199 Evlins niece (1/2)

She used the ability of the holy metal to harden her skin in order to avoid getting her body torn apart from having herself constantly knocking against the ground with so much intensity.

”Ugh!! Let me go!!” she shouted while trying to form a blade to slice the claw into pieces but wasn't able to get a good position in her current situation.

She finally reached the top of the mountain only to get slammed against the terrain.

”Huuff!!”

She tried to put herself together and finally gazed at her kidnapper.

”So you must be the forest...” she mumbled while finally managing to get herself free from the claw.

Ellie observed as the wooden hand crawled back to its owner, a young-looking girl sitting with her bare-footed legs crossed on top of a massive shiny red orb covered in moss located at the bottom of a gigantic tree in the middle of the top of the mountain.

The tree had roots that moved like tentacles and raised themselves from the ground while taking the form of several massive hands that protected the orb.

There were also several carnivorous plants wriggling all over the place just acting like they were waiting for some kind of command to swallow Ellie in one bite.

The orb itself just radiated some kind of red smoke as if it was feeding all plant life with its materials.

As for the girl, she looked nothing like the previous incarnations of the spirit of the forest that Ellie had seen. She didn't look like any of the memory warriors or with Detra's deceased daughter.

For one thing, she seemed like a girl in her early teens but she was big as a house. Ellie felt like she would need to try hard to search for a ladder tall enough that would allow them to speak face-to-face.

Both her skin and hair were made of different tones of green, and her clothing consisted of several vines tangling themselves around her body.

The most disturbing thing about the girl were her blood-red eyes that just kept glaring at Ellie as if asking 'why aren't you dead yet?'

”And you must be the reason I got such annoying invaders inside my house lately...” the giant girl replied.

Elie tried to remember what Detra taught her about demons. She was not expecting to meet the forest so soon, but now that she was here, she would need to show that her training paid off.

These creatures like to feed on negative emotions like suffering, anger, fear. If Ellie ever was to deal with them, she needed to try her absolute best to keep her cool. She wondered if that is why her aunt always liked to goof around so much, some kind of defense mechanism against demons to keep her relaxed.

”I'm going to kill you...”

”... Ok then... You don't like small talk... Good to know...”

The giant girl just continued to glare while raising her plants and wooden limbs to intimidate Ellie.

”Look... I know we started off on the wrong foot... But I think if we take some time to get to know each other, I'm sure we could get along juuuuust fiiine...” Ellie suggested while slowly backing away from the plants.

”Oh, you think so? You know what I think??”

”... That green and red somehow look really good together?”

One of the plants tried to swallow Ellie but the girl just leaped to the side to avoid getting her leg chopped.

”I think... That you guys think you can just barge into my domain and do whatever the hell you want... And, I also think, that as long as I don't send a clear message to the people from the outside, one saying that I DON'T LIKE BEING DISTURBED, others will just keep coming here one after another and continue to bother my peace...” The girl explained, ”so maybe I should use you and your group of morons to try and make my message as crystal clear as possible!!”

Ellie was starting to get nervous. She needed to think of a way to get rid of her uncertainty or she would just end up making the demon even stronger.

”I'm sorry... I didn't catch your name...” Ellie commented.

”Demons don't have names... we reject the concept of names to show we don't need anyone...”

”I see... but it feels kinda weird to just refer to you as 'the forest'... can I call you Flora?”

”I couldn't care less...”

”Flora it is then...”

”...”

”So anyway Flora... I feel like we already formed a very good connection, and made a lot of progress with our bonding process...” Ellie mentioned while slowly trying to get closer to the core, ”so if you could be a good pal and just let me touch that giant Christmas tree decoration that you are sitting on real quick, I would be more than glad to leave your lovely home and just be on my merry way...”