The moment the first spray of fire reached the struggling plants that hadn't yet managed to enter the soil fully, Mir felt a heavy pang of pain assaulting him.

Grunting, he was forced to take a step back, shaking his head forcefully to recover his bearing. But something seemed off.

Why was the world dark?

No, wait, it was his eyes that were closed tight.

He didn't remember doing that.

"You...you did it! You actually did it!" shouted a weak voice right below him.

Flabbergasted, Mir opened his eyes and found himself in a familiar situation. His hands were still pierced by the roots of Witchweeds. The food reserve and communication medium of the plants, the woman, was still here, watching him with a mixture of surprise and confusion in her eyes. Reno was still standing guard behind him, holding the gas torch.

So that entire battle, all the twists and turns, each step towards victory had been in his mind. He had fought the plant and won...?!

Mir recalled the moment during the battle when he had torn his hands away from Witchweed's roots, thinking that he had thus left the mental battlefield. He had almost been certain that Reno would die for a few seconds there.

"When you realized that you couldn't break my mental defense, you chose to make me compromise between saving Reno and defeating you fully, eh?" Mir remarked, finding the scheme of the plant rather insidious.

"Not bad, not bad. I like the way you think, pet."

His words elicited a reaction from the barrier of weeds surrounding him. The woman under its control coughed and sputtered for a few moments before she spoke on behalf of the plants once more.

"The plant has already entered into a contract with you. But since your spiritual reserve seems underdeveloped, it can only stay here until you reach the Transcendent tier. If you have any tasks you need it to do inside the sacred ground, it is willing to help."

Mir nodded. He had already guessed it. Once two parties entered into a mental battlefield, the outcome would be disastrous if the contract wasn't completed inside. Both parties would suffer grievous spiritual wounds resulting from the damage to their neural networks due to the unsuccessful bonding process.

Since both he and the plant had come out of the battlefield scotch-free, the contract must have been formed by the end of it. But he still needed to make sure everything was okay before proceeding to the next step.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Pulling out his communicator, he logged in on the information network related to explorations inside the sacred grounds.

"What is it?" Reno asked from behind.

"Oh I was just looking for the method to test my spiritual connection to my companion creatures. I forgot the details."

"...."

"...."

Both Reno and the woman looked unsure of whether to believe him or not.

The network soon provided him with the result he was looking for. To test that spiritual connection, one had to simply close their eyes and imagine his own body. His subconscious mind would show him whether his companion creature was fully connected to him spiritually and mentally.

Mir followed the process step by step and indeed, his body looked rather different from his imagination inside his mind. No matter how hard he tried to imagine his real body, the body formed by his imagination seemed unaffected!

Mir wasn't quite sure he liked it, because he looked incredibly ugly in his mental world right now. Just like the woman controlled by the Witchweeds, his entire body sported egg-sized warts. Some of the hair on his scalp had turned into haustoria for some reason too. Even his skin looked a bit rougher than usual.

With a sour expression, Mir ended the testing session simply by stopping his imagination. Opening his eyes, he gave his companion creature his first order.

"Release the woman."

"...The plant has one last question for you," the woman said slowly.

"Yes?"

"How did you realize that even after you had broken away from its roots inside the mental battlefield, you were still under its mental attack? That your friend dying was not real?"

Mir chuckled. "I had a feeling it would ask that. I had three reasons to suspect that Reno dying was an illusion. Firstly, he has never entered the medical chambers of the data tower, only I have. He couldn't have known what exactly was inside it, let alone knowing that something in there could help him despite that fatal injury. Secondly, Reno isn't an idiot. He wouldn't be delusional to think that I could carry him to the data tower so far away when we clearly have enemies pursuing us. And finally, when I realized the first two issues, I tried to use my own imagination on the battlefield to manipulate some small elements, just like how I had strengthened my skin during the brawl with the plants. It took some effort, but I did manage to increase the radius of the spray of this gas torch while firing at the plants. This change was so minimal that there was no way for the plant to tell that something was wrong. That only gave me further certainty that that latter half of the battle was still a mental fight."

"Uh, guys, what happened to me inside your fight?" Reno inquired, sounding concerned about how frequently the topic of his death was coming up in the conversation.

"Nothing you need to worry about, just a hole in your chest, that's all," Mir replied. Reno didn't seem pleased.

The plants quickly complied with his order, much to Mir's satisfaction. Countless warts on the woman's body popped, exploding out with yellowish pus and striga seeds that were about to mature soon. The haustoria from various parts of her body emerged through bloody holes. The tubular roots spearing her heart, lungs, and brain took a while to get out, constantly trying to heal her organs on their way out. Otherwise, she'd probably bleed to death almost immediately.

Mir found the whole process very interesting for some reason. Right when the last bit of the roots were about to exit her body, Mir's communicator lit up, showing new messages.

The messages turned out to be from Murray.

"Please tell me you aren't the ones behind the smoke up north, because everyone can see your position if so. RUN!"

Mir looked up. Indeed, the smoke looked a bit too prominent in the grove of catkins.

"Reno, can you walk?"

Reno tested his injured foot by pressing it into the ground.

"Yeah, but not too fast. There's still some discomfort down there."

"Got it. Take the backpacks and go in that direction," Mir instructed, pointing at North.

"You're not coming?" Reno said, dumbfounded.

"I am. I just need to sort something out here. Go, go, go! Murray just told me we've been found out!"

Reno didn't really know who was chasing them, or why. But the urgency in Mir's tone made him comply. Taking most of the backpacks, he staggered deeper into the grove.

Meanwhile, the woman on the ground was taking labored breaths, eyes not quite focused. The extraction process had taken a heavy toll on her.

Mir kneeled and brought his face close to hers.

"Lady, do you mind...thanking me for the rescue by doing us a small favor?"