.

”Diana? What the hell are you doing back here? This doesnʼt make any sense...”

”I donʼt know! My void shield broke, and the Spatial Anchor brought me back here.”

”But...” Diana felt Ashlockʼs presence briefly leave her mind before focusing back in again, ”Youʼre there, standing beside Stella right now.”

”What?! Thatʼs not me!” Diana declared adamantly. ”How can I exist in two places at the same time? This is definitely a trick of some kind!”

A portal suddenly tore into existence beside her, and she felt her soul tremble as Ashlock stared at her through a purple rift with his demonic eye. He looked her up and down before the rift snapped closed with a pop.

”Sorry about that, I just had to check itʼs really you before telling Stella to do something crazy—”

”Crazy? Like what...” Diana trailed off as Ashlockʼs presence withdrew from her mind as quickly as it had arrived. ”Curse the nine realms. What is going on?!”

She was now all alone in the stone library again. Except for Kaida, who leaned in and playfully licked her face. ”Kaida, what should I do?”

The Lindwyrm tilted his head to expose the optimal scratching location on his neck.

”Youʼre not helping,” Diana sighed as she obliged and humored the Lindwyrm. ”If I ate another Void Protection fruit and had Quill set me up with a new Spatial Anchor, I could ask Ashlock to portal me over.” Dianaʼs face scrunched up in a frown at the thought of consuming another Void Protection fruit.

It had wiped out a week in the Mystic Realm worth of Qi. While not an amount of Qi she was unwilling to expend, she had no idea of the situation to know if it was worth it or not. After all, it could have been some stray blood from the Third Elder exploding or a Qi-infused wind that took her void shield out. Depending on a void shield was a double-edged sword. It was costly, a one-time use, and anything could trigger it. Not to mention poor Quill, who had to spend his ink Qi to form the Spatial Anchor each time.

Diana tapped her foot with impatience and worry. ”I should have had my Spatial Anchor trigger if my skin got cut or something—no, that wouldnʼt have worked. What if I exploded instantly like the Third Elder? The Spatial Anchor would have transported nothing but pieces back here.

It was a confusing mess. Dead people were back to life. Someone was pretending to be her, and a Star Core Realm Silverspire Elder had perished in such a quick and gruesome way that Diana couldnʼt even begin to make guesses as to how he died.

”Is this Vincent Nightroseʼs power?” Diana bit her lip. ”Maybe itʼs his third affinity or one of his bloodlines?” There was a flash of spatial Qi to her side, followed by Stella appearing. The girl was staring at the floor with a blank expression while holding two daggers that were dripping blood onto the floor.

Kaida reacted immediately, pulling away from Dianaʼs absentminded scratching and hissing at Stella.

”Stella?!” Diana ran over, ”Whatʼs happening in Nightrose City?”

Her best friend tilted her head to look at her, and relief seemed to wash over the girl. ”Phew, you are fine. I just stabbed you—Ash told me to.” Stella enacted the stabbing motion with the two bloodied daggers, ”You were reduced to a pool of blood.”

”So thatʼs what Ashlock meant by making you do something crazy... wait, I turned into blood? Nothing else?”

Stella shook her head, ”Nope, just blood.”

”Must have something to do with Vincent Nightroseʼs blood affinity then. Maybe he can make blood clones of real people? Mhm, that would explain why Demetrios Skyrend is seemingly still alive.” Diana tapped her chin.

”I donʼt even know how my void shield broke,” Stella muttered. She seemed deeply confused, as if her brain had shut down. She was glancing around with a blank stare again.

This narrative has been purloined without the authorʼs approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Diana shook her shoulder, ”Snap out of it and concentrate. Did anything hit you? Did someone explode again like the Third Elder?”

Stella took a deep breath to recalibrate, ”Okay sorry, Iʼm here now. With the Third Elder exploding, having to stab you to death, dying somehow, and now being brought back here, and then my bloodline deactivating all within the span of a few seconds. It was a lot to take in and process.”

”I understand, I was also disorientated for a moment when I was brought back here, but we need to devise a plan.” Diana gave Stella a reassuring smile and patted her again on the shoulder. ”Do you remember anything before you were brought back here? Perhaps the moment your void shield broke?”

Stella fell silent for a moment, her eyes shifting around as she seemed to wrack her brain. ”Hmmm, a pressure? Though it was different from soul pressure.”

”How?”

”I donʼt know... soul pressure radiates from a person, if you know what I mean? If I were to stand over there and unleash soul pressure, you would know exactly where I was and look in my direction.”

Diana nodded.

”But the pressure I felt was more targeted? Concentrated? Like an attack, I guess.”

Diana snapped her fingers as she remembered something. ”Vincent has gravity affinity. That must be what hit our shields. Itʼs a nearly invisible affinity, similar to sound. You will only sense the Qi once it hits you if Vincent is skilled, and for void shields, thatʼs too late, as the moment it hits us and breaks, we are pulled back here. He can expend barely any Qi and get rid of us within a second before we even know what happened.”

”I think youʼre right,” Stella bit her lip. ”Thatʼs bad, isnʼt it? We need those shields, as thereʼs no way we can survive a high-stage Nascent Soul Realm attack without them. Surely he can just crush us like bugs with gravity at a snap of a finger...”

They exchanged a sudden look of realization.

”The Third Elder,” Diana cursed. ”That must be how he exploded so suddenly.”

”Yeah, youʼre right. Thatʼs terrifying,” Stella opened her palm, and a white soul flame flickered to life, ”I wonder if I will ever wield such power.”

”Iʼm sure you will if Vincent doesnʼt kill you first,” Diana sighed. ”Heavens, this fight feels way out of our league. I guess we will have to leave Ashlock to deal with it—” Spatial Qi suddenly tore through the room, and people began to appear one by one. First, it was the Redclaw Grand Elder, followed by his Elders. Douglas followed a few seconds later alongside Sebastian.

”Elaine?” Douglas looked around in a panic. There was another pop of spatial Qi, and a distraught Elaine appeared. ”Mother, no!” She screamed as she reached for empty space.

Stella and Diana exchanged worried expressions before running toward their sect members to ask what happened.

***

Ashlock didnʼt like where this was going.

”Now that the children are gone, how about us old monsters have a talk.”

Demetrios Skyrendʼs body had shifted in a grotesque display and taken on the appearance of Vincent Nightrose. A wave of Qi-infused gravity had wiped out his sect members by triggering their void shields, and now Vincent had Morrigan trapped in a bubble of reversed gravity. She was slowly spinning in the air and looked very grumpy about it.

At the snap of his fingers, Vincent summoned a chair and casually took a seat while staring up at Hades. All that remained of Ashlockʼs mini invasion of Nightrose City were his Nascent Soul Realm Ents and Morrigan, who wasnʼt offering much help as she tried and failed to escape Vincentʼs grasp.

”It would appear quite a lot has occurred during my closed-door cultivation. Not the first time a little revolt like this has been attempted,” he casually gestured to Morrigan and Ashlockʼs Ents, ”But I havenʼt had to get this serious in a long time. So why donʼt we have a chat?”

Ashlock remained silent, as did Morrigan.

”Look,” Vincent pinched the bridge of his nose and seemed frustrated, ”People like us are at the peak of this realm. The Qi is thin; cultivating is a long and tedious process for us. Fighting each other is pointless.”

Morrigan laughed, ”Maybe for you.”

”You may be unable to ascend to the Nascent Soul Realm, but void Qi is still hard to cultivate, is it not?” Vincent retorted, ”What about you, newcomer? Ashfallen Sect, was it? Are you the All-Seeing Eye?”

Ashlock had no reason to answer his questions. Information was worth its weight in gold, and while his sect members were gone, he still held the advantage. It was technically three Nascent Soul Realms against one right now, and for Ashlock, Qi was hardly a resource worth preserving. He didnʼt mind pitting his vast Qi pool against Vincentʼs any day to see who would run out first.

”Vincent is only acting reasonably as heʼs in the dark. Antagonizing me right now while heʼs on the back foot wouldnʼt be smart, and I hate to admit it, but thereʼs a reason this tyrant has lived for so long. Iʼm not entirely sure how heʼs doing it, but he seems to be using clones made of blood to talk with me, similar to my Ents. So, neither of us are actually here in person right now. Rather, we are using proxies.”

Ashlock couldnʼt tell if that was cowardly or smart, but he didnʼt care. Right now, there was an invisible information war occurring between them, and he held the advantage. This was made all the more apparent by Vincentʼs assumption that he was some old monster despite barely being a decade old.

Vincent didnʼt know who he was, his affinities, capabilities, or goals. A lot could be uncovered about a person if one knew their end goal. If Ashlock was willing to negotiate a peace treaty for a piece of land, then that meant that land had something of interest—perhaps a rift or a Qi-dense area for a certain affinity. Call him paranoid, but he refused to play Vincentʼs games. While he did hold the advantage, there was plenty about Vincent that was still a mystery.

”I know you can talk,” Vincent frowned as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. ”Donʼt go quiet on me now. You were quite eager to talk while pulverizing my poor guardians. Those were my spawn, you know? Here I am, willing to work this out amicably despite that.”

Ashlock continued to simply have Hades looming overhead, staring down at Vincent. ”I wonder how long he can keep this act up for,” Ashlock mused. ”I really wish I could open a portal and look at this blood clone with my Evil Eye to uncover how it works, but thatʼs far too risky. If the real Vincent shot through my portal and arrived before my trunk, thereʼs a chance he can kill me and everyone else on the peak who are now without a void shield to save them. I must keep Vincent at range, fighting him here would be my best bet.”

Vincent clicked his tongue and stood up. ”I guess we will have to do this the hard way.” He strode over to where Morrigan floated, and as if he were cupping the bottom of an invisible bubble around Morrigan, he clenched his fingers, and she screamed. Void Qi wreathed her body as she desperately tried to fight against the crushing pressure, but a realm of difference was nearly impossible to overcome.

The noble cultivators from the other families slowly stepped back, eager to get themselves away from Vincentʼs torture.

Ashlock had no idea why her Spatial Anchor wasnʼt activating. Morrigan hadnʼt taken a void protection fruit as there was no point since she already had access to void Qi, so having the fruit consume a lot of her Qi to create the void shield didnʼt make sense. Instead, the Spatial Anchor had been linked to the breaking of bones. Now, Ashlock was no doctor, but Morrigan had likely broken all of her bones as her body collapsed to fit a third of the space. It also didnʼt make sense that Morrigan wasnʼt using Void Step to escape.

”Did you think I didnʼt notice the neat little spatial technique the others had?” Vincent looked over his shoulder at Hades with a light smirk, ”I could have trapped them here and done this to all of them, but I let them go. How reasonable of me, right? Trust me, there are many nasty rumors around me, but I can be quite easy to work with.”

Ashlock didnʼt believe the man for a single moment, but Morrigan was in trouble. A part of him wanted to let Vincent kill her. As an origin, she wouldnʼt truly die, and he had been looking for a way to get rid of her for a while. But if Vincent was the one to do it, then it was a win-win. He would see more of his power, and Morrigan wouldnʼt be a problem.

That would be the logical thing. To let Morrigan die.

Ashlock sighed as he quietly opened a portal far away from the castle and beckoned Larry through. His guardian turned into a vaguely spider-shaped ash cloud and soared toward them through the sky.

He hadnʼt come here to watch his sect memberʼs mother be tortured and killed. No, he had come here to kill a man, and that is precisely what he was going to do.