"So here I am, falling into nothingness again just like after I touched some interesting stuff in the sacrificial chamber.
Well, my instincts said that it was somehow okay, like last time, so obviously I jumped at the opportunity to get something cool looking, God, I'm childish sometimes" Demeter shaked his head amused at his impulses.
"Curiosity again's trying to kill me it seems. You think that I should've learned my lesson already with what I had gone through in the past. But no, I had to go and loot something, I'm insufferable and I need a refund, you hear me, unknow sh1tty being??! Where's my moneeeeeeey!! First you suppressed me all my life and now You yeted me the f*ck out, d*mmit.
F*ck your filthy nine generations with a rusty chainsaw."
He seems a bit upset with his past landlord that wasn't even conscious in the same sense as him, the worlds wills aren't sentient per se, so him showing profane gestures and cursing all the ancestors of his past landlord is childish at the best.
Even if all those sitiuations were certainly his fault but he can be at least a bit assured that his instincts showed nothing wrong with the situation.
'At least I'm out of that place, small mercies and all that jazz...'
He got his sh*t together and controlled his pillow to slow his fall, which obviosly didn't work too good, what he did even expected from a handmade construct but it was within his expectations.
The wormhole look alike that appeared in an unknown dream realm looked very spooky and weird.
At least his instincts didn't scream murder in his mind, he just needs to catch the moment and slip through it out.
That's the plan.
He readied himself and when he sensed a weak spot he slipped right in.
In just a second he appeared in a forest made of bones, it's a good thing that his pillow finally defied gravity and suspended itself instantly absorbing efir from surroundings just before an apple tree's bony and spiky branches almost impaled him.
Being a kebab isn't a dream of his, you see.
'That was close, goddamn, it almost pierced my dumb head' he pondered upon his sitiuation while observing the scenary.
First things first, he finally pulsed his energy out to see how will it interact with the tree, he definitely wanted some of those in his own realm so it's worth investigating.
His own realm was too deserted, it made him want to decorate it a bit.
The feedback was actually as he expected: agony, pain, blood mana and essence of the tree.
This ceratainly is a trap, the tree is a carnivore and seemingly a plant type of [Nightmare], a magical one if being precise.
At least it isn't a sapient and he can try his hand at [Hypnosis], a handy spell that he excavated from the self-praising manuscript of his ancestors, he already has the skill version which is a natural ability of his so it will be easier for him to learn the new spell.
At least the magical counterpart can be useful too, his skill takes a lot of time to work.
Creating a tendril of his mind force tainted with his own mana, which is mixed with his mental and spiritual energy in small proportions for more control, and the intent to subdue - he carefully guided it as he's inexperienced with the energy control outside his body, and slapped it in the tree's mindscape, a few times actually, until it become obedient and then submitted to his will in pain and reluctance.
The poor creature was domesticated.
Then he left his [Mark] on the tree's mind which will slowly subvert its will to the caster losing the need of maintaining domestication over time.
The [Mark] is an instant ritual he got infused in his mind from the Grimoire which implied it's something important, an essential ritual that is used everywhere in his family's casting method, because of it he has such a easy time while casting.
It was certainly fun as a begginer druid to get a pet tree in his opinion.
He finally got a tree to become his minion, no more mutual exchanges with the a moody Forest through a Qi Sutra, no more fear of losing himself in its consciousness or getting himself drained in his try to get some energy to simply regenerate his own reserves or sharpen his mind against its bigger presence and mind, 'd*mn those overcomplicated techniques' he thought vindicatively while looking at the new acquired tree.
At least that Forest learned its lesson, most beings do after surviving the purge of fire, ahh, good times, very good times indeed. After he squezed the Wood Qi technique for all its worth against the Forest's mind he set it on fire with a smile on his face.
Revenge is always the sweetest fruit you can get.
And talking about fruits, he can now harvest those bloody apples from the bony tree, he sense in them solidified and stable prana which could be useful plus there's no presence of someone powerful lingering around the forest so even if those trees look artificial this place is abandoned and he's free to take anything he pleases, 'free real estate, oh yeah'.
Enveloping all the tree with his own realm's presence and a bit of his mana and having the Plant Nightmare cooperating with his intention (stay still or become firewood, lowly plant), he absorbed it in his realm for safekeeping and future exploitation.
He sensed the similar presence 'something's coming, goddamn, I should get outta here right now' he thought while his instincts kicked in and made him drive on the pillow out in the air instantly.
Now looking around the grey sky and the bony forest he can feel and see it clearly, the Forest bellow just got interested in him, it's certainly time to run, or that's what a normal person would do, 'goddamn, here we go again' he thought a bit annoyed and certain that he'll steal some more trees already aware of his own greedy and vindictive nature.
No good thing can come from a Forest as craving for blood as this one when it's after his àss.
He launched himself on the pillow even higher toward the sky at the nick of time thanks to his instincts, in his new minion's place there were hundreds of roots and branches that would've bodied him instantly.
'Very aggressive pieces of lowly wood dare I say' he looked at all the pointy tips bellow him disgruntedly, it's his first time seeing a Forest using the trees to to attack, the ones he dealt with were suppressed like everyone else.
He decidedly didn't liked the stupid forest so he planned to acquire at least a dozen of those trees from it, 'at least I predicted this somewhat, goddamn' he noted amusedly that his sometimes paranoidal attitude striked again succesfully.
Only those that can make fruits obviosly and can be useful, they seem pretty important to the semi-conscious idiot.
He'll get his own handmade Forest with blackjack and very thicc driads, he swears it on his own name!! He swears that he, Demeter Vorontsov, will create such a place.
Resting on his pillow and levitating in the grey and spotless sky in the somewhat stable dream realm, at least it wont change abrubtly to screw him over from what he can sense, he relaxed a bit from the earlier brush with death.
He summoned the crimson and leatherly Grimoire from his soul to read while relaxing.
On it was written [Morrigan], apparently this book is the last sacrifice of the Goddes Morrigan before the end of Era of Gods.
She was slowly dying at that time, it was her last will to create this book, it was her will and blessing that he did got the book at the end as the last of her line, 'here we go, she should've blessed me on her death bed, with her [Clairvoyance] it's totally possible to set something like this up after glimpsing at the future using her own blood as a medium to trace the future of her bloodline'.
He was not impressed wth this chain of events because the blessing was a pain in his back for all his life, he got played be some fossils and he's not too happy even if he got some benefits in the end, knowing that his life was partially planned by someone wasn't a feeling he liked.
He continued to read what's all this situation about:
With how she was a God anchored to her Forest on Earth because of her own divinity she didn't had a choice to flee like the free Gods that had their own mini realms connected to Earth and had the possibily to cut their connection to the planet.
Her death would've been slow and painful with the passing of an Era.
She used her [Clairvoyance] to see a blurry future of extinction of her subjects and kin, she then predicted him as last of her line and used herself as a sacrifice to get an instant painless death and reincarnation as a mage and bless her last kin with her essence that would've wasted otherwise, the Grimoire and a sacrificial dagger was made from her dead flesh, blood and spirit and from her forest domain, and lastly the instinctual feeling of her inheritance.
She saved the most essential part of her soul into the immortal core and the rest that would've been detrimental to her future she used it to leave something that will remind her descendants of herself.
The Grimoire she named after herself [Morrigan], the Sacrificial Dagger she named [Scarlet Luna] as a memento to her friend.
Those two he acquired before he got ejected from His dream, and wasn't that a surprise finding out that he lived in an unknown being's dream all this time? The supposed World's Will was simply someone's subcounscious, the information was transmited to him through the Grimoire, his ancestor even had a tradition that when they die they used Morrigan's method to reincarnate and go to greener pastures.
But he already got over it, it made sense so it doesn't bothered him anymore, it was just surreal.
The Grimoire ecapsulated all that the druids of his line got their hands on, well, naming them druids is a stretch but they self-named themselves, he didn't got a say in it, they even wroted down their biography to show off to the future generations which certainly is amusing 'oh well, at least I'll get an interesting read from this one' he concluded.
The book is in a sense alive thanks to Morrigan's sacrifice.
Every spell, trick, information, research or skill that they were capable of creating, extracting or looting, their stories and biography, even their thrists were recorded.
And the information was recorded through encompassing the essence of the book user's thoughts which made it easily understandable without the need of knowing a specific language - the information was capable of being understood gradually like reading a real book but with total understanding on what's going on with a lasting impression on those who wrote inside, it used the user's own mental energy to do that.
Willing it to open itself to the last page he had seen even [...how it's recording everything in real time, if it didn't was only a book dependent on his own will, he would've already devoured it for energy, and why he thinks in the third person, weird sh*t, man...].
It certainly can be useful even if it reeks of sacrificial murder tinged with all its victims fears, pain and anguish, doesn't seems like its essence was something peacefull.
This way is even better, a bit spicy but makes him all the more serious about its contents and he will be careful when using it.
Plus this book helps learning the spells inside almost instantly inscribing them slowly, use after use, in his Mind Sea - the place that appeared with the blessing and was useless until now.
With it being tied to his soul and especially to the Seventh Soul Layer - to his magic, it can be used as a focus for his spells too if they're alredy inscribed in the Grimoire, if not he'll have to inscribe them in himself.
Making sure the Forest is wild and it will take some hours before it will calm down, he immersed himself in "How to steal a Tree and escape the consequences" by Vlada Creangă, a manuscript of one of the more logical and capable druids of his line.
He really wanted some trees in his realm that are only his, he doesn't need freeloaders, they better be useful and obedient, he will keep track on every damn sapling if he'll have to.
So he returned to reading on how to subdue his future minions in the most effective way possible while keeping track of the bony Forest under him at the same time.
He will get what he wants one way or another, he even feels faraway something similar to his magical energy but more "real" while his is "dreamy" - consequence of coming from That Being's Dream he supposed, certainly something worthy of investigation, but not now, now he's busy.