[Tree] Chapter 655: Keeper of the Alcove (Patreon)

Elder Maren knew something was wrong the moment she landed on the far side of the lighthouse. For as long as she had lived on this basalt rock, she had listened to its whispers and slowly drank from its Qi. She knew the layout of the island, every crack and crevice, better than anyone. It was how she had discovered the alcove and hidden it from others beneath a subtle layer of her Qi for the last century.

Stepping onto the island usually felt like returning home, but this time it felt like knocking on a stranger's door. The island, nearly devoid of earth Qi and losing to the sea's erosion, was now suddenly full. Dense earth Qi had soaked into every column of basalt beneath her feet, from the lighthouse's foundations down to the ocean, and all of it hummed with a presence she had never felt before.

Is this the work of an Earth cultivator? No, that can't be possible. Overtaking an island this size would require more than a Monarch's domain. It would take a Sovereign, and I don't know of any earth Sovereigns in the isles.  

As she walked down the cobbled path to the back of the island, where people seldom visited, the fog array parted to reveal an unbelievable scene. The cliff that had loomed over her hidden alcove for as long as she could remember was simply gone, sheared away as if Uldrenneth had risen and taken a bite out of the island.

What in the sunken depths happened here?!

Elder Maren floated over the destroyed cliff and peered down. She was greeted by a giant black cloud that seemed to cover the island's southern third.

Did a fire cause this? Elder Maren wondered as she floated down into the cloud, only to discover it wasn't ash, as she'd thought. Instead, fine grains of black sand drifted through the fog, settling on her robes and irritating her throat. Through the smog, she could barely make out broken planks, a snapped mast, and the cracked remains of formation plates bobbing in the waves below.

An airship. Or what was left of one.

Elder Maren drifted lower to investigate. As she drew closer, she confirmed the airship was from the Wavescale Sect but couldn't find any sign of the landing party.

Yet the most confusing thing wasn't the destroyed ship or the missing Wavescale Sect members.

Where did the entrance to the alcove go? Elder Maren panicked as she ran her fingers against a thick wall of basalt columns where the mouth of the alcove should have been. The foreign earth Qi was less dense here, but remarkably pure.

How is this possible? Taking over the island is one thing, but changing its structure? Altering reality? That's the work of a Sovereign. She bit her lip. I can't defeat a Sovereign, but I'm worried about my trees. What should I do?

As crazy as it sounded, she trusted the Archdemon. The Archdemon had promised Ferrin to keep the island safe while they fought the Wavescale Sect, so perhaps this earth Sovereign was on their side?

I'm going to learn nothing trapped within this smog. I should find a way inside to check on my trees and then get back to help Ferrin.

Elder Maren soared up through the sand cloud and landed before her secret entrance. The small relief of finding it was quickly crushed when the passage ended far sooner than it should have.

A wall of tightly packed basalt columns had sealed the way down to her grove.

Elder Maren pressed her ear to the stone. The foreign earth Qi was far less dense here, letting her earth Qi carve a fist-sized hole through several meters of rock. Its volume is impressive, but the Qi somehow feels weaker than mine? Maybe it really isn't a Sovereign that did this. The moment she broke through, she heard metal clashing and muffled screams echoing from within. Someone's fighting down there. Her heart lurched as she remembered the whisper of pain she had felt from one of her trees on the front line. My trees!

She placed her gauntleted palm against the wall and gathered her earth Qi, preparing to force her way through. Yet before she could, the stone reacted under her hand, almost as if it were considering her.

Whoever has taken control of the island has noticed me.

She backed away, ready to flee. Yet with a grinding rumble, the columns slid apart to let her through.

Elder Maren hesitantly stepped into her grove and immediately wished she hadn't. Her sanctuary on this miserable rock, which she had kept hidden for centuries, smelled of fresh blood and death.

Glowing pearls lay scattered across the floor, likely dropped by the intruders, casting pale light that illuminated parts of the alcove-turned-cave. Her gaze settled on bodies wearing Wavescale Sect robes, strewn between the mangroves. All of them seemed to have suffered blunt strikes to their heads and torsos, and it wasn't hard to guess the culprit.

A golem stood at the center of the slaughter, caked in sea serpent blood.

It was easily four meters tall, formed from the island's black basalt into a crude, hulking human shape with two hollow eyes and no mouth. Veins of dull black metal threaded through its body like the ore veins that once decorated the island. Weirdly, spears, sabers, tridents, a boarding hook, even a few hairpins and a belt buckle all clung to the golem's body at odd angles, as if it had been dragged backward through an armory.

Everything about the golem fascinated Elder Maren. As an Earth cultivator, she knew the limitations of controlling golems. As powerful as they were, they required immense upkeep in combat, as every movement drew deeply on the cultivator's reserves, and keeping them from falling apart was a battle in itself. Formations could help offset some of the challenges, but this golem didn't seem to have any.

No wait. Elder Maren narrowed her eyes as she figured out the trick. It has an infant soul. That golem is an extension of its creator. Ignoring the slaughter, she carefully traced the flow of earth Qi, only to grow more confused. It led to a tree—specifically, a demonic tree that towered over her mangrove trees. Since when was a spirit tree down here?!

"Drop your weapon!" A cultivator suddenly yelled, drawing her attention to the battle. A handful of cultivators encircled the golem with nothing but their fists, but a newcomer stalked out from the shadows, aiming to strike from behind, wielding a saber.

The golem turned, Qi flaring along the dark metal veins covering its body.

"I said drop it!" the cultivator yelled again.

"I—I can't!" the attacking cultivator yelped as his saber suddenly yanked him forward. "It's a family heirloom. My father will kill me!" He dug his feet into the rock where the alcove's basin used to be and held on stubbornly. Blue soul flames flared across his body as he pulled back with all his might.

Elder Maren felt a shift in the earth Qi beneath her feet and knew what would follow before it happened.

Never depend on the ground against an Earth cultivator.

The ground beneath the cultivator ruptured, sending the screaming man flying into the golem's waiting arms. It hugged him tight against its chest of protruding blades, and his scream cut off abruptly as he was skewered.

Elder Maren flinched. Having avoided the front lines for many years, she wasn't used to such bloodshed. But her fascination with the golem kept her watching, and as it turned to face the other cultivators with their dead comrade skewered on its chest, her eyes widened in realization.

Those ore veins are lodestone!

Every airship navigator in the Sunken Isles needed a sliver of it to magnetize their compass needles, and the black grit that stained the island's beaches was made of the same stuff. She knew Saltstone Island had lodestone deposits, but she had never thought of any use besides compasses.

In small amounts, it made compasses work.

But when gathered into thick veins and supercharged with earth Qi, it becomes a giant magnet that makes fighting with metal weapons near it useless...

"Elder Maren?!"

She turned her head. One of the surviving Wavescale cultivators, a young woman with sweat and blood plastered to her face, stared at her with desperate relief.

"It is you! Elder Maren, please, call off your golem!" the woman begged, stumbling toward Elder Maren. "We surrender! The Saltstone and Wavescale Sects have been allies for decades. Surely we can talk this out—" The woman suddenly lunged at Elder Maren with a hidden dagger and drove it into her neck.

Elder Maren fell back a step as it pierced her skin but stalled there because of her earth Qi and tempered body. The Wavescale woman's eyes widened in shock as she couldn't drive the blade any deeper. "W-Wait, this can be explained—"

Elder Maren planted her gauntlet into the woman's stomach and felt ribs shatter from the force.

The woman let out a gasp as her whole body caved in with a sickening crunch. Thrown off her feet, she tumbled through the air and landed hard near the golem. Letting out a terrified wheeze, she tried to crawl away, only to be crushed under the golem's foot.

That was a harder hit than I intended. Elder Maren frowned and flexed her gauntlets. While fighting the Elders of the Wavescale Sect, she had learned that these gauntlets the Archdemon had given her converted earth Qi into weight. They let her punch with the force of a landslide, but that still wasn't enough to severely injure the Wavescale Elders. I suppose those in this cave are weaker than those on the battlefield. A scouting party, perhaps?

"You must be Elder Maren," a voice called out. It sounded juvenile. She glanced toward it, but no one was there except the demonic tree. "Diana told me about you. Care to assist me in clearing up these weaklings?"

Diana, the Archdemon? So this tree was planted by her!

Elder Maren nodded and walked toward the fight through her mangrove trees. Splintered branches crunched under her feet, and she felt her trees pain through her wood Qi. Another Wavescale Sect cultivator lunged at her from behind a bloodstained tree—Elder Maren deflected his metal hook in a shower of sparks, grabbed his head, and squeezed.

The body dropped with a thud against the tree's roots.

***

Before long, the slaughter was over. None of the cultivators stood a chance against her or the golem.

"This is the last one," Elder Maren said, hauling a corpse onto a large pile under the demonic tree's canopy. "What are you planning to do with them?"

The golem had gone still in the corner of the cave; the infant soul now inhabited a glasses-wearing, human-sized golem that called itself Timmy. She didn't care to ask why a golem needed glasses or why it was named Timmy. She had too many other questions to answer first.

"I'll dissolve them for nutrients and help your trees flourish," Timmy said, pushing his glasses up. "You were a big help, Elder Maren. Killing the ones hiding among the trees would have been tricky without you."

"Good to know," Elder Maren said as she collapsed onto a nearby root. It was hot in here without the sea breeze or any ventilation. "I have a... um... few questions if you wouldn't mind."

Timmy glanced her way. "I was told to trust you, so ask away."

"What are you?"

Timmy glanced at himself. "A golem?"

"No, I mean that." She gestured with her chin.

Timmy followed. "Ah, yes. I'm a spirit tree. A demonic spirit tree, to be exact."

"Did Diana plant you?"

Timmy chuckled. "Of course not."

"Then how did you get here?"

"I walked."

Elder Maren stared at the golem. "You... walked?"

Timmy nodded. "Yup, I walked myself through a desolation rift made by my father—oops, I've said too much."

Father? Elder Maren thought. During the slaughter, she'd felt the weight of someone's gaze. Was that Timmy's father watching him?

Timmy turned away. "You should head back to the front lines. That's where you are expected to be."

"Not yet," Elder Maren said. "I came back to investigate a loud crash. You wouldn't happen to know what that was about?"

"A loud crash? Mhm." Timmy glanced at a wall. "I did drop a part of the island on some other invaders. Perhaps that is what got your attention?"

"You did what?"

"I'll show you." Timmy pointed to the wall, and there was a loud crack, followed by a rumbling as the far wall of the alcove that had been the same for as long as Elder Maren knew yawned open like a jaw.

"W-What, how?" Elder Maren jumped into the air and rushed toward the opening wall.

"The island is mine to command," Timmy said casually. "It's like an extension of my body." His golem reformed out of the basalt beside the opening and gestured. "Like this."

The entire island trembled as the space beyond the wall slowly opened, revealing a second alcove. Fresh ocean air washed over Elder Maren, carrying an even thicker smell of blood. The reason became clear as light spilled into the space, showing the mangled remains of numerous cultivators among broken pieces of airship.

"It's easier to kill a large group like this when there are no trees in the way," Timmy said. "Few can survive being crushed by the weight of an island, especially not these weaklings..."

A wet, rattling cough echoed from the rubble.

Elder Maren whipped her head toward the sound and spotted a man pinned beneath a boulder.

"Someone survived?" Timmy said angrily.

Elder Maren got closer and caught sight of the man's face.

She knew him. Not by name, but she had seen him pick up their spirit-kelp bales and complain loudly about the job.

His bloodshot eyes found her and widened.

"M-Maren?" he wheezed. "Elder Maren of the Saltstone Sect... thank the heavens..."

Elder Maren said nothing.

"Help me," he gasped, reaching a trembling hand toward her. "Ossian... Ossian swore the tunnel was unguarded... he swore it..."

Elder Maren went cold. She knew he had run off to the Wavescale Sect, but he had known about her oasis the whole time?

Her lip trembled.

I was foolish to think no one else had found it. The island is so small... of course they would know about it. Yet Ossian left it alone, saving it as a bargaining chip.

"Help me," the Wavescale Elder begged again. "I can speak to Torvun... I can make him spare the Saltstone Sect... I swear on my—"

A sudden spike of basalt shot up from the floor, impaling his head.

Elder Maren turned to ask Timmy why he'd done that, but the words died in her throat as Monarch Realm spiritual pressure crashed down on the cave. It was nothing like Ferrin's, which rolled in like a thunderous wave. This was cold and silent, like the ocean's depths.

A shadow slowly peeled itself from the boulder and kept rising until it loomed nearly twice Ferrin's height, its feet never quite touching the ground. Wings of darkness unfurled from its back, and a hood hid everything but two hollow eyes of black flame. In one hand, it held a scythe that gleamed in sunlight.

"Thanatos!" Timmy yelled from behind. "Why are you interrupting me?!"

The shadow reached out and plucked something from the air.

"His infant soul almost escaped," Thanatos rasped like death itself. "You were careless."

Elder Maren stood there frozen in place. Was this another one of the Archdemon's acquaintances?

"No matter," the shadow continued, and placed the tip of the scythe against the dead Wavescale Elder's back. "The Master has commanded me to raise this one to babysit you from now on."

Tendrils of shadow dug into the corpse, making it twitch. Elder Maren couldn't tell what was happening under the shadows, but a shocked gasp escaped her when the dead man staggered to his feet once more as a shadowed wraith wearing a Wavescale Elder's robes.