[Tree] Chapter 665: The Sixth General (Patreon)

Ashlock could feel the difference immediately.

He had jokingly called himself the greatest tree swordsman in the past, but only because there was no competition. When he faced an actual sword master, he only won by abusing spatial Qi to move his sword in unnatural ways and because his Soul Weapon, {The Sword of New Beginnings [?]}, was fit for a titan and carried the weight of his Inner World.

But now, as he wielded his Soul Weapon with an ethereal root, he slashed and parried with purpose and rhythm, as if he had trained in swordsmanship from a young age.

"This feels like installing a cheat in a game," Ashlock mused as he swung the massive sword to parry Stella's. The deafening clang sent a shockwave that threw up sand and tore across the ocean of his Inner World.

Stella wasn't fazed by any of it. She lay casually on the beach, an aether bubble shielding her from the sand and water. Meanwhile, an aethereal spirit she had conjured, imbued with her Sword Dao, fought on her behalf.

"By the way, Stella, am I fighting your clone?" Ashlock asked as their swords clashed again. He could tell Stella was going easy on him, and his sword could, too. Inside the Bloodiron sword, the ego of Slaughter and the remnants of Vincent Nightrose raged for blood. They wanted to cut their foe, feed on the corpse, and most importantly, win.

"You think a clone of mine would be this weak?" Stella snorted without opening her eyes. "It's just my Qi given a more physical form. Most Sovereigns can do this." She snapped her fingers, and two more appeared. "I have to micromanage them myself, but with my bloodline, managing multiple at once is possible."

The two new ghosts forged hardened swords from aether that seemed to lag behind reality and came at him. Now that it was a 1v3, the gaps in Ashlock's inherited Sword Dao became painfully obvious. An expected outcome, since unlike the Sins that had perfected their conceptual daos to the point they turned into Qi types, he had simply become better at wielding the sword.

Overall, he was satisfied with the result. The Sword of New Beginnings was not. Not only did it want to draw blood and win, but Ashlock knew it wanted to fight for itself.

It was a Soul Weapon after all.

"Fine, you can take it from here." Ashlock retracted his ethereal root from around the hilt of the Soul Weapon and let the two egos lurking within take over.

The Sword of New Beginnings spun in the air, its tip pointing at the three aether ghosts, who paused their assault. The sword was taller than a person and as wide as a door. Fit to be held by a titan or a tree, it had been commissioned by Stella for Ashlock's birthday and made by Elder Mo. The blade and hilt were forged from Bloodiron, a metal no stronger than crude iron but indestructible when fed lifeforce. Thin red lines ran through the metal, pulsing like the veins of a beating heart.

Ashlock remembered the red miasma that had once shrouded the blade and the frightening aura of slaughter it had radiated, but that was all gone. He had kept it stored away from battle for too long, dulling the blade and starving the egos within.

But the inflow of Sword Dao had reignited Ashlock's interest in the Soul Weapon, and he finally wanted to unlock its true potential, since its grade in his system was still [?].

The sword shuddered, and thick blood miasma began to leak from its veins, solidifying into a hand around the hilt. It continued into an arm, and then a shoulder. Slowly, the miasma coalesced into a vague humanoid form roughly the height of a human male.

"Come, fight me," the soul sword demanded, its voice sinister and metallic.

Stella flicked her finger, and the three aether ghosts darted in and out of existence as they rushed the sword. Immediately, Ashlock could tell the Sword of New Beginnings hadn't inherited Sword Dao, and neither Vincent nor Slaughter's ego was a sword master anywhere near Stella's level.

The one-sided duel lasted a grand total of five seconds, with the body of blood being cut apart from every angle. While the Sword of New Beginnings didn't need a body to fight, without it to provide a counterweight, its strikes grew even more sluggish compared to Stella's aether ghosts.

"I'm bored," Stella said, sitting up. "Dueling something without Sword Dao is pointless."

The sword took that personally and switched targets from the ghosts to their master. It twisted in the air and dove down at Stella like a heat-seeking missile wreathed in a miasma of blood—only for it to freeze a meter from her face like an arrow shot into a wall.

Stella raised a brow. "Bold, aren't we?"

She floated to her feet and grabbed the sword by the hilt. Though she couldn't close her hands around it, she swung the hilariously large sword with ease, much to the ego's rage.

"Sorry about that," Ashlock apologized on the sword's behalf. "Not sure why it suddenly attacked you."

"The ego of Slaughter has grown weak compared to Vincent, who still wishes to kill me," Stella said as she kept swinging the sword around. "It's a great sword but too weak on its own to fight those we will face in the future."

"Agreed, and I get little opportunity to wield it myself in sword fights," Ashlock said. The sword suddenly acting on its own was a problem too, but feeding monsters to appease the ego of Slaughter felt wasteful, even though they split the credits.

A presence suddenly made itself known in his Inner World, and Stella noticed it too as she looked to her left. Nyxalia stood in the air over the ocean. In one hand, she held an octopus-like monster, and in the other, she restrained Uldrenneth's infant soul. The octopus possessed water and shadow Qi, but it was small and barely in the Star Core Realm. It also wasn't an Ent, like he had asked for.

"That's the best you could find?" Ashlock asked.

"My apologies, I couldn't find any monsters besides this one possessing water and shadows, as Morthex and Bob likely ate the rest," Nyxalia explained. "If you want, I could do a wider search in the ocean—"

"No, this octopus will have to do," Ashlock said as he could tell Nyxalia was struggling to hold Uldrenneth's infant soul. Only Morthex was specialized in trapping souls, and this one was especially strong. "But I'll have to turn it into an Ent first and promote it to a General for it to have a chance of surviving Uldrenneth's infant soul."

"Let me eat it!" the sword howled, and Ashlock could feel the hunger radiating from it.

Ashlock was about to say no, but paused to think. The sword needed to be fed to fully awaken, and what if he somehow turned the sword into a General? That way, it could have an immortal body, and its cultivation would be in the Sovereign of Realities realm.

"Nyxalia, feed Uldrenneth's infant soul to the sword."

"Are you sure that is a good idea?" Stella asked as the sword tugged at her arm like a rabid dog on a leash. "There are already two souls battling inside that blade. Adding a third is risky enough, but this is Uldrenneth we are talking about. I'm not sure the Bloodiron will hold..."

"While that is a fair point..." Ashlock looked up. His nine moons had recovered. "It will be fine, as no matter how messy it gets, I can handle it with my domain."

"Your domain?" Stella asked and tilted her head. "Now that I think about it, I've never seen it."

"Well, you might get a chance to now," Ashlock said. "Go on, Nyxalia, I know you can't hold it for long."

Nyxalia gave him an appreciative nod and floated forward while Stella kept the sword restrained. Nyxalia hesitated for a moment before pressing Uldrenneth's infant soul into the blade's side. It sank into the Bloodiron, seeping in through the veins, and the miasma thickened.

[Sovereign of Realities Realm infant soul identified within your Soul Weapon {The Sword of New Beginnings}]

[The infant soul is attempting to assert dominance over the ego of Slaughter...]

Darkness bled from the blade like ink from a wound. Stella caught it in her aether bubble, stopping it from reaching the sand or ocean. Everything seemed fine until the sword's tip suddenly pointed downward and tore itself free from Stella's grip. It plummeted and struck the sand as if it weighed a million tons.

Stella shot down after it and tried to pull it free as a sound tore out of the metal that was half scream and half roar. Uldrenneth's immense spiritual pressure and bloodlust radiated out, cracking the ground and pushing Stella back.

The ocean went black.

Ashlock wasn't having any of it.

He called upon his domain, the Eye of Horus.

Overhead, fractures formed across the surface of his ninth and smallest moon as it began to crumble inward. Stella and Nyxalia looked up with understandable concern.

"Tree?" Stella said quietly, "Why is your moon crumbling?"

"This is my domain," Ashlock explained as black light bled out of the crumbling moon. "The more I feed it, the stronger it becomes. To create life and complete my ascension, I had to sacrifice all nine moons. But for this, only one should do."

The battle inside the Sword of New Beginnings continued as Uldrenneth asserted his dominance over the egos of Slaughter and Vincent. But a full minute later, that all changed as a dark star sat high in the desolate sky where the ninth moon had been, and blinked.

Ashlock stared down at his Soul Weapon through the Eye of Horus and exerted his will. Uldrenneth roared as Ashlock pinned the monster's infant soul inside the blade, so it could be devoured by the ego of Slaughter. His entire Inner World trembled as Uldrenneth tried to call out to the ocean and make a last stand.

But under Horus's gaze, Ashlock was nothing short of a god.

[Foreign entity devoured by the ego of Slaughter]

[The ego of your Soul Weapon {The Sword of New Beginnings} has fully awakened. Classification set to {SSS} grade, with the potential to become {Mythical}]

[Your Soul Weapon {The Sword of New Beginnings} has devoured the infant soul of the Sovereign Uldrenneth. 3,268 credits have been split between you]

[+1,634 SC]

Stella pulled the sword out of the sand, revealing hairline fractures running from the hilt halfway down the blade. They leaked cold, blue-black light, and Ashlock could tell what was wrong through the Eye of Horus without his system explaining it.

Although the infant soul had been devoured, the latent Qi and Daos remained trapped in the blade and unusable by Vincent or the ego of Slaughter, since neither could control water or shadows.

Ashlock glanced at the octopus monster in Nyxalia's other hand, and the monster squirmed. The monster had the right affinities, but it wasn't strong enough. He needed to make it into an Ent and promote it.

"Stella, kill the monster with the sword," Ashlock said.

Nyxalia held the octopus up. Its spike-tipped tentacles lashed out angrily, and it bared a round mouth of razor teeth that opened like a blooming flower—then the giant sword tore it in half. The monster died with a wet crunch. Leech-like tendrils of blood erupted from the sword, feeding on the dead octopus.

Usually, his Soul Weapon would turn bodies to dust and send him half the credits, but not this time. Ashlock used Necroflora Empire through his Eye of Horus to create an Ent that was intertwined with the Sword of New Beginnings. Under his guidance, the octopus turned more tree-like, its tentacles wrapping around the blade's hilt, and tiny roots fed into the hairline cracks. It drew upon the latent Qi and Daos in the sword left behind by Uldrenneth, its cultivation skyrocketing far past what an Ent could handle.

"System, promote the Ent to a General."

It would cost 500 sacrificial credits, a whole lot of divine energy, and all of the latent Qi and Daos in the sword. But it was the only way to make this work.

[At your current cultivation stage, your Inner World can sustain six Generals. But the strain will be immense. Do you still wish to proceed?]

"Yes, this General will be able to sustain themselves off killing."

[Understood. Promoting to General class...]

No tribulation or heavenly lightning appeared, as the materials to create a Sovereign of Realities General were already in the sword, and the Eye of Horus let Ashlock make it happen. While Stella and Nyxalia silently watched on, he crafted his first Sovereign General, a living weapon.

"He's perfect," Ashlock said as he finally relaxed his domain. The Eye of Horus faded in the sky, and his ninth moon began slowly reforming as he drew on his divine energy reserves.

Stella tilted her head to look up at the sixth General.

"He's certainly intimidating," Stella muttered.

The General towered at around four meters tall. Ashlock had considered making it taller, given the sword's size, but at this height, the General could wield the weapon without being overly large to deploy in battle.

Appearance-wise, it was a humanoid mixture of a tree, an octopus, and a titan. Its tentacles twisted into black roots with a wet texture that formed its many limbs and towering form. Four coiled arms hung from its shoulders like a tattered war cloak—its left arm was massive and ended in three fingers, while its right arm was the sword. The tentacle-fingers were wrapped around the hilt so tightly it was impossible to tell where grip ended and hand began.

The last two unaccounted-for tentacles formed its legs, which flared at the feet like the base of a trunk and gripped the black sand like roots. Its head was covered in a mantle of red maple leaves so nobody would second-guess who its creator was, and beneath them sat two horizontal eyes that glowed a dull red. The monster had no mouth, for it fed through the blood drawn by its sword.

Ashlock had successfully rolled Vincent, the ego of Slaughter, and the remnants of Uldrenneth, into a single being.

[You have created a {Sovereign of Realities} General]

[The vessel harbors the ego of your Soul Weapon. Both vessel and blade are now bound as one to your {Necroflora Empire} skill]

[Please name the General]

Ashlock took one look at the sword-wielding titan that thirsted for battle and knew what to call it.

"After the Greek god of war, I'll name him Ares."