Wraithwood Botanist

I heard the chime as Grask's body crackled to ash.

-

Congratulations! Scion Mira Hill has met the conditions to be promoted from Level 35 to Level 36. You've leveled up!

You have received two requests:

Information Request

Free Request | Grade: Diamond

Description: I seems like just yesterday I wrote, "They grow up so fast :')" Are you in a hurry to lose your humanity? You'd think so. And I suppose I should warn you that the old you would be disappointed and horrified by who you've become. So now that you're becoming strong enough to overpower people, you might want to think of strategies for how to win fights without killing. That said, start that path tomorrow. Murder Mode is great when staring down serious opponents—like right now.

-

I thrust my hand into a patch of smooth yellow ground cover and rooted my fingertips in the dirt.

Wood Wide Web.

A tidal wave of concentrated mana and neara pulsed through the ground, and this time, a human lit up like the North Star. The prick even had the audacity to be standing twenty feet away from us.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeew!" Brexton belted a protracted whistle and clapped twice. "I felt that pulse. Don't suppose anything's getting past that."

Aiden snapped on sight. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"What do you mean, what am I doing?" Brexton asked. "I'm doing my job."

"And you used me to do that?" Aiden asked, trembling.

"The fuck I need you for?" Brexton asked, throwing up his hands mockingly. "Mira was comin' here, with or without you. If anything, I saved you from suspicion. Now pipe down, kitten. The adults are speaking."

I studied Brexton cautiously. He had to be powerful if he had the balls to stand twenty feet away from the group that had just slaughtered eighty-something mercenaries. Kline was also circling Brexton with frustration, mortified that he didn't sense him—a coping mechanism.

"Did you get what you wanted?" I asked.

"Oh, yes," Brexton said. "I got what I came here for, but why stop at the minimum? I'm practically high on conspiracy, and it's not even three p.m."

"Well you're going to have to stop," I said. "'Cause you're either leaving or we're fighting. And as you can see, I'm not new to illusions."

Brexton grinned widely. "In~teres~ting. I am curious just how versed you are." He lifted his fingers, and I slowed the world down, watching them rise like a mortar launched at a firework show—preparing for it to explode.

Then he snapped his fingers at what felt like normal speed, and the entire world shifted into an alternative dreamscape, an endless desert with cracked clay ground. I could feel the heat and sand against my skin, and my throat became scratchy from the gusts of dry heat. It was incomprehensible, but this wasn't the first time I experienced something like this.

I snapped into battle mode, thrusting out my hand. The desert shifted again, this time into a simple world with multicolored shapes that recreated what I saw in Wood Wide Web. In other words, it was a visual representation of what I saw with my spell, represented with shapes with primary colors. It seemed like a simulation, CAD modeling software engineers used, or the landscape of early 3D video games.

Brexton was right in the center of that, represented as a bright red, human-shaped toy.

I unsheathed my machete and rushed \\to kill him.

"Counter Illusions?" Brexton mused as he dodged my strike with ease. His words came directly into my mind, and he spoke at regular speed, as though I didn't have Moxle Dilation active.

"That confirms it," Brexton said. His voice exited my mind and fractured, echoing everywhere around me. The heat spell and wind spells he was using disappeared, but a new and terrifying spell replaced them. One eliminated all smells around me, and the second muted all sounds except his voice. Now, we were in this bright video game-like world, and my sense of reality was breaking. Once the rest of my senses failed, Brexton shut the lights off as well.

I turned back and forth and found myself in a pitch-black void that stretched endlessly.

Oh hell no! I released an intense blast of raw mana to freeze out the illusion, and the normal world reappeared, exposing five Klines running in circles, Malo with his sword unsheathed, and Aiden, my family, and the Hellara in the barrier. And in the mere seconds it took to identify it, the void returned, eating the world slowly.

I turned and searched for Brexton, but I couldn't sense him—and darkness soon clouded my eyes.

"You're impressive," Brexton said from somewhere in front of me.

I activated Wood Wide Web, but it showed Brexton standing in twenty places at the same time—soul signatures identical. If that weren't enough, the whole damn web was corrupted. The soul signatures were uncorrupted, but all the mana signals the forest's plants were picking up showed us in a large city.

Did he hijack my spell? I thought frantically.

"But surely you don't think…" Brexton said strangely from behind me, "Ethat a year of training would prepare you to fight a master, did you?"

I turned and found Brexton in the void, his body captured in a theater spotlight. He was walking toward me with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

I whipped my hand, and a blast of raw mana shot at him. It cut straight through the void like the Misty Row mist, exposing no one. Just empty forest before the void swallowed it again.

I released a frustrated screen. "Just face me!"

"Oh, Mira…" I heard Brexton from behind me and tried to turn, but he wrapped his hand around my throat from behind, lifting my chin and holding him against his strong chest playfully—seductively. "You know that's not how we operate."

I tried to release a blast of mana to break his illusions, but a strange force rattled my mind—a mental attack. It made it impossible to think straight, and I instantly activated Mental Shielding. And I doubted he felt I would recover as fast as I did because he wasn't monologuing. So I took that moment to search for Kira.

I activated my soul core and felt the link two miles away. I visualized her moving from my location to hers, passing through two thickets, around a rock face, over ground cover and a small stream, before climbing a massive tree that she was waiting on.

Kira… I ordered. She spread her wings and prepared to fly, using her sword to pierce through Brexton's back—running us both through. I drank an Illyndra elixir during the chaos—

—I would survive it.

But just as Kira was launching off, a silver flash cut the void, and my whole body tingled with buzzing mana. It felt like ants were crawling over me, and Brexton's hands freckled with goosebumps.

"Enough." Molo stepped forward with slow, hypnotic steps, sword out with two hands on the hilt—a professional with no need for flash. His presence was so overwhelming that Kline simply stepped aside as he passed, afraid otherwise to move.

"Awwwww," Brexton groaned and released my neck. "And she was just about to reveal something exciting. I know it!"

I clenched my fist in frustration.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"You've done your job," Molo said, "and you've made your point. Leave."

"Aw," Brexton said, rolling his head. "But now you know I was behind all this. I can't just force people into soul pacts with you being all cool and such."

"Stop being a clown," Molo said. "If Hadrian was worried about this excursion, he would've sent the Dante to stop you by now."

Brexton clicked his tongue, turned to me, and unscrewed his flask. "You weren't supposed to hear that." He took a swallow. "Family politics. They're easy to misinterpret."

"Oh, it's easy to interpret," I said. "You played around with my family's life for your job—and he let you do it for the sake of politics."

Brexton paused, thought about it dramatically, and shrugged. "Okay, it's easy to interpret."

"Are we done?" I asked.

He nodded and took a drink. "We're done." he screwed on the flask slowly, deliberately—thoughtfully. Once he finished, he looked up and said: "On second thought, I feel it's only fair to warn you… I know you have a teacher."

An icy shockwave hit my body, and my legs turned to water. His words were both threatening and absolute.

"I mean, we all knew you had a teacher, but now I know you have a teacher," Brexton said. "And that information's gonna sell for a whooooole lotta money. Seems kinda mean, really, but a find like that? I can't make an exception."

"Why do you think that?" I asked.

He smiled and pointed at me. "'Cause you can't scan animated corpses."

My arms prickled with gooseflesh as Brexton turned and walked away cheerily, saying, "It was fun playing with you. Glad I'll never have to do it again."

With those words, he disappeared into the forest.

No one tried to stop him.

I couldn't stop him.

I couldn't even think straight. I understood how he figured out that I had a teacher, and there was no speculation on the matter.

I'm so fucked… I thought. I imagined I would be fine, considering Netheralis suggested I learn illusions and Reta taught me the strategy. But it was still a serious problem.

"Is it true?" Molo asked.

I glanced at all the people in my party.

"Yeah, I have a teacher — and that information could have a devastating impact on this forest—'cause my teachers kill invaders. That's how they keep it safe — that's why no one survives. Hint about any of this, and your soul will explode."

Invisible chains wrapped around their hearts; I could tell by the way they clutched their chests.

I released a frustrated sigh. I was going to tell them anyway, obviously, but Brexton…

I wonder if they'll kill him… I thought as I leaned against a tree and let my back scrape against it as I sat down. No… he knows I have one, but not who… they won't take the risk."

Brexton knew I had a teacher, but that could be anyone. Past harvesters, ancient rulers—sapient beasts. He didn't know Drokai existed, and there was no reason to think otherwise. The Drokai had evaded detection for tens of millennia—I doubted that would start a year after I arrived.

But there was a nagging feeling that there was something very, very wrong.

2.

Brexton stalked through the forest with a serene smile. Nothing was happening to him. Nothing. And that was amusing because he felt eyes on him. And that was the damnedest thing—'cause he couldn't sense a goddamn thing. The soul blending was absolute.

He stopped and looked around.

"You should kill me, you know," he said. "I may not be able to talk about you—but I can talk about Mira having a teacher—and people are gonna start probes and probes and probes until they find you."

No response.

"But you're not. And I'm kinda disappointed." Brexton took a drink from his flask and shivered. "And that makes me wonder, yeah?" he said. "Why wouldn't you? Sure, Mira would be fucked if that happened. My uncle would send the whole fighting force and wipe her out next year. But how does that affect you? Hmmm… Unless…" He grinned. "She's a bit special, isn't she? Bit useful? Bit worth protecting?"

He chuckled and shook his head.

"Oh how I look forward to the future." He took another drink and watched on, feeling slightly crazy for talking to himself till he neared the base camp, and the eyes disappeared.

"Excited indeed," he said, repeating: "Excited indeed."