It was a tough battle at first, but now the older Dryad sister was the only enemy left.
And on our side, besides me, we have Nina, the saint apprentice, Lady Dryad, the fairies, and even the baby Alraunes.


No matter how you look at it, we have the advantage.
We’ll overwhelm her just like this!

But despite how bad the situation should have been for her, the older Dryad sister chuckled to herself and smiled confidently.


“You might think you’ve already won, but your timing couldn’t have been worse. Take a look over there.”


The older Dryad sister pointed west.
When I looked in that direction, a massive horde of monsters was emerging from the western forest.


There were easily more than a hundred of them.
And there were tons of super-strong monsters mixed in that were on the level of the forest’s Four Heavenly Kings.
The bloodthirsty roars of all the ferocious beasts overlapped together, creating an intimidating effect.


There’s no way Mr. Drink Station and the other three adventurers can handle that many, right?
And apparently, I wasn’t the only one worried about that.


“Alraune, I shall deal with those monsters,” Lady Dryad called out to me.

“To be perfectly honest, although we are both Dryads, I do not possess enough power to defeat my elder sister. If she is to be defeated, we will need your strength, Alraune.”


It’s true. If things continue like this, I feel like we can somehow defeat the older Dryad sister.
But we don’t have enough leeway to fight that entire horde of monsters at the same time
So I’m all for splitting up our roles!


“Understood… I’ll defeat… the Spirit Princess!”

“I am counting on you as the forest’s guard.”


Come to think of it, I never imagined I would end up fighting one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s army twice.
Maybe being the forest’s guard was a little tougher of a job than I signed up for?


“I will leave this to you now, Alraune. Please free my sister from the hatred that has consumed her.”


With that, Lady Dryad transferred herself in front of the approaching monster horde.


“Spirit Magic: Dominion of the Great Forest—Herrschaft Pflanze,” she chanted, activating her magic to erect a wall of trees.

“I alone will suffice here. Humans, you should assist Alraune as well.”

After hearing Lady Dryad’s instructions, Mr. Drink Station and the others shouted, “Understood!” and hurried back to us.



With her monster forces held back, the older Dryad sister let out a sigh.


“A good decision. If it’s my little sister, she should be able to buy you some time against a horde of monsters, at least.”

“Even so… we still have… the advantage. Will you… surrender?”

“Me, surrender? Don’t be ridiculous. I can make as many minions as there are blades of grass.”


The older Dryad sister raised both arms as if in prayer.


“Spirit Magic: Nature Transformation—Veränderung. Tyrannical Plant Beast, Begleiterin!”


The grass surrounding the older Dryad sister began to grow at an incredible speed.


“The weeds are turning into plant monsters!?” Nina cried, prompting the older Dryad sister to shoot Nina a sharp glare.

“You, saint apprentice, have gotten that wrong. There’s no such plant as a weed. Every one of them is a precious plant of mine.”


Plant monsters that looked like even more vicious versions of man-eaters appeared in huge numbers one by one.
Our opponent is a mad scientist Dryad.
And she can create an endless supply of minions.

But you know what? An opponent like that isn’t even a match for me.
Because I’m not alone either. I’ve got plenty of allies too!



Good day to you, Lady Feagismeinnicht.

Thank you ever so much for attending this Alraune Joint Concert hosted by yours truly.
It is time for a grand ensemble performance by the Alraune Machine Gun Symphony Orchestra, featuring myself and the baby Alraunes, eighteen performers in all.


Each of the baby Alraunes has prepared twenty squirting cucumber machine guns, while I myself have prepared forty.
That makes for a massive orchestra of three hundred and eighty squirting cucumber machine guns.


And that’s not all. We’ve even prepared a special service for our guest.
Once we defeat you here, Lady Feagismeinnicht, we’ll be sure to perform a requiem for you afterward.
So please rest assured, even as you depart for the land of the dead.


Now then, please enjoy this performance by the Alraune Machine Gun Symphony Orchestra, dedicated to Lady Feagismeinnicht, one of the Four Heavenly Kings.


Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!!


The grand ensemble performance by me and the baby Alraunes began.
Countless thorn-covered seeds pierced the plant monsters shielding for our audience member, Lady Feagismeinnicht.

It seems they enjoyed our performance, because the seeds embedded in the plant monsters sprouted, giving birth to new baby Alraunes.
The newly born baby Alraunes then parasitized the plant monsters with dodder haustoria, destroying them from the inside.
Soon, only the baby Alraunes remained.

And would you believe it? The plant monsters that had been just audience members have joined the performers in the blink of an eye.


Together with the twenty newly born baby Alraunes who had just joined the Alraune Machine Gun Symphony Orchestra, we began a grand performance for our most important guest of the day, Lady Feagismeinnicht.
Come on, everyone! Let us all send our feelings to Lady Feagismeinnicht together!


Having lost her shields, the older Dryad sister created a wall of trees from the ground, but the seeds that struck it sprouted into even more baby Alraunes.
They broke through the wall, adding even more force to our performance.


“Even I can’t block something like this…” I heard the older Dryad sister mutter quietly.


And so, the seed bullets, thundering so loudly they seemed to engulf the entire forest, finally reaching the land tortoise that served as the older Dryad’s legs.


“So this is as far as I go. I surrender… as if I’d ever say that! An attack like that won’t work on me!”


Suddenly, a barrier of light appeared around the older Dryad sister.
She must’ve used the Hero’s Helmet to create a small barrier with light magic.


“Too bad, princess. A trump card is meant to be hidden until the very end!”


She did say she could use the Hero’s Helmet to some extent, but I didn’t know she could do something like this too.
What a surprise!


But you see, light magic doesn’t work on me.
As both a former saint who has mastered light magic and a plant who loves photosynthesis, I know perfectly well that it won’t work.


The moment the seed bullets touched the barrier, the seeds absorbed the barrier’s light magic.

I can absorb light magic and use it as energy.
After all, those seeds are part of my body too. That means they can nullify light magic in the same way as I do.


The next second, the older Dryad sister cried out in panic.


“That’s impossible! The barrier doesn’t work!?”


The seed bullets passed straight through the barrier of the Hero’s Helmet as if it weren’t even there.
Dozens of thorn-covered seeds pierced the land tortoise.

The seeds immediately sprouted, turning into dodders that ate away at the land tortoise’s insides.
The dodder tendrils stretched towards the ancient tree, the older Dryad sister’s true body, that has been growing from the tortoise’s shell.


The older Dryad sister grimaced bitterly.


“Looks like this body has reached its limit. I rather liked it too. What a shame.” Speaking in frustration, she picked up a tiny object attached to the ancient tree.
She had attached a small egg to her true body.


“Spirit Magic: Forced Life Manipulation—Diktator.“


When the older Dryad sister cast her spell, a baby spider hatched from the egg.
The spider rapidly grew right before my eyes, becoming a huntsman spider as large as the land tortoise.
Not only did she use spirit magic to make it grow, she even modified it!


“Looks like it’s time to move for the first time in a while,” the older Dryad sister said, a branch of her ancient tree stretching towards the huntsman spider.


When the branch pierced the spider’s back, it thickened until it was as wide as a log.
The ancient tree that had been growing from the land tortoise’s back started moving into the huntsman spider as though it were being sucked through the branch.

In the blink of an eye, the older Dryad sister had switched hosts from the land tortoise to the huntsman spider.


“The tortoise had strong defenses, but it was terribly slow. This spider, on the other hand, is both fast and capable.”


The huntsman spider leapt into the air.
But with a body that massive, no matter how fast it is, there’s no way it can dodge the seeds from more than five hundred squirting cucumber machine guns!

A salvo of seeds from my five hundred squirting cucumber machine guns assailed the huntsman spider.
But none of the seeds hit it.

The huntsman spider had spun web-like silk and used it as a shield against the seed bullets.
It seems the magically modified huntsman spider can produce extremely strong silk that is both tough and sticky.

It formed a shield of spiderweb in front of itself with that silk, completely blocking our attacks.
This is even more troublesome than the land tortoise. What am I supposed to do now…?!


“Too bad, princess. If I wrap your seeds in my spider’s modified silk, they won’t be able to break through or even sprout.”

“But then… you don’t have… any chance to counterattack… do you?”

“That’s right… which means I have no choice. I really didn’t want to use that, but given the situation, it can’t be helped…”


The older Dryad sister landed on the ground.
Then, a branch from the ancient tree growing out of the huntsman spider’s back drooped downward and stabbed into the earth.


“It’s your fault for forcing me to use this, princess. Don’t go blaming me for what happens next.”


Black veins streaked out from the branch through the ground like rapidly forming cracks.
The leaves of the surrounding forest began to turn a deep purple.


“From now on, this forest will be reborn as one that releases a deadly miasma, indiscriminately killing all life, plant or animal.”


The older Dryad sister sneered down at us mockingly.


“Dark Spirit Magic: Genesis of the Miasmic Forest—Todesgiftwald.”


A spell unlike anything I had ever heard of or seen before was unleashed.


And just like that, in the span of a single instant, the Forest of Dryades was transformed into a forest of death.

***

Author’s Note:

Next Time: Alraune vs. Dryad (Part Four)