I’m an Alraune, a plant monster girl.
And I’m about to face off against the older Dryad sister, who had grown massive after transforming into a Divine Tree.

I looked up at the Divine Tree towering towards the heavens, its highest branches spreading out, seemingly to cover the sky.

The rain that had been falling since early morning had cleared up after we defeated Drago, leaving behind a perfectly clear sky.
But now, the branches and leaves hanging from the sky blocked out the sunlight that had felt so wonderful to photosynthesize in.


A little below the branches at the very top, a huge bud had formed.
And from a section relatively close to the ground, the older Dryad sister was growing out of the tree, with only the upper half of her body visible.

Looks like she’s completely fused with the Divine Tree.


Which means I won’t be able to defeat her unless I destroy that enormous tree that looks like something that came straight out of mythology.
This is going to be quite troublesome.


The older Dryad sister looked down at me with a confident smile and sneered.


“Now that I’ve become like this, even you’re nothing more than a tiny little flower. I could probably crush you with ease now.”


One of the Divine Tree’s massive, thick branches came swinging down at me.
I created a shield out of vines to block it, but it was useless.
The Divine Tree’s branch crushed me beneath itself like an elephant’s foot trampling an ant.


I-It hurts.
But as a plant, something like this isn’t enough to kill me.
Even tiny weeds can get back up after being stepped on by humans.
That incredible vitality is what makes plants so strong!


“I already know something like this isn’t enough to kill you. But if I keep crushing you like this, even you’ll eventually wither away, won’t you, princess?”


She’s right. Things will get bad if this continues.
I’m being pressed down by such overwhelming force that I feel like I’m about to turn into a pressed flower.


“S-Someone… help me.”

“It’s useless. You saw the bud on the Divine Tree, didn’t you? With the spirit magic I gained after becoming a Divine Tree, I can make any living creature that smells that flower’s fragrance lose consciousness. No one is coming to save you.”


So that’s why Nina and the other humans suddenly collapsed.
I was worried something had happened to them, but if they’d only been knocked unconscious, I could at least breathe a sigh of relief.


“But this is only the beginning. My dark spirit magic, ‘Fragrance of the Death-Declaring Flower—Waldschmerzblume,’ which I can use as the Divine Tree, first produces a bud whose scent robs the surrounding creatures of consciousness. Then, once the flower blooms, it can drain the lives of those creatures.”


You’ve got to be kidding me.
So when that bud on the Divine Tree blooms, everyone here is going to die?
What is that nonsense?! Being able to do something like that with just a smell is cheating!


I want to save everyone, but I can’t move while the older Dryad sister is pinning me down.
At this rate, everyone is going to die because of that ticking time bomb of a flower.
We’re in serious trouble!



In the midst of this hopeless situation, I heard the sound of something running towards us from a distance.

Still being crushed under the Divine Tree’s branch, I turned my gaze towards the sound through the tiny gap that remained.
And there, I caught the sight of a Treant sprinting at me with a sharp, powerful stride.


It’s my little junior, the Amazon Treant!
Come to think about it, I hadn’t seen the Treant anywhere since I saw her getting beaten up by Drago.
Since she’s also a plant-type monster, the Divine Tree’s magic doesn’t affect her either, so she’s safe.

The older Dryad sister seemed to have noticed the approaching Treant and laughed as though she had spotted something amusing.


“What’s with that strange Treant? If it’s trying to save you, princess, then I won’t allow it.”


I sensed another branch descending towards the Treant from above.
If it were to hit her, then the Treant is going to get flattened too.
Forget about me, run away from here, quickly!


Just then, a third voice rang out from somewhere nearby.


“I won’t allow that!”


It was the voice of Lady Dryad.
Using spirit magic, Lady Dryad formed a wooden shield, protecting the Treant from the attack.


It seemed like the magic of the older Dryad sister’s Divine Tree had knocked out all the monsters in the western forest, which freed Lady Dryad to come over here as reinforcement.
Since neither the Treant nor I had lost consciousness, it only made sense Lady Dryad wasn’t affected by the Divine Tree’s magic either.


With Lady Dryad’s help, my little junior managed to reach me.
She was clutching several different kinds of unusual-looking plants in her branches.

It was obvious at a glance that she had been gathering plants for me.
I’m so happy I could cry.
As expected of my little junior!


Plus, these two flowers might actually be useful.
I swallowed the smaller flower whole, then extended a vine towards the second, much larger one.


It was a big flower, measuring a meter across and weighing as much as ten kilograms.
In my past life, it was quite famous, even being called the largest flower in the world.
It was called a Rafflesia.


When the Rafflesia was first discovered, people were apparently so frightened by its size that they thought it was a “man-eating flower.”
But in reality, it was just a really big flower.
Though I say that, being huge isn’t actually the only noteworthy thing about the Rafflesia.


──Chomp.

I devoured the Rafflesia.


Seeing that, the older Dryad sister taunted me, saying, “What exactly do you think you can accomplish just by eating a flower?”
Eating a Rafflesia isn’t enough to stand against her now that she’s become a Divine Tree.


That’s why, just like how the older Dryad sister used the Seed of the Divine Tree, I’m going to make use of an item too!


Following the Rafflesia, I swallowed the Hero’s Helmet whole with my lower mouth.

The Hero’s Helmet contained an immeasurable amount of light magic energy.
And by absorbing all of that light energy, I’ll grow huge too!


“So you’re trying to absorb the helmet into your body, but it’s useless. No spirit could ever possibly take the power contained within the Hero’s Helmet, let alone a monster. Even I could only use a fraction of its power to create a barrier.”


It seemed the older Dryad sister was never able to properly control the power of the Hero’s Helmet.


No one would expect me, someone who has only touched the helmet for the first time today, to be able to do more with it than the older Dryad sister could.
But I’ve touched something similar to this many times before.

The Holy Sword wielded by the Hero, my former fiancé.


I understood, albeit only partly, how the Holy Sword, one of this world’s greatest treasures said to have been created by the Goddess herself, actually worked.
Granted, that was only a tiny portion that was related to light magic.


Still, if I apply that knowledge, it shouldn’t be impossible for me to strip the power of the damaged Hero’s Helmet.


First, I recalled the sensations I felt back when I was a saint.
Then, I began absorbing its light energy, as though drawing it out through the cracks in the Hero’s Helmet.
I could feel a vast power, far surpassing Nina’s light magic or even that of the golden birdman, pouring into me


With this much, I can do it.
I’m going to grow huge!


Using Plant Generation, I transformed the roots of my bulb into that of a Rafflesia’s.
And just like that, my body, which had been pinned under a branch of the Divine Tree, began to rapidly swell outward.
I threw off the branch, and my Rafflesia body continued expanding almost explosively.


I ignored the older Dryad sister’s cry of “That’s impossible!” By then, I had already grown taller than every tree in the Forest of Dryades.


I’m gigantic!


My Alraune body now looked tiny, sitting inside an enormous, round bud that was shaped like a dome.
Once I make this giant bud bloom, my transformation should be complete.
Slowly, I moved the bud, which was part of my body, and made it bloom.


Behold, the birth of the Giant Rafflesia!


The result was an enormous red flower several times larger than a domed baseball stadium. And at its center grew my bulb and Alraune body, both still their original size.


As a whole, my overall body had now reached kaiju size. I’d grown to such a scale that I felt like I could put up a pretty good fight against Fire Dragon-sama.
My little junior, the Treant, and Lady Dryad looked as tiny as toy dolls from up here.
Even the Forest of Dryades itself was nothing more than some slightly tall weeds now.
I might have grown a little too much.



Perhaps stunned by the magnificent beauty of my Rafflesia, the older Dryad sister asked me in a trembling voice,


“I can’t believe an Alraune could grow this big… princess, what in the world did you do?”

“I’m… still a child… so I’m going through… a growth spurt.”


After all, I’ve only been an Alraune for a year and a few months.
And if we’re talking purely about the physical age of this body, I only just reverted back to being a seed, so I’m technically only two days old!


Anyway, in terms of sheer size, I can finally more or less match the older Dryad sister in her Divine Tree form.
Of course, it’s difficult for a flower to grow taller than a tree, so I’m completely outmatched in terms of height.
But when it comes to width, I’ve won by a landslide.

So the real battle starts now!


And besides, it’s still too early to be surprised.

Growing bigger wasn’t the entirety of my plan.


Because thanks to a certain ability of the Rafflesia, I’d already secretly begun my attack on the Divine Tree.

***

Author’s Note:

As you probably guessed, the enormous flower Corporal Franz saw from the town was the Alraune.
The kaiju plant battle begins!

Next Time: Alraune vs. Dryad (Part Eight)