Tentacle Lilith's Catastrophic Breakdown
Tentacle Lilith had reigned over this land for a very long time. Humans were oblivious. They believed they kept driving it back, only for new offspring to grow into fresh incarnations, but Tentacle Lilith had survived for nearly a decade. Reproduction, mimicry, body-swapping. Countless offshoots branching from a single root absorbed mana from the air, expanding their territory and numbers while condensing mana again and again.
Harvest season came, and humans would appear one by one after a suitable interval to collect the fruits of that mana. Losing mana from the offshoots wasn't a big deal. They could safeguard the main core. Even once a year, when humans came prowling for what they called an A-rank core, it hardly mattered. The true essence lay in the root—the something deep in the underground tangle that humans spared under the excuse of "gotta harvest again next year."
Tentacle Lilith, the entity that had transcended mere vegetation to claim human intellect. By capturing human women and forcing them to grind against one another, it had awakened a sense of self as a human. Mana could be stolen away—as long as its spirit remained intact, Tentacle Lilith didn't care. Lusting after female flesh was its very reason for being, and with just a few more bodies secured, it could revert to its original form.
An angel. A great and noble existence. Though an incident ten years ago had torn its wings and cast it down, possessing a lowly earthly creature, the angel had clung to a plant body to barely preserve its ego amid the food chain.
Some possessed beasts, manipulating their flesh for gain, but this angel chose a plant, exploiting human greed. Humans didn't exterminate every monster. If they deemed it periodically profitable, fools would farm them—blind to the seeds of apocalypse they were sowing.
The moment a vessel for its soul self-generated from roots piercing the deepest earth, it would condense and re-condense the heavenly mana permeating the surface atmosphere—regaining its angelic form. Tentacle Lilith, the angel, would ascend. It would ravage earth's countless women, impaling one on each branch-hand to toy with as dolls.
Perfect timing—another woman appeared. Offshoots had been swept away, but one like her? No issue at all.
Branches extended. Sightless, it perceived solely through the touch of its branch-fingers. Squish. A massive, voluptuous mana pouch. Obvious just from grasping it. The essence of motherhood. But a being with such vast fat reserves? Mana-bearers typically trended toward naturally "rounded" forms, though personal desires sometimes overrode that mana-driven body reshaping. Oddballs who clung to bulk despite brimming mana. Bizarre from an angel's view, so it sent a stem probing downward.
A cinched waist. Smooth abdomen. The stem shot down in an instant, snaring her legs. Thigh-gripping tendrils slithered like snakes to ensnare the female form, the tip inching toward the most hidden crevice.
Gotcha. Extract the fluids gushing from this body, condense the heavenly mana within, funnel it to the root. Humans didn't know. By the plant definitions they'd absorbed, the buried root was actually the "stem," while the finger-like protrusions reaching skyward were all roots. Mana-siphoning roots, channeling absorbed power via finger-form straight into the buried vessel-fruit.
In human terms, heaven's fruit. So—just siphon the mana from that woman, the heavenly mana rightfully piled in her flesh—
Thud.
?
Tentacle Lilith had made contact. With the repulsive, irreverent, filthy thing. The shadowy boundary angels must never touch. In heavenly parlance, even accidental brush turned one into "Gayel."
!!!
Unbelievable. Clearly a woman. Mana pouches, abdomen, thighs—even pelvis, all feminine. So what was this hefty mass between?
This... no. Tentacle Lilith thought it over and over, but the thought wouldn't fade. It was like a pure lily bed invaded by a blond tanned delinquent thug, shoving his massive devil horn between two women desperately groping each other—even seizing that monstrous horn with hands and mouth!
-nim gay.
Kiiiiiaaaaaak!!!
"As expected, it's rampaging now."
Our combo move with Unia and Evangeline had done the trick.
"How's that 'illusion' treating you?"
"Incredible."
Instructor Esta stuck out her tongue in awe at the phantasm we'd conjured.
"Exploiting its aversion to even touching males is basic, but fooling Tentacle Lilith's senses to force actual contact? Though... is it worth this level of fury...?"
"It's a matter of conviction."
Not something that ends at "touched it."
"Tentacle Lilith was fantasizing about biting, sucking, grinding against that 'illusory woman.' It grabbed on with that intent—but down below? The one thing it despises above all."
"...Hence the meltdown."
Kiaaaak!!
Tentacle Lilith's fingers splayed wide, flailing wildly. Like spotting a cockroach in horror—or touching some loathsome bug, its slime smeared on skin.
"It's not just a meltdown, Instructor."
"Then...?"
"Like I said—a conviction thing."
Tentacle Lilith might seem oblivious for now, but the mana packed in its body was reacting faster than its soul.
Rumble rumble.
The ground quaked. Something underground shrank, losing mass, caving the earth.
"What in the world...?"
"The surface roots are withering. It's like all that moisture—no, mana—is gushing wildly out through that finger."
"Why...?"
"Because it went and touched it."
Like a tongzizhang in wuxia, maybe. But they'd never get that analogy, so the closest for them—
"Put it like this for a woman: grabbing some other guy's dick instead of her beloved's. No different."
Pure love flipping to NTR drift.
"But an A-rank monster crumbling that fast...?"
"It's only ever touched women till now."
"Still, it didn't know."
"Didn't know—but it touched anyway. The act itself is what counts. Ego. The mind."
Tentacle Lilith couldn't endure it. Even a fleeting moment as the type it loathed and hated most.
From heaven's view, the sort of thing only Satan's "female-fall" minions did—starting with curiosity-touching a male, spiraling into every sordid, filthy act (by their lights). Forcing an angel dwelling in a lily purist to conjure those images. Its angelic power fled the vessel.
"Now you see why I asked you not to make me write a report?"
"Hmm..."
"Too tricky to report the phenomenon precisely. It's a 'mana property' thing only I can see."
How to explain? The root mana in that Tentacle Lilith entity was angelic power—and angel power fizzled at the slightest homo-gay taint.
More precisely, (female) corruption—but for lily obsessives, a total gestalt breakdown.
Tell these folks?
"Think of it this way."
Thus—
"We blasted the offshoots with Turbulence. Unia's illusory clone—with Evangeline's help to supersize the phantom woman—hid a fatal poison for Tentacle Lilith."
"Poison?"
"Say I whipped up a special toxin that reverse-decomposes the mana composing its body on contact?"
"...Mana reverse decomposition. Yeah... easier to swallow it that way."
Instructor Esta shook her head.
"Fine. I'll fudge the report. You four fought your hearts out, gave it everything."
"Thanks, Instructor Esta."
"So... battle's done?"
"Yep."
The angel buried deep couldn't flee.
"One issue, though."
Slash.
A blade gale racing along the root had zeroed in, severing the angelic power in one stroke.
"No more Tentacle Lilith respawns."
"......Huh?"
Yurha, beaming at the cascade of cores, froze solid.
"What did you just...?"
"Farming Tentacle Lilith? Over."
This land was ours now.
"No more tentacle trees—time for pretty ones laden with cores, right?"
For starters.
Plant strawberries?
"Just sunlight, and I'll make cores sprout in clusters."
Eating them boosts mana.