36. The Watcher

I switched my magic sight back on again and quickly looked around. We were in a massive tunnel, big enough for a subway train. About twenty feet in front of us, a huge hole led downward into the cavern with the beetles. Behind us, the empty tunnel stretched off into the distance.

Annabeth said something as our suits morphed back to their regular shape. I looked at her questioningly until I remembered she’d blown out my hearing. Getting eaten made me forget little things like that.

I pointed at my ears and then remembered she still couldn’t see. My goodness. What a pair we were. Was there a joke about the blind leading the deaf? If not, I needed to make one up.

‘What should we do now?’ Annabeth messaged. She sounded exhausted.

‘We’re going to rest and recover,’ I messaged back. I quickly planned ahead. ‘Charging into the next battle while we are tired and sore won’t do us any good. I’m not leaving this place without the magic water, though. It restores our power a lot faster than just trying to absorb it from the environment, and that is going to be essential for the rest of the tournament.

‘I have to have magic for my shield and other soul creations. You need to have power for your sonic abilities, and we both need magic for healing. The challenges are just going to get harder, so we need to be at our best. That magic water is the advantage we need to win this tournament, especially since we don’t have any magical treasures like the other teams.’

I could have said a lot more, but I stopped. I was sure she got the idea.

‘What about the core?’ Annabeth asked.

There was a core?

Of course there was a core.

I couldn’t see it myself, but Annabeth’s magic sight reached much farther than mine.

‘We better get it,’ I replied with a groan. I was battered and sore too, but I didn’t want any beetles to get their mandibles on it. For all we knew, they’d eat the core and turn into super powerful beetles. That was the last thing we needed.

Annabeth was still riding backpack in order to share my shield. So I got to my feet, made sure she was secure and comfortable, and trudged on down the tunnel. It wasn’t long before I saw the core. And I also saw the new midnight rock worm.

It was cute, in a groundhog kind of way. It was also a lot less threatening, as it was slightly longer than a baseball bat and had a fat little body, like it was stuffed full of pillows. As I watched, it scooted forward and picked up a small rock—snarfing it down like a raccoon eating a French fry. It paused for a moment, and then slowly scooted forward and picked up another one.

I still wasn’t sure if this creature was a baby rock worm, or some sort of evolved / molted version of the big one. Either way, it no longer had a red aura, and it was doing what it liked to do best—eat rocks and crawl around. I was sure the pooping rocks would come later.

I wished it all the best and left it alone.

The core itself was beautiful. It was about the size of a football, and it sparkled like a polished ruby. The color of the core threw me off a bit, but I didn’t feel any malevolence from it. I had to remind myself that red wasn’t a bad color as I carefully picked it up.

‘Incoming,’ I messaged Penny. ‘It is another red-eye’s core, so we should probably store it securely. It feels mainly like earth magic, so it”s probably alright. But it doesn’t hurt to be careful.’

Penny agreed and soon the worm core was sitting in the safe in my Throne Room. I thanked her, turned around, and trudged back towards the big hole.

Once I got there, I lay on the ground and carefully scooted towards the edge. I wanted to see what was going on, but didn’t want the red-eyes to sense me either.

The floor below us was covered in a carpet of beetles. There were so many I couldn’t see the moss at all.

We watched them for a minute, but nothing much happened. A few beetles were moving around, but most of them were just sitting there, like they were taking a nap or something.

‘I think all the beetles have finished falling out of the ceiling,’ Annabeth messaged.

‘Yes,’ I agreed, ‘and I don’t see them leaving through the cracks in the walls. Instead, they are just standing still. I wonder what they are doing?’

‘Maybe waiting for us to return?’

‘Maybe,’ I replied. My magic sight didn’t cover the whole cavern, so Annabeth used her magic sight and echolocation to really scout it out. I also sent my Surfer Dudes into the room and had them map out all the cracks.

We didn’t find anything special. It looked like all the beetles had poured into the cavern, and now they were waiting.

‘I’m going to let the Miner take out a beetle,’ I told her. ‘Let”s see what the horde does then.’

Annabeth gave me a supportive squeeze as I popped back into my Throne Room.

‘Are you ready?’ I asked the Miner.

‘Certainly!’ he replied ‘I’m not one to loaf around on the job.’ Then he wiggled his eyebrows at me. ‘Of course, now that I think about it, I am a bit dry. A beverage before battle wouldn’t be out of order.’

I laughed and summoned another tankard of ale for him. He gave a long pull, followed by a happy sigh.

While he enjoyed his pre-battle libation, I scanned him for damage. But he seemed perfectly fine. It was good to see his new armor was working out well.

I topped up his magic and let him finish his drink before sending him on his way. I popped back to my regular self as I followed his flight down into the cavern below.

I thought he might take a moment to get set up, but instead, he didn’t waste any time. He flew right up to the nearest beetle, fired up his circular saw, and cut the red-eye in two.

I was shocked at how easy it was. The circular blade was so thin, it didn’t seem like it was cutting at all. I thought that maybe it hadn’t worked until the two halves slid apart.

I quickly directed the Miner to fly back up to the ceiling and see if the vanquished beetle was going to cause an uproar.

Everything stayed quiet.

The dragonfly collected the points, and the two halves vanished.

Everything still stayed nice and calm. I sent Annabeth a messaged high-five.

‘Work your way around the room and take out all the red-eyes,’ I told the Miner. ‘Only take a few from an area at a time, though. I don’t want them to get riled up. If you run into problems, come and get me. I’m going to use this time to recover.’

He gave me a thumbs up, waved to the dragonfly, and got started. Meanwhile, I silently backed away from the hole. Then I waited while the magic rope untied itself and Annabeth crawled off my back.

“I love being able to use Red as my shield, but it is also nice to be on my own two feet again,” she said as she gave a stretch.

I had a big stretch myself. I was sore from being slammed around in the worm”s stomach, and it was nice to just manage my own weight for the moment. I directed my Surfers to keep an eye out for any new beetles, both in our tunnel and in the cavern below us. Then I picked out a nice spot, sat down, and started running a healing cycle. Annabeth plopped down beside me and did the same.

After a few cycles, we synced up our rhythm, and it wasn’t long before I started feeling good again. Tea and the Grove had already been laying the groundwork for this, so my rate of improvement seemed miraculous.

I felt a sharp pain in my ears followed by a pop. It knocked me out of my meditation, but it was worth it, as I realized I could hear again. Now, if Annabeth’s eyes could see again, we’d be back in top shape.

‘How is Annabeth doing?’ I asked Tea. He took a moment to communicate with the Ents in Annabeth’s body.

‘She’s hurt her back and fractured a couple ribs,’ Tea reported. ‘She doesn’t have the same level of enhanced bone structure that you do.’

Oh, my goodness! No wonder she hadn’t been feeling like her normal happy self.

‘As for her eyes,’ Tea continued, ‘I’m happy to report that it shouldn’t be long before she should get her sight back.’

‘Fantastic!’ I replied. ‘Thank you for all your help.’

Tea bowed like a tree and went back to work. I spent a few more cycles making sure I was in top shape and then started focusing completely on Annabeth. She hadn’t complained at all, but I did not want her fighting with fractured ribs. That was just a recipe for disaster.

I could only push Annabeth so hard, so once I had her healing in high gear, I took a moment to check in with the Miner.

‘How’s it going?’ I asked.

‘The hard shells are quiet for now,’ he said happily. ‘They’re just sitting there like rocks, and I’m slicing them up like geodes. This new tool you’ve given me handles like a charm!’

‘I’m glad you like it,’ I replied.

‘The cut is silent,’ he continued, ‘so it hasn’t raised any alarms, and the slice is incredibly smooth. It almost feels like I’m cutting warm butter instead of tough chitin. I wish I’d had this earlier in the day when we were facing the ants.’

‘I wish you’d had it too,’ I agreed. ‘So how close are you to being done here?’

‘I’ve vanquished a little over three hundred red-eyes,’ he said. ‘I reckon I have around five hundred more to go.’

I got the impression that he wanted me to stop interrupting him, so I thanked him and left him to his work. It was now time to check in with my Bank Crystal.

‘Since I have the time, I have a few questions for you,’ I said.

‘Of course,’ it replied. ‘I”m still getting used to my new space, but if I can answer, I will.’

‘Wonderful,’ I replied cheerfully. ‘My first question is how much time do we have left in this round?’

‘You have four hours, two minutes and twelve seconds,’ it replied. ‘To answer your anticipated follow-up question, that should be enough time to get back to the return portal. It isn”t a certainty, as we don”t know exactly where we are and what challenges we will face between here and the exit. But as long as you don”t get distracted, you should be fine.’

Four hours did seem like a good amount of time. It should be enough. Hopefully.

‘Thank you for that complete answer,’ I said with a bow. ‘Now for the next question, how many points do we have?’

I’d asked this already, but maybe my Crystal had more of an idea now.

‘I was afraid you were going to ask that.’ The Crystal did its imitation of a sigh. ‘The answer is the same as before. I don”t know. That”s mainly because we”ve run into red-eyes that are not in the data packet Papa Ank gave me. The giant worm you vanquished is not listed, but I expect it will count for a lot of points. It”s the same with the beetles. There are smaller creatures on the list, but nothing quite like them. Given how durable they are along with their ability to work together, I would anticipate they should be worth a point each. Maybe more. Since you are vanquishing a horde of the creatures, that creates a big unknown in your score.’

The Crystal sighed again.

‘I”m sure you would like a better answer than that, but that”s all I have at the moment. You”ll just have to wait until your run is evaluated.’

Well damn. It didn”t change anything, but it sure would have been nice to know how we were doing.

‘Final question, are you comfortable enough with your new abilities for me to start seriously mapping this place?’

I’d done a bit of mapping with my creations, but I’d held off on really exploring the cave system. That was going to be a lot of data heading Crystal’s way, and I wanted to give it time to get ready.

‘I assume you are going to use your Surfer Dudes?’ it replied. ‘If so, I have enough capacity to handle seven of them at once. I might be able to do more, but let”s try just seven for now.’

‘Wonderful,’ I said and then turned to my Surfers.

‘Map this place,’ I told them. ‘Find a way back to the entrance that doesn”t involve steep climbs or high risk. Also, stay away from natural creatures that will defend their territory and don”t give us any points. I don’t mind taking out a few here and there, but I don’t want to wipe out a whole nest just so we can pass.’

Seven of the Surfers flew a loop in the air to show they understood, and then they took off. Most flew off down the worm”s tunnel, but a few flew into the cavern to check out the cracks in the walls. The remaining three Surfers stayed with us and kept an eye out for trouble.

Not much time had passed, but I checked in with Annabeth anyway. She was doing well and still recovering as fast as she could. There wasn’t anything else I could do at the moment, so I took a few minutes to enjoy watching the map fill in.

The Surfer Dudes are the fastest soul creation I have, and they wasted no time exploring all the passageways we had access to. It was good that they were that quick, as they had a lot of ground to cover.

This place was a labyrinth of tunnels, caverns, steep drop-offs, and streams. To make it even more complicated, most of the caverns had critters that had moved in and made it their home. Thank goodness I didn’t have to figure all this out on my own!

I had every confidence the Surfers would get the data and my Crystal would map a path out of here. I just needed to give them time to work on it.

I checked in with Annabeth and the Miner again. They were doing fine, of course.

I felt restless. I wasn’t used to just sitting there, twiddling my thumbs. I didn’t want to move too far from Annabeth in case we needed to link up again, and there wasn’t anything else I could do.

Or was there!?

Suddenly, I had an idea.

I’d created a whole new self-healing super-powerful material—druidium—that worked both as a nano weapon and armor. There were other soul creations that could use an upgrade as well.

The obvious place to start was with Spike. I’d made the Knuckle Crew’s spikes and blades out of something like steel, but druidium was even better. I swapped out the material and topped them up with magic.

The difference was immediately apparent as they could handle twice as much power as before. That generally meant they would now be twice as effective. I sort of wished I had a level three red-eye to try them on. Maybe now Spike would punch through in one shot!

Encouraged by my success with the attack, I decided to work with Red on defense. I didn”t change any of the vines or icons that made Red such a powerful and versatile soul creation. Instead, I replaced the background everything was on. Not only did it look better, it also protected me with the power of druidium.

I wasn”t just relying on the force rune or the energy distribution. I would soon have real, self-healing armor backing me up. Surely, that would increase my defense by a significant amount.

The enhanced ability took more power, though, and I only had enough to convert Red and two other Hexagons before I ran out. These new, high-density soul creations were thirsty creatures, and I just didn”t have the capacity to convert everything at once.

I really needed to find a way to gather more magic. I planned on getting more from the pond, but I needed to make sure Annabeth had enough magic as well.

I couldn”t do any more upgrades at the moment, so it was perfect timing that my Miner showed up. I’d gotten so focused on what I was doing that I”d lost track of what was happening in the cavern below.

‘All done?’ I asked.

He nodded as he converted the circular saw back to a pickaxe and propped it on his shoulder.

‘The job is complete,’ he declared. ‘The bastards will bug you no more.’

Then he raised a bushy eyebrow to see if I caught the pun. I laughed in appreciation and handed him another tankard of ale. Vanquishing beetles must be thirsty work, as he quickly drank it dry. I took his empty tankard and handed him a full one.

That one went down slower, and I used the time to examine him closely. He was down to less than half power, but he still looked good. His armor was in perfect shape, and his weapon was in excellent condition. The Miner himself looked a bit tired, but who wouldn”t after taking care of that many red-eyes?

I knew these fourth generation soul creations needed a lot of magic to operate, but their efficiency was outstanding. I”d been in the middle of those beetles, and there was no way I could have taken care of that many red-eyes using only the amount of magic he had. I”d have utilized at least ten times that much and probably gotten injured in the process.

‘How many red-eyes did you slice up?’ I asked.

‘Eight hundred and thirty-two,’ he declared proudly.

Wow! I had no idea how many points each beetle was worth, but that had to count for a lot. And he”d done all of it while I”d been recovering. That was just outstanding!

I gave him two more tankards, one for each hand, and then told him to relax in my Throne Room for a while. I”d give him a holler when I needed him again.

I checked in with Annabeth, and she was still healing.

‘The Miner is done, and the cavern is cleared out,’ I messaged her. ‘I’m going to head down and begin storing the magic water. Do you want to come with me, or would you rather stay here?’

I didn”t want to knock her out of her meditation too much, so I waited patiently for the reply.

‘The worm tunnel is clear,’ she replied shortly, ‘and I don”t hear any danger, so I think I will be good on my own. Go ahead and do what you need to. Just call if you need me.’

I got the impression she’d been hurting more than she”d let on, and this recovery time was essential. I gave her shoulder a pat to let her know I understood.

I left two Surfers with her and took the remaining one with me. I couldn”t resist taking a quick look at the map. It was growing quickly. Unfortunately, it also looked like there were a lot of creature nests we would need to move around.

Oh, well. I”d worry about that later. For now, I needed to make sure there weren”t any new enemies waiting to ambush me in the cavern below. I cautiously crawled up to the edge of the hole and looked down.

The cavern was a wreck. It no longer looked like a fairytale playground. Instead, it looked like a war had gone through there. Which, in a way, it had.

I sighed regretfully at the loss of such beauty and sent my Dude to perform one last check of the cavern.

It seemed like it was all clear. My other Dudes had already explored all the cracks and small tunnels in the walls and the ceiling. There were no further enemies waiting to ambush me.

I dropped through the hole and started walking towards the pond. Even though I didn”t see anything, I was still on high alert. Getting swarmed by flesh-eating beetles was no joke. Neither was being eaten by a massive mouth slamming down from the ceiling. I think it was understandable that I was still nervous.

I made it to the pond and knelt down beside it. The water glowed with power, and I felt its presence tingle on my skin. It was the only thing in there that still seemed as beautiful as before.

The attack hit me without warning. One moment I was reaching my hand out to the pond, and the next I was being crushed flat by an overwhelming presence.

This wasn”t a nice glow like the mages in the tournament used, and this was well beyond the aggressive aura-peeling force of the level four ants. This had weight behind it, like a mountain of rock had landed on my soul.

It flexed with Authority, like time itself had judged me and I”d been found wanting.

‘BE STILL,’ it commanded.

It felt like Annabeth’s command when she had made everyone Stop—only much more powerful. I couldn’t help but freeze. I felt like I was a little mouse and a powerful hawk was glaring down at me.

This mage wanted to eat me.

That wasn’t exactly right. It wanted to own me.

But it was more than that. It was filled with rage, and I was the cause.

I’d been thinking of this mage as a person, but enough of its intentions came through for me to realize exactly what I was facing.

This was the Watcher. More than that, this was the Being of Power. This was the mage that had been making these red-eyes. This was the source of all the problems—at least from my perspective.

From its perspective, I was the villain. I was the one taking out its protection. It had invested decades, sometimes centuries, in these movable lifeforms, with the intention of safety and expansion.

It had invested power in these creatures, harnessed their wills, and molded their spirits. Then it had shown them how to do the same to others. All for this moment in time. This moment, when its seeds were ripe. Ripe with power and potency.

This was more than just procreation. More than just condensed magic. This was fate distilled down into the essence of seeds. Life itself in package form, ready to be transported to new places.

It was the culmination of a plan, centuries in the making, to get out of this damn cave. To get away from these damn grazers. To leave this eternal darkness behind and live in the light.

It wasn”t entirely sure what that was, but it knew it would be glorious! And then none of these damn walkers would bother it again.

I had enough focus left to realize all of this was coming from the strange bush beyond the pond.

What the hell?

The source of the red-eyes was a plant?

I would have been a lot more incredulous if its spirit hadn”t been trying to crush the life out of me. As it was, I felt spots gathering in my vision, and I felt like I might pass out.

Instantly, I rejected that notion.

Nope.

No way.

Not going to happen.

I had stood in the presence of Mother Creation. I”d been blessed by the core of the planet.

No scrawny shrub, no matter how old or powerful, could compare to that.

I flexed my aura and pushed back. The pressure eased, but only a tiny bit. It still felt like the entire roof of the cavern had fallen on me. This was so much worse than the level four ants. I was stubborn and powerful myself, but I felt the fear that this plant was going to crush me anyway.

That was when Bermuda decided to wake up. He jumped out of my Throne Room and landed on the floor of the cavern.

The Being of Power didn”t let up on its spiritual pressure, but I could feel I wasn”t its primary focus anymore. I took that opportunity to get my shit together.

I pushed my focus out of my physical self and expanded it to the full range of my magic sight. For the first time, I could see what I was dealing with.

Its presence seemed like red smoke, and it filled the cavern we were in. Actually, it didn”t just fill it; it saturated the space.

It was in every crevice and fold of the rocks—lining every crushed leaf and flower on the floor. This was its turf, its home, and it clearly held the advantage.

With a surge of power, my Marks joined the fight.

‘The cave is yours, mage,’ my Mark of the Deep Earth noted. ‘But we are deep underground. That”s MY advantage.’

Together, we Connected to the cave around us, and immediately, I felt better. Stones understood pressure. Actually, stones loved pressure. The pressure of the mage plant wasn”t physical, but still, the Earth now supported me.

‘I am Life,’ my Mark of the Lagerel spoke up. ‘I am Root. I am Tree! That is My advantage.’

I felt Life flood through me. It built up on my Connection with the Earth, and suddenly, I was filled with a counter resistance. It was like before I had been hollow, and now I was solid with the fibers of Life.

Roots grew out of my spirit and wrapped around me—forming a wall. It wasn”t on the level of the walls I”d taken out when I”d first met the Lagerel, but I still thought it was a respectable first attempt.

For the first time since the attack, I could think, which meant I could plan. Now I just needed a way to beat this thing.

While I”d been getting my defenses together, Bermuda hadn”t been idle. He”d started by giving a big stretch to the front, followed by an equally impressive stretch to the back. He flared his aura a bit to make sure he had the plant’s attention, and it worked. The Being of Power focused on his every move.

Appropriately limbered up, Bermuda then stopped by the magic pool for a drink. For some reason that seemed to rile up the plant. I could see the red smoke of its presence roiling.

After that, he decided he wanted a snack, so he wandered up to the bush, sniffed it all over, and then started chewing on a leaf.

If the plant was mad before, it went full apocalyptic now. Crimson tendrils of smoke danced a wild waltz around him, shrouding him in an eerie veil. Images flashed in my mind almost faster than I could process them.

Apparently, this was how it had all started. Creatures that wandered through the cavern would snack on the bush and eat its leaves and berries. The magic plant despised that and developed a deep-seated hatred for everything that moved. It started attacking all the creatures that came around and learned how to fight through presence alone.

From there, it figured out how to inject its magic into regular creatures and make them do its bidding. That led to the mess with the red-eyes we had today.

Now this irreverent cat was chewing on it, and the bush was beyond furious. It wanted to crush this movable furry creature to a paste. It wanted to shred Bermuda”s spirit and eat his soul.

Of course, Bermuda being what he was, that wasn”t going to happen. The bush raged, and my feisty feline ignored it.

I”m sure Bermuda would feel bad later when he threw up the leaves, but right now, he seemed to be having a ball.

‘Pay attention to everything the mage plant is doing with its spirit,’ my Analytical Side directed. ‘It has obviously learned how to fight this way over a long period of time. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn how to take down mages in a whole new way.’

I gave him a thumbs up, as I completely agreed. Most mages fought with magical weapons or things like fireballs. Getting good at fighting with my presence would give me an advantage in future fights.

For now, though, I needed to win this battle, and that started with coming up with a plan that involved more than defense. I was still physically locked in place by the plant”s first command. It felt like a layer of ice surrounding me. I was pretty sure I could break it, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

When I’d fought the level four red-eyes with my roots, I’d learned the value of attacking where the enemy was weakest. I thought the same thing would work here. I wasn’t going to root the whole cavern, of course, but the mage plant was clearly focused on me and Bermuda. That left the entire rest of the cavern undefended.

‘Clean the walls and the air,’ I said to my Granny Godmothers—directing them to anywhere the red mist was either absent, or just sitting, stagnant. ‘I’ll keep the bush’s attention while you work.’

‘Certainly, dear,’ my head Granny saluted with both dustbusters. ‘You can count on us.’

She started issuing orders, and my cleaners got to work. At first, it was pretty easy, but then the bush realized something was up, and it tried to strike back. I lost a couple Grannies until we figured out that they couldn’t just settle on a spot and stay until it was cleaned up. Instead, they needed to fly around and clean in random locations. That kept the plant guessing, and it had to split its attention even further.

More than once, it tried to flex on the whole cavern and clear out my entire crew. I flexed back, though, and forced the mage plant to redirect all its power and attention back to me.

My Granny Godmothers are fast and tough, and despite the bush’s attempts, it wasn’t long before they dismantled most of the shrub’s home court advantage. I didn’t think the mystic plant could see my magic, my creations, or my presence. Not like I could see what it was doing, and that was driving it crazy.

It just knew that anywhere it wasn’t paying attention, it lost control. It seemed to have a much better focus than a human would have, but it still couldn’t handle my cleaning crew. In the end, it tried to keep any of the magic the Grannies gathered from coming back to me, but it forgot one very important place—the ground beneath me.

We fought in the air, and it hammered my root shield, but for some reason, it didn’t try to attack from below. I guess it just thought that movable creatures didn’t have anything to do with the ground. Regardless, I used my feet to repair my Godmothers and created even more of them.

That also gave me an idea, and I turned my new Lead Miner loose once again. This time, I had him go after the plant’s root structure. His cuts were so thin, maybe the plant wouldn’t notice there was a problem.

He stayed underground and started cutting around the edges of the roots. The plant didn’t attack him, so he carefully started working his way in towards the main core.

I guess Bermuda decided he wasn’t needed anymore, so he grabbed a few more leaves as snacks and took them off to the side. There, he chewed them with great gusto, making happy smacking sounds. I’m sure that still pissed the bush off, but it correctly labeled me as its biggest threat, and I soon felt the weight of all its attention again.

What happened next was almost like a chess match. It started throwing tons of red magic into the mix as it tried to do to me what I’d done to it—which was to attack wherever I was weak.

If I had been on my own, I probably would have lost. The plant was much better at splitting its focus than I was. But with all my soul creations doing their own thing, my team had the upper hand.

The way the bush mixed magic and presence was fascinating, and it wasn’t long before I started doing the same. I may not be the most intelligent person in the room, but I’m a quick learner.

I started with my root shield and added magic to it. I kept it organic, letting the magic flow through the tangled wall like it was water and nutrients.

To my surprise, Octa and her Tangle got into the game too. She hid in the roots and snagged smaller chunks of red magic as they went by. When she was full, she jettisoned the red ownership like she was shooting ink. Then she swam over and gave me her cleaned capsules of neutral magic. I didn’t know she could clean magic like that, and I quickly used the acquired power to make more purple octopuses.

Now we were into the magic part of the battle, Penny came out to play. She was in her Athena battle outfit, of course. She wanted to go out and attack the mage plant directly, but I vetoed that idea. I needed her with me, as my last line of defense. She mattered too much to me for her to get injured.

The red magic swirled around me, like I was in the center of a hurricane. I was winning the edges of the fight, but the plant mage was putting a tremendous amount of pressure on me. I flexed my aura, repaired my root wall, and held on with everything I had.

Sometimes, it didn’t feel like it was enough. At one point, my ears started ringing, and I began feeling sick. Tea went to work and soon cleared that up. Still, the reason I was feeling sick hadn’t gone away.

Eggy tried to help, but he was just too far away, and there was too much interference. Even if he could have been fully present, I wasn’t sure what he could’ve done. I would have kept him close, just like with Penny.

Minutes passed, with both of us struggling to shift the battle to our advantage. The momentum of the fight was on a knife’s edge. If my will collapsed or my attention wavered, the plant would irrevocably gain the upper hand.

I finally decided to break the bush’s command on my physical self, and I started moving towards it. More than the rage, I sensed a growing panic, and the mage plant redoubled its efforts to take me down. I’d sensed that before it still had the hope that it could own me and turn me into a red-eye. Now, it just wanted me dead, and for the first time, it turned loose with its Killing Intent.

I thought it had been bad before. Now it felt like every piece of red magic was filled with razor blades aimed at my heart. The plant’s presence and every part of its power now called for my death. I had never felt anything like this before.

‘Are you getting this?’ My Analytical Side was so excited. ‘It is amazing! You have got to learn how to do this!’

I just groaned and collapsed to my knees. Killing Intent comes from killing others, and the plant had spilled a lot of blood over its centuries of life. It was comfortable with killing. It liked to kill. It wanted to kill. If it could cause every other life form in this entire realm to drop dead, it would happily make it happen.

The Killing Intent gave the bush the edge, as its presence turned deadly. Even the Godmothers and the Tangle had to back off. Collecting magic had turned too dangerous.

I felt like the headsman was approaching with the ax. My doom was nigh.

Death walked the floor of the cavern today.

I felt an answering echo from my soul.

That was okay.

If death walked the floor, then the scythe wasn’t coming for me.

The Killing Intent circled me like swords, and resisting that would just leave me cut and bloody.

So I didn’t resist it.

I accepted it.

And I judged it.

I fully Connected with the bush, powerful mage that it was, and I sent my verdict.

‘I accept that you wish to kill me. I accept that you wish to kill all creatures, both those that move and those that do not. Those that live above ground as well as below.’

I felt the presence cut me, and my soul grew back stronger.

‘I have heard your intentions. I have seen your actions. I have seen worker ants cut down from behind. I have fought with warriors defending their home.’

As I spoke, I felt my anger rising. I was an honorary member of the black ant’s hive. Today, justice would be served.

‘You are a scourge. A plague upon the land.’

I got to my feet.

‘I stand today in judgment of you.’

Suddenly, the All-Rune was with us. His presence filled the cavern. I remembered something I hadn’t thought about for a long time.

‘I am a Champion of the Balance. I declare that you are not part of the Balance.’

I started walking towards the bush.

‘By the power vested in me by the All-Rune, I find you guilty. The sentence is death.’

The plant panicked. Red magic flew everywhere. It’s Killing Intent scattered.

Through our Connection I heard one clear question.

‘Who are you?’

‘I am the Destroyer,’ I replied.

That was one of the titles I’d uttered in the Garden of Truth at Sandy and John’s wedding. Today, I was going to live up to that title.

My Killing Intent, backed by the authority of the All-Rune, occupied the same place as the bush, and I shredded its spirit. My Lead Miner cut the main root of the plant, and I felt its spirit howl. When I arrived at the bush, I reached down and ripped it out of the earth. I had enough mind to pluck off the berries and give them to Penny for safe keeping before sucking the life out of the physical part of the mage plant.

The leaves turned brown and fell off. The wood twisted and cracked, like all the moisture had been sucked out. I tossed the shrub to the side. It was done, but the source of all red-eyes wasn’t finished yet.

Somehow, its spirit still lived.