CHAPTER 145: CHAPTER 144: CYCLOPS

"What are you?" Blaze asked.

He was hanging down from the now leafless tree, as if mimicking the corpses.

"Tree, I am."

Blaze frowned and whacked the corpse next to him.

"You’re an imbecile," he said, repeatedly hitting the corpse. "The trees are everywhere around you. I don’t see them talking to me, so why can you?"

"Know, I do not. Hungry, I was, so fed and fed, I did. Found more to eat, I did, and suddenly talk, I could."

Blaze nodded. He could understand why the tree turned carnivorous. Hell, he couldn’t even remember the last time he saw a herbivore species.

The herbivores in the zoo died long ago after he ’imprisoned’ them. The few that survived had been let go into the wild. However, he knew an entire section of beasts couldn’t have been wiped out throughout the planet.

As for the tree, Blaze had a theory. The lack of nutrients forced it to evolve by eating anything around. As he consumed them, it boosted its evolution, hence the never-ending hunger.

What started off as an insectivore plant turned carnivorous because of it. The more complex beings it consumed, the higher sentience it gained, until the tree could talk through the various corpses.

It was strange, but then again, it was just one of many wonders of evolution.

Still, it didn’t explain how the tree came across the dogs, or how it tamed them.

"What about the dogs? Why were they obeying you?"

In response, the tree shook a corpse of a man. From the rate of decay, it seemed that man was the first of its prey.

"Control creature, this human could. Belonged to him, those dogs did. Manipulate the dogs using this corpse, I did."

"So it’s true," Blaze said, scratching his chin. "Humans capable of taming mutants... they’re going to be a problem."

His mind immediately went to Cheetah, the grade-3 mutant. He could only imagine what it would have been capable of if a human were controlling it.

There had to be more such mutant-whisperers. One place Blaze was sure they were was the cult. Since they had many talented people, it was unlikely that they didn’t have those who could control mutants.

"June would know about it. I should ask her after she recovers." Blaze groaned. "Another thing I have to prepare for..."

This wasn’t the life after death he had envisioned for himself. All he wanted was to experiment around, having fun at the expense of the weak. He didn’t expect them to love their lives so strongly.

So many fights and battles were taking his time away from what he truly loved. Even as a zombie, he was suffering from a lack of time.

However, a solution came to his mind.

"What do you think about working for me?" he asked the tree.

So far, Blaze had consumed and integrated everything he deemed worthy into his horde. While it increased his battle force, it also had a severe weak point.

The spire.

If someone were to take down the spire, he could lose everything. The blightspore could distract them by turning rogue, but that was it.

That weakness made it important to have allies.

"Strong you are, but rot away I do not want," the tree replied.

"I’m not going to convert you," Blaze scoffed, jumping off the branch. "I have plenty of humans, mutants, and zombies. If you work for me, you’ll get to taste delicacies you can only dream about."

"Eat more and more, I want. Become the king of plants and gain intelligence, I must!"

Perhaps Blaze’s words had a psychological effect on the tree as it began shivering with excitement.

"See, that wasn’t so difficult, was it?" Blaze smiled. "Although I have to say, this forest is lackluster."

"Good, the forest is."

"I’m not uprooting you, you fool. You’re defenseless. That’s what I want to change."

Other than the element of surprise, the tree didn’t have anything going for itself. Yes, it had vines and acid, but that wasn’t nearly enough to defend against the cult.

If they could almost kill Breaker, taking down a tree from a distance wasn’t all that difficult.

The entire swamp wasn’t under the tree’s control. It merely had some sensory vines spread throughout, which helped it recognize prey.

But it gave Blaze an idea.

"The way you control those corpses," he said. "Have you tried controlling other plants with it?"

"Bad, other trees are. Away, they take nutrients, so out I pushed them."

"I can see that."

The clearing had no other trees besides the cypress. It had most likely awakened a similar mutation like juglone, found in black walnut trees. Essentially, it was poison that either killed other plants or stunted their growth.

The cypress must have used a similar chemical agent to drive out the competition.

"Try using those vines to infect other trees," Blaze suggested. "If you can control other trees, you could use them to extend your reach and even expand the swamp entirely."

"Too much work, that is."

"Do it, or do you want me to do it for you?"

"...work, I will."

"Also, stop talking like that. Which brain taught you to speak like a fucking space goblin?"

"Point out, I won’t."

"...this bitch."

Blaze shook his head. As much as he wanted to get rid of that one brain, he didn’t want to harm the tree while at it.

He turned to leave, then realized there was one more thing he had to do.

"What’s your name?" he asked.

"Tree, I am."

"Yeah, that won’t do. You need a proper name, or else what will set you apart from other trees?"

"...point, you make. A name, I want."

Blaze looked up and down at the tree, his eyes focusing on the bulb of acid at the top.

"It kind of looks like an eye," he mumbled to himself. "A cypress with one eye. What do you think about... Cyclops?"

"Cyclops, I am."

"Good, now then, I’ll send some zombies over to protect you while you work on controlling other trees. Do not eat them!"

"Try, I will."

"Then, kill you, I will," Blaze said, mocking Cyclops.