Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure Chapter 2120: Strange stump

"What are these stumps doing here?"

My companions wondered about that, yet I recognized these as far from ordinary stumps.

I could clearly feel the divine energy radiating from them, confirming they were the pillar we'd been seeking all along.

Strangely enough, no vine encircled this stump at all.

Nothing about this vine appeared out of the ordinary, as if it somehow shielded itself from the lightning strikes, with not a single bolt crashing down upon it.

There were zero signs of scorching on it whatsoever.

Even though wood doesn't carry electricity well, a stump wouldn't escape unscathed from a direct lightning hit.

The intense heat from such a strike would char sections of the stump instantly, so after all this time exposed here, scorch marks should have littered it from the surrounding bolts.

Nothing on the stump blocked incoming lightning, and strikes do drop unpredictably now and then.

It made no sense at all for this stump to lack any damage marks.

"If divine energy were shielding it, that power should have depleted ages ago..."

The longer I examined the stump lying there, the stranger everything felt.

That aside, it wasn't my top priority at the moment.

Since this stump was our target, just one step remained for me.

As I moved toward the stump, attacks came rushing at me the instant I advanced. My quick reflexes alone saved me from those lightning bolts.

It baffled me that lightning targeted me like this in the first place.

I'd already scattered numerous lightning rods throughout the area.

Far from relying on one, I'd set up six lightning rods encircling the stump's location, forming an array to deflect falling bolts away from us.

Yet these lightning strikes ignored the rods entirely and zeroed in on me, almost like they bore a personal vendetta.

"Feels like something's guiding them..."

Having blocked the bolts with my barrier, I turned my gaze to the stump ahead.

I'd detected it releasing divine energy right as the lightning descended.

That perfectly accounted for why the stump had dodged every prior strike.

With such a capability, it stayed perfectly secure in this perilous spot.

But how exactly did it pull that off?

A stump as part of an array shouldn't wield this power, especially since the gods hadn't designed these arrays with any such features.

Otherwise, that other array wouldn't have ended up drenched in lava.

Thus, something local must have empowered this stump with that ability.

Still, the key issue remained...

"How do I activate it when it just hurls lightning at anyone approaching?"

No simple fix came to mind until a memory struck me.

This thing originated from divine energy to begin with.

No clue what level of awareness it had developed for self-defense like this, but surely it would identify divine energy as kin.

"Looks like that's my sole choice here."

With those words, I advanced on the stump again.

This time, I summoned a domain via the orb while lifting my hand to display the Mark of God, doing everything possible to signal to whatever controlled the stump that divine energy and I were connected.

Sure enough, no lightning came crashing down now.

Whether it accepted me as from the same origin or the divine energy's surge simply startled it, I couldn't say.

Either way, this let me close in on the stump and stand directly before it.

Right there in front of it, uncertainty gripped me on the next move. I had no idea how injecting divine energy might provoke it.

Would it fulfill its original purpose, or unleash something entirely different?

No predicting what this stump might do next...

Nevertheless, no alternatives presented themselves anymore.

Turning back and abandoning it felt utterly wrong.

So, with the hand bearing the Mark of God, I extended toward the stump.

Upon touching it, I channeled divine energy inside just like before.

Moments later, the stump blazed with light.