Creating A Succubus Army In A Fantasy World!-Chapter 117: Trial Phase 1! (12)

Oooom!

Darkness fell like a curtain.

One second, the sun was glowing bright above them, shining warmly on their backs, casting crisp shadows across the clearing where Creed, Amara, Lilith, and the treeman stood ready to throw down in a battle that was about to level the landscape.

The next second... the sky turned black. Not just "rainstorm clouds gathering" kind of black. Not "ooh, looks like a spooky eclipse" black.

No. This was apocalyptic. As if someone had grabbed the brightness dial on reality and twisted it to zero!

Creed blinked. Once. Twice. And then slowly looked up. His red aura of killing still sizzled around him, but for the first time since arriving in this rift, he actually hesitated.

"Uhhh... anyone else seeing this?" he said out loud, squinting into the unnatural void overhead.

"Because unless I was just transported into a Halloween special, something really messed up is happening."

Lilith hovered in the air, her lightning crackling nervously as she gazed at the pitch-black sky.

"That... shouldn’t be possible," she muttered. "The energy in the air is going crazy. It’s—it’s like the entire world’s trying to hold its breath."

Even Amara’s calm expression had cracked slightly. She was frowning now, her glowing blue eyes scanning the area like a hawk.

Her lips parted, as if to say something, then paused, watching something even more disturbing.

The treeman.

The towering, furious, silver-tier treeman that had, moments ago, looked ready to pulverize them into mulch and dance on their corpses... was backing away.

Fast!

Its glowing purple vines suddenly dimmed. The pressure it had so proudly flexed only seconds before? Gone.

It was like someone had flipped a switch inside it, and it had gone from "RAWR I’M GONNA KILL YOU ALL!" to "NOPE NOPE NOPE GET ME OUTTA HERE" in record time.

Creed blinked again. "Wait... what?"

And then, before anyone could say another word, the treeman turned tail and ran.

Like, full-on Olympic sprint. Branches flailing. Roots barely touching the ground.

Its massive vine-covered frame tore through the forest with an urgency that screamed I have no time for revenge, I need to survive!

Creed stared, dumbfounded. "Did... did that treeman just hit the panic button?"

Lilith looked just as shocked. "It... it ran away. That thing was SILVER Level. What could possibly scare it like that?"

Even Amara, the queen of stoicism, looked unnerved. "Something is coming."

Creed’s brain immediately kicked into overdrive. His heart thumped as he mentally pieced together every clue like a frantic puzzle solver.

The sky darkened unnaturally fast... the air feels weird... the treeman—who should be among the apex predators around here—just bolted without looking back.

And most importantly... we have no idea what this is. But HE clearly does. He’s survived this before. Which means...

"Follow him," Creed said sharply, already dashing forward. "We don’t know what’s happening—but HE does. He’s the only lead we’ve got. MOVE!"

There was no hesitation. The others fell in behind him immediately. Tierra reappeared from the shadows without a word and joined the mad dash through the woods.

They ran.

And it wasn’t just a jog or a casual chase. It was a sprint of desperation, weaving through trees, leaping over roots, dodging low-hanging vines. And as they chased after the fleeing treeman, they started to notice something even weirder.

Other treemen were running too.

Dozens of them. All across the forest. Powerful treemen. Big ones. Strong ones.

Even ones glowing faintly with energy like low-level elites. All of them sprinting in different directions, eyes wide with fear, not sparing even a glance at the humans chasing one of their own.

Their expressions weren’t just panicked; they were haunted. As if they knew exactly what was coming... and wanted no part of it.

"What the hell is going on?!" Lilith shouted as she kept pace with Creed. "Why are they all running like the apocalypse just descended?!"

"No idea," Creed snapped, ducking under a low branch, "but I really don’t wanna stick around to find out!"

After a minute of high-speed running, the treeman in front of them made a sudden, sharp turn.

It raced toward a massive tree that was so large that its trunk was thicker than a castle tower.

At first glance, it looked like just a regular oversized tree... until the treeman pounced toward the base and shoved its arm into a tiny, almost invisible hole in the bark.

CLUNK!

A hidden bark door popped open—blending seamlessly into the tree’s surface—and the treeman squeezed itself inside before yanking the door shut behind it.

Creed and the others skid to a halt behind a thick bush, panting and staring at the now-closed bark door in utter disbelief.

"What... in the name of flaming tree spirits... was THAT?" Lilith breathed.

"A hidden door?" Tierra muttered, her voice laced with disbelief. "Inside a tree?"

"It just ran inside like a terrified squirrel," Amara said softly. "That thing was silver-Level. What could possibly—"

"I don’t know," Creed cut in, already gripping his spear again, "but I really don’t want to be the idiot standing out here when whatever’s coming arrives. If that treeman’s hiding, we need to hide too."

Lilith raised a brow. "And what if he’s hostile? What if he turns around and tries to throw us out?"

Creed cracked a grin. "Then we beat his leafy ass and hide anyway."

With that, he motioned to the bark door. "Weapons out. Just in case."

One by one, they raised their weapons. Lightning buzzed, ice crackled, the killing aura burned faintly again, and Tierra’s eyes shimmered with spatial intent.

Creed stepped forward and braced his shoulder against the bark door. "On three."

"Wait—shouldn’t we—?"

"Three!"

BOOM!

The bark door swung open, and the group rushed inside, ready to face a potential second battle with the treeman or whatever horrors lay ahead.

The moment Creed yanked the bark door shut behind them, sealing them inside the ancient tree trunk, an unnatural darkness swallowed everything whole.

Not a sliver of light could be seen, not even the faintest glow from magical particles. It was like being swallowed by a void.

The silence was suffocating, the kind that made you feel like if you breathed too loudly, something might hear you.

But while the others squinted uselessly into the black, Creed’s enhanced physique kicked in.

His powerful, finely-tuned body had senses far beyond normal.

His eyes slowly adjusted until the gloom peeled back just enough for him to spot the stage 5 Treeman, curled up like a terrified baby at the far edge of the circular chamber.

The mighty, monstrous plant beast, once raging with silver-level power, was now trembling and hugging its knees. If trees had teeth, his would be chattering!

Before Creed could even make a joke about the mighty plant creature turning into a salad leaf, a deep, monstrous growl echoed across the rift.

It wasn’t loud in the traditional sense—no, it was worse. It was low, like the rumble of a thousand storms hiding in the clouds.

It didn’t strike the ears; it clawed straight into the soul. Every single hair on Creed’s body stood up like soldiers saluting their commander.

Even Lilith, who was fearless to a fault, hugged herself tightly and muttered, "What the hell was that...?" The growl was followed by a silence so thick it felt like time itself was holding its breath.

Then came the pressure—a terrifying, suffocating wave of dread that blanketed the entire world. Everyone inside the tree dropped to one knee instinctively.

Creed’s instincts screamed at him to stay down, stay quiet, stay hidden. But his curiosity? Oh, it was already losing its mind.

Creed was breathing hard, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart, but there was an itch in his brain that refused to be ignored.

What was outside? What kind of monster made a peak-stage 5 silver-level Treeman run and cry like a traumatized bonsai tree?

His brain was buzzing with a million thoughts: What level of threat was this? Could it be a world-ending entity?

Was it some kind of ancient being meant to purge the trial zone? Or was it an illusion—one of the final psychological tests?

But no, the pain in his bones and the primal fear in his blood were all too real. Still... he had to see.

He looked toward the others; Amara’s eyes were shut, lips tight. Lilith was whispering curses under her breath, her fingers glowing faintly with restrained lightning.

Tierra was clinging to the wall, trying to disappear into it. "Nope," Creed whispered to himself, already inching toward the door. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

"I’m not suicidal... just very curious." As he reached the bark door, he made a solemn vow: I am not going out there. No matter what I see, I am not going outside. I am simply... peeking. Like a totally sane, responsible, survival-minded person.

With agonizing slowness, he reached the tiny slit in the bark. Just a sliver. Just enough to peek outside with one eye. And what he saw? Oh, boy.

The world outside was no longer normal. It wasn’t just night—it was a blasphemous, otherworldly eclipse.

But the sky wasn’t just dark. It was covered. Something massive and formless had stretched itself across the heavens.

At first glance, it looked like a black mist, but as Creed squinted harder, he realized it had texture. Movement.

And then he saw them; the eyes.

Hundreds of glowing purple eyes embedded all over the body of this unfathomable creature. Some were as small as marbles, others as wide as carriages, all gazing down with eerie detachment.

They didn’t blink. They just stared. Like searchlights from some ancient horror movie, sweeping across the land with unsettling hunger.

The floating formless being didn’t seem to have limbs, but it didn’t need them. Treemen were being lifted into the sky as if pulled by invisible hands.

Dozens—no, hundreds—of them were floating helplessly upward, their limbs flailing, their faces twisted in terror. And then it got worse.

As they neared the entity, they began to scream. Not in rage. In pain. In agony. Their bodies began to wither mid-air.

Their glowing life energy was sucked out of them like juice from fruit, and their limbs shriveled until they were nothing but empty husks.

Then they fell. Dozens of lifeless treemen rained from the skies like rotted wood.

Creed’s mouth fell open in horror. "Okay, what the actual f—" he caught himself. "Forget what I said. I am not going out there. I’m not even poking my nose through this door ever again. I take it back. Curiosity can wait. Curiosity can go die."

He closed the bark slit slowly, gently, like he was afraid even the tiniest sound would attract that thing’s attention.

Then he turned back to the others, who were looking at him with pale, anxious faces. "Well?" Amara asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Creed swallowed. "We are not going out there," he said with absolute certainty. "I don’t care if this tree gets set on fire, I am staying put until the sky turns blue and the birds start chirping like they’re in a Disney movie."

Lilith tilted her head. "What did you see?"

Creed wiped his forehead. ’Something that made me want to apologize to every villain I’ve ever killed.’

"That thing outside... I don’t know what it is, but it’s literally sucking the life out of every treeman. It’s got hundreds of glowing purple eyes, it’s covering the whole sky, and it’s draining souls like it’s sipping boba tea."

Amara blinked. "It’s... killing all the treemen that are still outside?"

"Yup."

"All of them?"

"Every. Single. One."

Lilith’s mouth twitched. "Well... silver lining? We won’t have to fight much more treemen after this."

Creed gave her a flat look. "We also might not survive this if it finds out we’re here."

Tierra shivered from the shadows. "Do you think it can sense us?"

Creed didn’t answer right away. He was deep in thought. "The treeman ran in here for a reason. That thing must have blind spots or some sort of limit. It’s strong—way too strong—but not omniscient.

"If this hiding spot works for a peak stage 5 beast, it might work for us too. We just have to stay quiet... and wait."