Upon hearing that roar filled with fury and madness, the flames surrounding the Sam armor flickered for a moment. Firefly halted her attack. She lowered her head slightly, peering toward the source of the sound.
Beneath the shifting shadows of the trees below, a dozen figures gradually revealed themselves. They were stark naked, their skin slick with slimy moss and sodden leaves as if they had just crawled out of a nearby swamp.
This group stared fixately at Sam—who hung in the air like a miniature sun—with eyes swirling with frantic rage and pure malice. It was as if Sam's presence alone was an unforgivable desecration of their ancestral graves.
Firefly's gaze lingered on them for only a fraction of a second before shifting. Beside this group, she spotted two individuals who were completely out of place.
One was a middle-aged woman who looked like a tribal priestess. She wore a garment woven from leaves and vines, her face painted with strange patterns. In her hand, she gripped a crude wooden staff topped with a murky crystal and entwined by creepers.
The other was a figure completely shrouded in a black robe... wait, they looked familiar.
Eh? Why is that hooded person running away?
Watching the hooded figure bolt as if they had realized they left the gas stove on in a leaking house, Firefly felt a bit bewildered. However, since a crowd was still glaring at her, she did not give chase.
She returned her focus to the group and asked:
"Who are you?"
"Blasphemer! Incendiary demon! I feel it! Your very existence makes Mother Forest tremble! Her wrath is at hand!"
The middle-aged woman seemed uninterested in civil dialogue. She waved her withered, branch-like arms, her eyes reflecting nothing but pure insanity and a desire for destruction. She continued to shriek in a piercing voice:
"Unpardonable sacrilege! We shall use your bones to nourish the soil and appease Mother's fury!"
As her words fell, she slammed her staff heavily against the ground. Through Sam, Firefly could clearly feel the surrounding water vapor beginning to rise. At that moment, the naked humans (?) were filled with an endless fanaticism. Like rabid beasts, they began to scramble up the surrounding trees.
"Gah-iss—Kah-lu-ha! Sss—Wu-lu-mu—!!"
Nonsensical howls erupted from their throats. Using the trees as springboards, they lunged toward Sam in the sky. Simultaneously, the trees began to sprout an unnatural amount of vines, which lashed out toward Sam's position.
"Is communication impossible?"
Witnessing this, Firefly remained calm within the cockpit. She merely frowned slightly, feeling a distinct distaste for this aura of madness.
As the group prepared to make contact with her, Firefly sighed softly and placed her right hand over her chest.
"In that case, I shall simply destroy you along with the mutant beasts I came to clear."
"Activation: Secondary Combustion state."
"Since your Mother Forest does not welcome me... then I shall set the forest ablaze!"
The indicator light on Sam's forehead flashed to life. Scorching flames instantly erupted from Sam's chest. In a heartbeat, the mist-shrouded forest was ignited by heat so intense it defied logic, creating a magnificent sea of fire.
The inferno precisely encircled the lunatics and the mutant beasts. The moment the flames touched living tissue, they began to burn with white-hot intensity. The fanatic humanoids, the crazed priestess, and the frenzied beasts all let out agonizing screams as they were consumed.
The screams did not last long. They were reduced to piles of ash in seconds.
"Directive: Supernova... wait, it seems that won't be necessary."
After initiating Secondary Combustion, Firefly had intended to follow up with a weakened version of the Supernova Overload to end the battle. Had she used her full power, she would have likely vaporized Greenshade Source itself. However, to her surprise, the mere environmental heat generated by the Secondary Combustion state had already wiped the group out.
Furthermore, her flames had not even reached their maximum temperature.
"Planet-shattering combat power is indeed a bit too high for this world. I truly cannot find an opponent worthy of my full strength."
Looking at the surrounding forest which had been turned into a scorched wasteland (Dangerous behavior, please do not imitate), Firefly muttered quietly to herself.
She deactivated the Secondary Combustion state. Under her precise control, the flames vanished instantly, leaving behind nothing but a vast expanse of charred earth. From a high vantage point, it looked as if a small patch of green hair had been singed black by a blowtorch.
After finishing her business, Firefly turned her gaze toward a specific direction—the path the hooded figure had taken.
She had realized who the hooded person was the moment she attacked. It was the Heterozone Cultist she had encountered when she first arrived at Greenshade Source. What a coincidence; and this time, it wasn't just a holographic projection.
"Forget it. Since he fled so decisively and the mission is complete, I'll let him go. Time to head back."
Firefly turned around and flew toward Su Xiaoxiao's location.
★ ★ ★
"How can I be so damn unlucky! I was just here for a routine trade with Forest Wrath. How did I run into this powerhouse again?"
The hooded man wished he had a few extra legs. As he sprinted, he couldn't stop cursing under his breath:
"Thank god I was decisive enough to bolt. My instincts were right; that is an S-rank powerhouse. Otherwise, how could a human possibly do that?"
He stole a glance over his shoulder at the scorched patch of forest not far behind. He couldn't stop himself from shivering.
He was lucky; the flames hadn't reached him, stopping a full hundred meters away. But even at that distance, he felt as though he had accidentally stumbled into a smelting furnace.
"When I get back, I'm telling the organization I'm done with the outskirts of Greenshade Source. Anyone else can take this godforsaken post!"
With one final curse, the hooded man pushed his speed even further and soon vanished into the depths of the forest.