What is a Forest? Simply put, a forest is a place where trees grow, then it becomes a circle of life that invites many living things to live in it.
Each of these living things also has a role to maintain the balance of the ecosystem in the forest. And for those who do not have a contribution or even have a detrimental impact on many species around them, of course they will not be a part of it.
Tracing a timeline, in a forest with an infinite area, a tree grows ignoring the system around it. No one knows from which seed or shoot this tree came, no one knows what type of tree it is. Even so, the system finally considered that this tree had become part of the forest and allowed it to grow.
The change of day and night has reached more than a thousand times since the tree first appeared. And for the first time, the system realized that something strange was starting to happen around the tree. The tree had reached a quarter of the height of a hill and made it one of the largest trees in the Forest, the problem was that the time it took to grow was too short.
How could a tree grow this tall in just a thousand days when other trees would take many times that amount of time? The system immediately noted that this was an anomaly and decided to observe the strange tree's growth more closely and carefully.
Until one day, another anomaly appeared again. Where the tree began to absorb the life energy around it and accelerate its growth, it caused the surrounding area to lose color and slowly kill many of the living creatures in it. With the tree as the center, disasters continued to come and made the situation even worse. In the end, the forest system gave the judgment that the tree must be destroyed and formed a group of powerful creatures in the forest to destroy it.
The group whose members were each taken from the best blood of each race living in the forest called themselves Punishment, with the main goal of eradicating the tree of calamity that was the root of the forest's current problems. With a total of thirty-three members successfully gathered, the system guided them all to the location where the tree of calamity was located.
It didn't take long for them to arrive and take up positions surrounding the giant tree that was still growing even now. As time passed, the tree would continue to grow larger and that would result in a wider area being needed to take up the circular formation. With the members they currently had, the system had no choice but to immediately begin the extermination ceremony.
The guaranteed success of the extermination technique they were trying to do was only around seven to three, of course three was a number on their side. Even so, the main reason the system chose it was because even if this technique itself failed later, it wouldn't be a problem. Because the essence of this technique would immediately analyze its target, adapt and then change from extermination to sealing.
Sealing was just an option to prolong the problem, not exterminate it. Everyone in this place was well aware of that, but there was no better option than that at this time. Even if they failed to exterminate the tree and ended up sealing it, they only needed to take advantage of the time when the tree stopped growing to gather more members, then conduct research on the tree if possible, and prepare a much better plan when the seal on the tree was released later.
In the end, increasing the number of qualified members to increase the guarantee of success of the extermination technique was the highest priority that had to be done. With all the plans neatly arranged in each member's head, they all began to flow Energy throughout their bodies then concentrated it on the palms that they directed at the Tree of Calamity.
Saying some words without a known meaning, strengthening the image of a Technique that they were going to release and together with the explosion of Energy concentrated in each palm, throwing it towards several parts of the tree from various sides forming a perfect circle.
Boom—!!
The explosion occurred, followed by a shockwave strong enough to blow away many trees and rocks.
Each ball of Energy that hit the tree began to unite and form a semicircular dome that trapped the giant tree inside, its transparent color starting to change to dark purple then turned red and finally, black. Silence began to form, not a single sound was heard, as if everyone was focused on watching and estimating what was happening inside the black dome.
Until then—
—EKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK—!!!!!!!!!!!!
The ear-piercing sound wave slammed the black dome that wrapped it and thundered in the sky, piercing through all the walls of air and piercing straight into the ears of those who heard it. A scream that symbolized pain and suffering, like a baby's cry that signified a bad beginning.
The sound of the cry made the Energy floating in the air vibrate and break into many small pieces, those who had ears tightly covered their ears and even put in lumps of mud to block the sound from piercing their ruptured eardrums.
Before long, the color of the dome changed to dark blue, which slowly faded. The system that knew this stage realized that the tree was impossible to destroy at this time and the method changed to sealing it. The screams of the tree began to die down as the dome's color changed, causing all living beings who heard its voice to lie limply with blood pouring out of every hole in their bodies.
The dome was still trying to change its color, but so far the situation was still stable. Sealing the tree that brought disaster was only a matter of time. With this, they should be able to start observing and researching this strange tree further while paying attention to some limitations. The system began to do calculations in its head while dividing its body into many parts to help the weak forest races.
"Everything is going to the good part." The forest system said with a satisfied smile on its face.
Or at least, that's what it hoped.
It was faint, but several small bumps were visible on the dome's layer that began to shrink to accommodate the giant tree inside. The small bumps continued to grow and each of them showed a lot of movement as if something was trying to tear the dome from the inside. All the forest races besides the system itself had fallen limp, only it remained.
In desperation, the system transmitted orders to its halves through telepathy to deliver a final attack right at the point where the lump appeared from various directions. The order was immediately executed with the appearance of many points of light around the tree and without any warning, all the points extended and formed a straight line that hit right at every lump there.
But it was useless, the lump was torn first which was then followed by dozens of black dots flying in the night sky that reflected the moonlight.
Black bodies, yellowish white eyes and strands of cloth around their necks that resembled robes. Looking at those physical characteristics, it was easy to conclude that they were—
"—A cat."