The angry Ent turned and released branches and roots that pierced the enemy, but only about a quarter or a third. Not deeper. This made the Ent shout angrily with indignation and pain. The branches and roots merged together, becoming even more huge and strong.

Vallynor, experiencing a strong hunger, ate for the first time and felt his legs weaken. He made an effort not to fall to the ground. He was now thinking about how to defend himself from the next Ent attack.

"It's easy to say that controlling this Golem is like controlling your own body. Maybe they're similar, but they're different bodies. It's like driving an automatic car all the time, where you don't have to worry. And the Golem's body is like an old car with manual control, where you choose the speed yourself. Terrible," Vallynor thought.

And then, right in front of him, not in front of his face, but in front of the Golem's face, a huge root flew. He instinctively tried to raise his right hand, but it was greatly weakened by hunger. Then he tried to raise his left hand, and this time he succeeded. The root pierced his hand and head, after which it turned to ashes.

Vallynor summoned new undead, which quickly merged with his body, fully restoring his wounds.

Seeing that his attack had no effect, the Ent aimed at the chest, where Vallynor's heart should have been. Seeing where the enemy was aiming, Vallynor became nervous because his real body was there. If he hits the body, Vallynor will die, and his soul... it's scary to imagine.

"What should I do?" he muttered to himself. At such a moment he couldn't think of anything. His eyes searched for something that could save him, while he tried to come up with something.

Many ideas came to mind, but they all had many drawbacks, including lack of time. He looked around, thinking about what to do, and then noticed how several bodies, which were not completely destroyed, were coming out of the sand. This reminded him that the Land of the Dead was still active.

Without thinking about whether this would work or not, he immediately ordered the sand to be shaken. Many hands of different shapes and sizes appeared from the sand, even some were three or four times larger than the others.

Grabbing the Golem's legs, they began to pull him into the sand, right at the moment when the root was supposed to touch the enemy's chest. The root, touching the throat, sank as the enemy's body sank into the sand, creating a line from the throat to the tip of the head, where the wound deepened with each passing second.

"Aaaah!" The root almost killed Vallynor. Together with the scream of pain, the giant burned.

The pain completely deprived the remaining shreds of his mind. And without thinking, he jumped on Vallynor, embracing him tightly with strong arms and legs, releasing branches and roots from his whole body, even from his head, which entered the enemy's body. But even so, before reaching halfway, the branch or root burned, leaving wounds behind. The Ent never even dreamed that he could kill the enemy like this. He tried to kill him by hugging, but due to his body build, he could not fully squeeze him.

When Vallynor again extracted undead from the amulet, wishing to restore the Golem's body, the Ent destroyed the undead with its branches and roots, not giving them a chance to take a step.

"If this continues, Golem will die," thought Vallynor, "first his body will be destroyed, and then he himself." Not knowing what to do, panels appeared before his eyes. He quickly read them, hoping to find a clue. He was surprised and even delighted with the new information.

Based on the new plan, Vallynor acted quickly. While the Ent compressed the body without opening its mouth, he had already fully burned, looking like a burning torch in the darkness.

Then the Ent soon opened its mouth, and flames began to come out, which became stronger over time. The enemy initially struggled, even tried to use attacking spells, but they were weak and almost imperceptible. This amused the Ent, to see the enemy fighting, but it was all clear.

The flames began to consume the Golem's body from the head and quickly spread throughout the body. At first, the Golem tried to fight, but quickly gave up.

While the fire consumed its prey, the Ent spread its branches and roots directly into the enemy's body. When the fire and roots with the roots destroyed the enemy's body into pieces, the Ent let out a joyful howl, hitting his chest with happiness.

Anino and Glazik saw their owner fall, and the enemy joyfully celebrated victory. They fell into despair. Glazik was already thinking where to go and what to do next, while Anino wanted revenge. He had already risen to run to the Ent.

Suddenly, a skeleton emerged from the sand and weakly hit Anino in the face, saying, "Do not dare. I'm alive," and quickly vanished.

Anino and Glazik looked at each other in surprise and both saw shock in each other's eyes. They realized that it was not their imagination and that their owner was truly alive.

Hatred and fear quickly disappeared from their hearts, and they continued to watch their owner's battle.

The euphoria that had seized the Ent due to victory slowly disappeared, giving way to reason. He was ready to enjoy the last moment of delicious food from the defeated enemy, but no one was around him. He could not remember having already eaten the enemy's soul.

It took him a few seconds to realize that he had been tricked like a fool. He angrily howled, looking around. But a new wave of pain enveloped his body. The pain from the curse of the worms became only stronger, and with each wave, he felt weak and exhausted, which hindered him from fully utilizing the strength given by the curse.

He looked around, trying to find that damn bug, but could not find it. He could see the dog and the flying eye in the distance, but did not even pay attention to them. Using them to lure the enemy would require a lot of time, which he did not have. He did not need them.

Looking at the sand, he felt weak vibrations. He began to strike the sand with every hand and foot. Branches and roots came out of his hot hands, which, like snakes, moved through the sand, searching for Vallynor.

Vallynor moved through the sand, using the Dead's earth to avoid the enemy's roots and branches, considering himself under his nose.

One of the branches caught his leg, slightly injuring it. This was enough for him to understand where he was.

The Ent directed all of his roots and branches, surrounding the area and creating a spherical cage made of branches and roots. He sent a few branches and roots to confirm that he caught Vallynor in the cage. He would have tried to pull him out of the sand, but the excruciating pain made him think otherwise.

The spherical cage rapidly shrank, not allowing Vallynor any room to move and think while he ran around the center of the cage muttering to himself.

Soon the cage caught up with Vallynor and started rapidly deteriorating his body, starting from his arms and legs. Vallynor cast different spells and even raised the undead, giving him a few seconds. When he thought he was going to die, the branches and roots burned, leaving only ashes behind.

The Ent let out a cry of pain and fell on the sand. Occasionally, he weakly moved, but even that stopped. The fire that consumed his body erupted into huge waves, destroying large pieces of the sandy terrain and causing strong earthquakes.

The Necronomicon emerged from Vallynor. Quickly unfolding, it began to suck in the energetic waves, thus reducing the destructive power in the territory.

Vallynor felt that the earthquakes had stopped and came out, where he saw his book, like a black hole, sucking in strong waves of energy created by the curse that had destroyed the bodies of the Ents.

While the book absorbed the energy, Vallynor summoned a few undead, who had no physical injuries. One of them cut off the limbs, after which Vallynor placed them next to him. From all four wounds, necrotic threads emerged, pulling the limbs to the body and merging them.

***

In the old black castle, a old man walked through the long dark corridors dressed in black monastic robes and holding an old, almost rotten cane. He stopped at the end of the hallway, right in front of a door and knocked on it a few times. Without waiting for an answer, he entered immediately.

Inside the huge room, located in the center of the castle, there was a work desk where a young lion-like humanoid sat. He read and wrote at the same time, which was a very rare gift when a person could do two different things at once. Leaving his pen and papers, the lion looked at the old monk, then at his old cane. The old man had been carrying this cane his entire life and he couldn't remember any moment when he was without it.

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"What happened, old man? Is father bothering us again?" asked the tired young lion.

"I have three news. Your father Alexander left the city and headed towards the cursed forest. And this time, the reason is unknown... Well, not entirely unknown. I'll tell you about another news for the full picture," explained the old man.

"Last time, he went to the forest for our younger sister, a little fool who didn't want to bother us. Idiot... What's next?" asked the old lion after a few moments of silence.

After a few minutes of silence, the young lion looked at the old man waiting for his response. "Do you remember the 7-meter ent who went to the cursed forest and got lost? He fell because the forest didn't let him through, but he still had some consciousness, proving that even when falling, they can think, not turn into beasts," he said.

"Yes, I remember that ent, and how he wanted to take my power several times. But every time I defeated him. And only thanks to his Thick Bark, he survived... What happened to him?" replied the irritated lion, recalling what a bastard that ent was. He almost destroyed his centuries-old plan.

"He's dead," answered the old man, looking him in the eyes.

"Dead? How did this happen? Who could kill him? Answer me, old fart," asked the shocked lion. He barely even got up from his chair and didn't shake hands with the person who killed that thorn in his ass. But of course, the thoughts about it remained in his head.

"We don't know. Every person we sent was killed by him and turned into a doll. I immediately sent a squad to find out the details," said the monk, making a bow, showing that he apologized.

"No need to apologize. You did the right thing. So, you found out that the ent died because his life seal disappeared, which he left behind?" thoughtfully asked the lion.

"Yes, his seal disappeared, which means that his soul disappeared completely, or was eaten. We'll find out this question soon... If you allow me, I'll move on to the third news," said the monk. The lion nodded, giving permission to continue.

"People are spreading news that the student of Baba Yaga is coming to the city soon. Most, hearing this, have become frightened, then puzzled wondering 'a student?' . So did I. But then there was a new piece of news: this student will become the student of Alexander, Gabriel, and Caesar. And I understood..." interrupted the old man.

"Is this student a soul that somehow came from the external world? And now father has gone to look for him in the cursed forest, where even the ent died. Are all three news related to him?" asked the young lion.

"Yes, that's what I wanted to say. But as always, your mind is phenomenal," replied the old man.

"Don't lick my ass. You know I don't like suck-ups," the young Lion objected.

"But who else am I supposed to flatter if not you? Oh well, what shall we do, your majesty?"

"What do you think of an old monk who has abandoned his path, plunging into darkness to save his monasteries from those bastards?" rising up, he headed towards the window, where he saw soldiers, warriors, and mages training, having fun, and laughing heartily.

"I don't even know. It's a difficult choice - to let a dangerous shoot grow or to destroy it. This choice is for you two, not me," replied the old monk.

"We'll destroy him. We don't need a second Chosen One. There's a chance he'll turn out like the last one. I'll personally kill him. Send people. When they find him, let me know right away," ordered the young Lion.

"As you wish," bowing, the old monk left the room to carry out the order.

"The game begins, Father," said the young Lion.

***

Vallynor stood up and began to move his new black arms and legs. He felt weakness and sat down to contemplate the battle with the ent.

When he tried to raise his right arm in the form of a golem, he couldn't for some reason. There were no problems with his left arm, but it didn't move as fast as he wanted. The problem was that his right arm didn't listen to him.

He looked at his black as pitch hands, took the rings, which were almost intact, and extracted a standard piece of iron weighing 50 kilos from one of them. He tried to lift it with one hand, but he couldn't. His arm didn't listen to him and didn't move even a centimeter.

"Hmm... Perhaps that's why I couldn't control the right arm of my armored golem. So I need to restore it. But I don't want to spend years training. Wait, what if..."

He took the old half-destroyed arm and several other items from the ring. Then he sent them all into the fire and began to dance in circles, creating different runes with his hands. He felt the mana flowing through his limbs.

When he finished, the fire, which had been weakly burning before, began to flare up with new strength, changing its color to greenish-marsh.

Seeing how the fire flares up, Vallynor jumped for joy several times, and once even fell face down in the sand because he wasn't used to having such weak limbs.

"Never mind, I'll quickly get rid of this splinter," Vallynor said and quickly jumped into the fire. The burning fire flamed, and when he entered inside, it became even stronger and began to destroy Vallynor's arms and legs. At the same time, Vallynor took a ring with food and began to eat in the fire. The fire didn't harm his body, but, on the contrary, purified the limbs of impurities.

This fire was created with a curse that aimed to change the structures of the body or limbs. To do this, it was necessary to sacrifice a specimen of a limb or body and direct this curse towards the target. After that, the body of the target was changed according to the sacrifice that was given to the fire.

Since the curse itself was the goal, Vallynor didn't have to think about the backlash. He sat and watched as his black limbs began to ache until they turned gray, like a corpse's color, and his whole body underwent transformation.

Now, looking from the outside, you couldn't tell the difference between the old limbs and the new ones, but there were still internal differences. Mana still poorly mixed throughout the limbs, but better than before the transformation with the fire.

To make mana flow more easily through the limbs, one had to train. You could also improve your abilities, cast spells, and force a huge amount of mana to flow through the limbs, forcefully purifying them of impurities. However, in such a case, there were many downsides. One of them was possible damage if the limbs are weak. The second was excruciating pain. But since Vallynor couldn't feel the pain, he didn't care.

What's next... Oh, yes, the third stage. After the process, it would be difficult to control the mana in the body. But this is not a problem because I have experience. There are also many nuances, but they are small.

"Well, let's go," Vallynor said. Strong waves of mana began to circulate throughout the body. Black resin droplets came out of his hands and feet as they jerked. The process purified the limbs of impurities, improving the whole body during the process.

Annio and Glazik reached the battlefield and were shocked to see the book emitting waves of pure energy, while Vallynor sat on the sand and twisted in agony.

Annino quickly approached Vallynor, but he raised his hand to stop him and said, "I'm fine. You protect me while I cleanse my body."

Annino and Glazik understood and sat down on either side of Vallynor, watching for any scavengers.

***

Watching Vallynor and Enta's battle, the old woman closed her eyes and muttered to herself, "Maybe he'll have a chance. But first, he needs to recover. Soon, soon..."

Closing her eyes, she fell asleep. Thirty minutes later, there was a crunching and clanging of chains in the darkness.

***

A week had passed, or maybe a month, I wasn't sure. The crazy weather never changed and messed up my biological clock. I couldn't even tell if it had been a minute or an hour, unless I counted, but even then, it was hard to keep track.

"My 1, 2, 3" is one second, so I'm not sure... Do even ancient creatures have trouble understanding time? I definitely needed a watch.

Where was I? A week or so ago, I regained my limbs and turned that crazy Enta to dust. The book also suffered and had a damaged Enta soul.

He advised me to first restore the soul and then turn it into a rune. But how to restore it? By feeding it with other souls.

That's why I sent Annino and Glazik out to hunt. It turns out Glazik was a good tracker. I guessed her eyesight was remarkable. After all, she used to be a flying eye.

She warned us every time we tried to attack. I didn't stray far, looking for free souls. Thanks to her warnings, we killed almost everyone.

Almost. We left one alive, and he managed to slip away. Later, he returned with reinforcements. So, we decided to leave one every time, so he could bring us reinforcements.

That way, we attracted different groups of creatures that didn't know they were trapped. Perfect, right? When we had to wait, Annino and Glazik searched for one animal for her blood. I decided to create a special bond between me, the master, and Glazik, the servant.

Glazik is a creature that shouldn't exist, basically. Because of her nature, she's unable to generate much energy, so she'll quickly run out of breath.

"Creating a bond between the Master and the servant will transfer my energy to her, helping her become stronger. For that, we need ingredients like the blood of the puppeteer blood monkey. This monkey has a talent for turning enemies into its dolls with just a scratch. You'll become a walking puppet in the monkey's hands. And the scariest thing is, it can direct its energy into these dolls, giving them energy and making them stronger. That's what's required for this ritual."

Meditating, sitting on his knees with his eyes closed, Vallynor felt the air trembling. He opened his eyes and saw Annino depositing a red monkey on the ground. The Eye was floating nearby.

Like a lightning bolt, the Hand of the soul emerged from his back and took the soul of his body. The soul entered Vallynor. Annino and the Eye fell onto the sand. A few minutes later, they got up, confused, and looked around.

"You were too careless, and this monkey took advantage of it, scratching you and turning you into its puppets. I told you to be extremely attentive. We were lucky that this monkey was too greedy and tried to turn me into its puppet. To its misfortune, Annino has a connection with me, and I felt it immediately." - He sighed and continued. - "Remember this incident as a lesson. And now, Eye, prepare for the ritual."

"Mmm, I think I've been sitting for more than a week," Vallynor said thoughtfully. - "I now feel like a monk who has come to know himself and began to speak wise words. Soon, I guess, I'll grow a white beard and start poking and hitting heads with a stick. Sigh."

As he stood up, Vallynor began drawing circles and runes on the sand with his staff. Then he cut the monkey's head off and placed it in the center of the circle. After reciting a few lines, the head began to decompose, and blood flowed along the drawn circles and runes.

When everything was ready, Vallynor tossed a rope, hair, and some of his own skin into the center of the circle. As soon as the objects touched the ground, they turned to ash.

"Eye, come into the circle," - said Vallynor, entering the circle.

The Eye stepped into the circle, and it began to glow red. Vallynor started reciting a spell that sounded like a vow of loyalty. When he finished, Vallynor asked:

"Are you ready to serve me until I decide to release you from captivity?"

The Eye nodded, and the red circle entered Vallynor and the Eye, creating a connection between them.