[Tree] Chapter 484: Brutal Attack

Ashlock had never fought a psychic affinity cultivator or monster before. But compared to someone like Astralis, who could annihilate with the power of the stars, what could a beast with psychic affinity do? Capture his mind? Rewrite his memories? All terrible outcomes, but what could they do against overwhelming force? That was the root of Ashlock's plan—fast and brutal. They would come in, Qi blazing, and ask questions later.

He didn't like how unprepared and flimsy this plan felt, but he wasn't left with many options. Should Ig'Zal take control of Zephyrine, he would be left with no choice but to fight Stella's sister to the death, and the last thing he wanted was to take away any of Stella's family.

This was likely to get messy, hence he had sent Stella away to safety. He had Larry's domain to keep everyone alive, and all of his sect members' infant souls were further secured by Soul Anchors to Red Vine Peak. The only ones truly at risk were Moros, as it could be destroyed, and Astralis, as he wasn't part of the sect.

"I've found Zephyrine," Ashlock said through Anubis. It hadn't exactly been hard once Astralis pointed him in the right direction. Her spiritual presence had the weight of a black hole on the surroundings. "She is up ahead, atop a mountain peak with a large lunar moth floating before her, who I assume is Ig'Zal."

Zephyrine was beautiful—a white-furred deer standing at around five meters tall. Ashlock had seen many monsters and cultivators, and Zephyrine was the only one so far that gave him that same otherworldly feeling as Senior Lee had. There was just this unmistakable aura of a higher being to her, as if she were gracing the world with her presence.

"What about the other Primal Overlords? Are they nearby?" Grand Elder Redclaw asked. Since they were traversing through the aether, only those with spatial-based affinities or super keen senses could tell what was happening in reality.

Honestly, Ashlock had almost forgotten about the Primal Overlords. Despite being peak Nascent Soul Realm beings, they were overshadowed by the two Monarch Realm beings locked in a staring contest, like tiny planets orbiting two stars.

"They are all here," Ashlock confirmed after counting them. It was crazy to think each one of these monsters rivaled Vincent Nightrose in strength, and there were ten of them. But it also showed how much the Ashfallen Sect had grown that he was comfortable going on the offensive against so many strong enemies.

He had Larry, a Monarch Realm, on his side. Maple had left with Stella, clearly deeming this a fight he didn't want to get involved in. Nyxalia also wasn't here, as facing so many powerful souls would definitely cause her to lose control. Summoning her here would be a last resort.

"All I need to do is free Zephyrine from Ig'Zal's mind control, and she should be able to handle all of them," Ashlock mused. If somehow he couldn't free her, then they had far bigger worries. He had also debated the idea of dropping Moros out of stealth and hunting the Primal Overlords one by one before tackling Ig'Zal, but he didn't know how close Zephyrine was to getting her mind broken like Astralis.  

So he had settled on a faster and more brutal plan. One that he believed had a higher chance of success but could also go wrong. Unfortunately, circumstances didn't give him the luxury of picking and choosing his battle with Ig'Zal. He was being forced to make a move, and it was the best one he could think of, given the situation.

Anubis turned to face everyone. "The plan is simple. The moment Moros exits the aether, we are all going to attack Ig'Zal with everything we have. However, to avoid friendly fire, keep your distance, especially you, Larry," he said, turning to face the silver ash spider. "Because you attack using your body, I want you to activate your domain and protect everyone. I'm not sure how Ig'Zal will fight back, so we need to be prepared. Freeing Zephyrine is our primary objective. Should that fail, we can focus on taking out the Primal Overlords, and I'll turn them into Ents, which we can send to attack Ig'Zal. Worst case, we can always wear him down with endless attacks until he runs out of Qi."

Everyone nodded at his words. He quickly distributed Mind Fortress pills to everyone, including Astralis. The dragon squinted at the pill but followed suit as he saw everyone else eating them. His system had informed him that they were unlikely to be enough to protect them from a Monarch Realm's psychic domain, but any protection against mental manipulation shouldn't be overlooked.

"Keep your wits about you and your mind sharp," Ashlock said after the pills had been eaten. "Now get ready!"

The shields powered up, void and aether artillery flowers sprouted, and the members of the sect took their positions at the bow of the ship, their Star Cores humming in their chests and soul flames dancing along their backs.

The moment Moros was overhead, he began to phase his flagship out of the aether. While that was happening, he immediately mobilized his Qi through his connection with Erebus to tear open a desolation rift in the sky and had Veylorak fall through. The colossal mass of intertwined black roots eclipsed the sky and descended upon Ig'Zal and Zephyrine.

Veylorak wasn't in the Monarch Realm, so Ashlock wasn't delusional to think his newest Ent had a chance to kill either of them, but he hoped it would be enough to distract Ig'Zal for even a moment.

Yet, Ig'Zal was prepared. Behind the lunar moth, the ground ruptured in a violent explosion of stone and soil. From the gaping chasm rose a monstrous shadow, scales bristling with living thorns and ridges like razors—a titanic thorn-backed basilisk whose size dwarfed the two Monarchs. It was as if the mountain had grown legs, and as the monster stood over them, it seemed to be shielding them. Its entire body thummed with power as earthly soul flames blazed.

"That's Tyranox, one of the weaker Primal Overlords," Astralis informed them.

With an enraged bellow that dispersed the clouds above, Tyranox surged forward to meet Veylorak. Before Ashlock could command Veylorak to react, the basilisk's eyes glowed with power, and a pulse of Qi shot forth, turning a section of Veylorak to stone. The behemoth's massive jaw snapped shut around the stone area, crushing him. Though Veylorak's serpentine body stretched for miles, his comparatively narrow build gave the basilisk a firm hold.

With thunderous force, Tyranox lifted, twisted, and tackled Veylorak off the mountain's edge.

The mountainside broke like fragile porcelain under their combined weight. Trees snapped like toothpicks, and rock outcrops shattered as both behemoths tumbled down in a cataclysmic spiral. The impact dislodged entire cliffs, unleashing a landslide so immense that the mountain groaned in protest. Earthquakes rippled through the land as a tide of rubble thundered down in their wake, blotting out the area in a chaotic maelstrom of dust and stone.

Yet through it all, Ashlock could see that Ig'Zal had maintained his focus on Zephyrine. Now that Moros was entirely out of the aether, they were on a time limit to distract Ig'Zal before they were overwhelmed by the Primal Overlords quickly closing in.

"Fire." Ashlock's voice echoed like a decree, and the mountain exploded from the wrath that followed.

Astralis took to the skies, his body morphing into that of a colossal dragon. He cast a shadow over the land. At his command, the stars overhead pulsed, followed by beams of starlight lancing downward, each strike setting the dust cloud alight. Grand Elder Redclaw added to the fire as he raised his arms, and from his palms surged torrents of crimson hellfire. Beside him, Elysia wove mystic Qi into a swarm of floating eyes, each beating with unstable energy. With a wave of her hand, the swarm descended into the chaos and detonated with a cataclysmic explosion.

Ashlock gave the word, and Moros followed the assault of his sect members by releasing aether bombs that carried reality-shattering force—wherever they struck, they tore rifts into the world. But he wasn't done. He also commanded Anubis to unleash volleys of shadow lances. The only power he held back was the void, as he didn't want to accidentally kill the dazed Zephyrine.

His objective was to force Ig'Zal to direct his attention to them.

Raising the shadow lich's hand, he closed it into a fist, signaling everyone to stop.

A brief silence descended onto the battlefield. It had only been a few seconds since Moros appeared. It was quite dark on the flagship's surface as Astralis's immense dragon form blanketed the sky and Larry's ashen dome enveloped the ship.

Grand Elder Redclaw and Elysia leaned over the edge, squinting at the mess below. So much Qi was swirling around that Ashlock couldn't tell if they had been successful or not.

"Clear the air," Ashlock commanded.

Astralis swooped down below Moros, and with a monumental flap of his wings, he dispersed the dust cloud that was on fire, revealing the mountain peak. It had changed significantly. There were craters everywhere, crackling with different types of Qi. The gray stone was charred black, but most significant of all...

Ig'Zal had vanished.

Zephyrine was alone on the mountain peak, looking up at them. There was something off about her. That perfect, ethereal appearance was lacking, and it wasn't because of the dust dirtying her white fur or the marks left on her body. There were threads of otherworldly moth silk draping from her body.

"I have to thank you," Zephyrine said, unnaturally smiling at them, "for weakening Zephyrine enough that I could infiltrate her dream realm."

"Not good," Astralis snarled in draconic as he retreated above Moros. "Zephyrine has been forced into a dream state. While still technically conscious, Ig'Zal is altering her reality."

"How do we beat Ig'Zal without killing Zephyrine?" Ashlock quickly asked, panic setting in. Because from where he was looking, it seemed Ig'Zal had overtaken Zephyrine's body.

"Ig'Zal is trapped in there. He abandoned his physical form and forced his way into Zephyrine's subconscious, causing her to enter a dream state. The moment Ig'Zal runs out of Qi, Zephyrine will snap out of the dream state and can easily kill him in her own mind. What he's doing is borderline suicidal," Astralis explained. "We just need to buy time. There's no way he can keep control of Zephyrine's dream state for long. A few minutes at most."

"It's suicidal..." Ashlock muttered as Ig'Zal's plan began to take shape. Having abandoned his body to briefly take over Zephyrine, there was only one way he could win. "I think he's going to fight us to the death with Zephyrine's body. If we kill her, he will survive."

This was a good turn of events. If there was one thing Ashlock was well-versed in doing, it was surviving. He began directing Qi into Akasha. They had to retreat into the aether as soon as possible, as fighting Zephyrine here was a lose-lose scenario.

Unfortunately, Ig'Zal seemed to have caught on to his plan to flee before he had even started.

"Running so soon?" Zephyrine laughed and jumped into the air. In a moment, she was eye level with Astralis. Lunar moth wings sprouted from her back, and her eyes were ghostly white. "Astralis, could you stop them for me?"

The dragon sneered, "And why would I listen to you, Ig'Zal?"

Zephyrine tilted her head. "Did you think I was unaware that you overcame my mind control? If I had been oblivious, I would have called you here to guard me like the rest." Her eyes pulsed with power. "Now obey."

Ashlock now understood why Astralis's mind had been left in such a mess—to make taking back control easier. The dragon fell deathly quiet and slowly lowered his massive head to look down at Moros. His eyes... they were empty. Cosmic Qi crackled along his wings before arcing out around Moros, creating a pseudo-cage of cracked space.

Moros had once again been spatially locked, unable to retreat into the aether.

Zephyrine smirked. "Now fall."

[WARNING: Monarch Realm soul pressure detected—]

Ashlock didn't need his system to warn him as he felt like the sky had fallen. The two layers of shields rippled, and the two Nascent Soul Realm Bastion Cores roared to life, their Qi spreading to every inch of the Bastion to try and keep it afloat.

This outcome was certainly less than ideal. Moros was locked in place, unable to teleport away or escape into the aether. One of their strongest allies had been turned against them, and their foe was hiding in the body of someone they didn't want to kill.

But the battle was far from lost. Ashlock just needed to bunker down and buy time. So long as they remained within Larry's domain, they would survive.

His Qi senses expanded, taking everything in. Minutes, that's all the time he needed to buy for Zephyrine to come to her senses and purge Ig'Zal from her soul.

"Everyone get below deck!" Ashlock shouted through Anubis as he saw the stars in the sky begin to power up. Elysia and Grand Elder Redclaw scrambled to retreat into the more protected rooms below. If they were turned into ash statues, it would be easier if they were out of sight.

Already, he was feeling the absence of Stella. Although she did not possess as high a cultivation realm as the others, her synergy with Larry's domain was particularly effective. The problem was that she couldn't be here. Without the backup of an infant soul attached to a Soul Anchor, he didn't want to take the risk.

He would just have to make do with who he brought.

"Here it comes!"

The star beams struck almost instantly. Larry's domain resisted for a heartbeat, but holes were quickly seared through the ashen dome—and the blasts slammed into Moros.

Unlike before, when Moros was nearly cleaved in half, the enhanced shielding held. The newly inscribed runic circuitry, combined with the Bastion's increased cultivation, formed a defense that refused to yield. The shields shimmered and warped under the assault, bubbling at the edges as the intense cosmic Qi tried to cut through.

Ashlock felt the strain on the Bastion's Cores. Keeping the barriers intact demanded a severe draw on his Qi reserves, but they held. If there was one thing he had, it was oceans of Qi to throw at a problem.

However, nothing could have prepared him for what happened next. Astralis dove through Larry's ashen dome, searing off a layer of his scales in the process. His titanic body slammed into Moros. The Bastion tilted drastically before finally buckling under the dragon's immense weight, combined with the star beams, and was smashed into the mountain below.

"Ugh," Grand Elder Redclaw grunted as he got back to his feet and helped Elysia. Despite their Nascent Soul Realm cultivation, this was a battle far above their league.

While the Bastion had been downed, Ashlock wasn't too concerned yet. The Bastion could function the same on the ground as it did in the sky, and it wasn't like they had a way to run.

"Akasha and Erebus," he addressed the two spirit trees, "work together to sync your soul pulses to break through Astralis's Spatial Lock so we can get out of here."

In the meantime, he would deal with the dragon directly. He stared up at Astralis, standing over Moros, thinking of what to do. That's when it dawned on him. It wasn't Astralis he wanted to fight, but the one controlling the dragon's mind.

Activating {Abyssal Whispers}, he targeted Astralis. Since he had already planted a seed within his consciousness earlier, Ig'Zal was unable to stop his infiltration.

Holding nothing back, he grew a demonic tree from the mental pothole where he had planted his seed and loomed over Astralis's destroyed consciousness. Despite Ig'Zal's claims, it seemed his reentry into Astralis's mind hadn't been a clean one, as the poor dragon's consciousness somehow looked even more destroyed than the world outside.

What he assumed was Astralis's ego took center stage, but it was tightly cocooned in moth silk. Hovering above it was a lunar moth, Ig'Zal. The mental projection of the moth turned to look at him curiously.

"This is a first," Ig'Zal said, his voice soft and comforting. "Who might you be?"

"Death," Ashlock said, and answered with violence. He flooded Astralis's mind with desolation Qi. To his surprise, he utterly annihilated Ig'Zal, exploding the moth into a thousand motes of light.

Could a Monarch Realm really be so weak? Ashlock didn't believe his one-sided victory was legitimate. He looked around, inspecting the motes of light as they drifted and seemed to gravitate toward the potholes, just like the one Ashlock had grown out of.

"You crafty little..." Ashlock muttered as he mobilized his mental image to have roots surge out of the ground and cover the holes, but it was too late. A primal roar reverberated through Astralis's consciousness.

"It's not flesh and blood that shape us, but the memories we have," Ig'Zal said from everywhere at once. "I wonder how Astralis will react after I plant a few of my own."

At that moment, Ashlock developed a new distaste for mental manipulators. He ignored Ig'Zal and did his best to plug up as many of the mental potholes as possible, cursing himself for not foreseeing all of this. Astralis had been an obvious weak link—he shouldn't have come. The roar grew louder to the point where the air was literally vibrating, and then, to his shock, it became strong enough to obliterate the mental tree he had grown, forcing him out of Astralis's mind.

The dragon had gone feral. With reality-warping claws, he swiped at Moros's shields and opened his mouth—his throat glowed as if he had swallowed a star. Clamping his mouth on Moros's shield, a star beam of unbelievable force blasted into the shield. Like a dragon-sized plasma saw, he burned a hole through the layers that Ashlock couldn't repair in time. Astralis reached in with his monstrous claw and swiftly pulverized Grand Elder Redclaw and Elysia into ashen statues as if it were nothing.

Ashlock quickly sprang into action and used telekinesis to drag the statues away as Larry surged forward, his ashen crown spinning to lock Astralis's arm in place with his soul pressure. Larry then began to devour Astralis's arm, turning it into ash to repair the dome and regrow his body.

They managed to push the enraged dragon away and restore the shields.

"Just a minute or two more!" Ashlock shouted through Anubis. They were so close to victory, he could almost taste it. Suddenly, he got verification from Akasha that the Spatial Lock had been broken.

They could escape.

Without hesitation, aether Qi enveloped Moros, and they retreated into the aether.

Ashlock let out a breath—they were safe.

"So you're the one behind it all."

A voice so close said, sending a chill down his bark.

He looked down, and standing right before Erebus was Zephyrine.

"Domain of Starwoven Delirium," the Monarch Realm monster said, planting her head on Erebus's trunk, and Ashlock felt a sudden buzzing in the back of his head.

[WARNING: Hostile intent detected]

[WARNING: Your consciousness is under attack. Activating Soul Fortress]

The buzzing grew increasingly louder and more intense as system messages flashed through his mind.

[Soul Fortress Failed]

Ashlock knew that was going to be the outcome—the system had warned him that his A-grade skill wouldn't stand up against a Monarch Realm. But he had thought of a counter to this.

So what if he couldn't block the mental intrusion? He would just have to give Ig'Zal a warm welcome into the chaos of his mind.

"System, redirect Ig'Zal's domain into the ethereal root network," Ashlock said. "Let's see how he likes facing all of us."

After all, he wasn't alone here.

Ig'Zal wasn't facing a lone tree... he was facing a whole forest.