The Tree of Evil

-THREAT SIGHTED!-

-Corrupted Male Fairy tagged; Foe-

The dark energy swirling around the fairy grew stronger until he was overtaken by it, like a shell of black sludge balling him in. Red rune like symbols spawned around the shell of black, giving his evil orb an ominous crimson glow.

The orb darted all over the chamber at quick speeds, heading for me once it was satisfied with the confusion it caused.

-Combat Mode : Active-

I quickly evaded taking a hit from the chaotic orb. It past by me and collided with the wall behind me, causing an explosion.

I was blasted forward, but caught myself mid air and flew to a higher elevation.

The orb followed, ready to strike me once again.

“Spear of Destiny!” I announced, spawning out my stardust spear.

With a well timed jab, I could easily skewer the incoming orb. That would neutralize the dark energy, but I didn’t want to kill the fairy creature in the process, who no doubt was housed at the very core of that shell of shadow.

I reeled back my spear and prepared to slice the shell just right, aiming to cut it open and blast it with a ray of stardust from my palm. That would fully cleanse all the darkness without damage to the fairy.

But something happened that caused me to freeze in place.

Sharp pain ran up my spine and shook my mind. I froze for a second, feeling intense energy cause me grave discomfort.

Rumbling proceeded to fill my ears, soon being replaced by a piercing sharp ring.

All my attention went into fighting that mental pain, inadvertently causing me to take the full force of an explosive clash with the dark orb.

BOOM!

I fell through the air, just barely managing to land on a platform of sandy volcanic ash that housed the dead tree.

-Advisory! Psionic Resistance Discovered-

“That was resistance?!” that psionic energy was more than enough to completely disable me, and I was resisting that attack? How powerful was it to begin with?

Psionics is the ability to manipulate psychic energy against an object or foe. Unless someone else was in the room I wasn't detecting, I could only assume that the decaying tree must have been the culprit. Maybe it wasn’t so dead after all

I recovered back to my feet, this time attempting to mentally prepare myself for any possible mind bending attacks.

The orb of darkness bounced around the walls, this time splashing down into the magma and re-emerging in front of me. Fire that covered it turned black as he approached, a clear sign that they were cursed flames I was warned to avoid.

With a leap out of the way, I both dodged and gave myself a vantage point to slash at the orb as it passed.

SLASH!

The orb was cut on the edge, spewing out dark slime all over the sand around the tree, melting into an obsidian like glass.

A scream left the orb as it rose up a few feet. The runes on it brightened significantly and shot forth all assortments of blazing red matter across the chamber, scoring the walls with the symbol it originated from.

I was in the path of one of those rune blasts, unable to escape its scorching trajectory in time. As it struck me, part of my battle dress and armour skin dispersed the harsh blaze, but the couldn’t prevent the pain.

“Ahhh!”

Screams left my mouth as my synthetic skin burned, but geld strong. I was forced backwards, splashing right into the pool of magma.

Alarms went off in my head, warning me that I needed to escape the molten pool or I’d take on massive damage and go into a protective hibernation mode. Even if I’d drawn out the energy to rise again, mental tension once more returned to my brain, preventing me from moving.

“Child of Hyam…” said a male voice in my head, likely the tree speaking telepathically. He called me something similar to what Mella did. “Why do you resist the ways of the dark?”

The orb hovered over me, ready to strike me further into the magma, of which I bathed in. But a hand of soot came to life out of one of the tree branches and held the dark orb in its palm, preventing any further abuse.

Another soot hand then reached into the magma and pulled me out, resting me comfortably against the tree trunk.

“I’ll…never turn evil,” I said with every ounce of my strength. “The darkness is nothing but evil!”

“Evil and good…where do we draw a line in the sand?”

I barely was able to pool enough strength to make a confused face. “What?” I uttered.

“What is it you seek, Child of Hyam? Oh, I know. You wish to save humanity, yes? You wish to defeat the Devil.”

How did he know that? Maybe he was searching my mind. No sense in trying to hide it if that was the case. Not that I felt the need too.

“Yeah, I want to defeat the Devil. That way he and his demons will never bother mankind again! The darkness will be gone forever!”

“Your ignorance shows. For the darkness existed long before he. Good and evil are but eternal aspects of existence. It is by their balance that the universe may exist.”

He was going to try and tell me that the universe was balanced by good and evil? I wasn’t going to buy that. It was because of evil that bad things happen at all. Good people needed to rise up and save the world from that.

“You can say what you want, but I’ve seen what evil does to people, and I don’t like it.”

“I concur. Darkness is a quick path to great destruction.” It surprised me that he was aware of that. “But what of a world of pure light? The imperfections of man would be caught in the unforgiving justice that washes over him. Pure light purges imperfections, after all. But, you wouldn’t know that pure world, would you?”

Justice and purging imperfections sounded pretty good to me. We needed that so evil doesn't take over and cause more problems, as it has several times already.

“Even if I did know that world, it sounds better than a world of darkness.”

“Ignorance is your ally, child, for there would be no world if light reigned supreme. This universe is far too tainted to exist in the presence of perfection. It would merely be destroyed, including you with it.”

It was imperfect because of all the evil demons around! He wasn't going to trick me with those mental gymnastics he was playing.

“You’ll never get me to think the darkness is better than the light! Good will always triumph over evil!” I tried to stand up, but my body was unable to respond to me.

“Woe to you who assumes my desires. I seek not a universe eternally rot with evil, nor of pure light…but of balance.”

That didn’t make sense. How could something that only knows darkness want to balance the world with good and evil?

“Of the light, you have already partaken. But you are not complete, only knowing half the truth of this universe.”

“What truth?” I asked.

“You’ve consumed the knowledge of good, eaten its fruit and gained its strength…”

He must have been talking about when I ate the fruit from the Boni tree…but what did that have to do with anything?

“Only half the truth has been revealed to you. Light must exist, there is no doubt. But what if one could command the darkness as well, leading the wills of evil away from their wicked ways, while staying balanced by the light within?”

What was he talking about? It sounded like he was saying that if someone controlled evil, while also having light in them, they could turn it away from doing bad things. But that didn’t make any sense. Evil is…evil.

“I don’t understand,” I admitted.

“You have only seen those who wield darkness to commit unspeakable acts. But the darkness is merely a tool. This goes for light as well. Both can create and destroy if put in the right hands. Naming them good and evil is perhaps a misnomer.”

I guess I could see some of that. Belphegor wasn’t just bent on killing me. He wanted to watch me grow and get stronger. It might have been for a selfish reason, but he didn’t seem to just want evil for the sake of evil.

And I’ve seen stardust weapons turn on people when I was at Urnan. The inquisitors were willing to attack their own when they were influenced by a demon.

So in a sense, I could see where he was coming from. Things like light and darkness were just tools.

One of the soot hands gently floated down, presenting me with a fruit not too different from the ones produced by the Boni trees back home.

“If you partake of my fruit, your eyes will be opened, child. You will know everything. True knowledge will be your tool to unite all of mankind.”

The fruits skin looked flawless, perfect enough to want to sink my teeth into.

Was this really the ticket to controlling both the light and dark, good and evil? I was curious.

I leaned forward to take a sniff of the sweet scented produce as it was offered up to me.

Images flashed through my mind of my friends and enemies happily holding hands under golden evening skies. Everyone danced in a circle, while shiny chrysanthemum crowns were placed over our heads by real angels.

My crown was the most special. The vines that twisted around to form its ring were black as night, but the flowers were like twinkly stars. It was so pretty.

I had the best view of this lovely sight from my comfortable throne above. Everyone looked so satisfied in there own way. Nobody was worried about anything at all. Not a hint of anxiety to muck up there hopes.

"Yalda..." my father's voice said to me. "Thank you for bringing us peace."

His hand extended toward me. A tasty apple was in his palm, the kind he'd introduced me to when I was tiny. I took hold of it.

I opened my mouth to chomp down on it, bringing it mere millimeters away from my lips…

But then I stopped.

My eyes opened and I realized I was not in a place of peace, but still in that magma chamber with the dead looking tree. 

Why was I going to eat this? Wasn’t I disgusted by the idea a few minutes ago? Now I seemed okay with it, even Yearning for the crisp taste of balance in the cosmos.

My heart felt fear. Like if I did this, I would die.

It wasn’t the idea of corruption that bothered me anymore. I felt like I was going to literally die if I ate this. But why? I wasn’t detecting any poison, nor did I see it as anything but a tool to protect mankind. The tree had all but convinced me that it wasn’t a bad idea.

But on instinct, I just didn’t want it.

“I don’t want this.” Tears ran down my face, dripping onto my crystal heart.

“How could you say such a thing? You could save the whole world, if only you just took one bite.”

“No,” I shook my head. “I don’t want it.”

I raised the fruit up then threw it into the magma, watching as it burned away.

“Child, that fruit was not poisoned. Even the fae ate of it and did not die.”

“I don’t care. Let the fairy eat what they want. I won’t.”

“How selfish are you, that you would deny peace all because of your preferred taste?”

All I could do was cry. I wanted him out of my head already, but I was too weak to do anything about it.

That mean old tree just kept repeating to me how selfish and how stupid I was for not taking his fruit. What a jerk. I wanted to get out of here.

“If you will not listen to my reason, then I will force it on you.”

The evil tree released the dark fairy orb, allowing it to once again fly down and slam right into me.

Joining it now were the soot hands of the tree, multiplying many fold, punching and slapping me around.

I was getting beaten like a ragdoll. Left and right I flew, taking hits, unable to defend myself.

“How dare you polarize mankind? You could have united them all. But you refused.”

All I wanted right now was to just stop being smacked around. It hurt so much that I wanted it to end soon. But for every hit I received, it felt like it was a hundred times better than the pain I’d have gotten if I took his offer. Something deep within me, something kind and warm, told me that this was the right call, and that everything was going to be okay.

I trusted whatever was causing that feeling, and in return, it brought me peace in the storm of abuse.

“I will only ask once more. Will you take of my fruit, and unite both good and evil?”

He stopped hitting me for a moment, allowing me to fall flat on my face in his presence.

I rose up just a tiny bit, smirking with satisfaction, because I knew my answer.

“I’m not hungry.”

His soot hand came crashing down on me with as much force as possible, but his palm never touched my back.

With quick anticipation, I turned my gaze backwards to see a pink heart was between me and the soot hand. It immediately reminded me of the magic that Cynthia used back in Little Conberg.

At the foot of the stairs to this place stood that genuine maid. The girl fairy was sitting on her shoulder with a serious look. Clearly, that fairy was returning the favour for my efforts to save her friend by getting my own.

“Leave her alone,” Cynthia flicked her wand, sending the heart upwards along with the hand.