“Erlik’s first attempt failed because the undead energy he planted sped up the decay process of the treehouse and allowed us to find him, but there’s no telling how much knowledge he has acquired in the process.” Leannan said.
“If he succeeds, he will become more powerful than any Sovereign of Laruel has ever been. I can only access to the Sapling’s mana, whereas he would be able to access its mind as well.
“Millenia of experience, spells, secrets, and even the location of countless artifacts would all be within his grasp. Worst case scenario, Erlik will infect the Sapling with his disease and exploit its symbiotic abilities to take control of the Sapling’s body without it even noticing.
“This wouldn’t allow him to move the Sapling since such an act would surely awaken it with disastrous consequences, but all the mana that fuels the protective arrays surrounding the city, all the life force that so far has been used to create our housings, Erlik could employ them as he sees fit.” Leannan said.
‘This is way worse than I thought. The Sapling might not be an Awakened, but it’s akin to a living academy and Leannan is its Headmaster. Yet if Leannan is right and he gets access to its mind as well, the countless magical legacies that the Sapling has accumulated so far would fall into Erlik’s hands.
‘Plant folks may be psychos, but thanks to their limited life span they have no way to master such amount of knowledge whereas Erlik would have all the time and the power he needs to become one of the most powerful beings on Mogar!’ Lith thought.
‘I wonder if the Council would dare to shrug again if they knew about this.’ Solus said.
“What can we do to help?” Marth asked.
“First, keep searching for a cure. If the Sapling becomes infected, it would be impossible to break Erlik’s hold over its powers without removing the symbiote. Second, I should be able to narrow the possible locations of the enemy hideout to a few treehouses and I need your help to find the right one as soon as possible.
“I have left the scarring that the undead energy inflicted upon the first treehouse intact so that you Healers can study and learn how to recognize it. This way, by checking a suspicious treehouse’s life force from the outside, you will be able to find Erlik’s new lab.
“I could do it myself, but to do it I would need to physically merge with the tree, alerting the enemy, whereas your spells are undetectable.” Leannan said.
“I’ll remain on stand-by, ready to support whoever of you needs backup. Depending on how smart Erlik has decided to play and on how successful his first experiment was, I wouldn’t be surprised if he set up more than one lab or at least a few fake ones.
“By now, he has already been informed of your visit to his lab and I bet that the news about the treehouse recovery will spread fast as well. Erlik might place fake scarring to force us to split our forces and lure us into ambushes.
“Start deciding who is going to scout the locations while I ready my troops. Once the fight begins, I can give you only a limited number of soldiers until Erlik makes his move. I’m the only one who can stop him, so don’t count on my help either.”
The Sovereign disappeared without even giving the Healers the time to reply. They were her allies, not her subjects, but in time of war, anyone could be conscripted. Marth and the mages from the other countries knew it very well and didn’t raise objections.
As long as Leannan didn’t ask them to do something harmful for their homeland, they would obey her. After all, they didn’t have much of a choice. Their orders were to help her to keep her throne, not to just cure the plague.
The rulers of humankind already had the cure for themselves thanks to the Magic Empress, the only thing that worried them was to lose control over the undead horde.
All the members of Lith’s group volunteered for the mission, Kalla included. They were both fighters and Healers so they needed only a limited number of guards. As for Quylla, she wasn’t much of a fighter, but Phloria wasn’t much of a Healer either.
They decided that, in case of emergency, they would work together, covering each other weaknesses. Their teamwork was on a league of its own thanks to all the awful things and the training they had endured together since the academy.
On top of that, neither Lith nor Friya would have entrusted Quylla’s safety to anyone else. They didn’t trust plant folk. Their congenital lust for power made their loyalty dubious at best and if they learned about Erlik’s project, some of them might be tempted to jump on his bandwagon.
They didn’t trust the other Healers either. Quylla was known as the most promising Healer of the Kingdom after Manohar, which made her a threat to the other countries since she was much more loyal and saner than the Mad Professor.
It would have been easy to take her out in the chaos of the battle and pin it on the undead. Lith was kept in a similar regard, but his background made him a wild card and as Milea had already demonstrated, everyone thought they had a shot of bringing him to their side.
Each research team sent their worse healer to work to examine the darkness energy mass, considering them expendable. Marth would have loved to do the same.
“Quylla there’s no need for you to participate. We can send someone else.” He said as soon as they were alone. The others had already left to study the scarring under Erlik’s fist hideout.
She had remained in the lab to revise the samples at her disposal, to understand if the symbiote could affect treehouses as well, and how to counter it.
“Sovereign Leannan asked for my help for a reason. I’m the one who identified the black mass under the tree and I have been able to cure the twisted life force. Also, I’ve got a feeling that when we find Erlik, Leannan will be too busy dealing with him to take care of anything else.” She replied.
Meanwhile, Lith cursed once again his inability to use his communicator amulet.
‘If only I could contact Faluel. She would be able to tell me if the Sapling is an Awakened or not. If yes, I would get the Council’s help and this story would end before it can begin. If not, I’m certain that Faluel would help me.
‘She might not fear any undead, but Awakened or not, just the size of the Sapling makes it a threat even for someone like her. I doubt she reached her age by letting her enemies acquiring such powerful weapons.’ Lith thought.
He used the tier five light spell Scanner to find the scarring, and once he was done studying it with conventional means he used Invigoration. Normally it would have been impossible since Erlik’s spell was so deep underground, but the scarring was just between the treehouses’ and the Sapling’s roots.
Lith could use them as a support to conduct his mana without it losing effectiveness.
‘Fuck me sideways! This is no scarring at all. The darkness element is filled with willpower.’
