Sealed in Steel [ Tank Litrpg ]

Elian gripped the Warkodon mace with both hands and kept it close to his chest, activating its enchantment to cover himself with a shield made from Energy converted to Health. He tucked his chin to protect his head and also brought his knees to his body. He wiggled to align his position with the giant centaur's mouth and throat, which were shredded open.

For a moment, everything was calm as he slowly fell, weightless and peaceful. Even the roars of the monsters below sounded distant.

Blue light disturbed the darkness of the night.

The first Tribulation descended. It swatted Elian, sending him hurtling down like a bullet into the body of the giant centaur. Shadow beast flesh gave way as Elian penetrated deep. Not a moment later and the Tribulation caught up with him and carved its signature hand-shaped crater down the giant centaur's throat, pressing him down further.

Absolute black. Elian was disoriented. Which way was up? Which way was down? Dark flesh and muscles enveloped him. Smaller shadow beasts scurried to repair the hole.

Am I going to get covered? Would the Tribulation stop? But not even a blink later, the second strike descended.

The chest of the giant centaur exploded from the impact. Everything was blown away as Elian got buried even deeper into the monster's body. He got slammed against an intensely hard material. There was this object inside the giant centaur. Not flesh. Not bone.

A wall? No, it was curved. A sphere. It seemed as wide as he was tall.

Elian opened his eyes. He had a moment to see that the sphere's shiny surface reflected the meager stars above. He even noticed a hint of his tired face reflected on it.

Negative energy in abundance.

The soul of the trees, made concrete by their magical nature and fueled by the Dark Forest, became this sphere. All the Lost Souls merged into one. The shadow beasts were just this sphere's endless projections.

The sphere exuded a suffocating miasma that seeped into Elian's body. It was as if his heart suddenly became lead and weighed heavily in his chest. He felt deathly cold even as shadow beasts piled on him. The next thing he knew, thoughts of his previous life, the losses, the mistakes, the regrets, clouded his mind. His troubled past mixed with the anger and resentment of the ancient forest.

This is bad. Elian felt himself shutting down. Shadow beasts had covered him as they healed the giant centaur. The vengeful spirits bit and stabbed him. They tore his clothes but couldn't penetrate his skin. He had lost his grip on the mace. It was swallowed by the mounds of flesh.

He no longer thought about the shadow beasts attacking him. His lost mace was but a footnote in his mind.

Join us… It wasn't a voice. An idea, not Elian's own, that popped unprompted in his mind. You are angry, are you not?

Yes… Elian was angry at himself. Angry at others.

He was angry at the Timekeeper. He wished he weren't taken from Earth. The faces of all the people he left behind at home flashed in his mind. They were blurry. Uncertain. He forgot how they looked over the years. He missed his family. He missed his friends. This wasn't his fight, and he shouldn't be here.

Elian wasn't a hero; no one should've entrusted him with saving anyone. The Timekeeper should've picked someone else. Elian even lost the time travel powers granted to him. And now, he continued to fail—many Grovenians had already died and would continue to die throughout the night. Perhaps he'd meet the same fate, too. He'd fail even before meeting any Giants.

What if I had just run away? He could've left the Grovenians to die. In return, he wouldn't be in this position. He'd survive to fight the Giants.

There was shame in that. But surviving trumps shame. During his first life on Fellenyr, he had abandoned hopeless fights. He had no choice. Or rather, the alternative choice was death. He couldn't die back then because he wanted to make it as far as he could to learn. Now, he shouldn't die because there are no more retries.

Join us… It was soothing, this call. You won't die. We are one. We are angry. We endure…

No! Elian fought to get a grip. He resisted the downward spiral of his mind. He had experienced this many times before—the temptation to give up, the inviting prospect of resting and fighting no more. He knew what to do to combat this.

The answer was to soldier on. Resolve to push through.

Now what, Viney? Elian fully trusted his plant symbiote.

This was the only chance of stopping the giant centaur from reaching the camps of the townspeople and the castle, and Elian didn't even know what the plan was. Viney stirred in his arm; his plant symbiote was an island of warmth in the sea of cold and darkness that was the heart of the giant centaur. Elian felt Viney's tendrils shifting under his arm, branching over the sphere.

This is the way. Elian sensed Viney's assurance. He could also feel the pain and decay that Viney felt because of its condition. This was the closest connection they had.

Then he felt it.

Everything stopped. The shadow beasts that he hadn't minded had ceased attacking him. But he couldn't move his own body either. He couldn't sense anything. No sound. No temperature. And then he sank into the black sphere, the hard surface suddenly turning into water.

He found himself floating in darkness. It was absolute darkness, yet he could see his own hands paddling in nothing. He gasped for air. Nothing to breathe. And yet, he wasn't suffocating.

He was alive in this… What was this?

Human… You've come… Won't you join us?

"Are you the spirit of the forest that was cut?" Elian spoke, but no words came out. He suspected that his mind was absorbed into the consciousness of the sphere. Not of the sphere… of Golden Grove, the forest.

He had encountered sentient trees during his first life. Some of them could project their thoughts, some could speak Angloise and other languages, even if slowly. The ancient trees of Aegis Forest could even uproot themselves and travel for several days before needing to take root again. And the Aegis Forest itself was an entity unto its own. Its presence… it was similar to what Elian was experiencing now.

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"I've come to apologize for our actions," Elian projected outward to anyone listening. "Allow us to make amends."

You cannot… undo their trespasses. What was lost cannot be… returned.

Elian was flooded with memories of the forest.

Leaves dancing in the breeze, all sorts of animals frolicking amongst the trees. The forest recalled the hundreds and thousands of years it had existed. The thousands of trees that grew and persisted, the bountiful seasons, the disastrous times. Blazing summers, freezing winters, and everything in between.

His mind was exhausted from living through all of it. He spent millennia watching the history of the forest, and yet he could also sense no time had passed. It would've driven lesser men crazy. Fortunately, Elian's mind had been strengthened through a few hundred hours of meditation while training Aether Magic, and his resilient will had been forged during his prior life.

Toward the end of the spool of memories came men. They carried saws and axes, and they felled trees. One, ten, a hundred. In a few blinks, half the magical forest was cut down. A settlement stood in the middle of the clearing and continued to expand. In no time at all, the hills were bald.

Humans… are but a blink in our history. Humans… have nothing to give. Humans… can only destroy.

"I know that the Grovenians can't just plant another forest," Elian said, desperately trying to think of how to reach a peaceful resolution. From the perspective of the forest, Elian couldn't see how it would forgive humans. "Anything the Grovenians can do, even over several generations wouldn't be enough. We understand that. But the Grovenians were just using the resources around—"

And we are exacting vengeance, replied the Lost Souls of Golden Grove. Elian predicted it would reply the same way as the Sabyn Twins. We know… of the nature of man… bringing destruction everywhere. A predator that consumes everything… the land produces.

Elian had no answer to that because it was true. Even back on Earth, humans never did care about the environment. The difference was that, on Fellenyr, the environment could fight back.

Humans are the worst predators… they consume what they don't need…

The anger of the forest blanketed Elian. Dark tendrils wrapped his body, almost like erasing him or absorbing him. Viney had given Elian the path to the solution—it was up to him to reach it. If Elian failed, he'd mostly be absorbed into the sphere.

"Spirit of the forest!" Elian said. "We offer nothing that will satiate your anger. And I won't try to defend the indefensible. I only ask that you not pay destruction with destruction. You're right that we are but a blink in your history. Our memories are short and we our prone to mistakes. Grant us forgiveness."

We can't allow you… to live. This will happen again. And again. And again. We destroy humans… to stop them from destroying more.

"That's not how all humans are. We are not impelled by malice to consume our surroundings. We just do our best to survive in this world and live out our short lives. Our existences are a struggle, and they molded us to be… at times, destructive. We seek understanding."

Silence. Was the spirit of the forest considering his arguments?

"Let me show you that destruction isn't our nature."

How… would you do that? What will you… show us?

"All of humanity, that's what you'll see," Elian said. There might be a chance here. "How we live our short lives all over the world."

Our right to vengeance…

"Postpone your judgment, I fervently pray. What's a few years to the thousands that you have lived? That's all I ask. Decide if humans really should be killed after that."

The pressure mellowed. And how will you show me?

Elian extended his right arm into the darkness. Viney had prompted him to do it. Light sparked on the inner side of his forearm, right where Viney would be. His plant symbiote's consciousness had joined him inside the sphere.

"Live inside of me," Elian said. "Merge with my friend, Viney. View the lives of humans through my eyes. And perhaps, I may find you a new place to grow once more."

So be it… I reserve my judgment on the fate of humans before me. And I join your journey.

Elian blinked. "Wha-? Aahhh!"

He was falling along with hundreds of shadow beasts that disintegrated around him. The giant centaur crumbled all around him.

"Wait, why am I screaming?" He wasn't going to die from a fall from this height. He probably wouldn't die even if he jumped off the top of the skyscraper.

"Penitent!" Reese dove through the rain of shadow beasts and caught Elian. Reese landed on the opposite building and set Elian on the roof. "You did it, Penitent! Just in the nick of time!"

Elian turned left. They were right next to the wall of wagons and crowded tents. Further ahead, a block away, were crowds of townspeople pressed against each other, a solid mass of fear. They didn't yet know that everything was alright.

Or was it?

Viney, Elian thought, raising his right arm. It was covered in a gauntlet made of golden, hardened Barkskin. It pulsed with life. Yet, he could also sense a darkness gestating within.

The spirit of the forest had indeed joined Viney. Better ask Gideon what was up with here.

"They're disappearing…" Reese whispered as he peered over the edge of the roof. He unsheathed his swords and charged their crackling red blades. He waved his swords at Verney and his men on top of the other buildings. "It's over! We won! We live!"

The other Grovenians echoed the cheers. Soon, it reached the townspeople.

It began as a low rumble, as murmurings passed through the crowd. Doubtless, they were asking each other if they were really safe and if the shadow beasts were defeated. Many wouldn't have immediately believed. But the disappearance of the giant centaur and the spreading cheers soon convinced the others that it was true—the danger had passed.

Shouts of jubilation erupted, reaching Elian like a wave. He allowed himself a smile as he remained sitting on the rooftop, watching the townspeople cry out in joy. They lit every torch and lantern ball they could and ran through the town, reclaiming the darkness with light. Verney descended, trying to stop the people from returning to their homes because it might not be safe, but his efforts failed. The people streamed down the streets like shining ants.

Reese knelt beside Elian. "How did you do it, Penitent? How did you vanquish the colossal centaur? It seems to be their leader, doesn't it?"

"I did not vanquish it. I'm too weak to do that."

"Wha-what? But it's… gone?"

Elian showed Reese his gauntleted arm. "I sealed it. Rather, it allowed itself to be sealed. A respite from its anger and a chance for forgiveness was the deal I struck."

Reese jolted. "The shadow beasts, all of them, are sealed in your arm? Most impressive! I knew you were an expert sealcrafter!"

"Huh? No, that's not what—"

"The Storm God blesses us for guiding you to meet with Uncle Maveron. If not for you, hundreds of us would've died. Now, you carry the burden of the sealed abomination."

"It's not an abomination," Elian said, hoping Reese would shut up. Elian's diplomatic plan wasn't off to a good start. "It wouldn't have spawned had you not cut down the magical forest."

"Well… you speak the truth." Reese didn't meet Elian's eye. "In any case, the matter has been dealt with, and you have saved Golden Grove. Let us join everyone so they may celebrate your deeds."

"I'm not really a fan of being celebrated. I'm a Penitent. Just go on. I'll be resting here. Oh, wait… where's my mace?"