Chaos Heir

Chapter 1172 Pleas

That triangular pattern was unmistakable. Khan would recognize it anywhere. Those eyes carried the same color and even stood in the same spot as the alien from his nightmares. They were definitely Nak, and Khan's aura instinctively intensified at their sight.

Nevertheless, Khan quickly calmed down. As identical as those eyes were, the tree wasn't a Nak. There was no skull inside that trunk, and Khan couldn't spot anything similar to a brain, or other organs for that matter.

Those eyes simply resulted from the same mutations that afflicted the woods and the rest of the planet, and Khan couldn't find the strength to feel surprised anymore. He actually believed it was somewhat normal, but his thoughts hardly focused on the three organs or the horrid, furred eyelids.

The tree had reacted to Khan's arrival, but he didn't know whether that reaction was a sign of intelligence. It could have merely been an instinctive behavior, no different than flowers growing toward the sun.

Moreover, Khan couldn't find any mouth-like hole hidden under the thick fur or among the scales and wood. Even the crown made of horns and petals had nothing similar. Cegnore's natives had been able to communicate through water and plants, but Khan didn't know whether the tree could do the same.

Actually, Khan didn't know whether the tree had the ability to communicate at all, but the strangeness of the situation didn't prevent him from trying.

Khan defaulted to his instinctive behavior with unknown aliens, performing a Niqols' bow while ensuring his mana joined his words to convey his intentions.

"Greetings," Khan said. "I traveled far and wide to get here. I'm looking for the Nak."

The three eyes followed Khan's gesture, fueling his hopes, but no second tremor unfolded. The tree's mana remained still, seemingly uncaring and unaffected by the bow. It didn't even look like it was processing the event.

Of course, the tree didn't have expressions or faces that Khan could read. However, its mana had to move if whatever it used as a brain started studying the scene, but everything stayed still.

"I'm the Nak's heir," Khan insisted, straightening himself in the hope of causing any reaction. "I must find the Nak and save the mana."

The three eyes followed Khan's gesture once again, but the same went for the tree's energy. Nothing moved. It seemed the plant was following Khan instinctively, not out of curiosity, thoughts, or any other force that could hint at intelligence.

Khan couldn't help but sigh. He had hoped to find something quickly, but his landing area had been random, and he had never been lucky, to begin with. Obtaining answers at his first attempt would have been stranger than not getting anything.

Sure, that result didn't bode well, but Khan wasn't ready to give up on the unnamed planet. The Nak's mana must have caused some mutations he could work with, and he would search every inch of that celestial body to find them.

Khan began to turn before suddenly halting his steps, or cells for that matter. Nothing moved in those woods. He would hardly consider those plants alive, but they were, and their stillness conflicted with some natural laws even the mana couldn't allow living beings to ignore.

Something alive had to feed on something else to continue working. Khan could guess that the vegetation could survive solely on mana in its current stillness, similar to an energy-saving mode. Yet, that went against the previous tremor. If that were the case, the tree would have never wasted its precious fuel to react to Khan's arrival.

A vague hunch rose from a dark part of Khan's brain. His subconscious spoke to him, slowly creating a similarity he could put into his thoughts. He had experienced what the Great Old One had felt when it took control of his body and that vegetation could have gone through something similar, except that the change had been permanent for them.

Khan turned again, still levitating above the mutated surface, to look at the three-eyed tree. Maybe it wasn't that the plant didn't want to add more reactions to Khan's arrival. Perhaps it simply couldn't since it didn't have the energy to do so. It might have even forgotten how to do that.

The tree kept following Khan's movement with its Nak eyes, but its mana didn't move at all. That plant didn't even breathe like the previous one. It just stood still, but Khan's mind had already gone to work, calculating all kinds of possibilities.

A scientist would need samples and weeks or months to find a way to rejuvenate and interact with that mutated vegetation. However, Khan was a Shaman. He would never claim he was a capable or official one, but his methods did escape human comprehension long ago, and his element had only helped with that.

Khan lowered his glowing eyes while lifting his scarred left hand. He studied his hideous palm, searching for something he couldn't put into words. Theoretically, Khan should be able to do it, but his existence had grown far beyond what that vegetation could endure.

'Chaos is life,' Khan thought, closing his eyes and letting his perception merge with the world. He immersed his senses in his surroundings, memorizing their tiniest details and specific energy. Khan would probably only have one attempt at that, so he wanted to succeed on the first try.

That complete stillness was opposite and incompatible with Khan's raging mana, but he was a master of the Niqols' manipulation field. Also, the chaos element complied without uttering a single complaint, gathering in his palm in its crackling shape.

A roar thundered inside the woods when that single purple-red spark formed at the center of Khan's palm. Yet, its unstable, wild shape quickly condensed, changing color and gathering in the form of a tiny drop.

The drop grew completely purple, darkened, and then paled again, striving for blue shades. Its color continued to change until an azure bright light shone on Khan's palm, finally making him open his eyes.

Khan stared at the blinding blue drop, applying more of his control. The mass of mana split and only one minuscule piece of it moved toward his forefinger before the others closed to form a partial fist.

The rest of the mana vanished, crushed by Khan's grip. However, the minuscule, bright piece survived, lingering on his forefinger's tip. Khan stared at it, occasionally moving his glowing eyes toward the tree and the ground. Its color darkened under his additional, careful manipulation, but everything seemed to be matching afterward.

Then, Khan turned his hand upside-down, letting the minuscule drop of mana fall to the ground. His energy instantly fused with that Tainted surface, sending a wave of fuel into the entire area and lighting up the world under his feet. The hidden roots immediately absorbed that mana, and the woods finally moved.

Tremors, both faint and noticeable, spread everywhere. The mutated trunks, branches, antlers, grass, and ground shook during that forceful absorption. The mana in the area flared, hinting at all kinds of reactions. Nothing significant happened, but Khan heard it anyway.

The uneven earthquake didn't only unleash tremors. The vegetation immediately employed some of the mana Khan had given them, releasing tinges of it to convey their emotions. That use of the Nak language was instinctive, and Khan's brain automatically translated that unified, terrible message.

"Kill us," Khan heard, those exact and identical words coming from everywhere, creating a cacophony of pleas that made the woods deafening.

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