"What are you standing there dazed for? Quick, after her!"

The second elder who also awoke from his temporary stupor snarled as his subordinates broke free from Rati's spell. With swirling emerald light and leaves dancing around their lithe forms, they bolted toward the devi. If the invaders' God-Sense and Laws stood suppressed by the forest, the same rules didn't apply to the Nature Spirits and Chthonian Devils.

Having inferred that her foes didn't face the same restrictions, Rati created four identical Dream Avatars and the five split in five directions! The Nature Spirits may have been innately skilled in Nature Laws, but none of them excelled in Truth Laws or cultivated Seer's Vision.

They only had two choices; split or chase the five one at a time. They chose the latter.

And as he observed Rati's plight from above, Konrad nodded in approval.

"Alert and quick-witted. Knowing when to advance and when to retreat. I like."

Konrad appraised before vanishing in swirling black flames. With her own survival at stake, Rati naturally didn't have time to investigate his whereabouts. But while she could stall the Nature Spirits, the Essence Nurturing Forest would never fall for her tricks.

Not even three minutes after leaving her captors behind, Rati found herself surrounded by five floating trees. Emerald light surged and the trees morphed with vines coiling around their forms as they turned into bipedal green giants endowed with vine limbs, and plants sprouting from their forms.

"Hahahaha, Devas surely are a righteous lot. When the Essence Nurturing Forest most needed blood fertilizers, you fools rushed to deliver yourselves! And what fertilizers at that! Prime material, I say!"

One of the Vine Giants remarked with its makeshift lips curving into a grotesque smile while the two emerald orbs that served as its eyes glowed like miniature suns.

Surrounded from all sides, Rati's entrancing face contorted into a frown. Alas, the obnoxious forest didn't even give her time to grumble. Five emerald vortexes appeared above the Vine Giants, releasing hundreds of thin vine nets that trapped Rati where she stood.

*CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK*

From the ground, a new supply of eager vines rose to bind Rati's arms and feet while flowers bloomed all around and released an emerald pollen that invaded her nostrils.

"Poison."

The bound Goddess realized as the pollen assailed her body and mind. Having long-since reached Dream Embodiment, Rati dreaded no illusion. Poison, however, was another matter. Base Laws were often embedded in some Higher Law, just like Higher Laws often stood within some Primal Law.

Poison was a Base Law whose abilities all Nature Wielders could access. In the same process, Life Wielders could access all Nature-based abilities. By channeling the forest's strength, those five Vine Giants had access to a broad range of abilities that put outsiders at a clear disadvantage.

Still, Rati didn't panic. Panic never served any purpose. Either she died, or she found a way out. Nothing more, nothing less. But soon, it became evident that the Essence Nurturing Forest didn't plan to give her a way out. As she thrashed against the vines, a foreign concentration of Life Laws permeated the atmosphere, trapping her from all sides and suppressing her cultivation base!

"Resistance is futile. There is no scenario where you escape our grasp alive."

The Vine Giants laughed in tandem, causing Rati to shake her head.

"Trees will be trees. Without a brain, how can you think straight? Do you think your fate will be any better? When we Royal Blooded Devas perish, have no doubt that the entirety of this forest will become ashes and dust. The Cardinal Lords will slaughter the Nature Spirits to the last, harvest all the forest's secrets, then make a bonfire out of it.

How is that a victory? Only brainless fools would gloat at this juncture."

Rati retorted with a taunting jeer. But unfazed, the Vine Giants, burst into a peal of laughter.

"But of course, let them come! When your one thousand devas' blood feeds the forest's transformation when it rises to complete lifeform with Life Embodiment and peak Legendary God battle-power, who will still care about them? We're more than glad to welcome the fools!"

They countered, thereby telling the devi all she needed to know. Having nothing else to probe, Rati closed her eyes, causing a magenta ray to sprout from her chest and rise into the sky to become a pearl-white chakram.

From that chakram, a burst of boundless God-Force split all the vines and nets before freeing Rati of the laws' suppression. Magenta clouds and winds unfurled, spreading and rotating around her form while her hair fluttered and her cultivation base erupted.

"I have learned all I needed from you. Now you can rest."

Rati snapped, and her hands flashed in incantation gestures that prompted the chakram into a series of nine-hundred rotations. At its center, a miniature star appeared, releasing a flaming explosion of magenta rays that encompassed everything across one-hundred kilometer!

"An eight-stars...God Artifact."

The five giants realized, far too late. With that one move, the chakram razed everything in the vicinity, leaving nothing behind. Now, across one-hundred kilometers, Rati aside, only debris and ashes remained.

That chakram was her strongest artifact, refined by Daksha himself after millions of years of hardships. But as the chakram's rotation ended, Rati teetered, struggling to maintain balance before dropping onto her right knee.

*PUH*

By the time the now dropping chakram followed her and tumbled onto the ground, Rati spurted a large mouthful of blood. The pollens' effects intensified, wreaking havoc within her body while she fought to suppress the physical and mental damage.

All to no avail. The poison had already seeped into her marrow, leaving her defenseless and at the complete mercy of whoever showed evil intent. At that time...

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

…the sound of clapping hands echoed from Rati's back, and as she shifted her trembling face and eyes toward its source, they lay on one of the few she pleaded Heavens to not see.

"It's you. Rudra, you really know how to pick your time...if that's even your real name."

Rati stated while her eyes locked on the Mara youth standing only five steps away from her.

"Impressive, I must say. You truly know how to endure. A pity that your strength is ultimately limited."

Konrad replied with his curling into a fiendish grin while he crouched before the quivering Rati.

"As the saying goes, the mantis preys on the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Well played. "

Though Rati still trembled, her magenta eyes showed no dread, and her lips curved into a disarming smile.

"Now, now, what do you want?"

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