Harem Sync: Divine Edition-Chapter 41: Descending to the Heart (2)

The flame in Isabela’s hand suddenly ceased, not because she wanted it to, but because the mana concentrated in her hand simply ran out, being sucked into some place she couldn’t identify.

"This damn mana being sucked again..."

He stopped mid-complaint when he noticed something more urgent. The forest in the area where they were was completely chaotic, the trees constantly moving, branches banging against each other with dry sounds of breaking wood, roots dragging across the ground trying to grab or crush anything that moved, trunks leaning and swaying as if in constant war with each other for space and resources.

But in the center, around that giant black tree, everything was peaceful. No tree moved. No branch attacked. Only absolute stillness as if it were a protected zone. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Isabela looked down the slope where they were, calculating the distance, and then down to the central zone.

"We’re going to jump."

Aldric turned to her with the expression of someone who had just heard the worst possible idea.

"WHAT!? We weren’t supposed to wait for your boyfriend..."

The trees behind them shook violently, branches snapping, roots exploding from the ground, and something began to approach, making the entire forest tremble. Then it emerged from among the intertwined trees.

The creature was bizarre.

Its body was formed of ribs, not from one animal, but from several, intertwined to form a giant thoracic cage that moved as if it had invisible muscles connecting everything.

Inside the cage of bones was a pulsating mass made of rotten wood, vegetable flesh, and something that glowed a sickly green. Where the head should have been, there was a tree trunk cut at the top, but the surface of the cut was covered with eyes—rabbit eyes, wolf eyes, raven eyes, deer eyes, all scattered without pattern, blinking at different rhythms and looking in random directions.

It had no visible mouth, but there were holes scattered throughout the trunk-head that expelled air at irregular intervals.

The legs were made of thick, intertwined roots that moved like tentacles, and the arms were twisted branches with fingers made of thin roots that moved independently like worms.

The creature roared, sound emanating from all the holes at once, creating a horrifying harmony, and lunged straight at them, all the eyes on its head-trunk focused specifically on Isabela.

"IGNITION!" Isabela screamed, fire detonating directly onto the creature’s eye-filled face. The eyes exploded one by one, green fluid oozing down the sides of the trunk as half of its head caught fire.

Without waiting to see the result, she grabbed Aldric by the arm and jumped off the slope, using fire propulsion in her feet to direct the fall. They flew through the air for about three seconds.

They landed on top of a tree. The tree screamed.

It wasn’t a tree. It was another monster, its entire body made of living wood, which immediately began to move, branches bending to try and catch the two who had fallen on top of it.

"Damn, these creatures seem to be constantly draining my mana..." Isabela murmured, feeling her energy being drained; just her presence near those things was enough for them to feed.

Aldric jumped off the tree-creature before it could grab him, landing awkwardly and running away in pure fear, eyes wide and screaming without forming coherent words.

Isabela plunged her sword into the creature where it was and blew it up. The creature didn’t even die; it just staggered backward with half its trunk burned but still moving, branches growing back to replace those that had turned to ash.

"Aldric, wait!" Isabela shouted, seeing that 90% of the entire surrounding forest was made up of those creatures disguised as normal trees, and that Aldric was completely screwed running straight into them.

But he just kept running without hearing anything, blinded by terror.

Isabela tried to catch up with him, started running in the direction he had gone, but the creatures only wanted her. They blocked her path, branches dropping down to grab her, roots exploding from the ground trying to wrap around her legs, trunks leaning to crush her.

Aldric passed through them as if he were invisible, the creatures didn’t even move when he passed nearby, only when Isabela tried to follow.

She started dodging them here and there, rolling under branches, jumping over roots, cutting what she couldn’t avoid, but she felt her mana running out faster and faster the longer she stayed near those things.

And then she understood.

"It’s the mana!..." she murmured to herself, looking around at the creatures that completely ignored Aldric. "That’s why he’s not being attacked, he has no mana at all!"

She began to suppress her mana, reducing its use to the absolute minimum even with the monsters absorbing what was left, forcing the internal flow to remain contained within her body without leaking out.

The larger creatures that came towards her stopped attacking almost immediately, losing interest as if she had disappeared from their radar.

Only the smaller ones could still vaguely notice her, probably because they were closer and felt the minimal remnants that were still leaking.

She used this to her advantage, climbed onto the smaller creatures using them as platforms, and began to jump from one to another towards the center, searching for Aldric as she moved.

"Aldric!" she shouted, looking all around.

Silence. Only the sound of the creatures moving around.

"ALDRIC!" she tried again, louder.

Nothing.

She stopped at a quiet tree-creature, trying to visually locate him among the chaotic forest. "Aldric, if you can hear me, go to the center! The big tree in the middle!"

He waited for a response, any sign of movement or sound that would indicate where he was.

Nothing.

Aldric had completely disappeared.