Undead Lord of Gluttonous Pride

Howrah gazed at the tree from the outside. Its grey exterior had now been tinted with a slight reddish that continued to become more apparent as time went on.

Howrah whistled, impressed by Damien's sheer amount of energy to release, "My~ My~ This is definitely going to benefit us a lot in the future."

He then raised his palm towards one of the roots that had already been fully converted. His hand caressed its woody texture that seemed to pulsate slightly.

The tree had already absorbed enough energy from the core to the point that almost every individual leaf from its branches was glowing. If Damien were to see this, he would've recalled the memory of it bearing similarities to a Christmas tree.

"Such an impressive amount of energy... Unfortunately..." His eyelids lowered slightly as he stared towards the meditating Damien with seriousness, "I can't let this go on any further."

Howrah then began to steadily make his way towards Damien. That was until he caught sight of something in the corner of his eyes. "Hm?"

SWISH!

A line of red streaked through the air and attacked Howrah, who unworriedly protected himself with a barrier. The strike caused an echoing sound to reverberate in the surroundings before quickly disappearing.

Howrah eyed the unexpected variable with scrutiny, "To think this beacon of yours..." What he saw was one of the roots of the tree, albeit much smaller compared to the rest, about as thick as rope.

"...So you're identifying me as an invader, are you?" Howrah gazed up at the tree that continued to brim with life.

Although it could not respond with words, it was able to do so with its actions as it suddenly sprouted vines from its side—all shooting towards him at breakneck speed.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Each and every one of them was undoubtedly blocked by the barrier that remained steadfast against the barrage. Howrah faced the beacon's relentless attacks with a calm expression.

"I had my suspicions on what category of beacon you fell under. You're off the Organic without a doubt..."

Howrah rubbed his chin, and he continued to brainstorm more. He glanced towards the entrance into the tree he had made previously and found out it had disappeared, almost like it was never there.

"You regenerating yourself only solidifies my theory of you being an organic beacon even more."

The sand behind Howrah had begun to rise from the winds being produced and formed clouds—that hung still in the air.

Howrah's eyes darted left and right, analysing the pattern of the attacks and the gaps between them. His fingers wrapped around the shaft of his staff twitched with excitement.

"I wonder what will happen if I..."

In a split second, he aimed his staff forward and blasted a beam into the tree, causing a hole to appear on its side—disconnecting a large portion of vines that supplied the entire tree.

The attacks of the vines soon paused. Howrah saw this, and a look of disappointment spread across his face before suddenly shifting.

The roots that were still undamaged and continuing to transfer the energy to the tree created branches towards the hole. It continued to do this until a massive shell was created around the injury.

"You're still hollow on the inside, tree." Howrah mentioned before the thought of a certain medical item appeared in his eyes, "A bandage?" The edges of his lips curved upwards as he blasted another beam towards the exact same area he attacked.

The vines that hung in the air suddenly shot towards the beam, intending to intercept it. Its speed left even Howrah shocked as he only saw a blur of it.

After the vines had appeared in front of the approaching beam, flowers began to sprout from its tip—the petals were a deep shade of red, as well as... Green?

Howrah watched the beam get intercepted by the flowers, interested in what it was trying to do, "Hm?"

The beam he had shot out all began to focus towards the centre of each flower. Almost like it was—

"Being absorbed..." Howrah muttered as he witnessed this. After it had been fully absorbed, the vines' thin bodies became bloated before slowly returning back to their initial size.

Howrah glimpsed towards the area of the injury and saw the roots around it shifting around before revealing what was underneath: the hollow side he had created had fully been repaired.

Howrah scratched his head, his pale-yellowish fingernails scratching deep into his scalp. "Organic aren't able to attack but are able to repair themselves. You tick off the boxes of being of organic matter as well as being to regenerate..."

Before he could ponder any longer, he failed to notice that flowers that once were at the tip of each individual vine of the tree had suddenly transformed into bulbs.

These bulbs continued to grow larger. The folds of the petals seemed to fuse with one another to create one big container of whatever was inside—resembling some kind of fruit.

After the fruit reached the size of 1 metre in diameter, it then whipped towards Howrah, the momentum causing the fruit to detach from the vine itself.

Howrah caught sight of it in the corner of his eyes, his eyes widening before slowly lowering, "Even a low-tier barrier is enough." He said before going back to pondering.

That was until—

BOOM!

—The fruit exploding upon impact with him. Howrah stood inside his barrier and watched a very small crack appear on the surface of his barrier. He then said with a very surprised tone, "I wasn't expecting that."

He then gazed up at the vine that had already sprouted another fruit. "Did you absorb my energy for a purpose outside of healing?"

Before he could process what had happened, several more fruits were flung towards him on all sides.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

His barrier continued to remain resilient in its duty and resisted all of them. However, cracks had now begun to web out across it. But Howrah didn't overly care about that, for he could just repair it in a snap of a finger.

What he did care about was figuring out which category the tree fell into in terms of being a beacon of a soul place, "Organic is checked off. A sentinel would make sense since you're attacking autonomously, and since it seems that you have absorbed my energy, that would also give you the place of catalyst, roughly..."

His face then cracked into a smile before a low and small chuckle began to appear, which would then quickly turn into laughter, "Kehehehe...! The day I would witness a Chimeric Beacon, in a soul place with maybe even three concepts, as well as three cores! What a truly wondrous day to be alive!"

Howrah watched the tree prepare another volley of explosive fruits with an amused look on his face, "How I wish I could analyse you more... However..."

His eyes glanced at the roots crawling on its sides and saw how the red light coursing through had diminished severely following the return of its original greyish colour.

"You've run out of time." He said while the tree's defences began to slowly become limp and fuse back into it. The vines it used had now returned to being roots, and the fruits it bore were then absorbed back into itself.

Perhaps it should be kept running for just a while longer, especially against an enemy that continued to stay in the same place since their battle began.

Howrah, seeing that it had finally powered down, wandered over to Damien, whose face was planted into the wooden ground. He smirked before saying, "Well then, time to wake you up..."