The Mutant Monster Gecko was a lot stronger than a regular Monster Gecko. Then again, to the Red Demon, both were similar in strength, inconsequential before it. No matter which one faced against it, the Red Demon was able to kill both with a single hit.
However, that wasn't why it was frowning. It was the fact that the Green Demons had only been injured partially once. This was a level of injury that wouldn't have mattered even if they hadn't healed themselves using the miasma.
On top of that, they had already healed themselves using the miasma. But then, sometime later, bone trees grew out of them, absorbing everything forming their bodies. Then, they later bore fruits that ripened within a minute. When the fruit fell on the ground and splashed open, a Mutant Monster Gecko walked out. This was what startled the Red Demon.
Every demon was birthed from the Demon Nest, a colossal being of flesh that ate the world's essence to give birth to them. It was like a natural factory that churned out demons nonstop.
For the Red Demon, it was proud of this fact. After all, their race had an efficient means of progression, unlike the humans that had to copulate and wait for a year just to give birth to one baby. It was incomparably inefficient.
But now, the Red Demon was alarmed since the Mutant Monster Gecko was birthed from seemingly nothing. The Red Demon frowned due to the matter, motioning for the remaining demons to eradicate all the Monster Geckos in the place.
It hardly took a minute, after which the Red Demon punched the walls, breaking out a piece forming it, throwing it into the mouth of a Green Demon, forcing it to swallow it. It then waited patiently, startled when the Green Demon began to scream in pain after a couple of minutes.
And like before, a bone tree grew out of its body, absorbing its entirety, killing it in the process. And a minute later, it produced a fruit which hatched a Mutant Monster Gecko sometime later.
'So, that's how it is,' the Red Demon thought as it nodded before its hand flashed a bit, vaporizing the Mutant Monster Gecko, displaying the extent of its power.
It then looked at the others and told them, "Let's retreat for the time being and report the details to the Black Demons."
All the demons nodded to its command, beginning to march towards the entrance. The Red Demon grabbed hold of a couple of bone spikes along the way, arriving before Grotak as it reported all its observations. "Even ingesting a tiny fragment of this would cause a bone tree to grow out of our bodies. By absorbing everything in us, it would produce Monster Geckos, stronger ones."
"That's quite troublesome." Grotak nodded before saying, "If it's like this, then the situation is dangerous."
Just to see how it would function, Grotak stabbed the bone spike into the mouth of a Green Demon, causing it to swallow it, watching the Green Demon choke for some time before burping a little, frowning. "What…is this?"
The Red Demon frowned, unable to answer as it inspected the Green Demon, seeing that it showed no signs of faults. A bone tree indeed didn't grow out of it. It then pondered over it for a bit before asking, "Maybe this power is only effective within the labyrinth?"
"Let's test it out," Grotak replied, carrying the Green Demon with it as it flashed into the labyrinth, stabbing the bone spike into its mouth once again. This time, as it waited, the Green Demon began to shout in pain as a bone tree grew out of its body.
Nodding, Grotak concluded, "For some reason, the bone trees grow only while within the range of the labyrinth. Beyond that, they're simply materials that we can consume."
"This gives me some ideas," Grotak smiled as he continued. "Send in more teams into the labyrinth. Each team would be led by either a Yellow or Red Demon. Report back at least once ten days."
As everything happened, Monster Gecko scouts spied on their conversation, reporting back everything to Feifei. As she organized the information she obtained, she nodded, muttering to herself, "It seems they found out about the bone trees becoming useless beyond the labyrinth."
Smiling, she sighed. "Thanks to Krune's exploits, I know how dangerous they are. They could be weaponized tremendously. That's why I made them this way."
As she had the power to control the bone trees, she could make them useless whenever she wanted. This extended to all the bone trees she created. Moreover, this further extended to any bone tree out in the wild.
That's why, when she left Layer 3, Feifei had annihilated all the bone trees there, causing them to turn into regular bone trees that just bore fruit by absorbing either blood or water. They lost the ability to grow into massive trees from a mere fragment.
Moreover, they were also unable to condense Blood Essence like before. They were only left with the most basic of their abilities. This way, Feifei eliminated the greatest threat. However, she realized this threat came only to be after Krune discovered their secrets.
Otherwise, they would have just appeared like regular trees. She was unsure if there existed other such species with similar, if not even more dangerous properties than the bone trees. She could only deal with the threat she had discovered.
That's why she placed a restriction on the bone trees that they would lose all their properties once they exit the range of the labyrinth she had specified. This was the safest approach. After all, she didn't wish for the demons to abuse this property of the bone trees and destroy the ice cocoon on Krune.
That would become the counter to all her plans.
Now, with that done, she left the rest to her Supreme Monster Gecko, heading towards a particular city that her Monster Geckos had scouted. Active there was a certain person that she felt would be able to help her.
Feifei arrived at the battlefield, noticing crescent beams of Neon Radiance fly about everywhere, slicing demons into pieces nonstop. At the center of this mess was a lady, seemingly in her late forties.
Feifei revealed herself in her human form, eventually making her way towards the lady, calling her out.. "Princess Zamuria."