Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Chapter 630: A White Void

Life was full of surprises.

Between the ages of 25 and 26, Elaine Voidmind had gone from an insecure researcher cast aside by her family to a Grand Elder of the Ashfallen Sect—now Empire. She had married a wonderful man and given birth to beautiful twins whom she adored. She prided herself as a teacher to the next generation of talent, worked to grow her mother a new body, and assisted with many other projects and battles from the sidelines.

In a single year, her life was incomparable to before.

Yet, despite all that, she felt like she was falling behind.

Stella was a cultivation prodigy and battle maniac; Diana had become an Archdemon and, through her clones, a vital part of the Ashfallen Empire's logistics. Then there was Magnus, Elysia, Kaida, Larry, Nyxalia, the Generals, and so many more incredible individuals surrounding her.

Because of this, Elaine had long accepted she would never be the first choice for battle in the Ashfallen Empire, as there were far too many fearsome beings in service to Ashlock already—and it wasn't really her thing anyway—but she still wanted to have the strength to protect those she loved, especially her children.

And finally, Ashlock had given her a golden opportunity.

"Cultivate for as long as you need inside the Eternal Realm to reach the Monarch Realm. Douglas is already inside, and I'll send in a select few after you."

A portal rippled open before her.

"I expect great things from you, Elaine."

"Thank you, Patriarch, for your trust in me. I won't let you down..."

As she stood there in the celestial fog of the Eternal Realm, spoiled for choice of pocket realm to visit, she was overcome with excitement and nerves.

Just a year ago, she had accepted that as a void cultivator, she would never surpass the Star Core Realm, let alone reach the Nascent Soul Realm. Yet she was now striving to reach the peak of power possible on the Ninth Layer of Creation.

After floating up and reaching the pocket realms that belonged to the Sixth Layer of Creation, one called out to her. It appeared as a white void through the shard and was overflowing with illusion Qi so thick she could taste it.

"This one seems promising," Elaine muttered and hesitantly grasped it, teleporting her inside.

What followed after entering the Eternal Realm was the hardest year of her life. She spent over 450 days alone inside a pocket realm of illusions. She had dreaded what awaited her in a pocket realm built on Monarch Realm-level illusion Qi, but ended up being pleasantly surprised. The white void was oddly accommodating, adjusting itself to her emotions.

When she felt lonely, she found her children waiting for her atop a hill of silver grass, giggling and reaching for her with chubby little hands. She spent hours playing with them, despite knowing they weren't really there. When she cried, sunshine warmed her, and when she tried to concentrate, the illusion Qi relaxed her with auditory hallucinations of waterfalls and the chirping of nonexistent birds.

Elaine knew none of these illusions were real deep down, but she didn't fight them, as it turned the white void into a relaxing paradise. Six months went by, and she was making amazing progress, as the illusion Qi was so pure that the whispers were easy to comprehend. She reached the ninth stage of the Nascent Soul Realm in record time and felt ready to form her Inner World—

And then she woke up.

The small voice in the back of her head, nagging her that something wasn't right about this place, had led her to eat an All-Seeing Fruit to quell her curiosity, and when she did, the true horror of the pocket realm revealed itself.

She wasn't sitting upon a hill of silver grass—it was human hair. "Ah?!" Elaine shrieked and threw herself into the air in panic. The hill was made of tightly packed humans, some of whom were still breathing. All of them were grinning as if in bliss with their eyes glazed over. Her stomach turned as she noticed that on the top of the hill were two child-sized fleshy tubes. Illusion Qi was layered upon them like a second skin, but Elaine could now see through it due to the All-Seeing Fruit.

I thought they were simple illusions of Hazel and Talon... I played with them and kissed them good night...

Bile rose in her throat, and her whole body trembled in disgust. How could she have fallen for such an obvious illusion? The Qi was purer and denser than her own, but that shouldn't have overpowered her mind to such an extent.

It took her a day to finally calm down and come to a horrifying realization.

Not once had the pocket realm forced an illusion into her mind. It didn't need to. It just showed her the things she already wanted—such as her children—and let her mind do the rest. Even knowing they were fake, she had sat with those illusions for hours because deep down, she wanted them to be real.

That was the lesson she had to take from this place. The mind was a person's greatest asset and their greatest weakness. It lied to itself all the time and believed whatever it wanted to believe.

I've been doing it backward until now. I create my illusions from scratch, like a painter, and then use my void Qi to force them into my target's mind.

It worked, but it meant fighting against her target's instincts the entire time. The pocket realm didn't fight anyone's instincts—it used them. An illusion built from the target's own memories and emotions needed no force at all. Their mind would defend the lie all on its own.

The effects of the All-Seeing Fruit faded, and the illusions came back somehow stronger than before. Despite knowing what lay beneath, the hill of silver grass and her children returned.

My mind wants this to be real over the alternative I saw.

Elaine didn't touch the hill or her children again. She spent the rest of her time floating in the air and rebuilding her understanding and cultivation base from the ground up. After another six months, she began forging her own Inner World and Domain.

Her ascension to a Monarch was about to begin.

***

Exiting the Eternal Realm as a Monarch many months later, Elaine had hoped for a warm welcome.

What she stepped out to instead was the end of the world.

Thunder that shook her to the bone boomed through the cave, followed by explosive flashes of light as endless lightning blasted the landscape, turning everything to molten sludge.

Elaine instantly panicked.

What happened? This is Ashlock's Inner World. Nothing gets in here—so why is there heavenly lightning? Her blood turned to ice. Hazel. Talon. Where are my children?

She rushed for the cave mouth and was hurled back in a shower of rubble as a bolt obliterated the entrance. Void Step carried her through the falling debris, and she burst out into the open sky, floating above ground that glowed like the surface of a dying star.

Her mind whispered that none of this was real—it couldn't be real. Perhaps she had never left the Eternal Realm, and this was illusion Qi playing a trick on her.

After quickly eating an All-Seeing Fruit, it was confirmed.

This was real.

Somehow, that was worse than the alternative.

Just what happened here? Why is Ashlock's Inner World under attack?

The sky held the answer. The All-Seeing Fruit allowed her to peer past the blinding lightning raining down upon Ashlock's Inner World, and where there should have been nine moons and clouds of desolation Qi, reality had been peeled open like a wound. A colossal eye of storm clouds churned in the breach, and from its iris the lightning poured down in judgment. She had seen heavenly tribulations before—had even passed her own mere days ago to ascend to Monarch Realm.

A tribulation was supposed to be a test by the heavens.

But this felt more like a war. The heavens weren't testing Ashlock; they were trying to destroy him.

Wait, if I can see the sky, does that mean Ashlock's Inner World is exposed? Her breathing was growing erratic as she tried to comprehend what was happening. I need to get out of here, find anyone surviving from the Ashfallen Sect and—is that Larry?!

A cloud of shimmering silver in the vague shape of a massive spider was coming toward her, utterly unbothered by the lightning it attracted. Eight eyes of divine gold peered down at her, and the cloud began to condense and take on a denser form.

"Larry!" Elaine called out and used Void Step between the lightning to reach him.

"Grand Elder Elaine," Larry said, his thick voice in the runic language barely decipherable over the roaring thunder and crumbling world around them. "Forgive the state of your welcome. Allow me to escort you away from this place."

Relief washed over Elaine. "I've never been so glad to see you. What is happening? Where are my children? Where is everyone?"

"They are all safe or in training," Larry patiently explained as he maneuvered to absorb the lightning for her. "Ashlock is simply ascending to the Monarch Realm and had to expose his Inner World to the heavens to do so. He entrusted me to escort those leaving the Eternal Realm during this turbulent time."

This is just Ashlock's ascension?

Elaine almost cried with relief as Larry brought her away from Ashlock's Inner World, and she saw Diana standing with Hazel and Talon in the courtyard of the White Stone Palace. They seemingly hadn't grown in the year she had been gone.

I suppose only a month or two has passed out here compared to the time I spent in there.

"Mama!" Hazel shouted cheerfully, running from Diana's side to hug her leg before she had even touched the ground.

"My precious Hazel, I've not seen you in so long!" Elaine reached down to pat her hair when Hazel suddenly transformed into the fleshy feeding tube from the pocket realm. Elaine paled, her hands trembling as the tube wiggled and called out to her.

"Mama, hug me! Hug me!"

Elaine froze in place.

The All-Seeing fruit should still be active, so why is Hazel a monster? Did I really leave that pocket realm, or is this all an—

A hand clamped on her shoulder, startling her.

"You alright, Elaine?" Diana asked.

"N-No, Hazel has become a mons..." Elaine looked down and saw her daughter's beautiful brown eyes staring up at her.

"Mama, hug," Hazel insisted, her arms raised as she impatiently awaited her hug.

Elaine hesitantly picked Hazel up. She was warm and excitedly wrapped her arms around Elaine's neck, burrowing her head into her shoulder. Elaine felt herself melt under her daughter's love.

Diana stared at her. "What did you see?"

"N-Nothing," Elaine gulped.

Diana leaned down and put her clawed fingers on Elaine's neck, making her tense. Diana closed her eyes, and Elaine felt something awaken deep inside her.

"You have a heart demon," Diana said calmly. "A really strong one." Her eyes opened, and Elaine stared into her gray eyes. "It's feeding off your emotions... and mine."

Elaine could feel the sentient darkness lurking within her soul as Diana seemed to strangle it with her mere touch.

"Can you remove it?" Elaine asked. Archdemons were known to control lesser demons, and Diana had devoured heart demons in the past.

Diana shook her head. "Heart demons are typically parasitic in nature, and removing them is universally beneficial, but in your case, the heart demon is fully intertwined in your Soul Cosmos. Should I remove it, it would be like removing your Nascent Soul." Diana removed her fingers. "I don't know what happened in the Eternal Realm. Perhaps you cultivated too hastily, got infected by demonic Qi, or suffered doubt during your tribulation, but you will have to live with this heart demon or start again from zero."

Elaine just stared at Diana, her mouth working but unable to form words. Her experience in the pocket realm flashed through her mind. She had learned that illusion Qi tuned to emotions and memories was stronger than illusions deliberately crafted and imposed on others. But how had that manifested such a strong heart demon?

"I'm sorry," Diana said. "I told Stella that you might be able to help her hunt down the Hollowed One, and she's on her way here to meet you, but it might be for the best if you avoid relying on your cultivation."

Elaine felt her world crumbling around her.

"No... please wait..." she whispered. "I can still fight..."

Elaine had finally reached Monarch Realm, yet Diana was looking at her with such a pitiful gaze. She would have to start from zero? After suffering in there for over a year to climb a single stage, Diana wanted her to become a mortal and begin anew?

It was too devastating to think about.

Diana's gaze suddenly turned distant and then snapped back into focus a moment later. "Stella found the Hollowed One and is fighting it in Floridawn."

Her feathered wings spread wide.

"Wait, take me with you. I can help," Elaine insisted. Heart demon or not, she had a domain that she felt would be useful.

Diana didn't seem convinced. "While that heart demon is integrated, it might eat you alive at any moment."

Elaine desperately thought for a solution, only for her gaze to land on Larry. "What if we bring Larry? That way, if something goes wrong, I'll be reduced to a statue."

"Fine," Diana said, clearly more worried about Stella than fighting Elaine.

***

The trio arrived on a rooftop in Floridawn and bore witness to a massacre. The smell of blood was thick in the air from the ravaged corpses scattered in the streets. Elaine had witnessed many things in her life, but this was by far the most horrific.

"They are eating each other." Diana said what they were all seeing. The people of Floridawn had seemingly gone mad with hunger as they tackled one another to the ground and gorged on human flesh.

At the center of it all was Stella, battling against a sickly, patchwork excuse for a human that had multiple arms, which regrew faster than Stella could cut them off.

Stella herself looked awful, with sunken cheeks and madness in her eyes.

"Larry," Diana said. "I need your domain before we head in to help Stella, and target all the mortals too so those still alive will revive when this is all over."

"At once, Grand Elder." Larry's body began to expand into a dome.

Silver ash swept over the city like a tide, and tiny ash spiders scattered in their thousands, burrowing into the mad and the dying alike. Elaine felt one settle around her own soul—and felt something inside her react at the intrusion.

Her heart demon curiously cradled the spider.

Just what are you, Elaine wondered. It didn't act like a heart demon.

"Elaine," Diana said, unfurling her wings. "I'll support Stella directly. Whatever you're planning to do, do it fast. Larry's domain will preserve the dead, but the living are still tearing each other apart, and Stella..." Her jaw tightened. "Stella looks like she hasn't eaten in weeks and is struggling to hold the Hollowed One back. Do you think you can handle this?"

Elaine grimaced as she looked out over Floridawn. Thousands of mortals in the streets, gorging themselves on their neighbors with tears streaming down their faces. Even from here, she could feel it now that she knew what to look for—there was a pressure radiating from the patchwork monster in the plaza, seeping into every mind in the city.

A hunger that burrowed so deep it infected one's soul with a hollow, gnawing certainty that you were empty and would always be empty unless you filled yourself with something. Anything. Anyone.

"Go," Elaine told Diana as an idea came to her. "Leave it to me."

Diana gave her one last measuring look—the kind that said "I hope I'm not making a mistake"—and shot toward the plaza to aid Stella.

Elaine floated higher and closed her eyes.

Alright, she thought, turning her attention inward, to the sentient darkness coiled through her Soul Cosmos. You and I need to talk.

The heart demon stirred, but didn't answer her.

Diana says I can't remove you. That you're woven into me, Elaine continued. Fine. Then you're a Voidmind now, and we are going to work together to save this city. Got it?

Elaine felt the heart demon shift its attention beyond her Soul Cosmos to the horrific situation occurring below, and it began to feel hungry, not for flesh, but for their emotions.

I've had this suspicion during the journey over here, but you're the reason my illusion Qi can be shaped by emotions, aren't you? Elaine thought. If that's the case, then prove to me that starting from zero doesn't make sense and work with me here.

Elaine spread her arms and activated her domain for the first time.

"Domain of the White Void."

Her Inner World turned itself inside out, and an invisible ripple of illusion Qi blanketed the land. It was soundless and edgeless, rolling over Floridawn like an unnoticeable breeze.

Then her heart demon made a move. It split itself into many tendrils and lurched through the void to thread into the minds of everyone contained within the area of her vast domain at once.

Elaine almost buckled over from the strain on her soul as the heart demon pulled deeply on her Qi reserves. Instead of resisting, Elaine decided to trust the heart demon, and it delivered.

Illusions birthed from the emotions harvested by her heart demon appeared in Elaine's mind. With a wave of her hand, she began to distribute them as best she could.

Down in the streets, a starving fisherman with his teeth in his brother's arm suddenly smelled his mother's grilled snapper, exactly the way she'd made it forty years ago, with char and salt. A weeping girl smelled festival dumplings. A soldier smelled army stew.

The mortals released each other. Stumbling, sobbing, they turned toward tables that weren't there and ate food that didn't exist—and their minds, desperate to believe, did the rest. Despite the Hollowed One's inflicted hunger, the mind's desire to feel sated was stronger than the hunger for dining on illusions, which was more filling than the flesh of their fellow humans.

Diana noticed the change in the humans around her and turned to look at Elaine with surprise.

Elaine smiled in response, but she wasn't done.

Heart demon, target the Hollowed One next. But make sure to infuse his banquet with the void.If he wants to devour everything so badly, let's watch him eat himself to death.

As commanded, her heart demon threaded itself into the Hollowed One's mind. The Hollowed One forced Stella and Diana back with its many arms and turned to look at Elaine with a creepy smile.

Elaine learned why when her heart demon delivered the Hollowed One's hunger to her.