Tree Guardian

by Andrew Karevik

  I wished that Gannix’s message would have brought me any kind of comfort, but I knew that it was just smoke and mirrors. The gods’ idea of soon was weeks upon weeks of deliberation. They would not commit to any such plan until they knew they were all guaranteed to be safe. And unless they were able to come up with their plan within the next fifteen minutes, I knew that I was on my own.

  I grow weary to watch such an amateur struggle with a basic spell, Drinar said as he raised a long scythe up high in the air. You would think being trapped for thousands upon thousands of years would give one patience. Quite the opposite, it would seem.

  And with that, Drinar slashed his long scythe at my body. Instinctively, I sent a swarm of magic to defend the area, to bolster it against damage. But along with that arcane power came the deep magic, and my trunk became impenetrable. I did not need to think about it; I simply manifested the power automatically.

  The blade made a loud crack! But it could not break past my magical defenses. Drinar’s many eyes began darting up and down in all directions, sizing me up.

  Impressive, Drinar said as he brought both of his scythes together and held perfectly still. The light around us started to flicker as the wind began to whip wildly. Drinar was initiating a spell meant to take me down. Unlike the normal magic, I could not see the threads to this spell. But I prepared one of my own all the same, surging all of my energy into creating a large shield in front of me.

  I was unsure of what Drinar was casting, but I was able to guess correctly that it had been some type of blasting spell. I erected the shield as quickly as I could, raising it just in time to prevent a large aquamarine ball of energy from smashing into my body. Much to my surprise, the shield absorbed the energy and, at once, I felt my reserves grow fatter with deep magic.

  I get the sense that you are stronger than I realized. Perhaps not at using the spells of others, but your own are quite advanced, Drinar said, lowering his blades. Let us be peaceable with one another then. I gain nothing from harming you, yet you gain your life and the lives of those within you by ceasing such aggression.

  I knew that the gods were working on a solution. It would have been so easy to simply agree to peace and wait for them to put an end to this monster…but was there any guarantee that they would succeed? With deep magic having been gone for so long, would the gods be more vulnerable to its use?

  “I do not understand your insistence to bring about such sorrow to the land. You claim to know better—”

  Do not lecture me, Tree. Yunther, the god of logic and reason, was unable to get me to see the error of my ways, despite his many words. I consumed him all the same. Drinar raised his scythes again and began to prepare another spell. If you will not accept my offer of peace, then so be it.

  I could not keep countering these attacks forever. I would need to launch something offensive too, to at least test his weaknesses. My mind flashed over the vault I had constructed for Izguril. Perhaps I could trap Drinar within that? After all, a god was powering the vault with his divine powers, at the very least it might slow the monster down.

  As I prepared a teleportation spell, I sensed Izguril shouting at me. “Idiot! If you bring him down here, he will devour me, which ends the source of power fueling the prison.”

  I split my consciousness, staying present in the battle to at least shield myself from the next attack, but also moving down to Izguril.

  “You seem stressed,” I said, watching as he writhed in vain to escape from his confines.

  “Because you are going to get us all killed!” Izguril shouted back.

  “Correction, it would seem that teleporting the Illuminated down here would only get you killed,” I said as an idea began to dawn on me. “Perhaps that would be a fitting punishment for your deception.”

  Izguril grunted as he tried to fight his way free from the chains of energy that bound him. He knew this was in vain, but that did not stop his frantic attempts. “I have done nothing that warrants deicide! To send Drinar here would be to execute me!”

  “Then give me something useful to fight him off, or I send him here. No tricks or lies.”

  Izguril ceased struggling for a moment and glanced up. “Are you mad?”

  “An hour ago I would have told you no, but now I’m not so sure, for I have provoked this monster without means of survival. Give me something to win this fight, or perish.”

  On the top level, I watched as Drinar released a torrent of flames towards me, engulfing my entire body. My flame-wards activated, being boosted by the deep magic, preventing any such fire from bringing me harm. The longer I held onto the power, the stronger I was becoming. Drinar would try a few more attacks during my discussion with Izguril, but I was able to stop them each time with one of my defensive spells.

  Izguril sighed. “In all honesty? There is nothing that I can give you. My plan was to break free and escape the moment that you were destroyed by Drinar, but I was not just planning on leaving this dungeon. I was going to leave this realm for good.”

  “Why?”

  “Why do you think? The gods didn’t build the seals; we just took credit for them. They weren’t even able to lock away deep magic. That was the work of benevolent human wizards who used their great power for good.”

  “Then that means the gods…”

  “Have no way of stopping Drinar,” Izguril said, shrugging a little. “It was my hope to leave you all one terrible gift before I was able to depart, but it seems I will die here with you. Unless you wish to take us all far away from here? Think about it, Great Tree. You have the power to teleport us to another realm, somewhere far from here. Ask the dragon Yim for a safe place and we can all escape. Leave Yehan behind, for it will be lost, either to Drinar now or the Invasion later.”

  “You can read all of my thoughts, can’t you?” I asked.

  “All cards on the table? Yes, of course. Since I am connected to your dungeon, powering it, my divine energies overlap with yours,” Izguril said. “I know your vows to the goblins. To keep them safe at all costs. That monster out there will kill them all. Well, actually, what he does is far worse than death. He traps you in his mind and you become him. Your thoughts cease to be your own and you think as he does.”

  “And you were willing to unleash such a monster on the world for your own good?”

  “I stewarded over the domain of cruelty, did I not?” Izguril said. “We haven’t much time. Make your choice now.”

  “I already made my choice when I called Drinar to fight me,” I replied. “My only consolation is that you will die with me for your treachery.” And with that, I shifted my focus back to the surface, where I would stand against the Illuminated being—utterly alone.

  Chapter 38

  The orb of lightning came crashing towards me. But just like all of Drinar’s other attempts, I was able to deflect it with ease. My power had grown considerably with each counter and I wondered if Drinar was just wasting my time, preparing a secret spell of his own. By this point, however, I had gained enough power to repel just about anything that he had to throw at me.

  Have you realized it yet? Drinar asked, lowering his scythes into a neutral position. Or do you think you’re winning?

  “Realized what?” I asked, foolishly betraying my lack of knowledge to the creature.

  Drinar uttered out a guttural laugh from his maw, or at least I believed it to be a laugh—it sounded more like cattle being smothered to death. The power you wield within you does not grow stronger with each spell you cast. It grows more in control.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Did you choose to absorb my first attack? Or did it simply happen?

  Fear began to wash over me. The energy within my body had ceased trying to escape and was now spreading, throughout me, pushing its way through every root, branch and limb that I had. For the first time, I tried to resist the spread of deep magic and—just as Drinar had said—I was unable to. The magic was b
eginning to settle in within my body.

  The power you hold is far greater than you have realized. There are two dangers when using deep magic, Great Tree. The first is that it escapes from your body, ripping you to pieces from the inside out. The second? It is that it seeps into your very being, corrupting you from within. Most mortals would call such a thing madness, and indeed it drives lesser minds crazy. But what about greater beings? What if a greater mind was infested with this power? Would it become corrupt too? Or would it become…illuminated?

  I could feel the magic within me gaining more control over my entire body. And in spite of everything I tried, I could not expel it; I could not force it free from me. There were no ill effects yet, but Drinar had been intending for this to happen, hence why he kept throwing the same weak spells at me over and over again.

  This will be the proving ground for you, for I cannot tell if you are a lesser being or a greater one who is simply too humble for your own good. The power will worm its way through your mind and change you, driving you irrevocably mad. Or if you’re strong enough, elevating you to my level, he said, his thousands upon thousands of eyes all training upon me.

  I had not read of such a thing in a single book about deep magic, yet this transformation was happening to me all the same. Overuse of such a great power was fatal, it would seem. I did not know what to do as I felt the deep magic within my body disseminating, searching for my own core. The core was sealed off, technically separated from the rest of my body thanks to a spell I used to ensure that an infection wouldn’t spread from my core to the rest of me, or vice versa. Would that separation work here? Or would the deep magic still be able to reach my heart?

  I waited, for there was nothing else to do. I could no longer direct the deep magic to do as I commanded and Drinar seemed perfectly content to watch me endure this transformation. What was his motive, I wondered? To gain another ally? To simply watch me suffer? He was different from what I had been expecting, far more intelligent than the Dungeon Below. But I wondered about his claims of being enlightened.

  If this deep magic drove normal individuals insane, who’s to say it would not also make his kind mad? And if that were the case, then perhaps I could use this madness against him. Provided I was able to survive the deep magic, that is.

  Finally, the spreading of the magic within my systems ceased. Every last bit of the ancient magic within my body had taken possession of my limbs, my branches, my roots and throughout my trunk. But it could do nothing for it had no control over my central nervous system.

  After my encounter with Urioc, I realized that my physical connection to my core was too dangerous. If I were infected with a disease, it would immediately contaminate my core and then I’d die. So, I learned a spell that wizards liked to use to protect their vital organs, separating their hearts and brains from their bodies, yet still allowing their bodies to function. The heart in a jar technique was standard practice for those who ended up in battle frequently. As long as the heart was preserved with magic, it would still continue to beat, keeping the wizard alive.

  I created such a spell on a larger scale. My core was severed and, thanks to the intense flow of magic that moved through me on a daily basis, I would never have to worry about the core being in danger. I was inoculated, more or less, against spells like Urioc’s. And apparently, deep magic was also unable to take hold of my brain.

  This gave me an advantage. Slowly, the panic began to subside as I started to comprehend I was still in control of the situation. The deep magic was no longer fighting me, but would it respond to my command? Focus had been the keyword in all of the books I had consumed. Focus and iron will. Determination. I just needed to regain complete control over the magic.

  Drinar wasn’t reacting to my internal thoughts, leading me to wonder if he was blocked out due to the extreme coat of deep magic that was now covering me. He would have certainly taken action if he had sensed that my mind wasn’t being affected by the power. Yet, he continued to stare at me, grinning with a horrific grin, waiting to see what would come out on the other side of madness.

  If I could hit him with a surprise attack, it could potentially end the fight here and now. After all, I now had unlimited access to the strongest type of magic in the world. But he was made up of such stuff as well. This was the question of what would happen when an unstoppable force hit an unmovable object. But I had to at least try.

  I concentrated with all of my might, staying as absorbed as possible on a single task. I needed to cast a spell that would strike Drinar, a powerful, forceful bolt of pure magical energy. No elements needed to be involved, no sounds, nothing special to add to the complexity of the spell. Just a pure output of force.

  As I focused, envisioning the spell taking place, over and over, the magic began to respond to the command. But…I could sense the magic suggesting something to me. Or was it simply changing my own spell on its own? It was hard to tell at first, but as the magic formed the attack, I started to understand what was happening. I wasn’t controlling the magic, nor was it controlling me, but rather it was a partnership. A symbiosis. Without the magic infecting my central nervous system, my mind was clear and able to give instructions. And the deep magic was able to respond in turn, making changes as it saw fit.

  I was used to this type of action, however. This was how I ran the dungeon. I would give orders to the goblins and watch as they made choices of their own accord, in order to improve my traps and fix structural damage. The better directions that I was able to provide to Ehdrid, the better the goblins would perform. Yet, if I was too exacting in my directives, if I was too involved in pushing them to do what I wanted, their performance would wane. They needed room to make their own alterations.

  Was it the same with this deep magic? I would find out, I supposed. Rather than directing the magic to create a specific spell, I began to signal intent to the power. I envisioned the attack, showing the magic that I planned to bring great harm to Drinar. I signaled that I wanted to destroy the Illuminated being, and the magic continued to construct the spell for me.

  Curious, Drinar said, glancing at me. I can sense a spell.

  I said nothing. I merely sent another signal to the magic, this one calling for urgency. Drinar raised one of his scythes high. You resist? Do you not wish to find out what type of being you are?

  “You seem so insistent on codifying beings as greater or lesser,” I replied, “but you forget one important thing.”

  And what is that?

  “Not everything is as two dimensional as you think. I have seen mortals achieve great feats against all odds. I have seen truly powerful gods fall from grace due to their own petty jealousies and greed. You want to know what is greater or lesser, but the truth is? It changes from day to day, hour to hour. We have the capacity to be greater today and lesser tomorrow.”

  A wearisome speech to reflect a wearisome world, Drinar groaned to me, letting a strange guttural sound out of his mouth. I will elevate you all. Well, not you, obviously, but I shall elevate the rest of this world.

  As he finished his sentence, the magic within me burst forward, snapping out at lightning speeds. The spell had formed into a long spiraling bolt of green energy, complete with a sharp arrowhead at the front, large enough to pierce straight through Drinar. The magic must have sensed my frustration with Drinar and responded in kind.

  Drinar was surprised at this attack and raised up a shield of similar green energy, but the bolt was too focused to be blocked by such a feeble response. The bolt crashed through the shield and stabbed through Drinar’s upper body, tearing through it as if it were made of paper. There was no blood, or any reaction of pain from the Illuminated being; rather, it bent its head down to inspect the open wound.

  The hole was nearly eight inches wide and I could see the other side of the forest through it. The magical bolt dispersed after it struck, but the deep magic came rushing back to me, recharging my magical stores. I began to focus
on repeating the spell, over and over again. If the first hit had been effective, then I’d need to strike many more times.

  Yet, before I could let loose another attack, the hole began to repair itself, sealing back up within a matter of seconds. Drinar glanced back up at me and shook his head. Oh I was so afraid because no one has ever tried to kill me using deep magic before, he mocked. He lifted his scythe high and slashed at me. This time, magical energy radiated from it. The blade sunk deep into my trunk and my entire body pulsed with pain.

  A powerful force began to rise inside of me, like a bubble trying to force my entire trunk apart. What a strange attack. Was Drinar unaware that my insides were massive and ever-expanding? To attempt to destroy me with force from the inside was a foolhardy endeavor, despite how powerful his magic was.

  Before I could even instruct the magic within me to act, it was already handling the problem. A burst of power threw Drinar back, knocking him back into the hole he had crawled out of. The second wave of magic captured and consumed the bubble that was growing within me. I absorbed more of Drinar’s magic and grew stronger.

  The monstrous being rose out of the hole, floating high above the ground. I must say, however you have managed to take control of the magic, I am impressed, he said. The only person to ever give me such a struggle before was a magician by the name of Cornelius. He commanded such powerful magic, yet it did not command him. He was able to seal me away with the aid of the gods. I regret that such mortals must age so quickly and die. It would have been a real pleasure to consume him and learn his secrets.

  Drinar released another spell, a torrent of flames. I brought up a shield to block it. Unfortunately, this time, the shield shattered. The fire engulfed me and I let out a cry in agony. I had not felt the burn of fire in a long, long time. The flames covered me and began to burn away at my leaves and trunk.

  Enough of this, Drinar said. If you will relent, I shall allow you to live.