Bloom

“So.” I said staring at the flashing cipher of numbers and symbols in my view.

“This is not going well, is it?” Mishra said, watching my branches as they waved in agitation.

“Indeed. I admit, this AI is better than me at defense.” I grumbled. “It is easier to defend than attack after all. I’m also handling so many different things at the moment, as well.”

“Boss, I mean, this might be rather thoughtless, but, have you ever thought of negotiating with the lady in the computer?” Guido said, as he crunched down on a bag of snacks from Wen.

I pause for a moment, “That hadn’t really occurred to me. Do you think it would work?” Granted, with enough time, I could reach the AI core and turn it into a loyal subordinate. However, right now even with my vaunted powers, Time was still something I never seemed to have enough of.

Guido stood up proudly putting his snacks on a nearby table, “Just leave it to me Boss!”

I left the negotiations up to Guido and turned to our most valuable captive.

“So, Mr. Gelart, tell me again what value you have as a servant?” I said, as my branches stopped moving to face the human in front of me. I found this move seemed to disconcert a lot of our current captives.

I wasn’t doing it because I enjoyed the look of fear on their faces.

I’m not such a cheap Tree that I’d terrify captives just to get a laugh out of Wen while she is cooking for me.

Nope.

Never.

Not me.

I didn’t even have to resort to much effort to get the information I wanted. The minds of the humans from this planet were rather undefended. Probably as a result of not having access to any ‘higher’ levels of energy such as mana. That was my personal theory at least, in even the weakest races that had mana there seemed to be a base level of mental resistance.

Not so for these humans, they were like open books. Unfortunately, none of them had direct access to the AI core. As a result the only way in was either hacking, or negotiation.

Why was I willing to negotiate?

Well, basically because even with the manipulation of time that I was doing, we were running rather short of it.

This installation had a lot of good stuff.

Electronics.

AI computer.

Flying vehicles.

Machines.

I love machines!

Viva la machinos!

Sadly these humans were a cut above hack and slash sword days. They’d left those pathetic weapons far behind them. Just a basic scan and decomposition of one of their guns told me that I wasn’t dealing with a backwards group of idiots.

The part that really concerned me was of course the most disturbing thing.

Spaceships.

That’s right.

These humans were able to travel between the stars using machines that were a great deal like my Voidship.

Unlike my ship, their starships could only jump between planetary systems, and could only travel for microscopic amounts of time in the actual Void.

According to what Gelart told me, they essentially used the Void as a ‘fold’ in space that allowed them to travel from point A to point B. While I could do so between Universes, they did so between star systems.

It was only recently that the mad scientist group led by Doctor Gelart had theorized about drawing energy from the Void itself.

This guy is in simple words, a genius.

In more complex ones he’s a complete and utter nutcase that probably would have led his entire civilization to being devoured by things from the edge of reality.

Lucky for him, he encountered me first!

Damn.

I’m too nice sometimes.

Ah, I got offtrack again, meh.

Yes, spaceships.

See, the guns the guards had were very dangerous.

Not against my servants of course, but it isn’t every day an invasion force has the same level of power as mine. After all, we can kill Divinities, I know it looks easy sometimes, but those bastards are actually pretty strong.

Anyways, spaceships, in a one on one are easy prey.

The problem is, yes, mass production.

I do not fear a single spaceship.

I fear a fleet of them, all firing at me, in unison, with enough combined power to overwhelm my shields and obliterate us all.

Now, such a fleet isn’t here of course.

Yet.

I have no doubt though that someone got a signal off, probably several.

In regards to this, I can only admit, it is my fault.

I was so desperate to finally get some technology that I didn’t take the gloves off right away and kill every human in the place.

I’m just a bit merciful sometimes.

Well, whatever.

Plan B will work just fine.

I won’t have time to reforge this planet so I’ll have to eat and run.

To that end, I have already ripped the planets core out, and stored it into a leaf. I’ve also encircled the entire installation with my power.

Where are we going?

To the Void of course.

I hate to eat and run like this, however I’d hate to be atomized into dust sized particles too.

The machine that Gelart invented is a monstrously complicated piece of work that will take me at least a year to understand.

Once I do however, heh.

To feed from the source of Nothingness itself, to turn the endless Void into just another source of food.

The possibilities, I believe, are worth the risk.

I shall retreat.

This installation, will go into Vespar’s Leaf, its technologies and science to be combined with the power of mana.

Although I never seem to have enough time, I am not a Tree that is exactly running out of it either.

This entire confrontation has allowed me to grasp quite a few techniques that I can work towards perfecting.

The next place we leap to from within the Void will not be so lucky.

“Boss, boss you are drooling again…” Guido said as I snapped back into focus.

“Ah, right. Wen’s cooking is rather distracting.” I say, instantly shifting the blame. I ignore the look of my beloved chef as she mutters darkly about fried Tree branches.

“Right, uh, so we have a deal.” Guido says, carefully not looking at the tiny child chef that is even now chopping something with untold speed and a dark aura.

“Oh?”

“Yes, the AI is willing to work with us in exchange for a body.” Guido said, proud.

“A body.”

“Yes, something ‘hot’ like Dryad I was told.”

“….”

“Guido.”

“Yes, Boss?”

“Come closer so I can beat you with my branches.”

Wait! How dare you run away you bastard!