Tree Monarch - Chapter 3

The Poll results -

1. The inner representation of his power? - 0 votes (get bent!)

2. An empty space that he can model to his heart's content - 4 votes

3. His soul. Understanding it better would unlock ENERGY MANIPULATION for him. - 12 votes

Winner - His soul. Understanding it better would unlock ENERGY MANIPULATION for him. - 12 votes

Disclaimer - I don’t own Marvel or any of its characters. The Mighty Mouse does and I hope it is not standing behind me with a shotgun cocked and ready to blow my brains out the second I have the audacity to press PUBLI——

Point Nemo, South Pacific Ocean, Earth 

–Caden–

Within the first few moments of his arrival in this place, he realised two things. One was that he was standing on some sort of glass, underneath which yellow balls of light were being transported somewhere, and two, he could look as far as his vision went and yet, find no end.

“Well, I did want mental stimulation," He muttered to himself as he began walking in the direction of the yellow balls. He noticed that each and every piece of yellow light was heading in the same direction, which did not mean much since he could not see anything different in any direction but hey! It was much better than roaming around endlessly, without any landmarks to mark his progress.

During his walk there, he wondered what he would find in this place. Since it was his soul, it would be awesome if he could somehow find a way to get some new powers, since becoming someone with the name Tree Monarch must mean that he would get new powers.

He was certain that he was not destined to just grow his roots, absorb energy and do an upgrade once in a while that increased his size. There had to be something more than that. He just had to find out what.

So, he walked.

At first, he thought, since it was his soul, he could just will himself forward, or shorten the distance so that he could take a single step and end up a dozen steps forward. Alas, he was not as much as the master of this place as he would have liked himself to be. After walking for what felt like eternity, once more—thank god for never ending stamina in this place—he grew bored and just sat his ass on the ground, to take a closer look at what was beneath the glass that seemed to stretch on for forever.

The yellow balls of light, were spaced equidistant from the next one, moved slowly, at the same speed as all the other pieces next to them, had no casing that he could see but moved in an orderly manner, as if constrained by something. He could not get his hand through the glass, could not break through it, and could not set it on fire.

As much as he tried to do that, with the strength of his mind. Try as he might, he did not have the powers of a Sith.

With that little side quest complete and satisfied with the knowledge he received, useless as it might have been, he began walking once more, following the yellow balls of light. All of them must be heading towards a certain direction and he was keen on figuring that out. This was the most excitement he’d had since he got to this place.

As the time went by, he noticed that his form, his human soul representation, began dimming, and becoming see through. That, admittedly, sent him into a spiral of panicked overthinking. He rapidly backpedalled, thinking that following those balls was a mistake, but the fading continued and with that, came a sense of wrongness, as he felt his mind becoming more nad more sluggish, his vision becoming blurry.

That, understandably, made him panic even more. He did not want to die! One’s soul representation fading away meant certain death and he didn’t even know what he had done wrong!

All he could do was watch as his hands faded and faded and f…a…..--

The next moment, he came back to awareness and with that, came the sensation of panic but the next moment, he calmed down considerably as he saw.

Saw the giant network of roots, saw them take nutrients from the ground, saw one set of roots continuously absorb thermal energy from the volcano nearby, saw his trunk absorb thermal energy from the water as well.

And that, calmed him down.

Just a scant few eternities ago, he did not know how long he was in his meditation, he never would have thought that the sight of the boring stuff, like the thermal vision of his body simply absorbing energy would have gladdened him but alas, realising that the fading of his soul figure did not mean dying. 

It simply meant that he would come back to the real world. He supposed it had something to do with his mental energy and walking all that distance must have depleted it. It also meant that he was doing something right, or so he hoped.

Since he was back here, in the real world anyway, might as well take a look at what had happened and damn, that was unexpected. From his perspective, he had spent a lot of time in that place, but in the real world, he realised that not a lot of time had passed.

For starters, he was only about a third of the way there, for his next upgrade’s requirements to be met, and the root network had hit yet another snag, for the root network that was headed straight down.

It had not yet hit something solid yet, which was good but it had something hot. The soil itself had become so hot that his roots, on preprogrammed orders, had stopped expanding and just focused on gathering nutrients to stockpile.

On the other front, his roots had not found any limit yet so they continued expanding, cautiously that is, and the volcano side roots were the same, quietly absorbing thermal energy from the water and the soil nearby, which helped a lot because it was much easier to focus on just exploration as long as he had a trusty source of energy nearby.

Taking stock of the situation, he realised that he did not need to focus on these matters at all. They were fairly self sufficient and it was time for him to get to cracking the newest mystery in his mind.

Wait. That made him sound a bit loose in the head but what the hell! He had been alone for who knows how long so maybe he had gone a little crazy.

…..

…

Hopefully not…..

XXX

Taking a deep breath, he began focusing on the sensation he felt, of that click he felt before he found himself back in his mindscape, drowning out every other one of his senses. The feeling eluded him and he had a hunch that maybe he was not fully recharged yet. 

He felt fine, nothing like the dizzy sensation he had before but still, maybe it had something to do with time?

He was starting with a blank slate here so just throwing everything at the wall and hoping it will stick is the best he could do here.

So, he meditated, hoping that whatever mental energy he needed, recharged faster since he was meditating. That’s how it worked in some of the fantasy books he read so maybe it will work?

As he dove deeper into the meditation, time seemed to stop meaning anything to him, as if it meant anything before, but before, he could at least feel bored, feel that a lot of time had passed.

Now? He could feel nothing.

Until…click.

“Yes!” His fist pumped in the air as he jumped in joy, having found himself back in the dim yellow landscape. “It worked!”

Kneeling, he checked the flow of those balls and yup, they were in the same direction as before. He had no way of marking his current position so he did not know if he had spawned in the same place as before or if he was starting over, so he just began walking, with the flow of those yellow balls.

He had a hunch those were important but with no way to discern any more information out of his surroundings, he chose to keep that on the back burner as he happily began skipping his way, knowing that there was no stamina drain in this place, if he did not count that horrible fading away of his soul.

And so, the cycle began. Of him walking, skipping and running along the way, his soul fading away before he found himself back in the real world. He checked in on the progress of his roots, before meditating and finding himself back in his mental landscape.

Then, the process began, repeating itself, for over a dozen times, after which, even his boundless need for new things had dulled to the point he was just going through the motions, only to find himself standing in not a dim yellow glow but a bright, almost blinding yellow glow, forcing him to look away.

With a grin, he realised that he was in his mental landscape and looked straight up, at what he thought to be the source of the light but he could not tell since his vision was entirely consumed by a blinding bright yellow light.

“What the hell?” He mumbled to himself, as he tried to peek through his fingers to see but all he could get was that same blinding light. All he could do was blindly reach out, tapping the ground with his feet to check if he still had solid footing and upon finding some, he took a step forward, and then one more, and then another, right up until he could feel it.

The heat. 

He flinched at first but upon realising that this was the closest he had gotten to something in all the times he had been in this place, he refused to back down and took another step forward. He could feel the heat, it was searing but he could feel no damage done to his body. It was all very confusing.

Step by step, he walked forward, now covering his eyes with his hands, putting them on top of his eyes as the light bled through the slightest of gaps, even as he kept his eyes closed.

Whatever it was, it was bright, hot, and important if it was in his mindscape. 

So, refusing to back down, he took another step forward and— “Ahh!” He screamed, scrambling to get back, as his leg found no footing. Grimacing at the brightness, he used his hands to pull himself back, as he was stuck in quite an awkward position. Alas, something or someone out there seemed to have it in for him as he felt a suction force acting on his legs, pulling him forward, inch by inch, as he had nothing to grab onto, save for freaking glass as he felt his legs get sucked in, followed by his body.

The last thing he saw before he was sucked in entirely was that damned bright light, only this time, he could see a hint of green before it all went black.

XXX

What kind of energy can Caden now manipulate?