Dusk’s mana swirled out around Kene and me, slowing our descent. The Peacepyre floated over our heads, and I gently pulled Dusk from my pocket, examining her. I fed mana into her, trying to pass everything I could, and I could sense her drawing on the power of the plants within her, then the small folk.

It was enough, just barely. We landed onto hard, cold stone, but Dusk’s spell made our landing soft enough that it didn’t hurt.

I slowly rose to my feet, and then opened a portal to Dusk’s realm, where I placed her in the smallfolk village. I looked at Kene.

“Do you want to stay in her realm? It’s going to be safer than trying to continue with me. Meadow will eventually come fish you out.”

Kene’s jaw locked, and their eyes grew hard.

“No, I’m going to help. If you get hurt, I can help, and I’m more of a help in combat.”

They reached into a satchel at their side and passed me a potion bottle, then a second one that was identical to the first, then a third that was different.

“Mana restoration elixirs for you and Dusk,” they explained. “As well as an energizing potion for her.”

“Thanks,” I said, passing them to Dusk, who peeped her thanks as she drank them. I drank as well and felt the rush of mana enter me.

If nothing else, today would be good for my mana growth. Burning through so much while fighting the roots while also restoring it faster than I could burn it had been great, and then I’d burned it all again to help Dusk and gotten it restored again.

The Peacepyre swirled around me, and then I felt it reach out, and jolted. It was easy to forget that the Peacepyre wasn’t just a magical light, but was a creature in its own right.

A power, only first gate, but still there, slunk into my spirit and soothed some of the burning sensation from channeling the now third gate Blademoss.

“Thank you,” I told the orb of silver fire. It glowed brighter, which I interpreted to be cheerful.

“Hey, look,” Kene said, kicking at the ground. “This isn’t a cavern.”

I looked down to try and figure out what they meant. Sure enough, the stone of the cavern wasn’t the normal, smooth stones of a cave, but rather… Tiles. Old, worn out, but definitely tile flooring.

The peacepyre floated into the air and glowed brighter, illuminating the… Hall.

It wasn’t a cavern at all. We’d broken through a hole in the ceiling and into what looked like a grand reception hall.

Then light flooded the hall as old, circular rune lights turned on. I whirled around, looking for the source.

I could only see Kene, Dusk, and me in the hall.

Then why had they turned on?

The lights flickered off again, and I jumped. Kene took my hand and I squeezed.

“Probably drawing on the ambient power of our fight,” they said.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding.

Then they turned on again, and this time we weren’t alone in the hall.

The roots had crept back in, coming from a side door. A moment later, the main body of the plant emerged into the giant hall.

It was a ball of roots, with a large glass sphere in the center. Inside of the sphere, magical energy swirled, radiating knowledge and mental energy. Runes and sigils were painted on the sphere in a ruddy color, connecting into the roots and sending power through them.

“Primes,” Kene swore. “It’s a war root.”

I spun around, looking for any place I could find to retreat or move. There was a thin corridor nearby – it could probably send its roots in, but the main body wouldn’t be able to enter. I grabbed Kene’s hand and slammed shut the portal to Dusk’s realm, then sprinted.

The plant followed, its glowing glass sphere flaring brighter, but it slammed hard enough against the wall. Its roots began to spread out, looking for the door, and as we sprinted down the uneven corridor, I looked at Kene.

“War root?” I asked.

“They’re native to Thornfront, as well as some of the wild lands,” Kene said, heaving for breath as we sprinted. “They were a plant that produced energy at a third gate level, but they were engineered with vampire magic mixed in. They can draw on the energy in the blood of anything they kill, and grow in power.”

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

“What’s one doing under your town?” I asked.

“It probably was dormant after its use in some battle. Got buried with the preservation spells intact, and has been growing since they failed,” Kene guessed. I shoved them back as I had to call the third gate Blademoss again to slice a root that was about to grab us.

Channeling the Blademoss still strained me, and without having the root’s own power refueling me, my mana ran dry within seconds.

I flicked my fingers and connected Harvest Plant Life to it again.

“What’s the core?” I asked.

“I can't tell without getting a better look,” Kene said. “They are known to take in energy. Maybe it’s trying to feed on the core?”

I nodded and pulled Kene into a side room, then looked at Kene.

“What can we do to kill it?” I asked.

“I have no idea,” Kene said. “They seek out the energy in blood. They’re not sapient… More like an ambulatory venus fly trap.”

“Got it,” I said. I leaned over and kissed their cheek. “Give me all the runes you can, then get into Dusk’s realm. Trust me.”

Kene frowned but stretched out their hand and swirling runes surrounded me, until it looked like I had an open portal to the inside of a forge following me around.

I opened the portal to Dusk’s realm, then turned. The roots had followed me into this room, but if it wanted blood, I could give it blood.

I had to. If I stopped, then it could return to its cave, and it might attack the town to try and replenish its power.

I teleported forwards, and the roots traced me, following back out. As I’d hoped, the defenses around Dusk’s realm had removed its ability to sense their blood.

I clenched my fist and overcharged my mana, then slashed out with a wave of Blademoss. The moment the hole in the war root’s defenses was opened, and I had line of sight, I teleported back into the main hall.

I slammed my hand into the ground and pulled something from Dusk’s realm.

While I’d been recovering from my training, Meadow had me propagate my Blood Carnations.

One flower appeared in the ground, radiating second gate power. I turned and teleported back as the roots twisted towards the flower.

I planted another, and teleported out of the way again, then a third, then a fourth.

Several of the roots were still chasing me, but some of them were distracted, reaching out for the flowers, trying to take them and integrate their power.

I let the roots chase me into a corner, then teleported right underneath the war root’s body. I thrust my staff up and unleashed as much of my mana into my Blademoss as I could, pouring in Kene’s runes, infusing them into every inch of the attack.

At the same time, the root monster slammed itself down. I interposed my staff between us, and the world froze.

I felt a sharp pain in my spirit once again, but the moss bit into the main body of the war root.

The silvery arcing force from the moss ripped through the body of the war root, slicing off a good third of its mass.

Then the roots shook and slammed down towards me again, and my staff exploded, while I teleported out of the way in the nick of time.

Cutting off a third of it had definitely hurt it. The roots were dead, and the power I was pulling in had diminished greatly.

Unfortunately for me, that meant that the power I was stealing to fight was lower too.

I swept out with Blademoss again, not putting as much power in as I had with the strike that had nearly torn my spirit, and sliced off a few extra roots, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

I slammed my hand into one of its roots and sent four layers of overcharged Fungal Lock onto the roots, then tried to teleport out of the way again.

I was an instant too slow. The roots wrapped around my ankle, and power surged through my spell, but it wasn’t strong enough to break the grasp of something so strong.

I thought that I heard a cracking sound, but I wasn’t entirely sure. Pain flared through me, and I quickly sketched the pain-muting spell that Meadow had shown me.

Pain was important, but right now, it would only hurt me.

More roots were crawling up my legs, and I wasn’t confident in my precision when controlling the Blademoss, especially since I was trying to control something with more power than I had. The last thing I wanted to do was slice my own leg off, not while I had other options.

I pulled shards of bone from my spirit and sent them down to start cutting me out.

As the roots continued working to envelope me, the main body of the war root grew closer to me. It started to drain my body, and the sensation felt familiar, not unlike what the Magister’s Body did to infuse power into my spells.

As it drew closer, I sketched a spell with one hand, while preparing myself.

The moment it was close enough, I empowered both spells and released the last of Kene’s runes.

Another massive scything arc of Blademoss shot from one hand, and with the other I empowered Material Echo. Then I spun the Blademoss, trying to cut off all the roots.

It failed, at least partially. My Blademoss cut off another good third of the war root, but Material Echo wasn’t able to mimic the magic of the blademoss, and I burnt up a huge chunk of mana for nothing.

My eyesight flickered, and I heard the clattering of bones to the ground as I lost control over the points in space that held Pinpoint Boneshard aloft.

That wasn’t good.

I reached for power within myself, and tried to unleash more Blademoss around me, not even caring if it hurt me. Some of it shredded through my aura and suit and dug into me, and the root eagerly reached for my blood, keeping me pinned in place as the blades of the moss cut through everything around it.

I closed my eyes, ignoring the spiritual pain, and reached for more power. Not through my mana, this time.

Through Burn Future.

I hadn’t mastered the spell, but I felt it click into place in my spirit, sliding perfectly and easily into place.

Maybe the spiritual pain of a rive was offset by the damage of channeling so much more power than I should be able to?

When I fed Burn Future, it wasn’t to get mana. I was still draining the War Root, after all. For once, I had an abundance of mana.

So it wasn't mana I called.

I called strength.

My eyes snapped open as power flooded my body. I ripped through the roots with a combination of slashing Blademoss that left gouges in my skin and the strength of Burn Future.

Under the power of Burn Future, even the spiritual pain of channeling the Blademoss was lessened.

I felt like a new man, like an occultist ready to strike down my enemies. I had no idea how much debt I was gathering, and at that moment, I didn’t care.

I slammed my hand down, and silvery Blademoss followed. The war root lost another large chunk of power now, its last few tendrils curling at me.

They fell to quick sweeps of my hand.

The war root collapsed under its own power then, no longer able to sustain itself. I sliced one more time with the Blademoss, just to make sure it was really dead, then cut off Burn Future.

I tumbled forwards and the world went black.