Post-Apocalyptic Dispatch Society

"Xuna…" Yihan gulped in nervousness, staring at the leaf before him as he was trembling from time to time, "Aren't we…kinda screwed?"

"Don't jinx it…" Xuna whispered, turning immobile as her Klock heads looked no different to decorations now.

The reason was simple. They were surrounded by the leaves on all sides, including above, trapping them in the centre. Due to that, they had no room to escape.

But of course, when they actually tried to clamp upon them, the leaves coincidentally crashed into one another or their viny branches tangled into one another, preventing them from moving freely.

All sorts of minor factors combined to result in major changes, resulting in the leaves failing to clamp upon the duo.

This continued for five minutes before the leaves turned still, blankly staring at them while covering all means of escape.

The Pitcher Plant King didn't seem to have any plans for them at the moment as time seemed to have stopped there, for there was no signs of movement from the other party. The only sound in the region originated from the rhythmic fluttering of Yihan's wings.

"On my word, let's break out of this encirclement." Xuna said after observing their surroundings, "I'll blast my canons in all directions as you fly straight up. We'll go as high up as possible. I'll use one of my heads to produce enough thrust to send us flying up."

"No, instead of that, just use it to add a rotation to us instead." Yihan said, gently patting his armour, "I'll create multiple blades. So, as long as we rotate fast enough, I can drill through this place. That's our best bet in surviving against the leaves. You've seen their speed. They are able to attack even if you thrust with four heads."

"This is somewhat troublesome." Xuna sighed in worry, for the strength of her Coincidental Luck wasn't enough to break free of this encirclement that easily. The previous time, when she relied on it, the most she could do was prevent herself from getting attacked by the leaves.

A path to escape didn't crop up, no matter what she did. That was what led to the current situation, so she was somewhat concerned if their plan would work or not.

"Curiosity killed the cat…" She sighed. 'Is this my fate?'

"Except, this cat isn't even cute." Yihan let out a breath of disappointment when Xuna twisted his ear in anger.

"Did you just say I'm not cute?" She glared at the other party, "Do you want to die by my hands first? I promise to be more brutal than these leaves."

"Wait!" Yihan raised his hand, motioning for her to quiet down all of a sudden, acting like something was up.

Xuna turned serious immediately, looking around as she noticed that nothing changed. Yihan was just pulling her leg to distract her from his comment.

"You brat…" She was just about to rebuke him when the lid of the Pitcher Plant King's pitcher opened, revealing its insides, startling the duo.

After all, seated within the pitcher, or rather embedded within its walls seemed to be a humanoid entity, androgenous, lacking a gender, a humanoid that spanned at least a height of ten metres, with hair resembling vines.

The entity's eyes were closed while embedded on its forehead seemed to be a circular gem, half filled with Nacre and the other half with corruption, constantly revolving like a yin-yang formation.

The moment it was revealed, the duo sensed thin streams of energy pulsating through the inner walls of the pitcher along its veins, flowing into the mysterious entity.

The veins carried both Nacre and corruption, sourced from the other Pitcher Plants from the Pitcher Plant Forest.

Only now were they able to sense that the roots of the Pitcher Plants had another purpose, and that was to release their energies—Nacre or corruption respectively.

Their roots seemed to be connected to one another, as if they were a giant network. There was one network formed by the Nacre-consuming Pitcher Plants while the second was formed by the corruption-consuming Pitcher Plants.

And, the Pitcher Plants forming the inner periphery, surrounding the lake had roots extending into the water, from where they released Nacre and corruption into the lake itself.

As the two energies were immiscible in nature, they formed discrete streams of flow within the lake from where they were absorbed by the Pitcher Plant King.

Eventually, the two energies funnelled their way into the Pitcher Plan King's pitcher, ending up within the humanoid entity there.

Right as they were observing it, the eyes of the humanoid entity shot open, glaring at the duo flying in the air as immediately, the leaves moved, parted in the centre as they clamped upon them faster.

Boom!

The Klock heads blasted canon balls at the attackers while one of them sprayed bullets like a laser, shredding the leaves approaching them. But despite clearing a path of escape, by the time they tried to make their way through, more leaves obstructed them.

There were just too many leaves around, not to mention the sheer regeneration speed of them that made the situation worse. After all, the Nacre and corruption of the entire Pitcher Plant Forest congregated in the Pitcher Plant King.

Yihan began to rotate like a Beyblade as his scythe blades shredded through the leaves while Xuna healed the both constantly to ensure their injuries didn't pile up too much.

A few seconds later, they didn't even know where they were, feeling their heads spin as their rotations continued to grow faster and faster. All Yihan could sense were the hits from the leaves that impacted them nonstop.

But a minute into this, he almost lost consciousness, continuing to spin at such speeds that he couldn't make sense of anything more. His scythe blades continued to shatter nonstop as he made new ones, holding them steady in their respective positions, repeating the same like clockwork.

Xuna too wasn't aware of where they were anymore, continuing to spray bullets and cannonballs in every which direction, hoping that they were making their way up.

She planned to stop once the hits on them stop, for that was the best bet at knowing that they had arrived high up in the air, beyond the range of the leaves.

It seemed like ages, but in truth, only a couple of minutes spanned past before which, Yihan stopped feeling any impacts on him, understanding that they had arrived at safety. But, just in case, he persisted with the rotation for another minute before saying, dizzy, "Xuna…stop!"

Xuna stopped the thrust as she gradually moved her heads, unleashing a slow thrust on the opposite side to gradually slow down their spin. In the meantime, Yihan felt his heated head cool down slowly, still unable to see as all he did was mechanically flap his tired wings.

It took more than five minutes before they could recover from the aftereffects of their intense rotation, accustoming to their senses as they stared, shocked at the same time, realising that they had been fooled all along, observing that they were actually within the pitcher of the Pitcher Plant King now.

It seemed the hits from the leaves constantly sent them downward. But, what was shocking were two vines that revealed mouths out of which intense wind blew past. This slammed down on them from above, making them feel as if they had been moving upward when in truth, it was only to fool their senses.

They were gradually brought to the ground level and even moved in such a way that they ended up within the pitcher itself, displaying the enemy's frightening capabilities.

"What the…?" Xuna stared in shock, observing the humanoid entity embedded in the pitcher's walls look at them, seemingly contemplating something.

She urged Yihan to fly away, shocked to see the other party grunting, seemingly struggling from something as his wings failed to flap faster, only moving enough to keep them hovering at the same eye level as the humanoid entity.

Xuna hurriedly unleashed her thrust, realising all of a sudden that her body wasn't listening to her well, feeling a numbing sensation as the thrust she unleashed was too weak to even lift them up.

Only now did she notice an aromatic scent wafting into her olfactory senses, the cause of her body's numbness. And in a matter of seconds, the aromatic scent grew stronger as Xuna felt limp all of a sudden, her body slipping over Yihan, calling to the bottom of the pitcher as the nectar there splashed in response.

A second later, Yihan too fell, splashing the nectar as it went into their mouths, forcing them into a daze as they couldn't think of anything anymore, as if they were drunk.

"D-Dammit…Yihan…get up…" Xuna gasped as the nectar seeped through the mouths of her Klock heads, causing her to faint soon after, unable to hold her consciousness any longer under the effects of the potent nectar and the scent it emitted.

"S-Shit…" Yihan gasped for breath as his eyes turned blank before he collapsed into the nectar, almost submerging in it.

The eyes of the humanoid entity continued to stare at them as the lit to the Pitcher Plant King's pitcher closed.