The air no longer felt alive.
The roots no longer pulsed like veins…they trembled as if something inside them were trying to break free from within.
The Mother Tree once purified mana.It was a source, a heart, a lung for the entire continent.
But now…
It was rotting from the inside.
A putrid, metallic stench hung over the clearing.The upper leaves had turned black and red, and a spiral of demonic runes crawled across the trunk like worms carving their marks into the bark.
At the center, leaning against the bleeding wood…
Bragoz.
The demon was half-buried in the trunk, as though the Mother Tree were devouring him while he, in turn, devoured the tree.
And that symbiosis was the most terrifying part of all.
Grisela struggled to breathe.
"He… he is the cause…" she whispered in horror."He… he drove us out.He turned the Mother Tree into this…"
Emily felt her heart tighten as she looked upon the devastation.
"The tree… couldn't contain mana that dark," she said softly."It didn't reject the elves…It was trying to save them."
Grisela clenched her fists, dizzy as memories of death, exile, and chaos flooded her mind.
"And we… thought the forest had betrayed us."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"It was all him…HIM!" she shouted, pointing at the demon.
Bragoz smiled, still fused with the trunk.
"You blame me…when I merely helped the tree evolve.Every forest should have a king.
And this one already does."
The roots twisted like hungry serpents.
Lusian studied the spiral of crimson runes climbing the trunk.
That…
he recognized.
"If we don't stop him," he said in an unusually grave tone,"the Mother Tree will stop purifying mana."
Grisela looked at him, confused.
Lusian continued.
"The forest will absorb demonic mana instead of natural mana.Everything that lives here…the animals, the plants, even you…"
"…will be corrupted from the roots."
Emily swallowed.
"How much time do we have?"
Lusian looked up toward the blackened crown of the tree.
"Hours.
Maybe less."
A frozen silence fell over them all.
Suddenly, a crystal stag—normally a peaceful and beautiful creature—stepped out from between the trees…
its eyes completely black.
And it attacked an elf.
The creature was twisted, breathing crimson smoke.
Elizabeth took a slow breath.
"It's already begun…The corruption is spreading."
Every minute Bragoz remained fused with the Mother Tree…
another creature would turn demonic.
And every demonic creature…
would attract more monsters.
It was a cycle that could not be stopped without destroying the demon.
Monsters began to arrive like a living flood.
Grisela shouted,
"FORM A LINE! PROTECT THE TRUNK!Don't let any more creatures get close!"
The elves fought with desperation.
They were not defending territory.
They were defending their soul.
Thunder charged into a group of creatures, scattering lightning in every direction.
Elizabeth raised partial barriers.
Dayana slit throats in the darkness, barely visible.
Emily shouted as she maintained a field of light.
"DON'T LET HIM COMPLETE THE CORRUPTION!"
And at the center…
Bragoz began absorbing even more sap from the Mother Tree.
The trunk groaned.
It bled.
It wept.
Lusian clenched his jaw.
"He's doing it…He's turning the Mother Tree into an Infernal Tree."
Grisela looked at him in horror.
"What does an Infernal Tree do?"
Lusian answered without mercy.
"It corrupts everything that breathes.
It turns a forest… into an eternal demonic nest."
Grisela stepped back, pale as snow.
"Then… if he finishes…"
Lusian nodded.
"The forest of the elves will disappear.
You will disappear."
Bragoz tore his arm free from the trunk, covered in black sap.
"I'm almost done.After this, there will be no more 'forest.'Only my domain."
Lusian raised his sword.
Emily stepped behind him, shining with light.
Elizabeth trembled, but stood firm.
Dayana licked the blood from her lips, ready.
Thunder tore at the ground with his electric hooves.
Grisela raised her bow.
The elves prepared themselves.
And Lusian whispered,
"We kill him…or the world you know ends here."