Anything ~ 52!

Luke was the first to react by a long shot, his open distrust of foliage saving the team as he Bum Flashed over and swept them into the open air. The plant connected to itself with a clashing that would put thunder to shame, sending them rattling through the turbulent air with enough force that there was no doubt that they would have absolutely died if they had been caught.

“If you are hearing this recording,” a voice boomed, following the mind-shattering noises of the plant striking itself blindly, “then congratulations: you are the first Druid to get this far. I am sorry that you were caught up in this tragic story, and as an apology… I’ll let you know that you will live if you leave immediately using a personal portal. It will take a few minutes for the Draco’inversionem esse naturae to wake up.”

“No abyssal way,” Andre managed to choke out before the group hit the muck far below. Luke swam for the surface, accidentally getting some of the stuff in his mouth.

You need to Stop… has reached level two!

Bursting out of the raw sewage, Luke bellowed in disgust even as he internally cheered that he had been correct. “I’m unhappy that resisting disease was the correct answer!”

A pillar of slime crawled out of the revolting pool and onto a more solid area, then rapidly transformed into Taylor as the film was eradicated. She stared up at the green-lit ceiling, where the plant was awakening. “Andre, I need to know what that thing is and how to kill it. I need to know now.”

“It’s a Corrupted Nature Dragon.” Andre didn’t bother to sweep the filth off his face as he watched the creature in pure awe. “Nature Dragons are extinct. There haven’t been true sightings of them in over three millennia.  They’re spoken of as the highest-level theoretical creature a Druid can create. Even then… it takes a Tier-ten first, second, and third circle Druidic Ability to do it, because they’re equal parts plant, mineral, and animal. We need to leave; we need to leave right now.”

“We can’t let that thing get out of here, Andre,” Taylor informed him with all the force she could muster past her trembling lips. Even though her voice trembled, her face remained calm and collected.

“You don’t understand.” Andre’s mind was already on the verge of collapse as the Dragonic plant continued awakening. “This thing is twice as bad as that. It’s a corrupted Dragon. That means that it went against its nature. In other words, it went against nature itself, since its nature is nature. It can kill us in passing. We can’t kill it. Taylor, I have access to one Tier-ten Domain in my world, and it ensures that nothing in the area around it can die. Think about that for a moment.”

The voice they had heard moments previously spoke again, sounding sad this time. “If you are hearing this… you have chosen a futile path of resistance. I admit… I love you. Your willingness to sacrifice yourself means everything to me. I wish I was you. A better person than I am. Better than what I have been turned into. I admit I’m bitter, and vengeful, but I can’t stop what is in motion. As a reward for your love of this world, I’ll tell you what you can do to stop my revenge upon a world that… I wish I had never created this beast within.”

“Hey, that’s convenient.” Zed let out a sigh of relief as he pulled himself onto dry land. “By the way, I nearly drowned under something like fifty feet of bug poop; thanks for thinking to pull me out of there. Oh, wait, no one remembered their poor Bard?”

“Zed, hush.” Taylor pointed upward as the voice echoed out again.

“I corrupted my faithful companion to act as a last line of defense against the Kingdom that had forced me to grow their wealth in a literal way.” The person in the recording had begun sobbing lightly as he spoke. “I, Mega Druid Kiefer, hailed as the Druid most loved by the universe, have turned against it.”

“I have a bad feeling that he’s gonna talk for a really long time, and we’re gonna die before he tells us how to kill this thing.” Luke judged the distance between himself and the plant, reluctantly deciding that he was too far away to put his Skills to use against it. For the moment.

Andre reached into his pockets and started throwing seeds around. “Just realized that the bugs aren’t an issue anymore! Luke, I need a killer amount of mana!”

Luke looked at the stern face of his friend, then back at the Dragon-thingy. “I don’t want to rain on your parade here, but I think plants are the issue here, not the solution.”

“Not just plants; I’m working on a fallout shelter in case that thing drops ten miles of stone on top of us,” Andre informed him calmly. “I’m not at all thinking that anything I can do will be able to impact that creature. Nature will protest and fight, but ultimately bend to its whims, even if it is a corrupted beast. Also, if the lore on this thing is accurate, those ‘stars’ are actually teeth attached to vines, so let me know if they start moving downward.”

“It’s able to bite us at a distance?” Zed yelped as he stared at the green-glowing gems that completely covered… no, were closing in on the main beast. “Uhm. I think it’s starting to pull itself together up there.”

Luke tossed a waterskin to Andre as the weeping Druid-voice calmed itself enough to continue speaking.

“All you’ll need to do to stop Hamlin is…” The weeping turned spiteful and vicious. “Ha! All you’ll need to do is destroy the Earthen Node he’s been draining for however long he’s been trapped here! Do it, Druid; turn against nature as I once did, and doom this world as surely as my creation would! Fools… this world needs to be eradicated! The people are filth, and the planet a waste! Once Hamlin reaches another Node, the chain reaction will corrupt the entire planet and force it to Descend! Your only saving grace…? None of you will be around to see it!”

“Ah. He was fully insane,” Zed acknowledged sagely. “I see. Any of that useful?”

The voice continued rambling and shouting, but Luke tuned it out as he mulled over the instructions. “So this planet is probably dead, is what I’m hearing. What do you guys want to use as our next base world? I’m thinking we should pick up our families before we get outta here; might be hard to come back if it Descends. Andre, your world seems nice. Can we live there for a while?”

“You think the portal back would turn orange?” Zed inquired as the two of them searched for a tunnel entrance. “When this world Descends, I mean.”

“Can the two of you stop that, please?” Taylor seemed tired when she made her request, but her eyes drifted to Andre. “Anything?”

“What do you mean?” Andre continued motioning like a conductor at an orchestra, growing and directing plants. “This stuff is amazing fertilizer. Celestial feces indeed, you know?”

“So all of you just… gave up?” A tear rolled down Taylor’s cheek for an instant before it, too, was whisked away by her passive spell. “We aren’t going to try to save all the people that thing is going to kill? We literally have a chance to save the world-”

“That’s just it, Taylor!” Andre’s bellow took them all by surprise. He was on his feet now, his hands trembling. “We don’t have a chance! That monster may as well be level thirty! As far as we’re concerned, that thing is a god. It will literally crack this planet apart over time, just by existing. You think I don’t want to save this place? That being represents a perversion of everything I stand for!”

“We can beat it!” Taylor yelled back, her facade broken by Andre’s emotional display. “The crazy Druid told us how to do it; he just doesn't believe we can. What’s a Node? He said we need to break it, but can we fix it?”

Andre scoffed and sent a wave of sludge at her with a twitch of his finger. “You’re so full of feces on the inside, the outside should match. You don’t even know what a Node is, so of course you listen to the long-dead Druid taunting us with impossibility.”

“Well?” Taylor demanded as the muck vanished from her clothes. “Tell me what it is, and I’ll go do it myself!”

“You’re incorrigible!” the Druid raged, turning his mind back to his plants with a growl. “You know what a ley line is? A path for the planet’s natural power, the mana of nature that empowers all of humanity? Without a ley line, that mana pools and stagnates; opening Scars and twisting nature into abominations and monsters. A healthy planet will have ley lines that work together to eventually Ascend the planet. Now, sometimes those lines will cross. If three lines cross, an Earthen Node can form a well of power that keeps the pooling mana healthy and natural.”

“So this thing has been eating all that power this whole time?” Zed joined the conversation, more to keep it going than for any other reason. “It damaged the Node, or destroyed it?”

“Sounded like it was damaged, judging by the level of crazy that voice seemed to be.” Luke offered his viewpoint. “Damaged means fixable.”

“You guys…” Andre shook his head furiously, but went limp as they stared at him with bright eyes. “I have no idea how we would even make an attempt on it.”

“Wait for the beast to start leaving, fix the Node, and… what, does that kill it?” Zed waved at the plant that was actually starting to exhibit draconic features. “Celestials, look at that thing. Vines for muscle fiber and tendons, metal bones, teeth, and claws, and a super-predator’s meaty mind. Where can I get one of those?”

“That wouldn’t kill it.” Andre closed his eyes and thought back to the theories he had once explored with Xan, his mentor. “The sheer amount of mana required to create a Nature Dragon means that their very being is tied to an Earthen Node. If a creature that is literally an incarnation of nature becomes corrupted, that means that the Node had to be damaged after the creature was made. So… repairing it would… it would… uncorrupt the Dragon?”

“Would you then own a Dragon?” Zed stared at Andre with feverish expectation shining in his eyes. “Andre! This is an important question! You answer it right now!”

*Szzz!*

Sharp sounds like flaming arrows being fired resounded through the cavern as glowing chunks started raining into the muck all around them.

“What was that?” Andre frowned as one of his plant weaves was abruptly cut through from top to bottom. “Don’t let them hit you!”

The falling ‘teeth’ didn’t seem to be targeting them, which was good, since they struck like tiny meteors made of razor blades. The Four watched with growing horror as each impacted area turned into a tiny whirlpool that sucked in the nutritious muck. When the mixture stilled, they had a moment of hope that this was the end of it. That hope was dashed as wooden bodies started erupting from the depths; and the humans got their first look at a creature that hadn’t been seen in the local multiverse for centuries.

“Corrupted Dragon Tooth,” Andre recited numbly. “I forgot. The Dragon itself won’t attack us, because it won’t even notice our presence. Abyss, it wouldn’t even retaliate if we threw everything we had at it. We’re less than ants to it… the creatures that it creates just by existing will bring it all the nutrients it ever needs to grow. They’ll eat the resources, ravage the earth, and stockpile all life in their guts.”

“Andre. I need to know.” Luke held Cookie firmly in his right hand, repetitively smacking her top into his left palm as he stared down the shambling Teeth. “How much Potentia do you think those are worth?”