CH833

Where the heart of Stonewall had once stood there was now a forest, the streets filled with plants towering higher in the sky than anything outside of their walls and only growing still, up and out as the stalks and branches spread while Ben struggled to take in just what he was seeing, examining it for all it was worth to try and make sense of it.

While there were a few trees mixed in among the dense mass of plants, they weren’t the only things reaching into the sky with flowers and grasses and fruit bushes towering at unnatural scales, with leaves and petals as big as him visible even from where he stood while as he watched, the few grasses cropping up in the cracks in the streets around him were feeling the same effect as whatever was causing the insane growth farther out, growing under whatever power was filling the land at unnatural speeds, even if where he was standing seemed to mean it was changing at a pace of centimeters per second instead of feet.

It was enough to freeze both of them in their tracks, even as others ran away, with a question clear on each of their minds, Thera being the one to actually ask it.

“What the hell could be doing this?”

It had to be plant magic but the amount of power and skill that sort of thing would take was simply outrageous, with that pointing to only two options as far as Ben was concerned. Either it was some bit of ritual magic gone wrong, an improbability considering how few experts there were in the world and that with the amount he poked around the heads of the other townsfolk, he would have known if there was anyone in Stonewall who understood it well enough to pull that sort of thing off, with the other option being something much worse.

A demon contender. If there was one who had managed to achieve both the ninth level of a high plant magic or else some other advanced variant of the skill and the same for an awakened mana enhancement, it was possible to imagine a demon like that being capable of such a thing, even if that left the question of how such a beast could have gone unnoticed for so long.

Those were his thoughts at least, but it seemed the reality was quite different, with Mora shooting back through the streets with Delair in his arms, a look of panic painting his usually inexpressive face as he reached them and spoke.

“I didn’t mean to!”

Thera and Ben’s eyes met briefly before he shook his head. Whatever the boy had done, it wasn’t the time and he instead crouched down while the child continued to sputter, trying to get too many words out at once to make any sense of it.

“Whatever happened Mora, it’s okay, we’ll sort it out. Thera, watch the kids, I’ll be right back.”

Instantly he was putting all of those new points of agility he’d gotten to use, forced to feel far more grateful for them than he’d ever hoped as he rushed through the streets in a flash, seeing the rate of growth around him in real-time with the plants he passed getting bigger with each step, making it harder and harder to traverse what had once been the same streets he’d regularly walk down until he was seeing trunks and stems thicker than himself, forcing him to jump and climb over giant roots that were only getting larger, feeling his new heart pound as he went at the sheer scale of it all.

It was at a level that was warping the world around it but he had no choice but to push through, stopping only as he heard a yell that forced him to look up to find a man stuck in one of the still-growing branches and leaving him to spend his mana to test something Thera had suggested he should do, pulling himself to the sky to make himself fly.

It was the sort of thing that seemed like it should have taken more practice and he was definitely burning more mana than he should have had to to make it work but by forcing a series of micro-adjustments he kept himself stable as he went, grabbing the trapped man and bringing him down safely below.

“Run that way!” He yelled as soon as their feet touched the ground, pointing back to where he’d come and watching as the other darted off, leaving Ben to continue deeper in, keeping an eye out for more people the entire way.

He didn’t find anyone else, whatever small blessing that might have been, but it was getting harder and harder to progress on foot, leaving him to question just how much mana he might need when he found whatever was causing everything before deciding he could sort that out when he got there and once more lifted himself into the air again, gaining the experience with flying he needed as he went, carefully avoiding the trees and branches while trying to keep a good speed. With how fast everything was growing if he took too long, there wouldn’t be a town left to try and save. Every minute counted and as he got closer he could feel the force of the plant mana tingling against his skin and setting his mana sense alight with its density, proving enough of a distraction for him to fall victim to an unexpected threat.

With everything growing to such a scale, even trivial matters could become catastrophic and that was exactly what happened when a single leave came loose above him, falling down with the weight that came with a structure bigger than his body that smacked down squarely on his back, knocking him out of the air and down the to ground below, winding him as he felt his body bruise but not break under the weight of it and used his magic to turn it to dust, freeing himself to keep going deeper and finally finding the cause of it all.

Or at least what contained it, with a pulsing sphere of plant matter at the center of the disaster, all of the mana powering the calamity around him coming from that one single point and he took a step closer to it, almost meeting his end.

A wooden spike grew out of it and shot at him, the giant thorn inches from impaling him as he forced his body to the side before being made to dodge again as a new one grew from the core to try its luck once more, missing yet again now that he was prepared for it as he took a step farther, materializing a knife once the next one shot out and cutting it down, slashing at each new thorn with each step he took until the volume increased, making him pull out more contained within his rings and swinging them with his magic, feeling the pulsing mana only grow stronger around him once he was within reach and using all of the strength he had and the knife still in hand, slashed through the plant matter to reveal the thing hidden within, taking his breath away and setting his mind alight.

A mass of mana, the likes of which he’d seen only a few times before, at least in that state. Impossible even as he took the thing in for what it was. Living plant magic the likes of which couldn’t have existed but now hovered before him, a creature that managed to defy his expectations despite all he’d seen and been through since arriving on that world. He stood in the presence of a great plant spirit as its mana went wild, destroying the town around it.

I didn’t mean to.

The boy’s words echoed through Ben’s head while worry filled his heart, a question coming to the front of his mind that he couldn’t escape as all of his concerns about the difficulties that would come with trying to raise such a god-like being came to a head.

Oh Mora, what did you do here?

It was going to have to be a question for later, as things stood he needed to focus on the problem in front of him and with his mind moving in a flash he did the only thing he could, connecting to the creature to try and access its thoughts for whatever it was worth.

WHATAMIWHATAMIWHATAMIWHATAMIWHATAMIWHATAMIWHAT-

It was enough to almost make him break the connection as the depth of what spirit was feeling sunk in while his own minds moved in a blur, trying to examine it.

Was it insane? Maybe, he definitely felt a certain edge to its thoughts that was reminiscent of the more troubled minds he'd brought back from the demon world but he felt more than just that as well.

It’s like… What? A panic attack? An identity crisis? Maybe a bit of a mental breakdown too but something that all wraps together into one main issue. A problem with its sense of self.

Diving into its memories, Ben was able to see perfectly what had been done to it, Mora for some reason calling for what had once been a group of individual spirits before doing something to them to change that, going against their inherent nature to bring them together into something more. Something that not one of the individual spirits that had gone into it had been prepared for or understood, leading to the present issue that was about to sort itself out in the worst way possible.

Spirits were made of the same mana they’d use and while he couldn’t perfectly judge the volumes of others, he could still feel it enough to see what was about to happen. The one he was with was about to exhaust its supply, killing itself in the process.

WHATAMIWHATAMIWHATAMIWHAT-

An outcome he rejected. He couldn’t just let it die and he couldn’t let the consequences of what was happening be left on Mora’s consciousness any more than they were already going to be so he reached deeper into the new spirit’s mind, touching every part of it with what he was while at the same time reaching through the gap he’d made to grab it tight with his hands, speaking with his voice and thoughts as he did.

“What are you? You are Bloom.”

Putting all of the meaning behind it he could through the thoughts connecting them, he did his best to give the spirit what it had lacked. The same thing that was throwing it into its disarray. He gave it an identity, filling what had once been a collection of life and earth and water spirits all of the knowledge he had of plants and the magics that could be used on them as well as the feeling of using them he remembered from any time he’d connected with the dryads and he felt it work, the system saying as much as the name was accepted, a notification going off in the other’s head as it calmed down while a new one went off in his own.

<HIVE MIND LEVEL INCREASED>

“...I am Bloom?” It said after a beat, the unsustainable growth that had been filling the town stopping with the bit of stability that came to its mind, with Ben letting out a relieved sigh as he slumped to the ground, the great spirit still in his arms.

“That’s right, you are. Now, why don’t the two of us go to figure out just what that means.”