บท 61: Determination (1)
After walking inside the corrupted territory for a while, Sebastian finally noticed it. This was the same place that the ghost had chased him. He could tell because of the marks he left behind during his escape.
'Then, the ghost from that time was a soul? Was the reason why it was so hostile because it was casting that dryad's judgment?'
It would help if Balanos were here to inform him of the truth but what's done is done, Sebastian can't do anything about it.
Sebastian walked past the dead trees and plants. He hoped to see even a little life in such a barren place but it was futile. Forget even a sign of life, it actually felt like the trees were decaying even more.
"I wonder if this is still flammable."
The trees still had a lot of leaves, unlike when they're dead. But, the trunk, the branches, and even the leaves were dyed black as if they were burnt.
Sebastian held onto one of the branches with his left hand and set fire to it. It began burning just like a normal tree would but it burned faster and faster until there was nothing left but ash in just a minute. The flames went out along with the tree.
"What an amazing curse..."
It looked like the tree was just made with ash and the flames returned it to how it originally looked.
Still, it wasn't right to be impressed. If the curse were to spread even further, then forget the forest, even the town would eventually be engulfed in it.
Sebastian was about to continue walking but all of a sudden, the ground split apart and dozens of long whip-like objects shot out to wrap around him. Luckily, Sebastian's instinct helped him react fast enough to dodge.
"Roots?!"
The roots were of the same color as the trees and the ground, they looked burnt.
Sebastian was about to reach out for his spear and cut the roots apart but in a matter of compatibility, he couldn't swing the spear that fast. He needed something like a sword.
In the midst of his thoughts, the roots attacked again and Sebastian was forced to jump to the side once more.
"I guess this will have to do."
Sebastian ran towards the roots while brandishing his twin daggers that were aflame.
"Scorching Dance."
Just like before, the whole world seemed to slow down into a crawl and Sebastian walked through the attacking roots while cutting it apart as if he was dancing.
At the very end of his attack, Sebastian returned the daggers to their sheaths and at the same time, the roots fell apart.
"Where did those come from—?"
Before he could even finish his words, the roots stretched out from the ground even further and threatened to attack him.
"I can't waste any time here."
Sebastian took a deep breath and ran to the direction that he was heading for at the start. If the roots appeared because he was on the right path, then that meant he was getting close. Maybe burning the tree alerted the enemy of his presence?
After cutting apart the roots that got too close, Sebastian continued his escape. The deeper he went into the forest, the more roots appeared from the ground. Each set of roots could only go so far so after going a distance, they returned to where they originally sprouted from.
But he eventually reached the limit of his escape. The closer he got to the origin, the more roots there were and now that he was only a short breadth away from it, over a hundred roots were surrounding him.
Against a huge number of people, his spear would work best; against a good number of swift opponents, his daggers would swiftly be able to deal with them; against opponents at a distance, his bow could take them down before they got near. But, against over a hundred roots that were nearly as fast as him, he didn't have any suitable weapons.
'I can't call on Balanos yet. I need to get out of here on my own.'
Sebastian dodged the incoming roots while cutting apart as many as he could while looking for an exit. He constantly covered his body in flames as extra protection but they did little to nothing against the roots who moved so fast that just the wind their movements produce manages to take out the flames.
"If I go to one side...!"
Grazed by one of the incoming roots, Sebastian ran towards the direction it came from. If all the roots had to travel a distance to attack him, then if he went to one side, that side would be left open because of the attacks.
And just as Sebastian predicted, all of the roots attacked him simultaneously.
"Scorching Dance!"
ROAR
Sebastian's flames roared and swallowed the roots—leaving nothing but ash.
But, there was no time to dwell on his achievement. Sebastian enchanted his body to the brim and ran toward the origin of all this trouble—Ptelea, the hamadryad of the elm.
...
It didn't take Sebastian long to find the source. A few minutes after he passed the ensnaring roots, there weren't any more that sprouted out. It was completely devoid of danger.
In fact, he even had the leisure to walk.
"I can feel it. Is this because I have Balanos' soul?"
Sebastian hadn't realized it before. He was traveling in the direction of the origin since the very start. There was no doubt in his mind about the destination and now that he was close to the origin, he could even feel the presence of another dryad.
There weren't any big differences to his surroundings, it was just like the outskirts of the curse. The trees and its leaves looked burnt while the ground was dyed in black along with the grass.
If he had to point out just one difference, then it would be the overflowing miasma. The thicker the miasma, the harder it was to breathe. Sebastian even had to reinforce the barrier of energy around his body to alleviate some of the miasma's effects.
"...I won't be able to last for long."
Sebastian roused more energy in his body—at this point, he only had about half of it left—and then ran straight for the origin. There were no obstacles to stop him, he ran straight towards the source of all the miasma, the giant elm tree.
...
Although he couldn't see anything strange at the surface of the elm tree other than its size, his instincts—or rather, Balanos' soul told him otherwise.
"The tree wasn't here when I last came..."
How could a giant elm tree towering over the rest of the forest just appear all of a sudden? Not just that, its trunk was even bigger than a house. If Sebastian had to give a rough estimate, then it was easily around 500 feet, many times the size of a normal elm tree.
Not just that, why couldn't he see it from a good distance away? Was it because of the miasma?
"There's no use dwelling on it, the stigma is going to run out of energy soon."
Sebastian placed his hand on the tree and just like Balanos' tree, he was sucked right in after he was robbed of his sight.
What awaited him wasn't an empty room with a throne at the end but rather, an eerie place filled with wooden structures covered in vines and leaves.
"It looks like a large dollhouse."
Or at least, that's what he gained from looking around for a bit. It wasn't dark, there was a source of light in the sky with an origin he couldn't quite understand.
"An intruder has stepped into my sacred place, what is your business here?"
"Agh!"
A voice of a woman resounded throughout the entire area. It was so loud that Sebastian had to cover his ears but even that didn't block out the sound completely.
"This aura... Balanos? No, you're just housing a part of her soul. Has that idiot died already? Who are you?"
It took time for Sebastian to adjust after the voice stopped speaking.
"I'm the guy... who's going to take you down and dispel this miasma."
The voice snorted, "you and what army? Even if hundreds of you were to gather together, you still wouldn't be able to put a dent in my tree."
"You're probably right. I'm feeling chills just from hearing your voice."
"Then, why do you insist on this futility?"
"That's because I'm not the only one who's going to be fighting."
Sebastian wanted to try for conversation first but it was obvious from her tone that she didn't intend to stop corrupting the forest. This meant that he only had one thing left to do, to accomplish the task given to him by Balanos, to remove the anomaly in the forest and restore it to its proper condition.
"You better get ready to clench your teeth...!"
Sebastian roused his energy and summoned a huge amount of flame to wrap around his body and his bow. Then, he aimed at where his instinct was telling him to—the ceiling.
BOOM
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