As Simon was baptized by the power of the combined skills of the Fleshwood, he felt his body going through a change that reminded him of when he first obtained Devour .
His entire body, mind, and soul were going through a change Simon could not properly put into words.
It was painful, but due to his absurdly high pain tolerance, he did not scream or groan. He just endured the pain and observed the changes that were occurring in his body, mind, and soul.
However, unlike the baptism of Devour , Simon quickly realized that something was different.
The black light pouring down from the black star was changing.
It became thicker and darker.
He could feel a strange vitality within it.
The vitality was so dense and absurd that Simon felt as if every cell in his body was drowning in life itself.
His body trembled.
His soul trembled.
Even his Sea of Consciousness trembled.
Then his vision changed.
Simon suddenly found himself standing in an unfamiliar place, and the first thing he noticed was the sky.
Or rather...
The absence of a sky.
Above him was an endless mass of roots. Countless roots intertwined together to form something resembling a ceiling.
The roots stretched so far into the distance that Simon could not see where they ended.
’Where am I?’
Just as Simon had this thought, he noticed something strange.
There was light. A faint crimson light to be exact.
The light flowed through the roots like blood flowing through veins.
Simon furrowed his brows slightly when he saw this light.
’Are these the roots of the Fleshwood Lucien encountered or the First Fleshwood?’
Simon came to realize that everything around him was alive.
The roots were alive.
The ground beneath him was alive.
The air itself felt alive.
Then the world shattered.
The scene changed.
Simon found himself standing in the middle of a battlefield.
No.
Calling it a battlefield was not accurate.
It was a graveyard.
An endless graveyard.
Mountains of corpses stretched beyond his vision.
Some of the corpses were so massive that Simon could not even identify what race they belonged to.
Some had six arms.
Some had dozens of wings.
Some possessed bodies that resembled stars.
Others appeared to be made entirely out of stones and mountains.
The moment Simon tried looking at one of them properly, an unbearable pain exploded inside his head.
"Ugh!"
He staggered backwards, then his vision blurred.
A second later, a black light appeared around him and Simon knew that this black light was from his Seven Stars Blessing.
The pain disappeared instantly causing Simon to heave a sigh of relief.
Simon then looked at with slightly narrowed eyes that were also filled with confusion.
’Is this the Corpse Abyss?’
The moment he had this thought, the battlefield vanished.
Then a new scene appeared.
This time, Simon saw roots.
Nothing but roots.
The roots spread endlessly through the darkness.
They pierced corpses.
Pierced mountains.
Pierced rivers.
Pierced things Simon could not understand.
Everywhere the roots spread, life vanished.
And yet...
The roots themselves contained such overwhelming vitality that Simon felt suffocated.
It was contradictory.
The roots devoured life.
Yet they possessed more life than anything Simon had ever encountered.
Then he felt it.
Hunger.
A terrifying hunger.
The hunger did not belong to him.
It belonged to something else.
It was something ancient, something enormous, and something that was asleep.
This hunger reminded Simon of the Devourers, and Simon could not help but have a solemn expression.
’This hunger... It reminds me of Devour... Of the Devourers.’
’Was a Devourer among the corpse of Corpse Abyss? Did the Fleshwood grow from the corpse of a Devourer?’
Simon’s frown deepened.
’And is it possible for me to fuse the regeneration ability of the Fleshwood with Devour? Are they compatible?’
A portion of Simon’s mind wandered deep into his thoughts, but he was still aware of what was going on.
And the more he perceived this hunger, the more he realized something strange.
The hunger was not directed at flesh nor was it directed at blood. It wanted something else...
Souls.
Memories.
Emotions.
Pain.
Suffering.
Fear.
The moment Simon felt this hunger, his entire body went cold.
’What in the world is this thing? Is a Fleshwood this terrifying?’
The vision shattered once more.
This time, Simon saw flashes.
Numerous flashes.
A forest.
A city.
A battlefield.
A kingdom.
A mountain range.
Each flash lasted less than a second.
Yet every single place had one thing in common.
Roots.
There were roots hidden beneath the ground, and they were spreading through the foundations of entire regions.
Simon suddenly recalled something Lilith had said.
The Fleshwood had spread its roots across the foundation of the realm.
At the time, he understood the words.
Now he realized he never truly comprehended them.
The roots he was seeing were not spreading through cities.
They were spreading through the world itself.
His pupils contracted.
Then another image appeared.
This image lasted longer than the others.
Simon saw a tree.
The moment he saw it, his thoughts froze.
The tree was so large that Simon’s mind instinctively rejected what he was seeing.
He had seen so many things in his past life. He had gone to the realm of gods, and he had seen massive beasts, gods, living beings, and objects before.
But this time around... He could not tell how large it was.
Every time he tried measuring it, his sense of scale collapsed.
The roots were larger than mountain ranges.
The branches resembled continents.
The bark resembled endless walls of dried flesh.
And embedded within the bark...
Were faces.
Countless faces.
Millions.
Billions.
The faces of Daemons, Daemon Beasts, and unknown creatures.
Some were screaming.
Some were crying.
Some appeared peaceful.
Others appeared completely empty.
Simon stared at the tree in stunned silence.
He knew that the size of the tree he was seeing was most likely larger than what he measured. It was just his brain lowering the size so that he would not be overwhelmed.
However, he also knew one more thing.
Without needing anyone to tell him, he knew that this unimaginable tree was...
Mother Fleshwood.