Weeping Soul Tree

The united cries of dozens of aggrieved souls, men, women, children and elderly, reverberated across the sky as Weeping Soul's elongated gray branches whipped at Harun! The Mysteries of Grief and Sacrifice rippled in those branches, filling Harun with sorrow at their mournful fate. So deep was his pain that he couldn't bring himself to avoid the gray branches' whipping. The belief that just by reaching out and giving himself up, he could save all those weeping souls, filled his mind. But as Harun prepared to sacrifice himself to a "greater cause," his Sovereign Essence kicked in, blasting the foreign invasion out of his soul. Regaining his wits, Harun soared past the branches' whipping strikes—treading them to sprint toward the Weeping Soul Reverend.

The purple essence overlapped with the Golden Incense, wooden spikes protruded to pierce Harun's skin, but harder than titanium, Harun bulldozed his way through the barrages, and reached Weeping Soul's face within a blink. Without a word, Harun raised his right leg—hardened by the Mythical Idol's golden sheen—and kicked at Weeping Soul's face!

CRACK!

The Truth Reverend's head made a 180 spin, his neck twisted beyond recognition. Yet, Harun didn't stop here. Reappearing at the Reverend's left side, he hacked his claws at his waist, slicing him into two halves! But again, that same uncanny scene repeated. From the Reverend's missing half, a gray trunk grew. Slapping his broken head, Weeping Soul fixed his twisted neck, and faced Harun with a tranquil smile.

"Strange. Depending on the method, an avatar's destruction may not harm the creator, but how can he keep reappearing or regenerating here. He cannot use the Mystery of Life, so that regeneration trick must be a last resort that consumes vast energy resources. Moreover, the fleshly body seems to be a decoy, with the tree being his true appearance—meaning that either this isn't the Reverend's, but his Weeping Soul Tree's avatar, or the Reverend became one with his Tree. Regardless, what an elaborate avatar technique," Harun reasoned. Avatar Refining Arts were not difficult to find. But those like this one that allowed the avatar to use most, if not all of the true body's skills and strength, were few and far between. Harun could use his Spiritual Incense's miraculous powers to create an avatar, but many of the abilities it displayed were siphoned straight from the true body.

And while the plaguebringer marveled at his foe's skills, Weeping Soul was inwardly full of praise. Regardless of the tricks he put forth, he couldn't disturb Harun's pace or probe his true limits. Unlike Harun, Weeping Soul believed he had the true body in front of him, and saw no reason to hold back.

For a second, the two reappraised one another. Since he now knew he faced a tree and not a man, Harun switched tactics. Pulling in a deep breath, Harun sucked in all the oxygen and particles in the air across a 300 meters radius. His stomach ballooned as he devoured the particles, and sensing something amiss, Weeping Soul backpedaled.

Breathing out, Harun released a foul, purple miasma that spread at a wildfire's speed and consumed everything in its wake—Weeping Soul included. The Truth Reverend's face turned blue. Breaking out into a cold sweat, he writhed and thrashed against the miasma, choking to no end. All the human flesh that remained on his body withered, and in desperation, the Reverend slapped his thigh, summoning a small iron bell. The bell expanded to 10 meters, and with a melodious chime, split the miasma into two—freeing the Reverend from its control. But by then, Weeping Soul's human facade had withered completely. A five meters tall gray tree now remained, with a pair of eyes in the middle of its trunk.

From the chiming bell came a suppression force that clashed with Harun's Sovereign Essence and attempted to force him onto his knees—to no avail. Harun stood with his back straight, undisturbed by the bell's attempts. The Reverend had grown perplexed. That someone from the Ancestral Land could use poisonous arts of this level didn't surprise him. However, the combination between the noxious arts and that holy light seemed strange, at best. Who could cultivate such opposed forces to this level? And why did some of those skills seem so familiar?

Weeping Soul wouldn't have the time to probe further. Silver flames coated Harun's clawed hands while dozens of flaming claws appeared beside him and aimed at the Weeping Soul Tree. A torrent of silver flames poured from each claw, flooding Weeping Soul who, in desperation, shoved all his spiritual powers into an energy barrier.

The sky darkened, a sulfuric scent pervaded the air as the flames battered the Tree's barrier. Unable to resist the corrosion force, the barrier collapsed, leaving its master open for a direct strike.

Not letting go of this opportunity, each claw shot at the miniature Weeping Soul Tree at a lightning bolt's speed.

Fast, too fast. Those claws' speed had transcended the Celestial Knight limits and left Weeping Soul entirely helpless. Dark-blue light erupted from Harun, and he too joined the dance. Though Weeping Soul's senses still saw Harun in his original spot, the plaguebringer had already appeared above the tree and stabbed into the eyes! His flaming claws followed suit, slashing at the trunk and branches to set the whole tree ablaze. Withering Essence could corrode and erase everything—granted it possessed a solid shell.

Weeping Soul now knew himself outmatched. Unless his true body appeared or he took drastic measures, this fight would end in his tragic defeat. So, in the instant Harun stabbed into his eye, the Reverend freed the face-shaped fruits. All burned in baleful flames, becoming unwilling sacrifices to feed the Reverend's might! Mournful cries poured forth, then a simple laugh, the laugh of freedom perhaps—and whatever remained of those souls vanished—never to be reincarnated.

The Weeping Soul Tree expanded from 5 to 99 meters, towering above Harun in all its sinister glory. Immediately, Harun realized he no longer faced an entity of celestial level. The force before him had reached true godhood!

"Hahaha, even I must admit that power easily becomes an addictive drug. Another reason why all should learn to tamper their souls first. Don't you agree, sir? Mhm...I just realized that I still don't know your name," the Truth Reverend said in a calm and jovial tone, with his branches writhing like tendrils of darkness.

Though faced with an enemy of godlike strength, Harun remained stoic. Better, his lips curved into a smile, "You may call me, Lord Revelation," Harun said in a polite tone. The Truth Reverend's eyes shone with an eerie glint, and his branches lashed at Harun. But though he no longer feared Harun's moves, Reverend Weeping Soul soon realized that Harun didn't fear him either.

At a speed that defied common sense, Harun moved past and dodged all lashes with masterful ease. Hurling the massive iron bell at Harun, the Reverend hid sharpened branches behind its huge frame, and once Harun dodged to the right, the sharpened branches shifted trajectory, pierced his back—but hit an afterimage only.

Hundreds of afterimages made a joke of Weeping Soul's destructive powers, and the clash again reached a stalemate—or so the Reverend thought. Too focused on Harun and too slow to see his moves clearly, Weeping Soul didn't spot the nest of tree-boring insects the plaguebringer set on his back. Worse, Harun's Mystery of Life concealed all energies they innately carried—preventing the treant from sensing them.

Fueled by the mystery's vast energies, the colony forced its way into the Weeping Soul Tree, at last alerting the Reverend of their presence—a step too late.

By the time Weeping Soul realized the ploy, the first batch had laid eggs inside his tree body. The eggs hatched, releasing hundreds more insects that again laid eggs, and within three seconds, thousands of harmful beasts crawled in the Reverend's body.

"Boom," Harun whispered, and the Life Essence teeming in each beast exploded in a succession of nuclear-bomb-level blasts!

Half the Reverend's body ruptured on the spot. But as the rest tumbled toward the ground, that very ground rose into the sky to ram faster into Harun's opponent.

"What the…" Weeping Soul muttered, but before his shock peaked, Harun stretched out his hands, and activated his Physique's ability.

"Blight of the Underworld."

A bottomless swamp of blight and decay formed across the ground, with gray lotuses sprouting and blooming at naked eye speed. From those lotuses, gray filaments poured out, staining the atmosphere with an amalgam of lethal forces. Weeping Soul's body broke down. So fast was the decomposition that he didn't have the time to react, and soon revealed a gray seed that hid in his trunk, right between his eyes.

The seed attempted to escape, but the filaments wrapped around it—destroying it like the rest. Without that seed, the body lost all strength and resistance—collapsing right there.

…

In the Soul Refining Hall's headquarters, the Reverend's true body clutched at his chest, his blind eyes went bloodshot, and he vomited blood.