Anything ~ 43!

- Taylor -

“You’re sure about this?” Taylor watched the Descender portal warily, and Andre somewhat guiltily. She could stop this from happening, but… if it worked, it was worth doing. “If you want, we can think of another option. You don’t have to-”

“Luke was right. When someone comes after us, they don’t deserve our pity. Besides that… we’ve come this far.” Andre’s voice was firm, if somewhat hoarse. Taylor could tell that this decision was impacting him far more than he let on, but she chose not to pursue that fact. This was her idea, after all; a way to make defeated enemies into useful allies. “It helps that Zed isn’t here… I’d hate to have him spreading this story around.”

“It’s time.” Taylor warned the Druid as the portal pulsed, yanking on the rope and tossing Sir Edward out of the portal. The wounds Luke had inflicted on him, as well as the new breaks from the rope, started working to close - if somewhat slowly.

“How dare you do this to a superior officer!” The Knight glared at them with pure hatred, “I’m going to pull you in front of a tribunal and make sure not even a pound of your flesh is saved for research purposes!”

“Good to see you again, as well!” Taylor smiled at him brightly. “We’ve come up with something extra-special just for you while you’ve been gone! From the look of your regeneration capabilities, you’re the best test subject. Even if we fail at first, you’ll just… get better.”

“While I’ve been away? You just had your personal ogre assault me and throw me into…” Sir Edward looked at the orange-tinged portal and went pale. “You didn’t.”

“Eat this. It’ll take care of anything still bothering you.” Andre’s voice was rushed, sounding to Taylor like he needed to get this out of the way if he wanted to go through with it. She almost stopped him from doing something so highly against his nature, but hesitated just long enough that the Druid managed to force a large seed into Edward’s mouth.

The Knight choked and thrashed as he tried to spit out the oversized seed - more like a pine cone - but it sprouted, forced open his throat, and traveled to his stomach all on its own. A moment later, a tongue-like vine burst out of his mouth and trailed down to the ground, where it reached out and wrapped around Andre’s Livingwood Staff before… vanishing. Taylor blinked and looked for any evidence that what she had seen wasn’t an illusion, but the only proof that the first part had been a success was how sick Edward appeared.

“I’m… I feel so dry.” The Knight whispered, even as his skin desiccated slightly.

“Common complaint.” Andre sucked in a steadying breath and turned. “The only way you’re going to be able to get enough water is by following me. Come along.”

“But… my bones,” whimpered the damaged man, “They’re still broken. I can’t… please, water.”

“You’re fine.” Andre informed him harshly, making both Taylor and Edward flinch away. “Let’s move.”

Slowly at first, but with growing strength, the Knight followed after the Druid and Mage. The walk lasted a mere quarter of an hour at the pace each of them could move when properly motivated, and soon they were arriving in the location where they had first encountered the swarm of Preying Mantous. The Druid looked around, a deep pain on his face when he saw how thoroughly his work had been dismantled by the bugs. “Do we have a better report on what happened when we fled?”

“Zed went to try and find any survivors.” Taylor informed him softly. “Last I heard… he still hasn’t been able to find anyone, and the desert expanded rather significantly. Even though he’s down about losing so many of his new friends, he’s doing well after his… recent windfall.”

She was being intentionally vague about the Mana Channel upgrade, as she still considered the Knight an enemy. Taylor smiled bitterly as she recalled how the Bard had been the one to gain the first benefit, and how much it had improved everything he did. Simple words held so much more meaning when they came from his lips. According to him; his Masteries were so much more potent that he would need to be careful not to damage the minds of base humans that he interacted with. Not that he had found any, but at least he was aware of his increased potency before an incident actually happened.

Shaking off her reminiscence, Taylor put her attention back on the men interacting with each other, just as Andre pointed at the ground. “If you want water, it’s right here. Stand there, and I’ll open a way for you.”

“I’z waz just doing my dooty.” The Knight slurred woozily, his eyes locked on the indicated location. “Water there…? I’m so… so dry.”

After the man stumbled to the spot, Andre let a drop of blood flow down his palm before it grabbed his mana and expanded into a triple circle. It lifted into the air, spinning and settling around the Knight. There was a *crack* as layer after layer of stone shattered, digging downward until greenery was exposed. The Druid pulled, and the stone and sand pulled away, revealing the watermelon, Lotus Coffins, and sunshower that he had directed to dive deep into the earth.

They were only slightly damaged. While a long time had passed for the Four, most of their actual time away had been spent in his world, so the plants hadn’t suffered too much from a lack of sunlight. A simple outpouring of mana brought them to full health, and also opened a narrow slit in the side of the melon. Edward groaned, and a vine tore out of the skin over his stomach and dove directly into the opening.

A moment later, a tiny hollow vine grew out of the melon and over to Edward’s mouth. Droplets of water began pouring out, and the Knight frantically lapped them up, as if he were a pet hamster in a cage.

Taylor watched all of this progress, slowly becoming more and more uneasy. It was one thing to know what the end result would be, and something entirely different to see what it took to get there. Slight *pop* sounds rang out as more and more vines, roots, and even branches began to grow through the Knight’s skin. She could see that Andre was watching all of this with hollow eyes, and forced herself not to turn away as a tree grew through the Knight, then up, and up. Her eyes glowed in excitement even as Andre turned his head to the side and vomited. "This is amazing... the things we'll be able to do in the future!"

“Oh, hey! A tree! That’s a great landmark!” Zed called from a distance as he hurried toward them. “I was just about to use a Mastery to try and locate - wha~a~at the abyss is that.”

The Bard skid to a stop as he watched the transformation Edward was going through, then started gagging as he saw the man being stretched from the inside. Taylor swallowed her excitement back and gestured at the tree-man. “This is Sir Edward. He’s going to help us reclaim the desert.”

“How… ah… is that going to happen? I know I was pretty out of it when you two were making plans, but this is… whew…” the Bard chuckled and finished nervously, “…Dark.”

“He’s going to be the main guardian of the reclaimed wilderness.” Andre wiped his mouth and slowly began to explain his plans. “The forest needs someone that can watch and control it against attacks at all times. His root system will connect to every living plant in hundreds of miles over time. He’ll be able to put out fires, fight monsters… and like this, he’ll live until killed.”

“Like this?” Zed waved at the tree that had mostly swallowed every last vestige of the man. “Does he… is he in pain? You got rid of pain for him first, right?”

“No pain.” Andre shook his head at the thought of feeling what was going on. “When this is done, he’ll literally be one with nature. He’ll be happier and healthier than he ever was, and so long as any plant he’s connected to survives, so will he.”

“So… you created a race of pseudo-Druids?” Zed’s bitter smile hadn’t left his face since he started talking. “What do you call them?”

“I… hadn’t thought of that.” Andre’s voice also explained that he didn’t care about it. Zed walked over and touched Edward’s face, realizing that the skin had already been replaced with a soft bark.

“How ya feeling, Ed?” The Bard patted the wood, and the tree-man’s eyes slowly rolled to look at him.

He spoke around the water-dripping vine, his voice unrecognizable from the noble Knight’s previously commanding tone. “I feel…  so… dry…”

“Welp! There we go!” Zed flashed a brilliant smile at his team as he jauntily strolled toward them. “Look at that, you made a whole new race, Andre! I hereby dub them Dry-eds. Dryeds. Dryads? I think ‘Dryads’ sounds best.”

“That’s…  that’s great, Zed. Thanks.” Andre was looking at the newly-minted Dryad with a terribly haunted look in his eyes, but it shifted to concern as he looked deeper. “Small issue, looks like he needs a huge amount of mana to grow. Oh, abyss, staying alive is gonna take more than the desert can currently sustain-”

*Wub.*

“Oh, great timing!” Zed’s cheerful-panic laughter as he edged away from Andre and Taylor was starting to grate on Taylor’s nerves. It wasn’t like they were going to do this to just anything. “Luke’s coming back. Maybe you can bum some mana off him again? Maybe he can keep me safe from you two and vouch for me at the war-crime hearing?”

The air shattered nearby, and the Murderhobo stepped out into the world once more. Taylor saw several new accoutrements on the man, as well as something that had never appeared since before he became an Ascender: a wide, happy smile that didn’t come from beating something into the ground. The small group started toward the man, Zed at a dead sprint, only pausing as a force wind suddenly sprang up. In moments, a twisting whirlpool of clouds appeared in the sky above, threatening heavenly punishment. “What’s happening?”

“I have no idea!” Zed called back happily. “But this is gonna make a great story!”

“It’s mana!” Andre bellowed excitedly above the whipping wind. “Something is pulling a huge amount of mana to the area!”