Timeless Prominence

They left that safe thicket at first light, before the sun had even risen above the eastern horizon.

With the humans gone, the crows finally descended down in desire of the cobra corpse. Much meat and blood still remained. By consuming this rank four demon snake meat, some of these crows might soon gain spirituality themselves.

Yet, only a few bites later, an eagle’s cry sent many of the crows scattering into the air, fearful of the impending threat. A few brave crows stole a few extra bites before they, too, took to the skies.

A few hyena-based demon beasts had begun crawling in through the discovered entry tunnel, only to yelp and back out after hearing the demon eagle’s soul-intimidating cry.

Yet there is a being interested in the cobra meat and blood that was not sent scurrying by the eagle’s cry-- the Blood God, Hahrn, of the Blood Devil Sect!

Despite the other four devils’ displeasure, Hahrn could not resist his vice. Devils always had certain vices that were like an obsession in their minds, and for Hahrn along with others belonging to the Blood Devil Sect, their arts caused a deep desire to consume powerful blood.

The other four devils weren’t exactly going to cause a scene over Hahrn’s vice, and as such, could only hope that his actions would not lead to unexpected results. If he contributed nothing, he would receive no share of the second prince’s rewards.

What they did not expect, however, was that Hahrn’s actions would trigger the demon eagle’s rage. The demon eagle’s speed suddenly rose when it noticed that its cry failed to dissuade Hahrn’s consuming of the cobra flesh.

Hahrn hadn’t even consumed a quarter of the remaining cobra corpse before talons descended from the sky! Blood leaked out of his lips as he tilted his eyes upwards ferociously with bare and pointed teeth!

Meanwhile, Beincen’s party moved past the thicket, dismissing Hahrn as a solo act. They chose not to interfere in the cobra battle, finding no openings due to the continuous advantage that Rein and his allies held against the cobra.

“These devils turn into fools, governed by the trigger of their vice,” muttered Naohr to his nephew as they hurried past. They, too, saw the approaching eagle-based demon. Most advancers hate combat against winged demons. It is always difficult and troublesome to contend against a demon at home in the vast skies.

Rein and his allies soon entered the Endless Mountains, and by midday, had located the valley that supposedly functioned as the Blissful-Endflower’s lair.

“For what reasons were you in the Western Wilderness before?” Rein had been listening to Xeeseir speak of his past throughout their journey.

“Hired by the nobles, of course,” Xeeseir sighed as he recalled his rough early days. “The nobles often hire and send groups of mercenaries to retrieve valuable herbs and ores for them from the western wilderness.”

“It is good pay, but we only receive coin upon our safe return. Meaning those who lose their lives would not receive any compensation for their families…” Xeeseir’s low tone indicated that many fellow mercenaries he knew had probably lost their lives on these tasks.

“For your sister?”

“Only initially…” Xeeseir sighed again. “A noble in the capital took an interest in her, and has forcefully taken her. I…” Xeeseir shook his head. “The noble threatened that if she would not bear a child for him, my life would be forfeit. Ever since then…”

Rein had no words to comfort this forthright man who he saw as a respectable older brother.

“Perhaps I can be of assistance, one day.” Rein believed that Xeeseir had already contributed much to his own pursuit of those responsible for the Golden Desert Town’s destruction. Returning the favor is fair.

“It’s too late… pointless…” Xeeseir only shook his head as he dispelled his sorrowful history. He hardened his heart and tone. “I do not desire any of you to take action. Do not do so. It is pointless.”

These words did not convince Rein. Rein assumed that brother Xeeseir only wished to avoid imposing upon others. He promised himself then and there that he would seek out Xeeseir’s sister if he ever had the chance.

“We’ve arrived,” Lyne announced. Her interaction with Rein had returned to nearly full normalcy despite the events of the previous night. Minus the rare few frosty glares that Lyne directed at him.

Rein was quite relieved. Their professional cooperation was needed for their impending mission.

At the entrance to the valley, Rein looked up to see the sun high and fiery in the clear skies. He would lose control of his flame once it left his body, but this mattered not-- no environmental elements would snuff out those flames today.

Rein stood at the front, ready to spread his flames. Lyne stood at his side, with an arm layered with a frosty shell, ready to cool his chest if needed. The others stood behind, warily examining their surroundings in preparation for an assault by the Blissful-Endflower and its minions.

Before Rein began his razing of vegetation, his eyes recognized rather valuable herbs within the valley! It should be of no surprise-- this is the lair of the Blissful-Endflower, a rank five demon plant after all!

Rein couldn’t resist picking a herb that he recognized to be a century old nine-colored grass and storing that within a maloewood box within his spatial pouch. Decades-old herbs are common, but anything from centuries to ten thousand years aged herbs had much value. Longer than ten thousand years risked a herb or plant gaining spirituality, turning into a demon plant, at which point… well… problems may arise, to put it simply.

“Be careful, brother,” Xeeseir growled. “Some of these may be traps placed by the Blissful-Endflower. Remember, it may have only gained intelligence in the past few decades, but it has subconsciously observed the world for at least ten thousand plus years.”

Xeeseir’s words reminded Rein to not lose his mind over the herb-gold in this valley. Rein did not really desire the value of these herbs-- he desired to receive instruction from the alchemist instructor Vahrk. Bringing back valuable herbs was certain to give him benefits. Their two teams would receive contribution points as well.

Seeing nothing of much worth remaining in his immediate vicinity, Rein, ignited wood with lightning, and a flame with arcs of static shot forth from his lips, setting the area aflame.

The group quickly moved forward to another area, and they all widened their eyes.

There was no need for there to be one studied in alchemy to recognize the tree before them-- a lychee tree! Rein determined it to be a centuries old tree, and as such, its fruits must contain certain properties beneficial to advancers.

He plucked many bunches of lychee, and preserved them in another maloewood box. He hesitated to set this tree aflame-- however, he could not exactly take away such a heavy tree, and he needed to enrage and defeat this Blissful-Endflower, in order to bait the appearance of the bounty target Dujahrn.

The centuries old lychee tree soon burst into flames.

“What a pity,” Wilo muttered softly.

Then… a centuries-old mangosteen tree appeared before them. Rein harvested the fruits, and once again set the area aflame. Lyne tapped his chest and cooled his internals with her icy aurae.

“This Blissful-Endflower…she’s a gardener,” Wilo sighed.

A screech of anger echoed through the valley then to express this gardener’s fury. Rein and his allies examined their surroundings in alarm.

“Dodge!” Wilo yelled. None questioned why she said such words, but they all rolled outwards at her words.

Thorny vines ambushed them from the soil beneath their feet! If they ignored Wilo’s words, they would have certainly been injured by this surprise attack if not speared to death on the spot!

“Quickly!” Nunan commanded them to rush forward.

Rein no longer held back the heat in his chest. His heart wrenched in pain as he accidentally set aflame a centuries-old mutated flower. He did his very best to harvest valuable herbs as they rushed along, but accidents were bound to happen.

The thumping sounds behind as the group dashed forward was, of course, caused by the pursuing Blissful-Endflower.

However, it was unable to catch up to the group. Rein had set the environment aflame, a weakness to plant demons, while Nunan launched many spikes behind them that activated traps to stall the Blissful-Endflower.

Though the Blissful-Endflower might be a powerful rank five demon plant, its primary body lacked speed.

“Again!” Wilo yelled.

The team dodged outwards sideways again, splitting into two lines as they sidestepped a number of spiky vines that shot up from the soil.

Rein took this opportunity to spit flames at these vines, and they heard the screams of the Blissful-Endflower upon the burning of her extended limbs.

It was then that a fog began filling the whole deep-lying valley.

“The nerve-destroying poison!” yelled Nunan.

Rein and his allies immediately withdrew vials and consumed a sip of a liquid to protect their nerves from this poison. However, unlike when they were against the three-headed cobra, they could very well run out of the antidote, if the Blissful-Endflower chose to hide itself and wait for the antidote to wear off! This was why they had chosen to burn the whole lair and send the Blissful-Endflower into an uncontrollable rage!

Rein reached forth to harvest a centuries-old red spider lily, and right as he pulled the plant’s roots up from the soil, a vine simultaneously shot towards his chest!

Though he barely dodged the vine, it curled and wrapped around his body in a bid to pull him into the ground! The thorns on the vine indented his skin, failing to penetrate his body for now. Rein immediately spat a flame that sent the vine writhing as it curled and sank back into the hole.

Rein breathed a sigh of relief when he freed himself. He would not be able to harvest any more of these herbs. The Blissful-Endflower must be laying in wait underneath the soil.

The silhouette body of a man gradually solidified in the now-thick poisonous spored fog as they moved forward. Rein and his allies squinted at this figure, and recognized him as the bounty target, shell-realmed devil, Fuxeire!

None even bothered to recall what abilities this stumbling man might have, and simultaneously launched their attacks.

This devil had clearly succumbed to the poisonous spores of this fog, perhaps having unwittingly followed Rein and his allies into this valley without the necessary preparation. Their various melee and ranged attacks peppered the devil's body to death in a blink of the eye.

They glanced amongst themselves with small smiles at their luck. An explosive Nunan trap drew them back to attention, and they sped forth again with Rein constantly spitting his flame to raze the valley’s vegetation, while Lyne occasionally cooled his chest.

Soon, the valley became a burning inferno, and the spores in the fog were repeatedly rendered harmless by the rising heat and smoke.

Rein and his allies planted themselves at the center of the valley in preparation to confront the Blissful-Endflower that had chased them this whole time.

Lyne slashed her sword as she performed stances around the group, forming an ice wall to protect the group from flame and smoke.

This was the moment of truth. They all took another sip of their antidote to refresh their defenses and protect their nerves. They waited for the slow Blissful-Endflower’s arrival.

“You wicked human bastards, thieves, pests! Only capable of destruction and nothing else. You…” As the Blissful-Endflower came closer, they noticed that underneath its screeches, there existed the whisperings of leaves, which formed comprehensible words within their ears.

Cracking and popping noises sounded as a huge lumbering grotesque plant smashed through Lyne’s ice wall. It had a wide curvy body like a fat eggplant that was almost woman-like, along with a head of thick and vibrant petals. A poisonous yellow fog was being constantly ejected from a skyward mouth at the center of these petals.

Its legs and feet were made of roots and vines, and many of these surrounded its main body in  a raised position, like snakeheads ready to jab at the enemy.

All-in-all, the Blissful-Endflower stood thirty feet tall and forty feet wide!

Rein reflexively spat a torrent of flame at the appearance of the Blissful-Endflower.

The Blissful-Endflower simply flapped its vines in some odd motion, and the flames were blown to the side by a gust of wind, melting a section of Lyne’s ice wall instead!

“Flame-bastard. You think I can’t deal with a bit of fire? I only wish to avoid setting the whole of the side mountains aflame!”

Rein widened his eyes. He hadn’t expected the Blissful-Endflower to already have such intelligence and considerations.

The others were similarly filled with wariness.

“Pay us back with your flesh!” The Blissful-Endflower screeched and a thousand vines all at least two feet thick shot up from the ground!

Rein and his allies were ready to avoid this move, but they were now surrounded in all directions by a thousand writhing thorny vines! Rein spat his flame again, but it only burned a few, unable to do any wide extensive damage.

“How?!” Nunan questioned, exasperated as she slashed a dagger at a vine which wrapped around an inscription-flashing stake in her hand. There were no records of the Blissful-Endflower having a thousand vines! Rank five demon plants should not have this humongous volume of a body!

The flashing hypnotic shell of Zehz was useless against the vines, and he could only dodge until a vines wrapped itself around his left ankle, immobilizing him on the spot.

Bohr, on the other hand, wrestled against the vines with his defensive-shelled body covered in a metallic gleam.

Chirh swung his shortsword, constantly backstepping ten feet in many directions in an attempt to escape.

Xeeseir wasn’t sure if any of the Blissful-Endflower’s vines used aurae-based attacks, and as such, he repeatedly avoided the vines while firing differently augmented arrows at the main body of the Blissful-Endflower. Many of these were blocked by clusters of vines.

Suey and Jory’s bronze whips were severely ineffective with so many thick vines blocking the swing of the whips. A vine soon wrapped around Suey’s arm, but she successfully freed herself as she shifted her bone and flexible flesh, trained as she was by the combined body-tempering ‘Bone and Organ Shift Boundless Dissipation’ Art.

Jory had slightly more difficulty freeing herself, but she had trained somewhat in the more basic ‘Boundless Dissipation’ Art as well, and eventually slipped free with some assistance from Suey.

Karsutz was their savior this time. He melded into the shadows, and the vines could not find him no matter how they searched. His hidden weapons would fly and strike to free any struggling against the deluge of vines.

“Have no fear,” Lyne said as she coolly froze vines around her with every strike of her icy longsword. Some of these vines freed themselves, but their movements became slowed as well, giving Lyne much more time to react.

“I will activate my ultimate art,” Lyne declared as her eyes narrowed in determination.

“Mistress Xuere! You can’t--” Nunan’s protestation was silenced.

“It is unexpected for this rank five demon to be this large with so many limbs,” Lyne continued. “Rein. Be ready!”

Lyne withdrew a bottle of pills from a spatial ring on her finger, and she poured all of these pills into her mouth!

“I can’t quite control this strength properly yet as an upper shell advancer, so defend yourself!” Lyne said as the cloud of frosty aurae around her body thickened while pouring into her body through her orifices.

The vines attempted to stop Lyne from activating her art, but they froze upon coming in contact with the very air a few feet away from Lyne’s glowing frostbite blue body.

“Terrain of the Ice Phoenix!” Lyne heroically shouted as an explosive icy aura cascaded outwards from her as the epicenter. The thousand vines, including the rank five main demon plant body slowed to a stop as its whole body was assaulted by Lyne’s icy aurae.

Rein’s allies were all frozen in an icy shell as well, and their eyes rolled about their statuesque bodies, fearful as they sensed an icy chill penetrating into their bodies. They all cycled the aurae in the bodies to resist this chill.

Unlike the others, Rein released the draconic fire created by his red draconic lightning, and allowed the heat to inundate his whole body. He was the first to break free!

He activated his ‘Frog Leg Release’, and his toes shattered the ice-layered ground as he shot forth at the frozen main body of the Blissful-Endflower!

His bronze-ranked tempered body cracked a small opening in the icy shell encasing the Blissful-Endflower, and Rein gathered all of his strength as he ignited wood with his red draconic lightning, continuously breathing the draconic flame through this gap onto the Blissful-Endflower’s stationary body!

A painful screech sounded as the Blissful Endflower burned within the half-melting frozen shell caused by Lyne’s icy art.

Lyne slumped to her knees upon watching the death of the Blissful-Endflower, her lips pale, her hair now completely frostbite blue, barely able to move her body due to the chill that now permeated her bones. Despite having taken all of her heat-based pills, the icy art had taken a heavy toll on her.

Rein moved to assist the freeing of his allies. The chill that Lyne had inserted into his body prevented the continuous flame, formed within his chest, from harming his own body.

His allies, after being freed, could still barely move themselves, and sat down to continue the circulation of their aurae. Rein might have melted the icy shell, but could not assist them internally.

Rein did, however, pour a weak flame into Suey’s lips, who very much took advantage of this as she moaned and swirled her tongue.

Jory, often shy and reserved, pulled at Rein’s arms to indicate her desire for assistance as well. Though Rein never saw Jory as more than Suey’s twin sister, he was happy to deliver some heat into Jory’s lips.

He dared not provide assistance to Lyne-- he remained staunch in his decision to avoid becoming an open enemy of the second prince.

By now, half of the Blissful-Endflower had burned away, and Rein finally raised his Soak Staff to gather a water droplet.  Suey and Jory assisted to extinguish the flame with two serpents forming a water vortex.

They did this to, of course, preserve parts of the Blissful-Endflower, hoping to use it to bait Dujahrn. With some luck, the heartblood of the Blissful-Endflower could be collected.

It was at this stage, that suddenly, ten figures flitted into position to surround Rein and his allies!

Rein eyes immediately recognized the smirking Beincen, with the scholarly Naohr beside him, blocking his path to harvest the Blissful-Endflower! To their side stood a hulking man with a cannon on his shoulder, who had delivered Rein the message to meet at the Halls’ northern outpost on next month’s full moon.

Though Beincen and Naohr believed Malak to be on their side, Rein was uncertain of this man’s intentions.

“So this is the man?” Yidahr brandished a sword as energy from the midday sun streamed down from the sky to gather around his blade, forming a blazing edge. Rein recognized the sigil on Yidahr’s robes to be that of the Sun Sword Sect.

“Indeed, brother,” Beincen replied, his eyes dark. He, too, withdrew a sword and activated the selfsame art, though his control appeared weaker, having only been recently taught the art thanks to his hidden ancestors’ position within the Sun Sword Sect. “I only request that you ensure that I get to deal the final blow.”

Yidahr nodded with a smile.

“Did you think you would have this day?” Beincen raised his chin as he looked down upon Rein. “Today will be your death. Your allies are still recovering. Let us--”

An eagle’s shriek sounded and a huge winged shadow covered Rein, his allies, and the House Larne group!

Beincen was enraged at having been interrupted. He looked up as he opened his mouth to express his anger, only to shut his lips as he rolled sideways to dodge!

A bloody pulp of a man crashed into Beincen’s original spot. A few drops of blood splattered onto the scholarly Naohr, who widened his eyes when he discovered that the blood was corroding through his inscribed robes.

The dispersed droplets of blood gathered together around the bloody pulp of the human body and reformed the shape of Hahrn, the Blood God of the Blood Devil Sect!

“It’s the Blood God, Hahrn!” Nunan had not expected this man to show up! At least, not for the Blissful-Endflower, which carried little to no blood that would attract one such as Hahrn. The Blissful-Endflower’s heartblood wasn’t even really blood. They only called it such because of the standard nomenclature in the advancer world.

“Hah! You dumb bird-brained demon!” Hahrn roared in laughter. “You think you can defeat me?!” He bent his knees, ready to explode skywards to re-engage the gigantic eagle-based demon blocking the midday sun.

Nunan was sent into further alarm as a new vine suddenly extended from the ground and wrapped itself from Hahrn’s legs! 

“Huh…?” Hahrn looked down at the vines wrapped around his ankles.

Nunan’s mind spun. The thousand vines. The ease! The ease of the burning of the valley. Lyne’s icy art was powerful, but it wasn’t well-controlled…

“Escape! This isn’t a rank five demon plant! It’s a rank six one, perhaps higher, closing in on complete metamorphosis!” That was Nunan’s sudden epiphany!

Then, the ground shattered! Rein and his allies fell! The House Larne group dropped downwards as well! When Rein gazed below his feet, his eyes were met with the wide mouth of a humongous carnivorous plant with vines that spanned an underground cavern for a thousand feet!

“What the fuck?! By the Devil--” Rein was filled with astonishment as he watched the Blood God, Hahrn, visibly hysterical as the vine pulled him directly towards the carnivorous plant demon’s mouth!