Chương 54: Of

54: Of Just when shit couldn't get any worse, worse finds a way to multiply. I was fighting a guy who was so much wood that I couldn't even just impale him. That was the second killing blow so far and neither had any results. My arm was still dug into this wooden bastard's chest, and with a swinging motion a large chunk was torn out. Still more just wood. The vines were already shooting out to fill in the gap and rebuild him.

I had already run out of options, but it was just me here and there had to be something I could do.

"Are you understanding it now? What it looks like to be the little fish in the big pond? This is real heroic triumph, Hercu-" VWOOMMM A thick, bright light the size of a man's torso slammed into him, sending the wooden bastard hurtling off of me and rolling through the dirt. Worried that whatever it was happened to be aiming for me, I looked. A girl. The name wasn't sitting in my head at that moment, but I recognized her. She helped fight tree people before. This might be the difference maker.

What did she do to help last ti- Gleditsia was already lunging at me again. VWWWOM Another light from her. Whatever she was doing, it was strong enough to knock him back. No injuries, but it was a start. The lumber knight rose back to his feet and ran his mouth some more.

"Well, if you get aid, it's only fair that my own cavalry arrives!" He raised his hands to the sky as vines built up from the ground in piles, knotting and contorting into a pair of the massive tree men I first encountered all those... whatever they were ago. They began to lumber forward towards us, yelling something about human blood befo- BANG! Splinters and smoke came from the head of one of the tree men, who immediately fell to the ground. Right. There was another guy watching us with a... whatever it was.

The thing you... you shoot with. He was watching. Just saved us some trouble. Disappointment was measurable across Gleditsia's face and he put up a shrug.

"Well, that's on me for not considering you'd have more specialist-" VWOM Another blast of light to his face, sending him falling onto his back. He clambered back onto his feet with a laugh.

"Girl, you're amusing me now! I know exactly what to use for you!" He slapped the dirt as more vines built up from the ground, not to the titanic size of the other tree man lumbering towards us, but of a different form. BOOM! That awful fucking noise crashing through my head again. Nearly distracted me from the creature that had come from the ground. It was still large, easily two or three... feet? Was that the word? Taller than me.

It was hunched over in a primitive posture, resting its weight on its long and massive forearms. A tail longer than its body protruded from behind it, ending in a bladed shape of some kind. Like a specialized thorn. It pounced. Faster than I could lunge in the way of. I was only able to scrape off a small portion of its forearm, sending loose splinters flying, as it zoomed past me. VWOM VWWWOM VWAM More light shot from the girl, which it barreled and leapt past with ease.

In what was probably a panicked reaction, she used that same light to make a great thick wall to block it from reaching her. The creature simply bounded over it, and- SHNK With a swing of its tail, blood flew, alongside her lower leg, through the air. She fell with a gargling scream. Shit. Had to try and figure out something, he- Gleditsia was right next to me, arm reared back for another punch. Didn't care if it couldn't kill him, I had to just hold him off while I thought.

I swung my arm out at his head- KRK And it limply sat on his neck off to the side, leaving him stuck in another forward-leaning posture. I knew it wouldn't keep him down for long; it was only a short amount of time before it'd fix back up like the first time I did that. BOOM! Had to take action now. The dirt gave way under my feet again as I kicked off of it with all my might, the world around me turning into a crude blur with only one target in sight: The larger tree man.

Disabling him first would be easiest and would keep the threat list shorter. My arm stuck out, acting more like a bladed implement at these speeds as I simply lopped one leg off from the monster. I knew that wasn't a killing blow. Just had to let it fall. As it tumbled to the ground, I caught its other leg, hurling it over my shoulder and into the roaring fire. Looking down at the other remaining leg, I considered. Heroes apparently used swords and clubs. With the shape of this leg, that was as close as I'd get.

While I picked up the leg and tried to get used to its weight distribution, the tailed wooden beast was lunging towards me. Instinctively, I whipped the leg at it, sending it hurtling back towards the girl, who was still gasping out screams of agony. Almost sounded like she was drowning with the gargling noise her wails made. BOOM!

I began to tense up for a follow-up lunge before VWWWNK That same light from before shot from the ground, though instead of a thick and spherical form, it was long and tall spears that had driven themselves into the tailed beast, leaving it hanging limply in the air. The spears vanished as the body collapsed to the ground. One less threa- Gleditsia. He had another sword, this one shorter and of a more naturally "sword"-like appearance, that he swung at me.

I brought the leg-club up to try and block the blow, but all that happened was the wood was sapped away into Gleditsia's sword, vastly increasing its mass. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Fuck. The blade slammed into me, sending me rolling along the ground. As my body splayed out against the soil, there was a burn in my muscles as they were finally recognizing the strain I kept putting on them.

He trudged over and squatted above me, the glee on his face stretching into a form that was only arguably human.

"You've been holding up quite well! But as you can see, I'm just too far past you. I suppose it's only fair that I give you a glimpse of what gift has made me so unstoppable. Perhaps it will bring you to our cause of building the Nemean Throne, Hercules." No idea who the Hell he was talking about. Either of those names. He extended a finger towards me as a small flower began to grow from the tip. My body was too weak to climb away as he brought the finger closer to my forehead.

The flower detached, and suddenly with a sharp, painful sensation pushing into me, it was all white............... We were in a field. A park somewhere. The air was cool and the sun was warm. The grass below my bare feet kissed my skin and rinsed it in fresh morning dew. In the distance, fields of trees. Some much, much larger than others. Everyone was there. We were having a little picnic. Tancred was carrying this large wicker basket full of food as Chris and May laid out the blankets.

Jairo was running around with Sam's kids. His eyes were human, his skin not marred by any parasitic symptoms. What's a parasite? There are no parasites here. Right, there were no parasites here. Sam was sitting in a beach chair, taking in the sun's rays. My foster parents were watching in the distance, smiling at me with a pride on their faces that I only recognized by process of elimination. It was a brand new expression from them to aim at me.

Tancred had finished setting down the wicker basket before approaching me and extending a hand out.

"Come on, kid. It's time to sit back and relax, okay? You've earned this." The words were sweet and refreshing, flowing like warm honey. I reached out to him and took his hand. There was no crack of bones or strain of skin. I wasn't too strong to hurt him. What's hurting? There is no hurting here. Yeah. That's right. There was no hurting here. That's what was so beautiful about it. There was no hurting. Sitting down at the picnic, I looked over at the horizon, past my parents, and saw it. A great big tree.

Its branches loomed over the clouds themselves, all I could see was just trunk and whatever mossy growths populated its bark. The size of it was immense, if I could see all of that from this distance. Jairo's voice spoke, smooth and calm.

"I love the peace we're in, now. Everything feels good, you know?" I nodded, picking up the sandwich I was given and biting into it. Crunch. I reached into my mouth, pulling out a stray piece of bark and throwing it aside.

"How did we get this peace, again?" I asked, looking towards the group. Christian spoke, his hands spanning and gesturing broadly.

"Nemea extended an offer to us all to join the Arboreal Senate. She thought it was a misunderstanding that humans and trees were so antithetical to each other. The truth is we all just want to live, and all we had to do was live together. With the Wyrdwood, we don't need to cut down trees anymore!" Sam spoke as well, following up from Chris.

"The Wyrdwood grows itself, into any shape you want. All you have to do is think it, and it takes the form you want. So now we live in harmony." The fields of trees that were in the distance now sat within casual glancing. Their shade touched the edges of our gathering. I looked towards where my foster parents were. No longer there. Just the tree line. The great tree in the distance still could be seen, watching over us in loving grace. May's voice.

"And the price for it was so reasonable. We just have to let them have our thoughts sometimes. When we think, the trees get to think. It's great, you don't have to get all muddied up in your own thoughts anymore, you can just lend the bad ones to the Wyrdwood and it takes them all from you. I haven't felt any stress in a while!" What's stress? There is no stress here. Huh. Yeah, that's right. There wasn't any stress here. The trees grew closer.

There was only a sparse array of sky left, barely any walking room before you'd reach the tree line. Samantha's kids were gone, having gone into the treeline. Tancred's voice again.

"I felt bad for the people who resisted, they just kept screaming all sorts of obscenities and disrespect to them, like I did. And boy, I was lucky to only get off with a light punishment," he explained with a laugh as he pointed a thumb to himself, tree roots visible along his wrist and hand. The trees grew closer and closer. May: "Isn't" Christian: "It" Tancred: "Great" The trees took May. Jairo: "To be" Sam: "Cared for" The trees took Christian. Tancred: "By" The trees took Tancred.

Jairo:"Superior" The trees took Jairo. Sam:"Life?" The trees took Sam. It was just me, in the trees. I knew I wasn't supposed to. They told us not to scream anymore, because all it did was make us sick. But I screamed. I screamed until my lungs burned. The trees didn't like that. Vines coiled around my arms and legs, up my chest, and down my throat. I could no longer scream. I could only look up at the narrowing sky above as leaves blotted it out. And then, the vines took my eyes................ Then, forms.

Not human. Nothing animal. Just vines. Roots. They coiled, reached, hugged, tied together. Every inch was either air or vines. They embraced and they spread and they multiplied endlessly. They bore fruits, they bathed in light, they cast shade upon each other. These things were there before me. They were there before there were things like me. They were old and experienced, they had long since grown past the idea of hating each other. They believed in a unity. They knew of a unity, that for them, truly worked.

There was no violence. There were no drugs. No hate. No fear. No crime. No tears, or cancer, or shootings, or kaiju, or villains, or poverty, or war, or evil, or good, or death, or life. There was nothing but abstract shapes. All thinking and feeling and with that the whole weight of everything. But it wasn't heavy, for we were all thinking of everything together. An endless cooperation and communion, that my brain couldn't see the full shape of. But it was an endless reward of perpetuity. This was Heaven.

And it was wrong. There was no bliss in me. There was just a raging whirlwind of hate. Not even me. There was something in me, deep in me. There was an animal inside that recognized that this was not a peace offering. This was not a reward for us. This was a threat against existing. The animal hated it. I hated it. There was never a moment in my life I would permit this existing. There was nothing with my blood, with my skin, with my eyes, with my soul, that has ever permitted this existing.

I would not be the first to change that. I would make sure none ever would. There was only one cure for this, and it was to tear it all asunder. Rip it and all who tried to threaten my blood and my soul and the blood and soul of everything like me to the finest fibers. I would not let this pass.