Chapter 60: Twisted Dryad Maokai
"My name is Mokai!"
The Treant opened his eyes, scanning everything around him, and finally looked at the lifeless island not far away.
Mokai is a burly dryad with a furious heart that tirelessly fights against the terrifying visions of the Shadow Isles. A magical cataclysm destroyed his home, and at the same time turned him into a vengeful force, saving him from the curse of immortality, all thanks to the fusion of water of life in his core.
Once a peaceful spirit of nature, Mokai has been fighting furiously to banish the undead scourge from the Shadow Isle and restore his homeland to its former beauty.
In ancient times that no memory can trace, a string of islands rose from the bottom of the sea, barren rocks and mud poking out of the sea. At the same time as the archipelago was formed, the spirit of nature, Maukai, was born. He was transformed into a tree spirit, his towering body covered in sturdy bark, and his slender limbs resembling the branches of a tree.
Mokai is deeply aware of the loneliness of this land and its potential to nurture and grow. He wandered from archipelago to archipelago, looking for signs of life, depressed and depressed in solitude.
On a mountainous island, Mokai sensed an endless stream of energy radiating from the depths of the earth beneath the soft, fertile soil. He stretched his thick roots downward, found a magical fountain that nourished life in the deepest depths, and drank the water of life. This powerful elixir allowed him to grow hundreds of saplings and sow them into the lands of the archipelago.
Soon, the land was covered with lush forests, towering verençons, and intertwined trees, all bathed in magical powers. Majestic trees cover the archipelago with a huge canopy and thick roots. The spirits of nature are all attracted by the abundance of vegetation, and this green and fertile land becomes a paradise for animals.
Humans eventually came to the archipelago, where they also prospered and established a civilized society where their scholars devoted themselves to the study of the world's unsolved mysteries. Although Mokai was apprehensive about their presence, he saw their respect for this sacred land.
Humans sensed the magic hidden in the trees, so they chose to make their home in sparsely wooded places, trying not to disturb any of the natural spirits. Occasionally, Mokai trusts some humans, appears before them, and bestows upon them the mysteries of the archipelago, including its greatest gift, the underground springs that heal deadly wounds.
Centuries passed, and the ideal life of Mokai was suddenly shattered, and a fleet full of soldiers crossed the ocean and docked on the sands of the archipelago. Mokai could sense that something was very strange. The king of the group, having lost his mind in grief, came with his queen's body and, in order to bring her back to life, put her decomposing body into the fountain of healing.
The queen did come back from the dead, but she was a walking corpse, and she begged for death. In order to reverse his mistakes, the king blindly cast a vicious curse that swept across the land.
Maukay, who was a few nautical miles away, immediately felt the first wave of catastrophe that would soon destroy the entire archipelago. He felt a terrifying force begin to coalesce beneath the dirt, and a shiver of pain spread throughout his body.
As the curse of ruin spreads, Mokai desperately takes root deep into the ground, drawing on the energy of the healing water, using every fiber in his body to absorb the magical power of the spring. And the healing water has become the water of the curse, and before the curse invades, Maokai suddenly pulls back the roots, severing all connection with the spring. All he could do was roar, the source of the island's divine power tainted by the humans he trusted—filth seeping into every inch of the spring, leaving nothing of holiness left.
After a while, the fog around the island began to darken and spread across the land, entrapping all living beings in an eerie state of immortality. In agony, Mokai watched helplessly as everything he knew was twisted into shattered remnants—plants, nature spirits, animals, and humans. He was furious, and the pleasant beauty he had cultivated from the little sapling was destroyed in an instant by human recklessness.
The fog of decay hovered around Mokai, and the brightly colored flowers on his shoulders withered and turned to dust, and he wept. His body trembled and twisted involuntarily, and finally turned into an ugly appearance full of knots and twists, and the life in his body was drained by the black mist. However, Mokai's core was soaked in the precious water of life, which saved him from immortality.
Strange spirits and terrifying abomination monsters begin to roam the land, and Mokai is surrounded by a horde of the living dead. He frantically frantically flailed his thick branch-like arms at the spirits, and he found that his attacks could turn them to dust. Mokai suddenly felt a wave of disgust: he had never killed before. He went crazy and slaughtered the corpse golems, but after killing a horde, hundreds of new enemies would appear and drown him, and he was forced to retreat.
With his homeland razed to the ground and his companions transformed into undead monsters, he had thought about leaving the nightmarish archipelago. But deep in his distorted exterior, he could still feel the sacred water that sustained his life. The reason why he was able to survive the curse of ruin was because he carried the heart of the archipelago, so he would not abandon his home at such a time.
As the first spirit of nature to descend on Fuguang Island, he will always stay here and fight for the soul of this land.
Though he faces an endless stream of vicious opponents and a dark mist, anger and hatred drive him to fight to rid the archipelago of evil. His only pleasure now is to ruthlessly use violence to scatter the souls of the dead in the land.
Sometimes, Mokai is able to dispel parts of the fog and its spirits, keeping them away from a forest or bush. Although no new life has appeared in this cursed land for many years, Mokai has spared no effort to create a temporary shelter, although it will not last long, but at least for a while, he can be free from sorrow and decay.
As long as Mauchai continues to fight, there is hope, as he is still drenched in the pure water of life, which is the ultimate hope for the archipelago to be restored to its original appearance.
If the land can return to its former luxuriant appearance, then Mauki will also lose its distorted appearance. This nature spirit brought life to the archipelago long ago, and he will now fight for the archipelago to bloom again.