Chapter 88: Lots Of Grasscutting

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

“I-It resonates with my mother’s technique so well! How?!”

“Well, I kind of… uh, copied it.”

“HUH?! Why would a princess copy a peasant’s shitty technique?!”

“It’s not shitty! It’s pretty alright! Now let’s mow down some plants! Grass Cutting is especially effective against plants!”

“Hah! Fine!”

Both fighters took the left and right sides, swinging their blades with practiced speed and cutting through everything in their path. Bright Sword Light covered their weapons and sliced cleanly through the surrounding vegetation and twisted roots.

Mongrel and Dryad also fought back fiercely, transforming into their gigantic forms. They defended Elizabeth and Reinhardt while tearing Nightmares apart or swallowing them whole.

Paragons surged down from the skies, descending in coordinated waves. They cut through the thick bark of the Vampiric Tree, weakening its defenses and severing branches and roots alike.

Elizabeth and Reinhardt approached the giant tree rapidly, swinging their weapons and slicing into its bark again and again, unleashing dozens of rapid attacks.

“Daylight… Sword Light!”

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

“Grass Cutting!”

SLAAASH!

“Gyaaaaaaahhhhh!”

The tree let out an agonizing cry. The ground beneath them trembled violently and then exploded outward. Large boulders flew in every direction. The massive tree began to rise fully upright, bleeding dark miasma from every wound as it hissed in pure anger.

Phase 2 had started.

The tree became fully active. It charged straight toward Elizabeth and smashed her into the ground with its massive weight and size.

CRAAASH!

“Elizabeth!”

Reinhardt charged forward without hesitation, cutting through the monster’s branches and successfully drawing its attention.

It was a terrible idea.

“Gruooohhh!”

Dozens of glowing red imps suddenly emerged from the tree and wrapped tightly around his body.

“A-Are you kidding me?!”

BOOOMMM!!!

All of the imps exploded at once.

“Shit!”

Elizabeth kicked the tree away with a powerful strike infused with Sword Light, cutting deep into its body and sending large pieces of bark and wood flying through the air. Using the momentum she had gained, she rushed toward Reinhardt and found him lying in a shallow crater, half-burned but still barely alive.

“Oh thank god you’re alive. You almost got Yamcha’d!”

“W-What?”

“Nevermind!”

Elizabeth quickly healed him, pulled him back to her side, and then called forth Paragon.

She knew that no amount of enhancement magic or ordinary shields would be able to fully protect him, so she made a different choice.

“Paragon, become his armor!”

Paragon nodded at once. The Incarnation quickly disassembled into individual pieces of living armor and rapidly reassembled around Reinhardt’s body, covering him completely. Only a small portion of his face remained visible through the helmet.

“W-What the…?! What is this thing? A Living Armor Monster? No wait…!”

“It’s an Incarnation. I am a Spiralwalker.”

“HAH?! A SPIRALWALKER?!”

Reinhardt was naturally and understandably shocked.

Spiralwalkers, after the End of the Apocalyptic Era, had become incredibly scarce and rare. Back then people would more commonly manifest Spirals of Madness by overcoming traumatic incidents and surviving infection with dangerous quantities of Fantasium.

That had not been uncommon because the world itself was slowly dying and terrifying beings crawled everywhere. The Dimensional Labyrinth had also been trying to devour the planet at the time.

But once that crisis was solved by Elizabeth’s parents and family, the existence of Spiralwalkers became incredibly rare. Aside from those who had already survived that era and were already Spiralwalkers, there had been almost zero sightings of new awakenings.

To normal people like Reinhardt, who had been born after that Era, Spiralwalkers were nothing more than myths and legends.

“Spirals…! Spirals are said to be the Source of Fantasium itself!” he muttered in disbelief. “O-Oh my god, I am touching an Incarnation! This is the best day of my life!”

Elizabeth had not expected him to act like such a fanboy about it, but she let the reaction slide.

There were more important things to address right now.

“GRYYOOOOHHHHHH!”

Such as the monstrous, cannibalistic Vampiric Tree that was currently devouring the entire forest to gain even more power.

Elizabeth charged her body with energy and also infused Fantasium into Paragon.

“Paragon, protect Reinhardt and help him fight!” she ordered. “Now, let’s go! Mongrel! Dryad, distract the monster!”

The two Nightmare Spirits nodded and charged against the massive tree from the left and right sides.

Massive tentacles wrapped tightly around its body while cursed chains began draining its nightmare essence. At the same time a new tree emerged as Dryad used her power as an Esper to unleash a potent telekinetic pressure upon the enemy.

The Vampiric Tree became slower and weaker under the combined assault, but it remained savage. It continued sending waves of Fruit Imps at them without pause.

Elizabeth quickly covered herself in Sword Light and reinforced her scales until they became as hard as stone. Then she charged forward in her giant dragon form.

“HAAAAH!”

Feeling the flow of Fantasium within her body, she rapidly divided it and sought out the Dragon Energy inside her, infusing it into her claws.

Even though she did not possess the skill itself…

“Dragon Claw!”

By reversing Demon Claw through Harmonious Chaos Reversal and fusing it with pure Dragon Energy, she created Dragon Claw on the spot.

“ROOOAARRR!”

She roared mightily and used her own claws like living blades. Combining Grass Cutting, Daylight Sword, and Sword Light, she rapidly cut through and mowed down hundreds of roots and branch tentacles.

The Fruit Imps jumped onto her body and exploded one after another, but they dealt no real damage to her incredibly tough scales.

“Weak!”

She roared again, charging energy in her throat before releasing it. A massive beam of pure light erupted outward, devastating nearly half of the tree’s entire body.

BOOOM!!!

But that was not going to be enough. The tree recovered quickly and charged back at her, knocking Mongrel and Dryad away before gathering energy of its own.

It fired a thick nightmare beam of its own!

Elizabeth charged forward at the same time. Reinhardt met her mid-air through the power of Paragon, which accelerated his movement speed dramatically.

“Elizabeth! Now!” he called out.

“I know!” she nodded.

Their swords split the Nightmare Beam cleanly in two. In the same motion they severed the massive tree into two equal halves.

SLAAASH!

The gigantic tree was completely split open. Its two severed pieces fell heavily to the ground, twitching weakly. Its core had been cleanly cut into two perfect halves.

The tree was enormous, at least fifty times larger than the others because it had consumed so many of its own kin.

“It’s done.”

Elizabeth let out a small sigh of relief and walked toward the fallen tree. She noticed that it was not disappearing. It seemed strong enough to remain as a solid carcass.

“Dryad, do you think you can…?”

“Eat it?! YES!”

Dryad seemed more than ready for evolution. She immediately began digesting the entire tree while carefully leaving the giant, split core behind.

FLASH!

It did not even take her half a minute to finish her massive meal and begin evolving. Bright light enveloped her body as a thick nightmare fog gathered around her, starting to transform her base appearance.

From a Rank 1 Nightmare Tree Seedling, Dryad evolved into…

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