Wraithwood Botanist-Chapter 214 - 160 - Harlock Forest

It took a full day of slow gliding over the Diktyo River before the River's dominion held no sway. Beasts charged us right through the water, and the spray from the river burnt Kline's skin and threatened his soul. So, we docked our boat and continued on foot, making our way through the mist.

The battles were intense—but Kline never stopped running. I sucked the tainted soul out of one beast with my bare hands, leaving it a bare husk. I manipulated the soul in another to make it attack its kind. Kira flew out and attacked the rest, and we moved on.

We ran into the guardian, towering over us two hundred feet in the sky, but since I had completed the crypt, it let me pass.

Completing these natural challenges made it clear that Brindle was never trying to kill me with this task. I was Brindle's student—the bearer of his legacy. Why would he give me a gift that a soulmancer couldn't obtain? Someone who wasn't his disciple could obtain?

He wouldn't.

This reward was a natural consequence of my legacy. To get to Lake Nyralith, I needed to befriend the Drokai, complete the crypt, and learn soulmancy. And for someone like Brindle, who spent sixty thousand years in Areswood, a task like this would feel like a significant goal or milestone. He probably expected me to complete it after a few thousand years—not on my fourth. freeweɓnovel.cøm

Yet there I was—living it—riding Kline through the mist, calming the tortured souls, and harmonizing the true demons lurking through the murky landscape.

It was surreal.

A whole day passed like that, and during the night, I harmonized our campsite — and sent warning souls to scare away predators.

The next morning, we left, and Kyro couldn't keep silent any longer.

"So he really fused with you."

I nodded. "Things must be serious up top."

Kyro took a swig. "Well, if they are, we're screwed. Yakana took a huge gamble bringing you here. And because of that, you're all we got."

"Will Lake Nyralith really help me that much?"

He nodded. "Got me to the Sixth Ring."

"You really can't tell me what it is?"

"Not unless you make it. If people knew of Nyralith, the wars would intensify and never end."

I dropped the subject and rode on.

It took two nights to make it to Harlock Forest, and I was glad Brindle's nostalgia made me feel comfortable entering it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have.

The forest was pitch black except for a milky white fog, which was always visible. It was as if you were entering the underworld, and had to mind your step to avoid trees you would never see. The only way to navigate it was to walk through soul sight, not just at eye level, but above and below.

"Get on my shoulder, Kline," I said.

Kline didn't act like a big man. He jumped onto my right shoulder—Kyro took my left—and we entered the forest.

Everything was simple at first. The forest was alive—I tamed it. But soon, the souls started mimicking life, and I walked into a pitch black tree after avoiding a tree made of souls.

I lifted my hand, and an entire "tree" twisted and warped as I gathered up the soul force in my palm. I then harmonized it and drank Diktyo Water to offset the topical poison on the tree I ran into.

"This is frustrating," I said. "Brindle would've just absorbed all the souls and put them into the plant life. I'm so weak it's pathetic."

"You say that all so casually," Kyro said. "This isn't a normal solution."

"Oh, it's not? Then do you want to tell me the a real solu—"

The trees around me twisted and shot roots and vines at me like spider webs. I dodged, using my machete to cut through vines before stabbing the ground and sending a massive nearan pulse that shattered the consciousness of the trees and made two of them fall, since the roots holding them had been ripped out of the ground. The trees cracked against other trees in the darkness, hitting the ground after a series of quaking booms.

Next came the birds and beasts. There was a horde of them in the distance that immediately started running toward us.

"You have to be kidding me," I said.

"You better start running," Kyro said nervously.

That's when I knew it was serious. I broke into a sprint as roots shot from the ground like worms and poisonous fruits fell like mortars.

The beasts flew after me, and as we ran, we got caught in a web of tangled vines.

Kline tried to jump off me to protect me, but I grabbed him. "Stop!"

"Mira!" Kyro snapped. "Release us! Otherwise, I'll have to—"

The beasts snarled as they charged at us in the darkness.

"Shut up!" I hissed.

We were stationary, flies stuck in a web.

"Mira, this isn't a time to experiment!" he yelled.

"Shut up!"

The beasts sensed his fear and charged with their guards down. Just as they were closing in, I stomped the ground and shot out a nearan pulse that triggered the lethal intent of the whole damn forest for three miles. It was like a minefield chain reaction. All the trees and roots and fruits and mycelium exploded around us, trapping every beast for miles around us.

It was a brutal cacophony. Dozens of beasts screamed in pain as the forest turned on them, and then we listened for five full minutes until they fell dead.

I harmonized the souls in the vines around us, and they fell on the ground limply.

"That… was fucking reckless," Kyro said. "Seems Brindle didn't instill common sense in you."

"Common sense? What would you have done?"

"I don't know," He snapped sarcastically, "I'd probably…" He stopped himself. "Unless you want Reta to kill you, you won't ask me that question again."

I grunted in frustration and created a nearan pulse to make the trees go limp. I still didn't know how to deal with the soul illusions with my current power, but I could handle the biota.

That was a plus, at least.

"I'll figure it out," I said, but I never did. Some people would probably spend weeks here, figuring it out, but it was easier to just brute force my way through.

That night, we camped in the forest, and I almost lost my shit when we lit a fire, and it swallowed all the light. We could see the fire, but it didn't so much as lighten up the rocks around it.

"This is some bullshit," I said.

Kline snuggled up on my chest uncomfortably. I watched the forest with Wood Wide Web that night in a sleep-like trance.

Six hours later, we moved on.

It was about twelve hours into the next hike when the darkness finally broke. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. We just took one step, and we were back into the sunlight of a completely different forest.

Or so we thought.

I released a mana pulse, but the world absorbed it. The pulse didn't extend like usual. It just disappeared.

"It just absorbed it…" I muttered. "It's like that fire."

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No matter how bright the fire was, it didn't penetrate the darkness. The same was true with my environment—all the mana my first evolution core couldn't dent Reta's third-evolution magic. It was like trying to break a brick wall with a bouncy ball. "At least I know I'm in an illusion."

I said that like it was a good thing. Once I realized that, I turned back to the forest.

"Alright, back in," I said. "I need real sleep before dealing with this bullshit."

No one complained. We went five feet into the forest and took shifts as we slept. I thought it would be difficult, but it was suspiciously easy. Mere minutes after closing my eyes, I drifted off and fell into a deep sleep.

—

I woke up in the Fourth Ring, five miles west of the Bramble's "Mouth," the plaza where the harvester elites made camp. It was an impossible distance from the top of the Keliam River.

I didn't wake alone. Kyro was gone, but Kline was milling about nervously. He was sniffing the air. It was hazy, and it smelled… off. Smokey even.

"What's that smell?" I muttered.

I tried using a mana pulse, and it absorbed it.

Still in an illusion… I thought.

I tried Wood Wide Web, and my eyes dimmed. "This isn't far from the freeters…" I walked forward and saw the artificial river I made when I was leading Kal to his trap. I looked at Kline. "Does it smell the same?"

He frowned, as cats do, and when he looked up, I saw the sky was gray and a bit black. But it didn't smell like rain. It smelled like smoke.

"Do you think she could mimic Wood Wide Web?" I asked Kline. "That would be ridiculous, right?"

He didn't look so sure.

I sighed. "Lithco."

Static silence.

"Can't recreate that one, huh?" I muttered as I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of the smoky air. "You know what I hate about illusions, Kline? It's that you can't determine fact from fiction, so you become paranoid and distrustful. And the worst part is that even when it's over, you don't think it is." I sighed. "Let's get this over with." I pointed at three trees. "Datura. Metel. Stramonium. Inoxia. Cut the tree to match the one mom freaked out over."

Kline huffed. Then he pounced at me—scratching my face. I cried out in pain and touched my bleeding cheek.

"Hey! I was trying to see how Reta reacted, you little shit. You're obviously not a problem. You're so loyal that making you betray me would shatter her illusion. Illusion or not, you're my rock."

He stared at me with a panicked cat blush.

"Oh, come here."

He immediately looked away.

"Please."

Kline huffed. Then he Warp Stepped to my ankles. He rubbed each between warps like a glitching hummingbird.

Then, he tried to run away, but my Moxle Dilation had increased even further, and my cat lady reflexes allowed me to grab him. He yowled and wiggled and then accepted his fate as I hugged him like a tiny child.

He obviously enjoyed it.

I released him and then turned to view the whole area.

"I want to make something clear, Reta," I said. "I've already made it clear to the guardians—my family comes first. So if you're gonna test my loyalties, you better do it the right way."

"As opposed to what? The current way?"

I turned and saw Reta sitting on a branch.

I squatted and picked up a stone, checking its weight, hoping that my muscle memory improved my pitching skills as well.

"Alright, let's hear it," I said. "What's going on?"

"What's going on? You can't feel it? Guess you didn't get his senses, after all."

I sent out a nearan pulse, and that's when I felt it—The Bramble.

"It's burning…" I muttered in horror. "What happened?"

"Oh, you mean aside from constraining all the birds and vraxle, then telling the forest to stand down? Did you even think of the trees you used to constrain the birds? You killed half the population, constricted the vraxles, and then relaxed the forest—and you think no one would notice? Galfer's Gate lets people see treetops for thirty miles."

I looked to the forest and back. "So what? They just walked through the gate and started burning it?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what happened. Go look."

I activated Cloak of the Predator and flew into the sky. What I saw filled me with horror. A fourth of The Bramble was pluming with acrid smoke that blocked civilization.

From my vantage point, I could already see a full army milling about in The Mouth.

"I need to stop it…"

I lifted my hand to reactivate the Bramble, but Reta said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

I looked down. "Why?"

"Because your parents are being held hostage in the center of the pathway. If you activate The Bramble—it'll kill them."

Her words lanced me with hot blades, targeting every ligament in my body and leaving me unable to move or think rationally.

"Reta, I swear to God. If you're fucking with me right now, I'll—"

"You'll what?"

I glowered at her.

Reta yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Here, Mira. I'll make you a deal: If you can beat me, I'll save your family, decimate the invaders, and spend the next decade replanting the Bramble."

I wanted to call her bluff and attack her—but I wasn't ready.

I was fighting a third evolution entity at the absolute peak of her craft. And when Yakana was at the peak of the fourth evolution, he created a colossal canyon that cut through the Kana mountain with a single arrow. I didn't stand a chance.

I seethed at her. "If this is an illusion…"

"You'll what? You keep making all these implied threats, but you can't touch me. If I wanted to, I could kill Kline and go back to sleep."

I wanted to threaten her with burning down the forest, but it would only vindicate her position. I wouldn't even be able to move.

"Why aren't you helping anyway?" I asked. "You are loyal to Brindle, right?"

"Is that what you think?" She fluttered back down to the trees, and I followed her.

"If not that, then what?"

"I'm the guardian of Lake Nyralith," Reta said. "That's what I've always been. Brindle created Harlock Forest to protect it. In exchange, I helped him create Misty Row. But that didn't change my position. I have always been, and will forever be, the guardian of Lake Nyralith—nothing more."

"So what? You just don't care about this forest? You'd let it burn when you could casually save it?"

"Casually? You think that a mysterious force can casually eradicate a force under military eyes? If I did that, it'd prove you're getting help. If that happens, people will stop seeing Areswood as a mysterious, unconquerable force and start seeing it as a forest of enemies—and enemies can be overcome."

I gritted my teeth.

"Then there's you," she said. "If you casually walk into the Bramble and start using it to kill people while everyone's watching, you'll have every grieve and Glave in the multiverse coming down to kill you for being a soulmancer. If that happens, you better hope you can bring your parents back with you to your little village tonight. Because if you don't, the Glaves will torture and kill your parents for birthing a soulmancer."

I balled my fist, anxiety crashing through me.

"Reta. If this is an illusion, you could seriously fuck up my head forever. And there goes your guardian."

Reta lay on a branch and rolled onto her side. "Whether it's an illusion or not, you'll face it the same. This is life, Mira. If you can't handle it, you shouldn't be a guardian."

"I hate you."

"Do you really think I care?"

"No. I don't think you care about anything."

"I care about Nyralith—just like you care about your family. If you're so concerned about Areswood, activate the Bramble. That's what's best for the forest."

"That's not the same thing!"

"Yes, it is. The only difference between you and me is that you think you can do both."

I lost my cool and swooped down from the heavens, crashing into the ground like an asteroid.

"Illusions or not, our parents are in the Bramble," I said. "And we don't take chances with family."

Kline nodded and grew to his panther form, and I mounted him. Then we blinked through the forest at insane speed, catching up to The Mouth of the Bramble.

A hundred people were camped out in front of it, waiting for me. I saw them and had second thoughts about killing them. I didn't want to kill anyone. Kline might not have had such sentimentalities, but I did. Even killing the Cackling Kings weighed on my mind.

They broke your rules, I thought. They took your family hostage.

"Kira."

Kira separated from my body and kept back.

"Kline."

Kline's body separated into five, and I multiplied his four clones into fifty. Then we blasted out of the forest, fifty Klines mixing like the shell game as the legacies screamed.

"Wards!" one screamed. Five ward barriers shot up. One even cloaked the area in a pitch black shield to prevent Nymbral from blinding them—but I didn't need it to blind anyone.

"You better pray those work!" I pulled out Nymbral and charged up an arrow. "Close your eyes!"

Kline shut his eyes and turned as the strongest arrow I could make after threading third evolution cores ripped across the ground. It was far stronger than the one that killed the torok during the second harvest. It hit the wards with an explosion of light and ripped right through them. It was so bright that once it broke through the sensory deprivation ward, it blinded everyone on the other side.

The barriers reformed, but Kline and his four clones Warped Step through it before it closed.

Everyone was at least partially blind—we held dominion.

I cut down everyone I saw with my machete and Moxle Dilation. Those I didn't touch suffered from Dreamscape. I copied everyone and made them appear like they were blind, screaming, and shooting randomly. Dante guards were overwhelmed by the light and speed of events, so they cut down the weaker guards in a blood bath. I charged up a hurricane arrow in the chaos and pointed it at the Dante guards.

They dodged, but the blast shot water pressure that sent them flying in multiple directions.

Kline was waiting for them.

With his One Beast Army, he didn't have to worry about dying. So his clones Warp Stepped from all directions, using Phantom Claws to cut through them.

I then rushed through the battlefield like the cavalry in Civil War reenactments, killing everyone I saw. The battle was so fast, vicious, and confusing that the writing was on the wall.

Victory was assured—

Until he arrived.

Thousands of ice spears formed above us, glistening prisms on the ground. I looked up, and then heard a smooth voice say:

"I've been dreaming of this day."

The voice belonged to Hadrian Dante.

----

Author's Note: Hey guys! Long chapter to make up for the missed one yesterday. A lot is going on.

Wraithwood Book 1 is getting published on Amazon and Audible on June 3rd, and I'm releasing another novel to promote it. And rejoice! There's a whole other Wraithwood book in production! There's cool stuff to come.

As for my promoting series, I'm wondering which you'll be interested in, so I've posted fifteen chapters each.

There's Derek's Dungeon Depot — an Isekai where someone is accidently summoned to another world, only to team up with a criminal pixie syndicate to transform a lawless dungeon tavern into a multi-story vice icon. Aethon blind-signed this story for three books on Chapter 10. It's fun.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KZ-Nuo26TKxFcwbPIPQT7-MFSqSme2L62aMucsOZecQ/edit?usp=sharing

Then there's Rebirth of the Immortal — a Xianxia of an Immortal who dies and is reborn in the body of a crippled cultivator. It's hardcore progression fantasy as a paragon obtains resources, and uses alchemy, arrays, and other advanced techniques to heal his cultivation and scale the three heavens. If you itch for progress, this is a series you'll enjoy.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NfQ2SQ2064iJ6b2gSbN12_O_hxeP5g2luVQiDjATCaY/edit?usp=sharing

I have a book macro revised for each, so whatever I don't post first, I'll let the others read the other!