Evelyn burst out laughing.

"WHAT IS SO FUNNY CLASSER? YOUR BLASPHEMOUS MASTER IS ABOUT TO DIE!"

"I'm sorry, it's just that your head is so tiny!" She laughed so hard, her stomach hurt more than the cuts in her legs. "Thank you, I really needed that."

"ARE YOU NOT IMPRESSED WITH MY DEFIANCE OF DEATH? I HAVE REACHED MY TRUE POTENTIAL! MY FAITH HAS BEEN REWARDED BY THE HUNTED GODDESS HERSELF, AS I WAS PROMISED. I AM NOW ETERNAL. I AM INVINCIBLE. I WILL DEVOUR THE SOULS OF ALL THE UNFAITHFUL WHO GO AGAINST US. I SHALL BECOME THE NEW LEADER OF OUR MOVEMENT AND RISE AS TRUE SAINT OF THIS CYCLE!"

"I don't know what that means, but it doesn't matter. I can't let you have Sister Cloud." She held onto her with her cable vines, surprised by how light she actually was. It was like she was carrying a piece of cotton or maybe even a cloud itself.

The monstrosity towered over her, the flayed cat face twisting into a menacing lipless grin.

"YOU WOULD DO WELL TO CONSIDER THAT DECISION. I COULD BE A MUCH BETTER MASTER FOR YOU. IT WOULD BE A SHAME TO DEVOUR SUCH A FINE FEMALE SPECIMEN AS YOU."

Evelyn raised an eyebrow at that, suddenly no longer amused by the talking small head in the big body.

"I thought you found that kind of thing between druids and Returned to be against the purity of your order."

"WHAT THAT FOOL MARROW HAS DONE IS DISGUSTING. RETURNED ARE TO BE SERVANTS OF THE GREATER GOOD, NOTHING MORE. HE HAS TAKEN ONE AS SPOUSE, GOING AGAINST THE HOLY HERITAGE OF HIS BLOODLINE. THEIR JOINING IS A TRAVESTY!" The grin turned hungry in a way that Evelyn had seen far too many times in men in her life. "YOU RETURNED ARE JUST OUR TOOLS AFTER ALL. IF HE WAS JUST USING HER FOR ENTERTAINMENT, WE WOULD APPROVE. SOMETHING AS FOOLISH AS LOVE WITH YOUR KIND IS BENEATH US."

"Thank you. You have cleared any doubts I could've had. I wasn't particularly keen about killing a druid before, but now?" She cracked her neck loudly, then her knuckles, before punching the palm of her human hand with her runitronic one. "Now you are gonna meet your maker."

"YOU? DEFEAT ME?" The monstrous druid took it as his turn to burst into laughter, which came as a screeching sound out of its tiny head. "I'M A TWO-RING DRUID FROM THE PATH OF EVERGREEN. I HAVE TRASCENDED HUMANITY TO BECOME A LIVING ASPECT OF NATURE ITSELF. MY PRIMAL FORM IS NOW MY TRUE SELF! NOTHING CAN KILL ME ANYMORE! WE DRUIDS ARE THE PROTECTORS OF THE WORLD. WEAK HUMANS SHOULD JUST BOW TO US AND BE GRATEFUL WE KEEP THEM AROUND!"

Evelyn had heard enough, but she still needed information to fulfill her mission.

"Where do you have her? Where's Jaqueline Dupont?" She asked, getting ready to jump into action.

"YOU'LL NEVER FIND HER. WE AREN'T STUPID ENOUGH TO KEEP HER IN THE CITY. I SAW THAT PITIFUL EXCUSE OF A CLASSER JUST A COUPLE HOURS AGO. OH, HOW WEAK SHE ACTED! IF ONLY I COULD SEE AGAIN THE PATHETIC WAY SHE WAS BEGGING OUR LEADER TO TAKE HER AND LEAVE MARROW AND CLOUD ALONE. ONCE I FINISH HERE, I'M GONNA HEAD THERE AND TAKE HER FOR MYSELF AS I BECOME THE NEW LEADER OF OUR FACTION."

Fury was bubbling inside her with every single word this thing was spewing, but it bought Sister Cloud some more time while it also gave her very useful data. Wherever the hideout of this radical druid faction was, it had to be nearby. And Moss said it had been just a couple of hours since he left it. Which meant one thing.

Evelyn knew how to find the place. She just needed something on this druid's person to find it. An object that he would have been carrying with him when he was in the hideout.

His head had been vaporized. So the mask he was wearing was gone. It had to be his tunic. or what was left of it after Marrow's piercing stab to his chest and the moss covering his body.

She needed to defeat this thing without destroying the piece of clothing. Easy.

"Puffdust on your name, you pitiful waste of humanity." She insulted him, goading him to attack her. "Wanna take me? Try it."

The transformed druid didn't need anything more to let his own anger guide him. Even from a distance, the big body of her enemy had a great reach with its long mossy rock arms. Evelyn's Awareness warned her about the punch Moss was launching at her just in time for Evelyn to jump out of the way, making sure her cable vines kept holding Sister Cloud aloft.

The enormous fist made from part of the house should have been far away from her, but the moss connecting the pieces of ruin stretched and grew as the punching arm separated from the body. The fist became a meteor hammer, extended like a whip to hit at a long distance. It crashed into an overgrown fruit tree, exploding it into a shower of splinters. Where the fist had impacted, brightly green moss started to grow, quickly covering the surface of the broken tree's trunk.

So he can extend the moss where he hits. I don't know what that does, but given how the original inhabitants of this place ended, probably not good...

Something clicked in Evelyn's mind at that moment, as she faced the monster before her. He was recovering his launched fist, rebuilding his arm with the mossy pieces, when Evelyn asked a question with steel in her voice.

"You can control all moss, can't you?"

"OF COURSE. I'M BROTHER MOSS FROM THE PATH OF EVERGREEN. LIKE EVERY DRUID, MY ASPECT OF NATURE IS BOTH MY IDENTITY AND MY POWER! ALL FORMS OF MOSS ANSWER TO MY CALL TO SMOTHER WHAT I CHOOSE." He boasted with glee.

"What happened in this house wasn't a natural occurrence. It was you, wasn't it? You killed this family." Evelyn accused so sharply, her words cut the air they passed through.

The man known as Brother Moss gave her a malignant grin with its tiny flayed cat face.

"THEY WERE GOOD PRACTICE FOR MY EMERALD TIDE TECHNIQUE. WHAT'S A FAMILY OF FARMERS MORE OR LESS AGAINST THE GREATER GOOD? THEY HELPED HUMANITY BY HELPING ME GET STRONGER. MY MOSS HAS BEEN FEEDING SO NICELY OFF THEIR LIVES. THAT'S ALL THAT WEAKLINGS LIKE THEM, WHO DEPEND ON OUR PROTECTION AND GOOD WILL TO SURVIVE, COULD ASK FOR. TO SERVE AS COMPOST FOR OUR CULTIVATION."

"I'm gonna make you wish you accepted death the first time." She declared, commanding the cable vines to strap Sister Cloud to her back.

"SO FORTUNATE FOR THAT FOOL MARROW TO BRING YOU HERE. AND TO TRY TO KILL ME WHERE I WAS GROWING THIS MOSS? YET ANOTHER SIGN THAT THE GODDESS SMILES UPON ME AND GUIDES MY FATE TOWARDS GREATNESS!"

Evelyn pulled out the Punk Edge knife and the yet unnamed verdant taser from her Inventory. She made additional cable vines grow out of her metalwood staff and ordered them to strap the knife and taser on one end of the staff, turning it into a makeshift spear.

She then connected one of the cable vines from her runitronic arm to the staff's cable vines and activated [Pulse Link], increasing the intensity and clarity of the connection of her Awareness in every part of the living system she had created.

It was now all part of her, as easy to move as a finger on her hand. Just like she needed.

Moss launched another attack with his whip-like arm, this time in a wide arch as he spun it in circles around him, taking out several trees and what little remained of the walls from the ruined house in the process.

"NOWHERE TO HIDE FROM ME NOW!" He screamed maniacally, his voice turning more inhuman by the minute. Evelyn noticed how the tiny cat's head was now swelling in size, like inner pressure was forcing it to grow into a bigger size to accommodate what its form should be now. The moss kept growing thicker on his monstrous form, hiding the original body in the stone ribcage, but unable to hide the pulsing bright green center where he had been stabbed by Brother Marrow before.

Evelyn knew her staff wouldn't be enough to destroy his exoskeletal armor of stone and moss, nor would her amber blades cut through it as they were now.

So she would go straight in.

"Who's hiding? I'm right here. Come and get it!"

The cyborg ran directly towards the extended moss connection of the whip arm and swung down her staff. Pumping mana through her cable vines, she fed Punk Edge to activate its sonic blade Runeskill. The music of a dead rebel filled the air as she cut through the moss. But it wasn't enough, even with the power of the knife, as the moss quickly tried reattaching itself.

But Evelyn had predicted this would happen. When she was in the house, she had inspected the moss closely enough to notice something. It was very wet.

Wet enough to conduct electricity.

Another pump of mana activated the taser, sending a lightning arc through the interconnected strands of moss all the way to the original torso.

"AAAAAAGGGGH!!" The primal form of the druid screamed wildly in pain, as the power of technology, something he hadn't expected, sent the wonder of electrical currents right into his already damaged Core.

Evelyn used the momentary stun and jumped onto the arm, running on it as she let the sparking, sharp edge of the taser and knife combined destroy the moss as she went. The arm fell down to pieces, the moss smoking and shriveled where her weapon had done its work.

The evil druid got out of the stun quicker than she had anticipated and sent a punch with his other giant arm. She had gotten real close to his real body, enough that she could almost reach it.

She could try to avoid it, run away, and try again, but the more time she took, the less of a chance she had to work her plan to find Jaqueline Dupont. So she made an executive decision to take the brunt of the hit while commanding her cable vines to do two things.

The first was to send Sister Cloud flying in the air. Her featherlight body was sent straight up with ease, putting her away from the danger.

As the stone fist impacted on Evelyn and the moss started to grow on her, sapping her of her mana and vitality, she fulfilled the second of her commands to the cable vines.

She had decided to follow the example of Brother Moss.

Something she had begun to practice back in the museum of Heroes. A new nema technique of her own. One that combined everything she had learned from both her teachers and her own powers.

And she would call it...

"Serpent Fang!" She screamed as the giant stone fist was about to squash her into pulp.

But Evelyn Anima could also play with her arm.

And detach it from her shoulder.

The cable vines kept her connection from the launched arm to her shoulder by cutting deep into her flesh with their amber blades as anchors. Then they also extended from her hand, adding even more length before connecting to the makeshift sonic-electric spear.

A tasty guitar riff played from beyond the grave as a punk rocker gave the performance of a lifetime when the taser-charged sonic blade of Punk Edge impacted right into the glowing moss heart of the undying druid.

The electric discharge became a light show accompanying the music as it was soon joined by the inhuman screams of Brother Moss.

Smoke came from his stone ribcage as the moss inside shrivelled up, revealing the spasming real body of the druid. His Core had been impaled once more.

The fist hit Evelyn. Its power was greatly reduced; that was the only reason she wasn't turned into paste as its mass impacted her. Bones cracked and broke, muscles tore, and a couple of organs burst as she was sent to crash into a tree. Evelyn knew the moment her back hit the trunk that just a little more force, and her spine would have been destroyed.

She slumped under the tree, bleeding badly out of every orifice in her body, coughing spurts of blood that dirtied her clothes even more than they already were. Except for her mother's jacket, which just self-cleaned, as it always did, remaining impeccable.

The moss that had begun to grow on her body the moment the punch connected shriveled up just as quickly, leaving her to deal with her wounds.

If it wasn't for her improved Endurance also reducing the incoming damage, she was pretty sure she would've died by just that one hit. Her regeneration was already working overtime, fixing the damaged organs first to avoid internal bleeding.

But Brother Moss was not done.

Her makeshift spear was still embedded in him, but as the cable vines that connected to her had been severed after being sent flying from the punch, the electrifying music show also ceased.

"HOW DARE YOU! YOU ROOTWORM! I'LL EAT YOUR SOUL! AAAARRGGHHH!"

His screams were barely recognizable as human at this point. What was once the tiny head of a flayed cat with a parasitical petal monster had now transformed into the horrifying visage of a panther-sized head, smoke coming out of its now empty eye sockets, where the black eye flowers had burned. The petals had burned as well, reduced to a collar of shriveled up toasty remains.

Evelyn noticed something with her Awareness and looked up with a smile.

"Took you long enough." She said painfully.

What remained of Brother Moss looked up to see a floating Sister Cloud that had just finished charging up mana.

"Brother Moss." She said as a storm cloud formed in her fist. "You have betrayed the true mission of a druid's path. For your crimes against the Hunter's Circle, against the people of Vorath City under your care, and for abandoning your humanity for power, I condemn you to true death. You will not join the symphony of nature. May your next life be a gift of mercy from the Goddess, for I shall give none."

Wrathful lightning crackled between her fingers as she fell down on him like a meteor of divine judgment, fast as an exhalation, before his brain could catch up to reality enough to react.

Evelyn's Awareness could barely catch up to see and hear her before Sister Cloud broke the world.

"Heaven's Gate."

Silence. Darkness.

There was nothing left in the world but a storm in her hand as Sister Cloud released all the sound and light in the same second she had stolen it.

Evelyn had to look away, bracing against the tree as the shockwave shook the earth to its foundation.

She opened her eyes again to see a smoking burn mark where the farm had once stood. There was nothing left of the house, the mossified family, or most of the fruit trees. Everything that had been covered in the moss had been vaporized into pure mana in the air.

Sister Cloud was on her knees holding a green tunic, partially burnt and with a huge hole in the middle, but otherwise miraculously intact. Evelyn's runitronic arm and her weapons were next to her, also perfectly undamaged.

Evelyn was speechless after such a display of magic. She gulped hard, her mouth dry. Whatever Sister Cloud had just done looked really familiar.

It had been just like a manastorm.

"Bring me that tunic! And my things!" Evelyn screamed, remembering her mission. There would be time for questions later, once Jaqueline Dupont was safe.

Sister Cloud got out of her own stupor after her finisher and did as asked, running to Evelyn as swiftly as a breeze.

"Here. What do you want with it?" Asked the suddenly terrifying girl.

"How did Marrow manage to kill you if you can do that?" Evelyn asked, unable to stop herself.

"There are conditions I have to meet to be able to use Heaven's Gate. Very specific ones. That rotting bastard qualified. It's... the path I've chosen as a druid. That's as much as I'm gonna tell you." Cloud cut down the topic with no room for arguing or further questions. It was clearly a very delicate subject.

Evelyn would leave it be. For now.

If they were really gonna work together, she would need to know what kind of person this Sister Cloud really was and what kind of other secrets she was holding.

But first things first.

"You need to help me get my arm back on its socket."

The girl who had just done a display of magic the likes of which Evelyn had only seen in the most terrible magical disaster of her era took a step back, appalled by the idea.

"Do it yourself!" She exclaimed in disgust. "I don't want to touch that thing."

"My other arm is broken. I need to save the mana for what I'm about to do, so I can't heal it first. Time is of the essence. Do you want to save Jaqueline and Marrow or not?"

Sister Cloud reacted as if she had just received a gut punch, but nodded and complied with no further complaints. Evelyn guided her to realign the runitronic arm back into the shoulder socket, and with a click and the reconnection of her Core into the circuits of the crimson limb, it was done.

"See? It's not that difficult. Better get used to it now. You are gonna see this a lot from now on."

"I can't believe you wear metal in your body. That's gonna be a huge problem for a lot of reasons."

"What? Why? Is it illegal or something?"

"Worse. But we'll get to that when we have to. Do what you must."

Evelyn nodded, agreeing to leave that cryptic warning for a later time.

She grabbed the green tunic and focused on [Pulse Link] to connect with the object's past. It had been a gamble, but if the Skill had worked on a plastik sheet, as much as it had been manufactured in mass, why not a tunic that looked hand-made? As long as it had been created by someone, what did it matter how advanced its origin was?

The reward for her hunch paid off immediately, as she felt and heard the past of the object.

There was the sensation of being worn by Brother Moss. His sweat, the smell of moss and bad breath, but also something else. It was quite sweet and fragrant, and she could hear a buzzing sound.

"Come on, Sister Jelly. Why do I have to be the one to go with Brother Marrow? He's more than enough to take care of this." Complained Moss in a whiny voice.

"This is my place of power." Answered another very nasally voice, this one a woman by the sound of it. "Of course, I'm gonna be the one to stay with the prisoner. The leader left her with me for a reason. You have barely reached your second ring, so you can't understand how those of us nearing the third ring think. You'll get to our level if you work diligently. Like, for example, doing what you are told. Now go be a good drone."

The vision ended, and Evelyn found herself tasting something sweet in her mouth. Honey.

It had a little spicy touch, which was surprisingly nice.

Evelyn described what she had experienced to Sister Cloud as detailed as she could.

"Is that one of your Skills?" She asked her, to which Evelyn nodded. "That's a very useful ability. Seems to be a kind of psychometry. I'll ask you about it once we finish up with this."

"Only if you talk to me about your abilities."

Sister Cloud seemed to ponder that for a moment before coming to an internal agreement with herself. "It's a deal then. Now, can you stand?"

"Only hurts if I laugh." Evelyn joked. "I take it you know where we need to go?"

"Oh yeah. We are going to a different farm. Though I have to ask..." There was a sudden shift in her voice that Evelyn didn't like one bit. "... how are you with very big insects?"