A New World

Chún clung to his staff as his legs gave way and he slid to his knees, fatigue hitting him like he had not slept for a week. Everything hurt - he was suddenly conscious of pains both dull and sharp all over his body.

His wavering Essence Sense showed that although the fighting had stopped, the blasted and pockmarked battle site was a frothing mess of discharged Essence spreading out in all directions. Especially heavy concentrations marked places where very heavy attacks had been executed - like the star-bolt at the beginning - or where very large creatures had died - like the Demon King.

The ash scoured surface he was kneeling on wavered as if it was not quite real, so much energy and Essence had been released in the tiny canyon. Looking around, Chún realised that the canyon had been blasted into a crater shaped wound in the cliff.

"I have to clean up all this excess Essence," he realised, remembering the aftermath of the fight with the Bear that now seemed like a couple of playful slaps in comparison. He was not sure what this much violent, death and wild Essence would do to a place exposed to it for long, but he suspected it would not be good.

He tried to take a deep breath but choked on the miasma of roasted flesh and the iron scent of blood, as well as other less pleasant unidentifiable odours - a stench of death; and found himself vomiting.

After a few moments, he was able to haul himself to his feet by dragging himself up his staff. He noticed a tendril of Water Essence from his cloak washing his mouth and face, dropping the mess to the ground.

Too numb to really react to this strangeness, he blinked and shrugged painfully "Well, it seems the cloak did OK."

He tried to drag his feet towards the centre of the crater where the Essence damage was the worst, but his body would not respond, except to stagger forward into a fall.

Something cool and strong caught him around the waist, causing him to cry in pain as his wounds were compressed.

"True Cultivator, you musst heal from your woundss. We will take you back to your cave."

Chún gasped as he realised he was held in the coils of the Flood Dragon. "Your Majesty… I must go there," he pointed shakily at the worst of the twisting roil, "it is wrong. Almost as... bad as whatever… just happened. It must be... corrected." He swallowed as something metallic and sweet tasting slid up his throat,causing him to cough harshly, bending him double. Blood splattered to the ground. "It cannot... wait."

The coils hoisted him carefully as the Flood Dragon moved in the direction of his finger. Within moments it was clear something was very wrong - a twisted gash pulsed in midair and the rocks rippled like they were made of water or mucus rather than solid.

The Dragon hissed in alarm "A rift… sseared sshut, but it musst be clossed... We thought it only a minor incurssion… Our Ssubjectss and I only desstroyed a few ssmall oness... The Esssencce here is very dangerouss…" The great head swung down to look at Chún, "Where?"

Chún's link to his locus wavered and then pinpointed a spot just under the wound in the air. He pointed and the coils dropped him close to the ground. "Hurry, True Cultivator. Even my sscaless cannot lasst long againsst thiss level of Esssencce corruption."

Chún grasped the staff in both hands and plunged it into the surface below which slid apart like Dòufu until the butt hit something solid. He sent a small controlled pulse of Essence into the staff, on the Mountain's heartbeat.

The staff in his hands shivered and pulsed in response. A wave of 'normality' rippled out of the staff with it. Wherever the wave touched, everything suddenly seemed to shift into a more solid form, the ugly wound in the air dimming.

A moment later there was a returning wave of raw, raging Essence flooding into the staff and through his body in response. If he had not already matched his Essence to the Mountain's pulse, it would have probably burnt him to a crisp. Instead his own Essence rode the wave - flooding through his body then out into the staff - he sensed more than felt his wounds beginning to stabilise.

The Flood Dragon gasped in pain as it was hit in the backlash of the wave of raw, twisted, unfiltered Essence.

Chún yelled up at the massive snake "Go, Your Majesty - it will not be safe here!" as the Essence began to howl into a giant swirl of blazing power.

The Flood Dragon shook its head as it held him steady against the storm of energy. Though his Essence Sense he could see the wise creature pushing its own Essence to match the pulse of the Mountain and the staff.

The staff was glowing brightly as it released a much stronger wave of 'healing'. Chún could see the raw, unfiltered Essence being pulled in between beats and sent back out by the Mountain and staff as neutral, calm, normal Essence. Even with his own Essence riding the pulses, so that there was no clash, that much Essence running through him was like being rebuilt from the inside out.

His cloak and staff both flared as another stronger wave of twisted energy poured into the staff through him. Chún could only barely grasp what was happening around him as he rode the tiger.

Thinking would topple him off the wave - everything faded away except the pulse.

---

The Golden Crow was sinking beyond the crater's edge when Chún came back to himself, his hands flat against a massive trunk so large he could barely see around its girth. The Essence in the air was calm, thick and smooth, literally running in droplets along the surface of the tree trunk as showers of green Wood Essence fell from its branches high above him.

It was so tall that he could not see its crown as the foliage pierced into the clouds.

"What happened?" Chún lifted his hands from the trunk of the immense giant and took a step back - then stopped short as his cloak shifted around his body like Essence mist itself. "Ah!?"

The cloak did not look physical anymore - it seemed more like multicoloured mist or multilayered smoke - filled with tiny gems that was moving around his body in the vague shape of a cloak. He could feel the pressure of the Essence contained within it.

"By all the Gods… and my staff?" He stared up at the tree that encompassed almost all of the crater where the rift and the worst of the Essence damage had been.

"Your staff hass given itsself to sseal the rift and sstand guard as a World classs Treassure. Be proud."

"Oh… I do not suppose anyone can explain what happened?" Chún said plaintively, as he turned to look at the gleaming tower of scales and bowed, feeling all his pain and hurts gone, "All I was doing was going exploring - and then suddenly the nine hells descended."

He stopped and looked up at the Flood Dragon "And I thank you, Your Majesty for your help at the end there - I do not think I could have cleansed the Essence from the battle without it… I do not want to think what that much twisted Essence would have done to my friend."

"It iss I who owe you a great debt, True Cultivator. I and everyone elsse on thiss Mountain." Chún blinked in surprise as the Flood Dragon bowed. A strong pulse of agreement came through the link to his locus and then an unfamiliar voice. "Yes, a great debt. Thank you, my friend."

Chún froze. "Mountain? Is that you?"

"Yes," replied a deep tenor voice in the link. "There was so much excess essence bleeding from the rift and released from the battle… I advanced the equivalent of several millennia in a few hours."

Chún blinked. "You got older?"

"I got more complex - a human would say - I grew up..." The voice sounded abashed. "I am really sorry… I did not really understand what I was asking you to do before - I only sensed there was a threat that a True Cultivator could help with."

Chún looked at the Flood Dragon in bewilderment. "Can someone please explain?"

The large snake bowed again, "Pleasse follow me Honoured Cultivator, there are many who wissh to thank you." The Flood Dragon moved toward what remained of the cliff entrance and Chún turned to follow automatically.

A loud rustling from the tree behind him made him look up as his locus' voice said "Catch!".

His right hand snatched a falling seed pod the size of a small melon out of the air on instinct. As it hit his palm, it pulsed with Essence and he felt an answering surge of Essence exit from his hand in response.

The seed burst open in a bright flash of all Essence types, a full tree growing upwards from it in a miǎo and twisting itself into an elaborate form that Chún recognised as it slapped heavily into his palm.

A large staff, twice the length and girth of his previous one, slammed into the rock with an echoing thump. Rather than looking like a tree trunk, it was solid, smooth lacquered black as if a master craftsman had spent days on designing the most perfect staff imaginable.

Chún could see the black lacquered surface was not ordinary. It rippled and shifted when you looked at it for more than a moment and he could see very complex Essence patterns swirling within its depths. It almost looked like he was holding a slice of the night sky in his hand.

"Wa…" Chún stared in awe of his new weapon, then turned and bowed to his old staff. "Thank you. I hope your new life is fulfilling. I will come and visit when I can - I promise to take good care of your - child." He raised his new staff towards the tree in acknowledgement, then turned and followed the Flood Dragon out of the crater.

Every inch of the formerly scoured and cracked stone seemed to have grown a thick carpet of plants and grass. Small twittering birds flitted here and there as they moved out of the gap, a shallow stream of swiftly rushing water cut through the ground, shimmering with water Essence as it raced towards the crater - or it might be more accurate to say, the Tree.

Chún shook his head in disbelief, unable to reconcile what he was seeing with his memories of what seemed a moment ago - blasted, charred, smoking rock covered in the blood of a dozen species and the ichor of the creatures - now it looked, felt and smelled like a paradise.

Emerging out of the cliff, Chún saw that the former battleground was now almost a valley cut into the side of the mountain - all the damage from the battle had been smoothed out into a flat area covered with flowering grass, shrubs and herbs with a large spring in the at the edge - the source of the stream flowing into the crater. Although the Essence mist here was not as thick as near the Tree, the light motes of Essence still floated gracefully here and there like fireflies.

Every inch of the small valley was covered with Essence Beasts, sleek, glowing with complex Essence patterns and health. As Chún appeared they collectively dipped their heads with a sound like wind through branches.

Chún's eyes widened in shock as he recognised several beasts he was sure he had seen torn to pieces earlier.

"All of uss wissh to expresss our gratitude. We have sspoken to all thosse who were pressent; I can ssay as the oldesst here, that your firsst sstrike clossed the rift before more of the invaderss could come through. Your lasst sstrike killed the only Queen before Sshe could reopen it. Your actionss ssaved uss all - and resstoring the balancce after the battle not only sstopped the corrupt Esssencce of the rift and the battle from twissting the Mountain into another hell - but it allowed all thosse sstruck down to be healed and risse again."

The assembled beasts rose as one and gave voice as Chún shook his head in protest, "It was not just me - everyone here fought - or I would have never managed to get to the… Queen… in time. Or died." He bowed back to the assembled beasts, "Thank you, fellow warriors."

The assembled creatures began to turn and leave, vanishing back into the forest - although a number headed for the Tree whose trunk could be seen towering above the cliff like an immense pillar of wood, holding up the sky.

His locus' voice sounded out through the whispering of the wind in the trees and the voice of the stream as well as resounding down his link with the Mountain.

"Actually that was - a World's worth - of Essence running about, that you converted into safe power and grounded back into me. Not only did every Essence Beast here gain enough power to completely regenerate their bodies, everyone advanced several grades. And that was just the overflow - that is why everything is so overflowing with healthy Essence here now."

Chún shook his head. "None of this answers my question. What is going on?"

The Flood Dragon hissed laughter. "We were invaded. You fought them off and captured a world'ss worth of power in the process."

Chún rolled his eyes. "Yes, I understood that much. What attacked?"

The Flood Dragon hissed with distaste, "They come to take ressourcess from other planess. They turn the placess they invade into copiess of their own plane. It iss the first time I have sseen them send a major incurssion so early in the development of a Treassure Land though… ussually they wait until more resourcess have developed. I barely esscaped with my life lasst time the land wass living in wass overrun by thosse..."

Chún stared with wide eyes. "Will they come back?"

The Mountain spoke again, "Not like that. Your old Staff is a World Tree now - it sealed the breach and will be able to defend against any further large scale incursions. Smaller ones might be able to slip through from time to time, but they will have much less strength under the World Tree's influence."

The Flood Dragon interrupted, "Honoured Mountain, how can there be a World Tree here?"

A somewhat awkward silence fell. Chún could feel his locus' embarrassment, "Friend, is there a problem?" Chún inquired tentatively.

"Well, not a problem exactly, just unexpected. When you awoke me originally… we sealed off the Mountain from the rest of the Golden Crow Planet - but it was just a twist away from the 'normal world' - like a dimensional pocket."

Chún scratched his head. "I do not understand. You mean it was like it was in a bag?"

"Close enough," replied the Mountain, "A separate area closed off, but still present in both places. That is why most people will only see a normal Mountain out there - only if you know how to open the bag can you move between the two."

"And now?" asked the Flood Dragon.

"There was A LOT of energy flying around. It was growing too big to conceal from the rest of the Planet. If it was not for my recent growth over the past month, that first strike would have torn all the barriers open and exposed our status as a new Treasure land to every Consumer on the Planet - not to mention destroyed the Mountain... It was a little stronger than I thought."

Chún paled. "I just did what you asked - I am only eleven!"

"Actually you are closer to thirteen... but, yes it was my error. I am sorry, Chún," replied the Mountain apologetically, "Anyway, I pushed the first strike directly into the open rift - we only experienced a fraction of the impact - or everything would have been turned into ash."

"SSSAaaahhh!" The flood Dragon roared triumphantly, "Vengeance! The rift would have collapssed - and the backblasst combined with the full sstrike would have desstroyed that plane!"

"Yes," admitted Chún's locus. "Unfortunately, it did not kill every invader left on this side. One Queen survived… between the amount of Essence being thrown around and flowing back from the destroyed plane through the rift… the barriers were collapsing… I used all I could to reinforce it, but… when the cleansing started and I started advancing, I knew the barriers would not be able to hold back another plane's worth of energy from being detected…"

The Flood Dragon bobbed its head eagerly, "There would have been additional Esssencce being generated by the conversion ass well - you converted the barrier into a dimenssional ssplit?"

"Correct, Your Majesty. I am a World now, not just a Mountain. Or, well, a small independent plane, separate from Golden Crow. I am still connected to the original Mountain site on Golden Crow Planet, but it is much harder for anyone or anything - like massive amounts of energy - to cross between Worlds, even a small one, and be detected. I am much safer now, as well as more powerful."

Chún blinked and looked up at the sky and the last light from the Golden Crow. "It still looks the same?"

The Flood Dragon laughed. "The bag is now a room on a housse - with a locked door. We are sstill part of the housse, but otherss cannot get into the room eassily. Maybe the Mountain will grow into itss own sseparate housse ssomeday, but thiss is ssafe enough for now. Esspecially with a World Tree already."

"There was A LOT of energy," repeated the Mountain sheepishly. "Your staff was plugged directly into all of it - and it agreed to stand guard to prevent more invasions - so I gave it as much as energy as it could take. It surprised me."

"Oh. So this is all good?" asked Chún feeling stupid for not really understanding half of what was being said.

"Thiss iss a much better place for Esssencce plantss and Beastss to advance in Cultivation now," answered the Flood Dragon, "But the higher tree catchess more windss. All of thiss would have attracted notice - otherss will come eventually."

"Yes," the Mountain agreed. "For sure anyone close to World level Cultivation on Golden Crow Planet will have noticed. Others, who knows. Hopefully the decoy mountain will divert suspicion - I diverted a trickle of Essence out onto it, enough to generate a few Sky rank herbs and Beasts as well as a bunch of lower level treasures. Hopefully the dimensional split blocked off the majority of the energy flare, so that it could be mistaken for a few high level treasures advancing."

Chún looked blank. "OK. It is good. I am going home now." Without further discussion, he jumped into the tree line, headed for his cave.

"Ssuch a young one to pin our hopess on," The Flood Dragon murmured to the Mountain as Chún's figure vanished, "Do you think it will be enough?"

The wind seem to sigh. "While I was building the dimensional split, I had to reach deeply into the underlying foundations. I sensed… someone else... moving with the Dao instead of against it… not a True Cultivator, but not like a Consumer...another young one…"

The Flood Dragon blinked. "Ssoo…?"

"There may be another."