Like an antithesis battling against the celestial gods. Nukes continued to rain.
Morpheus observed the plant like obsessed. Something changed during those few years since they began dropping nukes.
The increment in its recovery never changed. Even though they changed to a hundred more MT worth of nukes.
Its extremely powerful vitality kept it from dying. He wanted to eradicate the 'core' of this plant.
However, when it spread throughout a quarter of the entire globe. It became a farfetched dream.
"I'll be damned." He said to himself as he observed through a scientist while telling him to zoom now and then.
"There, zoom in to the highest possible level." Morpheus said as the man slowly figured out where and zoomed in.
An innocent green blob on top of the vine kept enjoying the landscape as if nothing could disrupt it.
"Our technology hasn't matured enough. Dammit." He said.
How did the planet not react to such excessive radiation confused him to no end and even the testing site had spread through hundreds of kilobars.
Morpheus called up the leaders and told them to magnify the threat again.
"Ridiculous. Even if you are a spirit of great wisdom. The plant never managed to advance thanks to our nuclear technology. For it to attack within a few months? Impossible." said a head senator as he denied the notion.
"I have to agree. Our people suffered enough and we don't want to see another mass panic." Said the pope.
Consequences of pouring almost everything humanity had turned out to be quite severe.
Time and the lack of resources crippled many industries from being able to work manually as they used to, and other sectors slowed down to a crawl.
"You don't understand! Its cycle of movement never changed throughout the years! No matter how large our yield proved to be." Morpheus rebuked them.
Silence prevailed for a moment...
The senator shook his head.
"It never needed to stop and recover. Haven't you seen the destruction it endures each day? It only stops thanks to our nukes. In the highest likelihood, it is afraid of the great temperatures it can produce. So, dozens of millions of Celsius or hundreds of millions make no difference."
He said and waved at the researcher representing Morpheus.
It made him think. Did the pressure cause some kind of damage?
The truth remained that it always stopped whenever they threw a powerful nuke at it...
"Let's throw a weaker nuke tomorrow to see. If the cycle breaks, then Morpheus wins. If not, we won't give any more resources against a meaningless cause." The pope said as he broke the tensions.
Morpheus agreed and went back into his space, leaving the poor researcher alone.
He bowed and quickly left the high level meeting.
The leaders began to talk about the future... Of their Southern continent.
...
In the early waking morning, a nuke travelled at hypersonic speeds straight for the vines.
It whistled past the death domain and entered the frontlines.
A vacuum of silence took sounds as a hostage for a split second before a Sun rose from the ground.
Thousands of small vines and hundreds of large ones vanished without a trace.
The vines stopped moving as it became unresponsive. Tornadoes ripped through it, nothing.
A cycle later, it began to crawl forwards as it sped up and returned into its original form.
"See, Morpheus, you are too paranoid, tsk." The head senator said and clicked his tongue.
He had nothing to say as he shook his head and told the researcher to leave.
"What could it be..." He said to himself as he returned to his own post.
They began to review the footage again.
Dozens of times turned into hundreds as the researcher began to fall asleep.
"Go rest." Morpheus said when he noticed and left.
He kept replaying the vines they captured today to see if something changed. His pupils dilated, and he contacted the nearest researcher.
"Run a simulation. How far are those green blobs away from each other? Compare them from a week ago." He said to the researcher.
The man didn't question anything and carried out the command.
Morpheus watched the numbers pop into his eyes.
A change of hundreds of bars turned into a dozen just today. It took a week.
He told him to look at the oldest record of the blob.
They managed to capture it a month ago. At that time each spaced a dozen kilobars from each other.
Many notes included the thought that new vines birthed through those blobs.
...
The sky darkened as it calmed down.
Ever since, it tasted the delicious blood filled with vitality. It bid its time.
Now, it felt it. Billions of green blobs began to explode as new ones grew before they exploded again.
A tide of green sludge rose hundreds of meters high in just one hour. It began to spread as volcanoes tried to appear.
Vines rushed into the death domain as the ground trembled. However, whenever green sludge appeared, everything began to cool.
Red dots appeared in the sea of green sludge as the vines ignored it and moved forward.
The massive explosion humans anticipated never came.
Then, dozens of bombs appeared in its senses as the green blobs poured out even more liquid.
A first nuke dropped... ...
It bloated the entire lake for a minute before dots of red and purple appeared on the lake.
Bringer of destruction, the magnum opus of the human race.
Vines swam through the liquid as it passed the death domain, entering an entirely new world.
Weak. All around, it became weak. Tornadoes that managed to rip through it no longer even scratched it.
It felt the pleasure of the newfound paradise. The continent transformed in a single day.
...
"Activate every single survival plan! We can't hold back anymore!" said a general as he got the approval of all the higher ups.
The sight of the green liquid startled him before he endured a colossal hit. A nuclear weapon neutralised.
Not a flash or a hint of it. Absorbed and consumed by the harmless-looking liquid.
The general mobilized the Empire's army and called every person he knew to come and help.
Too late.
...
2 hours after it broke through the death domain. It met the first resistance.
Unlike the powerful beings, it imagined that would be able to create such powerful weapons.
It got weak fodder. But the familiar smell of blood confirmed its thought.
'Food, Grow'
A chance to break the stale situation on the other side appeared before it.
Whenever it detected something flying in the sky. It just needed to spew out a bit of essence.
Another dozen dropped as it thought one thing. Yum.
Nevertheless, to waste the time enjoying simple treats when it had a banquet ahead...
It squirmed, and the vines threw themselves back at full speed. Like an unstoppable train, it bulldozed through any defences they had.
Biochemicals at most destroyed small vines, as the large ones remained unaffected.
Hundreds of nukes turned into normal weapons and explosives.
An even smaller drop in the ocean. Their largest yield nukes no longer stopped it for a moment.
Villages crumbled and some people never realised what happened.
Engulfed and enjoyed by an apex predator.
...
Few hours prior, Morpheus' heart throbbed more than ever before.
Reports came flying in. He had to admit.
Thoughts of those vines weakened his shoulders, which he believed no longer could crumble under any kind of pressure.
It tore through his defence. Took away whatever he had left.
Before he met it, Morpheus knew. What feeble defence could defend against something like that.
It defied logic; it broke through science. Shattered his vision.
Piece by piece, the feast continued as he watched red dots appear on the once peaceful digital map.
In no time, the capital of the Empire fell.
An hour later, the theocracy became history and the Barford Empire never lagged behind.
It pierced through the mountains and continued its conquest in all directions.
He watched hundreds of humans flying into the sky as they entered the space. The last option of survival.
A self-sustaining space satellite.
BOOOOM
Barrier appeared in the skies as the rocket ship rammed into it, exploding and turning in one huge firework.
When Morpheus witnessed the explosion of the rocket, something snapped.
A work in which he would live through now broke. His last proud achievement, to bring humans to space and let them live there forever, turned into a fever dream.
"WHY?!" He roared as he shook the mind of the researcher.
He ran into his space as he blankly stared into the great void. It looked so welcoming.
At 5 AM, the vines extended their reach right outside the Barford capital.
Desolation, screams and cries for mercy, all drowned by vines as they reaped the lives of millions in seconds.
The world shook as Morpheus felt it himself. It cried and wept for the loss of today's battle.
Or was it just the weight of those damned vines? Morpheus couldn't bring himself to care.