Within the AA-12’s reaction chamber the firing pin impacted the back of the loaded 12-gauge round, penetrating the plastic covering and igniting the powder within. The explosion, contained and trapped in the barrel, had nowhere to go but forwards. The hot gasses of the explosion expanded rapidly, imparting almost all of their energy into the pellets that were between them and the exit, sending them out the front of the barrel at 1,300 feet-per-second.

  They zipped through the air, spreading slightly, and impacted a man in the front of the crowd, carving through organs, flesh, muscle and fat. They contained enough energy to continue out and into the woman behind, now further spread, some going off at odd angles.

  The AA-12 shuddered against Nicolai like a lover as it released a gout of screaming gunfire. His finger locked hard to the trigger as he turned and tore a bloody line of mangled flesh through the crowd.

  Bodies danced and spun and tumbled, blood and screams painted the air.

  The AA-12 clicked empty, and as the deafening sound of fully-automatic gunfire faded, Nicolai could make out their voices. Still laughing. Still crying out: ‘Come to the tree!’

  Nicolai laughed with them, and the world trembled around him. Why am I running? He stopped floating backwards, falling to the ground. They were charging at him, full of just as much eagerness as he felt, and this was good, this was right.

  Hungry, groaned the AA-12.

  ‘Here.’ His hands were a practised blur as he slotted in a fresh magazine. Me too, whispered the rapier, and he put a finger to it, sending a flow of Oma to charge it.

  ‘What the fuck are you doing!’ screamed a voice from the side, and he threw a glance to his left to see a woman floating there, staring at him, horror on her face. He was about to turn the gun on her, but the Mask on his face gripped him tight, crying that she was an ally.

  A running man was coming in reach of Nicolai, drawing his attention.

  ‘Come to the tree,’ cried the man, and Nicolai felt a savage rippling through the Aura, a warning. The man’s face sprang apart into a monstrous visage, odd and fleshy, tentacled, parasitical. In an instant the man became a monster and it lunged at him. He wasn’t sure if it was real or a hallucination.

  It didn’t matter.

  ‘Come and die,’ he answered, fuzzing with delight. He flicked his fingers and the rapier slipped out and punched through the creatures head, sending it over backwards. He pulled the AA-12’s charging handle, feeding a round from the magazine to the chamber and making it ready. It shook with eagerness as he raised it.

  ‘Kill them, kill them all,’ he uttered, and laughed. He angled the shotgun toward the one on the ground, as it was still moving, and blew its head apart. Then he turned it back to the thickest part of the crowd. They were within only metres of him, and they were all wailing and transforming into fleshy monsters.

  The shotgun roared and they fell and died. The world was twisting and spinning, spiking through him. Warm blood sprayed over his face, pattered onto the fibre-glass covering of the shotgun. He advanced, reaching for another magazine. Each movement smooth and perfect, to suit a perfect moment.

  ‘Come to the tree!’ burbled one of them.

  ‘Die!’ answered Nicolai, laughing, killing. ‘Die! Die! Die!’ Within his stomach something had risen and now it was roaring through him, a dark fire, a glorious exhalation, a screaming song of death and carnage. The rapier was thrashing around him, an extra limb that he moved without thought, striking and striking at all who came near while he worked the shotgun. He was killing as fast as he was physically capable, and he exulted in that fact. This was his purpose.

  From the side joined the sound of an assault rifle and the crack of a sniper as others opened up.

  By the time his magazine clicked empty none of them were moving. The air stunk of blood and cordite, the smell an old friend that’d been missing too long. The wind plucked at hair and scraps of clothing, rising into an approving whistle. The blood on the grass glittered like the dew of a spring morning.

  A fresh magazine snapped into the AA-12.

  His eyes scanned the environment, searching for new targets. They found the woman. He recognised her, now. Beth. Not her. He smiled at her, feeling immensely satisfied.

  The fight was over. Nicolai let out a slow breath, his mind coming apart as the thrill began to die within him, fading and falling. By habit, he started to work on the dark, pressing it down. It went easily. It was fat and sated, happy to return to its home, and sleep, and grow stronger. A twist of unease ran through him. The world around him had lost its unearthly edge, everything turning oddly washed out and grey and real.

  His eyes moved to the dead. He stared at them, waiting for them to turn back into humans.

  Beth settled onto the ground beside him, her face pale.

  ‘How… how did you know?’ she asked.

  ‘Know?’ He looked at her.

  ‘That… about what they were. That they were monsters.’ She shook her head. ‘When you started firing, I thought…’

  He stared intently at the creatures, which resolutely remained as nightmarish beings. Huh. So they were monsters. His Mask was becoming convinced he’d failed in some manner, that gunning down what he’d believed to be unarmed humans—even if they were clearly all insane, possessed somehow by the tree—was a Bad Thing… but to Nicolai, it was only the logical move to make. He hadn’t known what exactly was wrong, but he’d known that something was wrong. At such a time, the best option was to attack. That was how he saw things, and he’d been proven right.

  ‘I could feel it from the Aura,’ he told her.

  She blinked at him. ‘How?’

  ‘If you attune yourself and listen well, you can learn many things.’ Suitably cryptic gibberish, she could chew on that as long as she wanted. But there was a lesson he could teach. He looked to the tree. ‘The Tree does something, spiritually. Pay attention to your Soul, Soul Sense, the Aura, your mind. Keep it well guarded, or it might turn you into them.’

  She stared at it, and he felt her Soul Sense locking up tighter, turning more guarded.

  Threat Analysis pinged him, drawing his attention to the hole. Just as that morning, another cry had been felt. Paxolnaz’s master, calling it away. That was always good, anytime where he knew he was not observed by the Demon was useful to him.

  Nicolai started walking, striding towards the barrier of green, realising that he’d forgotten protocol. He should have been watching it since he finished killing the crowd. The remaining Tree People were unaccounted for. There could be armed enemies within and it would be difficult to spot a gunbarrel poking out.

  Don’t worry, I was watching, Threat Analysis reassured him. It had brought the drones in closer once they descended to meet the crowd.

  Nicolai nodded. Good. He sent a brief message over Local, answering John, Cait, and Daksh’s worried inquiries and telling them to stay where they were; on the other side of the bridge and well away from the tree. Jo likewise could stay up on the tower as lookout. No trade would be made this day, but it looked like there would be many benefits regardless. A smile slipped over his features. He felt Beth moving up behind him, coming to walk by his side. She was wary, assault rifle loaded and held ready.

  Their Soul Senses led the way as they pressed toward the blanket of green. But when they drew close enough, their Soul Senses were blocked.

  The Tree’s Soul Sense had emerged, something dark and green and shifting, rolling and writhing. It was slow and undirected, but huge, and it held theirs back, and Nicolai knew that if he wanted to press within, it would be without the use of Soul Sense.

  You… you took my hands… you… come… replace… whispered the Tree.

  It’s Soul Sense reached for them, and within that Soul Sense was something dark and hungry that extended root-like tendrils, reaching for their minds.

  Nicolai’s eyes narrowed, and he reached for the dark. Sleepy and sated, it answered surprisingly easily to his will, and the challenge it felt. It stirred within his Soul, flexed and bit at the encroaching vines. He extended a hand towards Beth and grasped those reaching for her, snapping and breaking them.

  The tree’s Soul Sense flinched, shocked and confused, and its thought-vines retreated.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  You…! No… stay away…

  Even as it spoke these words, its Soul Sense remained a heavy pressure on them; only without the thought-vines. Their Soul Senses remained trapped inside their bodies and thus they couldn’t see what was beyond the blanket of green.

  He moved backwards, until there was a good thirty metres between them and the covering of leaves. He raised the AA-12.

  ‘Ready up,’ he said to Beth.

  ‘Wait, you’re just gonna shoot into there?’ asked Beth.

  Nicolai looked at her, lowering the AA-12. ‘Should I not?’

  ‘There could be people in there.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘I mean, what if they’re not like those others?’

  Nicolai gave a non-committal grunt. He knew there was no one human in there, but he supposed he ought to make a show of caring just for her sake. He turned and called out loudly, ‘If anyone human is in there, come out now or we shoot you.’

  No one emerged. He gave Beth a meaningful glance and raised his AA-12, and in a moment she raised her assault rifle. He squeezed the trigger and fanned a few rounds through the leaves at chest height, Beth firing a burst of her own.

  Immediately the looming Soul Sense of the tree pulsed with pain and fury, and howls of rage rose from within. The branches writhed, and things that had once been human charged out.

  Nicolai took his time, picking his shots, while Beth went full-auto beside him. When the gunfire ended the leaves were covered in blood.

  They moved forwards. Reaching the leafy wall, Nicolai had the Warden’s Chains unwrap from around his body. They reached into the leaves, feeling for enemies. This was necessary because the Tree’s Soul Sense continued to act as a heavy weight, restricting his own. It didn’t attack him in the active manner that another Cultivator, or a Spirit Beast like the Bird, would use, and the thought vines were staying well away after he’d damaged a few—they must be precious to the tree, hard to repair. While blanketing and restricting his Soul Sense, the Tree also emanated a generalised sense of dread and malice. A new strategy now its thought-vines had failed, an attempt to infect them with unease and make them retreat.

  The Warden’s Chains worked directly via the commands of his Soul, which was protected by the powerful spiritual barrier that covered the skin of a Cultivator.

  Nicolai was aware of the sensations the Tree was pushing into him, but ignored them. He viewed its malice and its dread with some disdain. He had dealt with worse from within. He could feel Beth wasn’t faring as well, but he put a hand on her shoulder and was able to aid her defence.

  The Chains could stretch three metres from his body. They found nothing within the branches immediately around him. He kept them out as he and Beth pushed forwards.

  This proved wise, as partway through there came movement and sound from nearby as something moved rapidly through the branches. Nicolai reacted with the chains instantly, grabbing at the thing by its legs and pulling it over to fall. Able to feel its location from the chains, he fired two shots at what he judged to be centre-mass, and felt it stop moving.

  They continued, and encountered two similar attacks which Nicolai dealt with in identical manner. After crossing over a dozen metres they emerged from the far side. The drones, which had attached to him as he moved through the branches, flew off and into the air.

  That was where they found the remaining Tree People.

  A group of strange, malformed fleshbeasts gathered close around the tree, pressing themselves against it.

  Its roots had grown and spread over the area, and beneath these roots were corpses, corpses everywhere. Threat Analysis informed him that there were now more total bodies than matched their previous numbers, by quite a margin. Either these people had gained fresh recruits prior to whatever had happened, or, and Nicolai felt this was more likely, they had been out murdering and dragging the dead back to the tree.

  The creatures around the tree all turned. Nicolai sighed and took aim. The bloodshed had gotten repetitive to him, now. With the dark sated enough to stay where it was, it gave him no real pleasure. These things weren’t any challenge, and he was going through a lot of bullets. He estimated they had spent over 5,000 points worth of ammo already.

  He paused upon realising the creatures weren’t moving to attack. They simply stood there.

  Wait, said the Tree. Don’t kill.

  Nicolai considered this. Why?

  I need them… to hunt…

  So, this thing was hunting humans for its own purposes, as he’d suspected. Nicolai had no real feelings on this, though his Mask certainly did, wanting him to destroy it.

  The drones had been circling the tree while he killed its creatures, and had given him a view all over. But only now did he have them move into its crown, where it was leafier and more difficult to see. They searched around, looking for one thing in particular.

  They found a few strange, large nodules on the tree, which Nicolai found intensely suspicious. Then, towards the very top, they found what he had hoped for.

  A purple flower that seemed to have dug itself into the bark of the tree, shimmering with dewy glitters.

  A Lotus Blossom Symbiote.

  Nicolai smiled. I will spare them, but you must give me something in return.

  What?

  This. He sent a spiritual Impression of the Lotus Blossom Symbiote.

  The trees branches rustled faintly.

  It is mine…

  What do you want more, your creatures, or that Symbiote?

  Fine… you can have it.

  Nicolai was unwilling to approach so closely to the tree. Its leafy branches had not done anything, but it was still a strange tree. From his understandings gained from the Memory Tome, and talks with Kleos and Maric, he felt sure that this Tree was a Mutated Spirit Tree. That meant, it was a Spirit Tree which had been corrupted by dark spirits or demonic entities.

  As a result he was uncertain as to what abilities it might possess. So far, luckily, it seemed quite weak. It’s primarily ability was that to infect and control the minds of lesser beings. At its current stage, it seemed capable of doing this to Cultivators, whereas previously he felt it had only been those without a Soul.

  Due to his unique mental state, he was apparently immune to its primary method of attack and defence, and its fleshbeast slaves were no match for full-auto gunfire. He was a counter to this tree, to its misfortune and his luck. That being the case, the correct move was to press and see what he might gain with his advantage. He would remain at a distance as much as possible just in case it had more abilities that could be used closer up.

  He sent a drone out. Nicolai was aware of how to remove a Lotus Blossom safely, and the process did not require Soul Sense or other Cultivator abilities. One needed only to cut at the matter around it until the Lotus Blossom, and its roots, were freed. Each drone had some small manipulators, capable of performing this task.

  He left Threat Analysis to it. The AI was better suited to controlling drones than him. Two drones buzzed upwards and into the crown of the tree, settling on either side of the Lotus Blossom and getting to work.

  He still intended to destroy the Tree. He saw no reason to leave it alive; it was clearly working towards some kind of end, and there were more than enough major players involved in this shit show already. Nicolai had no desire for another faction to appear.

  However, first he wanted to see exactly what else he might gain. He considered the tree, and how it might be of use to him.

  Maybe it can tell us how to hack the vines guarding the Angel? spoke Cyberwarfare.

  Nicolai raised an eyebrow. I’m not sure it works like that.

  But maybe it does.

  He shrugged. He might as well see. Paxolnaz wasn’t watching him right now so he was safe to explore options.

  Tell me, tree, do you have any ability to… control other plants?

  I can do much... I am flexible. I can be very helpful. You wish for more things?

  Nicolai gazed at it. He always wished for more things.

  What are you offering?

  Give me details… I make for you.

  There are some black vines. They are a problem for me. I need a way to disable them. He sent a mental impression of the vines guarding the Centipede.

  He felt sudden excitement from the tree.

  Yes, I will make it, yes. Just wait…

  The Tree’s bark writhed in its centre. Dark sap gushed from the self-made wound, then something emerged. A sap-slick nodule of matter. At the same time, the pressure the Tree gave his Soul faded, and he was able to use Soul Sense once again.

  Nicolai reached out and seized it with his Grasping Finger, pulling it toward him. He had it land on the ground in front of him and peered at it, then extended a finger and examined it.

  Twisted Living Tree Seed

  This piece of a mutated Spirit Tree contains a small part of its Soul. It has been warped in a manner whereby if it does not sense the faint Aura ripples of its true self on a regular basis, it will destroy itself. It can sense these ripples over significant distance.

  Parasitic in nature, it is capable of worming its way into the heart of other plants, and momentarily seizing control of them. As there is only a small piece of the Tree’s Soul within, this effect will not last for long.

  Nicolai picked up the chunk of wet wood and stared at it, his gaze increasingly thoughtful. After a moment he broke out into laughter. This Tree was clever, more than he’d have expected. If he were to destroy the Tree, this tool it had given him would stop functioning. That was why it had been so happy to give him what he wanted. It had found a way to safeguard itself.

  He tucked it away, and determined not to think on it again. If he did so, Paxolnaz might investigate and then one day, he might find the tree had been destroyed.

  One final matter. These people should have had many small, rectangular metal things called points-tags, alongside Oma crystals. I imagine you consumed the crystals. But where are the points-tags?

  Yes, I recognise… they are over there, said the Tree, directing his attention back to the wall, to one of the buildings there. I put all useless things in that room.

  ‘You done talking to this thing?’ came Beth’s voice.

  ‘Yes. Time to leave.’

  ‘What?’

  He turned his head to see her staring at him, an expression of shock on her face. Her hand was raised and limned in flames, ready. She looked at the Tree, then back to him. At the tree. Back to him.

  ‘Are you serious? We’re just leaving this thing? It’s evil! It turned all those people into… into whatever the fuck these creatures are.’ She glared at the mutated beings clustered around the Tree.

  ‘It made a good case for itself.’

  She shook her head. ‘It’s evil. I can’t believe you’re just going to leave it. It’s going to keep killing people, and grow, and… who the fuck knows what it will turn into!’

  ‘By the time all that happens, we’ll likely be gone,’ he murmured.

  ‘So, what, that thing it gave you? Because of that you don’t want to kill it? What was it?’

  Nicolai eyed her. The questions were getting a little tiresome. His Mask spoke up, asking why he didn’t just tell her the truth. For a moment, he considered doing so. No. She doesn’t know about Paxolnaz—who might peer into her mind, too. When it comes to my actions against the Demon, I cannot spread the information to anyone else.

  ‘Something useful. What does it matter?’ He leaned closer, lowering his voice. ‘The castle will be collapsing soon, and I don’t think this tree will fare well falling hundreds of metres with such a weight of stone around it. We’re going. Come on.’ He turned and started walking.

  She didn’t follow at first, but after some time he heard a disgusted, angry noise, then her stomping footsteps.

  She refused to meet his gaze for the next hour, stewing silently, and had quite a long talk with Jo over Link. Both of them were glaring at him on the walk home.

  This didn’t impact his own mood. In the room the Tree had indicated they had found a cabinet packed with points-tags. His take was all those points-tags, the Lotus Blossom Symbiote, and a method to deal with the vines. All in all, it’d been extremely profitable.