Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Chapter 380: Netherworld

Ashlock watched through his Evil Eye as Elysia commanded Pluto's tendrils to stop the castle from exploding. Of course, it was merely an illusion—not that he had told Elysia that. Ashlock worried she wouldn't put on a dramatic enough performance if she didn't believe failure would result in the loss of millions of potential new worshipers.

"Though I have to say that girl somehow became even more insane. I didn't expect to find her bathing in a pool of blood and animal parts while praying to one of my offspring," Ashlock sighed as he watched Elysia cackle away as she made more of Pluto's tendrils snake their way into heaven's carefully woven reality. "Just how broken is her mind to imagine Pluto's body to look this eldritch?"

Just a few months ago, when they first met, the body Elysia could conjure with Mystic Qi for Pluto could easily fit in an arena, but now... it looked like the sky might fall like ceiling paint holding back a leak.

"Is that what Maple's true body looks like?" Ashlock mused. Pluto was Maple's little sibling, and they were both Worldwalkers, so he doubted they differed that much. The display was quite horrifying and made all the worse as he watched it unfold through his Evil Eye. Pluto was just darkness in his sight—an all-consuming void that devoured everything it touched.

[A large inflow of divine energy has been detected]

Golden letters flashed before his eye, informing him it had begun. Elysia had spread his name while putting on a performance that even impacted him. It was such a raw display of reality-bending power that even he wouldn't want to mess with Elysia. Yet she happily proclaimed that she was wielding such cataclysmic powers in his name, which would definitely bring their respect for the All-Seeing Eye to new heights in the minds of the millions of mortals watching.

"System, what's my current number of sacrificial credits?"

[You have 3500 sacrificial credits and rapidly counting]

"That's quite a lot," Ashlock mused as his Evil Eye swiveled to look at the mortals lining the streets gazing up at him and the castle in fear. Maybe in hindsight, Elysia hadn't been the best one to handle this.

"This could have been an opportunity to give the cult a new light! Darn it, I should have tried to appear more majestic and benevolent." Ashlock sighed. "This display has definitely furthered my evil god image, but I fear that might be the only option moving forward."

They had mystic Qi on their side, and it could manifest anything, but the problem was that, unlike illusion Qi, it only worked if the cultivator fully believed in what they were trying to conjure. Ashlock glanced back at Elysia, whose eyes had rolled back, and she looked possessed as she pulled immense amounts of mystic Qi in from her surroundings to manifest Pluto's body. All of her family and the dozens of ritual rings were pumping her with Qi and it looked like she would go supernova any second as Pluto kept coming.

"Should I... tell her? That it's just an illusion, and she doesn't need to go this far?" Ashlock wondered as he felt a little bad and definitely didn't want Elysia to die or explode, but on the flip side, the insane girl seemed to grow in strength the more she broke, so...

"I'm sure she will be fine—ow!" Ashlock winced as he felt pain shoot through his root network. He hadn't felt pain like this in a long time, as he had his root network tuned out. It would drive him crazy if he were to experience the fears, concerns, and pains of every tree he was linked to across the realm. So something big had to have happened for the pain to be so extreme it overwhelmed his ability to tune it out.

Immediately, he tried to locate the source of the pain. Anything that could cut through so many of his S-grade ethereal roots so effortlessly had to be something at the Nascent Soul Realm. "Could it be Vincent? Is he attacking me somewhere? Or maybe the beast tide has reached my roots sooner than expected?"

Following the pain, all signs pointed toward his roots inside the castle.

"Is Vincent trying to claw his way out like a caged rat and hurting me in the process?" Ashlock's vision blurred as he switched to his spiritual sight through his roots inside the castle. All he was met with was an all-consuming darkness. It took a moment for Ashlock to realize what he was surrounded by as he shifted his view through his roots until he could finally see. "This looks like the vague remnants of a room and are those cries of fear. Wait, they aren't Vincent. Why the hell are their maids here? Oh god."

The ceiling collapsed as a tendril of void belonging to Pluto crashed through. The wood hissed as it was deleted from existence, and the tendril rushed into the room like a flood of ink.

The darkness was Pluto, and it was about to reach three maids cowering in the corner behind a table.

"Pluto, stop," Ashlock commanded the Worldwalker with Abyssal Whispers. But the encroaching void did not cease. "Pluto, I know you can hear me. Stop what you are doing; mortals are here, and you are destroying the castle."

A deep and otherwordly laugh that reminded Ashlock of a whale calling out through the vast ocean filled not just the room but the entire castle.

"You may have a leash on my sibling, but you don't control me. I can devour what I please."

The void tendril that had crashed into the room suddenly lashed out and plowed through the table and cowering maids. It was unsettling how silently the attack deleted them from existence as if they had never existed.

Ashlock didn't understand why Pluto was doing this.

"Why did you kill the mortals? They don't have any Qi worth devouring."

"They deserve to die as reality is a stain on the void. Before, there was beautiful chaos, but now there is a clear barrier—a divide between the nothingness of the void and the everything of reality." Pluto's voice raised to a thunderous volume that seemed to echo throughout the void, "Tell me why I should be born into slavery, to guard something I'm not even allowed to taste?"

Another void tendril drooped down and slammed through a side wall, silencing another set of distant cries. The castle was still full of hundreds if not thousands of maids, and they would all be devoured by Pluto at this rate.

"In here, it's beautiful." Pluto continued, "The air is sweet and dense with Qi. Millions of different organisms are waiting to be savored and minds to be broken. Compared to the void, where even time doesn't flow, how am I supposed to exist knowing what I'm being denied?"

Ashlock was reminded that the Worldwalkers were realm-devouring monsters. They grew in power by destroying, and it seemed Pluto viewed reality as a golden chest they desperately wanted to open.

"So when given entry to this paradise, all you seek is to destroy it in childish rage? If you devour it all, there will be nothing left." Ashlock tried to reason with him, "Reality will return to the void."

"Good, then all will be fair. These puny humans devoid of Qi cower before me yet live better lives than I." Another tendril silently shot off through a wall, snuffing out the candle of life on another group of maids. "Power is supposed to be all that matters, so why am I denied what is rightfully mine?"

"You are nothing but a foolish and short-sighted child." Ashlock switched his perspective to his Evil Eye and glared at Elysia. "It's over, Elysia. Send Pluto back to the void."

Elysia stayed utterly motionless, almost as if she were dead. Her head was to the sky, and she had a manic look of utter fascination as if she were seeing something otherworldly.

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"She is broken." Pluto's laughter echoed through the void, "Her ego is fractured and adrift. She barely has any will of her own, allowing me to easily overpower and giving me free rein."

"I know," Ashlock flooded Elysia with his presence and saw the girl grin, "This crazy girl surrendered her soul to me..." Elysia's head slowly rolled forward, and she looked down at Pluto. "...which lets me do things like this." He said through Elysia's mouth as she pointed a finger at Pluto.

"No... that shouldn't be possible. Complete soul dominion?!" Pluto's body squirmed aggressively as tendrils moved away from the castle and began spiraling up toward Elysia. "That's impossible! How can she still be alive?"

"Because I'm a divine being, and her faith in me is unwavering," Ashlock said through Elysia again.

"Lies!" Pluto thundered, "I have tried to achieve soul dominion over her this whole time but was unsuccessful. Her soul should be extinguished by your presence, not embracing it."

"This is why I called you a foolish child. True power does not always lie in your own overwhelming strength," Tendrils of divine energy shaped by Elysia's mystic Qi exploded out of her hand and met the void tendrils attempting to spiral up and devour her. "Even the heavens rely on others to manage reality, and it looks like I'll have to do my job as a divine being to vanquish an encroaching voidling."

"No!" Pluto roared as his entire body surged upward, "You can't send me back! I've spent too long preparing Elysia as my gateway to invading reality, only for you to stand in my way. I refuse to accept this!"

"Use that overwhelming power you are so proud of to stay then," Ashlock sneered via Elysia as he increased the divine energy tendrils tenfold and began forcefully collapsing Pluto's body despite the Worldwalkers best efforts to maintain his form. After all, the body was not Pluto's. It was crafted from Elysia's imagination.

An otherworldly scream echoed through the void as Pluto was utterly overwhelmed. Ashlock almost found it laughable that this Worldwalker truly believed he could do as he pleased while using his worshiper.

[Ashlock, you are losing control]

"What?" Ashlock was surprised by the golden system message flashing before his vision. "Losing control? Over what?"

[Divine energy. You are using Elysia as a gateway to channel an incredible amount of divine energy from the millions of mortals enthralled by the display of your power. This is a valid use of the gathered divine energy, but power comes at a price. Using divine energy in this way deprives your sacrificial credits of being able to multiply as much as they could as you will shortly lose your domain over the spent divine energy, and it will return to the heavens]

Ashlock glared at the system message, enraged. This stupid Worldwalker's powertrip and hunger had cost him precious sacrificial credits? That wouldn't do at all. He would give Maple an earful about his sibling once this was over, but for now, he needed a solution. He refused to humor the idea of losing out on such a boon in such a dumb way.

Channeling his rage into the divine tendrils, Elysia's eyes glowed with a purple-gold hue as he quickly extinguished Pluto from the realm, sending the bastard back to the cold darkness he came from.

"Elysia, you did well," Ashlock said through her in a hushed whisper before withdrawing his presence. Her whole body went limp for a second before she caught herself from falling off her flying sword.

"Now, system, what should we do?" Ashlock said as he gazed down at the half-eaten castle. It was as if someone had poured lava over it with how the walls had deteriorated. Despite its destroyed appearance, it gave off the feeling of a holy site with how much divine energy was swirling around the structure. As the system had informed him, this was divine energy that had been directed toward him from the mortals due to Elysia's terrifying display, but instead of absorbing and directing it toward his divine stock market to grow his number of sacrificial credits, it had been used to fight Pluto and was now almost out of his control.

[Suggestion: Channel the raw divine energy into a gacha draw. I'm unsure of the outcome, but it's bound to have a significant impact on the draw, whether it be a summon, item, mutation, or a new skill]

Ashlock hadn't expected such a suggestion. It had been a long time since he had entertained the idea of a gacha draw due to how risky it was and the level of threats he faced. However, he was being advised to do some gambling. How could he possibly say no?

"How many sacrificial credits do I have right now?"

[5938 sacrificial credits and climbing]

"Phew, that's a lot. What would that result in? An SSS grade draw, at least? Maybe even higher? Maybe I should wait until it climbs a little higher..."

[But you will soon reach the maximum number of sacrificial credits your Inner World can support, and my hold on the divine energy is loosening]

"Oh yeah. I forgot there was a limit to how many sacrificial credits I can have at once, but that increases with how many worshipers I have, right?"

[Yes, but the mortals of Nightrose City are not yet worshipers. If anything, they fear you and your power more than revere you]

"What's the difference?"

[A worshiper will provide a steady amount of divine energy that can be used to nurture a sacrificial credit tree and multiply it. Meanwhile, someone who fears you will only give a burst of divine energy upon witnessing an act that instills that deep fear. Humans keep memories and ideas that terrify them out of their consciousness until reminded of their existence]

"Because living in fear is a twisted form of self-torture. It's better to turn a blind eye and drown out things that weigh deeply on one's mind... just like how I tune out my offspring. I see what you mean now." Ashlock sighed but didn't lose hope. He could still turn these people into worshipers; all he had to do was deploy the cult to the streets armed with gift baskets of pills and smiles. "Okay, if my sacrificial credits are about to reach their limit and this divine energy will go to waste, let's do the gacha draw now."

Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 3643

Daily Credit: 77

Sacrifice Credit: 6117

[Sign in?]

[Are you sure? Over 6000 credits will be used on a random draw]

"Of course, I'm sure. There's still some Nightrose Elders to devour for dessert anyway."

[Very well...]

[Sign in successful, 6194 credits consumed…]

[Unlocked an SSS-grade Summon: Netherworld Wraith]

An SSS grade summon? It had been a long time since he had drawn a summon, the last being Kaida, but he had slowly leveled his summons up through the grades. What would an SSS-grade summon even be capable of? Would it rival a Monarch Realm or perhaps even surpass them in strength?

"Where is it?" Ashlock asked as he noticed the divine energy swirling around the castle suddenly take on a hint of sinister darkness.

[This is bad...]

Ashlock didn't need to be told. He could feel it. The coming of death.

"What is happening?"

[You are not yet strong enough to wholly control the ego of an S-grade being, let alone an SSS-grade one]

The darkened divine energy began to condense around a vague figure in the castle's center.

[We may have just welcomed an uncontrollable harbinger of death into the realm]

"A harbinger of death? Just what is a Netherworld Wraith?"

[It's a being born from the intersection of death and life and is said to feast on lost souls. They are neither alive nor dead and are said to inhabit the liminal space between the realms. They can traverse reality effortlessly since they exist on the bridge between life and death. I believe Netherworld Wraiths can phase through physical matter and can't be harmed by conventional means]

"Why have I never encountered them before?"

[They exist on a different plane of existence to us and are also egoless beings. They don't know how to seek out sustenance; they simply float around the liminal space between the realms and devour any souls in reach like jellyfish]

"If it's egoless, why can't I control it easily despite being SSS-grade?"

[What is there to control? Without an ego, it has no brain. Not thoughts or desires that can be altered to suit your needs]

"So we just need to give it an ego, right? One that's already under my control."

[You want to transplant an ego into an SSS-grade being? It would have to be one you have a firm grasp on, is of at least the Nascent Soul Realm, and has a deep understanding of soul dao]

"I happen to know just the girl for the job," Ashlock said. There was no way he was letting a Netherworld Wraith wreak havoc right after he had vanquished Pluto back to the void. This was his realm, and his alone to conquer.

***

"It sure is quiet..." Nox muttered as her dryad form lay in a field of white flowers around her tree. Ever since she had inherited the Dark Throne and learned the shadow Qi law, she had been left to oversee a pocket realm called Tartarus. She had worked hard to set it up in preparation for members of the All-Seeing Eye to train here, but nothing had happened yet.

"The others must be busy. Sigh, I just wish someone would visit me," Nox sat up with slothful grace. All around, there was nothing but darkness. It might as well be the void, and she was starting to get lonely. "This is the most powerful I have ever been, yet I have never felt more trapped than now." A sad chuckle escaped her lips, "I know they said it was lonely at the top, but I didn't imagine this—" A sudden message in golden letters manifested before her face.

[Ashlock has requested to implant your dryad soul into an SSS-grade spiritual being. Doing so will promote the summoned {Netherworld Wraith} to a Mythical Grade being]

[Do you accept?]

"Mythical grade? What in the nine realms does that mean?"