Chapter 37 Rhizen's Dilema

It was dawn as the gentle rays of the sun seeped in through the gaps of the foliage, highlighting parts of the ground below when the hooves of a horse stomped the location, rushing in a hurry as it neighed from time to time.

"Hurry!" The voice of a lady in her early twenties echoed through the forested path as she urged the horse to run faster.

She wore a skin-tight leather jacket and leggings, draping a hip-length cloak overhead to cover her features. A mask covered her nose and mouth while her forehead and above were covered by the hood that extended from the cloak.

Her eyes glinted with a cunning light as they darted about, looking around the changing scenery of the place, suddenly focusing on her back as her ears pricked up in response.

She noticed shadows emerge from the forest as suddenly, vines jutted out of the ground like snakes, slithering towards her rapidly. "Shit! They are fast!"

"Damn monsters!"

She tugged the reins, urging the horse to run faster as she pulled it all of a sudden, forcing the horse to make a long leap, barely evading a vine that was about to wrap around its leg.

Avoiding becoming trapped by the vine, the horse continued to run, but the lady was tense, noticing the horse panting worse than before, having been on the run for hours already. 'I should have made my escape sooner. I shouldn't have been greedy.'

She gritted her teeth, 'Even though I found out about the secrets of the Blight Humans, they noticed me in the end.'

She was a spy sent by the Lerni Empire to gain intelligence from the Fornol Empire. After all, the two Empires were currently competing with one another in a quest for world domination.

And she was one of the best of their spies, having been successful for over a decade now, having been sent to the Fornol Empire when she was a mere child.

The spies were pretty successful until recently, allowing the Lerni Empire to have an advantage over the Fornol Empire during their various expeditions.

But, things changed over the past month when the Blight Humans began to appear one after another. Their exceptional senses allowed them to detect the spies that spied upon their actions, quickly capturing them to interrogate the details.

Following that, they began to gain intelligence at a sharp pace and soon managed to capture all the spies.

She was the only one that managed to remain in hiding while still gathering details regarding the Blight Humans, even managing to make her way into the palace basement where she glanced upon the Tower of Corruption.

That wasn't all, she even stole a couple of Devil Fruits from the Royal Treasury and made her escape, intending to return to the Lerni Empire, for it was getting too dangerous to be in the Fornol Empire anymore.

She planned to submit all her gathered intelligence to the officials back home and retire. Moreover, she safely tucked away a Devil Fruit, just in case she wished to use it.

Unfortunately, her tracks were discovered while she was on her way to the border of the Fornol Empire, being pursued by an army of trackers immediately, led by a Blight Human that controlled tree roots.

Neighhh!

Suddenly, her horse neighed uncontrollably as its leg bones fractured all of a sudden, throwing her off as it crashed into the ground.

Coincidentally, vines were hanging from the branch of a tree growing overhead that she managed to catch onto, avoiding a horrible fall.

Landing on the ground, she noticed thorny vines coiled around the horse's legs, having shattered its bones.

They then lashed onto her, intending to capture her when coincidentally, the branch she had just dangled from collapsed, falling onto the vines to trap them for a couple of seconds, allowing her to evade them and run away.

"Huff…puff…haah!" The lady began to gasp for air soon after, running through the thicket of trees to avoid pursuit on horseback. This way, she had a better chance of survival, continuing to sprint nonstop as she heard sounds of her chasers shouting from the very end.

"Catch her!"

"Don't let her escape!"

"She stole valuable treasures from the Royal Treasury!"

The leading Blight Human announced, "The one that kills her will be awarded handsomely but the one that captures her alive will never have to worry about money for the rest of their lives. You might even obtain a chance to become a Blight Human."

At his words, the eyes of the chasers turned red with greed, exerting more effort to chase after the lady as they didn't even bother with the injuries sustained from the thorns they scrapped past in their hurry.

"Keuk!" The lady jumped over a protruding root when she was alarmed, noticing that she had miscalculated as the tip of her boots hit the edge of the root, causing her to tumble in response before rolling onto a slope.

"No!" She flailed her hands, hoping to grab anything that might save her, clutching some roots but despairing when they broke off, causing her to slide faster through the slope, 'Is this where I die?'

"Shit!"

Glop!

Her heart thumped as the lady suddenly felt a sense of weightlessness, sliding over a cliff before plunging into a brook, almost drowning in response. But she regained balance, getting up as the brook barely reached her hip in height, muttering in relief, "This saved me."

She then flinched in pain, for her body was riddled with injuries. Just as she wished to hide somewhere and treat her injuries, the lady stood rooted to the spot in shock, noticing that just ten metres away along the brook was a large lake where the water poured in.

And sleeping there, beside a tall tree was a large whale, spanning a length of thirty metres, colossal in nature.

She had never chanced upon such a massive creature, for a moment stunned in shock.

"She went this way!" Her pursuers had caught up to her by now, skidding through the slope before all of them stood rooted to the spot in shock, staring at the massive creature before them.

Even the Blight Human leading them was the same. But a moment later, he let out bloodcurdling screams as his green hair turned white, falling to the ground as he slowly turned bald.

A mysterious power seemed to have affected him as his body began to break down little by little as he collapsed to the ground, vanishing in a matter of seconds.

Everyone was aghast, fear overwhelming them as due to the Blight Human's shouts, the prehistoric creature before them seemed to have been awakened.

Its eyes—bigger than their bodies—shot open, the pupils adjusting to glare at them as suddenly, they focused on the lady.

"You…what the hell is in your possession?" Suddenly, an ethereal voice resounded in her ears as the lady was stunned before noticing the prehistoric whale had vanished. And now, standing before her was a bipedal creature resembling a rhinoceros, as if fully built with steel, oozing strength.

The bipedal entity extended its hand, grabbing hold of the pouch in her possession, tearing it open to see a box inside. It broke open the box, gazing at the two Devil Fruits as an irritated voice resounded, "So, this happened in the end."

Best

"They got us good this time."

The lady wasn't sure as to what the entity was saying, but for some reason, she felt compelled to speak, saying, "T-They are called Devil Fruits. If a human consumes them, they turn into Blight Humans."

"Devil Fruits? Blight Humans?" The entity muttered before laughing self-deprecatingly, vaporising the two Devil Fruits.

It then stared at the lady, saying, "There's one more of it on you. Take it out."

"Y-Yes," The lady nodded, afraid as she pulled out a box from under her clothes, only big enough to contain the Devil Fruit. She noticed the chasers behind her and the mysterious entity before her, sandwiched.

'If this is where I die, might as well become a Blight Human…' The moment the thought resounded in her mind, her hands took action, opening the box to pop the Devil Fruit in her mouth. But it was unknown as to what happened, but her hands coincidentally slipped while grabbing hold of the Devil Fruit, causing it to be thrown somewhere else instead of her mouth.

Forming an arc, it landed on the entity's hand that looked at her to say, "Trust me, you're better off not eating this."

The Devil Fruit was vaporised as the entity gazed at the lady's chasers, observing them for a moment before waving its hand, "The lot of you, leave."

"Y-Yes," The group of people felt like they had been pardoned as they scurried off from the place, unwilling to be here any longer, feeling like they had just survived a brush with death itself.

The lady was the only one to remain behind, for she hadn't been told to leave yet as the entity gazed at her, asking after a moment, "Where did you get this Devil Fruit?"

"F-From the basement of the Fornol Empire's Imperial Treasury." The lady said in a hurry, hoping to live as she continued, "There was a tree in the palace basement that produced these Devil Fruits. I only managed to sneak a peek once."

"How many people have consumed these Devil Fruits?" The entity asked next.

"Thousands!" The lady replied, "Most of the nobility have already become Blight Humans. And now, even the high-ranking officers of the army are becoming the same one after another."

The entity didn't seem interested in her words though, instead looking at her before letting out a smile, asking her, "You…are you a spy in this…Fornol Empire?"

"Y-yes…" The lady could only nod helplessly, feeling that there was no way she would be able to escape from the entity before her, someone that resembled the mythological Gods.

"For some reason, just when you're about to be captured, you either chance upon a way of escape or the others coincidentally come across something that needs their attention, allowing you to escape, right?" The entity said, watching the lady's eyes widen in shock.

Ignoring that, the entity was somewhat conflicted, wondering what to do with the lady, for she could either turn up into his benefit or a crutch depending on how she matured. For, she innately possessed the power that Rhizen became infamous for.

Coincidental Luck!