Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Chapter 481: Making a Blunder

On the dawn of the next day, Ashlock awoke from his slumber and immediately went to check on Moros. While he had managed to resist the call of sleep a lot recently, he was still a slothful tree and needed to rest under the nine moons to heal his soul and rapidly recover Qi.

But he was nervous. He had left Moros in Veylorak's territory and Astralis for his sect members to deal with.

What type of scene would he return to? Had a fight broken out, or perhaps Moros had been devoured by Veylorak? Had Ig'Zal been drawn toward the two spirit trees ascending to the Nascent Soul Realm, or maybe the event had caught the attention of Zephyrine, and they wouldn't have to deal with Astralis and his demands as Stella would have already been reunited with her elder sister?

His vision blurred as he passed by the hundreds of miles of dense storm that concealed the great beast tide and arrived far to the north, at the edge of Veylorak's territory. The moment his vision stabilized, he was briefly blinded by the divine lightning that chaotically arched through the sky, pummeling Moros, which was still there.

The shields had been shrunk to only cover a small area and the surface of Moros, exposing Erebus and Akasha's trunks and their floating souls to the divine onslaught. Their branches had long been blown off, and their bark was charred. But their souls were incomparable to before, blazing like twin stars. Akasha had successfully completed the splitting stage, and Erebus's soul seemed twice the size, meaning all that was left was for their souls to be tempered and enriched by the divine lightning, testing the strength of their wills and solidifying their foundation moving forward.

He could feel the soul-wrenching pain they were experiencing through the ethereal root network, yet there was nothing he could do for them. If he blanketed them in shields, it would only weaken them in the future.

No pain, no gain—even for spirit trees.

While the divine lightning was quite a spectacle, from afar, he could also see a mesh of Kaida's scales floating below Moros, like a massive net. Looking closer, he could hear the immense formation humming with power, and analyzing the runes, he figured out its purpose: to keep Veylorak away from Moros. Since the monster always had to erupt from the ground below, this net's purpose was to act as a barrier.

"That means Astralis has probably met with Kaida by now," Ashlock mused. He had brought everyone that was in the Nascent Soul Realm with him this time, and that included Kaida. Stella had tagged along, promising to avoid any danger and let the stronger sect members handle things.

Ashlock peered past the layers of aether Qi shields that rippled as they blocked stray divine lightning from hitting Moros and the sect members onboard, only to see an enraged Astralis. The giant of a man with the distinct characteristics of a dragon was stomping around, making the flagship tremble.

"You're such a sore loser," Stella said tiredly in draconic as she sat before a chess table with all the pieces toppled, massaging her head. In an instant, Ashlock understood the scene perfectly. While waiting, Stella had definitely challenged the prideful dragon to a chess match and then abused her bloodline's ability to let her lock in to beat Astralis in chess. Judging by the headache Stella was enduring, she had likely pushed her bloodline to its limits to win.

Astralis was obviously unaware of her exploits and, as Stella had stated, appeared to be a terribly sore loser.

Kaida was coiled around one of the aether Qi trees, watching on with apparent amusement. Beside him, sitting on chairs and sipping drinks, were Grand Elder Redclaw and Elysia, who had both recently ascended to the Nascent Soul Realm.

"How can I keep losing to a little girl?" Astralis growled, cosmic Qi crackling between his fingers. Every time he looked like he was about to lose it and attack Stella, Larry would gently flex his spiritual pressure to remind Astralis that he was in the presence of a Monarch Realm monster that was acting as Stella's guardian.

"One, I'm not a little girl," Stella snapped. "And two, I'm just better than you at chess."

"Impossible," Astralis shook his head.

"Father, you only learned how to play chess a few hours ago and already beat all of us," Nymeria pointed out. "You might beat her one day—"

"No," Astralis snapped at his daughter. "I cannot beat her. Every move she made was perfect from start to finish as if I were facing the law of chess itself. Yet, I could detect no such aura of mastery coming from her—it's maddening."

Huffing, Astralis marched over to the board once more, and with a wave of his hand, the pieces all magically teleported to their rightful starting positions.

"We have to play again?! I can't be bothered..." Stella grumbled, barely managing to get her head out of her hands.

Astralis didn't answer. Instead, with his arms firmly crossed before him, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he made the first move. His pawn slid forward a single space.

Stella muttered something under her breath before answering in kind, matching his move. The pace gradually picked up from there, turning into speed chess, with pieces moving in tandem as if an actual battle were being fought on the chessboard.

While Astralis remained utterly stone-faced and determined during the match, it seemed the ramping speed was causing Stella to rely more on instinct than on her bloodline. Very quickly, Stella's condition worsened as the limits of her bloodline were reached.

That's when the match came to an abrupt stop. Astralis refused to make his next move. "You blundered," he said, narrowing his eyes at Stella. "You never blunder."

Stella shrugged, "Humans make mistakes sometimes."

"But you're not human," Astralis reasoned.

"Monsters make even more mistakes," Stella said, waving him off. "I'm tired and made a small mistake. What's so bad about that? Let's just play it out."

Astralis waved his hand, and all the pieces changed position. "In fifteen moves, we would reach this game state, where I would win by checkmate."

"So?" Stella yawned, sounding unimpressed.

Astralis narrowed his eyes accusingly. "You let me win. Without this blunder, I'd lose again. I know you tried to sneak it in without me noticing, but I did."

"Eh?" Stella seemed taken by surprise. "Let you win? What nonsense are you—"

Astralis planted both hands on the table and leaned over, "Are you trying to make a fool out of me, little girl? Did you feel bad for me and want to throw me a bone?"

Ashlock was honestly surprised at Astralis's level of delusion.

Yet, despite that, Stella doubled down instead of admitting that her bloodline was the reason she could face him in the first place.

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"Maybe I did? So what?" Stella smirked. "Going to complain about winning now?"

Astralis looked like he was about to transform into his dragon form and try to crush Stella, so Ashlock had Anubis step out of the shadow beside them to de-escalate the situation.

"Stella, stop messing with Astralis and take a rest," he said. Anubis then turned and glared at Astralis. "And you, stop stomping around and breaking my flagship."

Astralis ignored the comment about him stomping around and instead focused on the first. "How is she messing with me exactly?"

Ashlock wasn't going to expose Stella's secret unless she wanted him to, so he glanced at her for permission. She tiredly nodded, clearly done with her shenanigans.

"She has a bloodline ability that lets her focus and tap into more knowledge than she should have," Ashlock said, keeping it vague. "That's why she blundered—she overused her bloodline and was unable to focus at the level she had before."

Astralis snorted, and literal flames came out.His expression twisted to one of annoyance. "I thought you were letting me win, but it was even worse. You thought so little of me you believed you could win despite being disadvantaged?! Get back to your peak form and fight me again."

Stella facepalmed.

Nymeria smiled awkwardly, and Ashlock was a little speechless. There was prideful, and then there was Astralis. He was in a league of his own. The dragon didn't seem to care that Stella was "cheating," instead, he was insulted that she believed she could beat him without cheating and wanted her to go back to cheating rather than taking the win.

Is this the type of mentality it took for a monster to stand above the others? If so, what was Zephyrine going to be like? Or was this just a dragon thing?

[Akasha has completed her ascension to Nascent Soul Realm, 1st stage]

A system notification grabbed his attention. Ashlock glanced at Akasha, and sure enough, the divine lightning had stopped striking her. Smoke rose from her charred trunk, fallen branches that had been struck off lay haphazardly around her, and there was ash dusting the ground.

Everyone followed his gaze and seemed to sense the finality in her ascension.

Ashlock had Anubis move through the shadows and reemerge before Akasha. "Akasha, can you hear me?" Ashlock said through the shadow lich.

Aether Qi hissed out the cracks like escaping steam before slowly condensing into the form of a... woman. Or at least a tree's interpretation of a woman's form. It appeared similar to Nox's dryad body but with less definition and half-poking out from the trunk—almost like a ghost. But Ashlock could sense an infant soul within the manifestation, lending it more presence than a mere cloud of Qi could ever have. She felt... alive.

"That's certainly something I've never seen before," Astralis commented from behind. "A spirit tree manifesting as a human."

Ashlock was also curious why she had done that. In Nox's case, it had made perfect sense as she had once been human. But Akasha had always been a tree.

"Why are you doing this?" Ashlock asked.

Akashagestured for him to come closer as if she would whisper something into Anubis's ear. He had the shadow lich step forward, and she leaned in.

"Hey, handsome," she whispered, and he felt one of her roots caressing his. "When will Moros be returning to Red Vine Peak? I miss looking at your trunk..."

Ashlock had Anubis tactically retreat before it went any further. Akasha was a many-thousand-year-old tree that seemed to have it out for him, and he wasn't sure if she was messing around or serious. In either case, he didn't have time for some budding romance right now.

How would that even work...

[Erebus has completed his ascension to Nascent Soul Realm, 1st stage]

He quickly dismissed that line of thinking as the lightning completely ceased. The angry storm of heavenly eyes lingered in the morning sky for a moment before fading away.

Ashlock apprehensively looked at Erebus, half-expecting another ghostly being to emerge from the void... but it didn't happen. Upon closer inspection, he understood why. Even if Erebus wanted to, he couldn't. His infant soul was the Bastion Core, meaning his second body was technically the flagship itself.

"Right," Ashlock had Anubis clap his hands to draw attention. "It's time to go monster hunting. But before that," he turned to Astralis. "Have we earned your approval yet to contact Zephyrine? We could always help you kill Ig'Zal afterward."

Astralis firmly shook his head. "Approval or not, we made a deal. Ig'Zal's life for contacting Zephyrine. If that Mind Eater isn't slain, there's no telling what could happen to anyone, including Zephyrine, if she is caught at a weak enough moment."

"What about you?"

Astralis snorted. "What about me? I'd never be controlled by such a weakling."

Ashlock mentally noted that. If true, it meant that only Astralis and Veylorak, once turned into an Ent, would be able to go after Ig'Zal directly. The rest of the sect members gathered here, including himself, would go after the Primal Overlords the Mind Eating Moth had apparently taken control of and try to also turn them into Ents.

"Very well, we will proceed with the plan then."

"A plan I'm curious about," Astralis said. "While Veylorak isn't at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, he is a terrifying monster that will devour any trap you try to lay."

Ashlock laughed, "That's exactly what I'm betting on." Then, in his mind, he said, "System, raise the shields to maximum strength and lower the Bastion to the ground."

Moros's two Bastion Cores, empowered by Nascent Soul Realm trees, pulsed with power as many layers of shields expanded out and encased the flagship.

"Astralis, can you try punching through it?" Ashlock requested, gesturing with the shadow lich toward the black and white layers of void and aether shields.

"Now, why would I do that?" Astralis asked.

"Scared you won't be able to punch through it?" Stella taunted, instantly annoying Astralis. "What a big, strong dragon you are."

Without replying to her snide remark, he reeled back his fist and pounded the layers of shields. As his fist connected, there was a flash of white as the cosmic Qi coating his hand annihilated the layers of aether Qi and seamlessly punched through the void Qi layer as if it weren't even there. Moros tilted slightly from the force of the punch, and a pressurized wave of air exploded out from the hole, wiping out a distant mountain peak.

"You can stop now," Ashlock said. He had hoped the aether Qi layers would hold up more than that, and the void layer hadn't even phased him.

"That confirms it. Astralis has a divine bloodline," Ashlock mused.

Astralis stepped back with a smirk. "See? Easy." He glared at Stella, "I'd like to see you throw a punch like that."

Stella pouted and looked away.

Ashlock waited for the shields to reform and decided a better test would be with Anubis. Having the shadow lich approach the shields, he followed Astralis's steps. The aether Qi shields held up far better against his Qi-empowered punch, but it was the void layer that totally stopped him in his tracks like an impassable wall. He felt an immense draw on Erebus's Bastion Core, but the newly ascended tree was able to easily feed the necessary amount.

With the security of the void shield confirmed, he proceeded with the plan. He was going to have Veylorak devour Moros and then eat the monster from within with his {Abyssal Maw [S]} skill.

However, he would first launch Khaos at Veylorak with the new Ent cannon to test if the monster was immune to the void like Astralis. During this time, Moros had been lowering to the ground as per his instructions. The moment they passed below Kaida's defensive net, he saw a section of the earth in the far distance begin to shift, and magma started rising through the cracks.

Veylorak was incoming—fast.

Ashlock's view switched to the cannon room, manned by a small team of Mudcloaks. Khaos was already climbing into the large cannon, and the runically enchanted metal doors on Moros's underside were slowly opening, revealing the crumbling ground below as Veylorak got closer.

"Aim for Veylorak's side as he breaks the surface," Ashlock instructed. "If you fall into his stomach and he is immune to the void, you will never be able to get out, Khaos. Your one and only goal is to prove you can inflict any damage with a void-only attack and then get out of there."

He would simply launch a void lance at Veylorak, but when the monster had surfaced last time, it had been in a shower of magma that could block anything, even the void. It was like a natural coat of armor, perfect for stopping any attacks while it hunted.

That's why he had to send Khaos into battle directly with the new Ent cannon.

"Veylorak's coming—get ready!" Ashlock shouted as he tracked Veylorak's movements with his spiritual sight. Not a second later, the ground erupted like an unseen volcano going off. A wave of superheated magma lurched upwards. Only Veylorak's abyssal throat glowed as if it were housing a star in its depths.

They only had a second or two before Veylorak reached them. The cannon exploded, sending Khaos hurtling toward Veylorak. Using Void Step at the last second, she reappeared on the monster's tooth. Brandishing her void-coated claws, she sliced at the monster's flesh... and drew blood.

With Veylorak's ability to be harmed by the void confirmed, Ashlock simply allowed Moros to be devoured. As the monster's immense jaw began to close like a god sealing the sky, he saw Astralis punch through Moros's shields and leap out.

"I don't know what you're planning," he shouted down as he spread his wings to maintain height. "But there's no way you can survive being devoured by Veylorak."

Ashlock looked up at Astralis and laughed.

"Just you wait and see."