Lily turns on the camouflage on both Mother and her leaving the castle " What did you just do there ? " " I gave them a warning about a foe " " But they don't look convinced ? " " Yeah they won't but soon enough they will because now that I used that ghost we fought they'll make a few mistakes "
" How ? " " I did just kill one of the traitors . It might take a day if they are smart or just now if they were hasty , but I'm sure these traitors are smart . Now , I just have to go clean up some trash to show them and make them more hasty . " they walk out of an alleyway and into an inn .
' Let's at least finish up that guild first ' Lily leaves Mother at home to take a nap while she goes out to destroy a few traitors according to the souls .
...
Lily shot the last member down " I never knew doing dirty work is this easy maybe it's because this place has terrible security " she walked down to see Mash and Mertle " Oh it's you two " " Senior you came ? " Mash asked with surprise .
" I told you Senior would save us she said she fights for livelihood so of course she would save us " Mertle said with optimism " Where's your tamed beast Senior ? "
" I left her at home and before you ask , I didn't know you two were captured I just found that this guild is full of traitors so I decided to kill those who did switch sides to the rift "
" Wait how do you know that ? " Mertle asked " I have my ways " " But won't it a problem if you kill so much ? " Mash asked ' They're not afraid probably because of what I said they trust me too much from that '
" Oh don't worry even though I killed a lot there are still a lot of people who haven't switched sides yet , the traitors barely count to a tenth of the population according to the ghost general's soul " " Ghost general did you fight him before ? " " No we fought him "
The two took a while to process it " So you two will get the rest of the prisoners out you can meet me at this if you want to learn more " ' I think I know how to sponsor them even more ' Lily walks out of the guild returning to the inn .
' With the bait out those traitors should feel the need to act , I got some info from that traitor's soul already ' " Hey husband what did you do outside ? " " I got rid of some turncoats " Lily said " Can you not use so many big words ? "
" A turncoat is someone who switches sides like a traitor , defector , etc. " " Oh so who's the other side ? " " The rift I plan to sabotage but we can still keep eating as long as we keep the rifts from winning "
" I don't get most of that but as long as you get rid of those turncoats we can keep eating right " ' She guessed that part but she got it right ' " let's go to sleep now " Lily turned a coating to keep anything she breathed out from leaking and went to sleep .
The next day Lily walks up to the ground floor and orders some food which Mother ate most of " Senior " Lily looked up to see Mash and Mertle by the door " Hey so uh about what you said last night "
" Yeah we can talk about it " Mash and Mertle sat on the chair " So uhh what exactly is your mission senior " " Oh I plan to get rid of some dirt around here I already destroyed that place " " Can we join ? " they both asked with excitement " No "
" What but why did you call us here ? " " Because your job isn't to help me clean up , I just need you to spread the rumor and also that camp tell me more " " Oh camp was really fun but it's still not as good as the academy "
" The academy ? " " Yep according to some talk around bars the academy gives special lessons like alchemy that's why most of the alchemists around are nobles you have to be smart to go in " Mertle said .
" So these potions they make do they have strength enhancers ? " " Oh those stuff are usually very expensive Senior " ' It should be but I can have some sent ' Lily checks on the legalities of the potions ' But I can just deliver them to the king but the thing is it's kinda complicated so '
Lily looked at Mash and Mertle " Well thanks for that information" " Wait that's all you are going to ask from us ? " " Yeah I thought it would be good to get from someone who has gone through camp and has information about the academy and you two happen to owe me a favor for that so I got you two to come here "
" Aww I was thinking you could tutor us " Lily thinks about the potential use of allying ' I could make an alliance but they might be suspicious of the alliance especially when we are so far from each other and both of us had an encounter with Immortal so there's that '
" I don't think you can learn from me and introducing you to a teacher will cost a lot " " So you came from the academy " Mash asked " Didn't she ask us about the academy ? " Mertle said " Oh " " Look who's stupid now "
" It was nice learning a lot about your country from you , come on you bottomless pit " Lily grabbed Mother who picked out bones to cook with her breath and sucked out the bone marrow ' Wait what does she mean our country ? '
Lily leaves the inn ' I'm not sure how information spreads so I'll just have to plant a few and hope it spreads , but that takes too long by then the rift world will descend so I'll have to sabotage them , all this so I keep my deal with the labyrinth and frame Immortal maybe I may come in contact with this rebel group '
" Hey Husband how long is this business trip going to take ? " " You already know that word ? " " I watched a lot of those TV to know that much but I wonder if I'll be like those mother who never cares for their children "
" I'm impressed you already know a lot about a family " " Yeah it's a surprise for me too learning all about those child-caring techniques , also is there a school for dragons ? " " I'll have Argus prepare that Beryl is pretty young but he is growing fast "
" Well I would like it if you also gave my children some bodies it's so nice to walk around like this who knew a world so small could be this enjoyable " " I'll have that arranged, they might not be as u ... helpful as Beryl and you are though "
" Why ? Is it because you only want my body ? " " Nonsense your soul is pretty amazing too according to Death " " I wonder who that is " " It's complicated we can talk about that later " they leave the town and reach another rift .
' There's supposed to be some registration I have to go through but who's to say that whoever is failing to clear this rift is one of the defectors ' They enter the rift and look at the massive forest ' The treant general's territory of the rift world '
" Oh , what do we do here ? " " Ehm you can help me out here " " Oh how ? " " Well can you spit out a fire that can burn even when it rains " " Yeah I can even though this body isn't like mine you made it just like my old body except smaller " Mother took a deep breath and a notification appeared from Lily's cane .
" Unbreatheable air conditions detected deploying life support " an airtight shield formed around Lily and the cane emitted gas to sustain the breathable air . Mother breathed out fire and some fuel spewed out too .
" Wow , amazing " Mother turns her head spewing out the flames that started to stick to the trees . The strength of the breath weakened and Mother eventually stopped spewing flames .
" aheh " she coughed out a bit of flame and turned to Lily " Is this good enough ? " " Yeah do you need some water ? " " Nooo noo I do need the thing that makes fire hot "
The fire spreads through the forest and Lily wonders how much this fire will spread ' It will probably just be a simple forest fire according to the memories of the ghost general these forests are supposed to be where they create Treants It's amazing they could make so many mindless soldiers by going green , it's kinda like how the fireforms are made but the generals aren't a kind of great will '
Lily looks at Mother wondering about the concept of great will that's able to purify the land of the labyrinth ' Maybe it has to do with the strength of a soul , but there are other ways to purify the land , one of them was the use of resources the sages do that and even the Futures do the same by powering a powerful AI to run the city infrastructure '
" So this massive land they purified should be done one way or another or could be two . Maybe they had strong enough souls plus resources against the influence of the labyrinth ? " they felt the ground shake and Lily looked around " Hey husband is that the mother of these trees ? "
Lily looked in the direction Mother pointed to see the tall towering peak which started to move " I thought it was the rest of the mountain "A root freed itself from the dirt they stood on sending Lily and Mother into the air .
Mother grabbed onto Lily and activated the cane's floating mechanism " What do we do we angered a mother by killing her children " " Technically the forest you burned wasn't her children " Lily looked at the giant tree " They're angry but not because of us burning the trees more like a direct hurting "
" How can you be so sure ? " Mother asked " It's related to Death , now you should help me burn this place down " " I could but I don't want to suck up all the air even if that's exhausting for me " a root sprouted out of the ground " I have a plan , first stop flying "
" Okay " Lily deactivated the cane's float and fell . The root swatted the air towards Lily and she used the cane to take care of it and grabbed Mother's head holding her breath and disabling her mask " Mhmmm ? " Mother found Lily kissing her and blew some of her breath into Mother's mouth .
' OWWW that stings ' Lily held her breath again parting their mouth and tilted her head just in time to let Mother cough out a scorching breath to the ground .
Lily reactivated her mask and they flew with Mother coughing continuously as she spat out burning and dying cells dropping small fireballs to the ground .
Lily turned to Mother holding her under her arm and used the cane to ignore the impact of the fall landing on the ground " What was that ? " " A kiss is something a husband and wife usually do " " No what was in your mouth's even hotter than my breath "
" It's my breath " " Well what was in your breath ? " " A lot of poison but don't worry about that , this isn't your body anyways plus I have some food to get rid of the pain " " Give it to me " Lily handed Mother a portable elixir jelly which she ate " Huh this one taste good "
" It's made of a lot of plant nutrients " " Wait plant does that mean there's no meat in this ? " Lily puts Mother down after checking the analysis from the cane " Yep there's a lot of things you can make with just plants maybe I should give you some deep fry later "
They looked at the giant tree trying to extinguish the flames " So do I have to do that again ? " " No , you can let the tree worry about it on their own " Lily said " So do you think she feels pain " " I told you already this thing isn't "
" Then what is it ? " Lily thinks back to what Death had told her " You know the Labyrinth is like this concept back in my world " Death said " What is it about there is a spirit in everything ? " " Yep "
" Oh , what's it like then ? " " There was this concept I got hooked into something about a hivemind it's a pretty amazing concept to be honest " " You're drifting off topic again "
" Sorry sorry , back to that concept of spirit in everything , a forest can have a massive spirit that represents the ecosystem just like how your body has a spiritual component that represents its bodily function which is also attached to your soul , by the way , your body is pretty complex "
Lily thinks about what Death means " So it's just a spiritual immune system ? " " I wouldn't exactly say that it's more like the instinctual part of a living being " " Ohh so what does that mean ? "
" Well it's a very deep concept there's a teaching that explains it , if you think in your modern world terms I would say that the concept of an ecosystem is a complex web , if it gets attacked by fire it adapts to be fire resistance but somehow fail this fire attack will die off , it's complicated and I never really visited the ancient arts like this very often since it's so complicated "
" I can tell you about it " Life said " Oh sure what is it like ? " " It's the instinctual component or in other words their will to live , which also includes survival instincts like to eat , to adapt "
" What about to reproduce ? " " That would be related to their awareness of the end of their lifespan so they reproduce to create more " " I can never understand why plants and animals reproduce "
" That's where this concept came from , the ecosystem is alive and to keep living it needs to keep whatever it contains to reproduce just like how your cells consume external nutrients to multiply , they are influenced by your own will " " That's interesting "
" It can also work with an external will " Death said " When you said your heartbeat was special you were extremely vague with the idea , I didn't know it was your soul " " Your soul is powerful it had a tight grip over living while it falls close to death "
" I remember that you used me to help Beryl by giving him courage , was it ? " " Yes you can do that to many people too that's why your heartbeat is special "
...
' That long talk made a lot of sense to me so this forest should have the same kind of will right ? As an ecosystem ' Lily looks at Mother who possessed her body and had already forced it to be able to withstand her poison .
' Maybe I can steal this soul but I don't think it would be good to absorb a ecosystem into my body '
Lily taught of some potential uses that she could use to store the soul " Tsk I underestimated this place , although it does make sense if I never had a real challenge " " What are you doing ? " " Thinking of a solution , if only I was able to bring some residents with me "
Lily sighed and thought of some possible ideas " Alright let's just let the odds roll in my favor " Lily used the cane to get a sharp needle and threw it towards mother . She gave herself a light poke on the tip of her finger and threw the needle away .
She squeezed her finger allowing a tiny drop of blood to poke out " The percentage of mutation is quite low but this is a very big forest " the drop fell off and Lily lowered her body to give the Ecosystem's will some strength straight from her own will as Death and Life had told her.
Lily felt the will of the ecosystem and the drop fell , she felt the ecosystem convulse like a victim trying to shake away the immense pain " Yeah that's right struggle " Lily kept her hand on the ground feeling the tiny will of the ecosystem .
" There is no way a forest can withstand all the pain I have inside me , they usually die even if they were this massive " leaves start to shrivel and curl as they wither and die . The forest fire spreads further as more plants weaken and the fire helps spread the poison of the drop of blood .
Mother watched the patches of grass lose color some changing colors before losing them again and turned to Lily watching her stare at the ground ' Wow so this is what they meant by an ecosystem's soul '
She looked at the glowing aura and looked beyond to the forest and watched as it died with the soul weakening even further as they lost to a drop of Lily's blood . Lily watched a big portion of the network that represents the ecosystem's will narrow into a line .
" Cane , how good is the atmosphere for Mother to breathe ? " " It is breathable for her poison-resistant body " " Okay come on dear follow me " Mother followed Lily " What was that ? " " My way of killing a forest "
" You couldn't have done that before ? " " I would have but I wanted to see how good the body Scyan made for you was " " You were going to bring me before you came to me ? " " I thought of it as a possibility , I gave you some TV so I thought you would enjoy going out "
They reached two tiny little sprouts " Oh something survived " Mother said " Good maybe I can take this home it'll be a good way to cut on expenses " " Expenses ? " " Another complicated word " " Then explain "
Wood thorns flew towards them and the Cane formed a shield " Who are you why did you burn the forest ? " " Oh is there something you want " Lily said while picking up the tiny sprout from the ground " How dare you say that after destroying the forest "
"I would do that we are an enemy after all " " What enemy , we have never met " " So did those rift divers " Lily said " That's different I know all of their faces including their children " " Oh so you're the intelligence gatherer "
The cane fired a widespread ray which scorched the treant general's body " ARGH HOW ? " " Maybe I could get more like these , I could drop poison on some of them but the problem is how I can use them "
Lily thought of using this poison to create a great filter so that she could reduce the forces and take the survivors on her own " But the problem is storage " she thought about another one of her residents and was led back to what Death and Life said .
" My body as an ecosystem huh ? That would be hard to understand , in the first place why is my body always fighting " Mother jumped to hang on Lily's shoulders " Husband what are you going to do with that sapling ? " " I'm going to take it home to breakdown your poop "
" I did hear that you small people use your droppings as fertilizers " " Yeah but the problem with yours is that it's incredibly hard I'm surprised you drop that maybe it's related to your body temperature they did say you can make hard minerals from pressure and energy "
" I have no idea what you mean " " It's okay " " But do you also poop ? Don't tell me that your poop is so poisonous that it kills everything " Lily froze thinking about it " OHHH so the problem my body has is starvation "
Mother fell off after Lily got her revelation " Okay that makes total sense I've always eaten food but never got anything out of my body I did take out some blood which made the pain more manageable I thought it was just the lack of poison but it must be the lesser need for food ... I'm gonna have to eat a lot ain't I ? "
Lily sighed and looked around ' I'll have to make do with that art they taught me ' Lily opened her palm the digested lifeforms gathered to her palm into a small pill .
" The dead feeds the life " Life swallowed the pill and Mother was curious what she just got " What was that ? " " Food you will not like cause you aren't supposed to chew it "
' I'm not feeling the effects of this war Death talked about in my body so maybe it takes time to be distributed ' " Come on let's leave I have to water this sprout later " Lily and Mother left the dead forest appearing outside .
' That's two generals down with the Treant general's soul I should be able to track more defectors and the Treant's home ecosystem's soul would do wonders for the farm that's feeding Beryl I'm sure the progress of the growth of the farm will increase '
They head back to the gate " Hello Senior Adventurer" Lily smiled and walked through the gate ' The money from the loot at the ghost general is still a lot the problem is the fact that Mother eats so much '
" Hey , Husband what are you going to do ? " " I'm going to kill a few defectors " "Eh but I have nothing to do " " There's some TV " " Oh sure give it to me " " Hold on until we are in our room " They enter the inn and leave the sprout encased .
" You can watch over this plant don't try to eat it okay ? " " Hey I only have a meal per day, okay , it should be expected that I eat more " " Then I'll bring some while coming back " Lily leaves a hologram of her and Mother turned to start her TV .
...
" We have lost another general " " What are you doing then ? " Rift king asked " It was catastrophically the treant territory was reduced to a flat desert even the great tree was destroyed and reduced to dust " " Also according to the device the descenders given us the purified land we own had reduced and some mazes are coming closer "
" Then have the Golems take the territory of the treants " The rift king demanded " We will do so your majesty " " What about the one who killed our generals ? "
" Our intelligence found that there was a person able to change their appearance , the treant general has also mentioned a few unfamiliar faces and the killing of several defectors from these rift divers "
The Rift king was disappointed to hear several bad news " But we can gain more defectors , if this shapeshifting supporter planned to help the kingdom according to the information that would mean we could gain more supporters from these Rift divers " the Rift king said .
" What do you mean your majesty ? " " If the information of the deaths of generals and sealing of our rifts are spread to the rift divers settlement , they will eventually connect the dots with the emergence of Mazes and then we can give those defectors an offer to give to that kingdom so that they can surrender themselves to me "
The generals thought very hard about this " That is ingenious Your Majesty, but that also means we have to deal with this mysterious supporter " " It's alright they'll have to go through plenty of defectors , so while they are busy slaughtering cattle they would be too late soon "
Lily killed the last one in the vicinity " Ahh never felt this refreshed before guess I was right about the starvation although I still can't access how to use these powers "
Lily recalls a few who just had an extremely vague feeling and understanding of their transformed body . How it would take a resident a while to get used to their body " Just a feeling right ? "
She looked at some rocks " Let's start with something basic "
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