The Higher Plain Ch 22: Growing To New Heights, A Feeling Never Before Felt!

The Morvren's growls rumbled through the broken battlefield, its inky black tendrils slithering across the land, oozing with corruption. Thi

The Morvren's growls rumbled through the broken battlefield, its inky black tendrils slithering across the land, oozing with corruption. Thick droplets of its foul saliva dripped from its gaping maw, sizzling as they hit the earth, warping the ground into something unnatural.

Faylina stood firm, her chest rising and falling as she surveyed the land below.

She saw people still running, scattered figures like ants scrambling over broken terrain. Some soldiers were barely visible through the smoke and dust, their movements sluggish, some collapsing under the weight of exhaustion or wounds. But Krelzor wasn't among them.

Her gut twisted.

Had he escaped?

She could only hope.

Her gaze shifted back to the Morvren, its crimson eyes glowing brighter, filled with raw, unrelenting hunger. It didn't know fear. It only knew destruction.

"Time to end this."

Faylina exhaled slowly, closing her eyes. For the first time in days, she allowed herself to let go.

A rush of warmth spread through her body, a deep, pulsing energy she had been suppressing for far too long. Her muscles relaxed, stretching, expanding.

Then, it began.

The ground trembled beneath her as her form surged upward, growing. Her limbs lengthened, her torso widened, and her legs extended like great pillars into the sky.

Her feet pushed against the land, carving deep impressions into the soft earth.

Buildings that once reached her knees now shrank, vanishing into specks. Trees that had swayed beside her like tall grass dwindled into twigs. Mountains in the far distance became mere hills, and the sky that once seemed so vast closed in around her.

Her clothes shredded further, unable to keep up with her expanding frame. Loose fabric flapped like torn sails, revealing more of her powerful, growing form. The rippling of her muscles, the stretching of her skin—it all felt right.

She let out a low moan, a deep, primal sound that sent shockwaves through the earth.

The land quaked beneath her weight. The last few standing tents of the camp collapsed instantly, flattened under the force of the shifting terrain. Rivers changed course as the sheer pressure of her steps created new valleys in the land.

From below, the Morvren had stopped moving.

For the first time, it hesitated.

A dark shadow fell over it.

Faylina looked down, a towering colossus gazing at a mere pest.

She smirked.

Lifting her foot high into the air, she cast the entire battlefield in her shadow. The land darkened beneath her.

"Die, beast."

Her voice thundered across the land, rolling over the hills, shaking the very foundations of the earth. It wasn't a request. It was a command.

She brought her foot down.

The impact was instant.

A shockwave tore through the ground, sending dust and debris shooting into the air like an explosion. The very ground caved inward, forming a massive crater beneath her. Cracks webbed outwards in all directions, splitting the battlefield like fractured glass.

The sky whitened with dust clouds.

For a moment, there was silence. Then, the gust of wind from her impact roared outward, flattening trees miles away. The remaining humans—if any were still near—were thrown off their feet by the sheer force of the impact.

Faylina stood over the wreckage, a pleased smile curling on her lips.

There, beneath her massive sole, she felt the faintest squish.

Like stepping on a rotten fruit.

The Morvren was dead.

It had to be.

Faylina let out a breath, shaking her foot slightly before stepping back, her colossal form looming over the destruction she had wrought. The once-battlefield was unrecognizable, a cratered wasteland beneath her.

She had done it.

Or so she thought.

Something cold coiled around her ankle.

Her breath hitched.

Then—yank.

A massive force pulled her leg out from under her.

Faylina's balance broke.

She let out a startled cry as she toppled backwards, her enormous form crashing into the land like a fallen mountain.

The world shook.

The impact split the land open, deep cracks tearing through the earth, reaching outward like veins of destruction.

Hills collapsed.

A river diverted.

Towns miles away felt the tremor.

A storm of dust exploded into the sky, blotting out the sun for a brief moment as the wind howled in all directions.

Faylina winced, groaning as she tried to sit up.

What—?

She felt it before she saw it.

Something writhing, crawling up her leg, slithering like a living disease.

Her eyes shot downward.

A massive black tentacle had wrapped itself around her leg.

No—not just her leg. It was spreading.

More tendrils crawled upward, slithering across her thighs, her waist, her stomach.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Crimson eyes—dozens, no, hundreds—began to open along the surface of the black tendrils. They blinked at her in eerie unison, glowing with pure, unfiltered malice.

The Morvren wasn't dead.

It was adapting.

For the first time since she had arrived in this world, true fear crept into Faylina's heart.

"What's happening?" she whispered, her voice barely above a breath.

The tendrils tightened around her.

And the eyes stared.