Reincarnated As A Plant Life

"Do you really want to throw away your only chance at ascending to another tier? At standing among the greatest, merely because you would not take a few moments to listen?" Asclepius asked, trying to tempt the old man.

She could feel Pagan shaking with excitement, if the old man tried anything he would have full right to destroy everything. And Asclepius was starting to believe that this was the only way Pagan wanted things to pan out.

"I want to see this elder for myself then. The one who claims to be the Shri'killian," the old man said after some thought.

"Bring him to me," he added.

"Pagan!" Asclepius shouted, however it was already too late. Pagan held the elder by the throat, picking him up into the air with a single hand.

"Did you just refer to the Lighted One as if he were on the same level as you?" Pagan asked.

The shroom guards began surrounding the two of them, a thin membrane of poison already being expelled from their bodies.

"Call the chieftains!" a few of them shouted.

"I was told you came here to speak and that you meant no harm. However, it seems I was lied to," the elder said, apparently unphased by Pagan's aggression.

"Tell your elder that we do not wish to form relations… Never mind, you will not live to report back to him," the old man added before releasing a cloud of green gas.

Pagan's eyes seared in pain, and he instinctively let go of the old man.

The old man moved his hands, and the poison cloud began moving with it, burning the rest of Pagan's body.

"I tried to help you all," Asclepius sighed, as a group of large shrooms which she guessed were the chieftains emerged from the mushroom towers.

"You guys did not have to come. Prepare for a feast, today this creature shall fill our bellies," the elder announced, still controlling the poison, forcing it into all of Pagan's orifices.

"So this is the pain the Lighted One had to endure? He is indeed above us all," Pagan said, coughing up sap.

"Forgive me Lighted One, for I came here hoping that the mission might fail. So that I may punish all those related to your prior suffering," Pagan announced, poison still completely decimating his insides.

"You will all do well to beg for the Lighted One's mercy in your final moments," he said, before casting solar cleanse.

The entire shroom clan was in utter shock. Never had they seen a creature instantly heal itself.

However, the elder recovered quickly and began emitting an even denser cloud of poison. This time moving it around like a hurricane, even picking Pagan's body slightly off the ground.

"Do not fight it. You will all die under his light," Pagan announced, before casting solar field. The poison cloud, along with any other sources of prison within a 1,8-meter radius was completely dispelled.

Once the poison was dealt with, Pagan cast solar cleanse once again.

The other shrooms stepped back from the forcefield, afraid that they might be grievously harmed. Only the elder, along with a few guards were still inside the, staring at the monster they had just pissed off.

"A Fae?" the elder asked after some thought.

"No, I am much greater. I am a servant of the Lighted One," Pagan replied, before casting solar trace. With every pulse, he added a very powered-down version of solar burst, making it take on more incinerative qualities than explosive.

The result?

[Processing...]

[New spell acquired... 『Bursting Trace』.]

[Adding 『Bursting Trace』 to 『Solar Sorcery Index』...]

[Complete. 『Bursting Trace』 has been added.]

The elders and his guards screamed as their very skin was being incinerated, at a rate of three pulses per second.

And just as they were about to die, Pagan cast solar cleanse on them, and the screaming started all over again.

"You will not die a quick a death. I want you to feel a fraction of what he felt," Pagan said, standing over the elder who was now begging for it all to end.

~Pagan, I know for a fact that your power isn't infinite. What happens when you run out?" Asclepius worried, standing just out of range of the bursting trace and solar field.

"Oi, if we get her, he might stop," a few guards said, having regained their composure.

"Fuck," Asclepius whispered, before letting out a thick cloud of poison gas. Though hers was not on the level of an elder, thanks to the arachnid and all the food that Lucius had hunted, her poison was way above that of an ordinary shroom.

While the shrooms were trying to overcome her poison, she ran up a tree, and hid, watching Pagan from above.

"You have paid the price for your wrongdoings, now join his light," Pagan said, after having put the elder through three cycles of bursting trace. With this, he cast a higher-powered version of solar burst, this one with equal quantities of incineration and explosiveness.

And in turn, the elder's body was launched into the air, being reduced to little pieces of flesh.

Frankly, Pagan didn't have any solar energy left. Perhaps one or two solar cleanses, but using them would probably overheat his mind due to the strain.

"Now, I shall give you one more chance. Kneel before the Lighted One, and you shall all be spared," Pagan announced.

"That guy was getting too old anyway," one of the chieftains said. This shroom was very bulky, a head below Pagan, but with nearly the same volume.

"I said kneel, not speak," Pagan replied, before rushing over to the shroom. The shroom attempted to block Pagan's attack, but the difference in raw strength was too much.

"Clean strike through the head," Pagan whispered, remembering Lucius's teachings as he thrust his claws through the shroom's skull.

"Anyone else?" he asked, turning to look over the close to 100 shrooms that were currently crowded outside the mushroom towers.

Perhaps they did have a last resort, some plan that could take down any enemy. Perhaps they had some sort of special poison that could incapacitate Pagan, and allow them to be rid of this monster. But whatever that plan may have been, it was currently at the back of their minds.

The creature that spewed random words in front of them seemed invincible. It could heal its injuries in mere moments, cause mass destruction at just the thought of it, and above all... tormented its prey before completely destroying every fragment of their being.

And even after all that, the shrooms realized that it had the raw strength to kill all of them even without its strange power.

To them, they had already lost. No amount of poison, no amount of last resorts could save them. They were mentally defeated.