Despair Abyss, a world equivalent to the size of Uranus, and nearly sixteen times that of Earth.
It could be described in a single word.
Forest.
A vast forest spanning an area equivalent to sixteen earths!
Right from the ones below the spaceship to the ones at the horizon, everything the eye can see was either a plant, a tree, or a flower.
The forest was dense in some places and sparse in others, but it was everywhere.
Heck, there were several large trees with lengths ranging from half a mile to a full fricking mile!
Colorful plants, trees, flowers, vines, and creepers of all kinds and sizes sprawled out below. It was as if someone took every piece of paint and splashed them on an overgrown forest.
It was breathtaking, beautiful, and most of all, dangerous.
The Plantae Awakeners on the ship could feel it more clearly than anyone else. This expansive forest, despite having mostly weak plant creatures, was very, very defensive.
Of all the Invasions Humans tried against Abysses, the ones against Despair Abyss had the worst results.
The whole forest had an underground root network that allowed it to fight like a hivemind.
As a result, attacking any single section of the forest would incite the response of the whole forest.
And now, they were going to do just that.
"…This is suicide." Enigma's lips twitched as the Spaceship dashed towards the center of the forest, towards the largest tree—it was so large that it was visible from every section of Despair Abyss. It looked like the World Tree from myths but in the flavor of Abyssals.
As the distance from the World Tree started to shrink rapidly, a change occurred.
The trees on the ground shook violently before the flowers on these trees bloomed and released colored gases into the air.
Poison. Psychedelics. Acid.
"Close up the spaceship. Don't let anything come in." Irene ordered.
If not for the advanced defense mechanisms of the spaceship, they'd be breathing some very dangerous poison now.
But escaping the poison didn't end their struggle.
The forest below them shone before countless vines shot out from all directions. These vines shone with different colored lights as they displayed their specialties.
Some were burning with fire, others were spitting dangerous acid, few were filled with poisonous thorns among others.
For a moment, even the armor maintained by Irene trembled violently.
As if that wasn't enough, several auras shot up in the distance.
The trees in the forest bent to the side creating a 'road' and a bunch of level 9 Abyssals, now in the form of trees, dashed on the road and reached the spaceship in the blink of an eye.
Then, a special group of trees held these Abyssals with their vines and threw them into the air. These Abyssals, now in the form of trees, surrounded the spaceship at once.
"What the…?"
For the level 8s on the ship, it was too sudden.
But Enigma and other level 9s didn't take any action as they wanted to check out their enemy's strengths and weaknesses.
With the sound of air splitting, the branches of these trees extended and connected with that of other trees, forming a cubical prison with the spaceship at the center.
New branches shot out of these trees and completely closed up the cube, imprisoning the spaceship.
The trees floating in the air were supported by the extended branches of the trees on the ground.
The Spaceship accelerated to its full speed and struck the prison. The branches cracked apart, but new ones quickly emerged and thwarted the spaceship's attempt to leave.
These trees then shot out their leaves at the spaceship.
Sparks flew into the air as the sharp and pointed leaves tried to penetrate the spaceship but failed.
The Abyssals imprisoning the spaceship also realized that their attack power wasn't enough.
'Quick, call for more firepower!' An Abyssal sent this message through his roots.
The message passed through his roots, traveled through the branches of the tree that's supporting his stay in the air, and finally entered the underground roots network.
All the Abyss Wills were changed to prevent Varian from entering the Abysses. But in doing so, the Abyss Wills lost the function to detect the outsiders in the Abyss.
Even though the Abyss Will 'scanned' everyone who's entering, it's not impossible to sneak in. Especially weak awakeners. And there were other methods Humans hadn't discovered so far.
Despair Abyss didn't have this problem. Once the message entered the roots network, it traveled at an unprecedented speed and reached the Abyssals near the World Tree.
The World Tree's insides had several 'floors'. Since the World Tree spanned nearly half a mile in width, all of these floors were wide enough.
The top floor was Despair Queen's residence. The one directly below was the courtroom.
But right now, the Queen was on the ground floor where eight spaceships had landed.
Abyssals from different Abysses rushed out of these spaceships and handed the Queen the crystals.
Despair Queen's hand turned into a branch and split into eight smaller branches and picked up the crystals.
With a wave of the branch, the spaceships and the Abyssals were sent out of the World Tree. "Go stop them."
Then, Despair Queen walked into the secret floor only she had access to. The one below the ground floor.
A coffin lay at the center of the floor, surrounded by several mystical drawings and writings.
"Even though the premature ceremony will start you out as only a level 9, you can quickly grow stronger." Despair Queen said with anticipation and waved her hand.
The crystals flew to the formations and the coffin began to shake.
Then, a bright light covered the entire floor as strands of black energy flowed out from the crystals and entered the coffin.
Despair Queen wanted to stay here in person until the end, but the World Tree sent her a message received through the network.
"Irene Nial!" Despair Queen turned her head in the direction of the Human Sovereign and narrowed her eyes.
The next second, she disappeared and appeared in front of the spaceship.
Below, the trees and plants for several miles were crushed into pulp.
Hundreds of humans—the level 8s and level 9s were fighting against the Abyssals who had already come here.
Enigma herself was fighting two Abyssals.
Despair Queen ignored everyone and turned her gaze to the woman in crystal armor.
Her eyes flashed with hatred as she smiled. "You fooled me back then and escaped death. But today, no one can save you. Once you enter my Abyss, you can't go back."
Despair Queen waved her hand and an invisible shockwave spread throughout the Abyss.
The forest shook violently and millions of trees started moving in their direction. The World Tree shook and shot its leaves toward Irene.
Irene set up a gravity barrier around her and blocked the attacks. But a sudden attack struck and Irene was blown into the distance.
A huge tree, tens of miles long, appeared in the place of Despair Queen. With a simple swing, hundreds of vines and branches reached Irene Nial.
The flowers on the branches released an invisible poisonous gas while the thorns on these branches shone with a cold light as they turned towards Irene.
With a force strong enough to split an asteroid in half, the branches struck Irene.
