Novel Full Chapter 1389: A Settlement Under The Tree
Chapter 1389: A Settlement Under The Tree
My girls were basically just having fun with the creature and dragging the fight out. Sometimes they would just let themselves get hit on purpose and I would heal them immediately.
Well… I’m just happy that they are having fun so I didn’t complain.
Eventually, the Abhorrent Enforcer toppled onto the ground with a loud crash after an ’arduous’ fight with my girls.
Seeing that no other Abhorrents came charging towards us after we killed it, I think we succeeded in selling our performance to make them believe we were struggling against this creature instead of steamrolling it like we could.
With the way cleared again, we continued towards the tree unhindered.
There were still Abhorrents in other parts of the ruins but we avoided them and just took the easiest path towards the tree itself.
But as we got closer to it, Lisa suddenly stopped.
I was wondering why when I looked out to see that at the bottom of the tree itself, in between two giant tree roots, was what looked like some kind of fort that had been built there.
There was even a palisade that had been erected to keep intruders out.
Unlike the ruins that we had just walked through, that fort looked to be quite well maintained and was also of a different design than the ruins, indicating that it might have been built by a different group of people or in a different time.
But… Why did Lisa stop walking when she saw that?
I looked back at Lisa, “What’s wrong?”
“That… There’s people living here?”
I looked back at the fort, “Is it impossible for people to live here or something?”
“The longer you stay in this area, the more you get affected by the mutation even if you aren’t dead. You might start seeing tree barks growing on your skin and it will start to take over your body before turning you into one of those things… The first group of people who ventured into this place to try and clear out the Abhorrents found out about that the hard way… Thankfully the process is reversible but if you get completely taken over… There is no going back. So for people to live here and also settle close to the tree… That’s suicide.”
“So… Could it be that everyone in that fort has been mutated into those things or something?”
“It doesn’t seem like it… I would assume that the place would have fallen to ruin just like the ones we walked past if that was the case… Yet this fort seems to be doing quite well… And look, you can still see light inside as well.”
That’s true…
“Should we check it out then?” I asked.
She nodded so I led the way towards the fort, trying to get closer to the structure.
But I only managed to take a few more steps before I stopped, this time because I felt there was something in front of me.
I don’t know why but my instincts were telling me that there was something blocking me in front and if I were to take another step, I would run into it.
And it wasn’t just a wall I was running into either… But something else.
“Mistress? What’s wrong?” Katsuki asked.
Instead of answering, I took out a piece of wood that I got from cutting down some of the trees earlier and tossed it in front of me.
The piece of wood sailed through the air and landed a few feet away from me with a soft thump without anything else happening to it.
All my girls were just standing behind me and watching me wordlessly without saying anything, waiting to see what I was up to.
Even though nothing happened to the wood that I just threw, I still did not continue forward.
Instead, I took out another piece of wood from my Bangle of Folding, but this time it was a piece of food originating from outside of this forest that was meant for firewood when we set up camp.
I then threw it in front of me again and instead of landing on the ground normally like the wood before it, the piece of wood stopped in midair just a few steps in front of me and a dark red mist surrounded it before ripping it into shreds.
The pieces of the wood then reassembled itself in front of me while the red mist flowed into it, slowly shaping itself into the shape of a figure which the wood started growing into.
Soon enough, what looked like a wooden figure with dark red vines and sticks growing out of it was standing in front of me.
The figure then slowly turned its head which was just a slab of wood above its torso with no facial features before it reached out one of its arms as though trying to grab me.
I leapt back before shooting a [Fire Blast] at it, completely engulfing the figure in flames.
A soft groan came from the figure as it was consumed in the flames before its remains crumpled down onto the floor to turn into ashes.
All of my girls were looking down at the pile of ashes that were in front of me which were then blown away by a gust of wind.
I turned back to look at my girls, “So… That happened… I think there’s some kind of aura around the tree that is… Well… Causing that to happen.”
I gestured at where the ashes had been before it was blown away by the wind.
Lisa narrowed her eyes at the ground, “How curious… I’ve never heard about this before…”
“I’m assuming that this barrier wasn’t here before?” I asked.
Lisa shrugged, “I mean… I haven’t been here for years so who knows? But I definitely did not hear about this before when I was still here… Though it could also be just because no one came this far and made it back to tell anyone about it…”
Well… Considering the fact that it isn’t that hard to even get here to begin with, I don’t think that was the case. So that means this probably only appeared recently or something.
“I guess we can’t really go closer to the tree now, can we?”
Ira tilted my head at me, “I mean… Would it affect us though? I’m pretty sure that we are more durable than a piece of wood, right?”
I sucked in a breath, “I’m not willing to risk any of you though… Hmm… Let me see… Let me just… Funfundzwanzigtausendzweihundertzwanzig… Could you help us out here?”
The Shadow Guard I named after the number twenty five thousand, two hundred and twenty appeared in front of me and started walking forward without me needing to give her any orders.
She only had to take two steps forward before the same red mist started to surround her.
The Shadow Guard looked down at herself and I saw parts of her hand started to flake away while the red mist clung to her body.
Red vines then started growing out from her arms and the parts of her hand that had flaked away started getting replaced by wood instead of flesh.
I was just about to tell her to come back from there when I felt my mana flowing into her through my connection with my Shadow Guards.
White light then flowed out from her chest and when it touched the red mist, the mist was pushed back and the vines that had been growing out from his limbs disintegrated and flaked away.
Even the parts of her hand that had been replaced by wood were also flaked away and her hand returned back to normal as my mana worked on fixing her.
But even as she stood there, my mana was still being drained into her to keep the red mist at bay as even more of that red mist started gathering around her, as though whatever was trying to change her was insulted by the fact that it wasn’t working on her.
The amount of mana being drained from me was quite concerning and I think at best, I could only keep this up for a few minutes at most before my mana would be completely drained.
And since my Shadow Guards were basically similar to me… I would also be facing the same problem if I was standing there.
I immediately recalled her back into my shadow and the red mist drifted around angrily for a moment before it disappeared.
“Yeah… Not happening, we’re leaving. This is not worth it…” I decided, taking a few steps back.
There’s no way I’m putting any of my lovers at risk here…
I turned back to them, “We need to report this though… Someone has to know about this… And the fact that there’s people living there means this is even more suspicious than just some kind of weird aura being around the tree… We’ll head towards the city and see if there’s anything else we can find.”
No one else objected so we decided to proceed with that plan.
Now I’m wondering… Was this why Immana sent me here? So that I can find out about this and deal with it?