CHAPTER 28: TO THE FORT (4)

As I slowly walked down the entrance to the valley my Aura of life expanded out reaching every vine with its radius and providing what aid I can to the ancient and weary creature.

With plenty of ground to cover and not wanting to rush ahead I decided to check my status to see what progress I made this past week from my nighttime activities. Body of Lust has to have some benefits right?

[Status

Name - Lilliana

Species - Elf

Age - 18

Titles - One With Nature

Boons - Magically malleable, Expositional Aid

Class - Druid of Lust

Stats - Mind 5~6. Body 4~6. Soul 6~8]

Seeing my new tile along with the advancement of my aspects brings a smile to my lips. Seems like sex is good to exercising both body and soul. Who would have thought! I assume that having my body moulded by Kana and then me undoing said mouldings each morning are counted as exercising the soul. Whereas the actual ’activity’ itself is for the body. And I’m guessing my mind has been improving slowly? Hard to tell exactly but that’s my working theory for now. Shall have to do lots more ’experimentation’.

Shaking my head at that I return my focus to the task at hand. I wonder what it is that has caused this plant to become so weak? If it’s centered from within the fort is it maybe something there that’s causing the issue? Maybe the fort was holding onto something dangerous and the vine was trying to contain it? I really don’t know but there is only one way to find out really.

And so I push on. The vines gently moving out of my way but staying close enough to gain as much relief as they can from my aura.

Once I leave the mouth of the valley and enter into the central bowl I stagger as I feel a outside force impact me, thankfully it seems to have been greatly reduced by my aura but I can feel it trying to reach me, to corrupt me...

Is this what the vine has been fighting all this time I wonder? Looking closer and expanding my senses I t seems to be the case the vines are slightly wilted and now that I’m closer I can see better and the closer to the Fort the vines are the worse off they look. I shiver at that as even here on the outside it feels like someone is leaning on me, trying to make me bend the knee, to give in.

I grit my teeth and square my shoulders, if this Living Vine has held on this long by its own strength and without an aura like mine to counteract the presence then how can I in good faith back down now and leave it to its fate. With my resolve firmed I take my step, then the next and the one after. Gathering back some momentum that was halted when first encountering this corruption.

The closer I get to the Fort the greater the metaphysical pressure I feel and in response I am forced to slowly shrink the radius of my aura if I want to not spend more mana than I regen. My dome recedes first from 10m to 9, then 8, 7, 6 and so on till by the time I’m in front of the collapsed and rusted gate I can barely maintain 3m of healing around me.

I also noted that whilst the vines this close happily take in what healing I provide and I can feel them regain their vitality it is like trying to refill a lake using a hosepipe, sure it might eventually work but it’s just not a feasible way to go about it. However now that I also close to its core I can start to feel the slightest whiff of, emotions? Comming from the Living Vine. At first it’s something similar to supprise but it morphs into concern and gratitude, this does return the smile to my face that had previously set in a grim facade thanks to the ever increasing pressure I face.

Stepping through the gate I can finally see the Fort from up close and it looks weathered, the stonework is crumbling the entire left side is partially collapsed. Deciding I may as well make my way inside I head towards the entrance, I do note that the double doors are broken down, but the concerning thing is that they appear to have been broken from the inside out as the doors are lying splintered before the Fort. And I cannt help but wonder why the occupants felt the need to break out of the Fort.

Shivering at that I grit my teeth and push on through the entryway. As soon as I pass that threshold the pressure remounts and my aura is pushed back one more meter, now down to 2m around me. It’s still enough to help the vines I walk past but it seems to do so little to help. Regardless I keep it going if not to help the vine than for its effects at reducing the foreign aura that is still trying to reach me.

Inside of the Fort there is a large entry room again covered in vines but they now appear sickly and withered. However despite their outward appearance they still move to show me the way. It really does seem like this vine wants to show me to the source of its issues so I can help it, this is something that I am happy to do. Now I m not being gullible and blindly following it as I can tell that this vine is truly desperate and its views me as its potential last resort to help it. And thanks to my continuous healing I have started to get a better sense for this creature and I can tell it truly is ancient.

My path leads me to the right of the entrance hall and to a set of stairs that lead down. Standing at the top of the stairs I can tell that the source of this corrupting aura is down there. Just as I can tell that the vine originates from this location too. With a deep breath I start to make my way down.

The stairs lead down to what was once probably a truly stunning sight it looks like a giant underground garden, circular is shale and maybe 60m in size. In the centre of the garden is what I can only imagine being the nucleus? Core? Of the giant vine, it is a huge thing nearly 4m tall and easily that in width. From it spreads innumerable vines yet the core itself is still visible what was once probably a vibrant green now looks sickly and have veins of black coursing along it’s exterior. But that’s not what catches my attention, no that would be dome of withered vines that makes up the far wall of this underground sanctuary. I can tell just by looking at it that the source of corruption is located there.

I first make my way carefully over to the core and gently extend my hand towards it, when I make contact with it a flash expands from the core and with it all of my senses leave me.

Visions flash through my mind at first impossible to make out but slowly they come into focus. Pushing away all sense of self as I am slowly immersed into them, as I become part of them. They seem to be the memories of this creature, as the first ones I see are of vines slowly sprouting from a tiny core no bigger than a marble a warm presence can be felt nearby but its senses are too immature to make anything out past its own body.

Time flash’s forward with the vines slowly expanding under the gentle care of the warm presence guiding it to take root in certain spots and nurturing it with its power.

More time passes and now the Living Vine has a rudimentary sense of sight within its domain of influence only about 20m or so at this point but within its domain I can now see another being, it looks like a woman but she is made entirely of pants and other flora. It is from her that the warm presence is comming from.

Again time flashes forward and now the vine has expanded to contain the entire underground garden, under the guidance of the plant woman it has integrated itself with the surrounding plant life never killing them but working with them to aid in a harmonious ecosystem. In this minor something new happens though. A round thing is brought within its domain and placed in a small nest that the plant woman guilds the vines to create. The plant woman then slowly pours its warmth into the round thing.

More time passes with this repeating. The plant woman seems to live here with the vine and she will regularly provide both it and and round thing with its warmth. Emotions have started to form within the vine now with it gaining a rudimentary intelligence, with this it learns the the plant woman is a Dryad and this garden is her domain and the vine was invited into it and raised to be her companion. The vine feels happiness when it learns this and works hard to support its Dryad mother.

A new creature enters the garden, many new creatures. The vine is unsure what to do as its Dryad mother seems afraid of them but is also telling the vine to not harm them. It is told to remove its vines from cocooning the round thing, an egg that’s what its Dryad mother told her it was. And so it does as its mother asks. But it doesn’t do so completely. The vine does not trust these new creatures as they feel wrong so it removes the vines on the surface but maintains all of its vines that have long since surrounded it from underground.

The new creatures start doing things around the egg using their wrong energy to draw symbols around it. Mother is looking panicked and is clearly upset by these actions so I extend a vine to gently grasp her hand to comfort her as I have done in the past when mother is like this.

The new creatures surround the egg and begin emitting their wrongness towards the egg than mother spent so long surrounding in her warmth, and the wrongness is overwhelming it. The new creature seem to be decaying? Becoming less alive as the wrongness around them grow a stronger. At this point one of the new creatures that is not in the circle grabs mother and starts to drag her towards the wrongness and before I can do anything it throws her into the circle where the egg is. She screams.

I react. All of my vines explode out aiming at all the creatures that are producing all of the wrongness. My vines strike true and I kill them all before anyone else can react. But nothing changes. The wrongness only gets worse, and mother keeps screaming.

I don’t know what to do but I focus all of my vines on the only other new creature left alive I slice, stab and sacrifice all of my vines to take it down as it fights back. All the while mother is screaming.

I manage to eventually overpower the new creature and I reach out to mother, the wrongness seeps into my vines but I don’t care I must get mother out. I manage to pull her towards my center but she it’ll still screaming. The wrongness is now in her infecting her body like it is with the egg.

Mother reaches out to me despite her screams and smiles then speaks. "Please my child. Protect the egg, its is our future." Then mother starts pouring her warmth into me but not like before. Now she pours everything she has into me I grow. And grown expanding outside of the garden into a space of stone and more of the new creatures I slaughter them all for doing this to my mother. Her warmth continues to flow into me and I keep growing I leave the strange stone and into a large open space at the same time I cocoon the egg once more ignoring the wrongness that tries to invade me. I must do as mother asked, and as for mother.

She looks up at me as I watch is horror as she continues to pour her warmth into me as she start to wither away. But she keeps sending me her warmth, I try to pull her away to signal her to stop but she just smiles at me and is unmoved by my efforts. Until eventually. She is no more, the last of her warmth enters me and the withers away returning to the ground that she spent so long nurturing.

It is now that I understand saddness for the first time and I too scream.

———

Got a bit dark there but i feel it was a good way to leave you all hanging. Look forward to tomorrows Chapter!