Reborn as a Demonic Tree-Novel

After watching Stella tour the city for a while, Ashlock switched his focus back to Red Vine Peak.

The day of reckoning was soon upon him, and he started panicking a little. The tournament's main event was set to begin tomorrow afternoon, and he had yet to devise a solid plan to counter Dante Voidmind's invasion.

Information about the invasion was lacking, and so were his options for counterattacking such an attack due to the destructive power of void Qi, which made anyone who cultivated it challenging to defeat as it didn't really have any counters.

"If it's just Dante Voidmind attacking, I could defeat him with {Consuming Abyss} or send Bob to defeat him." Ashlock mused, "I could even tell the Grand Elder to try and wear him out, as once Dante is out of void Qi, he will have no way to replenish the spent Qi."

Ashlock knew he could win in a battle of attrition with his immunity to void Qi and his ability to acquire Qi through devouring monsters and from his vast network of trees. The issue was the location of where the invasion would take place.

"I had some suspicions of why Dante would wait until the finale of the alchemy tournament to attack, and now it's so obvious. He doesn't want to waste his precious void Qi so he needs a location where many of the Redclaws are grouped together so he can threaten them all at once. He also needs a stage where he can force the Redclaws to surrender the city to him in front of all the other noble families present to make it more official."

Ashlock was at a loss. Should he cancel the tournament to deny Dante the stage he desired for his invasion and risk the Redclaws losing face or angering the other families present?

"If it was just Dante Voidmind and nobody else, and there was no risk of angering his family by killing him, then crushing him wouldn't be too much of an issue. However, if he brings multiple Voidmind Elders, Stella's safety alongside everyone else at the colosseum will be at risk." Ashlock mused as he absentmindedly watched the mist swirl around the wall of demonic trees encircling him as he tried to think of a way out of this.

But he was broken from his wandering thoughts when he felt a wave of pain through the root network.

He had naturally tuned out most sensations as ever since he became fused with all of his offspring, he had been bombarded with a mixture of emotions and pain.

Sometimes some kid from Darklight City that doesn't know any better would hang off a weak branch of one of his offspring, causing it to snap, which obviously made the demonic tree cry out to him in pain. Other times it was a monster or animal that would lean against a tree out in the wilderness, causing it distress. All these were such minor things that Ashlock didn't have the time or resources to try and solve all these problems, so he simply ignored them.

But this time, it was different. It was a hot, sharp pain like someone stabbing a knife into his foot, so his vision blurred as he went to investigate. To his surprise, he found Elaine in the garden of the Voidmind mansion, quickly carving runic words with her nail into the exposed root of a demonic tree that had snuck under their wall.

"If only my roots were considered part of my body and were immune to void Qi like my trunk." Ashlock hissed as he tried to ignore the searing pain, "Then this wouldn't hurt so much. What is she even doing?"

Curious, Ashlock tried to read the words carved into the fused root between him and his offspring.

Skyrend mansion was destroyed by Void Qi... Dante speaking to Theron. Brother thinks the Elder is back and learned a way to ascend. My family wants Darklight City, so they will be allocated more airships to evacuate the beast tide.

"Wait, what?" Ashlock reread the words to make sure he wasn't misreading them. "The Skyrend mansion was destroyed by Void Qi? Unless it was someone from the Voidmind family, Maple is the only one I know who can use void Qi. And what's this about airships?"

Ashlock debated using {Progeny Dominion} to take over the tree right next to the wall so he could talk to Elaine directly with {Abyssal Whispers}. Alas, he wanted to save the S grade skill for tomorrow, and Elaine was unlikely to withstand his telepathy without the help of Stella's Mind Fortress pills, so that wasn't a smart idea.

Before Elaine could write any more ancient runes, she stood up as a guard of the Voidmind family was approaching from behind.

Elaine nodded and followed the guard back inside the mansion that Ashlock had no way to peek inside. However, by casting {Eye of the Tree God} and looking from above, he could see Theron leaving the mansion's grounds with a deep frown.

The giant man didn't say anything on his walk back to the Skyrend mansion, which was a few roads away. Once he arrived, Ashlock was baffled when he saw a large hole directly in the center of the mansion, as if a god had come down and pulverized it.

Through the hole, he could see most of the main room within the mansion.

"Marble statues... really? They seemed like they had never stayed here, yet there are statues?" Ashlock was a little happy to see a few of them had been damaged alongside the massive gashes on the floor. He didn't like them after hearing and seeing how they had treated Stella.

"This definitely looks like the work of Maple," Ashlock sighed, "But what prompted that nightmare squirrel to attack the Skyrend family?"

Ashlock quickly glanced over the city but was unable to locate Stella. Returning his view to Red Vine Peak, he was about to ask Larry to go find them when he noticed Stella was lounging on the bench under his shade and feeding Maple-roasted acorns.

"Stella never buys Maple acorns," Ashlock became very suspicious.

"Did you send Maple to attack the Skyrend family?"

"I see... did you know Maple destroyed half the Skyrend family's mansion?"

Having finished the last acorn and seeing Stella wasn't giving any head pats, Maple sprawled out on Stella's head and fell asleep.

Seeing Maple's exhaustion, Ashlock could only lament that one of his trump cards had been seemingly wasted. "There has to be some way I can use this situation..."

Ashlock thought back to the words Elaine had written on the root. "Dante apparently thinks the Elder has returned... is that because of Maple's void Qi? Hmm... I'll ask the girls."

"Hey Stella, I got some news from Elaine—"

Diana seemed unresponsive as she was deep in meditation, so Stella opened a portal beside the bench and put her arm through to poke Diana.

Ashlock watched in amusement as Diana's eyes opened, and she glanced around in confusion while rubbing the spot on her cheek where Stella had poked her.

"Stella, relay this to Diana. Elaine told me that the Skyrend mansion was destroyed by Void Qi and that Dante spoke with Theron. Apparently, Dante Voidmind thinks the Head Librarian is back and has learned a way to ascend. This is a big deal because their bloodline is cursed and doesn't allow them past the Nascent Soul Realm. Also, the purpose behind the invasion is because the Voidmind family wants to be allocated more airships for the evacuation. Does Diana have any good plans that make use of this information?"

After repeating his words to Diana, the black-haired girl fell into deep contemplation and began pacing around the courtyard. She even began muttering to herself, which earned her a concerned look from Stella.

Well, obviously—Ashlock didn't wish to fight either. Even with his immunity to the void and ability to give lightning Qi resistance fruit to his allies, he still didn't want to try and resist the full wrath of one of these families.

If it were up to him, everyone would leave him alone, let him power up to be stronger than the Blood Lotus Patriarch, and then he would either overtake the sect or use his newfound power to fend off the beast tide.

***

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3531

Daily Credit: 4

Sacrifice Credit: 52

[Sign in?]

Ashlock awoke the next day with a pit in his nonexistent stomach.

Everyone knew their roles to make this insane plan successful, as they had discussed at length until dusk. But so much relied on their acting skills that Ashlock wasn't exactly happy to bet their continued existence on it. Alas, despite how insane it was, Ashlock had to admit it was their best bet.

Once his mind had awoken, his vision blurred as he checked up on the cavern. As expected, he saw Stella standing beside a burning cauldron fruit with a line of ingredients on the earthen bowl's rim, including Mind Fortress fruit.

Stella had been hard at work throughout the night to improve her alchemy skills for the main event today, as she needed all the practice she could get to humiliate Kassandra in front of a live crowd.

According to Stella, the Skyrend woman had been somewhat competent at alchemy, and since it was almost guaranteed that Kassandra would try and cheat somehow, Stella needed to be on top of her game.

Her alchemy practice also doubled as a chance to make more Mind Fortress pills, as everyone would need one for today's plan.

Since Stella was still busy and there were many hours until the afternoon when the main event began, Ashlock returned his sights to the peak. Diana had already left to meet with the Redclaws and the Silverspires on Red Vine Peak, as without their complete cooperation, today could be his last.

Larry arrived in the courtyard as the sun bathed it in golden morning light with a sack of corpses on his back, which relieved Ashlock. He had been searching for monsters to devour for points near his demonic tree wall but hadn't found many, so he only had fifty credits stockpiled.

"Did you have a good hunt?"

Ashlock greedily devoured the corpses with thorn-covered vines.

[+107 SC]

"Only a hundred credits. Is this really the best of what you found?" Ashlock asked Larry, and the spider made a poor attempt at a bow.

"Okay, okay, this is enough for the plan today," Ashlock couldn't imagine needing to use his {Consuming Abyss} skill for longer than two hours.

"Patience, my many-legged friend," Ashlock chuckled, "Only a few more hours to go."

Time passed quickly, and soon enough, the sun sat high in the sky, signifying the main event would begin soon.

Ashlock checked the White Stone Palace courtyard with {Eye of the Tree God} and saw an exhausted Sebastian reluctantly shaking Diana's hand beside a grinning Redclaw Grand Elder.

Deciding their talks were likely concluded, Ashlock created a portal and brought Diana over.