Light of the Dryad

'What is this feeling?'

I have been sensing it for a while now in this forest, but it was distinctly... different.

Of course the fact that a vast majority of the forest that I had covered was... well... corrupted was definitely a playing factor..

But it wasn't that playing factor I was looking for.

Glancing past the innumerable purple trees sprouting out of the ground to the sky like warped wooden hands, the corroded leaves slowly drifted down from atop as I saw a tree lash its vine out and attack a rabbit.

Said rabbit was purple furred as its teeth bit into the wooden flesh, sprouting out several acidic juices that sunk into the jungle floor.

Staring at the phenomenon that would likely only be mirrored here I shook my head.

Much like the Malaise, the corruption if that was what it was called seemed to turn everything it got its creepy hands on into flesh eating monsters of warped flesh.

And by warped it was very warped.

'Ugh'

Slightly shivering at the sight of a tree sporting a purple eyeball staring at me, I promptly destroyed it with ice and incurred the wrath of the tree.

Thankfully I was already out of the attacking range, bolting out of there I slowly gathered everything that I had seen into a mini folder into my head.

The malaise and Corruption had a startling number of parallels to be drawn.

For one they both created monsters that hated anything that lived including themselves sometimes.

For two they seemed to have a continuous color scheme.

For three well... I didn't have anything for three except for the fact they seemed to like warping things beyond recognition.

Tentatively opening the faucet for the energy that is the malaise, the orange energy slowly seeped out of the seal created by god and quickly slapped at a nearby animal.

Of course, I wasn't expecting much since well. it was the malaise.

But just as the innocent rabbit was morphing and turning into an orange furball of chaos, the surrounding forest immediately burst into action.

Vines quickly crept through the undergrowth as leaves which were initially soft and light were now incredibly sharp blades falling from the sky.

And all of them were coming from the green side of the forest, not the purple side.

'Holy!'

Shock filled my mind as I suddenly watched the green forest which was not doing anything against the corrupted beings suddenly rip apart the still changing malaise'd being.

Oh wait.

Watching a corrupted wolf with several eyes wander over and get torn to shreds, I swallowed my words.

Tensely looking at the forest which had torn monsters to shreds.

I now realized why there was a distinct line between this forest of green and the forest of purple.

And if I looked carefully I think there were puddles of blood here.

Tensely looking at the red vines which were quickly becoming green again, I realized one thing.

This forest... no this world.

Literally everything here wants to kill something.

Humans were no exception of this rule.

Glancing at the forest which by now had swallowed up all the remains of the two trespassers and a quick test to make sure I wouldn't fall to the same fate.

I quickly stomped downwards and began flitting through the trees.

All towards the distinct energy forces which were calling to me.

A rather stupid idea, but it was like smelling the scent of home.

A scent I hadn't smelt in a long time.

---

The sky was a startling deep blue.

It always was.

Yet, why does the sky which seemed to be such a deep blue always seem so close yet so far away.

With the clouds hanging up in the sky hung up by intangible threads, the winds of change shaped the clouds above into various shapes.

Staring at the cloud of a man turning into a dog, a young child reached out and tried to grasp it.

Those who saw this would only genially smile at the foolish action of the young child and would go on in their day.

But in the wide patch of green grass being swept up by the wind on the bright sunny day,

But when he was young, the young child always felt like the skies were within his grasp.

A rather young and foolish dream of his, but it was the gift and the responsibility of children.

To imagine a world where they have their dream in their hands.

A world where they pursue it.

A world which never came.

---

"Eh?"

"Ah, your finally awake."

Blinking stupidly, my eyes took this chance to dilate alot allowing me to see properly.

I was deep underground, all around me, various plants and vines climbed up the stony surfaces of the cave walls, glowing blue moss lit up the dark space providing all of the plants with ample light.

Trees of incredible green that hadn't soaked in blood were present here and sharply contrasted the dull glow of the other blood thirsty trees.

Now that I think about it, is it safe to drink in corrupted/ malaise'd blood?

A question for another day.

But recalling the familiar yet unfamiliar voice get whispered into my ear, I turned towards the source of it.

It was the plant mage/ miss that I still didn't know the identity of.

She was probably incredibly powerful since even his own system which usually gave the direct species or name of the being he was looking at alongside the name they or he gave them.

In which case it was still [Plant mage (???)]

A very confusing thing to see.

But she was still the same.

Covered in leaves and vines instead of conventional clothing, it was actually a surprise that it was able to hang on still.

The big leaves were definitely doing their job in covering her.

But she was definitely a beauty with pale white milky skin.

Staring at me with green eyes while her hair of vines and thorned roses flowed down their back, the plant mage opened her mouth.

"..."

Or she tried to.

Frustratingly looking at her throat, she grasped it for a second as a green light washed over it.

"Ah ah ah Oh oh oh"

Tentatively making some strange noises, the woman glanced at me before opening their mouth again.

It was a silky voice, one that people would think would've come from a singer with how the sound didn't fluctuate much.

But it didn't take away the strangeness of the comment.

"What are you?"

"Huh?"

Now I was all for various questions being thrown at me since it was just something everyone did.

The problem was the context of the question made absolutely no sense to me.

"What do you mean by that?"

Staring at me with green eyes like emeralds, the woman quietly muttered to herself.

Now since I was superhuman now, I could hear what she was muttering underneath her breath, but I was still confused.

"---Doesn't know? Is h--- --pid? or ---- lying?"

(He doesn't know? Is he stupid or is he lying?)

Having those thoughts, I was unaware of what was happening behind that gaze of green.

Alongside that, I was also unaware of many things in this world although I would like to be very aware of them.

---

When she got to the source of the energy, to her disappointment, it wasn't who she was looking for.

It was only a great expanse of blue sea which was entirely incompatible to the plants that thrived on clean water without salt.

But despite all of that, the Dryad, one of the last of her kind hurriedly looked all over the area of blue in hopes of finding the one that she was looking for.

Circling past the remains of an old civilization that had its roots span past the days that she had been born underneath the sea.

The ruins pulsed slightly upon sensing another humanoid being once before quickly dimming as said being disappeared from within them.

But despite all that and the source of the natural energy on par with dryads being just right there.

It was elusive.

Sometimes it was there sometimes it was not, sometimes it seemed as if it had been years since it had occurred and sometimes it was as if it had just happened right in front of her.

But frustratingly enough, despite all of her senses and means being put to work, all the traces pointed to the source being there and hadn't left yet.

Then why.

Why was it that she still couldn't find them?

On the verge of tearing her hair apart.

That was when the world itself shook.

As the avatars of the world and one of the last Dryads that existed on it, she of course was sensitive to changes in the world.

And the interference and change of time was definitely one of and if not one of the most influential change in the world as time is a constant wheel that stopped only for a few, and even then the wheel of time continued to move for that person only.

Sensing the changing times quite literally, she widened her eyes and stared at the opening which pierced through the veil of time.

It was hard to say how she felt it.

But it was as if what she was seeing was simultaneously slower yet faster than she thought as everything's perception was warped.

In the veil of time, a world that was still affected by the malaise lingered, only trace remnants affecting the world now.

But outside of it, only the remains of a once powerful kingdom lingered, several ruins that represented the grandeur of the kingdom now being reduced to nothing but rubble underneath the waves of time.

It was a strange picture of two different worlds where one was reenacting the fall of the kingdom while the other had already fallen leaving behind skeletons worn down by the sands of time.

No maybe even the skeletons had disappeared by now?

But as she stared at the ship that was crossing the thresholds of time, her face suddenly changed.

She suddenly sensed the elusive source of natural energy that she traced back to here.

And by the looks of it, it might be one of her sisters!

As a Dryad, they were both beholden to nature and were nature.

And as nature was a part of time, it wasn't far fetched to think that one of her sisters had formed the time space both to help the kingdom infected with the malaise all while preparing a safe guard with her failure.

Moving past a few dredges of the malaise snapping at her heels, the vines underneath the sea floor quickly surged.

Swallowing all of the water in their way, the sun was the first thing she saw upon breaching the surface of the water.

{SISTER!!!}

Shouting those words out onto the interconnected network of roots that all dryads shared, for the first time in a hundred years since their disappearance, the age old network finally burst into life.

Green light permeating all the plants that were located on the island, several roots glowed with an unseen green light while they transmitted her message through them.

But sadly, her message was left without reaching the expected receiver.

And instead of it, an unknown figure responded.

Well it was harsh to say they were an unknown figure.

Jumping into the sea to get closer to her, her face's hopeful expression instantly became one of disappointment.

Instead of one of her sister's lesser incarnations meeting her like she expected, it was instead a man familiar to her.

Staring at the man who had slain one of the avatar of the Eye of Cthulhu with much effort, with a bit of resentment she stared at the man who was in the middle of saving a man from being torn limb from limb with sharks.

But as she stared at him with slight resentment, a bit of interest rose in her mind.

'But how is he able to output a natural purity akin to mine?'

Staring at the man that was now much stronger than before, slaying the sharks in their own home territory while being a living being of the land.

Roots went up to bind the Overlord of the Seas which tried to sneak a bite out of her figure.

Staring at the anomaly of the seas that hungered for the flesh of the dryad, a strange expression rose on her face as the shark octopus hybrid tried to eat the avatar of nature.

Of course she stopped it and disappeared beneath the sea bed, but it wasn't without leaving behind a few slaps on the nose on the boss monster.

+++

Tree