CHAPTER 29: IN THE FORT

As the scream of the Living Vine reverberated the memory began to breakdown and fade as Lilliana once more regained conscious control over her own thoughts.

That was a slightly terrifying feeling for her to go through, for during that memory she WAS the vine and she lived through countless years of growth and and the pain the creature felt as monther died, no. I shock my head, not mother the vines mother. It seemed it would take a little while to get her thoughts back in order. But for now she knew what had happened here.

It seemed like the Dryad from the memories was somehow being held within this garden seemingly against her will. But managed to find and grow this Living vine and treated it like a child to ease some of her loneliness. My heart broke slightly at the pain she must have gone through, the memories vivid and with meaning now she had her own mind back. She realised that the new creatures, no the soldiers in the fort above kept her locked away and used her as they pleased. She sneered and thought that the death that this Living Vine gave them was almost too kind.

But then she turned her head over to the dome of vines with a frown. So the soldiers did some kind of corrupting ritual on an egg, to do what exactly? And somehow this poor vine has been holding back the corruption for who knows how long slowly dying in the process all to follow its mothers dying wish. Tears were now falling down her cheeks but she didn’t wipe them away just yet, wanting to let her emotions flow for just a while longer.

She once more turned back to the core of the Living Vine and this time without hesitation wrapped her arms around it and poured Natures Touch into it to try and aliviate some of its pain. "There, there it’s going to be alright. I can help you now, we can fix this together." I whispered to the vine creature, I smiled slightly as I felt one of the vines gently wrap around my hand much as it did to its mother.

After a long moment and feeling my mans drop below half I pulled back slightly and took in a deep breath. "Looks like I’m going to need all of my mana regen to be able to do anything here eh." I say to no one in particular befor sighing and letting my dress dissipate feeling that extra bit of mana regen start to slowly fill me back up whilst maintaining my aura at its limited 2m radius. Least that bloody boon has its perks. I chuckle at that before sitting down with my back to the core whilst I wait for my mana to fill back up.

Some time later my mana is back to full and I stand back up and face the vine dome. "Ok big guy I’m going to need you to open up that dome and let me get close to the egg in a minute. Can you do that for me?" I ask of the Living Vine. I feel the slight wave of apprehension and reluctance but also a firm resolve. Nodding at that I start walking towards the dome.

As I get in front of it I speak up once more. "Ok please open up a hole me for to get to the egg please." And upon my words the vines start to peal away. It is only then that I realise what exactly the vine has done to keep this corruption contained. It has wrapped layer upon layer of itself over this egg, each time one layer dies it simply adds a new one on top. Because as soon as that outer layer moves out of the way I am greater by a mass of dead and withered vines fully imbued with the corruption. I graimace at that, the vine is unable to actually move any of these vines so I speak up once more. "I’m going to need to cut these away, I’m sorry if I hurt you doing this but it needs to be done." With that said I summon my sword to my hand and begin to hack away.

It is messy work the withered vines release a black icor when sliced my aura doing next to nothing on them, seeing that I decide to pull it back so that it only extends around a foot from my body and instead rey use Nature moulding to aid in creating a hole for me to get through. It works, kinda. But the dead and corrupted vines are heavily resistant to any manipulation by me so I soon drop that and instead resume hacking away.

Time passes slowly as I continually hack and slash slowly carving a hole big enough for me to walk through until eventually I send one more swing and find their are no more vines behind that. I carefully continue cutting away until I can at least see the egg in the middle and my heart nearly breaks again at what I see.

In the middle of this mass of dead and corrupted vines is a large egg around the size of my head, maybe a touch smaller. And wrapping gently around it is a single vine that sprouts from the ground. This singular vine is emitting a powerful nature aura that is holding off the corruption that somehow still seeks to corrupt the egg, but it seems like the vine has been pumping its everything into holding it back.

Gritting my teeth I step into the maelstrom of corrupting energy and turn my Aura of Life to its max fully unleashing my mana and letting it cleanse this discuting corruption. It is hard I can feel the malignant energies focus on me when I do this and it feels like a mountain is suddenly dropped on my shoulders sending me crashing to me knees. I let out a gasp of pain but I don’t hold back fighting to get back to my feet as I continue to push through.

I can feel the corruption being burned away but whatever force has allowed it to remain all this time fights back tooth and nail. I feel some of the corruption break though my aura and touch me sending bolts of our agony searing through me from the spot that it touched. A black wound sprouts from the point on my arm it reached and black veins begin to slowly expand from that point. The pain is unlike anything I have ever experienced. It’s like someone has decided that my very soul would be a fun thing to start smacking with a spiked mace. I send a pulse of Natures touch at the wound and it jolts its advance but that’s all I can manage for now as I continue to advance towards the egg.

The vine seems to also want to help as the pure nature aura it was releasing explodes out as if it is drawing every last scrap of energy it can to aid my in this moment, the pressure lessens and I take another step forward. The corruption falters and I can feel it continue to weaken, a grim smile spreads over my lips as I take one more step, now no more than a meter away from the egg.

The vine releases another pulse of nature mana trapping the corruption between the two of us and I take one more step. The corruption sensing its impending doom makes an unexpected play. Instead of erupting and just fizzling out like I would want it instead changes its focus entirely from the egg and instead focuses on the weakest link. Me.

All at once the vines nature expands but the corruption doesn’t care giving up ground it has held for countless years as it charges headlong towards me. I grimace and poor every last scrap of mana I have into my aura and scream as we clash.

My aura instantly buckles under the onslaught. But, it does not break. A few stray whips do mange to get through hitting my legs and arms causing fresh waves of agony to spread through me but the charge it broken and finally both my aura and the vines meet. Destroying the corruption once and for all.

Saddly for me though. I still have some corruption trying to kill me from the inside. I somewhat distantly notice that I am no longer standing and register that I am in fact screaming in pain but my mind is focused. I instantly reduce my aura to a low simmer making it extend no more than a few centimetres from my skin and instead pour everything I can into Natures Touch I can feel my mana reaching its limits the only reason I am able to keep going being my insane mana regeneration curtasy of my boon and ring that boost my mana regen.

I manage to halt the spread with this first move but that’s all I can accomplish right now. Wracking my head over what I can do I decide to take a gamble. I stop healing everywhere and instead focus my everything on the first spot of corruption intending to cleanse that spot first and I swifty manage to do so. I send a pulse of healing out halting the further spread and focus on the next spot quickly managing to eradicate that one. I repeate this process 4 more times until I manage to remove the final spot of corruption. My mind is a complete mess at this point my voice is wrecked from the endless screaming and my soul feels raw and cracked. As soon as I register that I have removed the last traces of corruption from my body I feel a brief swell of relief before my mind shuts down and I fall asleep.

I slowly come too who knows how long later. Everything hurts, and I mean everything, my body, mind and soul all feel like they have gone 10 rounds with a roided up gorilla.

Groaning I first look inside myself and send a pulse of Natures Touch through my body to get a better understanding of what my condition is. However, I notice something odd. Whilst yes that pulse does aid my acing body it also seems to relieve some of the pain on both my mind and soul, I feel the faint cracks close over and the headache lessen. Opening my eyes in supprise I am greeted by a couple of notifications.

[Congratulations you have successfully removed a source of concentrated corruption. For completing this feat whilst at Cooper rank your skill Natures Touch has been upgraded.

New skill - Touch of Life - Your dedication to healing no longer stops at just the body, you know that both the mind and soul can be injured and now you have the ability to heal all ailments.]

"Wow" I blurt that seems incredibly powerful, also exactly what I need at this momen. I let my new Touch of Life spread through me feeling my everything slowly coming together. I keep this up for a little while till I am able to function before sitting up and taking a look around me.

The egg is still being held by the vine but it is now only producing the faintest whist of nature mana and I whip my head around to look back at the core only to scramble to my feet and stager over to it. The core is now almost entirely black with corruption the vine having seemingly stopped fighting back in that last moment to pour everything it had into killing the external corruption but in turn leaving it open to its own internal corruption.

Reaching the core I place my hand to it and pour all of my mana that I can into Touch of Life but it cannt seem to take hold, my healing is akin to using a bucket of water to put out a Forrest fire. Sure it does some good but it’s simply too little too late.

I feel a sense of gratitude and acceptance come from the Living Vine with only a touch of saddness as if it knows that this is its end. I feel tears stream down my face as I revive these emotions as I redouble my efforts but it’s to no avail. Slowly but surely the vine is dying and deep down we both know it.

Before I can fully deplete my mana I am pulled away by a vine and it holiday me there whilst I feel one final surge of power from it spreading from the core down a vine and it rushes behind me towards the egg where it engulfs it bathing its charge in its last whips of power. As the blackness fully engulfs the core a whispered voice reaches my ears. "Thank you. Please protect the egg."

And then before my eyes the core crumbles to dust as the Living Vine passes away, mimicking how its mother did before by passing the torch of protecting the egg to the next generation. Admist the screams of emotional pain of the one the saved.

———

Whew a couple of heavy Chapters here. Sorry not sorry.

I hope you have enjoyed this mini arc so far! Please let me know how you feel about this lovable vine and how you’d feel about some darker moments like these past couple Chapters showing up every now and then.

Also place your bets on what the egg will be for!