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

Chapter 137 Soldier Treant (4)

Everything slowed down. You know that moment right before something big happens? When your mind becomes crystal clear and time seems to stretch like honey? That's what it felt like. But multiply that by a dozen, because Lunacy had split my mind into many pieces, each one seeing a different way to take down this monster.

"Now!"

My body moved in ways that shouldn't have been possible. Imagine trying to dance to ten different songs at once, and somehow making it work. That's kind of what it was like. Blaze left trails of fire behind me, but not normal fire. These flames told stories of their own, each one burning with a different shade of my broken mind.

The Soldier Treant defended itself beautifully, I'll give it that. Its vines moved like dancers in a deadly ballet, those human bodies it used as weapons flowing together perfectly. But here's the thing about perfect defenses - they're only perfect against normal attacks. And what I was doing? That was about as far from normal as you could get.

Noir knew exactly what to do. My shadow bird split its phantom flock into seven parts, each one diving at the monster from a different angle. You should have seen it - seven shadow ravens, each carrying a piece of my chaos, making the Soldier Treant think it was being attacked from everywhere at once.

That's when I made my real move. But I didn't go for the obvious gaps in its defense. Instead, I attacked the spaces between spaces - those tiny moments when reality isn't quite sure what it's supposed to be doing. Blaze's flames weren't just burning wood anymore; they were burning through the rules of what should and shouldn't be possible.

The sword's special ability, [Will Fire], took on a whole new meaning. The flames turned black at their heart, surrounded by colors that made your eyes hurt just looking at them. Every time I cut, I wasn't just cutting the monster - I was cutting through the very idea of what it meant to be solid.

"Your corruption is strong," I heard myself say in many voices at once, like a weird choir. "But fire? Fire purifies everything."

The monster's scream was something else. You know how a normal scream hits your ears? This one hit everything - your ears, your bones, even the space around you. Its vines went crazy, trying to catch me, but that's the thing about fighting someone using Lunacy - you can't hit what isn't quite there.

I kept pushing, kept burning. Each hit from Blaze built on the last, like I was painting with fire. The flames weren't just burning the monster's body now - they were burning away the very thing that made it what it was. Every cut stayed lit, creating this beautiful and terrifying web of purifying fire.

But the Soldier Treant had one last trick up its sleeve. Those human bodies it used started changing, their screams turning into this corrupt song that tried to match my madness. The air around us got thick with corruption that moved like my broken mind.

It was learning, trying to beat me at my own game. Trying to match crazy with crazy.

"Interesting trick," I said, feeling the strain of keeping both my demon form and Lunacy going. "But there's one thing you don't understand about true madness."

All those faces on the monster turned to look at me, and I swear I saw real curiosity in their endless pain.

"It can't be copied. It can't be corrupted. Because true madness?" I lifted Blaze high, and the sword burned with everything I had left. "True madness is pure."

What happened next was like nothing I'd ever seen. Blaze's flames exploded into this massive column of fire that burned in ways fire shouldn't be able to burn. Every piece of my broken mind poured its will into that flame, turning it into something that could burn through corruption itself.

The Soldier Treant's perfect defense just... fell apart. All those coordinated vines went wild as the purifying fire spread through its body. Those human torsos screamed in voices that made reality itself shudder, and as the corruption burned away, I saw what was underneath.

Then my sword found its heart.

Time stopped. Everything just froze - the corruption in the air, the flames, everything. All those faces turned to look at me, and then, in the strangest twist yet, it started laughing.

It wasn't a normal laugh. It was joy and pain and clarity and corruption all mixed together. As Blaze's flames ate through its body, the monster's essence started collapsing. But before it went, its core pulsed one last time, and something flowed into my mind.

Pictures, memories, understanding. This thing hadn't just been making baby Treants - it had been trying to become something more, using human forms to try to evolve into something greater.

Before it completely fell apart, I grabbed two things: that piece of Lyssandra's jacket and the weird core it had been using. Both still hummed with corruption, but my flames had cleaned them enough to handle.

The monster's death was something to see. Its huge body just erupted, turning into this fountain of fire and corrupt essence that sent waves through the forest. All around us, the lesser Treants shuddered and pulled back, like puppets with their strings cut.

[You have defeated an inept-Fallen Rank monster - Soldier Corrupted Treant]

As Lunacy faded and my mind painfully stitched itself back together, I looked at the core in my hand. Whatever this thing had been trying to become, whatever it had been reaching for... It has ended…for now.

Looking around at what was left - trees that had been burned in ways that defied physics, reality itself still smoking from Blaze's flames - I couldn't help but smile a tired smile.

"Well," I said to Noir as it landed on my shoulder, both of us completely drained but still breathing, "that was something else."

Noir made this soft sound that somehow managed to be both "yes" and "you're crazy" at the same time.

But the real surprise came after that.

[You have obtained an Echo]

"....!!"

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