I’m an Alraune, a giant plant monster girl.
And now, I’m facing off against the older Dryad sister in her Divine Tree form, having grown the Rafflesia blooming beneath my bulb to kaiju size.


My Rafflesia body had grown larger than a baseball stadium, while my Alraune body remained its original size, growing atop it, looking tiny in comparison.

Just going by appearances, I feel like I could play some kind of villainous monster in an anime or kaiju movie from my past life.
I’ve seen things before where a beautiful woman would fuse with some kind of monster.
The older Dryad sister and I both look akin to something like that right now.

In situations like this, growing giant is usually a death flag for your chances of winning, but what happens when both you and your opponent turn giant?



Anyway, in the process of making this enormous Rafflesia bloom, my body released a huge amount of yellow gas into the sky.


The Rafflesia is a plant that releases the stench of rotting flesh when it blooms.
The smell attracts flies, which then carries its pollen to other Rafflesia flowers, allowing them to be pollinated. That’s how it reproduces.

But as a maiden, I absolutely cannot allow my own body to give off the stench of rotting flesh.
The little witch would definitely tell me I stink and refuse to come near me anymore.
And there’s no chance I’m letting that happen!

So, I selectively bred the Rafflesia, changing it into a flower that gave off a pleasant floral fragrance instead of a rotting stench.
The fact that I can even modify my own body like this is pretty convenient, isn’t it?


The moment a Rafflesia blooms, it spreads its scent throughout the surrounding area.
Naturally, this improved Rafflesia releases my own floral fragrance.

A cloud of yellow gas burst from the Rafflesia and rose into the sky.
I think quite a bit of the nectar I released through transpiration escaped along with the scent, but oh well. It should be fine.
I’m sure everyone would rather smell something sweet than something rotten anyway.


And by the time my Rafflesia bloomed, my attack had already begun.


The branches of the Divine Tree that had been covering the sky withered away, crumbling apart as they fell to the ground.
Seeing this, the older Dryad hurriedly glared at me, looking flustered.


“My branches are withering… what the hell did you do!?”


What did I do? Nothing particularly special.
If I had to describe it, I suppose you could say I borrowed a little bit of the older Dryad sister’s body.


While the Rafflesia is famous for its gigantic flowers, a lesser-known fact is that it’s actually a parasitic plant.

And just like the dodder, it’s a type of holoparasitic plant.
Not only does it lack any leaves or stems, it doesn’t even perform photosynthesis.
Instead, it survives entirely on nutrients drained from its host.

Normally, the Rafflesia parasitizes plants from the grape family in order to grow.
But when I ate it, I selectively bred it so that it could parasitize other trees as well.


As it happens, I’ve been doing the same thing as the holoparasitic Rafflesia.
While all this was going on, I had secretly extended thin roots through the soil and latched onto the older Dryad sister’s roots, feeding off of her just like a parasite.


That was how I managed to grow this huge—not only by absorbing the light energy from the Hero’s Helmet, but also by sucking up the Divine Tree’s nutrients.



I guess I got a little carried away and took too much from her, because the Divine Tree’s branches had started to wither.
Even that bud that was about to bloom looked a little shriveled now.

The Divine Tree’s nutrients were delicious.
Thanks for the meal!


“This sensation… so you’ve been draining my power through my roots, haven’t you? You’re capable of some rather clever tricks.”

“I’m honored… by your… praise.”


The older Dryad had made her body so enormous that she failed to notice my tiny parasitic roots.
And so, I took advantage of that!


“Forget it, it doesn’t matter. No matter how much of my power you steal to make yourself bigger, there’s no way I—a Dryad who rules over plants—could ever lose to a plant monster!”


Branches resembling the arms of a giant extended from the Divine Tree.

To fight back, I used Plant Generation to create massive banyan roots.
The giant banyan wrapped around the Divine Tree’s branches and squeezed them tight.


“Well, well, looks like we’re evenly matched. You really are a terrifying Alraune, princess.”


Evenly matched?
No, I’m actually being pushed back a little.

I still don’t have enough power to compete with the Divine Tree.
I need more power…!


I squeezed even more light energy out of the Hero’s Helmet inside my body.
At the same time, I greedily sucked up even more nutrients from the Divine Tree through my Rafflesia.

As I rapidly grew once again, my banyan became even larger, matching the thickness of the Divine Tree’s trunk as they crushed the older Dryad sister’s branches in their grip.


“Just how much more are you planning to grow!?”


The older Dryad sister shouted, practically screaming in pain.



Now that I’ve crushed the Divine Tree’s branches, it’s time for the trunk itself.
Banyan constriction attack!


────No good. It’s much harder than I expected.
If I want to damage it quickly, I’ll need to hit it with something harder.



In that case, I’ll swing a gigantic vine and smash it straight into the Divine Tree’s trunk!
If I build up enough centrifugal force, its destructive power will multiply several times over.

I generated a long, thick vine and drew it back with a wide horizontal swing.


──CRASH!


Huh…? I think my vine just hit something.

Then I heard what sounded like something breaking behind me, in the direction of Tower City.


When I turned around, strangely enough, the Goddess’s Tower, the town’s monument that had been standing there just moments ago, had somehow vanished.


D-Don’t tell me… did I… do that?


I extended a vine towards where the tower had been and managed to grab something large and long.


Hoping it wasn’t what I thought it was, I pulled the long object back to myself.
And when I did, I saw my vine was now holding the upper half of the tower, which was somehow burning .


What am I going to do?
I broke the Goddess’s Tower!


O Goddess, I’m so sorry!!

How could a former saint like me do something so disgraceful?
I have a feeling that, in the entire long history of the church, I’m the only saint who has ever accidentally destroyed a Goddess’s Tower.


As I clasped the fingers of both of my hands together and apologized to the Goddess in my heart, the older Dryad sister called out to me in a stunned voice, saying, “What is the meaning of this?”


“That way of praying belongs to the human church. So why would you, a mere plant monster, know how to pray like that, princess? And that’s not all. Why would an Alraune be praying in front of the Goddess’s Tower in the first place?”


Normally, your average monster wouldn’t pray to a Goddess’s Tower worshipped by the human church.
I guess my behavior must have looked extremely strange.


“I saw humans… praying like this… and remembered… how they did it.”


Despite me giving that excuse, the older Dryad sister continued thinking to herself, having seemingly brushed it aside.
Then, as though something had occurred to her, she continued.


“There’s more. No matter how much power you gained by eating that saint, I can’t imagine a plant monster being able to freely control the Hero’s Helmet. And considering how you controlled that saint apprentice earlier to cast high-level light magic, along with the fact that you look exactly like her…”


A look of sudden realization crossed the older Dryad sister’s face as she slowly stared into my eyes.


“Don’t tell me, princess… are you Saint Iris herself?”

“……Hehe… I wonder.


With an alluring smile, I turned my gaze towards the Treant and Lady Dryad, who were still on the ground.

Now that the older Dryad sister and I had grown so massive, our voices shouldn’t be able to reach the two far below.
Which means this conversation can only be heard by the older Dryad sister and me.


“So long as the… heart of a saint… remains within this body… I cannot… allow an evil spirit like… you to continue as you… please.”

“So you really are Saint Iris, princess… but how did a saint become an Alraune!?”


That’s something I’d like to know myself.
It’s not like I became one because I wanted to.
Well, compared to just dying back then, I suppose I should be grateful that becoming a plant monster allowed my life to continue.


“Saint Iris, just what is your goal?”


My goal?
Isn’t that obvious?


“To live a quiet… plant life while… photosynthesizing.”


I already died once as a saint… no, as a human.
And I understand that this body is now completely that of a plant.
After having returned my consciousness to a seed so many times, I’m convinced that I can never go back to being human.

Sure, not being able to walk around freely is inconvenient, but I’ve grown rather fond of this plant body too.
And I’ve even found people who are like family to me, who say they love me precisely because I’m an Alraune.


“Then why don’t you join forces with me after all? If you love plants that much, let’s wipe out humanity and build a kingdom of plants together.”

“I like… humans.”


It’s true that the ones who betrayed and killed me were humans.
And because of them, I ended up becoming a plant monster.


Even so, I still like humans, like the little witch, Nina, and the others.
That’s why I will never walk the same path as the older Dryad sister, who wants to exterminate humanity and create a world of plants.


The reason I revealed my true identity here is because I’ve made up my mind.
This is my declaration that I intend to destroy the older Dryad sister for good.


“You… now know… my secret.”


Which means I can’t simply let you go.

The fact that Saint Iris is still alive.
And that she’s become an Alraune, a plant monster. It would cause all kinds of trouble if the Demon King’s army or other humans learned about that

Lady Feagismeinnicht, it’s too late to regret discovering that I’m Saint Iris.

Learning my secret comes at a very high price.


In exchange for revealing my secret to you, I’ll be taking everything you have.

***

Author’s Note:

Rafflesia: A parasitic plant of the Rafflesiaceae family. It is primarily found in the tropical regions of Southeast Asia. When it was first discovered, people were said to have feared it as a “man-eating flower.”

The long battle between these two is finally approaching its conclusion.

Next Time: Alraune vs. Dryad (Part Nine)


TL’s Note:

A Rafflesia growing on hanging roots. Though, they most commonly grow on the ground. After the flower was discovered, it, and its genus, was named after Stamford Raffles, the British expedition leader and founder of colonial Singapore.