Chương 105: Chapter 91 – The Great Tree Burns

Cade pushed more essence into the [Flames of Desolation]. The inferno around him intensified immediately. White fire surged through the interior of the Great Tree while the [Mantle of Dissolution] swirling around him consumed wood, corruption, and essence alike. He took several steps through the flames before stopping. His ruined vision turned the world into shifting smears of firelight and shadow while the structure around him continuously changed beneath the growing inferno.

He could hear entire sections of the Great Tree collapsing apart as the flames consumed them, which meant blindly wandering through the burning interior was a great way to fall hundreds of feet through a hole he couldn't see. Cade exhaled slowly through the white fire streaming from his mouth before lowering himself into a cross-legged position amidst the inferno. Pure essence flooded into him with every inhale while desolation poured outward with every exhale.

The process quickly settled into rhythm as essence cycled through his channels and fed directly into the flames roaring through the Great Tree. He could no longer tell where the corruption ended and the Great Tree began. Which meant the only way to guarantee the corruption died here was to burn the entire tree down. The realization sat heavily in his mind. Cade knew the Great Tree was sacred to the frogs. A wise entity that had endured for countless Cycles.

But after feeling Sildraxa's influence pressing against his mind and witnessing the insanely powerful creature she had spawned from, he could not risk leaving even the smallest chance for her corruption to spread further through this realm. If the tree had to die to ensure that never happened, then this sacrifice had to be made. That certainty remained absolute even as distractions clawed at the edges of his thoughts. The rest of that vision. Those insanely powerful entities. The System. The Law Sprout.

The unopened notifications in the background of his awareness. Cleansing the corruption came first. And if the Great Tree had to die to make certain the corruption couldn't spread, then so be it. Cade could not risk letting any fragment of Sildraxa survive. He closed his ruined eyes completely and activated [Hyperfocused Meditation]. The roar of the inferno dulled into background noise while his thoughts sharpened into cold clarity.

Distractions peeled away beneath the skill's influence until only the essential remained. He needed to cleanse all of the corruption, but blindly wandering through the collapsing Great Tree to spread the flames was suicidal, which meant he needed another solution. Cade continued breathing while his mind ran through possibilities. Maybe if he concentrated the flames upward long enough, they would spread naturally through the tree's internal structure.

The farther the flames spread, the better chance he had at eliminating any hidden slivers of corruption. It would also protect him from any falling debris. Cade tilted his head upward until the torrent of white flames blasted vertically through the trunk above him. Then he felt something tug at the edge of his awareness. The [Mantle of Dissolution] spiraled around him in steady currents of ash while the essence tether connecting it to his body pulsed rhythmically alongside his heartbeat.

Cade could feel the Law Seed of Dissolution threaded through that connection like a thin reinforcing filament woven into the tether itself. The mantle hadn't stopped moving. It rotated constantly around him while dissolving bark, corruption, wood, and essence alike before feeding the liberated pure essence back through the tether. He had grown so used to using the mantle that he had stopped consciously controlling it altogether.

Somewhere along the way, he had begun treating it like passive armor instead of what it truly was—a construct directly shaped by his will. And now that he focused on it properly again, Cade could feel potential buried within the swirling ash around him. If he wanted to burn the Great Tree down completely, then his flames alone would not be enough. The moment the thought surfaced, Cade pushed his will into the mantle and the spiraling ash around him accelerated.

White particulate streams whipped around him faster while rotating currents tightened through the inferno. Cade felt the strain through the tether increase. Greater rotational velocity required more essence to maintain stability. Under normal circumstances, that limitation would strain his channels as he could only hold so much. But right now he was sitting inside an ocean of fuel.

His flames and mantle were converting enormous sections of the Great Tree into pure essence faster than he could meaningfully expend it. So Cade pushed harder and the mantle obeyed. The storm tightened around him as ash screamed through the chamber hard enough to shred chunks from the wooden walls before dissolving them completely. At first the growing force concerned him as tiny fragments tore free from the mantle and flung outward into the inferno.

But almost immediately, fresh ash regenerated from the pure essence flooding through the tether and restored what had been lost. Cade's focus shifted as he noticed the detached particles failed to disperse as he expected. Instead, they slowed after being launched from the mantle and settled into stable rotational paths around him, orbiting through the inferno in widening layers of spiraling ash. He could feel it clearly now.

Tiny fragments of ash continued consuming whatever they touched as they rotated through the chamber. Bark, corruption, and life essence were stripped down and drawn into the growing storm around him. The particles retained the aspect of his Law Seed, which meant the outer layers of the vortex were sustaining themselves.

Cade immediately fed more essence into the mantle, increasing the rotational force until larger streams of ash tore free and blasted farther outward before locking into wider orbital layers around him. Understanding slammed into place. Higher rotational velocity increased the launch distance before orbital stabilization occurred. Which meant a wider harvesting radius and more fuel fed back into the system itself. Cade forced more essence through the tether and the mantle thickened.

More ash tore free into widening orbital layers while white fire blasted upward through the center of the growing storm. He was creating a storm capable of stripping the Great Tree apart layer by layer until nothing remained for the corruption to hide within. Burning bark exploded into spiraling particulate streams before immediately joining the storm itself. The vortex screamed louder as it expanded outward through the Great Tree. He had no idea if it was possible to consume something so massive.

So Cade kept feeding the vortex more essence, widening the storm until it could scour every branch, root, and hidden pocket of corruption within the Great Tree. More velocity. More particulate layers. More dissolution. The storm grew larger and larger as Cade drove it through the Great Tree to ensure Sildraxa's corruption died here. Until the cyclone surrounding him evolved from a spinning mantle into something monstrous—a roaring white vortex of ash and desolation that devoured the Great Tree from the inside out.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Ding!

Pure essence drifted through the hollow under the Great Tree. Brahm inhaled deeply and felt the essence slide into his channels. The corruption had stopped spreading downward several minutes earlier, yet the human still had not emerged from within the Great Tree. Brahm honestly did not understand the delay. If it were him, he would have simply burned the entire thing down immediately. At least there was plenty of pure essence to go around. That made waiting somewhat tolerable.

Brahm settled against the earth beneath the Great Tree and drew another long breath through his nostrils. The pure essence here was dense enough to cultivate properly but with that came the important choice. Core or body? Brahm checked the state of his Core internally. White flames churned within the dense sphere inside his abdomen while refined desolation rotated through it in smooth controlled cycles. He grunted. Of course it was already refined as far as he could currently push it.

He would eventually need to spend time compressing and densifying the structure further if he wanted to advance properly, but that process also required patience. Brahm hated patience. His gaze drifted toward his thick arms instead. Body it was. He inhaled again and pure essence flowed through his channels and toward the muscles of his arms. He always cultivated symmetrically. Uneven muscles produced inefficiencies in movement and balance.

So once the right arm filled, he mirrored the exact same amount into the left. The essence gathered within the muscles in dense concentrated pools while Brahm flexed slowly, forcing the energy deeper into the fibers. The muscles thickened slightly beneath the pressure while white heat radiated through his arms. Still, he wanted more. The gathered essence resisted him now. That was expected. Flesh naturally rejected saturation beyond its current limits.

Brahm ignored the resistance and forced additional essence inward anyway. The pressure mounted and his muscles trembled before he felt a faint pop. The compressed essence suddenly collapsed inward and flooded through the muscle fibers completely. Brahm exhaled slowly as strength settled deeper into his form. The improvement wasn't massive, but it was permanent. Generating flames was useful, yes, but flames vanished after battle ended. Musculature remained forever. And Brahm intended to become enormous.

He rolled his shoulders with satisfaction while the newly strengthened muscles settled into place beneath his shell. Movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Brahm glanced across the hollow and stared in disbelief. The Viscount—the supposed creature destined to burn the knot of the realm and return them to the multiverse—was currently chasing a stick.

The giant black-scaled gator had awakened several minutes earlier and ever since then the little orange frog had been playing with him like they were hatchlings fresh from the shell. Pearl hurled a thick root across the hollow and Aquelion immediately bounded after it through the ash-covered ground before scooping it up in his jaws and trotting happily back toward her. Brahm watched the creature's massive tail swing back and forth behind him with every step.

This was the same terrifying creature the Emperor respected so highly? Pearl threw the root again. Aquelion lunged after it and pounced onto the stick with enough force to crater the earth beneath him. The Viscount grabbed the root in his jaws and carried it back toward the tiny frog while rumbling happily. Maybe the corruption or the baptism had scrambled something inside the Viscount's head, because Brahm refused to believe the terrifying creature he fought earlier had always been this ridiculous.

Once Aquelion returned, the little orange frog scratched beneath his jaw and the massive reptile immediately dropped onto his stomach while chewing thoughtfully on the end of the stick. Brahm's rough expression cracked despite himself.

"…Alright," he muttered reluctantly.

"That's pretty cute." Brahm's amusement slowly faded as he noticed Vorduun standing perfectly still near the edge of the hollow. The new Emperor stared upward through the wood overhead with an odd expression of concentration tightening his weathered features. White ash drifted lazily between the seams of his shell while his eyes remained fixed on something far above them. Brahm frowned. What was that old tortoise looking at? For a brief moment, Brahm wondered if Vorduun sensed something he could not.

The thought irritated him immediately. Vorduun might hold the Emperor's shell now, but the old tortoise's senses were nowhere near what they once had been. Then Vorduun suddenly darted out from beneath the hollow and beyond the towering root-pillars surrounding them. Brahm blinked in surprise before quickly following after him with his gaze. Vorduun stopped several dozen paces away and slowly lifted his head. Horror, disbelief, and elation all fought for control of the Emperor's face.

A deep rumbling laugh burst from Vorduun's chest. The old tortoise stared upward for several more seconds before throwing his head back and roaring loud enough for the entire hollow to hear.

"WE LEAVE! NOW!" The command thundered beneath the Great Tree. Brahm recoiled slightly in confusion. Leave? Why would they leave now? Weren't we supposed to burn the roots once the corruption reached them? Questions rose in his mind but Brahm crushed them down before they could leave his mouth. Whatever Vorduun had seen clearly warranted that reaction and, as much as he hated it, he trusted the Emperor's judgment. Brahm turned around— Only to see Pearl throw another stick she had grown for Aquelion.

The giant gator bounded after it immediately. Brahm stared for half a second in disbelief before stomping toward them.

"You two!" he barked before remembering neither of them understood a single word he said. How irritating. Brahm pointed aggressively toward the tortoises leaving the hollow. Then at himself. Then he made a violent shooing motion with both arms. Pearl blinked up at him blankly while Aquelion trotted back over carrying the stick proudly in his jaws. A vein in Brahm's head throbbed with irritation.

"We are LEAVING," he growled in frustration while repeating the gestures more forcefully. Pearl's eyes widened in realization. Finally. The little orange frog immediately scrambled onto Aquelion's back while the Viscount snorted happily around the stick still hanging from his mouth. Brahm turned and strode out from beneath the hollow, following the Emperor's command. Confusion gnawed at him with every step.

What in the ash could possibly be important enough to abandon the Great Tree before the corruption had been fully purged? When he emerged from beneath the root-pillars, the breath caught in his chest. The upper half of the Great Tree was inside a colossal vortex of ash and white fire. The storm towered across the heavens like a wound carved into the realm itself. Massive layers of spiraling ash rotated around a central pillar of roaring white flame that blasted upward through the remains of the canopy.

Entire branches tore free from the Great Tree and vanished into the vortex moments later. White particulate currents spiraled through the storm in widening orbital rings while screaming winds carried burning embers and hints of something Brahm could not comprehend. Brahm's blood ran cold beneath his shell. This was no ordinary Ashen Vortex. The thing growing above them felt like a barely restrained cataclysm.

But somehow the rotational layers moved with unnatural precision while spiraling currents carved through the Great Tree like enormous invisible blades hidden within the ash storm. And buried deep within the vortex, Brahm felt something else layered into the ash that his mind struggled to comprehend. Every instinct inside him screamed of danger. If any of them were caught inside that storm as it expanded downwards, Brahm doubted even their shells would survive. Not even the Emperor could endure something like that.

And the vortex was still growing. The realization struck Brahm hard enough to break him out of his stunned silence. The other tortoises exploded into motion as soon as they too saw the storm above. Behind Brahm, Aquelion thundered forward with Pearl clinging tightly to his back while the Viscount's large aquamarine eyes reflected the horrifying white storm consuming the Great Tree.

The storm continued spreading through the Great Tree with terrifying purpose, and as the vortex roared ever louder, every creature ran for their lives.