Kaiser of the New World

Desire (79)

The Mother Tree.

It was not what Kai expected, at all. Even the idea of what he had in his head of what a tree that was called The Mother Tree could look like could never come close to the sight before him.

All the trees surrounding him were already gargantuan, each dwarfing over him in size with ease.

But The Mother Tree, that was even larger than them.

The Mother Tree rose into the sky without trouble, its tree top acting like its own dome of the area.

Looking at it closer, Kai realised that it was a dome. The tree top of the Mother Tree spread over the top of all the other trees, shielding them from the moon above. It was like a shield held by the strongest being alive, protecting those who need it.

It was an incredible sight, breathtaking even, but Kai could only feel indescribable fear when he looked at it.

Not because of the sheer size of the tree, but because of what was on the monstrous trees vast bark.

Upon the Mother Tree's gargantuan body was dozens of blotches of the purple thing Kai thought he had seen earlier.

He couldn't even describe how the purple thing looked. It looked like a liquid, but was also solid. It looked physical, yet it also looked like it wasn't actually there.

Kai felt his breathing pick up. Looking at those blotches made him feel terrified. He wanted to curl up in a ball, to just give into what The Corroding wanted.

Kai felt his breathing pick up, he felt himself start to sweat. Was it just him or was it getting hot in here? Surely everyone else had to be feeling the same-

But when he looked around, no one else was reacting to the purple. They looked at it and just shrugged it off. Why weren't they terrified, why didn't they-

A firm hand clamped down on Kai's shoulder. His neck snapped towards the hand, then back to who the hand belonged to.

Failure shook his head calmingly and said:

"Calm yourself. It's not as bad as it seems. While in the Mother Tree's dome of protection, it cannot affect you."

Failure then sighed and took his hand off Kai's shoulder. Kai felt his heart rate calm down, but he couldn't just shake off the feeling.

Noticing this, Failure sighed again and summoned something from his spatial storage.

"It seems that it is affecting you a lot more for some reason. That could be a potential problem. As for why you seem to be so sensitive to The Corroding, I would not be able to answer."

Kai flinched.

Was it affecting him more than the others? Sure, they weren't reacting, but surely that had to notice something?

Failure handed a ring to Kai. A small, unassuming silver ring.

"Put that on, that should help."

Kai frowned slightly. What good could a ring do against the pull of The Corroding?

Still, any help was welcome help. Putting on the ring, Kai looked back up at Failure and-

The feeling was gone.

Shocked, Kai relaxed for the first time in the last few hours. Ever since the air bombing, Kai had been on edge. It was mentally exhausting, it was scary.

But the feeling of fear that had been pushed upon him had vanished. He couldn't sense the attack on his soul. Even when he looked at the purple that was corroding the Mother Tree, he felt nothing.