“What’s the situation? How many people were in the camp? How many are still missing?”
“Reporting to Lord Helia, roughly eighty of us were in the camp before the ground suddenly collapsed. Now there are only twenty-four of us. Approximately fifty-six people are still missing.”
A Mid-stage Senior reported after Helia asked.
“Fifty-six missing…” Helia muttered with a heavy expression.
Even if they managed to rescue everyone missing in the camp, they would still have less than a hundred people from the original four hundred fifty.
“Continue the rescue operation,” Helia instructed authoritatively before adding, “The missing could very well be still alive and in need of desperate medical attention.”
“Yes, Lord Helia!” the Senior Witch answered.
Although the Senior Witch wanted to ask what happened and why the ground collapsed, she didn’t find the right timing to bring it up.
“Currently, our biggest issue is clearing out the obstacles. We’ve located a few missing people. However, getting them out is tricky. The trees and rubbles are too heavy to move manually, and there’s a chance that we could end up crushing them in the removal process.”.
“We have Aura Grandmasters and a Wood-attribute Senior here. They should be able to do something about it together.”
Shortly after Helia talked to the survivors from the buried camp, she returned to Astoria’s side.
“We’ve lost many people, and some may still be some survivors buried under the rubbles and trees. However, the biggest issue is the Fallen Witch,” Helia mentioned seriously.
“Right,” Astoria weakly nodded with acknowledgment.
“Considering how easily the entire pocket realm collapsed, it must have been designed that way. There’s no way Fallen Witch Elvira hadn’t planned a safe escape route for it.”
“That said, if Fallen Witch Elvira survived, Marquis Ember must be alive too. Try searching the surroundings from the sky. See if the magic airships are still in the area,” Astoria suggested.
“Alright,” Helia nodded.
Shortly after she took off with flight magic, she soared into the sky for a good vantage of the surrounding regions outside the collapsed area.
As that happened, Vaan turned to Aeliana.
“Try using Dryad Transformation to help the others clear out the trees.”
“…Yes, my Lord.”
Aeliana briefly hesitated due to her trauma, but she eventually agreed as it was an order from Vaan.
“There’s nothing to fear. If you lose control and become an Abomination again, I’ll bring you back,” Vaan reassured.
“Dryad Transformation is part of your power now. Instead of fearing it, you should embrace it. I have a feeling it will be much more powerful than your first Specialized Magic.”
“I understand, my Lord!”
Shortly after, Aeliana wobbled away from Vaan as she tried to walk on her own.
When she created enough distance between them, her gaze quickly glinted with sharpness before she faced her fear head-on.
Specialized Magic came naturally to her like breathing, as knowledge of its most basic usage was imprinted in her memory.
Dryad Transformation!
The broken branches, leaves, logs, and tree roots, everything with plant attributes in her immediate surroundings, suddenly lost their rigidness and moved toward her feet like slithering snakes.
Upon contact, they started to merge with her, allowing her body to adopt the properties of the forest.
Nevertheless, her transformation was uniform as her skin turned wood-like. They didn’t stretch and tear with new plants growing out of her body like her previous Plant-type Abomination form.
Within moments, Aeliana transformed into a dryad and looked nothing like a Plant-type Abomination.
As such, even though the others were surprised when they saw her transformation, they weren’t alarmed by it.
Nevertheless, Aeliana grew as more broken trees merged with her main body, becoming larger and large like a new tree undergoing accelerated growth.
Before long, Aeliana’s main body could no longer be seen. She was hidden inside the new tree that continued to grow seemingly without limits.
All the broken tree parts in the collapsed region reconnected with each other and became a part of the new tree.
Some became tree roots of varying sizes, and others became budding trees that sprouted on top of them.
A new forest was quickly forming with a supertree at its center.
At the same time, distant antimagic spores scattered across the Red Goblin Mountains began to gather towards the crown of the supertree that had already grown over three hundred feet with no sign of stopping soon.
As Aeliana was a part of the new forest, her consciousness spread wherever it extended, allowing her to find all the missing people in the buried camp.
Moments later, the tree roots in the area moved into action like snakes. They assimilated broken tree parts, slithered under the rubbles, and lifted them, revealing the missing people underneath.
“I’ve found some people over here!” an Aura Master hollered with surprise.
Shortly after, the Aura Master quickly hopped down into the exposed gap to retrieve one of the missing people, who had his legs and one of his arms crushed under the rubbles.
“I need some help over here! There’s still two more down there!” the Aura Master alerted after he hopped out with the person with three crushed limbs.
Similar situations happened across the area as everyone jumped into action, retrieving the wounded survivors from underneath the exposed rubbles.
“This is the power of Dryad Transformation? Isn’t this power a little too strong? No… How is Lord Aeliana using wood-attribute magic to this extent? She should be a light-attribute witch like me,” Astoria uttered with doubt and awe.
Even an Early-stage High Witch with wood-attribute specialty might not have control over such a large area of influence.
“Aeliana awakened a second Specialized Magic and wood affinity after recovering from her berserk transformation. Or rather, she had awakened them during her Abomination state,” Vaan casually stated while looking up at the supertree.
Seeing how Aeliana collected her spores so quickly in her dryad-transformed state, it was just a matter of time before she fully recovered her strength.
If she had used it sooner, the battle in the pocket realm might not have led to such a desperate situation.
At the same time, the countless treasures in the pocket realm would haven’t been buried.
Alas, it was too late to think about the what-ifs.
“Anyway, enough about Aeliana. Let’s talk about us, Headmaster Astoria. Now that you’ve found me, what do you plan to do with me?” Vaan calmly asked.