I walked across the halls overgrown with nature. The blood of the palace’s prevuous residents watered the plantlife, and their corpses served as fertilizer. I left them all behind until I reached the throne room, and the gate was within just as I expected.

I entered inside, having already taken a proper rest. A horrid and foul sensation reached me just before I was dropped into a new battleground. I was inside the lair of a death dragon, sleeping in the middle of a hoard of flesh and bone. Each one of them was not merely there for decoration, but they increased the aura of death and miasma prevalent around the place. The land would fight me every step of the way if I ever wished to use my powers.

Fuck. This is a fucked stage.

I actually had the perfect solution for this problem, but it was a card I did not wish to play just yet. So instead I broke off a patch of grass from my robes like normal and laid it on the ground. I carefully picked two seeds from my pouch while the zombie-esque dragon remained asleep. Undead weren’t supposed to sleep to begin with… but perhaps it was something deeply connected with the gestalt legend of being a dragon? I’d never really met a death dragon before, which made this upcoming battle quite exciting.

My preparations done, two new trees grew from the lush grass, albeit they were still affected by the miasma around us. Even my fertile soil was quickly being eroded. I had to make this quick, therefore I went with my favorite offense in the rozenmaidenless, and I paired it with a tree that feeds on miasma. The endefier. It was something engineered specifically for that purpose, to retake the lands infested by death.

I drew upon the both of these trees, but the dragon woke up just before I could attack. I redoubled my efforts and wrapped up its four legs with my roots, pulled both wings to the ground, and tied a noose around its neck. Its aura flared, and my roots began to wither, but they also simultaneously drank of the miasma and healed themselves. The thorns covering them began their work, sawing into the scales underneath. It was tough, but not nearly as tough as dragons of other elements.

The dragon roared, and I felt a primal rage from within that was typically absent from the undead. It tried to take off, showing even greater strength than Afla of the prior floor, but I managed to hold on. For while the dragon’s size meant a stronger physique, I could also wrap more roots around it like this. It wasn’t a nimble target that I could barely hold back.

The death dragon opened its mouth with a rumble, and I felt that what was to come wasn’t a mere roar. I pulled on the roots wrapped around its head, and used them to yank its aim away from myself. The dragon’s neck proved to be tough, and I was barely able to redirect the breath of death. The attack crashed just nearby beside me, and the endefier drank greedily of the energy, but everything else fared terribly. The verdant patch of grass I was on rotted visibly, and even my rozenmaidenless wasn’t doing so hot. I too felt sick, my vine armor was good at stitching my body back together, not at staving off rot. I needed to finish this fast, so I acted. I aimed for the softer spots of the dragon’s body like its eyes, I damaged it from the inside of its mouth, I managed to throw off its aim better the next time it tried a breath attack.

I held on desperately as the dragon tried to free itself. My roots snapped, but more took their place as I began to sweat. Scales were peeled off and I reached flesh. Thorns dug into the dragon’s body causing it to thrash harder. I did not let up on the assault, I pulled it back down to the ground and ensured its wings were too damaged to take off. It lost power as its limbs became unresponsive, but this monster was literally a zombie. So I dug through both of it eyeholes, and even toward the ears, seeking to destroy it from the inside. Organs were lacerated from within, roars of anger rumbled out of the dragon, but it finally stilled once I reached the brain.

My roots grinded up that most important organ, and the death dragon finally ceased to be.

~~~

I climbed toward the canopy of my endefier, choosing to stay among its branches as the rest of the life I’ve wrought rotted away. Roots withered and died, my rozenmaidenless was no longer red, all its leaves and petals had fallen away. It did well to remain alive and standing til the very end, allowing me to draw upon its powers to vanquish the hated foe.

I rested there for a while, preparing myself for what may be my final battle. I had a plan, but I knew not if it’d be enough. There was never any guarantee.

The endefier was the only thing that allowed for this one peaceful moment, as the tree not only remained standing but grew even taller, gorging itself on the rampant energies of death. Thanks to its efforts, it only took hours for the miasma to thin after the dragon’s death. I waited there for even longer, until I finally decided to take on the final challenge of The Eternal Dungeon.

~~~

I was already moving the moment I stepped into the portal. The world twisted around itself, and so did I.

I arrived at a new location, and I waved my robe outwards before my feet even touched the ground. The fabric of it enlarged to cover the large rectangular hall I had found myself in, and then it shifted away from my hands to cover and convert everything to a battlefield that would benefit me.

My domain covered everything in soft and lush grass, from the floor, to the walls, the ceiling, and even the very pillars upon which this all stood upon. A soft light shone upon all of my creation, with no apparent origin at all.

I planted four trees near myself, just as the final boss stirred. It was a gigantic monstrosity of yellowish bones, rotting flesh, ghastly appendages and more. Countless limbs sprouted from its asymmetric body, a hundred hands held it up and reached toward myself. Many heads adorned its torso, from a human, to a bat, to every kind of monster. It walked, it crawled, it rolled towards me. I felt a chill go up my spine. The dungeon had not changed its last boss after all, so I stuck to the plan.

“Come beast! I'm not scared at all!” I was already grabbing hold of my pouch as I stammered. I enveloped it with both hands, pouring in all the power of my gloves. And then I tossed the bag into the air with all of might. It exploded in the middle of the room, scattering the results of decades of my hard work. The seeds that I’d collected throughout my long life planted themselves in the ground, ceiling, walls, and more. I intended to pour it all out now and leave nothing behind!

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The boss monster did not stop on account of my preparations. The abomination was deceptively fast, and it reached myself within seconds, shaking the whole space as it went.

But I stood my ground. My feet were literally rooted in place. The trees around me had almost reached their full height.

My enemy would reach myself before they were complete.

So I dug deeper. I entrenched my feet and allowed the roots to also reach within myself, taking away all the opportunity to move away. In exchange, I was able to summon up even more power, as towering roots tore themselves free of the ground and wrapped around the many limbs of the monster. Hands, feet, and other appendages were held back, but some were of the ghastly variety. I ignored them and wrapped up all the ones of flesh and bone, struggling against the massive creature and preventing it from moving further.

My trees grew to maturation.

The squarcher. A tree said to be able to grow on nearly any material, able to puncture through steel and more. I grabbed the trunk of that one, and then paired it with the classic rozenmaidenless. The roots that came out were both exceedingly strong and dotted with the sharpest of thorns, relieving my previous efforts. A hundred heads shrieked as I squeezed, making headway and dealing damage to my enemy, even hacking of some hands and legs entirely. The unique monster then responded by coordinating its limbs, and using many of them to simultaneously push off the ground. My enemy was successful, tearing through more roots than I was able to replenish in time. I couldn’t rip off its legs fast enough, and it was now making a beeline for me again.

I switched trees. This time a demona and an endefier. The endefier was the one I used to eat death magic on the prior floor, while a demona was a tree known to eat the insides of everything that came close. It didn’t try to harm me however, for it saw me as the ally that I was.

The end result from this fusion was something that could eat the death magic from within the big monster.

I retained control of the roots I already had growing, but the new ones that came out had a different effect. The began to pierce into the torso of the monster, draining it of the power that kept it animated, causing the creature to shriek uncontrollably from its many heads. The new roots were unfortunately weaker, causing them to be torn apart more easily. My opponent even began to use up its ghastly limbs, exchanging the ectoplasm that made up their form for damage, withering away my roots. It was a limited resource, so I was willing to take the disadvantage now, if it meant I could do better later.

My roots fell steadily, the monster was gaining ground. A new forest was sprouting around us, but it was still not ready. My rozenmaidenless + squarcher roots from before were all spent, and the only ones left holding back the beast were the ones built to eat it. I could tell it was taking its toll, and the magic making up the monster’s form was weakening with every passing second. But it would still reach me far before that happens. Dozens of limbs were raised, and they descended down to strike upon me. I could not block or redirect them all.

I activated my antlers. A storm of sakura petals filled the entire room, and the monster found itself facing the entirely wrong way. That set of attacks were a miss, but the monstrosity did not even have to turn around. It had no discernable front or side, just a central body and the limbs therein. So it merely crawled toward me again, only it found itself missing for a second time, the blow never even coming close. Within the chaos of the sakura petals, it could not find its way. Its position was ever shifting in the place that none could ever know. No amount of senses would ever allow someone to see through this storm.

My antlers cracked. I was reminded that I was on a timer, and that I was using it all up. My roots scattered around the space, and I never stopped siphoning off the creature’s life… or death, in this case. But I knew it would not be nearly enough.

So my position too shifted. My feet remained rooted in place, but I was in between new trees. Different trees. From the entire forest that I made.

I picked the targatree and the harmosa. The former was a tree covered in tar and the latter was a tree that put itself on fire as a defense mechanism. It was not fire resistant.

The roots that came from them were covered in flames, but also oddly fire resistant because the tar was both flammable and heat-resistant. I aimed for the flesh of the abomination, for they were more vulnerable to fire.

My positions shifted again, another crack ran through my antlers. The next roots were filled to the brim with holy magic, and the means to inject them. The many heads of the monster shrieked at this pain. Undead were not used to the feeling.

The monstrosity remained on fire during this exchange, it damaged the environment I’d prepared further, putting me on even more of a timer.

I reached out my hand, and I found myself against another differing pair of trees. The next ones were heavy, and were like whips. Not the best at wrapping around, but I took the opportunity to deal some striking damage, cracking and destroying some of the more bony limbs.

My antlers cracked some more. They were a masterpiece that could never be replaced, but this was worth it. It was the end.

I shifted positions again, still unassaulted by my enemy. Next came roots that snaked around and exploded. Those that rotted, those that slimed. I used roots that were ethereal and sacrificial, others yet held something in place and then turned to stone, restricting the atrocity’s movements further.

A cascade of many differing strategies and elements. I used them all, and my position remained uncertain and unshifting even as my feet somehow remained rooted to the ground, forever enhancing the weight of my powers. The monstrosity hidden within the storm of petals never even came close to reaching myself.

But all good things must come to an end, and the antlers that I cherished fully broke. I found myself near the first four trees again once the cherry blossoms had faded. I was on one end of the arena, and my opponent in the other, just like how it all started.

My armor welded into my skin, and my body became entirely made of vines. I leaned against one tree and touched two others. I struck out my tounge, and it became comically long, reaching the last one.

Roots that were strong, sharp, and capable of draining my opponent dry of its energies rose from the ground. The monstrosity struggled against them, losing more limbs and chunks of its many heads in the process. The enemy lost more and more of itself as it reached me, but reach me it did. Scythe-like bones dug into my chest, only for that arm to be ripped off by my roots. The intruding objects that were left lodged inside were tossed away, and the vines that now made up my body quickly rejoined, healing me back to functionality. More strikes came, and I managed to yank away and redirect most. The few that got through were healed in the same manner as the first. The ghastly limbs that remained were a bigger problem, but I bore through the weakness they gave me, I teetered on the edge of death and lived.

I did not rest nor let up when the undead foe finally began to slow down. Its arms fell off on their own, but I did not stop on ripping out even more. The many faces drooped into incomprehensible expressions, and I only took that to mean that I should flay them more.

The giant monster leaned on one side and then the other. It began to collapse as if in slow motion, no longer reacting to my attacks that still did not cease. It fell with a resounding crash, unmoving forever.

My own fall that followed did not have quite nearly as much impact.