Reincarnated As A Plant Life
chapter-237

"I had to do it, I already warned him about speaking to me without permission," the voice said dismissively, before taking a bite out of something.

Lucius so wanted to see what exactly was going on in the room, but he was not yet certain of the exact location of the energy readings. It would take him some time to properly map out where each of them was coming from, so for now he decided to remain quiet.

"Like I was saying. You can all expect to attain high positions within the council after my father finishes his dealings with that creature. That's of course if you stay by me," the voice continued, before pausing briefly to swallow.

~Creature? Are they making deals with the necromancer?~ Lucius pondered, anger boiling up within him.

"I'm the only one who cares about you guys. My father is too focused on the throne. See how long it took for him to give me some of his gifts?" the voice asked, to which the other voices in the room mumbled in agreement.

"But these powers are magnificent are they not?" the voice asked, and once again mumbles of agreement echoed throughout the room.

"Bring me another, and please begin cleaning up. You guys know how my father is. He won't appreciate all the... blood," the voice said.

A flurry of approaching footsteps followed shortly after, and for a moment Lucius thought that they were heading his way.

However, the footsteps quickly died down, before a loud thud.

"Friends, this one is barely moving. Who's in charge of taking care of the food?" the voice asked.

Silence.

"Am I being ignored? Who was in charge?" the voice asked calmly.

"No one huh? Then you, you're in charge from now on," it said next.

And a moment after that, another energy signal disappeared.

"I hate people who don't do their job," the voice said, before sighing.

"Friends, I really don't like being this violent. But sometimes you guys anger me. Get replacements for the two that died on us. Send their families a few of those herbs from our garden- say it was a work-related accident," the voice continued before an audible 'munch' sound echoed throughout the room.

Lucius could just barely make out a soft moan, followed by a few silent quivers.

"Can you not cry while I eat, it's really disturbing?" the voice asked politely, before going back to its meal.

"And honestly, how long will I be forced to eat these sorts of things? When are you going to find more of those green creatures?" it asked, before whispering - as if to itself- "They were really packed with life force."

~Green creature?~ Lucius thought to himself in disbelief and for a moment he forgot where he was. The description was vague at best, but to even consider that his children might've come past here and endured this.

His worst fears were coming true.

[Kumulipo] came out almost instinctively, as Lucius fought against himself not to act too rashly. He had not yet properly pinpointed the locations of all the energy signatures in the room, to act now would put him at a disadvantage.

And oddly enough, even with images of what his children might've suffered through still playing through his mind, he calmed down.

He would get his answers, and if need be, his revenge. Or at least that was what the surrounding world seemed to be telling him.

His pull to the earth had tripled over the last few seconds, and he could just make out a few shadows shifting all around him.

[Requirements for system event have been met.]

[System event... [Rise of the Belladonna] has begun.]

[Eliminate sources of user turmoil.]

The notifications popped up one after the other in quick succession, however, Lucius was in no state to pay them any mind. He was fully focused on the task at hand. Nothing except his weapons and the enemies in front of him existed.

A few moments of silence passed, and he was finally certain of everyone's exact location and was confident that these were the only signatures in the room.

With that, he began doing something that seemed odd on paper but felt natural at the moment.

He let a few of the memories he had endured in the mindscape go rampant in his mind. Guiding those emotions, and using them as fuel for his poison.

At the same time, he could feel [kumulipo] interacting with the poison glands in his tail, feeding it some of its strange energies.

[Processing...]

[ System Event has reconfigured Skill Tree!]

[『Poison』 branch has been moved to [Kumulipo Index].]

[Processing...]

[New spell acquired... 『Never Ending Fear- Poison』.]

[Adding 『Never Ending Fear- Poison』 to 『Kumulipo Index』...]

[Complete. 『Never Ending Fear- Poison』 has been added.]

He was uncertain what exactly was going on, though right now he did not care to know.

A moment later, clouds of poisonous gas streamed from his tail, into the room, it's speed hastened by Elmando.

"Huh? What is that?" the voice asked, as Lucius sauntered in, the room now completely filled with ink-black gas.

The guards had covered their mouths and noses in response. However, that would not be enough.

"Succumb to your fears," Lucius whispered, using Elmando to force the black gas through the eyes of the guards and into their bodies.

For a split second nothing happened, and the guard's bodies just dangled there.

The calm before the storm.

A moment later, they went rabid, screaming, and rushing at each other with blackened eyes.

They gouged, and they stabbed, and they choked each other. Victim to the strange poison that now consumed their body.

Despite the ensuing chaos, Lucius's eyes were focused only on the venari sitting at what looked like a dinner table, made from obsidian black marble.

On top of the table was a venari fawn, a bloodied chunk of meat missing from its arm. Despite this, it was moving ever so slightly. It was resting over a pentagram of sorts, where its blood glimmered over the depiction.

The venari that had been consuming the fawn had longer horns than the guards, was visibly larger, and had gleaming red eyes.

A mist of red energy wafted from the fawn, towards it's mouth.

Lucius wasn't sure what sort of heinous magic rituals it was performing, however, based on its appearance he could tell it was an evolved venari... a guardian.

Still, he approached.

"What's the meaning of this?" Eiknyr asked, before making a gesture with his hands.

With that, dozens of threads made from red energy appeared seemingly out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around Lucius's arm.

"You... you're like one of those green creatures aren't you?" Eiknyr asked, his eyes wide open in realization.

"You're a little bigger, but I can tell. You guys are... unique," he mumbled to himself.

"They said you were coming. What did they call you? The... the, what was it? What did they call you?" Eiknyr asked, with a tilted head.

Lucius used [kumulipo] to drain the energy from his restraints, dissolving it and freeing him from their grasp.

"Yes! The Lighted One I remember. They said you were coming," Eiknyr continued, his laugh now echoing throughout the already noisy room. The walls were made from black marble as well, so the laughter bounced quite a few times, creating a sort of eerie effect.

Lucius froze at this, his focused expression breaking down into indifference as he processed what the venari had just said.