Reborn as a Demonic Tree

Ashlock stared down at Nox through his Evil Eye. He saw that her soul spread throughout the Netherwood Wraith's body like spirit roots.

"You aren't in total control, are you?" Ashlock said. If he looked at any other person or monster, their soul would have a focal point, and its influence would spread equally throughout the vessel. On the other hand, Nox was like a parasite that had taken root inside the Netherwood Wraith. Almost as if she was controlling the body like a puppet rather than being its absolute master.

"I'm not," Nox agreed, "I feel like I'm using my own soul as a leash to keep a feral beast under control, and it's hungry..." Her translucent white eyes glowed, "so, so hungry."

"For souls?"

Nox nodded, "If I don't eat some soon, I fear I will start to consume myself. I can see why Netherworld Wraiths are egoless; if they had minds, they would surely go insane from this hunger."

"You remind me of Maple, just a lot worse, I suppose. As a Worldwalker who grew from devouring, I had to turn a blind eye to many of his antics, as restraining him would only lead to him turning on me. Same with Larry. I had to let him go off and feast, and I'm ashamed to admit he brought back a fair number of mortal corpses for me, and there were a fair number of rumors among the mortals about him hunting in the woods."

"Sorry—" Nox gave what he assumed was supposed to be a reassuring smile, but on the face of a mythical grade herald of death, it sent a chill through his bark, "—this is the best I can do for now. Once my soul's cultivation level matches my vessel, I will be able to control myself better. But I think the hunger for souls will never go away as there's a clear disconnect between my soul and this body... and this body hungers."

"Okay, we can work with this. Anything is better than the other outcome, which was your soul death and a very hungry SSS-grade being floating around in search of any soul it could get its shadowy tendrils on."

Ashlock swiveled his Evil Eye to look around at the surroundings and reactions of the populace. It was suffice to say that it was not looking good. Elysia's display of summoning Pluto had already been quite intense, but then the Netherworld Wraith was summoned, blanketing the whole city in a feeling of certain death.

"I fear my dream of having a good image will be an uphill battle from here." Ashlock returned to Nox, "Why exactly did you skewer hundreds of maids and turn them to dust? Was that you or the Netherworld Wraith?"

"Oh, that was me," Nox replied casually, "What? Don't look at me like that. I managed to seize control over the Netherworld Wraith's body for a split moment, but my soul was about to extinguish, so I had no choice. I had to use the Netherworld Wraith's ability to feed on souls to empower myself, or else I would be the one devoured."

"Wait, you can use Soul Harvest to empower your soul?"

"Soul Harvest? Is that what it's called?" Nox paused, "I suppose just like a parasite that invades a body and feeds off that body's food supply, I can do the same. I didn't think much about it at the time—it just felt natural. But yeah, I suppose I can grow in strength simply by devouring the souls of others... or a Soul Harvest, as you call it. That's quite insane, right?"

"It is," Ashlock agreed, "It's how I grew in power so quickly, as did Maple and Larry. Human cultivators must sit and absorb Qi, while we can grow in strength by stealing the Qi from those we kill."

"That's unfair..."

"What would you say your current strength is?"

Ashlock asked curiously. He needed to know where to send her to feast on souls.

Nox looked down at her body as if it would give her the answer. "Uhm, I'm not sure, to be honest. My soul's strength is still in the lower stages of the Nascent Soul Realm, and I cannot use many of this body's innate talents as they use daos I'm unfamiliar with, such as death, life, spirit, and dimensions."

"But if you were to just let go and let the Netherworld Wraith take over?" Ashlock asked. Those were all things the body had been capable of using without an ego, so they had to be built into its DNA of sorts.

Nox's gaze darkened, "Then I doubt anything could stop me, but there's no guarantee I'll be able to wrestle back control, and if that happens..."

Ashlock had expected as much. The problem was Nox couldn't wield the daos with intention as she didn't have the knowledge. It was almost as if she were piloting a plane and didn't know what the buttons did except the autopilot feature, which would rob her of control but let the aircraft perform as intended.

"Yeah," Ashlock sighed, "We will need to be very careful about that." He paused, and his tone turned more serious. "You said that you could finally see what I truly am. What did you mean by that?"

Nox's translucent white eyes glowed again. They were creepy and alien-like, "It's hard to explain, but to me, reality doesn't look... real anymore?"

Her head tilted, "It's as if I am disconnected, looking at reality from the beyond. Almost as if I'm in the walls."

The system had said that Netherworld Wraiths could phase through reality effortlessly. Did Nox see the world like someone using wall hacks in a video game? Like X-ray vision?

"The only thing that's 'real' in my eyes are souls," Nox explained, "That's what I meant by the fact I could see what you truly are, and now I understand why there was such a gap between us."

"What do you mean a gap between us?"

"We are both in the Nascent Soul Realm, a mere few stages apart. Yet your soul pressure and ability to influence the world were on the level of a god. Not of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator." Nox gestured around at the destroyed city, "But now I can see it, feel it. Your presence is everywhere. As far as your roots reach, so does your control. The entire ground is dyed a lilac hue." Nox twisted her head, stared toward the east, and licked her lips, "Even from here, your soul smells delicious." Ŕ

"Nox, I don't know how I feel about being called delicious by the Mythical grade being known to dine on souls for breakfast."

That earned a haunted laugh out of the Netherwood Wraith, "I'm not joking. If I left this body to do as it pleased, you are like a beacon that echoes across the land. Like a moth to a flame, the Netherworld Wraith would have likely ignored everything here and floated straight for you."

Ashlock had never thought of his presence in such a way. It was true his soul's reach covered a very large area, but it hadn't occurred to him that anything able to see or smell souls would be drawn toward him.

"Just for the sake of argument," He chuckled nervously, "Now that you have taken over the body, do you have any weaknesses I could know about? You know... just in case."

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Nox replied after contemplating, "Mhm, soul and spiritual attacks would be effective, I suppose. Soul attacks to kill me, and then spiritual ones to destroy this body."

"I don't think I have either of those," Ashlock grumbled. The best he could think of was his Abyssal Whispers skill that attacked a person's consciousness, but he doubted an egoless Netherworld Wraith would have cared much for his illusions or words.

Nox nodded, "Soul attacks are incredibly rare, and that just so happens to be what a Netherworld Wraith is capable of. I can simply phase through reality, including a person's body, and feast on the soul directly."

"Terrifying,"

Ashlock said with all seriousness. "Final question then, are you still... loyal?" That last word felt hard to say as, in a way, he liked to think of those around him as his friends, but he was also well aware that most of them were kept in order via oaths he had them take or because being near him granted them resources that helped advance their own cultivation.

"I'm saddened you even felt the need to ask," Nox replied in the best way possible. "Of course I am, and I hope I can be useful moving forward... though I am getting ravenous. There's a limit to how much I can resist this body's desires."

Ashlock let out a long sigh of relief, "That's great to hear, and I'll let you go to hunt in a moment, but first, we need to do some damage control and harvest some more divine energy."

He wasn't done until he had milked every last drop of divine energy from the population of Nightrose City, and then he would go and do it again to every city in the Blood Lotus Sect until everyone across the wilderness either feared or revered his name. He was on a roll, and there was no reason to let up now.

"Elysia," Ashlock said into the mind of his vice cult leader, who was lying sideways on her sword and looking at Nox in utter fascination, "Meet..." He trailed off as he realized something. He wanted to make Nox into a figure for his cult. Her sheer cultivation strength aside, she looked the part and radiated an ominous presence. If the world decided he was an evil god, he would play into it.

Switching back to Nox, he explained the situation. "I think you should pick a new name or persona for your Netherwood Wraith body and keep the name Nox for your tree body in Tartarus."

"Any suggestions?" Nox drew up a blank.

"Let me think... what about Nyxalia?"

Nox was the name for the Goddess of the Night in Roman mythology, while Nyx was the name for the Goddess of the Night in Greek mythology. The significant difference between them was the level of importance and power they had over their respective myths. While Nox was important as one of the original gods, her role in Roman myths is more symbolic than central. Nyx was one of the primordial deities born from chaos and the mother to many of the important gods, including the gods of death and sleep. Nyx was a powerful and mysterious figure, often feared even by Zeus, the king of the gods.

He added alia to the end of Nyx because it meant 'other' in Latin. Since she already had a soul named after the Goddess of Night, Ashlock felt adding this suffix helped differentiate the two.

He could have suggested any random name, but he liked to give his close subjects names with deeper meanings, at least to him. Especially since he had discovered that the names he gave his Ents and summons held importance and could be carried down.

Nox thought for a while before nodding, "I like it."

"Okay," Ashlock switched back to Elysia. "This is Nyxalia, a demi-god of the night in service to me." He referred to her as such as Nyxalia could only control shadow dao as of now, "I need you to announce her arrival to the populace and inform them she was summoned here to vanquish the Nightrose family. We are doing damage control here as I bet the population's opinion of her is rather sour after watching her obliterate a few buildings and suck the souls out of a hundred maids."

Ashlock was unsure if Elysia listened to a word he said. She leaped off her sword at Nyxalia and embraced her in a tight koala-like hug. Her whole body trembled, and her eyes widened, "Yes..." she gasped to the sky with a crazed look, "This must be what dying for my god feels like. Oh, this feeling of death, it's so cold... right down to my soul."

Nyxalia looked utterly unimpressed, "Elysia, get off me, or I'll eat your soul."

"Oh heavens! Please do," Elysia begged, "Eat me up—devour everything I have. If it can savor the taste of one such as yourself in service to my god, I'm willing—"

Nyxalia plucked Elysia off herself with a shadow tendril and threw the crazed girl toward her floating sword. Elysia cackled as she spiraled through the air before catching her sword.

"Good restraint," Ashlock complemented Nyxalia, "I thought you might devour her for a moment."

Nyxalia shook her head, "Her soul, how can I explain it." Her face twisted in disgust, "It's so corrupted it might as well be rotten food. If I devoured it, I think I might get sick."

Ashlock burst out laughing. Elysia was so broken that even an egoless Netherworld Wraith might float away from her, and the idea that a cultivator of Nyxalia's level could get sick was hilarious.

"I'm serious," Nyxalia said with a straight face, "Keep that thing away from me.

Elysia was hanging from her flying sword like a monkey bar and had a saddened expression. "My god laughs at me, and my demi-goddess rejects my love."

"Maybe I'd like you more if you do what was asked of you," Nyxalia said, impatience evident in her voice. She was getting hungry, and her mood was turning sour.

"Really?" Elysia clambered on top of her sword and cleared her throat. "Ahem," mystic Qi that was still swirling throughout the city from earlier pulsed and carried her words to the minds of all who would listen, "People of Nightrose City, you are saved! While I have managed to rescue the city from destruction, the Nightrose family's stranglehold on this city's populace runs deep. In light of this, in his infinite wisdom, the All-Seeing Eye has summoned his herald, Nyxalia, Sovereign of the Veil, to bring death upon those beyond saving, such as the maids of the castle from earlier and the members of the Nightrose family still here in the city. Please sit back and relax as we leave it to Nyxalia to bring salvation."

"Sovereign of the Veil?" Nyxalia said, sounding unimpressed.

"It's your stage name," Elysia winked, "Sounds cool, right? Now go devour some souls or something to please the All-Seeing Eye and get us some new worshipers."

"Maybe I should have stayed in Tartarus," Nyxalia sighed. She sounded exhausted.

Ashlock opened a portal that led back to Ashfallen City. "Elysia, head back to Ashfallen City and gather the cult. I need everyone possible to take to the streets, offering welcome packages and spreading the name of the cult."

"Okay," Elysia didn't hesitate and went to fulfill his orders.

"Meanwhile, Nyxalia—" Ashlock paused as a system message flashed before his face.

[+432 SC]

"Look's like I finished devouring those two Nightrose guardians, and as suspected, they were nothing more than dessert due to our cultivation difference, but that's fine. It gives me a nice sum to start multiplying with divine energy." Ashlock mused before telling Nyxalia, "You must be hungry. You see those Nightrose Elders being held down by Larry? Eat a few of them and make a scene out of it. We want the population to see how easily you deal with the tyrants that have been lording over them for far too long."

Nyxalia slowly rotated upon her rising spiral of shadowy tendrils and looked straight down the central street where the Nightrose Elders were cowering under Larry's soul pressure. The Mythical being licked her lips as shadow tendrils shot out and grabbed them like a frog hunting for flies.

Five elders of the Nightrose family, varying in age and gender, were displayed high above the city. They cried out curses, but they fell on deaf ears. Moments later, their lives were snuffed out, and their ultraspeed regeneration proved useless at preventing their soulless husks from disintegrating into dust, just like the maids had before them.

Nyxalia let out a satisfied moan as their souls flowed down the shadow tendrils and were harvested. However, the satisfaction seemed short-lived. Not even moments later, the hunger returned to her eyes. This time, it was even more fierce than before.

"Sorry, Ashlock. Now that I've had a taste, I need to go. I can't stay here." Nyxalai said between gasps.

"What? Where are you going?" Ashlock asked, but his words fell on nothing. Nyxalia was gone; she simply phased out of existence without a trace. "Well, shit."

Ashlock was deathly worried about where Nyxalai had gone, but he couldn't even feel her presence anymore. It was as if she had never existed. Deciding to focus on the task at hand and deal with a hungry Mythical being later, he opened portals to Ashfallen City near the castle, and people wearing his cult's cloaks poured into the streets.

Satisfied, he was about to leave to search for Nyxalia and talk to Stella about what had happened, as he was sure she was worried alongside the others, when someone caught his eye.

"Grand Elder Starweaver? Why is he the only one left?"

It would seem that the other Grand Elders had taken the opportunity to escape during the chaos. Only the Starweaver Grand Elder remained. He was kneeling on the ground. His eyes were glowing gold, and he was staring up at the sky with a look of horror.

"I guess the threads of fate are showing him something quite nasty," Ashlock chuckled, "I hope it's not about me."