Return to Jorgaldur Volume V: Reunion (2)

Sowing

When he noticed that the accumulation of miasma had stopped, Kan Golge opened his eyes. It was strange, as there was still a lot of miasma left to gather.

"Damn dryads!" he exclaimed furiously.

His transformation had only just begun. Without a doubt, his power had grown enormously due to the accumulation of miasma in his body, which he could now use as his own. However, without completing the transformation, his weakened body wouldn't be able to hold it for long.

Unfortunately for him, he couldn't directly fight the power of the dryads, given its magnitude. They were draining a sliver of the vitality of all the plants in Jorgaldur to channel it here. It was only a tiny bit of that vitality, probably less than 0.01%, but the sum of all those small amounts was huge.

It was an enormous power that couldn't be used lightly, and was rarely mobilized, but it was now necessary. The aberration that was the Lost Forest had to be purified. Life had to be returned to where it belonged.

In fact, what Maldoa had channeled in the Valley of the Dead had been of a similar nature, but of a power many orders of magnitude smaller. It was barely comparable.

He had no choice but to order the losts to focus their attacks on a point in the structure, one that hadn't yet fully closed. He attacked it from within as well, with all his power, and managed to create a hole. The vampire didn't care that some losts exploded from the power of the attack.

He hurried to sneak through the hole, to get out of the prison of increasingly thick branches. If he hadn't acted quickly, he might not have been able to escape.

Then, Kan Golge saw the path marked by the power of the dryads. He knew that he couldn't confront them. His only advantage was that they couldn't expand freely and quickly.

"I have to get away to complete the ritual," he said to himself.

He could feel how part of his body was corrupting, beyond his control. The vampire couldn't delay much. He would have headed into the depths of the Lost Forest if he had been in full possession of his faculties.

However, the miasma he had absorbed wasn't harmless. When he saw his enemies emerging from a hole, rage and hatred took hold of him.

"You're the culprits! You have to pay for it!" he shouted out of his mind.

"He has escaped from the confinement," Goldmi warned at the urging of her winged sister.

"We have to do something. How is the exit?" Eldi asked.

"The losts which were on top have awakened, and are fighting against the others. It's chaos," the elf explained.

"Let's go up and see," Gjaki suggested.

She didn't wait for his companions to do so. Normally, she would have sent some Bats first, but the purifying power of the dryads disintegrated them. Luckily, it did nothing to her, except a slight tickle.

She Climbed by digging her fingernails into the now purified soil. Close behind her was the lynx, and Eldi wasn't far behind, with his own version of Climb. He had thrown a spear, and was climbing the rope.

Goldmi glanced at the fairy for a moment. She was standing on the root, her eyes closed. She seemed to sense the gaze and turned to the elf, opening them, looking at her.

"Aunt Omi, go with them. I have to wait," she said.

"Are you sure...?" the elf wanted to ask, but the fairy had closed her eyes again.

She looked at her for a couple more seconds before deciding to climb Eldi's rope. Whatever the fairy was up to, there was nothing she could do to dissuade her.

When she arrived, she found that Gjaki and the lynx were supporting the awakened ones. Eldi protected them with Mill, as he was blocking a flurry of ranged attacks

Goldmi launched three arrows at a long distance to create a Light Trap over some of those which were attacking Eldi. Then, she loaded three Light Arrows and fired them in three different directions

Meanwhile, several tentacles moved frantically from the elf's shoulder. The kraken had Enlarged them, and was throwing the contents of some bags as far as she could, always within the dryads' area of influence.

The goshawk Plummeted, grabbed another bag offered by her water sister from one of the tentacles, and made a hole in it with her beak. She flew low over the path created by the dryads, and was also dropping the contents.

They were bags full of seeds, which Maldoa had collected from different Sources and Origins. The dryads could sense them when they fell to the purified ground, so they channeled their power to make them germinate and grow at high speed.

Kan Golge approached them, while ordering the losts and the shadows to turn towards their enemies. He was beside himself, influenced by the miasma.

That wouldn't have happened if he had completed the transformation, but he had been left halfway due to the interference of the dryads. His skin was constantly peeling off and repairing itself, and even his flesh had to be regenerated with the power of his blood.

Following his orders, the shadows approached, ready to launch their army against the living. However, something lashed out at some of them.

"What's that light?" were the last words of one, before being pierced by a Light Arrow.

Directed by Curved Shot, it continued on its way until it pierced another, after which Goldmi let it go. Its light had dimmed too much after two shadows, it had no power for a third. In total, the three arrows she had fired eliminated five shadows, while the others fled in panic.

Some hid behind large corrupted beings, or even inside.

One crawled inside the shell of a corrupted turtle. It was looking out through the opening, afraid.

Another was in the arms of a half-giant, protected by them. There was one that had even entered the mouth of a huge snake whose body was almost a meter in diameter.

The elf managed to reach a couple more, which believed that being hidden behind the back of a lost was enough. Unfortunately, the others were too well hidden for his Light Arrows, and she couldn't deal exclusively with the shadows.

Besides, those shadows soon had something else to worry about.

"It can't be!"

"They can't be here!"

"There can't be so many!"