Lilith narrowed her eyes, her gaze piercing through the chapel's blue mist. The system reacted instantly, flashing a cascade of red warnings - the likes of which she hadn't seen since the game began.
[Tree of Damned Grudges - Yggdrasil of Despair]
Type: Unique Spiritual Entity
Description: A malevolent tree woven from thousands of souls that died in agony. It feeds on hatred and sorrow. It possesses terrifying mental power capable of crushing the will of entire armies.
Traits: An extremely rare specimen. Possesses near-infinite regeneration as long as its soul energy reserve is not exhausted.
Weakness: The Heart of the Abyss, hidden deep within the tangle of roots.
Lilith took a deep, wheezing breath. She understood one thing: none of the initial Demon Kings, acting alone, would have the slightest chance against such specifications. This was a monster designed to destroy entire hero raids. Fortunately for her, the Yggdrasil of Despair was a mindless entity acting on pure defensive instinct. And the presence of three powerful succubi had just been deemed a high-level threat.
Suddenly, the tree's gargantuan crown began to tremble, and thousands of faces on the bark wailed in unison. Hundreds of fruits the size of human heads appeared on the black branches like rotting grapes. A second later, they all burst at once with a wet squelch.
"What the hell!" Lilith shouted, leaping back.
From each burst fruit shot a streak of black smoke, which in a fraction of a second formed into a distorted, levitating entity with elongated talons and empty eye sockets.
[Grudge Spirits - Spores of Damnation]
Description: These are no ordinary spirits. They are an extension of the Grudge Tree's will.
Threats: Mental Attack and Self-Destruction.
"Girls, watch out!" Lilith shrieked, extending her hands as purple sparks flew from them. "These shadows are weak individually, but there are too many of them! They attack with a scream that ignores your physical defense, and if they reach you... they'll blow themselves up! Don't let them get close!"
In just a few seconds, the air in the cave turned black. Hundreds of spirits flew from the tree like a furious swarm of bees from a struck hive. The first wave opened their unnaturally wide mouths and emitted a sound that resembled metal grinding against glass combined with a child's cry.
Kala clutched her head, feeling her HP flicker downward even though no spirit had touched her. "That racket... it's splitting my skull!" she snarled, trying to slice through the mist with her talons, but her physical attacks passed through the apparitions with almost no resistance.
Mina immediately slammed her palms into the bone-strewn earth. "If they ignore physicality, then we'll ignore their numbers! Thorned Shroud Barrier!"
Thick vines erupted from the ground around them, forming a dome to shield them, but the spirits began to slam their bodies against it. Each impact ended in a powerful black explosion that tore through the magical plants and sent shockwaves straight into the succubi.
Lilith saw her mana bar dropping rapidly due to the mine's curse while the swarm grew denser. If these hundreds of spirits detonated simultaneously next to them, even their high stats wouldn't save them from death.
"We have to do something before this swarm buries us!" Lilith shouted, her eyes burning with the cold fire of determination.
The situation inside the underground chapel became critical in a fraction of a second. As soon as Lilith pushed off the bone floor to attack, the ground around the trunk of the Grudge Tree literally exploded. Thousands of black, slick roots shot upward like a writhing swarm of snakes, lashing the air with unnatural force.
This was one of this Millennial Monster's most dangerous abilities. Anyone caught by these tentacles would not only be immobilized but also rapidly drained of mana points. Without MP, the succubi would become defenseless victims, condemned to a slow death in the grip of rot.
"Up! Everyone up!" Lilith screamed, her wings cutting through the thick, stifling air.
Her instinct worked flawlessly. The roots, though powerful and numerous, had a range limit - they were unable to reach anything high up near the cave's vault. Kala and Mina, hearing the order, immediately unfurled their leathery wings and shot toward the ceiling, escaping the black forest of tentacles that whipped the empty space where the girls had stood just moments before with a dull thud.
However, escaping upward did not mean safety. The cacophony of screams and wails intensified as hundreds of black Grudge Spirits, unrestricted by gravity, flew after them.
"Dammit! These flying trash-heaps won't leave me alone!" Kala roared, her talons slicing the air, but her physical attacks only dispersed the black smoke that composed the ghosts. The spirits immediately reformed, pressing their suicidal attack.
Suddenly, Lilith was surrounded. A dozen spirits dived toward her simultaneously, opening their unnaturally large mouths. Before she could perform a full dodge, three of them detonated right by her side.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Black explosions of sorrow rocked her body, and the system began pouring out red notifications:
[-8 HP!]
[-9 HP!]
[-5 HP!]
Lilith grit her teeth, feeling a wave of mental pain wash over her skull. Her health points were falling at a rate that made her head swim. Fortunately, her natural stats were high enough to avoid critical effects like stunning or loss of consciousness. If she lost control of her wings for even a second, she would fall straight into the waiting roots below, which would mean the definitive end.
"At least they aren't too fast!" Lilith cried out, performing a sharp barrel roll to avoid another wave of kamikazes. "Girls, maneuver! Don't let them cluster in one spot!"
The three succubi began a frantic dance beneath the vault of the gigantic cavern. They dove, climbed, and turned sharply, trying to lose the black swarm that exploded around them constantly like anti-aircraft shells. The blue glow of the ghostly lights and Kala's scarlet aura mingled in the gloom, creating a macabre spectacle of a struggle for survival.
Lilith knew, however, that this was only a stalling tactic. The mine's curse was still draining their mana, and the Grudge Tree seemed to have an infinite supply of "fruit." If they didn't find a way to strike directly at the monster's heart hidden in the roots, they would eventually succumb to exhaustion and be consumed by this macabre mausoleum.
Lilith dove sharply to avoid another spirit explosion, feeling the shockwave buffet her wings. Any other Demon King would likely have thrown everything they had at the giant's trunk, but Lilith saw more.
The system analysis pulsed warningly: this tree was merely a colossal, regenerating decoy. Every severed limb, every gash in the bark vanished in the blink of an eye, fed by the energy of souls and the desperation of those fighting it.
To win against it in an open war of attrition was an impossibility. It was a trap with no exit.
"Cover me!" Mina's sudden, shrill cry pierced through the cacophony of screams.
Before anyone could react, the small succubus folded her wings and landed with momentum on Kala's shoulders, grabbing onto her horns.
"What are you doing, you brat?!" Kala snarled, nearly losing altitude under the sudden weight, but instinctively began to maneuver even more violently to shield them both from the incoming spirits.
Mina didn't answer. She squeezed her eyelids shut so tight that her entire face contorted in a grimace of monstrous focus.
During this, Lilith feverishly scanned the tangle of roots below. Her Analysis showed that the heart existed, but she couldn't pinpoint the exact location in that mass of writhing tentacles.
Curse it! she thought, clenching her teeth.
We have no ranged piercing attacks! If Lysandra were here with her ice spears, she could punch through this mass of meat and wood... Do we have to retreat?
The thought of failure burned her more than the weakening curse. She looked at her mana bar - it was melting before her eyes. If they fled now, the Grudge Tree would recover its strength, and they would waste all their progress.
Then, the air around Mina literally vibrated with an excess of nature magic.
"GOT YOU!"
Mina shrieked, her eyes snapping open, blazing with a blinding green light that momentarily eclipsed the chapel's ghostly fires.