Alex was sitting in the middle of the room, surrounded by everything made of living plants—greenery everywhere—with rays of the morning sun coming through the windows, making the drops of dew look like diamonds.
Alex opened his purple eyes, let out a steamy breath, and said with relief, "Finally, I am at the 5th circle in dark elent and 3rd circle in wood. It's been a very long ti since I have improved this fast."
Suddenly, an anxious sound ca into Alex's mind.
"We don't have any ti left. You have to enter into my roots to face it, or this dinsion will perish soon."
Alex said, a little afraid, "Why are you not asking the elves? They're quite strong. I have even removed the corruption of the Elf Queen and King, who are pseudo saints."
Mother Tree replied, "You know why I'm asking you. You're the only one who can face it. Even if a saint-level elf went, they'd be corrupted in an instant."
Alex said resignedly, "Okay, I'll enter there. But you have to ask the other elves to at least stop the corrupted ones. Even after I saved their lives, their stubbornness of not liking humans hasn't changed."
Mother Tree replied, "I already did. They're at your door, waiting."
Alex stood up. Nearby, Hati, who had been sleeping, also stood and barked.
Alex replied with a smile, "Yes, sorry about that, Hati. I was quite busy these days and couldn't play with you."
Alex walked toward the door and opened it. He saw a crowd of around fifty elves standing there.
Legolas ca forward, bowed, and said, "Mr. Savior, we are ready to leave. We'll lead you to the main roots where it resides."
Alex nodded and said with a warm smile, "Thanks, Legolas. Let's move then, if everyone is here."
A little away from the old elf village, now corrupted, stood two tall trees. Near them was a small hill with a convex do-like structure on the surface, covered in greenery. But underneath it was a cave-like structure where the sll of decay was thick in the air.
The elves brought Alex to this cave. The Elf King, father of Princess Aersith, said, "This is one of the entries toward the main roots of the Mother Tree."
The Elf King said this and pointed, standing far away from the cave.
Alex said with an awkward smile, scratching his head "Yes, I understand. I'll enter from here then. I was thinking it'd be difficult to enter, but this is quite easy."
The King of Elves replied in a worshipping manner, holding his hands together like in a prayer, "Mother Tree's roots are vast and expansive. Mother Tree holds this vast world together and protects us."
Alex thought, I think the one who is corrupting the Mother Tree is quite smart. He knows if the elves approached it, they'd beco his slaves.
When Alex descended into the dark roots of the Mother Tree, they were wide enough for three people to walk side by side and tall enough for an adult to walk upright. The air grew thick with the stench of decay—each breath a struggle against the cloying rot that clung to the walls. The ground squelched beneath Alex's feet, a grotesque tapestry of decomposing matter and slick, oozing filth.
Mother Tree's voice ca into Alex's mind.
"The monster you're going to face is a Hydra. It's a monster with poison like a snake, scales like a dragon, and soul power high enough to attack your soul directly. Its regeneration power is considered its most lethal aspect, but it has a weakness—its body contains one core. If you can destroy it, it'll die."
Alex asked anxiously, "Can you locate where its main body is?"
Mother Tree replied,"Its main body is in the center root, but you have to go through the other six roots to reach there. Each of the other heads occupies one root."
Alex sighed and said with resentnt, "That higher being I ntioned when we t... I think this was all his plan. Nothing is going to be easy for ."
"Hey Hati, let's move," Alex said to his partner sitting on his shoulder.
Hati barked in affirmation.
Alex moved through a root that looked like a dark cave sared with sticky black material. The only light was from the entrance he had co through.
He moved for hours through the root, going deeper. The light from the entrance faded long ago. Alex now relied on his dark elent and his eyes to perceive his surroundings.
Hati started whimpering.
"Okay, buddy, you should stay here and wait for ." Alex put Hati down from his shoulder.
"Woof, Woof"
Hati barked in dissatisfaction.
"I know, but Hati, you're not strong enough to co with . You'll get in the way if you accompany down there."
Alex left Hati, who whimpered and sat down but didn't follow.
After a few more hours of descending, Alex felt it. The sensation in the environnt changed. The air shifted.
Alex erased his presence completely and ca in front of a colossal figure blocking the route. The Hydra's scales shimred with a sickly green hue, each one edged like a dagger, its fangs dripping with corrosive venom. It's breath sll felt like rotten at.
Alex's heart stopped. In shock, he froze.
How should I kill it?
Before he could finish the thought, the Hydra's green, slit-like eyes opened. The air humd in tension. The colossal head opened its mouth and lunged straight toward Alex.
Shit!
Alex stumbled and fell into a narrow crevice on the side wall of the root.
The head bit the air where Alex had been standing just a mont ago.
Alex took a sharp breath, covered in sticky, squishy black gunk.
Right in front of his face was the Hydra's neck—its scales glistening green.
Alex shot shadow daggers from the small opening. The daggers left only a small scratch.
The Hydra retreated straight back.
Alex stopped breathing.
His heart skipped as a big green eye with a black slit opened right in front of the crevice.
Without thinking, he lunged forward with a shadow dagger. The beast recoiled, but not before the blade found its mark, eliciting a deafening roar that reverberated through the cavern.
Alex didn't move out from the crevice. This narrow place was the only thing that provided him so protection.
He waited, ready for the angry beast to co and take its revenge.
Then it ca. The Hydra opened its mouth into the crevice, and poisonous green smoke ca, suffocating him.
He didn't move. He wouldn't have a chance of beating that beast in the open.
He waited, inhaling the poison—his skin turning green, then back to normal.
After a little while...
As expected, the beast ca to confirm its kill.
He saw it open another eye.
Alex lunged at it with his shadow dagger, finding its mark.
The beast recoiled with a roar—now completely blind.
He removed his shoes made from animal leather and quietly moved out of the crevice, barefoot on the squishy ground.
He saw the blind head of the Hydra thrashing sideways in the narrow space.
He waited quietly, with a spear covered in dark aura—like a predator watching prey, waiting for its chance.
Then it ca. The Hydra opened its mouth to fire another poison breath.
He lunged forward like lightning and thrust his spear through its mouth, passing through its skull in one go.
Thud!
It dropped.
He also collapsed on the sticky floor...
Why am I here? Why am I bearing so much pain? Why am I struggling so much?
Then he answered himself, I have to get stronger. I have to get revenge for my sister and father. Those beasts were controlled by soone. If I want to know who, I have to get stronger. This much pain is nothing for .
The Hydra's head was dead, not regenerating. Alex's dark elent, imbued with poison inside the Hydra's dead head, ford a little shadow—with dark purple scales along its back and a red belly, a dragon-like red mouth, dark purple horns like a crown, red four-clawed hands, and two feathered wings of red and dark purple sprouting from its back.
The shadow looked like a mix of material and ethereal. It flew toward the Hydra's main body and reached above an island surrounded by a vast black sea. On the island, the ethereal body of the Hydra was slumbering.
The Hydra felt a sudden crisis to its very being. It felt fear—fear of being completely erased from existence.
The shadow of the Hydra on the island suddenly jolted awake. With its seven heads, it saw the dragon-like creature with feathers staring at it with purple glowing eyes. The Hydra backed away, and its seven heads roared in the sky at the sa ti.
After that roar, another roar ca—the primitive and ancient roar of a being in the sky—and it disappeared after that. With that roar, tidal waves appeared all over the mind space of the Hydra. Tidal waves so tall they nearly drowned the island.
In the material world, a roar ca from the Hydra's remaining six heads, and they started rampaging.
Legolas heard the roar, then the ground shook. He scread loudly, "RUN!"
Every elf, upon hearing it, started running away from the Mother Tree.
Boom!
The ground collapsed.
Crash!
A sinkhole appeared.
Trees slid down.
A sinkhole so deep it looked like an abyss.
It was so wide it could swallow a mountain.
From it, six green, snake-like heads appeared, with the seventh dragging along behind. Its colossal body covered the sinkhole.
ROARRRRRR!
It roared at the sky with its six heads.
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