I guess I deserved that. Lily sighed, watching her brother disappear from view. She really should have expected some kind of payback after her little stunt. Leo loved to hold a grudge, and now she had no choice but to suffer for her past decisions.

But why now?! She whined internally, scanning the forest floor full of injured Terrontaurs. You could have just waited one more minute for us, and we would have handled this. But no! You had to beat them up to a pulp.

Before her downward spiral could continue, a gentle hand landed on her shoulder. "Come on, lass, get a grip," Holden muttered so no one else could hear him. "The circumstances might not be perfect, but your brother was right; we can use this."

Lily took a deep breath, counted to five, and nodded. The man was right; they had a job to do. She could complain about her brother's antics later.

"Excellent," Tony said again. "I will lead, but don't fear to speak up."

With that, the chief of Eden approached the fallen leader of Terrontaurs and kneeled before him. The alien instantly turned his glare on the new arrival.

"I'm Anthony Holden, one of the leaders of Eden safe zone on Earth. Behind me is Lily Hale, another leader and sister of our mutual friend you had the pleasure of meeting." The Terrontaur flinched at that, but Holden evidently didn't care as he continued. "Despite my ally's actions, we truly don't want to fight you. All we seek is an alliance. We can help each other in this new cursed reality."

The alien scoffed, spitting drops of green liquid—probably blood. "You want an alliance?" The creature laughed. "After what just happened? You humans must be mad!"

All right, now that's bullshit. Lily rolled her eyes and also crouched before the fallen beast. "And please tell me, who was the one to start the fight? I know my brother. He wouldn't attack you if you didn't attack first."

The alien didn't say anything and just glared harder at her. Lily snorted. "Exactly... Go on, Tony."

Holden nodded with a small smile on his face. "As you see, the state of your people is your own fault, and I hope you've learned something from this mistake. Of course, if you would like, we can forget about everything that happened today and start anew. Talk like one leader to another."

The Terrontaur frowned as his glare lessened a bit. "And what if I don't agree? Will you finally leave?"

Holden chuckled. "Leave? For now? Maybe, but we will definitely return. And then there is Leo, who, as you can see, has already decided to wander off. Currently, nothing is stopping him from doing whatever he wants, but if we were to ally..."

Lily smirked, seeing the alien's resolve crumble. Her new co-leader was right; they could use the mess her brother had created.

"Fine!" The Terrontaur growled. "I will send for our elders. I'm not authorized to make decisions like this."

Holden smiled. "Very well. We have time. Do what you must..."

"Seklar," the alien muttered. "I'm called Seklar, the commander of the Heart Forest's northern battalion. You better not make me regret this."

"We won't," Lily vowed, and she meant it. If what the System showed them during the transition was true, then this planet was a real treasure. It could become a safe haven in case something went wrong on Earth.

"We will see about that," Seklar huffed. With the remaining strength in his body, he turned to face one of the Terrontaurs who weren't hurt during Leo's onslaught. "Selbius! Run to the village and inform the elders of everything that happened. Tell them they are needed here."

Selbius—Why are they trying to hide behind the tree?—nodded furiously. "As you wish, Commander." And so the creature sprinted away, running almost as fast as Lily could.

That's honestly impressive with their levels. Must be a skill...

"There you have it," the commander scowled. "It shouldn't take too long for them to come here."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Holden nodded. "We will wait by the Void Gate then and let you recover for the time being. Unless you want us to help?" he offered. "Lily here can speed up healing with her powers."

Seklar instantly shook his head, his scowl deepening. "No. I can handle my people. Your demon did enough..."

Lily bristled, ready to jump forward and kick the alien horse's ass. However, before she could do that, Tony grabbed her forearm and gave her a firm look. 'Don't,' it said. She huffed, walking away.

"One of us needs to go back and bring the others," Holden said once they stopped by the active Void Gate. "We can handle them as they are, but if those elders come with another army, we are in deep shite."

She clicked her tongue. "Agreed. Besides, it could be a nice show of strength. We can't depend on Leo with this."

The man frowned, looking around. "Where is he anyway?"

That's a good question, she grumbled in her mind. "No idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was sitting on one of those trees under his stealth."

"Aye... I can see that happening. You two and Frank will make me go bald before the end of this year."

"Sorry?"

"No, it doesn't matter. It's my own fault expecting that things will be normal with you around," Holden muttered. "You're much stronger between the two of us, so I will go. Wait for us. Please."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm not my brother. I'm not gonna fight anyone."

"You better not."

----------------------------------------

Interesting. Leo mused as he scanned the land beyond the forest of giant trees. It didn't look that much different from the wilderness on Earth, only a bit more exotic. The Void's corruption was also visible this time, with most of the landscape already transformed by its influence.

The forest behind me must be protected from the Void to some degree. But how? The Terrontaur said they have been defending this place for a long time, so maybe it's some kind of sacred land. Still, what can possibly have so much power to resist the Void?

He shook his head and let his gaze travel to the dozens of Voidlings in the distance. He spotted a few Cursed Terrontaurs, but it was the flora that made up the bigger part of the monster population here. They ranged from simple transformed flowers to large Cursed Treants that reminded him of the one he fought back in London—though those were far weaker.

This planet is really big on nature, Leo commented as he identified a long snake-like creature made out of a cursed wood.

Cursed Root Viper (Voidling) | Rank: F+ | LVL: 15 | Type: Nature, Grace, Surface

Out of curiosity, he opened the related Bestiary entry, and to his surprise, it was very similar to the one he had received from Cursed Amalgam. It addressed every single Cursed Root creature and not only this single viper. Of course, it listed fire as a weakness, but apart from that, there wasn't much useful info there.

Well, aside from the fact that those creatures came to be from combining random animals with plants. Leo snorted, dismissing the bestiary and looking back at the giant forest.

As much as he wanted to explore this new planet further, he had to return to check up on the negotiations soon. Nyx had already contacted him about it, saying that she and almost everyone else had come through to assist Lily and Holden.

But first, I have one more thing to do, he noted, activating Hunter's Pulse. He scanned the hundreds of green trails and nodded before quickly marking one of them. That should do. Let's go.

----------------------------------------

A village... Not surprising.

It didn't take him long to follow the Hunter's Mark, and soon, he arrived close to the massive walls of a village of Terrontaurs. He had to scale a tree nearby to get a better look inside. Those people took their protection quite seriously, or so it seemed at first glance.

They definitely aren't a technologically advanced civilization, Leo observed. This looks like a typical medieval village, only much larger and with everything made of wood.

However, it wasn't a cut timber that made the hundreds of buildings below him. Instead, everything was shaped with elongated roots, tree branches, or other parts of nature. He couldn't find a single construct that appeared to be crafted by hand.

Even with their ability to wield nature, it's impressive, he admitted. And they definitely did this before the Outbreak. I refuse to believe they build this all in a matter of a few weeks.

'They could be one of the few races that were aware of Essence before Awakening,' Nyx pointed out, her voice pulling him back to reality.

Nyx... Why did you open the link? Bored with the diplomacy talks?

'No. We're done here and will be returning to Earth soon. Lily told me to call you back.'

Oh. I will get going then. I finished here anyway. He said and frowned. By the way, how did it go?

Nyx let out a sigh that could be heard even through their connection.

'Not bad, but it could have gone better. Your sister will explain. I didn't really listen to everything said during the negotiations.'

I see. Be there in five.