I jumped down into the pit ahead, fearless of being attacked as the nightmare’s dream had retreated too far to get back at me so quickly. When I’m done pulling out this weed, I should probably question the Marquis since it’ll definitely be good to know if he’s working with anyone. The sight of him leaping some thirty feet through a window replayed in my mind. I assume he won’t die in the fight too, since the plant is probably supplying him with the abilities he demonstrated and more… Though if he stays unconscious that’d be the best case scenario.

  Despite the couple hundred or so foot drop, my weighty thoughts carried me quickly down, and, having learned from my excruciating experience with that fox dude, I decided not to risk it and broke my fall with a quick burst of hurricane centered at my feet.

  I touched down lightly, and glared into the oppressively dark tunnel system ahead. My awareness showed me twisting paths of cold stone that branched off into countless dead ends and loops. Along each were innumerable prison cells, all containing glowing purple leafy pods that held the parasitic plants hapless victims.

  “Now, how do I wanna… Oh! That’s an idea!”

  Spirit summoning, embers of time.

  My magic mixed as I desired, and from my open palms flew forth a flock of black fiery finches. They made no sound, waited for no direction, and fanned out through the tunnels according to my will.

  Based on how the roots burned, each one contained enough mana to burst and burn away an area roughly equivalent to the pods restraining the dreaming victims, and as living fire, do so without harming the people inside. I couldn’t do much about the immense power the plant had already absorbed, but since I could cut off its source before the big confrontation I saw no reason not to.

  Plus if this makes the stupid plant think I’m spreading out my mana to search for it, then all the better.

  Following the largest part of the flock, I raced down the tunnel that led under the Marquis' estate at a decent clip, not trying to get to the core before my burning birdies had time to get into position to do their good work.

  If that thing’s status is any indication, then removing the people is going to do more than just slow its recovery, it’ll also potentially deny its use of the puppets up top, and definitely cut access to the many many abilities that the civilians no doubt have.

  A few more tense moments passed as I waited for some sort of surprise attack or retaliation, but it never came, and then my flock struck.

  The ground trembled, and I watched the nightmare’s dream coil and quake in response to suddenly being attacked all over all at once. After all, there was little point in striking the closer pods first and warning it of my plans and how to defend itself.

  And now that they’re free, I can now, ward!

  With space magic still blocked, I had little choice other than to cover the civilians in a protective shell. I grouped together the ones that I could, but still managed to cover everyone without burning through too much mana.

  The sad thing though, was that not everyone was freed. The durability of the pods was apparently tougher the closer they were to the core, so with the same amount of power in each bird I wasn’t able to break through them all. Though, the ones that were still mostly intact, were at least open now so I’d be able to extract the people as I closed in.

  To that that end, I conjured more helpers with earth spines and spirit summoning.

  This time they were a sorta mix of a spider and a hedgehog, roughly the size of my arm, and grew up outta the ground like a sudden uprising of ants.

  Just like the others, they dutifully scuttled off down the corridors to reach the still imprisoned people, which left me to face the fury of the still flailing freak of nature.

  And there was fury.

  Roots began to extend from the cracks in the cobbled walls but instead of launching at me, they began to bombard me with an array of various magics.

  Uriel buzzed as I dodged a colorful array of fireballs, icicles, stone spears, wind blades, jets of water, lightning bolts, and leaves that had transformed to look something akin to serrated fangs.

  Hoo boy. That’s a lot of bad stuff! Thankfully it's only targeting me and not my spirits, but if this is what it still has access to, since the majority of the populace are now free, then that’s kinda scary. I had to stop and literally bend over backwards to evade the shots of acid and poison that suddenly flew at me one after the other. It’s been a while, but the way of the one ability is really helping out here. Though given the intensity of the attack I’d hazard a guess that the remaining captives are the ones more gifted in combat.

  Uriel buzzed, just as I allowed myself to trip on a root and tumble into a roll to escape decapitation by several rapidly rotating leaf teeth.

  Uggh. Fine! The spiders are working hard, but they’re not as fast as the finches. Since the plant is trying to recapture the freed people, waiting for them is going to end up using more mana than simply rushing in, so let’s just get this over with! Strength release! Speed release!

  With the two body magics backing me up I blasted down the remaining length of my current corridor as little more than a passing wind. The nightmare was expansive, and turning the corner made me slow down, so it managed to adjust the focus of its barrage, but for a few seconds I was spared harassment by the constant magical onslaught that likely would have spelled the doom for most anyone else.

  A terrestrial deity like Gretkarn might be able to tank it for a while, but he wouldn’t have been able to break the hold on the victims, and would have eventually been worn down since it apparently regenerates mana both on its own and from the people it feeds off of.

  The branching halls lessened and eventually ceased. All that remained was a single expansive one that led down to the plant’s pulsating core. I looked ahead, and the huge vaulted room was big enough to contain it two or three times over, perhaps in consideration for future growth, but for the core itself, it hung up in the air a dozen or so feet, and throbbed not unlike a heart.

  The purple hue it radiated grew and dimmed with each beat, and the thick roots that branched from it covered the walls, floor, and well, everything in the room. I was a little worried due to a small chute above it that was slowly dripping a blue liquid that Uriel kindly identified as mana concentrate straight from those crystal thingies that Carmella used beneath castle Kalsynth.

  Palaeshek was there too, though the plant had protectively pulled him to lay beneath it as he had yet to recover from my electrical assault, and for whatever reason it had refrained from, or was unable to, heal him.

  Or maybe it just doesn’t understand human biology? If he’s bound it to his will it wouldn’t operate the same now that he’s down, and since it eats people maybe it’s just protecting him until he either wakes up or it has the leisure to put him in a pod?

  As I dodged down the final stretch, older, thicker, roots rose up and started to physically impede me. Multiple walls were erected between me and the core, and the passageways steadily trembled as it slowly withdrew more of its mass inward.

  And each root wall is coated in layer upon layer of reinforcement magic. Getting scared? Good. Because this isn’t going to stop me.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Instead of taking the more direct approach of blasting through, I remained wary of my unseen space blocker and the steadily growing burden of sustaining my domain and dove into the stone floor and the dirt beneath.

  Obviously, there were countless roots of varying sizes scattered all over the place, but with my enhanced strength I was able to rip right through them as the brunt of the plant’s power was concentrated in the barriers above.

  I got under the thick set of impediments easily enough, but now the nightmare was aware that I could bypass its defenses, and it started to lash out in desperation.

  However, being that we were underground, all that really amounted to were larger roots or earth magic spells being used to ensnare or stab at me.

  But since I can see in every direction, and feel your mana concentrate and release, I can just avoid it since I’m so much faster than you!

  To be honest though, between its own very high mana sense, and because I was constantly disturbing dirt that was completely congested with tiny little hair-like roots, the nightmare’s dream also had a solid idea of where I was and where I was going.

  So it was no surprise that my attempt to resurface was met with the parasitic plant collapsing the tunnel before I could get to it.

  Guess it doesn’t matter how much faster I am if it's already at the place I’m going. I turned and headed toward the main chamber, tearing a path through chunks of stone and root as I bored through yet another barrage of earthen missiles. It’s kinda nice that I’m able to dig through enchanted earth now that I know how to use magic myself. It seems that all I needed was an active enhancement spell to finally rid myself of the trauma from my first experience with magic!

  I honestly lost count of the number of ways that the nightmare’s dream tried to stop me with summoned stone. There was the crushing, the piercing, the dragging away, and the walls. It tried to create quicksand, mud, slurry, even pockets of magma, but divine unearther didn’t give a hoot about any of them!

  Though I did have to quickly coat myself in ice and air with wind ward, and frozen field in order to augment my resistances enough to escape the molten rock unharmed.

  I hope it won’t do anything too drastic once I reach it. It wouldn’t try to off itself right? And even if it does or decides that it’ll survive using such drastic measures, it wouldn’t sacrifice Palaeshek right? Right? I don’t need to save that snake do I?

  With no other choice but to find out, I dug my way out of yet another useless earthen trap, and out into the vault of the nightmare’s dream.

  The heart-like core started to pulse faster and glow brighter, and that’s when a good chunk of the ceiling broke down.

  “Wait! Really?!”

  I threw my hands up and used, scintillating barrier, to guard myself against the spray of sharp and sizable debris that came crashing down toward me. The plant did much the same with some earth essence magic that redirected the rocks at me, which made my shield crack to an uncomfortable degree, but the real problem was something else.

  It had in its graspy little, or not so little, roots five of those crystals that nobles use to store mana and power their strongholds.

  That’s two more than the Count! I guess it pays to be higher rank.

  As I was now buried, unable to teleport, and with a jagged rock mere inches from my nose, I decided that this was no time to risk holding back and quickly engulfed the offending roots with multiple casts of embers of time which I then fanned into a frenzy with a combo of withering and hurricane.

  Uriel buzzed, and the newly named dual spell not only hurled the debris away but reduced it to dust upon a baleful black wind that howled with the voices of a million past regrets. Naturally, the time infused fire cut the creature’s hold on the mana rich crystals which I secured with magnetic hold since the man sized oblong jewels thankfully had iron bands around their midsections.

  I pulled them to safely hover in a semicircle behind me, then face palmed as I noticed that my newest panic cast spell had reduced Marquis Palaeshek to a crumbling skeleton.

  Sure, it’s doing wonders weakening the nightmare’s dream and helping the fire spread, but since his shield was supplied by the manor’s matrix, and the plant just removed the power source, he was left defenseless. Even with the abilities that the plant was likely supplying to him, since I cut off so many, and forced the nightmare’s dream into a corner, it probably abandoned him to save itself… Assuming it cared at all and didn't bring him here in response to his last conscious order. I narrowed my eyes at the vile vegetation. I was gonna use genesis flare to cut it apart without harming him, but since that uses up more mana, I’ll just do this. Orb, incinerate, wind ward, and frozen lance.

  The lump of raw mana that appeared above my palm was quickly filled with intense flame, and coldest ice, separated and pressurized by the controlled air. I pumped it with power until it was the size of a very large watermelon, then squeezed it down to the width of a baseball before hurling it with all my considerable might at the burning and decaying mass of flailing root and trembling core that was what remained of the nightmare’s dream.

  A tremendous bang knocked more debris from the ceiling, followed by a furious shockwave that shook the room and disrupted my harrowing history and embers of time spells as all the remaining air and other gaseous molecules in the sealed chamber were momentarily forced to the walls before rushing back around as a very unpleasant aftershock.

  Thankfully, all I had to do was put up another scintillating barrier, but the plant wasn’t so lucky.

  Between the time infused fire and wind, and both the blast and the aftershocks, there wasn’t much left of the core. The deflated thing flopped to the ground and oozed a deep purple ‘blood’ right on top of where the last traces of Palaeshek’s now utterly obliterated remains once were.

  I waited warily for a bit, but it didn’t move, and Uriel confirmed that it was dead, so I wiped the dirt from my brow, and sighed as I let my domain drop. “That was… easier than I thought. I was expecting another bout like what I had with Gretkarn but…” I rolled my stiff shoulders, and stretched my aching back. “I guess not having to heal half a city beforehand makes a pretty big difference.”

  I shook my head. Really should have used that pressure bomb on ol’ fish face too, the shockwave would have done wonders on his aquatic army before they surfaced… Live and learn I guess. I turned my attention to the creeping mass of gunk that slowly crawled toward my feet. Palaeshek’s soul. Huh. Kinda surprised he still had one. Maybe I can get answers from it… But hold on. Why is it that all my major enemies so far have been parasites?

  Right as I had that thought, a faint scratching sound followed by a dull crash echoed down from the ruins of the tunnel. The collapsed section was still untouched, but something big had just cut through the last of the vine walls that the nightmare’s dream created.

  My heart and shoulders dropped. “Et tu, Matty weir? But how did you even get here? Don’t tell me you took my use of the Edge of Eternity as a challenge to your territory!”

  But I suppose you aren’t in your right mind either. That’s why your fur is black. And why you have that disgustingly disjointed set of jaws beneath your humanoid upper body. Pretty sure the painter that depicted you on the Count’s ceiling would have caught that detail if it was supposed to be there. I clenched my right fist and my ring erased any remaining hope. A demon. And a big one too. It’s really dug itself into her. So the only real question is, do I risk the strain of trying to get it out with my mysterious space blocker still around? Or do I just put her down? There’s no way I’m letting anyone go on like that, so running isn’t an option. I glanced back at the crystals. Plus, it’s not like I’m in too bad a spot. With these suckers and the time it’ll take for her to reach me, I should be more than ready to teach that displaced deity who’s boss either way.

  #

  Gregorious cocked his veiled head and let out a low whistle. “Wow! I have to say I’m impressed. I didn’t think Anon would so easily take down such a massive creature, and do so while conserving mana too.” He grinned, and shot Josephene a knowing look. “What a delicious little specimen I’ve found!”

  Her eyes widened. You wretch! You knew! You knew all along! You brought me here to make me watch as you take what’s rightfully mine!

  Half ready to attack him, she stopped when the ground in the garden churned.

  Up from the depths of Marquis Palaeshek’s labyrinth the still slumbering bodies of the captured populace rose, dragged by spine-covered spider spirits that quickly returned down for more.

  Gregorious clapped. “How predictable! Even in a life and death situation apostles are always so eager to place their own safety after that of the innocent. Thankfully, there’s no way my little morsel will have the strength to resist after facing Matweirden.”

  Josephine gritted her teeth and diverted her eyes to Anon’s visage reflected within her teacup. If I stop my interference Anon can escape. I put the barrier up out of habit, but I felt their attempt to teleport earlier. That would deny Gregorious, but they’ve grown so much in such a short time that there's no telling if or when they’d become a threat. Or if I’d even be able to find them again. She glanced back at her overjoyed colleague. No. I’ll have to put up with this for now. I might be weaker, but I can escape him. I’ll grab Anon at the first opportunity, and complete the ritual before Gregorious is even able to get to the altar. After that… I think I’ll have him pay for this little stunt with his life.