I was Alraune, a plant monster girl.
I had just defeated Big Sister Dryades with fire and caught the branch falling from the Divine Tree with my vines. It was far too suspicious that this branch alone had survived the inferno. Besides, I was certain I’d heard a voice from above a moment ago; there was definitely something special about this piece of wood.
"Gotcha," I said, my voice intentionally provocative.
The branch didn't react. Suspecting she was trying to play dumb, I sank my dodder into the wood and bit down.
"It hurts! S-stop that!"
Big Sister Dryades’s voice shrieked from the branch. As I’d suspected, this was her core body. She had used an Emergency Escape to flee the Divine Tree, compressing her essence into a single branch. It seemed she didn't even have the strength left to manifest her spirit form. She likely intended to plant herself in the ground like a cutting, hoping to grow back into a tree.
But I wasn't about to let that happen. By keeping her pinned with my vines, I could prevent her from ever taking root again.
"I suppose you’re quite pleased with yourself, capturing me like this."
Even reduced to a branch, she was still clinging to life. She was truly persistent. I knew I was one to talk, but plants really were incredibly tenacious.
While I was venting my frustration by gnawing on the branch with my dodder, the younger Lady Dryades moved toward me. With a look of deep pity, the younger sister called out to the elder.
"Effen Big Sister..."
"Särige? I never imagined I’d lose to the likes of you."
I gathered those were the names of the Dryades sisters. As that thought crossed my mind, Lady Dryades shouted a question at her sister.
"Why did you leave the forest and join the Demon King’s Army back then? I was waiting all this time for you to come home..."
"Hmph. You have some nerve saying that with the same mouth that betrayed me."
"It’s a misunderstanding! I never betrayed you, Big Sister!"
"It’s no use lying. I saw it with my own eyes."
Big Sister Dryades spoke as if she held a deep-seated grudge against her sister. I wondered what could have happened between them fifty years ago. However, my curiosity caused me to let my guard down.
"I haven’t lost yet! If I take over this Alraune’s body, I can regain my power!"
The Dryades branch moved with a sliding motion. Then, with a dull thud, the Branch of the Divine Tree plunged into my bulb.
"Hyah!?"
A foreign object was being thrust deep into me. I felt roots snaking out from the tip of the branch, invading and violating my interior as they spread. It was a revolting sensation. Big Sister Dryades’s voice echoed from within my very body.
"I thought my greatest natural enemy was the Flame Dragon, Glühschwanz-sama, but it seems I was wrong. I never imagined I’d struggle this much against one of my own kind, but I’ll make your power my own."
I groaned. She was pushing deeper and deeper.
"Just as the Princess did to me, I’m going to hijack your body!"
She was a sore loser if I’d ever seen one. To think she was still trying to kill me even after being reduced to a twig. While I struggled, the branch completely submerged itself into my bulb. Simultaneously, a flood of foreign thoughts—a third party’s consciousness—rushed into my mind. She was launching a mental assault to seize control.
The branch delved further into my core. At this depth, it would be impossible to pull it out from the outside.
In that case, I’d just have to extract it from the inside.
I thrust my vines into my lower mouth, piercing my own body internally. I seized the branch that was attempting to assimilate with my bulb and hauled it up into my gullet. Effectively, I was predating the branch with my lower mouth.
"As if I, a Dryades, would allow myself to be eaten by a mere Alraune!"
I used my vines to pin down the thrashing branch and began chewing with my lower mouth, punishing her with my digestive fluid. Honestly, she needed to learn how to behave.
"This can't be... I won't let myself disappear like thi—aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
With one final scream, Big Sister Dryades fell silent. Shortly after, the branch was fully digested.
It was over—or so I thought. The next moment, a sensation like an explosion rocked my insides. It felt as if someone invisible was rampaging through my guts.
"My sister’s spirit mana is running wild!" Lady Dryades cried, grabbing my body and trying to steady me.
The seizures wouldn't stop.
"At this rate, the Alraune will be possessed by my sister! Spit her out, now!"
I thought I’d digested her, but she was still trying to assimilate. Big Sister Dryades was terrifying. Her sheer obsession with survival was almost worthy of respect. But how was I supposed to "spit her out" when the branch had already dissolved?
"Turn her into a seed and expel her!"
At Lady Dryades’s suggestion, I took action. I forced the volatile, expanding spirit mana into a seed. Realizing it would be dangerous to release it at full power, I performed a bit of selective breeding to siphon off some of her strength. With practiced precision, I pollinated a small flower I’d grown on a vine.
Then, I spat the seed containing the spirit mana out of my body. It fell to the ground with a soft plop. Instantly, the mana rampaging inside me subsided. I’d managed to avoid being hijacked.
As I breathed a sigh of relief, the seed I’d just birthed began to sprout. It grew into a short sapling, and from that sapling, a tiny spirit manifested. It was a young girl with blue and red ivy-like hair. She looked exactly like what I imagined Big Sister Dryades must have looked like as a child.
Lady Dryades noticed it too. "Big Sister... is that you?" she whispered.
I watched the tiny spirit in a daze until she suddenly opened her mouth.
"Mother."
She pointed at me with a beaming smile. "Alraune Mother!"
Stunned by her lack of malice, I froze. Even if she had shrunk, having my arch-nemesis call me "Mother" was more than I could process. Lady Dryades was the first to grasp the situation.
"It appears my sister’s memories are gone," she explained calmly. "She has been reborn as a new Dryades through you."
Wait, what? Does that mean I just gave birth to a Mini-Dryades? And she’s technically Big Sister Dryades? I wasn't sure I could accept this reality.
"Mother!" the little spirit cheered, smiling innocently at me.
It really seemed her memories were wiped. Her hair wasn't just the original blue; it had red streaks, meaning she had inherited my flower DNA. When I’d converted her into a seed, my genes must have mixed with her essence, overwriting her personality.
Lady Dryades patted the head of the Young Girl Dryades, who was cheering with her hands in the air. "With this, she will likely never do anything bad again. I shall raise her properly myself."
As she spoke, Lady Dryades looked a little lonely. The sister she had known was gone, replaced by this new being. Even though she was right there, they could never speak of the past again.
"It is a blessing that she turned out this way," Lady Dryades said, looking at me with concern. "But is your body alright?"
"I'm... fine."
The rampaging mana was gone. I couldn't feel any trace of the old Big Sister Dryades within me, and I doubted I could ever birth another sapling like that again.
However, a few fragments of someone’s memories remained in the back of my mind. I knew instantly that these were precious, unforgettable moments for the original Big Sister Dryades. They were memories from fifty years ago—the moment she had been betrayed by her lover, the Former Hero.
Yet, as I looked at those memories, I felt a strange sense of incongruity. Because she had been a primary participant, she hadn't been able to judge the situation calmly. She hadn't noticed the flaws. But as an unrelated third party, I could see a subtle contradiction in the events.
"Lady Dryades, please tell me."
"Tell you what?" she asked.
"What happened fifty years ago?"
Lady Dryades paused for a moment. "Very well," she answered softly. "Though I am ashamed to say I was mostly hidden behind the barrier back then. I only know the details from what I was told later by the Hero’s Ally who was there."
"The Hero's... Ally?"
"He is likely the only human left who knows the truth of that day. If you still wish to hear it, I will tell you."
The fragments I’d recovered were like disconnected photographs. I suspected that by not fully absorbing her memories, I’d saved myself from being possessed, but now I had holes in the story that I desperately needed to fill with another's testimony.
"Please. Tell me."
"...I understand."
Lady Dryades began to speak of her sister’s past. But the story wasn't just a piece of history. To my surprise, the things she spoke of were not unrelated to me. At the time, however, I didn't realize just how much her story would influence the course of my life.
The long struggle with Big Sister Dryades had finally ended. But what truly happened fifty years ago? And who was this ally of the Former Hero?
Next: Novice Sage’s Continental Travelogue.