Forsaken By The Gods, I Made A Contract With the Demon King

Chapter 136 Soldier Treant (3)

Lunacy transformed the battlefield into something out of a fever dream. Colors shifted, reality bent, and my consciousness split into multiple streams of awareness. The evolved Lunacy showed the difference in just a second after activating it.

The corrupted soldier treant's countless faces seemed to multiply in my fractured vision, each showing a different expression of surprise and rage.

"You're not the only one who can play with corruption," I heard myself say, my voice echoing with multiple tones.

In a sense, my Lunacy was also a type of corruption, wasn't it the same when I entered the sanctum last time? I almost lost myself in the mental pressure of the Larvae of Lunacy, so it wasn't very wrong to say that Lunacy also acted as a corruption ability.

Anyway, there was one more change that happened that I didn't expect.

The sword in my hand, Blaze responded to my altered state, its flames taking on an otherworldly quality. Before they had burned orange and red, but now they flickered with colors that shouldn't exist, each corresponding to a different facet of my splintered mind.

I didn't expect that. But since Lunacy had some effect on my mind, it's obvious that the sword, which also depended on my mind, would react.

I didn't know how they were related but I could find out when there was time.

Now wasn't one of those times.

The Soldier treant recoiled momentarily, its essence patterns disrupted by the chaotic energy I was emitting. Through Noir's eyes - now seeing in spectrums beyond normal perception - I watched as the monster's corruption tried to adapt to my unstable presence.

"Let's see how you handle madness."

I moved, or rather, reality moved around me. Lunacy made my movements unpredictable, even to myself, and each action was guided by a different fragment of consciousness. The Soldure's vines struck at where I was, where I would be, where I might be - but never quite where I actually was.

Blaze left trails of impossible fire in its wake, each cut burning away not just wood and corruption, but the very space it passed through. The sword's [Will Fire] ability had evolved with my fractured state, creating flames that burned in multiple dimensions simultaneously.

The monster changed tactics, trying to flood the area with corruption. The ground beneath me turned into a swamp of twisted essence, while the air filled with spores that glowed with sickly light. But Lunacy made me fundamentally unstable, harder to affect with conventional attacks. The corruption passed through me like I was partially in another dimension.

"Your corruption is impressive," my fragmented voice echoed. "But true madness? That's something else entirely."

I sent Noir high above the battlefield, its phantom flock creating a dome of observation points. Through their combined vision, filtered through Lunacy's lens, I could see the Soldure's true form - not just its physical manifestation, but the patterns of corruption that made up its being.

That's when I spotted something crucial. The core it held, the one that pulsed with that refined essence, was connected to its heart by threads of pure corruption. Not just holding it - feeding from it.

"So that's your secret," I realized. "You're not just making more Treants. You're trying to evolve them."

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The soldier Treant's response was immediate and violent. Every one of its vine-torsos moved at once, creating a sphere of grabbing hands and screaming faces around its heart. The corruption in the air intensified, becoming so thick it was almost solid.

But I had seen what I needed to see. This wasn't just about survival anymore - that core was the key to something bigger. The lesser Treants, their territorial behavior, this monster's experiments with human forms... it all pointed to a purpose.

"Noir! !"

The shadow bird understood what I wanted to tell even without me telling directly, even through the chaos of Lunacy. Its phantom flock condensed into seven larger forms, each one diving at the Soldure from a different angle. The monster was forced to divide its attention, its vines spread thin trying to protect against multiple threats.

I took advantage of the distraction, pushing my body to move faster even as my mind continued to fragment. The combination of Lunacy and my demonic transformation was taking its toll - I could feel my essence burning away at an alarming rate. The Ring of the Fallen's essence flow ability was barely keeping pace.

But I pressed on, Blaze burning brighter with each step. The sword seemed to understand what was at stake, its flames responding to my fractured will with increasing intensity. As I closed in on the Soldure's heart, time seemed to slow.

I saw every detail with perfect clarity - the way the corruption flowed through its wooden flesh, the patterns of essence that connected it to its core, the subtle movements that telegraphed its next attack. Lunacy had pushed my perception beyond normal limits, showing me the battlefield on multiple levels of reality.

The soldier treant sensed my approach. Its protective sphere of vines began to contract, the human torsos turning inward to face me. Their frozen screams took on a new harmony, resonating with the corruption in the air.

What happened next would determine everything.

I raised Blaze high, its flames now burning with the full force of my fractured will. The sword's heat had become so intense that it was affecting multiple planes of existence simultaneously, creating distortions in the very fabric of space around its blade.

It was even affecting me.

I felt like the flame would have consumed me if not for the second skin ability from the Eternal Vigil, which was slightly superior to Blaze.

Thanks to that, I wasn't burned.

Anyway, as I prepared to strike, one thought cut through the chaos of my splintered mind this wasn't just about stopping a monster. It was about understanding what was really happening in this sanctum.

I still haven't found the clear requirements for this sanctum nor have I met with others who entered the sanctum, there was much I didn't know but only one thing that I did.

That is I will continue to fight, whatever the odds may be.

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