They returned to the first room with glass walls they’d seen. It still seed impossible that they’d reached the top level with that one short flight of stairs, but the peaked glass roof told Sophia otherwise. The inside of a building she saw didn’t match what she rembered from outside, but that didn’t an that much; there might be an enchantnt on the building. It seed even more likely that the conversion into a Leveled Challenge had ssed with the layout; after all, they still hadn’t found any route to the main entrance and that didn’t make sense.
Without the great plant-monster, the room seed almost empty; many of the plants had disappeared. They’d probably been part of the monster, either as the components of its false muscles or simply as camouflage. Either way, they were gone. It was clear that there were no concealed corpsevine-infested monsters, unless they were the size of a normal squirrel.
At the far end of the room, Sophia could see the summoner. She was too distant to make out her expression, but Sophia knew she wouldn’t have one. Sophia sent her knife racing ahead as she ran for the woman, but she didn’t make it there in ti.
The summoner raised the plant in her gloved hands up to her face. Vines exploded from it at the sa ti that more leaves unfolded from the plant-hat the Mage-Gardener wore. It almost seed to rge with the new vines, like the cap of a mushroom made of plants. The vines grew longer and longer and lifted the now completely concealed woman nearly to the ceiling of the room.
The room shimred and sparkled weirdly as a wave of power swept out from the altered summoner and filled the room. What plant life was left in the partially denuded greenhouse began to grow visibly quickly and lumps began to form, lumps that could easily conceal corpsevines.
It felt sohow fake to Sophia, though she couldn’t say why.
A mont later, she felt indignation from Cliff and the scene in front of her seed to shift. A lot of the greenery vanished and what was left stopped growing. It seed to blur a little, while the monster sharpened.
“Can’t share for long,” Cliff stated tersely. “I want the parent shrub. Can’t let it hide from you.”
One part of what was going on was clear: Cliff sohow managed to share what he saw with Sophia. The implication that the monster in front of her was where the corpsevine “cuttings” all ca from also wasn’t lost on her. The fact that he could apparently break illusions but was only willing to do so if it affected Sophia’s ability to Collect a monster was …
…Well, actually, it seed a lot like Cliff. He cared about what he cared about and other than that he simply didn’t want to bother.
Sophia skidded to a halt just outside the range she thought the vines could reach. Right now, they were supporting the plant-cap, but Sophia couldn’t be certain they’d continue doing that, and if this was truly the “parent” of the cuttings they’d fought, she didn’t want to get too close to it.
She ignored the fact that Cliff called it a shrub. Perhaps it was, but if so it was an awfully large shrub. One that Sophia didn’t want to fight. She wasn’t actually sure what to do next; would her spells work on it? It didn’t seem to have any real weak points, unless they were hidden in the cap or maybe the center of the stalk where the summoner seed to have vanished.
The sounds of destruction behind her made Sophia glance backwards. Dav was beating on a plant-covered timber while Amy desperately fought a broad-leafed plant. Taika’s head was barely visible in Dav’s backpack, but it was still clear that his attention was fixed on the “corpsevine” Dav fought. Neither plant fought back, but Sophia was certain her allies thought they were. Illusions sucked; worse was the realization that without Cliff’s help, she might also have been fooled. “None of those are real, the only real monster is over here!”
Her shout might help or it might not. While fighting, you might not hear or see even obvious things; they might not hear her even if the illusion didn’t do anything that made it more difficult. Even if they did hear her, if they didn’t think they had ti to step back and figure it out, they wouldn’t.
Sophia snapped her attention back to the monster plant in front of her. It hadn’t moved any closer while she was distracted and it didn’t seem to be attempting to reach her at all. Did it think she was also lost in illusion?
For that matter, could it think at all? Did that even matter?
Sophia shook the distractions away. The real corpsevine parent was dead, killed by the Registry Master a few days earlier. She was certain of that; she’d gotten that much of the story from Rensyn. This was just an imitation made by the Guide for the Leveled Challenge. She hadn’t heard of anyone else fighting sothing like this, but if they were caught in an illusion the way Dav and Amy were, they would have reported sothing different from reality anyway.
Co to think of it, that might be another piece in the puzzle of why no one had fully completed the Challenge. If you couldn’t see part of it, it would be hard to finish, wouldn’t it?
The corpsevine still hadn’t moved. Sophia decided that ant it probably wasn’t going to unless she provoked it, so she took a few cautious steps backwards and set her back against a pillar. It wasn’t completely safe, but the pillar was nearly plant-free and she’d take what she could get at this point. It was ti to find out if her spells would work on the corpsevine parent and what it would do.
She aid her Force Bolt at the bottom of the plant-cap, where the tentacles joined it. Joints were often weak points and she didn’t have any better idea of where to aim, so it was worth a try.
Unexpectedly, the spell stopped right before it hit the plant. Sophia recognized the effect; she’d seen it often enough when sothing hit her. This corpsevine, unlike every previous one, had a Guide-granted shield that she had to wear down before she could actually hurt it.
The corpsevine definitely noticed Sophia’s attack. Several of the vines closest to her moved towards her and seed to search the area, but they weren’t even close to reaching her now and they didn’t seem to have any real idea where she was.
Sophia gave the search a mont to die down, then launched another Force Bolt. She was not in good shape for mana, but a glance at Dav and Amy told her that they weren’t coming out of the illusion easily. Both of the plants they were attacking were well shredded, but they seed to think they were fighting for their lives against dangerous opponents. She shouted again, “Guys! The real threat is over here!”
This ti, Dav clearly heard her. “Can you hold it off while I deal with this thing?”
He was dodging like he had against the giant plant and seed to think that he was fighting a threat equal to that when it was little more than a fence post.
Sophia wasn’t sure what to say. Speaking didn’t seem to work, but maybe she could break the illusion?
There was only one problem with that: she couldn’t even see the illusion. When she looked with her MageSight, all she could see was a single spell that covered the entire room. It was complex and well-reinforced; if that was the illusion, it was no wonder Dav and Amy were caught in it. It was one heck of a trap.
Even if it was apparently a trap Cliff could simply see through. Sophia wanted to find out why that was, but questioning Cliff wouldn’t help. He was unlikely to know the answer and even if he did, she didn’t think he’d care enough about the “why” to explain.
Sophia was confident she could eventually break the illusion as long as the corpsevine didn’t repair it. That actually seed possible; sothing this elaborate wasn’t a quick thing to make. The problem was that it also wouldn’t be fast to remove unless there was a central support, and the only central support Sophia saw was the fact that the spell was powered by the monster. Killing the corpsevine on her own was probably the fastest way to remove the illusion.
That would change if the corpsevine actually found her, but it had been less than a minute and the corpsevine already seed to have forgotten it was attacked. It seed unlikely it could have recovered much shield in that ti, so Sophia threw another Force Bolt at it. She aid for the sa spot; it probably didn’t matter, since she doubted the shield was weak enough to fall after only the first attack, but it was still worth a try.
It hadn’t.
Sophia waited for it to stop, then threw another Force Bolt. It was stopped as well, but her fourth one stressed the shield beyond its limits and it continued into the solid exteriors of the vines. One of the tendrils fell to the floor, completely severed by the attack.
Sophia stared, stunned by the effectiveness of the attack. The vines were almost as wide around as her arm; she hadn’t expected to completely cut through one with a single spell, especially not one that was weakened by having to penetrate the shield first.
She glanced back at her companions, but they were still occupied by their assault on the other plants. She was going to have to take care of this herself, and it suddenly seed a lot more possible. The corpsevine still hadn’t moved from its position and Sophia was starting to be convinced that it couldn’t. The reason it infested corpses was to have sothing mobile that could bring pretty to it, possibly even kill it first. That lined up well with illusions that would make its enemies attack the wrong things, but it ant the main plant was effectively helpless against soone who could see through the illusion and didn’t have to co within its reach.
Sophia threw Force Bolt after Force Bolt into the monster. They were a lot cheaper than Force Blasts, especially since she was only using one at a ti and wasn’t trying to alter them in any way, but they still weren’t enough. The corpsevine was still standing when she simply didn’t have enough mana to cast another spell, even with taking it slow and careful.
Sophia wasn’t willing to completely drop her awareness of her surroundings, so she couldn’t fully concentrate on regaining mana, but she had gathered mana in dangerous situations before and she was certain she’d do it again in the future. She cast a new Force Bolt once she had the mana to do so.
It was very obvious the corpsevine was dead when she finally cut through enough of the vines that the “cap” snapped to the side, then fell to the dirt-covered tile floor with a thump. Sophia sighed, glad to finally be done. The four Force Bolts after she ran out of mana that it took to kill the corpsevine more than tripled the amount of ti killing the monster took. She really wished she could have gotten help from Amy, at least; she was just as glad to not have to send Dav into the corpsevine’s reach.
That reminded her to check the spell threaded throughout the room. As she hoped, it was dissipating rapidly. It wouldn’t be long before she could talk to her friends about what was going on and what she’d seen.
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