The water clones smacked the purple blobs away as they shot icicles toward the plant.

I kept an eye out in case the plant would switch targets but it was focusing on one of the water clones while the other water clone and I got closer while shooting skills at it.

The wisps flared occasionally to distract the plant as I was testing its intelligence. It always went on the targe that was giving off the most mana. It wasn’t about mana consumption or what possessed the most mana it was purely emission.

A simple yet effective mechanism.

I stopped circulating mana to cut down on my emission but found myself attacked by vines to my surprise. It startled me and caused me to circulate mana again .

The vines froze in the air, felt around and retracted.

What is going on?

I had my clone stop it’s mana circulation and vines shot towards it, grabbed it and pulled it in.

The clone resumed its mana circulation and it was as if the plant forgot that it had caught its prey.

The clone escaped and backed off.

These plants shot blobs at the fairy until it died and then pulled it in after the fairy died...mana circulation stops after death... Yet again, simple yet effective.

The glowing plant seems complicated but is just a collection of simple systems that allows me to exploit them.

Ice covered my folded fan, turning it into an icy sword.

The clone emitting the least mana stopped circulating and became the target for the vines.

I brought down my makeshift sword and chopped into the vines.

It went all too fast and the flailing vine knocked me into a wall.

“Ouch!”

I hastily covered my mouth but the plant didn’t react.

“Oh... plants don’t have ears!”

There was also evidence to suggest that the plant was incapable of processing visual input so I spent 15 minutes flinging profanities at it and making faces.

“Wow that’s stress relieving!”

So my plan wasn’t faulty, I just got careless.

I tried again and chopped at the vines and instantly ducked. Something flew over my head and the clone managed to grab the vines and pulled on them.

I got bold, walked toward the plant, and cut the vines. The plant didn't react to me as it was still shooting blobs at the other water clone. I came closer and closer, careful to not let any excess mana leak out. 3 meters...2 meters...1 meter...

I could touch the plant but it was unaware of my presence. I held my breath, chopped at one of its flower petals, and ducked.

The plant made sound but didn’t retaliate. Some green ooze was dripping out of the petal I had just cut off.

A realisation set in. It was completely logical. Fighting plants is unusual, fighting monsters, animals or other advanced races is the norm all which could be loosely categorized as animals.

Plants don’t posses eyes or ears and possibly not even pain receptors like we do.

Another chop and another petal fell off.

These simple and logical processes just create the illusion that this plant can see and know when something dies. The only thing it can detect based on my assumptions is mana.

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Another chop and another petal fell off.

This could be seen as some sort of mimicry. Using its tools as a plant to appear to behave like an animal which would make it more threatening.

Another chop and a petal fell off. The glow on the petals disappeared and the goo shooting stopped.

One of the things plants have in common with animals is that they die as well.

The clones got closer and used magic to dispose of the remains of this dangerous plant.

Purple and green sludge oozed out of the remaining stem that protruded from the rock wall.

Would I have to get to the root of the problem? Will it regrow if the roots remain? If it were an animal it would be dead. But as a plant it might not be truly dead unless I eliminate the roots.

I stepped aside as the clones neared the walls and caused the water on their arms to spin rapidly. I sat by and watched a the clones were drilling into the rock wall to get to the roots.

While there was a lot of colored sludge spread out over the walls and floor, I had none on myself. One of my rare fights where I don’t end up covered in the remains of my opponents.

The rock wall crumbled and I torched the roots that freed up. The clones kept drilling but nothing else came out of the wall.

One glowing plant down!

I fed the clones more mana as more of these plants could appear. The wisps gathered and illuminated the corridor the glowing flower was guarding.

The humidity was low but uneasiness was increasing. Would these plants have a leader? But they’re plants. I dug out all of its roots so there shouldn’t be a network that connects them.

The tension rose as the uneasiness rose. Is it another lant? Is it another fairy? or something else?

The wisps floated into another room. There was no glowing plant in here... at least that’s what I thought.

The wisps illuminated several clusters of vines which started to glow dark green and writhe after the light hit them.

I quickly dimmed the lights and backed off. The glowing of the clusters continued as the glowing increased. Surely the light didn’t wake them up right? It’s not as if they’re...plants...

“I’m so stupid...”

The glowing continued spreading and the glowing clusters took form. I had no idea what it was but I knew what to do!

I turned around and hopped on my fan. Whatever those are, there are too many and in an enclosed space.

I followed the blue wisps back and shot every fairy down. the sound of cracking and snapping branches followed me as did the uncomfortable feeling.

The blue wisps passed me by faster and faster and the surroundings became blurry as I sped up. I gathered water in front of me to create an [Ice Mirror].

Dark green glowing roots and vines were growing over each other and making their way through the tunnel not far behind me.

Every fairy it caught got turned into a desiccated husk as the moisture got sucked out of it.

I ignored the remaining fairies, I just evaded them in the hope they would slow the green pursuer down.

Is it after me? Hard to tell, it must be using some sort of mechanism. Is it the light, heat, or mana of my fire wisps? Is it my mana or does it just want to reach the surface?

The walls transitioned from rock and soul to tree roots and eventually the big tree itself.

I broke out of the underground corridors and flew outside and to the sky.

I was free, right?

The vines and roots burst out of the entrance and spread into the jungle proliferating and propagating deeper and deeper, choking every other plant they met and draining its nutrients.

It was as if an invasive species was at work. Neither plant, animal or fairy was safe from it, everything was equal before it.

I shivered as I realized that i had unleashed a terror upon the jungle.

How do I solve it?

The fire wisps floating around me gathered and formed into a [Flare].

The [Flare] Descended and only left a scorch mark behind that got covered by other roots and vines moments later.

The propagation slowed down and eventually stopped. It had made it halfway to the water spire.

It might have wanted to reach for the water there but it stopped. Is it out of energy? After draining everything it met? That would be convenient though.

Purple glowing thorns grew out of the countless vines and roots and the area around it started to corrupt, just as the interdimensional scorpions corrupted the area around them.

“is it one of those things? Then spatiotemporal magic should work right?”

I briefly entered freefall to grab my fan and fire a [Dimensional Sword] at it before unfolding my fan and having it catch me.

[Dimensional Sword] had done visible damage but the plant’s regeneration kicked in and other vines and roots easily replaced what couldn’t be regenerated.

This was frustrating. I could continue cutting away at it but there would be no point if it regenerated.

“Oh no! Our lair!”

I flew back to check on our lair. The lower part of the tree seemed sickly but the top part was fine. The corruption wasn’t spreading and nothing suggested that it would but it still worried me.

We would be fine but who knows how long this tree would survive.

Did I cause this? Or did I just trigger something that would inevitably happen?

Muqu was still sleeping and nothing seemed off.

I blocked the corridor leading up to our lair with thick walls of ice. Our lair would only be accessible from the air.

I looked through the opening that looked out over the jungle.

Most of it had been replaced by the thorny vines and a dark green sickly corruption was seeping into the ground and slowly spreading outward.

Regret washed over me as I knew who would have to clean up this mess. This is the job of the rabbits, isn’t it?